- published: 19 Jul 2011
- views: 418
- author: sim74000
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- Abbasid Caliphate
- Abbasids
- Abu Al-Khaseeb
- Abu Ghraib District
- Achaemenid
- Adhamiyah
- Adiabene
- Afaq
- Afaq District
- Ain Al-Tamur
- Ain Sifni
- Ak Koyunlu
- Akkadian language
- Akkadians
- Al Anbar Governorate
- Al Istiqlal District
- Al Rashid, Baghdad
- Al Tarmia District
- Al-Ba'aj
- Al-Ba'aj District
- Al-Chibayish
- Al-Daur
- Al-Daur District
- Al-Faw
- Al-Faw District
- Al-Hai
- Al-Hai District
- Al-Hawiga
- Al-Hawiga District
- Al-Hindiya
- Al-Hindiya District
- Al-Ka'im
- Al-Kahla
- Al-Kahla District
- Al-Khalis
- Al-Khalis District
- Al-Khidhir
- Al-Khidhir District
- Al-Mada'in District
- Al-Mahawil
- Al-Mahawil District
- Al-Maimouna
- Al-Maimouna District
- Al-Manathera
- Al-Mejar Al-Kabi
- Al-Midaina
- Al-Midaina District
- Al-Muqdadiya
- Al-Musayab
- Al-Musayab District
- Al-Na'maniya
- Al-Qa'im District
- Al-Qurna
- Al-Qurna District
- Al-Rifa'i
- Al-Rifa'i District
- Al-Rumaitha
- Al-Rumaitha District
- Al-Rutba
- Al-Salman
- Al-Salman District
- Al-Samawa District
- Al-Shamiya
- Al-Shamiya District
- Al-Shatra
- Al-Shatra District
- Al-Shirqat
- Al-Shirqat District
- Al-Suwaira
- Al-Suwaira District
- Al-Zubair
- Al-Zubair District
- Alexander the Great
- Ali Al-Gharbi
- Amadiya
- Amadiya District
- Amar-Sin
- Amara District
- Amarah
- Anah
- Anah District
- Ansar al-Islam
- Ansar al-Sunnah
- Aqrah
- Aqrah District
- Ar Rutba District
- Arabic language
- Aramaic language
- Arbil
- Arbil Governorate
- Arbil SC
- Archaeology
- Assyria
- Assyrian Empire
- Assyrians
- Ba'quba
- Ba'quba District
- Babil Governorate
- Babylonia
- Badra District
- Badra, Iraq
- Baghdad
- Baghdad Governorate
- Baiji District
- Baiji, Iraq
- Bakhdida
- Balad District
- Balad, Iraq
- Baladrooz
- Baladrooz District
- Basra
- Basra Governorate
- Basrah
- Basrah District
- Battle of Gaugamela
- Building restoration
- Buwayhids
- Capital (political)
- Chamchamal
- Chamchamal District
- Choman District
- Christianity
- Citadel of Arbil
- Cyaxares
- Cyrus the Great
- Daquq
- Daquq District
- Darbandokeh
- Darbandokeh District
- Darius III of Persia
- Dervish
- Dhi Qar Governorate
- Districts of Iraq
- Diwaniya
- Diwaniya District
- Diyala Governorate
- Dohuk District
- Dohuk Governorate
- Dohuk, Iraq
- Dokan District
- Donald H. Rumsfeld
- Edwin Munsell Bliss
- Encyclopedia Iranica
- Erbil
- Erbil Governorate
- Falluja
- Falluja District
- Fort
- Geoffrey Khan
- Gulf War
- Haditha
- Haditha District
- Halabja
- Halabja District
- Hamza
- Hamza District
- Hashimiya
- Hashimiya District
- Hatra
- Hatra District
- Hewlêr Park
- Hilla
- Hilla District
- Hurrian
- Hīt
- Hīt District
- Ibn Khallikan
- Ilkhanid
- Ilkhanids
- Iraq
- Iraqi Kurdistan
- Ishtar
- Islam
- Jalayirids
- Jami' al-tawarikh
- Kadhimyah
- Kalar District
- Kalar, Iraq
- Kara Koyunlu
- Karadah
- Karbala Governorate
- Karkh
- Kerbala
- Kerbala District
- Khanaqin
- Khanaqin District
- Kifri
- Kifri District
- Kirkuk
- Kirkuk District
- Kirkuk Governorate
- Koisanja
- Koisanjaq District
- Kufa
- Kufa District
- Kurdish language
- Kut
- Kut District
- Mahalla
- Mahmoudiyah, Iraq
- Mahmudiya District
- Makhmur
- Makhmur District
- Mansour district
- Maysan Governorate
- Median Empire
- Mergasur District
- Mesopotamia
- Middle Ages
- Mongol Empire
- Mosul
- Mosul District
- Mudhafaria Minaret
- Mulla Effendi
- Mustafa Barzani
- Najaf
- Najaf District
- Najaf Governorate
- Nassriya
- Nassriya District
- Neo-Assyrian Empire
- Neo-Sumerian
- Ninawa Governorate
- Nineveh
- Old Persian
- Ottoman Empire
- Penjwin
- Penjwin District
- Persian Empire
- Pshdar
- Pshdar District
- Qal'at Saleh
- Qaysari Bazaars
- Radio Prague
- Ramadi
- Ramadi District
- Ranya
- Ranya District
- Republic of Korea
- Routledge
- Rusafa
- Saddam Hussein
- Sadr City
- Sagarthians
- Samarra
- Samarra District
- Samawa
- Sami Rahman Park
- Sasanids
- Sassanid Empire
- Seljuks
- Shaqlawa
- Shaqlawa District
- Sharbazher
- Sharbazher District
- Shatt Al-Arab
- Shekhan District
- Sinjar
- Sinjar District
- Soran District
- Sulaimaniyah
- Sulaymaniya
- Sulaymaniya District
- Sumel
- Sumel District
- Sumerian language
- Suq Al-Shoyokh
- Syriac Christianity
- Syriac language
- Taji District
- Tel Afar
- Tel Afar District
- Tel Keppe
- Tel Keppe District
- Tell
- Tell Halaf
- Third Dynasty of Ur
- Tikrit
- Tikrit District
- Timur
- Tooz
- Tooz District
- Turkish bath
- Ubaid period
- Umayyads
- UNESCO
- United States
- Ur
- Uruk period
- Wasit Governorate
- William J. Hamblin
- Zakho
- Zakho District
-
Achaemenid
The Achaemenid Empire (/ækəˈmɛnɪˌdi/; Old Persian: Parsā, name of ruling dynasty: Haxāmanišiya) (c. 550–330 BCE), sometimes known as First Persian Empire, was an Iranian empire in Southwest Asia, founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation. It expanded to eventually rule over significant portions of the ancient world which at around 500 BCE stretched from the Indus Valley in the east, to Thrace and Macedon on the northeastern border of Greece making it the biggest empire the world had yet seen. The Achaemenid Empire would eventually control Egypt as well. It was ruled by a series of monarchs who unified its disparate tribes and nationalities by constructing a complex network of roads.
Calling themselves the Parsa after their original Aryan tribal name Parsua, Persians settled in a land which they named Parsua, bounded on the west by the Tigris River and on the south by the Persian Gulf. This became their heartland for the duration of the Achaemenid Empire. It was from this region that eventually Cyrus the Great (Cyrus II of Persia) would advance to defeat the Median, the Lydian, and the Babylonian Empires, opening the way for subsequent conquests into Egypt and Asia minor.
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Afaq District
Afaq District is a district of the Al Muthanna Governorate, Iraq.
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Akkadians
Coordinates: 33°6′N 44°6′E / 33.1°N 44.1°E / 33.1; 44.1
The Akkadian Empire (Akkadian URUAkkad KI, Hittite KUR A.GA.DÈ.KI "land of Akkad"; Biblical Hebrew אַכַּד Akkad) was an empire centered in the city of Akkad (Sumerian: Agade) and its surrounding region in Mesopotamia.
During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism.Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BC (the exact dating being a matter of debate).
The Akkadian Empire reached its political peak between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC, following the conquests of its founder Sargon of Akkad (2334–2279 BC). Under Sargon and his successors, Akkadian language was briefly imposed on neighboring conquered states such as Elam. Akkad is sometimes regarded as the first empire in history, though there are earlier Sumerian claimants.[citation needed]
The precise archaeological site of the city of Akkad has not yet been found.[citation needed] The form Agade appears in Sumerian, for example in the Sumerian King List; the later Assyro-Babylonian form Akkadû ("of or belonging to Akkad") was likely derived from this. The etymology and meaning of Akkad (written a.ga.dèKI or URIKI) are unknown. Centuries later, the neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus mentioned in his archaeological records that Ishtar's worship in Agade was later superseded by that of the goddess Anunit, whose shrine was at Sippar—suggesting proximity of Sippar and Agade. Despite numerous searches, the city has never been found. One theory holds that Agade was situated opposite Sippar on the left bank of the Euphrates, and was perhaps the oldest part of the city of Sippar. Another theory is that the ruins of Akkad are to be found beneath modern Baghdad. Reputedly it was destroyed by invading Gutians with the fall of the Akkadian Empire.
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Al Anbar Governorate
Anbar Province (Arabic: الأنبار; al-’Anbār) (or Al Anbar Governorate) is the largest province in Iraq geographically. Encompassing much of the country's western territory, it shares borders with Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. The provincial capital is Ramadi, other important cities include Fallujah and Haditha.
Before 1976 the province was known as Ramadi; before 1962, it was known as Dulaim. in 1976 it was renamed Al Anbar Province.
All the inhabitants of the province are Sunni Muslims and mostly from the Dulaim tribe.
The name of the province is from the Arabic انبار, ’Anbār, which means "granaries," in Arabic as this region was the primary entrepot on the western borders of Lakhmid Kingdom.
Geographically, Anbar province consider part of the Arabian Peninsula. The region's geography is a combination of steppe and true desert, characterised by a desert climate, low rainfall and a large variation in temperature between day and night. Summer temperatures rise to 42 degrees Celsius, whilst in the winter average lows reach 9 degrees Celsius. The northwesterly and southwesterly winds are sometimes to a maximum speed of 21 m / sec. Average rainfall in winter to 115mm.[citation needed]
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Al Istiqlal District
Al Istiqlal District is a district of the Baghdad Governorate, Iraq.
