Province of Khuzestan

* HASC : IR.KZ
* ISO : 10
* Dom : kz

The province of Khuzestan is 63,213 km2 (24,407 sq mi) in the south-west of Iran, bordering Iraq and the Persian Gulf. Ahvaz is the capital of this province and its cities are Abadan, Behbahan, Dezful, Khorramshahr, Bander Imam, Shoush (Susa), Masjed Soleiman, Andimeshk, Mah Shahr, Ramhormoz, Omidiyeh, Shushtar, Izeh, Hoveizeh, Aqa Djari, Shadegan and Soosangerd.

Basically, the province of Khuzestan can be divided into two regions, the plains and mountainous regions. The agricultural lands are fertile and mainly in the west of the province, which are irrigated by the Karun, Karkheh and Jarahi rivers. These three large and permanent rivers flow over the entire territory contributing to the fertility of the land. Karun, Iran's largest river, 850 kilometers long, flows into the Persian Gulf through this province.

The name Khuzestan, which means "The Land of the Khuzi," refers to the original inhabitants of this province, the Khuzi people. Khuzestan is situated on the southern part of the Zagros mountain ranges, which covers the north and east of the province. The climate of Khuzestan is generally hot and humid, particularly in the south, while winters are much more pleasant and dry.

The ziggurat of Choqa Zanbil in Khuzestan was a magnificent structure of the Iranian Elamite Empire.

Khuzestan is inhabited by a number of ethnic groups and peoples. Indigenous Persians in major cities, Iranian Arab tribes, the Bakhtiari, Behbahani and Luri of the north, the Qashqai and Afshari tribes, Armenians, the peoples of Dezful, Shushtar and the inhabitants of the coastal regions of the Persian Gulf all make up the population of the province of Khuzestan.

The Persian groups of western Khuzestan all speak distinct dialects unique to their areas. Many Khuzestanis are bilingual, speaking both Persian and Arabic. It is also not uncommon to find people able to speak a variety of indigenous dialects in addition to their own.

Khuzestani folk music is colorful and festive, and each native group has their own rich traditions and legacy in this area.

The people of Khuzestan are predominantly Shi'a, with small Sunni, Jewish and Christian minorities. Khuzestanis are also very well regarded for their hospitality and generosity.

Seafood is the most important part of Khuzestani cuisine, some few to mention are "qaliye-mahi" (fish stew), "qaliye-meygu" (shrimp stew), "ashe-mohshala" (a Khorramshahri breakfast soup) and "soboor" which is prepared with heavy spices, onions and cilantro.

Shushtar, mostly lies on a rocky plateau where the Karun River makes a sharp bend. Shushtar is famous for its ancient hydraulic engineering works of dams, canals and bridges.

The province of Khuzestan is one of the centers of ancient civilization, based around Susa. French archeologists such as Jaques De Morgan date the civilization here as far back as 8000 BCE when excavating areas such as Tal-e Ali Kosh. The first large scale empire based here was that of the powerful 4th millennium BCE Elamites, a non-Semitic kingdom independent of Mesopotamia. Archeological ruins verify the entire province of Khuzestan to be home to the Elamite civilization.

In previous ages, Iranians referred to Khuzestan as Elam; and historically historians refer to this province as ancient Elam, whose capital was in Susa. Khuzestan is the most ancient Iranian province and is often referred to in Iran as the "birthplace of the nation", as this is the area where Aryan tribes first settled, assimilating the native Elamite population, and thus laying the foundation for the future Persian Empires of Median, Achaemenid, Parthian and Sassanid.

In 640 BCE, the Elamites were defeated by Ashurbanipal coming under the rule of the Assyrians who wrought destruction upon Susa and Chogha Zanbil. But in 538 BCE Cyrus the Great was able to re-conquer the Elamite lands. The city of Susa was then proclaimed as one of the Achaemenian capitals. Darius the Great then erected a grand palace known as Hadish there in 521 BCE. But this astonishing period of glory and splendor of the Achaemenian dynasty came to an end by the invasion of Alexander of Macedon. And after Alexander, the Seleucid dynasty ruled the area.

As the Seleucid dynasty weakened, Mehrdad I the Parthian (171-137 BCE), gained victory over the region. During the Sassanid dynasty this area thrived tremendously and flourished, and this dynasty was responsible for the many constructions that were erected in Ahvaz, Shushtar and Andimeshk.

