Tabriz (, ; ) is a city in the Central District of Tabriz County, in the East Azerbaijan province of northwestern Iran. It is the sixth-most-populous city in Iran.
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 above sea level. The valley opens up into a plain that gently slopes down to the eastern shores of Lake Urmia, 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 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 jewellery. Local confectionery, chocolate, dried nuts and traditional Tabrizi food are recognised 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, representing Iran's architectural transition throughout its deep history. 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, movement and economy of its three neighboring regions; namely the Caucasus, Eastern Anatolia and Central Iran. In the modern era the city played a vital role in the history of Iran. As the country's closest hub to Europe, many aspects of early modernisation in Iran began in Tabriz. Prior to forced ceding of the Qajar dynasty's Caucasian territories to Imperial Russia, following two Russo-Persian Wars in the first half of the 19th century, Tabriz was at the forefront of Iranian rule over its Caucasian territories. Until 1925, the city was the traditional residence of the Qajar crown princes.
Etymology
According to some sources, including Encyclopædia Britannica, the name Tabriz derives from tap-riz ('flowing hot'), from the many thermal springs in the area.
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 "ta-vrezh" ("this revenge" in Grabar). In AD 297, it became the capital of Tiridates III, king of Armenia. However, this story has a popular origin and no ancient source has recorded such event. This is based on accounts of Vardan Areveltsi, a 13th-century Armenian historian. Accordingly, the historical Armenian name for the city was Tavrezh ().
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, with Ernst Emil Herzfeld's Archaeological History of Iran also directly equating "Tarwakisa" with Tabriz; cf Proto-Iranian tr̥Hwáns (able to overcome). However, some researchers believe that Tabriz may be considered a pre-Iranian toponym.
History
Early history
The early history of Tabriz is not well documented. The earliest civilization signs in the city belongs to an Iron Age grave yard of 1st millennium B.C. which were unearthed in late 1990s in 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 BC.
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."