Kermanshah’s history connects Kurdish and Persian urban life, the Zagros trade corridor, Taq-e Bostan and the nearby Bisotun inscription.

Locator graphic placing Bisotun northeast of Kermanshah, with geographic coordinates and a north arrow
Original editorial locator, 2026, using city coordinates from Iranica and monument coordinates from UNESCO. The dotted line connects locations; it is not a road. Graphic: Kurdish History Editorial Team, 2026.

A city on the Zagros corridor

Kermanshah, called Kirmaşan in Kurdish, is the capital of the Iranian province of the same name. At roughly 1,400 metres above sea level, it occupies an important position between the Iranian plateau and Mesopotamia. Habib Borjian’s geographical study describes its regional administrative role and rapid urban growth after the Second World War. [1] City and province need to be kept distinct: the provincial landscape includes mountain settlements, agricultural plains and border towns with different histories. The monuments near the capital are part of that larger geography, rather than evidence that every ancient site belongs inside today’s city.

Kurdish and Persian in urban life

Borjian identifies Kermashani as a prestigious urban variety within Southern Kurdish, while also documenting Persian as a spoken city language. The province includes other Kurdish varieties, Gurani-speaking communities and smaller linguistic groups. Kurdish-Persian bilingualism is widespread. His study links wartime displacement in 1980–88 to new Kurdish-speaking neighbourhoods around the city. [2] This gives a more useful picture than treating all residents as speakers of one interchangeable dialect. Kalhori, Kermashani and Southern Kurdish are related labels whose scope depends on context; they should not automatically be substituted for one another.

Routes, governors and political change

Jean Calmard’s historical study follows the city’s position on the route often called the Khorasan Highway. Kurdish dynasties, including the Hasanwayhids and Annazids, shaped the surrounding region in the medieval period. Later, Safavid-Ottoman competition made the frontier strategically important. The Zangana family gained influence under the Safavids; Shaikh Ali Khan Zangana became grand vizier in 1669. In the early nineteenth century, the Qajar governor Mohammad-Ali Mirza Dawlatshah developed the city with fortifications, caravanserais and merchants’ buildings. [3] Trade, military power and local political networks therefore belong alongside royal antiquities in Kermanshah’s history.

Taq-e Bostan: Sasanian royal images

Taq-e Bostan’s rock reliefs preserve several stages of Sasanian art. Prudence Oliver Harper associates fourth-century monuments with Ardashir II and Shapur III, and dates the later arched enclosure, probably, to Khosrow II’s reign. She explains royal reliefs as public statements about kingship and religious authority. [4] Their carved figures should be read in that political and artistic setting. The site is a different monument complex from Bisotun and belongs to a much later dynasty.

Bisotun: Darius’s account in three languages

Northeast of Kermanshah, Bisotun preserves Darius I’s relief and inscription recording his struggle to secure the Achaemenid throne in 521–520 BCE. Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian versions made it crucial to nineteenth-century cuneiform decipherment. UNESCO inscribed Bisotun in 2006. [5] The text is a royal account of victory and legitimacy: identifying its commissioner helps readers understand whose version of events the monument presents.

War, earthquakes and the contemporary city

The USGS records the magnitude 7.3 earthquake of 12 November 2017 near the Iran-Iraq border. Researchers study it as the Ezgeleh–Sarpolzahab earthquake; it should not be described as an epicentre in Kermanshah city. [6] Contemporary cultural life also extends beyond disasters and ancient sites. UNESCO’s Learning Cities profile, listing membership from 2025, describes Kurdish and Persian literacy initiatives and programmes linking culinary skills, heritage and employment. [7] These initiatives make language, education and food part of the city’s present history as well as its past.

Sources and further reading

  1. Habib Borjian, Kermanshah i. Geography, Encyclopaedia Iranica XVI/3, 2017, pp. 316–319; updated 2018.
  2. Habib Borjian, Kermanshah vii. Languages and Dialects, Encyclopaedia Iranica XVI/3, 2017, pp. 324–329; updated 2018.
  3. Jean Calmard, Kermanshah iv. History to 1953, Encyclopaedia Iranica; historical study of the city, regional dynasties and governors.
  4. Prudence Oliver Harper, Art in Iran v. Sasanian Art, Encyclopaedia Iranica II/6, 1986, pp. 585–594; updated 2013.
  5. UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Bisotun, inscribed 2006; official description, chronology and coordinates.
  6. U.S. Geological Survey, reviewed event record us2000bmcg, magnitude 7.3, 12 November 2017, Iran-Iraq border region.
  7. UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, Kermanshah, Global Network of Learning Cities; membership from 2025, education and cultural programmes.