The object of this article is to open up to speculation a historiographical problem which the serious student of Iranian urban history necessarily encounters. This is the problem of the motivation of the authors of medieval urban histories. In studying any single work or city, it may be possible to work around the problem; but as soon as a broader approach is attempted, encompassing several cities and numerous works, it looms as a major obstacle.

The root of the problem is essentially the very richness and volume of medieval urban historical writing itself, for that is what makes the comparative study of Iranian cities potentially so rewarding. There is hardly a single major city in the Persian speaking world that has not been the subject of at least one local history. Many of these works are extant, published or unpublished; but many, many more that at one time existed have disappeared.