Dinavar (also spelled Dinawar and Daynavar; fa, دینور) was a major town between the 7th and 10th centuries, located to the northeast of
Kermanshah
Kermanshah ( fa, کرمانشاه, Kermânšâh ), also known as Kermashan (; romanized: Kirmaşan), is the capital of Kermanshah Province, located from Tehran in the western part of Iran. According to the 2016 census, its population is 946,68 ...
in western
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
. The ruins of the town is now located in
Dinavar District
Dinavar District ( ku, ناوچهێ دینهوهر ,Navçe Dînewer, Nawçe-ŷ Dînewer, fa, بخش دینور) is a district (bakhsh) in Sahneh County, Kermanshah Province, Iran.
At the 2006 census, its population was 19,973, in 5,042 ...
, in
Sahneh County
Sahneh County ( fa, شهرستان صحنه) is located in Kermanshah province, Iran. The capital of the county is Sahneh
Sahneh ( fa, صحنه; also Romanized as Şaḩneh and Sehneh; also known as Sahna) is a city in and the capital of Sah ...
,
Kermanshah Province.
History
Located in the centre of the ancient region of
Media
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...
, Dinavar is first attested in history as a town founded by the Greek
Seleucid Empire
The Seleucid Empire (; grc, Βασιλεία τῶν Σελευκιδῶν, ''Basileía tōn Seleukidōn'') was a Greek state in West Asia that existed during the Hellenistic period from 312 BC to 63 BC. The Seleucid Empire was founded by the ...
(312 BC–363 BC), but it may have been older. Like the neighbouring town of
Kangavar
Kangavar ( fa, كنگاور, ''Kangâvar''; also Romanized as Kangāvar) is a city and capital of Kangavar County, Kermanshah Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 48,901, with 12,220 families.
Kangavar is located in the easte ...
, Dinavar also hosted a Greek population. Under the
Sasanian Empire
The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...
(AD 224–651), Dinavar served as an important fortified place, and was reportedly attacked by the
Khazars
The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...
in the early 6th-century. In 642, following the defeat of the Sasanians against the Arabs at the
Battle of Nahavand
The Battle of Nahavand ( ar, معركة نهاوند ', fa, نبرد نهاوند '), also spelled Nihavand or Nahawand, was fought in 642 between the Rashidun Muslim forces under caliph Umar and Sasanian Persian armies under King Yazdegerd ...
, Dinavar was conquered. During the reign of the
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...
caliph
A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...
Mu'awiya I
Mu'awiya I ( ar, معاوية بن أبي سفيان, Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān; –April 680) was the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from 661 until his death. He became caliph less than thirty years after the deat ...
(), the town was renamed Mah al-Kufa and made one of the two districts of
Jibal
Jibāl ( ar, جبال), also al-Jabal ( ar, الجبل), was the name given by the Arabs to a region and province located in western Iran, under the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates.
Its name means "the Mountains", being the plural of ''jabal'' (" ...
(Media). Dinavar consisted of the northern areas, whilst Karmisin (
Kermanshah
Kermanshah ( fa, کرمانشاه, Kermânšâh ), also known as Kermashan (; romanized: Kirmaşan), is the capital of Kermanshah Province, located from Tehran in the western part of Iran. According to the 2016 census, its population is 946,68 ...
) consisted of the southern areas. Dinavar bordered
Hulwan
Hulwan ( fa, حلوان) was an ancient town on the Zagros Mountains in western Iran, located on the entrance of the Paytak Pass, nowadays identified with the town of Sarpol-e Zahab.
History
Later Arab tradition, as recorded by al-Tabari, co ...
in the west; Masabadhan in the south;
Hamadan
Hamadan () or Hamedan ( fa, همدان, ''Hamedān'') ( Old Persian: Haŋgmetana, Ecbatana) is the capital city of Hamadan Province of Iran. At the 2019 census, its population was 783,300 in 230,775 families. The majority of people living in Ha ...
in the east; and
Adharbayjan in the north. The "Mah" in the Mah al-Kufa probably refers to Media.
Dinavar had some importance due to its geographical location, serving as the entrance to Jibal as well as a crossroad between the culture of Iran and that of the inhabitants on the other side of the
Zagros Mountains
The Zagros Mountains ( ar, جبال زاغروس, translit=Jibal Zaghrus; fa, کوههای زاگرس, Kuh hā-ye Zāgros; ku, چیاکانی زاگرۆس, translit=Çiyakani Zagros; Turkish: ''Zagros Dağları''; Luri: ''Kuh hā-ye Zāgro ...
. The town flourished under the Umayyad and
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...
caliphates. According to the Arab writer
Ibn Hawqal
Muḥammad Abū’l-Qāsim Ibn Ḥawqal (), also known as Abū al-Qāsim b. ʻAlī Ibn Ḥawqal al-Naṣībī, born in Nisibis, Upper Mesopotamia; was a 10th-century Arab Muslim writer, geographer, and chronicler who travelled during the ye ...
