Describing the Spatial Organization of Bishapur City Based on Archeological Findings

Mahmoud Teimoury, Ali Akbar Sarfaraz | Describing the Spatial Organization Describing the Spatial Organization of Bishapur City based on Archeological Findings Ali Akbar Sarfaraz Mahmoud Teimoury [email protected] [email protected] Professor of Archeology, Nazar Ph.D candidate in Architecture, research center, Iran. University of Paris1, France. Abstract The ancient city of Bishapour was one of the first cities that were built by Shapour after Darabgard and Ard- eshirkhoreh (Gour or Firouzabad). It is among the few cities from ancient Persia that have partly remained and can therefore be used to introduce the common Persian urban structures of its own time. There have been few studies over ancient urban structures in Iran which could be used to identify their functions and the way the cities were built and developed. The scarcity of studies on this issue has been despite the fact that there has been considerable academic attention on ancient Persia. A few studies that architects and scholars of urban development have carried out over the spatial organization of Iran’s ancient cities were mostly based on unreliable documents and were not supported by archeological findings. The purpose of the present article is to introduce and analyze the process of urban development of the Sassanid city of Bishapour based on available documents as well as the archeological findings obtained from 1958 to 1978. In order to arrive at a better analysis, the Theory of Urban Spatial Organization was exploited. The Theory introduces the city as a purposeful entirety with four main elements such as the domain, the structure, the small entireties and the center. Accordingly, after analyzing the above elements in Bishapour, the spatial organization of the city is analyzed by considering the social-cultural conditions in the Sassanid era and a brief comparison is made with the general conditions of the spatial organization of an Iranian-Islamic city. Keywords Bishapour, Ancient city, Iranian city, Sassanid city, Spatial organization of the city, Shapour, Historical structure. 11 jocO quarterly, Vol.1, No.1. Autumn 2013 The History of Bishapur as “Veh-Din” which means the good religion, that Bishapur is an ancient city located in the province is, the religion of God and light. “Veh” or “Beh” of Fars-Kazerun. Although there is evidence of in- has also been interpreted to mean “home” and “a habitation related to Achaemenian and Elamite eras dwelling place”, in which case Bishapour could in the area, Bishapur was constructed and named as mean “the house of Shapour”. This is while oth- a city in Sassanid Empire. Bishapur stands fifteen ers interpret the name as to mean “good deeds of kilometers northwest of Kazerun at the geographi- Shapour” (Ibid: 248). cal coordinates of N: 29°46´, E: 51°34´. It was the As Estakhri in his Masalek-al-Mamalek and Ebn- center of the empire and Ardeshir Khore Koreh e-Balkhi in his Fars-Nameh write of the name of (one of the five mains sections of the empire) and Bishapour, “the city of Bishapour was built during was populated up to the seventh century Hijri be- the reign of Tahmoures, who ruled before Jamshid, fore falling to collapse. This city is a treasure of and was then called “Din-Doula”. Shapour rebuilt Sassanid architecture such as the Shrine of Anahita the city after it had been destroyed by Alexander, which it houses. the Great and named it Bishapour. The city is now Bishapour is the first ancient Iranian city with a called Beshar and Besabour” (Sarafraz, 1987: 37). written history of urban development. This writ- According to Ebn-e-Balkhi, the city was originally ten history is in fact an inscription in both Sassanid named Bishapour, or shortly called Shapour with- and Arsacid scripts on one of the two stone pillar out the “Bi”. Hence, the title Bishapour was valid bases at the city center. According to the inscrip- up to the end of the 11th century AD and the be- tion, the city’s development dates back to year 58 ginning of the 12th century AD. Nevertheless, the of Ardeshir’s reign and year 40 of Shapour’s reign city’s name in times of Shapour seems to have been which coincide with 266 AD, exactly 6 years after “Beh az Andiou Shapour” which implied “Better Shapour’s victory over Valerian in 260 AD. This than Antakiyeh, City of Shapour”; this assumption is the date when the construction of Bishapour fin- rests on the fact that Bishapour is not mentioned in ished. According to Abbas Zaryab-Khoyee, “in the the inscription of Ka’be-ye-Zartosht among the list city of Bishapour in Fars, an inscription by a certain of cities, while there is a city named after the ruler Apsay the Secretary is discovered besides his statue “Vehi Antiouk Shapour”. Some theoreticians have which also