116-659: Tabriz ( Persian : تبریز ; pronounced [tæbˈɾiːz] ) is a city in the Central District of Tabriz County , in the East Azerbaijan province of northwestern Iran. It serves as capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is the sixth-most-populous city in Iran. Tabriz is in the Quru River valley in Iran's historic Azerbaijan region between long ridges of volcanic cones in
232-603: A 13th-century Armenian historian; no ancient source records such an event. The historical Armenian name for the city was Tavrezh ( Armenian : Թաւրէժ , romanized : T'avrēž ). The Cambridge History of Iran points to a connection between the "ancient stronghold of Tarui-Tarmakisa" (or Tarwi-Tarwakisa), which existed in the 8th century BC , and the city of Tabriz; Ernst Emil Herzfeld 's Archaeological History of Iran directly equates Tarwakisa with Tabriz (cf Proto-Iranian tr̥Hwáns "able to overcome"). However, some researchers believe that Tabriz may be considered
348-655: A Dari dialect. In the 19th century, under the Qajar dynasty , the dialect that is spoken in Tehran rose to prominence. There was still substantial Arabic vocabulary, but many of these words have been integrated into Persian phonology and grammar. In addition, under the Qajar rule, numerous Russian , French , and English terms entered the Persian language, especially vocabulary related to technology. The first official attentions to
464-418: A dictionary called Words of Scientific Association ( لغت انجمن علمی ), which was completed in the future and renamed Katouzian Dictionary ( فرهنگ کاتوزیان ). The first academy for the Persian language was founded on 20 May 1935, under the name Academy of Iran . It was established by the initiative of Reza Shah Pahlavi , and mainly by Hekmat e Shirazi and Mohammad Ali Foroughi , all prominent names in
580-406: A fertile area inshore of Aji River and Quri River . The local area is earthquake-prone and during its history, the city has been devastated and rebuilt several times. Tabriz has a cold semi-arid climate ( Köppen : BSk , Trewartha : BS ) bordering on a humid continental climate with hot summers ( Köppen : Dsa , Trewartha : Dc ). The annual precipitation is around 260 mm (10 in),
696-474: A good deal of which falls as snow during the winter months and rain in spring and autumn . The city enjoys a mild and fine climate in spring and autumn, is hot and dry in summer, while snowy and cold in winter. The average annual temperature is 13.1 °C (55.6 °F). Cool winds blow from east to west, mostly in summer. Jean Chardin , a French traveler, visited Tabriz during the Safavid era, noting
812-487: A heavy-industry hub in the northwestern Iran. The need for a strong workforce increased immigration from all around Azerbaijan toward Tabriz. During this era and because of the continuous policy of the government centralization in Tehran as well as changes in communication and transportation, the city lost its historical dominance, but turned into the gate for reform and modernization of the country. Starting with 1978 and with
928-505: A language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Farsi , which is the Persian word for the Persian language, has also been used widely in English in recent decades, more often to refer to Iran's standard Persian. However, the name Persian is still more widely used. The Academy of Persian Language and Literature has maintained that the endonym Farsi is to be avoided in foreign languages, and that Persian
1044-417: A literary language considerably different from the spoken Persian of the time. This became the basis of what is now known as "Contemporary Standard Persian". There are three standard varieties of modern Persian: All these three varieties are based on the classic Persian literature and its literary tradition. There are also several local dialects from Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan which slightly differ from
1160-577: A modern taxation system. Thanks to the geographical closeness to the West and to communications with nearby countries' enlightenment movements, Tabriz became the centre of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution movements between 1905 and 1911, which led to the establishment of a parliament in Iran and the formation of a constitution. Sattar Khan and Bagher Khan , two Tabrizi reformists who led Tabriz people's solidarity against
1276-511: A more liberal cleric, Grand Ayatollah Shariatmadari , who was against the content of the new constitution which was mixing religion and state together. The unrest in the city calmed down after brutal crush of the protesters in Tabriz and after house arrest of Shariatmadari. In the 1980s, due to the Iran–Iraq War , like the rest of the country, most of the construction and development projects in
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#17327653024581392-536: A period of several centuries, Ottoman Turkish (which was highly Persianised itself) had developed toward a fully accepted language of literature, and which was even able to lexically satisfy the demands of a scientific presentation. However, the number of Persian and Arabic loanwords contained in those works increased at times up to 88%. In the Ottoman Empire, Persian was used at the royal court, for diplomacy, poetry, historiographical works, literary works, and
1508-582: A population of over 1.7 million (2016), Tabriz is the largest economic hub and metropolitan area in northwest Iran. The population is bilingual with most people speaking Azerbaijani as their native language and Persian as their second language. Tabriz is a major heavy industries hub for automobiles, machine tools, refineries, petrochemicals, textiles and cement production industries. The city is famous for its handicrafts, including hand-woven rugs and jewelry. Local confectionery, chocolate, dried nuts and traditional Tabrizi food are recognized throughout Iran as some of
1624-490: A pre-Iranian toponym . The early history of Tabriz is not well documented. The earliest civilization signs in the city belongs to an Iron Age grave yard of 1st millennium B.C. which were unearthed in late 1990s in northern side of Blue Mosque . The city also inscribed as old as 714 B.C. on as Tarui or Tauris, on the Assyrian King Sargon II 's epigraph in 714 B.C. Egyptologist David Rohl suggested that