(died after 978), Dinavar was only one-third less smaller than Hamadan in the 10th-century.
Dinavar historically has produced many scholars including
Ebn Qotayba
Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muslim ibn Qutayba al-Dīnawarī al-Marwazī better known simply as Ibn Qutaybah ( ar-at, ابن قتيبة, Ibn Qutaybah; c. 828 – 13 November 889 CE / 213 – 15 Rajab 276 AH) was an Islamic scholar of Persian ...
,
Fakhr-un-Nisa
Fakhr-un-Nisa Shuhdah Umm Muhammad al-Baghdadiyyah or Shuhdah al-Baghdadiyyah was a scholar, muhaddith and a calligrapher. Shuhdha was called "the calligrapher, the pride of womanhood, a muhaddithah (female of muhaddith) of Iraq with a high Isnad ...
, and
Abu Hanifa Dinawari
Abū Ḥanīfa Aḥmad ibn Dāwūd Dīnawarī ( fa, ابوحنيفه دينوری; died 895) was a Persian Islamic Golden Age polymath, astronomer, agriculturist, botanist, metallurgist, geographer, mathematician, and historian.
Life
Dinawa ...
. Dinavar was also the center of the
Kurdish
Kurdish may refer to:
*Kurds or Kurdish people
*Kurdish languages
*Kurdish alphabets
*Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes:
**Southern Kurdistan
**Eastern Kurdistan
**Northern Kurdistan
**Western Kurdistan
See also
* Kurd (dis ...
principality of the
Hasanwayhids
Hasanwayhids or Hasanuyid was a powerful Shia Kurdish dynasty reigning the western parts of Iran such as Iranian Azerbaijan and Zagros Mountains between Shahrizor and Khuzestan from c. 959 to 1015. The last Hasanwayhid ruler died in 1015 in Sarm ...
. It was sacked by
Mardavij
Mardavij ( Gilaki/ fa, مرداویج, meaning "man assailant") was an Iranian prince, who established the Ziyarid dynasty, ruling from 930 to 935.
Born to a Zoroastrian family native to Gilan, Mardavij sought to establish a native Iranian Zoroa ...
in 931. According to
Ibn Athir Ibn Athīr is the family name of three brothers, all famous in Arabic literature, born at Jazīrat ibn Umar (today's ''Cizre'' nowadays in south-eastern Turkey) in upper Mesopotamia. The ibn al-Athir brothers belonged to the Shayban lineage of the ...
it was plundered by
Turkmen of the Iva tribe in 1172/73. According to the 14th-century geographer
Hamdallah Mustawfi
Hamdallah Mustawfi Qazvini ( fa, حمدالله مستوفى قزوینی, Ḥamdallāh Mustawfī Qazvīnī; 1281 – after 1339/40) was a Persian official, historian, geographer and poet. He lived during the last era of the Mongol Ilkhanate, and ...
(died after 1339/40) in his ''
Nuzhat al-Qulub
The ''Nuzhat al-Qulub'' (also spelled ''Nozhat al-Qolub''; fa, نزهةالقلوب, "Hearts' Bliss") is a Persian geographical treatise written in the 1340s by Hamdallah Mustawfi. It is the earliest surviving work to have a map focused on Iran. ...
'', Dinavar was a small town during his lifetime. However, it was later destroyed by
Timur
Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kür ...
by the end of the 14th-century. Today only field of ruins are available.
Notable figures
*
Ibn Qutaybah
Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muslim ibn Qutayba al-Dīnawarī al-Marwazī better known simply as Ibn Qutaybah ( ar-at, ابن قتيبة, Ibn Qutaybah; c. 828 – 13 November 889 CE / 213 – 15 Rajab 276 AH) was an Islamic scholar of Persian ...
(died 889), 9th-century scholar, best known for his contributions to
Arabic literature
Arabic literature ( ar, الأدب العربي / ALA-LC: ''al-Adab al-‘Arabī'') is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is '' Adab'', which is derived from ...
*
Abu Hanifa Dinawari
Abū Ḥanīfa Aḥmad ibn Dāwūd Dīnawarī ( fa, ابوحنيفه دينوری; died 895) was a Persian Islamic Golden Age polymath, astronomer, agriculturist, botanist, metallurgist, geographer, mathematician, and historian.
Life
Dinawa ...
(died 896), 9th-century scholar who wrote the ''Kitāb al-akhbār al-ṭiwāl'', possibly the most apparent early effort to combine Iranian and Islamic history
References
Sources
*
*
*
{{Authority control
Populated places in Sahneh County
Former cities in Iran
Destroyed cities
Ruins in Iran
Buildings and structures in Kermanshah Province