Bishapur
Bishapur was an ancient city in Iran and one of the capitals of the Sasanian Empire, near the city of Kazerun.
This city, listed among Iran’s World Heritage Sites, covers an area of about 200 hectares and contains a rich complex of historical monuments and structures.
Bishapur was founded in AD 266 by order of Shapur I to commemorate the Sasanian victory over the Roman Empire, and it remained one of the most important cities of the empire until the Muslim conquest of Persia. After the Islamic period began, the city gradually declined, and most of its inhabitants migrated to Kazerun due to its destruction.
Bishapur is one of the few ancient cities in Iran that was built according to Greek urban planning principles. During the Sasanian period, it rivaled the great and prosperous cities of the Eastern Roman Empire, such as Antioch and Byzantium.
According to historical sources, Bishapur was a fertile and verdant city surrounded by tall fortifications and had four gates named Hormoz, Mehr, Bahram, and Shahr. It also contained two fire temples known as Sasan and Gonbad-e Golshan.
The city, roughly 2 kilometers long and 1 kilometer wide, was laid out on a rectangular plan with two main streets running north–south and east–west, intersecting at the city’s center. Along these axes and in the right-angled grid of streets and alleys stood royal palaces richly decorated with stucco reliefs, mosaic-adorned iwans, temples, spacious audience halls, and other elaborate structures featuring large carved capitals and architectural embellishments.
Bishapur is one of the main archaeological sites of the Kazerun region, known for its rich Sasanian heritage.
Denomination
The word Bishapur is composed of two parts: Bay and Šāpūr. The first part in the Middle Persian language means great, lord, and king. The second part is the name of the founder of the city, Shapur I of Sassanid dynasty. Bishapur can be interpreted as Shapur the Great or Shapur the Lord.In some sources, Bishapur is also referred to as the palace of Shapur. Some historical sources also consider Bishapur to be a modified form of the word Banāy-e Shapur means Shapur building.
However, some believe that due to the fact that the builders of Bishapur modeled themselves after the city of Antakya and the decree of Shapur the Sassanid to build a better city than Antakya, its name changed from Beh-Az-Antakya-Shapur or Beh-Az-Andiv-Shapur to Bishapur.
The name Bishapur is also minted on Sasanian coins in the form of Bish and Veshapur. This name was minted on coins in Pahlavi scripts during the Sasanian era and in Kufic script during the Islamic era. However, the common name of the city has always been Bishapur.
Location
The ancient city of Bishapur is located next to the Chowgan Valley and the Shapur River, 15 kilometers west of Kazerun, in southwestern Iran.Bishapur was built near a river crossing and at the same site there is also a fort with rock-cut reservoirs and a river valley with six Sassanid rock reliefs.
National and World registration
The ancient city of Bishapur was registered on September 16, 1931, with number 24 as one of the first Iran National Heritage List.The city was also officially inscribed on the World Heritage List at the 42nd World Heritage Session held in Bahrain on June 30, 2018.
History
According to an inscription, the city itself was founded and built in 266 AD by Shapur I, who was the second Sassanid king and inflicted a triple defeat on the Romans, having killed Gordian III, captured Valerian and forced Philip the Arab to surrender. The city was not a completely new settlement: archaeologists have found remains from the Parthian and Elamite eras. The city remained important until the Arab conquest of Persia the rise of Islam in the second quarter of the 7th century AD.The city has a rectangular plan with a grid pattern of regular intra urban streets, resembling Roman city design. This design was never repeated in the architecture of Iran.
Pre-Islamic era
According to historical books, before the establishment of the city of Bishapur, there was an ancient city called Din-Della in this same location, which was founded at the same time as Kazerun by Tahmuras and began to flourish during the Achaemenid Empire, but was destroyed during Alexander the Great's attack on Persia.In 266 AD, after the Sassanid army defeated the Romans and captured Valerian, the Roman emperor during the Battle of Edessa, Shapur I, the king of Persia, ordered the construction of the city of Bishapur on the ruins of Din-Della. Shapur named the city after himself and selected an architect named Apasa from Harran to build it.
Bishapur was built using the Greek urban planning method by Roman prisoners. Most of its buildings were built by Roman engineers and architects.
Bishapur was one of the capitals of the Sasanian Empire and the center of the Shapur-Khwarrah province. The city was the birthplace of Hormizd I and Bahram I, two Sasanian kings.
