Ganzak
Ganzak (
Etymology
The word ganzak means “treasury”, and is of Median origin (ganǰəm). It was adopted into Persian by the Achaemenid Empire, as the name is related to the Persian word for "treasury", گنج ganj.
History
Ganzak was built by the Achaemenids and was the seat of the satrap of Media. During the 4th century BC, the city became part of the domains of the Persian aristocrat Atropates, who had deserted to Alexander the Great, and had probably made Ganzak his capital. The kingdom of Atropates became known as the “Atropatene”. During the rule of this kingdom, the sacred fire temple Adur Gushnasp was constructed.
In ca. 148 BC, the kingdom of Atropatene became a vassal state of the
In 591, the
The governor of Atropatene, Farrukh Hormizd, did not resist the Byzantines due to an alliance he had made with them along with the military rebel Shahrbaraz. In 651, during the Muslim conquest of Persia, the governor of Atropatene, Isfandyadh, became a vassal of the Rashidun Caliphate. Some years later, however, Isfandyadh disappeared from mention, and Atropatene thus must have been incorporated into the Rashidun administration. Ganzak, no longer the capital of Atropatene, survived under the Muslims but was destroyed sometime during the late medieval era. Leylan, a town close to Ganzak, became its successor.
See also
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References
- ^ Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 10, 2001.
- ISBN 978-87-7289-259-7. Retrieved 23 Jul 2008.
Sources
- Boyce, Mary (2000). "GANZAK". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. X, Fasc. 3. pp. 289–290.
- Chaumont, M. L. (1987). "ATROPATES". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. III, Fasc. 1. pp. 17–18.
- de Planhol, X. (1987). "AZERBAIJAN i. Geography". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. III, Fasc. 2. pp. 205–215.
- Schippmann, K. (1987). "AZERBAIJAN iii. Pre-Islamic History". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. III, Fasc. 2. pp. 221–224.
- Pourshariati, Parvaneh (2008). Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire: The Sasanian-Parthian Confederacy and the Arab Conquest of Iran. London and New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84511-645-3.
- Rapp, Stephen H. (2014). The Sasanian World through Georgian Eyes: Caucasia and the Iranian Commonwealth in Late Antique Georgian Literature. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 978-1472425522.