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At the 2006 National Census, its population was 136,388 in 33,489 households.[5] The following census in 2011 counted 151,420 people in 39,281 households.[6] The latest census in 2016 showed a population of 161,909 people in 47,013 households.[2]
Rafsanjan is the biggest producer of pistachios in the world. The Sarcheshmeh copper mines are among the largest in the world. In addition, the biggest and oldest house in the world is in Rafsanjan. The city is also a major center of carpet production, although the rugs are sold as Kermani rugs rather than Rafsanjani ones.
Etymology
The origin of the name Rafsanjan is believed to have roots in Old Persian. According to one theory, the name is derived from the words "Rafsan" and "Kan," which in Old Persian mean "copper" and "mine," respectively. These two words gave rise to the original name of the city, "Rafsangan," which later transformed into its current Arabic version, "Rafsanjan."
Another theory suggests that the original name of the city was "Sanjan." Due to its location in the path of floods, the city suffered significant destruction and was renamed "Raft Sanjan" and then "Rafsanjan" among the people. It changed from “Raf” to “Raft”; adding a letter changes the meaning of the word in Farsi to “sweeping”, signifying the damage of the grand rapids. According to a legend, the city was renamed "Rafsanjan" after a massive rapid occurred in the area, resulting in the change from "Sanjan" to "Rafsanjan."
About the origin and creation of this city there are a lot of stories. At the period of Qajar kingdom and on Naser-Aldin-Shah (the king of Iran), Rafsanjan was named az “Anas” and was part of Fars province; after a while it came under the control of Kerman’s government. In the history, Rafsanjan has been named as a significant city due to being on the crossroad between Kerman and Yazd. At the end of Safavieh kingdom, Afghans attacked this city and caused disaster and catastrophe. The low rate of prosperity after mentioned attack was stretched until Qajar’s kingdom and the city was almost ruined until that time. At 1787 Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar attacked to Rafanjan and people decided to acquiesce in order to end the war, so he left the city without killing and death and violence. At 1866 Ebrahim Khan Zahiradole (the
government of Kerman) ordered to reshape and rebuild the city. Buildings start to construct and the situation started to improve. At 1913 Amir Mofkhem Bakhtiari ordered to build a strong wall around the city which part of ruins still remain today. This step caused importance and accredit to the city. For the first time at 1938, crossroad was built at the city, which is named as Emem Khomeyni, Enghelsb and Shohada these days. Rafsanjan was also an important city because of being one of the biggest producers of cotton earlier on time. Due to high quality of this product, it was exported to India and Russia. At 1945 Rafsanjan changed to
township. These days Rafsanjan is one of the most important and crowded cities of Kerman and has an undeniable role in the economy of state and country. Mines and pistachios are well known not only in Iran, but all around the world.
Geography
Rafsanjan is located in south part of the Lut desert, in north-west of Kerman province. The longitude of this city is 56 degrees east and the latitude is 30 degrees south. The Average distance between Kerman and this city is 110 km (68 mi). The city has an airport and railway (Tehran-Bandar Abbas route). Moreover, the altitude is 1,460 m (4,790 ft) and the land-measurement is approximately 10,687 km (6,641 mi). North part of Rafsanjan has a common frontier with Bafgh and Zarand; south part is neighboring with Bardsir and on west side with Anar and Shahre-Babak; finally east side of this city is neighboring with Kerman and Zarand. Rafsanjan has two seasonal rivers named as Shour and Giouderi. The mountains in the area are part of Zagros range, and Sarcheshmeh and Davaran are the most famous.
Rafsanjan has cold and freezing winters as well as hot and dried summers. This city is located in the central part of Iran and this region is desert. The weather is hot in summer and cold in winter, days are warm and nights are cold in general. The average amount of rainfall is 100 mm (3.9 in) annually.
