1.
Kashan
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Kashan is a city of Isfahan, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 248,789, between the 12th and the 14th centuries Kashan was an important centre for the production of high quality pottery and tiles. In modern Persian, the word for a tile comes from the name of the town, Kashan is divided into two parts, mountainous and desert. In the east side of the city Kashan opens up to the desert of Iran which the city is famous for. Kashan is also known for Maranjab Desert and Caravanserai located near the namak lake, today Maranjab and the surrounding Shifting Sands is a popular destination at the weekends. On August 9,2007 Iran placed the Historical Axis of Fin, Sialk, hence, Kashan dates back to the Elamite period of Iran. The Sialk ziggurat still stands today in the suburbs of Kashan after 7,000 years, the artifacts uncovered at Sialk reside in the Louvre in Paris and the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Irans National Museum. By some accounts, although not all, Kashan was the origin of the three men who followed the star that guided them to Bethlehem to witness the nativity of Jesus. Whatever the historical validity of this story, the attribution of Kashan as their original home testifies to the citys prestige at the time the story was set down and his tomb is one of Kashans conspicuous landmarks. Sultan Malik Shah I of the Seljuk dynasty ordered the building of a fortress in the middle of Kashan in the 11th century, the fortress walls, called Ghaleh Jalali still stand today in central Kashan. Kashan was also a vacation spot for Safavi Kings. Bagh-e Fin, specifically, is one of the most famous gardens of Iran and this beautiful garden with its pool and orchards was designed for Shah Abbas I as a classical Persian vision of paradise. The original Safavid buildings have been replaced and rebuilt by the Qajar dynasty although the layout of trees. The garden itself however, was first founded 7000 years ago alongside the Cheshmeh-ye-Soleiman, the garden is also notorious as the site of the murder of Mirza Taghi Khan known as Amir Kabir, chancellor of Nasser-al-Din Shah, Irans king in 1852. The earthquake of 1778 leveled the city of Kashan and all the edifices of Shah Abbas Safavi, but the city started afresh and has today become a focal tourist attraction via the numerous large houses from the 18th and 19th centuries, illustrating the finest examples of Qajari aesthetics. Notable towns around Kashan are Qamsar and Abyaneh, which attract tourists all year around, the nearby town of Niasar features a man-made cave and fireplace of historical interest. Kashan is internationally famous for manufacturing carpets, silk and other textiles, today, Kashan houses most of Irans mechanized carpet-weaving factories, and has an active marble and copper mining industry. Kashan and suburbs have a population of 400,000, there are more than 10,000 students currently studying in various fields at universities of kashan
2.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
3.
Persian traditional music
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Persian traditional music or Iranian traditional music, also known as Persian classical music is the traditional and indigenous music of Iran. Persian traditional music is appreciated and enjoyed by all different ethnic groups across Greater Iran, the history of musical development in Iran dates back to the prehistoric era. King Jamshid of Persia, a figure of Shahnameh, is credited with the invention of music. Fragmentary documents from various periods of the countrys history establish that the ancient Iranians possessed a musical culture. Archeological evidence reveals musical instruments that were used in Persia during the Elamit era around 800 BC, little is known about the Persian music of the ancient world, least of all about the music of the Achaemenid Empire. Alexander the Great is said to have witnessed many melodies and instruments upon his invasion, Music played an important role in the courts of the kings of the much later Sassanid Empire. Of this period, we know the names of court musicians like Barbad. Under Sassanid rule, modal music was developed by a significant court musician, Barbad. Under the later Qajar Empire, the system was restructured into its present form mostly through the efforts of two legendary musicians of that time, Agha Hossein-Ghoul and Mara Abdullah. Persian traditional music relies on both improvisation and composition, and is based on a series of scales and tunes which must be memorized. Apprentices and masters, ostad, have a relationship which has declined during the 20th century as music education moved to universities and conservatories. The common repertoire consists of more than two hundred short melodic movements called gusheh, which are classified into seven dastgāh or modes, two of these modes have secondary modes branching from them called āvāz. Each gusheh and dastgah has an individual name and this whole body is called the Radif of which there are several versions, each in accordance to the teachings of a particular master or ostad. A typical performance consists of the following elements pīshdarāmad, darāmad, āvāz, taṣnīf, Chahārmeżrāb, a performance forms a sort of suite. Unconventionally, these parts may be varied or omitted, towards the end of the Safavid Empire, more complex movements in 10,14, and 16 beats stopped being performed. Today, rhythmic pieces are performed in beats of 2 to 7 with some exceptions, rengs are always in a 6/8 time frame. Many melodies and modes are related to the maqāmāt of the Turkish classical repertoire and Arabic music belonging to various Arab countries and this similarity is because of the exchange of musical science that took place in the early Islamic world between Persia and her neighboring countries. The vocalist plays a role, he or she decides what mood to express
4.
