Oshnavieh ( fa, اشنويه, Oshnavīyeh; ku, شنۆ, translit=Şino) is the capital city of

Oshnavieh County Oshnavieh County ( fa, شهرستان اشنویه; Kurdish: 'اشنۆ'شنۆ'شنه‌) is located in West Azerbaijan province, Iran. The capital of the county is Oshnavieh. At the 2006 census, the county's population was 63,798, in 12,998 ho ...

, West Azerbaijan Province in

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 ...

. At the 2016 census, its population was 40,000 in 2,000 families. The city is populated by

Kurds ug:كۇردلار Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Ira ...

who speak

Sorani Central Kurdish (), also called Sorani (), is a Kurdish dialect or a language that is spoken in Iraq, mainly in Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as the provinces of Kurdistan, Kermanshah, and West Azerbaijan in western Iran. Sorani is one of the two o ...

History

Oshnaviyeh lies on the historic route from Urmia basin to Rawandiz over the Kalashin Pass. An

Urartian Urartian or Vannic is an extinct Hurro-Urartian language which was spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom of Urartu (''Biaini'' or ''Biainili'' in Urartian), which was centered on the region around Lake Van and had its capital, Tushpa, ...

stele from about 800 BCE exist near the city. After the

Mongol invasion The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating history's largest contiguous empire: the Mongol Empire (1206- 1368), which by 1300 covered large parts of Eurasia. Historians regard the Mongol devastati ...

, the city became the seat of the

Nestorian Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings. The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian theologian ...

Church for a brief moment. Medieval geographers from the 10th century wrote that the city was fair-sized, attached to

Urmia Urmia or Orumiyeh ( fa, ارومیه, Variously transliterated as ''Oroumieh'', ''Oroumiyeh'', ''Orūmīyeh'' and ''Urūmiyeh''.) is the largest city in West Azerbaijan Province of Iran and the capital of Urmia County. It is situated at an al ...

, fertile and having good

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or sw ...

from the

Hadhabani Hadhabani (also: ''Hadhbani'') ( ku, ھەزەبانی ,Hecbanî) was a large medieval Sunni Muslim Kurdish tribe divided into several groups, centered at Arbil, Ushnu and Urmia. Their dominion included surrounding areas of Maragha and Urmia to th ...

tribe would settle in the area during the summer, pasture their livestock and sell their products for manufactures and textiles from the city. The city came under the rule of the Rawadids in the 10th century and continued to flourish. The city also fostered scholars and traditionalists.

Ali ibn al-Athir Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ash-Shaybānī, better known as ʿAlī ʿIzz ad-Dīn Ibn al-Athīr al-Jazarī ( ar, علي عز الدین بن الاثیر الجزري) lived 1160–1233) was an Arab or Kurdish historian a ...

wrote in 1205/6 that

Nusrat al-Din Abu Bakr Nusrat al-Din Abu Bakr ( fa, نصرت الدین ابوبکر), was the ruler (''atabeg Atabeg, Atabek, or Atabey is a hereditary title of nobility of Turkic origin, indicating a governor of a nation or province who was subordinate to a monarc ...

of the

Eldiguzids The Ildegizids, EldiguzidsC.E. Bosworth, "Ildenizids or Eldiguzids", Encyclopaedia of Islam, Edited by P.J. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs et al., Encyclopædia of Islam, 2nd Edition., 12 vols. with index ...

handed over the city to the ruler of

Maragheh Maragheh ( fa, مراغه, Marāgheh or ''Marāgha''; az, ماراغا ) is a city and capital of Maragheh County, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran. Maragheh is on the bank of the river Sufi Chay. The population consists mostly of Iranian Azerba ...

ʿAlāʾ-al-Din Qara Sonqor. In 1226, the city was under the Ivāʾiya Kurds until its capture by

Jalal al-Din Mangburni Jalal al-Din Mangburni ( fa, جلال الدین مِنکُبِرنی), also known as Jalal al-Din Khwarazmshah (), Minkubirni or Mengu-Berdi (c.1199 – August 1231), was the last Khwarazmshah of the Anushteginid dynasty. The eldest son and succ ...

. In 1220/1, when

Yaqut al-Hamawi Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) ( ar, ياقوت الحموي الرومي) was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine Greek ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th-13th centuries). He is known for ...

passed the city, the city was in ruins, but had been rebuilt by the time of the visit of

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 ...

. Mustawfi described the city as being Sunni, in a rural district of 120 villages and producing a total revenue worth 19,300 dinars annually. It was mentioned by traveller

Fraser Fraser may refer to: Places Antarctica * Fraser Point, South Orkney Islands Australia * Fraser, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb in the Canberra district of Belconnen * Division of Fraser (Australian Capital Territory), a former federal e ...

in 1840 that the city was populated Zerza Kurds, whose presence is possibly attested as being present in the city as early as the 14th century. In the 19th century, the population was mostly

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 ...

with a small population of Assyrians which perished during the

Sayfo The Sayfo or the Seyfo (; see below), also known as the Assyrian genocide, was the mass slaughter and deportation of Assyrian / Syriac Christians in southeastern Anatolia and Persia's Azerbaijan province by Ottoman forces and some Kurdish t ...

. When

Sheikh Ubeydullah }) also known as ''Sayyid Ubeydullah'', was the leader of the first modern Kurdish nationalist struggle. Ubeydullah demanded recognition from Ottoman Empire and Qajar dynasty authorities for an independent Kurdish state, or Kurdistan, which he wou ...

and his forces advanced from Ottoman territory toward

, he captured Oshnavieh and made it his capital until he was defeated in 1880.

20th century

The town was incorporated into the short-lived

Republic of Mahabad The Republic of Mahabad or the Republic of Kurdistan ( ku, کۆماری کوردستان / Komara Kurdistanê; fa, جمهوری مهاباد) was a short-lived Kurdish self-governing unrecognized state in present-day Iran, from 22 January to ...

in 1946.

Mahsa Amini protests

Protesters briefly took over the city during the

Mahsa Amini protests Civil unrest and protests against the government of Iran associated with the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini ( fa, مهسا امینی) began on 16 September 2022 and are ongoing as of December 2022. Amini had been arrested by the Guida ...

, from 24 to 25 September 2022.

References

Populated places in Oshnavieh County Cities in West Azerbaijan Province Iranian Kurdistan Kurdish settlements in West Azerbaijan Province Iraqi war crimes {{Oshnavieh-geo-stub