FĀRS,province in southern Persia.

i. GEOGRAPHY

Evolution of the geographical concept. The name of Fārs is undoubtedly attested in Assyrian sources since the third millennium B.C.E. under the form Parahše. Originally, it was the “land of horses” of the Sumerians (Herzfeld, pp. 181-82, 184-86). The name was adopted by Iranian tribes which established themselves there in the 9th century B.C.E. in the west and southwest of Urmia lake. The Parsua (Pārsa) are mentioned there for the first time in 843 B.C.E., during the reign of Salmanassar III, and then, after they migrated to the southeast (Boehmer, pp. 193-97), the name was transferred, between 690 and 640, to a region previously called Anšan (q.v.) in Elamite sources (Herzfeld, pp. 169-71, 178-79, 186). From that moment the name acquired the connotation of an ethnic region, the land of the Persians, and the Persians soon thereafter founded the vast Achaemenid empire. A never-ending confusion thus set in between a narrow, limited, geographical usage of the term—Persia in the sense of the land where the aforesaid Persian tribes had shaped the core of their power—and a broader, more general usage of the term to designate the much larger area affected by the political and cultural radiance of the Achaemenids. The confusion between the two senses of the word was continuous, fueled by the Greeks who used the name Persai to designate the entire empire. It lasted through the centuries of Arab domination, as Fārs, the term used by Muslims, was merely the Arabicized version of the initial name.

The use of the term in the broad sense coincided with the rise of the Achaemenid empire. Before Darius I, the satrapy of Persia (OPers.: Pārsa) comprised all of southeastern Persia, and, particularly, present-day Kermān (Herzfeld, pp. 289, 298-99). Herodotus’ text (1.125), which included the Germanioi (q.v.) among the six tribes of Persia, is a reminder of this situation, which ended after the recasting of the satrapies following the uprising of 521 when countries of non-Iranian populations in the east, the Outioi (Yautiyā), the Mukoi (Makā), and people from the Persian Gulf islands (Herzfeld, pp. 300-301), were excluded. Parsā, exempt from taxes and thus not included in the list of the twenty satrapies by Hecataeus (Herzfeld, pp. 295-97), from then on acquired the limited meaning, which lasted through the administrative divisions of the Sasanian and caliphate eras until the present time (the ostān of Fārs). The broad sense, however, never completely vanished. Thus, the Arab geographiers included even such districts as Marv as part of Fārs (Bakrī, ed. Wüstenfeld, II, p. 526), while Ebn Ḵordāḏbeh (p. 62) spoke of the “border between Fārs and Sind.” Likewise, Yazd was included in Fārs under the caliphate before being separated from it in the Mongol period (Nozhat al-qolūb, p. 113, tr., p. 112; Le Strange, p. 249; Schwarz, Iran, pp. 2-3); and that was still the understanding of Mostawfī in 1340 (Nozhat al-qolūb, p. 113, tr., p. 112). The restricted meaning, such as it was, came gradually to be reduced even more, essentially by exclusion of the Persian gulf coastal strip. Under the caliphate, Fārs extended from Mahrūbān on the Persian Gulf in the west to Ḥeṣn Ebn ʿOmāra (Eṣṭaḵrī, p. 135) or Sūrū (Moqaddasī, p. 427) on the Strait of Hormuz in the east, or even from Qomeša (present-day Šahreżā) south of Isfahan to the island of Qays (present-day Kīš; Nozhat al-qolūb, loc. cit.).

If the limited meaning has succeeded in maintaining and entrenching itself in spite of the influence of the broader meaning, it is because it rested in fact on original natural bases which were favorable to the development of an individualized geographical concept through the grouping of regions of complementary climatic zones. The Arab geographers and Mostawī had already affirmed an internal division of Fārs between warm regions (jorūm, garmsīr) and cold regions (sarūd, sardsīr), as is evident in their regional and local descriptions. This natural division was also expressed in the diverse names applied to the lands and administrative divisions. Thus in the 19th century it was composed of an administration of the “land of ports” (bandarāt), whose jurisdiction extended from the head of the Persian Gulf to the border of British Baluchistan. Under the plan of administrative reorganization initiated by Demorgny (1913), a governate (welāya) was proposed for the Daštī and Daštestān (country of plains) which would occupy part of the lowlands (Demorgny, map of the “Nouvelles divisions administratives”). The end result is the present-day configuration, which, with the provinces (ostāns) of Bušehr and Hormozgān, reflects the gradual development of the ports of Bušehr and Bandar ʿAbbās (qq.v.) through contemporary and modern times, and the individualization of their spheres of influence, thus excising Fārs of a large part of its coastal strip. Alhough occasionally there have been trends toward reshaping a vast administrative whole (for example, under the 1938 reform Fārs, as the seventh ostān, included Lārestān, Bušehr, and even an eastern fringe of Ḵūzestān). The geographical concept of Fārs nowadays includes mostly the cold highlands, even though the ostān of Fārs still comprises expansive stretches of lowland.

