172-524: Gilan province ( Persian : استان گیلان ) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran , in the northwest of the country. Its capital is the city of Rasht . The province lies along the Caspian Sea , in Iran's Region 3 , west of the province of Mazandaran , east of the province of Ardabil , and north of the provinces of Zanjan and Qazvin . It borders Azerbaijan ( Astara District ) in the north. The northern section of
344-638: A Dari dialect. In the 19th century, under the Qajar dynasty , the dialect that is spoken in Tehran rose to prominence. There was still substantial Arabic vocabulary, but many of these words have been integrated into Persian phonology and grammar. In addition, under the Qajar rule, numerous Russian , French , and English terms entered the Persian language, especially vocabulary related to technology. The first official attentions to
516-569: A Persian compound of bagh ( [REDACTED] ) "god" and dād ( [REDACTED] ) "given". In Old Persian the first element can be traced to boghu and is related to Indo-Iranian bhag and Slavic bog "god." A similar term in Middle Persian is the name Mithradāt ( Mehrdad in New Persian ), known in English by its borrowed Hellenistic form Mithridates , meaning "Given by Mithra " ( dāt
688-636: A Shi'i adhān (call to prayer) was implemented in Baghdad and a khutbah (sermon) was delivered in the name of the Fatimid Imam-Caliph. Despite his Shi'i inclinations, Al-Basasiri received support from Sunnis and Shi'is alike, for whom opposition to the Saljuq power was a common factor. On 10 February 1258, Baghdad was captured by the Mongols led by Hulegu , a grandson of Chingiz Khan ( Genghis Khan ), during
860-752: A clan of the Oghuz Turks from Central Asia that converted to the Sunni branch of Islam. In 1040, they destroyed the Ghaznavids , taking over their land and in 1055, Tughril Beg , the leader of the Seljuks, took over Baghdad. The Seljuks expelled the Buyid dynasty of Shiites that had ruled for some time and took over power and control of Baghdad. They ruled as Sultans in the name of the Abbasid caliphs (they saw themselves as being part of
1032-418: A dictionary called Words of Scientific Association ( لغت انجمن علمی ), which was completed in the future and renamed Katouzian Dictionary ( فرهنگ کاتوزیان ). The first academy for the Persian language was founded on 20 May 1935, under the name Academy of Iran . It was established by the initiative of Reza Shah Pahlavi , and mainly by Hekmat e Shirazi and Mohammad Ali Foroughi , all prominent names in
1204-429: A dozen occasions at this time of year and has never exceeded 1 mm (0.04 in). Even at night, temperatures in summer are seldom below 24 °C (75 °F). Baghdad's record highest temperature of 51.8 °C (125.2 °F) was reached on 28 July 2020. The humidity is typically under 50% in summer due to Baghdad's distance from the marshy southern Iraq and the coasts of Persian Gulf , and dust storms from
1376-473: A handsome portion of the proceeds. In the mid-19th century, a fatal epidemic among the silk worms paralyzed Gilan's economy, causing widespread economic distress. Gilan's budding industrialists and merchants were increasingly dissatisfied with the weak and ineffective rule of the Qajars . Re-orientation of Gilan's agriculture and industry from silk to production of rice and the introduction of tea plantations were
1548-450: A language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Farsi , which is the Persian word for the Persian language, has also been used widely in English in recent decades, more often to refer to Iran's standard Persian. However, the name Persian is still more widely used. The Academy of Persian Language and Literature has maintained that the endonym Farsi is to be avoided in foreign languages, and that Persian
1720-549: A large margin, the heaviest rainfall in Iran: reaching as high as 1,900 millimetres (75 in) in the southwestern coast and generally around 1,400 millimetres (55 in). Rasht, the capital of the province, is known internationally as the "City of Silver Rains" and in Iran as the "City of Rain". Rainfall is heaviest between September and December because the onshore winds from the Siberian High are strongest, but it occurs throughout
1892-417: A literary language considerably different from the spoken Persian of the time. This became the basis of what is now known as "Contemporary Standard Persian". There are three standard varieties of modern Persian: All these three varieties are based on the classic Persian literature and its literary tradition. There are also several local dialects from Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan which slightly differ from
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#17328449862152064-437: A new Provincial Council was elected. This system of 127 separate councils may seem overly cumbersome; however, Baghdad Province is home to approximately seven million people. At the lowest level, the neighborhood councils, each council represents an average of 75,000 people. The nine District Advisory Councils (DAC) are as follows: The nine districts are subdivided into 89 smaller neighborhoods which may make up sectors of any of
2236-481: A partial answer to the decline of silk in the province. After World War I , Gilan came to be ruled independently of the central government of Tehran and concern arose that the province might permanently separate. Before the war, Gilanis had played an important role in the Constitutional Revolution of Iran . Sepahdar-e Tonekaboni (Rashti) was a prominent figure in the early years of the revolution and
2408-529: A period of several centuries, Ottoman Turkish (which was highly Persianised itself) had developed toward a fully accepted language of literature, and which was even able to lexically satisfy the demands of a scientific presentation. However, the number of Persian and Arabic loanwords contained in those works increased at times up to 88%. In the Ottoman Empire, Persian was used at the royal court, for diplomacy, poetry, historiographical works, literary works, and
2580-601: A result, it was one of the wealthiest provinces in Iran. Safavid annexation in the 16th century was at least partially motivated by this revenue stream. The silk trade, though not the production, was a monopoly of the Crown and the single most important source of trade revenue for the imperial treasury. As early as the 16th century and until the mid 19th century, Gilan was the major exporter of silk in Asia. The Shah farmed out this trade to Greek and Armenian merchants and, in return, received
2752-580: A speaker of Persian. Persian is a member of the Western Iranian group of the Iranian languages , which make up a branch of the Indo-European languages in their Indo-Iranian subdivision . The Western Iranian languages themselves are divided into two subgroups: Southwestern Iranian languages, of which Persian is the most widely spoken, and Northwestern Iranian languages, of which Kurdish and Balochi are
2924-518: A way for the religious to perform ablutions as prescribed by Islam. Moreover, entry fees were usually so low that almost everyone could afford them. In the center of the city lay the mosque , as well as headquarters for guards. The purpose or use of the remaining space in the center is unknown. The circular design of the city was a direct reflection of the traditional Near Eastern urban design . The Sasanian city of Gur in Fars , built 500 years before Baghdad,
3096-605: Is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages . Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and used officially within Iran , Afghanistan , and Tajikistan in three mutually intelligible standard varieties , respectively Iranian Persian (officially known as Persian ), Dari Persian (officially known as Dari since 1964), and Tajiki Persian (officially known as Tajik since 1999). It
3268-466: Is a Caspian language, and a member of the northwestern Iranian language branch, spoken in Iran's Gilan, Mazandaran and Qazvin provinces. Gilaki is one of the main languages spoken in the province of Gilan and is divided into three dialects: Western Gilaki, Eastern Gilaki, and Galeshi (in the mountains of Gilan and Mazandaran). The western and eastern dialects are separated by the Sefid Roud. Although Gilaki
3440-644: Is a continuation of Middle Persian , an official language of the Sasanian Empire (224–651 CE), itself a continuation of Old Persian , which was used in the Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BCE). It originated in the region of Fars ( Persia ) in southwestern Iran. Its grammar is similar to that of many European languages. Throughout history, Persian was considered prestigious by various empires centered in West Asia , Central Asia , and South Asia . Old Persian
3612-553: Is a direct descendant of Middle and Old Persian. Gernot Windfuhr considers new Persian as an evolution of the Old Persian language and the Middle Persian language but also states that none of the known Middle Persian dialects is the direct predecessor of Modern Persian. Ludwig Paul states: "The language of the Shahnameh should be seen as one instance of continuous historical development from Middle to New Persian." The known history of
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#17328449862153784-497: Is also home to a large number of museums, most notably the National Museum. Being the capital of Iraq, it home to the country's government institutions and generates 44% of Iraq's economic output. The name Baghdad is pre-Islamic, and its origin is disputed. The site where the city of Baghdad developed has been populated for millennia. Archaeological evidence shows that the site of Baghdad was occupied by various peoples long before
