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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
Some years ago while living in Khūzistān in southern Iran, the present writer carried out a number of historical-geographical studies in that province. These investigations included searching for the sites of numerous vanished towns and for other local features now known only from the historical sources. A rapid examination of the principal medieval geographical texts showed that there were three interesting problems of this type relating to the area of Izeh or Mālamīr in northern Khūzistān. The sites in question are the following:
the mausoleum of the Atabegs of the Great Lurs
the whirlpool of Fam al-Bawwāb
the extraordinary bridge called Qanṭāra Khurra Zād.
1 For a detailed account of this dynasty and for the major Islamic sources, cf. El, first ed., s.v. ‘Lur-i Buzurg’.
2 Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, cf. Gibb, H. A. R. (tr.), The travels of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, II, Cambridge, 1962, 287Google Scholar.
3 ibid., 292.
4 Schwarz, P., Iran im Mittelalter, iv, Leipzig, 1921, p. 340, n. 4Google Scholar.
5 Layard, H. A., ‘A description of the province of Khuzistan’, JROS, xvi, 1, 1846, 74Google Scholar.
6 Muhalhil, Ibn, Travels in Iran (Arabic text with English trans, by Minorsky, V.), Cairo, 1955, 60–1Google Scholar.
7 Yāqūt, , Mu'jam al-buldān, Beirut, 1955, I, 288Google Scholar; Qazvīnī, , Āthār al-bilād, Beirut, 1960, 302Google Scholar.
8 Schwarz, P., Iran im Mittelalter, IV, p. 337, n. 11Google Scholar.
9 Wilson, A. T., SW Persia, a political officer's diary, 1907–1914, London, 1941, 26Google Scholar.
10 Khurdādhbeh, Ibn, in de Goeje, M. J. (ed.), Bibl. geog. arab., VI, Leiden, 1889, II, 57–8Google Scholar.
11 Muhalhil, Ibn, Travels in Iran, Arabic text, 30 ffGoogle Scholar.; English translation (Minorsky), 64–5.
12 There were three Sasanian kings styled Ardashīr, so the identification is not clear. Minorsky suggests that this Khwaradhām may have been Queen Boran (reigned A.D. 630–1) an aunt of the murdered Ardashīr III. On this cf. Minorsky, V., ‘Two Iranian legends’, in Miles, G. C. (ed.), Archaeologica orientalia in memoriam Ernst Herzfeld, Locust Valley, N.Y., 1952, 175–8Google Scholar. Dr. A. D. H. Bivar has advised the writer that in the KZ inscription of Shāpūr I, a wife of Ardashir I who may also have been his sister, was called Khoranzem. Allowing that the orthography of this name gave difficulties and that later spellings could be corrupt, there may be some possibility to connect her with the person named by Ibn Muhalhil. For Khoranzem cf. Maricq, A., ‘Res gestae divi Saporis’, Syria, xxxv, 3–4, 1958, 321Google Scholar. The association of the bridge with a second name Khurra Zād, does not necessarily mean that Khurra Zād was an alternative name of the queen who is alleged to have built the structure. Minorsky notes that Khurra Zād is a male name and suggests that the bridge, at some later date, became associated with Khurzād b. Bās, a local chieftain who mutinied at Idhaj during the early eighth century. Cf. Ibn Muhalhil, 117–18.
13 The Arabic term wādī usually denotes a seasonally dry watercourse.
14 In strict translation it would seem that all three measurements could relate to the dimensions of the flood waters. Yet whereas a stream might flood to a width of 1000 dhirā' (460 m.) beyond its banks, it would hardly be possible at this breadth to achieve a depth of flood of 150 dhirā' (69 m.). The third measurement which gives a width (fath) of 10 dhirā' (5 m.) for ‘its bottom at the foundation’ is rendered meaningless when applied to a flooded stream. Therefore, while the first dimension of 1000 dhirā' certainly relates to the flood, the other two measurements must represent the height of the bridge above the wādī and the width of the bridge at the top of the foundation (abutments). Cf. Muhalhil, Ibn, Arabic text, 30Google Scholar.
15 Minorsky suggests that the destroyer of the bridge may have been ‘Abd Allāh b. Ibrāhīm al-Misma'ī, who rebelled against the caliph at Isfahān in 295/907 (Ibn al-Athīr, VIII, 9). It is suggested that the bridge was broken to delay the coming of a caliphal army to Isfahān. Cf. Ibn Muhalhil, 118.
16 The Buwayhid Abū 'Ali al-Hasan called Rukn al-Dawla (d. 366/976).
17 Khurdādhbeh, Ibn, in de Goeje, M. J. (ed.), Bibl. geog. arab., VI, II, 57–8Google Scholar.
18 Champain, J., ‘On various means of communication between central Persia and the sea’, PRGS, NS, V, 3, 1883, 148Google Scholar.
19 On this measure, cf. El, first ed., s.v. dhirā'.
20 Stein, M. A., Old routes of western Īrān, London, 1940, 271–2Google Scholar.
21 ef. ibid., plate 81, for a photograph of the Pul-i Kashgan.
22 cf. Durand, E. R., An autumn tour in western Persia, London, 1902, 178 and 207Google Scholar for line drawings of these bridges.