People
Madobalani
Listen to the story
The Madobalani are a puzzle, because in this spelling the name matches no known people or region. They stand in a tangled corner of the map, where at a later stage of copying the Caucasus lands of Iberia and Albania were pushed in between Mesopotamia and Iran, and Media and Carmania overlap. Most likely the name hides the Massabatae, counted by ancient writers among the great peoples of Susiana and settled on both sides of the Zagros mountains. The Roman writer Pliny placed their land at the foot of Mount Cambalidus, and the name lives on in Masabadan, a district of upper Luristan in Iran.