1740-599: A speaker of Persian. Persian is a member of the Western Iranian group of the Iranian languages , which make up a branch of the Indo-European languages in their Indo-Iranian subdivision . The Western Iranian languages themselves are divided into two subgroups: Southwestern Iranian languages, of which Persian is the most widely spoken, and Northwestern Iranian languages, of which Kurdish and Balochi are
1856-472: A unique ecosystem. This occurred due to global warming and ever-increasing demands for inadequate freshwater sources in the basin. It is feared that in the near future low-lying clouds of airborne salt and minerals may hover over large areas around the lake, posing serious health hazards. Authority for the city lies with the Mayor, who is elected by a municipal board. The municipal board is periodically elected by
1972-416: Is a Turkic language mutually intelligible with modern Turkish dialects . The language has a strong Iranian superstratum since it has been in close contact with the Persian language for many centuries. Similar to the other parts of Iran, the official language is Persian and the most inhabitants have native or near-native knowledge of Persian language , which is the major medium of education. Nevertheless,
2088-664: Is a continuation of Middle Persian , an official language of the Sasanian Empire (224–651 CE), itself a continuation of Old Persian , which was used in the Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BCE). It originated in the region of Fars ( Persia ) in southwestern Iran. Its grammar is similar to that of many European languages. Throughout history, Persian was considered prestigious by various empires centered in West Asia , Central Asia , and South Asia . Old Persian
2204-628: Is a direct descendant of Middle and Old Persian. Gernot Windfuhr considers new Persian as an evolution of the Old Persian language and the Middle Persian language but also states that none of the known Middle Persian dialects is the direct predecessor of Modern Persian. Ludwig Paul states: "The language of the Shahnameh should be seen as one instance of continuous historical development from Middle to New Persian." The known history of
2320-799: Is also spoken natively in the Tajik variety by a significant population within Uzbekistan , as well as within other regions with a Persianate history in the cultural sphere of Greater Iran . It is written officially within Iran and Afghanistan in the Persian alphabet , a derivative of the Arabic script , and within Tajikistan in the Tajik alphabet , a derivative of the Cyrillic script . Modern Persian
2436-675: Is attested in Old Persian cuneiform on inscriptions from between the 6th and 4th century BC. Middle Persian is attested in Aramaic -derived scripts ( Pahlavi and Manichaean ) on inscriptions and in Zoroastrian and Manichaean scriptures from between the third to the tenth centuries (see Middle Persian literature ). New Persian literature was first recorded in the ninth century, after the Muslim conquest of Persia , since then adopting
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#17327653024582552-425: Is conventionally divided into three stages: Early New Persian remains largely intelligible to speakers of Contemporary Persian, as the morphology and, to a lesser extent, the lexicon of the language have remained relatively stable. New Persian texts written in the Arabic script first appear in the 9th-century. The language is a direct descendant of Middle Persian, the official, religious, and literary language of
2668-472: Is designated a World Heritage Site . From the early modern era, Tabriz was pivotal in the development, movement and economy of its three neighboring regions; namely the Caucasus , Eastern Anatolia and Central Iran. In the modern era the city played a vital role in the history of Iran. As the country's closest hub to Europe, many aspects of early modernization in Iran began in Tabriz. Prior to forced ceding of
2784-458: Is excellently situated so the goods brought to here coming from many regions. Latin merchants specially Genevis go there to buy the goods that come from foreign lands." From 1375 to 1468, Tabriz was the capital of Qara Qoyunlu state in Azerbaijan, until defeat of Qara Qoyunlu ruler, Jahan Shah by Ag Qoyunlu warriors. Ag Qoyunlus selected Tabriz as their capital from 1469 to 1501. Some of
2900-460: Is not actually attested until 600 years later when it appears in the Sassanid era (224–651 AD) inscriptions, so any form of the language before this date cannot be described with any degree of certainty. Moreover, as a literary language, Middle Persian is not attested until much later, in the 6th or 7th century. From the 8th century onward, Middle Persian gradually began yielding to New Persian, with
3016-438: Is not out of the question, it seems no more probable than any other hypothesis, and less likely than those suggested by Speiser, Zarins, and Sauer." Since the earliest documented history of Tabriz, it has been chosen as the capital for several rulers commencing from Atropates era and his dynasty. It is likely the city has been destroyed multiple times either by natural disasters or by the invading armies. The earliest elements of
3132-475: Is one of Afghanistan's two official languages, together with Pashto . The term Dari , meaning "of the court", originally referred to the variety of Persian used in the court of the Sasanian Empire in capital Ctesiphon , which was spread to the northeast of the empire and gradually replaced the former Iranian dialects of Parthia ( Parthian ). Tajik Persian ( форси́и тоҷикӣ́ , forsi-i tojikī ),
3248-585: Is one of the earliest attested Indo-European languages. According to certain historical assumptions about the early history and origin of ancient Persians in Southwestern Iran (where Achaemenids hailed from), Old Persian was originally spoken by a tribe called Parsuwash , who arrived in the Iranian Plateau early in the 1st millennium BCE and finally migrated down into the area of present-day Fārs province. Their language, Old Persian, became
3364-471: Is one of the major environmental issues in Tabriz. Air pollution is due to an increase of the number of cars commuting in the city and polluting industries such as thermal power plants, petrochemical complexes and the oil refinery in the west of the city. Air pollution levels increased continuously in the second half of the 20th century. With a mandate of national environmental codes by heavy industries, industrial air pollution has reduced in recent years. However,
