Zahedan (zähādän') , city (1991 pop. 361,623), capital of Sistan and Baluchistan prov., SE Iran, near the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan. One of Iran's poorer cities, Zahedan is a road junction and the terminus of a railroad that runs into Pakistan.
Zahedan
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Main city of southeastern Iran and administrative center of Sistan and Baluchistan province.
Zahedan occupies an upland plateau (4,718 ft./1,438 m in elevation) north of Mount Taftan, an active volcano in southeast Iran. It is just south of the area where the borders of Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan meet and 60 miles (96 km) northwest of Mirjaveh, the Iranian customs and passport control checkpoint on the border with Pakistan. Zahedan is a modern city that developed in the twentieth century. During the nineteenth century, the agricultural village of Duzhab occupied the site, one of the few areas in extremely arid Baluchistan with adequate groundwater for irrigated cultivation. During World War I, when Pakistan was part of British India, the British extended the imperial railway from Calcutta to Quetta westward to Duzhab. Later, during the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi (r. 1926 - 1941), the village was officially renamed Zahedan after the medieval capital of Sistan, which had been destroyed by the Mongols, and the administrative center for Sistan and Baluchistan was moved here from Khash.
Zahedan had developed into a small town of 17,500 inhabitants by 1956. After Iran and Pakistan joined the U.S.-sponsored Central Treaty Organization in 1958, Zahedan, as a frontier town, became a site for military facilities and related infrastructure projects that spurred rapid growth. By 1976 the population had quintupled to 93,740. However, the ethnic composition of the population also changed, from a majority of local Baluchis and Persian-speaking Sistanis to a majority of migrants from the central areas of Iran. In the 1980s thousands of refugees from Afghanistan resettled in the city. By 1996 Zahedan's population had reached 419,500.
Population growth has spurred the establishment of small and medium-size businesses, including cotton textile manufacturing, woven and knotted carpet production, reed mat and basket making, leather processing, food processing, livestock feed production, ceramics, brick kilns, and grain milling. Zahedan is a large market for foreign goods, a significant proportion of which are smuggled over the border with Pakistan. Zahedan also is believed to be a major center for the illegal processing of opium - smuggled into Iran from Afghanistan and Pakistan - into illicit narcotics.
— ERIC HOOGLUND
| Wikipedia: Zahedan |
Coordinates: 29°29′43″N 60°52′06″E / 29.49528°N 60.86833°E
| Zahedan زاهدان |
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  Zahedan
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| Coordinates: 29°29′43″N 60°52′06″E / 29.49528°N 60.86833°E | |
| Country |  Iran |
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| Province | Sistan and Baluchistan |
| Elevation | 1,352 m (4,436 ft) |
| Population (2005) | |
| - Total | 580,071 |
| estimate | |
| Time zone | IRST (UTC+3:30) |
Zahedan (Persian: زاهدان) is a city in southeastern Iran and the capital of the province of Sistan and Baluchestan. The city had an estimated population of 580,071 in 2005.[2]
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Geography
Zahedan is located near the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan, at an altitude of 1,352 meters above sea level and at a distance of 1,605 km from the Iranian capital of Tehran.
Education
Zahedan is the home of the Islamic Azad University, Zahedan, the Zahedan University of Medical Sciences [1] and the University of Sistan and Baluchestan.
Demographics and Culture
The overwhelming majority of Zahedan's inhabitants are ethnic Baluchi and speak the Baluchi language. There are also smaller numbers of Pashtuns, Sistanis and Brahuis.
Zahedan lies east of the Kavir-e Loot desert. The city was part of the historic region of Sistan (Persian: سیستان), situated today on the borders of southeastern Iran and southwestern Afghanistan. One portion is part of the Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan. The other portion is part of the Nimruz Province of Afghanistan.
