Tabriz (Persian: تبریز, romanized: tabriz, pronounced [tæbˈɾiːz] ) is a city in the Central District of Tabriz County, in East Azerbaijan province of northwestern Iran. It serves as capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is the sixth-most-populous city in Iran.
The city of Tabriz lies close to the borders of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan, 130 kilometers from the Armenia-Iran and Azerbaijan-Iran border.
Tabriz is in the Quru River valley in Iran's historic Azerbaijan region between long ridges of volcanic cones in the Sahand and Eynali mountains. Tabriz's elevation ranges between 1,350 and 1,600 m (4,430 and 5,250 ft) above sea level. The valley opens up into a plain that gently slopes down to the eastern shores of Lake Urmia, 60 km (37 mi) to the west. The city was named World Carpet Weaving City by the World Crafts Council in October 2015 and Exemplary Tourist City of 2018 by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
With a population of over 1.7 million (2016), Tabriz is the largest economic hub and metropolitan area in northwest Iran. The population is bilingual with most people speaking Iranian Azerbaijani as their native language and Persian as their second language. Tabriz is a major heavy industries hub for automobiles, machine tools, refineries, petrochemicals, textiles and cement production industries. The city is famous for its handicrafts, including hand-woven rugs and jewelry. Local confectionery, chocolate, dried nuts and traditional Tabrizi food are recognized throughout Iran as some of the best. Some of the most esteemed cultural institutions in northwest Iran are located in Tabriz, which is also a center for intellectual activity.
Tabriz contains many historical monuments. Most of Tabriz's preserved historical sites belong to Ilkhanid, Safavid and Qajar. Among these sites is the grand Bazaar of Tabriz, which is designated a World Heritage Site. From the early modern era, Tabriz was pivotal in the development of three neighboring regions - the Caucasus, Eastern Anatolia and Central Iran. As the country's closest hub to Europe, many aspects of early modernization in Iran began in Tabriz. The Qajar dynasty was forced to cede the Caucasian territories to Imperial Russia following the two Russo-Persian Wars in the first half of the 19th century. Until 1925, the city was the traditional residence of the Qajar crown princes.
According to some sources, including Encyclopædia Britannica, the name Tabriz derives from tap-riz, meaning "flowing hot", in reference to the area's many thermal springs.
Other sources claim that in AD 246, to avenge his brother's death, king Tiridates II of Armenia repelled Ardashir I of the Sassanid Empire and changed the name of the city from Shahistan to Tauris, deriving from Classical Armenian ta-vrezh "this revenge". In AD 297, it became the capital of Tiridates III, king of Armenia. However, this story is based on accounts of Vardan Areveltsi, a 13th-century Armenian historian; no ancient source records such an event. The historical Armenian name for the city was Tavrezh (Armenian: Թաւրէժ, romanized: T'avrēž).
The Cambridge History of Iran points to a connection between the "ancient stronghold of Tarui-Tarmakisa" (or Tarwi-Tarwakisa), which existed in the 8th century BC, and the city of Tabriz; Ernst Emil Herzfeld's Archaeological History of Iran directly equates Tarwakisa with Tabriz (cf Proto-Iranian tr̥Hwáns "able to overcome"). However, some researchers believe that Tabriz may be considered a pre-Iranian toponym.
The early history of Tabriz is not well documented. The earliest evidence is an Iron Age grave yard of 1st millennium B.C. unearthed in late 1990s on the northern side of Blue Mosque. The city also inscribed as old as 714 B.C. on as Tarui or Tauris, on the Assyrian King Sargon II's epigraph in 714 B.C.
Egyptologist David Rohl suggested that the legendary Garden of Eden was near Tabriz. Archaeologist Eric H. Cline commented on Rohl's views, writing that "his suggestions have not caught on with the scholarly establishment. His argument is not helped by the fact that it depends upon speculations regarding the transmission of place-names for both the various rivers and nearby related areas from antiquity to the present. In the end, while Rohl's suggestion is not out of the question, it seems no more probable than any other hypothesis, and less likely than those suggested by Speiser, Zarins, and Sauer."
Tabriz was chosen as the capital for several rulers commencing from Atropates era and his dynasty. The city was destroyed multiple times by natural disasters and invading armies. The earliest elements of the present Tabriz are claimed to be built either at the time of the early Sassanids in the 3rd or 4th century AD, or later in the 7th century. The city used to be called T'awrēš in Middle Persian.
After the Muslim conquest of Iran, the Arabian Azd tribe from Yemen resided in Tabriz. The development of post-Islamic Tabriz began as of this time. The Islamic geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi says that Tabriz was a village before Rawwad from the tribe of Azd arrived at Tabriz. In 791 AD, Zubaidah, the wife of Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid, rebuilt Tabriz after a devastating earthquake and beautified the city to the point where she was credited for having been its founder.
In the 10th century, Ardabil briefly held the status of Azarbayjan's capital, only to be swiftly supplanted by Tabriz, situated 130 miles to the west. Tabriz swiftly rose to prominence as a pivotal commercial hub, facilitating trade between the Far East, Central Asia, and vital routes. It served as a nexus linking Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean, Anatolia, Constantinople, and extending northward through the Caucasus to Ukraine, Crimea, and Eastern Europe.
In the Ramadan of 1208, Tabriz, as well as its adjacent cities and territories were conquered by the Kingdom of Georgia under Tamar the Great, as a response to the massacre of 12,000 Christians in the Georgian-controlled city of Ani on Easter day by Muslims. In nearby Ardebil, conquered by the Georgians as well, as many as 12,000 Muslims were killed. The Georgians then pushed further, taking Khoy and Qazvin along the way. Nevertheless, the city recovered soon and many western expediters who visited Tabriz in the 13th century on their way to the east were amazed by the richness of the city, its magnificent buildings and its institutions. Marco Polo, who passed Tabriz around 1275 while travelling on the Silk Road, described it as: "a great city surrounded by beautiful and pleasant gardens. It is excellently situated so the goods brought to here coming from many regions. Latin merchants specially Genevis go there to buy the goods that come from foreign lands."
Chosen as a capital by Abaqa Khan, fourth ruler of the Ilkhanate, for its favored location in the northwestern grasslands, in 1295, his successor Ghazan Khan made it the chief administrative centre of an empire stretching from Anatolia to the Oxus River and from the Caucasus to the Indian Ocean. Under his rule, new walls were built around the city, and numerous public buildings, educational facilities, and caravansarais were erected to serve traders travelling on the ancient Silk Road. The Byzantine Gregory Chioniades is said to have served as the city's Orthodox bishop during this time. At the same time, the Dominican Order established a Latin mission in Tabriz, which would become its own diocese under the archdiocese of Soltaniyeh for some decades in the 14th century.
From 1375 to 1468, Tabriz was the capital of Qara Qoyunlu state in Azerbaijan, until defeat of Qara Qoyunlu ruler, Jahan Shah by Ag Qoyunlu warriors. Ag Qoyunlus selected Tabriz as their capital from 1469 to 1501. Some of the existing historical monuments including the Blue Mosque belong to the Qara Qoyunlu period. Tabriz was sacked by Timur in 1392, and he invested his son, Miranshah, as governor of the city.
In 1501, Ismail I entered Tabriz and proclaimed it the capital of his Safavid state. In 1514, after the Battle of Chaldiran, Tabriz was sacked by Selim I. On 16 July 1534, prior to Ottoman conquest of Baghdad, Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha occupied Tabriz. In 1555, Tahmasp I transferred its capital to Qazvin to avoid the growing threat of the Ottoman army to his capital.