Mazandaran province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. Its capital is the city of Sari. Located along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea and in the adjacent Central Alborz mountain range and Hyrcanian forests, it is bordered clockwise by Golestan, Semnan, Tehran, Alborz, Qazvin, and Gilan Provinces. Mazandaran covers an area of 24842 km2.http://www.sci.org.ir/content/userfiles/_sci_en/sci_en/sel/year85/f1/CS_01_4.HTM

The province has diverse natural resources, notably large offshore reservoirs of oil and natural gas. The diverse natural habitats of the province include plains, prairies, forests and rainforestSpringer Netherlands; July 10, 2005; Contributions to the knowledge of the useful plants and plant raw materials of Iran; stretching from the sandy beaches of the Caspian Sea to the rugged and snowcapped Alborz sierra,Mazandaran, Geography & History including Mount Damavand, one of the highest peaks and volcanoes in Asia.

Mazandaran is a major producer of farmed fish,Freshwater Fishes of Iran ; Revised: 12 July 2007 and aquaculture provides an important economic addition to traditional dominance of agriculture. Another important contributor to the economy is the tourism industry, as people from all of Iran enjoy visiting the area. (Persian) Mazandaran is also a fast-growing centre for biotechnology.

Etymology

The name "Mazandaran" is Avestan for "the gate of the giants" or "the valley of the giants," from ماز (mâz) + ‎اندر (an-dar) + ـان‎ (ân), (). The name appears in the 10th-century CE Persian epic the Shahnameh to refer to a land inhabited by daevas (or divs)—supernatural beings in Zoroastrian belief—and sorcerers, and that this land is difficult to conquer.

Toponyms in Mazandaran include several names with the word div, such as Div Asiyab, Div Cheshmeh, Div Kela, and Div Hamam.

History

Human habitation in the area dates back at least 75,000 years.IRAN Daily Caspian Region Recent excavations in Gohar Tape in Rostamkola provide proof that the area has been urbanized for more than 5,000 years, and the area is considered one of the most important historical sites of Iran.Parthia News, November 6, 2005. It has played an important role in cultural and urban development of the region.

Indigenous peoples of the region include the ethnic Mazanderanis, who speak an Iranian language which most closely resembles Gilaki and Sangiseri language, but also has phono-typical similarities to several Caucasian languages, reflecting the history of the region and its peoples.

In the early 20th century, Reza Shah connected northern Elbourz to the southern slopes by constructing seven new roads and railways, the provinces of Mazandaran and Gilan became known as Shomal by all Iranians (meaning "the North" in Persian). Mazandaran province was made part of the Region 1 upon the division of the provinces into five regions solely for coordination and development purposes on June 22, 2014.

Pre-Islamic history

Before the arrival of the Iranian-speakers to Iran, the native people of this area were subsistence hunters and cattle herders. Archaeological studies in caves Belt and Hotu show evidence of man in Behshahr, Mazandaran from around 9,000 years ago. The Amard were a tribe living along the mountainous region bordering the Caspian Sea, including current day Amol. TapuriTapuri. The mountains inland from the coast of Hyrcania are called the "Tapurian mountains" by Arrian, after the people there, settled in the mountains between the Derbices and the Hyrcanii (Str., 11.9.1, 11.11.8). They are spread toward the Caspian Gates and Rhaga in Media (Ptol., 6.2.6). These western Tapuri could have resulted from a tribal division north of the Sarnius/Atrak river—another, perhaps ancestral, group, the Tapurei, is located by Ptolemy (6.14.12) in Scythia. The remainder moved south and east into Margiana ("between the Hyrcani and the Arii," Str., 11.8.8; Ptol., 6.10.2) along the Ochus/Arius (mod. Tejen/Hari-rud) river into Aria (cf. Polyb., 10.49). The Tapuri on the Caspian could, alternatively, represent a later westward migration along the main east-west highway from Margiana. These Tapuri furnished 1,000 cavalry for the battle of Gaugamela (Curt., 3.2.7), apparently aligned with the Hyrcanii (the "Topeiri," Arr., An. 3.8.4). Alexander later subdued them (Arr., An. 3.23.1-2; Polyb., 5.44.5; Curt., 6.4.24-25). A separate satrap administered them at the time of Alexander's arrival, and this official was assigned the Caspian Mardi as well (Arr., An. 3.22.7, 24.3; 4.18.2)., IRANICAONlINE IRAN v. PEOPLES OF IRAN (2) Pre-Islamic were a tribe in the Medes south of the Caspian Sea mentioned by Ptolemy and Arrian. Ctesias refers to the land of Tapuri between the two lands of Cadusii and Hyrcania.Of the lands which lie on the sea and of the others which border on these, Ninus subdued Egypt and Phoenicia, then Coele-Syria, Cilicia, Pamphylia, and Lycia, and also Caria, Phrygia, and Lydia; moreover, he brought under his sway the Troad, Phrygia on the Hellespont, Propontis, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and all the barbarian nations who inhabit the shores of the Pontus as far as the Tanais; he also made himself lord of the lands of the Cadusii, Tapyri, Hyrcanii, Drangi, of the Derbici, Carmanii, Choromnaei, and of the Borcanii, and Parthyaei; and he invaded both Persis and Susiana and Caspiana, as it is called, which is entered by exceedingly narrow passes, known for that reason as the Caspian Gates. 4 Many other lesser nations he also brought under his rule, about whom it would be a long task to speak. But since Bactriana was difficult to invade and contained multitudes of warlike men, after much toil and labour in vain he deferred to a later time the war against the Bactriani, and leading his forces back into Assyria selected a place excellently situated for the founding of a great city.. Diodorus Siculus, Library 1-7 (2.2.3)

The territory known as Mazandaran has changed hands among various dynasties from early in its history. There are several fortresses remaining from the Parthian Empire and Sasanian Empire, and many older cemeteries scattered throughout the province. During this era, Mazandaran was part of Hyrcania, which was one of the important provinces.

