DAŠTESTĀN

 

DAŠTESTĀN, šahrestān (subprovince) on the Persian Gulf coast in Būšehr province, bounded on the north and east by Fārs province, on the south by the šahrestān of Daštī, and on the west by the šahrestāns of Būšehr, Tangestān, and Ganāva. The adminstrative capital is Borāzjān. According to the census of 1365 Š./1986, the population of Daštestān was 175,406, 42 percent of which lived in urban, the remainder in rural areas (Natāyej, p. 2). The šahrestān of Daštestān is 6,150 km2 and comprises three districts, including a total of two towns, eight rural districts (dehestāns), and 197 villages. The districts are, first, Saʿdābād (ca 1,401 km2, population 6,654) in the northwestern part of the šahrestān, in which the town of Saʿdābād and the dehestāns of Zīrāh and Mazāreʿī are located; second, Šabānkāra (ca 1,042 km2) in the northwestern part of the šahrestān comprising only one dehestān; and the central district (ca 1,707 km2) in the south, comprising the rural units of Būškān, Ḥūma, Dālakī, Zīārat, and Gīsakān. Borāzjān is in this district.

The climate of Daštestān is warm and dry. The land rises toward the north, with a corresponding drop in temperature and increase in agricultural productivity. The Šabānkāra dam on the Šāpūr river in Šabānkāra dehestān, near the village of Dorāhī, irrigates the villages and fields of the southern region, where the major products are tobacco, dates (see DATE PALM), cereals, vegetables, cotton, sesame, and limes. Of the 3 million date palms in the province of Būšehr, 2.5 million are in Daštestān. People are also engaged in trade, manufacture of rugs, and weaving of ʿabāʾs. In the Qajar period Daštestān was a center for breeding Arabian horses (Afšār Sīstānī, pp. 829-38).

Archeological sites include two Achaemenid palaces, one in the town of Borāzjān, the other ca 12 km farther north in an area called Sang-e Sīāh (Sarfarāz). The town of Tawwaj, near the coast, was renowned for production of linen fabrics and linen garments known as Tawwazī; it was one of the ṭerāz cities of the Buyid ʿAżod-al-Dawla (Eṣṭaḵrī, p. 153; Ebn Ḥawqal, p. 293; Moqaddasī, p. 435; Ebn al-Balḵī, pp. 145-46; Yāqūt, Boldān I, p. 890; cf. Serjeant, pp. 80-84). Tawwaj was destroyed in the 12th century. A covered bāzār and the Mošīr-al-Molk caravansary date from the Qajar period (Sarfarāz); the latter was converted in the 1950s to a prison for political dissidents.

 

Bibliography:

Ī. Afšār Sīstānī, Negāh-ī be Būšehr, Tehran, 1369 Š./1990, pp. 15, 35, 139, 295; II, pp. 611, 619, 633, 652, 665, 723, 726, 736, 773.

A. Eqtedārī, Āṯār-e šahrhā-ye bāstānī-e sawāḥel wa jazāyer-e kalīj-e Fārs wa daryā-ye ʿOmān, Tehran, 1338 Š./1959.

ʿA. Farrāšbandī, Tārīḵ o joḡrāfīā-ye Borāzjān, Shiraz, n.d.

Idem, Gūša-ī az tārīḵ-e enqelāb-e mosallaḥāna-ye mardom-e mobārez-e Tangestān, Daštī wa Daštestān bar ʿalayh-e esteʿmār, Tehran, 1362 Š./1983.

Fasāʾī, ed. Rastgār, II, Tehran, 1367 Š./1988, pp. 1334-39.

Natāyej-e sar-šomarī-e ʿomūmī-e nofūs wa maskan. Mehr-māh-e 1365. šahrestān-e Būšehr, Tehran, 1365 Š./1986 (?).

ʿA.-A. Sarfarāz, “Kašf-e kāḵī az ʿahd-e Kūroš-e kabīr dar sawāḥel-e ḵalīj-e Fārs,” Bāstān-šenāsī wa honar-e Īrān 7-8, 1971, pp. 19-32.

R. B. Serjeant, “Material for a History of Islamic Textiles up to the Mongol Conquest,” Ars Islamica 10, 1943, pp. 71-104.

(Jamšīd Ṣadāqat-Kīš)

Originally Published: December 15, 1994

Last Updated: November 18, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. VII, Fasc. 1, pp. 103-104