Istachr

Istachr
	Pillars in Istachr
	Istachr
	Istachr
Basic data
Country:	Iran
Province :	Fars
Coordinates :	29 ° 59 ′ N , 52 ° 55 ′ E Coordinates: 29 ° 59 ′ N , 52 ° 55 ′ E
Time zone :	UTC +3: 30

The city of Istachr ( Persian استخر Estachr , also Istakhr , Istachar or Stachr ) is a historical place in the province of Fars in Iran , which was built by Alexander the great not far (approx. 5 km) and with the ruins of the Persepolis which he burned down(330 BC) . Along with the capital, Ctesiphon, it was one of the summer residences of the Sassanid Empire . Istachr is just a few hundred meters south of Naqsch-e Rostam , where there are some graves of Achaemenid kings and a number of Sassanid rock reliefs.

Istachr initially resisted Arab attacks (640-649), but was later reduced in importance by the city of Shiraz, founded in 684 . In 998 most of the city was finally destroyed, so that only a small settlement remained.

Research history

The ruins of the site were rediscovered in 1848 by Eugène Flandin (1803–1876) and Pascal Coste (1787–1879) and the site was mapped. The first excavations took place in 1932 and 1934 when Ernst Herzfeld was working for the Orient Institute in Persepolis . In 1935 and 1937 Erich Friedrich Schmidt was able to take the first aerial photographs, which essentially showed the size of the place in the 9th or 10th century.

Today the Friday mosque from the 7th century in the southwest is known, which was surrounded on three sides by a bazaar , a boulevard, residential buildings, possibly a hospital and other facilities. The city itself was mostly built of large stones rather than bricks. The blocks were 400 m square and the whole complex was aligned with it. The mosque is built in the Assyrian style and may have served as a fire temple according to Iranian custom in pre-Islamic times . Schmidt describes Istachr like this: "Holy district near Persepolis, place of the rock tombs of Darius I and later kings."

Istachr in Shahnama

Istachr is also mentioned in Shāhnāme , the Iranian national epic and life's work of the Persian poet Abū ʾl-Qāsim Firdausī (940 / 41-1020) as the residence of Kay Kāō . So in the story of Rostam and Sohrab you can find the lines:

"But the letter
Des Gaždaham came to Kay Ka'us in Istachar , with which the messenger ran in a hurry ."

"Kay Ka'us was disturbed from his calm
When he heard my name in Istachar."

literature

ADH Bivar, Mary Boyce : EṢṬAḴR . In: Ehsan Yarshater (ed.): Encyclopædia Iranica . Volume 8 (6), Paragraph 88, as of December 15, 1998, accessed on June 9, 2011 (English, including references)

Web links

Research History (English)

Individual evidence

↑ Ayşe Guersan: Exploring Iran: the photography of Erich F. Schmidt, 1930-1940 . University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, 2007, p. 76.
^ Friedrich Rückert: Rostam and Sohrab. A hero story in 12 books. New edition. epubli, Berlin, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86931-684-0 , p. 103
^ Friedrich Rückert: Rostam and Sohrab. A hero story in 12 books. New edition. epubli, Berlin, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86931-684-0 , p. 150

[1] Ayşe Guersan: Exploring Iran: the photography of Erich F. Schmidt, 1930-1940 . University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, 2007, p. 76.

[2] Friedrich Rückert: Rostam and Sohrab. A hero story in 12 books. New edition. epubli, Berlin, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86931-684-0 , p. 103

[3] Friedrich Rückert: Rostam and Sohrab. A hero story in 12 books. New edition. epubli, Berlin, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86931-684-0 , p. 150