Sistan derives its name from 'Sakastan', which Sistan was once the westernmost part of. The Sakas that were once native to Sistan were driven to the Punjab during the Arsacid era (63 BCE-220 CE). The Saffarids (861-1003 CE), one of the early Iranian dynasties of the Islamic era, were originally rulers of Sistan. In the Shahnameh, Sistan is also referred to as Zabulistan, after Zabol, a city in the region. In Ferdowsi's epic, Zabulistan is in turn described to be the homeland of the mythological hero-king Rostam.
Zahedan and the area of Sistan has a very strong connection with Zoroastrianism and during Sassanid times Lake Hamun was one of two pilgrimage sites for followers of that religion. In Zoroastrian folk religion, the lake is the keeper of Zoroaster's seed and just before the final renovation of the world, three maidens will enter the lake, each then giving birth to the saoshyants who will be the saviours of mankind at the final renovation of the world. The most famous archaeological site in Sistan is on Kuh-e Khwajeh, a hill rising up as an island in the middle of Lake Hamun.
Zahedan is the main economic center of the region and home to many small- and medium-scale industries. Its main products include cotton textiles, woven and hand-knotted rugs, ceramics, processed foods, livestock feed, processed hides, milled rice, bricks, reed mats and baskets.
Like most Iranian cities, Zahedan has a Friday mosque for shiye, Jame mosque, where many members of the community gather to worship on Fridays. The city also has a Sikh gurdwara. A colorful bazaar, Rasouli Bazaar, can also be found in the city, where Baluchi and Pashtun traders intermingle. About 100 km south of Zahedan is an intermittently active volcano, Taftan, which rises abruptly 4,042 meters from the surrounding plain.
Although the surrounding area has a lot of ancient sites, Zahedan itself was mainly developed in the 20th century. Before being chosen as the provincial administrative center in the 1930s, Zahedan was a small village. Its population reached 17,500 by 1956 and increased more than fivefold to 93,000 by 1976. After 1980 large numbers of refugees fleeing the invasion of Afghanistan by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) helped to triple the population of Zahedan to more than 281,000 by 1986, a number which has since doubled again.
Etymology
Before the rise of Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1923, the city of Zahedan was known as Dozz-aap. This names is in turn derived from the Persian Dozd-aab, literarily mean "water thief." This is the name given to a sandy land formation that quickly swallows up any water that falls on it, be it rain or irrigation water.
The name was changed to Zahedan by the Academy of Culture, set up during the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi in the 1930s, which changed a myriad of toponyms in Iran. This included the very name of country, which was known to the Western World as Persia until 1935.
A popular theory claims that that the current name, Zahedan ("Sages," or "pious people" in Persian) was given to the city upon its visit by Reza Shah. The story maintains that upon arrival in the city, the Shah noticed many Sikhs among the inhabitants of the city. By their traditional appearances, the Shah misinterpreted the inhabitants as being devout people. The Sikhs were not many, but occupied in the trade business and therefore highly visible in the city.
Sport
In April 2008 the 70 billion IRR Zahedan Stadium was built with a seated capacity of 15,000 people. It was inaugurated on 18 April 2008 with a friendly football game between Honarmandan (Actors) versus a local side.
Transport
Highways link Zahedan to Tehran and Mashhad in the north, the port of Bandar Chabahar on the Sea of Oman in the south, and the Pakistani city of Quetta in the east.
For many years, a broad gauge railway line has extended from Zahedan to Quetta. More recently, a standard gauge line was completed from Zahedan to Kerman in central Iran, linking Zahedan with the rest of the Iranian rail network.[2] This was the result of a May 18, 2007, MOU for rail cooperation that was signed by Pakistan and Iran under which the line was to be completed by December 2008.[3] The line was actually completed in June of 2009. This makes Zahedan the location of the break of gauge between the Islamic Republic of Iran Railway's standard gauge tracks and Pakistan Railway's broad gauge tracks.
Zahedan is also served by Zahedan International Airport.
See also
References
- ^ New Page 1
- ^ Closing the gap from Bam to Zahedan. Railway Gazette International January 2007.
- ^ [1]. Railway Gazette International July 2007.
External links
Coordinates: 29°29′43″N 60°52′06″E / 29.49528°N 60.86833°E
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