or AMADAN, a city of Persia, in the province of Irak, which stands upon the site of the ancient Ecbatana. It was taken and destroyed by Timour or Tamerlane, and has never recovered its former splendour. The wall, with the citadel, was entirely pulled down by order of the conqueror, and has never since been rebuilt. It was long one of the most flourishing and prosperous cities of the East, but had been for many years on the decline, when it received its final blow from Timour the Tartar, who sacked and pillaged it, destroyed its walls and finest buildings, and reduced it from being a great and opulent city to a heap of ruins. In that dismantled state it remained a mere clay-built suburb of what it had been; but it possessed its iron gates, until within the last fifty years, when, by the orders of Aga Mahommed Khan, every vestige of its ancient greatness was destroyed. The mud alleys, which now occupy the site of ancient streets or squares, are narrow, interrupted by large hollows, and heaps of fallen crumbled walls of deserted dwellings. A miserable bazar is to be seen here and there in traversing the town; and large lonely spots, marked by broken low mounds, cover more ancient ruins. It is still a considerable place, however, and a known mart of trade between Ispahan and Bagdad, and between the latter place and Teheran, and is famed for the manufacture of leather, in which it carries on an extensive trade. Kinneir mentions that when he was in this place he was shown the tomb of Mordecai and Esther, a circumstance which he considers as a proof of the antiquity of the place. The Persians themselves say that it was the favourite summer residence of most of their sovereigns, from the days of Darius to those of Ghengis Khan. The situation is fine. During eight months of the year the climate is delightful. But in winter the cold is excessive, and fuel is with difficulty procured. The surrounding plain is intersected by innumerable little streams, covered with gardens and villages, and the vegetation is most luxuriant. It contains at present ten thousand meanly-built houses, and about forty or forty-five thousand inhabitants, amongst whom are about six hundred Jewish families, and nearly the same number of Armenians. Long. 40. E. Lat. 34. 53. N.