The lowlands east of the Sefid Rud, a country of rice fields, mulberry groves, forest and rivers between the sea and the Daylam hills, with Lahijan as its chief town and Langa (Langarud) and Hawsam (Rudsar) on the coast.
Hawsam had been the seat of Zaydi Alid imams in the tenth and eleventh centuries, and Zaydi Shi'ism kept a following here. The country is split among local chiefs whose names and borders in 1200 are not recorded in the sources read. Tunakabun and Sakhtsar (Ramsar) at the eastern end are drawn here; they may have answered to the lords of Ruyan in some periods.
Who holds it
- Name
- not pinned: no chief of eastern Gilan is named for 1199-1200 in the sources read
- Title
- Local Gil chiefs and Alid families
- Since
- not pinned
- Confidence
- low
Overlord
None in practice.
What it holds
- Lahijan and its villages
- Langa (Langarud) and Hawsam (Rudsar) on the coast
- Amlash and Siahkal at the foot of the hills
- Tunakabun and Sakhtsar (Ramsar) at the eastern end (not pinned)
How things stand that morning
Under local chiefs; no outside ruler is known to hold it.
Wealth
Rice, silk, timber, fish of the lagoons and rivers; small coastal trade.
Military
Gil foot soldiers; forest and swamp defend the country. Numbers not in the sources.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Gilan's twelfth-century history is almost unrecorded; even the chiefs' names are lacking.
On the map: The inner limit against the Daylam uplands and the eastern limit against Ruyan are approximate.
Primary sources for Gilan and Daylam
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- History of Tabaristan, Ibn Isfandiyar (Baha al-Din Muhammad ibn Hasan) (begun 1206, extended about 1216; continued anonymously to 1349). The local history of the Caspian province and the only account of the Bavandid kings of Tabaristan: Husam al-Dawla Ardashir (reigned 1173 to 1206) at Sari and Amul, his dealings with the Khwarazmshahs Tekish and Ala al-Din Muhammad, the Nizaris of Alamut, the Eldiguzids and the caliph, and the marriages, feuds and raids of the Daylamite and Gilaki lords. Read online
- Dictionary of Countries, Yaqut al-Hamawi (1224 to 1228, at Aleppo). An alphabetical gazetteer of every place Yaqut had read of or seen: he travelled as a bookseller's agent through Syria, Iraq, Persia, Khurasan and Khwarazm (about 1213 to 1220) and settled in Aleppo. Read online
Sources and studies
- G. Le Strange, The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate (1905), chs. on Tabaristan, Gilan, Jurjan, Qumis and Quhistan
- W. Madelung, 'The minor dynasties of northern Iran', Cambridge History of Iran vol. 4 (1975) (background to Gilan and Daylam before the Seljuks)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.