This article is about the Māzandarān Province of Iran. For the Historic Tabarestan region, see
Tabaristan.
Mazandaran Province (Persian: اُستان مازندران, Ostān-e Māzandarān ) [4] is a Caspian province in the north of Iran.[5] Located on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea, it is bordered clockwise by the Golestan, Semnan, Tehran, Alborz, Qazvin, and Gilan provinces.
Mazandaran is one of the most densely populated provinces in Iran[6] and has diverse natural resources, especially large reservoirs of oil and natural gas.[7] The province's five largest counties are Sari, Behshahr, Babol, Amol and Qaemshahr.[1] Founded as province in 1937, Mazandaran was declared the second modern province after neighbouring Gilan.
The diverse nature of the province features plains, prairies, forests and rainforest [8] stretching from the sandy beaches of the Caspian Sea to the rugged and snowcapped Alborz sierra,[9] including Mount Damavand, one of the highest peaks and volcanos in Asia,[10] which at the narrowest point (Nowshahr County) narrows to 5 miles.
Mazandaran is a major producer of farmed fish,[11] and aquaculture provides an important economic addition to traditional dominance of agriculture.[12] Another important contributor to the economy is the tourism industry, as people from all of Iran enjoy visiting the area.[13] Mazandaran is also a fast-growing centre for biotechnology[7] and civil engineering.
Human habitation in the area dates back at least 75,000 years.[14][15] Recent excavations in Goher Tippe 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.[16] It has played an important role in cultural and urban development of the region.[17]
Indigenous peoples of the region include the ethnic Mazanderanis[18] speaking an Iranian language which most resembles Gilaki and Sangiseri.[citation needed]
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- See Also:History of Tapuria
The
Hyrcanian Golden Cup. Dated first half of first millennium. Excavated at Kalardasht in Mazandaran.
The region is known to have been populated from early antiquity, and Mazandaran has changed hands among various dynasties from early in its history. There are several fortresses remaining from Parthian and Sassanid times, and many older cemeteries scattered throughout the province. During this era, Mazandaran was part of Hyrcania Province which was one of important provinces.
With the advent of the Sassanid dynasty, the King of Mazandaran (Tabaristan and Padashkhwargar) was Gushnasp,[19] whose ancestors had reigned in the area (under the Parthian empire) since the time of Alexander. In 529-536, Mazandarn was ruled by the Sassanid prince Kawus, son of Kawadh.[19] Anushirawan, the Sassanid king, defeated Zarmihr, who claimed his ancestry from the legendary blacksmith Kaveh.[19] This dynasty ruled till 645 A.D., when Gil Gilanshah (a descendant of the Sassanid king Jamasp and a son of Piruz) joined Mazandaran to Gilan.[19] These families had descendants who ruled during the Islamic period.
Hyrcania, now called Mazanderan, comprehends the largest and widest portion of the low plain along the shores of the Caspian Sea. It is one of the most fertile provinces of the Persian empire, whether the mountains or the plains are considered. Travellers passing through the forests of Mazanderan, pass through thickets of sweetbriar and honeysuckle ; and are surrounded with acacias, oaks, lindens, and chestnut trees. The summits of the mountains are crowned with cedars, cypresses, and various species of pines. So beautiful is this district, that in the hyperbolical language of the orientals it is styled, Belad-al-Irem, or, the Land of the Terrestrial Paradise. Sir W. Ouseley relates, that Kaikus, the Persian king, was fired with ambition to conquer so fine a country, through the influence of a minstrel, who exhausted all his powers of music and poetry in the praise of its beauties : his strains read thus :
" Let the king consider the delights of Mazanderan, and may that country flourish during all eternity ; for in its gardens roses ever blow, and even its mountains are covered with hyacinths and tulips. Its land abounds in all the beauties of nature ; its climate is salubrious and temperate, neither too warm nor too cold ; it is a region of perpetual spring: there, in shady bowers, the nightingale ever sings ; there the fawn and antelope incessantly wander among the valleys ; every spot, throughout the whole year, is embellished and perfumed with flowers ; the very brooks of that country seem to be rivulets of rose water, so much does this exquisite fragrance delight the soul. During the winter months, as at all other seasons, the ground is enamelled, and the banks of murmuring streams smile with variegated flowers ; every where the pleasures of the chase may be enjoyed ; all places abound with money, fine stuffs for garments, and every other article necessary for comfort or luxury. There all the attendants are lovely damsels, wearing golden coronets ; and all the men illustrious warriors, whose girdles are studded with gold ; and nothing but a wilful perversity of mind, or corporeal infirmity, can hinder a person from being cheerful and happy in Mazanderan."
