Qualla: Siege of Shushtar https://qualla.com/siege-of-shushtar en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:31 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Siege of Shushtar https://qualla.com/siege-of-shushtar Siege of Shushtar: Introduction https://qualla.com/siege-of-shushtar/ The canals that made Shushtar rich also made it nearly impossible to take. Rivers and man-made waterways surrounded the city on almost every side, turning it into an island fortress in the flat Khuzestan lowlands. When the Sasanian aristocrat Hormuzan retreated behind those waters in 641 CE with the remnants of his army, he had reason to believe the walls would hold. They had held before. But Hormuzan was running out of allies, out of options, and out of an empire. The Rashidun Caliphate had already taken Ctesiphon, conquered Iraq, and was methodically dismantling the Sasanian provinces one by one. Shushtar was not the beginning of the end. It was closer to the end of the end.

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]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/d/w/siege-of-shushtar-wp/tjdw-siege-of-shushtar-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Siege of Shushtar: An Empire Unraveling https://qualla.com/siege-of-shushtar/ The collapse came fast. In 633 CE, Rashidun Arab armies invaded both Byzantine and Sasanian territory simultaneously. By 637, the Sasanian capital Ctesiphon had fallen, and with it all of Iraq and large swaths of Syria. Khuzestan, one of the richest provinces in the Sasanian real...

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]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/d/w/siege-of-shushtar-wp/tjdw-siege-of-shushtar-an-empire-unraveling.mp3 0:06 2 full Siege of Shushtar: The Fortress of Three Kings https://qualla.com/siege-of-shushtar/ Shushtar's defenses were ancient and layered. The canals that ringed the city bore the names of the rulers who had built them. One was called Ardashiragan, after Ardashir I, founder of the Sasanian dynasty in the 3rd century CE. Another was called Shamiram, named for the legendar...

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]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/d/w/siege-of-shushtar-wp/tjdw-siege-of-shushtar-the-fortress-of-three-kings.mp3 0:06 3 full Siege of Shushtar: The Secret in the Water https://qualla.com/siege-of-shushtar/ The siege ground forward without breakthrough until a defector changed everything. According to the historian al-Tabari, an Iranian named Sina approached the Arab commander and offered to reveal a way into the city in exchange for his life. His instructions were direct: attack th...

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]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/d/w/siege-of-shushtar-wp/tjdw-siege-of-shushtar-the-secret-in-the-water.mp3 0:06 4 full Siege of Shushtar: Hormuzan's Long Road to Medina https://qualla.com/siege-of-shushtar/ Hormuzan retreated to the citadel when the city walls were breached, but his resistance could not last. He surrendered and was sent as a captive to Medina, the capital of the Rashidun Caliphate. There, faced with a choice between conversion to Islam and execution, he converted. F...

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]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/d/w/siege-of-shushtar-wp/tjdw-siege-of-shushtar-hormuzans-long-road-to-medina.mp3 0:06 5 full