Bakhsh

A bakhsh (بخش) is a type of administrative division of Iran. While sometimes translated as county, it is more accurately translated as district, as they are similar to a township in the United States or a district of England.

In Iran each ostan or province consists of several shahrestan or county (Persian: شهرستان shahrestān), and each shahrestan has one or more bakhsh or district (Persian: بخش bakhsh). A bakhsh usually consists of tens of villages with a central town or city. The official governor of a bakhsh is called bakhshdar which is the head of bakhshdari office.

There are usually a few cities (Persian: شهر shahr) and dehdars (municipalities or rural agglomerations) (Persian: دهستان dehestān) in each county. Dehdars are a collection of a number of villages and their surrounding lands. One of the cities of the county is appointed as the capital of each county.

To better understand such subdivisions, the following table may be helpful. Assume that province P is divided into two counties: A and B. County A has 3 districts: Central, X, and Y. The Central district is the district that contains City M, the capital of the county. Each district might contain one or more cities and/or one or more RAs (rural agglomerations). In our example, the Central district contains City M, City N, and RA T composed of the villages V1, V2, V3, and V4, in turn; district X contains City O and RA U; and district Y has no cities and one RA V. The minimal county consists of only one city as the only district, named Central, of course. The county B in the following table is of such type, containing only one city Q.

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