Bushehr Province (Persian:استان بوشهر)[a] is one of the 31provinces of Iran. It is in the south of the country, with a long coastline on thePersian Gulf. Its capital is the city ofBushehr.[7]
The province was made a part ofRegion 2 upon the division of the provinces into five regions, solely for coordination and development purposes, on 22 June 2014.[1]
The Greeks knew of Bushehr by Mezambria during the battles ofNearchus. A French excavating team however in 1913 determined the origin of Bushehr to date back to theElamite Empire. A city there, known asLyan, contained a temple that was designed to protect the compound from naval attacks. Its remains can still be seen today 10 kilometers south of the present city of Bushehr.
Marco Polo describes this region as part of the Persian province ofShabankareh. It contains the village ofSaba, Iran where are buried (he was told) the threeMagi which visited theChrist Child.
A key turning point in the history of Bor event of significance is known to have taken place in this region until the arrival of the European colonialists in the 16th century.
ThePortuguese, invaded the city of Bushehr in 1506 and remained there untilShah Abbas Safavi defeated and liberated the Persian Gulf region of their presence. By 1734, Bushehr had once again risen to prominence due toNader Shah of theAfsharid dynasty, and his military policies in the Persian Gulf.
Political map showing different local tribal regions and alliances in the Bushehr area, 1915
Bushehr was selected by Nader to be the central base of Nader's Naval fleet in the Persian Gulf. He thus changed the name of the city toBandar e Naderiyeh (Nader's Port). He hired an Englishman by the name ofJohn Elton to help build his fleet. Dutch accounts report his naval fleet to have amounted to 8000-10000 personnel as well as several ship construction installations.
After Nader's death, theDutch continued to have good commercial relations in Bushehr, until the British made their debut in Bushehr in 1763 by a contract they signed withKarim Khan of theZand dynasty. By then, the city of Bushehr had become Iran's major port city in thePersian Gulf. By the Qajar era,Britain,Norway, Russia,Italy,France,Germany, and theOttomans had diplomatic and commercial offices there, with Britain steadily gaining a foothold in the area. Close to 100 British ships are reported to have docked at the port city every year during the Qajar era.
A strong earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter magnitude scale struck the town ofShonbeh and villages ofShonbeh and Tasuj District inDashti County of Bushehr province on 9 April 2013, killing at least 37 people.[8]
During theSafavid period, some people from theKurdishZanganeh tribe moved fromKermanshah to the villages betweenAhram andBorazjan and formed a local government in this area, and from that time until the beginning ofQajar, this part of Bushehr province was called Zanganeh bloc.[11] The Zangeneh tribe have largely been assimilated and have adopted the localPersian andTurkic languages and are city-dwellers.
At the time of the 2006 National Census, the province's population was 886,490 in 188,762 households.[14] The following census in 2011 counted 1,032,949 people in 246,742 households.[15] The 2016 census measured the population of the province as 1,163,400 inhabitants in 321,826 households.[4]
The population history and structural changes of Bushehr province's administrative divisions over three consecutive censuses are shown in the following table.
The coast in Bushehr by the Persian Gulf.Topological and bathmetery map of Bushehr province
Aside from the revivedport city of Bushehr, which is the second main naval port of Iran afterBandar Abbas, Bushehr also has come back recently in the spotlight for three main reasons:
During the Iran-Iraq war, Iran's major petroleum exporting ports in Khuzestan sustained damages so severe that a second port inKharg Island was selected to carry on the major responsibility of Iran's petroleum exports, though even Kharg was not immune from Iraqi air raids.
As many as 70,000 foreign engineers and technicians are currently working in this industrial zone 270 kilometers south of the provincial capital. This zone is where the nearby famousSouth Pars Gas field is located, where Iran has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure. The South Pars Gas field is the world's largest natural gas field.
Sajjad Gharibi (born 19 December 1991) is an Iranianbodybuilder.[17][18] He born onKhozestan,Ahwaz, and has lived in Busher. He has become famous in world because of his special physique. Hismusculus volume is extraordinary for his height, 186 cm (6'2" tall), and weight, 180 kg (390 lb). He has looked likeThe Incredible Hulk character, because of his size, his Iranian fans have called him IranianHulk.[19]
Bushehr has been home to some famous poets. Among them are Faiez Dashti (Dashtestani) (1830–1919) andManouchehr Atashi. Faiez poems, and Dashti(or Dashtestani) literature in general, resembleBaba Taher's works.Sadeq Chubak,Najaf Daryabandari, andMoniro Ravanipour are among the most prominent writers in the literature of Bushehr.
The city of Bushehr has 3-star hotels, an airport, and modern amenities. TheCultural Heritage Organization of Iran lists up to 45 sites of historical and cultural significance in the province. Some are listed below:
^abcdسرشماري عمومي نفوس و مسكن 1395 : استان بوشهر [General Population and Housing Census 2016: Bushehr Province].مرکز آمار ایران [Statistical Centre of Iran] (in Persian). Archived fromthe original(Excel) on 3 August 2017. Retrieved18 June 2025.
^Habibi, Hassan (12 September 1990) [تاریخ تصویب (Approval date) 1369/06/21 (Iranian Jalali calendar)].تصویب سازمان و سلسله تابعیت عناصر و واحدهای تقسیمات کشوری استان بوشهر به مرکزیت شهر بوشهر [Approval of the organization and the hierarchy of citizenship of the elements and units of the national divisions of Bushehr province with the city of Bushehr as its capital].لام تا کام [Lam ta Kam] (in Persian).وزارت کشور [Ministry of the Interior].کمیسیون سیاسی دفاعی هیأت دولت [Political Defense Commission of the Government Board].شناسه [ID] 51E6AB17-6790-42EF-804B-D38845E50FAD.شماره دوره [Course number] 69,شماره جلد [Volume number] 3. Archived fromthe original on 12 June 2025. Retrieved13 June 2025.
^Anonby, Erik & Taheri-Ardali, Mortaza, et al. (eds.). 2015–2022.Atlas of the Languages of Iran (ALI). Ottawa: Geomatics & Cartographic Research Centre, Carleton University. (http://iranatlas.net/) (Accessed 2022-04-27).
^abسرشماري عمومي نفوس و مسكن 1385 : استان بوشهر [General Population and Housing Census 2006: Bushehr Province].مرکز آمار ایران [Statistical Centre of Iran] (in Persian). Archived fromthe original(Excel) on 20 September 2011. Retrieved18 June 2025.
^abسرشماري عمومي نفوس و مسكن 1390 : استان بوشهر [General Population and Housing Census 2011: Bushehr Province].Iran Data Portal—Syracuse University (in Persian).مرکز آمار ایران [Statistical Centre of Iran]. Archived fromthe original(Excel) on 3 April 2023. Retrieved18 June 2025.
^Rahimi, Mohammad Reza (1 January 2013) [تاریخ ابلاغ (Notification date) 1391/10/12 (Iranian Jalali calendar)].تصویب نامه درخصوص تقسیمات کشوری در استان بوشهر وزارت کشور [Resolution on national divisions in Bushehr province].مرکز پژوهشهای مجلس شورای اسلامی ایران [Research Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly of Iran] (in Persian).وزارت کشور [Ministry of the Interior].هیات وزیران [Council of Ministers].شماره ابلاغیه [Notification Number] 200653/T46432H. Archived fromthe original on 10 January 2013. Retrieved14 June 2025.
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