Khorasan
Encyclopedia
Khorasan (also transcribed as Khurasan and Khorassan, anciently called Traxiane during Hellenistic and Parthian
times) currently names a region located in north eastern Iran
, but historically referred to a much larger area east and north-east of the Persian Empire. The name Khorasan is Persian and means "where the sun arrives from." The name was given to the eastern province of Persia during the Sassanid Empire
.
Khorasan is famous world wide for its saffron
and zereshk which are produced in the southern cities of the province. Production is more than 170 tons per year. Khorasan is also known for its famous rug
s as well as for the Ferdousi and Imamreza shrines/tombs.
Khorasan was the largest province of Iran until it was divided to three provinces on September 29, 2004. The provinces approved by the parliament
(on May 18, 2004) and the Council of Guardians (on May 29, 2004) are:
Some parts of the province were added to
The older Persian province of Khorasan included parts which are today in Iran
, Afghanistan
, Tajikistan
, Turkmenistan
and Uzbekistan
. Some of the main historical cities of Persia are located in the older Khorasan: Nishapur
and Tus (now in Iran), Merv
and Sanjan
(now in Turkmenistan), Samarkand
and Bukhara
(both now in Uzbekistan), Herat
and Balkh
(now in Afghanistan), Khujand
and Panjakent
(now in Tajikistan). In its long history, Khorasan knew many conquerors and empires: Greeks
, Arab
s, Seljuk Turks, Safavids, Pashtuns (ethnic Afghans) and others.
The major ethnic groups in this region are Persian
s with Kurdish
, Turkish
and Turkmen
minorities. Most of the people in the region speak closely related modern day dialects of Persian
.However Khorasan, as a result of its troubled history, is peopled by a great variety of ethnic groups: Turcomans
in the northwest; Kurds around Bojnurd and Quchan
; Timuris and Jamshidis
in the east, some of whom are still nomadic and are believed to be of mixed Iranic and Turkic origin; and in the southeast, Baloch
people. The highlands in the south are home to a settled population of old Iranian stock. There is also a sizeable Afghan community in the province due to the influx of refugees from Afghanistan
in recent years. Here and there are found Berberis of Mongol origin (called Hazaras in Afghanistan), Khorasani Arabs, Gypsies, and a few Jews in the towns.
The largest cluster of settlements and cultivation stretches around the city of Meshed northwestward, containing the important towns of Quchan, Shirvan, and Bojnurd. The languages spoken in Khorasan are Persian
, Turkic languages
, and Kurdish
.
In August 1968 and September 1978, the region was the scene of two major earthquake
s that left 12,000 and 25,000 people dead, respectively.
Parthian Empire
The Parthian Empire , also known as the Arsacid Empire , was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Persia...
times) currently names a region located in north eastern Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, but historically referred to a much larger area east and north-east of the Persian Empire. The name Khorasan is Persian and means "where the sun arrives from." The name was given to the eastern province of Persia during the Sassanid Empire
Sassanid Empire
The Sassanid Empire , known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr and Ērān in Middle Persian and resulting in the New Persian terms Iranshahr and Iran , was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty from 224 to 651...
.
Khorasan is famous world wide for its saffron
Saffron
Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus, commonly known as the saffron crocus. Crocus is a genus in the family Iridaceae. Each saffron crocus grows to and bears up to four flowers, each with three vivid crimson stigmas, which are each the distal end of a carpel...
and zereshk which are produced in the southern cities of the province. Production is more than 170 tons per year. Khorasan is also known for its famous rug
Carpet
A carpet is a textile floor covering consisting of an upper layer of "pile" attached to a backing. The pile is generally either made from wool or a manmade fibre such as polypropylene,nylon or polyester and usually consists of twisted tufts which are often heat-treated to maintain their...
s as well as for the Ferdousi and Imamreza shrines/tombs.
Khorasan was the largest province of Iran until it was divided to three provinces on September 29, 2004. The provinces approved by the parliament
Majlis of Iran
The National Consultative Assembly of Iran , also called The Iranian Parliament or People's House, is the national legislative body of Iran...
(on May 18, 2004) and the Council of Guardians (on May 29, 2004) are:
- North Khorasan, center: Bojnourd, other counties: ShirvanShirvan CountyShirvan County is a county in North Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Shirvan. At the 2006 census, the county's population was 152,493, in 37,647 families. The county has three districts: Central District, Sarhad District, and Qushkhaneh District...
, Esfarayen, Garmeh and JajarmGarmeh and JajarmGarmeh and Jajarm is a former county in North Khorasan Province of Iran....
