Mahabad (Persian: مهاباد‎‎, Kurdish: مەھاباد‎; also Romanized as Mahābād and Mehābād; formerly known as Sāūjbulākh or Sawcheblakh) is a city in and the capital of Mahabad County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 133,324, in 31,000 families.The city's population is predominantly Kurdish, with the city lying south of Lake Urmia in a narrow valley 1,300 metres above sea level in Iranian Kurdistan, a part of northwestern Iran.