Bastam is a city in and capital of the Bastam District

Bastam District

Bastam District is a district in Shahrud County, Semnan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 37,635, in 10,380 families. The District has three cities: Bastam, Mojen, and Kalateh Khij....

 of Shahrud County

Shahrud County

Shahrud County is a county in Semnan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Shahrud. At the 2006 census, the county's population was 225,007, in 62,196 families. The county is subdivided into four districts: the Central District, Bastam District, Beyarjomand District, and Meyami District...

, Semnan Province

Semnan Province

Semnan Province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the north of the country, and its center is Semnan. The province of Semnan covers an area of 96,816 square kilometers and stretches along the Alborz mountain range and borders to Dasht-e Kavir desert in its southern parts.Counties of...

, 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 7,382, in 1,997 families.
Bastam was founded in the 6th century in the Greater Khorasan

Greater Khorasan

Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...

. It is 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) north of Shahrud

Shahrud

Shahrud is classified as a "short-necked lute." The word sehrud is of Persian origin, derived from the words sah-i rûd meaning "king of lutes/large lute." Though Al-Farabi included an illustration of the sehrud in his Kitâbü'l Musiki, it is very difficult to determine particulars from this drawing...

. The town is known for its Islamic monuments from the Ilkhanid

Ilkhanate

The Ilkhanate, also spelled Il-khanate , was a Mongol khanate established in Azerbaijan and Persia in the 13th century, considered a part of the Mongol Empire...

 period and its association with the mystic Bayazid Bastami

Bayazid Bastami

Bayazid Bastami , also known as Abu Yazid Bistami or Tayfur Abu Yazid al-Bustami, was a Persian Sufi born in Bastam, Iran.- Background :...

. The Elburz mountains

Alborz

Alborz , also written as Alburz, Elburz or Elborz, is a mountain range in northern Iran stretching from the borders of Azerbaijan and Armenia in the northwest to the southern end of the Caspian Sea, and ending in the east at the borders of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan...

 are to the north of the town.

A tradition says that the town was founded by a certain Bistam, uncle of the Sassanid

Sassanid Empire

The Sassanid Empire , known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr and Ērān in Middle Persian and resulting in the New Persian terms Iranshahr and Iran , was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty from 224 to 651...

 king Khosrau II

Khosrau II

250px|thumb|Khosrau II 250px|thumb|Khosrau II 250px|thumb|Khosrau II (Khosrow II, Chosroes II, or Xosrov II in classical sources, sometimes called Parvez, "the Ever Victorious" – (in Persian: خسرو پرویز), was the twenty-second Sassanid King of Persia, reigning from 590 to 628...

.

External links

• Bayazid Shrine Complex at ArchNet
  ArchNet
  ArchNet is the world’s largest online databank of international architecture. It was developed at the University of Texas at Austin and the MIT School of Architecture and Planning in co-operation with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture...
  
  . http://archnet.org/library/sites/one-site.jsp?site_id=2273
• Friday Mosque at ArchNet. http://archnet.org/library/sites/one-site.jsp?site_id=8304
• Tomb Tower at ArchNet. http://archnet.org/library/sites/one-site.jsp?site_id=4464