Are the Provincial Capitals of Ērānšahr really provincial capitals?

Abstract

1. ŠAHRESTĀNĪHĀ Ī ĒRĀNŠAHR In August 1931 Giuseppe Messina, who was then teaching at the Pontifical Biblical Institute of Rome, published from the Nachlass of Joseph Markwart the short geographical treatise commonly known as Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr (ŠĒ). The title of the work is not found in the only known independent codex of this work, MK. In fact, an earlier editor, Jivanji Jamshedji Modi, chose to call the book Šāhrīhā ī Ērān and so did Dastur Jamaspji Minocherji Jāmāspasa in his edition of the Pahlavi Texts based on manuscripts MK and JJ. The first occurrence of šahrestānīhā in the ŠĒ is in paragraph 1, where it is written that the cities (*šahrān or *šahrīhā) in Ērānšahr are described in this memorial. The spelling