Evaz

Infobox Settlement
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subdivision_name1 = Fars Province
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latd=27|latm=45|lats=48|latNS=N
longd=54|longm=0|longs=37|longEW=E
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Evaz is one of the main cities of Larestan, in the Fars province.

Geographical Location

The town of Evaz or Awadh, Fars lies between latitude, 27° 45' 48N and longitude, 54° 0' 37E. Evaz is situated 950 meters above the sea level. It is located forty kilometers west of the city of Lar. It lies in a valley approximately thirty kilometers in length and four (4) kilometers in breadth between low mountains on the north and south of Evaz.

The official and internationally recognized name of the town is EVAZ (اوز). It is not 'Awadh' (عوض) which is Arabic. This is another unwarranted attempt to change the Persian names of the places in IRAN into Arabic. The same thing is with the PERSIAN Gulf where the Arabs have tried unsuccessfully to change its historical and internationally recognized name.

Demography

The population of Evaz sums up to about 21,000, of which 15,000 reside in the town itself. Many have migrated to other countries, mainly the GCC, Sweden and more recently to the US and Canada. Due to the dispersed nature of its population, the precise number of Evazis in the world is difficult to determine at this stage.

The language spoken is Evazi, one of the three dialects of Larestani. It is distinct from, but a sister to, the New Persian. Both Larestani and Persian have been driven from the Middle Persian or Pahlavi. Unfortunately like many similar cases, Evazi, as mother tongue is more and more being abandoned in the favour of Persian by the younger generation.

Although many Evazis have migrated to the Arab countries in the southern part of the Persian golf most of them still talk Evazi at home but many of the new generation born in the Arab countries have, no surprisingly, adopted Arabic.

Ethnicity

The religion of Evazis is the Sunni branch of Islam.Although large majority of Iranians are Shiites but Iran is also homeland for a substantial minority of Sunni Muslims, which are spread through out the entire country.

It is worth to mention that the majority of Iranians have been Sunni Muslims until emerge of the Safavi dynasty for about five hundred years ago.

Although most of the Iranians converted to Shiite Muslim under suppress of Safavis, part of the country especially the peripheral provinces refused to abandon their religion and continued to practice Sunni Islam.

It should be also noted that Safavis established their full control over Larestan, where Evaz is located, first in 1599 about 100 years after emerge of Ismail the first.

It is said that in order not convert to Shia Islam and avoid persecution, ancestors of some of the present day Evazis migrated from other part of the Fars province as Marvdasht and Baiza near Persepolis.

Linguistically Evazis, like the vast majority of Iranians population, belong to the Indo-Aryan group of people but it should be noted that Iranians have gone through thousands of years of mixing with other peoples both pre Aryan groups and post Aryan invaders.

However Evazis have succeeded to preserve most of their culture and language.

The language of Evazis is Larestani, which is derived from Pahlavi. Pahlavi is also mother to modern Persians as well as all other existing dialects included in the southwest branch of the Iranian language group.

Weather Condition

Evaz has hot and dry summer. Its winter is usually cold and almost dry. Spring and autumn temperatures are moderate and pleasant. Evaz is mostly dry during the year with the exception of very few days of rain during autumn, winter, and spring. The night temperature during the summer is pleasant due to the cool breeze blowing across the valley.

Education

Evaz is one of the few towns in the region to consider education among its most important priorities. There are currently four kindergartens, ten elementary schools, eight secondary schools and six high schools in Evaz. In addition, Evaz houses a branch of Payame Noor University.

See also

*Larestan
*Lar
*Gerash
*Fars province

External links

* [http://www.ewazstars.com ewazstars] Blog related to recent news and photos of evaz.
* [http://www.evaz4u.com evaz4u] recently created website run by youths in evaz
* [http://www.khodmooniforum.com Khodmooni Forum] Connecting Khodmoonis All Over the World