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Al Rashid, Baghdad
Rasheed or Al Rashid is one of nine administrative districts in Baghdad, Iraq. Located in southern Baghdad, includes the Baiyaa and Dora neighborhoods.
It is a predominantly Sunni Muslim area.
The 18-story Hotel Al-Rasheed is one of the most prominent landmarks, and is frequented by journalists and media personnel. Named after Harun Al-Rashid, it became well known in the western media during the 1991 Persian Gulf War when CNN conducted their newscasts from the hotel. Between the Persian Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the building was the main housing facility for wealthy western businessmen and diplomats and the press.
After the invasion, the hotel was converted into a base for the Coalition and the American military. On October 26, 2003 it was subject to a Katyusha rocket attack which killed Lieutenant Colonel Charles H. Buehring and injuring 17 others. A large tile mosaic depicting George H.W. Bush was installed on the floor of the lobby after the Persian Gulf War. In Arab culture walking over a face is seen as a serious insult and was created with the intent to force any visitors to walk over his face when they entered the hotel. The mosaic was destroyed by U.S. soldiers in 2003.
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Al Tarmia District
Al Tarmia District is a district of the Baghdad Governorate, Iraq.
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Al-Ba'aj District
Al-Ba'aj District is a district of the Ninawa Governorate, Iraq.
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Al-Daur District
Al-Daur District is a district of the Salah ad Din Governorate, Iraq.
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Al-Faw District
Al-Faw District is a district of the Basra Governorate, Iraq.
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Al-Hai District
Al-Hai District is a district of the Wasit Governorate, Iraq.
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Al-Hawiga
Hawija (Arabic: الحويجة,Al Hawyjah) is a town near Kirkuk north of Baghdad.
Hawijah is in the Al-Tamim province of Iraq and approximately 30 miles south of Kirkuk. There are approximately 450,000 people in and around Hawijah with an estimated 80% Sunni Population. While the city itself has about 150.000 with 98% Sunni population.
U.S. and Iraqi forces have experienced numerous lethal attacks in the area from Sunni insurgents. As of March 2006, the area of Hawijah was considered one of the most dangerous in all of Iraq with US soldiers and the foreign press corps in Baghdad dubbing Hawija "Anbar of the North," a reference to the violence wracked province in Western Iraq.
The closest US base to Hawija is FOB McHenry. FOB McHenry was established in 2003 by Alpha Company 1-12 infantry who had been operating out of an abandoned school in the town of Hawijah. As of May 2005 FOB McHenry was home to around 500 US soldiers.[citation needed] In March 2006, Soldiers in 1st Battalion 327th infantry regiment at FOB McHenry were finding 3-5 road-side bombs a day.[citation needed] From November 1, 2005 through March 2006 medics treated 120 trauma cases.[citation needed] Nine members of the brigade as of March 2006 have died in combat in Hawijah proper,[citation needed] most from a single company, C Co. 1-327th Inf, call sign 'Cold Steel.'
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Al-Hawiga District
Al-Hawiga District is a district of the Kirkuk Governorate, Iraq.
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Al-Hindiya District
Al-Hindiya District is a district of the Karbala Governorate, Iraq.
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Al-Kahla District
Al-Kahla District is a district of the Maysan Governorate, Iraq.
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Al-Khalis District
Al-Khalis District is a district of the Diyala Governorate, Iraq.
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Al-Khidhir District
Al-Khidhir District is a district of the Al Muthanna Governorate, Iraq.
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Al-Mada'in District
Al-Mada'in District is a district of the Baghdad Governorate, Iraq.
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Al-Maimouna District
Al-Maimouna District is a district of the Maysan Governorate, Iraq.
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Al-Midaina District
Al-Midaina District is a district of the Basra Governorate, Iraq.
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Al-Na'maniya
An Numaniyah (Arabic,النعمانية) is a city on the Tigris river in Iraq, located roughly 90 miles (140 km) southeast of Baghdad in the Wasit Province. It is the site of one of four national training centers for the Iraqi Army.
It is also the site of a base that was built by the Hussein regime and constructed by Yugoslavian contractors Mostogradnja. Following the beginning of the Iraq War, it changed its purpose September 1, 2004 to operate as a training base for new recruits and serve as the home station for three battalions of the Iraqi Intervention Force – the Iraqi army's counterinsurgency wing.
According to Globalsecurity.org, "An Numaniyah Airbase is located in Southern Iraq approximately 294 kilometers South of Baghdad. The airfield is served by a single 9,700-foot (3,000 m) long runway. An Numaniyah Airbase occupies a 17 square kilometer site and is protected by a 18 kilometers security perimeter."
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Al-Qurna District
Al-Qurna District is a district of the Basra Governorate, Iraq.
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Al-Rifa'i District
Al-Rifa'i District is a district of the Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq.
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Al-Rumaitha District
Al-Rumaitha District is a district of the Al Muthanna Governorate, Iraq.
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Al-Salman District
Al-Salman District is a district of the Al Muthanna Governorate, Iraq.
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Al-Samawa District
Al-Samawa District is a district of the Al Muthanna Governorate, Iraq.
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Al-Shamiya District
Al-Shamiya District is a district of the Al Muthanna Governorate, Iraq.
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Al-Shatra District
Al-Shatra District is a district of the Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq.
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Al-Shirqat District
Al-Shirqat District is a district of the Salah ad Din Governorate, Iraq.
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Al-Suwaira District
Al-Suwaira District is a district of the Wasit Governorate, Iraq.
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Al-Zubair District
Al-Zubair District is a district of the Basra Governorate, Iraq.
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Amadiya
Amadiya (also spelled "Amediyah", "Amadia", "Amedi", "al-Amadiyah" or other variations), is a small Assyrian and Kurdish town along a tributary to the Great Zab in the Dahuk Governorate of Iraqi Kurdistan. The town is perched on a mountain, formerly only accessible by a narrow stairway cut into the rock. The history of this city goes back to 3000 years B.C. to the time of ancient Assyria, since it has always been a strategic place as it is built on the flat top of a mountain. For several centuries, after the expulsion of the caliphs from Baghdad, it was ruled by a pasha, a prince who was from the royal Abbas family, reputed to be one of the richest rulers in the region.
The region in which the city rests is also believed to have been the home of the Magi or priests of Ancient Persia. Amedia is believed to be the home of some of the most significant Magi priests, the Biblical Magi or the "Three Wise Men", who made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to see Jesus Christ shortly after his birth.
There are also ruins from the Assyrian era and ruins of a synagogue and a church in the small town. At the turn of the 19th century, the population already numbered 6,000, of whom 2,500 were Kurds, 1,900 Jews and 1,600 Assyrians.
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Amara District
Amara District is a district of the Maysan Governorate, Iraq.
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Amarah
Amarah (Arabic: العمارة; BGN: Al ‘Amārah; also spelled Amara), is a city in southeastern Iraq, located on a low ridge next to the Tigris River waterway south of Baghdad about 50 km from the border with Iran. It lies at the northern tip of the marshlands between the Tigris and Euphrates.
Predominantly Shia Muslim, it had a population of about 340,000 as of 2002 and about 420,000 as of 2005. It is the administrative capital of the Maysan province. A major trading center for the surrounding agricultural area, it is known for woven goods and silverware.
The city was founded in the 1860s as an Ottoman military outpost from which the empire tried to control the warring Banu Lam and Al Bu Muhammad tribes.
In 1915 Amarah was captured by the British. Before the revolution in 1958 Amarah was known for its feudal system with local estate-holders maintaining private militias.
During the eight year Iran–Iraq War, Amarah and the surrounding province became the sight of several battles, notably Operation Before the Dawn launched by Iran. Since the Baghdad-Basra highway cut through the province, Iran targeted the area due to its strategic significance to the Iraqis.
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Anah
Anah, or Ana, is an Iraqi town on the Euphrates river, approximately mid-way between the Gulf of Alexandretta and the Persian Gulf.
It is called Hanat in a Babylonian letter, (about 2200 BC), a-na-at by the scribes of Tukulti-Ninurta (885 BC), and An-at by the scribe of Assur-nasir-pal (879 B.C.), Anatho (Isidore Charax), Anatha (Ammianus Marcellinus) by Greek and Latin writers in the early Christian centuries, Ana (sometimes, as if plural, Anat) by Arabic writers. The name has been connected with that of the deity Anat. Descendants with origins from Anah are commonly referred to as "Alanie", literally meaning "the one from Anah" in Arabic.
Whilst Anah has thus retained its name for forty-two centuries the site is variously described. Most early writers concur in placing it on an island; so Tukulti-Ninurta II, Assur-nasir-pal, Isidore, Ammianus Marcellinus, Ibn Serapion, al-Istakri, Abulfeda and al-Karamani. Ammianus calls it a munimentum, Theophylactus Simocattato 'Anathon frourion, Zosimus a frourion, opp. Fathusai, which may be the Beth(th) ina of Ptolemy (v. 19).Leonhart Rauwolff, in AD 1574, found it "divided ... into two towns," the one "Turkish," "so surrounded by the river, that you cannot go into it but by boats," the other, much larger, on the Arabian side of the river.
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Aqrah
Aqrah (Kurdish Akrê, ئاکرێ; Syriac: ܥܩܪܐ ʻaqra) is a city and district in Iraq which is located in the Ninawa Governorate. The total area of the district is (6418) km2. It was formed in 1877 by the Ottoman Empire and the city of Aqrah became the center of the district.
The population is mainly Kurds, but with an Assyrian minority. Defend International President Widad Akrawi, the Kurdish film director, Hiner Saleem, and the Iraqi Ambassador to Vienna, Tariq Aqrawi, were born in this city.
