Gulashkird, Iran

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]

Map of Persia 1724

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 and 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]

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 (CUP Archive, 2014) page 24.
3. Lands of the Eastern Caliphate Archived 2015-06-19 at the Wayback Machine.
4. Guy Le Strange, The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate: Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia from the Moslem Conquest to the Time of Timur (Cosimo, Inc., 2010)page 318.
5. E. Yarshater, The Cambridge History of Iran: Seleucid Parthian (Cambridge University Press, 1983) pazge 173.
6. Yakut (iv, 939)
7. 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, Alexander the Great (Grove Press, 2004)page 402 p402
11. Sir Percy Molesworth Sykes, A History of Exploration from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, Taylor & Francis, 1949