Abaskun was a port that existed in the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 on the southwestern shore of the Caspian Sea

Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...

 in the area of Gorgan

Gorgan

Gorgan Some east of Gorgan is the Golestan National Park. The city has a regional airport and several universities. Gorgan Airport was opened in September 2005.-Etymology:...

.

In his Geographia, Ptolemy

Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...

 mentions a river Sokanda in Hyrcania

Hyrcania

Hyrcania was the name of a satrapy located in the territories of present day Gilan, Golestan, Mazandaran and part of Turkmenistan, lands south of the Caspian Sea. To the Greeks, the Caspian Sea was the "Hyrcanian Sea".-Etymology:...

, which may have given the name to the city. The exact location of Abaskun remains unclear; most likely, it was situated near the mouth of the Gorgan River

Gorgan River

The Gorgan River is a tributary of the Hopârta River in Romania.-References:* Administraţia Naţională Apelor Române - Cadastrul Apelor - Bucureşti* Institutul de Meteorologie şi Hidrologie - Rîurile României - Bucureşti 1971...

. According to Arab

Arab

Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

 geographers, Abaskun was within a one- or three-day journey from Gorgan.
Its coordination's may be near to today's village of Khaje-nafas or Gomishan city

Gomishan city

Gomishan is a city in and capital of Gomishan District, in Torkaman County, Golestan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census its population was 15,639, in 3,236 families.The city's Turkmen name, Kümüş depe, means "Silver Hill"....

 37°01′N 54°00′E

Abaskun was a prosperous trading hub from which merchants travelled to Daylam

Daylam

Daylam was a province of Persia, now part of Gīlān, Iran.The Daylam region corresponds to the modern region of Gīlān...

, Derbent

Derbent

Derbent |Lak]]: Чурул, Churul; Persian: دربند; Judæo-Tat: דארבּאנד/Дэрбэнд/Dərbənd) is a city in the Republic of Dagestan, Russia, close to the Azerbaijani border. It is the southernmost city in Russia, and it is the second most important city of Dagestan...

, and Atil

Atil

Atil , literally meaning "Big River", was the capital of Khazaria from the middle of the 8th century until the end of the 10th century. The word is also a Turkic name for the Volga River.-History:...

 in the land of Khazars

Khazars

The Khazars were semi-nomadic Turkic people who established one of the largest polities of medieval Eurasia, with the capital of Atil and territory comprising much of modern-day European Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the northern Caucasus , parts of...

 on the Volga trade route

Volga trade route

In the Middle Ages, the Volga trade route connected Northern Europe and Northwestern Russia with the Caspian Sea, via the Volga River. The Rus used this route to trade with Muslim countries on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, sometimes penetrating as far as Baghdad...

. The city's products included shagreen

Shagreen

Shagreen is a type of leather or rawhide consisting of rough untanned skin, formerly made from a horse's back or that of an onager . Shagreen is now commonly made of the skins of sharks and rays....

, woolen cloth, fish, and seabirds' feathers, which were used for decorating garments. In the 10th century, Abaskun possessed a citadel

Citadel

A citadel is a fortress for protecting a town, sometimes incorporating a castle. The term derives from the same Latin root as the word "city", civis, meaning citizen....

 built of fired brick and a congregational mosque

Mosque

A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...

 in the market quarter. The city's wealth and vulnerable location made it a target of the Caspian expeditions of the Rus

Caspian expeditions of the Rus

The Caspian expeditions of the Rus were military raids undertaken by the Rus' between 864 and 1041 on the Caspian Sea shores. Initially, the Rus' appeared in Serkland in the 9th century traveling as merchants along the Volga trade route, selling furs, honey, and slaves. The first small-scale raids...

. The Rus

Rus' (people)

The Rus' were a group of Varangians . According to the Primary Chronicle of Rus, compiled in about 1113 AD, the Rus had relocated from the Baltic region , first to Northeastern Europe, creating an early polity which finally came under the leadership of Rurik...

 staged their first small-scale raid on Abaskun sometime between 864 and 884, pillaging the city in 909 or 910 and again in 913.

In 1220, Muhammad II of Khwarezm

Muhammad II of Khwarezm

Ala ad-Din Muhammad II was the ruler of the Khwarezmid Empire from 1200 to 1220. His ancestor was a Turkic slave who eventually became a viceroy of a small province named Khwarizm. After his father died, Muhammad inherited his father's lands, and it was from there he began expanding outwards...

, the fugitive ruler of the Khwarezmid Empire, hid from the Mongols

Mongols

Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...

 on an island near Abaskun. After that, the city is not mentioned in documents. In the 14th century, the Persian geographer Mostawfi wrote that Abaskun was an island which was submerged due to the rise of the Caspian Sea caused by a temporary change in the course of the Oxus, which briefly flowed into the Caspian instead of the Aral Sea

Aral Sea

The Aral Sea was a lake that lay between Kazakhstan in the north and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan, in the south...

.