Coordinates: 36°44′29″N 43°53′36″E / 36.74139°N 43.89333°E / 36.74139; 43.89333
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Arbil
Erbil (Hewlêr in Roman-alphabet Kurdish) (also written Arbil, or Irbil) (Akkadian: Arba-ilu; Arabic: اربيل Arbīl; Kurdish: ھەولێر Hewlêr; Sumerian: Urbilum; Syriac-Aramaic: ܐܪܒܝܠ Arbaelo) is, with a population of approximately 1.3 million (2009), the fourth largest city in Iraq after Baghdad, Basra and Mosul. It is located 80 kilometres (50 miles) east of Mosul, and is the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Urban life at Erbil can be dated back to at least 6000 BC, and it is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. At the heart of the city is the ancient Citadel of Arbil. The Hurrians were the first to establish Urbilum and expand their rule to the rest of northern Mesopotamia. The city has since been under the rule of many regional powers, including the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Arabs, and the Ottomans. Erbil's archaeological museum houses a large collection of pre-Islamic artifacts, and is a center for archaeological projects in the area.
The name Erbil was mentioned in Sumerian holy writings (c. 2000 BC) as Urbilum, Urbelum or Urbillum, and it may be Sumerian in origin. It is thought to originate from Sumerian UR (city) + BELA (high) meaning the city located in the upper area. The initial ar element also appears in a number of Hurrian place names.
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Arbil Governorate
Erbil Province or Governorate (Arabic: أربيل Arbīl, Kurdish: Hawler, Syriac: ܐܪܒܝܠ Arbel, Turkmen: Erbil) is one of the provinces of Iraq, located in the autonomous Kurdistan Region. It derives its name from the city of Erbil, which is also its capital.
The province of Erbil covers an area of 15,074 square kilometres (5,820 sq mi) in the north of Iraq, with an estimated population (in 2003) of 1,314,000 people. It is largely populated by Kurds but has minority populations of Assyrians, Iraqi Arabs, and Iraqi Turkmen
There are many national and international banks operating in Erbil offering citizens and visitors services, including but not limited to:
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Assyrian Empire
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the late 25th or early–24th century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia (present day northern Iraq), that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur (Akkadian: 𒀸𒋗𒁺 𐎹 Aššūrāyu; Aramaic: אתור Aṯur; Hebrew: אַשּׁוּר Aššûr; Arabic: آشور Āšūr). Assyria was also sometimes known as Subartu, and after its fall, from 605 BC through to the late seventh century AD variously as Athura, Syria (Greek), Assyria (Latin) and Assuristan. The term Assyria can also refer to the geographic region or heartland where Assyria, its empires and the Assyrian people were centred. The modern Assyrian Christian minority in northern Iraq, north east Syria, south east Turkey and north west Iran are the descendants of the ancient Assyrians (see Assyrian continuity).
Assyria evolved originally as a minor Akkadian kingdom. From the late 24th Century BC Assyrian kings would certainly have been regional leaders only, and subject to Sargon of Akkad who united all the Akkadian speaking peoples of Mesopotamia under the Akkadian Empire which lasted from 2334 BC to 2154 BC. After the fall of the Akkadian Empire circa 2154 BC, and the succeeding Sumerian 3rd Dynasty of Ur, Mesopotamia eventually coalesced into just two separate nations; Assyria in the north, and some century and a half later, Babylonia in the south.
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Babil Governorate
Babylon Province (Arabic: بابل Bābil) (or Babil Governorate) is a province in central Iraq. It has an area of 5,603 square kilometres (2,163 sq mi), with an estimated population of 1,385,783 people in 2003. The provincial capital is the city of Hillah, which lies opposite the ancient city of Babylon (بابل), on the Euphrates river.
The ancient city of Babylon in present-day Babylon Province was the capital of ancient Babylonia, situated on the Euphrates river south of Baghdad, Iraq.
The city was occupied from the 3rd millennium BC but became important early in the 2nd millennium under the kings of the First Dynasty of Babylon. The sixth king of this dynasty was Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC) who made Babylon the capital of a vast empire and is best remembered for his code of laws.
The city achieved pre-eminence when Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC) extended the Babylonian Empire over most of Western Asia.
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Badra District
Badra District is a district of the Wasit Governorate, Iraq.
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Badra, Iraq
Badra (Arabic,بدرة , Kurdish Bedre) is a town in south eastern Iraq near the Iraqi-Iranian borders in Wasit Governorate. Its population is a mixture of Arabs, Turkmen and Faili Kurds.
Coordinates: 33°07′N 45°57′E / 33.117°N 45.95°E / 33.117; 45.95
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Baghdad
Baghdad (Arabic: بغداد, Baġdād, IPA: [bæɣˈdæːd]) is the capital of Republic of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Province. The population of Baghdad as of 2011 is approximately 7,216,040, making it the largest city in Iraq, the second largest city in the Arab World (after Cairo, Egypt), and the second largest city in Western Asia (after Tehran, Iran).
Located along the Tigris River, the city was founded in the 8th century and became the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate. Within a short time of its inception, Baghdad evolved into a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual center for the Islamic World. This in addition to housing several key academic institutions (e.g. House of Wisdom) garnered the city a worldwide reputation as the "Center of Learning". Throughout the High Middle Ages, Baghdad was considered to be the largest city in the world with an estimated population of 1,200,000 people. The city was largely destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258, resulting in a decline that would linger through many centuries due to frequent plagues and multiple successive empires. With the recognition of Iraq as an independent state (formerly the British Mandate of Mesopotamia) in 1938, Baghdad gradually regained some of its former prominence as a significant center of Arabic culture.
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Baghdad Governorate
Baghdad Province (Arabic: محافظة بغداد Muḥāfaẓät Baġdād) (or Baghdad Governorate) is the capital province of Iraq. It includes the City of Baghdad, as well as the surrounding metropolitan area, which includes Al-Mada'in (Seleucia-Ctesiphon), Taji, Mahmudiya District and Abu Ghraib District. The province has a total area of 4,071 square kilometres (1,572 sq mi), the smallest of the 18 provinces of Iraq but the most populous.
Baghdad Province is one of the most developed parts of Iraq, with a better infrastructure than much of Iraq, though heavily damaged from the invasion in 2003 and continuing violence today. It also has one of the highest rates for terrorism in the world with bombs, suicide attackers, and hit squads operating in the city.
Baghdad has at least 12 bridges spanning the Tigris river - joining the east and west of the city. The Sadr City district of the capital is the most densely populated area in Iraq.
Baghdad is governed by the Baghdad Provincial Council. Representatives to the Baghdad Provincial Council were elected by their peers from the lower councils of the administrative districts in Baghdad in numbers proportional to the population of the various districts that were represented.
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Baiji District
Baiji District is a district of the Salah ad Din Governorate, Iraq.
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Baiji, Iraq
Baiji (Arabic: بيجي; also spelled Bayji) is a city of about 200,000 inhabitants in northern Iraq some 130 miles north of Baghdad, on the main road to Mosul. It is a major industrial centre best known for its oil refinery, the biggest in Iraq and has a large power plant. It also has important weapons and chemical plants.
After the invasion of Kuwait in 1990, dozens of British civilians taken captive in Kuwait were held at the Baiji oil refinery, apparently as human shields. The city was bombed during the 1991 Gulf War and about 80% of the oil refinery was destroyed. It was quickly rebuilt and was back in action only a couple of months after the war's end. However, a lack of maintenance and spare parts resulting from the United Nations trade embargo against Iraq caused the deterioration of the city's oil refinery, which by the late 1990s was in a very poor condition and was seriously polluting the surrounding area.
Baiji was captured with little or no fighting during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It was briefly thought in late April 2003 that barrels of chemicals found in a storage area near the town contained the nerve agent cyclosarin. Soon afterwards, United States troops discovered an underground oil refinery at Baiji which was initially suspected to be a chemical weapons plant. Both leads eventually proved to be false alarms in the fruitless search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
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Bakhdida
Bakhdida (Classical Syriac: ܒܓܕܝܕܐ, Arabic:بخديدا) IPA: [bɑχdɛːdə], also known as Baghdeda, Qaraqosh, Karakosh or Al-Hamdaniya, is an Assyrian town in the northern Iraq Ninawa Governorate, located about 32 km southeast of the city of Mosul amid agricultural lands, close to the ruins of the ancient Assyrian cities Nimrud and Nineveh. It is connected to the main city of Mosul by two main roads. The first runs through the towns of Bartella and Karamles which connects to the city of Arbil as well. The second which was gravel until the 1990s when it was paved, is direct to Mosul.
The name Bakhdida (Syriac: ܒܝܬ ܟܘܕܝܕܐ; Beth Khdeda), is of uncertain origin and when translated from the Syriac language it has two components Beth which means "land" or "town", and Khodida which could either mean "Youths" in Aramaic or "God's gift" in Old Persian. Some also believe that Bakhdida comes from the Aramaic Beth Deta, meaning "Land of the Kite". During the Ottoman Turks rule, the Turkish name Qara Qoş (Turkish for black bird) came into use. Finally, and as part of the Arabization policy in the 1970s, the Iraqi Ba'ath government changed the village name to Hamdaniyya, naming it after the Arab tribe of "Banu Hamdan", who ruled Mosul in the middle ages.
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Balad District
Balad District is a district of the Salah ad Din Governorate, Iraq.
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Balad, Iraq
Coordinates: 34°0′59″N 44°8′43″E / 34.01639°N 44.14528°E / 34.01639; 44.14528 Balad (Arabic: بلد) is a city (80 kilometres) north of Baghdad in the Salah ad Din Governorate Iraq. It is located within the borders of the so-called Sunni Triangle; however, Balad is a primarily Shiite town of approximately 100,000. It is the principal town of the Balad district.
Located within the municipality of Yethrib, the installation is known officially as Joint Base Balad, formerly LSA Anaconda and Balad Air Base. The name of this base in the Saddam era was Al-Bakir Air Base (Arabic: قاعدة البكر الجوية). This base currently hosts several Army and Air Force units, as well as a small attachments of U.S. Navy personnel.
As of early 2007 the base is the central hub for airlift and U.S. Air Force operations in Iraq, it is also a major transshipment point for US Army supply convoys.
Even closer to the actual city of Balad is a tiny FOB (Forward Operating Base) called FOB Paliwoda. Currently home to the 545th MP Company (2nd Plt), the 1-28th ID and a few enablers, it sits on the outskirts of Balad proper.
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Baladrooz District
Baladrooz District is a district of the Diyala Governorate, Iraq.
