Table of Contents

  • ISFAHAN iii. POPULATION (1) The Qajar Period

    Heidi Walcher

    Moḥammad-Mahdi Arbāb, a native of Isfahan, maintained that, at the time of Nāṣer-al-Din Shah’s accession in 1848, there were 200,000 city inhabitants, with that number decreasing to about 80,000 for a period before growing again.

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  • ISFAHAN iii. POPULATION (2) Isfahan Province

    Habibollah Zanjani

    In 2001, the sub-provinces of Isfahan (with more than 1.6 million), Kāšān, and Najafabād (with more than 300,000) were the most populated, while the sub-provinces of Naṭanz, Fereydunšahr, and Ardestān were the least populated with populations of less than 50,000 persons.

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  • ISFAHAN iii. POPULATION (3) Isfahan City

    Habibollah Zanjani

    As the capital of Isfahan Province, the city accounted, in 1996, for about 32.2 percent of the total population of the province and 43.4 percent of its urban population. Isfahan is also the third most populated city in the country, behind Tehran and Mashad.

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  • ISFAHAN iv. PRE-ISLAMIC PERIOD

    J. Hansman and EIr

    The Arab geographers  report that the Sasanian city of Isfahan comprised two adjoining towns: Jayy, the fortified town and province center and, two miles (mil) away, Yahudiya, a Jewish settlement.

  • ISFAHAN v. LOCAL HISTORIOGRAPHY

    JÜRGEN PAUL

    Isfahan is exceptional in the number and variety of works of local historiography; no other Persian city has attracted nearly as many such works.

  • ISFAHAN vi. MEDIEVAL PERIOD

    Hossein Kamaly

    The history of Isfahan prior to the city’s efflorescence in the 17th century often traced alternating cycles of urbanization and de-urbanization.

  • ISFAHAN vii. SAFAVID PERIOD

    Masashi Haneda and Rudi Matthee

    Isfahan came under Safavid rule in 1503 following Shah Esmāʿil’s defeat of Solṭān Morād, the Āq Qoyunlu ruler of Erāq-e ʿAjam, near Hamadān.

  • Isfahan ix. THE PAHLAVI PERIOD AND THE POST-REVOLUTION ERA

    Habib Borjian

    In the process of consolidating his power in Isfahan, Reza Shah managed to constrain two powerful social groups: the Shiʿite clergy and the Baḵtiāri tribesmen.

  • ISFAHAN x. MONUMENTS

    Sussan Babaie with Robert Haug

    According to the French traveler Jean Chardin, in the late 17th century Isfahan housed some 162 mosques, 48 theological colleges (madrasa), 1,802 caravansaries, and 273 bathhouses.

  • Isfahan x. MONUMENTS (1) A Historical Survey

    Sussan Babaie with Robert Haug

     Isfahan’s monuments developed in the early medieval period first under the ʿAbbāsid caliphate and Buyid patronage. But many of the extant monuments of Isfahan date to the periods in history when the city served as the capital of the ruling dynasties of the Great Saljuqs (1040-1194) and the Safavids (1501-1722).

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