Valerian, the captured Roman emperor, lived in a Palace built for him by Shapur the Sassanid in the city of Bishapur, and according to some accounts, he also died in the same city.
Shapur I, the Sasanian king, also died in the city of Bishapur in 270 AD. Until the Arab invasion of Iran, Bishapur was a thriving city with a population of between 50,000 and 80,000.
Islamic era
Conquest by Muslim Arabs
During the Arab conquest of Persia in 638 AD, Umar assigned one of his commanders named Mojashe bin Masoud to conquer Shapur-Khwarrah. Despite the great resistance of the people of Shapur-Khwarrah, the Arabs conquered Bishapur. After that, the people and Bishapur continuously rebelled against the Arabs.Declaration of Independence
Among in the year 643 AD and after the caliphate of Uthman, the people of Shapur-Khwarrah, under the command of Shahrag's brother, one of the Sassanid nobles declared independence.But in the end, after the Great battle of Bishapur and the siege of this city, Uthman bin Abi al-As finally conquered Bishapur, Now Bandegan and Jereh again with peace and receiving the wealth and tribute.
Later Riots
The people of Shapur broke their agreement again in 646 AD and Uthman conquered the city again with Abu Musa al-Ash'ari.The resistance of the people of Shapur-Khwarrah against the Arabs was so great that Abida, the Arab general, was seriously injured and when he was dying, he requested the Arab troops to massacre the people of this region for the sake of killing him, and the same thing happened.
In 687 AD, the people of Shapur-Khwarrah revolted against the Arabs once again, and this time they were suppressed by Umar bin Ubaidullah bin Muammar.
In the year 702 AD and during the rule of Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, the displaced people in Shapur-Khwarrah, who were waiting for revenge, rushed with the help of Ibn al-Ash'ath in a rebellion against Hajjaj ibn Yusuf and defeated the Hajjaj army and captured the city of Kufa. However, with the arrival of reinforcements, the rebels were defeated and Shapur-Khwarrah was again under the control of the Army Umayyads.
Migration of Bishapur residents to Kazerun
Bishapur gradually lost its prosperity in the 8th and 9th centuries of AD, and with the migration of its residents to Kazerun and its surroundings, it transferred its prosperity to this city.Buyid dynasty
In 321 AH, Imad al-Dawla, the founder of the Buyid dynasty, sent his brother Rukn al-Dawla to the region to capture Kazerun and Bishapur. Rukn al-Dawla defeated Yaqut, the governor of Kazerun, and captured the region.The Buyid rulers, especially 'Adud al-Dawla, tried to revive the ancient city of Bishapur at the same time as the prosperity of Kazerun, and they were able to restore prosperity to the city to some extent after several centuries. Coins minted in Bishapur during this period also confirm this. Ibn Hawqal says about the prosperity of Bishapur in the first half of the fourth century AH:
Destruction during the Seljuk Empire
Bishapur fell into ruin in the second half of the 4th century AH. During the Seljuk Empire, the administration of the Fars territory was entrusted to the ruler of the Shabankara tribe. The people of this tribe always engaged in killing and plundering in this region until finally, in 495 AH, Abu Sa'id Shabankara set fire to the city of Bishapur and razed it to the ground, and then a terrible earthquake dealt the final blow to the city.History of Excavations
Between 1935 and 1940, Georges Salles and Roman Ghirshman, representatives from the Louvre Museum in Paris, first conducted archaeological excavations in Bishapur, which resulted in a book about the city in French. However, with the outbreak of World War II, the explorers immediately left Iran.Many of the artifacts discovered in Bishapur were transferred to the Louvre Museum, and some are kept in the Museum of Ancient Iran. 28 years later, the Archaeological Center of the Ministry of Culture and Art decided to excavate, repair, and restore the discovered structures.
An Iranian archaeological team headed by Ali Akbar Sarfaraz began its work in Bishapur and, in addition to liberating the city's towers and ramparts, succeeded in discovering important buildings such as the Temple of Anahita, the Ceremonial Hall, the Mosaic Porch, the Valerian Palace, the Rituals Place, and Islamic buildings. After long interruptions, the third phase of excavations in this city was carried out in 1995. The British archaeologist Georgina Herrmann has also written a book about the Sasanian rock reliefs in Bishapur which was published in 1980. However, only three percent of the city of Bishapur has been discovered so far, and ninety-seven percent of it is still buried underground.