Such were the delights the oriental poet held out to his rulers in Mazanderan, in all the force of oriental exaggeration. The province of Hyrcania or Mazanderan was doubtless a delightful province ; but there appear to have been some .drawbacks upon its loveliness. Strictly speaking, Hyrcania comprehended the small tract denominated Gurgan in ancient Persia, which signifies, the land of wolves, from the superabundance of these animals. From this word D'Anville supposes the Greeks to have formed the name of Hyrcania. Sir W. Ouseley states that on entering Mazanderan, he was informed that he would find a babr, tiger ; a guraz, boar ; rubah, foxes ; shegkal, jackals ; and a gurg, or wolf. Accordingly, the very first thing that he saw, on entering a village of Hyrcania, was the carcase of a, large wolf, which had been shofjust half an hour before his arrival, and which looked terrible in death, " grinning horribly a ghastly grin ;" thus proving the truth of the poet, that, " every where the pleasures of the chase may be enjoyed," if such may be termed pleasures. In ancient times, Hyrcania was infested with panthers and tigers, so fierce and cruel, as to give rise to a proverb concerning fierce and unrelenting men, that they had sucked Hyrcanian tigers. The poet Virgil refers to this in his iEneid. Representing Dido chiding iEneas, he puts into her mouth these words:
" False as thou art, and more than false, forsworn, Not sprung from noble blood, nor goddess born, But hewn from harden'd entrails of a rock ! And rough Hyrcanian tigers gave thee suck !"
Strabo, who extends Hyrcania as far north as the river Ochus, says from Aristobulus that Hyrcania was a woody region, producing oaks and pines, but not the pitch pine, which abounded in India. It has been mentioned as a curious circumstance, that in Mazanderan an axe used for cutting is called tabr. Now the Tapyri, or Tabari, inhabited a district in Hyrcania, and if this name be derived from tabr, an axe, it will signify hatchet-men, or wood-cutters, a name very appropriate to the inhabitants of a country covered with forests like Hyrcania, and, though restricted by the Greeks to the western inhabitants of that province, is equally applicable to those of the eastern part. According to Sir W. Ouseley, the name of the part in which the Tabari. lived, namely, Tabristan, or Tabaristan, signifies the country of wood.
According to Morier, Mazanderan is a modern Persian phrase, signifying, " Within the boundary or limit of the mountain." This is confirmed by Sir W. Ouseley, who says, from Hamdallah, an eminent Persian geographer, that Mazanderan was originally named Mawz-anderan, or within the mountain Mawz. He says, " The Coh-Alburz is an immense mountain adjacent to Bab-al-abwab, (Derbend), and many mountains are connected with Alburz ; so that from Turkestan to Hejas, it forms a range extending in length 1000 farsangs, about 130 miles, more or less ; and on this account some regard it as the mountain of Kaf, (Caucasus.) Its western side, connected with the mountains of Gurjestan, (Georgia,) is called the Coh Lagzi, (Daghestan,) and the Sur a lakaeim relates, that in the Coh Lagzi there are various races of people ; so that about seventy different languages or dialects are used among them ; and in that mountain are many wonderful objects ; and when it reaches Shemshat and Malatiah, (Samosata Melitene,) it is called Kali Kala. At Antakia and Sakeliah, ( Antioch and Seleucia,) it is called Lekam ; there it divides Sham (Syria) from Room, (Asia Minor.) When it reaches between Hems (Emesa) and Demishk, (Damascus,) it is called Lebnan, (Lebanon,) and near Mecca and Medina it is called Arish. Its eastern side, connected with the mountains of Arran (Eastern Armenia) and Aderbijan, it is called Keik, and when it reaches to Ghilan, (the Gelae and Cadusians,) and Irak, (Media,) it takes the name of Terkel-diz-cuh ; it is called Mauz when it reaches Kurnish and Mazanderan ; and originally Mazanderan was named Mawz-enderan ; and when Alburz reaches Khorassan, it is called Lurry." From this it appears that Mazanderan signifies all the region within the mountain Mawz and the Caspian Sea, which lies east of Ghilan and the Kizil Ozan.
