This article concerns the city of
Ray, Iran (near
Shahr-e-Rey) as a military objective, not the large territory of which it was once capital ("Ragau" in the
Apocryphal Book of Judith). Ray, in an area of fertile lowland between the
Zagros Mountains, the
Elburz Mountains, and the great
Dasht-e Kavir desert, commanded vital routes across and around the mountains, and was a key to power over the whole of Persia (
Iran). The vast majority of ancient Persian literature has been lost, so little is known about the history of Ray before the arrival of Islam in the 7th century CE (although it is worth noting here that it was one of the great centres of the
Zoroastrian religion).