Tawwaj

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Tawwaj, Tawwaz or Tavvaz (Middle Persian: Tuzag; New Persian: توج) was a medieval city in Fars (Pars) in modern Iran, located southwest of Shiraz.

Description[edit]

Tawwaj was located on or close to the Shapur River in the region of Fars, about 65 kilometers (40 mi) from the Persian Gulf coast.[1] Its site has not been identified.[2] It has been associated with the Taoke mentioned by the classical Greek historian Arrian, which was located on the bank of the Granis River and close to a Persian royal residence.[3] However, it has also been associated with the Achaemenid site of Tamukkan; the finding of a ruined Achaemenid bastion near Borazjan supports this theory.[3] According to the Middle Persian geography text Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr, the city (called Tuzag) was founded by the Kayanid queen Humay Chehrzad, a daughter of king Kay Bahman, who is identified with the fifth Achaemenid monarch Artaxerxes I (r. 465–424 BC).[4]

During the Sasanian and early Islamic period it served as an important commercial center.[5] It was captured and garrisoned by an Arab Muslim army commanded by the brothers al-Hakam and Uthman ibn Abi al-As in c. 640.[6][7] Tawwaj thereafter became Uthman's headquarters during his military campaigns against the Sasanians in Fars.[7] A mosque was built in the town from that period, but had been completely ruined by the lifetime of the Persian geographer Hamdallah Mustawfi (1281–1349).[8]

The 10th-century Persian geographer Istakhri describes Tawwaj as located in a lowland gorge with numerous date palms, a considerably hot climate and being close in size to the Fars town of Arrajan.[5] It was major trade center, well known for its gold-embroidered, woven carpets.[5] He reports that the town was populated by Arabs from Syria brought by the Buyid ruler Adud al-Dawla (r. 949–983).[5] By the 12th century, most of the town fell into ruins,[5] and by the 14th century it was in a total ruinous state.[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Smith 1994, p. 64, note 284.
  2. ^ a b Barthold 1984, p. 163, note 79.
  3. ^ a b Miri 2012, p. 78.
  4. ^ Miri 2012, pp. 77–78.
  5. ^ a b c d e le Strange 1905, p. 259.
  6. ^ Hoyland 2015, p. 85.
  7. ^ a b Baloch 1946, p. 263, note 1.
  8. ^ le Strange 1905, p. 260.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Baloch, Nabi Bakhsh Khan (July 1946). "The Probable Date of the First Arab Expeditions to India". Islamic Culture. 20 (3): 250-266.
  • Barthold, W. (1984). Bosworth, C. E. (ed.). An Historical Geography of Iran. Translated by Svat Soucek. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-05418-5.
  • Hoyland, Robert G. (2015). In God's Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-991636-8.
  • Miri, Negin (2012). "Sasanian Pars: Historical Geography and Administrative Organization". Sasanika: 1–183.
  • Smith, G. Rex, ed. (1994). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XIV: The Conquest of Iran, A.D. 641–643/A.H. 21–23. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-1293-0.
  • le Strange, Guy (1905). The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate: Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia from the Moslem Conquest to the Time of Timur. Cambridge University Press.

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