Tawwaj

Tawwaj was located on or close to the Shapur River in the region of Fars, about 65 kilometers (40 mi) from the Persian Gulf coast.^[1] Its site has not been identified.^[2] It has been associated with the Taoke mentioned by the classical Greek historian Arrian, which was located on the bank of the Granis River and close to a Persian royal residence.^[3] However, it has also been associated with the Achaemenid site of Tamukkan; the finding of a ruined Achaemenid bastion near Borazjan supports this theory.^[3] According to the Middle Persian geography text Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr, the city (called Tuzag) was founded by the Kayanid queen Humay Chehrzad, a daughter of king Kay Bahman, who is identified with the fifth Achaemenid monarch Artaxerxes I (r. 465–424 BC).^[4]

During the Sasanian and early Islamic period it served as an important commercial center.^[5] It was captured and garrisoned by an Arab Muslim army commanded by the brothers al-Hakam and Uthman ibn Abi al-Asinc. 640.^[6][7] Tawwaj thereafter became Uthman's headquarters during his military campaigns against the Sasanians in Fars.^[7] A mosque was built in the town from that period, but had been completely ruined by the lifetime of the Persian geographer Hamdallah Mustawfi (1281–1349).^[8]

The 10th-century Persian geographer Istakhri describes Tawwaj as located in a lowland gorge with numerous date palms, a considerably hot climate and being close in size to the Fars town of Arrajan.^[5] It was major trade center, well known for its gold-embroidered, woven carpets.^[5] He reports that the town was populated by Arabs from Syria brought by the Buyid ruler Adud al-Dawla (r. 949–983).^[5] By the 12th century, most of the town fell into ruins,^[5] and by the 14th century it was in a total ruinous state.^[2]

• Baloch, Nabi Bakhsh Khan (July 1946). "The Probable Date of the First Arab Expeditions to India". Islamic Culture. 20 (3): 250-266.
• Barthold, W. (1984). Bosworth, C. E. (ed.). An Historical Geography of Iran. Translated by Svat Soucek. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-05418-5.
• Hoyland, Robert G. (2015). In God's Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-991636-8.
• Miri, Negin (2012). "Sasanian Pars: Historical Geography and Administrative Organization". Sasanika: 1–183.
• Smith, G. Rex, ed. (1994). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XIV: The Conquest of Iran, A.D. 641–643/A.H. 21–23. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-1293-0.
• le Strange, Guy (1905). The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate: Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia from the Moslem Conquest to the Time of Timur. Cambridge University Press.