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Basra
Basra (Arabic: البصرة; BGN: Al Baṣrah) is the capital of Basra Governorate, in southern Iraq near Kuwait and Iran. It had an estimated population of two million as of 2009. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is handled at the port of Umm Qasr.
The city is part of the historic location of Sumer, the home of Sinbad the Sailor, and a proposed location of the Garden of Eden. It also played an important role in early Islamic history, being built in 636 CE, or 14 AH. It is Iraq's second largest and most populous city after Baghdad.
The city was called by many names throughout its history, Basrah being the most common. Although some Chaldean Christians argue that the name has Akkadian roots, other sources claim that the name is derived from the Persian word Bas-rah, which means "where many paths meet". During the pre-Islamic era, the area was known to the Arabs as al-Khariba due to the existence of an ancient city called al-Kharba. After the present city was built, it was called by many names, including "the mother of Iraq", "the reservoir of Arabs", "the prosperous city", and "al-Faiha".
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Basra Governorate
Basra Province (Arabic: البصرة Al Baṣra) (or Basra Governorate) is a province in southern Iraq, bordering Kuwait to the south and Iran to the east. The provincial capital is the city of Basra. Other districts of Basra include Al-Qurnah, Az Zubayr, Al Mudaynah, Shatt Al Arab, Abu Al Khaseeb and Al Faw located on the Persian Gulf.
In 1920, after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, the United Kingdom took over the former Ottoman vilayets of Basra, Baghdad and Mosul which had together formed the historical region of Irak Arabi or Irak Babeli, and called it the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. The mandate was succeeded by the Kingdom of Iraq in 1932.
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Basrah
Basra (Arabic: البصرة; BGN: Al Baṣrah) is the capital of Basra Governorate, in southern Iraq near Kuwait and Iran. It had an estimated population of two million as of 2009. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is handled at the port of Umm Qasr.
The city is part of the historic location of Sumer, the home of Sinbad the Sailor, and a proposed location of the Garden of Eden. It also played an important role in early Islamic history, being built in 636 CE, or 14 AH. It is Iraq's second largest and most populous city after Baghdad.
The city was called by many names throughout its history, Basrah being the most common. Although some Chaldean Christians argue that the name has Akkadian roots, other sources claim that the name is derived from the Persian word Bas-rah, which means "where many paths meet". During the pre-Islamic era, the area was known to the Arabs as al-Khariba due to the existence of an ancient city called al-Kharba. After the present city was built, it was called by many names, including "the mother of Iraq", "the reservoir of Arabs", "the prosperous city", and "al-Faiha".
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Basrah District
Basrah District is a district of the Basra Governorate, Iraq.
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Chamchamal District
Chamchamal District is a district of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq.
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Daquq
Daquq or Daquqa, Dakuk, Daqooq, Tavuk or Tawuq (Arabic,داقوق) is a historic town in Iraq south of Kirkuk. It is the capital of Daquq District, one of the four Districts of Kirkuk Governorate. It lies just south of Taza.
Daquq is sometimes referred to as the earliest Turkmen settlement in Iraq.
Abul-Fath Mohammad bin Annaz, founder of the Annazid dynasty, temporarily seized Daquq from Banu Oqayl in 998 AD.
Up to the end of the 14th century AD, Daquq was for the most part administratively and economically superior to neighbouring Kirkuk.
The majority of the 50,000 inhabitants are Turkmen Shia. The town is known for its tea and famous mosque. It is situated on the Daquq river, of which the floodwaters in spring are said to join the Tigris.
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Daquq District
Daquq District is a district of the Kirkuk Governorate, Iraq.
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Darbandokeh District
Darbandokeh District is a district of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq.
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Dhi Qar Governorate
Dhi Qar Province (Arabic: ذي قار Dhī Qār) (or Dhi Qar Governorate) is a province in southern Iraq. The provincial capital is Nasiriyah. Prior to 1976 the province was known as Muntafiq Province. Dhi Qar was the heartland of the ancient Iraqi civilization of Sumer and the ruins of Ur, Eridu, Lagash, Larsa, Girsu, Umma, and Bad-tibira are located here.
Dhi Qar governorate includes the towns of al-Rifai, Qalat Sukkar, Ash Shatrah, al-Gharraf, Suq al-Shuyouk, Khamisiyah and al-Chibayish
In the mid 1990s the governor was Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, who later became police chief of the country, and in 1999, director of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.
An Nasiriyah witnessed some of the heaviest fighting and some of the stiffest resistance against invading U.S. forces in 2003.[citation needed]
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Diwaniya District
Diwaniya District is a district of the Al Muthanna Governorate, Iraq.
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Diyala Governorate
Diyala Province (Arabic: ديالى Diyālā) (or Diyala Governorate) is a province in eastern Iraq.
Diyala Governorate extends to the northeast of Baghdad as far as the Iranian border. Its capital is Baqubah. It covers an area of 17,685 square kilometres (6,828 sq mi).
A large portion of the province is drained by the Diyala River, a major tributary of the Tigris. Because of its proximity to two major sources of water, Diyala's main industry is agriculture, primarily dates grown in large groves. The province also contains one of the largest olive groves in the Middle East. It is also recognized as the orange capital of the Middle East. The Hamrin Mountains pass through the governorate.
In 2003, it had an estimated population of some 1,224,000 people. Iraqi Arabs comprise about 82 percent of the governorate, Iraqi Kurds about 16 percent (predominantly in the Khanaquin and Kifri Districts), and Iraqi Turkmen about 2 percent. Around 75% of the population live in the major cities: Baqubah, Muqdadiyah and Khanaqin.
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Dohuk Governorate
Dohuk Province (Arabic: دهوك Dahūk, Kurdish: Dihok) (or Duhok Governorate) is one of the provinces of Iraq. It is in the north of the country in the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan. Its capital is the city of Duhok. It also includes the city of Zakho, which has at various times served as a checkpoint for the border with Turkey. Prior to 1976 it was part of Ninawa Governorate, which was called Mosul Province.
Duhok was divided into four Districts and has now 7 districts:
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Dokan District
Dokan District is a district of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq.
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Erbil Governorate
Erbil Province or Governorate (Arabic: أربيل Arbīl, Kurdish: Hawler, Syriac: ܐܪܒܝܠ Arbel, Turkmen: Erbil) is one of the provinces of Iraq, located in the autonomous Kurdistan Region. It derives its name from the city of Erbil, which is also its capital.
The province of Erbil covers an area of 15,074 square kilometres (5,820 sq mi) in the north of Iraq, with an estimated population (in 2003) of 1,314,000 people. It is largely populated by Kurds but has minority populations of Assyrians, Iraqi Arabs, and Iraqi Turkmen
There are many national and international banks operating in Erbil offering citizens and visitors services, including but not limited to:
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Falluja
Fallujah (Arabic: الفلوجة, ʾal-Falūǧah, IPA: [ʔalfaˈluːdʒah]; Aramaic: Pumbeidtha - פומבדיתא) is a city in the Iraqi province of Al Anbar, located roughly 69 kilometers (43 mi) west of Baghdad on the Euphrates. Fallujah dates from Babylonian times and was host to important Jewish academies for many centuries.
The city grew from a small town in 1947 to a population of 326,471 inhabitants in 2010. Within Iraq, it is known as the "city of mosques" for the more than 200 mosques found in the city and surrounding villages.
The region has been inhabited for many millennia. There is evidence that the area surrounding Fallujah was inhabited in Babylonian times. The current name of the city is thought to come from its Syriac name, Pallgutha, which is derived from the word division or "canal regulator" since it was the location where the water of the Euphrates River divided into a canal. Classical authors cited the name as "Pallacottas". The name in Aramaic is Pumbedita."
The region of Fallujah was a part of the Sassanid Persian province of Anbar. The word anbar is Persian and means "warehouse". Known as Firuz Shapur or Perisapora during the Sassanian Era, it was one the main commercial center of the Lakhmid Kingdom. One mile north of Fallujah lie extensive ruins which are identified with the town of Anbar. Anbar was located at the confluence of the Euphrates River with the King's Canal, today the Saqlawiyah Canal, known in Early Islamic times as the Nahr 'Isa and in ancient times as Nahr Malka. Subsequent shifts in the Euphrates River channel have caused it to follow the course of the ancient Pallacottas canal. The town at this site in Jewish sources was known as Nehardea and was the primary center of Babylonian Jewry until its destruction by the Palmyran ruler Odenathus in 259. The Medieval Jewish traveller Benjamin of Tudela in 1164 visited "el-Anbar which is Pumbeditha in Nehardea" and said it had 3000 Jews living there.
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Halabja
Halabja (Kurdish: ههڵهبجه Helebce), is a Kurdish town in Northern Iraq, located about 150 miles (240 km) north-east of Baghdad and 8–10 miles from the Iranian border.
The town lies at the base of what is often referred to as the greater Hewraman region stretching across the Iran-Iraq border. The Kurds in the city of Halabja generally speak only the Sorani dialect of Kurdish, but some residents of the surrounding villages speak the Hewrami dialect.
Halabja has a long history. The cemetery includes the tombs of several historical figures, such as Ahmed Mukhtar Jaf, Tayar Bag Jaf and Adila Khanim. In August 2009, three 17th century tombs were discovered in the Ababile district of the town.
This suggests that the town is somewhat older than indicated by some sources, which claim that it was built by the Ottoman Empire circa 1850. However, modern developments date from the early 20th century. The post office opened in 1924 and the first school opened the following year. The Qaysari Pasha and Hamid Bag bazaars were built in 1932. Electricity did not reach the city until 1940.
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Halabja District
Halabja District is a district of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq.
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Hamza District
Hamza District is a district of the Al Muthanna Governorate, Iraq.
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Hashimiya District
Hashimiya District is a district of the Babil Governorate, Iraq.
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Hatra
Coordinates: 35°35′17″N 42°43′06″E / 35.58806°N 42.71833°E / 35.58806; 42.71833
Hatra (Arabic: الحضر al-Ḥaḍr) is an ancient city in the Ninawa Governorate and al-Jazira region of Iraq. It is currently known as al-Hadr, a name which appears once in ancient inscriptions, and it was in the ancient Iranian province of Khvarvaran. The city lies 290 km (180 mi) northwest of Baghdad and 110 km (68 mi) southwest of Mosul.
