Abhar, Iran

History

Abhar has served as a vital spot since antiquity due to its location on the route that links Dinavar to Qazvin and Zanjan as well as the central areas of Iran to the region of Azerbaijan. It was conquered in 643 or 645 by al-Bara' ibn Azib during the Arab conquest of Iran. The inhabitants of Abhar initially put up a fierce fight which lasted for several days, but eventually sued for peace, which the Arabs agreed to.

Abhar was part of the Jibal region, which would later in the 11th-12th centuries become known as Persian Iraq. Ibn Hawqal, writing in the 10th-century, reports that the inhabitants of Abhar were Kurds. The Samanid ruler Ismail Samani (r. 892–907) captured Abhar during his rule. In 916 or 917, Abhar (along with Zanjan, Qazvin, and Ray) was seized from the Samanids by the Sajid Yusuf ibn Abi'l-Saj (r. 901–928), the virtually independent governor of the caliphal provinces of Azerbaijan and Armenia. Yusuf attempted to justify his attack by claiming that the previous caliphal vizier Ali ibn Isa ibn al-Jarrah had given him the governorship of the region. Most authors, however, consider this claim to be made up. In 917, Wasif al-Baktimuri was given the governorship of Abhar and other areas by the caliph al-Muqtadir (r. 908–929).

From the History section of Abhar on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.