Sārī

Sari stands on the Caspian plain of Mazandaran, among the rivers and wooded lowlands of old Tabaristan. It was a seat of the Marashi sayyids, whose dynasty ruled much of the region from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. Their memory is preserved in the mausoleum of Zayn al-Abedin, where finely carved wooden cenotaphs commemorated members of the family. In the early seventeenth century Shah Abbas I built Farahabad near the coast north of Sari as a royal residence. Its palace, mosque, bath and bridge formed part of a network of Safavid works in Mazandaran. In 1668 the Cossack Stenka Razin attacked Farahabad and destroyed the royal complex, bringing the violence of the Caspian frontier close to Sari.