ESTAHBĀN

 

ESTAHBĀN (also Eṣṭahbānāt, or Eṣṭahbānān; colloquial Sābūnāt), town and district in Fārs, bordered in the north by the Baḵtagān lake, in the northeast and the east by Neyrīz/Nīrīz, in the south by Dārāb, in the southwest by Fasā, and in the west by Shiraz (qq.v.) The name was officially changed from Eṣṭahbānāt to Estahbān on 1 Ābān 1351 Š./22 October 1972). In 1991 the district had a population of 62,541, of which 49.2 percent lived in urban areas (Markaz-e āmār, p. 10). The Zagros mountain range runs through the district. Its lands are irrigated by wells, springs, qanāts, and seasonal rivers (Edāra-ye joḡrāfīāʾī, pp. 2-3). The main crops of its lands are wheat and barley (principally through dry-farming), sugar beet, and saffron (Razmārā, Farhang VII, pp. 11-12). Its main botanic wealth are oak, Jordan almond, and Persian turpentine, and on its mountain slopes gum tragacanth and asafetida plants grow. Its wild animal population includes bucks, rams, deer, and leopards. It has animal husbandry and carpet-weaving (Edāra-ye joḡrāfīāʾī, CIV, pp. 3-4). Its temperature ranges between -6 and 39 degrees Celsius in January and August respectively (Wezārat-e rāh wa tarābarī, 1363, p. 330). City ruins and an old fortress located in the village of Īj (q.v.) are Estahbān’s historical monuments. Its monuments include Pīr-e Morād shrine, the congregation mosque, whose meḥrāb dates back to the 11th/17th century, several other mausoleums, and the ruins of Qalʿa-ye doḵtar (Moṣṭafawī, pp. 89-90, 437, 498; Razmārā, Farhang VII, p. 17). Estahbān is mentioned by the author of Persian Ḥodūd al-ʿālam (comp. 272/982-83; ed. Sotūda, p. 135; see also Eṣṭaḵrī, p. 108; Ebn Ḥawqal, tr. Kramers, pp. 268, 288; Moqaddasī, pp. 26, 52, 423, 448; Ebn al-Balḵī, pp. 131, 157; Nozhat al-qolūb, ed. Le Strange, p. 138). In 1002/1593-94 a group of leaders of the Noqṭawīya movement were massacred there (Eskandar Beg, I, p. 476; Mīrḵᵛānd [Tehran], VIII, pp. 276). In 1208 Loṭf-ʿAlī Khan Zand fought Qajar forces in this district and seized its fortresses without resistance (Mūsawī Eṣfahānī, pp. 377-78). During Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah’s reign Estahbān had 2,000 households, and its farm lands and orchards, irrigated by spring water, produced wheat, barley, cotton, poppy, (wild) orange, pomegranate, fig, and sardsīr (cold land) fruits (Fasāʾī, ed. Rastgār, I, p. 776; II, p. 1255). Estahbān’s population in 1291 Š./1912 was 17,000 (Kayhān, II, p. 242).

 

Bibliography (for cited works not given in detail, see “Short References”):

Edāra-ye joḡrāfīāʾī-e arteš, Farhang-e joḡrāfīāʾī-e ābādīhā-ye kešvar-e Jomhūrī-e eslāmī-e Īrān: Neyrīz, Tehran, 1362 Š./1983.

Markaz-e āmār-e Īrān, Āmār-gīrī-e jārī-e jamʿīyat 1370: Natāyej-e ʿomūmī-e ostān-e Fārs, Tehran, 1372 Š./1993.

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

M.-Ṣ. Mūsawī Eṣfahānī, Tārīḵ-e gītīgošā, Tehran, 1363 Š./1984.

Wezārat-e rāh wa tarābarī, Daftarča-ye masāfāt-e rāhhā-ye kešvar, Tehran, 1366 Š./1987.

Idem, Sāl-nāma-ye hawā-šenāsī 1354-55, Tehran, 1363 Š./1984.

(Mīnū Yūsof-nežād)

Originally Published: December 15, 1998

Last Updated: January 19, 2012

This article is available in print.
Vol. VIII, Fasc. 6, p. 642