Malekan County

Malekan County شهرستان ملکان
County
Location of Malekan County in East Azerbaijan Province
Coordinates:
Country	Iran
Province	East Azerbaijan
Capital	Malekan
Bakhsh (Districts)	Central District, Leylan District
Population (2006)
• Total	100,366
Time zone	IRST (UTC+3:30)
• Summer (DST)	IRDT (UTC+4:30)
Malekan County can be found at GEOnet Names Server, at this link, by opening the Advanced Search box, entering "9205879" in the "Unique Feature Id" form, and clicking on "Search Database".

Malekan County (Persian: شهرستان ملکان‎‎) is a county in East Azerbaijan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Malekan. At the 2006 census, the county's population was 100,366, in 24,823 families. The county is subdivided into two districts: the Central District and Leylan District. The county has two cities: Malekan and Leylan.

The county is one of the most productive regions of grape in Iran.

Etymology

The word "Malekan" is derived from Malek/Kandi, "The village of the King". However, there are various theories pertaining to the origin of the name 'Malekan/Kandi' : The first theory tells "because the grounds are owned by "GAJAR" government the city has been named after the founder and the king of the government. The second theory holds that "because there have been several kings that have come and gone in the past ..." it has been named this way. The third and the last theory is that the name "Malek/Kandi" is derived from the name of a king named "Maleknia".