Singing
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Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of sustained tonality, rhythm, and a variety of vocal techniques. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist, Singers perform music that can be sung with or without accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is often done in an ensemble of musicians, such as a choir of singers or a band of instrumentalists, Singers may perform as soloists, or accompanied by anything from a single instrument up to a symphony orchestra or big band. Singing can be formal or informal, arranged or improvised and it may be done as a form of religious devotion, as a hobby, as a source of pleasure, comfort, or ritual, as part of music education, or as a profession. Excellence in singing requires time, dedication, instruction, and regular practice, if practice is done on a regular basis then the sounds can become more clear and strong. Professional singers usually build their careers around one specific genre, such as classical or rock. They typically take voice training provided by teachers or vocal coaches throughout their careers. Though these four mechanisms function independently, they are coordinated in the establishment of a vocal technique and are made to interact upon one another. During passive breathing, air is inhaled with the diaphragm while exhalation occurs without any effort, exhalation may be aided by the abdominal, internal intercostal and lower pelvis/pelvic muscles. Inhalation is aided by use of external intercostals, scalenes and sternocleidomastoid muscles, the pitch is altered with the vocal cords. With the lips closed, this is called humming, humans have vocal folds which can loosen, tighten, or change their thickness, and over which breath can be transferred at varying pressures. The shape of the chest and neck, the position of the tongue, any one of these actions results in a change in pitch, volume, timbre, or tone of the sound produced. Sound also resonates within different parts of the body and an individuals size, Singers can also learn to project sound in certain ways so that it resonates better within their vocal tract. This is known as vocal resonation, another major influence on vocal sound and production is the function of the larynx which people can manipulate in different ways to produce different sounds. These different kinds of function are described as different kinds of vocal registers. The primary method for singers to accomplish this is through the use of the Singers Formant and it has also been shown that a more powerful voice may be achieved with a fatter and fluid-like vocal fold mucosa. The more pliable the mucosa, the more efficient the transfer of energy from the airflow to the vocal folds, Vocal registration refers to the system of vocal registers within the voice. A register in the voice is a series of tones, produced in the same vibratory pattern of the vocal folds
5.
Persian language
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Persian, also known by its endonym Farsi, is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan and it is mostly written in the Persian alphabet, a modified variant of the Arabic script. Its grammar is similar to that of many contemporary European languages, Persian gets its name from its origin at the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persis, hence the name Persian. A Persian-speaking person may be referred to as Persophone, there are approximately 110 million Persian speakers worldwide, with the language holding official status in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. For centuries, Persian has also been a cultural language in other regions of Western Asia, Central Asia. It also exerted influence on Arabic, particularly Bahrani Arabic. Persian is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-European family, other Western Iranian languages are the Kurdish languages, Gilaki, Mazanderani, Talysh, and Balochi. Persian is classified as a member of the Southwestern subgroup within Western Iranian along with Lari, Kumzari, in Persian, the language is known by several names, Western Persian, Parsi or Farsi has been the name used by all native speakers until the 20th century. Since the latter decades of the 20th century, for reasons, in English. Tajiki is the variety of Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by the Tajiks, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term Persian as a language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Native Iranian Persian speakers call it Fārsi, Farsi is the Arabicized form of Pārsi, subsequent to Muslim conquest of Persia, due to a lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic. The origin of the name Farsi and the place of origin of the language which is Fars Province is the Arabicized form of Pārs, in English, this language has historically been known as Persian, though Farsi has also gained some currency. Farsi is encountered in some literature as a name for the language. In modern English the word Farsi refers to the language while Parsi describes Zoroastrians, some Persian language scholars such as Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, and University of Arizona professor Kamran Talattof, have also rejected the usage of Farsi in their articles. The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa, as its system is mostly based on the local names. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses the name Persian for the dialect continuum spoken across Iran and Afghanistan and this consists of the individual languages Dari and Iranian Persian. Currently, Voice of America, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty also includes a Tajik service and an Afghan service. This is also the case for the American Association of Teachers of Persian, The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature, Persian is an Iranian language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages
6.