Natural geographic zones. This evolution reveals an irrefutable geographical fact which is founded on physical bases. The heart of Fārs is comprised of the highland basins. East of the meridian of Bušehr and Isfahan, the Zagros mountain chains, which gradually decrease in altitude toward the southeast but still mostly remain above 2,000 and sometimes 3,000 m, grow further apart from each other, while the folds, aligned strictly northwest-southeastward until then, straighten back gradually in a west-northwest east-southeastward direction, eventually shifting to a west- eastward direction in the Lārestān and the Bandar ʿAbbās region. Between them lie high basins, situated between 1,000 and 1,800 m: the plains of Marvdašt, Neyrīz, Lār, Jahrom, Eṣṭahbānāt, Kavār, Fīrūzābād (qq.v.), etc., which have been the historic site of settlement of the Persians and give Fārs its geographic originality when compared to the western Zagros (the lands of the Baḵtīārī, q.v.), where the mountain chains, much closer to each other, are separated only by narrow, longitudinal valleys. Two of the basins are without drainage, and lakes of high salt content lie in their bottoms: the Daryāča-ye Mahārlū, to the southeast of Shiraz, and that of Neyrīz (see BAḴTAGĀN), where several lakes separate during periods of low tide (lakes of Neyrīz, Tašk, and Baḵtagān) and merge when the water level goes up. The level of the lakes varies depending on the season, and salt from them is exploited commercially. The Daryāča-ye Mahārlū (whose maximum span today is 220 km2) was still connected to the Persian Gulf until the recent Pleistocene, before being separated from it by a scattering of gravel during a pluvial episode. These high basins, already relatively dry in the northwest (average rainfall: 348 mm per year in Marvdašt; 340 mm in Shiraz), become quite arid in the southeast to the point that rain-watered agriculture is no longer possible.

Toward the south, the chains of the Zagros subside as does the level of the basins, and runoff drainage becomes the norm. Precipitation also decreases with altitude, falling to below 200 mm annually in the southeastern region, as the land becomes gradually more and more desolate. This area is known as Tangestān (land of ravines), which gives way along the littoral of the Persian Gulf to highly irregular coastal plains (the Daštestān), sometimes fifty kilometers wide as in the north of Bušehr but which become gradually narrower and more fragmented toward the east. Immediately southeast of Bušehr, on the Tangestān coast, they diminish to only two or three kilometers in width, broadening only at the mouths of the small coastal rivers.

This layering of relief zones is accentuated by contrasts of temperature and the vegetal landscape, which are at the heart of the regional differences recognized quite clearly in the popular mind (Kortum, pp. 16-22). The high basins are collectively “cold lands” (sardsīr), the summer quarters of nomads as well as areas of rain-watered agriculture. However, the highest plains of the interior sector, and the elevated terrains which surround them, are already called sarḥadd (uppermost highlands), where cultivation is no longer possible. The Tangestān and the Daštestān are for the most part “warm lands” (garmsīr), the winter quarters for nomads and the exclusive domain of irrigated agriculture. Between the cold lands and the warm lands, however, there is an intermediate concept, that of the moʿtadel (temperate region), recognized by the Qašqāʾī (Garrod, 1946a, p. 35), and already noted by the Arab geographers (Eṣṭaḵrī, pp. 135-37; Moqaddasī, p. 421; Ebn Ḥawqal, pp. 287-88 Schwarz, Iran, pp. 11-12). An interesting demarkation line between these two areas is that of date palm cultivation, which is found, according to location, in areas between 1,200 and 1,500 m above sea level and progressively higher toward the east (1,200 m in Ḵafr, 100 km southeast of Shiraz; 1,380 m in Fasā; Bobek, 1952, p. 76). The pomegranate tree, which grows at altitudes as high as 1600 m, is fairly characteristic of the temperate zone, whereas the grapevine, thanks to refined methods, grows in cold lands as high as 2,200 m. The natural vegetation, composed of oak forests (nowadays very sparse) in the highland chains and patches of pistachio-almonds trees in the high basins, turns into a brushwood of jujube-trees (Zizyphus sp.) in the higher levels of the garmsīr, and to a savanna of acacias below 1,000 m of altitude (Bobek, 1951, p. 38).

