Location, Form and Spatial Organization of Kelaar City in the Early Islamic Centuries

Historical sources of early Islamic centuries have been introduced “Kelaar” as an flourishing city in the mountainous area between Tabarestan and Deilam which nowadays is known as “Kelardasht” in Mazandaran. In the middle of 3rd century، this city appeared as the political center of Tabarestan uprising against Taherian dynasty under Hassan Ibn Zaid-e Alavi leadership. Despite of its importance in the early Islamic centuries، archaeologists who studied the remains of “Tappeh Kelaar” site in the Kelardasht، didn’t recognize strong evidence of continuous Islamic occupation on the upper levels of site. Although there have been some evidence of early Islamic occupations in the tappeh Kelar، but its low density layers (50 Cm) may not imply for a long term occupations to assign it as a city as written sources indicated. It is assumed that Muslim rulers selected a place with a specific defensive and subsistence capability near the sassanian Kelaar. In order to find and introduce remains of Islamic Kelaar، data gathered from studying the early and middle Islamic written sources as well as data from systematic surface survey. According to the results، it is probably obvious that “Shahr-e Dele”، a site with 25 hectares extent، in the 1. 5 km north of “tappeh Kelaar” and near the northern part of “Sardabrood” river، can be regarded as the Islamic Kelaar city. So، the Kelardasht Muslim rulers have built a new city (apart from sasanian Kelaar) as their government center.