ABSTRACT
Like many other urban centres in Central Asia, Fcrezkeh, the summer capital of the Ghurid sultanate, was destroyed by the Mongols in 1222-3. The site would probably have remained lost to the caprices of history were it not for the ‘rediscovery’ of the minaret of Jam in 1957, which sparked renewed interest in the Ghurids. This chapter assesses the historical and archaeological evidence for identifying Jam with Fcrezkeh before considering the characteristics of this remote settlement in the context of other contemporary Central Asian urban sites.