The intellectual center or city of Sassanid Empire was Jondishapour (or Gundishapur), founded in 271 CE, by Shapur I, one the most powerful rulers of the Sassanid dynasty, in Khuzestan near Ahvaz and not far from the Karun River. Gundishapur was home to the world's oldest known teaching hospital, and also comprised a library and a university. According to "The Cambridge History of Iran (vol 4, p396.)", it was the most important medical center of the ancient world (defined as Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Near East) during the 6th and 7th centuries. Jondishapour medical center was the Mecca of its time, and used to attract the distinguished medical scientists from Greece, Egypt, India, and Rome, shows the importance and prosperity of this region during ancient times.

Bakhtiari people of Izeh, Khuzestan, Iran

Jondishapour (or Gundishapur) Academy offered training not only in medicine but also in philosophy, theology and science. The faculties were versed not only in the Zoroastrian and Persian traditions, but in Greek and Indian learning as well

In 639 CE, Arabs Muslims, under the command of Abu Musa Al-Ash'ari from Basra, invaded Khuzestan and drove the Persian Hormozan out of Ahvaz. Susa fell in two days, so Hormozan fled to Shushtar where his forces were besieged by Arab invaders for 18 months. Shushtar finally fell in 642 CE, they, Arab invaders purged the entire Nestorian population of the city along with the Bishop of Hormizd. There after followed the conquests of Jondishapour and of many other districts of Kuzestan. The battle of Nehavand finally secured Khuzestan for the Muslim invaders.

The Arab settlements, by military garrisons in southern Iran, were soon followed by other types of colonization. Some Arab families, for example, took the opportunity to gain control of private estates. Like the rest of Iran, the Arab invasion thus brought Khuzestan under occupation of the Arabs Muslims of the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates, until Ya'qub bin Laith as-Saffar, from Sistan on the eastern part of Iran, raised the flag of independence once more, and ultimately regained control over Khuzestan, among other parts of Iran, founding the short-lived Saffarid dynasty. From that point on, Iranian dynasties would continue to rule the region in succession as an important part of Iran.

In 1440 CE an Arab extremist Shi'a sect, Mshashaiya, initiated a wave of attacks on Khuzestan, leading to a gradual increase in the Arab population of Khuzestan. From the middle of the 15th century to the 19th century, they came to dominate much of western Khuzestan and were in continual conflict with the Safavid rulers during the reign of that dynasty, as well as with Iranian Arab tribes. In the latter part of the 16th century, the Bani Kaab, from Kuwait, settled in Khuzestan. And during the succeeding centuries, many more Arab tribes moved from southern Iraq to Khuzestan, and as a result, Khuzestan became "extensively Arabized" (Encyclopedia Iranica, p216).

City of Abadan, lies on the bank of Arvand Roud (or Shat-ol Arab). Abadan during Iran-Iraq war was heavily damaged; and its oil refinery was totally ruined.

In the mid 1800s Britain initiated a war with Iran in a failed attempt to conquer Khuzestan. Having lost, the British continued in their attempts to wrest control of the province by supporting a number of foreign Arab tribes that had invaded Iran. Sheikh Khaz'al, of Kuwaiti origin, was the ruler of the last remnants of these tribes, who was the first person to launch secessionist unrests in Khuzestan.

Sheikh Khaz'al rose to power in 1897 and had originally been supported by the British colonialists. He was finally defeated and arrested in 1925 by Reza Shah of Pahlavi and the area of Khuzestan he had dominated returned to the province. Reza Shah Pahlavi, however, restored the original name of the province from Arabistan to Khuzestan.

Domination of Khuzestan was also Saddam Hussein's primary strategic objective that launched the Iran-Iraq war. Being on the border with Iraq, Khuzestan suffered the heaviest damage of all Iranian provinces during the 8 years of imposed war, which forced thousands of Iranians to flee the province.

What used to be Iran's largest refinery at Abadan was totally destroyed by Iraqi shells. Many of the famous Nakhlestans (Date palm tree grove) were annihilated, cities were destroyed, historical sites were demolished, and half the province went under the boots of Saddam's invading army.

However, by 1982, Iranian forces managed to push Saddam's forces back into Iraq. The battle of "the Liberation of Khorramshahr" (one of Khuzestan's largest cities and the most important Iranian port prior to the war) was a turning point in the war and of course one the most heroic battles ever taken place in defending the country, and is officially celebrated every year in Iran. The city of Khorramshahr was completely decimated as a result of Saddam's barbaric invasion.

