36º16N 50º00E, pop (2001e) 309 500. City in NC Iran; 144 km/89 mi WNW of Tehran, in the S foothills of the Elburz Mts; headquarters of Abbas I (early 17th-c); suffered frequent damage by earthquakes; railway, airfield.
Qazvin (Persian: قزوین, also spelled as Ghazvin) is the largest city and capital of the Province of Qazvin in Iran with an estimated population of 331,409 in 2005.
Introduction and history
Qazvin (historically also rendered as Kazvin, Kasvin, and Casbin in the West) is a city in Iran, some 150 km northwest of Tehran, in Qazvin Province.
The city was the location of a former capital of the Persian Empire and contains over 2000 architectural and archeological sites.
Archeological findings in the Qazvin plain reveal urban agricultural settlements for at least nine millennia. Qazvin geographically connects Tehran, Isfahan, and the Persian Gulf to the Caspian seacoast and Asia Minor, hence its strategic location throughout the ages.
The city today known as Qazvin is thought to have been founded by Shapur II, King of Persia in 250 CE, under the name Shad Shahpur, when he built a fortification there to control regional tensions.
Qazvin has sometimes been of central importance at important moments of Iranian history. Captured by invading Arabs (644 AD) and destroyed by Genghis Khan (13th century), the Safavid monarchs made Qazvin the capital of the Safavid empire in 1548 only to have it moved to Isfahan in 1598.
Bombed and occupied by Russian forces in both World Wars, Qazvin is also the place from which the famous coup d’état that led to the rise of the first Pahlavi dynasty was launched in 1921.
Qazvini Architecture
Qazvin contains several archeological excavations dating back 9000 years.
Qazvin contains few buildings from the Safavid era, when it was capital of Persia. Perhaps the most famous of the surviving edifices is the Ali Qapu mansion, today a museum in central Qazvin.
After Islam, the popularity of mystics (tasawwuf), as well as the prominence of tradition (Hadith), religious jurisprudence (fiqh), and philosophy in Qazvin, led to the emergence of many mosques and religious schools, among which the most magnificent are:
Jame' Atiq Mosque of Qazvin. Sanjideh Mosque: Another mosque of Qazvin dating back to pre-Islamic Iran;
Qazvin contains three buildings built by Russians in the late 19th/early 20th century.
According to explorers Pietro Della Valle (1588-1713), Jean Baptist Tavenier (1605-1689), Johannes Chardin (1643-1713), and others, there have been Christians of various sects living in Qazvin for centuries. Qazvin is where the Saint Hripsime Church is located, and is also where four Jewish prophets gave tidings of the arrival of Jesus Christ.
Other attractions near Qazvin are the tombs of two Saljuki era princes, Aboo Saeed Bijar, son of Sad, and Aboo Mansoor Iltai, son of Takin — located in two separate towers known as the Kharaghan twin towers.
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The Kharaghan twin towers, built in 1067 CE, Qazvin province. |
The Qazvin congregational Jame' Atiq mosque dates back to 807CE, first built by Harun al-Rashid. |
The Russian Church of Qazvin today sits adjacent to the campus of Islamic Azad University of Qazvin. |
Famous Qazvinis
Aside from Shahzadeh Hossein, a Shiite saint, to whom a handsome shrine has been built, there have been an abundance of scientists and mystics who lived in Qazvin, or came from Qazvin, whose tombs are scattered throughout the cities and villages of the province. Some of these are:
Ali Akbar Dehkhoda: Prominent linguist and author of Iran's first modern Persian dictionary, originally from Qazvin. The turquoise conic dome and its inscription in Sols calligraphy in which Mostowfi’s family tree and his works are introduced are the features that distinguish the tomb from other historical monuments of Qazvin. Ra'ees ol-Mojahedin: The late Mirza Hassan Sheikhol Islam, son of Mirza Masood Sheikhol Islam, leader of the liberals and constitutionalists of Qazvin, whose endeavors and devotion to abolish the Qajar dynasty and conquer Tehran brought the title of Raeesol Mojahedin (chief of fighters) for him. Kheirol Nesaj Ibrahim Estanbeh Heravi Razi-olddin Taleghani Noor-olddin Geeli Ali Ibn Ghazi Ibn Ahmad Imam-olddin Rafee Siah Kolah Nasser Takmil Homayoun Vaez Qazvini Allameh Zarabadi Sheikh Alak Qazvini Davoud Ibn Soleiman Ghazi Pir e Sefid Pir e Alamdar Molla Abdolvahab Darolshafaee Mohammad Ibn Yahya: Commentator of Qamoosol Loghat Táhirih Yousef Alikhani Amin Ahmadi Seyed Mohammad Sadegh MojabiQazvin today
Qazvin today is a center of textile trade, including cotton, silk and velvet, in addition to leather. Qazvin has one of the largest power plants feeding electricity into Iran's national power grid, the Shahid Raja'i facility, which provides 7% of Iran's electrical power.
Colleges and universities
Qazvin has four institutes of higher education:
Imam Khomeini International University Islamic Azad University of Qazvin Qazvin University of Medical Sciences Shahid Babaee Technical Institute
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