The population of Khuzistan (Parthian Susiana and Elymais) concentrated toward its ample river and canal system. Strabo divides the region into fertile farmlands and mountains producing fierce warriors (xvi.1.17-18). The ancient capital of Shush (Susa), by its connections with Mesopotamia, Mesene (hence with the Gulf trade), and Fars, remained an important economic center into the Sasanian period. It contained a mint and became the seat of a diocese by 410. Shapur II, who refounded the city as eran-khwarra-Shapur ("Shapur's Fortune of Iran"), settled many of his Roman captives in the area. Their labor was used there on such projects as the Pay-i Pul over the Karkha (Eulaeus). Others were settled at the major city upstream from Shush, Karkha dhe Ladhan (Eranshahr-Shapur), which was likewise a bishopric, and perhaps also at the mint-city Nahr Tirag (Nahr Tire). One day's journey to the east lay the provincial capital, Khuzistan-wazar (Suq al-Ahwaz), at the head of navigation on the Karun (Pasitigris) river. A bishop was already installed in the market town when Ardashir I renamed it Hormizd-Ardashir. The city was linked with Shush via the Shaur canal (the Choaspes?); and its bridge carried a southern road toward the major city in the east of the province, Ramhurmuz (Ram-Ohrmazd-Ardashir "Ardashir's Peace of Ohrmazd"). This early Sasanian foundation was likewise a mint and, by 410, center of a diocese.

The heavy cultivation of the Karun districts above Ahvaz is indicated by the dams there and at Wais, but especially by that at Shostar (Sostrate). Distribution of water, and transportation as well, was aided by the Masruqan (*Ardashiragan) canal. This channel descended to Ahvaz through Rustuqbadh (*Rostag-kawad, later 'Askar Mukram). These constructions proceeded from the reign of Ardashir to that of Shapur II and probably beyond. West of the Karun, Shapur I refounded the other major city on the Shush-Fars road; Beth Lapat, the province's other pre-Sasanian diocese and later seat of the metropolitan, became Jundishapur (Veh-andiv-i-shapur "Shapur's Better than Antioch"). It was "a city like Constantinople" at least in its large Roman colony begun with the captives of Valerian's army and augmented by physicians who joined the royal court there. The importance of this city had probably already been enhanced by Ardashir's erection of the Dizful bridge over the Ab-i Dis (Coprates). This construction improved the difficult road through the mountain districts where the province adjoined Mah (Diodorus Siculus xix.19.2). Masabadhan (Massabatice) and Mihrajanqadhaq had been under Elymaean domination (Strabo xi.13.6, xvi.1.18), but under the Sasanians they probably formed part of Mah.

The attention given to Khuzistan by the Sasanians indicates its importance. The construction of irrigation works was continued with the aim of increasing productivity. The wheat and barley crops were abundant. Sesame and dates were plentiful, and apparently trade had popularized rice there before Parthian rule (Strabo xv.3.11; Diodorus Siculus xix.13.6). The population remained ethnically complex through the Sasanian period. In the north and east Iranians mingled with the older Elamite-Semitic people, whose individuality is expressed in the dynastic shrines at Shimbar and tang-i Sarvak. In the west the province continued the Aramaic-speaking area; and the dramatic Arab invasion early in Shapur II's reign may have developed from a continual infiltration since Parthian times. Finally, some of the "Zutt" Indian tribes transported from the Sasanian eastern frontier flourished in the Ram-Ohrmazd-Ardashir district. Given this heterogeneity of the province, its distinctiveness as a dialect area is not surprising.

-The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3(2): The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods, ed. Ehsan Yarshater (NY: Cambridge UP, 1983), 753-754.