Early history The early history of Tabriz is not well documented. The earliest evidence is an Iron Age grave yard of 1st millennium B.C. unearthed in late 1990s on the 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 B.C. 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." Tabriz was chosen as the capital for several rulers commencing from
Atropates era and his dynasty. The city was destroyed multiple times by natural disasters and invading armies. The earliest elements of the present Tabriz are claimed to be built either at the time of the early
Sassanids in the 3rd or 4th century AD, or later in the 7th century. The city used to be called ''T'awrēš'' in
Middle Persian.
Middle Ages , built by
Ghazan in Tabriz After the
Muslim conquest of Iran, the
Arabian
Azd tribe from
Yemen resided in Tabriz. The development of post-Islamic Tabriz began as of this time. The Islamic geographer
Yaqut al-Hamawi says that Tabriz was a village before Rawwad from the tribe of Azd arrived at Tabriz. In the 10th century,
Ardabil briefly held the status of Azarbayjan's capital, only to be swiftly supplanted by Tabriz, situated 130 miles to the west. Tabriz swiftly rose to prominence as a pivotal commercial hub, facilitating trade between the Far East, Central Asia, and vital routes. It served as a nexus linking
Mesopotamia, the
Mediterranean,
Anatolia,
Constantinople, and extending northward through the
Caucasus to the
Ukraine,
Crimea, and
Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, the city recovered soon and many western expediters who visited Tabriz in the 13th century on their way to the east were amazed by the richness of the city, its magnificent buildings and its institutions.
Marco Polo, who passed Tabriz around 1275 while travelling on the Silk Road, described it as: "a great city surrounded by beautiful and pleasant gardens. It is excellently situated so the goods brought to here coming from many regions. Latin merchants specially Genevis go there to buy the goods that come from foreign lands." Chosen as a capital by
Abaqa Khan, fourth ruler of the Ilkhanate, for its favored location in the northwestern grasslands, in 1295, his successor
Ghazan Khan made it the chief administrative centre of an empire stretching from
Anatolia to the
Oxus River and from the
Caucasus to the
Indian Ocean. Under his rule, new walls were built around the city, and numerous public buildings, educational facilities, and caravansarais were erected to serve traders travelling on the ancient
Silk Road. The
Byzantine Gregory Chioniades is said to have served as the city's
Orthodox bishop during this time. At the same time, the
Dominican Order established a
Latin mission in Tabriz, which would become its own diocese under the
archdiocese of Soltaniyeh for some decades in the 14th century. From 1375 to 1468, Tabriz was the capital of
Qara Qoyunlu state in Azerbaijan, until defeat of Qara Qoyunlu ruler,
Jahan Shah by
Ag Qoyunlu warriors. Ag Qoyunlus selected Tabriz as their capital from 1469 to 1501. Some of the existing historical monuments including the
Blue Mosque belong to the Qara Qoyunlu period. Tabriz was sacked by
Timur in 1392, and he invested his son, Miranshah, as governor of the city.
Early modern period In 1501,
Ismail I entered Tabriz and proclaimed it the capital of his
Safavid state. In 1514, after the
Battle of Chaldiran, Tabriz was sacked by
Selim I. On 16 July 1534, prior to
Ottoman conquest of Baghdad,
Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha occupied Tabriz. In 1555,
Tahmasp I transferred its capital to
Qazvin to avoid the growing threat of the Ottoman army to his capital. .