3956-463: Is also home to the grave of Abu Hanifa where there is a cell and a mosque above it. The Sultan of Baghdad, Abu Said Bahadur Khan , was a Tatar king who embraced Islam. In its early years, the city was known as a deliberate reminder of an expression in the Qur'an , when it refers to Paradise . It took four years to build (764–768). Mansur assembled engineers, surveyors, and art constructionists from around
4128-408: Is also spoken in the province of Gilan as it is Iran's official language, requiring everyone to know Persian. Heritage language data as of 2022: Mother tongue data as of 2022: At the time of the 2006 National Census, the province's population was 2,381,063 people in 669,221 households. The following census in 2011 counted 2,480,874 in 777,316 households. The 2016 census measured the population of
4300-765: Is also spoken natively in the Tajik variety by a significant population within Uzbekistan , as well as within other regions with a Persianate history in the cultural sphere of Greater Iran . It is written officially within Iran and Afghanistan in the Persian alphabet , a derivative of the Arabic script , and within Tajikistan in the Tajik alphabet , a derivative of the Cyrillic script . Modern Persian
4472-424: Is associated with fire and symbolizes productivity, pride, and expansion and Leo's connection symbolically to Mithra. The bricks used to make the city were 18 in (460 mm) on all four sides. Abu Hanifah was the counter of the bricks and he developed a canal, which brought water to the work site for both human consumption and the manufacture of the bricks. Marble was also used to make buildings throughout
4644-654: Is attested in Old Persian cuneiform on inscriptions from between the 6th and 4th century BC. Middle Persian is attested in Aramaic -derived scripts ( Pahlavi and Manichaean ) on inscriptions and in Zoroastrian and Manichaean scriptures from between the third to the tenth centuries (see Middle Persian literature ). New Persian literature was first recorded in the ninth century, after the Muslim conquest of Persia , since then adopting
4816-425: Is conventionally divided into three stages: Early New Persian remains largely intelligible to speakers of Contemporary Persian, as the morphology and, to a lesser extent, the lexicon of the language have remained relatively stable. New Persian texts written in the Arabic script first appear in the 9th-century. The language is a direct descendant of Middle Persian, the official, religious, and literary language of
4988-404: Is home to numerous historic mosques , as well as a large number of churches, mandis and synagogues , highlighting the historical diversity of the city. Baghdad's urban space is defined by historic streets, avenues, alleyways and squares. The city is holds numerous, such as "City of Palaces", as its home to numerous palaces such as Abbasid Palace , Radwaniyah Palace and Al-Faw Palace . Baghdad
5160-659: Is known as the battle of Saddam City in March 1991. However, as the situations eased, the government began beautifying the city. Saddam built numerous palaces across the country, as well as in Baghdad. He also constructed several monuments in Baghdad. Many of them were built around war-torn period. Most of the palaces were built after the two wars. In 2003, the invasion of Iraq by the United States caused huge damage to Baghdad's transportation, power, and sanitary infrastructure. The coalition forces launched massive aerial assaults in
5332-604: Is more likely that they were a separate people, had come from the region of Dagestan , and taken the place of the Kadusii. That the native inhabitants of Gilan have some originating roots in the Caucasus is supported by genetics and language, as the Y-DNA of Gilaks most closely resemble that of Georgians and other South Caucasus peoples, while their mtDNA closely resembles other Iranian groups. Their languages shares typologic features with
Gilan province - Misplaced Pages Continue
5504-657: Is nearly identical in its general circular design, radiating avenues, and the government buildings and temples at the center of the city. Much earlier, circular cities had existed in the Syro-Mesopotamian heartland, one of the better-known examples being Mari , while Tell Chuera and Tell al-Rawda also provide examples of this type of urban planning existing in bronze age Syria . This style of urban planning contrasted with Ancient Greek and Roman urban planning, in which cities are designed as squares or rectangles with streets intersecting each other at right angles. Baghdad
5676-455: Is not actually attested until 600 years later when it appears in the Sassanid era (224–651 AD) inscriptions, so any form of the language before this date cannot be described with any degree of certainty. Moreover, as a literary language, Middle Persian is not attested until much later, in the 6th or 7th century. From the 8th century onward, Middle Persian gradually began yielding to New Persian, with
5848-468: Is one of Afghanistan's two official languages, together with Pashto . The term Dari , meaning "of the court", originally referred to the variety of Persian used in the court of the Sasanian Empire in capital Ctesiphon , which was spread to the northeast of the empire and gradually replaced the former Iranian dialects of Parthia ( Parthian ). Tajik Persian ( форси́и тоҷикӣ́ , forsi-i tojikī ),
6020-570: Is one of the earliest attested Indo-European languages. According to certain historical assumptions about the early history and origin of ancient Persians in Southwestern Iran (where Achaemenids hailed from), Old Persian was originally spoken by a tribe called Parsuwash , who arrived in the Iranian Plateau early in the 1st millennium BCE and finally migrated down into the area of present-day Fārs province. Their language, Old Persian, became
6192-463: Is pronounced " a-ga-dè " ("Agade") and its resemblance to "Baghdad" is compelling. When the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur founded a completely new city for his capital, he chose the name "City of Peace" (Arabic: مدینة السلام , romanized: Madīnat as-Salām ), which now refers to the Round City of Baghdad proper. This was the official name on coins, weights, and other official usage, although
6364-486: Is the appropriate designation of the language in English, as it has the longer tradition in western languages and better expresses the role of the language as a mark of cultural and national continuity. Iranian historian and linguist Ehsan Yarshater , founder of the Encyclopædia Iranica and Columbia University 's Center for Iranian Studies, mentions the same concern in an academic journal on Iranology , rejecting
6536-577: Is the earliest known human habitation site in Gilan province; it is located in a deep tributary canyon of the Siah Varud and contains evidence for the earliest prehistoric human cave occupation during the Lower Paleolithic in Iran. Stone artifacts and animal fossils were discovered by a group of Iranian archaeologists that dates back to the late Chibanian . Yarshalman is a Middle Paleolithic shelter that
6708-557: Is the more archaic form of dād , related to Sanskrit dāt , Latin dat and English donor ), ultimately borrowed from Persian Mehrdad . There are a number of other locations whose names are compounds of the Middle Persian word bagh , including Baghlan and Bagram in Afghanistan, Baghshan in Iran itself, and Baghdati in Georgia , which likely share the same etymological Iranic origins. Other authors have suggested older origins for
6880-569: Is the most widely spoken language in Gilan , the Talysh language is also spoken in the province. There are only two cities in Gilan where Talyshi is exclusively spoken: Masal and Masoleh (although other cities speak Talyshi alongside Gilaki) while Talyshi is spoken mostly in the city of Astara , Hashtpar and surrounding towns. The Kurdish language is used by Kurds who have moved to the Amarlu region. Persian
7052-515: Is the shrine town of Salman Pak , just to the south of Greater Baghdad which is where Salman the Persian is believed to have been buried. Ctesiphon itself had replaced and absorbed Seleucia , the first capital of the Seleucid Empire , which had earlier replaced the city of Babylon. According to the traveler Ibn Battuta , Baghdad was one of the largest cities, not including the damage it has received. The residents are mostly Hanbalis . Baghdad
Gilan province - Misplaced Pages Continue
7224-486: The Encyclopædia Iranica notes that the Iranian, Afghan, and Tajiki varieties comprise distinct branches of the Persian language, and within each branch a wide variety of local dialects exist. The following are some languages closely related to Persian, or in some cases are considered dialects: More distantly related branches of the Iranian language family include Kurdish and Balochi . The Glottolog database proposes
7396-502: The Kalila wa Dimna . The language spread geographically from the 11th century on and was the medium through which, among others, Central Asian Turks became familiar with Islam and urban culture. New Persian was widely used as a trans-regional lingua franca , a task aided due to its relatively simple morphology, and this situation persisted until at least the 19th century. In the late Middle Ages, new Islamic literary languages were created on
