Khorasan (also transcribed as
Khurasan and
Khorassan, anciently called
Traxiane during Hellenistic and
ParthianThe Parthian Empire , was a major Iranian political and cultural power in the ancient Near East, and a counterweight to the Roman Empire in the region....
times) currently names a region located in north eastern
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
, but historically referred to a much larger area east and north-east of the Persian Empire (
see Greater KhorasanGreater Khorasan is a modern term for a historical geographic region spanning north-eastern and east of Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, western and northern Afghanistan and the North Western Areas of Pakistan...
). The name Khorasan is Persian and means "where the sun arrives from." The name was given to the
eastern provinceEastern Province and East Province may refer to the following places:*East Province, Cameroon*East Province, Rwanda*Eastern Province, Kenya*Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia *Eastern Province, Sierra Leone...
of Persia during the
Sassanid EmpireThe Sassanid Empire or Sasanian Empire, known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr, was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty who reigned from 224 to 651 CE...
.
Khorasan is famous world wide for its
saffronSaffron is a spice derived from the flower of the saffron crocus , a species of crocus in the family Iridaceae. A C. sativus flower bears three stigmas, each the distal end of a carpel. Together with their styles—stalks connecting stigmas to their host plant—stigmas are dried and used in cooking...
and zereshk which are produced in the southern cities of the province. Production is more than 170 tons per year. Khorasan is also known for its famous
rugRUG or rug can mean:* carpet** specifically, one made by rug making* slang for toupee* rug , to keep domesticated animals warm and/or dry* University of Groningen, Dutch Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, RuG or RUG...
s as well as for the Ferdousi and Imamreza shrines/tombs.
Khorasan was the largest province of Iran until it was divided to three provinces on September 29, 2004. The provinces approved by the
parliamentThe Islamic Consultative Assembly of Iran , also called The Iranian Parliament or People's House, is the national legislative body of Iran...
(on May 18, 2004) and the Council of Guardians (on May 29, 2004) are:
- North Khorasan, center: Bojnourd, other counties: Shirvan
Shirvan County is a county in North Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Shirvan.-References:* اطلس گیتاشناسی استانهای ایران [Atlas Gitashenasi Ostanhai Iran]...
, Esfarayen, Garmeh and JajarmJajarm is a county in North Khorasan Province of Iran....
, ManehManeh may refer to:* A small sector in the northwest of Bojnurd, Iran* An older spelling for mina , an ancient weight...
and Samlaghan
- South Khorasan, center: Birjand
Birjand is the east Iranian provincial capital of South Khorasan and the centre of the county Birjand resp. Quhestan, known for its saffron, barberry, rug and handmade carpet exports.
...
, other counties: FerdowsFerdows County is a county in the northwest of South Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Ferdows. The population of this county is about 40,000...
, QaenQaen County is a county in South Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Qaen.-References:* اطلس گیتاشناسی استانهای ایران [Atlas Gitashenasi Ostanhai Iran]...
, NehbandanNehbandan County or Nahbandan County is a county in South Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Nehbandan.-References:* اطلس گیتاشناسی استانهای ایران [Atlas Gitashenasi Ostanhai Iran]...
, SarayanSarayan County is a county in South Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Sarayan. Sarayan is located in northwest of the province. Sarayan County was belonged to Ferdows County until May 2004....
, SarbishehSarbisheh County is a county in South Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Sarbisheh.-References:* اطلس گیتاشناسی استانهای ایران [Atlas Gitashenasi Ostanhai Iran]...
and DarmianDarmian County is a county in South Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Asadieh.-References:* اطلس گیتاشناسی استانهای ایران [Atlas Gitashenasi Ostanhai Iran]...
.
- Razavi Khorasan, center: Mashhad
Mashhad is one of the largest cities in Iran and one of the holiest cities in the Shia world. It is located east of Tehran, at the center of the Razavi Khorasan Province close to the borders of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan...
, other counties: SabzevarSabzevar County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Sabzevar.-References:* اطلس گیتاشناسی استانهای ایران [Atlas Gitashenasi Ostanhai Iran]...
, Neyshabour, Torbat-e-HeydariyehTorbat-e-Heydarieh County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Torbat-e Heydarieh.Torbat - Heydarieh city is 1005 km. far from Tehran and is located in a mountainous region on the skirt of mountain having different weathers in different areas...
, QuchanQuchan County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Quchan.-References:* اطلس گیتاشناسی استانهای ایران [Atlas Gitashenasi Ostanhai Iran] 77889999...
, Torbat-e Jam, KashmarKashmar County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Kashmar.-References:* اطلس گیتاشناسی استانهای ایران [Atlas Gitashenasi Ostanhai Iran]...
, TaybadTaybad County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Taybad.this city is located in southeast of khorasan razavi in iran. 150,000 people living in this city.90% of people are ahle sunnat. many mosque located in this city...
, GonabadGonabad County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Gonabad.-References:* اطلس گیتاشناسی استانهای ایران [Atlas Gitashenasi Ostanhai Iran] *...
, DargazDargaz County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Dargaz.-References:* اطلس گیتاشناسی استانهای ایران [Atlas Gitashenasi Ostanhai Iran]...
, SarakhsSarakhs County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Sarakhs.-References:* اطلس گیتاشناسی استانهای ایران [Atlas Gitashenasi Ostanhai Iran]...
, ChenaranChenaran County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Chenaran.-References:* اطلس گیتاشناسی استانهای ایران [Atlas Gitashenasi Ostanhai Iran]...
, FarimanFariman County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Fariman.-References:* اطلس گیتاشناسی استانهای ایران [Atlas Gitashenasi Ostanhai Iran]...
, KhafKhaf County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Khaf. It is a small border town about 350 km from Mashhad....
