Fahraj ( fa, فهرج, also

Romanize Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, an ...

d as Fahrej; also known as Fahruj and Faraj) is a village in Fahraj Rural District, in the Central District of

Yazd County Yazd County ( fa, شهرستان یزد) is located in Yazd province, Iran. The capital of the county is Yazd Yazd ( fa, یزد ), formerly also known as Yezd, is the capital of Yazd Province, Iran. The city is located southeast of Isfahan ...

, Yazd Province,

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. At the 2006 census, its population was 2,694, in 697 families. Located 30 km southeast of

Yazd Yazd ( fa, یزد ), formerly also known as Yezd, is the capital of Yazd Province, Iran. The city is located southeast of Isfahan. At the 2016 census, the population was 1,138,533. Since 2017, the historical city of Yazd is recognized as a Wor ...

on the road to

Bafq Bafq ( fa, بافق, also Romanized as Bāfq) is a city in and the capital of Bafq County, Yazd Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bo ...

, at the foothill of Chalta mountain, Fahraj lies in an arid region on the edge of the desert and relies on

qanat A qanat or kārīz is a system for transporting water from an aquifer or water well to the surface, through an underground aqueduct; the system originated approximately 3,000 BC in what is now Iran. The function is essentially the same across ...

s and deep

well A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

s for its water supply. Its population consists mainly of

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

-speaking

Shi'ites Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most ...

History

In the '' Tarikh-e Yazd'', Ja'far ibn Mohammad Ja'fari attributed Fahraj's founding to the

Sasanian The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...

king

Kavad I Kavad I ( pal, 𐭪𐭥𐭠𐭲 ; 473 – 13 September 531) was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 488 to 531, with a two or three-year interruption. A son of Peroz I (), he was crowned by the nobles to replace his deposed and unpopular un ...

. As ''Bahra'', the 10th-century geographers

Estakhri Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Farisi al-Istakhri () (also ''Estakhri'', fa, استخری, i.e. from the Iranian city of Istakhr, b. - d. 346 AH/AD 957) was a 10th-century travel-author and geographer who wrote valuable accounts in Arab ...

and al-Moqaddasi listed Fahraj as one of the main towns in the province of Yazd, along with

Meybod Meybod ( fa, Meybod) is a city in and capital of Meybod County, Yazd Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 58,295, in 15,703 families. Meybod is a major desert city in Yazd Province, Iran, with a population of about 75,000 m ...

and

Na'in Nain ( fa, نایین or نائين, also Romanized as Nāīn & Nāein) is a city and capital of Nain County, Isfahan Province, Iran. At the 2011 census, its population was 25,379 in 7,730 families. Nain (also known as Naein and Naeen) lies 17 ...

. Like the other two, Fahraj was described as possessing a jameh mosque. Later, Abu'l-Fida gave the

geographical coordinates The geographic coordinate system (GCS) is a spherical or ellipsoidal coordinate system for measuring and communicating positions directly on the Earth as latitude and longitude. It is the simplest, oldest and most widely used of the vario ...

of Fahraj, something he only did for places he considered important, indicating the continued significance of Fahraj at this time. Fahraj was the scene of an episode during

Muslim conquest of Persia The Muslim conquest of Persia, also known as the Arab conquest of Iran, was carried out by the Rashidun Caliphate from 633 to 654 AD and led to the fall of the Sasanian Empire as well as the eventual decline of the Zoroastrian religion. Th ...

. The army of the caliph Umar I, chasing the Sasanian emperor

Yazdegerd III Yazdegerd III (also spelled Yazdgerd III and Yazdgird III; pal, 𐭩𐭦𐭣𐭪𐭥𐭲𐭩) was the last Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 632 to 651. His father was Shahriyar and his grandfather was Khosrow II. Ascending the throne at the ...

, came to Fahraj, where they called upon the town's Zorastrian inhabitants to convert to Islam. The people of Fahraj resisted, along with those of nearby Khovaydak and Faraftar, and they fought back against the Muslim army. A number of the companions of

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mo ...

, as well as members of the following generation, were killed. They came to be known as the ''šohadā-ye Fahraj'', or "the martyrs of Fahraj", and mausoleums said to belong to them still exist at Abadi-ye Shohada, 2 km outside of Fahraj.

Mosque

The jameh mosque of Fahraj, located in the center of town, is one of the oldest extant mosques in Iran. It is made of sun-dried bricks, with the

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loan word from the French (), which means ' frontage' or ' face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important aspect ...

coated in '' sim-gel'' (a mixture of

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class o ...

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

, and chopped straw, '' gel-rig'', and

plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...

bracing. The minaret, built in the 10th or 11th century, is made of smaller bricks. The eastern wall has stucco reliefs that, along with other decorative elements, resemble

Sasanian art Sasanian art, or Sassanid art, was produced under the Sasanian Empire which ruled from the 3rd to 7th centuries AD, before the Muslim conquest of Persia was completed around 651. In 224 AD, the last Parthian king was defeated by Ardashir I. Th ...

. In times of upheaval, people would store their valuables in hiding places in the mosque to protect them from thieves or raiders.

References

Populated places in Yazd County Sasanian cities {{YazdCounty-geo-stub