7568-511: The Arabian Nights , are set in Baghdad during this period. It would surpass even Constantinople in prosperity and size. Among the notable features of Baghdad during this period were its exceptional libraries. Many of the Abbasid caliphs were patrons of learning and enjoyed collecting both ancient and contemporary literature. Although some of the princes of the previous Umayyad dynasty had begun to gather and translate Greek scientific literature,
7740-651: The British colonization , Persian was widely used as a second language in the Indian subcontinent . It took prominence as the language of culture and education in several Muslim courts on the subcontinent and became the sole "official language" under the Mughal emperors . The Bengal Sultanate witnessed an influx of Persian scholars, lawyers, teachers, and clerics. Thousands of Persian books and manuscripts were published in Bengal. The period of
7912-631: The Caspian Sea shores of Iran, Azerbaijan, and Dagestan as part of the Caspian expeditions of the Rus' . Initially, the Rus' appeared in Serkland in the 9th century traveling as merchants along the Volga trade route , selling furs, honey, and slaves. The first small-scale raids took place in the late 9th and early 10th century. The Rus' undertook the first large-scale expedition in 913; having arrived on 500 ships, they pillaged
8084-575: The Ilkhan Öljeitü conquered the region. This was the first time the region came under the rule of the Mongols after the Ilkhanid Mongols and their Georgian allies failed to do it in the late 1270s. After 1336, the region seemed to be independent again. Before the introduction of silk production (date unknown but a pillar of the economy by the 15th century AD), Gilan was a poor province. There were no permanent trade routes linking Gilan to Persia. There
8256-518: The Muslim world . This, in addition to housing several key academic institutions, including the House of Wisdom , as well as a multi-ethnic and multi-religious environment, garnered it a worldwide reputation as the "Center of Learning". For much of the Abbasid era, during the Islamic Golden Age , Baghdad was the largest city in the world, as the population peaked at more than one million people. The city
8428-570: The National Museum of Iraq was looted by Iraqi citizens during the 2003 US-led invasion. Baghdad's historic Jewish Quarter came to decline, as the war increased fear among the Jews. Numerous Assyrian Christians and Iraqi Mandaean families fled the city. Thousands of ancient manuscripts in the National Library were destroyed. The city also hosts various protests and rallies. In December 2015, Baghdad
8600-673: The Ottoman Empire without rendering tribute to the Sublime Porte , in 1534 and 1591. The Safavid emperor, Shah Abbas I ended the rule of Khan Ahmad Khan (the last semi-independent ruler of Gilan) and annexed the province directly to his empire. From this point onward, rulers of Gilan were appointed by the Persian Shah . In the Safavid era, Gilan was settled by large numbers of Georgians , Circassians , Armenians , and other peoples of
8772-845: The Persian Socialist Soviet Republic (commonly known as the Socialist Republic of Gilan), which lasted from June 1920 until September 1921. In February 1921 the Soviets withdrew their support for the Jangali government of Gilan and signed the Russo-Persian Treaty of Friendship (1921) with the central government of Tehran. The Jangalis continued to struggle against the central government until their final defeat in September 1921 when control of Gilan returned to Tehran. Gilaks form
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#17328449862158944-455: The Sultanate of Rum , Turkmen beyliks of Anatolia , Delhi Sultanate , the Shirvanshahs , Safavids , Afsharids , Zands , Qajars , Khanate of Bukhara , Khanate of Kokand , Emirate of Bukhara , Khanate of Khiva , Ottomans , and also many Mughal successors such as the Nizam of Hyderabad . Persian was the only non-European language known and used by Marco Polo at the Court of Kublai Khan and in his journeys through China. A branch of
9116-439: The Turkic , Armenian , Georgian , & Indo-Aryan languages . It also exerted some influence on Arabic, while borrowing a lot of vocabulary from it in the Middle Ages. Some of the world's most famous pieces of literature from the Middle Ages, such as the Shahnameh by Ferdowsi , the works of Rumi , the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám , the Panj Ganj of Nizami Ganjavi , The Divān of Hafez , The Conference of
9288-423: The ezāfe construction, expressed through ī (modern e/ye ), to indicate some of the relations between words that have been lost with the simplification of the earlier grammatical system. Although the "middle period" of the Iranian languages formally begins with the fall of the Achaemenid Empire, the transition from Old to Middle Persian had probably already begun before the 4th century BC. However, Middle Persian
9460-418: The languages of the Caucasus . Gilan province was the place of origin of the Ziyarid dynasty and Buyid dynasty in the mid-10th century. Previously, the people of the province had a prominent position during the Sassanid dynasty through the 7th century, so that their political power extended to Mesopotamia . The first recorded encounter between Gilak and Deylamite warlords and invading Muslim armies
9632-435: The siege of Baghdad . Many quarters were ruined by fire, siege, or looting. The Mongols massacred most of the city's inhabitants, including the caliph Al-Musta'sim , and destroyed large sections of the city. The canals and dykes forming the city's irrigation system were also destroyed. During this time, in Baghdad, Christians and Shia were tolerated, while Sunnis were treated as enemies. The sack of Baghdad put an end to
9804-479: The " Persianized " Turko-Mongol dynasties during the 12th to 15th centuries, and under restored Persian rule during the 16th to 19th centuries. Persian during this time served as lingua franca of Greater Persia and of much of the Indian subcontinent . It was also the official and cultural language of many Islamic dynasties, including the Samanids, Buyids , Tahirids , Ziyarids , the Mughal Empire , Timurids , Ghaznavids , Karakhanids , Seljuqs , Khwarazmians ,
9976-433: The 21st century, some 1.5 million people migrated to Baghdad. The 2013–2017 war following the Islamic State's invasion in 2014 caused hundreds of thousands of Iraqi internally displaced people to flee to the city. The vast majority of Baghdad's population are Iraqi Arabs . Minority ethnic groups include Feyli Kurds , Turkmen , Assyrian , Chaldean , Syriacs and Armenians. The historic "Assyrian Quarter" of
10148-491: The 35 member Baghdad Regional Council. The first step in the establishment of the system of local government for Baghdad Province was the election of the Baghdad Provincial Council. As before, the representatives to the Provincial Council were elected by their peers from the lower councils in numbers proportional to the population of the districts they represent. The 41 member Provincial Council took office in February 2004 and served until national elections held in January 2005, when
10320-474: The Abbasid Caliphate. It has been argued that this marked an end to the Islamic Golden Age and served a blow from which Islamic civilization never fully recovered. At this point, Baghdad was ruled by the Ilkhanate , a breakaway state of the Mongol Empire, ruling from Iran. In August 1393, Baghdad was occupied by the Central Asian Turkic conqueror Timur ("Tamerlane"), by marching there in only eight days from Shiraz . Sultan Ahmad Jalayir fled to Syria, where
10492-436: The Abbasid regime). Tughril Beg saw himself as the protector of the Abbasid Caliphs. Baghdad was captured in 1394 , 1534 , 1623 and 1638 . The city has been sieged in 812 , 865 , 946 , 1157 , 1258 and in 1393 and 1401, by Tamerlane . In 1058, Baghdad was captured by the Fatimids under the Turkish general Abu'l-Ḥārith Arslān al-Basasiri, an adherent of the Ismailis along with the 'Uqaylid Quraysh. Not long before
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#173284498621510664-414: The Abbasids were the first to foster Greek learning on a large scale. Many of these libraries were private collections intended only for the use of the owners and their immediate friends, but the libraries of the caliphs and other officials soon took on a public or a semi-public character. Four great libraries were established in Baghdad during this period. The earliest was that of the famous Al-Ma'mun , who
10836-406: The Arab conquest of Mesopotamia in 637 CE, and several ancient empires had capitals located in the surrounding area. Arab authors, realizing the pre-Islamic origins of Baghdad's name, generally looked for its roots in Middle Persian . They suggested various meanings, the most common of which was "bestowed by God". Modern scholars generally tend to favor this etymology, which views the word as
11008-572: The Birds by Attar of Nishapur , and the miscellanea of Gulistan and Bustan by Saadi Shirazi , are written in Persian. Some of the prominent modern Persian poets were Nima Yooshij , Ahmad Shamlou , Simin Behbahani , Sohrab Sepehri , Rahi Mo'ayyeri , Mehdi Akhavan-Sales , and Forugh Farrokhzad . There are approximately 130 million Persian speakers worldwide, including Persians , Lurs , Tajiks , Hazaras , Iranian Azeris , Iranian Kurds , Balochs , Tats , Afghan Pashtuns , and Aimaqs . The term Persophone might also be used to refer to