Şehname-i Nadiri (Nadiri's book of kings) (1620s) Between 1585 and 1603, Tabriz was under occupation by
Ottomans, as a consequence of the
Ottoman–Safavid War (1578–1590). After it was retaken by the
Safavids under
Abbas the Great, the city grew as a major commerce centre, conducting trade with the
Ottoman Empire, Russia, and the
Caucasus. Tabriz was occupied and sacked by Ottoman
Murad IV in 1635, during the
Ottoman–Safavid War (1623–39), before being returned to Iran in the
Treaty of Zohab in 1639. The city was completely devastated by a strong
earthquake in 1641. The
Capuchins founded a small house in the city around 1656. The city was subsequently retaken by the Iranian army, after which a widespread famine, combined with the spread of fatal diseases, killed more of those who still remained. In addition, another earthquake is disputed to have occurred in
1727 further adding to the region's instability at the time. In
1780, a major earthquake hit near Tabriz and killed as many as two hundred thousand people, leaving only about thirty thousand survivors. At the end of the 18th century, the city was divided into several districts, each ruled by a family, until 1799, when the Qajar Prince
Abbas Mirza was appointed as the governor of the city. During the
Qajar Empire the city was the residence for the crown prince. The crown prince normally served as governor of Azerbaijan province as well. Some of the most important events in this period
were the wars between Qajar Iran and neighbouring
Imperial Russia. Prior to the forced cession of Iran's Caucasian territories—comprising what is now
Georgia, southern
Dagestan,
Azerbaijan, and
Armenia—to Imperial Russia following the two
Russo-Persian Wars of the first half of the 19th century, Tabriz, being strategically located, was instrumental to the implementation of Iranian rule in its Caucasian territories. During the last Russo-Persian War (
1826–1828), the city was captured for
Russia in 1828 by General Prince Eristov, who marched into the city with 3,000 soldiers. After Abbas Mirza and
Ivan Paskevich signed
the peace treaty, which granted for the irrevocable cession of the last remaining
Caucasian territories, the Russian army retreated from the city. Nevertheless, Russian political and military influence remained a major force in Tabriz and north-northwestern Iran even until the fall of the Russian empire in the early 20th century. File:Tabriz by Eugène Flandin.jpg|
Saheb-ol-Amr Mosque and
Quru river,
Eugène Flandin 1841. File:City Gate , Tabriz by Eugène Flandin.jpg|Sketch of the gate of Tabriz,
Eugène Flandin 1841. File:House Hussein Khan, Tabriz by Eugène Flandin.jpg|A sketch of a 19th-century house in Tabriz,
Eugène Flandin. File:Jules Laurens - The Blue Mosquee in Tabriz, Persia.jpg|Painting of
Blue mosque,
Jules Laurens, 1872.
Contemporary era Thanks to the geographical closeness to the West and to communications with nearby countries' enlightenment movements, Tabriz became the centre of the
Iranian Constitutional Revolution movements between 1905 and 1911, which led to the establishment of a parliament in Iran and the formation of a constitution.
Sattar Khan and
Bagher Khan, two Tabrizi reformists who led Tabriz people's solidarity against the absolute monarchy, had a great role in achievement to the goals of Iran's constitutional revolution. In 1909, Tabriz was occupied by the Russian forces. Four months after the constitutional revolution's success, in December 1911, the Russians
reinvaded Tabriz. After crushing the local resistance by invading Russian troops, they started suppressing the constitutional revolutionaries and residents of the city. Following the invasion, Russian troops executed about 1,200 of Tabriz residents. As a result of the campaign, Tabriz was occupied by the Russian forces between 1911 and 1917. File:Tabriz Map 1908.jpg|Siege of Tabriz during
Constitutional Revolution, September 27, 1908. File:Revolutionists defending Davachi bridge, Tabriz (May 1, 1909).jpg|Constitutional revolutionists defending Davachi bridge against monarchists, May 1, 1909. File:TabrizRevolutionaries.JPG|Constitutionals in Tabriz, 1911. Arg-Tabriz-USA.jpg|Ark of Tabriz and US flag in the days after constitutional revolution, 1911. From the very start of
World War I, Iran declared neutrality. When the war erupted on a full scale, Tabriz and much of northwestern-northern Iran had already been
de facto occupied by Russia for several years. In later years of World War I, the
Ottoman troops intervened and took control of the city by defeating the Russian troops stationed there. The modernization and nationalization plan of Reza Shah continued until the surge of World War II. At the final year of the
World War II despite the declaration of the neutrality by the Iranian government, the country was occupied by the allied forces. The allied forces then urged Reza Pahlavi to abdicate and installed his son
