| Narmashir | |
| Native Name: | Persian: نرماشير |
| Native Name Lang: | fa |
| Settlement Type: | City |
| Pushpin Map: | Iran |
| Coordinates Footnotes: | [1] |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Iran |
| Subdivision Type1: | Province |
| Subdivision Name1: | Kerman |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | Narmashir |
| Subdivision Type3: | District |
| Subdivision Name3: | Central |
| Unit Pref: | Metric |
| Population As Of: | 2016 |
| Population Total: | 5222 |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Timezone: | IRST |
| Utc Offset: | +3:30 |
Narmashir (Persian: نرماشير|Narmāshīr) is a city in the Central District of Narmashir County, Kerman province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district.[2]
In the middle ages, Narmashir was one of the major cities of Kerman, but it was not at its present location — the ruins at the nearby village of Choghukabad are the most likely candidate for the site of medieval Narmashir.[3] The medieval geographers al-Muqaddasi, Yaqut al-Hamawi, and Hamdallah Mustawfi described medieval Narmashir as a large and prosperous town on the main trade route connecting Kerman with Sistan.[3] Merchants travelling between Oman and Khorasan did business here, and there was also a market for Indian goods.[3] The town was walled, with four gates and a citadel, and there was a congregational mosque built of fired brick.[3] Narmashir was one of the five kuras (districts) of Kerman during this period.[3] Sometime between Mustawfi's account in the 14th century, Narmashir became abandoned; European travellers in the 19th century found no trace of it.[3]
At the time of the 2006 National Census, the city's population was 3,966 in 1,007 households, when it was in the former Narmashir District of Bam County.[4] The following census in 2011 counted 6,167 people in 1,587 households,[5] by which time the district had been separated from the county in the establishment of Narmashir County. Narmashir was transferred to the new Central District as the county's capital.[2] The 2016 census measured the population of the city as 5,222 people in 1,545 households.[6]