Shahr-e Kord is a city in the Central District of Shahrekord County, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is the largest city in the province, and is 90 km away from Iran's third largest city, Isfahan.

Demographics

Ethnicity

Shahr-e Kord is populated by Persians, Lurs and Turkic people.

Etymology

Shahr-e Kord, at face value, seems to mean "City of the Kurds". In antiquity, the place had been called "Dezh Gord" (دژگرد), where dezh (دژ) means "fortress" and gord (گرد) means "hero". After the Muslim conquest of Persia, the name changed to "Deh Kord" ; dezh was reinterpreted as deh (ده) meaning "village" and gord became kord because the Arabic alphabet lacks the letters "g" (گ), and "zh" (ژ). Other examples of cities whose names changed partly due to the influence of the Arabic language are Chamgordan, Boroujerd and Dezful, which were called Chamgord, Borougord and Dezhpol, respectively, before the Islamic conquest. In 1935, the name was finally changed to its present form with deh being replaced with shahr (شهر) meaning "city", which better reflects the size of Shahr-e Kord. On the other side, Lurs have been known as Kurds in the post Islamic conquest literature. Michael M. Gunter states that Lurs are closely related to the Kurds but that they "apparently began to be distinguished from the Kurds 1,000 years ago."

History

Coins have been found in Shahr-e Kord dating back to the Sassanian and Parthian era.

Demographics

Language

The linguistic composition of the city:

Population

At the time of the 2006 National Census, the city's population was 126,746 in 31,977 households. The following census in 2011 counted 159,775 people in 44,081 households. The 2016 census measured the population of the city as 190,441 people in 55,492 households.

Geography

Location

Shahr-e Kord is located about 90 km southwest of Isfahan and 512 km of Tehran. It is topographically situated in the north of the Zagros Mountains. Being located 2070 m above the sea level, Shahr-e Kord is the most elevated among the centers of the provinces of Iran, known as the Roof of Iran.

Climate

Shahr-e Kord has a hot-summer mediterranean continental climate (Köppen: Dsa, Trewartha: Dc), with hot summer days, cool summer nights, cold winter days and freezing winter nights. The annual average temperature in Shahr-e Kord is about 11.4°C (52.5°F). The absolute minimum temperature recorded in Shahr-e Kord since the start of keeping records has been -32.4 C on 29 December 2004, while the highest maximum temperature ever recorded was 42.0 C on 15 July 1977. January is the coldest month and July is the hottest month. Although the humidity level is moderate or high in winter, the amount of rainfall is close to zero in planting seasons, except for April and May.

Economy

Transportation

The Shahr-e Kord Bus Organization has 150 buses in its fleet which operate different routes throughout the city. Shahrekord Airport is a domestic airport located to the south of the city. It currently has flights to and from two cities: Tehran and Mashhad.

Education

There are three universities in the city of Shar-e Kord. The public and state university is Shahr-e Kord University (SKU) with 5,713 students. The other universities are Shahr-e Kord University of Medical Sciences (SKUMS) with 1,690 students and Islamic Azad University of Shahr-e Kord Branch (IAUSHK) with 7,400 students.

Sister cities

Notable people

Notable people from Shahr-e Kord include painter Arghavan Khosravi.

Gallery