Yazd ( fa, یزد ), formerly also known as Yezd, is the capital of Yazd Province,

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. The city is located southeast of Isfahan. At the 2016 census, the population was 1,138,533. Since 2017, the historical city of Yazd is recognized as a

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

. Because of generations of adaptations to its desert surroundings, Yazd has a unique Persian architecture. It is nicknamed the "City of Windcatchers" ( ''Shahr-e Badgirha'') from its many examples. It is also very well known for its

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheisti ...

fire temples, ab anbars (cisterns), qanats (underground channels), yakhchals (coolers), Persian handicrafts, handwoven cloth (''Persian termeh''),

silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from th ...

weaving, Persian cotton candy, and its time-honored confectioneries. Yazd is also known as City of Bicycles, because of its old history of bike riders, and the highest number of bicycles per capita in Iran. It is reported that

bicycle culture Bicycle culture can refer to a mainstream culture that supports the use of bicycles or to a subculture. Although "bike culture" is often used to refer to various forms of associated fashion, it is erroneous to call fashion in and of itself a cult ...

in Iran originated in Yazd as a result of contact with European visitors and tourists in the last century.

Name

''Yazd'' means "pure" and "holy"; Yazd City means "City of the Holy ne, ''i. e.'', God. Former names of this city: Kath, Isatis.

History

Archeological evidence 12 kilometers north of Yazd suggests that the area has been populated since the period of the

Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest em ...

(550 BC–330 BC). In his '' Natural History'',

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

(died 79 AD) mentions a town in the

Parthian Empire The Parthian Empire (), also known as the Arsacid Empire (), was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe in conqu ...

(247 BC–224 AD) named "Issatis", which is seemingly connected to the name of the Asagarta/Istachae/Sagartians. As a result, some scholars have suggested that the name of Yazd was derived from Issatis (also transliterated as Isatichae, Ysatis, Yasatis), and that the latter name started to be used in the

Median In statistics and probability theory, the median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as "the middle" value. The basic f ...

or Achaemenid eras. The area encompassing Yazd first started to gain prominence in the

Late antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English h ...

, namely under the

Sasanian Empire The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...

(224–651). Under Yazdegerd I (), a mint was established in Yazd (under the mint abbreviation of "YZ"), which demonstrates its increasing importance. According to the

New Persian New Persian ( fa, فارسی نو), also known as Modern Persian () and Dari (), is the current stage of the Persian language spoken since the 8th to 9th centuries until now in Greater Iran and surroundings. It is conventionally divided into thr ...

chronicle ''Tarikh-i Yazd'' ("History of Yazd") of 1441, Yazd was re-founded by "Yazdegerd, son of Bahram", i.e. Yazdegerd II (). The word ''yazd'' means God. After the

Muslim conquest of Persia The Muslim conquest of Persia, also known as the Arab conquest of Iran, was carried out by the Rashidun Caliphate from 633 to 654 AD and led to the fall of the Sasanian Empire as well as the eventual decline of the Zoroastrian religion. The ...

, many Zoroastrians migrated to Yazd from neighboring provinces. By paying a levy, Yazd was allowed to remain Zoroastrian even after its conquest, and

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...

only gradually became the dominant religion in the city. آتشکده یزد 2

Because of its remote desert location and the difficulty of access, Yazd remained largely immune to large battles and the destruction and ravages of war. For instance, it was a haven for those fleeing from destruction in other parts of Persian Empire during the

Mongol invasion The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating history's largest contiguous empire: the Mongol Empire (1206-1368), which by 1300 covered large parts of Eurasia. Historians regard the Mongol devastati ...

. In 1272 it was visited by Marco Polo, who remarked on the city's fine silk-weaving industry. In the book '' The Travels of Marco Polo'', he described Yazd in the following way: Yazd briefly served as the capital of the Muzaffarid Dynasty in the fourteenth century, and was unsuccessfully besieged in 1350–1351 by the Injuids under Shaikh Abu Ishaq. The Friday (or Congregation) mosque, arguably the city's greatest architectural landmark, as well as other important buildings, date to this period. During the

Qajar dynasty The Qajar dynasty (; fa, دودمان قاجار ', az, Qacarlar ) was an IranianAbbas Amanat, ''The Pivot of the Universe: Nasir Al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831–1896'', I. B. Tauris, pp 2–3 royal dynasty of Turkic origin ...

(18th century AD) it was ruled by the Bakhtiari Khans. Under the rule of the Safavids (16th century), some people migrated from Yazd and settled in an area that is today on the Iran-Afghanistan border. The settlement, which was named Yazdi, was located in what is now Farah City in the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...

of the same name in Afghanistan. Even today, people from this area speak with an accent very similar to that of the people of Yazd. One of the notable things about Yazd is its family-centered culture. According to official statistics from Iran's National Organization for Civil Registration, Yazd is among the three cities with the lowest divorce rates in Iran.

Demographics

Language and ethnic groups

The majority of the people of Yazd are

Persians The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian. ...

