Sanandaj ( Persian: سنندج, ; ku, سنە, Sine, often romanized as Senneh, is the capital of Kurdistan Province in Iran. With a population of 414,069, Sanandaj is the twenty third largest city in Iran and the second largest Kurdish city. Sanandaj's founding is fairly recent, (about 250 years ago), yet under its short existence it has grown to become one of the centers of Kurdish culture.Geoffrey Khan, The Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Sanandaj, Piscataway NJ: Gorgias Press, p. 1. During the Iraq-Iran War the city was attacked by Iraqi planes and saw disturbances. From 2019 UNESCO has recognized Sineh (Sanandaj) as Creative City of Music. The city is located between the Qishlaq river, a tributary of the Diyala, and Mount Awidar, which separates it from the old Ardalan capital of Hasanabad. Carpet making is the biggest industry in Sanandaj.

History

The name "Sinna" first appears in records from the 14th century CE. Before this, the main city in the region was Sisar, whose exact location is unknown. 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". The name "Sisar" disappears in the 14th century and the name "Sinna" replaces it, for example in the works of

Hamdallah Mustawfi Hamdallah Mustawfi Qazvini ( fa, حمدالله مستوفى قزوینی, Ḥamdallāh Mustawfī Qazvīnī; 1281 – after 1339/40) was a Persian official, historian, geographer and poet. He lived during the last era of the Mongol Ilkhanate, a ...

who refers to a mountain and a pass with this name. Then the Kurdish historian

Sharaf al-Din Bitlisi Sharaf al-Din Khan b. Shams al-Din b. Sharaf Beg Bedlisi ( Kurdish: شەرەفخانی بەدلیسی, ''Şerefxanê Bedlîsî''; fa, شرف‌الدین خان بن شمس‌الدین بن شرف بیگ بدلیسی; 25 February 1543 – ) wa ...

mentions that in 1580 an Ardalan ruler named Timur Khan had a land grant including Sinna and the earlier Ardalan capital of Hasanabad. However, the local historian Ali-Akbar Munshi Waqayi-Nigar wrote in 1892/3 that Sinna was founded later, by the ruler

Soleyman Khan Ardalan Soleyman Khan Ardalan was the Ardalan ''beglerbeg'' (governor) of Kurdistan from 1637 to 1657. He is notable for having founded the city of Sanandaj in 1636/37, which would serve as the capital of the Ardalan principality until its dissolution in t ...

, on the site of an earlier settlement; the chronogram he gives for this event corresponds to 1046 AH, or 1636-7 CE. Sinna was developed significantly under the reign of Aman Allah "the Great" (from 1797-1825). 19th-century Sinna was "a lively commercial center, exporting

oak gall Oak apple or oak gall is the common name for a large, round, vaguely apple-like gall commonly found on many species of oak. Oak apples range in size from in diameter and are caused by chemicals injected by the larva of certain kinds of gall w ...

s, tragacanth, furs, and carpets". Its population was mostly Kurdish, with a significant Jewish minority and smaller numbers of Armenian and

Chaldean Catholic , native_name_lang = syc , image = Assyrian Church.png , imagewidth = 200px , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows Baghdad, Iraq , abbreviation = , type ...

Christians.

People

The population of Sanandaj is mainly Kurdish. The city also had an Armenian minority who gradually emigrated from the city. Until the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dyna ...

(1979), the city had a small Aramaic-speaking Jewish community of about 4,000 people. The city boasted a sizable

Assyrian Assyrian may refer to: * Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia. * Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire. ** Early Assyrian Period ** Old Assyrian Period ** Middle Assyrian Empire ** Neo-Assyrian Empire * Assyri ...

community that spoke a unique dialect of Aramaic called

Senaya Senaya or Sanandaj Christian Neo-Aramaic is a dialect of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic originally spoken by Christians in Sanandaj, Iranian Kurdistan. Most speakers now live in California, United States and few families still live in Tehran, Ira ...

, they are mostly members of the

Chaldean Catholic Church , native_name_lang = syc , image = Assyrian Church.png , imagewidth = 200px , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows Baghdad, Iraq , abbreviation = , type ...

. 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. Most of the people of Sanandaj follow the Shafi‘i branch of

Sunni Islam Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disag ...

Language

The linguistic composition of the city:

Climate

Sanandaj has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freez ...

(''Dsa'') according to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

with cold and wet winters and hot and dry summers.

References

Sources

External links

Sanandaj

Sanandaj Online Community

Islamic Azad University of sanandaj
{{Use dmy dates, date=April 2017 Towns and villages in Sanandaj County Iranian provincial capitals Cities in Kurdistan Province Assyrian settlements Kurdish settlements in Kurdistan Province