Hatra was founded by Ancient Arab tribes some time in the 3rd century BCE. A religious and trading centre under the Parthian empire of Iran, it flourished during the 1st and 2nd centuries BCE. Later on, the city became the capital of possibly the first Arab Kingdom in the chain of Arab cities running from Hatra, in the northeast, via Palmyra, Baalbek and Petra, in the southwest. The region controlled from Hatra was the Kingdom of Araba, a semi-autonomous buffer kingdom on the western limits of the Parthian Empire of Iran, governed by Arabian princes.
Hatra became an important fortified frontier city and withstood repeated attacks by the Roman Empire, and played an important role in the Second Parthian War. It repulsed the sieges of both Trajan (116/117) and Septimius Severus (198/199). Hatra defeated the Iranians at the battle of Shahrazoor in 238, but fell to the Iranian Sassanid Empire of Shapur I in 241 and was destroyed. The traditional stories of the fall of Hatra tell of an-Nadira, daughter of the King of Araba, who betrayed the city into the hands of Shapur. The story tells of how Shapur killed the king and married an-Nadira, but later had her killed also.
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Hatra District
Hatra District is a district of the Ninawa Governorate, Iraq.
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Hīt
Hīt (Arabic: هيت) is an Iraqi city in Al-Anbar province. Hīt lies northwest of Ramadi, the provincial capital.
On the Euphrates River, Hīt is a small walled town built on two mounds on the site of the ancient city of Is; bitumen wells in the vicinity have been utilized for at least 3,000 years and were used in the building of Babylon. Hīt is a marketplace for agricultural produce and oil pipelines to the Mediterranean Sea cross the Euphrates there. It was regarded as the head of navigation on the river before the decline in river traffic.
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Iraq
Iraq (/ɪˈræk/ or
i/ɪˈrɑːk/; Arabic: العراق al-‘Irāq); officially the Republic of Iraq (Arabic: 
جمهورية العراق (help·info) Jumhūriyyat al-‘Irāq), is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.
Iraq borders Syria to the northwest, Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, Jordan to the southwest and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south. Iraq has a narrow section of coastline measuring 58 km (36 mi) on the northern Persian Gulf. The capital city, Baghdad is in the center-east of the country.
Two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run through the center of Iraq, flowing from northwest to southeast. These provide Iraq with agriculturally capable land and contrast with the steppe and desert landscape that covers most of Western Asia.
Historically, Iraq was the center of the Abbasid Arabic Islamic Empire. Iraq has been known to the west by the Greek toponym 'Mesopotamia' (Land between the rivers) and has been home to continuous successive civilizations since the 6th millennium BC. The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is often referred to as the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of writing, law and the wheel. At different periods in its history, Iraq was the center of the indigenous Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Abbasid empires. It was also part of the Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires, and under British control as a League of Nations mandate.
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Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Kurdistan Region (Kurdish: ههرێمی کوردستان, Herêmî Kurdistan; Arabic: إقليم كردستان العراق Iqlīm Kurdistān al-‘Irāq) is an autonomous region of Iraq. It borders Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, Syria to the west and the rest of Iraq to the south. The regional capital is Arbil, known in Kurdish as Hewlêr. The region is officially governed by the Kurdistan Regional Government.
The establishment of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq dates back to the March 1970 autonomy agreement between the Kurdish opposition and the Iraqi government after years of heavy fighting. The Iran-Iraq war during the 1980s and the Anfal genocide campaign of the Iraqi army devastated the population and nature of Iraqi Kurdistan. Following the 1991 uprising of the Iraqi people against Saddam Hussein, many Kurds were forced to flee the country to become refugees in bordering regions of Iran and Turkey. A northern no-fly zone was established following the First Gulf War in 1991 to facilitate the return of Kurdish refugees. As Kurds continued to fight government troops, Iraqi forces finally left Kurdistan in October 1991, leaving the region to function de facto independently; however, neither of the two major Kurdish parties had at any time declared independence and Iraqi Kurdistan continues to view itself as an integral part of a united Iraq but one in which it administers its own affairs. The 2003 invasion of Iraq and the subsequent political changes led to the ratification of a new Constitution of Iraq in 2005. The new Iraqi constitution defines Iraqi Kurdistan as a federal entity of Iraq, and establishes Arabic and Kurdish as Iraq's joint official languages.
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Kalar District
Kalar District is a district of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq.
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Kalar, Iraq
Kalar (Kurdish:کهلار, Kelar ) is a town in Iraqi Kurdistan located on Sirwan (Diyala) river, and to the east of Kifri and to the west of Qasri Shirin and Sarpol Zahab in Kermanshah Province in western Iran. Part of the twin towns of Smud-Kalar, Smud was renamed Rizgari after the 1991 Kurdish uprising against the Ba'ath party. The neighborhood of Smud was a relocation camp for Kurdish people under the regime of Saddam Hussein.
The University of Kelar, a satellite campus of University of Sulaymaniyah, majors in agriculture.
Sherwana Castle, on the Sirwan River was built in the 19th century. It now serves as a museum for the artifacts uncovered from the mound on which it stands. Coordinates: 34°38′N 45°18′E / 34.633°N 45.3°E / 34.633; 45.3
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Karbala Governorate
Karbala Province (Arabic: كربلاء Karbalāʾ) (or Karbala Governorate) is a province in central Iraq. The provincial capital is the city of Karbala, a holy city for Shi'ah Muslims, which houses the shrine of Imam Hussein (AS), a greatly revered figure in Shia Islam.
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Karkh
Karkh or Al-Karkh (Arabic: الكرخ) is historically the name of the western half of Baghdad, Iraq, or alternatively, the western shore of the river Tigris as it ran through Baghdad. The eastern shore is known as Al-Rasafa.
Its name is derived from the Syriac (ܟܪܟܐ) Karkha; citadel.
Today, it is also a neighborhood between the international zone and the Tigris. Karkh is one of nine administrative districts in Baghdad.
Coordinates: 33°19′N 44°24′E / 33.317°N 44.4°E / 33.317; 44.4
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Kerbala
Karbala (Arabic: كربلاء; BGN: Al-Karbalā’; also referred to as Karbalā' al-Muqaddasah) is a city in Iraq, located about 100 km (62 mi) southwest of Baghdad. Karbala is the capital of Karbala Governorate, and has an estimated population of 572,300 people (2003).
The city, best known as the location of the Battle of Karbala (680), is amongst the holiest cities for Shia Muslims after Mecca and Medina. It is home to the Imam Hussein Shrine. Karbala is famous as the site of the martyrdom of Hussein ibn Ali (Imam Hussein), and commemorations are held by millions of Shias annually to remember it. Karbala is considered sacred by all Shias.
There are several theories as to the origin of the name Karbala. One traditional hypothesis is Turkish geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi's belief that the name is an alternate Arabic feminine version of karbalah "soft earth". Another theory is that the name came from the Aramaic root Karb or Qarb; meaning "Near", and Alah; meaning God. Hence, the word 'Karbala' signifies 'Near God'. Alternatively, it has been said to be derived from the Aramaic word Kora, meaning place for making bricks, for the nearby ancient city of Babil, hence Karbabil, which became Karbala by contraction.
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Kerbala District
Kerbala District is a district of the Karbala Governorate, Iraq.
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Khanaqin
Khanaqin (Kurdish خانه قين,Xaneqîn Arabic خانقين, also transliterated as Khanakin, Xanaqin) is a city in Iraq. It is located at 34.3°N, 45.4°E in the Diyala Governorate, near the Iranian border on a tributary of the Diyala River. Khanaqin is the administrative capital of the Khanaqin District, which comprises several cities, such as As-Sadiyah and Jalula, as well as hundreds of villages. The city is divided into two parts by the Alwand River, this river has played a significant role in land cultivation and in establishment of a strong rural society in the area. The river is considered by the people of Khanaqin as a symbol for their unity and Kurdish identity.
The majority of people of the city of Khanaqin are Kurds (although the province of Diyala has an Arab majority). They speak mainly the Kalhuri branch of southern Kurdish dialects which is Indo-European. These dialects are closely related to each other and called Feyli or Xanaqini by the locals (see southern Kurdish).
Khanaqin's original name was Du-Khanag and was a part of the Kurdistan for centuries. The name Du-Khānaqa (دو خانقا) means "Two Sufi Houses" in Kurdish. After the Arabic invasion of Kurdistan, the occupiers Arabized many of the local names and also omitted the word du (two) from this name and attached the Arabic suffix of dualis after the name, hence Du-khānaqa became Khānaq-ayn and Khanaqin.
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Kirkuk
Kirkuk (also spelled Karkuk or Kerkuk, Arabic: كركوك karkūk, Kurdish: Kerkûk/کهرکووک, Syriac: ܟܪܟ ܣܠܘܟ karḵ sluḵ, Turkish: Kerkük) is a city in Iraq and the capital of Kirkuk Governorate.
It is located in the Iraqi governorate of Kirkuk, 236 kilometres (147 mi) north of the capital, Baghdad. Kirkuk city lies 83 km south of Arbil, 149 km southeast of Mosul, 97 km west of Sulaymaniyah, and 116 km northeast Tikrit
It stands on the site of the ancient Assyrian capital of Arrapha, which sits near the Khasa River on the ruins of a 5,000-year-old settlement (Kirkuk Citadel). Arrapha reached great importance under the Assyrians in the 10th and 11th centuries BC. Because of the strategic geographical location of the city, Kirkuk was the battle ground for three empires—the Neo Assyrian Empire, Babylonia, and Media—which controlled the city at various times.
Kirkuk lies in a wide zone with an ethnically mixed population, which has moreover experienced dramatic demographic changes in the course of the twentieth century. Kurds, Turkmen and Arabs lay conflicting claims to this zone, and all have their historical accounts and memories to buttress their claims.
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Kirkuk District
Kirkuk District is a district of the Kirkuk Governorate, Iraq.
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Kirkuk Governorate
Kirkuk Province (Arabic: كركوك Karkūk, Kurdish: Kerkûk, Syriac: ܟܪܟ ܣܠܘܟ Karḵ Sloḵ, Turkish: Kerkük) (or Kirkuk Governorate) is a province in northern Iraq. The province has an area of 9,679 square kilometres (3,737 sq mi). In 2003 the estimated population was 848,000 people. The provincial capital is the city of Kirkuk. It is divided into four districts.
