Abadan, Iran: Difference between revisions

Abadan (film) is also the name of a 2003 Iranian movie from director Mani Haghighi, as well as the name of a town in Turkmenistan.

Map of Iran (Persia) and surrounding lands, showing location of Abadan

File:Arvand-Iran.JPG

Arvand river between Abadan (left) and khorramshahr (right).

Abadan (آبادان in Persian) is a city in the Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran (Persia). It lies on Abadan Island, on the Arvand river. In 2005, the population was estimated to be at 415,139. The civilian population of the city dropped to near zero during the eight-years Iran-Iraq war. In 1992, only 84,774 had returned to live in the city. By 2001, the population had jumped to 206,073, only to double in the past five years.

Etymology

In medieval sources and up to the present century, the name of the Island always occurs in the Arabic form 'Abadan(ﻋﺒﺎﺩﺍﻥ). This name has sometimes been derived from the word worshiper(ﻋﺒﺎﺩ). On the other hand, Beladori(d.892) quotes the story that the town was founded by 'Abbad bin Hosayn Khabethi, who established a garrison there during the governorship of Hajjaj in the Ummayad period. An Iranian etymology of the name (from the Persian word "ab" (water) and the root "pā" (guard, watch) thus "coastguard station"), was suggested by B. Farahvashi. Supporting evidence is the name "Apphana" which Ptolemy applies to an island off the mouth of The Tigris. The Persian version of the name had begun to come into general use before it was adopted by official decree in 1935. The geographer Marcian also renders the name "Apphadana" in his writings.

History

Abadan is thought to have originally developed as a port city under the Abbasids' rule. From the 17th century onward, the Island of Abadan was part of the lands of the Arab Ka'ab (Bani Kaab) tribe. One section of this tribe, Mohaysen, had its headquarters at Mohammara(present-day Khorramshahr), until the removal of Shaikh Khaz'al Khan in 1924.

It was not until the 20th century that rich oil fields were discovered in the area. In 1910, the population had been around 400. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company built their first oil refinery in Abadan, starting in 1909 and completing it in 1913. By 1938, it was the largest in the world. To this day it remains a vast facility for refining petroleum.

Only a low 9% of managers (of the oil company) were from Khuzestan. The proportion of natives of Tehran, the Caspian, Azarbaijan and Kurdistan rose from 4% of blue collar workers to 22% of white collar workers to 45% of managers. Thus while Arabic speakers were concentrated on the lower rungs of the work force, managers tended to be brought in from some distance.

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On August 19 1978—which is the anniversary of the US backed pro-Shah coup d'etat which over threw the nationalists and popular Iranian prime minister, Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh—the Cinema Rex, a movie theatre in Abadan, Iran, was set ablaze by four Islamic Revolution sympathizers in an attempt to help the cause of Iran's Islamic Revolution. The leader of the arsonists was a person by the name of Hossein Takbali-zadeh who confessed to his crime at a public trial held before 700 of the victim's families some two years after the incident. At the trial, Hossein Takbali-zadeh stated that his three accomplices by the names of Faraj, Falah, and Yadollah had all burned in the fire. The last name of the accomplices were never mentioned at the trial. The arson was originally blamed on the Shah's government. What helped implicate the Shah's regime was a set of bizarre incidents just before the movie theatre was set on fire with paint thinner and other chemicals. The local Abadan police had taken notice, and became suspicious of Hossein Takbali-zadeh and his accomplices, and had started following the arsonists as they were entering Cinema Rex. The police decided to continue their surveillance and track the group after they leave the movie theater.

A short while after start of the movie, the police officers noticed smoke coming from Cinema Rex, which was located on the upper level a commercial building. The police officers radioed the on-duty officer at the Abadan Police HQ and reported they had identified a number of suspects who had entered the Cinema, and the suspects had noticed they were under surveillance, and had started a small fire in a corner so they could escape the cinema with the rest of moviegoers. After consulting a supervisor, the on-duty officer instructed the officers not to allow anyone to leave the Cinema until the police chief and additional officers arrive.