Music of Iran
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Music of Iran or Music of Persia, as evidenced by the archaeological records of the Fertile Crescent civilization of Elam, the most ancient culture in southwestern Iran, dates back thousands of years. In ancient Iran musicians held socially respectable positions and we know that the Elamites and the Achaemenid Empire certainly made use of musicians but we do not know what that music was like. During the Parthian era, troubadours or Gosans were highly sought after as entertainers, there are theories in Academia that perhaps the early Dari Poets of Eastern Iran like Roudaki were in fact Gosans. The history of performance in Sassanid Iran is however better documented than earlier periods. This is especially evident in the context of Zoroastrian ritual. By the time of Khosrau II the Sassanid royal court was the host of prominent musicians such as Ramtin, Bamshad, Nakisa, Azad, Sarkash, among these survived names, Barbad is remembered in much documents and has been named as remarkably high skilled. He has been credited to have given an organization of musical system consisting of seven Royal modes named Xosrovani, thirty derived modes named lahn and these numbers are in accordance with Sassanids calendar of number of days in a week, month, and year. The theories these modal systems were based on are not known, there are also some of a descriptive nature like roshan cheragh. The relief depicts two boats and the picture shows these boats at two successive moments within the same panel. Barbad may have invented the lute and the tradition that was to transform into the Maqam tradition. Even after Islam, Persian musicians did not disappear, Zaryab is often credited with being the greatest influence over Andalusian, Farabi and Avicenna were not only musical theorists but adept at the lute and the Ney, respectively. The position of a work of music often depends on the music genre. The academic Authentic Persian Music is strongly based on the theories of aesthetics as expounded by the likes of Farabi. It also preserves melodic formula that are attributed to the musicians of the Persian imperial court of Khosroe Parviz in the Sassanid Period. However, the influence of Dastgah cannot be underestimated as it is seen as the reservoir of authenticity that other forms of musical genres derive melodic and performance ideas, Persian classical music goes back a long way. Musicians like Barbad were legendary in the empire of the Sassanid era, until the early 20th century, musiqi-e assil was heard almost entirely at the royal courts of the monarchy. The renaissance brought popularity to the genre, Women were banned from singing as soloists for male audiences, though they were allowed to perform as soloists for female audiences, as instrumentalists and in choirs. For this reason some female singers, including Maryam Akhondy, left the Islamic Republic to work in exile, most notable living Iranian classical vocalists are, Sodeyf, Shajarian, Shahram Nazeri
7.
