TheAchaemenid inscriptions of "Ganj-nameh".Golden Rhyton,Achaemenid period, excavated in Hamadan.
Hamadan province is one of the most ancient parts of Iran and its civilization. Relics of this area confirm this fact. Today's Hamedan is what is left ofEcbatana, theMedes' capital before they formed a union with the Persians. The poetFerdowsi says that Ecbatana was built by King Jamshid.
According to historical records, there was once a castle in this city by the name of Haft Hessar (Seven Walls) which was said to have a thousand rooms and its grandeur equalled that of the Babylon Tower.
The structures of city are related toDiya Aku, a King of theMedes from 700 BC. According to Greek records, this territory was called 'Ekbatan' and 'Hegmataneh' by this King, thus transformed into a huge capital.
During theParthian era,Ctesiphon became capital of Persia, and Hamedan became the summer capital and residence of the Parthian rulers. After the Parthians, theSassanids constructed their summer palaces in Hamedan as well.
In the year 633 when the war ofNahavand took place and Hamadan came into the hands of the invading Arabs, at times it thrived and at times it declined and witnessed hardships. During the reign of theBuwayhids, it suffered plenty of damage. In the 11th century, theSeljuks shifted their capital fromBaghdad to Hamadan once again.
The city of Hamadan was always at risk during the rise and fall of powers. It was completely destroyed during theTimurid invasion. However, during theSafavid era the city thrived once more. In the 18th century, Hamadan surrendered to theOttomans, but Hamadan was retaken byNader Shah Afshari, and under the peace treaty between Iran and the Ottomans it was returned to Iran.
The city of Hamadan lay on theSilk Road and even in recent centuries enjoyed good prospects in commerce and trade being on the main road network in the western region ofIran.
According to local Jewish traditions, the City of Hamedan is mentioned in theBible, as the capital of Ancient Persia in the days of KingAhasuerus in theBook of Esther. It was then known asShushan. The Tombs ofMordecai andEsther are located in modern-day Hamadan.
In the city of Hamadan itself, most people speakPersian.[6] It is also spoken in some county centers.[7][8] Persian is also used as alingua franca in other areas.[6] In the northern part of the province, most people speakAzerbaijani, and in the west, near Kermanshah and Kurdistan provinces, people speakKurdish.[6][9]Luri andLaki are also spoken in the southern areas, such as Malayer, Nahavand, andSamen.[6]
The population of Hamadan province is overwhelmingly Muslim, with 99.88% of residents being Muslims as of 1996.[11] Mostly Shia Muslim, with small populations of Sunni and Zoroastrian.
As of 1996, Hamadan province had a population of 1,667,957 people, in 342,084 households.[11] A little under half these people (about 811,000, or 48.3%) lived in urban areas.[11] About half of this group lived in the city of Hamadan itself.[11] There has been increased urbanization since the 1990s.[11] About 868,000 people lived in rural villages.[11] About 10,000 people belonged to migratory tribes that spent either the summer (9,128 people) or winter (837 people) in the province.[11] The largest tribe that summers in Hamadan province is theTork Yaram tribe, with 7,234 members, while the largest tribe that winters in the province is theTorkashvand tribe, with 608 members.[11] As of 1996, there were 1,122 rural villages in the province, with an average population of 773 people.[11] This average is over twice the national average for village size.[11] The population density was 86 people per square kilometer.[11]
Hamadan province has usually had net emigration, except during theIran-Iraq War when it took in a large number of refugees.[11] This continuing emigration partly offsets the natural growth rate due to births.[11]
Slightly over 77% of the province's population was literate as of 1996 (83.1% for men and 71.3% for women).[11] By this point, however, literacy was much higher in the younger population because access toprimary education had increased - for example, the 6-10 age group had a literacy rate of 96.2% for boys and 94.9% for girls.[11] Of the literate population, 53.3% had attended school up to the primary level, 40.2% had attended up to high school, and 4.2% had attended higher education.[11]
