History
The city of Chabahar does not have a long history. There is a fishing village named Tis in its neighborhood, which dates from 2500 BC, known in Alexander the Great's conquests as Tiz, eventually renamed Tis. In addition, in his book Aqd al-Ala lel-Moghefe al Ahla, Afdhal al-Din abu Hamid Kermani wrote in 584 A.H. about the port of Tiz and its commerce and trade. According to the scholar and historian, Alberuni,author of an encyclopedic work on India called “Tarikh Al-Hind, the sea coast of India commences with Tiz or modern Chah Bahar. As a matter of fact the Sarhad range which runs from north to south and separates the Sub-continent of India from the Plateau of Iran, commences in the vicinity of Tiz. Tis was formerly an active commercial port, and was destroyed by the Mongols. There are still some ruins in the village. The Portuguese were the first colonial country to attack the Makran (Oman) Sea. The Portuguese forces under Afonso de Albuquerque gained control of Chabahar and Tis, staying there until 1031 A.H. The British, and later the Portuguese in the 17th century (year 1616) AC (1026 A.H.), entered this region.
Modern Chabahar dates back about 40 years, when it was declared a municipality and large port projects were started by order of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. A modern naval and air base was established as part of the Shah's policy of making Iran into a dominant power in the Indian Ocean. At that time these and other development projects in and around Chabahar involved the extensive participation of foreign companies, especially from the United States. After the 1979 revolution the foreign companies left the projects and Iranian public companies linked to the Ministry of jahade sazandegi (or jihad for construction) took them over. The Iraq-Iran war caused Chabahar to gain in logistical and strategic importance. War brought insecurity to the Strait of Hormuz and ships were unable to enter the Persian Gulf. Accordingly Chabahar became a major port during the war. In the 1980s the Iranian government developed a new scheme named the Eastern Axis Development Scheme, which aimed to use Chabahar's geographical position as a regional development tool to stimulate economic growth in the eastern provinces. The establishment of the Chabahar Free Trade-Industrial Zone in 1992 resulting from the EAD Scheme brought development and encouraged immigration from other parts of the country to Chabahar.
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