Sari, Iran Sari, Iran Sari (( ) ; also Romanized as Sārī; also known as Shahr-i-Tajan and Shari-i-Tajan) is the provincial capital of Mazandaran and former capital of Iran (for a short period), located in the north of Iran, between the northern slopes of the Alborz Mountains and southern coast of the Caspian Sea. Sari is the largest and most populous city of Mazandaran. The "Mazandaran Sea" provides a beautiful coastline to the north of Sari; north-east of the city lies "Neka". "Qa'emshahr" (formerly known as Shahi) is to its south-west, "Juybar" is to its north-west, and "Kiasar", "Damghan", and "Semnan" are
Iran of the Iranians, surrounding themselves with a culture that was distinctively Iranian. By the 1500s, Ismail I of Ardabil established the Safavid Empire, with his capital at Tabriz. Beginning with Azerbaijan, he subsequently extended his authority over all of the Iranian territories, and established an intermittent Iranian hegemony over the vast relative regions, reasserting the Iranian identity within large parts of Greater Iran. Iran was predominantly Sunni, but Ismail instigated a forced conversion to the Shia branch of Islam, spreading throughout the Safavid territories in the Caucasus, Iran, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia. As a result, thereof, modern-day Iran is the only