Tabriz
Tabriz is a city in the Central District of Tabriz County, in 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.
The city of Tabriz lies close to the borders of the Republic of Azerbaijan, 130 kilometers from the Azerbaijan-Iran border.
Tabriz is in the Quru River valley in Iran's historic Azerbaijan region between long ridges of volcanic cones in the Sahand and Eynali mountains. Tabriz's elevation ranges between above sea level. The valley opens up into a plain that gently slopes down to the eastern shores of Lake Urmia, 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 a population of over 1.7 million, 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 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 is designated a World Heritage Site. From the early modern era, Tabriz was pivotal in the development of its three neighboring regions; namely the Caucasus, Eastern Anatolia and Central Iran. As the country's closest hub to Europe, many aspects of early modernization in Iran began in Tabriz. The Qajar dynasty was forced to cede the Caucasian territories to Imperial Russia following the two Russo-Persian Wars in the first half of the 19th century. Until 1925, the city was the traditional residence of the Qajar crown princes.
Etymology
According to some sources, including Encyclopædia Britannica, the name Tabriz derives from tap-riz, meaning "flowing hot", in reference to 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 Classical Armenian 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, a 13th-century Armenian historian; no ancient source records such an event. The historical Armenian name for the city was Tavrezh.
The Cambridge History of Iran points to a connection between the "ancient stronghold of Tarui-Tarmakisa", 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. However, some researchers believe that Tabriz may be considered a pre-Iranian toponym.
History
Early history
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 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 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 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.
Middle Ages
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 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 10th century, Ardabil briefly held the status of Azarbayjan's capital, only to be swiftly supplanted by Tabriz, situated 130 miles to the west. Tabriz swiftly rose to prominence as a pivotal commercial hub, facilitating trade between the Far East, Central Asia, and vital routes. It served as a nexus linking Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean, Anatolia, Constantinople, and extending northward through the Caucasus to the Ukraine, Crimea, and Eastern Europe.
In the Ramadan of 1208, Tabriz, as well as its adjacent cities and territories were conquered by the Kingdom of Georgia under Tamar 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. Nevertheless, the city recovered soon and many western expediters who visited Tabriz in the 13th century on their way to the east were amazed by the richness of the city, its magnificent buildings and its institutions. Marco Polo, who passed Tabriz around 1275 while travelling on the Silk Road, described it as: "a great city surrounded by beautiful and pleasant gardens. It 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."
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 the ancient Silk Road. The Byzantine Gregory Chioniades is said to have served as the city's Orthodox bishop during this time. At the same time, the Dominican Order established a Latin mission in Tabriz, which would become its own diocese under the archdiocese of Soltaniyeh for some decades in the 14th century.
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 the existing historical monuments including the Blue Mosque belong to the Qara Qoyunlu period. Tabriz was sacked by Timur in 1392, and he invested his son, Miranshah, as governor of the city.
Early modern 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 the growing threat of the Ottoman army to his capital.Between 1585 and 1603, Tabriz was under occupation by Ottomans, as a consequence of the Ottoman–Safavid War. 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, before being returned to Iran in the Treaty of Zohab in 1639. The city was completely devastated by a strong earthquake in 1641. The Capuchins founded a small house in the city around 1656.
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 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 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 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, 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 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 a modern taxation system.