3480-495: Is the appropriate designation of the language in English, as it has the longer tradition in western languages and better expresses the role of the language as a mark of cultural and national continuity. Iranian historian and linguist Ehsan Yarshater , founder of the Encyclopædia Iranica and Columbia University 's Center for Iranian Studies, mentions the same concern in an academic journal on Iranology , rejecting
3596-491: The Encyclopædia Iranica notes that the Iranian, Afghan, and Tajiki varieties comprise distinct branches of the Persian language, and within each branch a wide variety of local dialects exist. The following are some languages closely related to Persian, or in some cases are considered dialects: More distantly related branches of the Iranian language family include Kurdish and Balochi . The Glottolog database proposes
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3712-506: The Kalila wa Dimna . The language spread geographically from the 11th century on and was the medium through which, among others, Central Asian Turks became familiar with Islam and urban culture. New Persian was widely used as a trans-regional lingua franca , a task aided due to its relatively simple morphology, and this situation persisted until at least the 19th century. In the late Middle Ages, new Islamic literary languages were created on
3828-594: The Baháʼí Faith in the city. The Iranian national census was first completed in 1956 and published decennially until 2006, when, thereafter, the Statistical Center of Iran began to conduct them every five years. The 1976 census notes a total population more than double of the decade before, a result of rural to urban migration during the White Revolution . At the time of the 2006 National Census,
3944-590: The Blue Mosque was opened to the public in 2006. The other excavation site is in Abbasi Street at the site of Rab'-e Rashidi , which was the location for an academic institution since approximately 700 years ago. It was established in Ilkhanid period. The predominant language spoken in Tabriz is Azerbaijani language ( Azerbaijani people call it Turku ( تۆرکۆ ) or Turki (تۆرکی) language), which
4060-668: The British colonization , Persian was widely used as a second language in the Indian subcontinent . It took prominence as the language of culture and education in several Muslim courts on the subcontinent and became the sole "official language" under the Mughal emperors . The Bengal Sultanate witnessed an influx of Persian scholars, lawyers, teachers, and clerics. Thousands of Persian books and manuscripts were published in Bengal. The period of
4176-475: The Iranian constitution respects the right to speak and have limited educational facilities in other native languages, including Azerbaijani. For the first time, an academic program on Azerbaijani language opened at the University of Tabriz in 1999. Other than Azerbaijani, there is a notable minority of Armenian speakers and a smaller minority of Assyrian Neo-Aramaic speakers. It is believed that before
4292-653: The Kingdom of Israel as well as nearby countries. Greece colonizes other regions of the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea . Rome is founded in 753 BC , and the Etruscan civilization expands in Italy. The 8th century BC is conventionally taken as the beginning of Classical Antiquity , with the first Olympiad set at 776 BC, and the epics of Homer dated to between 750 and 650 BC. Iron Age India enters
4408-807: The Ottoman troops intervened and took control of the city by defeating the Russian troops stationed there. By this time, the Ottoman army led by Enver Pasha threatened the whole Russian army in the Caucasus region. Russian troops recaptured the city from the Ottomans at a later stage of the war. By escalation of the revolution in Russia , the Russian armies in Iranian Azerbaijan were evacuated, and
4524-478: The Qajar dynasty, Tabriz was used as residence centre of Iranian Crown Prince (1794–1925). In 2002, during a construction project at the north side of the Blue Mosque (Part of Silk Road Project), an ancient graveyard was revealed. This was kept secret until a construction worker alerted the authorities. Radiocarbon analysis by Allameh Tabatabai University has shown the background of the graves to be more than 3,800 years old. A museum of these excavations including
4640-686: The Sahand and Eynali mountains. Tabriz's elevation ranges between 1,350 and 1,600 m (4,430 and 5,250 ft) above sea level. The valley opens up into a plain that gently slopes down to the eastern shores of Lake Urmia , 60 km (37 mi) to the west. The city was named World Carpet Weaving City by the World Crafts Council in October 2015 and Exemplary Tourist City of 2018 by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation . With
4756-674: The Sultanate of Rum , Turkmen beyliks of Anatolia , Delhi Sultanate , the Shirvanshahs , Safavids , Afsharids , Zands , Qajars , Khanate of Bukhara , Khanate of Kokand , Emirate of Bukhara , Khanate of Khiva , Ottomans , and also many Mughal successors such as the Nizam of Hyderabad . Persian was the only non-European language known and used by Marco Polo at the Court of Kublai Khan and in his journeys through China. A branch of
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4872-473: The Treaty of Zohab in 1639. The city was completely devastated by a strong earthquake in 1641 . In summer of 1721, a large earthquake shocked Tabriz, killing about eighty thousand of its residents. The devastation continued in 1724–1725, when the city was invaded by an Ottoman army . During this round of invasion, the Ottomans imprisoned many in Tabriz and killed about two hundred thousand residents. The city
4988-713: The Turkic , Armenian , Georgian , & Indo-Aryan languages . It also exerted some influence on Arabic, while borrowing a lot of vocabulary from it in the Middle Ages. Some of the world's most famous pieces of literature from the Middle Ages, such as the Shahnameh by Ferdowsi , the works of Rumi , the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám , the Panj Ganj of Nizami Ganjavi , The Divān of Hafez , The Conference of
5104-491: The ezāfe construction, expressed through ī (modern e/ye ), to indicate some of the relations between words that have been lost with the simplification of the earlier grammatical system. Although the "middle period" of the Iranian languages formally begins with the fall of the Achaemenid Empire, the transition from Old to Middle Persian had probably already begun before the 4th century BC. However, Middle Persian
