Sanandaj's founding is fairly recent, (about 250 years ago), yet in its short existence it has grown to become one of the centers ofKurdish culture.[7][8] During theIran–Iraq War the city was attacked by Iraqi planes and saw disturbances.[9] Since 2019, UNESCO has recognized Sanandaj as Creative City of Music.[10]
The name "Sinna" first appears in records from the 14th century CE.[11] Before this, the main city in the region wasSisar, whose exact location is unknown.[11] 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".[11]
The name "Sisar" disappears in the 14th century and the name "Sinna" replaces it, for example in the works ofHamdallah Mustawfi who refers to a mountain and a pass with this name.[11] Then the Kurdish historianSharaf al-Din Bitlisi mentions that in 1580 anArdalan ruler named Timur Khan had a land grant including Sinna and the earlier Ardalan capital ofHasanabad.[12] However, the local historian Ali-Akbar Munshi Waqayi-Nigar wrote in 1892/3 that Sinna was founded later, by the rulerSoleyman Khan Ardalan, on the site of an earlier settlement; thechronogram he gives for this event corresponds to 1046AH, or 1636-7 CE.[12]
Sinna was developed significantly under the reign of Aman Allah "the Great" (from 1797-1825).[12] 19th-century Sinna was "a lively commercial center, exportingoak galls,tragacanth, furs, and carpets".[12] Its population was mostlyKurdish, with a significantJewish minority and smaller numbers ofArmenian andAssyrian Christians (the latter of which are predominantlyChaldean Catholic).[12]
The population of Sanandaj is mainlyKurdish. The city also had anArmenian minority who gradually emigrated from the city. Until theIranian Revolution (1979), the city had a smallAramaic-speakingJewish community of about 4,000 people.[7] The city boasted a sizableAssyrian community that spoke a unique dialect of Aramaic calledSenaya, they are mostly members of theChaldean Catholic Church.[13]
At the time of the 2006 National Census, the city's population was 311,446 in 81,380 households.[17] The following census in 2011 counted 373,987 people in 106,771 households.[18] The 2016 census measured the population of the city as 412,767 people in 126,240 households.[3]
The city is the second largest Kurdish city in Iran, behindKermanshah.[19]
The city is between theQishlaq river, a tributary of theDiyala, and Mount Awidar, which separates it from the oldArdalan capital ofHasanabad.[12] Carpet making is the biggest industry in Sanandaj.[12]
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.[25][26]
In Sanandaj, there is a combined cycle power plant with a capacity of 1000 megawatts, a petrochemical plant, a tractor manufacturing plant, a tire manufacturing plant, a tile and ceramic manufacturing plant, a pasteurized milk manufacturing plant, and hundreds of other factories.
There is also an international airport in Sanandaj.
In Sanandaj, there are two 5-star hotels, Laleh Hotel and Jin Plus Hotel, two 4-star hotels, Shadi Hotel and Shahu Hotel, and two 3-star hotels, Jahangardi Hotel and Farhangian Hotel.
The world's largest open-air cinema is located in Abidar Forest Park.
Zhina Modares Gorji is a local bookseller and podcaster who was sentenced to over twenty years in Sanandaj prison on several charges. The sentence was reduced on appeal to two years and four months for "propaganda against the state" in 2024.[27]
^BC.Diakonoff, I. M. (1985), "Media", The Cambridge History of Iran, 2 (Edited by Ilya Gershevitch ed.), Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press,ISBN978-0-521-20091-2
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