Cities of Iran in the Early Medieval Time

Пигулевская, Н. B. Города Ирана
в Раннем Средневековье. Москва-Ленинград: Издательство Академии наук СССР,
1956, 363с.

Pigulevskaia, N.V. Goroda Irana
v Rannem Srednevekovʹe. Moscow -Leningrad: Izdatelestvo Akademii Nauk SSSR,
1956, 363pp.

ABSTRACT

Cities
of Iran in the Early Medieval Time

Города
Ирана в Раннем Средневековье

This is one of
the first Russian monographs on the cities of Iran in antiquity and early
medieval times.

The book unfolds
chronologically beginning with the Antique period. It covers the towns in
Mesopotamia and Western Iran under the Greeks and the Parthians.

There is a
chapter specifically dedicated to the city of Karka de Beth Selok, and another
to Nisibis, both bordering the Roman empire.

The second part
of the book covers the period between the third and fifth centuries AD. It
analyses many important sources extant from that period such as Pahlavi
inscriptions, ‘Sahrestaniha i Eransahr’ (i.e. ‘Provincial Capitals of Iran’),
‘Karnamag-i Ardashir-i Papakan’ (‘The Book of the Deeds of Ardashir, the Son of
Pabak’), ‘The Letter of Tonsar’, ‘Pahlavi Lawyer’, ‘Collections of Ishoboht’,
‘The History of Karka de bet Silokh’, ‘The Chronicles of Adiabena and Syrian
Archaeological Monuments’.

This section
covers a variety of topics related to the creation of new cities, the
administrative division of Iran, development of social relations in Iran,
family, slave ownership, land ownership, irrigation canals, mills and the
feudal land ownership. A section is dedicated to the economic activities, taxes
and class system in the Iranian cities of the time.

Although the
socio-religious movement of Mazdak is not related to the title of the book, it
is amply discussed in the last chapter. An appendix at the end discusses the
religious movements in third century Iran and refers to Christian academies
active at the time.

The book is
valuable for the number of ancient sources it has analysed, but does not always
cover the subject relevant to its title.

Shamsiddin
Komoliddin

Translated by Ivan Leonidov