Khorramshahr (; ) is a city in the Central District of Khorramshahr County,

Khuzestan Khuzestan province () is one of the 31 Provinces of Iran. Located in the southwest of the country, the province borders Iraq and the Persian Gulf, covering an area of . Its capital is the city of Ahvaz. Since 2014, it has been part of Iran's ...

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 ...

, serving as capital of both the county and the district. It is also known in Arabic by the local

ethnically An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, rel ...

Arab

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

as Al-Muhammarah (). 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 publ ...

city located approximately north of

Abadan Abadan (; ) is a city in the Central District (Abadan County), Central District of Abadan County, Khuzestan province, Khuzestan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. The city is in the southwest of the coun ...

. The city extends to the right bank of the

Shatt Al Arab The Shatt al-Arab () is a river about in length that is formed at the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the town of al-Qurnah in the Basra Governorate of southern Iraq. The southern end of the river constitutes the Iran–Ira ...

waterway near its confluence with the

Haffar Haffar is a canal in Iran. 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 ...

arm of the

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

river. The city was destroyed in the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War, also known as the First Gulf War, was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. Active hostilities began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for nearly eight years, unti ...

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

History

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

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

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

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

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

Parthia Parthia ( ''Parθava''; ''Parθaw''; ''Pahlaw'') is a historical region located in northeastern Greater Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Medes during the 7th century BC, was incorporated into the subsequent Achaemeni ...

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''; ''Deylamiyān'') were an Iranian people inhabiting the Daylam—the mountainous regions of northern Iran on the southwest coast of the Caspian Sea, now comprising the southeastern ...

Buwayhid The Buyid dynasty or Buyid Empire was a Zaydi and later Twelver Shi'a dynasty of Daylamite origin. Founded by Imad al-Dawla, they mainly ruled over central and southern Iran and Iraq from 934 to 1062. Coupled with the rise of other Iranian dyna ...

king, Panah Khusraw

Adud ad-Dawlah Fannā (Panāh) Khusraw (), better known by his laqab of ʿAḍud al-Dawla (; 24 September 936 – 26 March 983) was an emir of the Buyid dynasty, ruling from 949 to 983. At the height of his power, he ruled an empire stretching from Makran ...

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 (, ) 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 Bahamanshir served ...

channel) to the

Shatt al-Arab The Shatt al-Arab () is a river about in length that is formed at the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the town of al-Qurnah in the Basra Governorate of southern Iraq. The southern end of the river constitutes the Iran– ...

(the joint estuary of the

Tigris The Tigris ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the eastern 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 Desert, Syrian and Arabia ...

and

Euphrates The Euphrates ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of West Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia (). Originati ...

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 Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

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. It was the capital of the Sheikdom of Muhammara, and 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 that were ratified in 1823 and 1847 which settled boundary disputes between the Ottoman Empire and Persia. First Treaty of 1823 Throughout history, there has been a constant primary concern of establish ...

), Khorramshahr was alternately claimed and occupied by

Persia 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 ...

and Turkey. Its

ruler A ruler, sometimes called a rule, scale, line gauge, or metre/meter stick, is an instrument used to make length measurements, whereby a length is read from a series of markings called "rules" along an edge of the device. Usually, the instr ...

at the time was an Arab

sheikh Sheikh ( , , , , ''shuyūkh'' ) is an honorific title in the Arabic language, literally meaning "elder (administrative title), elder". It commonly designates a tribal chief or a Muslim ulama, scholar. Though this title generally refers to me ...

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.

Demographics

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, also known as Modern Mandaic, sometimes called the "''ratna''" ( "jargon"), is the modern reflex of the Mandaic language, the liturgical language of the Mandaean religious community of Iraq and Iran. Although severely endangere ...

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

Population

At the time of the 2006 National Census, the city's population was 123,866 in 26,385 households. The following census in 2011 counted 129,418 people in 33,623 households. The 2016 census measured the population of the city as 133,097 people in 37,124 households.

Language

The linguistic composition of the city:

Notable people

Majid Bishkar Majid Beshkar (; born ) is a retired Iranian professional footballer. He is best known for his contributions towards the Indian football clubs East Bengal and Mohammedan, both based in the city of Kolkata, West Bengal. He was popularly known as ...

(b. 1956), Iranian football legend, played at the

1978 FIFA World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It wa ...

Mohsen Chavoshi Mohsen Chavoshi Hosseini ( (); born 30 July 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''. Early life Chavoshi was born in ...

(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 The santur ( ; ) is a hammered dulcimer of Iranian origin.--- Rashid, Subhi Anwar (1989). ''Al-ʼĀlāt al-musīqīyya al-muṣāhiba lil-Maqām al-ʻIrāqī''. Baghdad: Matbaʻat al-ʻUmmāl al-Markazīyya. History The santur was invented ...

. * Meguertitch Khan Davidkhanian (1902–1983), former

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

* Abdolreza Helali (b. 1981), Iranian Maddah * Mohsen Rastani (b. 1958), Iranian photographer,

photojournalist Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (suc ...

* Siamak Yassemi (b. 1959) is an Iranian Mathematician. In 2018 he was elected by

The World Academy of Sciences The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS) is a North–south research partnerships, merit-based science academy established for developing countries, uniting more than 1,400 scientists in some 1 ...

as a fellow member. That would make him the first Iranian mathematician who's ever been a member of

TWAS The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS) is a merit-based science academy established for developing countries, uniting more than 1,400 scientists in some 100 countries. Its principal aim is t ...

. In 2019 he was named Chevalier of the

Ordre des Palmes Académiques A suite, in Western classical music, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes; and grew in scope so that by the early 17th century it comprised up to ...

for distinguished effort on extended multi-dimensional cooperation, including scientific research projects (Jundi-Shapur), student-and professor- exchanges, and several schools and conferences.

Notes

References

External links

Khorramshahr.net

About Spoken Arabic of Khoramshahr

Liberation of Khorramshahr, Triumph of True Faith
{{Khorramshahr County, state=collapsed Populated places in Khorramshahr County Cities in Khuzestan province Port cities and towns in Iran Former ghost towns Arab settlements in Khuzestan province