Qazvin


Qazvin is the largest city and capital of the Province of Qazvin in Iran. Qazvin was a medieval capital of the Safavid dynasty for over forty years and nowadays is known as the calligraphy capital of Iran. It is famous for its Baghlava, carpet patterns, poets, political newspaper and Pahlavi influence on its accent. At the 2011 census, its population was 381,598.
Located in northwest of Tehran, in the Qazvin Province, it is at an altitude of about above sea level. The climate is cold but dry, due to its position south of the rugged Alborz range called KTS Atabakiya.

History

The city was a capital of the Persian Empire under Safavids in 1548–1598. It is a provincial capital today that has been an important cultural center throughout history.
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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 major moments of Iranian history. It was captured by invading Arabs and destroyed by Hulagu Khan. After the Ottoman capture of Tabriz, Shah Tahmasp made Qazvin the capital of the Safavid empire, a status that Qazvin retained for half a century until Shah Abbas I moved the capital to Isfahan.
In 1210 the city was damaged by the forces of Kingdom of Georgia sent by Tamar the Great, as per the retribution for destroying Georgian-controlled Ani by the Muslim forces that left 12,000 Christians dead.
In the 19th century Qazin flourished as a center of trade because the only all-year accessible road from the Caspian Sea to the Highland started here and with enhanced traffic on the Caspian Sea the trade volume grew. Its bazaars were enlarged. In the middle of the century the Babi movement had one of its centers here and the first massacre of Babis occurred in Qazvin in 1847.In the second half of the 19th century Qazvin was one of the centers of Russian presence in northern Iran. A detachment of the Persian Cossack Brigade under Russian officers was stationed here. From 1893 this was the headquarters of the Russian Company for Road construction in Persia which connected Qazvin by roads to Tehran and Hamadan. The company built a hospital and the St. Nicolas Church.
In 1920 Qazvin was used as a base for the British Norperforce. The 1921 Persian coup d'état that led to the rise of the Pahlavi dynasty was launched from Qazvin.
Qazvin has been one of the main pivots on which Persia's history has revolved and this is where its reputation as an impenetrable fortress originates. During the fall of the Safavids, Qazvin was the centre of Persians reunion for the liberation of Persian territories invaded by Ottoman, Russian, and Afghan forces in the west, north, and east, respectively. The deployed swordsmen from Qazvin not only retrieved Safavid boundaries, but also contributed to their expansion up to China, Nader Shah The Great, Daghestan and Baghdad. Similarly, Qazvin hosted the base of Assassins and was the training centre of the Nehzat-e Jangal revolutionaries.
Qazvin became a state in 1996. In Autumn 2015 portions of Qazvin were struck by a meteorite.

People

The majority of the people of the city of Qazvin are Persians. The majority language is Persian with a Qazvini accent. Azerbaijanis and Tats are the other ethnic groups of the city of Qazvin. They speak Azerbaijani and Tati.

Climate

Qazvin has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate.

Main sights

Qazvin contains several archeological excavations. In the middle of the city lie the ruins of Meimoon Ghal'eh, one of several Sassanid edifices in the area.
Qazvin contains several buildings from the Safavid era, dating to the period in which it was capital of Persia. A well known of the surviving edifices is the Chehel sotoun, Qazvin, today a museum in central Qazvin.
After Islam, the popularity of mystics, as well as the prominence of tradition, religious jurisprudence, and philosophy in Qazvin, led to the emergence of many mosques and religious schools. They include:
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About south-west of Qazvin are the tombs of two Saljuki era princes — Abu Saeed Bijar, son of Sa'd, and Abu Mansur Iltai, son of Takin — located in two separate towers known as the Kharraqan twin towers. Constructed in 1067 CE, these were the first monuments in Islamic architecture to include a non-conic two-layered dome. Both towers were severely damaged by a devastating earthquake in March 2003.
Sepah Street is known as the first modern street in Iran. This street entirely is carpeted with carved gray stone and is surrounded by craftsmen gift shops and hosts historical places such as Qazvin's Ali Qapu gate, entrance of Jame' Atiq mosque and historical schools.
Qazvin has three buildings built by Russians in the late 19th/early 20th century. Among these is the current Mayor's office and a water reservoir. St. Nicholas church was built in 1904 by the Russian Company for Roads in Persia which had its headquarter here. The church was in use until being decommissioned in 1984 because the community of Russian emigres in Qazvin did not exist any more. The iconostasis and bell was removed to Tehran and the building handed over to the Iranian government which keeps it available to the public as a historic monument. In front of the church is a 1906 memorial to a Russian road engineer.

Economy

Qazvin today is a center of textile trade, including cotton, silk and velvet, in addition to leather. It is on the railroad line and the highway between Tehran and Tabriz. 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 several institutes of higher education:
Some famous residential towers are: Punak, Aseman, Elahieh, Bademestan and Tejarat tower with 28 floors.

Shopping complexes

Qazvin is a well-known city because of its famous athletes. The city has highly focused on athletic teams along recent years. Techmash is a basketball team which entered Iranian Basketball Super League in 2013.

Notable Qazvinis

There have been an abundance of known people who lived in Qazvin, or came from Qazvin, whose tombs are scattered throughout the cities and villages of the province. These include:

Pre-Modern time