Estakhr was an ancient city located in southern
Iran, in
Fars province, five kilometers north of
Persepolis. It was a prosperous city during the time of Achaemenid Persia.
Estakhr first appears in history as an Achaemenid city in present-day Fârs Province,
Iran. It gained its importance not only from its close association with
Persepolis: it also commanded the western end of an ancient caravan-route that ran from the Indus Valley via Kandahar and Sistan to Persia.
Temporarily the city became the capital of Sassanian Persia during the reign of Ardashir I before the capital moved to Ctesiphon. During the Sasanid period the royal treasury of the empire, known as ganj ī šāhīgān, is said to have been in
Estakhr.
In 915-916, Masʿūdī himself saw in a house at
Estakhr owned by a Persian noble, "the large and very fine manuscript" of a work copied in 731 from original documents
...see more in the royal treasury.
At the time of the Arab conquest, Istakhr offered a desperate resistance. The city was still a place of considerable importance in the first century of Islam, although its greatness was soon to be eclipsed by the new metropolis of Shīrāz.
By the 10th century CE it had become an insignificant place, as may be seen from a description of it written by the Arab geographer al-Maqdisī (c. 985).
In the mid-11th century the Seljuq emir Qutulmish razed it and transferred its population to Shīrāz.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.britannica.com