From 1976 to 2006, it was named At-Ta'mim Province which means "Nationalisation Province" and refers to the national ownership of the regional oil and natural gas reserves. Prior to 1976 it had been named Kirkuk Province.
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Kufa
Kufa (Arabic,الكوفة al-Kūfah) is a city in Iraq, about 170 kilometres (110 mi) south of Baghdad, and 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) northeast of Najaf. It is located on the banks of the Euphrates River. The estimated population in 2003 was 110,000.
Along with Samarra, Karbala, Kadhimiya and Najaf, Kufa is one of five Iraqi cities that are of great importance to Shia Muslims. The city was the final capital of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, and was founded within the first hundred years of the 622 Hijra[citation needed].
The city contains the Great Mosque of Kufa, one of the earliest mosques in Islam, built in the 7th century.
File:Kufa masjid.pdf
See Ancient Mesopotamia.
Ruled by Sassanian Empire as part of Suristan province. See Middle Bih-Kavad.
The Arabs, led by Caliph ʻUmar ibn Khattāb, conquer Iraq and begin ruling Suristan around 637.
ʻUmar ibn Khattāb became the second caliph in 634. After the Arab victory against the East Roman Empire at Battle of Yarmouk in 636, Kūfah was founded and given its name in 637–638 CE, about the same time as Basra. The Companion of the Prophet Saʻd ibn Abī Waqqas founded it as an encampment adjacent to the Lakhmid Arab city of al-Hīrah, and incorporated it as a city of seven divisions. The city was alternately known to non-Arabs as Hīrah and Aqulah before the consolidations of ʻAbdu l-Mālik in 691.
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Kufa District
Kufa District is a district of the Najaf Governorate, Iraq.
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Kut
Al-Kūt (Arabic: الكوت; BGN: Al Kūt; also spelled Kut-Al-Imara or Kut El Amara, Kurdish: Kût) is a kurdish city in eastern Iraq, on the left bank of the Tigris River, about 160 kilometres (100 mi) south east of Baghdad. As of 2003[update] the estimated population is about 374,000 people. It is the capital of the province long known as Al Kut, but since the 1960s renamed Wasit.
The old town of Kut is within a sharp "U" bend of the river, almost making it an island but for a narrow connection to the shore. For centuries Kut was a regional center of the carpet trade. The area around Kut is a fertile cereal grain growing region. The Kut Barrage was constructed in the city in the 1930s to provide irrigation water for the surrounding area. The Baghdad Nuclear Research Facility, looted following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, is located near Kut.
The Kut Barrage is a barrage on the Tigris river, located in the modern town of Kut in Wasit Governorate, Iraq. It is 516 metres (1,693 ft) long, 10.5 metres (34 ft) high and consists of 56 gates, each 6 metres (20 ft) wide. The maximum discharge of the barrage is 6,000 cubic metres (7,800 cu yd), but actual discharge has not exceeded 2,000 cubic metres (2,600 cu yd) in the last 10 years. The barrage supports a road and includes a lock for boats passing up and down the Tigris. Its purpose is to maintain a sufficiently high water level in the Tigris to provide water for the Gharraf irrigation canal, which branches off the Tigris just upstream from the Kut Barrage. Before the construction of the Kut Barrage, the Gharraf canal only received water during periods of flood in the Tigris. The water level in the canal is maintained by the Gharraf Head Regulator, which was constructed at the same time as the Kut Barrage.
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Kut District
Kut District is a district of the Wasit Governorate, Iraq.
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Mahmoudiyah, Iraq
Coordinates: 33°3′42″N 44°21′15″E / 33.06167°N 44.35417°E / 33.06167; 44.35417 Mahmoudiyah (also transliterated Mahmudiyah, Mahmoudi, or Mahmoodiyah, prefixed usually with Al-) is a Sunni Arab Iraqi rural city south of Baghdad. Known as the “Gateway to Baghdad,” the city's proximity to Baghdad made it central to the counterinsurgency campaign.
Mahmudiya District has approximately 550,000 inhabitants, about 92 percent of them Sunni Arabs and the rest mostly Shias.
For full article see Mahmudiyah killings
During the Iraq War, a war crime took place in Mahmudiyah in March 2006 in which five soldiers of the 502d Infantry Regiment, raped a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, Abeer Qasim Hamza, and then murdered her, her father, her mother Fakhriya Taha Muhasen and her six-year-old sister. The soldiers then burned the bodies to conceal evidence of the crime. Four of the soldiers were convicted of rape and murder, and the fifth was convicted of lesser crimes.
Earlier, in late 2003, The Observer and Human Rights Watch reported a less volatile incident in Al-Mahmudiyah associated with the soldiers from the 82nd Airborne’s 3rd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment.[vague]
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Mahmudiya District
Al-Mahmudiya (المحمودية) is a district in Babylon Governorate, Iraq.
Mahmudiya District has approximately 550,000 inhabitants, about 92 percent of them Sunni Arabs and the rest mostly Shias. Most of the inhabitants live in rural areas.
This region inhabit by 5 tribes: Al Janabi, Dulaim, Al Ubaid, Qarghoul and Al Jubour
Coordinates: 33°04′N 44°22′E / 33.067°N 44.367°E / 33.067; 44.367
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Makhmur District
Makhmur District is a district of the Kirkuk Governorate, Iraq.
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Maysan Governorate
Maysan Province (Arabic: ميسان Maysān) (or Maysan Governorate) is a province in southeastern Iraq, bordering Iran. The provincial capital, located beside the Tigris, is Amarah. The second settlement is Majar Al-Kabir. Prior to 1976 the province was known as Amara Province.
Maysan is a majority Shia province. Its population suffered greatly during the Iran–Iraq War, during which it was a major battlefield, and subsequently post the 1991 Shia Uprising. The province is traditionally home to many Marsh Arabs.
This region is called Μεσήνη by Strabo, Mays̲h̲an in Syriac. Mēs̲h̲ān in Middle Persian, Mēs̲h̲un in Armenian, Maysān in Arabic, and T’iao-tche (Chaldaea) in the Han sources. The earliest references are from the first century AD.
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Median Empire
The Medes (/midz/) (from Old Persian Māda-) were an ancient Iranian people who lived in Iran in an area known as Media and spoke a northwestern Iranian language referred to as the Median language. Their arrival to the region is associated with the first wave of Iranian tribes in the late second millennium BCE (the Bronze Age collapse) through the beginning of the first millennium BCE.
In the 7th century BCE a unified Median state was formed which together with Babylonia, Lydia, and Egypt became one of the four major powers of the ancient Near East. An alliance with the Babylonians helped the Medes to capture Nineveh in 612 BCE which resulted in the collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Medes were subsequently able to establish their Median kingdom (with Ecbatana as their royal centre) beyond their original homeland (central-western Iran) and had eventually a territory stretching roughly from northeastern Iran to the Halys River in Anatolia. The Median kingdom was conquered in 550 BCE by Cyrus the Great who established the next Iranian dynasty—the Achaemenid Empire.
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Mosul
Coordinates: 36°20′N 43°08′E / 36.34°N 43.13°E / 36.34; 43.13
Mosul (Arabic: الموصل al-Mawṣil; North Mesopotamian Arabic: el-Mōṣul; Syriac: ܢܝܢܘܐ Nînwe; Kurdish: Mûsil/Nînewe; Turkish: Musul), is a city in northern Iraq and the capital of the Nineveh Province, some 400 km (250 mi) northwest of Baghdad. The original city stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial areas on both banks, with five bridges linking the two sides. The majority of its population is Arab (with Assyrians, Turcoman and Kurdish minorities). It is Iraq's third largest city after Baghdad and Basra.
The fabric Muslin, long manufactured here, is named after this city. Another historically important product of the area is Mosul marble.
In 1987, the city's population was 664,221 people; the 2002 population estimate was 1,740,000, and by 2008 was estimated to be 1,800,000. People from Mosul are called Maslawis.
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Mosul District
Mosul District is a district of the Ninawa Governorate, Iraq.
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Najaf
Najaf (Arabic: النجف; BGN: An Najaf) is a city in Iraq about 160 km (roughly 100 miles) south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2008 is 560,000 people. It is the capital of Najaf Governorate. It is widely considered the third holiest city of Shi'a Islam and the center of Shia political power in Iraq.
Najaf is renowned as the site of the tomb of Alī ibn Abī Tālib also known as "Imām Alī"the First Imam of Shia's , the cousin and son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad whom the Shia consider to be the righteous caliph . The city is now a great center of pilgrimage from throughout the Shi'a Islamic world. It is estimated that only Mecca and Medina receive more Muslim pilgrims. As the burial site of Shia Islam's second most important figure, the Imam Ali Mosque is considered by Shias as the third holiest Islamic site.
The Imam Ali Mosque is housed in a grand structure with a gold gilded dome and many precious objects in the walls. Nearby is the Wadi-us-Salaam cemetery, reputed to be the largest in the world. It contains the tombs of several prophets and many of the devout from around the world aspire to be buried here, to be raised from the dead with Imām Alī on Judgement Day. Over the centuries, numerous hospices, schools, libraries and Sufi convents were built around the shrine to make the city the centre of Shīʻa learning and theology.
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Najaf District
Najaf District is a district of the Najaf Governorate, Iraq.
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Najaf Governorate
Najaf Province (Arabic: النجف An Najaf) (or Najaf Governorate) is a province in southern Iraq. The capital is the city of Najaf. The other major city is Al Kufah. Both cities are holy to Shi'ah Muslims, who form the majority of the population. Prior to 1976 it was part of the Diwaniya Province, which also included present day Al Muthanna Governorate and Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate.
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Nassriya
Nasiriyah (Arabic: الناصرية; BGN: An Nāşirīyah; also spelled Nassiriya or Nasiriya) is a city in Iraq. It is on the Euphrates about 225 miles (370 km) southeast of Baghdad, near the ruins of the ancient city of Ur. It is the capital of the province of Dhi Qar. According to the 1987 census the city had a population of 265,937 people; the estimated population in 2003 was 560,200.
