Nahavand

Nahavand, city (1991 pop. 59,307), Hamadan prov., W Iran. It is an agricultural trade center. Nahavand was the scene of a decisive victory of the Arabs over the Persians in 641 or 642. The name also appears as Nehavand and Nihavand.

Nahāvand is a town in Hamadan Province in Iran. It is located in south of Hamadan, east of Malayer and shouthwest of Borujerd. Nahavand is one of the oldest existing cities of the modern Iran.

Name

It has been spelled differently in different books and sources. Nahavand (Nahāvand); also transliterated Nahavend, Nahawand, Nehavand, Nihavand or Nehavend; formerly called: Mah-Nahavand, Laodicea (Greek: Λαοδικεια; Arabic Ladhiqiyya), also transliterated Laodiceia and Laodikeia, Laodicea in Media, Laodicea in Persis, Antiochia in Persis, Antiochia of Chosroes (Greek: Αντιόχεια του Χοσρόη), Antiochia in Media (Greek: Αντιόχεια της Μηδίας), Nemavand and Niphaunda. Nahavand is a city, not a town, since it around 90,000 people. The shahrestan (township/district)has roughly got a population of 200,000 people.

History

The city was founded by Darius I the Great, in Media along with the two other [[Achemenian] cities of Apamea and Xerxes. (Strabo xi. p. 524 ; Xerxes "Laodikeia") Pliny (vi. 29) describes it as being in the extreme limits of Media, and (re-)founded by XerxesI.

The city was a center of Chosroes I's empire. After military reverses (ca. 540) following his sack of Syrian Antiochia in 538, he was forced to rename his capital "Antiochia".

It is the site of the Battle of Nihawānd in 642 that completed the fall of the Sassanid Empire and the Islamic conquest of Iran.

Natives of Nahavand include Benjamin Nahawandi, who was a key figure in the development of Karaite Judaism in the Early Middle Ages, and 8th-century astronomer Ahmad Nahavandi, who worked at the Academy of Gundishapur.

Currently it had an estimated population of 77,206 in 2005. Nahavand also gives its name to the musical mode (maqam) Nahwand in Arabic, Iranian and Turkish music.

References

• .

it was found by Darius I the Great.

External links

• Hamedan Province Cultural Heritage Website
• Persian History Website
• Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, "Laodiceia", London, (1854)