Saqqez
Saqqez (English: /sæɡɛz/ sa-ghez; Persian: سقز [sæˈɣez]; Kurdish: سهقز ,Seqiz), also known as Saghez, Saqez, Saqqiz, Saqiz, and Sakīz, is the capital city of Saqqez County in Kurdistan Province, in northwestern Iran. According to the 2016 census, its population was 165,258. In the middle of Zagros Mountains, the north-most part of mountainous Kurdistan within Iran's borders, an old city has been located between high tops of the region's mountains, called Saqqez. This city was someday the capital of Sakas sovereignty, the Middle-easteren immigrating people since 2000 years BC. The population is majority Kurdish and speak the Kurdish and Persian languages .[2]
Saqqez | |
|---|---|
City | |
From top to bottom and from left to right: Saqqez in 2014, Domenareh Historical Mosque, Saqqez to Marivan road Landscape in spring, Haj Saleh Historical Bath, Ziwiyeh Castle | |
Seal | |
Saqqez | |
| Coordinates: 36°14′47″N 46°15′59″E / 36.24639°N 46.26639°ECoordinates: 36°14′47″N 46°15′59″E / 36.24639°N 46.26639°E | |
| Country | Iran |
| Province | Kurdistan |
| County | Saqqez |
| Bakhsh | Central |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Zana Salehibabamiry |
| Elevation | 1,476 m (4,843 ft) |
| Population (2016 Census) | |
| • Total | 165,258 [1] |
| Time zone | UTC+3:30 (IRST) |
| Website | saqqez |
Etymology
The name Saqqez derives from the Scythian word "Eskit" and then "Sakez". Before that it was Izirtu, the capital of Mannaeans. In some historical sources it has been mentioned that the name of the city is derived from the name of powerful Median ruler Cyaxares (reigned 625 – 585 BC), who turned the empire into a regional power, but other historians believe that the name of the city is derived from Sakez and is attributed to the Scythians who settled in the city during the reign of Cyaxares.[3][dubious ]
Demographics
The city is populated by Kurds who speak the Sorani dialect.[4] David D'Beth Hillel (d. 1846) stated that the city was home to a small Jewish community with one synagogue dating from around 1827.[5]
History
Saqqez's history goes back to the seventh millennium BC.[6] Based on historical ruins and Antiques which have been found in Saqqez, like the historical treasures of Ziwiye hoard in the Ziwiyeh Castle, experts like Roman Ghirshman believe that the modern city of Saqqez is built on the site of the ancient capital of the Median empire. when Sargon II (reigned 722 – 705 BC) attacked the Median Empire and forced them to flee to Ecbatana (modern day Hamadan) and made this city his capital. On the attack of Sargon II, the ruler of Assyria, the Medes were defended and their fortifications were destroyed. Thereafter, the Scythians tried to rebuild this city and they chose Saqqez, then named Eskit as their capital. This city was repeatedly attacked by Assyrians and Romans.[7]
According to Vladimir Minorsky, Saqqez is the site of the earlier medieval city of Barza.[8]: 251, 253 According to Theophanes the Confessor, who calls the city "Barzan" (Ancient Greek: βάρζαν), the Byzantine emperor Heraclius stayed at Barza for seven days in March 628 while on his way to Ganzak.[8]: 250–1 Barza was an important crossroads in the medieval period, where there was a fork in the road from Dinavar to Maragheh with one branch splitting off towards Urmia.[8]: 251, 253 In the early 9th century, Barza was the capital of a separate principality.[8]: 251
The city was the hometown of Mahsa Amini, who in 2022 died in the custody of Iran's morality police at the age of 22 after being arrested for violating Iran's hijab rules.[9] Her death sparked the Mahsa Amini protests, a nationwide movement protesting the Islamic republic and its treatment of women.
Culture and art
The city of Saqqez has been a place of culture and art since ancient times. In this city, performing arts and culture has a special place, and artists have created valuable works in various fields of art such as theater, painting, sculpture, music, literature, poetry, and cinema. In this city, every year at the end of the autumn season, a theater festival called The Kurdish Theater Festival is held, in which theater groups from all over Kurdistan perform their works. Also, in Saqqez, famous musicians and singers, such as Rashid Fayznejad perform their music and songs in the Kurdish language. Also there are well-known poets in this city, such as Abdul Karim Sahib, Mullah Ghafoor Dabbaghi, Jila Hosseini, Rahim Loghmani, Malekoalkalam majdi and Sheikh Hassan Molanabad.[10][11]
Geography
Geology
The city of Saqqez is built on long plains and hills, which are crossed by the main tributaries of rivers such as Zarrineh River and Simineh River. The lowlands and heights inside the city and the view of Saqqez River that passes through the center of this city are its special features. Saqqez is located in mountainous and highlands between the irregular heights of Zagros Mountains, and this special geomorphological feature has led to relatively cold climates and long winters and sometimes frost.[12][13]
Climate
At an altitude of 1,476 metres (4,842 feet), Saqqez has a Mediterranean continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dsa) with hot, very dry summers and cold, snowy winters. Summers feature large diurnal temperature variation due to decreased air density at high altitude and low humidity. In 1969 Saqqez recorded a temperature of −36 °C (−33 °F), the lowest ever recorded by an Iranian weather station until Kheirabad Zanjan recorded −36.4 °C (−33.5 °F) on January 29, 1997.[14][15] Saqqez again reached −36 °C during the February 3–9 1972 Iran blizzard.
