Basmenj is a city in the Central District

Central District (Tabriz County)

The Central District of Tabriz County is a district in Tabriz County, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 1,521,239, in 414,499 families. The District has four cities: Tabriz, Sardrud, Malek Kian, and Basmenj....

 of Tabriz County

Tabriz County

Tabriz County is a county in East Azerbaijan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Tabriz. At the 2006 census, the county's population was 1,557,241, in 423,775 families. The county is subdivided into two districts: the Central District and Khosrowshahr District...

, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

. At the 2006 census, its population was 10,736, in 2,873 families.

Basmenj is located 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) southeast of Tabriz

Tabriz

Tabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...

. It lies at an altitude of 1791 metres (5,876 ft) and covers an area of 2 square kilometres. The city is best known for its fresh and pickled cucumber.

Naming

From the eighth century the word "Basmenj" occurs in some texts as "uoosbenj", "wahoosphenj", "fahoosphenj" and "esphenj". There were two fire temples many years ago. One of them was "miyarrar" or "miadgah" that was very Sacred and there was an idol called "ENJ". The word "basmenj" derived from the name of this idol; and the word "basme+enj" is formed from the two word "basme" & "enj". The word "basme" means "in the name of" and in other languages including Sanscrit, Old persion, and medial persion, the prefix of the words "uoosbenj", "wahoosphenj", "fahoosphenj" and "esphenj" means "in the name of" too. Thus the meaing of "basmenj" is "in the name of ENJ" same the word "in the name of GOD".