Environment
Rafsanjan has been exposed to the polluting smoke of Sarcheshme, Khatunabad and Shahrbabak copper smelters. On the other hand, up to 14 pistachio orchards are sprayed every year, as a result, dozens of tons of poison are released in the pistachio orchards of Rafsanjan. The level of arsenic contamination in Rafsanjan water is about ten times the permissible limit, and it is strongly recommended to use authorized water purification devices for drinking water, and to ensure the health of the water purification device, the water produced by the device should also be tested.[7][8]
Rafsanjan, a semiarid region in central Iran, is renowned for its high-quality pistachio production, generating nearly $1 billion annually. [9] The Iranian government has provided energy and water subsidies over the past several decades, attracting producers to the area, where more than 30,000 people are directly involved in the production by owning or managing pistachio orchards.[10][9]
However, economically viable pistachio production requires specific climatic conditions, such as long, hot summers and sufficient chill in winters, which occur in areas far from surface water resources like rivers or lakes, making the crop water-intensive.[11][12] As a result, pistachio producers in Rafsanjan have long relied on groundwater as the only source of water for irrigation.[13][14]
According to reports from the late 1980s, the Rafsanjani family is said to "control" Iran's multimillion-dollar pistachio market centered around the town of Rafsanjan.[15]Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, former Iranian president and one of the most powerful members of the regime in Iran, was the head of the parliamentary speaker and had close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) construction firm, which built most of Iran's infrastructure, including dams.
[16] These dams were used to redirect water to the agricultural fields of high-ranking members of the regime, including the Rafsanjani family, resulting in a water mafia-like scenario.[16] They also used restricting and opening the dam to flood the region as a means of suppression and punishment.[16]
Land rights
In the region, although communal “garden ownership” (baghcheh-dari) was prevalent among villagers, absentee landlords still held a virtual monopoly over the ownership of the basin's land and water resources.[17] This is due to orchards being exempted from redistribution under the Iranian Land Reform Programme of 1962, which sought to abolish the feudal system and redistribute arable land from large landowners to smaller agricultural workers. At the end of the 80s, a survey done in two Rafsanjan villages revealed that villagers owned only about 17% of the water and cultivated land, while the rest belonged to a small number of absentee landlords.[17]
Gender disparities
During the same era, there was a shift in labor relations from the traditional sharecropping contracts, which were prevalent throughout most of the Persian plateau, to wage labor.[17] For pistachio cultivation, the new labor force was differentiated by skill and gender and was exclusively on a wage basis.[17] The laborers, called “ghararis”, who were by definition male and highly skilled in irrigation work, which was an exclusively male task, constituted the "labor aristocracy."[17] They were employed on a permanent basis with a monthly wage, a New Year bonus, and given a small plot of land free of charge with access to the landlord's irrigation water.[17]
On the other hand, female laborers engaged in harvest and post-harvest operations occupied the lowest position in the labor hierarchy.[17] Their work was seasonal, and their labor remuneration was mostly based on a piece-rate basis, with payment made three to four months after finishing work.[17] Additionally, the spinning and weaving of cotton textiles, which used to be a traditional income-earning activity for women, had at the time been virtually wiped out due to competition from cheap synthetic fibers.[17]
Transport
Rafsanjan is located in the main road of Kerman-Yazd. The distances between Rafsanjan and other cities are:
12 km (7.5 mi) to Bardsir, 140 km (87 mi) to Sirjan, 130 km (81 mi) to Shahre-Babak, 90 km (56 mi) to Anar, 75 km (47 mi) to Zarand, 185 km (115 mi) to Bafgh and 230 km (140 mi) to Yazd.
Local people use both public and private vehicles, however private ones are more popular among citizens than public vehicles.
Rafsanjan also has buses, railways and an airport to go to other cities and provinces.
^Rafsanjan can be found at GEOnet Names Server, at this link, by opening the Advanced Search box, entering "-3080584" in the "Unique Feature Id" form, and clicking on "Search Database".
^Benmoussa H, Luedeling E, Ghrab M, Ben Yahmed J, Ben MM. 2017. Performance of Pistachio ( L.) in warming Mediterranean Orchards. Environmental and Experimental Botany 140: 76–85.
^Elloumi O, Ghrab M, Kessentini H, Ben MM. 2013. Chilling accumulation effects on performance of pistachio trees cv. Mateur in dry and warm area climate. Scientia Horticulturae 159: 80–87.
^Mehryar S, Sliuzas R, Sharifi A, Van Maarseveen MFAM. 2016. The socio-ecological analytical framework of water scarcity in Rafsanjan township, Iran. International Journal of Safety and Security Engineering 6(4): 764–776.
^Motagh M, Walter TR, Sharifi MA, Fielding E, Schenk A, Anderssohn J, Zschau J. 2008. Land subsidence in Iran caused by widespread water reservoir overexploitation. Geophysical Research Letters 35(16): L16403. https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GL033814