11180-407: The British during World War I . In the Mesopotamian campaign , Baghdad fell in hands of the British forces in 1917. In 1920, Baghdad became the capital of the British Mandate of Mesopotamia , with several architectural and planning projects commissioned to reinforce this administration. After receiving independence in 1932, the city became capital of the Kingdom of Iraq . During this period,
11352-410: The Caucasus whose descendants still live or linger across Gilan. Most of these Georgians and Circassians are assimilated into the mainstream Gilaks. The history of Georgian settlement is described by Iskandar Beg Munshi , the author of the 17th century Tarikh-e Alam-Ara-ye Abbasi , and the Circassian settlements by Pietro Della Valle , among other authors. The Safavid empire became weak towards
11524-409: The Deylamites were the only warriors in the Caspian region who could fight the fearsome Varangian Vikings as equals. Deylamite mercenaries served as far away as Egypt , al-Andalus , and in the Khazar Kingdom . The Buyids established the most successful of the Deylamite dynasties of Iran. In the 9th–11th century AD, there were repeated military raids undertaken by the Rus' between 864 and 1041 on
11696-416: The Mamluk Sultan Barquq protected him and killed Timur's envoys. Timur left the Sarbadar prince Khwaja Mas'ud to govern Baghdad, but he was driven out when Ahmad Jalayir returned. In 1401, Baghdad was again sacked, by Timur. When his forces took Baghdad, he spared almost no one, and ordered that each of his soldiers bring back two severed human heads. Baghdad became a provincial capital controlled by
11868-500: The Middle Ages, and is because of the lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic. The standard Persian of Iran has been called, apart from Persian and Farsi , by names such as Iranian Persian and Western Persian , exclusively. Officially, the official language of Iran is designated simply as Persian ( فارسی , fārsi ). The standard Persian of Afghanistan has been officially named Dari ( دری , dari ) since 1958. Also referred to as Afghan Persian in English, it
12040-404: The Mongol Jalayirid (1400–1411), Turkic Kara Koyunlu (1411–1469), Turkic Ak Koyunlu (1469–1508), and the Iranian Safavid (1508–1534) dynasties. In 1534, Baghdad was captured by the Ottoman Empire . Under the Ottomans , Baghdad continued into a period of decline , partially as a result of the enmity between its rulers and Iranian Safavids , which did not accept the Sunni control of
12212-429: The Ottoman Empire all spoke Persian, such as Sultan Selim I , despite being Safavid Iran's archrival and a staunch opposer of Shia Islam . It was a major literary language in the empire. Some of the noted earlier Persian works during the Ottoman rule are Idris Bidlisi 's Hasht Bihisht , which began in 1502 and covered the reign of the first eight Ottoman rulers, and the Salim-Namah , a glorification of Selim I. After
12384-521: The Persian language can be divided into the following three distinct periods: As a written language , Old Persian is attested in royal Achaemenid inscriptions. The oldest known text written in Old Persian is from the Behistun Inscription , dating to the time of King Darius I (reigned 522–486 BC). Examples of Old Persian have been found in what is now Iran , Romania ( Gherla ), Armenia , Bahrain , Iraq , Turkey, and Egypt . Old Persian
12556-476: The Persian language, a language historically called Dari, emerged in present-day Afghanistan. The first significant Persian poet was Rudaki . He flourished in the 10th century, when the Samanids were at the height of their power. His reputation as a court poet and as an accomplished musician and singer has survived, although little of his poetry has been preserved. Among his lost works are versified fables collected in
12728-401: The Persian model: Ottoman Turkish , Chagatai Turkic , Dobhashi Bengali , and Urdu, which are regarded as "structural daughter languages" of Persian. "Classical Persian" loosely refers to the standardized language of medieval Persia used in literature and poetry . This is the language of the 10th to 12th centuries, which continued to be used as literary language and lingua franca under
12900-794: The Perso-Arabic script. Persian was the first language to break through the monopoly of Arabic on writing in the Muslim world , with Persian poetry becoming a tradition in many eastern courts. It was used officially as a language of bureaucracy even by non-native speakers, such as the Ottomans in Anatolia , the Mughals in South Asia, and the Pashtuns in Afghanistan. It influenced languages spoken in neighboring regions and beyond, including other Iranian languages,
13072-479: The Sasanian Empire (224–651). However, it is not descended from the literary form of Middle Persian (known as pārsīk , commonly called Pahlavi), which was spoken by the people of Fars and used in Zoroastrian religious writings. Instead, it is descended from the dialect spoken by the court of the Sasanian capital Ctesiphon and the northeastern Iranian region of Khorasan , known as Dari. The region, which comprised
13244-575: The Sassanids (who were Persians, i.e. from the southwest) from the preceding Arsacids (who were Parthians, i.e. from the northeast). While Ibn al-Muqaffa' (eighth century) still distinguished between Pahlavi (i.e. Parthian) and Persian (in Arabic text: al-Farisiyah) (i.e. Middle Persian), this distinction is not evident in Arab commentaries written after that date. "New Persian" (also referred to as Modern Persian)
13416-458: The Seljuks, the Sultanate of Rum , took Persian language, art, and letters to Anatolia. They adopted the Persian language as the official language of the empire. The Ottomans , who can roughly be seen as their eventual successors, inherited this tradition. Persian was the official court language of the empire, and for some time, the official language of the empire. The educated and noble class of
13588-420: The U.S. controlled Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) began the process of creating new functions for these. The process initially focused on the election of neighborhood councils in the official neighborhoods, elected by neighborhood caucuses. The CPA convened a series of meetings in each neighborhood to explain local government, to describe the caucus election process and to encourage participants to spread
13760-663: The Western half known as " Karkh ". The land on which the city is built is almost entirely flat and low-lying, being of quaternary alluvial origin due to the periodic large floods which have occurred on the river. The Diyala River forms a tributary for the Tigris, at the southeast of the city and borders eastern suburbs. Baghdad is 529.8 kilometres (329.2 mi) southeast of Basra , 402.9 kilometres (250.4 mi) north of Mosul , 366.8 kilometres (227.9 mi) north of Erbil and 103.8 kilometres (64.5 mi) south of Karbala . Located to
13932-493: The area of Lake Urmia in the records of Shalmaneser III . The exact identity of the Parsuwash is not known for certain, but from a linguistic viewpoint the word matches Old Persian pārsa itself coming directly from the older word * pārćwa . Also, as Old Persian contains many words from another extinct Iranian language, Median , according to P. O. Skjærvø it is probable that Old Persian had already been spoken before
14104-511: The arrival of the Saljuqs in Baghdad, al-Basasiri petitioned to the Fatimid Imam-Caliph al-Mustansir to support him in conquering Baghdad on the Ismaili Imam's behalf. It has recently come to light that the famed Fatimid da'i , al-Mu'ayyad al-Shirazi, had a direct role in supporting al-Basasiri and helped the general to succeed in taking Mawṣil , Wāsit and Kufa . Soon after, by December 1058,
14276-477: The attempt to quell the violence. The Jews experienced further hardships. Between 1950 and 1951, Jews were targeted in series of bombings. According to Avi Shlaim , Israel was behind bombings, which is also believed by the majority of the Iraqis. The city's population grew from an estimated 145,000 in 1900 to 580,000 in 1950. A development plan for Greater Baghdad was planned during the reign of King Faisal II. However,
14448-509: The capital of the Islamic Empire under the Abbasids. The Muslim historian al-Tabari reported an ancient prediction by Christian monks that a lord named Miklas would one day build a spectacular city around the area of Baghdad. When al-Mansur heard the story, he became very joyful, for legend has it, he was called Miklas as a child. Mansur loved the site so much he is quoted saying: "This is indeed
14620-450: The central part of the building, there was a green dome that was 39m high. Surrounding the palace was an esplanade , a waterside building, in which only the caliph could come riding on horseback. In addition, the palace was near other mansions and officer's residences. Near the Gate of Syria, a building served as the home for the guards. It was made of brick and marble. The palace governor lived in
14792-584: The city has a small area at just 673 square kilometers (260 sq mi). Baghdad is the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo , and the second-largest city in West Asia after Tehran . Founded in 762 AD, Baghdad was established as the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate and became its most notable major development project. Within a short time, it evolved into a significant cultural and intellectual center of
