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Tabriz Persian: تبریز
City
From top to bottom & from left to right: Skyline of the city, Tabriz Municipality Palace, El-Gölü, Arg of Tabriz, Blue Mosque, Bazaar of Tabriz, and Mausoleum of Poets.
Seal
Nickname:  City of Firsts
Tabriz
Coordinates: 38°04′53″N 46°18′02″E / 38.08139°N 46.30056°E / 38.08139; 46.30056[1]
Country	Iran
Region	3
Province	East Azerbaijan
County	Tabriz
District	Central
Government
• Mayor	Yaghoub Houshyar
• Chairman of City Council	Rasoul Bargi
• Parliament	Alirezabeighi, Saei, Farhanghi, Bimegdar, Pezeshkian & Saeidi
Area
• City	325 km2 (125 sq mi)
• Urban	512 km2 (198 sq mi)
• Metro	1,500 km2 (600 sq mi)
Elevation	1,351.4 m (4,433.7 ft)
Population  (2016)
• Urban	1,558,693[3]
• Metro	1,773,023[2]
• Rank	6th in Iran
Demonyms	Tabrizian, Tabrizli, Tabrizi
Time zone	UTC+3:30 (IRST)
Postal code	51368
Area code	041
Website	Tabriz municipality

Tabriz (Persian: تبریز, pronounced [tæbˈɾiːz] ^ⓘ; Azerbaijani: تبریز) is a city in the Central District of Tabriz County, in the East Azerbaijan province of northwestern Iran. It is the sixth-most-populous city in Iran.

Tabriz is in the Quru River valley in Iran's historic Azerbaijan region^[4] between long ridges of volcanic cones in the Sahand and Eynali mountains. Tabriz's elevation ranges between 1,350 and 1,600 m (4,430 and 5,250 ft) above sea level. The valley opens up into a plain that gently slopes down to the eastern shores of Lake Urmia, 60 km (37 mi) to the west. The city was named World Carpet Weaving City by the World Crafts Council in October 2015^[5] and Exemplary Tourist City of 2018 by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.^[6][7]

With a population of over 1.7 million (2016),^[8] Tabriz is the largest economic hub and metropolitan area in northwest Iran. The population is bilingual with most people speaking Azeri as their native language and Persian as their second language.^[9] Tabriz is a major heavy industries hub for automobiles, machine tools, refineries, petrochemicals, textiles and cement production industries.^[10] 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.^[11][12] Among these sites is the grand Bazaar of Tabriz, which is designated a World Heritage Site.^[13][14] From the early modern era, Tabriz was pivotal in the development, movement and economy of its three neighboring regions; namely the Caucasus, Eastern Anatolia and Central Iran.^[15] In the modern era the city played a vital role in the history of Iran. As the country's closest hub to Europe, many aspects of early modernization in Iran began in Tabriz.^[15] Prior to forced ceding of the Qajar dynasty's Caucasian territories to Imperial Russia, following two Russo-Persian Wars in the first half of the 19th century, Tabriz was at the forefront of Iranian rule over its Caucasian territories. Until 1925, the city was the traditional residence of the Qajar crown princes.

Etymology

According to some sources,^[16] including Encyclopædia Britannica,^[17] the name Tabriz derives from tap-riz ('flowing hot'), from the many thermal springs in the area.

Other sources^[18][19] 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 "ta-vrezh" ("this revenge" in Grabar). In AD 297, it became the capital of Tiridates III, king of Armenia.^[20] However, this story has a popular origin and no ancient source has recorded such event. This is based on accounts of Vardan Areveltsi, a 13th-century Armenian historian.^[21] Accordingly, the historical Armenian name for the city was Tavrezh (Armenian: Թաւրէժ, romanized: T'avrēž).^[22]

The Cambridge History of Iran^[23] points to a connection between the "ancient stronghold of Tarui-Tarmakisa" (or Tarwi-Tarwakisa), which existed in the 8th century BC,^[24][25] and the city of Tabriz, with Ernst Emil Herzfeld's Archaeological History of Iran^[26] also directly equating "Tarwakisa" with Tabriz; cf Proto-Iranian tr̥Hwáns (able to overcome). However, some researchers believe that Tabriz may be considered a pre-Iranian toponym.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[27] 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 BC.^[28]

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."^[29]

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.^[30] The city used to be called T'awrēš in Middle Persian.

