Gulashkird Explained

Gulashkird also known as Faryjab or Paryjab or Valashgird[1] was an important town in Kerman province of Iran during the Middle Ages as a station on the trade routes from the Persian Gulf and Persia to India and also into Central Asia.[2]

Today the town lies at modern Faryjab, a small village north east of Bandar Abbas, south of Jiroft and 50 km north of Mantijan, near the town of Manujan and the Rudkhanah i Duzdi River.

Historically the town was a strongly fortified town with a castle known as Kftshah and was serviced by quanats that allowed the area to grow Indigo,[3] oranges, date palms[4] and Grain,[5] It was mentioned by Arab geographers Mukaddasi and Yaqut al-Hamawi[6] and Marco Polo.[7] [8]

The village has been suggested[9] as a possible location for the lost city of Alexandria Carmania, founded by Alexander the Great months before he died in Babylon.[10] Indeed, Greek pottery has been found in the area.[11]

Notes and References

  1. Lewis Vance Cummings, Alexander the Great (Grove Press, 2004) page 402.
  2. E. H. Warmington, The Commerce Between the Roman Empire and India (Cambridge University Press Archive, 2014) page 24.
  3. http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/The_Lands_of_the_Eastern_Caliphate_1000703829/345 Lands of the Eastern Caliphate
  4. [Guy Le Strange]
  5. E. Yarshater, The Cambridge History of Iran: Seleucid Parthian (Cambridge University Press, 1983) page 773.
  6. Yakut (iv, 939)
  7. http://www.bookrags.com/ebooks/12410/630.html Travels of Marco Polo Vol2
  8. The Travels of Marco Polo vol 1, chapter16.
  9. G. Le Strange, The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, Cambridge University Press 2011. page 317
  10. [Lewis Vance Cummings]
  11. [Percy Sykes|Sir Percy Molesworth Sykes]