Qamsar () is a city in, and the capital of,

Qamsar District Qamsar District () is in Kashan County, Isfahan province, Isfahan province, Iran. Its capital is the city of Qamsar. A mine in the area has been an important source of cobalt probably since ancient times. History After the 2011 National Cen ...

Kashan County Kashan County () is in Isfahan province, Iran. Its capital is the city of Kashan. History The etymology of the city's name comes from Kasian, the original inhabitants of the city, whose remains are found at Tapeh Sialk dating back 9,000 yea ...

Isfahan Isfahan or Esfahan ( ) is a city in the Central District (Isfahan County), Central District of Isfahan County, Isfahan province, Iran. It is the capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is located south of Tehran. The city ...

province,

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. The district is 15 km south of

Kashan Kashan (; ) is a city in the Central District (Kashan County), Central District of Kashan County, in the northern part of Isfahan province, Isfahan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. History Earlies ...

History

From the 13th century and possibly considerably earlier,

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. ...

was mined near Qamsar. The metal oxide was exported all over the Muslim world for use as the

cobalt blue Cobalt blue is a blue pigment made by sintering cobalt(II) oxide with aluminium(III) oxide (alumina) at 1200 °C. Chemically, cobalt blue pigment is cobalt(II) oxide-aluminium oxide, or cobalt(II) aluminate, CoAl2O4. Cobalt blue is lighte ...

pigment in the decoration of pottery. It is possible that the cobalt ore was also exported to China. In 1301 Abū'l-Qāsim, who came from a family of tilemakers based in

, wrote a treatise on the manufacture of

fritware Fritware, also known as stone-paste, is a type of pottery in which ground glass (frit) is added to clay to reduce its fusion temperature. The mixture may include quartz or other siliceous material. An organic compound such as gum or glue may b ...

ceramics in which he mentions the village as a source of cobalt ore.

Albert Houtum-Schindler General Sir Albert Houtum-Schindler (born 24 September 1846, the Netherlands or Germany; died 15 June 1916, Fenstanton, England) was a scholar of Persia and an employee of the Persian government. Career Educated in engineering at Leipzig Univ ...

visited the village at the end of the 19th century when Qamsar was "a large and flourishing village of about three hundred houses with extensive gardens with fine roses used for the manufacture of rosewater." Available fro
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but full view only available in the US. He described the processing and marketing of the cobalt-containing ore.

Ghamsar is host to one of the biggest festivals of Iran called

Golabgiri Golabgiri (Persian, "making rosewater") is a festival taking place annually from mid-May to mid-June in Kashan, Isfahan Province, Iran. The ceremony takes place throughout Kashan county, majorly in Ghamsar, Niasar; and in surrounding regions. Th ...

to celebrate the production of

rose water Rose water, or rosewater, is a flavoured water created by steeping rose petals in water. It is typically made as a by-product during the distillation of rose petals to create rose oil for perfumes. Rose water is widely utilized to flavour cu ...

in spring.

Demographics

Population

At the time of the 2006 National Census, the city's population was 3,566 in 1,048 households. The following census in 2011 counted 3,410 people in 1,066 households. The 2016 census measured the population of the city as 3,877 people in 1,271 households.

History

Demographics

Population

See also

Notes

References

Further reading