Capital of Fars ostan (province), south central Iran, within the Zagros Mountains on an agricultural lowland at an elevation of 4,875 ft (1,486 m). Famous for its wine, it is both a historic site and an attractive modern city, with gardens, shrines, and mosques.
Shiraz is the birthplace of the Persian poets Sa'di and Hafez, whose garden tombs, both resplendently renovated, lie on the northern outskirts. Despite calamitous floods (1630, 1668), pestilences, famines, and earthquakes (chiefly 1824, 1853), remarkably much of the city survived.
Congregational Mosque (894), Shah Cheragh shrine (1344-49), and Great Library (later the Madrasseh, or theological school; 1615), had become a Muslim centre rivalling Baghdad. In 1724the city was sacked by Afghan invaders. Shiraz became capital of the Zand dynasty (1750-94), whose founder, the vakil (regent) Karim Khan Zand, adorned the old city with many fine buildings, including his mausoleum (an octagonal tiled kiosk, now a museum); the Ark, or citadel (now a prison); and the Vakil Bazaar and Mosque. Buildings in the new city include the Persian Church of St. Simon the Zealot and the university (1945).
The city, a trading and road centre for the central Zagros Mountains, is linked to Bushire, its port on the Persian Gulf. It has cement, sugar, and fertilizer factories and textile mills, and traditional inlay work flourishes.