In 662 CE, ten years after the death of Yazdegerd III, the last Sasanian emperor, a large Muslim army under the command of Hassan ibn Ali invaded Tabarestan.

With the advent of the Sasanian Empire, the King of Mazandaran (Tabaristan and Padashkhwargar) was Gushnasp,Minorsky, V.; Vasmer, R. "Mazandaran" Encyclopaedia of Islam. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2007. Brill Online. whose ancestors had reigned in the area (under the Parthian empire) since the time of Alexander the Great. In 529–536, Mazandaran was ruled by the Sasanian prince Kawus, son of Kawadh. Anushirawan, the Sasanian king, defeated Zarmihr, who claimed his ancestry from the legendary blacksmith Kaveh. This dynasty ruled the area till 645 AD, when Gil Gilanshah (a descendant of the Sasanian king Jamasp and a grandson of Piruz) joined Mazandaran to Gilan.

In 651 the Sasanid Empire fell, and all of the Sasanid domains gradually came under Arab control, except for the Caspian region of Iran (among which Tabaristan).

Islamic history Tabaristan maintained an existence independent of the Umayyad Caliphate which supplanted the Sasanian Empire in the early seventh century, with independent Zoroastrian houses like the Bavand and Karen fighting an effective guerilla warfare against the Umayyads. A short-lived Alid Shiite state collapsed before the subsequent take-over by the Ziyarid princes. During the post-Islamic period the local dynasties fell into three classes: local families of pre-Islamic origin; the ʿAlid sayyid; and local families of secondary importance.

The Karinids claimed descent from Karin, brother of Zarmihr who was the pre-Islamic ruler under the Sasanians. Their last representative Mazyar was put to death in 839.

In the 9th–11th century AD, there were repetitively military raids undertaken by the Rus' between 864 and 1041 on the Caspian Sea shores of Iran, Azerbaijan, and Dagestan as part of the Caspian expeditions of the Rus'. Initially, the Rus' appeared in Serkland in the 9th century traveling as merchants along the Volga trade route, selling furs, honey, and slaves. The first small-scale raids took place in the late 9th and early 10th century. The Rus' undertook the first large-scale expedition in 913; having arrived on 500 ships, they pillaged the westernmost parts of Gorgan as well as Mazandaran and Gilan, taking slaves and goods. The Bavandids, who claimed descent from Kawus, provided three dynasties. The first dynasty (665–1007) was overthrown on the conquest of Tabaristan by the Ziyarid Kabus b. Wushmgir. The second dynasty reigned from 1073 to 1210, when Mazandaran was conquered by 'Ala al-Din Muhammad Khwarzamshah. The third ruled from 1237 to 1349 as vassals of the Mongols. The last representative of the Bavandids was killed by Afrasiyab Chulawi.

The Paduspanids claimed descent from the Dabuyids of the north. They came to prominence around 660 and during the rule of the ʿAlids were their vassals. Later, they were vassals of the Buyids and Bavandids, who deposed them in 1190. The dynasty, restored in 1209–10, survived until the time of Timur; the branch, claiming descent from Kawus the son of Kayumarth reigned until 1567 and the other, that of Iskandar the son of Kayumarth, until 1574.

In the Safavid era (1501–1736) Mazandaran was settled by very large numbers of Georgians, Circassians, Armenians, and other Peoples of the Caucasus, whose descendants still live or linger across Mazandaran. Towns, villages and neighbourhoods in Mazandaran still bear the name "Gorji" (i.e., Georgian) in them, although most of the large amounts of Georgians, Armenians, and Circassians are already assimilated into the mainstream Mazandaranis. The history of Georgian settlement is described by Iskandar Beg Munshi, the author of the 17th century Tarikh-e Alam-Ara-ye Abbasi, and both the Circassian and Georgian settlements by Pietro Della Valle, among other authors.Pietro Della Valle, Viaggi, 3 vols. in 4 parts, Rome, 1658–63; tr. J. Pinkerton as Travels in Persia, London, 1811.

Tabaristan remained independent until 1596, when Shah Abbas I, Mazandarani on his mother's side, incorporated Mazandaran into his Safavid empire, forcing many Armenians, Circassians and Georgians to settle in Mazandaran. Pietro della Valle (1586–1652), who visited a town near Firuzkuh in Mazandaran, noted that Mazandarani women never wore the veil and didn't hesitate to talk to foreigners. He also noted the large population of Circassians and Georgians in the region, and that he had never encountered people with as much civility as the Mazandaranis.

Post-Safavid period After the Safavid period, the Qajars began to campaign south from Mazandaran with Agha Mohammad Khan who already incorporated Mazandaran into his empire in 1782. On 21 March 1782, Agha Mohammad Shah proclaimed Sari as his imperial capital. Mazandaran was the site of local wars in those years, which led to the transfer of the capital from Sari to Tehran by Fath Ali Shah. In Modern era at Mazandaran make new house and bridge in Amol and Sari. In along the beach and in the forest built Villa and modern settlements.

Before the reign of Nader Shah, the province was briefly occupied by the Russian army in the aftermath of the Russo-Persian War (1722–23) and returned to Persia in 1735. Following the outcomes of the Russo-Persian War (1804–13) and the Russo-Persian War (1826–28) northern Iran, especially Mazandaran and Gilan, as well as, to a certain extent, Tehran, fell under a growing Russian sphere of influence.

In the 19th century, during the reign of Fath-Ali Shah Qajar, the verdant region of Mazandaran was paid due attention as a recreational area.