Talesh County

Talesh County
شهرستان تالش
County

Nature of Asalem county
Country  Iran
Province Gilan
Capital Hashtpar
Bakhsh (Districts) Central District, Asalem District, Haviq District, Kargan Rud District
Population (2014)
 • Total 300,000
Time zone IRST (UTC+3:30)
 • Summer (DST) IRDT (UTC+4:30)
Gisoum forest road in Asalem, Gilan

Talesh, also called Tavalesh (Persian: شهرستان تالش‎) is a county in Gilan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Hashtpar. At the 2006 census, the county's population was 200,000, in 50,000 families.[1] The county is subdivided into four districts: the Central District, Asalem District, Haviq District, and Kargan Rud District. The county has five cities: Hashtpar, Lisar, Asalem, Chubar, and Haviq.

Talesh has mountainous wonderful areas, and its virgin and intact nature is a charming place for those eager of nature. Talesh is situated 140 km north-west of Rasht, on the south-west coast of the Caspian Sea. Talesh township, covering an area of 2373 square kilometers, ¼ of surface area of Gilan.

Knitting of socks and stockings, weaving of coarse wool blankets (jajim) are famous among different handicrafts of this township.

Sites and historical monuments

History

Taleshan are, as archaeological studies show and archeologists say, one of the oldest inhabitants of Caspian Sea, have lived in Talesh land in old Persia and present Iran, even before Aryans migration. According to some researchers, Taleshan have been in this area 3000 years before the Aryan. Because of their light skin and blue eyes, good indications that they may be the Aryans aran Iran. There is a strong believes from scholars (of course the present Taleshian people have faith it) that the Kadousian are the ancestor of the today’s Taleshian. In the triumph of Babel by Datam with 20,000 dogfaces and 4000 cavalry men helped Kourosh's army.

The land of Talesh was much bigger than what it is now. In old time the geographical areas of Taleshian people was more than 10,000 km² and at present Taleshan live in Gilan province, some cities in Ardabil province, some cities in Azarbaijan Republic.

Language

Generally speaking, the land of Talesh has been divided in three regions: Gaskarat (Masalli, Taskoh, Shanderman, Rezvashar, Hashtpar, Asalem, Astara ); Foumanat (Fouman, Masoleh, and Shaft); and Azerbaijan Taloshian ( Lankaran and Tahjikestan). In Gaskarat, the majority of people speak Taleshi and/or Azeri, Farsi. In Foumanat, most speak Taleshi. Lastly, Azerbaijan Taleshian is bilingual, consisting of Taleshi and Azeri speakers.

Gilaki and Taleshi are rapidly losing ground in many cities of Tavalesh due to heavy immigration of people from Azerbaijan.[2]

Race

Many believe that the Taleshan are the same Aryans, who later migrated to all over the Iran and India and Europe...Sir Arnold wilson wrote:

"Iran's primary inhabitants generations still in Gilan in the forest areas near a sea (Caspian sea) could be found, these people by Aryan desert settled people expelled from their fatherland and this started 2000 years before Christ and lasted for centuries) Sir Arnold Wilson was talking about Taleshian. Land of old Aran which from past till now was the house of Taleshan, was in fact the place that Aryans migration started from many researchers know Kadousian or the ancestors of Taleshian as the old natives of present Iran before the Aryan immigration. Present Taleshian beside other Iranians have a sense of proud of being Iranian and Aryan and are one of the little Iranian communities that kept their pure and Aryan culture."

Religion

Taleshian people at present are Sunni and Shia Muslims. Most of the southern and central Taleshian are Shia, and northern Taleshian are composed of both Shia and Sunni.

Agriculture

Rice has being cultivated in this region for many years, where some indigenous cultivars (landrace) were conventionally bred by farmers.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Census of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1385 (2006)" (Excel). Islamic Republic of Iran. Archived from the original on 2011-11-11.
  2. ↑ Gilan. — X. Languages (author Donald Stilo), pp. 660. // Encyclopaedia Iranica. Volume X: Fisheries — Gindaros. Fascicle 6. Edited by Ehsan Yarshater. New York: Bibliotheca Persica Press, 2001, 672 pages. ISBN 0-933273-56-8
    “ ... In Gīlān there are three major Iranian language groups, namely Gīlakī, Rūdbārī, and Ṭālešī, and pockets of two other groups, Tātī and Kurdish. The non-Iranian languages include Azeri Turkish and some speakers of Gypsy (Romany, of Indic origin). Gīlakī is spoken by possibly three million people as a first or second language, and has had a budding literature and fledgling prose publications, including newspapers, but both Gīlakī and Ṭālešī are rapidly losing ground in many cities of Tavāleš due to heavy immigration of people from Azerbaijan. ... ”
  3. ↑ Pazuki, Arman & Sohani, Mehdi (2013). "Phenotypic evaluation of scutellum-derived calluses in ‘Indica’ rice cultivars" (PDF). Acta Agriculturae Slovenica 101 (2): 239–247. doi:10.2478/acas-2013-0020. Retrieved February 2, 2014.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Talesh county.

Coordinates: 37°48′05″N 48°54′24″E / 37.801424°N 48.906695°E