The police officers outside the Cinema were under the impression that the suspect terrorists had started a small fire in a corner in an attempt to escape with the rest of the movie goers and did not know that a premeditated plot to burn the theatre and all the people inside was underway. So, they put a lock on the main entrance gate in front of the stairway leading up to the theater. The police also prevented a bystander who wanted to break the gate with his pickup truck from doing so when the intensity of fire and smoke started to increase. When the police chief arrived, the Cinema was completely engulfed in fire. The fire trucks only arrived some 20 minutes after the start of the fire.

While the arson was carefully planned by sympathizers of the Islamic Revolution with the intention of furthering its cause at the expense of several hundred innocent lives, the incompetence of Abadan Police officers did not help the situation.

The death toll has been reported to be between 377 and 430. The local clergy blamed the fire on the Shah's regime. While Abadan Police and government authorities continued to state the arson was carried out by terrorists not related to the government with intention of implcating the government, they never went public with the full account of their blunder in handling the situation, as they did not want to confess to their incompetence.

Virtually all victims had burned while still seated on their seats, which indicated that at the time the fire entered the started, the victims were already unconscious or dead. The fire department investigators believed the Freon gas from the heavy-duty air-conditioning system had reached inside the theater before the fire did. Since Freon is much heavier than air, people inside had already passed out or may have already been dead when the fire reached inside the theater. It was never determined if the Freon leak from the air-conditioning system was part of the arson plan, or resulted from fire damaging the air-conditioning system. But Freon is only toxic in extremely large amounts, so it was probably from fire damaging the air-conditioning refrigerant plumbing.

The Cinema Rex arson sparked mass demonstrations against Pahlavi's government in Abadan, where the anti-Shah sentiments had not been as strong as other major cities.

It was only two years later when Hossein Takbali-zadeh confessed to carrying out the arson with the help of three of his friends that everyone learned of the full details of the events. Despite protests by the relatives of the victims who wanted to know who had inspired and aided Hossein Takbali-zadeh, a 21-year old layman with only a grade 6 education, he was immediately executed right after a short 2-day trial. At his trial, Takbali-zadeh named a local mullah (clergy) who had provided them the chemicals used to set Cinema Rex on fire. However, this testimony was suppressed, and since Takbali-zadeh was immediately executed, the local clergies who could have been implicated in Iran's biggest political arson and massacre, escaped the jaws of public justice.

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In September 1980, Abadan was almost overrun during a surprise attack on Khuzestan by Iraq, marking the beginning of the Iran-Iraq War. For 18 months Abadan was besieged, but never captured, by Iraqi forces. Much of the city, including the oil refinery which was the world's largest refinery with capacity of 680,000 barrels per day, was badly damaged or destroyed by the siege and by bombing. Previous to the war, the city's civilian population was about 300,000, but before it was over, most of the populous had sought refuge elsewhere in Iran.

After the war, the biggest concern was the rebuilding of Abadan's oil refinery. In 1993, the refinery began limited operation, and by 1997 it reached the same rate of production it was at before the war.

Recent events

To honor the 100th anniversary of the refining of oil in Abadan, city officials are planning an "oil museum"

Places of interest

Taj cinema in Abadan

The Abadan Institute of Technology was established in Abadan in 1939. The school specialized in engineering and petroleum chemistry, and was designed to train staff for the refinery in town. The school's name has since changed several times, but since 1989 has been considered a branch campus of the Petroleum University of Technology, centered in Tehran.

There is an international airport in Abadan. It is represented by the IATA airport code ABD.

Trivia

• The Abadan oil refinery was featured on the reverse side of Iran's 100-rial banknotes printed in 1965 and from 1971 to 1973.
• Kamran Delan is also an Abadan native.
• Ally Silavi is also originally from Abadan. http://www.silavi.com

See also

• Abadan Crisis
• The Cinema Rex Fire

External links

• Abadan Oil Refinery - Home page
• Abadan Photo Gallery from the Khuzestan Governorship

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