Qazvin
Qazvin (English pronunciation: /kæzˈviːn/, Persian: قزوین, IPA: [ɢæzˈviːn], also Romanized as Qazvīn, Kazvin, Qazwin, Ghazvin is the largest city and capital of the Province of Qazvin in Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 349,821, in 96,420 families.[1]
Located some 165 km northwest of Tehran, in the Qazvin Province, it is at an altitude of about 1800 meters above sea level. The climate is cold but dry, due to its position south of the rugged Alborz range.
History
The city was a former capital of the Persian Empire.[2] It is a provincial capital today that has been an important cultural center throughout history.
Archeological findings in the Qazvin plain reveal urban agricultural settlements for at least nine millennia. Qazvin geographically connects Tehran, Isfahan, and the Persian Gulf to the Caspian seacoast and Asia Minor, hence its strategic location throughout the ages.
The city today known as Qazvin is thought to have been founded by Shapur II, King of Persia in 250 CE, under the name Shad Shahpur, when he built a fortification there to control regional tensions.
Qazvin has sometimes been of central importance at important moments of Iranian history. Captured by invading Arabs (644 AD) and destroyed by Genghis Khan (13th century), Shah Tahmasp (1524–1576) made, for a time, Qazvin the capital of the Safavid empire (founded around 1510 AD).[2]
Qazvin is the place from which the famous coup d’état that led to the rise of the first Pahlavi dynasty was launched in 1921.
People
The majority of the people of the province and the city of Qazvin are Persians[3] and the main language of the people of Qazvin is Persian languages with the Qazvini accent.[4] Other languages include Tati (in Takestan), Kurdish, Azeri, Luri, Romani.[4]
Main sights
Qazvin contains several archeological excavations. And in the middle of the city lie the ruins of Meimoon Ghal'eh, one of several Sassanid edifices in the area.
Qazvin contains few buildings from the Safavid era, dating to the period in which it was capital of Persia. Perhaps the most famous of the surviving edifices is the Chehelsotoon (Kolah Farangi) mansion, today a museum in central Qazvin.
After Islam, the popularity of mystics (tasawwuf), as well as the prominence of tradition (Hadith), religious jurisprudence (fiqh), and philosophy in Qazvin, led to the emergence of many mosques and religious schools. They include:
- Jame' Atiq Mosque of Qazvin.
- Heydarieh mosque
- Masjed Al-nabi (Soltani Mosque): With an area of 14000 m2, this mosque is one of the most glorious mosques of antiquity, built in the Safavieh's monarchy era.
- Sanjideh Mosque: Another mosque of Qazvin dating back to pre-Islamic Iran; a former fire temple. Its present day form is attributed to the Seljukian era.
- Panjeh Ali Mosque: A former place of worship for royal harem members in the Safavid period.
- Peighambarieh School-Mosque: Founded 1644 according to inscription.
- Peighambarieh Shrine: Where four Jewish saints who foretold the coming of Christ, are buried.[5][6][7]
- Molla Verdikhani School-Mosque: Founded in 1648.
- Salehieh Madrasa and Mosque: Founded in 1817 by Mulla Muhammad Salih Baraghani.
- Sheikhol Islam School-Mosque: Renovated in 1903.
- Eltefatieh School: Dating back to the Il-Khanid period.
- Sardar School- Mosque: Made by two brothers Hossein Khan and Hassan Khan Sardar in 1815, as a fulfillment of their promise if they came back victorious from a battle against the Russians.
Qazvin contains three buildings built by Russians in the late 19th/early 20th century. Among these is the current Mayor's office (former Ballet Hall), a water reservoir, and the Cantor church, where a Russian pilot is buried.
Other attractions near Qazvin are the tombs of two Saljuki era princes, Aboo Saeed Bijar, son of Sad, and Aboo Mansoor Iltai, son of Takin — located in two separate towers known as the Kharaghan twin towers. Constructed in 1067 CE, these were the first monuments in Islamic architecture to include a non-conic two-layered dome.
Both towers were severely damaged by a devastating earthquake in March 2003.
Notable people
Aside from Shahzadeh Hossein, a Shiite saint, to whom a handsome shrine has been built, there have been an abundance of scientists and mystics who lived in Qazvin, or came from Qazvin, whose tombs are scattered throughout the cities and villages of the province. Some of these are:
- Seyyed Mohammadali Golriz , writer of the book Minoodar(( Babol jannat qazvin)) ,it is a two volume book about the history of Qazvin.