The population of Nasiriyah is nearly exclusively[clarification needed]Shī‘a Muslims with small Mandaean and Sunni muslim communities, until 1951 the town was a home to a sizable Jewish community. After the failed uprising of 1991, many families were massacred by Saddam Hussein's forces whilst thousands fled from Iraq to other countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Sweden.
Nasiriyah is the centre of a date-growing area, but many other agricultural products are produced here as well. The city's industries include boatbuilding, carpentry and silver working.
The old parts of the town are built mainly from sun-dried brick and this part of the town is still enclosed by a mud wall. The newer parts are dominated by standard Iraqi block buildings.
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Nassriya District
Nassriya District is a district of the Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq.
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Neo-Assyrian Empire
The Neo-Assyrian Empire was an empire in Mesopotamian history which began in 934 BC and ended in 605 BC. During this period, Assyria assumed a position as the most powerful nation on earth, successfully eclipsing Babylonia, Egypt, Urartu/Armenia and Elam for dominance of the Near East, Asia Minor, Caucasus, North Africa and east Mediterranean, though not until the reforms of Tiglath-Pileser III in the 8th century BC did it become a vast empire. Assyria was originally an Akkadian kingdom which evolved in the 25th to 24th Centuries BC. The earliest Assyrian kings such as Tudiya were relatively minor rulers, and after the founding of the Akkadian Empire, which lasted from 2334 BC to 2154 BC, these kings became subject to Sargon of Akkad, who united all the Akkadian and Sumerian speaking peoples of Mesopotamia under one rule.
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Ninawa Governorate
Nineveh Province (Arabic: نینوى Nīnawā, Kurdish: Neynewa, Syriac-Aramaic: ܢܝܢܘܐ Nīnwē) is a province in northern Iraq, which contains the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh. It has an area of 37,323 square kilometres (14,410 sq mi) and an estimated population of 2,453,000 people in 2003. Its chief city and provincial capital is Mosul, which lies across the Tigris river from the ruins of ancient Nineveh. Tal Afar is also a major city within the region. Prior to 1976, it was called Mosul Province and also included the present-day Dohuk Governorate.
Its two main cities endured the 2003 Invasion of Iraq and emerged relatively unscathed. In 2004, however, Mosul and Tal Afar were the scenes of fierce battles between US-led troops and the Iraqi insurgency. The insurgents had moved to Nineveh after the Battle of Fallujah in 2004.
After the US invasion in 2003, the military government of the province was led initially by (then Lieutenant General) David Petraeus as commander of the 101st Airborne Division and later by BG Carter Ham as commander of the multi-national brigade for northern Iraq. During the American occupation, the civil government was under Herro Mustafa, the head of the local office of the Coalition Provisional Authority. She was a US Foreign Service Officer and former Kurdish refugee to the United States. Mustafa administered the province through her nominees on the provincial council and through various members of the Kashmoula family. In June 2004, Osama Kashmoula became the interim Governor of the province and in September of the same year he was assassinated en route to Baghdad. He was succeeded as interim Governor by Duraid Kashmoula, who was elected governor in January 2005. Duraid Kashmoula resigned in 2009, and in April 2009, Atheel Najafi, a hardline Arab nationalist and member of Al-Hadba, became governor.
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Nineveh
Coordinates: 36°21′34″N 43°09′10″E / 36.35944°N 43.15278°E / 36.35944; 43.15278
Nineveh (English pronunciation: /ˈnɪn.ɪv.ə/; Akkadian: Ninwe; Classical Syriac: ܢܸܢܘܵܐ; Hebrew: נינוה Nīnewē; Greek: Νινευη Nineuē; Latin: Nineve; Arabic: نينوى Naynuwa; Persian: نینوا Nainavā) was an ancient Assyrian city on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, and capital of the Neo Assyrian Empire. Its ruins are across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, in the Ninawa Governorate of Iraq.
The origin of the name Nineveh is obscure. Possibly it meant originally the seat of Ishtar, since Nina was one of the Babylonian names of that goddess. The ideogram means "house or place of fish," and was perhaps due to popular etymology (comp. Aramaic "nuna," denoting "fish").
Ancient Nineveh's mound-ruins of Kouyunjik and Nabī Yūnus are located on a level part of the plain near the junction of the Tigris and the Khosr Rivers within a 7 km² (1732 acres) area circumscribed by a 12-kilometre (7.5 mi) brick rampart. This whole extensive space is now one immense area of ruins overlaid in parts by new suburbs of the city of Mosul.
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Penjwin District
Penjwin District is a district of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq.
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Persian Empire
The Achaemenid Empire (/ækəˈmɛnɪˌdi/; Old Persian: Parsā, name of ruling dynasty: Haxāmanišiya) (c. 550–330 BCE), sometimes known as First Persian Empire, was an Iranian empire in Southwest Asia, founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation. It expanded to eventually rule over significant portions of the ancient world which at around 500 BCE stretched from the Indus Valley in the east, to Thrace and Macedon on the northeastern border of Greece making it the biggest empire the world had yet seen. The Achaemenid Empire would eventually control Egypt as well. It was ruled by a series of monarchs who unified its disparate tribes and nationalities by constructing a complex network of roads.
Calling themselves the Parsa after their original Aryan tribal name Parsua, Persians settled in a land which they named Parsua, bounded on the west by the Tigris River and on the south by the Persian Gulf. This became their heartland for the duration of the Achaemenid Empire. It was from this region that eventually Cyrus the Great (Cyrus II of Persia) would advance to defeat the Median, the Lydian, and the Babylonian Empires, opening the way for subsequent conquests into Egypt and Asia minor.
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Pshdar District
Pshdar District is a district of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq.
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Ramadi
Ramadi (Arabic: الرمادي; BGN: Ar Ramādī) is a city in central Iraq, about 110 kilometers (68 mi) west of Baghdad. It is the capital of Al Anbar Governorate. The city outstretched to a distance of more than 60 kilometers on the Euphrates, the largest city in Al-Anbar.
Ramadi's population has been stated as 444,582 according to UN data from 2003. and 483,209 according to UN from 2004.
However, according to the former regime there are about 700,000 inhabitants. Although there was a large Jewish community into the twentieth century, in the 21st century all of the inhabitants of the city are Sunni Muslims from the Dulaim tribe.
Ramadi is located in a fertile, irrigated, alluvial plain, within Iraq's Sunni Triangle. It was founded in 1869 under the Ottoman Empire. The main purpose of the city was to give the Ottomans a focal point to communicate and control the Dulaim tribe of the region.
During the Mesopotamian Campaign of World War I, British forces under Lieutenant General Frederick Stanley Maude took Ramadi. In November 1917, British forces fought what was left of the Ottoman forces there. Sir Maude died soon after Ramadi was taken.
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Ranya
Ranya (رانیه; Ra:nya) is a town located in Southern Kurdistan, 130 kilometres (81 mi) north east of Sulaymaniyah. The population of this city was involved in the revolutionary movement of Kurdish people from the war against the British Empire invasion during Şêx Mehmud's government, the Eylûl revolution, and the uprising which broke out in this city on 5 March 1991.[clarification needed] Consequently it acquired the name of 'the gate of uprising'. The city includes a number of tourist sites, notably the shore of the Derbendi, the area around the Reşemêrg spring, the Kwerakani spring which runs from the Central mosque through Ranyae's main bazaar Girdedême hill and Bêtwate, the villages in the Dola Raqa valley. Ranya is surrounded by three mountain ranges, the Kewarash, the Hajila and the Asos. Lake Dukan, created by the construction of a hydro-electric dam, is near the town. Ranya neighbourhoods include Qelat, Reşemêrg, Gilîincan, Sera, Rizgarî, Raperîn, Azadî 1, Azadî 2, Kêwereş, Qule،Mamostayan and Fermanberan. The first known newspaper published in Ranya appeared in 1942 under the name of Blêse (flame).
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Republic of Korea
South Korea (
listen), officially the Republic of Korea (Hangul: 대한민국; Hanja: 大韓民國; Daehan Minguk listen), is a sovereign state in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. The name "Korea" is derived from Goryeo, a dynasty which ruled in the Middle Ages (an initial "G" in Korean is pronounced like an English "K").
Its neighbors are China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the Korea Strait to the south. South Korea lies in the north temperate zone with a predominantly mountainous terrain. It covers a total area of 99,392 square kilometers and has a population of almost 50 million. The capital and largest city is Seoul, with a population of 9,794,304.
Archaeological findings show that the Korean Peninsula was occupied by the Lower Paleolithic period.Korean history begins with the founding of Gojoseon in 2333 BC by the legendary Dan-gun. Following the unification of the Three Kingdoms of Korea under Silla 668 AD, Korea went through the Goryeo Dynasty and Joseon Dynasty as one nation until the end of the Korean Empire in 1910, when it was annexed by Japan. After liberation and occupation by Soviet and U.S. forces at the end of World War II, the nation was divided into North and South Korea. The latter was established in 1948 as a democracy, though political turmoil and times of military rule and martial law characterized much of the period until the foundation of the Sixth Republic in 1987.
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Rusafa
Al Rusafa (Arabic: الرصافة) or Rasafa is the east-bank settlement of Baghdad, Iraq, or the eastern shore of the river Tigris. It is also one of nine administrative districts in Baghdad. When referring to Al Rusafa as a district, it refers to the older area in the Rasafa side of Baghdad; its central commercial area, a center of markets considered one of the four old CBDs of Baghdad (Karkh, Rasafa, A'dhamyya and Kadhmyya).
The west side of the river is Al Karkh (الكرخ).
Coordinates: 33°19′54″N 44°24′55″E / 33.331604°N 44.415236°E / 33.331604; 44.415236
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Sadr City
Sadr City (Arabic: مدينة الصدر - Madinat aṣ-Ṣadr) is a suburb district of the city of Baghdad, Iraq. It was built in 1959 by Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim and later unofficially renamed Sadr City after deceased Shia leader Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr.
Sadr City (or more accurately Thawra District — Arabic: حيّ الثورة - ħayy ath-Thawra) is one of nine administrative districts in Baghdad. A public housing project neglected by Saddam Hussein, Sadr City holds more than 3 millions Shiite residents.
