Jughrāfiyā-yi tārīkhī-i Khurāsān-i buzurg: muṭālaʻah-yi mawridī (Marv, Balkh, Tirmiẕ, Badakhshān va Khvārazm)

Greater Khorasan—embracing Transoxiana and much of Central Asia—preserves deep cultural ties to Iran though its cities now lie beyond Iran's borders. This case study by Maryam Khusrawʹābādī and Kayvān Karīmī Alvār traces the historical geography of five centres: Marv, Balkh, Tirmiẕ, Badakhshān, and Khvārazm, examining how their shared position on Iran's north-eastern frontier shaped a common historical path. The authors follow waves of Aryan migration, encounters between ancient Iranians and steppe peoples to the east, the Arab conquest and coming of Islam, the rise of Iranian dynasties such as the Tahirids and Samanids, and later incursions of Turkic tribes and the Mongols. Framing these as a form of geographical determinism, the study considers why Zoroastrianism and, later, Islam never took root as firmly here as elsewhere, fostering instead a lasting religious, ethnic, and cultural pluralism shaped by the struggles of the Kushans, Hephthalites, and Turks.