Zahedan (, also Romanized as Zahedan, Zahidan, and Zaidan; also known as Zahedan-e Yek; formerly known as Dowzdab, Duzdab, and Duzdap 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'.