. They speak Persian with a Yazdi accent, which is different from the Persian accent of

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

Religion

The majority of people in Yazd are Shia Muslim. Yazd is a strongly religious, traditionalist and conservative city. Several city traditions are the Muslim parades and gatherings, which are mainly processions called ''azadari'' held to commemorate the events experienced by the main Islamic martyrs and other important figures. These huge public gatherings created a series of spaces which, since most are near important urban monuments, are used at other times as hubs from which visitors can tour the main spots in the city. There is also a sizable population of Zoroastrians in the city. In 2013, Sepanta Niknam was elected to the city council of Yazd and became the first Zoroastrian councillor in Iran. The Pir-e-Naraki sanctuary is one of the important pilgrimage destinations for Zoroastrians, where an annual congregation is held and frequent visits are made during the year; it is now also a famous tourist spot. The story of the last Persian prince to come to Yazd before the arrival of

adds to its importance. Such a transformation has occurred several times. There was once a relatively large Jewish-Yazdi community, however, after the creation of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, many have moved there for varying reasons. Former president of Israel Moshe Katsav is an example. Main religion in Yazd city is

Population

According to the Iranian Census of 2016 the population of Yazd is 1,138,533 people from 340,657 families, which includes 586,013 men and 552,520 women.

Historical sites

Yazd is an important centre of

Iranian architecture Iranian architecture or Persian architecture ( Persian: معمارى ایرانی, ''Memāri e Irāni'') is the architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Its history dates back to at least 5,000 BC ...

. Because of its climate, it has one of the largest networks of '' qanats'' (underground water supply systems) in the world, and Yazdi ''qanat'' makers are considered the most skilled in Iran. To deal with the extremely hot summers, many old buildings in Yazd have magnificent wind towers and large underground areas. The city is also home to prime examples of '' yakhchals'', which were used to store ice retrieved from glaciers in the nearby mountains. Yazd is also one of the largest cities built almost entirely out of

adobe Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for '' mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of ...

. Yazd's heritage as a center of Zoroastrianism is also important. There is a Tower of Silence on the outskirts, and the city has an '' ateshkadeh'' which holds a fire that has been kept alight continuously since 470 AD. Zoroastrians make up a significant minority of the population, around 20,000–40,000 or 5 to 10 percent. The 11th-century brick mausoleum and shrine Davāzdah Imām is the oldest dated building in the city. Built in 12th century and still in use, Jame Mosque of Yazd is an example of the finest Persian

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

s and excellent architecture. Its minarets are the highest in the country. Tomb of Sayyed Rukn ad-Din is nearby the mosque.

Geography

Climate

Yazd has a hot desert climate (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

''BWh''). It is the driest major city in Iran, with a yearly precipitation amount of and only 23 days of precipitation, with summer temperatures very frequently above in blazing sunshine with no humidity. Even at night the temperatures in summer are rather uncomfortable. In the winter, the days remain mild and sunny, but in the morning the thin air and low cloudiness cause cold temperatures that can sometimes fall well below .

Economy

Always known for the quality of its silk and carpets, Yazd today is one of Iran's industrial centers for textiles. There is also a considerable ceramics and construction materials industry and unique confectionery and jewellery industries. A significant portion of the population is also employed in other industries including agriculture, dairy, metal works, and machine manufacturing. There are a number of companies involved in the growing information technology industry, mainly manufacturing primary materials such as cables and connectors. Currently Yazd is the home of the largest manufacturer of fibre optics in Iran. Yazd's confectioneries have a tremendous following throughout Iran and have been a source of tourism for the city. Confectioners workshops (''khalifehs'', or experts) keep their recipes a guarded secret, and there are many that have remained a private family business for many generations.

Baklava Baklava (, or ; ota, باقلوا ) is a layered pastry dessert made of filo pastry, filled with chopped nuts, and sweetened with syrup or honey. It was one of the most popular sweet pastries of Ottoman cuisine. The pre- Ottoman origin of t ...

, ghotab and

pashmak Pashmak ( fa, پشمک) is a form of Iranian candy floss or cotton candy, made from sugar. Pashmak is served on its own or as an accompaniment to fruits, cakes, ice creams, puddings and desserts. It is widely known as Persian Cotton Candy.

are the most popular sweets made in the city. In 2000 the Yazd Water Museum opened; it features exhibits of water storage vessels and historical technologies related to water. Yazd has expanded its industrial fields since the 1980s. With at least three main industrial areas each containing over 70 different factories, Yazd has become one of the most technologically advanced cities of Iran.

Transportation

In addition to its connection with major Iranian cities via

Iranian Railways , majoroperators =RAI, Tooka rail, Samand rail , ridership =21 million , passkm =13 billion , freight =31 million tonnes , tonkm =22 billion tonnes , infrastructure = , length = , doublelength = 142 ...

, Yazd is served by the

Shahid Sadooghi Airport Yazd Airport ( fa, فرودگاه یزد) is an airport in Yazd, Iran. The airport lies 10 kilometers away from the city center of Yazd and serves the city as well as all of the surrounding counties. The Shahid Sadooghi Airport also serves as a p ...

