Reishahr

(image from here)

One thing I do when I'm drinking is I look at maps.   Not just regular maps (including taking virtual drives through my past on Gurgle Marps), but also historical maps.  & this morning I was thinking about something that I read last night about a city that everyone left.

What was that?  I don't know how I found it - except that it was on a map I'm certain, an ancient map - which I probably saw on Tumblr but Tumblr doesn't save its places the same as Wikipedia pages in my browser history - but here's what I was reading, from Wikipedia:

Reishahr was a city on the Persian Gulf in medieval Iran & is currently an archaeological site near Bushehr. It may be identical to the Antiochia-in-Persis of the Seleucid period, but was refounded by Ardashir I (d. CE 224), the first ruler of the Sasanian Empire. In the Church of the East, it was seat of the metropolitan bishop of the province of Fars from at least 424.

The city is mentioned by many historians, such as Farhang-i Anandraj, Hamdollah Mostowfi's Nuzhat al-Qulub, Majmal al-tawarikh, & Ibn Balkhi's Farsnameh. In particular, some historians such as Yaqut al-Hamawi's Mu'jam Al-Buldan write of the city being centered on a pre-Islamic academic center of higher learning where scholars converged to study medicine as well as Indian & Greek sciences.

Dehkhoda dictionary mentions that the city was eventually deserted & its inhabitants moved to Bushehr.

It's that last line that haunted me.

Another website (this one) adds: Reishahr was one of the major Maritime Silk Roads' ports under Sassanian Empire in the Persian Gulf.

The Sassanian Empire ended in the mid-8th century.  Is that when everyone just left?  Who does that?!?

The truth is, I don't know much about the pre-Islamic Middle East.  But I do know a dumb anecdote about my brother-in-law & oldest sister who used to argue about stupid stuff & somehow would involve me.  This was when my sister was alive, & I was living in Lexington.  She said to me once, "You wanna know something my dumb husband told me?  He said there were no Muslims at the time of Jesus!"

"He's right," I told her.  "Mohammad died in the 7th century, & there couldn't be Islam before then."

"So," she said, still suspicious, "what were all those people back then?"

"Pagans & Jews, I guess," I told her.  "After Jesus, there were Christians.  Just look it up on your phone."

She did, & had to concede the fact.

Later on, I mentioned this to my brother-in-law & said, "Why didn't you just tell her to look it up?"  He didn't have an answer.  I asked if she ever acknowledged to him that he was right.  He said, "Nope."

Anyway, if you know why everyone left Reishahr, clue me in will you?  Thanks.