Zuzan () is a village in, and the capital of,

Zuzan Rural District Zuzan Rural District () is in Jolgeh Zuzan District of Khaf County, Razavi Khorasan province, Iran. Its capital is the village of Zuzan. The previous capital of the rural district was the village of Qasemabad, now a city. Demographics P ...

Jolgeh Zuzan District Jolgeh Zuzan District () is in Khaf County, Razavi Khorasan province, Iran. Its capital is the city of Qasemabad. The district contains the UNESCO world heritage site of Zuzan Zuzan () is a village in, and the capital of, Zuzan R ...

Khaf County Khaf County () is in Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran. Its capital is the city of Khaf. History After the 2016 National Census, the village of Sedeh was elevated to the status of a city. Demographics Population At the time of the 2006 c ...

, Razavi Khorasan province,

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 ...

. The previous capital of the rural district was the village of Qasemabad, now a city.

History

The earliest artifacts of Zuzan date back to the 4th century. Zuzan was the site of an medieval city, flourishing most notably during the reign of the

Khwarazmian Empire The Khwarazmian Empire (), or simply Khwarazm, was a culturally Persianate society, Persianate, Sunni Muslim empire of Turkic peoples, Turkic ''mamluk'' origin. Khwarazmians ruled large parts of present-day Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Iran ...

. Zuzan was at a distance of other major medieval metropolises such as Khargerd,

Nishapur Nishapur or Neyshabur (, also ) is a city in the Central District (Nishapur County), Central District of Nishapur County, Razavi Khorasan province, Razavi Khorasan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. Ni ...

Herat Herāt (; Dari/Pashto: هرات) is an oasis city and the third-largest city in Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Se ...

Jam Fruit preserves are preparations of fruits whose main preserving agent is sugar and sometimes acid, often stored in glass jars and used as a condiment or spread. There are many varieties of fruit preserves globally, distinguished by the meth ...

, and

Merv Merv (, ', ; ), also known as the Merve Oasis, was a major Iranian peoples, Iranian city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, near today's Mary, Turkmenistan. Human settlements on the site of Merv existed from the 3rd millennium& ...

. The city was rectangularly planned and contained irrigation systems and dams. Most of the historical remnants of the city have been lost to time, but two major historical monuments remain, the Zuzan Madrasa and th
Malek Zuzan Mosque
The historical city is on the Iranian tentative list for

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 ...

World Heritage nomination.

Zuzan Madrasa

Although only parts of the inscription containing the date of the monument remain, this monument can be dated to 1219. Andre Godard, a French archaeologist first described the building and attributed it to the Khwarazmian Empire in 1949. Godard initially misidentified the building as a mosque but an inscription dedicated to

Abu Hanifa Abu Hanifa (; September 699 CE – 767 CE) was a Muslim scholar, jurist, theologian, ascetic,Pakatchi, Ahmad and Umar, Suheyl, "Abū Ḥanīfa", in: ''Encyclopaedia Islamica'', Editors-in-Chief: Wilferd Madelung and, Farhad Daftary. and epony ...

shows that the building was actually an Hanafite

madrasa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes Romanization of Arabic, romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any Educational institution, type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whet ...

. Architecturally, the madrasa is influenced by

Ghurid The Ghurid dynasty (also spelled Ghorids; ; self-designation: , ''Šansabānī'') was a Persianate dynasty of eastern Iranian peoples, Iranian Tajik people, Tajik origin, which ruled from the 8th-century in the region of Ghor, and became an Emp ...

and Khwarazmian architecture. The building used a typical four-

iwan An iwan (, , also as ''ivan'' or ''ivān''/''īvān'', , ) is a rectangular hall or space, usually vaulted, walled on three sides, with one end entirely open. The formal gateway to the iwan is called , a Persian term for a portal projecting ...

plan type of the region, although only two iwans now remain. The building contains sophisticated ceramics and highly stylized inscriptions.

Demographics

Population

At the time of the 2006 National Census, the village's population was 2,183 in 479 households. The following census in 2011 counted 2,585 people in 626 households. The 2016 census measured the population of the village as 2,677 people in 744 households. It was the most populous village in its rural district.

Notable people

Hamza ibn Ali ibn Ahmad Hamza ibn Ali ibn Ahmed (; –c. 1021) was an 11th-century Persian Ismai'li missionary and founding leader of the Druze. He was born in Zuzan in Greater Khorasan in Samanid-ruled Persia (modern Khaf, Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran), and preac ...

, founding leader of the

Druze The Druze ( ; , ' or ', , '), who Endonym and exonym, call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (), are an Arabs, Arab Eastern esotericism, esoteric Religious denomination, religious group from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic ...

. *

Abu Sahl Zawzani Abu Sahl Muhammad ibn Husayn (or Hasan) Zawzani (), better known as Abu Sahl Zawzani (; also spelled Zuzani), was a Persian statesman who served as the chief secretary of the Ghaznavids briefly in 1040, and later from 1041 to an unknown date. Zaw ...

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

statesman who served as the chief secretary of the

Ghaznavids The Ghaznavid dynasty ( ''Ġaznaviyān'') was a Persianate Muslim dynasty of Turkic peoples, Turkic ''mamluk'' origin. It ruled the Ghaznavid Empire or the Empire of Ghazni from 977 to 1186, which at its greatest extent, extended from the Oxus ...

briefly in 1040, and later from 1041 to an unknown date was from Zuzan. *Qiwam al-Din Muayyid al-Mulk Abu Bakr ibn Ali al-Zuzani, the governor of the area from the 1200 to 1220, who constructed the most notable sites in the village; the Madrasa and Mosque of Malek Zuzan.

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * Populated places in Khaf County {{Khaf-geo-stub