Isfahan
Isfahan or Esfahan is a city in the Central District of Isfahan County, Isfahan province, Iran. It is the capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is located south of Tehran. The city has a population of approximately 2,238,000, making it the third-most populous city in Iran, after Tehran and Mashhad, and the second-largest metropolitan area.
Isfahan is located at the intersection of the two principal routes that traverse Iran, north–south and east–west. Isfahan flourished between the 9th and 18th centuries. Under the Safavid Empire, Isfahan became the capital of Iran, for the second time in its history, under Abbas the Great. It is known for its Persian–Muslim architecture, grand boulevards, covered bridges, palaces, tiled mosques, and minarets. Isfahan also has many historical buildings, monuments, paintings, and artifacts. The fame of Isfahan led to the Persian proverb Esfahān nesf-e-jahān ast. Naqsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan is one of the largest city squares in the world, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Isfahan was the second Iranian city to experience the highest volume and number of Israeli airstrikes during the Twelve-Day War.
Etymology
The name Espahan is derived from Middle Persian Spahān, which is attested by various Middle Persian seals and inscriptions, including that of the Zoroastrian magi Kartir.The region is denoted by the abbreviation GD on Sasanian coins. In Ptolemy's Geographia, it appears as Aspadana or Aspazana, which translates to "place of gathering for the army". It is believed that Spahān is derived from spādānām "the armies", the Old Persian plural of spāda, from which is derived spāh 'army' and sipahi in Central Persian. Some of the other ancient names include Gey, Jey, Park, and Judea.
History
Human habitation in the Isfahan region can be traced back to the Palaeolithic period. Archaeologists have found artifacts dating back to the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron ages. During the Median rule, Isfahan became a regional centre, especially from the benefits of the Zayandehrud River. It was a religiously and ethnically diverse city during the reign of Cyrus the Great, and exhibited religious tolerance.The Arabs captured Isfahan in 642 CE. They made it the capital of al-Jibal province. The city further grew under the Buyid dynasty, and under the Seljuk dynasty. With the fall of the Seljuks in 1200 CE, the city temporarily declined but regained its importance during the Safavid era with the city's golden age under the rule of Abbas the Great who also moved his capital from Qazvin to Isfahan. During his reign, Turkish, Armenian, and Persian craftsmen were forcefully resettled in the city to ensure its prosperity. Later, the city also had enclaves for people of Georgian, Circassian, and Daghistani descent. The city once again declined after the Siege of Isfahan by Afghan invaders in 1722.
In the 20th century, Isfahan was resettled by many people from southern Iran, especially during the population migrations at the start of the century and in the 1980s following the Iran–Iraq War.
Zoroastrian era
Under Median rule, the commercial entrepôt began to show signs of more sedentary urbanism, growing into a regional centre that benefited from the fertile soil on the banks of the Zayandehrud River, in a region called Aspandana or Ispandana.When Cyrus the Great unified Persian and Median lands into the Achaemenid Empire, the religiously and ethnically diverse city of Isfahan became an early example of the king's fabled religious tolerance. It was Cyrus who, having just taken Babylon, made an edict in 538 BCE declaring that Jews in Babylon could return to Jerusalem. Later, some of the Jewish immigrants settled in Isfahan instead of returning to their homeland. The 10th-century Persian historian Ibn al-Faqih wrote:
The Parthians, continued the tradition of tolerance after the fall of the Achaemenids, fostering a Hellenistic dimension within Iranian culture and the political organization introduced by Alexander the Great's invading armies. Under the Parthians, Arsacid governors administered the provinces of the nation from Isfahan, and the city's urban development accelerated to accommodate the needs of a capital city.
The next empire to rule, the Sassanids, presided over massive changes in their realm, instituting sweeping agricultural reforms and reviving Iranian culture and the Zoroastrian religion. Both the city and region were then called by the name Aspahan or Spahan. The city was governed by a group called the Espoohrans, who descended from seven noble Iranian families. Extant foundations of some Sassanid-era bridges in Isfahan suggest that the Sasanian kings were fond of ambitious urban-planning projects. While Isfahan's political importance declined during this period, many Sassanid princes would study statecraft in the city, and its military role increased. Its strategic location at the intersection of the ancient roads to Susa and Persepolis made it an ideal candidate to house a standing army, which would be ready to march against Constantinople at any moment. The words "Aspahan" and "Spahan" are derived from the Pahlavi or Middle Persian meaning 'the place of the army'.