5220-597: The " Persianized " Turko-Mongol dynasties during the 12th to 15th centuries, and under restored Persian rule during the 16th to 19th centuries. Persian during this time served as lingua franca of Greater Persia and of much of the Indian subcontinent . It was also the official and cultural language of many Islamic dynasties, including the Samanids, Buyids , Tahirids , Ziyarids , the Mughal Empire , Timurids , Ghaznavids , Karakhanids , Seljuqs , Khwarazmians ,
5336-681: The Birds by Attar of Nishapur , and the miscellanea of Gulistan and Bustan by Saadi Shirazi , are written in Persian. Some of the prominent modern Persian poets were Nima Yooshij , Ahmad Shamlou , Simin Behbahani , Sohrab Sepehri , Rahi Mo'ayyeri , Mehdi Akhavan-Sales , and Forugh Farrokhzad . There are approximately 130 million Persian speakers worldwide, including Persians , Lurs , Tajiks , Hazaras , Iranian Azeris , Iranian Kurds , Balochs , Tats , Afghan Pashtuns , and Aimaqs . The term Persophone might also be used to refer to
5452-670: The Great , as a response to the massacre of 12,000 Christians in the Georgian-controlled city of Ani on Easter day by Muslims. In nearby Ardebil , conquered by the Georgians as well, as many as 12,000 Muslims were killed. The Georgians then pushed further, taking Khoy and Qazvin along the way. After the Mongol invasion, Tabriz came to eclipse Maragheh as the later Ilkhanid Mongol capital of Azerbaijan until it
5568-565: The Middle Ages, and is because of the lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic. The standard Persian of Iran has been called, apart from Persian and Farsi , by names such as Iranian Persian and Western Persian , exclusively. Officially, the official language of Iran is designated simply as Persian ( فارسی , fārsi ). The standard Persian of Afghanistan has been officially named Dari ( دری , dari ) since 1958. Also referred to as Afghan Persian in English, it
5684-488: The Ottoman Empire all spoke Persian, such as Sultan Selim I , despite being Safavid Iran's archrival and a staunch opposer of Shia Islam . It was a major literary language in the empire. Some of the noted earlier Persian works during the Ottoman rule are Idris Bidlisi 's Hasht Bihisht , which began in 1502 and covered the reign of the first eight Ottoman rulers, and the Salim-Namah , a glorification of Selim I. After
5800-530: The Persian language can be divided into the following three distinct periods: As a written language , Old Persian is attested in royal Achaemenid inscriptions. The oldest known text written in Old Persian is from the Behistun Inscription , dating to the time of King Darius I (reigned 522–486 BC). Examples of Old Persian have been found in what is now Iran , Romania ( Gherla ), Armenia , Bahrain , Iraq , Turkey, and Egypt . Old Persian
5916-425: The Persian language, a language historically called Dari, emerged in present-day Afghanistan. The first significant Persian poet was Rudaki . He flourished in the 10th century, when the Samanids were at the height of their power. His reputation as a court poet and as an accomplished musician and singer has survived, although little of his poetry has been preserved. Among his lost works are versified fables collected in
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#17327653024586032-401: The Persian model: Ottoman Turkish , Chagatai Turkic , Dobhashi Bengali , and Urdu, which are regarded as "structural daughter languages" of Persian. "Classical Persian" loosely refers to the standardized language of medieval Persia used in literature and poetry . This is the language of the 10th to 12th centuries, which continued to be used as literary language and lingua franca under
6148-886: The Perso-Arabic script. Persian was the first language to break through the monopoly of Arabic on writing in the Muslim world , with Persian poetry becoming a tradition in many eastern courts. It was used officially as a language of bureaucracy even by non-native speakers, such as the Ottomans in Anatolia , the Mughals in South Asia, and the Pashtuns in Afghanistan. It influenced languages spoken in neighboring regions and beyond, including other Iranian languages,
6264-441: The Qajar dynasty's Caucasian territories to Imperial Russia , following two Russo-Persian Wars in the first half of the 19th century, Tabriz was at the forefront of Iranian rule over its Caucasian territories. Until 1925, the city was the traditional residence of the Qajar crown princes. According to some sources, including Encyclopædia Britannica , the name Tabriz derives from tap-riz , meaning "flowing hot", in reference to
6380-428: The Sasanian Empire (224–651). However, it is not descended from the literary form of Middle Persian (known as pārsīk , commonly called Pahlavi), which was spoken by the people of Fars and used in Zoroastrian religious writings. Instead, it is descended from the dialect spoken by the court of the Sasanian capital Ctesiphon and the northeastern Iranian region of Khorasan , known as Dari. The region, which comprised
6496-427: The Sassanids (who were Persians, i.e. from the southwest) from the preceding Arsacids (who were Parthians, i.e. from the northeast). While Ibn al-Muqaffa' (eighth century) still distinguished between Pahlavi (i.e. Parthian) and Persian (in Arabic text: al-Farisiyah) (i.e. Middle Persian), this distinction is not evident in Arab commentaries written after that date. "New Persian" (also referred to as Modern Persian)
6612-407: The Seljuks, the Sultanate of Rum , took Persian language, art, and letters to Anatolia. They adopted the Persian language as the official language of the empire. The Ottomans , who can roughly be seen as their eventual successors, inherited this tradition. Persian was the official court language of the empire, and for some time, the official language of the empire. The educated and noble class of
6728-407: The absolute monarchy, had a great role in achievement to the goals of Iran's constitutional revolution. In 1909, Tabriz was occupied by the Russian forces. Four months after the constitutional revolution's success, in December 1911, the Russians reinvaded Tabriz . After crushing the local resistance by invading Russian troops, they started suppressing the constitutional revolutionaries and residents of
6844-410: The actual power passed into the hands of the local committee of the democrat party, with Ismail Nawbari at its head. Following Russia's retreat, the Ottomans captured the city once again for a few months until the decisive end of the war, and retreated thereafter. After World War I, a new era in the county's history began. Reza Pahlavi , brigadier-general of the Persian Cossack Brigade , declared himself