Nomadism and settlement. Between these zones, dynamic human and pastoral relations have developed which give Fārs its primary geographic unity. In contrast to the western districts of the Zagros, where the powerful confederation of the Baḵtīārī achieved ethnic unity, the tribes of Fārs are broken down in many different ethnic groups (Demorgny, Monteil): The Qašqāʾīs (Marsden, Oberling, 1974) are Turcophones numbering 17,000 tents in 1972 (Ehlers, p. 398) who winter in the regions of Fīrūzābād and Kāzerūn and summer to the north of Shiraz in the western region, and whose seasonal migrations sometimes covers 200 to 300 km. The Ḵamsa (q.v.) or “the five,” located more to the east, have equally great migrations, wintering north of Lār and Jahrom and summering northeast of Shiraz. They are a mixed confederation joining Arabophone tribes (Jabbāra and Šaybānī), Turkophones (ʿAynalū, Bahārīn, and Nafar, qq.v.), and Persophones (Bāṣerī, q.v.; Barth, 1964), which numbered 16,000 to 17, 000 tents at the beginning of the 1960s. To the west, in the districts of Yāsūj and Behbahān, are the Mamasanī and the tribes of Kūhgīlūya, numbering several thousand tents, speaking Lorī, and whose movements, much shorter in length, hardly covers more than some dozen kilometers between summer and winter. The territories of these various ethnic groups overlap, as distinct groups often succeed each other over the same course throughout the year following a very precise annual rhythm, which places, in a given period, the Turcophones highest in altitude, the Arabophones lowest, and the Persophones in the middle (Barth, 1959-60), depending on their respective affinities for more or less cold or warm temperatures.

Fig I

Fig II

The dominance of these great nomadic groups, which goes back to the nomadization of the Zagros following the Turko-Mongol invasions, has nevertheless translated itself into a steady and gradual process of sedentarization affecting in particular impoverished nomads who have lost their cattle, to the extent that most of the rural population of Fārs originated in this way (Barth, 1964, pp. 116-21). Hamlets and villages have thus multiplied around the few remaining nuclei, especially during this century (see the reproduction of a historical stage of the habitat, mapped in detail, in Kortum, figs. 2 and 3). Pressure from the government has also contributed to the process, with periods of forced settlement under Reżā Shah (end of the 1930s) and strong pressure exerted on the Qašqāʾī again after 1963. The tremendous progress in irrigation systems through the use of water ducts (such as the great Dārīuš Dam on the river Kor, which allowed for the cultivation of some 100,000 ha in the Marvdašt plain), subterranean channels (qanāt), and more recently, mechanical pumps in the central part of basins, has facilitated this development (Kortum, figs. 6, 7, 12). The plain of Marvdašt, which at the beginning of this century was largely used by the Qašqāʾīs as winter settlement, nowaydays has become merely a thoroughfare. A commercial agriculture has thus been instituted, with an industrial base: sugar beets (for the sugar refineries at Marvdašt (1935), Fasā (1954), Kavār, (1962), and Mamassanī (1966)), cotton, and fodder, while citrus orchards and date palms continue to expand in the garmsīr.

Roads and cities. Parallel with the nomadization of the region, there was also the development of a whole network of cities which expressed by their presence another geographic function of Fārs, that of a transit route par excellence between the Gulf littoral and the high Iranian plateau. The cluster of the high chains of the Zagros is not easily passable further to the west; east of the meridian of Bandar ʿAbbās, the desert coast of the Makrān only gives access to desolate and sparsely populated stretches. But Fārs, with its airy relief, and in spite of the harshness of its precipitous slopes rising to the highland, offers numerous routes, which at least as early as the 9th century gave access to the great cities of Isfahan, Yazd, or Kermān from Sīrāf, Qays, or Hormuz (Le Strange, pp. 295-98), and then in modern times from Bandar ʿAbbās or Bušehr. Kermān is thus accessible through Sīrjān from Bandar ʿAbbas, and the Shiraz basin either through Dārābgerd and Fāsā, or Lār and Jahrom with an alternative route via Fīrūzābād. From Bušehr, the Shiraz basin, Yāsūj, and Isfahan can be accessed via Kāzerūn. Several routes lead to Isfahan from Shiraz, either directly through the mountains by way of Yāsūj, Semīrom and Šahreżā (Qomeša), or by way of Abāda (q.v.), with a detour through the northwestern foothills of the mountain ranges, which traditionally constituted a safer route by providing cover from nomadic brigands.

There are thus two distinct types of cities in the Fārs. The most important ones are cities which serve as transit points and which, especially near Tangestān and the highland, essentially serve as storage depots and relay stations, arranged in a regular formation from east to west: Lār, Jahrom, Fīrūzābād, and Kāzerūn. The highland small towns, which before anything else have a central function with regard to their respective basins, are not as active and have not grown as fast, with the exception of Marvdašt, whose population grew past the 50,000 mark as early as 1976 thanks to the agricultural development of its plain. Since the Achaemenids, however, this area has always been the seat of a major center, first with Pasargadae, Persepolis, and Eṣṭaḵr, and then, during the Muslim period, with Shiraz, toward which the routes to Isfahan and Yazd converge .The city, which served as the capital of Persia for a while under Karīm Khan Zand (1163-93/1750-94), has always been the administrative center of the region and has striven to regulate the flow of trade as well as the movement of nomads, maintaining uncertain relations with the latter. More often than not, it has been in conflict with the Qašqāʾī tribe, which was established in the area as early as the Safavid era and whose leaders always held temporary residences in the city, but which often violently asserted its hostility against the city and its governors, sometimes actually instituting real sieges (Oberling, 1974, esp. pp. 56-58, 91-92). However, it was the merchants of Shiraz, in order to assure the safety of caravans, who were the organizers at the beginning of this century of the confederacy of the Ḵamsa (Barth, 1964, pp. pp. 86-89; Oberling, p. 114) thus expressing the determinant role of the city in the overall shaping of the regional landscape.

