East Azerbaijan province () is one of the 31

provinces of Iran Iran is subdivided into thirty-one provinces ( ''Ostân''), each governed from a local centre, usually the largest local city, which is called the capital (Persian: , ''Markaz (country subdivision), Markaz'') of that province. The provincial ...

. Its capital is the city of

Tabriz Tabriz (; ) is a city in the Central District (Tabriz County), Central District of Tabriz County, in the East Azerbaijan province, East Azerbaijan province of northwestern Iran. It serves as capital of the province, the county, and the distric ...

. The province is located in

Iranian Azerbaijan Azerbaijan or Azarbaijan (, , ), also known as Iranian Azerbaijan, is a historical region in northwestern Iran that borders Iraq and Turkey to the west and Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the Azerbaijani exclave of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republ ...

, bordering

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

, the

Republic of Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russi ...

Ardabil Ardabil (, ) is a city in northwestern Iran. It is in the Central District (Ardabil County), Central District of Ardabil County, Ardabil province, Ardabil province, Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district. The ...

province,

West Azerbaijan West Azerbaijan province () is one of the 31 provinces of Iran, provinces of Iran, whose capital and largest city is Urmia. It is in the Azerbaijan (Iran), northwest of the country, bordered by Turkey (Ağrı Province, Ağrı, Hakkâri Pr ...

province, and Zanjan province. East Azerbaijan is in Region 3 of Iran, with its secretariat located in its capital city, Tabriz.

History

East Azerbaijan is one of the most archaic territories in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. During the reign of Alexander III of Macedon in Iran (331 BCE), a warrior known as Attorpat led a revolt in this area, then a territory of the

Medes The Medes were an Iron Age Iranian peoples, Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media (region), Media between western Iran, western and northern Iran. Around the 11th century BC, they occupied the m ...

, and thereafter it was called ''Attorpatkan''. Since then this vicinity has been known as ''Azarabadegan'', ''Azarbadgan'' and ''Azarbayjan''. Islamic researchers proclaim that the birth of the prophet

Zoroaster Zarathushtra Spitama, more commonly known as Zoroaster or Zarathustra, was an Iranian peoples, Iranian religious reformer who challenged the tenets of the contemporary Ancient Iranian religion, becoming the spiritual founder of Zoroastrianism ...

was in this area, in the vicinity of Lake Orumieh (''Chichesht''), Konzak City. Needless to say, this province was subject to numerous political and economical upheavals, attracting the interest of foreigners. The Russians in particular have tried to exert a lasting influence in the region over the past 300 years, occupying the area on numerous occasions. The

constitutionalist Constitutionalism is "a compound of ideas, attitudes, and patterns of behavior elaborating the principle that the authority of government derives from and is limited by a body of fundamental law". Political organizations are constitutional to ...

movement of Iran began here in the late 19th century. Ethnic tensions in Azerbaijan can

legally Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

trace their origins back to the colonialist policies of

Imperial Russia Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * ...

and later the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. In a cable sent on 6 July 1945 by the

Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the Central committee, highest organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) between Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Congresses. Elected by the ...

, the local Soviet commander in Russian (northern) held Azerbaijan was instructed as such: In 1945, the

helped set up the

Azerbaijan People's Government The Azerbaijan People's Government (; ) was a short-lived unrecognized secessionist state in northern Iran from November 1945 to December 1946. Like the unrecognized Republic of Mahabad, it was a puppet state of the Soviet Union. Established i ...

in what is now East Azerbaijan.

Demographics

Language and ethnicity

Most of the inhabitants are ethnic

Azerbaijanis Azerbaijanis (; , ), Azeris (, ), or Azerbaijani Turks (, ) are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group living mainly in the Azerbaijan (Iran), Azerbaijan region of northwestern Iran and the Azerbaijan, Republic of Azerbaijan. They are predomin ...

who speak a

Turkic language The Turkic languages are a language family of more than 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and West Asia. The Turkic langua ...

related to Turkish. In Qarajadaḡ (today

Arasbaran Arasbaran (), also known as Qaradagh (; , ; ), is a large mountainous area stretching from the Qūshā Dāgh massif, south of Ahar, to the Aras River in East Azerbaijan province of Iran. The region is confined to Aras Riv ...

), that is, the region between the Aras river and the Sabalan mountain range, there are six Shiʿite, Turkic-speaking tribes of Kurdish origin: Chalabianlu, Mohammadkhanlu, Hosaynkhanlu, Hajialilu, Hasanbeiglu and Qarachorlu.

