Iranians History on This Day
 
 
 
 

 
 Nov 3 


The day when the city of Qazvin was established by the orders of Shapour I, the Sassanid king of Iran
On 3 November 245 AD, Shapour I, the then king of Iran, from the Sassanid dynasty, who had turned Iran into a super power during his reign, ordered to build the city of Qazvin. Building this city took 3 years, and was completed in October (Mehregan celebrations) 248 AD. The name of Qazvin was taken from the name of a tribe after whom the ancient Greek and Romans (and now the whole world) named the Mazandaran Sea as Caspian, because the area where this Aryan tribe had settled spread upto Daylaman, Gilan and the western coast of this Sea.
    During his reign, Shapour I built a few new cities, their names having his name as prefix or suffix, but he ordered this newly built city to be given the name of this tribe which were settled in that area: ‘Caspian’, and this name gradually changed to Qazvin. In the books written in the medieval era Mazandaran Sea was called Qazvin (Caspian) Sea. In 644 AD Qazvin was captured by the Arabs, and became the capital of Iran in the 16th century AD. Shah Tahmasb Safavid built many buildings in it. But, in 1598 AD Shah Abbas Safavid transferred the capital from Qazvin to Isfahan, the central city of Iran.
    One of the reasons for transfer of the capital from Qazvin to Isfahan was that the chiefs of Shah Abbas’s soldiers (Qezelbash) had killed his mother in that city and thrown her body in the desert. Therefore, staying in Qazvin would remind him of his mother’s tragic death. During the First and Second World War Qazvin was occupied by foreigners and was bombarded by Russia in 1941. It was from this city that General Reza Khan decided to capture Tehran and overthrow the rulers. This historic city is now center of a province by the same name.
    
    
    Translation by Rowshan Lohrasbpour
    
    
    

 



 



 




 
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