Bardsīr

Bardsīr lies in the high interior of Kerman province, in a cool district of hills, dry plains and irrigated gardens. It depends on wells, channels and seasonal water rather than a large river. Roses for rosewater, walnuts, pistachios and dairy produce became characteristic of the surrounding country. The town commanded routes across the highland between Kerman and the desert settlements to the south and east.

The older name Mashiz recalls the city’s early importance. Ardashir I is credited with enlarging an earlier village, and the place became one of Kerman’s principal centres in the Sasanian and early Islamic periods. Excavations at Tal-e Eblis examined very early copper working, while medieval writers describe a compact but prosperous town with cultivated land around it. Under the Buyids and Saljuks, Mashiz possessed schools, hospitals and a substantial library.

Bardsīr was the capital of the Banu Ilyas dynasty and remained a political centre of Kerman until the Mongol invasion devastated it. Its gardens and markets survived among the hills, and later settlement continued around the old core. The city’s identity therefore comes from a long record of copper, irrigation, learning and road traffic in an interior that could support urban life wherever water and seasonal pasture converged.