Average household size was 4.85 members as of 1996.[11] 67.31% of sedentary, non-communal households consisted of the head of household, spouse, and children; 9.13% consisted of a married couple with no children; 5.1% consisted of a single parent with children; and the remaining 18.5% were other types of households.[11] A total of 8.9% of households had a woman as head of household, and 81.8% of heads of households were employed.[11]
As of 1996, the province had no households living in tents, barracks, or "other makeshift forms of housing".[11] 98.8% of households had access to electricity and 82.8% had access to piped water.[11] 44.2% of households had bathrooms, but there was a significant discrepancy between urban (72.1%) and rural (14.5%) households in this regard.[11] 22.7% of households had telephones in their homes; again, this was significantly higher in urban areas (38.3%) than in rural ones (14.5%).[11] In terms of homeownership, 78.8% of households owned their houses while 10.5% were lease holders.[11]
As of 1997, the average annual urban household income was 11,707,000rials and the average expenses were 10,317,000 rials or 88% of the income.[11] For rural households, average income was 7,550,000 rials and average expenses were 6,933,000 rials or 92% of the income.[11]
At the time of the 2006 National Census, the province's population was 1,674,595 in 427,675 households.[12] The following census in 2011 counted 1,758,268 people in 506,191 households.[13] In 2014, Hamadan Province was placed inRegion 4.[14] The 2016 census measured the population of the province as 1,738,234 in 538,803 households.[3]
The current province of Hamadan used to form a part ofKermanshah Province.[6] At the 1956 census, the territory of the province belonged to four different governorships (farmān-dāri): Hamadan, Malayer, and Nahavand, and Tuyserkan.[6] By the 1966 census, the general governorship (farmān-dāri-e koll) of Hamadan had been created.[6] By the 1976 census, the general governorship had been upgraded to province status.[6]
The population history and structural changes of Hamadan province's administrative divisions over three consecutive censuses are shown in the following table.
Hamadan province is located in western Iran, in the eastern reaches of theZagros Mountains.[6] It covers about 1.2% of Iran's total land area and shares borders with six other provinces.[6] To the north, the province bordersQazvin andZanjan provinces, with theKharaqan Mountains forming a natural boundary.[6] The eastern border is withMarkazi province.[6] In the south,Mount Garu forms the natural border withLorestan province.[6] Finally, Hamadan province's western neighbors areKermanshah andKordestan provinces.[6]
In general, Hamadan province is a mountainous region.[6] TheAlvand range, just south of the city of Hamadan, forms the highest point.[6] Its summit reaches 3,580 m above sea level.[6] The lowest point in the province is 1,420 m above sea level, in the valley of theGamasiab river near Nahavand.[6] Most of the province's rivers originate in thesnowmelt on Mount Alvand and then flow north or south.[6] During the summer, when there is practically no rain, all but the largest rivers either dwindle to parched streams or dry up entirely.[6] There are two major plains in the province: one in the northeast and east, stretching from Hamadan north toAvaj in Qazvin province, and the other in the south, between Tuyserkan to Malayer.[6]
In the past, much of the current province's area was covered with light oak forests, butdeforestation in historical times has reduced the forest cover to just 4,100hectares, mostly in the valleys of Mount Alvand.[6] The vast majority of the province is currently covered by either farmland (950,000 hectares, or about 48% of its total land area) or pastures (905,000 hectares, or almost 46%).[6]
The rivers that flow north and east from Mount Alvand are largely seasonal; they carry far less water in the summer if they flow at all.[6] The main ones are theTalvar and theQarachay.[6] The Talvar is ultimately a tributary of theSafidrud, the longest river in Iran.[6] It begins on the slopes of the Kuh-e Safid, in the northwest of the province.[6] The Qarachay, which is also called the Siahrud, begins in the Alvand highlands between Hamadan and Malayer.[6] It receives several tributaries in the northern Alvand area, including theSiminarud, theKhaku, and theFarjin.[6] It then flows eastward and eventually reachesLake Qom in Markazi province.[6]
The main rivers south of the Alvand range are theGamasiab, which is another name for theKarkheh River in its upper stages, and theQelqelrud, which is itself a tributary of the Gamasiab.[6] The Gamasiab rises southeast of Nahavand, near the lowest point in the province.[6] It crosses the Nahavand plain before receiving the Malayer and Qelqelrud as tributaries and eventually crosses the Zagros to the southwest.[6]
