page_title: Abbasabad, Khoda Afarin
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Abbasabad, Khoda Afarin / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The mountainous parts of Arasbaran region in late June. The photo has also been uploaded on Panoramio with the title "The spring rains will come again!"
context_page_description: Abbasabad is a village in Minjavan-e Gharbi Rural District, Minjavan District, Khoda Afarin County, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 60, in 13 families.
context_section_description: According to the village elders, one of whom died in 1991 at an age of over 100 years, the village was founded around 1900. Few years later, the government transferred the village to a prominent Feudal, Haji Safqoli-Xan Leysi (حاجی صفقلی خان لیثی), who built a castle on the hills overlooking the village. An iron-smith and a cleric soon moved in and made the village the official and business center for the county. This status was further strengthened when the second son of the Cleric was endowed with the privilege to act as the notary.
  The online edition of the Dehkhoda Dictionary, quoting Iranian Army files, reports a population of 261 people in late 1940s. At that time the pastures on the Chaparli mountain range on the south-east of the village was the summer quarter of the Derilou branch of Mohammad Khanlu tribe, which in the wake of White Revolution included 40 households. The number has dropped over years and in recent years, about 20 families pitch their tents in the area, albeit mainly for escaping the unpleasantly hot climate of Derilou village.
  In 1955 a young resident, Ashik Rəsol Qorbani (عاشق رسول قربانی), started his music career and soon became one of the prominent folkloric musicians of Azerbaijan province. Unfortunately, following a quarrel with the cleric he left the village in 1973. Though the two men later reconciled, the feud marked the beginning of the decline in the village's importance.
  At the wake of Islamic revolution (1978), the village was populated with twenty five families, down from forty families in 1964 -when the introduction of land reforms accelerated the migration of families to Tabriz. In 2003 the population dropped to just 10 families and it was feared that the village will be deserted in few years, a fate that had befallen upon four neighboring villages, such as Garmanab. The new immigrant families had moved to shanty towns in Tehran suburbs, where they could build cramped dwellings in farmlands by bribing the local authorities.
  After the election of Ahmadinezhad as president of Iran, someone circulated a rumor that the UNESCO will compensate the residents shortly to have the village evacuated for the wild-life protection efforts in Arasbaran Protected Area. Some early emigrants returned and built decent houses. At the present the village is undergoing a population boom as more wealthy city residents want to spend their retirement in cleaner environment of secluded mountains. According to a more recent statistics the population is 68 people in 17 families.
caption: The lush forests and mist-clad mountains have inspired generations of folkloric singers.
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