JAHROM

JAHROM, city and sub-province (šahrestān) in central Fārs Province, covering an area of 4,517 sq. km. The entire area includes four cities (Jahrom, Bāb Anār, Ḵā-varān, and Qoṭbābād), three districts (baḵš; Ḵafr, Kor-diān, Simakān) and twelve rural districts (dehestāns; see Ṭufān, p. 45; Wezārat-e kešvar, p. 32). It is bounded by Shiraz sub-province to the north and northwest, the Fasā sub-province to the east, the Lārestān sub-province to the south, and the sub-provinces of Firuzābād and Qir o Kārzin to the west (Baḵtiāri, p. 137). In 1996 the population of Jahrom sub-province was 197,128 (Markaz-e āmār, p. 16).

The economy of Jahrom sub-province is based mainly on agriculture (using traditional and semi-mechanized methods), horticulture, and carpet weaving. The principal crops are dates and citrus fruit, which are produced in high volume and exported. Other crops include cotton, cereals, and tobacco (Sāzmān-e joḡrāfiāʾi, p. 36; Ṭufān, pp. 88, 110). The sub-province is also home to coal and white stone mines (Ṭufān, p. 89).

The city of Jahrom, the administrative center of the sub-province, is situated between 28° and 38’ N and 33° and 53’ E, on the road from Firuzābād and Lār to Fasā, and Dārāb (Jaʿfari, p. 353; Pāpoli Yazdi, p. 169). In 1996 the population of the city of Jahrom was 94,185 (Markaz-e āmār, p. 39)

Jahrom is mentioned in the Kār-nāmag ī Ardašīr ī Bābakān (6.18, ed. Ãntia, pp. 62-63) as Zarham. It is probable that the word Zarham referred to green spaces, which, given the geographical position of Jahrom and its thriving agriculture, would be a fitting description. According to Aḥmad Kasravi (pp. 275-76, 280), the name “Jahrom” is derived from the same root as gahrān, a word used in the northern dialects of Iran, composed of the word gah (warmth) and the word rān (the suffix of place), and meaning a warm place or an area with a warm climate. It could also be surmised that the name of the area was initially Jarham (< Mid. Pers. Zarham), which transformed into Jahram by metathesis (Ebn K¨ordādbeh, p. 46; Yāqut, II, p. 167) and finally into Jahrom.

History. Ḥamd-Allāh Mostawfi has attributed the founding of Jahrom to Bahman b. Esfandiār (1915-19, p. 125, tr., p. 124), while Ferdowsi traces the history of Jahrom back to the Achaemenid period, mentioning the city in the story of Dārā – the last Kayanid king, who historically mirrors the Achaemenid king Darius III – and his battle against Alexander of Macedonia (Sāh-nāma VI, p. 392). Based on the information in the Kār-nāmag (ed. Ãntia, p. 62), Jahrom must have been a thriving city ruled by a certain Mihrak Anōšagzātān towards the end of the Arsacid (q.v.) period in the early 3rd century CE. The temple of Āḏur Faranbāg (q.v.), one of the three major fire temples in the Sasanian period, in Kāriān in the nearby Lār, and the existence of Sasanian remains in the area point to the prosperity of the city during this period (Moṣṭafawi, pp. 86, 94, 314; Afsar and Musawi, p. 314). Jahrom is mentioned in the early Arabic geographies as a town in the district (kura) of Dārābgerd (q.v.; Ebn Ḵor-dādbeh, p. 46; Eṣṭaḵri, p. 107, tr. p. 127; Ebn Ḥawqal, p. 268; Ebn al-Faqih, p. 410)

Towards the end of Omar’s caliphate and the beginning of the rule of Oṯmān (ca. 23/644), Jahrom was captured by an Arab army under Oṯmān b. Abi’l-ʿĀṣi (Balāḏori, p. 388; Ebn al-Aṯir, III, p. 40). Coins excavated in the Dārābgerd region indicate that, during the first century of Islamic rule, Jahrom was ruled by semi-independent local rulers who were appointed by Ummayyad local governors (wāli; Daryaee, 2002, pp. 75-77). Upon a high mountain top at about five leagues from Jahrom stood the fortress of Ḵorša, so called after the name of Ḵorša, the man who had been assigned as the local governor by the brother of Ḥajjāj b. Yusof, the then governor of the province. Relying on the impregnable position of the fortress, Ḵorša rebelled against Ḥajjāj, which was why no other governor was allowed to take possession of this fortress (Ebn al-Balḵi, p. 157; Mostawfi, 1915-19, p. 133, tr., p. 132; Ḥāfeẓ-e Abru, II, p. 150).

Jahrom is described by Arab geographers as a cultivated and economically robust town with a variety of industrial products including colorful and highly designed fabrics, flat-woven carpets (gelim; see CARPETS v), prayer rugs, and zilus (flat cotton weavings, known as zilu-ye jahromi), which were exported to other areas; it was also known for its cotton and grain products (Eṣṭaḵri, p. 153; Ḥodud al-ʿā1am, p. 135, tr. p. 129; Moqaddasi, p. 442; Ebn al-Balḵi, p. 131; Ḥāfeẓ-e Abru, II, p. 118). During this period Jahrom was considered one of the major industrial centers of Fārs Province (Daryaee, 2003, p. 46; Le Strange, p. 294). Jahrom is now best known for producing dates of excellent quality, but there is no mention of its date palm groves until the 18th century, when its dates are praised for quality by Majd-al-Din Ḥosayni Majdi (p. 795; Ṭufān, p. 106).

