Hamadan

An ancient and important city in western Iran.

Hamadan, located at an elevation of 5,732 feet, occupies a fertile agricultural plain. It is associated with the ancient Median city of Ecbatana, built in the seventh century B.C.E., and it was an important capital of successive pre-Islamic dynasties, being situated on the trade route that linked Mesopotamia with the East. In the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the city was occupied by the Ottoman Empire several times, but in 1732 it finally reverted to Iran.

Hamadan retained its role as a large commercial city in the modern period. In the nineteenth century it functioned as a transshipment center for the trade of southwestern Iran with the West. Goods destined for Tabriz, Trebizond (now Trabzon), and the Black Sea were brought to Hamadan. After the development of the Anglo-Indian trade, Hamadan prospered as a result of its location on the trade route via Basra and Baghdad to the east. During the twentieth century the city continued to serve as a regional transshipment center and also developed diverse manufacturing industries. A shrine popularly believed to contain the remains of the biblical Esther is a major Jewish pilgrimage site in the city. There is also a monument for Ibn Sina (Avicenna). The population of Hamadan in 1996 was 401,281.

Bibliography

Bosworth, C. E., ed. An Historical Geography of Iran. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984.

— PARVANEH POURSHARIATI

The country code is: 98
The city code is: 81