From the Arab conquest to the Constitutional Revolution

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.^[21] 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.^[11][20]

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.^[31] The Georgians then pushed further, taking Khoy and Qazvin along the way.^[32][33]

After the Mongol invasion, Tabriz came to eclipse Maragheh as the later Ilkhanid Mongol capital of Azerbaijan until it was sacked by Timur in 1392.^{[dubious – discuss]}

Chosen as a capital by Abaqa Khan, fourth ruler of the Ilkhanate, for its favored location in the northwestern grasslands,^[34] 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.^{[citation needed]}

In the 13th century, many western expediters who visited Tabriz on their way to the east were amazed by the richness of the city, its magnificent buildings and its institutions.^[35]

Marco Polo travelled the Silk Road, passing Tabriz about 1275, 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."^[36]

From 1375 to 1468, Tabriz was the capital of Qara Qoyunlu state in Azerbaijan,^[37] 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.

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.^[38] In 1555, Tahmasp I transferred its capital to Qazvin to avoid the growing threat of the Ottoman army to his capital.

Panoramic view of Tabriz sketched by Jean Chardin, 1673

Between 1585 and 1603, Tabriz was under occupation by Ottomans. After it was retaken by the Safavids under Abbas I of Persia, the city grew as a major commerce centre, conducting trade with the Ottoman Empire, Russia, and the Caucasus.^[39] Tabriz was occupied and sacked by Ottoman Murad IV in 1635, during the Ottoman–Safavid War (1623–39), before being returned to Persia in the Treaty of Zohab in 1639. The city was completely devastated by a strong earthquake in 1641.^[40]

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.^[41] 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 1780, a major earthquake hit near Tabriz and killed as many as two hundred thousand people, leaving only about thirty thousand survivors.^[42]

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.^[43] During the Qajar dynasty 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 (1826–1828), the city was captured for Russia in 1828 by General Prince Eristov, who marched into the city with 3,000 soldiers.^[44] 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.^[44] 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.^[45]

• 
  Saheb-ol-Amr Mosque and Quru river, Eugène Flandin 1841.
• 
  Sketch of the gate of Tabriz, Eugène Flandin 1841.
• 
  A sketch of a 19th-century house in Tabriz, Eugène Flandin.
• 
  Painting of Blue mosque, Jules Laurens, 1872.

Contemporary era

Thanks to the geographical closeness to the West and to communications with nearby countries' enlightenment movements, Tabriz became the centre of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution movements between 1905 and 1911, which led to the establishment of a parliament in Iran and the formation of a constitution. Sattar Khan and Bagher Khan, two Tabrizi reformists who led Tabriz people's solidarity against the absolute monarchy, had a great role in achievement to the goals of Iran's constitutional revolution. In 1909, Tabriz was occupied by the Russian forces.^[46] Four months after the constitutional revolution's success, in December 1911, the Russians reinvaded Tabriz. After crushing the local resistance by invading Russian troops, they started suppressing the constitutional revolutionaries and residents of the city. Following the invasion, Russian troops executed about 1,200 of Tabriz residents.^[47] As a result of the campaign, Tabriz was occupied by the Russian forces between 1911 and 1917.^[46]

• 
  Siege of Tabriz during Constitutional Revolution, September 27, 1908.
• 
  Constitutional revolutionists defending Davachi bridge against monarchists, May 1, 1909.
• 
  Constitutionals in Tabriz, 1911.
• 
  Ark of Tabriz and US flag in the days after constitutional revolution, 1911.

From the very start of World War I, Iran declared neutrality. When the war erupted on a full scale, Tabriz and much of northwestern-northern Iran had already been de facto occupied by Russia for several years. In later years of World War I, the Ottoman troops intervened and took control of the city by defeating the Russian troops stationed there.^[44] By this time, the Ottoman army led by Enver Pasha threatened the whole Russian army in the Caucasus region.^[44] Russian troops recaptured the city from the Ottomans at a later stage of the war. By escalation of the revolution in Russia, the Russian armies in Iranian Azerbaijan were evacuated, and the actual power passed into the hands of the local committee of the democrat party, with Ismail Nawbari at its head.^[44] Following Russia's retreat, the Ottomans captured the city once again for a few months until the decisive end of the war, and retreated thereafter. After World War I, a new era in the county's history began. Reza Shah, brigadier-general of the Persian Cossack Brigade, declared himself the king of the country following a coup d'état. He started with promises of modernization programs in Iran which was concentrated on the unification of the country, under the idea of one country, one nation. This included centralization of the power and imposing restrictions on the local culture, heritage, and language in Iranian Azerbaijan, and the city of Tabriz.^[48] The modernization and nationalization plan of Reza Shah continued until the surge of World War II.

