HAMADAN, a town of Persia, in the province of IrakAdj em i, 162 miles W.S.W. of Teheran, in the district of the Djebal at the foot of the Elvend or Arwand Mountain, the Orontes of the ancients. It is a busy place of about 50,000 inhabitants, and has large and well-stocked bazaars. Its principal industry is the manufacture of copper wares. Gold is collected in the streams traversing the town, and the surrounding country is remarkable for its beauty and fertility. Every quarter is shut off from its neighbours by gates which are closed at night. The chief objects of interest are the tombs of Esther and Mordecai, and of the Arabian philosopher Avicenna. The former, constructed of black wood, are adorned with Hebrew inscriptions which may be seen figured in Ker Porter's Travels. According to these, the pavilion or temple over the tombs was erected in the year of the creation 4474. The ordinary inhabitants of Hamadan attach more importance to a stone image of a lion which they assert was set up by Belinas a magician, to mitigate the cold from which their city suffers severely. " Hamadan," says Hamadani, echoing a common Persian complaint, "is the most hateful of towns ; its children are old men for ugliness, and its old men are children for silliness." At the same time the town has produced many eminent men, among whom are Abu '1 Padhl Ahmed Hamadani himself, Zafer ed Din the Persian poet, and Zamiri. The origin of "the city is carried back by Hischam el Kelbi to Hamadan a grandson of Shem, but other writers are contented with a less antiquity. Its claims to be identified with the Ecbatana of the classical authors have been treated of under ECBATANA. The present town has almost no ancient remains, and especially there are no sculptured works. See Meynard, Dictionnaire geographique de la Perse.