- Ali Akbar Dehkhoda: Prominent linguist and author of Iran's first modern Persian dictionary, originally from Qazvin.
- Obeid e Zakani: Famous 14th-century poet noted for his satire and obscene verses. His Masnavi Mush-O-Gorbeh ('Mouse and Cat') is a political satire.
- Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian: Famous Iranian artist and collector of folk art.
- Aref Ghazvini.
- Nassim Shomal.
- Táhirih
- Oveis Qarani: A celebrity of early Islam, thought to have been killed here while fighting against an army of Deilamian origin. His tomb is known as Sultan Veis.
- Hamdollah Mostowfi: The great Il-Khanid historian and writer (1281–1349) and author of The Selected History (Tarikh Gozideh), Nezhatol Qoloub and Zafar Nameh. The turquoise conic dome and its inscription in Sols calligraphy in which Mostowfi’s family tree and his works are introduced are the features that distinguish the tomb from other historical monuments of Qazvin.
- Imam Ahmad Ghazali: Famous Iranian sufi who died in 1126 CE and was buried beside Shahzadeh Hossein. His tomb was until the end of the 16th century the pilgrimage place for mystical sects. Following Shah Tahmasb's stern policies against philosophers and mystics, which led to the destruction of Ghazali's tomb, a group of his disciples took the remains of his body to the present place in Imamzadeh Ismail alley, where they constructed a new mausoleum. This monument was destroyed in Mohammad Shah Qajar's period, but was rebuilt by Majdol Islam Qazvini in 1910. Beside Ghazali's tomb there is another tomb belonging to Soltan Seyed Mohammad Vali, dating from 1625 CE.
- Molla Khalil Ibn Ghazi Qazvini: Famous faghih (religious jurist) and commentator of the Qur'anin the Safavid period (d 1678).
- Shahidsaless: Killed in 1846. The third religious leader after Imam Ali who was murdered during prayer.
- Ra'ees ol-Mojahedin: The late Mirza Hassan Sheikhol Islam, son of Mirza Masood Sheikhol Islam, leader of the liberals and constitutionalists of Qazvin, whose endeavors and devotion to abolish the Qajar dynasty and conquer Tehran brought the title of Raeesol Mojahedin (chief of fighters) for him.
- Ali Ibn Shäzän
- Ibn Majah, author of the last of the six canonical hadith collections recognized by Sunni Muslims.
- Kázim-i-Samandar
- Yousef Alikhani
- Mojabi family, a prominent family that originates from Qazvin including Javad Mojabi and Zohreh Mojabi.
- Nasser Takmil Homayoun
- Yusuf Siddique, contemporary linguistics professor, one of main proponents of Optimality theory outside of European academia.
- Jamal Karimi Rad, minister of justice of Iran.
Economy
Qazvin today is a center of textile trade, including cotton, silk and velvet, in addition to leather. It is on the railroad line and the highway between Tehran and Tabriz. Qazvin has one of the largest power plants feeding electricity into Iran's national power grid, the Shahid Raja'i facility, which provides 7% of Iran's electrical power.
Colleges and universities
Qazvin has four institutes of higher education:
Schools
See also
External links
References
- ^ "Census of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1385 (2006)" (Excel). Islamic Republic of Iran. http://www.amar.org.ir/DesktopModules/FTPManager/upload/upload2360/newjkh/newjkh/26.xls.
- ^ a b Iran (5th ed., 2008), by Andrew Burke and Mark Elliott, p. 28, Lonely Planet Publications, ISBN 9781741042931
- ^ Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, Peter McDonald, Meimanat Hosseini-Chavoshi, "The Fertility Transition in Iran: Revolution and Reproduction", Springer, 2009. pp 100-101: "The first category is 'Central' where the majority of people are Persian speaking ethnic Fars (provinces of Fars, Hamedan, Isfahan, Markazi, Qazvin, Qom, Semnan, Yazd and Tehran..."
- ^ a b The official Media from Qazvin- February 10-2010 [1].
- ^ http://nooraghayee.com/en/
- ^ http://www.iranian.com/Kasraie/2005/October/Qazvin/4.html
- ^ http://payvand.com/news/05/sep/1056.html
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