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

Gilan province Gilan Province () is one of the 31 provinces of Iran, in the northwest of the country and southwest of the Caspian Sea. Its capital is the city of Rasht. The province lies along the Caspian Sea, in Iran's Regions of Iran, Region 3, west of ...

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.

Etymology

Its name (meaning "by the river" in Persian) is a reference to the river Sepid Rood (Sepid Roud) that passes by the city. Rudbar is also called "Roodbar Zeitoun (

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...

)" for the olive gardens in the area.

History

The civilization of Rudbar and its surroundings date back to about 3000 years BCE. The Marlik bowl, a famous archeological artifact and one of the oldest gold bowls in the world from 1st millennium BC, was found there. With the advent of

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

, tribes from

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

and

Halab Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

(Aleppo) immigrated and became settlers there. Later, Nizari Isma'ili ''da'i'' made inroads and eventually established an

Assassin Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

stronghold. During the reign of

Nader Shah Nader Shah Afshar (; 6 August 1698 or 22 October 1688 – 20 June 1747) was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran and one of the most powerful rulers in Iranian history, ruling as shah of Iran (Persia) from 1736 to 1747, when he was a ...

, groups from the

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

Quchan Quchan (; ) is a city in the Central District of Quchan County, Razavi Khorasan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. It is approximately 97 km south of the border city of Ashgabat, capital city of ...

and areas of northern Khorasan also settled there. Rudbar was near the epicenter of the 1990 Manjil–Rudbar earthquake of magnitude 7.3 on the

Richter scale The Richter scale (), also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale, is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Richter in collaboration with Beno Gutenberg, and pr ...

(MS=7.7, MW=7.3, mb=6.4) at 12:31am local time on 21 June 1990, that killed around 50,000 and injured 100,000 city residents.ReliefWeb Report of Earthquake
''

ReliefWeb ReliefWeb (RW) is a humanitarian information portal founded in 1996. , it hosts more than one million humanitarian situation reports, press releases, evaluations, guidelines, assessments, maps and infographics. The portal is an independent sourc ...

'', June 1990 Despite reconstruction, it has not fully recovered.

Demographics

Language and ethnicity

Main language there is the Roudbari Language, a subdivision of Mard indigenous language. There are several dialects and ethnicities in Gilan who have either their own language from South Caspies or slight variations to the way they speak. Some of these "sub-dialects" of Gilaki are Rashti, Some’e Sarai, Eastern Gilaki (Lahijan, Langerud, Rudesar, Amlash, chaboksar). The majority of the people in Rudbar are Mards, and a minority are Talysh. They speak the

Talysh Language Talysh (, , ) is a Northwestern Iranian languages, Northwestern Iranian language spoken in the northern regions of the Iranian provinces of Gilan Province, Gilan and Ardabil Province, Ardabil and the southern regions of the Republic of Azerbaij ...

and Gilaki.

Population

At the time of the 2006 National Census, the city's population was 11,454 in 3,303 households. The following census in 2011 counted 10,926 people in 3,406 households. The 2016 census measured the population of the city as 10,504 people in 3,559 households.

Geography

Rudbar is located south of

Rasht Rasht (; ) is a city in the Central District (Rasht County), Central District of Rasht County, Gilan province, Gilan province, Iran, serving as the capital of the province, the county, and the district. The city is also known as the "City of ...

, and is away from

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

. It is located on the fringes of a valley through which the Sepid River (Sepidrood in Persian, Esparoo in Rudbari language) flows, and has a variable climate. Rudbar can be considered as a gateway to Gilan province from central Iran.

Climate

Economy

Rudbar's local economy notably includes olives and olive-based products. Groves of olive trees surround the city. Olive oil is produced locally. Rudbar is also known for its cream-hued, handcrafted carpets of fine quality. Despite the olive gardens that may suggest presence of a Mediterranean climate, the winters are very cold in the area. The winds in the Sepid Rood valley (

Manjil Manjil () is a city in the Central District (Rudbar County), Central District of Rudbar County, Gilan province, Gilan province, Iran. History Throughout its history Manjil has been a gate to the southern Caspian Sea region. There are numero ...

) are well known in the country.

Notes

References

* Book of Amarlu – M.M.Zand {{Rudbar County, state=collapsed Cities in Gilan province Populated places in Rudbar County Settled areas of Elburz Populated places destroyed by earthquakes ro:Roudbar