6960-443: The air quality in the city is far from world norms for clean air. An immediate environmental threat is the shrinkage and drying out of the Lake Urmia located in the outskirts of Western Tabriz. The lake has faced a grave crisis since the late 20th century. Water depth reduction, increasing water salinity to saturation level and the appearance of vast salt fields around the lake, are alarming indications of gradual total desiccation of
7076-461: The ancient Silk Road . The Byzantine Gregory Chioniades is said to have served as the city's Orthodox bishop during this time. In the 13th century, many western expediters who visited Tabriz on their way to the east were amazed by the richness of the city, its magnificent buildings and its institutions. Marco Polo travelled the Silk Road, passing Tabriz about 1275, described it as: "a great city surrounded by beautiful and pleasant gardens. It
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#17327653024587192-441: The area of Lake Urmia in the records of Shalmaneser III . The exact identity of the Parsuwash is not known for certain, but from a linguistic viewpoint the word matches Old Persian pārsa itself coming directly from the older word * pārćwa . Also, as Old Persian contains many words from another extinct Iranian language, Median , according to P. O. Skjærvø it is probable that Old Persian had already been spoken before
7308-449: The area's many thermal springs . Other sources claim that in AD 246, to avenge his brother's death, king Tiridates II of Armenia repelled Ardashir I of the Sassanid Empire and changed the name of the city from Shahistan to Tauris, deriving from in Grabar ta-vrezh "this revenge". In AD 297, it became the capital of Tiridates III , king of Armenia. However, this story is of popular origin and based on accounts of Vardan Areveltsi ,
7424-413: The best. Some of the most esteemed cultural institutions in northwest Iran are located in Tabriz, which is also a center for intellectual activity. Tabriz contains many historical monuments, representing Iran's architectural transition throughout its long history. Most of Tabriz's preserved historical sites belong to Ilkhanid , Safavid and Qajar . Among these sites is the grand Bazaar of Tabriz , which
7540-439: The city reached its highest splendour. The later realm stretched from the Amu Darya in the East to the Egypt borders in the West and from the Caucasus in the North to the Indian Ocean in the South. It was again the capital of Iran during the Qara Qoyunlu dynasty from 1375 to 1468 and then during the Ag Qoyunlu within 1468–1500 and it was capital of Iran in the Safavid period from 1501 until their defeat in 1555 . During
7656-440: The city was captured for Russia in 1828 by General Prince Eristov, who marched into the city with 3,000 soldiers. After Abbas Mirza and Ivan Paskevich signed the peace treaty , which granted for the irrevocable cession of the last remaining Caucasian territories, the Russian army retreated from the city. Nevertheless, Russian political and military influence remained a major force in Tabriz and north-northwestern Iran even until
7772-429: The city were stopped in order to fund the war costs. In addition to the indirect effects of the war, city's industrial zone, especially the oil refinery was also a major target for airstrikes by Iraqi's air forces because of the closeness to the Iraqi borderlines, and their strategic roles in the country's economy. With the escalation of the war, the attacks turned to War of the Cities and the air attacks later turned into
7888-501: The city's population was 1,378,931 in 378,329 households. The following census in 2011 counted 1,495,452 people in 455,494 households. The 2016 census measured the population of the city as 1,558,693 people in 497,898 households. The majority of the city's population are Azerbaijani people , followed by Persians , Kurds , Armenians , Assyrians , and other People of Caucasus . Tabriz is located in northwest of Iran in East Azerbaijan province between Eynali and Sahand mountains in
8004-589: The city's residents. The Municipal central office is located in the Tabriz Municipality Palace . Tabriz is divided into 10 municipal districts. Each municipal district retains a number of the older neighborhoods that are of cultural and historical interest. This is table of modern Tabriz districts. Sahand , o mountain of pure snow, Descended from Heaven with Zoroaster Fire in your heart, snow on your shoulders, with storm of centuries, And white hair of history on your chest ... Yadollah Maftun Amini (born in 1926) The city of Tabriz, historically located at
8120-431: The city. Following the invasion, Russian troops executed about 1,200 of Tabriz residents. As a result of the campaign, Tabriz was occupied by the Russian forces between 1911 and 1917. From the very start of World War I , Iran declared neutrality. When the war erupted on a full scale, Tabriz and much of northwestern-northern Iran had already been de facto occupied by Russia for several years. In later years of World War I,
8236-450: The city. One of the major establishments in the period of Pishevari's government was opening of the University of Tabriz which played a major role in the later political movements and protests in the region. For the next 30 years, after the collapse of Azerbaijan's autonomous government, Tabriz enjoyed a stable era until the revolution in 1979. During this period the city received significant investment in its industries and transformed into
8352-856: The city’s cultural development. Persian language Russia Persian ( / ˈ p ɜːr ʒ ən , - ʃ ən / PUR -zhən, -shən ), also known by its endonym Farsi ( فارسی , Fārsī [fɒːɾˈsiː] ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages . Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and used officially within Iran , Afghanistan , and Tajikistan in three mutually intelligible standard varieties , respectively Iranian Persian (officially known as Persian ), Dari Persian (officially known as Dari since 1964), and Tajiki Persian (officially known as Tajik since 1999). It
8468-509: The climate in Tabriz in his travel logs: "Cold weather exists for most of the year. Since the city is northerly, snow exists on the peaks of its mountains for nine months out of the year. The wind blows during mornings and nights, while rain showers form in all seasons except summer. The weather is relatively cloudy the entire year." Highest recorded temperature: 42.0 °C (107.6 °F) on 26 July 1966 Lowest recorded temperature: −25.0 °C (−13.0 °F) on 20 January 1964 Air pollution