According to Abu Esḥāq Eṣṭaḵri (p. 139), in the 11th century the majority of Jahrom’s population was Muʿtazilite. It was perhaps for this reason that Moqaddasi, who traveled to Fārs and wrote a detailed account of his observations, did not visit Jahrom and has not written much about the city in his travelogue (Schwartz, p. 103), mentioning only its exports to other areas. Fārs fell under the Buyids (q.v.) in 322/934, when ʿEmād-al-Dawla ʿAli (q.v.) captured Shiraz and made it the center of Buyid power in south, but with the rise of the Saljuqids the Buyid power began to decline. In 448/1056, Abu’l-ʿAbbās Fażluya b. Ḥasnuya, the chief of the Šabānkāra Kurds, rebelled against Abu Manṣur Fulād Sotun, the last Buyid amir of Fārs, defeating and imprisoning him in the fortress Pahan Dez, where he died (Šābānkāraʾi, pp. 94-95; Ebn Balḵi, p. 166; Mostawfi, 1970, p. 425; Ḡaffāri, p. 127; Ḥāfeẓ-e Abru, II, p. 118; Le Strange, p. 245). Fażluya was confirmed as ruler of Fārs by Alp Arslān (q.v.), but he rebelled in 464/1072 and took refuge in the Fortress Ḵorša. Alp Arslān dispatched an army under his vizier Neẓām-al-Molk, who captured the fortress after a brief siege (Ebn al-Balḵi, p. 166; Ḡaffāri, pp. 127-28). During the reign of Malekšāh, Jahrom was considered one of the crown prince’s holdings (mawājeb; Ebn al-Balḵi, p. 131; Lambton, pp. 238-39).

Sources provide no significant information about the town and its dependencies in the following centuries until the rise of the Safavids, except that it was a medium-sized city with a hot climate and many dependencies (tawābeʿ), and got its water from running streams and subterranean channels (kāriz; Mostawfi, 1915-19, p. 125, tr., p. 124; Ḥāfeẓ-e Abru, II, p. 118). With the arrival of Europeans in the Persian Gulf and the establishment of trade with Europe following the rise of the Safavids, Jahrom, due to its location on a route from the Persian Gulf to Shiraz and further to Isfahan, once more became a notable town (Pohanka, pp. 302, 306; Ferrier, p. 476). Two caravanserais on this route were the Banā-ruba caravanserai, between Lār and Jahrom, and the Mut Ḵun caravanserai, between Jahrom and Shiraz (Kiāni, p. 207, 261). European travelers considered the road to Jahrom as one of the most difficult to traverse (Tavernier, p. 315; Gabriel, p. 367).

During the Safavid era, and particularly in the reign of Shah ʿAbbās I (r. 1587-1629), Jahrom was a part of the crown lands (ḵāleṣa; Roeherborn, tr., p. 178; Bāstāni Pārizi, p. 78) and did not escape unscathed during the violent turmoil following the fall of the Safavid dynasty and the Afghan occupation of Iran (Floor, tr., 1986, pp. 137-38; idem, tr., 1987, p. 49).

In 1275/1858-59 Mirzā ʿAli-Moḥammad Khan Qewām-al-Molk Širāzi was appointed the governor of Jahrom, the rural district (boluk) of Bidšahr, and Juyom of Abi Aḥmad. He brought the unruly tribes of Ḵamsa under his control, pacified the region, and took strong measures in the improvement of the living conditions (Fasāʾi, II, p. 967; Širvāni, p. 236). Authors in the Qajar period have described Jahrom as a township with two to three thousand households and numerous date palm groves. Moḥammad-Ḥasan Khan Eʿtemād-al- Salṭana (IV, p. 2309) estimated the number of town’s households at 5,500. In the 19th century, the town was divided into ten neighborhoods. In 1255/1839, Moḥammad-Ḥasan Khan Jahromi, the local governor, built a wall fortified with towers around six of them, separating them from the other four out, which were left without a wall. The poet Mirzā Ḥabib Qāʾāni commemorated the event in one of his odes (qaṣida; Fasāʾi, II, pp. 1278-79). The construction of a bazaar, styled after Bāzār-e Wakil in Shiraz, is indicative of the region’s robust economy during the Qajar period (Sahām-pur, pp. 37-38).

Jahrom is mentioned as the hometown of Bārbad (q.v.), the minstrel-poet of the court of the Sasanian king Khosrow II Parvēz (Šams-al-Din Rāzi, p. 200). This is contradicted by earlier sources, such as Eṣṭaḵri (p. 262), Ṯaʿālebi (p. 694), and Mostawfi (1915-19, p. 157, tr., p. 154), who say that Bārbad was from Marv, while Ferdinand Jusi (p. 63) mentions Nišāpur as his city of residence.

 

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(SHIVA JA’FARI)

Originally Published: December 15, 2008

Last Updated: April 10, 2012

This article is available in print.
Vol. XIV, Fasc. 4, pp. 392-395