14964-623: The city in 1967 and 1973 were delivered by the Polish planning office Miastoprojekt-Kraków, mediated by Polservice. Saddam International Airport was opened in 1982. However, the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s was a difficult time for the city, as money was diverted by Saddam Hussein to the army and thousands of residents were killed. Iran launched a number of missile attacks against Baghdad in retaliation for Iraqi Army's continuous bombardments of Tehran's residential districts. Between 1990 and 1991,
15136-455: The city in the war. After the invasion, the airport was renamed as Baghdad International Airport. Following the fall of Baghdad , the government lost its power. Saddam's statue was toppled at Firdos Square , which marked the overthrow of his regime. Also two minor riots took place in 2003, on 21 July and 2 October, caused some disturbance in the population. Religious and ethnic minorities such as Christians, Mandaeans and Jews began leaving
15308-472: The city that I am to found, where I am to live, and where my descendants will reign afterward". The city's growth was helped by its excellent location, based on at least two factors: it had control over strategic and trading routes along the Tigris , and it had an abundance of water in a dry climate. Water exists on both the north and south ends of the city, allowing all households to have a plentiful supply, which
15480-470: The city walls, but the final construction added another ring inside the first. Within the city there were many parks, gardens, villas, and promenades. There was a large sanitation department, many fountains and public baths, and unlike contemporary European cities at the time, streets were frequently washed free of debris and trash. In fact, by the time of Harun al-Rashid, Baghdad had a few thousand hammams . These baths increased public hygiene and served as
15652-611: The city was impacted by the Gulf War. The multinational alliance targeted numerous sites in Baghdad, in the Gulf War air campaign . Baghdad was bombed during the Gulf War by the multinational alliance force . Shortly after the end of the war, civil unrest began in the city, during the 1991 uprisings. Sadr City , a Shia populated neighborhood, was sight of clashes between Shia rebels and the Ba'ath Forces Republican Guard led by Qusay Hussein , which
15824-598: The city — Dora , which boasted a population of 150,000 Assyrians in 2003, made up over 3% of the capital's Assyrian population then. The community has been subject to kidnappings , death threats , vandalism, and house burnings by al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups. As of the end of 2014, only 1,500 Assyrians remained in Dora. There is a significant community of Iraqi Turkmen , who live in Baghdad. Most of them live in Adhamiyah and Ragheba Khatun. The surrounding areas of
15996-433: The city's nine district councils. The number of neighborhood representatives on a district council is based upon the neighborhood's population. The next step was to have each of the nine district councils elect representatives from their membership to serve on the 37 member Baghdad City Council. This three tier system of local government connected the people of Baghdad to the central government through their representatives from
16168-530: The city's population was between 1.2 million and 2 million. Baghdad's early meteoric growth eventually slowed due to troubles within the Caliphate , including relocations of the capital to Samarra (during 808–819 and 836–892), the loss of the western and easternmost provinces, and periods of political domination by the Iranian Buwayhids (945–1055) and Seljuk Turks (1055–1135). The Seljuks were
16340-412: The city, and marble steps led down to the river's edge. The basic framework of the city consists of two large semicircles about 19 km (12 mi) in diameter. The inner city connecting them was designed as a circle about 2 km (1.2 mi) in diameter, leading it to be known as the "Round City". The original design shows a single ring of residential and commercial structures along the inside of
16512-548: The city, with fear of getting targeted in the attacks. As they were subjected of kidnapping, death threats and attacks. The Iraqi Film Archive building was also bombed by the coalition forces. The Iraq War took place from 2003 to 2011, but an Islamist insurgency lasted until 2013. It was followed by another war from 2013 to 2017 and a low-level insurgency from 2017, which included suicide bombings in January 2018 and January 2021 . Priceless collection of artifacts in
16684-458: The city. Between 1623 and 1638 , it returned to Iranian rule before falling back into Ottoman hands. Baghdad has suffered severely from visitations of the plague and cholera , and sometimes two-thirds of its population has been wiped out. The city became part of an eyalet and then a vilayet . For a time, Baghdad had been the largest city in the Middle East. The city saw relative revival in
16856-457: The code fas for the dialects spoken across Iran and Afghanistan. This consists of the individual languages Dari ( prs ) and Iranian Persian ( pes ). It uses tgk for Tajik, separately. In general, the Iranian languages are known from three periods: namely Old, Middle, and New (Modern). These correspond to three historical eras of Iranian history ; Old era being sometime around the Achaemenid Empire (i.e., 400–300 BC), Middle era being
17028-512: The collapse of the Sassanid state, Parsik came to be applied exclusively to (either Middle or New) Persian that was written in the Arabic script . From about the 9th century onward, as Middle Persian was on the threshold of becoming New Persian, the older form of the language came to be erroneously called Pahlavi , which was actually but one of the writing systems used to render both Middle Persian as well as various other Middle Iranian languages. That writing system had previously been adopted by
17200-413: The common people continued to use the old name. By the 11th century, Baghdad became almost the exclusive name for the world-renowned metropolis. Christophe Wall-Romana has suggested that al-Mansur's choice to found his "new city" at Baghdad because of its strategic location was the same criteria which influenced Sargon's choice to found the original city of Akkad in the exact same location. After
17372-488: The date of the foundation of the city would be astrologically auspicious, and Mashallah , a Jew from Khorasan , Iran . Within a generation of its founding, Baghdad became a hub of learning and commerce . The city flourished into an unrivaled intellectual center of science , medicine , philosophy , and education , especially with the Abbasid translation movement began under the second caliph Al-Mansur and thrived under
17544-414: The deserts to the west are a normal occurrence during the summer. Winter temperatures are typical of hot desert climates . From December through February, Baghdad has maximum temperatures averaging 16 to 19 °C (61 to 66 °F), though highs above 21 °C (70 °F) are not unheard of. Lows below freezing occur a couple of times per year on average. Annual rainfall, almost entirely confined to
17716-472: The directions of these destinations. The distance between these gates was a little less than 2.4 km (1.5 mi). Each gate had double doors that were made of iron; the doors were so heavy it took several men to open and close them. The wall itself was about 44 m thick at the base and about 12 m thick at the top. Also, the wall was 30 m high, which included merlons , a solid part of an embattled parapet usually pierced by embrasures . This wall
17888-410: The districts above. The following is a selection (rather than a complete list) of these neighborhoods: Baghdad's population was estimated at 7.22 million in 2015. The surrounding metropolian region's population is estimated to be 10,500,000. It is second largest city in the Arab world, after Cairo and fourth largest metropolitan area in the Middle East after Cairo and Tehran. At the beginning of
18060-646: The end of the 17th century CE. By the early 18th century, the once-mighty empire was in the grips of civil war and uprisings. The ambitious Peter I of Russia (Peter the Great) sent a force that captured Gilan and many of the Iranian territories in the North Caucasus , Transcaucasia , as well as other territories in northern mainland Iran, through the Russo-Persian War (1722-1723) and the resulting Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1723) . Gilan and its capital of Rasht, which
18232-632: The extent of its influence on certain languages of the Indian subcontinent. Words borrowed from Persian are still quite commonly used in certain Indo-Aryan languages, especially Hindi - Urdu (also historically known as Hindustani ), Punjabi , Kashmiri , and Sindhi . There is also a small population of Zoroastrian Iranis in India, who migrated in the 19th century to escape religious execution in Qajar Iran and speak
18404-570: The fall of the Umayyads , the first Muslim dynasty, the victorious Abbasid rulers wanted their own capital from which they could rule. They chose a site north of the Sassanid capital of Ctesiphon , and on 30 July 762 the caliph Al-Mansur commissioned the construction of the city. It was built under the guidance of the Iranian Barmakids . Mansur believed that Baghdad was the perfect city to be
18576-494: The following phylogenetic classification: Baghdad Baghdad is the capital and largest city of Iraq . Situated on the Tigris , it is part of the Baghdad Governorate in the central region of Iraq . With a population variously estimated at 6 or over 7 million, Baghdad forms 22% of Iraq's total population . While its metropolitan area is home to over 10 million people. In comparison to its large population,