8584-457: The code fas for the dialects spoken across Iran and Afghanistan. This consists of the individual languages Dari ( prs ) and Iranian Persian ( pes ). It uses tgk for Tajik, separately. In general, the Iranian languages are known from three periods: namely Old, Middle, and New (Modern). These correspond to three historical eras of Iranian history ; Old era being sometime around the Achaemenid Empire (i.e., 400–300 BC), Middle era being
8700-512: The collapse of the Sassanid state, Parsik came to be applied exclusively to (either Middle or New) Persian that was written in the Arabic script . From about the 9th century onward, as Middle Persian was on the threshold of becoming New Persian, the older form of the language came to be erroneously called Pahlavi , which was actually but one of the writing systems used to render both Middle Persian as well as various other Middle Iranian languages. That writing system had previously been adopted by
8816-606: The end of the 18th century, the city was divided into several districts, each ruled by a family, until 1799, when the Qajar Prince Abbas Mirza was appointed as the governor of the city. During the Qajar Empire the city was the residence for the crown prince. The crown prince normally served as governor of Azerbaijan province as well. Some of the most important events in this period were the wars between Qajar Iran and neighbouring Imperial Russia . Prior to
8932-538: The existing historical monuments including the Blue Mosque belong to the Qara Qoyunlu period. In 1501, Ismail I entered Tabriz and proclaimed it the capital of his Safavid state. In 1514, after the Battle of Chaldiran , Tabriz was sacked by Selim I . On 16 July 1534, prior to Ottoman conquest of Baghdad , Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha occupied Tabriz. In 1555, Tahmasp I transferred its capital to Qazvin to avoid
9048-652: The extent of its influence on certain languages of the Indian subcontinent. Words borrowed from Persian are still quite commonly used in certain Indo-Aryan languages, especially Hindi - Urdu (also historically known as Hindustani ), Punjabi , Kashmiri , and Sindhi . There is also a small population of Zoroastrian Iranis in India, who migrated in the 19th century to escape religious execution in Qajar Iran and speak
9164-475: The fall of the Russian empire in the early 20th century. After the retreat of the Russian army, Abbas Mirza , the Qajar Crown Prince, launched a modernization scheme from Tabriz, during which he introduced Western-style institutions, imported industrial machinery, installed the first regular postal service, and undertook military reforms in the city. He also began a rebuilding campaign and established
9280-430: The following phylogenetic classification: 8th century BC The 8th century BC started the first day of 800 BC and ended the last day of 701 BC . The 8th century BC was a period of great change for several historically significant civilizations. In Egypt , the 23rd and 24th dynasties lead to rule from Kingdom of Kush in the 25th Dynasty . The Neo-Assyrian Empire reaches the peak of its power, conquering
9396-401: The forced cession of Iran's Caucasian territories—comprising what is now Georgia , southern Dagestan , Azerbaijan , and Armenia —to Imperial Russia following the two Russo-Persian Wars of the first half of the 19th century, Tabriz, being strategically located, was instrumental to the implementation of Iranian rule in its Caucasian territories. During the last Russo-Persian War ( 1826–1828 ),
9512-577: The formation of many modern languages in West Asia, Europe, Central Asia , and South Asia . Following the Turko-Persian Ghaznavid conquest of South Asia , Persian was firstly introduced in the region by Turkic Central Asians. The basis in general for the introduction of Persian language into the subcontinent was set, from its earliest days, by various Persianized Central Asian Turkic and Afghan dynasties. For five centuries prior to
9628-476: The formation of the Achaemenid Empire and was spoken during most of the first half of the first millennium BCE. Xenophon , a Greek general serving in some of the Persian expeditions, describes many aspects of Armenian village life and hospitality in around 401 BCE, which is when Old Persian was still spoken and extensively used. He relates that the Armenian people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like
9744-605: The gradual increase and the dominance of Azerbaijani language in the area, other Iranian languages similar to Persian were spoken in Azerbaijan and Tabriz. The 13th-century manuscript Safina-yi Tabriz has poems in what its Tabriz-born author has called the Tabrizi language ( Zabān-e-Tabrizi ) which is similar to Persian . After being crowned at Tabriz in 1501, Shah Ismail I announced the Twelver branch of Shia Islam as
9860-618: The growing threat of the Ottoman army to his capital. Between 1585 and 1603, Tabriz was under occupation by Ottomans . After it was retaken by the Safavids under Abbas the Great , the city grew as a major commerce centre, conducting trade with the Ottoman Empire , Russia, and the Caucasus . Tabriz was occupied and sacked by Ottoman Murad IV in 1635, during the Ottoman–Safavid War (1623–39) , before being returned to Iran in
9976-569: The heat of the Iranian Revolution , revolutionary movements of some of Tabriz residents played a major role in the revolution. After the revolution, the residents of the city were unsatisfied with the outcome, mainly because of the ignorance of the revolutionary government about the rights of the Azerbaijani minority. Another major source of dissatisfaction was the support of most of Iranian Azerbaijanis including Tabriz residents from
10092-444: The king of the country following a coup d'état . He started with promises of modernization programs in Iran which was concentrated on the unification of the country, under the idea of one country, one nation . This included centralization of the power and imposing restrictions on the local culture, heritage, and language in Iranian Azerbaijan, and the city of Tabriz. The modernization and nationalization plan of Reza Shah continued until
