SHIRAZ, the capital of the province of Fars in Persia, in 29° 38' N., 52° 40' E., 53o m. by road from Tehran and 18o m. N.E., by E. of Bushire (112 m. crowfly). The city stands 5,200 ft. above sea level on the right bank of a small stream, in a well watered plain about 7 m. wide, surrounded by mountains which on the west attain i i ft. It is approached on the north through chains of hills which separate the plain of Mervdasht, where are the ruins of Persepolis ; and on the south from the Persian gulf through difficult mountain passes, the highest of which attain 7,400 ft. The city is irregularly circular in plan and has a mud wall flanked by semi-circular towers, about 4 m. in circuit, but the suburbs have extended far beyond the enceinte. There are six gates and the town within the walls is divided into eleven quarters, one of which, the Mehalleh Yahudi, is inhabited exclusively by Jews numbering 2,200. The population has been very variously estimated: at 53,600 in 1884, 38,00o in 1900, and at 6o,000 in 1904 ; in 1935, though exact figures were still lacking, it was estimated at 119,000.
Shiraz can make no claim to eminence by reason of its great antiquity. The general location is certainly ancient, as evidenced by the Achaemenian and Sasanian ruins in the vicinity—at Perse polis (some 45 m. N.E.) and elsewhere; but according to Mo hammedan authors the town arose only after the Mohammedan conquest. Shiraz owes most of its architectural distinction to Karim Khan Zand (1751-79) who governed it as regent under the Safavid dynasty and made it his capital; but much of his work was destroyed by the eunuch ruler Agha Mohammed Khan, who razed to the ground the stone ramparts and replaced them by the existing mud wall.
Of its fifty considerable mosques, the Jami Atiq is amongst the most noted and ancient. The largest mosque, not only in Shiraz but in all Persia, is the Masjid i Nau, or New Mosque, built by Atabeg Satcl bin Zangi, c. 1200, a building reconstructed
out of his own palace ; while perhaps the most beautiful is the Jami i Vakil of Kerim Khan built about A.D. The gardens (bagh) and rose-bowers of Shiraz and its out skirts are famous and some of these pleasure-grounds, despite neglect, retain much of their original beauty. Close to the Bagh i Dilgushi, one of the most conspicuous of these gardens, north of the city, is the Satdiyyeh, an enclosure planted with cyprus and orange trees which holds the tomb of the celebrated mystic poet Satcli ; and in a cemetery nearby is the Hafiziyyeh with the tomb of the poet Hafiz, a sarcophagus of Yezd marble on which two of the poet's odes are chiselled in relief. The true renown of Shiraz rests largely on the fame of these her two great sons and on other distinguished men she has given to Iran. It was also the birthplace of the religious reformer called the Bab.
Shiraz is an important trade centre and point of departure of passable motor roads : north, via Isfahan and Qum, to Tehran ; north-east to Yezd; east to Kerman; and south-west to Bushire. The most noted product is wine of the Khullar vineyards, 3o m. N.W. of which, however, only a small quantity is exported, re ligious scruples preventing its production on a large scale. The town is noted for its silver-work, and it manufactures mosaics called Khatam-Kari, cloths, brocades and silk-floss, and is the centre of a rug industry. The climate though healthy is subject to extremes; the absolute maximum observed over a number of years was 113° Fahr. and the absolute minimum 21°. The town was laid in ruins by the earthquakes of 1813, 1824 and 1853, which also caused great loss of life.
See G. N. Curzon, Persia and the Persian Question (1892) ; E. G. Browne, A year among the Persians (1893 and 1926) ; A. V. Williams Jackson, Persia past and present (1906). (P. Z. C.)