Comparative Study on Locating Two Shiite Capitals in the Fourth Century AH: Shiraz-e Buyehi and Halab-e Hamdani

In the fourth century AD, the Islamic world is faced with a multiplicity of capitals that each of them plays an important role in political and cultural areas. The vast geography, the need for survival of independent and semi-independent Islamic governments and increased political, economic, military and even religious competition resulted in being changed some different cities into particular capitals in the Islamic world. Among the capitals of the same levels, two Shiite capitals of the Islamic world, Shiraz as the capital of Buyehian and Halab as the capital of the Hamdanids were examined in this study due to their considerable similarities and differences. The temporal coincidence, and the coincidence ofthe religious views, similar cultural activities, and great fame of Azad od-Dowleh-ye Buyehi and Seyf od-Dowleh-ye Hamdani, as rulers of these capitals, are considered as their common similarities among other concurrent governments of the fourth century. Another important aspect of similarities and differences between these two capitals is factors affecting their locating and the important roles of these capitals in the Islamic civilization of the fourth century. Therefore, in this study, the author aims to investigate the factors affecting the locating of capital of Azad od-Dowlehye Deylami in Shiraz in detail using descriptive method. Then, through using comparative method, we compare the factors affecting the locating of capital of Seyf od-dowleh-ye Hamdani in the city of Halab with these factors. This article investigates the similarities and differences of Shiraz and Halab as the capitals of Azad od-Dowleh-ye Deylami and Seyf od-dowlehye Hamdani. This article concluded that although the reasons for the selection of these two capitals are similar in many of the cases, role and importance of each of the capitals were different in the fourth century.