Dargaz is a city and capital of Dargaz County, in Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran. The city of Dargaz is situated from Tehran and from the center of Khorasan province. It is bound by Turkmenistan from the north, Mashhad from the east and southeast, Chanaran from the south, and Qoochan from the west. Daregaz, which was previously known as Abivard, an area which can doubtless be placed among the most ancient centers of Iranian culture. Excavations in this mountainous site have revealed artifacts dating back as far as the Parthian and Sasanian periods, and pre-historic times. Numerous mounds and other ancient sites have also yielded much evidence of the site's rich historical and cultural inheritance. Throughout its history, the site has been known by a variety of names: Dara, Daragyard, Pavart in pre-Islamic Persia, and Bavard, Abivard after the Islamic expansion. With its rich bazaar and access to fertile lands, the city was considerably more prosperous than neighboring Nesa and was widely known as one of the largest and most affluent cities of the Great Khorasan area. For the period before the advent of the Safavids, the historic city of Abivard was one of the educational centers of Islamic and Arabic scholarship in eastern Iran. Under the Saljuqids, Muhammad born Ahmad al-Abivardi, was one of the renowned poets and litterateurs who, later in his life, settled for a while in Baghdad, but on the account of his Shi'ite proclivities was persecuted by the Abbasids. He then attended the court of the Saljuq Sultan Muhammad and was appointed to the position of Chief Accountant of the court. Another contemporary famous name from Abivard is Ali born Muhammad Anvari-Abivardi, one of the great classical poets of Iran. After the Mongol invasion of Iran and Iraq, Husam al-Din Abivardi is mentioned as one of the theologians attending the court of the Abbasid caliphs of Egypt. The population mainly consist of Iranian Azeris, the descendants of Azeris who fled bolsheviks in Russian Caucasia.
