The province of Mazandaran is limited to the Caspian sea and Turkmanistan from north, to the provinces of Tehran and Semnan from south, to the province of Gilan from west and to the province of Golestan (that is a newly separated province and shares the same dance forms and styles of Mazandaran) from east; this province encompasses two geographical regions: the plain-coast area and the mountainous area of the Alborz range that is said to be the habitation of Tapurs (Tapur, the tribes living in the central area), the native inhabitants of the region before the migration of Aryans; and the name of the entire region was Tapurestan that was turned into Tabarestan in the early Islamic centuries and then into Mazandaran. Ferdowsi makes references to the prosperity of this region and "Mazandarani chant" in Shahname and Yaqut Hamavi (575-626 AH) mentions this province in part of his writings. Ebne Esfandiyar calls it as Muzandarun (the country between the mountains of Muz, a range from Gilan through Lar, Qasran and Jajrom), while other scholars consider Maz as "Darband"s [enclosures] and "Dej"s [forts] that were built by the order of Espahbod Maziyar, son of Qaren, so leading to the notion that Mazandaran denotes being stuck between courses of "mazes"; it has also been said that the word was taken from "Mard", the name of a famous tribe in that region. Apart from Tapurs (central inhabitants), such peoples as Kasi or Kaspi (of which the name of the Caspian sea was taken; they were migrants to Iran's west and southwest) and Amrad (Mard, resident of Amol and the western region) lived in the area in the Sasaniyan and Parthian ages. Today, the variety of tribes in the whole region ranges from Lors, Laks, Baluchs, Kurds, Turks, to Afghans, Arabs, Armenians, Taleshis, Caucasians (in Galugah), Georgians (in Behshahr), and kowlis (in Godar and Luti) inhabiting various areas of Mazandaran (An Introduction to the Knowledge of Tribes, I. A. Sistani, 1021-1037; From Astara to Estarabad, Manuchehr Sutude, 13; A History of Tonekabon, Ali-asghar-e Yusefiniya, 27-92; Music of Mazandaran, Ahmad Mohsenpur, 8-10). ...