Ganzak was built by the Achaemenids and was the seat of the satrap of
Media. During the 4th century BC, the city became part of the domains of the Persian aristocrat
Atropates, who had deserted to
Alexander the Great, and had probably made Ganzak his capital. The kingdom of Atropates became known as the “
Atropatene”. During the rule of this kingdom, the sacred fire temple
Adur Gushnasp was constructed. In ca. 148 BC, the kingdom of Atropatene became a vassal state of the
Parthian Empire. In 36 BC, the
Romans besieged Ganzak. Still, they were defeated by a combined force under the Atropatenian king
Artavasdes I and the Parthian king
Orodes II. In ca. 224 AD, the
Sasanian king
Ardashir I (r. 224–242) put an end to the Atropatenian kingdom. However, the name still survived, and instead of being merged with Media was a province of its own, where Ganzak continued to be the capital. In 591, the
Battle of Blarathon occurred near Ganzak between the Sasanian king
Khosrow II (590–628) and the usurper
Bahram Chobin (r. 590–591). The battle ended in a defeat for Bahram Chobin, who fled to
Khorasan. In 622, Ganzak was sacked by the Roman/Byzantine emperor
Heraclius, who also destroyed the sacred fire temple Adhur Gushnasp as retribution for the sacking of Jerusalem. The Byzantine sources reported that Ganzak was a large town with “about 3,000 houses”. The governor of Atropatene,
Farrukh Hormizd, did not resist the Byzantines due to an alliance he had made with them along with the military rebel
Shahrbaraz. In 651, during the
Muslim conquest of Persia, the governor of Atropatene,
Isfandyadh, became a vassal of the
Rashidun Caliphate. Some years later, however, Isfandyadh disappeared from mention, and Atropatene thus must have been incorporated into the Rashidun administration. Ganzak, no longer the capital of Atropatene, survived under the Muslims but was destroyed sometime during the late medieval era.
Leylan, a town close to Ganzak, became its successor. == See also ==