Origins

Although there have been Georgian migrations into Iran - sometimes voluntary, but mainly forced - since the time of shah Tahmasp I, the presence of a large Georgian community in Iran dates mainly from the reign of shah Abbas I. During the Persian punitive campaign undertaken in eastern Georgia by Shah Abbas in 1614–17 against his (formerly most loyal) Georgian subject Teimuraz I, both the region of Kakheti and the city of Tbilisi were devastated, and a large part of the population forced into exile. Soon after the triumphal return of Shah Abbas to Persia in 1617 following his Georgian campaign, some 200,000 ethnic Georgians from Kakheti were banished to Isfahan province, Fereydan county, and other regions in mainland Persia, such as in the north (present day Mazandaran province, Gilan province). Under forced labour,^[1] Georgians constructed bridges and organized the improvement of the farmlands of the Fereydan valley.^[2] After their forced migration, Persianization, and islamisation,^[3] few of the Fereydan Georgians were able to maintain any contact with their motherland. They did, however manage to retain their mother tongue, the Georgian language, which, to this day, they call Pereidnuli (and which is mutually intelligible with East Georgian dialects). Today, the number of Fereydan Georgians exceeds 100,000 individuals, while the total number of Iranian Georgians in the country as a whole (to say nothing of Iranians claiming Georgian ancestry) constitutes a far greater number, running into the millions - the result of successive waves of Georgian migration occurring between the 16th and 19th centuries.

Georgians are natives in:

Fereydunshahr County

1. Fereydunshahr (Georgian city, County Center)
2. Sibak
3. Choqyurt (Georgian and Luri village)
4. Nehzatabad (Georgian and Luri village)

Buin va Miandasht County

1. Buin va Miandasht (Georgian city, County Center)
2. Afus
3. Dashkasan
4. Aghche