10208-466: The language of the Persians. Related to Old Persian, but from a different branch of the Iranian language family, was Avestan , the language of the Zoroastrian liturgical texts. The complex grammatical conjugation and declension of Old Persian yielded to the structure of Middle Persian in which the dual number disappeared, leaving only singular and plural, as did gender. Middle Persian developed
10324-422: The legendary Garden of Eden was near Tabriz. Archaeologist Eric H. Cline commented on Rohl's views, writing that "his suggestions have not caught on with the scholarly establishment. His argument is not helped by the fact that it depends upon speculations regarding the transmission of place-names for both the various rivers and nearby related areas from antiquity to the present. In the end, while Rohl's suggestion
10440-432: The middle-period form only continuing in the texts of Zoroastrianism . Middle Persian is considered to be a later form of the same dialect as Old Persian. The native name of Middle Persian was Parsig or Parsik , after the name of the ethnic group of the southwest, that is, "of Pars ", Old Persian Parsa , New Persian Fars . This is the origin of the name Farsi as it is today used to signify New Persian. Following
10556-536: The most widely spoken. The term Persian is an English derivation of Latin Persiānus , the adjectival form of Persia , itself deriving from Greek Persís ( Περσίς ), a Hellenized form of Old Persian Pārsa ( 𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿 ), which means " Persia " (a region in southwestern Iran, corresponding to modern-day Fars ). According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the term Persian as
10672-466: The nationalist movement of the time. The academy was a key institution in the struggle to re-build Iran as a nation-state after the collapse of the Qajar dynasty. During the 1930s and 1940s, the academy led massive campaigns to replace the many Arabic , Russian , French , and Greek loanwords whose widespread use in Persian during the centuries preceding the foundation of the Pahlavi dynasty had created
10788-499: The necessity of protecting the Persian language against foreign words, and to the standardization of Persian orthography , were under the reign of Naser ed Din Shah of the Qajar dynasty in 1871. After Naser ed Din Shah, Mozaffar ed Din Shah ordered the establishment of the first Persian association in 1903. This association officially declared that it used Persian and Arabic as acceptable sources for coining words. The ultimate goal
10904-414: The next period most officially around the Sasanian Empire , and New era being the period afterward down to present day. According to available documents, the Persian language is "the only Iranian language" for which close philological relationships between all of its three stages are established and so that Old, Middle, and New Persian represent one and the same language of Persian; that is, New Persian
11020-676: The northern part of Greece). Vardar Yenicesi differed from other localities in the Balkans insofar as that it was a town where Persian was also widely spoken. However, the Persian of Vardar Yenicesi and throughout the rest of the Ottoman-held Balkans was different from formal Persian both in accent and vocabulary. The difference was apparent to such a degree that the Ottomans referred to it as "Rumelian Persian" ( Rumili Farsisi ). As learned people such as students, scholars and literati often frequented Vardar Yenicesi, it soon became
11136-542: The official language of the Achaemenid kings. Assyrian records, which in fact appear to provide the earliest evidence for ancient Iranian (Persian and Median) presence on the Iranian Plateau, give a good chronology but only an approximate geographical indication of what seem to be ancient Persians. In these records of the 9th century BCE, Parsuwash (along with Matai , presumably Medians) are first mentioned in
11252-490: The official religion of the Safavid Empire . As a result of this royal order, the mostly Sunni population of Tabriz was force converted to Shiism. Currently, the majority of people are followers of Shia Islam. The city has a visible Armenian Apostolic minority who follow Christianity . There used to be a small Jewish community, but most of them have moved to Tehran . There is also a small, embattled community of
11368-542: The present Tabriz are claimed to be built either at the time of the early Sassanids in the 3rd or 4th century AD, or later in the 7th century. The city used to be called T'awrēš in Middle Persian . After the Muslim conquest of Iran , the Arabian Azd tribe from Yemen resided in Tabriz. The development of post-Islamic Tabriz began as of this time. The Islamic geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi says that Tabriz
11484-694: The present territories of northwestern Afghanistan as well as parts of Central Asia, played a leading role in the rise of New Persian. Khorasan, which was the homeland of the Parthians, was Persianized under the Sasanians. Dari Persian thus supplanted Parthian language , which by the end of the Sasanian era had fallen out of use. New Persian has incorporated many foreign words, including from eastern northern and northern Iranian languages such as Sogdian and especially Parthian. The transition to New Persian
11600-547: The random strikes on the residential areas of the city in the later phase of the war. In recent years, Tabriz is much more stable and the new developments in the city are rapidly changing the face of the city. Tabriz was chosen as the capital by several rulers commencing from the time of Atropates . It was the capital of the Ilkhanate (Mongol) dynasty since 1265. During the Ghazan Khan era, who came into power in 1295,
11716-588: The region during the following centuries. Persian continued to act as a courtly language for various empires in Punjab through the early 19th century serving finally as the official state language of the Sikh Empire , preceding British conquest and the decline of Persian in South Asia. Beginning in 1843, though, English and Hindustani gradually replaced Persian in importance on the subcontinent. Evidence of Persian's historical influence there can be seen in
11832-602: The reign of Sultan Ghiyathuddin Azam Shah is described as the "golden age of Persian literature in Bengal". Its stature was illustrated by the Sultan's own correspondence and collaboration with the Persian poet Hafez ; a poem which can be found in the Divan of Hafez today. A Bengali dialect emerged among the common Bengali Muslim folk, based on a Persian model and known as Dobhashi ; meaning mixed language . Dobhashi Bengali