18748-523: The formation of Mu'tazili theology, as well as Al-Tabari culminating in the scholarship on the Quranic exegesis . Baghdad is likely to have been the largest city in the world from shortly after its foundation until the 930s, when it tied with Córdoba . Several estimates suggest that the city contained over a million inhabitants at its peak. Many of the One Thousand and One Nights tales, widely known as
18920-510: The formation of many modern languages in West Asia, Europe, Central Asia , and South Asia . Following the Turko-Persian Ghaznavid conquest of South Asia , Persian was firstly introduced in the region by Turkic Central Asians. The basis in general for the introduction of Persian language into the subcontinent was set, from its earliest days, by various Persianized Central Asian Turkic and Afghan dynasties. For five centuries prior to
19092-471: The formation of the Achaemenid Empire and was spoken during most of the first half of the first millennium BCE. Xenophon , a Greek general serving in some of the Persian expeditions, describes many aspects of Armenian village life and hospitality in around 401 BCE, which is when Old Persian was still spoken and extensively used. He relates that the Armenian people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like
19264-480: The gates would not be open at night for markets. Over time, the markets became diverse and a home to merchants and craftsmen. Officials with the title of “Muhtasib” were hired to look after markets to prevent cheating and check the weighs and measures of stocks. Baghdad eclipsed Ctesiphon, the capital of the Sassanians, which was located some 30 km (19 mi) to the southeast. Today, all that remains of Ctesiphon
19436-500: The governorate is divided into 9 municipalities, which have responsibility for local issues. Regional services, however, are coordinated and carried out by a mayor who oversees the municipalities. The governorate council is responsible for the governorate-wide policy. These official subdivisions of the city served as administrative centers for the delivery of municipal services but until 2003 had no political function. Beginning in April 2003,
19608-461: The language of the Persians. Related to Old Persian, but from a different branch of the Iranian language family, was Avestan , the language of the Zoroastrian liturgical texts. The complex grammatical conjugation and declension of Old Persian yielded to the structure of Middle Persian in which the dual number disappeared, leaving only singular and plural, as did gender. Middle Persian developed
19780-415: The latter part of the 18th century, under Mamluk government. Direct Ottoman rule was reimposed by Ali Rıza Pasha in 1831. From 1851 to 1852 and from 1861 to 1867, Baghdad was governed, under the Ottoman Empire by Mehmed Namık Pasha . The Nuttall Encyclopedia reports the 1907 population of Baghdad as 185,000. Baghdad and southern Iraq remained under Ottoman rule until 1917, when they were captured by
19952-399: The latter part of the building and the commander of the guards in the front. In 813, after the death of caliph Al-Amin , the palace was no longer used as the home for the caliph and his family. The roundness points to the fact that it was based on Arabic script . The two designers who were hired by Al-Mansur to plan the city's design were Naubakht , a Zoroastrian who also determined that
20124-624: The main trading port between Iran and Europe. The Jangalis are glorified in Iranian history and effectively secured Gilan and Mazandaran against foreign invasions. However, in 1920 British forces invaded Bandar-e Anzali , while being pursued by the Bolsheviks . In the midst of this conflict, the Jangalis entered into an alliance with the Bolsheviks against the British. This culminated in the establishment of
20296-498: The majority are Talysh, and Azerbaijanis make up a significant portion of the population. There are also Kurdish-speaking Gormanj in Talysh county who are immigrants from Khalkhal of Ardabil province . Persians are concentrated in the city of Rasht and are divided into immigrants from Tehran and other central Iranian cities, and the local Gilak people who have adopted the Persian language and became Persianized. The Gilaki language
20468-732: The majority of the population, while Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Talysh and Persians are significant minorities in the province. Gilaks live in most of the cities and villages in the province, except Astara and Hashtpar counties. The city and county of Astara are inhabited by majority Azerbaijanis , and a Talysh minority. There are four groups of Kurds in the province with different origins. Amarlou in Rasht and Rudbar (Districts of Ammarlu, Deylaman, and Raḥmatabad), Reshvand in Rasht , Jalalvand in Langroud , and Kormanj in Hashtpar . In Talysh county (Hashtpar),
20640-432: The middle-period form only continuing in the texts of Zoroastrianism . Middle Persian is considered to be a later form of the same dialect as Old Persian. The native name of Middle Persian was Parsig or Parsik , after the name of the ethnic group of the southwest, that is, "of Pars ", Old Persian Parsa , New Persian Fars . This is the origin of the name Farsi as it is today used to signify New Persian. Following
20812-446: The military theaters of Iran and Mesopotamia were openly Zoroastrian (for example, Asfar Shiruyeh a warlord in central Iran, and Makan, son of Kaki, the warlord of Rey) or were suspected of harboring pro-Zoroastrian (for example Mardavij ) sentiments. Muslim chronicles of Varangian (Rus', pre-Russian Norsemen) invasions of the littoral Caspian region in the 9th century record Deylamites as non-Muslim. These chronicles also show that
20984-525: The most widely spoken. The term Persian is an English derivation of Latin Persiānus , the adjectival form of Persia , itself deriving from Greek Persís ( Περσίς ), a Hellenized form of Old Persian Pārsa ( 𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿 ), which means " Persia " (a region in southwestern Iran, corresponding to modern-day Fars ). According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the term Persian as
21156-557: The name, in particular the name Bagdadu or Hudadu that existed in Old Babylonian (spelled with a sign that can represent both bag and hu ), and the Jewish Babylonian Aramaic name of a place called Baghdatha ( בגדתא ). Some scholars suggested Aramaic derivations. Another view, suggested by Christophe Wall-Romana, is that name of "Baghdad" is derived from " Akkad ", as the cuneiform logogram for Akkad (𒀀𒂵𒉈𒆠)
21328-461: The nationalist movement of the time. The academy was a key institution in the struggle to re-build Iran as a nation-state after the collapse of the Qajar dynasty. During the 1930s and 1940s, the academy led massive campaigns to replace the many Arabic , Russian , French , and Greek loanwords whose widespread use in Persian during the centuries preceding the foundation of the Pahlavi dynasty had created
21500-495: The necessity of protecting the Persian language against foreign words, and to the standardization of Persian orthography , were under the reign of Naser ed Din Shah of the Qajar dynasty in 1871. After Naser ed Din Shah, Mozaffar ed Din Shah ordered the establishment of the first Persian association in 1903. This association officially declared that it used Persian and Arabic as acceptable sources for coining words. The ultimate goal
21672-544: The neighborhood, through the district, and up to the city council. The same process was used to provide representative councils for the other communities in Baghdad Province outside of the city itself. There, local councils were elected from 20 neighborhoods ( Nahia ) and these councils elected representatives from their members to serve on six district councils ( Qada ). As within the city, the district councils then elected representatives from among their members to serve on
21844-414: The next period most officially around the Sasanian Empire , and New era being the period afterward down to present day. According to available documents, the Persian language is "the only Iranian language" for which close philological relationships between all of its three stages are established and so that Old, Middle, and New Persian represent one and the same language of Persian; that is, New Persian
22016-713: The northern part of Greece). Vardar Yenicesi differed from other localities in the Balkans insofar as that it was a town where Persian was also widely spoken. However, the Persian of Vardar Yenicesi and throughout the rest of the Ottoman-held Balkans was different from formal Persian both in accent and vocabulary. The difference was apparent to such a degree that the Ottomans referred to it as "Rumelian Persian" ( Rumili Farsisi ). As learned people such as students, scholars and literati often frequented Vardar Yenicesi, it soon became
22188-529: The official language of the Achaemenid kings. Assyrian records, which in fact appear to provide the earliest evidence for ancient Iranian (Persian and Median) presence on the Iranian Plateau, give a good chronology but only an approximate geographical indication of what seem to be ancient Persians. In these records of the 9th century BCE, Parsuwash (along with Matai , presumably Medians) are first mentioned in