Unlike the rest of Persia, Mazanderan is watered by numerous rivers, or mountain torrents, all running from the mountains to the sea. The German traveller Gmelin, who visited this country a. d. 1771, says that in the space of eight miles, on the road from Resht to Amot, 250 of such streams are to be seen, many of them being so exceedingly broad and deep, that the passage across is sometimes impracticable for weeks together. In this respect Mazanderan furnishes a striking contrast to the waste and barren shores of southern Persia, where for many hundred miles there is not a stream to be met with deep enough to take a horse above the knee. Hence arises the fertility of Mazanderan. So mild and humid, indeed, is the climate of Mazanderan, that it permits the growth of the sugar cane, and the production of good sugar, and that in perfection four months earlier than in the West Indies. From the lack of art and care, however, this gift of nature is not turned to account by the inhabitants of that province.[20]
Map of the Mazandaran
Alavid emirate (864-929 AD)
During the post-Islamic period the local dynasties fall into three classes: 1. local families of pre-Islamic origin, 2. the ʿAlid sayyid s, and 3. local families of secondary importance.[19]
The Bawandids who claimed descent from Kawus provided three dynasties.[19] The first dynasty (665-1007) was overthrown on the conquest of Tabaristan by the Ziyarid Kabus b. Wushmgir.[19] The second dynasty reigned from 466/1073 to 606/1210 when Mazandaran was conquered by 'Ala al-Din Muhammad Khwarzamshah.[19] The third ruled from 635/1237 to 750/1349 as vassals of the Mongols.[19] The last representative of the Bawandids was killed by Afrasiyab Chulawi.[19]
The Karinids claimed descent from Karin, brother of Zarmihr who was the pre-Islamic ruler under the Sassanids.[19] Their last representative Mazyar was put to death in 224/839.[19]
The Paduspanids claimed descent from the Dabyuids of Gilan.[19] They came to the front about 40/660 and during the rule of the ʿAlids were their vassals. Later, they were vassals of the Buyids and Bawandids, who deposed them in 586/1190.[19] The dynasty, restored in 606/1209-10, survived till the time of Timur; the branch descended from Kawus the son of Kayumarth reigned till 975/1567 and the other, that of Iskandar the son of Kayumarth, till 984/1574.[19]
In 662 CE, ten years after the death of Yazdegerd III the last Sassanian Emperor, a large Muslim army under the command of Hassan ibn Ali (Imam Hassan, the second Sunni's/Shi'a Imam) invaded Tabarestan (Mazandaran as it was then called)[citation needed] only to be severely beaten, suffering heavy losses to the forces of the Zoroastrian princes of the Dabboyid house. For the next two hundred years, Tabaristan maintained an existence independent of the Umayyad Caliphate which supplanted the Persian Empire in the early seventh century, with independent Zoroastrian houses like the Bavand and Karen fighting an effective guerilla warfare against Islam. A short-lived Alid Shiite state collapsed before the subsequent take-over by the Ziyarid princes. Mazandaran, unlike much of the rest of the Iranian Plateau maintained a Zoroastrian majority until the 12th century, thanks to its isolation and hardy population which fought against the Caliph's armies for centuries.
During the Abbasid caliphate of Abou Jafar Al-Mansur, Tabaristan witnessed a wave of popular revolt. Ultimately, Vandad Hormoz established an independent dynasty in Tabaristan in 783[citation needed]. In 1034, Soltan Mahmoud Ghaznavi entered Tabarestan via Gorgan followed by the invasion of Soltan Mohammad Kharazmshah in 1209. Thereafter, the Mongols governed the region until they were overthrown by the Timurid Dynasty. After the dissolution of the feudal government of Tabaristan, Mazandaran was incorporated into modern Persian Empire by Shah Abbas I in 1596. In the Safavid era Mazandaran was settled by Georgian migrants, whose descendants still live across Mazandaran. Towns, villages and neighbourhoods in Mazandaran still bear the name "Gorji" (i.e. Georgian) in them, although most of the Georgians are already assimilated into the mainstream Mazandaranis. The history of Georgian settlement is described by Eskandar Beyg Monshi, the author of the 17th century Tarikh-e Alam-Ara-ye Abbasi, among other authors.
Before the reign of Nadir Shah, the province was briefly occupied by the Russian army in the aftermath of the Russo-Persian War, 1722-1723 and returned to Persia in 1735.
Relief map of Mazandaran area
View of the Caspian coast from the Namak Abrood tourist resort.
Mazandaran is located on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea. It is bordered clockwise by Golestan, Semnan and Tehran provinces.[21] This province also borders Qazvin and Gilan to the west. Mazandaran province is geographically divided into two parts: the coastal plains, and the mountainous areas. The Alborz Mountain Range surrounds the coastal strip and plains of the Caspian Sea.