The most important dam in the province is theEkbatan Dam (formerly called the Shahnaz Dam), which was built in 1963 on theYalfan River some 10 km southeast of Hamadan.[6] Its reservoir has a capacity of 12 million cubic meters and it provides 2,400 liters of water per second, which is mostly used for agricultural irrigation.[6]
Hamadan province typically has relatively long, cold winters and mild summers.[6] There are usually between 120 and 140 days of frost throughout the year, and mountains are snow-covered for 6–8 months of the year.[6] Temperature extremes range from -32 °C in winter to 39 °C in summer, but average temperatures usually range between -4 °C in December and 25 °C in July.[6] The weather is generally milder the further south one goes.[6] During the winter, the northern plains are exposed to strong winds that blow 4 meters per second on average.[6] These winds are humid and are also accompanied by rainfall.[6] The province receives above-average rainfall, typically averaging 315 mm in a year.[6] Almost no rain falls during the summer, between June and September.[6]
In the valleys between the province's mountains, there are springs and small lakes that form "semi-autonomous ecosystems" as home formigratory birds.[6] For example, the seasonal marsh of Talab-e Aqgol, 20 km south of Malayer, is visited by 10 to 20 thousand birds every year during their route from the wetlands ofSiberia andScandinavia to warmer regions.[6] These birds live here for 4 to 5 months out of the year.[6] Among the birds that take part in this migration aregeese,ducks,herons,cranes, andaigrettes.[6]
Because of its above-average rainfall and easy access to water, Hamadan province has a prosperous agricultural base, and agriculture forms its largest economic sector.[6] The province contains 1.2% of the country's total land area, but 4.5% of its total farmland.[6] There are about 950,000hectares of farmland in Hamadan province, which makes up about 48% of its total area.[6] About a third of this farmland is irrigated, while the remaining two-thirds is underdry farming (in Persian:deym) and has far lower crop yields.[6] About 2.2 to 2.6 million tons of agricultural produce are produced annually in Hamadan province, which is about 4.8% of the country's total.[6] By far the largest crop in terms of area sown iswheat, withbarley in a distant second.[6]Potatoes andsugar beets, though sown over a smaller area, have extremely high yields per hectare and as a result make up large shares of the province's produce.[6] About 6.1% of the total farmland isorchards.[6]
Major agricultural products in Hamadan province (as of 1998)[6]
Hamadan province is rich in mineral resources.[6] It is the biggest source ofgranite in the country, and it also has reserves oflimestone,lead,iron ore, andzinc.[6] As of 1998, the province had 142 active mines, including 52sandstone mines, 36silica mines, 19ballas mines, 14 limestone mines, and 13 gemstone mines.[6] In 2023, Ebrahim Ali Molla-Beigi, director general of the Exploration Affairs Office of the Iranian Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade announced the discovery of 8.5 million tons of Lithium reserves in the province.[17]
Small-scalehandicraft industry is well-established in the province.[6] Some of the more prominent trades includetanning, carpet weaving, ceramics production, and knitting.[6] As of 1995, there were 266 large-scale factories in the province, employing 8,620 people.[6] These larger factories produce things like agricultural and construction machinery,aluminum products, andsteel.[6]Food processing facilities include dairy products, canned fruits, sugar, and soft drinks.[6] Textiles, plastics, and household goods are also produced in the province.[6]
TheIran National Heritage List lists 442 sites of historical and cultural significance located in Hamadan, thus making the province a rich one in terms of historical attractions.
^Davodi, Parviz (9 June 1392) [Approved 3 March 1388].Letter of approval regarding national divisions in Hamadan province.rc.majlis.ir (Report) (in Persian). Ministry of the Interior, Council of Ministers. Proposal 4/1/42/185908; Notification 81785/42296AH. Archived fromthe original on 30 August 2013. Retrieved12 February 2024 – via Research Center of the System of Laws of the Islamic Council of the Farabi Library of Mobile Users.