22360-485: The period from November through March, averages approximately 150 mm (5.91 in), but has been as high as 338 mm (13.31 in) and as low as 37 mm (1.46 in). On 11 January 2008, light snow fell across Baghdad for the first time in 100 years. Snowfall was again reported on 11 February 2020, with accumulations across the city. Administratively, Baghdad Governorate is divided into districts which are further divided into sub-districts . Municipally,
22532-628: The present territories of northwestern Afghanistan as well as parts of Central Asia, played a leading role in the rise of New Persian. Khorasan, which was the homeland of the Parthians, was Persianized under the Sasanians. Dari Persian thus supplanted Parthian language , which by the end of the Sasanian era had fallen out of use. New Persian has incorporated many foreign words, including from eastern northern and northern Iranian languages such as Sogdian and especially Parthian. The transition to New Persian
22704-510: The project was ceased, when new the government came to power. On 14 July 1958, members of the Iraqi Army , under Abdul-Karim Qasim , staged a coup to topple the Kingdom of Iraq . King Faisal II , former Prime Minister Nuri al-Said , former Regent Prince Abd al-Ilah , members of the royal family, and others were brutally killed during the coup. Many of the victim's bodies were then dragged through
22876-566: The province are mountainous, green and forested. The coastal plain along the Caspian Sea is similar to that of Mazandaran and mainly used for rice paddies. Due to successive cultivation and selection of rice by farmers, several cultivars including Gerdeh, Hashemi, Hasani, and Gharib have been bred. Persian language Russia Persian ( / ˈ p ɜːr ʒ ən , - ʃ ən / PUR -zhən, -shən ), also known by its endonym Farsi ( فارسی , Fārsī [fɒːɾˈsiː] ),
23048-410: The province as 2,530,696 people in 851,382 households. [REDACTED] The population history and structural changes of Gilan province's administrative divisions over three consecutive censuses are shown in the following table. According to the 2016 census, 1,598,765 people (over 63% of the population of Gilan province) live in the following cities: Gilan has a humid subtropical climate with, by
23220-440: The province is part of the territory of South (Iranian) Talysh . At the center of the province is Rasht . Other cities include Astaneh-ye Ashrafiyeh , Astara , Fuman , Hashtpar , Lahijan , Langarud , Masuleh , Manjil , Rudbar , Rudsar , Shaft , Siahkal , and Sowme'eh Sara . The main port is Bandar-e Anzali , formerly known as Bandar-e Pahlavi. Early humans were present at Gilan since Lower Paleolithic . Darband Cave
23392-537: The recognition of Iraq as an independent monarchy in 1932, Baghdad gradually regained some of its former prominence as a significant center of Arab culture . It prospered during the early years of the Ba'athist regime . The city faced severe infrastructural damage due to the Iraq War , which began with the 2003 invasion of Iraq , resulting in a substantial loss of cultural heritage and historical artifacts . The city suffered by
23564-578: The region during the following centuries. Persian continued to act as a courtly language for various empires in Punjab through the early 19th century serving finally as the official state language of the Sikh Empire , preceding British conquest and the decline of Persian in South Asia. Beginning in 1843, though, English and Hindustani gradually replaced Persian in importance on the subcontinent. Evidence of Persian's historical influence there can be seen in
23736-529: The region had Russian schools and significant traces of Russian culture can be found today in Rasht. Russian class was mandatory in schools and the significant increase of Russian influence in the region lasted until 1946 and had a major impact on Iranian history, as it directly led to the Persian Constitutional Revolution . Gilan was a major producer of silk beginning in the 15th century CE. As
23908-589: The reign of Sultan Ghiyathuddin Azam Shah is described as the "golden age of Persian literature in Bengal". Its stature was illustrated by the Sultan's own correspondence and collaboration with the Persian poet Hafez ; a poem which can be found in the Divan of Hafez today. A Bengali dialect emerged among the common Bengali Muslim folk, based on a Persian model and known as Dobhashi ; meaning mixed language . Dobhashi Bengali
24080-570: The resulting Anglo-Iraqi War and after Rashid Ali al-Gaylani and his government had fled, the Mayor of Baghdad surrendered to British and Commonwealth forces. On 1–2 June, during the ensuing power vacuum , Jewish residents were attacked following rumors they had aided the British. In what became known as the Farhud , over 180 Jews were killed, 1,000 injured and hundreds of Jewish properties were ransacked. Between 300 and 400 non-Jewish rioters were killed in
24252-489: The scholarship involved not only Arabs, but also Persians , Syriacs , Nestorians , Jews , Arab Christians , and people from other ethnic and religious groups native to the region. These are considered among the fundamental elements that contributed to the flourishing of scholarship in the Medieval Islamic world. Baghdad was also a significant center of Islamic religious learning, with Al-Jahiz contributing to
24424-420: The seventh caliph Al-Ma'mun . Baytul-Hikmah or the "House of Wisdom" was among the most well known academies, and had the largest selection of books in the world by the middle of the 9th century. Notable scholars based in Baghdad during this time include translator Hunayn ibn Ishaq , mathematician al-Khwarizmi , and philosopher Al-Kindi . Although Arabic was used as the international language of science,
24596-657: The site of a flourishing Persianate linguistic and literary culture. The 16th-century Ottoman Aşık Çelebi (died 1572), who hailed from Prizren in modern-day Kosovo , was galvanized by the abundant Persian-speaking and Persian-writing communities of Vardar Yenicesi, and he referred to the city as a "hotbed of Persian". Many Ottoman Persianists who established a career in the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul ) pursued early Persian training in Saraybosna, amongst them Ahmed Sudi . The Persian language influenced
24768-399: The south is Mahmoudiyah , serves as the gateway to Baghdad. Baghdad has a hot desert climate ( Köppen BWh ), featuring extremely hot, prolonged, dry summers and mild to cool, slightly wet, short winters. In the summer, from June through August, the average maximum temperature is as high as 44 °C (111 °F) and accompanied by sunshine. Rainfall has been recorded on fewer than half
24940-561: The standard Persian of Tajikistan, has been officially designated as Tajik ( тоҷикӣ , tojikī ) since the time of the Soviet Union . It is the name given to the varieties of Persian spoken in Central Asia in general. The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa for the Persian language, as its coding system is mostly based on the native-language designations. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses
25112-687: The standard Persian. The Hazaragi dialect (in Central Afghanistan and Pakistan), Herati (in Western Afghanistan), Darwazi (in Afghanistan and Tajikistan), Basseri (in Southern Iran), and the Tehrani accent (in Iran, the basis of standard Iranian Persian) are examples of these dialects. Persian-speaking peoples of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan can understand one another with a relatively high degree of mutual intelligibility . Nevertheless,
25284-403: The streets of Baghdad. Baghdad was also site for opposition and coup attempts against Qasim's rule by Arab nationalists. During the 1970s, Baghdad experienced a period of prosperity and growth because of a sharp increase in the price of petroleum , Iraq's main export. New infrastructure including modern sewerage, water, and highway facilities were built during this period. The masterplans of
25456-457: The subsequent insurgency and renewed war . During this period, it had one of the highest rates of terrorist attacks in the world. However, terrorist attacks have gradually been on the decline since the territorial defeat of the Islamic State militant group in Iraq in 2017, and are very rare now. At present, Baghdad is attempting to rebuild its legacy, which was lost as a result of wars and conflicts. A major center of Islamic history , Baghdad
25628-402: The substantial Jewish community (probably exceeding 100,000 people) comprised between a quarter and a third of the city's population. On 1 April 1941, members of the " Golden Square " and Rashid Ali al-Gaylani staged a coup in Baghdad . Rashid Ali al-Gaylani installed a pro- German and pro- Italian government to replace the pro-British government of Regent Abd al-Ilah . On 31 May, after
25800-422: The use of Farsi in foreign languages. Etymologically, the Persian term Farsi derives from its earlier form Pārsi ( Pārsik in Middle Persian ), which in turn comes from the same root as the English term Persian . In the same process, the Middle Persian toponym Pārs ("Persia") evolved into the modern name Fars. The phonemic shift from /p/ to /f/ is due to the influence of Arabic in
25972-424: The way the constitutionalists had strived for, and Iran came to face much internal unrest and foreign intervention, particularly from the British and Russian empires. During and several years after the Bolshevik Revolution , the region saw another massive influx of Russian settlers (the so-called White émigrées ). Many of the descendants of these refugees are in the region. During the same period, Anzali served as
