Near the ancient urban ruins of Bost and Laškarī Bāzār the new town of Laškargāh, taking its name from the…

iii. Modern Town and District Bāmīān was destroyed by Jengiz Khan’s troops and did not recover quickly. The place was…

i. The Bāmīān Basin The town of Bāmīān owes its rise to the presence of a tectonic depression, the Bāmīān…

i. History and Modern Town Bam is a large oasis that owes its existence to the runoff from the Jabal…

ii. Shiʿism in Bahrain Bahrain came into the Iranian sphere of influence for the first time in the Sasanian period….

i. Geography Several interpretations of the name Bahrain, both popular and learned, have been put forward. The most probable (Oestrup)…

iii. Modern Town Baḡlān is a district and town of Afghanistan, in the upper valley of the Sorḵāb (Qondūz) river…

i. General Biogeography of natural occurrences of almond trees. The genus Amygdalus is very common in Iran and Afghanistan and…

i. Geography and Ethnography Geographical meaning and administrative divisions. The name Badaḵšān first occurs, in the form Po-to-chang-na, in a…

MAZĀR-E ŠARIF, the largest city of northern Afghanistan. The religious origins of the urban area. On the northern slope of…

ANDĪMEŠK (also ANDĀMEŠ, ANDĀLMEŠK), the name of medieval Dezfūl. Modern Andīmešk is the former village of Ṣāleḥābād, 8 km northwest…

ANGŪR, grapes. i. Production and trade. ii. In Afghanistan. iii. In literature. i. Production and Trade Origins and historical evolution….

ARĀK i. History. ii. Modern town and industry. iii. Basic population data, 1956-2011. i. History Arāk was originally the popular…

ARDABĪL i. History of Ardabīl. ii. Modern Ardabīl. iii. Monuments of Ardabīl. iv. Ardabīl Collection of Chinese Porcelain. v. Population, 1956-2011….

ARDESTĀN, a town of central Iran between Kāšān and Nāʾīn, lying on the very border of the Dašt-e Kavīr. i….

ARARAT, MOUNT (Pers. Kūh-e Nūḥ, Arm. Masis or Masik, Turk. Ağr dağ or Eğri dağ), extinct volcano in the northeastern…

i. The Town town in Māzandarān, formerly Bārforūš; Bābol lies near the Bābol river, occupying a central position in the…

BĀBOLSAR, town on the Caspian coast in the province of Māzandarān. It acquired its present name in 1306 Š./1927 [see…

BĀD (wind), phenomenon at ground level resulting from modifications of general airflows by local topographic factors. On the plateau of…

BĀDŪSPĀN or BĀDŪSBĀN, FĀDŪSBĀN, mountainous district of northern Iran on the Caspian side of the Alborz mountains, in Ṭabarestān (Māzandarān),…

BAHMANŠĪR (less commonly Bahmešīr, Bahmānšīr, or Baḥr al-Mašīr), the name of the distributary which branches off the left bank of…

BAND “dam.” General remarks. The word means something that factually or figuratively binds, ties, or restricts (cf. Av. banda- “bond,”…

BAND-E AMĪR, the chain of natural lakes 90 km west of Bāmīān in Afghanistan (30°12’ north latitude and 66° 30’…

BAND-E TORKESTĀN (boundary wall of Turkestan), or less commonly Tīrband-e Torkestān, the mountain range in northwestern Afghanistan which runs in…

BANDAR-E ʿABBAS(I) i. The City Geographical situation and historical background. At the entrance to the Persian Gulf, Bandar-e ʿAbbās extends…

BANDAR-e MĀHŠAHR (Bandar-e Maʿšūr), a port at the western end of the Persian Gulf, on the northern bank of the…

BANDAR-e GAZ, a port on the southern shore of the Astarābād bay in the southeastern Caspian Sea, a few kilometers from…

BANDAR-e ŠĀH (now Bandar-e Torkaman), a port on the southeastern Caspian Sea at the entrance of the Astarābād bay and…

BANDAR-e ŠĀHPŪR (Bandar-e Emām Ḵomeynī since the revolution of 1979), a port at the far end of the Persian Gulf,…

Azarbaijan i. Geography I. The geographic concept of Azarbaijan. A. The name of the country is derived from that of…

AHVĀZ ii. The Modern City Ahvāz was in the 19th century no more than a small borough inhabited by Šaʿb…

