Firuzabad (Persian: فيروزآباد)[a] is a city in the Central District of Firuzabad County, Fars province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district.[4] Firuzabad is south of Shiraz. The city is surrounded by a mud wall and ditch.[5]
Firuzabad
Persian: فيروزآباد | |
|---|---|
City | |
 Aerial photo of the modern town of Firuzabad and the ancient circular city of Gor nearby | |
  Firuzabad | |
| Coordinates: 28°50′40″N 52°34′17″E / 28.84444°N 52.57139°E[1] | |
| Country | Iran |
| Province | Fars |
| County | Firuzabad |
| District | Central |
| Elevation | 1,467 m (4,813 ft) |
| Population (2016)[2] | |
| • Total | 65,417 |
| Time zone | UTC+3:30 (IRST) |
The original ancient city of Gor, dating back to the Achaemenid period, was destroyed by Alexander the Great. Centuries later, Ardashir I, the founder of the Sassanid Empire, revived the city before it was ransacked during the Arab Muslim invasion of the seventh century. It was again revived by the Buyids under Fanna Khusraw, but was eventually abandoned in the Qajar period and was replaced by a nearby town, which is now Firuzabad. Its only surviving structure is the central core an ancient tower.
History
edit
Gor dates back to the Achaemenid era. It was situated in a low-lying area of the region, so, during his invasion of Persia, Alexander the Great was able to drown the city by directing the flow of a river into the city. The lake he created remained until Ardashir I built a tunnel to drain it. He founded his new capital city on this site.[5]
Ardashir's new city was known as Khor Ardashīr, Ardashīr Khurrah and Gōr. It had a circular plan so precise in measurement that the Persian historian Ibn Balkhi wrote it to be "devised using a compass". It was protected by a trench 50 meters in width, and was 2 kilometers in diameter. The city had four gates; to the north was the Hormozd Gate, to the south the Ardashir Gate, to the east the Mithra Gate and to the west the Wahram Gate. The royal capital's compounds were constructed at the center of a circle 450 m in radius. At the center of the town there was a lofty platform or tower, called Terbal. It was 30 m high and spiral in design. The design is unique in Iran, and there are several theories regarding the purpose of its construction.[6][7] It is thought to have been the architectural predecessor of the Great Mosque of Samarra of Iraq and its distinctive minaret, the malwiya.[8] In the Sasanian period, the abbreviation ART (in Inscriptional Pahlavi) was used as the mint signature to refer to Gōr.[9]
Gōr and Istakhr strenuously resisted the invading Arab Muslims in the 630s and 640s; they were conquered by Abdallah ibn Amr in 649–50.[6]
The city's importance was revived again in the reign of Fanna Khusraw of the Buyid dynasty, who frequently used the city as his residence. It is at this time that the old name of the city, Gōr, was abandoned in favor of the new. In New Persian, spoken at the time, the word Gōr (گور) had come to mean "grave." King Adud al-Dawla, as the story goes, found it distasteful to reside in a "grave."[5] Per his instruction, the city's name was changed to Peroz-abad, "City of Victory." Since then, the city has been known by variations of that name, including Firuzabad (فیروزآباد Fīrūzābād).[6] However, there is a 7th-century Arab-Sassanian coin from Ardashir-Khwarra during Umayyad period in which pylwj'b'd (Pahlavi; Pērōzābād) is mentioned as the mint.[10][11]
The city was eventually abandoned in Qajar period and its nearby settlement was populated, which is now the modern Firuzabad located 3 km to the east of the site of Gor.[11] Today, among the attractions of Firuzabad are the Sassanid Ghal'eh Dokhtar, the Palace of Ardeshir, and the fire temple and its nearby Minar.
Demographics
editEthnicity
editAccording to a 1939 publication of the anthropologist Henry Field, 7,000 Circassians lived in Firuzabad.[12]
Population
editAt the time of the 2006 National Census, the city's population was 58,210 in 12,888 households.[13] The following census in 2011 counted 64,969 people in 16,617 households.[14] The 2016 census measured the population of the city as 65,417 people in 20,184 households.[2]
Climate
editFiruzabad has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification: BSh).
