Rayy: from its Origins to the Mongol Invasion

This book offers a new history of the ancient city of Rayy. Based on the results of the latest excavations on the Citadel and the Shahrestan (the political and administrative nucleus of the city in all periods), the study of historical and geographical texts and on surveys carried out between 2005 and 2007 by the author and the Iranian archaeologist, Ghadir Afround, the complete occupation sequence of the city, from its foundation in the Iron Age and the Parthian reconstructions (2nd to 1st centuries BC), up to the Mongol invasions and rapid depopulation in the 13th century CE, comes to light.

Rocco Rante, Ph. D. (Aix en Provence, 2009), Aix Marseille Université, is an archaeologist at the Musée du Louvre and the director of the Archaeological Mission of the Bukhara Oasis in Central Asia. A specialist on the Khorasan region, he has published Nishapur Revisited with Annabelle Collinet, (Oxford 2013).

"This is a very useful and interesting investigation of the archaeological evidence relating to the early Islamic and medieval periods of one of Iran’s major premodern cities. As such, the study has considerable relevance to the study of other cities in the Iranian Islamic world." - Andrew Petersen, in: Journal of Islamic Studies, 29, no 3 (September 2018)
"This attractive volume,…, presents an archaeological survey of Rayy’s urban and material culture on the basis of 2005 and 2007 excavations of that ancient city (now a suburb of Tehran), with special reference to historical and numismatic data.. Though of particular utility to students of Islamic archaeology, this work should not be overlooked by those who would seek a deeper appreciation of the early Islamic settlement of Iran… One is reminded here how important it is that students of the Islamic world renew their interest in its urban development, as the subject clearly transcends disciplinary fault lines. Those who study Islamic religious, political, or/and social history would be well advised to heed what their colleagues can tell them in this regard, even as the archaeologist is compelled to use historical sources to shed light on what excavations can no longer reveal. Indeed, the very topography of the Muslim urban center speaks no less as a document of humanity than the literary sources we find at our disposal, and sets the bar for the verisimilitude of our historical reconstructions of the past." - Rodrigo Adem, in: Al-Abhath 60-61 (2012-2013), p. 181-182