Mazandaran Provincee

Mâzandarân (Persian: مازندران, prior to 1596 known as Tabarestan / Tapurestan / Tapuria Persian: تبرستان / تپورستان) [citation needed] is a province in northern Iran, bordering the Caspian (Mazandaran) Sea in the north. Mazandaran was part of the ancient state of Hyrcania and former Tabaria.
Sari is the provincial capital. Gorgan also used to be a part of Mazandaran until recently, but is now the capital city of the new Iranian province of Golestan (since 1997).
The Caspian Sea is to the north, the provinces of Tehran and Semnan provinces lie to the south. To the west it has common borders with Gilan province, and to the east stands the province of Golestan.
In 1996, the province had a population of about 2.6 million.

History

Climatic conditions of Mazandaran have prevented the preservation of historical monuments. Thus there are only a few sound vestiges remaining from pre-Islamic periods in the coastal plains of Mazandaran. But the province is known to have been populated from early antiquity, and Mazandaran has changed hands among various dynasties from early in its history. There are several fortresses remaining from Parthian and Sassanid times, and many older cemeteries scattered throughout the province.
In 662 CE, ten years after the death of Yazdegerd III the last Sassanian Emperor, a large Muslim army under the command of Hassan ibn Ali (Imam Hassan, the second Shi'a Imam) invaded Tabarestan (Mazandaran as it was then called) only to be severely beaten, suffering heavy losses to the forces of the Zoroastrian princes of the Dabboyid house. For the next two hundred years, Tabaristan maintained an existence independent of the Umayyad Caliphate which supplanted the Persian Empire in the early seventh century, with independent Zoroastrian houses like the Bavand and Karen fighting an effective guerilla warfare against Islam. A short-lived Alid Shiite state collapsed before the subsequent take-over by the Ziyarid princes. Mazandaran, unlike much of the rest of the Iranian Plateau maintained a Zoroastrian majority until the 12th century, thanks to its isolation and hardy population which fought against the Caliph's armies for centuries.

During the Abbasid caliphate of Abou Jafar Al-Mansur, Tabaristan witnessed a wave of popular revolt. Ultimately, Vandad Hormoz established an independent dynasty in Tabaristan in 783. In 1034, Soltan Mahmoud Ghaznavi entered Tabarestan via Gorgan followed by the invasion of Soltan Mohammad Kharazmshah in 1209. Thereafter, the Mongols governed the region and finally were overthrown by the Timurid Dynasty. After the dissolution of the feudal government of Tabaristan, Mazandaran was incorporated into modern Persian Empire by Shah Abbas I in 1596. In the Safavid era Mazandaran was settled by Georgian migrants, whose decendants still live across Mazandaran. Still many towns, villages and neighbourhoods in Mazandaran bear the name "Gorji" (i.e. Georgian) in them, although most of the Georgians are already assimilated into the mainstream Mazandaranis. The history of Georgian settlement is described by Eskandar Beyg Monshi, the author of the 17th century Tarikh-e Alam-Ara-ye Abbasi, in addition many foreigners e.g. Chardin, and Della Valle, have written about their encounters with the Georgian Mazandaranis.
During the reign of Nadir Shah, the province briefly occupied by Russians in the aftermath of the Russo-Persian War, 1722-1723.

Geography

Mazandaran province is geographically divided into two parts: the coastal plains, and the mountainous areas. The Alborz Mountain Range surrounds the coastal strip and plains of the Caspian Sea like a huge barrier.
There is often snowfall during most of the seasons in the Alborz regions, which run parallel to the Caspian Sea's southern coast, dividing the province into many isolated valleys. The province enjoys a moderate, semitropical climate with an average temperature of 25 °C in summer and about 8 °C in winter. Although snow may fall heavily in the mountains in winter, it rarely falls around sea lines.