Bibliography (for cited works not given in detail, see “Short References”): Abu’l-Fedā, Taqwīm al-Boldān, ed., M. Reinaud, Paris, 1840, pp. 321-31; Pers. tr. ʿA.-M. Āyatī, Tehran, 1349 Š./1970, pp. 367-85. Ī. Afšār Sīstānī, Īlhā, čādornešīnān wa ṭawāyef-e ʿašāyerī-e Īrān, 2 vols., Tehran, 1366 Š./1987, II, pp. 602-72. Abū ʿObayd Bakrī, Ketāb al-masālek wa’l-mamālek, 2 vols., ed. H. F. Wüstenfeld, Göttingen and Paris, 1876-77. F. Barth, “The Land Use Pattern of Migratory Tribes of South Persia,” Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift 17, 1959-60, pp. 1-11. Idem, Nomads of South Persia, Oslo, 1964. W. Barthold, An Historical Geography of Iran, tr. S. Soucek, Princeton, N. J., 1984. M. Bāvar, Kūhgīlūya wa īlāt-e ān, Tehran, 1324 Š./1945. L. Beck, The Qashqaʾi of Iran, New Haven and London, 1986. H. Bobek, Die Natürlichen Wälder und Geholzfluren Irans, Bonner Geographische Abhandlungen 8, Bonn, 1951. Idem, “Beiträge zur klima-ökologischen Gliederung Irans,” Erdkunde 6, 1952, pp. 65-84. R. M. Boehmer, “Zur Lage von Parsua im 9 Jahrhundert vor Christus,” Berliner Jahrbuch für Vor- und Frühgeschichte 5, 1965, pp. 187-88. Cambr. Hist. Iran I, index.

A. J. Christian, A Report on the Tribes of Fars, Simla, 1919. J. I. Clarke, The Iranian City of Shiraz, University of Durham Research Papers 7, Durham, England, 1963. Curzon, Persian Question II, pp. 64-236. G. Demorgny, “Les Réformes Administratives en Perse. Les tribus du Fars,” RMM 22, 1913, pp. 83-150; 23, 1913, pp. 3-108. Ebn Balḵī. Ebn Ḥawqal, pp. 260-304; tr. Kramers, pp. 259-99. E. Ehlers, Iran: Grundzüge einer geographischen Landeskunde, Wissenschaftliche Länderkunden 18, Darmstadt, 1980. Eṣṭaḵrī, pp. 96-158; anonymous Pers. tr., ed. Ī. Afšār, Tehran, 1347 Š./1968, pp. 95-137; Pers. tr. Moḥammad b. Asʿad Tostarī, ed. Ī. Afšār, Tehran, 1372 Š./1994, pp. 87-160. Fasāʾī, ed. Rastgār. O. Garrod, “The Nomadic Tribes of Persia Today,” Journal of the Royal Central Asiatic Society 33, 1946a, pp. 32-46. Idem, “The Qashqai Tribe of Fars,” Journal of the Royal Central Asiatic Society 33, 1946b, pp. 293-306. H. Gaube, Die südpersische Province Arrağān/Kūh-Gīlūyeh von der arabischen Eroberung bis zur safawidenzeit, Vienna, 1973. E. Herzfeld, The Persian Empire. Studies in Geography and Ethnography of the Ancient Near East, ed. G. Walser, Wiesbaden, 1968. Ḥodūd al-ʿĀlam, ed. Sotūda, pp. 11-13, 31-32, 130-36; tr. Minorsky, pp. 52-55, 65-66, 126-31. Kayhān, Joḡrāfīā II, passim; III, pp. 214-43 and passim. G. Kortum, Die Marvdasht-Ebene in Fars: Grundlagen und Entwicklung einer alten iranischen Bewässerungslangdschaft, Kieler Geographische Schriften 44, Kiel, 1976.

Le Strange, The Lands, pp. 248-98. K. Lindberg, Voyage dans le Sud de L’Iran, Lund, 1955. Lorimer, Gazeteer. D. Marsden, “The Qashqaʾi Nomadic Pastoralists of Fars Province,” in J. Allgrove, ed., The Qashqāʾi of Iran, Manchester, England, 1976, pp. 9-22. Ministère de l’Intérieur, Rapport du Ministère de l’Intérieur sur le Fars, Tehran, 1913. V. Monteil, Les tribus du Fârs et la sédentarisation des nomades, Paris and The Hague, 1966. Moqaddasī, pp. 420-59. S. Nejand, “Geologie und Hydrologie des Maharlu-Sees und seine Umgebung bei Shiraz/Iran,” Ph.D. diss., Aachen, 1972. Nozhat al-qolūb, ed. Le Strange, pp. 112-39; tr. Le Strange, pp. 111-38. P. Oberling, “The Turkic Tribes of Southwestern Persia,” Ural-Altaische Jahrbücher 35/B, 1963, pp. 164-80. Idem, The Qashqaʾ’i Nomads of Fars, The Hague and Paris, 1974. Razmārā, Farhang VII. A. T. Wilson, The Persian Gulf, London, 1928. Schwarz, Iran, pp. 43-211.