The Iranian Embassy Siege of 1980 in London was a terrorist siege and initiated by Arab separatists, backed by Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein. Arab separatists supported Saddam's invading army and attacking the both Persian and Iranian-Arab townships, soldiers and civilians. During eight years of war the majority of the Khuzestani Arab population was loyal to Iran and fought alongside fellow countrymen against Saddam. This was one of biggest miscalculations of Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein, as they expected that all Khuzestani Arabs will welcome and support the invading Iraqi army. But at later months of war when they didn't receive support as it was expected, they went on rampage and started to rape, torture and kill the Iranian-Arab children, women and men; and burn their villages and towns to ashes. Those Iranian-Arabs did one thing to suffer like that in the hands of Iraqi army and their separatist supporters, and that was "not supporting the separatist movement". After the withdrawal of Iraqi forces towards the end of the war, the remainder of these Arab separatists fled to Iraq, though Saddam continued to entertain the notion of a potential future invasion of Khuzestan for many years afterwards.

The massive Karun-3 dam, was in 2004 inaugurated as part of a drive to boost Iran's growing energy demands.

In the last century, except during the Iran-Iraq war, the province of Khuzestan thrived and prospered and today counts for one of the regions in Iran that holds an economic and defensive strategic position.

Khuzestan is the major oil-producing region of Iran, and as such is the wealthiest province in Iran. Karun River is the only river in Iran capable of sailing. The British, up until recent decades, after the oil discovery in Khuzestan by Sir Henry Layard, transported their merchandise via Karun's waterways, passing through Ahvaz all the way up to Masjed Soleiman to the site of their first oil wells in the Naftoon oil field. Karun is capable of the sailing of fairly large ships as far up as Shushtar.

Karkheh, Jarrahi, Arvand, Handian, Shavoor, Bahmanshir (Bahman-Ardeshir), Maroon-Alaa', Dez, and many other rivers and water sources in the form of Khurs, lagoons, ponds, and marshes demonstrate the vastness of water resources in this region, and are the main reason for the variety of agricultural products such as wheat, barley, oily seeds, rice, eucalyptus, medical herbs; the existence of many palm and citrus farms. The abundance of water supplies, rivers, and dams, also has an influence on the fishery industries

The Karun 3 / 4 and Karkheh Dam, as well as the petroleum reserves provide Iran with national sources of revenue and energy. The petrochemical and steel industries, pipe making, and the power stations that feed the national electricity demand, the chemical plants, and the large refineries are some of Iran's major industrial facilities. Khuzestan is also home to Yadavaran Field, a major oil field.

http://www.iranchamber.com/provinces/15_khuzestan/15_khuzest an.php

some more pictures:

The Ziggurat of Choghazanbil

Susa, rhyton

Abadan, mosque

Izeh, Bakhtiyari cemetry

Dezful, Qaleh House

The Ziggurat of Choghazanbil

Choghazanbil north-Western gate

Izeh, old tombs

Ahvaz square

Ahvaz campus

Ahvaz

 

Elamite remains

 