ĀBĀDĀN  ii. The modern city island and city in the ostān (province) of Ḵūzestān is located at the head of…

i. HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY The town of Ḡaznī dominates the route which, from Kabul to Qandahār (Kandahar), skirts southward around the…

iv. Modern Town The crisis in Balḵ’s urban evolution came in the mid-13/19th century. Great damage was done to the…

i. Geography The city of Bactra, later Balḵ, owed its importance to its position at the crossing of major routes:…

iii. IN PERSIA Sources and state of current knowledge. Based on numerous but fragmentary observations of earthquakes over a long…

MAZĀR-E ŠARIF, the largest city of northern Afghanistan. The religious origins of the urban area. On the northern slope of…

KERMAN ii. HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY THE NAME OF KERMAN In the early Achaemenid period, the name of Kerman (for most recent…

BŪŠEHR  i. THE CITY Geographic conditions and the origins of the military harbor. The city is situated at the northern…

KERMAN ii. Historical Geography THE NAME OF KERMAN In the early Achaemenid period, the name of Kerman (for most recent…

KASHAN ii. Historical Geography Geographic foundations and the origins of the urban area. To the northeast of the well-watered mountain…

KĀRIZ v. KĀRĒZ IN THE LATE 20TH CENTURY AND THEIR PROSPECTS In 1990 it was estimated that the kārēz technique…

KĀRIZ ii. TECHNOLOGY (1) Grade. The technology of kārēz exploits a difference in grade between a tunnel and the groundwater…

KANDAHAR i. Historical Geography to 1979 The Kandahar oasis. South of Afghanistan’s central mountains, a broad alluvial cone, with a…

KALĀT-E NĀDERI (lat 37°00′05′′ N, long 59°45′27′′ E), an elevated, isolated plateau in the mountains of Khorasan, some 150 km north…

KĀRIZ iii. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONTEXTS (1) Water supply. The absolute discharge is measured in cubic meter per hour (m³/hr)…

FĀRS i. Geography Evolution of the geographical concept. The name of Fārs is undoubtedly attested in Assyrian sources since the…

CITIES i. Geographical Introduction  There is a long history of settlement on Persian territory, where urban life was firmly established…

BOUNDARIES ii. With Russia West of the Caspian. The problem of drawing a stable territorial boundary between the Russian and…

KUŠK (also called Kušk Kohna; MacGregor, p. 542, uses the earlier spelling “Khūshk” [Ḵušk]), originally the name of a river…

FAMINES. Famines have been reported throughout Persian history by numerous authors and observers. According to a compilation made by Charles…

ECONOMY i. ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY The high plateau and its external relations. The heartland of the Iranian world, encompassing both Persia…

(OPers. drayah-, Mid. Pers. drayā, Av. zrayah-; sea, river) in Iranian culture. The role of the sea in Iranian culture evolved through a…

CHOLERA (Cholera asiatica, Cholera indica), epidemic intestinal disease of Indian origin caused by infectious bacteria. i. In Persia. ii. In…

CASPIAN SEA, actually a lake, the largest in the world (estimated surface area in 1986: 378,400 km², volume 78,600 km³;…

Before the period of war and unrest in Afghanistan that started in 1978, almost all the functions concerned with governing…

ISFAHAN ii. HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY: AN OVERVIEW SINCE ANCIENT TIMES The Isfahan oasis, as a prosperous area of agricultural life, eventually…

ISFAHAN i. GEOGRAPHY This entry will be divided into two sections: (1) Geography of the province. (2) Geography of the…

IRAN i. LANDS OF IRAN Iranian culture is inseparable from the geographical space within which it was formed and crystallized,…

HAMADĀN iii. HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY The city of Hamadān lies at the extreme northwest of the series of major urban sites…

Geography iii. POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY The significant Persian-speaking areas of the world are divided today into three states. One of them,…

Geography ii. HUMAN GEOGRAPHY The primordial component of the land of Iran, since it was a sedentary world as opposed…

GEOGRAPHY of Persia and Afghanistan. i. EVOLUTION OF GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE The concept of Iran and ancient Iranian geography (Justi; Spiegel,…

GARMSĪR AND SARDSĪR (warm zones and cold zones), two terms identifying regional entities that form a major geographical contrast deeply…

KĀRIZ i. TERMINOLOGY As noted above, kārēz is the established term for underground irrigation channels in eastern Iran. For early…

TEHRAN, capital city of Iran. i. A PERSIAN CITY AT THE FOOT OF THE ALBORZ At the northern borders of…

KĀRIZ iv. ORIGIN AND DISSEMINATION Where, when, and how was this very complex technique first developed, and what were the…

AFGHANISTAN xiii. FORESTS AND FORESTRY Geographical extension and types of forests. The development of forests is limited in Afghanistan not…