Asadabadh

Asadabadh is a town in al-Jibal, about seven farsakhs or 54 km south-west of Hamadhan, on the western slope of the Alwand Kuh, at the entrance to a fruitful, well-tilled plain at about 5,659 feet. ¹

As a permanent caravan station on the famous ancient highway from Hamadhan (Ecbatana) to Baghdad (or Babylon), it is a settlement reaching back into antiquity. Tomaschek identifies it with probably the Alpardva of Isidore of Charax and the Beltra of the Tabula Peutingeriana. ¹

In the Arab Middle Ages, and even into the Mongol period, Asadabadh was a flourishing, thickly populated place with excellent markets; its inhabitants were well off from the rich yield of gardens watered by canals. In 1872 Bellew found it a fine village of some 200 houses, some occupied by Jewish families. Its names in European travellers' accounts include Absadabadh, Sa'idabadh and Sahadabadh. In 514 AH (1120) the two Saljuq sultans Mas'ud of Mosul and Mahmud of Isfahan fought a battle at Asadabadh, which Mahmud won. About three farsakhs away stood Sasanian ruins which the Arabs called Matbakh or Matabikh Kisra, the Kitchens of Chosroes. ¹