We are far from being able to present a detailed geographical picture of such settlements: this remains one of the major fields for research in Iran, for the need to distinguish among the various types of settled areas dominates any analysis of land utilization.4 Nevertheless, a rough outline of the distribution may be given.
A certain number of large oases—Isfahan, Yazd, and Kirman, for example, as well as others on the edge of the great desert—survived the Turk and Mongol invasions; they were saved by their size, which prevented their complete destruction and facilitated defence by means of roads bordered by thick hedges. Besides containing towns (which remained largely rural in function, though they surrounded themselves with fortifications), these oases also comprised numerous large, closely packed villages, which flanked water-courses or clustered about the outlets of qanats. Unfortunately, research has not yet determined their internal organization or their relationship with the soil.
But the settled way of life endured above all in the mountainous regions of the north, particularly in the Alburz, and in the massifs of Azarbaijan, such as the Sahand; in these latter areas the Turkish language gained ascendency without violence, which permitted a true continuity of rural life. In other regions, too, such as Khurasan and Baluchistan, and even in those areas which seem to have been most seriously devastated, ancient villages are still to be found, characterized by terrace cultivation and intensive agricultural techniques.
A number of detailed descriptions of these mountain villages have been given recently.8 Even in a region where rainfall would be sufficient for cultivation, the position of the village is invariably characterized by the presence of an irrigable area, however small; and the resource of water (e.g. a spring) served as a focal point for the community. Considerations of defence and security do not seem generally to have influenced the siting of a village. As a rule, it is situated on the first rocky slopes rising above a valley floor, and these slopes are terraced and roughly divided into meadows by means of low dry-stone walls or willow hedges. In the volcanic region of Damavand, as we have seen, some villages are sited upon ledges in the tuff above the deep gorge of Haraz.
The central portion of the village land is laid out in irregular fields of lucerne and cereals; these are irrigated, intensively worked, terraced, kept free of stones, and regularly manured. Farther out the fields become rectangular in shape and are much larger; they depend for moisture exclusively on the rainfall, are allowed to lie fallow, and are manured only when the cattle are turned onto the stubble. In this same area and at the same altitude the winter pasture (qishlaq) is to be found—in a sheltered valley which is not far from the village. Frequently the qishlaq is dotted with rudimentary shelters or rough stone stables in which the smaller livestock may be housed during the early months of the bad season before their final removal to the stables in the village. The summer grazing (yailaq) lies slightly farther out still, occasionally accompanied by yet more cultivable fields. Here are to be found drystone shelters roofed with loose-fitting planks, which are removed during the winter; in areas where wood is not available, black awnings (imitated from the nomads) are stretched over fixed and permanent bases during the fine season.
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