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The Geography of Ray and Qazvin

Ali Maleki Mianaji ^۱

Ray and Qazvin are two cities in central Iran. Ray, as one of the important regions from the period of Medes until the present time, has more or less maintained its political significance. The center of this region, The City of Ray, was considered as one of the most important cities of the world and Umm al-Bilads in the first centuries of Islam until the age of Moguls. In the Islamic period, at first the prevalent denomination in the city was Sunni; gradually however, Shiism took its place, so that at the age of the author of Naqd, i.e. mid sixth century, the major portion of the population composed of Shiites. Meanwhile, there were people from different denominations, sects and religions living in this city. The book of Naqd, provides useful information about this city. In this article the geography of Ray is depicted based on the information found in Naqd.
The City of Qazvin, is an important city in the north of central Iran, the antiquity of which dates back to Sassanid period. In the first centuries of

documents and proofs is not so much reliable; while the reports by 'Abd al-Jalil are almost unique because of their historical concurrency.
In this article, there is an attempt to present a list of the names of Shiite poets mentioned in the book of Naqd in a historical order; so that we can reveal 'Abd al-Jalil's acquaintance with the field of the Persian and Arabic literature of his own time and before that and also his skill in employing literature and history of literature in theological debates.
First, a brief account will be presented on the poets and their works and then samples from their poems will be provided to reveal, to some extent, their thoughts and beliefs and their faith in Shiism.
Keywords: poets, the history of Shiism, Shiite poetry, Naqd.