FENDERESK, a rural district (dehestān) of the county (šahrestān) of Gonbad-e Qābūs (q.v.). It is situated north of the Alborz range (q.v.) in the eastern part of Māzandarān, bordered to the north by the rural districts of Bāḡlī-mārāmā and Daland; to the east by Qalʿa-ye Mīrān; to the west by Katūl; and to the south by the district (baḵš) of Bāsṭām/Besṭām in Semnān province (Markaz-e āmār-e Īrān, Naqša, p. 17). Its lands are irrigated by the tributaries of the Gorgānrūd (Sāzmān-e Wezārat-e defāʿ, pp. 51, 59, 83, 92, 103, 172). Its principal agricultural products are wheat, barley, rice, cotton, cereals, potato, oilnuts, and various kinds of fruits. Its handicrafts include carpets, felt, jājīm, textiles, and mats made out of plants (Wezārat-e jehād, pp., 1342-45). According to Rabino (tr. p. 249), the Āq Emām shrine, revered by the Turkmens, was situated on a hill top in the vicinity of the hamlet Nīlī. The poet and scholar Mīr Abu’l-Qāsem Fendereskī (d. 1050/1640) was from this area. The little information we have about the history of this district belongs to the post-Safavid period and concerns a few minor events which took place there (Sotūda, VI, pp. 362-72; Hedāyat, Rawżat al-ṣafā IX, p. 10; Eʿtemād-al-Salṭana, Montaẓam-e nāṣerī II, p. 1177-78, III, p. 1360). According to Melgunov (tr. p. 70), in 1242/1826 the tribal nomads Godār (Godar) lived in the district of Fenderesk and the surrounding areas. In 1276/1859-60 the population of the district, made of twelve villages, comprised 1,300 households (ca. 6,570 souls). The census of 1296/1879 put its population at 7,912 (Ḏabīḥī, ed., in Gorgān-nāma, pp. 220, 236, 263-65). The people of Fenderesk were often in conflict with the Yomūt Turkomans (Qūrḵānčī, p. 31).
Bibliography:
M. Ḏabīḥī and M. Sotūda, Az Āstārā tā Estārbād VI, Tehran, 1354 Š./1975.
M. Ḏabīḥī, ed., Astarābād-nāma, Tehran, 2536=1356 Š./1977.
Idem, ed., “Nofūs-e Astarābād dar 1276,” in Ī. Afšār, ed., Gorgān-nāma, Tehran 1363 Š./1984.
Idem, “Ketābčā-ye nofūs-e Astarābād dar 1296-e hejrī-e qamarī,” in Ī. Afšār, ed., Gorgān-nāma, Tehran 1363 Š./1984.
Markaz-e āmār-e Īrān, Sar-šomārī-e ʿomūmī-e nofūs wa maskan, 1365. Farhang-e ābādīhā-ye kešvar: Šahrestān-e Gonbad-e Kāvūs, Tehran, 1368 Š./1989.
Idem, Naqša-ye taqsīmāt-e kešvarī, 1370, Ostān-e Māzandārān, Tehran, n.d.
G. V. Melgunov, Das südliche ufer des Kaspischen Meeres oder die Nordprovinzen Persiens, Leipzig, 1868; tr. M. Golzārī as Safar-nāma-ye Melkonof be sawāḥel-e janūbī-e daryā-ye Ḵazar, Tehran, 1364 Š./1985.
Moḥammad-ʿAlī Qūrḵānčī, Noḵba-ye sayfīya (dar tārīḵ o joḡrāfīā-ye Astarābād), ed. M. Etteḥādīya (Neẓām Māfī) and S. Saʿdvandīān, Tehran, 1360 Š./1981.
H. L. Rabino, Mázandarán and Astarábád; tr. Ḡ-ʿA. Waḥīd Māzandarānī as Māzandarān wa Astarābād, Tehran, 1365 Š./1986.
Sāzmān-e joḡrāfīāʾī-e kešvar, Naqša-ye ʿamalīyāt-e zamīnī-e Gorgān, Tehran, 1354 Š./1975.
Wezārat-e defāʿ, Edāra-ye joḡrāfīāʾī-e arteš, Farhang-e joḡrāfīāʾī-e ābādīhā-ye kešvar-e Jomhūrī-e Eslāmī-e Īrān XXIX: Šāhrūd (Gorgān), Tehran, 1367 Š./1988.
Wezārat-e jehād sāzandagī, Farhang-e eqteṣādī-e dehāt wa mazāreʿ-e ostān-e Māzandarān II, Tehran, 1363 Š./1984.
Wezārat-e kešvar, Taqsīmāt-e kešvar-e Jomhūrī-e Eslāmī-e Īrān, Tehran, 1373 Š./1994.
(Mīnū Yūsofnežād)
Originally Published: December 15, 1999
Last Updated: January 26, 2012
This article is available in print.
Vol. IX, Fasc. 5, pp. 503-504
