Takab

Takab is a city in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. The city’s inhabitants are Azerbaijanis and Kurds who speak the Azerbaijani & Kurdish language. The famous historical complex Takht-e Soleyman is situated to the North-East of the city. Takht-e-Soleyman was one of Takab’s oldest Zoroastrian fire temples during the Sassanid Dynasty and had the name Azargoshnasp.

Shiz is the ancient name used during Persian Empire for Takab. Takab means one narrow waterway in the Persian language. Tak means one or alone and Ab means water. Takab was originally known as Tikan Təpə by its native Turkic Afshar people until 1941 when Iran’s Academy of Persian Language and Literature officially changed it to Takab. Afshar people are one of the Oghuz Turkic peoples. These originally nomadic Oghuz tribes moved from Central Asia and initially settled in Iranian Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan republic, and Eastern Turkey. Later some of them were relocated by the Safavids to Khorasan and Mazandaran. Today, they are variously grouped as a branch of the Turkmens of the Azerbaijanis.