, ManehManehManeh may refer to:* Maneh District, an administrative subdivision of Iran* An older spelling for mina , an ancient weight...
and Samlaghan - South Khorasan, center: BirjandBirjandBirjand is the east Iranian provincial capital of South Khorasan and the centre of the county Birjand resp. Quhestan, known for its saffron, barberry, rug and handmade carpet exports....
, other counties: FerdowsFerdows CountyFerdows County is a county in the northwest of South Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Ferdows. The population of this county is about 40,000...
, QaenQaen CountyGhayen County is a county in South Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Ghayen. At the 2006 census, the county's population was 137,357, in 35,783 families. The county consists of five districts: Zirkuh District, Central District, Nimbeluk District, Zohan District, and Sedeh...
, NehbandanNehbandan CountyNehbandan County or Nahbandan County is a county in South Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Nehbandan. At the 2006 census, the county's population was 56,089, in 13,541 families. The county has two districts: Shusef District and Central District...
, SarayanSarayan CountySarayan County is a county in South Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Sarayan. Sarayan is located in northwest of the province. Sarayan County was belonged to Ferdows County until May 2004....
, SarbishehSarbisheh CountySarbisheh County is a county in South Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Sarbisheh. At the 2006 census, the county's population was 37,591, in 10,119 families. The county consists of two districts: Central District and Mud District...
and DarmianDarmian CountyDarmian County is a county in South Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Asadiyeh. It was separated from Birjand County in 2005. At the 2006 census, the county's population was 51,793, in 12,893 families. The county consists of three districts Central District, Qohestan...
. - Razavi Khorasan, center: MashhadMashhadMashhad , is the second largest city in Iran and one of the holiest cities in the Shia Muslim world. It is also the only major Iranian city with an Arabic name. It is located east of Tehran, at the center of the Razavi Khorasan Province close to the borders of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. Its...
, other counties: SabzevarSabzevar CountySabzevar County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Sabzevar. At the 2006 census, the county's population was 429,187, in 116,891 families; excluding those portions, the population was 296,034 in 82,431 families...
, NeyshabourNishapur CountyNishapur County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Nishapur. At the 2006 census, its population was 441,184, in 118,214 families; excluding those portions, the population was 391,361 in 105,633 families.The county includes the following four districts:...
, Torbat-e-HeydariyehTorbat-e-Heydarieh CountyTorbat-e-Heydarieh County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Torbat-e Heydarieh. At the 2006 census, its population was 261,917, in 67,735 families; excluding such portions, the population was 195,711 in 51,917 families...
, QuchanQuchan CountyQuchan County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Quchan. At the 2006 census, the county's population was 179,613, in 45,502 families. The county has two districts: Central District and Bajgiran District. The District has two cities: Quchan and...
, Torbat-e Jam, KashmarKashmar CountyKashmar County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Kashmar. At the 2006 census, its population was 146,536, in 39,554 families. The county is subdivided into two districts : the Central Distrct and Kohsorkh District...
, TaybadTaybad CountyTaybad County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Taybad. At the 2006 census, the county's population was 143,205, in 31,291 families; excluding such parts the population was 103,129 in 22,267 families...
, GonabadGonabad CountyGonabad County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Gonabad. At the 2006 census, its population was 106,158, in 30,357 families; excluding those portions, the population was 76,663 in 22,260 families...
, DargazDargaz CountyDargaz County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Dargaz. Its previous name was "Abivard". At the 2006 census, the county's population was 73,439, in 19,435 families. The county has four districts: Central District, Chapeshlu District, Lotfabad District,...
, SarakhsSarakhs CountySarakhs County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Sarakhs. At the 2006 census, the county's population was 85,524, in 19,485 families. The county has two districts: Central District and Marzdaran District...
, ChenaranChenaran CountyChenaran County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 108,533, in 26,937 families. The capital of the county is Chenaran. This city is about 45 KM west of Mashhad city. It is an agricultural city with population of about 30 - 35 thousands...
, FarimanFariman CountyFariman County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Fariman. At the 2006 census, the county's population was 86,428, in 20,925 families....
, KhafKhaf CountyKhvaf County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Khvaf. It is a small border town about 350 km from Mashhad....
, Roshtkhar, Bardaskan, KalatKalat CountyKalat County is a shahrestan in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Kalat. At the 2006 census, the county's population was 39,560, in 9,489 families. The County has two districts: Central District and Zavin District...
and Khalil Abad.
Some parts of the province were added to
- some southern parts to Sistan and Baluchestan Province
- some western parts to Yazd ProvinceYazd ProvinceYazd Province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the centre of the country, and its administrative center is the city of Yazd.The province has an area of 131,575 km², and according to the most recent divisions of the country, is divided into eleven counties: Maybod, Mehreez, Taft,...
