Abadan

About Abadan

Abadan is a city in the Central District of Abadan County, Khuzestan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. The city is in the southwest of the county. It lies on Abadan Island (68 km or 42 mi long, 3–19 km or 2–12 miles wide). The island is bounded in the west by the Arvand waterway and to the east by the Bahmanshir outlet of the Karun River (the Arvand Rood), 53 kilometres (33 mi) from the Persian Gulf, near the Iran–Iraq border. Abadan is 140 km from the provincial capital city of Ahvaz.

The earliest mention of the island of Abadan, if not the port itself, is found in the works of the Greek geographer Marcian, who renders the name "Apphadana". Earlier, the classical geographer Ptolemy notes "Apphana" as an island off the mouth of the Tigris (which is where the modern Island of Abadan is located). An etymology for this name is presented by B. Farahvashi to be derived from the Persian word "ab" (water) and the root "pā" (guard, watch) thus "coastguard station").

In Islamic times, a pseudo-etymology was produced by the historian Ahmad ibn Yahya al-Baladhuri (d. 892), quoting a folk story that...

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.