Sine

For over two centuries the Erdelan princes ruled much of Rojhilat from Sine, semi-independent between the Safavid and Ottoman empires and rivals of the Baban court at Silêmanî. Their palace culture — poets, calligraphers, master builders — gave the city its mansions, gardens and covered bazaar, and made the Goranî literary language a vehicle of court verse. After the dynasty's fall in 1867 the city remained the chief town of Persian Kurdistan, and in the modern era it has been a centre of Kurdish cultural and political life in Iran, from the 1979 spring to the 'Jin, Jiyan, Azadî' protests of 2022.

A UNESCO Creative City of Music since 2019: Sine's daf — the great frame drum of Sufi ritual — is made and mastered here as nowhere else, and the city has produced dynasties of musicians alongside the Kamkars ensemble. Its old houses (Xosrowawa, the Asef mansion with its Kurdish-costume museum, the Qajar bazaar) keep the Erdelan era present, and its sqez-scented confectionery and klash weaving are famous across Kurdistan.

Mountain climate at 1,500 m: real winters with snow and −15 °C nights, dry warm summers, and sharp spring and autumn light.

Places in Sine

• Xosrowawa Mansion — The garden palace of the Erdelan princes (early 19th century) — a long pool and plane-tree avenue leading to porticoes of carved stone.
• Asef Mansion (Kurdish House) — A 17th–19th-century courtyard house turned museum of Kurdish life — costume halls for every region of Kurdistan around an orangery court.
• Dar ol-Ehsan Mosque — The Friday mosque of 1813, built for Emanollah Xan Erdelan — twin minarets, Qajar tilework and the tombs of Erdelan notables in its courtyard.