| Climate data for Firuzabad (1991-2021), extremes (2009-2021) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 25.2 (77.4) |
24.4 (75.9) |
28.8 (83.8) |
31.6 (88.9) |
38.2 (100.8) |
42.0 (107.6) |
42.7 (108.9) |
42.4 (108.3) |
39.6 (103.3) |
35.8 (96.4) |
31.6 (88.9) |
25.8 (78.4) |
42.7 (108.9) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 12.1 (53.8) |
14.1 (57.4) |
18.8 (65.8) |
24.4 (75.9) |
31.3 (88.3) |
35.7 (96.3) |
36.9 (98.4) |
36.1 (97.0) |
32.8 (91.0) |
27.5 (81.5) |
19.2 (66.6) |
14.6 (58.3) |
25.3 (77.5) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 7.2 (45.0) |
9.2 (48.6) |
13.4 (56.1) |
18.9 (66.0) |
25.3 (77.5) |
29.3 (84.7) |
30.7 (87.3) |
29.8 (85.6) |
26.6 (79.9) |
21.7 (71.1) |
14.1 (57.4) |
9.5 (49.1) |
19.6 (67.4) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 1.9 (35.4) |
3.5 (38.3) |
6.9 (44.4) |
12.0 (53.6) |
17.6 (63.7) |
21.3 (70.3) |
23.3 (73.9) |
22.2 (72.0) |
19.3 (66.7) |
14.9 (58.8) |
8.5 (47.3) |
4.0 (39.2) |
13.0 (55.3) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −2.0 (28.4) |
−5.2 (22.6) |
−2.0 (28.4) |
1.6 (34.9) |
6.6 (43.9) |
14.4 (57.9) |
19.4 (66.9) |
20.0 (68.0) |
16.4 (61.5) |
9.6 (49.3) |
1.4 (34.5) |
−0.2 (31.6) |
−5.2 (22.6) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 76.8 (3.02) |
89.1 (3.51) |
35.9 (1.41) |
53.0 (2.09) |
11.5 (0.45) |
0.4 (0.02) |
2.2 (0.09) |
2.0 (0.08) |
1.9 (0.07) |
2.1 (0.08) |
32.4 (1.28) |
65.2 (2.57) |
372.5 (14.67) |
| Source: Normals [1], Extremes and precipitation [2] | |||||||||||||
Education
editThe city has five universities: Firuzabad Higher education university, Islamic Azad University, Firuzabad Branch; Payame Noor University, Firuzabad center; a branch of Technical and Vocational University; and a branch of University of Applied Science and Technology.[15]
See also
edit- Ghal'eh Dokhtar in Firuzabad
- Palace of Ardeshir in Firuzabad
- Bishapur
- Cities of the Ancient Near East
- Round city of Baghdad, modeled after Firuzabad and other Parthian and Sassanian round cities
Notes
edit- ^ Also romanized as Fīrūzābād; also known as Piruzabad; Middle Persian: Ardashir-Khwarrah (The Glory of Ardashir) or Gōr; and Shahr-e Gūr (شهر گور)[3]
References
edit- ^ OpenStreetMap contributors (2 October 2024). "Firuzabad, Firuzabad County" (Map). OpenStreetMap (in Persian). Retrieved 2 October 2024.
- ^ a b Census of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1395 (2016): Fars Province. amar.org.ir (Report) (in Persian). The Statistical Center of Iran. Archived from the original (Excel) on 6 April 2022. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
- ^ Firuzabad, Fars can be found at GEOnet Names Server, at this link, by opening the Advanced Search box, entering "-3063026" in the "Unique Feature Id" form, and clicking on "Search Database".
- ^ Habibi, Hassan (c. 2023) [Approved 21 June 1369]. Approval of the organization and chain of citizenship of the elements and units of the national divisions of Fars province, centered in Shiraz. lamtakam.com (Report) (in Persian). Ministry of the Interior, Council of Ministers. Notification 82840/T128K. Archived from the original on 7 December 2023. Retrieved 7 December 2023 – via Lam ta Kam.
- ^ a b c Houtum-Schindler 1911.
- ^ a b c Foundation, Encyclopaedia Iranica. "Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica". iranicaonline.org.
- ^ "Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica".
- ^ "جامع کبیر". Archived from the original on 12 March 2016.
- ^ "หน้าหลัก" (PDF). 24 September 2023.
- ^ "Copper alloy fals of al-Hajjaj b. Yusuf, pylwj'b'd, nd H. 1985.43.2".
- ^ a b "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 April 2016. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ FIELD, H. (1939). CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF IRAN. Publications of the Field Museum of Natural History. Anthropological Series, 29(1), p. 209. from http://www.jstor.org/stable/29782234
- ^ Census of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1385 (2006): Fars Province. amar.org.ir (Report) (in Persian). The Statistical Center of Iran. Archived from the original (Excel) on 20 September 2011. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
- ^ Census of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1390 (2011): Fars Province. irandataportal.syr.edu (Report) (in Persian). The Statistical Center of Iran. Archived from the original (Excel) on 16 January 2023. Retrieved 19 December 2022 – via Iran Data Portal, Syracuse University.
- ^ "Islamic Azad university of Firuzabad". Retrieved 8 April 2020.
Sources
edit- Bosworth, C. E. (1986). "ARDAŠĪR-ḴORRA". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. II, Fasc. 4. pp. 384–385.
- Daryaee, Touraj (2012). "MEHR-NARSEH". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
- Houtum-Schindler, Albert (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 425.
- Huff, Dietrich (1999). "FĪRŪZĀBĀD". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. IX, Fasc. 6. pp. 633–636.
- Miri, Negin (2009). "Historical Geography of Fars during the Sasanian Period" (PDF). Sasanika. University of Sydney. pp. 1–65. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 April 2016. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
- Morony, M. (1986). "ʿARAB ii. Arab conquest of Iran". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. II, Fasc. 2. pp. 203–210.
- Perikhanian, A. (1983). "Iranian Society and Law". The Cambridge History of Iran: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian periods (2). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 627–681. ISBN 978-0-521-24693-4.
External links
edit- Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Series 5: Drawings and Maps, Records of Firuzabad Archived 2012-02-27 at the Wayback Machine Collections Search Center, S.I.R.I.S., Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
- "Ardašir Khureh (Firuzabad)". Livius.
- Fars Cultural Heritage Organization