Population

At the time of the 2006 National Census, the province's population was 3,527,267 in 911,241 households. The following census in 2011 counted 3,724,620 people in 1,085,455 households. The 2016 census measured the population of the province as 3,909,652 in 1,223,028 households.

Administrative divisions

At the 1986 census, there were twelve counties in East Azerbaijan province. By the 1996 census, two additional counties had been formed: Jolfa (from part of Marand), and Malekan (from part of

Bonab Bonab () is a city in the Central District of Bonab County, East Azerbaijan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. Bonab is 120 km south of Tabriz (the capital of the province), near Lake Urmia. The c ...

). Between 1996 and 2002, five new counties were formed: Ajabshir, Azarshahr, Charuymaq, Osku, and Varzaqan. The table below illustrates further changes since the 2006 census. The cities of Ahar and Mianeh of East Azerbaijan Province, along with Parsabad and

Meshginshahr Meshginshahr () is a city in the Central District (Meshgin Shahr County), Central District of Meshgin Shahr County, Ardabil province, Ardabil province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. History The 14th-centu ...

from Ardabil province, and Piranshahr and

Salmas Salmas () is a city in the Central District of Salmas County, West Azerbaijan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. It is northwest of Lake Urmia, near Turkey. Etymology The original name of Salmas was ...

from

, are six cities in

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

region that have joined the group of large cities with populations of over 100,000 people due to population changes after the 2016 census. The population history and structural changes of East Azerbaijan Province's administrative divisions over three consecutive censuses are shown in the following table.

Cities

According to the 2016 census, 2,809,424 people (over 71% of the population of East Azerbaijan province) live in the following cities:

Geography

The province covers an area of approximately 47,830 km², it has a population of around four million people. The province has common borders with the Republic of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Autonomous Nakhchivan in the north,

in the west, Zanjan in the south, and

in the east. A fine network of roads and railways connects East Azerbaijan to other parts of

and neighboring countries. The highest point in East Azerbaijan is the volcanic peak of Sahand Mountain at of elevation, lying south of

, whereas the lower-lying areas are around Garmadooz (Ahar). The hills and mountains of the province are divided into three ranges: the Qara Daq Mountains, the Sahand and Bozqoosh Mountains, and the Qaflan Kooh Mountains.

Climate

The climate of East Azerbaijan is affected by Mediterranean Continental as well as the cold semi-arid climate. Gentle breezes off the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

have some influence on the climate of the low-lying areas. Temperatures run up to 8.9 °C in Tabriz, and 20 °C in Maraqeh, in the winter dropping to −10 to −15 °C at least (depending on how cold the overall year is). The ideal seasons to visit this province are the spring and summer months.

Culture

From a cultural point of view, the most outstanding features are the language, Azerbaijani, and folklore of this region. The language of Azerbaijan is originally "a branch of the Iranian languages known as Azari" (''see Ancient Azari language''). However, the modern Azeri language is a Turkic language very closely related to the language of

and Turkey. Apart from this, the province also boasts numerous learned scholars, gnostics, several national poets such as ''Mowlana Baba Mazeed'', ''Khajeh Abdol Raheem Aj Abadi'', ''Sheikh Hassan Bolqari'', and ''Abdolqader Nakhjavani'', to name a few, and the contemporary poet ''Ostad Mohammad Hossein Shahriyar''. The current

leader Leadership, is defined as the ability of an individual, group, or organization to "", influence, or guide other individuals, teams, or organizations. "Leadership" is a contested term. Specialist literature debates various viewpoints on the co ...

of Iran,

Ali Khamenei Ali Hosseini Khamenei (; born 19 April 1939) is an Iranian cleric and politician who has served as the second supreme leader of Iran since 1989. He previously served as the third President of Iran, president from 1981 to 1989. Khamenei's tenure ...

, also originally comes from this region.

Iran's Cultural Heritage Organization The Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts of Iran () is an educational and research institution overseeing numerous associated museum complexes throughout Iran. It is administered and funded by the Government of Iran. It was ...

has registered 936 sites of historical significance in the province. Some are contemporary, and some are from the antiquity of ancient Persia. " Zahak Citadel", for example, is the name of an ancient ruin in East Azerbaijan, which according to various experts, was inhabited from the second millennium BC until the Timurid era. First excavated in the 1800s by British archeologists,

has been studying the structure in 6 phase

East Azerbaijan enjoys a rich compendium of Azeri traditions. Many local dances and folk songs continue to survive among the various peoples of the province. As a longstanding province of

, Azerbaijan is mentioned favorably on many occasions in

Persian literature Persian literature comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian language and is one of the world's oldest literatures. It spans over two-and-a-half millennia. Its sources have been within Greater Iran including present-day ...

by Iran's greatest authors and poets.