includes the inscription’s date” (Sarafraz, assumed that “Beh az Andiou Shapour” must have 2002: 262). The year of construction is believed to been the same as the Sassanid “Gondi Shapour”, be 266 AD while the name of the city, which was not a not-very-important camp where captive Roman mentioned in the inscription, is unknown. soldiers were taken. But it is far from being likely After assuming power, Ardeshir Babakan – the that the inscription mentioned a captive camp but founder of the Sassanid dynasty – moved the capital neglected the royal city and the government head- from Estakhr, the city of his ancestors, to Tisfoun quarters of Shapour: a city famous for its beauty and built a new city with the name ‘Veh-Ardeshir’ where flocks of people rushed to visit every now adjacent to it. Shapour (241-272), Ardeshir’s son, and then. The above historical narrative might con- later built a different abode and called it Bishapour. tribute to our further understanding of the origins The interesting point here is the way the new cit- of the city’s name. Having occupied Antakiyeh, the ies were named – a tradition popular among all beautiful city of Eastern Roman empire, Shapour Sassanid kings. Examples include Beh-Ardeshir, was so fascinated by its beauties that he ordered to Beh-Qobad, Beh-Khosrow and Beh-Shapour. The build him a headquarters even better than Antaki- prefix “Veh” or “Beh” means good and appears yeh. The comparative “Veh”, meaning better, must in many Pahlavid names of the Sassanid era, such have been used to compare Antakiyeh – which was 12 Mahmoud Teimoury, Ali Akbar Sarfaraz | Describing the Spatial Organization the largest, richest and most beautiful city of East- Bishapour was built at the mouth of Bishapour ern Roman empire, occupied by Shapour in 251 Strait, overlooking the beautiful, green Bishapour AD – and Shapour’s city with its tall, ornamented plain (or Kazeroun plain) and at the skirt of Kouh- porches. (Sarafraz & Firouzmandi, 2002: 249). mareh heights, where the heights from the one side What is significant about the architecture of the and the river from the other protect its borders from city is its difference with the cities raised during being violated. Unlike the city of Ardeshir-Khoreh the Islamic era. In Sassanid Empire, a city was not (Firouz-Abad) which is located in the middle of a a place for collective activities, great populace and vast plain and protected by Qal’e Dokhtar, a castle numerous houses protected inside fortifications, located in a quite far distance, Bishapour is located which would possibly be interpreted as a cultural at the mountain-skirt and at the edge of the plain, center for man’s collective mentality. In ancient with minimum distance from the two protective Iran, a city was a holy place which could not be castles i.e Qal’e Dokhtar and Qal’e Ardeshir in the raised by just any one person. Only kings, who pos- mountains surrounding Chowgan Strait. (diagram1) sessed royal grandeur, were allowed to order construction of a city (Barati, 2003). Therefore, cities belonged to a god and his/her delegates on earth not to the inhabitants. A city was a relatively huge body which was constructed by the order of a king to house royal families and servants as well as cho- sen people such as instructors and high ranking of- ficers. It was a place which represented the royal grandeur of the king and his personal tastes, not a place for trafficking of the different walks of life and manifestation of the popular culture. Diagram1. Location of Bishapour at the mouth of Choqgan strait and Location at the skirt of mount Shapour, Source: authors. The location of the city of Bishapour was cleverly The Mount Shapur situated the eastern wing of the determined in such a way as to employ local geo- city was the most prominent feature used for navi- graphical features both for security purposes and gation in those days, and the Shapur River had a for benefiting from natural beauties. The city was very significant role in the construction of the city built adjacent to an ancient royal road which was regarding the sanctity of water among ancient Ira- one of the most important passages at the time; it nians. The four precious Sassanid reliefs on the connected Persepolis and Estakhr and thereon to western mouth of Chowgan Strait, at the breast of Shoush during the era of the Achaemenids. The road mount Shapour and the northern bank of Shapour also connected (Jour) Firouz-Abad and Bishapour River, besides the two reliefs at the river’s southern to Tisfoun during the Sassanid era. Another major bank which depict a scene of Shapour’s victory, road ran from Bishapour to the coasts of the Persian among others, are signs of emphasis put on the Gulf, which was not only used for military purpos- holiness of this natural site in the Sassanid period.

Load more