Khorramshahr is an
inland port city located approximately 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) north of
Abadan. The city extends to the right bank of the
Shatt Al Arab waterway near its confluence with the
Haffar arm of the
Karun river. The city was destroyed in the
Iran–Iraq War, with the 1986 census recording a population of zero. However, 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. It later became part of the vast marshlands and the tidal flats at the mouth of the
Karun River. The small town known as Piyan, and later Bayan appeared in the area no sooner than the late
Parthian 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
DaylamiteBuwayhid 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 the
Bahmanshir channel) to the
Shatt al-Arab (the joint estuary of the
Tigris and
Euphrates 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
Haffar,
Arabic for "excavated," "dugout," which exactly described what the channel was. The Haffar soon became the main channel of the
Karun, 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), Khorramshahr was alternately claimed and occupied by
Persia and Turkey. Its
ruler at the time was an Arab
sheikh.[6]
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.[7]
Demographics
Mandaean community
Khorramshahr is home to a
Mandaean community. It is one of the last remaining locations in the world where
Neo-Mandaic is still spoken. There are only a few hundred speakers of the Khorramshahr dialect of Neo-Mandaic.[8]
Population
At the time of the 2006 National Census, the city's population was 123,866 in 26,385 households.[9] The following census in 2011 counted 129,418 people in 33,623 households.[10] The 2016 census measured the population of the city as 133,097 people in 37,124 households.[2]
Mohsen Chavoshi (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.
Siamak Yassemi (b. 1959) is an Iranian Mathematician. In 2018 he was elected by
The World Academy of Sciences as a fellow member. That would make him the first Iranian mathematician who's ever been a member of
TWAS. In 2019 he was named Chevalier of the
Ordre des Palmes Académiques for distinguished effort on extended multi-dimensional cooperation, including scientific research projects (Jundi-Shapur), student-and professor- exchanges, and several schools and conferences.
See also
Media related to
Khorramshahr at Wikimedia Commons
^Khorramshahr can be found at
GEOnet Names Server, at
this link, by opening the Advanced Search box, entering "-3071225" in the "Unique Feature Id" form, and clicking on "Search Database".