Hamadan Explained

Hamadan
Native Name:Persian: همدان
Settlement Type:City
Pushpin Map:Iran
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Type1:Province
Subdivision Name1:Hamadan
Subdivision Type2:County
Subdivision Name2:Hamadan
Subdivision Type3:District
Subdivision Name3:Central
Leader Title:Mayor
Leader Name:Seyed Masoud Hosseini [1]
Leader Title1:Governor General
Population As Of:2016
Population Total:554406
Population Rank:13th in Iran
Timezone:IRST
Utc Offset:+3:30
Coordinates:34.7983°N 48.5147°W
Coordinates Footnotes:[2]
Elevation M:1850
Elevation Ft:6069

Hamadan (;[3] fa|همدان, pronounced as /fa/) is a city in western Iran. It is located in the Central District of Hamadan County in Hamadan province, serving as the capital of the province, county, and district.[4] As of the 2016 Iranian census, it had a population of 554,406 people in 174,731 households.

Hamadan is believed to be among the oldest Iranian cities. It was referred to in classical sources as Ecbatana (Old Persian). It is possible that it was occupied by the Assyrians in 1100BCE; the Ancient Greek historian, Herodotus, states that it was the capital of the Medes, around 700BCE.

Hamadan is situated in a green mountainous area in the foothills of the 3,574-meter Alvand Mountain, in midwestern Iran. The city is 1,850meters above sea level. It is located approximately 360km (220miles) southwest of Tehran.

The old city and its historic sites attract tourists during the summer. The major sights of this city are the Ganj Nameh inscription, the Avicenna monument and the Baba Taher monument. The main language in the city is Persian.[5] [6] [7]

History

According to Clifford Edmund Bosworth, "Hamedan is a very old city. It may conceivably, but improbably, be mentioned in cuneiform texts from ca. 1100BC, the time of Assyrian King Tiglath-pilesar I, but is certainly mentioned by Herodotus who says that the king of Media Diokes built the city of Agbatana or Ekbatana in the 7th centuryBC."[8]

Hamadan was established by the Medes. It then became one of several capital cities of the Achaemenid Dynasty.

Hamadan is mentioned in the biblical book of Ezra as the place where a scroll was found giving the Jews permission from King Darius to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Its ancient name of Ecbatana is used in the Ezra text. Because it was a mile above sea level, it was a good place to preserve leather documents.

During the Parthian era, Ctesiphon was the capital of the country, and Hamadan was the summer capital and residence of the Parthian rulers. After the Parthians, the Sassanids constructed their summer palaces in this city. In 642 the Battle of Nahavand took place and Hamadan fell into the hands of the Muslim Arabs.

During the rule of the Buyid dynasty, the city suffered much damage. However, the city regained its former glory under the rule of the Buyid ruler Fanna Khusraw. The Seljuks launched campaigns to take the city in the 1040s,[9] ultimately taking the final Kakuyid fortress in 1047.[10] The Seljuks later shifted their capital from Baghdad to Hamadan. In 1220, Hamadan was destroyed by the Mongols[11] during the Mongol invasions of Georgia before the Battle of Khunan. The city of Hamadan, its fortunes following the rise and fall of regional powers, was completely destroyed during the Timurid invasions, but later thrived during the Safavid era.

Thereafter, in the 18th century, Hamadan was surrendered to the Ottomans, but due to the work of Nader Shah, Hamadan was cleared of invaders and, as a result of a peace treaty between Iran and the Ottomans, it was returned to Iran. Hamadan stands on the Silk Road, and even in recent centuries the city enjoyed strong commerce and trade as a result of its location on the main road network in the western region of Iran. In the late 19th century, American missionaries, including James W. Hawkes and Belle Sherwood Hawke,[12] [13] established schools in Hamadan.During World War I, the city was the scene of heavy fighting between Russian and Turko-German forces. It was occupied by both armies, and finally by the British, before it was returned to the control of the Iranian government at the end of the war in 1918.

Demographics

Language

A majority of the population speaks the Hamadani dialect of Persian and standard Persian, with a Turkic minority.[14]

Population

At the time of the 2006 National Census, the city's population was 473,149 in 127,812 households.[15] The following census in 2011 counted 525,794 people in 156,556 households.[16] The 2016 census measured the population of the city as 554,406 people in 174,731 households.[17]

Climate

Hamadan has a hot-summer, Mediterranean-influenced continental climate (Köppen: Dsa, Trewartha: Dc), in transition with a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen: BSk). The city experiences hot, dry summers, and cold, snowy winters. The temperature may drop below -30°C on the coldest days. Heavy snowfall is common during winter and this can persist for periods of up to two months. During the short summer, the weather is hot, and mostly sunny.

Lowest recorded temperature: -34°C on 7 January 1964
Highest recorded temperature: 40.6°C on 14 July 1989

Sport

PAS Hamedan F.C. were founded on June 9, 2007 after the dissolution of PAS Tehran F.C. The team, along with Alvand Hamedan F.C., is in the Azadegan League.

Some sport complexes in this city include: Qods Stadium, Shahid Mofatteh Stadium, Takhti Sport Complex and the National Stadium of Hamadan.

Education

Before the Persian Constitutional Revolution, education in Hamadan was limited to some Maktab Houses and theological schools. Fakhrie Mozafari School was the first modern school of Hamadan, which was built after that revolution. Alliance and Lazarist were also the first modern schools founded by foreign institutions in Hamadan.

Some of the popular universities in Hamadan include:

Notable people

Hamadan celebrities are divided into 3 categories: pre-Islamic, post-Islamic and contemporary people.

Pre-Islamic celebrities

Among the pre-Islamic celebrities in Hamadan is Mandana, the mother of Cyrus the Great and the daughter of the last king of Media, Ishtovigo.