(XAVIER DE PLANHOL)

ii. HISTORY IN THE PRE-ISLAMIC PERIOD

From the “Neolithic Revolution” to the end of Elam. The history of early pre-Islamic Fārs is most closely interwoven with that of its eastern and western neighbors. Agrarian settlements had been established (by immigrants?) in the Muški phase in the Kor basin, a widely and well researched area, before 5,500 B.C.E. The settlements utilized the river and the water springs along the periphery of the valley for irrigation purposes, beginning at the latest by the 5th millennium. The first ascertainable contacts between Susiana and Fārs took place in the Bākūn phase around 4000 B.C.E. at the height of population growth (e.g., compare the Ibex figure on the ceramics of Susa I and the Tall-e Bākūn).

Soon after Susa II was integrated into the cultural domain of early Sumer around 3,700 B.C.E., many of the village settlements of the Bāneš period in Fārs were abandoned. The negative consequences of intensive agriculture, such as raised water table, salinization, reduction of productivity, may have prompted its inhabitants to shift to nomadic pastoralism for their subsistence. Fārs seems to have been affected only marginally by the Sumerian expansion in the second half of the 4th millennium during the late Uruk and the Susa II periods, when colonists migrated as far as western central Iran for exchange purposes (Sumner, 1986a). Only after the late Uruk culture in Susiana and along with it the close relation with Mesopotamia had come to a halt, both regions, Susiana and Fārs, drew closely together again in the so-called proto-Elamite Period (see ELAM). An urban center developed at the Tall-e Malīān of today in the plain of Bayżā, about 450 km southeast of Susa, which may already have been called Anshan (q.v.; see Hansman), and which dominated its immediate environment and distinguished itself economically through the emergence of a significant tradition of crafts, utilizing indigenous and imported materials. At the beginning of the 3rd millennium the city had already reached a size which covered about 50 ha with evidence of an impressive defensive wall which circumscribed an area of about 200 ha (Carter and Stolper, pp. 123-36; Sumner 1986a; Nicholas). The alliance between Anshan/Anzan and Susa constituted the foundation for the later Elamite empire and proto-Elamite culture expanded far to the north and east. Proto-Elamite textual documents, seals, and ceramics have been found in Tepe Sīalk near Kāšān as well as in Tepe Yaḥyā in Kermān and even in Šahr-e Sūḵta in Sīstān. It may have been the duality of the proto-Elamite culture and the proto-Elamite empire with its dual basis in the low-lying areas of Susiana (present-day Ḵūzestān) and the high-lying Iranian plateau, which led to the disintegration of the empire. The rise of the early dynastic Sumerian city states in the west, however, may have contributed to this development. While Susa became part of their cultural sphere of influence, Anshan and the other settlements in Fārs were abandoned again and their inhabitants returned to their earlier life-style of pastoral nomadism around 2600-2200 B.C.E. In the old Akkadian period, Susiana fell under the dominance of Sargon of Akkad and his successors. One of them, Man-ištušu, praised himself for having defeated Anshan. The same claim is made by Gudea of Lagaš a short time after that (Carter and Stolper; Sumner 1986a).

The Sumerians were expelled from Susa at the time of the indigenous Elamite dynasty of the Šimaški. Anshan recovered again and developed into an important metropolis, covering an inhabited area of about 150 ha with about 20,000 to 30,000 inhabitants at the time of the so-called Kaftari period (Sumner, 1989). The precise political status of Anshan in the Elamite empire remains ambiguous, but the sources reflect its conspicuous role in the military, diplomatic, and economic relations of Elam and the states of Mesopotamia. Some time before 1900 B.C.E. the lords of Šimaški seem to have carried the title “King of Anshan and Susa.” Under their successors, who were distinguished by the title sukkalmah (grand regent), the connections between the Susanian lowlands and the plateau of Fārs continued to be cultivated. Rulers founded places of worship, whose bas-reliefs indicate the veneration of a God-couple, Napiriša and his wife, near Kūrāngūn in Mamassanī on the overland routes between Susa and Anshan and near Naqš-e Rostam on the road leading from Anshan to the Iranian plateau (Carter and Stolper).

