Zahedan (Persian: زاهدان‎‎, also Romanized as Zāhedān, Zahidan, and Zaidān; also known as Zāhedān-e Yek; formerly known as Dowzdāb, Duzdāb, and Duzdāp and renamed Zahedan by Reza Shah Pahlavi in the late 1920s ) is a city in and the capital of Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 552,706, in 109,488 families. "Zahedan" is the plural of the Arabic word zahed meaning 'pious'.