Although many theories have mentioned the origins of Isfahan, little is known of it before the rule of the Sasanian dynasty. The historical facts suggest that, in the late 4th and early 5th centuries, Queen Shushandukht, the Jewish wife of emperor Yazdegerd I, who was also the mother of his successor Bahram V, settled a colony of Jewish immigrants in Yahudiyyeh, a settlement northwest of the Zoroastrian city of Gabae that was located on the northern bank of the Zayanderud River. The gradual population decrease of Gay and the simultaneous population increase of Yahudiyyeh and its suburbs, after the Arab conquest of Iran, resulted in the formation of the nucleus of what was to become the city of Isfahan. The words "Aspadana", "Ispadana", "Spahan", and "Sepahan", all from which the word Isfahan is derived, referred to the region in which the city was located.
Isfahan and Gay were supposedly both circular in design, which was characteristic of Parthian and Sasanian cities. However, this reported Sasanian circular city of Isfahan has not yet been uncovered.
Muslim era
When the Arabs captured Isfahan in 642 CE, they made it the capital of al-Jibal province, an area that covered much of ancient Media. Isfahan grew prosperous under the Persian Buyid dynasty, which rose to power and ruled much of Iran when the temporal authority of the Abbasid leaders waned in the 10th century. The city walls of Isfahan are thought to have been constructed during the tenth century. The Turkish conqueror and founder of the Seljuq dynasty, Toghril Beg, made Isfahan the capital of his domains in the mid-11th century; but it was under his grandson Malik-Shah I that the city grew in size and splendour.After the fall of the Seljuqs, Isfahan temporarily declined and was eclipsed by other Iranian cities, such as Tabriz and Qazvin.
Khwarazmian and Mongol era
Timurid era
During his visit in 1327, Ibn Battuta noted that "The city of Isfahan is one of the largest and fairest of cities, but it is now in ruins for the greater part."In 1387, Isfahan surrendered to the warlord Timur. Initially treated with relative mercy, the city revolted against Timur's punitive taxes by killing the tax collectors and some of Timur's soldiers. In retribution, Timur ordered the massacre of the city residents, his soldiers killing a reported 70,000 citizens. An eye-witness counted more than 28 towers, each constructed of about 1,500 heads.
Safavid era
Isfahan regained its importance during the Safavid era. The city's golden age began in 1598 when the Safavid ruler Abbas the Great made it his capital and rebuilt it into one of the largest and most beautiful cities of the 17th-century. In 1598, he moved his capital from Qazvin to the more central Isfahan. He introduced policies increasing Iranian involvement in the Silk Road trade. Turkish, Armenian, and Persian craftsmen were forcefully resettled in the city to ensure its prosperity. Their contributions to the economic vitality of the revitalized city supported the recovery of Safavid glory and prestige, after earlier losses to the Ottomans and Qizilbash tribes, ushering in a golden age for the city.As part of Abbas's forced resettlement of peoples from within his empire, as many as 300,000 Armenians In Isfahan, he ordered the establishment of a new quarter for these resettled Armenians from Old Julfa, and thus the Armenian Quarter of Isfahan was named New Julfa.
Shah Abbas would also oversee a transformation of the urban pattern of Isfahan. The plans included the new, rectangular Shah Square and the linear Chahar Bagh Boulevard. Between these two focal points of Isfahan's urban revitalization was a large garden, what is today the Hasht Behesht Gardens. The new, geometric, planned portions of Isfahan would stand out against the old city's complex street layouts, attracting foreign emissaries and wealthy residents along the Chahar Bagh. Shah Square would be adorned by 4 grand monuments on each side. Importantly to the north, a turquoise gate connected the new square to Isfahan's Grand Bazaar and old square, while to the south, the Shah Mosque would become the new primary place of worship for city residents.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, thousands of deportees and migrants from the Caucasus settled in the city. Following an agreement between Abbas the Great and his Georgian subject Teimuraz I of Kakheti, whereby the latter became Muslim and accepted Safavid rule in exchange for being allowed to rule as the region's wāli, with his son serving as dāruḡa of Isfahan. He was accompanied by a troop of soldiers, some of whom were Georgian Orthodox Christians. The royal court in Isfahan had a great number of Georgian ḡolāms, as well as Georgian women. Although they spoke both Persian and Turkic, their mother tongue was Georgian. Now the city had enclaves of those of Georgian, Circassian, and Daghistani descent. Engelbert Kaempfer, who dwelt in Safavid Iran in 1684–85, estimated their number at 20,000.
During Abbas's reign, Isfahan became known in Europe, and European travellers, such as Jean Chardin, gave accounts of their visits to the city. The city was sacked by Afghan invaders in 1722, during a marked decline in Safavid influence. Thereafter, Isfahan experienced a decline in importance, culminating in moving the capital to Mashhad and Shiraz during the Afsharid and Zand eras, respectively, until it was finally moved to Tehran, in 1775, by Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, the founder of the Qajar dynasty.
In the early years of the 19th century, efforts were made to preserve some of Isfahan's archeologically important buildings. The work was started by Mohammad Hossein Khan, during the reign of Fath-Ali Shah Qajar.