Ney
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The ney, is an end-blown flute that figures prominently in Middle Eastern music. In some of musical traditions, it is the only wind instrument used. The ney has been played continuously for 4, 500–5,000 years, the Persian ney consists of a hollow cylinder with finger-holes. Sometimes a brass, horn, or plastic mouthpiece is placed at the top to protect the wood from damage, the ney consists of a piece of hollow cane or giant reed with five or six finger holes and one thumb hole. Modern neys may be instead of metal or plastic tubing. The pitch of the ney varies depending on the region and the finger arrangement, in Romanian, the word nai is also applied to a curved pan flute while an end-blown flute resembling the Arab ney is referred to as caval. The typical Persian ney has 6 holes, one of which is on the back, Arabic and Turkish neys normally have 7 holes,6 in front and one thumb-hole in the back. The interval between the holes is a semitone, although microtones are achieved via partial hole-covering, changes of embouchure, microtonal inflection is common and crucial to various traditions of taqsim. Neys are constructed in various keys, advanced players will typically own a set of several neys in various keys, although it is possible to play fully chromatically on any instrument. Gargy-tuyduk this is a reed flute whose origin, according to legend, is connected with Alexander of Macedonia. The sound of the gargy-tuyduk has much in common with the two-voiced kargyra, during the playing of the gargy-tuyduk the melody is clearly heard, while the lower droning sound is barely audible. The allay epic songs have been described by the Turkologist N. Baskakov who divides them into three types, a) Kutilep kayla, in which the second sound is a light drone. B) Sygyrtzip kayla, with a whistling sound like the sound of a flute. C) Kargyrlap kayla, in which the sound can be defined as hissing. The sound of the Turkmen gargy-tuyduk is most like the Altay Kargyrkip kayla, the garg-tuyduk can have six finger holes and a length of 780 mm or five finger holes and a length of 550 mm. The range of the garg-tuyduk includes three registers, 1) The lowest register – non-working – is not used during the playing of a melody, 2) The same as on the non-working register but an octave higher. 3) High register from mi of the octave to ti. The Pamiri nay is a flute made of wood or, in Eastern Badakhshan
8.
Isfahan
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Isfahan, historically also rendered in English as Ispahan, Sepahan, Esfahan or Hispahan, is the capital of Isfahan Province in Iran, located about 340 kilometres south of Tehran. The Greater Isfahan Region had a population of 3,793,104 in the 2011 Census, the counties of Isfahan, Borkhar, Najafabad, Khomeynishahr, Shahinshahr, Mobarakeh, Falavarjan, Tiran o Karvan, Lenjan and Jay all constitute the metropolitan city of Isfahan. Isfahan is located on the main north–south and east–west routes crossing Iran and it flourished from 1050 to 1722, particularly in the 16th and 17th centuries under the Safavid dynasty, when it became the capital of Persia for the second time in its history. Even today, the city retains much of its past glory and it is famous for its Persian–Islamic architecture, with many beautiful boulevards, covered bridges, palaces, mosques, and minarets. This led to the Persian proverb Esfahān nesf-e- jahān ast, the Naghsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan is one of the largest city squares in the world. It has been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, the city also has a wide variety of historic monuments and is known for the paintings, history and architecture. Isfahan City Center is also the 5th largest shopping mall in the world, see also, Names of Isfahan The name of the region derives from Middle Persian Spahān. Spahān is attested in various Middle Persian seals and inscriptions, including that of Zoroastrian Magi Kartir, the present-day name is the Arabicized form of Ispahan. The region appears with the abbreviation GD on Sasanian numismatics, in Ptolemys Geographia it appears as Aspadana, translating to place of gathering for the army. It is believed that Spahān derives from spādānām the armies, Old Persian plural of spāda, the history of Isfahan can be traced back to the Palaeolithic period. In recent discoveries, archaeologists have found artifacts dating back to the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze and Iron ages. It is said that after Cyrus the Great freed the Jews from Babylon some Jews returned to Jerusalem whereas some others decided to live in Persia, but, actually this happened later in the Sasanid period when a Jewish colony was made in the vicinity of the Sasanid. They did not settle anywhere or in any city without examining the water. They did all along until they reached the city of Isfahan, there they rested, examined the water and soil and found that both resembled Jerusalem. Upon they settled there, cultivated the soil, raised children and grandchildren, under the Parthians, Arsacid governors administered a large province from Isfahan, and the citys urban development accelerated to accommodate the needs of a capital city. The next empire to rule Persia, the Sassanids, presided over changes in their realm, instituting sweeping agricultural reform and reviving Iranian culture. The city was called by the name and the region by the name Aspahan or Spahan. The city was governed by Espoohrans or the members of seven noble Iranian families who had important royal positions, extant foundations of some Sassanid-era bridges in Isfahan suggest that the kings were also fond of ambitious urban planning projects
Iran