Susa
The Apadana of Susa	Susa (�u�im): capital of Elam, favorite residence of the Persian king Darius I the Great. Photos of Susa can be found here. Susa is one of the oldest cities in the world. Excavations have established that people were living at the acropolis in 5000 BCE and have shown the existence of urban structures about 4000, and it is reasonable that the town, situated on a strip of land between the rivers Karkheh (Choaspes) and Dez (Eulaeus), was already the political center of Elam in the fourth millennium.
	It has partly been overbuilt with a modern castle that was used by the French archaeologists. A second part of the city is now called the royal hill. From written sources, we know that there must have been ziggurat, which must have stood somewhere over here. A third part is the artisan's quarter, which was to the east of the buildings on this map. The ruins of a donjon on a steep hilltop in the southeast date back to the earliest period.
Achaemenid palace (�**)	The Assyrian king A��urbanipal destroyed the Elamite capital between 645-640 BCE. It is unclear what happened in the next century, but after this, Susa was one of the empires of the Achaemenid empire. The city was rebuilt by the Persian king Darius the Great (522-486). The Apadana palace was clearly his favorite residence. The Greek researcher Herodotus of Halicarnassus, who wrote a lot about the Achaemenid empire, did not know of another capital.
Model of Susa (From W. Hinz, Darius und die Perzer, 1976; �!!!)	The scene of the Biblical book of Esther is laid in Susa, where king Ahasverus (Xerxes) resides. Archaeologists have been able to identify several ruins with buildings mentioned by the author of Esther. On the picture, the Apadana palace is visible at top left. There were three courtyards, two entrance gates and an apadana (audience hall), the roof of which was supported by 36 columns inside abnd 36 columns outside.  Unfortunately, a big fire during the reign of king Artaxerxes I Makrocheir (465-424) destroyed much of the buildings from this age. The city was rebuilt, however, and continued to be in use for centuries, although at some stage, the people settled closer to the river. The ancient city could be excavated in the twentieth century. Unfortunately, even the ruins were not left alone: they were partly destroyed during the First Gulf War.
Persian soldier,  from Susa  (Louvre, Paris)	This was the place of the famous incident told by Herodotus: When Darius was king of Persia, he summoned the Greeks who happened to be present at his court, and asked them what they would take to eat the dead bodies of their fathers. They replied that they would not do it for any money in the world. Later, in the presence of the Greeks, and through an interpreter, so that they could understand what was said, he asked some Indians of the tribe called Callatiae, who do in fact eat their parents' dead bodies, what they would take to burn them. They uttered a cry of horror and forbade him to mention such a dreadful thing. [Herodotus, Histories 3.38; tr. Aubrey de Selincourt]
	King Artaxerxes II Mnemon (404-358) built a second audience hall on the opposite bank of the river, which is visible at bottom left of the picture. The conical structure in front is more recent. Here, muslims venerate the tomb of the prophet Daniel, another figure related to the Persian court at Susa. In fact, there were other capitals (Pasargadae, Persepolis, and Ecbatana), but is evident that Susa was more impressive. An inscription in the palace, known as DSf, describes how Darius built his residence.
Statue of Darius, once erected in Egypt, but later brought to Susa. (Archeological Museum of Tehran)	A great god is Ahuramazda, who created this earth, who created yonder sky, who created man, who created happiness for man, who made Darius king, one king of many, one lord of many.      Darius the King says: By the favor of Ahuramazda I built this palace.      Darius the King says: Ahuramazda, the greatest of the gods created me,  made me king, bestowed upon me this kingdom, great, possessed of good horses, possessed of good men.      By the favor of Ahuramazda, my father Hystaspes and Arsames my grandfather - these both were living when Ahuramazda made me king in this earth.      To Ahuramazda thus was the desire: he chose me as his man in all the earth; he made me king in all the earth.      I worshipped Ahuramazda. Ahuramazda bore me aid. What was by me commanded to do, that he made successful for me. What I did, all by the favor of Ahuramazda I did.      This palace which I built at Susa, from afar its ornamentation was brought. Downward the earth was dug, until I reached rock in the earth. When the excavation had been made, then rubble was packed down, some 40 cubits in depth, another part 20 cubits in depth. On that rubble the palace was constructed.      And that the earth was dug downward, and that the rubble was packed down, and that the sun-dried brick was molded, the Babylonian people performed these tasks.       The cedar timber, this was brought from a mountain named Lebanon. The Assyrian people brought it to Babylon; from Babylon the Carians and the Yaun� [=Greeks] brought it to Susa. The yak�-timber was brought from Gandara and from Carmania.       The gold was brought from Lydia and from Bactria, which here was wrought. The precious stone lapis lazuli and carnelian which was wrought here, this was brought from Sogdia. The precious stone turquoise, this was brought from Chorasmia, which was wrought here.       The silver and the ebony were brought from Egypt. The ornamentation with which the wall was adorned, that from Yaun� was brought. The ivory which was wrought here, was brought from Nubia and from India and from Arachosia.       The stone columns which were here wrought, a village named Abiradu, in Elam - from there were brought. The stone-cutters who wrought the stone, those were Yaun� and Lydians.      The goldsmiths who wrought the gold, those were Medes and Egyptians. The men who wrought the wood, those were Lydians and Egyptians. The men who wrought the baked brick, those were Babylonians. The men who adorned the wall, those were Medes and Egyptians.       Darius the King says: At Susa a very excellent work was ordered, a very excellent work was brought to completion.      Me may Ahuramazda protect, and Hystaspes my father, and my country.
An Elamite with a cub (relief from Persepolis)	This text interesting because it mentions many nations. The palace was clearly meant as propaganda, where every visitor would be impressed by the size of the empire. An inscription, D2Sa, records reconstruction works from the age of Artaxerxes I Makrocheir and Darius II Nothus. After the fall of the Achaemenid empire and the reign of Alexander the Great, who married in Susa (text), the city became part of the Seleucid empire. It was now called Seleucia on the Eulaeus. A palace in Greek style was erected, next to Darius' palace. The administrative center, however, was in the southern part of the city, where nearly all Greek and Parthian inscriptions were discovered. The city remained important until the thirteenth century CE. Excavation started in 1897.

http://www.livius.org/su-sz/susa/susa.htm

Edited by Alborz