Mahdishahr

Mehdishahr () is a city in the Central District of Mehdishahr County, Semnan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district.

== History == thumb|Almahdi mosque Sangesari people, who live in the city of Sangesar, speak Sangesari and live in the large geographic area of Sangesar. Sangesar has a long history dating back to the 1st millennium BC. The first inhabitants of Sangesar used to worship Indo-European deities, and for the past 4000 years, even after the arrival of Arab invaders, they remained Zoroastrians. Like the rest of Iran, they were forced to convert to Shiite Islam after the arrival of the Safavid dynasty. Although there are many theories about Sangesar's name, one of them emphasizes a Saka origin and suggests the name was Sakasar or Saksar, meaning "Saka" (Scythian) settlement, others believe the name comes from Sang (Stone) Sar (Head), literally meaning people who fight to their graves. A large number of Sangesari converted to the Bahai religion in the late 1800s and achieved prominent roles in Pahlavi Iran. After the 1979 revolution, the Islamic Republic renamed the city from Sangesar to MehdiShahr (The city of the savior) to punish the population and to assert Islamic identity.