DARJAZĪN

 

DARJAZĪN (or Dargazīn), name of two rural subdistricts (dehestāns) and a village in the Razan district (baḵš) of Hamadān province. The administrative center for the subdistrict of Upper Darjazīn (Darjazīn-e ʿolyā) is Razan, for Lower Darjazˊīn (Darjazīn-e soflā) Fāmenīn. The average altitude of the Razan plain is 1,830 m above sea level, and winters are cold. The chief products of the region are grains, fruits (especially grapes), and dairy products. The village of Darjazīn (35° 21’ N, 49° 04’ E) is situated 83 km northeast of Hamadān in Upper Darjazīn subdistrict. The population was 2,825 in 1365 Š./1986 (Meʿmārīān, p. 89).

In the 11th century the Darjazīn area was populated by Mazdakites and the related Ḵorramīs (Anūšervān b. Ḵāled., apud ʿEmād Kāteb, p. 114 and Yāqūt, Boldān II, p. 569); it was also the native city of an important family of viziers (see Dargazīnī). In 1032/1622 Shah ʿAbbās I (996-1038/1588-1629) resettled some of the Sunni population of the Baghdad area around Hamadān (Dehgān, pp. 171-72; Krusinski, p. 70). The Ottoman writer Awlīāʾ Čelebī (IV, pp. 355-57), who passed through the area in 1065/1654, described the layout of the town and the Moḥarram mourning ceremonies of the Shiʿites there and also referred to the garrison and the fort. No trace remains of this fort, which Čelebī associated with the Sasanian king Yazdegerd, possibly referring to Yazdegerd I (399-420). After the Afghan invasion in 1135/1722 Darjazīn became the scene of conflict between Persia and the Ottoman empire, changing hands several times (Ḥazīn, pp. 91-93; Marvī, I, pp. 218, 221, 223). In the mid-19th century Zayn-al-ʿĀbedīn Šīrvānī (p. 311) reported that the population spoke Turkish and belonged to the Shiʿite Qaragozlū clan.

Two noteworthy shrines survive at Darjazīn. The Emāmzāda Aẓhar includes a circular tower with a conical dome 12 m high. A wooden chest in the shrine, part of which has been stolen, bears the date 1056/1646, but the building itself has been dated to the Mongol period. It may be the tomb of Shaikh Salmān ʿĀref Dargazīnī (13th century) or Shaikh Šaraf-al-Dīn Dargazīnī (14th century). The Emāmzāda Hūd, situated 3 km west of the Emāmzāda Aẓhar near the village of Yengī Qalʿa, is probably the ḵānaqāh (Sufi monastery) of Shaikh Šayʾ-Allāh Dargazīnī (late 14th century). It is a twelve-sided tower 11 m high (Wilber, p. 189, pls. 213-14; cf. Moṣṭafawī, pp. 204-10; Ḥāfeẓ Ḥosayn, I, pp. 129, 399, 578-79; Nozhat al-qolūb, ed. Le Strange, p. 73; cf. Sāzmān, pp. 228, 301; Dāyerat al-maʿāref, pp. 415, 481-82).

 

Bibliography:

P. Ad¨kāʾī, Dargazīn tā Kāšān, Tehran, 1372 Š./1993.

Awlīāʾ Čelebī, Sīāḥat-nāmasī, ed. A. Jawdat and N. ʿĀṣem, 6 vols., Istanbul, 1314-18/1896-1900.

Dāyerat al-maʿāref-e tašayyoʿ II, Tehran, 1368 Š./1989.

E. Dehgān, “Aqallīyathā-ye Erāq yā Sonnīhā-ye Dargazīn,” Yaḡmā 7/4, 1333 Š./1954, pp. 171-73.

ʿEmād Kāteb Eṣfahānī, Tārīḵ dawlat Āl Saljūq, Cairo, 1318/1900.

Ḥāfeẓ Ḥosayn b. Karbalāʾī, Rawżāt al-jenān wa jannāt al-jenān, ed. J. Solṭan-al-Qorrāʾī, 2 vols, Tehran, 1344-49 Š./1965-70.

Ḥazīn Lāhījī, Tārīḵ-e Ḥazīn, Isfahan, 1332 Š./1953.

J. Krusinski, Histoire des révolutions de Perse depuis le commencement de ce siècle, Paris, 1742.

Moḥammad-Kāżem Marvī, ʿĀlamārā-ye nāderī, ed. M.-A. Rīāḥī, 3 vols., Tehran, 1364 Š./1985.

A. Meʿmārīān, Farhang-e dehhā-ye Īrān. Ostān-e Hamadān, Tehran, 1369 Š./1990.

M.-T. Moṣṭafawī, Hegmatāna, Tehran, 1332 Š./1953.

Razmārā, Farhang V, p. 174.

Sāzmān-e mellī-e ḥefāẓat-e āṯār-e bāstānī-e Īrān, Fehrest-e banāhā-ye tārīḵī o amāken-e bāstānī-e Īrān, Tehran, 1345 Š./1966.

D. Wilber, Architecture of Islamic Iran. The Il Khānid Period, Princeton, N.J., 1955.

Ḥājj Zayn-al-ʿĀbedīn Šīrvānī, Bostān al-sīāḥa, Tehran, n.d.

(Parviz Aḏkāʾī)

Originally Published: December 15, 1994

Last Updated: November 17, 2011

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Vol. VII, Fasc. 1, pp. 55-56