'The lands of the Eastern Caliphate Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia from the Moslem conquest to the time of Timur' [‎286] (325/586)

286
FARS.
[CHAP.
About 75 miles south of Yazd, and half-way between that city
and Shahr-i-Babak, is the town of Anar, from which Bahramabad
is 60 miles distant in a south-easterly direction, and both towns
are now included in the Kirman province. During the middle-
ages, however, the whole of this district formed part of Fars and
was known as Ar-Rudhan, of which the three chief towns were
Aban (now Anar), Adhkan, and Unas (near Bahramabad) 1 .
Unas, the chief town of the district, was, according to Istakhri,
of the size of Abarktih, and Mukaddasi speaks of a fine mosque
here, approached by steps from the market street, also baths, and
well-irrigated gardens, though all round the town lay the sands of
the desert. The fortress of Unas was very strong, and had eight
gates, which Mukaddasi enumerates, for he had visited the place.
The place, too, was famous for its fullers, who lived within the
town, for there were no suburbs. The Rtidhan district is said to
have extended over 60 leagues square. Originally, as at the
present day, it had been included in Kirman, but in the 4th (10th)
century it was added to Fars, and according to the Fars Ndmah
this arrangement continued down to the time of Alp Arslan the
Saljiik, who, after conquering all these regions in the middle of the
5th (nth) century, finally re-annexed RMhan to Kirman 2 .
Between Rudhan and Shahr-i-Babak is the small town of Dih
1 Our authorities state that Aban was 25 leagues from Fahraj (which is five
leagues S .E. of Yazd); the town of Ar-Rudhan lay 18 leagues beyond Aban,
and Unas was one short march or two post-stages [Bartd) from Ar-Rudhan.
Further, Unas lay one long march and two leagues (or one Barid) from
Bimand, which last was four leagues west of Sirjan; and from Ar-Rudhan to
Shahr-i-Babak was three days' march, the first march being to Kariyat-al-Jamal,
4 Camels' Village.' These distances, plotted out, show that the positions of
modern Anar and Bahramabad respectively coincide with medieval Aban and
Unas; while the town of Ar-Rudhan, which is presumably the place elsewhere
called Adhkan, must have stood between the two, near the modern village of
Gulnabad. 1st. 135, 168. I. K. 48. Muk. 457, 473. Yakut confuses the
matter: he mentions (iii. 925) the town of Anar as though it were identical
with Unas, which from the distances given above is impossible ; Anar is here
probably merely a clerical error for Unas, which in another passage (i. 367) he
counts as of Kirman.
2 1st. 100, 126. Muk. 437, 438, 462. F. N. 64^. Yak. ii. 830. Anar
is Still most fertile and produces a considerable surplus of grain, which is
exported.