Sanandaj


Sanandaj ; Sine, often romanized as Senneh, is the capital of Kurdistan Province in Iran. With a population of 414,069, Sanandaj is the twenty third largest city in Iran and the second largest Kurdish city. Sanandaj's founding is fairly recent,, yet under its short existence it has grown to become a center of Kurdish culture.

Name

The city of Sanandaj was originally called Saneh, and because it was located near an important castle it was later called Sanehdaj, meaning castle at the foot of a mountain. This presumably turned into Sanandaj over time.

People

The population of Sanandaj is mainly Kurdish. The city also had an Armenian minority who gradually emigrated from the city. Until the Iranian Revolution, the city had a small Aramaic-speaking Jewish community of about 4,000 people. The city boasted a sizable Assyrian community that spoke a unique dialect of Aramaic called Senaya.
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.
Most of the people of Sanandaj follow the Shafi‘i branch of Sunni Islam.
The Ardalani dialect of Kurdish is spoken in Sanandaj and its surroundings. Ardalani dialect is distinct to Kurdistan province and is spoken in Sanandaj and other cities of Kurdistan province. The other important dialect of Sorani Kurdish is Mokriani which is spoken in Mokrian region in Piranshahr & Mahabad in West Azerbaijan province.
During the Iranian revolution, HDK and Komalah took control over the city under a brief period of time.

Historic

In his book Median History, Diakonov writes: The upper part of the Diyala River and its tributaries and branches in the triangle of the present cities of Sulaimaniyah,sanandaj and Sarpol-e Zahab have been called Parsua since the mid-ninth century

Climate

Sanandaj has a humid continental climate according to the Köppen climate classification.