The Image of Sistan in Istakhri's Al-Masalik Wa'l-Mamalik

"Imageology", as an approach in literary and historical texts, and criticism, applies an interdisciplinary method to understand the culture, identity, and real image of a nation from the point of view of another. Al-Masalik Wa'l-Mamalik by Istakhri, a geographer and travelogue writer of the Persian region, is one of the important historical texts of the 3rd and 4th centuries AH. In his work, Istakhri introduces different regions and tribes of Iran and Islamic countries, one of which is Sistan and Sistanians. This research is an attempt to answer the following questions: what are the types of images of Sistan in Al-Masalik Wa'l-Mamalik, how did Istakhri judge and narrate these images, and what are the reasons for that? To that aim, all the images related to Sistan in Istakhri's book are extracted and classified into cultural, religious, political, historical, economic, architectural, and geographical indicators based on imagology. Also, Istakhrī's attitude in evaluation and to some extent his reasons for that were analyzed. The overall estimation of the images related to Sistan in Al-Masālik wa'l-Mamālik shows Istakhrī's positive view of this people and factors such as influence from previous books, ecology, national-religious tendencies and the structure of the society of his era was influential in presenting these images.