26144-438: The westernmost parts of Gorgan as well as Gilan and Mazandaran , taking slaves and goods. The Turkish invasions of the 10th and 11th centuries CE, which saw the rise of Ghaznavid and Seljuk dynasties, put an end to Deylamite states in Iran. From the 11th century CE to the rise of Safavids , Gilan was ruled by local rulers who paid tribute to the dominant power south of the Alborz range but ruled independently. In 1307
26316-426: The word and bring friends, relatives and neighbors to subsequent meetings. Each neighborhood process ultimately ended with a final meeting where candidates for the new neighborhood councils identified themselves and asked their neighbors to vote for them. Once all 88 (later increased to 89) neighborhood councils were in place, each neighborhood council elected representatives from among their members to serve on one of
26488-412: The world to come together and draw up plans for the city. Over 100,000 construction workers came to survey the plans; many were distributed salaries to start the building of the city. July was chosen as the starting time because two astrologers , Naubakht Ahvazi , an Iranian Zoroastrian , and Mashallah , an Iranian Jew , believed that the city should be built under the sign of the lion , Leo . Leo
26660-427: The year though least abundantly from April to August. Humidity is very high because of the marshy character of the coastal plains and can reach 90 percent in summer for wet bulb temperatures of over 26 °C (79 °F). The Alborz range provides further diversity to the land in addition to the Caspian coasts. The coastline is cooler and attracts large numbers of domestic and international tourists. Large parts of
26832-495: Was a hectic city during the day and had many attractions at night. There were cabarets and taverns, halls for backgammon and chess, live plays, concerts, and acrobats. On street corners, storytellers engaged crowds with tales such as those later told in Arabian Nights. Storytelling became a profession called " al-Qaskhun " which survived until the modern era. The four surrounding walls of Baghdad were named Kufa , Basra , Khurasan , and Syria ; named because their gates pointed in
27004-404: Was a small trade in smoked fish and wood products. It seems that the city of Qazvin was initially a fortress-town against marauding bands of Deylamites, another sign that the economy of the province did not produce enough on its own to support its population. This changed with the introduction of the silk worm in the late Middle Ages. Gilan recognized twice, for brief periods, the suzerainty of
27176-416: Was already complete by the era of the three princely dynasties of Iranian origin, the Tahirid dynasty (820–872), Saffarid dynasty (860–903), and Samanid Empire (874–999). Abbas of Merv is mentioned as being the earliest minstrel to chant verse in the New Persian tongue and after him the poems of Hanzala Badghisi were among the most famous between the Persian-speakers of the time. The first poems of
27348-561: Was at the Battle of Jalula in 637 AD. Deylamite commander Muta led an army of Gils, Deylamites, Persians and people of the Rey region. Muta was killed in the battle, and his defeated army managed to retreat in an orderly manner. However, this appears to have been a Pyrrhic victory for the Arabs, since they did not pursue their opponents. Muslim Arabs never managed to conquer Gilan as they did with other provinces in Iran. Gilanis and Deylamites successfully repulsed all Arab attempts to occupy their land or to convert them to Islam. In fact, it
27520-457: Was caliph from 813 to 833. Another was established by Sabur ibn Ardashir in 991 or 993 for the literary men and scholars who frequented his academy. This second library was plundered and burned by the Seljuks only seventy years after it was established. This was a good example of the sort of library built up out of the needs and interests of a literary society. The last two were examples of madrasa or theological college libraries. The Nezamiyeh
27692-534: Was conquered between late 1722 and late March 1723, stayed in Russian possession for about ten years. Qajars established a central government in Persia (Iran) in the late 18th century CE. They lost a series of wars to Russia (Russo-Persian Wars 1804–1813 and 1826–28 ), resulting in an enormous gain of influence by the Russian Empire in the Caspian region , which would last up to 1946 . The Gilanian cities of Rasht and Anzali were all but occupied and settled by Russians and Russian forces. Most major cities in
27864-414: Was founded by the Persian Nizam al-Mulk , who was vizier of two early Seljuk sultans. It continued to operate even after the coming of the Mongols in 1258. The Mustansiriyah madrasa , which owned an exceedingly rich library, was founded by Al-Mustansir , the second last Abbasid caliph, who died in 1242. This would prove to be the last great library built by the caliphs of Baghdad. By the 10th century,
28036-421: Was instrumental in defeating Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar . In the late 1910s, many Gilanis gathered under the leadership of Mirza Kuchik Khan , who became the most prominent revolutionary leader in northern Iran in this period. Khan's movement, known as the Jangal movement of Gilan , had sent an armed brigade to Tehran that helped depose the Qajar ruler Mohammad Ali Shah . However, the revolution did not progress
28208-402: Was largely destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258, resulting in a decline that would linger through many centuries due to frequent plagues and multiple successive empires, including the Ottoman Empire , which controlled Baghdad as the capital of the Baghdad Province . After the end of World War I, the city became the capital of the former British Mandate of Mesopotamia . With
28380-484: Was patronised and given official status under the Sultans of Bengal , and was a popular literary form used by Bengalis during the pre-colonial period, irrespective of their religion. Following the defeat of the Hindu Shahi dynasty, classical Persian was established as a courtly language in the region during the late 10th century under Ghaznavid rule over the northwestern frontier of the subcontinent . Employed by Punjabis in literature, Persian achieved prominence in
28552-413: Was probably occupied by Neanderthals about 40,000 to 70,000 years ago. Later Paleolithic sites in Gilan are Chapalak Cave and Khalvasht shelter. It seems that the Gelae , or Gilites, entered the region south of the Caspian coast and west of the Amardos River (now called the Sefid-Rud ) in the second or first century BCE, Pliny identifies them with the Cadusii who were living there previously. It
28724-422: Was quite uncommon during this time. The city of Baghdad quickly became so large that it had to be divided into three judicial districts: Madinat al-Mansur (the Round City), al-Sharqiyya ( al-Karkh ) and Askar al-Mahdi (on the West Bank). Al-Mansur also planned out al-Karkh district so that he could separate the markets from the Round City in order to keep the turbulent populace away from the Round City to ensure that
28896-406: Was selected by UNESCO as the first Arab city of the center of literary creativity. The city attracted global media attention on 3 January 2020, when Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was assassinated in a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad Airport. The city is located on a vast plain bisected by the Tigris river. The Tigris splits Baghdad in half, with the eastern half being called " Risafa " and
29068-407: Was surrounded by another wall with a thickness of 50 m. The second wall had towers and rounded merlons, which surrounded the towers. This outer wall was protected by a solid glacis , which is made out of bricks and quicklime . Beyond the outer wall was a water-filled moat. The Golden Gate Palace, the residence of the caliph and his family, was in the heart of Baghdad, in the central square. In
29240-488: Was taught in state schools, and was also offered as an elective course or recommended for study in some madrasas . Persian learning was also widespread in the Ottoman-held Balkans ( Rumelia ), with a range of cities being famed for their long-standing traditions in the study of Persian and its classics, amongst them Saraybosna (modern Sarajevo , Bosnia and Herzegovina), Mostar (also in Bosnia and Herzegovina), and Vardar Yenicesi (or Yenice-i Vardar, now Giannitsa , in
29412-561: Was the Deylamites under the Buyid king Mu'izz al-Dawla who finally shifted the balance of power by conquering Baghdad in 945. Mu'izz al-Dawla, however, allowed the Abbasid caliphs to remain in comfortable, secluded captivity in their palaces. The Church of the East began evangelizing Gilan in the 780s, when a metropolitan bishopric was established under Shubhalishoʿ . In the 9th and 10th centuries AD, Deylamites and later Gilanis gradually converted to Zaydi Shiʿism . Several Deylamite commanders and soldiers of fortune who were active in
29584-425: Was to prevent books from being printed with wrong use of words. According to the executive guarantee of this association, the government was responsible for wrongfully printed books. Words coined by this association, such as rāh-āhan ( راهآهن ) for "railway", were printed in Soltani Newspaper ; but the association was eventually closed due to inattention. A scientific association was founded in 1911, resulting in
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