An excerpt from the Safar-nama of Nasir Khusraw:
“Afterwards I went to Shuburghan and spent the night in a village in Faryab. From there I went via Samangan and Talaqan to Marw Rud and thence to Merv. Taking leave from my job, I announced that I was setting out for the pilgrimage to Mecca. I settled what debts I owed and renounced everything worldly, except for a few necessities.”
Source: Thackston, W. Wheeler McIntosh, ed. trans., Nasir-i Khusraw’s Book of Travels (Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2010), 2.
In medieval Khurasan, Marw Rud was a town on the Murghab River, five or six stages up the river from the city of Marw al-Shahijan, where the river leaves the mountainous region of the principality of Gharchistan. The name Marw Rud means ‘Marw on the river’ or ‘Little Marw’ which served to distinguish the town from the larger centre of Marw al-Shahijan. The site of Marw Rud is in today’s Afghan town of Bala Mirghab, marked by the ruins. Bala Murghab falls within the post-1964 administrative reorganisation of the Badghis province of Afghanistan.
The founding of the town is attributed to the Sassanian king Bahram Gur (r. 420-438 CE). Marw Rud is also associated with the jurisdiction of Nestorian Bishops around 553 CE. In 32 AH / 652 CE, Arabs took over Marw Rud from the local governor Badham who became their client.
Marw Rud during the Abbasid Period: In the early Abbasid period, around 160 AH / 777 CE, the towns of Marw Rud, Talaqan and Guzgan were governed by the Khariji (an early Muslim community, meaning ‘seceders’, who withdrew their allegiance from 'Ali b. Abi Talib), Yusuf al-Barm al-Thakafi. Muslim geographers from the 4th AH / 10th CE century describe Marw Rud as a flourishing town with sufficient agriculture, a Friday mosque built on wooden columns in the middle of the souk (covered marketplace) and dependent settlements such as Diza and Qasr or Diz-i Ahnaf. A 4th AH / 10th CE century Arab geographer, Al-Muqaddasi states that in his time (ca. 370 AH / 980 CE) the site depended administratively on the Shirs, local rulers of Gharchistan. The appearance and speech of the local people also resembled that of the mountain peoples of Gharchistan.
Marw Rud during Seljuk Period: The district flourished under the Seljuk Sultan Malik-Shah, who built defences at the nearby town of Panjdih, and Sultan Sanjar, who built Marw Rud’s city wall. However, the region at large remained in the grips of warfare between Ghurids and Khwarzamshahis. Marw Rud perhaps escaped the devastations that Mongols brought to Marw al-Shahijan, but the site appears to have turned into ruins in Timurid times (8th AH / 14th CE century).
Citation:
"Marw al-Rud" Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Brill Online, 2012
http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/marw-al-rudh-SIM_4977 [accessed June 2013]
Barthold, W., Svat Soucek trans., An Historical Geography of Iran. Introduction by C.E. Bosworth (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984).
Daftary, Farhad, A Short History of the Ismailis. (Princeton, NJ: M. Wiener,1998).
Hunsberger, Alice C., Nasir Khusraw, the Ruby of Badakhshan (London: I. B. Tauris, 2000).
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