ABADAN

Arabic 'abbadan city, extreme southwestern Iran. The city is situated in Khuzestan, part of the oil-producing region of Iran. Abadan lies on an island of the same name along the eastern bank of the Shatt Al-'Arab (river), 33 miles (53 km) from the Persian Gulf. The city thus lies along Iran's border with Iraq. Abadan Island is bounded on the west by the Shatt Al-'Arab and on the east by the Bahmanshir, which is an outlet of the Karun River. The island is 42 miles (68 km) long and from 2 to 12 miles (3 to 19 km) wide. Reputedly founded by a holy man, 'Abbad, in the 8th century, Abadan was a prosperous coastal town in the 'Abbasid period and was known for its salt and woven mats. But the extension of the delta of the Shatt Al-'Arab by silt deposition caused the coast of the Persian Gulf to gradually recede from Abadan. By the time the town was visited by the Arab geographer Ibn Battutah in the 14th century, it was described as little more than a large village in a flat, salty plain. Persia and the Ottomans long disputed Abadan's possession, but Persia acquired it in 1847. Its village status remained unchanged until the early 20th century, when rich oilfields were discovered in Khuzestan. In 1909 the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (its Iranian properties were nationalized in 1951 as the National Iranian Oil Company) established its pipeline terminus refinery at Abadan. The refinery began operating in 1913, and by 1956 Abadan had become a city of more than 220,000 inhabitants, with an economy almost entirely based on petroleum refining and shipping. The refinery complex was served by pipelines running from oil fields to the north, and pipelines were subsequently constructed from Abadan to Tehran and to Shiraz. By the late 1970s the city's oil refinery was perhaps the largest in the world. In September 1980, however, Abadan was almost overrun in the course of Iraq's surprise invasion of Khuzestan. The Iraqis failed to take Abadan, but their artillery and aerial bombardments destroyed its refineries and reduced most of the city to rubble. After the Iran-Iraq War ended in 1988, Iran restarted petroleum refining and petrochemical production in Abadan on a smaller scale using reconstructed plants. The city's port reopened in 1993. Pop. (1976) 296,081; (1986) 6.