Saqqez unofficially reached −45.8 °C (−50.4 °F) in December 2006 and −42.3 °C (−44.1 °F) in January 2007, the lowest temperatures recorded in an Iranian city.[16][17] Rainfall is mild throughout the year, with late winter and early spring having the most precipitation, and the summers being practically rainless. Due to the foehn effect, the rainfall is not as heavy as it is in the exposed sites of the Zagros to the west, such as in Sardasht, which lies on the same altitude but is more exposed to the westerly cold front systems.
| Climate data for Saqqez, Iran | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 18.2 (64.8) | 20 (68) | 24 (75) | 29 (84) | 34.4 (93.9) | 39 (102) | 43 (109) | 42 (108) | 39 (102) | 32 (90) | 26 (79) | 22.2 (72.0) | 43 (109) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 2.4 (36.3) | 4.7 (40.5) | 11.0 (51.8) | 17.3 (63.1) | 23.1 (73.6) | 29.8 (85.6) | 34.3 (93.7) | 34.2 (93.6) | 29.8 (85.6) | 22.2 (72.0) | 13.4 (56.1) | 6.1 (43.0) | 19.03 (66.25) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −2.8 (27.0) | −0.7 (30.7) | 5.1 (41.2) | 10.4 (50.7) | 14.8 (58.6) | 19.7 (67.5) | 24.1 (75.4) | 23.8 (74.8) | 19.1 (66.4) | 13.3 (55.9) | 6.5 (43.7) | 0.7 (33.3) | 11.2 (52.1) |
| Average low °C (°F) | −8.1 (17.4) | −6.7 (19.9) | −1.2 (29.8) | 3.6 (38.5) | 6.6 (43.9) | 9.5 (49.1) | 14.0 (57.2) | 13.4 (56.1) | 8.3 (46.9) | 4.4 (39.9) | −0.3 (31.5) | −4.6 (23.7) | 3.24 (37.83) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −33 (−27) | −36 (−33) | −27.6 (−17.7) | −9 (16) | −5 (23) | −0.6 (30.9) | 3.8 (38.8) | 4.8 (40.6) | −0.4 (31.3) | −7 (19) | −24 (−11) | −32 (−26) | −36 (−33) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 63.3 (2.49) | 60.8 (2.39) | 76.6 (3.02) | 82.0 (3.23) | 49.7 (1.96) | 5.9 (0.23) | 2.7 (0.11) | 2.4 (0.09) | 1.7 (0.07) | 28.8 (1.13) | 54.6 (2.15) | 58.7 (2.31) | 487.2 (19.18) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) | 8.5 | 8.3 | 10.0 | 9.8 | 7.0 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 4.3 | 6.2 | 8.1 | 65.2 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 73 | 70 | 64 | 58 | 52 | 40 | 35 | 33 | 33 | 47 | 63 | 71 | 53 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 121.5 | 142.2 | 177.4 | 213.1 | 287.1 | 345.1 | 357.4 | 344.3 | 311.1 | 254.3 | 174.1 | 123.4 | 2,851 |
| Source 1: Synoptic Stations Statistics | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: [1] | |||||||||||||
Transportation
The city will be served in the future by Saqqez Airport
See also
References
- ^ "Statistical Center of Iran > Home".
- ^ Movahed, Ali; Mostafavi, Soran (March 2014). "Explaining the pattern of spatial –physical expansion of Saqqez from sustainable urban perspective" (PDF). Urban Structure and Function Studies. 2 (5): 55–75.
- ^ "شهرستان سقز". Islamic Azad University - Saqqez Branch (in Persian). Retrieved 13 May 2021.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Saqqez - Language distribution: Kordestan Province". Iran Atlas. Retrieved 13 May 2021.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Gerson-Kiwi, Edith (2008). "Kurdistan". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 13 May 2021.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Saqqez in Kurdestan Province, dates back to 7th millennium BCE". Iran Daily. 9 July 2021.
- ^ Ghirshman, Roman (1961). Iran: from the earliest times to the Islamic conquest. Penguin Books. pp. Season 2. ISBN 0140202390.
- ^ a b c d Minorsky, Vladimir (1944). "Roman and Byzantine Campaigns in Atropatene". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 11 (2): 243–65. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
- ^ "Mahsa Amini: Women take headscarves off in protest at funeral". BBC News. 17 September 2022.
- ^ Kurdish Theater Festival is an opportunity to pay attention to traditional cultures, Iran Theater, 2019
- ^ A Kurdish Artist in Saqqez Summoned by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence, Kurdistan Human Rights, 2019
- ^ Dating of late Pleistocene and Holocene fluvial sediments Using OSL, Uranium series and 14 C methods in the Saqqez River, Shahid beheshti University, 2020
- ^ Saqqez, mapnall
- ^ "An extremely cold winter in Iran".
- ^ www.irimo.ir . Archived from the original on 2011-06-15.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ . Archived from the original on 2012-03-05. Retrieved 2010-04-11.
- ^ http://www.irimo.ir Iranian Meteorological Organisation's "Century weather stats data bank"
Sources
- Bosworth, C.E. (1995). "Saḳḳiz". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P. & Lecomte, G. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume VIII: Ned–Sam. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 895. ISBN 978-90-04-09834-3.
- Grami, Bahram (2015). "Saqqez". Encyclopaedia Iranica.