There is often snowfall in the Alborz regions, which run parallel to the Caspian Sea's southern coast, dividing the province into many isolated valleys. The province enjoys a moderate, subtropical climate with an average temperature of 25 °C in summer and about 8 °C in winter. Although snow may fall heavily in the mountains in winter, it rarely falls at sea level.
Ecoregions:
The population of the province has been steadily growing during the last 50 years. The following table shows the approximate province population, excluding the Golestan province, which has separated as an independent province in 1998 [7].
The population is of Caucasian Iranian stock with a minority of non-native neighboring Turkic tribes (esp. the Turkomen).
| Year |
1956 |
1966 |
1976 |
1986 |
1996 |
2006 |
2008 |
| Approximate population |
835,000 |
1,250,000 |
1,596,000 |
2,275,000 |
2,602,000 |
2,922,000 |
3,090,000 |
The province covers an area of 23,842 km²[8]. According to the census of 2006, the population of the province was 2,922,432 of which 53.18% were registered as urban dwellers, 46.82% villagers, and remaining were non-residents. Sari is the capital city of the province.
Mazandaran is divided into 15 counties (shahrestan in Persian). All the shahrestans are named after their administrative center, except Savadkooh. The following map shows the respective positions of the counties.
Mazandaran is connected to the capital of Iran, Tehran, through three transit roads: Haraz road (Amol-Rudehen), Kandovan road (Chalus-Karaj), and Firoozkooh road (Qaem Shahr-Rudehen).
Dasht-e Naz Airport, serving the capital Sari, Noshahr Airport, and Ramsar Airport are the domestic airports that connect the province to the other parts of the country. There are some Hajj flights from Dasht-e Naz Airport as well.
Mazandaran is served by the North Railway Dept. of the Iranian Railways. The department connects the province to Tehran to the south and Gorgan to the east. The cities of Sari, Qaemshahr, and Pol Sefid are major stations of the department.
The culture of Mazandaran is closely related to that of neighboring Gilan (or Guilan). The peoples of the two provinces are largely secular, and consequently women have had greater social freedom and independence than their Persian cousins. (Reference: "The Soviet Socialist Republic of Iran, 1920-1921: Birth of the Trauma" by Cosroe Chaqueri.)
The cuisine of the province is very rich in seafood due to its location by the Caspian Sea, and rice is present in virtually every meal. Indeed, the rest of Iran was introduced to rice through Gilan and Mazandaran. Before the 1800s, Persians, Kurds, and other Iranian ethnic groups used bread rather than rice as an accompaniment to their meals, though bread remains a prominent staple among them. While bread remains very popular among those groups, in Gilan and Mazandaran, rice remains the choice staple of the indigenous inhabitants.
Mazanderani or Tabarian is a Northwestern Iranian language. Various Mazandarani dialects exist which are spoken in Mazandaran province and the neighbor province Golestan such as Mazanderani, and Gorgani and possibly Qadikolahi (Ghadikolahi) and Palani. Today, Mazandaranis also use Persian (Western Persian). The educated can communicate and read Persian well.[22]
A dialect of Azeri is spoken in the town of Galoogah.[23]
The Battle History Of Mazandaran
In the Persian epic, Shahnameh, Mazandaran is mentioned in two different sections. The first mention is implicit, when Fereydun sets its capital in a city called Tamishe near Amol:
بیاراست گیتی بسان بهشت.................... به جای گیا سرو گلبن بکشت
از آمل گذر سوی تمیشه کرد .............. نشست اندر آن نامور بیشه کرد
under the title "فریدون چو شد بر جهان کامگار", and when Manuchehr is returning to Fereydun's capital, Tamisheh in Mazandaran (known as Tabarestan), after his victory over Salm and Tur:[24]
ز دريای گيلان چون ابر سياه.............. دمادم به ساری رسيد آن سپاه
چو آمد بنزدیک شاه آن سپاه.................. فریدون پذیره بیامد براه
under the title "تهی شد ز کینه سر کینه دار".
In the second section, a region called Mazandaran is mentioned in the Kai Kavoos era; it is an area which is mostly inhabited by Div (demons). The legendary Iranian Shah Kaykavoos, as well as the Iranian hero Rostam, each take turn to go to Mazandaran in order to battle the demons.
