Shushtar

Ardashir's son Shapur inherits his father's wars with Rome. In the Shahnameh, he defeats a Roman army and captures its commander, whom the poem calls Bazanush. Rather than kill him, Shapur sets him a task: to build a great bridge over the river at Shushtar, using the skill of Roman engineers, with his freedom as the reward. Bazanush completes the work, and Shapur keeps his word.

Here the poem and history run surprisingly close. In 260 CE, Shapur I defeated and captured the Roman emperor Valerian, an event the Sasanians celebrated in rock reliefs at Naqsh-e Rostam and Bishapur. Roman prisoners were settled in Iranian cities, and tradition, followed by many historians, credits them with building the weir and bridge at Shushtar, known as the Band-e Kaisar, the Caesar's Dam. Whether Valerian himself had anything to do with it is uncertain; Ferdowsi's Bazanush may blend several Roman captives.

The town today

Shushtar, on the Karun river in Khuzestan, is famous for its ancient water engineering: weirs, canals, tunnels and mills cut into the rock to drive the river through the town and irrigate the plain. The Band-e Kaisar, which stood for some 1,700 years with many repairs, was badly damaged in the nineteenth century, and parts of it survive. The Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2009. Shush, ancient Susa, is a different place, about 60 kilometres to the west. In the poem and on the ground, Shushtar is a monument to what captives built for their captors.