The older Persian province of Khorasan included parts which are today in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, Tajikistan
Tajikistan
Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
, Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia is one of the Turkic states in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...
and Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
. Some of the main historical cities of Persia are located in the older Khorasan: Nishapur
Nishapur
Nishapur or Nishabur , is a city in the Razavi Khorasan province in northeastern Iran, situated in a fertile plain at the foot of the Binalud Mountains, near the regional capital of Mashhad...
and Tus (now in Iran), Merv
Merv
Merv , formerly Achaemenid Satrapy of Margiana, and later Alexandria and Antiochia in Margiana , was a major oasis-city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, located near today's Mary in Turkmenistan. Several cities have existed on this site, which is significant for the interchange of...
and Sanjan
Sanjan
Sanjan or Sangan may refer to:*Sanjan , a historic city in present-day Turkmenistan*Sanjan , a town in Gujarat named by Zoroastrian immigrants after the Sanjan in Khorasan*Sangan , a town in Balochistan province of Pakistan...
(now in Turkmenistan), Samarkand
Samarkand
Although a Persian-speaking region, it was not united politically with Iran most of the times between the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire and the Arab conquest . In the 6th century it was within the domain of the Turkic kingdom of the Göktürks.At the start of the 8th century Samarkand came...
and Bukhara
Bukhara
Bukhara , from the Soghdian βuxārak , is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 263,400 . The region around Bukhara has been inhabited for at least five millennia, and the city has existed for half that time...
(both now in Uzbekistan), Herat
Herat
Herāt is the capital of Herat province in Afghanistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of about 397,456 as of 2006. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan...
and Balkh
Balkh
Balkh , was an ancient city and centre of Zoroastrianism in what is now northern Afghanistan. Today it is a small town in the province of Balkh, about 20 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, and some south of the Amu Darya. It was one of the major cities of Khorasan...
(now in Afghanistan), Khujand
Khujand
Khujand , also transliterated as Khudzhand, , formerly Khodjend or Khodzhent until 1936 and Leninabad until 1991, is the second-largest city of Tajikistan. It is situated on the Syr Darya River at the mouth of the Fergana Valley...
and Panjakent
Panjakent
Panjakent , also spelled Panjikent, Panjekent or Penjikent, is a city in the Sughd province of Tajikistan on the Zeravshan River, with a population of 33,000 . It was once an ancient town in Sogdiana...
(now in Tajikistan). In its long history, Khorasan knew many conquerors and empires: Greeks
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
, Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
s, Seljuk Turks, Safavids, Pashtuns (ethnic Afghans) and others.
The major ethnic groups in this region are Persian
Persian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...
s with Kurdish
Kurdish people
The Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...
, Turkish
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
and Turkmen
Turkmen people
The Turkmen are a Turkic people located primarily in the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and northeastern Iran. They speak the Turkmen language, which is classified as a part of the Western Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages family together with Turkish, Azerbaijani, Qashqai,...
minorities. Most of the people in the region speak closely related modern day dialects of Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
.However Khorasan, as a result of its troubled history, is peopled by a great variety of ethnic groups: Turcomans
Turkmen people
The Turkmen are a Turkic people located primarily in the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and northeastern Iran. They speak the Turkmen language, which is classified as a part of the Western Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages family together with Turkish, Azerbaijani, Qashqai,...
in the northwest; Kurds around Bojnurd and Quchan
Quchan
Quchan is a city in and capital of Quchan County, in Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran. It is located due south of the border city of Ashgabat. At the 2006 census, its population was 96,953, in 25,066 families.-Population:...
; Timuris and Jamshidis
Aimak
Aymāq , also transliterated as Aimak or Aimaq, are a collection of Persian-speaking nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes. They are found throughout the north and northwest highlands of Afghanistan, immediately to the north of Herat, and in the Khorasan Province of Iran...
in the east, some of whom are still nomadic and are believed to be of mixed Iranic and Turkic origin; and in the southeast, Baloch
Baloch people
The Baloch or Baluch are an ethnic group that belong to the larger Iranian peoples. Baluch people mainly inhabit the Balochistan region and Sistan and Baluchestan Province in the southeast corner of the Iranian plateau in Western Asia....
people. The highlands in the south are home to a settled population of old Iranian stock. There is also a sizeable Afghan community in the province due to the influx of refugees from Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
in recent years. Here and there are found Berberis of Mongol origin (called Hazaras in Afghanistan), Khorasani Arabs, Gypsies, and a few Jews in the towns.
The largest cluster of settlements and cultivation stretches around the city of Meshed northwestward, containing the important towns of Quchan, Shirvan, and Bojnurd. The languages spoken in Khorasan are Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
, Turkic languages
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...
, and Kurdish
Kurdish language
Kurdish is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages....
.
In August 1968 and September 1978, the region was the scene of two major earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
s that left 12,000 and 25,000 people dead, respectively.