Lankaran (Lənkəran, , Lankon) is a city in Azerbaijan, on the coast of the Caspian Sea, near the southern border with Iran. As of 2021, the city had a population of 89,300. It is next to, but independent of, Lankaran District. The city forms a distinct first-order division of Azerbaijan. The city is mostly populated by the Talysh people, and serves as the main urban centre of this people and its ethnic homeland, Talyshstan.
The origin of the name "Lankaran" is uncertain. One theory consider it to derive from one of the Persian words, Langarkunān ("the place for dropping the anchor(s)") or Langarkanān ("the place for weighing anchor(s)"). Both meanings simply translate as "sea port." The pronunciation shifted through the years, and Langarkunān became Lankarān or, in the even more simple Talysh pronunciation, Lankon. The other theory links it to the Talysh word lankran ("cane house").
It is unknown when the town of Lankaran was actually established. The French archaeologist Jacques de Morgan (died 1924) discovered extremely ancient remains in Lankaran, such as dolmens, graves, and instances of bodies seemingly exposed in a Zoroastrian manner.
With the death of Nader Shah (r. 1736–1747), the Talysh Khanate was founded by a certain Seyyed Abbas, whose ancestors were members of the Iranian Safavid dynasty, and had moved into the Talish region in the 1720s during a turbulent period in Iranian history. From the founding of the khanate until 1828, it was under the suzerainty of the Iranian Zand and Qajar dynasties. In the first half of the 18th century, the Russians gained control over it for a few years during the Russo-Persian War of 1722–1723; in 1732 it was ceded back to Iran by the Treaty of Resht. During the Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813, General Kotlyarevsky, heading the southernmost Russian contingent during the war, stormed and captured Lankaran's fortress. Following the Treaty of Gulistan of 1813, it was ceded to Russia.