Lar, Iran

For other places with the same name, see Lar, Iran (disambiguation).
Lar
لار
city
Lar
Coordinates: 27°40′52″N 54°20′25″E / 27.68111°N 54.34028°E / 27.68111; 54.34028Coordinates: 27°40′52″N 54°20′25″E / 27.68111°N 54.34028°E / 27.68111; 54.34028
Country  Iran
Province Fars
County Larestan
Bakhsh Central
Area
  Total 5,000 km2 (2,000 sq mi)
Population (2006)
  Total 55,265
  Density 11/km2 (29/sq mi)
Time zone IRST (UTC+3:30)
  Summer (DST) IRDT (UTC+4:30)
Area code(s) 0781

Lar (Persian: لار, also Romanized as Lār; also known as Larestan)[1] is a city in and the capital of Larestan County, Fars Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 55,265, in 6,891 families.[2] Lar's inhabitants are Larestani people.

History

The city was originally called Lad after the person who had first established the city. Lad (لاڑ) is the name of one of Shahnameh's famous heroes. Around 16th and 17th centuries, Lar was considered to be a major stop along the road to the Persian Gulf.

Larestani people migrated to Arab states in the Persian Gulf, such as the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait in the 1600s. They have surname as "Lari".

Achomee Language

The outstanding specification of Larestan county, is the people's dialect. The vocabulary of the Achomi or Ajami dialect holds many words in common with Persian, however the syntax is considerably different from the current Persian language. Some believe that the Achomee dialect is in fact derived from an older dialect that survived through the impact of Arabic on old Persian language.

Achomee language is derived from the medieval Iranian language Pahlavi, the language of Sassanid Persia, which is also a precursor to Modern Persian and all other existing dialects included in the southwest branch of the Iranian language group.

The name Pahlavi was applied to a number of different dialects spoken in a rather vast area from Ctesiphon in modern-day Iraq to the southern coast of the Persian Gulf. The area corresponds to the greater Pars province. Please see more information about Pahlavi by searching the following phrase: [ The term 'Pahlavi,' in its widest extent, is applied to all the varying forms of the medieval Persian language, from the time when the grammatical inflexions of ancient Persian were dropped, till the period when the modern alphabet was invented, and the language became corrupted into modern Persian by the adoption of numerous Arabic words and phrases.]

Achomee language has kept lots of words from Pahlavi and grammatical peculiarities that distinguish it from her sister Modern Persian. There is considerably less Arabic influence in the diction of Lari than there is in Modern Persian, suggesting that Achomee descends from a purer Iranian tongue. Arabic words have mostly been imported indirectly by the influence of Modern Persian. But Lari People do still speak the Arabic language due to the Arabic culture they carry.

Some grammatical properties of Achomee are also found in other Iranian language such as Kurdi/Luri and also in more distanced related languages, such as Gilaki and Kurdish, both of which are included in the northwest branch of Iranian Languages.

Another important feature of Achomee is that it has kept stronger ties to its grandmother old Persian compared to ties between old and modern Persian. That is perhaps due to the fact that being a local language there is less need to be dynamic, less need for development and less need for interaction towards other local languages. Achomee is an oral language and it has no much literature. Written and official language has always been modern Persian.

Civilization

Lar city is divided into two areas: new-city (called Shahre-jadid) and old-city (called Shahre-ghadim). New-city, which was constructed after the historical earthquake of 1960, now accommodates the main population and is considered to be modern in terms of civil and transport engineering (e.g. dead-ends are very rare). The Old city contains the Bazaar of Qaisariye, a pre-Safavid dynasty creation, that was proposed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on August 9, 2007.[3]

Transport

As the Department of Roads & transport & some other centres are situated in city of Lar, an interesting aspect of it is building & construction of a modern expressway between the city of Lar and a police station 10 km from the city of Gerash, but in the cost of cutting most spending from other town & villages' roads in the region & it costs human life in the road accidents in the regions which happens almost daily & have high fatality rates. The 6-lane expressway has been fully upgraded with high luminous lighting and high quality pavement to facilitate the transportation needs of people of Lar town but the cost is paid by cutting almost all other funds for repairs & making new roads in the area who are governed by Lar Road & Transport Department in Lar.[4]

Panorama of the old town, from the old castle

References

  1. Lar, Iran can be found at GEOnet Names Server, at this link, by opening the Advanced Search box, entering "-3072906" in the "Unique Feature Id" form, and clicking on "Search Database".
  2. "Census of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1385 (2006)". Islamic Republic of Iran. Archived from the original (Excel) on 2011-11-11.
  3. Bazaar of Qaisariye in Laar - UNESCO World Heritage Centre
  4. https://web.archive.org/web/20070103220349/http://www.larroad.ir/roads.asp. Archived from the original on January 3, 2007. Retrieved October 25, 2006. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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