Famous names after Islam

Famous people of Hamadan after Islam are great people such as:

Significant Incident

In February 1990, the bank's central branch in Hamadan experienced a tragic robbery. The event resulted in the loss of life of the bank manager Abdulrahman Nafisi, his family, and a security guard. The bank manager, Abdulrahman Nafisi, displayed extraordinary courage by prioritizing the safety of the bank's funds over his own life. Despite being under torture, he pleaded with the robbers to take his personal belongings instead of the people's money.[22]

Contemporary people

Contemporary people

International relations

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Iran.

Twin towns – Sister cities

Hamadan is twinned with:

See also

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: سیدمسعود حسینی شهردار همدان شد . Mehr News. 4 September 2021 . fa . 9 April 2024.
  2. ((OpenStreetMap contributors)) . Hamadan, Hamadan County. . 14 November 2024. 14 November 2024. fa.
  3. 2023-06-16.
  4. Approval of the organization and chain of citizenship of the elements and units of the national divisions of Hamadan province, centered in Hamadan city. fa. lamtakam.com. https://web.archive.org/web/20240211122913/https://lamtakam.com/law/council_of_ministers/113025. Ministry of the Interior, Political Defense Commission of the Government Board. Habibi. Hassan. 11 February 2024. Approved 21 June 1369. c. 2024. Proposal 3233.1.5.53; Letter 93808-907; Notification 82834/T134K. 11 February 2024.
  5. Web site: Introduction. www.hamedan.rmto.ir. 2015-12-20. 2015-12-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20151222105716/http://www.hamedan.rmto.ir/English/Pages/Introduction.aspx. dead.
  6. Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, Peter McDonald, Meimanat Hosseini-Chavoshi, "The Fertility Transition in Iran: Revolution and Reproduction", Springer, 2009. pp 100-101: "The first category is 'Central' where the majority of people are Persian speaking ethnic Fars (provinces of Fars, Hamedan, Isfahan, Markazi, Qazvin, Qom, Semnan, Yazd and Tehran..."
  7. (Parviz Aḏkāʾi and EIr, HAMEDĀN i. GEOGRAPHY in Encyclopædia Iranica:"Languages spoken. Hamedān has been a crossroads of civilizations for millennia and a mosaic of cultures and dialects live there side by side. The main language spoken, especially in the provincial capital and its surroundings, is Persian, which is also the lingua franca in other regions. In the northern parts of the province, however, the language mostly spoken is Azeri Turkish, while in the northwest and west, near the provinces of Kurdistan and Kermānšāhān, people mostly speak Kurdish, while in some other cities such as Malāyer, Nehāvand, and Sāmen most people speak Lori and Lak (Faraji, p. 1296)."
  8. Book: Bosworth, Clifford Edmund. Historic Cities of the Islamic World. 2008. Brill Academic Publishers. 978-90-04-15388-2. 151.
  9. C. E. Bosworth, “ABŪ KĀLĪJĀR GARŠĀSP (I),” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/3, p. 328; an updated version is available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abu-kalijar-garsasp-i-ala-al-dawla-second-son-of-the-kakuyid-amir-of-jebal-ala-al-dawla-mohammad-b (accessed on 23 January 2024).
  10. C. E. Bosworth, “KĀKUYIDS,” Encyclopædia Iranica,Vol. XV, Fasc. 4, pp. 359-362; an updated version is available online at https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kuyids-dynasty (accessed on 23 January 2024).
  11. Web site: Hamedan Iran Britannica. 2022-01-16. www.britannica.com. en.
  12. https://www.in.gov/library/fa_index/fa_by_letter/h/s60.html James W. Hawkes Collection
  13. Zirinsky. Michael P.. 1992. Harbingers of Change: Presbyterian Women in Iran, 1883—1949. American Presbyterians. 70. 3. 173–186. 23333052 . 0886-5159.
  14. Web site: Language distribution: Hamedan Province - Hamedān . 4 May 2023.
  15. Census of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1385 (2006): Hamadan Province. fa. The Statistical Center of Iran. amar.org.ir. 25 September 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20110920093712/http://www.amar.org.ir/DesktopModules/FTPManager/upload/upload2360/newjkh/newjkh/13.xls. Excel. 20 September 2011.
  16. Census of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1390 (2011): Hamadan Province. fa. The Statistical Center of Iran. irandataportal.syr.edu. Iran Data Portal, Syracuse University. https://web.archive.org/web/20230117164705/https://irandataportal.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/Hamadan.xls. 17 January 2023. 19 December 2022. Excel.
  17. Census of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1395 (2016): Hamadan Province. fa. The Statistical Center of Iran. amar.org.ir. 19 December 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20210421224006/https://www.amar.org.ir/Portals/0/census/1395/results/abadi/CN95_HouseholdPopulationVillage_13.xlsx. Excel. 21 April 2021.
  18. Web site: صفحه اصلی - دانشگاه بوعلی سینا. basu.ac.ir.
  19. Web site: Hamedan Medical University Website. www.umsha.ac.ir.
  20. Web site: Hamedan University of Technology Website. 17 March 2007. 16 September 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090916040145/http://www.hut.ac.ir/. dead.
  21. Web site: Welcome to Website Islamic Azad University of Hamedan Branch. https://web.archive.org/web/20050311052024/http://www.iauh.ac.ir/default.htm. dead. 11 March 2005. 11 March 2005. 30 August 2020.
  22. Web site: بازخوانی جنایت هولناک ۲۲ بهمن ۶۸ در همدان . 9 February 2021 .
  23. Web site: خبرگزاری فارس - "بخارا" زادگاه و "همدان" مدفن بوعلی‌سینا خواهرخوانده می‌شوند. 23 November 2011. خبرگزاری فارس.

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