Little is known about central Fārs in the time between 1600 and 1300 B.C.E. The number of inhabitants of Anshan seems to have decreased to one third and the number of settlements clearly declined. Anshan benefited from Elam’s renewed rise to power since the 14th century B.C.E., especially under the rule of Utaš-Napiriša. With the crushing defeat of the Elamites by Nebuchadnezzar I at the end of the 12th century, Anshan, like Susa, was destroyed and only reappeared in the history of the neo-Elamite kingdom of “Anzan and Susa” in contemporary written traditions by the end of the 8th century B.C.E.

From the end of Elam to the end of the Achaemenid empire. How Fārs (OP. Pārsa; Gk. Persis) was able to develop into the center of an empire, whose leading classes were part of a people who spoke an Iranian language and seem to have been ethnically different from the Elamites, is disputed. For a long time it was believed that the Persians appeared toward the end of the 2nd millennium in northwestern Iran and gradually migrated from the areas south of lake Urmia via the present-day Kermānšāh region to Fārs, where they founded a dynasty under Achaemenes (q.v.; OP. Haxāmaniš), shortly before 700 B.C.E., which soon disintegrated into the divided kingdoms of Anshan and Pārsa (for literature, see Stronach). The discovery of Anshan in Fārs, however, gave rise to a different interpretation (de Miroschedji, 1985; Carter; Sumner, 1994), which argues that in the 11th and 10th centuries, that is the period of Elamite weakness, Iranian pastoralists migrated in small groups to Fārs, where they intermingled with the Elamite population. At Assurbanipal’s invasion of Susa in 646 B.C.E., Elam at the latest lost control of Fārs, which, probably in the attempt to defend itself against the Assyrian threat, formed itself into the independent kingdom of Anshan under a Persian dynasty (see the Babylonian cylinder of Cyrus and the seal of Cyrus [Cyrus I?]; Hallock, p. 127; and incorporated adjacent smaller dominions like Gisat into its territory [?]). There are no arguments in favor of a concurrent rule of two lines of the Achaemenids. To the contrary, it seems that the Teispids (decendants of Čišpiš/Teispes), the line of Cyrus, and the Achaemenids, the line of Darius, ought to be seen as distinctly separate from each other. The transformation to a sedentary culture of agriculture and husbandry, which has been corroborated by archeological investigations, was linked to these political develop ments. The temporary dependency of the Persians on the Medians, which has been propounded by Greek tradition (Herodotus, 1.127), is not corroborated in the available indigenous sources.

Cyrus II the Great (q.v.) was able to withstand an attack by the Median king Astyages (q.v.), himself taking the offensive in 550 B.C.E. Following his victory, the royal city Ecbatana (q.v.) fell into the hands of Cyrus who transferred the treasures kept there to Anshan (Grayson, 7, II 1-4). About ten years after the death of Cyrus in 530 B.C.E., when the son of the kingdom’s founder, Cambyses II (q.v.) died and Darius I the Great (q.v.), who succeeded to the throne, was daunted by numerous insurrections and separatist movements, the empire was threatened with impending collapse. The way in which Darius managed to master these insurrections, to rally the nobility of Fārs in his support, and to ensure the survival of his dynasty, the Achaemenids, and the throne has genuinely impressed his contemporaries, not least because of his own ideological efforts (monument and inscription of Bīsotūn with copies and translations).

Under the Achaemenids Fārs was the political as well as “ideological” center of the empire. Royal inscriptions assign to its Persian inhabitants the first rank among the empire’s peoples. Being a Persian, son of a Persian, and “King in Pārsa,” distinguished the great king, while ancestral roots in the region of Pārsa or the relation to the Persian tribes lent prestige to the nobility and to the simple subjects. The principles of this noble Persian descent and the special confidential relationship to the king may complement each other to the benefit of both sides, but occasionally they may also be in competition with each other. Herodotus’ history of the end of Intaphernes (Vindafarnah), Darius’ ally, and his family (Herodotus, 3.118 f.) and Ctesias’ (q.v.) report about the fall of the house of Hydarnes (Vidarna; Jacoby, Fragmente, 688, F. 15) show that the ruler was able to decide this kind of conflict to his own favours. Soon after Darius’ accession to the throne, all Persian aristocrats, as well as the families of his allies, depended on his favor and patronage. Their privileges, such as the right to intermarry with the royal family, were often undermined, since, instead of marrying the daughters or sons of the conspirators’ descendants, the Achaemenids sometimes politically decided to marry members of the Achaemenid clan, or to give those persons the highest rank among the wives of the king (e.g., Darius II marrying his own half-sister Parysiatis; see Jacoby, Fragments, 688, F. 25). At the same time loyal nobles were rewarded with a plethora of prebends, honors, titles, and presents, which made it advisable to seek and associate with the king and bridle one’s own ambitions. If the king agreed, even someone who had only one parent of Persian descent could be counted as Persian (Herodotus, 6.41).

