Ispahbads of GëlÃÂn () or Esfahbad of GëlÃÂn was a Talysh small principality in Iran. In the 14th century, ÃÂstÃÂràbecame the seat of the principality.
According to Minorsky, no detailed record seems to be extant of a principality which for a long time existed on the territory between Gilan and Mà «qÃÂn (Mà «ghÃÂn) and whose rulers had the title of ispahbad or sipahbad. According to Ibn KhurdÃÂdhbih (who wrote not later than in 885) Mà «qÃÂn belonged to Shekla. Towards 936, the isfahbadh of Mà «qÃÂn, Ibn-Dalà «la, sided with a rebel chief of Gilan, Lashkarë ibn-Mardë, and opposed the Kurdish ruler of Azarbayjan, Daysam ibn-IbrÃÂhëm. His headquarters seem to have been on the northern bank of the Araxes and we cannot say whether he was of the same family as the later sipahbads of Gilan, whose activities centered more to the south, in TÃÂlysh speaking area. The late A. Kasravi discovered in the dëvÃÂn of the poet Qatran a curious ode on an expedition which the RawÃÂdë ruler of Tabriz, Vahsà «dÃÂn (circa 1025âÂÂ1059) sent to Ardabil, under the leadership of his son Mamlan. As a result, a fortress was built in Ardabil and the sipahbad of Mà «qÃÂn had to submit to the conqueror.
As of Gilan, Mustawfë mentions the little town of Iá¹£fahbad, which YÃÂá¸³à «t spells IsfahbudhÃÂn, adding that stood two miles distant from the coast of the Caspian, but nor otherwise indicating its position; corn, rice, and a little fruit were grown here, ind in neighboring district were near a hundred villages. The name of the township came from the Iá¹£fahbads.
In later Seljuk times we hear of ëNusrat al-dën Abul-Muzaffar Ispahbad KiyàLivÃÂshërû, to whom Khaqanë dedicated several poems in which he praised his liberality and mourned his untimely demise. In a threnody written after his death, he says farewell to ShandÃÂn and ArchavÃÂn, of which the former is an ancient fortress (north of the Astara river) and the latter a village lying some 7âÂÂ8 km. to the N.W. of AstÃÂrÃÂ.This may have been only a splinter of the ancient territory of the sipahbads, but the fact is that in it they survived even in the days of the Mongol Ilkhans. The History of UljÃÂytà «, quoting the description of Gilan by one Asil al-din Muhammad Zauzanë (at the time of the arrival of Hulegu, circa 1256), also names ShandÃÂn as the capital of the sipahbads.
According to the Safvat, when Safi ad-Din was inquiring in Fars about the whereabouts of Shaykh ZÃÂhid, he was told that the latter lived in the part of Gilan belonging to the Ispahbad (GëlÃÂn-i Ispahbad). It further tells how Shaykh ZÃÂhid interceded in favour of Malik Ahmad Isbahbad of Gilan, when Ghazan fell foul of him and arrested him, and how Malik Ahmad entertained the shaykh. According to HÃÂfiz-i Abrà «, at the time of UljÃÂytà «'s campaign in Gilan (1307), the Sipahbad's name was Rukn al-din Ahmad and he served as a guide to the troops of Amir Chopan. Consequently, it becomes probable that the Malik Ahmad mentioned in Abu-Sa'ëd's decree (Melig Aqmad) as having given the three villages (KenleÃÂe, Sidil, and Aradi) to Badr al-dën Mahmà «d was the same local ruler.
QÃÂsim al-AnvÃÂr who lived in 1356âÂÂ1433 and was closely connected with the Safavid family, tells in one of his poems a story about the sipahbad of Gilan JalÃÂl al-dën Hà «sayn whose throne (takht) was in AstÃÂrÃÂ.
According to Minorsky, we do not know whether the later governors of Astara still continued the line of the ispahbads. Even after the conquest of Northern TÃÂlish by the Russians (1813) the family of the TÃÂlysh-khans maintained some special rights but the degree of its connexion with the ancient sipahbads would require painstaking investigation.