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Sanandaj

City in Kurdistan province, Iran From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Sanandaj (Persian: سنندج; pronounced [sænænˈdædʒ] )[a] is a city in the Central District of Sanandaj County, in the Kurdistan province of Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district.[5] With a population of 414,069,[6] it is the second largest Kurdish city and 23rd largest city overall in Iran.

Quick facts Kurdish: سنەSine, Country ...
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History

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Sanandaj's founding is fairly recent, (about 250 years ago), yet in its short existence it has grown to become one of the centers of Kurdish culture.[7][8] During the Iran–Iraq War the city was attacked by Iraqi planes and saw disturbances.[9] Since 2019, UNESCO has recognized Sanandaj as Creative City of Music.[10]

The name "Sinna" first appears in records from the 14th century CE.[11] Before this, the main city in the region was Sisar, whose exact location is unknown.[11] Sisar was also called "Sisar of Sadkhaniya", or "Sisar of the hundred springs", and it has been proposed that the current name of "Sinna" is a contracted form of "Sadkhaniya".[11]

The name "Sisar" disappears in the 14th century and the name "Sinna" replaces it, for example in the works of Hamdallah Mustawfi who refers to a mountain and a pass with this name.[11] Then the Kurdish historian Sharaf al-Din Bitlisi mentions that in 1580 an Ardalan ruler named Timur Khan had a land grant including Sinna and the earlier Ardalan capital of Hasanabad.[12] However, the local historian Ali-Akbar Munshi Waqayi-Nigar wrote in 1892/3 that Sinna was founded later, by the ruler Soleyman Khan Ardalan, on the site of an earlier settlement; the chronogram he gives for this event corresponds to 1046 AH, or 1636-7 CE.[12]

Sinna was developed significantly under the reign of Aman Allah "the Great" (from 1797-1825).[12] 19th-century Sinna was "a lively commercial center, exporting oak galls, tragacanth, furs, and carpets".[12] Its population was mostly Kurdish, with a significant Jewish minority and smaller numbers of Armenian and Assyrian Christians (the latter of which are predominantly Chaldean Catholic).[12]

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Demographics

Ethnicity

The population of Sanandaj is mainly Kurdish. The city also had an Armenian minority who gradually emigrated from the city. Until the Iranian Revolution (1979), the city had a small Aramaic-speaking Jewish community of about 4,000 people.[7] The city boasted a sizable Assyrian community that spoke a unique dialect of Aramaic called Senaya, they are mostly members of the Chaldean Catholic Church.[13]

Language

The linguistic composition of the city:[14]

Sanandaj linguistic composition
Language percent
Central Kurdish
86%
Hawrami
7%
New Persian
4.95%
Southern Kurdish
2%
Aramaic
0.05%

Religion

Most of the people of Sanandaj follow the Shafi‘i branch of Sunni Islam.[15][16]

Population

At the time of the 2006 National Census, the city's population was 311,446 in 81,380 households.[17] The following census in 2011 counted 373,987 people in 106,771 households.[18] The 2016 census measured the population of the city as 412,767 people in 126,240 households.[3]

The city is the second largest Kurdish city in Iran, behind Kermanshah[19]

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Geography

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Location

The city is between the Qishlaq river, a tributary of the Diyala, and Mount Awidar, which separates it from the old Ardalan capital of Hasanabad.[12] Carpet making is the biggest industry in Sanandaj.[12]

Climate

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Sanandaj city center in 2021

Sanandaj has a Mediterranean climate (Csa) according to the Köppen climate classification, bordering on a humid continental climate (Dsa), with cold and wet winters and very hot and dry summers.

The synoptic station of Sanandaj started working in the autumn of 1959.[20]

Highest recorded temperature: 44°C on 16 July 1981[21]

Lowest recorded temperature: -31°C on 6 February 1974[22]

More information Climate data for Sanandaj (1991-2020, extremes 1959-2020), Month ...
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Economy

The economy of Sanandaj is based upon the production of carpets, processed hides and skins, milled rice, refined sugar, woodworking, cotton weaving, metalware and cutlery.[25][26]

Notable people

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See also

Media related to Sanandaj at Wikimedia Commons

Notes

  1. Kurdish: سنە, romanized as Senneh and Sine[4]

References

Sources

Further reading

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