Mohammad Reza as the new king of the country. The postwar situation was further complicated by
Soviet aid to set up a local government called
Azerbaijan People's Government in Northwest
Iran, having Tabriz as its capital. The new Soviet-backed local government was run by
Ja'far Pishevari and held power for one year starting from 1946. Pishevari's government gave more freedom to speech and education in Azerbaijani language and promoted local cultural heritage and gained some popularity among the residents. However, after the withdrawal of Soviet forces, Pishevari's limited armed forces were crushed by the Imperial Iranian army and the Iranian government retook control of the city. One of the major establishments in the period of Pishevari's government was opening of the
University of Tabriz which played a major role in the later political movements and protests in the region. Russian flag on top of Ark, 1911.png|
Russian Invasion of Tabriz, 1911. File: Soviet six horse foot artillery team on the streets of Tabriz.jpg|Soviet artillery units passing through Tabriz, World War II. File: Soviet tankmen of the 6th Armoured Division drive through the streets of Tabriz (2).jpg|Soviet Tank and troops marching through Tabriz, World War II. File: Soviet tankmen of the 6th Armoured Division drive through the streets of Tebriz.jpg|Soviet T-26 Tank passing through the main street of Tabriz, World War II. For the next 30 years, after the collapse of Azerbaijan's autonomous government, Tabriz enjoyed a stable era until the revolution in 1979. During this period the city received significant investment in its industries and transformed into a heavy-industry hub in the northwestern Iran. The need for a strong workforce increased immigration from all around Azerbaijan toward Tabriz. During this era and because of the continuous policy of the government centralization in Tehran as well as changes in communication and transportation, the city lost its historical dominance, but turned into the gate for reform and modernization of the country. Starting with 1978 and with the heat of the
Iranian Revolution, revolutionary movements of some of Tabriz residents played a major role in the revolution. After the revolution, the residents of the city were unsatisfied with the outcome, mainly because of the ignorance of the revolutionary government about the rights of the Azerbaijani minority. Another major source of dissatisfaction was the support of most of Iranian Azerbaijanis including Tabriz residents from a more liberal cleric, Grand Ayatollah
Shariatmadari, who was against the content of the new constitution which was mixing religion and state together. The unrest in the city calmed down after brutal crush of the protesters in Tabriz and after house arrest of Shariatmadari. In the 1980s, due to the
Iran–Iraq War, like the rest of the country, most of the construction and development projects in the city were stopped in order to fund the war costs. In addition to the indirect effects of the war, city's industrial zone, especially the oil refinery was also a major target for airstrikes by Iraqi's air forces because of the closeness to the Iraqi borderlines, and their strategic roles in the country's economy. With the escalation of the war, the attacks turned to
War of the Cities and the air attacks later turned into the random strikes on the residential areas of the city in the later phase of the war. In recent years, Tabriz is much more stable and the new developments in the city are rapidly changing the face of the city.
Capital of dynasties, empires, and kingdoms before modern day Tabriz was chosen as the capital by several rulers commencing from the time of
Atropates. It was the capital of the
Ilkhanate (Mongol) dynasty since 1265. During the
Ghazan Khan era, who came into power in 1295, the city reached its highest splendour. The later realm stretched from the
Amu Darya in the East to the
Egypt borders in the West and from the
Caucasus in the North to the Indian Ocean in the South. It was again the capital of Iran during the
Qara Qoyunlu dynasty from 1375 to 1468 and then during the
Ag Qoyunlu within 1468–1500 and it was capital of Iran in the
Safavid period from 1501
until their defeat in 1555. During the
Qajar dynasty, Tabriz was used as residence centre of Iranian Crown Prince (1794–1925).
Excavation sites In 2002, during a construction project at the north side of the
Blue Mosque (Part of
Silk Road Project), an ancient graveyard was revealed. This was kept secret until a construction worker alerted the authorities. Radiocarbon analysis by Allameh Tabatabai University has shown the background of the graves to be more than 3,800 years old. A museum of these excavations including the
Blue Mosque was opened to the public in 2006. The other excavation site is in Abbasi Street at the site of
Rab'-e Rashidi, which was the location for an academic institution since approximately 700 years ago. It was established in
Ilkhanid period. ==Demographics==