Abaskun was a port that existed in the Middle Ages on the southeastern shore of the Caspian Sea in the area of Gorgan.[Bosworth, C. E. "". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Accessed on June 6, 2007.]
Location
In his
Geographia,
Ptolemy mentions a river Sokanda in
Hyrcania, which may have given the name to the city. The exact location of Abaskun remains unclear; most likely, it was situated near the mouth of the
Gorganrud River. According to
Arab geographers, Abaskun was within a one- or three-day journey from
Gorgan.
Its coordination's may be near to today's village of
Khvajeh Nafas or
Gomishan city [ The Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopedia(in Persian) ]
History
Abaskun was a prosperous trading hub from which merchants travelled to
Daylam,
Derbent, and
Atil in the land of
Khazars on the Volga trade route. The city's products included
shagreen, woolen cloth, fish, and seabirds' feathers, which were used for decorating garments. In the 10th century, Abaskun possessed a
citadel built of fired brick and a congregational
mosque in the market quarter. The city's wealth and vulnerable location made it a target of the Caspian expeditions of the Rus.
The Rus staged their first small-scale raid on Abaskun sometime between 864 and 884,
[Golden, P.B. (2006) "Rus." Encyclopaedia of Islam (Brill Online). Eds.: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill.] pillaging the city in 909 or 910 and again in 913 on a very large scale.
In 1220, Muhammad II of Khwarezm, the fugitive ruler of the Khwarezmid Empire, hid from the Mongols on an island near Abaskun. After that, the city is not mentioned in documents. In the 14th century, the geographer Mostawfi wrote that Abaskun was an island which was submerged due to the rise of the Caspian Sea caused by a temporary change in the course of the Oxus, which briefly flowed into the Caspian instead of the Aral Sea.
