or Zanjan, a town of Persia, capital of the Khamseh province, about 205 m. N.W. of Teheran, on the high road thence to Tabriz, at an elevation of 5180 ft. It has a population of about 25,000 and post and telegraph offices, and was one of the original strongholds of the BabI sectarians, who held it against a large Persian force from May 1850 to the end of the year, when most of them were massacred. It has extensive gardens, well watered by the Zanjaneh river, which flows south of it. The well-stocked bazaar supplies the neighbouring districts.