A review of previous ideas and offering some new suggestions about the appellation, dating of settlement and history of building of Kermanshah city

importance of Kermanshah city during the pre-Islamic, especially in Sassanid period. However, there are many ambiguities about many topics related to this city, including history of settlement, the exact date of construction, the original name of the city in the Sassanian era or before it, and the appellation of this name. Archaeological excavations could not solve this problem because of the inadequacy of excavations in comparison with Considerable extent of Sassanid's remains of this city. So, up to now, any effort to find inscriptions and similar evidences that could solve this problem has been inconclusive. Over the last century some theories, mixed with guesses about the name of Kermanshah during the pre-Islamic period, have been offered based on writings of ancient historians. Some scholars have done efforts, based on numerous texts remaining from the Islamic period, to find the roots of the city's name. Despite all the efforts done by various researchers, accompanied by exact studies of Persian, Arabic and classical western sources, some shortcomings are evident in their works the most important of which is paying little, or no attention at all to oral traditions of indigenous people; neglecting some important historical sources in their research; and vividly neglecting some historical and geographical characteristics related to this region. In this research, in addition to the analysis of previous ideas and focus on previously neglected sources and evidences, we attempt to offer some new suggestions or remarks about the above-mentioned issues and questions.