KHORASAN

Province in northeastern Iran.

The northeasternmost province (ostan) of Iran, with its capital at Mashhad, Khorasan is dominated by a zone of mountain ranges, a continuation of the Alborz Mountains in northern Iran, running roughly northwest to southeast. It is the longest province in the country, covering 194,700 square miles. Khorasan is bounded on the north by the steppes and deserts of Turkmenistan and on the east by Afghanistan; to the west and south lie extensive landlocked deserts such as the Dasht-e Kavir and Dasht-e Lut. Khorasan receives adequate rainfall only in the more northerly mountain zone, where there is a relatively flourishing agricultural and pastoral economy and the population is quite dense. The southern region typically has an oasis pattern of life sustained by wells and irrigation systems called qanats (underground canals).

Khorasan's strategic position as a corridor between the steppe and the settled parts of the Middle East endowed it with a rich cultural and political history up until the modern period. Through Khorasan, armies of Alexander the Great of Macedonia (356–323 b.c.e.) passed to Central Asia and India, and Turkish people moved into the Middle East. In
the pre-Islamic times Khorasan was one of the four great provinces of Iran. In the early Islamic period Tus was one of the great cities of Central Asia. The seventh Shiʿa Imam, Reza, came to Tus in the early ninth century. He died in a nearby village, and his tomb then developed into a pilgrimage site. The village eventually developed into the city of Mashhad.

During the second half of the eighteenth century, parts of Khorasan passed into the hands of the Durrani Afghan chief Ahmad Shah for a short period of time. But in the late eighteenth century, Khorasan was fully restored to the newly established Qajar dynasty. As a result of continuous wars with the Uzbeks (Ozbegs) and Turkmens, however, life in the northern regions of Khorasan continued to be precarious. Commerce and agriculture declined, and many Iranians were captured as slaves by the central Asian emirates. Only Russian intervention and annexation of Khiva in 1873 and the crushing of the Turkmens in 1881, actions motivated by Russian political ambitions, finally ended the insecurity.

Meanwhile, relations with the amirs of Afghanistan continued to deteriorate. Yet another super-power intervention, this time British, put a halt to this hostility. Herat, also a part of Khorasan, was ceded to Afghanistan after a brief war between the Qajar ruler Naser al-Din Shah and the British in 1856 and 1857. The boundary dispute between Iran and Afghanistan was not settled until 1934 to 1935.

Variegated political and cultural influences on Khorasan have created a heterogeneous population in the region, including tribes such as Turkmens, Kurds, Baluchi, Arabs, and others. The population of Khorasan in 2002 was over 6 million, with over 1.8 million people living in Mashhad.

see also mashhad.

parvaneh pourshariati

Khorasan or Khurasan , region and former province (1991 pop. 6,013,200), c.125,000 sq mi (323,750 sq km), NE Iran. Mashhad is the chief city; other cities include Sabzevar, Bojnurd, and Neyshabur. It is mainly mountainous and arid. Khorasan was occupied by the Arabs in the mid-7th cent., and Abu Muslim began (8th cent.) his campaign against the Umayyads there. The province contributed to the power of the early Abbasid caliphs. Khorasan was devastated by the Oghuz Turks in 1153 and 1157 and by the Mongols from 1220 to 1222. Timur invaded in 1383. An earthquake devastated Khorasan in 1997. In 2004 Khorasan was divided into three provinces: Northern, Southern, and Razavi Khorasan.

Khorāsān, Iran A province in Iran and a historical region encompassing north‐east Iran, southern Turkmenistan, and northern Afghanistan. It was first named by the Sāssānians in about the 3rd century bc; they divided their empire into four quarters which they named after the four cardinal points. Khorāsān means ‘Land of the Sun’ from the Persian khawr ‘sun’ and āsān ‘to appear’.