Although Fārs was under the rule of the “king of lands/peoples” and its inhabitants paid taxes (witnessed by the Elamite clay tablets), the province did not count among the subdued, tribute-paying regions of the empire. Pasargadae (Elamite Batrakataš), the place of the royal investiture, and Persepolis (OP. Pārsa; cf. XPa 14) the metropolis (Diodorus, 17.14) of the empire lay in this province. The great kings were buried in tombs at Pasargadae (Cyrus II), Naqš-e Rostam (Darius I, Xerxes I, Artaxerxes I., Darius II ?),and Persepolis (Artaxerxes II and III). Here they provided a iconographical (Root, passim) and inscriptural expression to the specific idea of their rulership by divine favor (vašnā Auramazdāha), for the benefit of the subjects (e.g., DB IV 61-67). The welfare of Pārsa, “a good country, with good horses and good men” (DPd 6ff.) was of special importance for the king. If Pārsa, “which was bestowed upon him by Ahura Mazdā” was well and its inhabitants were safe, that was “happiness unbroken” (šiyātiš axšatā; DPe 23). It is no longer surprising that many Greeks of Alexander the Great’s entourage, who praised the profuse settlements, the population density, and the productivity of the land, thought the campaign of revenge was completed with the capture of Persis. Archeological surveys in the plain of Persepolis (Sumner, 1986b) and the Elamite clay tablets from Persepolis (PFT, PTT; see Koch) confirm this impression of the participants of the campaign of Alexander (Curtius Rufus, 5.4.5-9, 24; cf. Strrabo, 15.3.1; Arrianus, Indica 39.2-4) as well as the king’s efforts for the welfare of the country. They also confirm (cf. Sumner, 1986b, p. 30) that in Achaemenid times, Fārs was marked by the coexistence of sedentary small peasants and nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoralists (see Herodotus, 1.125; Briant, 1996, pp. 28 ff.). Among the region’s most important places, which are known through the administrative texts of Persepolis, are Shiraz (Elamite Tirazziš/Qaṣr-e Abū Naṣr?), (Elamite) Matezziš (OP. Uvādaičaya/Akkadian Ḫumadēšu/settlement of Persepolis?), and Fasā/Tall-e Ẓoḥāk (Elamite Bašiyan?; see Wiesehöfer, 1994, pp. 65-66)

By the end of 331 B.C.E., Alexander was able to capture the tenaciously defended “Persian Gates” and in January was able to seize Persepolis. In May of 330, shortly after the Macedonian paid homage to Cyrus at Pasagardae, the palaces and buildings of Xerxes were set on fire. The Greek idea of the complete destruction of Persepolis through Alexander is of a literary or rather “ideological” nature. The place as the symbol of Persian dominance had to be destroyed in conclusion to the campaign of revenge (Wiesehöfer, 1994).

From Alexander to the end of Parthian rule. Under the rule of Alexander and his successors Persis/Fārs lost its special status as the empire’s center. Although it still harbored a specific ideological, economic, and strategic potential, it became, like the remaining provinces, just a part of the empire. Seleucid rule met with indigenous resistance in Persis only initially, if at all. The potentates, who ruled Persis under the hegemony of the Seleucids and who called themselves Fratarakā (q.v.) and are known to us mostly through their coins, emphasized their close connection to the Achaemenids through the adoption of certain ceremonials and symbols, but evidently did not perceive themselves as Achaemenids or great kings. Their loyalty toward the Seleucids, which found expression also in their iconography, was only relinquished when the deterioration of the Macedonian rule in Persia became clearly visible (Wiesehöfer, 1996b). When the stronger Parthians appeared in Mesopotamia, the Fratarakā temporarily supported the Seleucids again. Later the Parthians, however, saw no problem in keeping natives in the position of partially autonomous kings. This system was supported by the fact that these Persian dynasties never insisted on any claims beyond their own region. It is thus not surprising that even the later Sasanians counted the era of these kings to the time of the petty kings, but beyond that were unable to adopt real historical memories of the Achaemenids. Even though the Fratarakā behaved like devout Zoroastrians (see Wiesehöfer, 1994, p. 75; idem, 1996, pp. 109-110), they were hardly representatives of a religious-nationalist party or even regal priests (Magians). In Seleucid times their function seems to have been primarily political, administrative, and military in nature. As keepers and guardians of traditions, educators of the princes, and administrators of the cults the Magians probably were charged with tasks similar to those they held under the Achaemenids (see, e.g., Herodotus, 1.132; Jacoby, Fragmente, 688, F. 13). Later religious traditions show that the negative memories of the Greeks (or Alexander only) were harbored by the Zoroastrian priesthood, but this legacy has not gained political weight in Hellenistic times. The long period of the unchallenged Seleucid rule in Persis/Fārs (see FRATARAKĀ) proves not only that this province was not a “stronghold of resistance against Hellenism” but shows that the foreign rulers were familiar with the particular traditions of this region. It is almost impossible to determine precisely to what extent Fārs of the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C.E. was Hellenized. Results of archeological research seem to indicate a rather inconsequential presence of Greek-Macedonian influences, but in the face of the lack of literary evidence the example of Antiocheia-in-Persis (see Wiesehöfer, 1994, s.v.) should caution against any rash conclusions. As the Molon revolt in 222 B.C.E. proves, the Median and Persian units formed the backbone of the army in this region under Seleucid rule as well. The function of Persis as link between southeastern Persia and Susiana/Ḵūzestān as well as starting point for campaigns in the Persian Gulf precludes any possible disinterest of the Seleucids in the region (Wiesehöfer 1994; 1996b).

