DEHBĪD

 

DEHBĪD, town in the šahrestān of Ābāda, Fārs (30° 37’ N, 53° 12’ E), situated on the Shiraz-Isfahan road in a plain (elev. 2,300 m) 191 km northeast of Shiraz. The climate is dry and temperate. The Dehbīd river, which rises in the Gerdāb and Bīdestān mountains, flows south of the town, where it joins the Sīvand river. In the 10th century Dehbīd was mentioned by Maqdesī (Moqaddasī, p. 457) and Eṣṭaḵrī (p. 129) as a village and stage on the road from Eṣṭaḵr to Yazd and Khorasan. The construction of an octagonal caravansary (for a plan, see EIr. IV, p. 801 fig. 63[1]) in the late 16th century enhanced its importance and prosperity, which continued into the Qajar period. The caravansary stood near the hill known as Qaṣr-e Bahrām-e Gūr (Bahrām Gūr’s palace), near which, according to local legend, the Sasanian king Bahrām V (420-38) was trapped in quicksand and vanished (Āl-e Dāwūd, pp. 35, 200-01, 254, 273); the upper portion of the mound probably dates from the Sasanian period (Moṣṭafawī, p. 364). Near the end of the reign of Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah (1264-1313/1848-96) the caravansary was in ruins (Āl-e Dāwūd).

Today Dehbīd is a small town, with a population that has grown from 2,711 (856 households) in 1355 Š./1976 to 7,574 (1,505 households) in 1365 Š./1986 (Markaz-e āmār, 1361 Š./1982, p. 15; idem, 1368 Š./1989, pp. 20-21). The cause of this expansion may have been migration from surrounding villages. The town has a power station, a piped water supply, and a telephone network. There are a public library, a rural cooperative, and offices of several government agencies. The people are Shiʿite and are primarily occupied in agriculture, animal husbandry, and the service sector. Cottage industries include weaving of pile carpets, as well as jājīms and zīlūs; weaving of vegetal fibers; and making soap. The chief agricultural products of the region are wheat, barley, pulses, grapes, apricots, and peaches. Sheep and goats are reared in abundance; in 1360 Š./1981 there were approximately 4,000 head of sheep in Dehbīd (Jehād-e sāzandagī, 1363 Š./1984b, p. 25).

A white-stone shrine, known as Boqʿa-ye šohadāʾ or Boqʿa-ye Solṭān Ebrāhīm, is situated 14 km southwest of Dehbīd. It consists of a courtyard 7.20 m2, surrounded by four ayvāns, the largest of which contains a prayer hall (šabestān), with its back wall oriented toward Mecca. It is elaborately decorated with glazed tiles (moʿarraq). Particularly fine is the tile-mosaic facing of the moqarnas (oversailing courses of niches set at angles to one another) over the entrance to the prayer chamber. The architecture of the shrine suggests either the Āq Qoyunlū or the Timurid period. Located about 3 km from Boqʿa-ye šohadāʾ is a cluster of several mounds known collectively as Qaṣr-e Yaʿqūb (Moṣṭafawī, pp. 6-7).

 

Bibliography:

S. ʿA. Āl-e Dāwūd, ed., Do safar-nāma az janūb-e Īrān, Tehran, 1368 Š./1989.

Edāra-ye joḡrāfīāʾī-e arteš, Farhang-e joḡrāfīāʾī-e ābādīhā-ye Īrān XCIII, 1361 Š./1982, p. 75.

Fasāʾī, ed. Rastgār, II, p. 873.

Gazetteer of Iran III, pp. 205-06.

Jehād-e sāzandagī, Farhang-e ejtemāʿī-e dehāt o mazāreʿ-e ostān-e Fārs, Tehran, 1363 Š./1984a, p. 25.

Idem, Farhang-e eqteṣādī-e dehāt o mazāreʿ-e ostān-e Fārs, Tehran, 1363 Š./1984b, p. 25.

Markaz-e āmār-e Īrān, Āmār-nāma-ye ostān-e Fārs, 1364 Š./1985.

Idem, Farhang-e ābādīhā-ye kešvar (based on the census of 1355 Š./1976) XXIII, Tehran, 1361 Š./1982.

Idem, Sar-šomārī-e ʿomūmī-e nofūs o maskan-e šahrestān-e Ābāda (based on the census of 1365 Š./1986), Tehran, 1368 Š./1989.

M.-T. Moṣṭafawī, Eqlīm-e Pārs, Tehran, 1343 Š./1964.

Razmārā, Farhang VII, p. 106.

 

(Sayyed ʿAlī Āl-e Dāwūd)

Originally Published: December 15, 1994

Last Updated: November 18, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. VII, Fasc. 2, pp. 214-215