During World War I it was besieged and occupied by Russian, British, and Ottoman troops who, with the aid of the 1918 famine, halved the pre-war population of 20,000.

[10] The historical fort of Qam Cheqay (45 km NE of Bijar) probably dates back to the Median era and is the oldest castle in the Kurdistan province.

This square building (6*6.5 m) with a collapsed dome houses Islamic religious texts written in Kufic script.

Present day carpets and rugs have 100–200 Turkish knots per inch and are distinguished by their stiff and heavy wool foundation, created by "wet weaving" and beating the threads together with a special metal tool.

[14] As colonel of the Garrus Regiment, he took part in Muhammad Ali Shah's unsuccessful Herat Campaign.

Among academic figures from Bijar is Dr Kamran Nejatollahi (1953–1978), a young civil engineering professor in the Polytechnic University of Tehran (now Amirkabir).

He is now regarded as an early martyr of the Islamic revolution and is buried among "political dissidents" in Behesht-e Zahra in Teheran.

[10] In June 2008, 21-year-old Hana Abdi, former student of Payame Noor University in Bijar and a member of the Azarmehr Organization of Women of Sanandaj, was sentenced to prison for five years but released after 15 months.

The Iranian Revolutionary Court had charged her with "enmity against God" and "gathering and colluding to harm national security".