MINĀB

 

MINĀB, city and sub-province in the province of Hormozgān.

The first mention of the toponym Mināb appears to be in Moḥammad-Jaʿfar Ḥosayni Ḵˇormuji’s 19th century Āṯār-e jaʿfari, under “Bandar-e ʿAbbās and its dependencies” (Ḥosayni Ḵˇormuji, p. 160). Mināb receives its name from Qalʿa-ye Minā (Minā castle), referred to in connection with the seven castles in the Hormuz region near Mināb, conquered in 1397 by Tamerlane’s son Sultan Moḥammad (Yazdi, I, p. 578; see also Ḥakim, pp. 820-21). References to Qalʿa-ye Minā appear also in later sources, while around 1873-88, Moḥammad-Ebrāhim Kāzeruni speaks of Minā district (boluk), Minā’s villages (qorāʾ), and Minā’s port (bandar; Kāzeruni, p. 125). Mināb belonged historically to the province of Kerman (see KERMAN i. GEOGRAPHY).

The town of Mināb is situated about 25 km off the northern shore of the Sea of Oman, at lat 27.15° N, long 57.08° E, and 16 meters above sea level. The district of Mināb is located on the tip of the arch parallel to the Strait of Hormuz, and is bounded on the northeast by the sub-province of Manujān in the province of Kermān, on the north by Rudān sub-province, on the west by Bandar-e ʿAbbās sub-province, and on the east by Jāsk sub-province. Its altitude rises from sea level at the coast to 1,500 meters in the highlands. North and northeastern parts of Mināb are mountainous, and central and western parts form a plain with an area of about 120 km2. The Godār Anjir, Tepe Safid, and Ḵāku chains form the mountainous heights of Mināb. The river Mināb, 240 km long, rises in the Sarvestān heights, flows across the city of Mināb, and discharges into the Sea of Oman. There are five minor seasonal rivers flowing in the sub-province as well. The city of Mināb has a warm, humid climate, with average temperatures ranging from 6° C in winter to 48° C in summer; the average annual rainfall is 253 mm (Sāzmān-e barnāma, p. 9; Sāzmān-e joḡrāfiāʾi, p. 15). Flora consists of ḥarrā trees (probably Avicennia marina or mangrove) covering an area of some 20 km², gaz (tamarisk), gavan (tragacanth), almonds (see bādām), and tāḡ (saxaul). Small quantities of chromate, sulfuric acid, magnesium, and iron-ore have been identified but not yet extracted (Afšār-Sistāni, p. 286; Sāzmān-e joḡrāfiāʾi, pp. 6-7, 23-25, 32).

Mināb’s economy is based on agriculture, fishing, and handicrafts. The sub-province ranks first in the quantity of date palms in Iran. Its other agricultural produce are mangoes, bananas, lemons, wheat, and barely. Its handicrafts consist of gold embroidery, mat weaving, pottery, and various kinds of traditional mattresses. Food and lemon juice production are among the few modern industries in Mināb (ʿAbd-Allāhi, pp. 34-35; Sāzmān-e joḡrāfiāʾi, pp. 31-32, 44; Afšār-Sistāni, p. 287).  The climatic conditions of Mināb are such that summer produce arrives between 40 to 50 days earlier than the national average (Afšār-Sistāni, p. 286), which is a remarkable economic advantage for Mināb.

The population the city of Mināb was 55,214 and that of Mināb sub-province was 256,557 in 2006. The sub-province is divided into three districts: Mināb, Biābān, and Senderk. Its main ports are Tiāb, Kuhestānak, Sirik, Kolāhi, and Kergān, each opening onto a small bay, locally called ḵavar (Afšār-Sistāni, p. 268; cf. the estuaries called ḵor, ḵowr or ḵawr in Khuzestan, on which see KARUN i. GEOGRAPHY). Majority of the population is Shiʿi, coexisting with a Sunni minority (Sāzmān-e joḡrāfiāʾi, p. 30). 

The native dialect of Mināb is closely related to the vernaculars spoken to its north in Manujān, Kahnuj, Rudbār, and Jiroft, which are, along with Mināb, districts historically belonging to the garmsir (warm lowlands) of Kerman province. These varieties form a dialect continuum that has been designated as the Garmsiri language type (see KERMAN xvi. LANGUAGES) commensurate with their climatic arrangement.

Bibliography:
M. ʿAbd-Allāhi, “Az Bandar-e Jarun tā Bandar-e ʿAbbās,” Āmār-nāma, Tehran, 1998.

L. W. Adamec, Historical Gazetteer of Iran IV, Graz, 1976, pp. 304-17.

I. Afšār Sistāni, Ostān-e Hormozgān, Tehran, 1999. 

A. Eqtedāri, Āṯār-e šahrhā-ye bāstāni-e sawāḥel o jazāyer-e Ḵalij-e Fārs o Daryā-ye ʿOmmān, Tehran, 1969.

E. Eṣlāh-ʿArabāni, ed., Rāhnemā-ye šahrestānhā-ye Irān, Tehran, 1966.

Moḥammad-Taqi Khan Ḥakim, Ganj-e dāneš: Joḡrāfiā-ye tāriḵi-e šahrhā-ye Irān, ed. M.-ʿA. Ṣawti and J. Kiānfar, Tehran, 1987.

M.-E. Kāzeruni, Tāriḵ-e banāder o jazāyer-e Ḵalij-e Fārs, Tehran, 1988.

M.-J. Ḥosayni Ḵˇormuji, Āṯār-e jaʿfari, Tehran, 1860.

Ḥ.-ʿA. Razmārā, ed., Farhang-e joḡrāfiāʾi-e Irān VIII. Ostān-e Haštom: Kermān o Makrān, Tehran, 1953, pp. 404-05.

Sāzmān-e barnāma va budje-ye Ostān-e Hormozgān, Āmār-nāma, Tehran, 1975-77.

Sāzmān-e joḡrāfiāʾi-e niruhā-ye mosallaḥ, Farhang-e ābādihā-ye ostān-e Hormozgān, šahrestān-e Mināb, Tehran, 2004.

Šaraf-al-Din ʿAli Yazdi, Ẓafar-nāma, Tehran, 1997.

(Jamšid Ṣedāqatkiš and EIr.)

Originally Published: December 27, 2017

Last Updated: December 27, 2017

Cite this entry:

Jamšid Ṣedāqatkiš and EIr., “MINĀB,” Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition, 2017, available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/minab (accessed on 27 December 2017).