ČAMČAMĀL (Kurdish čam “river” and Čamāl/Jamāl, personal name; in the sources also written Jamjamāl), a fertile dehestān of Ṣaḥna baḵš in Kermānšāhān (Bāḵtarān) province located to the south and west of Ṣaḥna on the Kermānšāh-Hamadān road and watered by Gāmāsb and Dīnavar rivers. The main products are grain, cereals, sugar beet, opium, and tobacco. Rice is produced in the villages on the Dīnavar river. Dairy products are also important. The population belongs mainly to the Kalhor, Ardalān, and Zangana tribes, they speak Sōrānī Kurdish, and their religion is Twelver Shiʿism.
Čamčamāl was composed of 97 villages and had a population of 13,700 in 1330 Š./1951. The important villages include Bīsotūn, Baderbān, Safīd-čagā, Kāšāntū, and Samangān (Razmārā, Farhang V, p. 129).
Čamčamāl is one of the very old regions and known for raising horses which were considered sacred by ancient inhabitants (Rašīd Yāsemī, p. 63). Eʿtemād-al-Salṭana (IV, pp. 265-66) refers to an old fort in Samangān, but without further details. In Šayṭānbāzār village, there is a lake near Parāv mountain which was supposedly the summer headquarters of the Sasanian king Ḵosrow II Parvēz; (r. 590, 591-628), and in Čamčamāl itself, there are remains of Nāder Shah Afšār’s fortifications used in the war with the Ottomans (Eʿtemād-al-Salṭana, IV, pp. 1294-97).
Mostawfī mentions Solṭānābād of Jamjamāl as a town built by Ūljāytū (r. 703-17/1304-17) in a pleasant location at the foot of the Bīsotūn mountain. Its main produce was grain (Nozhat al-qolūb, ed. Le Strange, p. 107; Tārīḵ-egozīda, p. 596). In the Il-khanid period Bahār/Vahār (a stronghold about 3 farsaḵs northeast of Hamadān), then the capital of Kurdistan, was destroyed and Ūljāytū built Solṭānābād of Čamčamāl, which became the headquarters of the rulers of Kurdistan. The Kurdish amirs during the Il-khanid period and afterwards came from the old Ardalān (q.v.) family.
Bibliography:
See also Moḥammad-Ḥasan Khan Eʿtemād-al-Salṭana, Merʾāt al-boldān IV, Tehran, 1294-97/1877-79, pp. 265-66.
Gazetteer of Iran IV, p. 118.
A. Mardukh, Contribution à l’étude de l’histoire des Kurdes sous la dynastie Ardalān du XVIe siècle au XIXe siècle, Ph.D. thesis, Paris, 1988.
Ḡ.-R. Rašīd Yāsemī, Kord wa peyvastagī-e nežād o tārīḵī-e ū (tr. from al-Qeṣṣa al-kordīya), Tehran, 1319 Š./1940, p. 63.
ʿA.-A. Šamīm, Ketāb-e Kordestān, Tabrīz, 1312 Š./1933, p. 22.
(Abdollah Mardukh)
Originally Published: December 15, 1990
Last Updated: December 15, 1990
This article is available in print.
Vol. IV, Fasc. 7, pp. 729-730
