A Short Glimpse to the Urban Development of Tabriz during the History

What is it about?

A B S T R A C T Locating on North West of Iran, Tabriz, the capital of East Azerbaijan Province, is one of the important metropolises of the country. The foundation of this historic city dated back to 1500 B.C. but due to the severe earthquakes, few historic buildings remained from ancient eras. In 2012, Tabriz was selected as the most beautiful city of Iran, and it is nominated as the tourism capital of Islamic countries in 2018. Tabriz used to be the capital of Iran during different dynasties like Ilkhanid, Kara Koyunlu, Ak Koyunlu, and Safavid; it was the residence of the royal family and crown prince during the Qajar Dynasty period. Tabriz is famous as “the city of the firsts”; and the Historic Bazaar Complex of Tabriz is the biggest roofed bazaar in the world, inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2010. Tabriz experiences the phenomenon of rapid urban growth causing the formation of slum settlements in the border zones of the city. This paper will briefly discuss the urban development of Tabriz during the history. The method used in this theoretical paper is based on literature review. The aim of this paper is to improve the knowledge about the urban development of Tabriz.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

A Short Glimpse to the Urban Development of Tabriz during the History *Ph.DCandidate.NARMIN BABAZADEH ASBAGH Faculty of Architecture, Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, Turkey E-mail: n.babazadeh.nba@gmail.com A B S T R A C T Locating on North West of Iran, Tabriz, the capital of East Azerbaijan Province, is one of the important metropolises of the country. The foundation of this historic city dated back to 1500 B.C. but due to the severe earthquakes, few historic buildings remained from ancient eras. In 2012, Tabriz was selected as the most beautiful city of Iran, and it is nominated as the tourism capital of Islamic countries in 2018. Tabriz used to be the capital of Iran during different dynasties like Ilkhanid, Kara Koyunlu, Ak Koyunlu, and Safavid; it was the residence of the royal family and crown prince during the Qajar Dynasty period. Tabriz is famous as “the city of the firsts”; and the Historic Bazaar Complex of Tabriz is the biggest roofed bazaar in the world, inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2010. Tabriz experiences the phenomenon of rapid urban growth causing the formation of slum settlements in the border zones of the city. This paper will briefly discuss the urban development of Tabriz during the history. The method used in this theoretical paper is based on literature review. The aim of this paper is to improve the knowledge about the urban development of Tabriz. CONTEMPORARY URBAN AFFAIRS (2019), 3(2), 73-83. Doi:10.25034/ijcua.2018.4703 www.ijcua.com Copyright © 2018 Contemporary Urban Affairs. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Tabriz is at the elevation of 1351.4 meters (4433.7 ft.) above sea level near Guru River, Aji River, Urmia Lake, Sahand volcanic cone and Eynali Mountain (Moosavi, 2011). Tabriz is the most populated city in the north-west of Iran (See Figures 1 & 2) with the urban population of 1545491 in 2013. (Census of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 2006). Tabriz is an industrial city especially in automobile, machine tools, refineries and petrochemical, textile and cement production. It is also an academic and cultural city in the north-west of Iran (Results of national 2007 census). In Tabriz native people speak Azerbaijani language and most inhabitants are familiar with the Persian language, which is the official language of Iran and the only language of education (East Azerbaijan Geography). From Atropates era, Tabriz was chosen as the capital by several rulers; since 1265 it was capital of Ilkhanid dynasty and during Ghazan Khan Era, which came into power in 1295, the city reached its highest splendor. During Kara Koyunlu dynasty from 1375 to 1468 and again during Ak Koyunlu dynasty within 1468 – 1501, Tabriz was the capital of Iran. Again in the Safavid period from 1501 until their defeat in 1555 it was the capital of Iran, and during Qajar dynasty from 1794 until 1925 it was the residence of Iranian Crown Prince (Wood and Tucker, 2006, p. 530; Tapper, 1974, p. 324.). Figure 1. Location of Tabriz in Iran Figure 2. Location of Tabriz in East Azerbaijan Province (UNESCO, 2009). Figure 3. A Current Panorama of Tabriz 2. Population of Tabriz Tabriz was the capital of the huge Mongol state headed by Ghazan Khan in 1295. In 1300 A.D. Tabriz was the fourth most populated city with a population of 125000 after Cairo, Paris, and Fez. In 1350 A.D. Tabriz was the fifth most populated city after Cairo, Paris, Fez, and Sarai. In 1400 A.D. Tabriz was the third most populated city after Cairo and Paris with a population of 150000, up by 50000 since 1350 A.D. despite its capture by Tamerlane. In 1450 A.D. Tabriz was the second most populated city with a population of 200000 after Cairo and again in 1500 A.D. Tabriz with a population of 250000 was the second most populated city after Cairo; Constantinople was third, Paris was fourth and the fifth place was held by Fez (Chase-Dunn and Willard, 1994, p. 104). Population of Tabriz was estimated to be 250000 in 1500 A.D. according to Tertius Chandler's table which is the fifth city among top ten cities of the year after Beijing, Vijayanagar, Cairo, and Hangzhou (Chandler, 1987). Although there are different ideas about being the second or the fifth most populated city in 1500 A.D. both have the same idea about the population of Tabriz. In 2013 urban population of Tabriz was 1545491 which is the third most populated city in Iran (Census – Natayej, 2012) (See Figure 3). 3. Earthquakes Happened in Tabriz Tabriz is located in a seismically active area of Iran which has a very long history of producing earthquakes; the earliest one is recorded in 858 A.D. “Yahya Zoka” in his book “Earthquakes of Tabriz” mentioned forty historical earthquakes and described them with detail (Zoka, 1980, p. 5). Some of the worst earthquakes damaging Tabriz were the ones happened in 858, 1034, 1272 and 1780 A.D. The extent of the damage of the one happened in 858 A.D. is not known but it was significant. The one happened in 1034 A.D. killed 40000 people at midnight when Tabriz was the capital and the largest city of Azerbaijan. In 1272 A.D. an earthquake happened which was not as severe as the previous ones but still caused considerable damages. The largest and the most devastating earthquake happened in Tabriz was the one in 1780 A.D. on the first day of the New Year which destroyed most of the buildings (UNESCO, 2009). 4. Urban Quarters of Tabriz Traditionally there are several Urban Quarters in Iranian cities, which do not have the same size and population necessarily. Each of these quarters is an urban-social unit which plays an important role in the organization of the social relations in the city. Some elements like cemeteries, general area and social applications of the quarter identify the quarter and determine political boundaries

Perspectives