Khorramshahr ( fa, خرمشهر , also romanized as ''Khurramshahr'', ar, المحمرة, romanized as ''Al-Muhammerah'') is a city and capital of

Khorramshahr County Khorramshahr County ( fa, شهرستان خرمشهر) is located in Khuzestan province, Iran. The capital of the county is Khorramshahr Khorramshahr ( fa, خرمشهر , also Romanization, romanized as ''Khurramshahr'', ar, المحمرة ...

Khuzestan Province Khuzestan Province (also spelled Xuzestan; fa, استان خوزستان ''Ostān-e Xūzestān'') is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the southwest of the country, bordering Iraq and the Persian Gulf. Its capital is Ahvaz and it covers ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. At the 2016 census, its population was 170,976, in 47,380 households. Khorramshahr is an

inland port An inland port is a port on an inland waterway, such as a river, lake, or canal, which may or may not be connected to the sea. The term "inland port" is also used to refer to a dry port. Examples The United States Army Corps of Engineers pub ...

city located approximately north of Abadan. The city extends to the right bank of the

Shatt Al Arab Shatt may refer to: *the Shatt people *the Shatt language *the Shatt al-Arab river, which empties into the Persian Gulf *Chott In geology, a chott, shott, or shatt (; ar, شط, šaṭṭ, lit=bank, coast) is a salt lake in Africa's Maghreb that ...

waterway near its confluence with the

Haffar During the early Islamic centuries, the Daylamite Buwayhid king, Panah Khusraw Adud ad-Dawlah, ordered the digging of a canal to join the Karun River, which at the time emptied independently into the Persian Gulf through the Bahmanshir channe ...

arm of the

Karun The Karun ( fa, کارون, ) is the Iranian river with the highest water flow, and its only navigable river. It is long. It rises in the Zard Kuh mountains of the Bakhtiari district in the Zagros Range, receiving many tributaries, such as t ...

river. The city was destroyed in the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Ba'athist Iraq, Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations S ...

, with the 1986 census recording a population of zero. However, Khorramshahr was rebuilt after the war, and more recent censuses show that the population has returned to its approximate pre-war level.

History

The area where the city exists today was originally under the waters of the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bod ...

. It later became part of the vast marshlands and the tidal flats at the mouth of the

Karun River The Karun ( fa, کارون, ) is the Iranian river with the highest water flow, and its only navigable river. It is long. It rises in the Zard Kuh mountains of the Bakhtiari district in the Zagros Range, receiving many tributaries, such a ...

. The small town known as ''Piyan'', and later ''Bayan'' appeared in the area no sooner than the late

Parthia Parthia ( peo, 𐎱𐎼𐎰𐎺 ''Parθava''; xpr, 𐭐𐭓𐭕𐭅 ''Parθaw''; pal, 𐭯𐭫𐭮𐭥𐭡𐭥 ''Pahlaw'') is a historical region located in northeastern Greater Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Med ...

n time in the first century AD. Whether or not this was located at the same spot where Khurramshahr is today, is highly debatable. During the Islamic centuries, the

Daylamite The Daylamites or Dailamites (Middle Persian: ''Daylamīgān''; fa, دیلمیان ''Deylamiyān'') were an Iranian people inhabiting the Daylam—the mountainous regions of northern Iran on the southwest coast of the Caspian Sea, now comprisin ...

Buwayhid king, Panah Khusraw

Adud ad-Dawlah Fannā (Panāh) Khusraw ( fa, پناه خسرو), better known by his laqab of ʿAḍud al-Dawla ( ar, عضد الدولة, "Pillar of the bbasidDynasty") (September 24, 936 – March 26, 983) was an emir of the Buyid dynasty, ruling from ...

ordered the digging of a canal to join the Karun River (which at the time emptied independently into the Persian Gulf through the

Bahmanshir The Bahmanshir channel ( fa, بهمن‌شیر, ) is a secondary estuary of the Karun River that parallels the Shatt al-Arab/Arvand Rud waterway on the far side of the Abadan Island, Iran, for 70 miles before emptying into the Persian Gulf. The ...

channel) to the Shatt al-Arab (the joint estuary of the

Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...

and

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers''). Originating in Turkey, the Eup ...

rivers, known in Iran as ''Arvand Rud''). The extra water made the joint estuary more reliably navigable. The channel thus created was known as the

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

for "excavated," "dugout," which exactly described what the channel was. The Haffar soon became the main channel of the

, as it is in the present day. Until 1847, at which time it became Persian territory (according to Article II of the

Treaty of Erzurum The Treaties of Erzurum were two treaties of 1823 and 1847 that settled boundary disputes between the Ottoman Empire and Persia. First Treaty Although the Treaty of Zuhab in 1639 had established the boundary between Ottoman Empire and Persia, t ...

), Khorramshahr was alternately claimed and occupied by

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

and Turkey. Its

ruler A ruler, sometimes called a rule, line gauge, or scale, is a device used in geometry and technical drawing, as well as the engineering and construction industries, to measure distances or draw straight lines. Variants Rulers have long ...

at the time was an Arab sheikh.

Iran–Iraq War

Because of the war, the population of Khorramshahr dropped from 146,706 in the 1976 census to 0 in the 1986 census. The population reached 34,750 in the 1991 census and by the 2006 census it reached 123,866, and according to World Gazetteer its population as of 2012 is 138,398, making the population close to what it was before the war.

Mandaean community

Khorramshahr is home to a Mandaean community. It is one of the last remaining locations in the world where

Neo-Mandaic Neo-Mandaic, sometimes called the "''ratna''" ( ar, رطنة ''raṭna'' "jargon"), is the modern reflex of the Mandaic language, the liturgical language of the Mandaean religious community of Iraq and Iran. Although severely endangered, it sur ...

is still spoken. There are only a few hundred speakers of the Khorramshahr dialect of Neo-Mandaic.

Notable people

* Meguertitch Khan Davidkhanian (b. 1902), former

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

* Majid Bishkar (b. 1956), Iranian football legend, played at the 1978 FIFA World Cup *

Mohsen Rastani Mohsen Rastani (born 6 January 1958) is an Iranian photographer and photojournalist. He mainly makes photographs of people on a black-and-white basis with a white background. Career Rastani was born on 6 January 1958 in Khorramshahr. He returned t ...

(b. 1958), Iranian photographer, photojournalist *

Mohsen chavoshi Mohsen Chavoshi Hosseini ( fa, محسن چاوشی, ku, موحسن چاوشی; born 30 July 1979) is an Iranian Kurds, Kurdish musician, singer, record producer and songwriter, based in Tehran. He has released ten albums including a soundtrack t ...

(b. 1979) is an Iranian musician, singer, record producer and songwriter, based in Tehran. He has released ten albums including a soundtrack to the 2007 film Santouri.

References

External links

Khorramshahr.net

About Spoken Arabic of Khoramshahr

Liberation of Khorramshahr, Triumph of True Faith
{{Authority control Populated places in Khorramshahr County Cities in Khuzestan Province Port cities and towns in Iran Former ghost towns