"The history of the Georgian community of Iran can be traced back to the period of the Safavid dynasty in the early seventeenth century and the conflict between the two countries, when Shah Abbas 1 relocated thousands of Georgian captives to scarcely populated areas of Iran.
These communities mainly settled around Isfahan, and in Mazandaran and Fars. Fereydounshahr to the west of Isfahan has one of the largest communities of Georgians and the residents named it Mardghopi after a location in Georgia.
In the multimedia report on this page we visit Fereydounshahr and several villages around it and hear from Saeed Moliani, an Iranian scholar of Georgian descent who tells the story of the Georgian communities of Iran."
