BAKHSH

A 'bakhsh' is an administrative subdivision in Iran, translated as county, but in many ways similar to a township in the United States or a district of England.
In Iran each ''ostan'' or province consists of several ''shahrestan'' or county (Persian: شهرستان ''shahrestān''), and each ''shahrestan'' has one or more ''bakhsh'' or district (Persian: بخش ''bakhsh''). A ''bakhsh'' usually consists of tens of villages with a central town or city. The official governor of a ''bakhsh'' is called ''bakhshdar'' which is the head of ''bakhshdari'' office.
There are usually a few cities (Persian: شهر ''shahr'') and rural agglomerations (Persian: دهستان ''dehestān'') in each county. Rural agglomerations are a collection of a number of villages. One of the cities of the county is appointed as the capital of the county.
To better understand such subdivisions, the following table may be helpful. Assume that province P is divided into two counties: A and B. County A has 3 districts: Central, X, and Y. The Central district is the district that contains City M, the capital of the county. Each distcirt might contain one or more cities and/or one or more RAs (rural agglomerations). In our example, the Central district contains City M, City N, and RA T composed of the villages V1, V2, V3, and V4, in turn; district X contains City O and RA U; and district Y has no cities and one RA V. The minimal county consists of only one city as the only district, named Central, of course. The county B in the following table is of such type, containing only one city Q.

Province	County	District	City / RA ★	Villages
P	A	Central	City M (c)
			City N
			RA T	V1, V2, V3, V4
		X	City O
			RA U	V5, V6
		Y	RA V	V7, V8, V9
	B	Central	City Q