´¡¸é¶Ù´¡°Ä€±·-E ¹óÄ€¸é³§, a small upland town of the ´Ç²õ³ÙÄå²Ô of FÄrs (hence to be distinguished from the ArdakÄn-e Yazd), lying in 30° 16’ north latitude and 51° 59’ east longitude and situated at an altitude of 7,257 ft/2,212 m. It is thus within the southern Zagros region, one of high valleys and steep mountain ranges, connected now by a road to the provincial capital Shiraz, 60 miles/96 km to the southeast. To the northwest of ArdakÄn is the massif of the KÅ«h-e Barm-e FÄ«rÅ«z, which rises to 12,050 ft/3,672 m, whilst the town itself is on the headwaters of the most easterly constituent of the Zohra river system which flows down to the Persian Gulf at Bandar-e HendÄ«Än.
ArdakÄn has played little part in the history of Iran. It is not mentioned by the Arabic geographers nor by Ebn al-Balḵī and ḤamdallÄh MostawfÄ«, though the latter does record in his Nozhat al-qolÅ«b (p. 128, tr. Le Strange, p. 127) the district to the southeast of ArdakÄn called Deh Ê¿AlÄ«, modern DÄlÄ«, 5 farsakhs from ArdakÄn. The historical geographers of the Qajar period, such as EÊ¿temÄd al-Salá¹ana’s MerʾÄt al-boldÄn-e nÄá¹£erÄ« and Ḥasan FasÄʾī’s FÄrs-nÄma-ye nÄá¹£erÄ«, do give some information on the 19th-century town, when it was the center of a ²ú´Ç±ôÅ«°ì in the province of FÄrs, bounded on the east by the ²ú´Ç±ôÅ«°ì of KÄm FÄ«rÅ«z and BayÅ¼Ä and on the other sides by the lands of the MamasanÄ« nomads. It had about a thousand households then, with a water supply from the Šeš-PÄ«r and ArdakÄn rivers; its summer crops included wheat, barley, and, for export, ordinary beans and red beans, whilst it was also a transit-point for the clarified butter of KÅ«hgÄ«lÅ«ya exported to Shiraz. FasÄʾī further lists various of the Ê¿´Ç±ô²¹³¾Äåʾ from ArdakÄn, including a philosopher of some eminence from the later Safavid period, MÄ«rzÄ Ê¿AlÄ« ReżÄʾ TaÇ°allÄ«.
ArdakÄn is at the present time the center of a ²ú²¹á¸µ&²õ³¦²¹°ù´Ç²Ô; of the same name within the &²õ³¦²¹°ù´Ç²Ô;²¹³ó°ù±ð²õ³ÙÄå²Ô of Shiraz, and in ca. 1950 had a population of 5,240 Persian speakers; the rural hinterland, however, forms part of the summer pasture grounds (²â²¹²â±ôÄå±ç²õ) of the Turkish QašqÄʾī nomads (q.v.).
Bibliography:
FÄrs-nÄma-ye nÄá¹£erÄ«, Tehran, 1314/1896-7, II, pp. 172-73.
DehḵodÄ, letter alef, col. 1774.
Admiralty handbook, Persia, London, 1945, pp. 67-68.
¸é²¹³ú³¾Äå°ùÄå, Farhang VII, pp. 8-9.
(C. E. Bosworth)
Originally Published: December 15, 1986
Last Updated: August 11, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. II, Fasc. 4, p. 370
