| Meshan | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Province of the Sassanian Empire | |||||||||
| 224–637 | |||||||||
 Map of Meshan and its surrounding provinces | |||||||||
| Capital | Karkh Meshan (224–410) Vahman-Ardashir (410–637) | ||||||||
| Historical era | Late Antiquity | ||||||||
| 224 | |||||||||
| 637 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Iraq Kuwait | ||||||||
Meshan (Middle Persian: 𐭬𐭩𐭱𐭠𐭭) was a province of the Sasanian Empire. It consisted of the Parthian vassal kingdom of Characene and reached north along the Shatt al-Arab river and then the lower Tigris to Madhar and possibly further. Its inhabitants included Babylonians, Arabs, Iranians, and even some Indians and Malays (the Malays may have been slaves brought from the Indian sub-continent). The province was very fertile, the best place for barley according to Strabo, and contained many date palms. It was also an important trading province along the Persian Gulf.[1]
- ^ The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3(2): The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods, ed. Ehsan Yarshater (NY: Cambridge UP, 1983), 754-757.