Persians’ Calendar (taqwim-e fors) of the Southern Regions of the Caspian Sea and the so-called ‘Deylami’ and ‘Tabari’ Calendars

Up until the present era and the propagation of the New Iranian Calendar (1925), along with the Hijri lunar calendar and the Jalali calendar, a variety of the Yazdgerdi calendar (taqwim-e fors) was also popular among the peoples of the southern regions of the Caspian Sea. Despite and contrary to the historical evidence, in the last half-century, some local writers have claimed distinct and independent calendars for these regions. They have labeled these alleged calendars as Deylami/ Galeshi/ Gilani and Tabari/ Mazandarani calendars. Also, calendar eras have been fabricated for them and it has been claimed that these calendars have leap years and that their new year festival (Nowruz) falls always on a fixed day around the middle of the summer season. This article examines these alleged calendars and the pretensions that surround them. For this purpose, it studies the history of the calendars of these areas from the earliest times to the present day. It also studies the background of the assumption of an independent calendar in Mazandaran in the nineteenth century and traces back the history of the emergence of these alleged calendars in the present era. This article demonstrates that these alleged calendars are all the same Yazdgerdi calendar (taqwim-e fors), knowingly or recklessly manipulated and posed as genuine independent calendars.