11948-613: The site of a flourishing Persianate linguistic and literary culture. The 16th-century Ottoman Aşık Çelebi (died 1572), who hailed from Prizren in modern-day Kosovo , was galvanized by the abundant Persian-speaking and Persian-writing communities of Vardar Yenicesi, and he referred to the city as a "hotbed of Persian". Many Ottoman Persianists who established a career in the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul ) pursued early Persian training in Saraybosna, amongst them Ahmed Sudi . The Persian language influenced
12064-573: The standard Persian of Tajikistan, has been officially designated as Tajik ( тоҷикӣ , tojikī ) since the time of the Soviet Union . It is the name given to the varieties of Persian spoken in Central Asia in general. The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa for the Persian language, as its coding system is mostly based on the native-language designations. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses
12180-717: The standard Persian. The Hazaragi dialect (in Central Afghanistan and Pakistan), Herati (in Western Afghanistan), Darwazi (in Afghanistan and Tajikistan), Basseri (in Southern Iran), and the Tehrani accent (in Iran, the basis of standard Iranian Persian) are examples of these dialects. Persian-speaking peoples of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan can understand one another with a relatively high degree of mutual intelligibility . Nevertheless,
12296-653: The surge of World War II. At the final year of the World War II despite the declaration of the neutrality by the Iranian government, the country was occupied by the allied forces. The allied forces then urged Reza Pahlavi to abdicate and installed his son Mohammad Reza as the new king of the country. The postwar situation was further complicated by Soviet aid to set up a local government called Azerbaijan People's Government in Northwest Iran , having Tabriz as its capital. The new Soviet-backed local government
12412-422: The use of Farsi in foreign languages. Etymologically, the Persian term Farsi derives from its earlier form Pārsi ( Pārsik in Middle Persian ), which in turn comes from the same root as the English term Persian . In the same process, the Middle Persian toponym Pārs ("Persia") evolved into the modern name Fars. The phonemic shift from /p/ to /f/ is due to the influence of Arabic in
12528-561: The westernmost end of Iran’s trade route and situated along the Silk Road , has long been a hub of commerce as well as culture and art. This strategic position facilitated both economic prosperity and the flourishing of cultural exchanges. In the modern era , the establishment of Memorial School in the late 19th century, followed by the founding of the University of Tabriz, along with the presence of intellectual movements, further boosted
12644-462: Was a village before Rawwad from the tribe of Azd arrive at Tabriz. In 791 AD, Zubaidah , the wife of Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid , rebuilt Tabriz after a devastating earthquake and beautified the city so much as to obtain the credit for having been its founder. In the Ramadan of 1208, Tabriz, as well as its adjacent cities and territories were conquered by the Kingdom of Georgia under Tamar
12760-597: Was already complete by the era of the three princely dynasties of Iranian origin, the Tahirid dynasty (820–872), Saffarid dynasty (860–903), and Samanid Empire (874–999). Abbas of Merv is mentioned as being the earliest minstrel to chant verse in the New Persian tongue and after him the poems of Hanzala Badghisi were among the most famous between the Persian-speakers of the time. The first poems of
12876-597: Was patronised and given official status under the Sultans of Bengal , and was a popular literary form used by Bengalis during the pre-colonial period, irrespective of their religion. Following the defeat of the Hindu Shahi dynasty, classical Persian was established as a courtly language in the region during the late 10th century under Ghaznavid rule over the northwestern frontier of the subcontinent . Employed by Punjabis in literature, Persian achieved prominence in
12992-486: Was run by Ja'far Pishevari and held power for one year starting from 1946. Pishevari's government gave more freedom to speech and education in Azerbaijani language and promoted local cultural heritage and gained some popularity among the residents. However, after the withdrawal of Soviet forces, Pishevari's limited armed forces were crushed by the Imperial Iranian army and the Iranian government retook control of
13108-687: Was sacked by Timur in 1392. Chosen as a capital by Abaqa Khan , fourth ruler of the Ilkhanate, for its favored location in the northwestern grasslands, in 1295, his successor Ghazan Khan made it the chief administrative centre of an empire stretching from Anatolia to the Oxus River and from the Caucasus to the Indian Ocean . Under his rule, new walls were built around the city, and numerous public buildings, educational facilities, and caravansarais were erected to serve traders travelling on
13224-438: Was subsequently retaken by the Iranian army, after which a widespread famine, combined with the spread of fatal diseases, killed more of those who still remained. In addition, another earthquake is disputed to have occurred in 1727 further adding to the region's instability at the time. In 1780, a major earthquake hit near Tabriz and killed as many as two hundred thousand people, leaving only about thirty thousand survivors. At
13340-613: Was taught in state schools, and was also offered as an elective course or recommended for study in some madrasas . Persian learning was also widespread in the Ottoman-held Balkans ( Rumelia ), with a range of cities being famed for their long-standing traditions in the study of Persian and its classics, amongst them Saraybosna (modern Sarajevo , Bosnia and Herzegovina), Mostar (also in Bosnia and Herzegovina), and Vardar Yenicesi (or Yenice-i Vardar, now Giannitsa , in
13456-492: Was to prevent books from being printed with wrong use of words. According to the executive guarantee of this association, the government was responsible for wrongfully printed books. Words coined by this association, such as rāh-āhan ( راهآهن ) for "railway", were printed in Soltani Newspaper ; but the association was eventually closed due to inattention. A scientific association was founded in 1911, resulting in
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