Shushar

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Shushar
Shushtar abshar.JPG
Shushar (Iran)
Shushar
Shushar
Basic data
Country: IranIran Iran
Province : Chuzestan
Coordinates : 32 ° 3 '  N , 48 ° 51'  E Coordinates: 32 ° 3 '  N , 48 ° 51'  E
Height : 70  m
Residents : 73 354 (2006)
Time zone : UTC +3: 30

Shushar ( Persian شوشتر, DMG Šūštar , Arabic تستر, DMG Tustar ) is an ancient fortification city in the Khuzestan Province in southwestern Iran . In 2009, the historic Shushar irrigation system was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List .

The ancient name of the city of Šurkutir , which was mentioned on tablets in Persepolis , can be traced back to the Elamite period. The current name of the city refers to Susa ( Persian شوش Schusch ) and could be interpreted as an increase in the name.

history

The Shushar Bridge , the easternmost Roman civil engineering structure

The city was located on the Persian King's Road , which connected the Elamite capital Susa with the Achaemenid Persepolis. Alexander the Great crossed the Karun River in 331 BC. At this point. In late antiquity , the city was an important center of Christianity .

During the reign of the Sassanids , Shushar was an island town on the Karun. This was led around the city in canals . Bridges and city ​​gates in the east, west and south of the city made them accessible. An underground canal system of qanats supplied the city with water for private use and for irrigation of the sugar cane fields for which the city is famous to this day and which were built as early as 226 AD. The construction of artificial waterfalls on a tributary of the Karun, the Gargar River , had already begun here in Achaemenid times , which was continued under the Sassanids and required construction techniques that were unusual for the time. Some of them are still used for irrigation today.

After the defeat of Emperor Valerian in AD 260, according to Persian tradition, numerous Roman soldiers were brought in to build and expand the irrigation system of Shushar. The resulting Band-e Kaisar (" Caesars Damm"), an original combination of arched bridge and weir , was 500 m long and is considered the easternmost Roman bridge and Roman dam . The multi-purpose facility had a profound influence on Iranian civil engineering and made a significant contribution to the development of Sassanid hydraulic engineering.

During the caliphate of ʿUmar ibn al-Chattāb , Shushar was conquered by the Muslims. The grave of their leader al-Barā 'ibn Mālik, who died while conquering the city, was shown in Shushar for a long time.

More watermills were built during the Safavid reign , some of which are still preserved today. In the 19th century the irrigation system gradually disintegrated, so that the city lost its status as an agricultural center.

During the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , efforts were made to revive agriculture in the area. In this context, the Karun Agro-Industries Corporation built a satellite town , Shustar New Town ( Neu-Shuschtar ), to provide accommodation for the employees of the sugar cane factory and to open up further opportunities for the city to grow.

Today the place is also known for its possibilities in the field of water sports .

The residents of Shushar speak their own dialect , the so-called Shushari .

traffic

In January 1916, the building materials for a 1-mile (1.6 km) long Decauville railway as well as 1,000 picks and 1,000 shovels were stored in the citadel of Shushar.

In 2013, the city was connected to the Iranian railway network with a 57 km long, single-track line that branches off the Trans-Iranian Railway in Haft Tappeh .

literature

  • Hartung, Fritz; Kuros, Gh. R .: Historical dams in Iran, in: Garbrecht, Günther (Hrsg.): Historische Talsperren, Vol. 1, Verlag Konrad Wittwer, Stuttgart 1987, pp. 221-274, ISBN 3-87919-145-X .
  • Hodge, A. Trevor: Roman Aqueducts & Water Supply . Duckworth, London 1992, p. 85, ISBN 0-7156-2194-7 .
  • Huff, Dietrich: Bridges. Pre-Islamic Bridges, in: Yarshater, Ehsan (Ed.): Encyclopædia Iranica Online , 2010.
  • Kleiss, Wolfram: Brückenkonstruktionen in Iran, in: Architectura, Vol. 13 (1983), pp. 105-112 (106).
  • JH Kramers / CE Bosworth: Art. " Sh u sh tar" The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. IX, pp. 512a-513a.
  • O'Connor, Colin: Roman Bridges . Cambridge University Press, 1993, p. 130 (No. E42), ISBN 0-521-39326-4 .
  • Schnitter, Niklaus: Römische Talsperren, in: Antike Welt , Vol. 8, No. 2 (1978), pp. 25–32 (32).
  • Smith, Norman: A History of Dams . Peter Davies, London 1971, pp. 56-61, ISBN 0-432-15090-0 .
  • Vogel, Alexius: The historical development of the weight wall, in: Garbrecht, Günther (Ed.): Historische Talsperren, Vol. 1, Verlag Konrad Wittwer, Stuttgart 1987, pp. 47–56 (50), ISBN 3-87919-145- X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ UNESCO World Heritage: Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System , accessed May 1, 2010
  2. ↑ cf. Article on Livius.org
  3. ↑ In New Persian, the final syllable -tar usually expresses a comparative, also an elative.
  4. ↑ a b Schnitter 1978, p. 28, Fig. 7
  5. ↑ cf. Livius.org
  6. ↑ a b cf. engl. Wiki article
  7. ↑ a b cf. cais article
  8. ^ Römischer Bau: Schnitter 1978, p. 32; Kleiss 1983, p. 106; Hartung & Kuros 1987, p. 232; Hodge 1992, p. 85; O'Connor 1993, p. 130; Huff 2010; Kramers 2010; first of its kind: Smith 1971, pp. 56-61; Vogel 1987, p. 50
  9. ^ Influence on civil engineering: Huff 2010; on hydraulic engineering: Smith 1971, p. 60f.
  10. ↑ See Kramer / CE Bosworth: Art. ". Sh u sh tar" in EI² Vol IX, p 512b..
  11. ↑ Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. II. 1917, p. 231.