Salmas

Salmas ( fa, سلماس; ; ; ; syr, ܣܵܠܵܡܵܣ, Salamas) is the capital of Salmas County, West Azerbaijan Province in Iran. It is located northwest of Lake Urmia, near Turkey. According to the 2019 census, the city's population is 127,864. The majority of the population is composed of Azerbaijanis and Kurds with some Armenians, Assyrians, and Jews.

History

Etymology and early history

According to Encyclopædia Britannica the earliest historic recognition of Salmas could be found at the time of Ardashir I's reign (224–242 AD) via a petroglyph of him on horseback while receiving surrender of the Parthian personage. In another contribution by Britannica, on an animated political map of Sassanid Empire at the time of Shapur I's reign (240–270 AD), Salmas is markedly acknowledged as one of the renown and apparently important cities of the empire with the same original name as now. There is a speculation that the nickname of the city, Shapur, might be derived from the name of this king (of kings) of Persia.

Salmas was held by the Kurdish Rawadid dynasty and frequented by the Hadhabani tribe in the 10-11th centuries. Al-Maqdisi described it as a Kurdish town who had built a wall around the city.

Another Mention of the city was made in 1281, when its Assyrian bishop made the trip to the consecration of the Assyrian Church of the East patriarch Yaballaha in Baghdad.Houtsma, M. Th. ''et al''. (1993 reprint) "Salmas" ''E. J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913–1936'' Volume 4, E.J. Brill, New York
page 118

In the Battle of Salmas on 17–18 September 1429, the Kara Koyunlu were defeated by Shah Rukh who was consolidating Timurid holdings west of Lake Urmia. However, the area was retaken by the Kara Koyunlu in 1447 after the death of Shah Rukh.

In March 1915 Cevdet Bey ordered 800 Assyrians of Salmas to be killed.'''' Mar Shimun, the Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East was murdered by the Kurdish chieftain Simko Shikak in Salmas in March 1918.

Around the advent of the 1910s, Imperial Russia started to station infantry and Cossacks in Salmas. The Russians retreated at the time of Enver Pasha's offensive in the Iran-Caucasus region, but returned in early 1916, and stayed up to the wake of the Russian Revolution.

Geography

Salmas in early atlases

The atlases below are some of the earliest maps to have been ever sketched to show the territory and originality of the name of Salmas and are some of the strongest documents providing proofs to some basic facts about the city including its existence and identity.

File:Salmas in Circa1700-Circa1720 Homann Map of "Persian Empire" - Jomann Imperium Periscum.jpg, Salmas in 1724 Homann Map of "Persian Empire" at the Time of Safavid dynasty • Modified by Hassan Jahangiri
File:Salmas in 1730 Ottens Map of the "Persian Empire" - Geographicus; RegnumPersicum - Ottens 1730.jpg, Salmas in 1730 Reiner and Joshua Ottens Map of the "Persian Empire" at the Time of Safavid dynasty • Modified by Hassan Jahangiri
File:Salmas in 1747 Emanuel Bowen Map of the "Persian Empire at the Time of Afsharid Dynasty".jpg, Salmas in 1747 Bowen Map of the "Persian Empire" at the Time of Afsharid dynasty • Modified by Hassan Jahangiri
File:Salmas in 1814 Thomson Map of the "Persian Empire".jpg, Salmas in 1814 Thomson Map of the "Persian Empire" at the Time of Qajar dynasty • Modified by Hassan Jahangiri
File:"Salmas" Zoom-Highlighted in 1818 Pinkerton Map of "Turkey in Asia, Iraq, Syria, and Palestine" - Geographicus - TurkeyAsia-pinkerton-1818.jpg, Salmas in 1818 Pinkerton Map of "Turkey in Asia, Iraq, Syria, and Palestine" (Concurred with the Time of Qajar dynasty) • Modified by Hassan Jahangiri

Climate

Under the Köppen climate classification, using the isotherm, Salmas features a continental climate (''Dsa''), and is thus the one of the few cities in the Middle East and one of the 6 in the country with this categorization.

Notable people

* Esfandiar Imanzadeh (b. 1966) – Sculptor
* Stepanos V of Salmast (d. 1567) – Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church
* Yohannan Gabriel (1758–1833) – Chaldean Catholic bishop of Salmas
* Nicholas I Zaya (d. 1855) – Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans
* Raffi (1835–1888) – Armenian novelist
* Paul Bedjan (1838–1920) – Chaldean Catholic priest and orientalist
* Abraham Guloyan (1893–1983) – Politician
* Murad Kostanyan (1902–1989) – Actor
* Hossein Sadaghiani (1903-1982) - The first ever manager and head coach of Iran national football team (1941-1951) and the first ever Iranian soccer player to play for foreign clubs (R. Charleroi S.C. and Fenerbahce SK) and in a European league
* Ardeshir Ovanessian (c. 1905–1990) – Communist leader
* Timur Lakestani (1915–2011) – aka Father of Iranian Electrical Industry
* Jafar Salmasi (1918–2000) – weightlifter
* Emmanuel Agassi (1930–2021) – boxer and father of Andre Agassi
* Hadi Asghari (b. 1981) – football player

Gallery

File:Salmas_Overal.jpg, Overall View of Imam St. and Shahrdari Sq.
File:Salmas_Blvd.jpg, Islamic Republic Blvd., Near Panahi Technical School
File:Khan Takhti-Rd top view.JPG, Khan Takhti-Rd near Salmas
File:Haftvan Church 002.jpg, The Haftvan Church
File:Chaldean Catholic Church in Salmas.jpg, Chaldean Catholic Church in Salmas
File:بیمارستان خاتم الانبیاء.jpg,
File:Salmas -city.jpg, Salmas
File:Salmas_Payer_House.jpg, An angled front view of Salmas Imam Khomeini Prayer House, 2017
File:Salmas_Nation_Park_in_a_Winter_Night.jpg, A view of Nation Park in a Winter night, 2016

See also

* 1930 Salmas earthquake
* Nor Shirakan
* Battle of Dilman
*Assyrian homeland
*Khoy Khanate

References

Sources

*

External links

Salmas famous people"Salmas Map – Satellite Images of Salmas"
Maplandia

{{Salmas County

Populated places in Salmas County
Cities in West Azerbaijan Province
Mass murder in 1915
Kurdish settlements in West Azerbaijan Province