FAHLĪĀN

 

FAHLĪĀN, a rural district (dehestān) situated 12 km northwest of Nūrābād in the Mamassanī šahrestān. It consists of the plain of Fahlīān and foothills. The Fahlīān River irrigates the plain only, and the foothills, despite being fertile, remain uncultivated due to lack of water. Two tributaries, one of fresh water and the other brackish, merge at a place called Sar Āsīāb-e Jāvīd to form the Fahlīān River, which ultimately joins the Zohra River to flow into the Persian Gulf. The brackish tributary emerges from the Došmanzīārī (q.v.) district, crossing salt basins in its path, and the other tributary from the Jāvīd region. An old bridge (Pol-e Fahīān) crosses the Fahlīān River (Ḥabībī, p. 426). The district produces wheat, barley, and rice.

The center of the district is the township of Fahlīān, which is called Fahlīān-e Bālā to distinguish it from Fahlīān-e Pāʾīn, another village in the same district. In 1991 Fahlīān-e Bālā had a population of 1,574 people (277 families) and Fahlīān-e Pāʾīn 931 people (137 families; Sāzmān-e Barnāma, svv. “Fahlīān-ʿolyā” and “Fahlīān-e soflā”). The population of the former consists of eleven Mamassanī tribal families; they are Shiʿites and speak a Lorī dialect. The Fahlīān township enjoys amenities, including running water, electricity, telephone, a clinic, educational facilities from kindergarten to high school, social services, a cooperative, a police station, and a municipality (Ḥabībī, p. 195).

Numerous ancient ruins are found in the area. Around a hill called Tol-e Čoḡā and overlooking the river there exist ruins, locally called Emāmzāda Esmāʿīl, that contain pillar bases 90 cm in height resembling those of Persepolis and belonging to the Achaemenid (q.v.) period (Moṣṭafawī, p. 136).

The name Fahlīān is not mentioned in early sources. Baron Clement A. de Bode, a member of the Russian Legation at Tehran, who visited Fahlīān in 1840, described it as a small town of sixty to seventy houses, with a number of subterranean canals, mills, and bathhouses. He also mentioned the remains of the town walls, the ruins of a fort on top of a small hill surrounded by date-palm trees, and water canals dug through rocks bringing water to Fahlīān from a distance of fourteen miles (de Bode, tr., pp. 154; Gabriel, p. 233). Zayn-al-ʿĀbedīn Šīrvānī, writing in 1248/1832, gives a short account of the town, estimating its population at 700 families. According to Fasāʾī (II, p. 302), in the past Fahlīān had been a flourishing town with mosques, bathhouses, a school, a caravansary, a bāzār, date-palm trees, and orange groves.

Fahlīān was ruined during the Afghan invasion of 1136/1722 and rebuilt in 1163/1749 during the government of Ṣāleḥ Khan Bayāt, as inscribed on the Fahlīān mountain (Majīdī, pp. 85-86). Fahlīān was a prosperous town in 1345/1920. Then, due to tribal unrest, the population was forced to build a fort away from the old town which now forms the township of Fahlīān (Majīdī, p. 88). Fahlīān was the center of a district (baḵš) in the šahrestān of Kāzerūn in 1328 Š./1949 with a population of 750 (Razmārā, Farhang VII, p. 166). In consequence of the 1341 Š./1962 disturbances in southern Persia and the declaration of martial law, during which the military governor of Mamassanī, Col. ʿAbd-al-Ḥosayn Tažda, transferred his headquarters to Nūrābād and Mamassanī became a šahrestān with Nūrābād as its center, Fahlīān became the center of a rural district and lost its former status (Moslemī, p. 27).

 

Bibliography (for cited works not given in detail, see “Short References”):

C. A. de Bode, Travels in Lurestan and Arabistan, 2 vols., London, 1845; tr. Ṃ-Ḥ. Ārīā as Safar-nāma-ye Lorestān wa Ḵūzestān, Tehran, 1371 Š./1992.

M. Eqtedārī, Ḵūzestān wa Kohgīlūya wa Mamassanī, Tehran, 1359 Š./1980.

A. Gabriel, Die Erforschung Persien, Vienna, 1952; tr. F.-ʿA Ḵ¯ᵛājanūrī as Taḥqīqāt-e joḡrāfīāʾī rājeʿ ba Īrān, Tehran, 1348 Š./1969.

Ḥ. Ḥabībī Fahlīānī, Mamassanī dar goḏargāh-e tārīkò, Shiraz, 1371 Š./1992.

N.-M. Majīdī, Tārīḵ o joḡrāfīā-ye Mamassanī, Shiraz, 1371 Š./1992.

V. Minorsky, “Shūlistān,” in EI1 IV, pp. 391-92.

A. Moslemī, Mamassanī wa behešt-e gomšoda, Shiraz, 1369 Š./1990.

M.-T. Moṣṭafawī, Eqlīm-e Pārs, Tehran, 1343 Š./1964.

S. Šahšahānī, Čahār faṣl-e āftāb, Tehran, 1366 Š./1987.

Sāzmān-e Barnāma wa Būdja-ye Ostān-e Fārs, Mošaḵḵaṣāt-e noqāṭ-e rūstāʾī-e Ostān-e Fārs, Shiraz, 1371 Š./1992.

A. Stein, Old Routes of Western Iran, London, 1940, pp. 27-39.

(Jamšīd Ṣadāqat-Ḵīš)

Originally Published: December 15, 1999

Last Updated: January 20, 2012

This article is available in print.
Vol. IX, Fasc. 2, pp. 162-163