Balasagan

History

Pre-Islamic period

The region is first attested as a Sasanian province in the SKZ inscription of Shapur I (r. 240–270) separately from Caucasian Albania, which indicates that it was its own political entity even if it was virtually subject to Albania. In the inscription, Shapur I's considers Balasagan and the rest of the Caucasus as part of Iran, and only regards the Roman territories of Anatolia and Syria as part of Aneran. The powerful 3rd-century Zoroastrian high priest Kartir, however, considers Balasagan and the rest of the Caucasus as belonging to Aneran. What was precisely seen as Aneran is not certain. According to the medieval Persian geographer Ibn Khordadbeh (d. 912), the ruler of Balasagan was among the leaders who was acknowledged with the title of king by the first Sasanian monarch Ardashir I (r. 224–242), which suggests that Balasagan was a direct vassal of Iran. According to the modern historian Robert H. Hewsen, the Sasanians took Balasagan from their Albanian vassals in the 5th-century (or possibly as early as 387). Administration-wise, Balasagan was part of Adurbadagan. Nothing is known about the Kingdom of Balasagan; its main hub may have been at the fortress of Khursan. The Sasanians formed districts such as Spandaran-Peroz, Hormizd-Peroz, At'sibagawan, and (probably) Alewan in order to consolidate the area under a more centralized administration.

In c. 335/6, Sanesan, the king of Maskut, occupied a portion of Balasagan, while at least acknowledging the suzerainty of the Sasanians. During the reign of Yazdegerd II (r. 438–457), the king of Balasagan, Heran, took part in the Sasanian efforts to crush the 450–451 Armenian rebellion of Vardan Mamikonian. However, he himself revolted later on, massacring a Sasanian army in Albania, and raiding Iberian, Armenian and Albanian lands. He was killed under the orders of Yazdegerd II.

Islamic period

Balasagan was conquered in c. 645 by an Arab army led by Salman ibn Rabi'a, who forced some Kurds of the region to pay jizya (poll tax). Furthermore, one of the accords of the peace treaty concluded between the Arab commander Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman and the marzban (margrave) of Adurbadagan was that the Arabs were to protect the locals against the Kurds of Balasagan and the Sabalan mountains. The name of Balasagan rarely appears in classical Arabic chronicles, being replaced with Mughan. Balasagan notably appears in the work of the 10th-century Arab traveller Abu Dulaf al-Yanbu'i, who in his al-Risala al-thania, reports of his journey in the region.