Khurasan Road

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The (Great) Khurasan Road was the great

Indus Valley
.

It is very well-documented in the Abbasid period, when it connected the core of the capital city of Baghdad with the northeastern province of Khurasan.

History

Archaeological findings suggest the road was in regular use in the 3rd millennium BC, connecting Central Asia with Mesopotamia.[1] During the Achaemenid period, the road constituted the eastern segment of the Royal Road system.[2]

Course

The Achaemenid road began from the

Caspian Gates (modern Tang-e Sar-e Darra),[3] Hyrcania, and Parthia.[2] The Grand Trunk Road
connected Bactra to the Indus Valley.

farsakhs

The Khurasan Road is possibly the best documented of the roads of the Abbasid realm;

Ibn Rustah, but most other medieval Muslim geographers such as Qudama ibn Ja'far and Ibn Khordadbeh refer to it and give distances along its various stretches in their works.[5] The road began at the Khurasan Gate on the eastern side of the Round City of al-Mansur, and exited the city at the second Khurasan Gate of East Baghdad.[6]

Map of the road from Ray to Nishapur, with distances in farsakhs

The first settlement after Baghdad was Nahrawan or Jisr Nahrawan ("Bridge of Nahrawan"), named after the great

Bistam. Near Bistam, at the village of Badhash, the road entered Khurasan.[12]

Map of Khurasan and Transoxiana in the early Islamic period

After entering Khurasan, the road divided in two: a northern branch, also called the "

Ferghana Valley and China.[17]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-2-35668-177-5
    .
  2. ^ a b Briant 2002, p. 358.
  3. ISBN 978-0-939214-66-2
    .
  4. ^ Le Strange 1905, p. 9.
  5. ^ Le Strange 1905, pp. 12, 85.
  6. ^ Le Strange 1905, p. 31.
  7. ^ Le Strange 1905, pp. 59–61.
  8. ^ Le Strange 1905, pp. 62–63.
  9. ^ Le Strange 1905, pp. 63, 191.
  10. ^ Le Strange 1905, pp. 191–192.
  11. ^ Le Strange 1905, p. 228.
  12. ^ Le Strange 1905, pp. 364, 367–368.
  13. ^ Le Strange 1905, p. 430.
  14. ^ Le Strange 1905, pp. 430–431.
  15. ^ Le Strange 1905, pp. 430–431, 472.
  16. ^ Le Strange 1905, p. 472.
  17. ^ Le Strange 1905, pp. 475, 488.

Sources

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