Politics

* Eskandar Aslani (circa 1979) * Muhammad-Ali Vahdati * Ali-Akbar Farshi * Muhammad-Hassan Khorshidnam * Hosseyn A'laii * Muhammad-Mahdi Sherafat * Ali-Akbar Aramun * Morteza Shayeq * Ali-Akbar Mirvakili * Mohammad Azim Zadeh (circa 2017)

Famous residents

Mohammad Khatami Sayyid Mohammad Khatami ( fa, سید محمد خاتمی, ; born 14 October 1943) is an Iranian politician who served as the fifth president of Iran from 3 August 1997 to 3 August 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture from 1982 ...

, former president of Iran; born in

Ardakan Ardakan ( fa, اردكان, also romanized as Ardakān and Artagan) is the capital city of Ardakan County, Yazd Province, Iran. At the 2016 census, its population was 75,271 in 22,475 families. Ardakan is the second major city of Yazd Province. ...

* Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander of the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution of Iran * Mohammad Reza Aref, Vice President of Iran from 2001 to 2005 * Mirza Mohammad Farrokhi Yazdi, poet and politician *

Vahshi Bafghi Vahshi Bafghi ( fa, وحشی بافقی, Vahshi Bāfghi) was a Persian poet of the Safavid era, considered to be one of the greatest of his generation. Biography Vahshi was born in 1532 in Bafq, an agrarian town near the provincial capital of Y ...

, poet * Habibollah Bitaraf, former Minister of Energy * Moshe Katsav, former President of Israel * Mohammad-Ali Eslami Nodooshan, Iranian author * Mehdi Azar Yazdi, author of children's stories *

Reza Amrollahi Reza Amrollahi ( fa, رضا امراللهی) is a physicist and professor. Biography He was the professor of some of the Iranian universities such as Khaje Nasir University and Amir Kabir university. Reza Amrollahi was the president of the Ato ...

, Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran 1981–1997 * Iraj Afshar, bibliographer, historian, and an iconic figure in the field of Persian studies *

Ahmad Fardid Seyyed Ahmad Fardid ( fa, سید احمد فردید) (Born in 1910, Yazd – 16 August 1994, Tehran), born Ahmad Mahini Yazdi, was a prominent Iranian philosopher and a professor of Tehran University. He is considered to be among the philosoph ...

, prominent Iranian philosopher and an inspiring and dedicated professor * Sharaf ad-Din Ali Yazdi, 15th-century Persian historian. * Zia'eddin Tabatabaee, Iranian politician and the Prime Minister of Iran * Reza Ardakanian, Iranian professor, politician and the former Minister of Energy of Iran * Sems Kesmai, poet * Ardeshir Jamshid Khosraviani, prominent Iranian neurosurgeon and an inspiring and dedicated doctor

Education

The University of Yazd was established in 1988. It has a college of architecture specializing in traditional Persian art and architecture. Yazd and its nearby towns contain the following institutes of higher education:

Twin towns – sister cities

Yazd is twinned with: * Holguín, Cuba *

Homs ar, حمصي, Himsi , population_urban = , population_density_urban_km2 = , population_density_urban_sq_mi = , population_blank1_title = Ethnicities , population_blank1 = , population_blank2_t ...

, Syria * Jászberény, Hungary *

Poti Poti ( ka, ფოთი ; Mingrelian: ფუთი; Laz: ჶაში/Faşi or ფაში/Paşi) is a port city in Georgia, located on the eastern Black Sea coast in the region of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti in the west of the country. Built near ...

, Georgia

Gallery

File:Yazd entrance.JPG, Yazd Entrance File:Amir Chakhmaq Complex, Yazd.jpg,

Amir Chakhmaq Complex The Amir Chakhmaq Complex (; also Romanized ''Chakhmaq'', ''Chakmaq'', ''Chakhmagh'', ''Chakmak'') is a prominent structure in Yazd, Iran, noted for its symmetrical sunken alcoves. It is a mosque located on a square of the same name. It also cont ...

File:Mezquita del Viernes, Yazd, Irán, 2016-09-21, DD 11.jpg, Jameh Mosque File:Zoroastrian Fire Temple, Yazd 01.jpg, Fire Temple File:Dolat Abad Garden - Pavilion 01.jpg, Dowlatabad Garden pavilion File:Zurkhaneh, Yazd 01.jpg, A Zurkhaneh in Yazd File:Casa Lari, Yazd, Irán, 2016-09-21, DD 19.jpg, Lari House in Yazd File:971117-DadHotel-Yazd-Pan02.jpg, alt=Dad Hotel, Dad Hotel, Yazd, Iran File:باغ خوشنویس.jpg, khoshnevis garden

References

Citations

Bibliography

* . * *

External links

* *
Rare Photos of Arak, Yazd, Kashan

Iranian.com Iranian.com is a website of syndicated Iranian-related news. The website has changed ownership over time, and promotes Palestinian rights advocacy and anti-regime change advocacy. When Javid, the original owner, started the website in 1995, he ...

Phototour of the desert city (Yazd)
{{Authority control Populated places in Yazd County Cities in Yazd Province Iranian provincial capitals World Heritage Sites in Iran