Hamadan province

Hamadan Province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran, situated in the Zagros Mountains and covering an area of 19,546 square kilometers. Its capital, the city of Hamadan, occupies the site of Ecbatana, the ancient capital of the Medes built before their union with the Persians. According to the poet Ferdowsi, Ecbatana was founded by the legendary King Jamshid. Historical records describe a castle in the city called Haft Hessar, said to have a thousand rooms and comparable grandeur to the Tower of Babylon.

The city’s structures are linked to Diya Aku, a Median king from around 700 BC, who according to Greek sources transformed the settlement into a vast capital known as Ekbatan or Hegmataneh. During the Parthian era, while Ctesiphon served as Persia’s main capital, Hamadan became the summer capital and residence for Parthian rulers, a tradition continued by the Sassanids who built summer palaces there. After the Arab conquest following the war of Nahavand in 633, the province experienced periods of prosperity and decline.

It suffered damage under the Buwayhids, and in the 11th century, the Seljuks moved their capital from Baghdad back to Hamadan. The city was completely destroyed during the Timurid invasion but revived under the Safavids. In the 18th century, it was surrendered to the Ottomans before being retaken by Nader Shah Afshari and returned to Iran by treaty.

Language

Lying on the Silk Road and major western trade routes, Hamadan has long been a commercial center. Local Jewish tradition identifies the city with Shushan, the capital of ancient Persia in the Book of Esther, and the Tombs of Mordecai and Esther are located in modern Hamadan. The province is linguistically diverse: Persian is spoken in Hamadan and Tuyserkan, Azerbaijani in the north, Kurdish in the west, and Luri and Laki in the south. The population is overwhelmingly Muslim, predominantly Shia, with small Sunni and Zoroastrian communities.