Balasagan

thumb|Map of the eastern part of Transcaucasia under the [[Sasanian Empire]] Balāsagān (an Iranian toponym meaning "country of Balas"; Armenian: Bałasakan, the inhabitants known as Bałasičkʻ, Arabic: Balāsajān/Balāšajān), also known as Bazgan, was a region located in the area of the Kura and Aras rivers, adjacent to the Caspian Sea. To the south, it bordered Atropatene/Adurbadagan and Gilan. It roughly corresponded to the Armenian province of Paytakaran, albeit extending farther into the north. It has been suggested that under the Sasanians the region extended as far as the stronghold of Derbent, albeit this remains disputed. The heartland of Balasagan was the Dasht i-Bałasakan ("Balasagan plain") which corresponds to the Mughan plain. During the late Sasanian era, Balasagan was included in the northern quadrant (kust) of Adurbadagan.

== History == ===Pre-Islamic period=== thumb|Coin of Yazdegerd II The region is first attested as a Sasanian province in the SKZ inscription of Shapur I () separately from Caucasian Albania, which indicates that it was its own political entity even if it was virtually subject to Albania. In the inscription, Shapur I's considers Balasagan and the rest of the Caucasus as part of Iran, and only regards the Roman territories of Anatolia and Syria as part of Aneran. The powerful 3rd-century Zoroastrian high priest Kartir, however, considers Balasagan and the rest of the Caucasus as belonging to Aneran. What was precisely seen as Aneran is not certain. According to the medieval Persian geographer Ibn Khordadbeh (d. 912), the ruler of Balasagan was among the leaders who was acknowledged with the title of king by the first Sasanian monarch Ardashir I (), which suggests that Balasagan was a direct vassal of Iran. According to the modern historian Robert H. Hewsen, the Sasanians took Balasagan from their Albanian vassals in the 5th-century (or possibly as early as 387). Administration-wise, Balasagan was part of Adurbadagan. Nothing is known about the Kingdom of Balasagan; its main hub may have been at the fortress of Khursan. The Sasanians formed districts such as Spandaran-Peroz, Hormizd-Peroz, At'sibagawan, and (probably) Alewan in order to consolidate the area under a more centralized administration.