Rudbar ( fa, رودبار, Rudbār) ( Gilaki:, ''rubâr'') is a city and capital of

Rudbar County Rudbar County ( fa, شهرستان رودبار) is in Gilan province, Iran. The capital of the county is the city of Rudbar. At the 2006 census, the county's population was 101,884 in 27,902 households. The following census in 2011 counted 1 ...

, Gilan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 11,454, in 3,303 families. Rudbar is from Tehran and with a variable climate. It is located on the fringes of a valley through which the

Sefid River The Sefid-Rud ( fa, سفیدرود, lit=white river, glk, اسپي بيه, ''Espī bīeh'') (also known as Sepid-Rud) is a river approximately long, rising in the Alborz mountain range of northwestern Iran and flowing generally northeast to e ...

(Rud-e Safid) flows. Rudbar can be considered as a gateway to the Gīlān Province from central Iran. Its name (meaning "by the river" in Persian) is a reference to the river named Sepid Rood (Sepid Roud) that passes by the city. Rudbar is also called "Roodbar Zeitoun ( olive)" for the olive gardens in the area. Rudbar's local economy notably includes olives and olive-based products. Groves of olive trees surround the city. Olive oil is produced locally. Rudbar is also known for its cream-hued, handcrafted carpets of fine quality. Despite the olive gardens that may suggest presence of a Mediterranean climate, the winters are very cold in the area. The winds in the Sepid Rood valley (

Manjil Manjil ( fa, Manjil, also Romanized as Manjīl and Menjīl ; derived from Manzil) is a city in the Central District of Rudbar County, Gilan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 16,028, in 4,447 families. Geography Manjil is k ...

) are well known in the country. Main language there is the Gilaki Language. Larger cities in Gilan have slight variations to the way they speak. These "sub-dialects" are Rashti, Rudbari, Some’e Sarai, Lahijani, Langerudi, Rudesari, Bandar Anzali and Fumani. The majority of the people in Rudbar are

Gilaks Gilaks ( Gileki: گیلک) are an Iranian ethnic group native to the south of Caspian sea. They form one of the main ethnic groups residing in the northern parts of Iran. Gilak people, along with the closely related Mazandarani people, comprise ...

, and a minority are Talysh. They speak the

Talysh Language The Talysh language (زبان تالشی, Tolışə Zıvon, Tолышә зывон), is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken in the northern regions of the Iranian provinces of Gilan and Ardabil and the southern regions of the Republic of Aze ...

with Galeshi Dialect and the Gilaki Language with Rudbari Sub-dialect.Guyeš-e Tāti-y-e Rudbār (The Tati Dialect of Rudbar), Jahandoost Sabzalipour, Rasht: Farhang-e Iliya Press, 2011

History

The civilization of Rudbar and its surroundings date back to 2000 years

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the o ...

. The Marlik bowl, a famous archeological artifact and one of the oldest gold bowls in the world from 1st millennium BC, was found there. With the advent of Islam, tribes from Damascus and

Halab )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

(Aleppo) immigrated and became settlers there. Later,

Nizari Isma'ili The Nizaris ( ar, النزاريون, al-Nizāriyyūn, fa, نزاریان, Nezāriyān) are the largest segment of the Ismaili Muslims, who are the second-largest branch of Shia Islam after the Twelvers. Nizari teachings emphasize independent ...

''da'i'' made inroads and eventually established an

Assassin Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have a ...

stronghold. In the era of

Nader Shah Afshar Nader Shah Afshar ( fa, نادر شاه افشار; also known as ''Nader Qoli Beyg'' or ''Tahmāsp Qoli Khan'' ) (August 1688 – 19 June 1747) was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran and one of the most powerful rulers in Iranian ...

, groups from the Kurds of

Quchan Quchan ( fa, قوچان ' ; also Romanized as Qūchān and Quçan; also known as Khabushan, Gochan) is a city and capital of Quchan County, in Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran. It is located due south of the border city of Ashgabat. At the 2006 c ...

and areas of northern Khorassan also settled there. Rudbar was near the epicenter of the

1990 Manjil–Rudbar earthquake The 1990 Manjil–Rudbar earthquake occurred on Thursday, June 21, 1990 at in northern Iran. The shock had a moment magnitude of 7.4 and a Mercalli Intensity of X (''Extreme''). Damage and casualties Widespread damage occurred to the northwest ...

of magnitude 7.3 on the Richter scale (MS=7.7, MW=7.3, mb=6.4) at 12:31am local time on June 21, 1990, that killed around 50,000 and injured 100,000 city residents.ReliefWeb Report of Earthquake
''

ReliefWeb ReliefWeb is a humanitarian information portal founded in 1996. The portal now hosts more than 720,000 humanitarian situation reports, press releases, evaluations, guidelines, assessments, maps and infographics. The portal is an independent veh ...

'', June 1990 Despite reconstruction, it has not regained its former glory.

Shahrestan Rudbar

( Shahrestan) was formed after a meeting between some Rudbari politicians such as Ziaeddin Tavakkoli and Reza Shah.

References

* Book of Amarlu - M.M.Zand

External links

{{Gilan Province Cities in Gilan Province Populated places in Rudbar County Settled areas of Elburz Cities destroyed by earthquakes ro:Roudbar