Padishkhwargar

Padishkhwargar or Patishkhwagar (پديشخوارگر) which later orthographically morphed into Farshwardgar (فرشواردگر) is the Middle Persian name of a vassal and later satrapy (province) of the Sassanid Empire.

Islamic geographers locate this province to the north of the Sasanian lands and assign the Caspian provinces (modern Mazandaran and Gilan) to this region. Mar'ashi, in his "History of Tabaristan o Ruyan o Mazandaran", says that Tabaristan, Dailam, Gilan, and Adhurbaijan are the regions of Padishkhwargar. This would mean that the modern Iranian provinces of Golestan, Mazandaran, Gilan, Zanjan, Qazvin, Ardabil, and Eastern Azerbaijan will be included in this territorial designation. Its main city was Rasht ["The Cambridge History of Iran", vol. 3(2): The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods, ed. Ehsan Yarshater (NY: Cambridge UP, 1983), 765-766.] .

The region is commonly associates with mythical stories of the Sasanian times and even after Islam, it continues to be considered mysterious by the Islamic historians and geographers. This is probably due to the fact that the Islamic armies either never got to fully conquer this region or only penetrated some of its regions (Tabaristan).

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