, Roshtkhar, BardaskanBardaskan County is a county in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Bardaskan.-References:* اطلس گیتاشناسی استانهای ایران [Atlas Gitashenasi Ostanhai Iran]...
, KalatKalat County is a bakhsh in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Kalat.-References:* اطلس گیتاشناسی استانهای ایران [Atlas Gitashenasi Ostanhai Iran]...
and Khalil Abad.
The older Persian province of Khorasan (also known as the
Greater KhorasanGreater Khorasan is a modern term for a historical geographic region spanning north-eastern and east of Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, western and northern Afghanistan and the North Western Areas of Pakistan...
) included parts which are today in
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
,
AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
,
TajikistanTajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People's Republic of China to the east...
,
TurkmenistanRepublic of Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic...
and
UzbekistanUzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union...
. Some of the main historical cities of Persia are located in the older Khorasan:
NishapurNishapur, or Neyshābūr , is a city in the Razavi Khorasan province in northeastern Iran, situated in a fertile plain at the foot of the Binalud Mountains, near the regional capital of Mashhad....
and Tus (now in Iran),
MervMerv , formerly Achaemenid Satrapy of Margiana, and later Alexandria and Antiochia in Margiana , was a major oasis-city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, located near today's Mary in Turkmenistan...
and
SanjanSanjan may refer to:*Sanjan , a historic city in present-day Turkmenistan*Sanjan , a town in Gujarat named by Zoroastrian immigrants after the Sanjan in Khorasan*Sangan , a town in Balochistan province of Pakistan...
(now in Turkmenistan),
SamarkandSamarkand is the second-largest city in Uzbekistan and the capital of Samarqand Province. The city is most noted for its central position on the Silk Road between China and the West, and for being an Islamic centre for scholarly study. The Bibi-Khanym Mosque remains one of the city's most famous...
and
BukharaBukhara , also transliterated Bukhoro and Bokhara, from the Soghdian βuxārak , is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 237,900...
(both now in Uzbekistan),
HeratHerāt , classically called the Aria, is a major city in western Afghanistan, in the province also known as Herāt. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan,...
and
BalkhBalkh , known as Bactra to the Greeks and Baktri or Bagdhi to the Persians, was an ancient city and centre of Zoroastrianism in Northern Afghanistan...
(now in Afghanistan),
KhujandKhujand , also transliterated as Khudzhand, , formerly Khodjend or Khodzhent until 1936 and Leninabad until 1991, is the second-largest city of Tajikistan. It is situated on the Syr Darya River at the mouth of the Fergana Valley. The population of the city is 149,000 , down from 160,000 in 1989...
and
PanjakentPanjakent , also spelled Panjikent or Panjekent, is a city in the Sughd province of Tajikistan on the Zeravshan river, with a population of 33,000 . It was once an ancient town in Sogdiana. The ruins of the old town are on the outskirts of the modern city.-History:Ancient Panjekent was a small but...
(now in Tajikistan). In its long history, Khorasan knew many conquerors and empires:
GreeksThe Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in diaspora communities around the world....
,
ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
s, Seljuk Turks, Safavids, Pashtuns (ethnic Afghans) and others.
The major ethnic groups in this region are
PersianThe Persian people are the majority ethnic group in Iran. However, there are sub-groups who speak the Persian language as their mother tongue throughout the Iranian plateau. The term Persian has also a supra-ethnic significance and has been historically referred to a part of Iranian peoples...
s with
KurdishThe Kurds are an Ethnic-Iranian ethnolinguistic group mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...
,
TurkishThe Turkish people , also known as the "Turks" are defined mainly as citizens of the Republic of Turkey. An early historic text provided the definition of being a Turk as "any individual within the Republic of Turkey; whatever his/her faith or racial/ethnic background; who speaks Turkish, grows up...
and Arabic minorities. Most of the people in the region speak closely related modern day dialects of
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
(
see also: DariDari may refer to:* Dari , the literary Persian language variant of Afghanistan* Dari or Dari Persian, the literary form of Early New Persian...
; Tajiki). However Khorasan, as a result of its troubled history, is peopled by a great variety of ethnic groups:
TurcomansThe Turkmen are a Turkic people located primarily in the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, northern Iraq and in northeastern Iran...
in the northwest; Kurds around Bojnurd and
QuchanQuchan is an Iranian district in the in the northern part of Razavi Khorasan Province, in northeastern Iran...
;
Timuris and JamshidisAymāq , also transliterated as Aimak or Aimaq, are a collection of Persian-speaking nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes of mixed Mongolian and Iranian stock. They are found throughout the north and northwest highlands of Afghanistan, immediately to the north of Herat, and in the Khorasan Province of Iran...
in the east, some of whom are still nomadic and are believed to be of mixed Iranic and Turkic origin; and in the southeast, Baloch people. The highlands in the south are home to a settled population of old Iranian stock. There is also a sizeable Afghan community in the province due to the influx of refugees from
AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
in recent years. Here and there are found Berberis of Mongol origin (called Hazaras in Afghanistan), Khorasani Arabs, Gypsies, and a few Jews in the towns.
The largest cluster of settlements and cultivation stretches around the city of Meshed northwestward, containing the important towns of Quchan, Shirvan, and Bojnurd. The languages spoken in Khorasan are
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
,
Turkic languagesThe Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken by some...
, and
KurdishKurdish is the language spoken by Kurds in western Asia. Unlike many other languages it does not have a single standardized linguistic entity with the status of an official or state language...
.
In August 1968 and September 1978, the region was the scene of two major
earthquakeAn earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes are recorded with a seismometer, also known as a seismograph...
s that left 12,000 and 25,000 people dead, respectively.