The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Shahristan

the territory of an early feudal city in Middle Asia. A shahristan usually had a rectangular layout with a more or less regular network of streets and was protected by a fortress wall with towers and gates. Sometimes a citadel was built inside the shahristan, for example, at the site of the ancient fortified city of Kafyr-Kala near Kolkhozabad in the Tadzhik SSR. The compactly built residential districts included meeting places, workshops, and small markets. Temples occupied a prominent place in the urban layout. Caravansaries were located outside the walls of the shahristan, as were suburban estates, a cemetery, and sometimes a citadel, as in Pendzhikent. With the development of feudalism, the shahristan developed an artisans’ suburb, called a rabad.

REFERENCE

Belenitskii, A. M., I. B. Bentovich, and O. G. Bol’shakov. Srednevekovyi gorod Srednei Azii. Leningrad, 1973.

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References in periodicals archive

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In a statement by Deputy Premier for Energy Affairs Hussein Shahristan, a meeting was held among Sharistani, deputy premier Roz Nouri Shawees and Horami to exchange views connected with oil issues between Baghdad and Arbil.

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BAMYAN CITY (PAN): Food items and animal feed were distributed to residents of the Shahristan district in central Daikundi province, where an ongoing drought has destroyed 60 percent of corps, officials said on Thursday.

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Mersey pilot Ian Wood sails out at sunset to bring in Stick Line's Shahristan, with her distinctive Stuelcken heavy-lift derricks in July, 1973

Historical photographs