At the final year of the World War II despite the declaration of the neutrality by the Iranian government, the country was occupied by the allied forces. The allied forces then urged Reza Shah to abdicate and installed his son Mohammad Reza as the new king of the country. The postwar situation was further complicated by Soviet aid to set up a local government called Azerbaijan People's Government in Northwest Iran, having Tabriz as its capital. The new Soviet-backed local government was run by Ja'far Pishevari and held power for one year starting from 1946. Pishevari's government gave more freedom to speech and education in Azerbaijani language and promoted local cultural heritage and gained some popularity among the residents. However, after the withdrawal of Soviet forces, Pishevari's limited armed forces were crushed by the Imperial Iranian army and the Iranian government retook control of the city. One of the major establishments in the period of Pishevari's government was opening of the University of Tabriz which played a major role in the later political movements and protests in the region.^[49][50]

• 
  Russian Invasion of Tabriz, 1911.
• 
  Soviet artillery units passing through Tabriz, World War II.
• 
  Soviet Tank and troops marching through Tabriz, World War II.
• 
  Soviet T-26 Tank passing through the main street of Tabriz, World War II.

For the next 30 years, after the collapse of Azerbaijan's autonomous government, Tabriz enjoyed a stable era until the revolution in 1979. During this period the city received significant investment in its industries and transformed into a heavy-industry hub in the northwestern Iran. The need for a strong workforce increased immigration from all around Azerbaijan toward Tabriz. During this era and because of the continuous policy of the government centralization in Tehran as well as changes in communication and transportation, the city lost its historical dominance, but turned into the gate for reform and modernization of the country.

Starting with 1978 and with the heat of the Iranian Revolution, revolutionary movements of some of Tabriz residents played a major role in the revolution. After the revolution, the residents of the city were unsatisfied with the outcome, mainly because of the ignorance of the revolutionary government about the rights of the Azerbaijani minority.^{[citation needed]} Another major source of dissatisfaction was the support of most of Iranian Azerbaijanis including Tabriz residents from a more liberal cleric, Grand Ayatollah Shariatmadari, who was against the content of the new constitution which was mixing religion and state together. The unrest in the city calmed down after brutal crush of the protesters in Tabriz and after house arrest of Shariatmadari.^[51]

In the 1980s, due to the Iran–Iraq War, like the rest of the country, most of the construction and development projects in the city were stopped in order to fund the war costs. In addition to the indirect effects of the war, city's industrial zone, especially the oil refinery was also a major target for airstrikes by Iraqi's air forces because of the closeness to the Iraqi borderlines, and their strategic roles in the country's economy. With the escalation of the war, the attacks turned to War of the Cities and the air attacks later turned into the random strikes on the residential areas of the city in the later phase of the war.^[52]

In recent years^[when?], Tabriz is much more stable and the new developments in the city are rapidly changing the face of the city.

Capital of dynasties, empires, and kingdoms before modern day

Tabriz was chosen as the capital by several rulers commencing from the time of Atropates. It was the capital of the Ilkhanate (Mongol) dynasty since 1265. During the Ghazan Khan era, who came into power in 1295, the city reached its highest splendour. The later realm stretched from the Amu Darya in the East to the Egypt borders in the West and from the Caucasus in the North to the Indian Ocean in the South.^[53] It was again the capital of Iran during the Qara Qoyunlu dynasty from 1375 to 1468 and then during the Ag Qoyunlu within 1468–1500 and it was capital of Iran in the Safavid period from 1501 until their defeat in 1555.^[54]

During the Qajar dynasty, Tabriz was used as residence centre of Iranian Crown Prince (1794–1925).

Excavation sites

In 2002, during a construction project at the north side of the Blue Mosque (Part of Silk Road Project), an ancient graveyard was revealed. This was kept secret until a construction worker alerted the authorities. Radiocarbon analysis by Allameh Tabatabai University has shown the background of the graves to be more than 3,800 years old. A museum of these excavations including the Blue Mosque was opened to the public in 2006.

The other excavation site is in Abbasi Street at the site of Rab'-e Rashidi, which was the location for an academic institution since approximately 700 years ago. It was established in Ilkhanid period.

Geography

Topography

Tabriz is located in northwest of Iran in East Azerbaijan province between Eynali and Sahand mountains in a fertile area inshore of Aji River and Quri River. The local area is earthquake-prone and during its history, the city has been devastated and rebuilt several times.

Climate

Tabriz has a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen: BSk, Trewartha: BS) bordering on a humid continental climate with hot summers (Köppen: Dsa, Trewartha: Dc). The annual precipitation is around 260 mm (10 in), a good deal of which falls as snow during the winter months and rain in spring and autumn. The city enjoys a mild and fine climate in spring and autumn, is hot and dry in summer, while snowy and cold in winter. The average annual temperature is 13.1 °C (55.6 °F). Cool winds blow from east to west, mostly in summer.^[55]

Highest recorded temperature:42.0 °C (107.6 °F) on 26 July 1966
Lowest recorded temperature: −25.0 °C (−13.0 °F) on 20 January 1964^[56]