The fact that only little archeological evidence of Parthian presence in Persis exists, that Parthian practice has been imitated on the impressions of coins issued by their vassal rulers (Alram, 1987), and that conflicts between Persians and Parthians until the 3rd century C.E. are not mentioned by any of the existing traditions (with one exception which, in historiographical terms, is not unproblematic; Chronicle of Arbela, pp. 22 f.), can be explained as the result of a sagacious and successful Parthian policy, which was respectful of indigenous traditions. The substitution during that time of the mythical Kayanid traditions of eastern Iran for the historical, indigenous southwestern Iranian traditions of kingship also speaks for this assumption (Wiesehöfer, forthcoming).

Under the Sasanians. The Middle Persian-Parthian inscription of Šāpūr I at Bīšāpūr (q.v.) sets the beginning of the Sasanian era at 205/6 C.E. This indicates that the beginning of Sasanian political aspirations stood in close relation with the Parthian-Roman confrontations in Severian times on the one hand, and the dispute over the throne between the brothers Vologases (Balāš) VI and Artabanus (Ardavān) IV on the other hand. One ought to be, however, cautious in perceiving these Sasanian ambitions as a symptom of political disintegration in the late Parthian empire. The concurrent successes of Artabanus against Rome (Dio Cassius, 78.26.3 ff.) and the long phase of consolidation of the early Sasanian empire rather indicate that the Parthians (and the Sasanians themselves?) initially perceived the events in Fārs as regionally confined confrontations over the vassal kingship of Persis, and that the fatal outcome of the battle of Hormozjān only in retrospect appears as inevitable.

The early Sasanians considered themselves as successors to rulers who, like themselves, came from Fārs and ruled over a large empire. They built impressive palaces and laid out important residences. They thought of their homeland as a place of historic, religious, and political significance and honored the “holy places” and remains of their “ancestors” which were situated there (Wiesehöfer, 1996a, pp. 165 ff.). At the same time, unlike the Achaemenids, they emphasized the common Iranian rather than the Persian foundations of their rule (Gnoli, 1989) and for a long time followed the Parthian model, which was only later replaced by Sasanian traditions. This was the case even though Fārs was mentioned at the top of the list of the empire’s provinces enumerated by Šāpūr I in his inscription at Kaʿba-ye Zardošt (ŠKZ). The new elements of early Sasanian politics lay in the renewal of the hostile position against Rome, in the stronger emphasis on the “Iranian” character of kingship and religion, as well as in the clearer reference to Zoroastrian gods (Wiesehöfer, 1996a, pp. 165 ff.). In the context of domestic politics, the loyal Parthian clans guaranteed continuity and stability, but were now complemented by those of Fārs, and kingship was reserved for the house of Sāsān from this province. The special significance of Fārs for the history of Zoroastrianism, which was already emphasized by the high priest Kirdēr in his inscription at Sar Mašhad (KSM 31), is confirmed by modern archeological as well as linguistic and historical literary research: Fārs was to a very large extent Zoroastrian (Huff; Boucharlat), as burial practices and the fact that the Avesta was canonized on the basis of the tradition of Fārs (Hoffmann and Narten; Hintze) indicate.

Fārs, before the reforms of Ḵosrow I Anošīravān, seems to have been divided into numerous districts for administrative purposes. These small precincts were replaced by larger entities in later times, of which Ardašīr Xwarrah (Ardašīr Ḵorra), Weh Šābūhr (Bīšāpūr), Dārāb, Estaḵr, Nēw Dārāb, and Weh-az-Amid Kawād (Arrajān, qq.v.) are known by name (Gyselen). Fārs was also among those provinces of the empire in which Šāpūr I settled people deported from the Roman empire (ŠKZ, Parthian 15 ff., Greek 34-36; Chronicle of Seʿert, pp. 220-23). Christianity was deeply rooted in Fārs in this way (Chaumont, 1988, pp. 54 ff.; Schwaigert, 1989, pp. 18 ff.) and ultimately led to the establishment of dioceses, whose representatives appear in the records of the synods of the Nestorian bishops. In late Sasanian times Rēw-Ardašīr (Rēšahr) was the seat of the metropolitan of Fārs as well as the starting point for Christian maritime contact, reaching all the way to India (Müller). Fārs fell into the hands of Muslim Arabs in 643 after ardent resistance .

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(JOSEF WIESEHÖFER)