East Azerbaijan today

East Azerbaijan province is an industrial centre of

. East Azerbaijan province has over 5000 manufacturing units (6% percent of national total). The value of product from these units in 1997 was US$374 million (373 billion rials = 4.07% of the national total). Total investments were valued at US$2.7 billion (2.4513 trillion rials) in 1997.According to the information released by the office of the provincial governor. Some of the major industries in East Azerbaijan are glass industries, paper manufacturing, steel, copper and nepheline syenite, oil refinery, petrochemical processing facilities, chemical products, pharmaceutical processing, foundries, vehicle and auto-parts industries, industrial machines, agricultural machines, food industries, leather, and shoe industries. East Azerbaijan has an excellent position in the handicraft industry of Iran, which has a large share in the exports of the province. Tabriz carpets are widely known around the world and in international markets for their vibrant designs and colors. At present there are about 66,000 carpet production units in the province, employing some 200,000 people. The annual production of these carpets is roughly 792,000 m², which comprises more than 70% of Iran's carpet exports. 35% of all Iranian carpets are produced in East Azerbaijan. East Azerbaijan province is also one of the richest regions of Iran in natural minerals, with 180 mines in 1997, of which 121 units are currently in operation, and the rest are being planned.

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

has two Biosphere reserves in East Azerbaijan province. One in

Lake Urmia Lake Urmia is an endorheic salt lake in Iran. The lake is located between the provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan in Iran, and west of the southern portion of the Caspian Sea. At its greatest extent, it was the largest lake in th ...

and the other at

Colleges and universities

East Azerbaijan also has some of Iran's prestigious universities including: * Sahand University of Technology

* Tabriz University of Medical Sciences * University of Tabriz

* Azerbaijan University of Tarbiat Moallem
Tabriz Islamic Arts University
* University of Maragheh * Engineering and Technical College of Bonab

Islamic Azad University of Bonab

Islamic Azad University of Tabriz

Islamic Azad University of Shabestar

Islamic Azad University of Maragheh

Islamic Azad University of Miyaneh

University College of Nabi Akram, Tabriz

Notable people

* Qatran Tabrizi, poet * Ahmad Kasravi, historian * Samad Behrangi *

Sattar Khan Sattar Khan (, , October 20, 1866 – November 17, 1914), honorarily titled Sardār-e Melli ( meaning ''National Commander'') was a pivotal figure in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution and is considered a national hero by the Iranian people. ...

, revolutionary leader * Bagher Khan, revolutionary leader * Gayk Bzhishkyan * Kazem Sadegh-Zadeh *

Parvin E'tesami Rakhshandeh E'tesami (, ''Raḵšanda Eʿteṣāmī''; 17 March 1907 – 4 April 1941), better known as Parvin E'tesami (), was a 20th-century Iranian Persian language, Persian poet. Life Parvin E'tesami was born on 17 March 1907 in Tabriz to M ...

, poet *

Karim Bagheri Karim Bagheri (; born 20 February 1974) is an Iranian professional association football, football coach and former midfielder who most notably played for the Iran national football team, Iranian national team and Persian Gulf Pro League club Pers ...

, soccer star * Iraj Mirza, poet and politician * Maqsud Ali Tabrizi *

Ivan Galamian Ivan Alexander Galamian (; April 14, 1981) was an Armenian-American violin teacher of the twentieth century who was the violin teacher of many seminal violin players including Itzhak Perlman and Kyung Wha Chung. Biography Galamian was born in ...

* Hassan Roshdieh *

Shams Tabrizi Shams-i Tabrīzī () or Shams al-Din Mohammad (1185–1248) was a Persian * * * * Shafi'ite poet, who is credited as the spiritual instructor of Mewlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhi, also known as Rumi and is referenced with great rev ...

, mystic * Vartan Gregorian, President of

Carnegie Corporation The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Since its founding, the Carnegie Corporation has endowed or othe ...

* Ali Salimi * Ali Soheili,

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

* Ebrahim Hakimi,

* Mahmud Jam,

* Mohammad Hossein Shahriar * Asadi Tusi is buried here