Fereydūnšahr

Fereydunshahr lies in the high mountains west of Isfahan, in the Fereydan country of the Zagros. Its valleys became home to Georgian communities whose language and traditions distinguished them from their neighbours. In the early seventeenth century Shah Abbas I forcibly transferred many Georgians to Iran during his campaigns in the Caucasus. Some were settled in the inland villages of Fereydan, where they cultivated the mountain valleys. Their descendants retained a Georgian speech community while adopting Islam and living within Iranian society.