A famous verse from Shahnameh is when Zal tells Kai Kavoos:
شنیدم یکی نو سخن بس گران ..........که شه دارد آهنگ مازندران
"I heard troubling news that the king is planning to go to Mazandaran"
However, this Mazandaran is not considered identical to the modern province of Mazandaran, and is instead a land to the west of Iran. The current province was simply considered a part of Tabaristan; the name Mazandaran is a later development, perhaps based upon local terminology.[25]
In Gaston Leroux's 'The Phantom of the Opera,' one of the characters was formerly the daroga (chief of police) of Mazanderan.
Mazandaran has been home to many significant Iranian figures.
- Abi Ja'far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (838-923), was a Persian world historian and theologian (the most famous and widely-influential person called al-Tabari).
- Ispahbad Marzuban b. Rustam b. Shirwin Parim [26] who wrote the book called Marzuban-nama, and also a Divan of poetry in the Ṭabarí dialect, known as the Níkí-nama.
- Mohammad Davoudi: Researcher in literature and languages of northern regions of Iran.
- Omar Tiberiades (Abû Hafs 'Umar ibn al-Farrukhân al-Tabarî Amoli) (d.c.815), Persian astrologer and architect.
- Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari, (838-870 A.D.) was the writer of a medical encyclopedia and the teacher of the scholar-physician Fakhr al-Din al-Razi Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Umar ibn al-Husayn al-Taymi al-Bakri al-Tabaristani Amoli Fakhr al-Din al-Razi most commonly known as Fakhruddin Razi was a well-known Sunni Muslim theologian and philosopher. He was born in 1149 in Ray (today located in Iran) to a family tracing its lineage to the first Muslim Caliph, Abu Bakr, and died in 1209 in Herat (today located in Afghanistan). He also wrote on medicines, physics, astrology, literature, history and law.
- ABD-AL-QADER HASAN RUYANI,[30] 10th/16th century astronomer. He dedicated his Zij-e molakkas-e Mirzaʾi ("Compendious astronomical tables for Mīrzā", composed in 891/1486) to Sultan Mirza ʿAli (1478–1505) and his al-Tohfat al-nezamiya ("The Nezam’s gift") to Sultan Yahya Kia. Abd-al-Qāder also wrote a Moktasar dar maʿrefat-e taqvīm ("Epitome of knowledge of the calendar") and a Resalat al-kora
- ABU’L-ṬAYYEB ṬĀHER B. ʿABDALLĀH B. ṬĀHER ṬABARĪ[30] was jurisconsult, judge (qāżī), and professor of legal sciences; he was regarded by his contemporaries as one of the leading Shafeʿites of 5th/11th century Baghdad.
- EBN HENDU, ABU’L-FARAJ ʿALĪ b. Ḥosayn,[30] also known as Ostaḏ, author of, inter alia, propaedeutic epistles on philosophy and medicine and of a gnomology of Greek wisdom, and generally renowned as a litterateur.
He wrote an Arabic commentary on the epitome of Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine that had been made by Yusuf al-Ilaqi. Between 1335 and 1342 Amuli also composed a large and widely-read Persian encyclopedia on the classification of knowledge titled (Nafa'is al-funun fi ‘ara'is al-‘uyun).Little else is known of his life.
- Abū Sahl al-Qūhī was a Persian mathematician, physicist and astronomer. Quhi was from, an area in Tabaristan, Amol, and flourished in Baghdad in the 10th century. He is considered one of the greatest Muslim geometers.
- Grand Ayatollah Javadi Amoli Iranian philosophers
- Haj Sheikh Mirza Hashem Amoli
- Ibn Mahdí Mámṭírí[26]
- Muḥammad al-Yazdádí[26]
- Qáḍi`l-quḍát Abu`l-Qásim al-Bayyá'í[26]
- The Imám 'Abdu`l-Qádir al-Jurjání[26]
- AMAS, ABU MOHAMMAD SOLAYMAN B. MEHRAN ASADI,[30] 1st-2nd/7th-8th century Shiʿite scholar, traditionist, and Koran reader. His authority was such that people who attended his recitations would sometimes correct their copies of the Koran in accordance with his readings. Abū Obayd (d. 224/839) mentions him as one of the five qorrāʾ of Kufa; later he was included among the Fourteen Readers, generally in the eleventh place. Aʿmaš was one of the first scholars to engage in evaluating the trustworthiness of transmitters of Hadith (ʿelm al-ṯeqāt).
Rice, grain, fruits, cotton, tea, tobacco, sugarcane, and silk are produced in the lowland strip along the Caspian shore. Oil wealth has stimulated industries in food processing, cement, textiles, cotton, and fishing (caviar).
The province's pleasant and moderate climate, beautiful natural landscapes, and proximity to Tehran, have led the province to be one of the main recreational and tourism areas of Iran.
Iran's Cultural Heritage Organization lists close to 630 sites of historical and cultural significance, hence a wealth of tourist attractions.
- Babol Noshirvani University of Technology
- Babol University of Medical Sciences
- Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences
- University of Mazandaran
- Behshahr University of Science and Technology
- Islamic Azad University of Mazanderan (Sari, Behshahr, Ghaemshahr, Babol, Amol, Chalus, Shahsawar, Neka)
- Imam Khomeini University for Naval Sciences
- Shomal University Amol
- M.I.T. located in Babol (Mazanderan Institute of Technology)
- Babol Tabari University
- Babol Olum-Fonun University
- Babol Imam Sadegh University
- Tabarestan University in Chaloos (Tabarestan University's Website)
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Non-governmental Universities
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Bande pey • Amol • Rine • Babol • Behshahr • Kalle Bast • Behnamir • Sari • Ramsar • Jooybar • Tonekabon • GhaemShahr • Zirab • Pol Sefid • Nowshahr • Chamestan • Neka • Mahmood Abad
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- ^ a b [1] National Census 2006
- ^ [2]
- ^ a b Maryam Borjian - Bilingualism in Mazandaran: Peaceful Coexistence With Persian.
- ^ Based on Maz or Mazan Term: Mazandarani: مازرون Māzerūn, Persian: مازندران, Russian: Мазендеран.
Based on Tapur Term: English: Tapuria, Arabic: Tabaristan, from Persian: Taparistan
Mazandarani:Tapurana.(not prevalent)
Ancient Greek: Hyrcania came from local name Vergana (Persian Gorgan), Caspia from local name Kaspi, See Caspian Sea.
Firdawsi called the Caspian region Gilan, so people refer to Caspian provinces as Gilan.
Note: It was also known as Al-Jannat by the Arabs, meaning paradise, during the 7–8th centuries. In the early 20th century, Reza Shah connected northern Elbourz to the southern slopes by constructing 7 new roads and railways, the provinces of Mazandaran and Gilan became known as Shomal by the Persians (meaning the North in Arabic).
- ^ Keddie, N. R.; 1968; The Iranian villages before and after land reform. Journal of Contemporary History, 3(3), 69–78.
- ^ Statistical Centre, Government of Iran. See: "General Characteristics of Ostans according to their administrative divisions at the end of 1383 (2005 CE)", "Population estimation by urban and rural areas, 2005"
- ^ a b University of Mazanderan
- ^ Springer Netherlands; July 10, 2005; Contributions to the knowledge of the useful plants and plant raw materials of Iran; ISSN 0921-9668
- ^ Mazandaran, Geography & History
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica, Entry for Elburz
- ^ Freshwater Fishes of Iran; Revised: 12 July 2007
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica, Entry for Mazandaran
- ^ [3] (Persian)
- ^ Mazandaran setting up Iran's first cave museum; London; Saturday, July 22, 2006 by IranMania
- ^ IRAN Daily Caspian Region
- ^ Parthia News, November 6, 2005.
- ^ Payvand, 400 Historical Sites Discovered within 7 Days in Mazandaran
- ^ CHN Page for Mazandaran
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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.
- ^ Britannica Article for Hyrcania
- ^ Gwillim Law, Statoids website. "Provinces of Iran". Retrieved on 2007-08-28. ; See Also: Provinces of Iran
- ^ Gordon, R.G., Jr. (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 15th edition. (Dallas, TX: SIL International). Online version http://www.ethnologue.com
- ^ Lars Johanson, Éva Csató, Eva Agnes Csato. The Turkic Languages. Taylor & Francis, 1998. ISBN 0-415-08200-5; p. 274
- ^ Shahnameh/Book of Kings by Abu'L Ferdawsi, edited by Dr. jalal Khaleghi-Motlagh [4]
- ^ Iran Chamber Society: Geography of Iran: Ancient Iran’s Geographical Position in Shah-Nameh
- ^ a b c d e AN ABRIDGED TRANSLATION OF THE HISTORY OF ṬABARISTÁN BY MUHAMMAD B. AL-ḤASAN B. ISFANDIYÁR
- ^ [5]
- ^ The Academy of Medical Sciences-Islamic Republic of Iran
- ^ [6]
- ^ a b c d Encyclopedia Iranica http://www.iranica.com/newsite/index.isc
Mazandaran Province 