Sadr City was built in Iraq in 1959 by Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim in response to grave housing shortages in Baghdad. At the time named Revolution City (مدينة ألثورة "Al-Thawra"), it provided housing for Baghdad's urban poor, many of whom had come from the countryside and who had until then lived in appalling conditions. It quickly became a stronghold of the Iraqi Communist Party, and resistance to the Baathist-led coup of 1963 was strong there.
In 1982, following the Saddam Hussein coup, the district was renamed Saddam City, in honor of Saddam Hussein, the Baath Party leader. After the foreign occupation of Baghdad in April 2003, the district was unofficially renamed Sadr City after deceased shiite leader Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr.
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Samarra
Sāmarrā (Arabic: سامَرّاء) is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Salah ad-Din Governorate, 125 kilometers (78 mi) north of Baghdad and, in 2003, had an estimated population of 348,700.
Medieval Islamic writers believed that the name “Samarra” is derived from the Arabic phrase “Sarra man ra’a” (Arabic: سر من رأى), which translates to “A joy for all who see”. Later when the city declined the name changed to “Sa'a man ra’a” (Arabic: ساء من رأى), which translates to “A sadness for all who see”. Eventually the two names merged to its current form Samarra' (Arabic: سامَرّاء).
In 2007, UNESCO named Samarra one of its World Heritage Sites.
The remains of ancient Samarra were first excavated between 1911 and 1914 by the German Archaeologist Ernst Herzfeld. Since 1946, the notebooks, letters, unpublished excavation reports and photographs have been in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
Though the present archaeological site covered by mudbrick ruins is vast, the site of Samarra was only lightly occupied in ancient times, apart from the Chalcolithic Samarran Culture (ca 5500–4800 BC) identified at the rich site of Tell Sawwan, where evidence of irrigation—including flax— establishes the presence of a prosperous settled culture with a highly organized social structure. The culture is primarily known by its finely-made pottery decorated against dark-fired backgrounds with stylized figures of animals and birds and geometric designs. This widely-exported type of pottery, one of the first widespread, relatively uniform pottery styles in the Ancient Near East, was first recognized at Samarra. The Samarran Culture was the precursor to the Mesopotamian culture of the Ubaid period.
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Samarra District
Samarra District is a district of the Salah ad Din Governorate, Iraq.
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Samawa
Samawah or As Samawah (Arabic language:السماوة ) is a city in Iraq, 280 kilometres (174 mi) southeast of Baghdad. .
The city of Samawah is the modern capital of the Al Muthanna Governorate. The city is located midway between Baghdad and Basra, at the northern edge of the governorate. The province was established in 1975; prior to that date it was a unified province along with Qadissiya (Diwaniya) and Najaf.
The city was settled by the Himyarite tribe of Banu Quda'a around the 3rd century AD. It is built on both sides of the Euphrates river; there are four bridges in the centre of town for crossing between the two sides. The west bank of the city contains the commercial heart of the city, and includes the old town and the Jewish quarter, agd al yahood.
The west bank is the site of the covered market Suq Al Masgoof, which dates to the Ottoman period. The area surrounding the market is the old city with its Byzantine maze of crowded markets and streets.
The eastern side of the city including 'Qushla' has a more modern feel and contains a number of estates of apartment blocks built during the 1970s and 1980s, the main stadium which is home to the local Muthanna team, as well as technical colleges and the polytechnic. There too is Al Qushla, the historic "Ottoman Barracks".
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Sami Rahman Park
Sami Abdulrahman Park is a green area in Arbil, Iraqi Kurdistan. Being the largest park in Iraq, it is several hectares in size and contains a lake, rose garden and the Martyrs Monument as well as a restaurant and market. The site was formerly the location of a detention center.
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Shatt Al-Arab
Shatt al-Arab (Arabic: شط العرب, literally "Coast/Beach of the Arabs") or Arvand Rūd (Persian: اروندرود, "Arvand River"), is a river in Southwest Asia of some 200 km (120 mi) in length, formed by the confluence of the Euphrates and the Tigris in the town of al-Qurnah in the Basra Governorate of southern Iraq. The southern end of the river constitutes the border between Iraq and Iran down to the mouth of the river as it discharges into the Persian Gulf. It varies in width from about 232 metres (761 ft) at Basra to 800 metres (2,600 ft) at its mouth. It is thought that the waterway formed relatively recently in geologic time, with the Tigris and Euphrates originally emptying into the Persian Gulf via a channel further to the west.
The Karun river, a tributary which joins the waterway from the Iranian side, deposits large amounts of silt into the river; this necessitates continuous dredging to keep it navigable.
The area is judged to hold the largest date palm forest in the world. In the mid-1970s, the region included 17 to 18 million date palms, an estimated one-fifth of the world's 90 million palm trees. But by 2002, war, salt, and pests had wiped out more than 14 million of the palms, including around 9 million in Iraq and 5 million in Iran. Many of the remaining 3 to 4 million trees are in poor condition.
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Sinjar
Sinjar (Arabic:سنجار, Kurdish: Şengal ) is the name of a town and district in northwestern Iraq's Ninawa Governorate near the Syrian border. Its population at the time of the 2006 census was 39,875. The region is home to the native Yezidi and Shabak people.
A huge mound and wall in northeastern Syria known as Tell Hamoukar indicate an urban civilisation dating back at least 6,000 years. The Sinjar valley belonged to the Northern Ubaid culture. In the Sinjar plain, where Tell Hamoukar is located, civilizations are known to have existed many centuries earlier (Hassuna, Halaf, Ubaid). More than 200 sites are known.
Some sources mention the city as the birthplace of the Christian saint Abd-al-Masih (Abda).
Sinjar was also the site of the filming, and some of the plot, for the 1973 film The Exorcist.
Coordinates: 36°19′N 41°52′E / 36.32°N 41.86°E / 36.32; 41.86
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Sinjar District
Sinjar District is a district of the Ninawa Governorate, Iraq.
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Soran District
Soran (Kurdish: ﺱۆﺭاﻥ or Deverí Soran) is an area in Iraqi Kurdistan bordering Iran and Turkey. Its main city is also called Soran, although the town of Rawanduz is better known outside of the region . According to Kurdistan television, citing an official in the town of Soran, the population of the region is estimated to be over 400,000.
Kurdish settlement in the region dates back prior to the establishment of the Sassanid empire. King Ardashir I of Persia mentioned the region in 224 during his battle against the Median king Madig.
A major Kurdish dialect (Sorani) is named after the region.
One of the Kurdish principality named as the Soran lordship ruled, for some years, in the 19th century, one of the famous kings was Pasha Kora (\Blind king). They went to war with the Ottoman empire and also the Baban lordship.
Soran District is similar to a county, and the seat of government for Soran District is at the Town of Soran. Formerly it was at Diyana, however due to the growth of the population over the past fifteen years, it was moved.
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Sulaymaniya District
Sulaymaniya District is a district of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq.
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Taji District
Taji District is a district of the Baghdad Governorate, Iraq.
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Tel Afar
Tal Afar (pronounced /ta.la.fer/) (also Tal'Afar, Tal Afar, Tall Afar, Tell Afar, Tel Afar) (in Arabic: تلعفر or تل عفر, in Turkish: Telafer) is a city and district in northwestern Iraq in the Ninawa Governorate located approximately 30 miles west of Mosul and 120 miles north west of Kirkuk.
While no official census data exists, the city which had been assessed to have a population of approximately 200,000, had dropped to 80,000 as of 2007, nearly all of whom are Iraqi Turkmen. In Tal’Afar itself, the population is mostly Turkomen, about 75 percent of whom were Sunni Muslims, while a quarter were Shi’ites. While most residents speak Arabic, a dialect of Turkish is regularly used throughout the city.
10 kilometres (6.2 mi) southwest of the town of Tal Afar are the mounds of Yarim Tepe which yielded remains from the Halafian culture from the Hassuna, Halaf and Ubaid periods, between 7,000 and 4,500 BC.
Tel Afar has been thought to be a city mentioned in the Bible, Telassar or Thela'sar, mentioned in 2 Kings 19:12 and in Isaiah 37:12 as a city inhabited by "the children of Eden" which had been conquered and was held at the time of the Sennacherib by the Assyrians.
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Tel Afar District
Tel Afar District is a district of the Ninawa Governorate, Iraq.
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Tikrit
Tikrit (Arabic: تكريت, Tikrīt also transliterated as Takrit or Tekrit) is a town in Iraq, located 140 km northwest of Baghdad on the Tigris river (at 34.61°N, 43.68°E). The town, with an estimated population in 2002 of about 260,000 is the administrative center of the Salah ad Din Governorate.
As a fort along the Tigris (Akkadian: Idiqlat), the town is first mentioned in the Fall of Assyria Chronicle as being a refuge for the Babylonian king Nabopolassar during his attack on the city of Assur in 615 BC.
Tikrit is usually identified with the Hellenistic settlement Birtha. As Tagrit, it was the seat of the Maphrian of the Monophysites.
Over a thousand years ago, it possessed a fortress and a large Christian monastery. It was renowned as a centre for the production of woolen textiles. The Arab Uqaylid Dynasty took hold of Tikrit in 1036.
Around 1138, the legendary leader Saladin was born there; his many achievements include defending Egypt against the Christian Crusaders and recapturing Jerusalem in 1187. The modern province of which Tikrit is the capital is named after him.
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Tikrit District
Tikrit District is a district of the Salah ad Din Governorate, Iraq.
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Tooz District
Tooz District is a district of the Salah ad Din Governorate, Iraq.
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United States
The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.
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Ur
Coordinates: 30°57′45″N 46°06′11″E / 30.9625°N 46.10306°E / 30.9625; 46.10306 Ur (Sumerian: Urim;Sumerian Cuneiform: 𒋀𒀕𒆠 URIM2KI or 𒋀𒀊𒆠 URIM5KI;Akkadian: Uru) was an important city-state in ancient Sumer located at the site of modern Tell el-Muqayyar in Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate. Once a coastal city near the mouth of the Euphrates on the Persian Gulf, Ur is now well inland, south of the Euphrates on its right bank, 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) from Nasiriyah.
The city's patron deity was Nanna, the Sumerian moon god, and the name of the city is in origin derived from the god's name, URIM2KI being the classical Sumerian spelling of LAK-32.UNUGKI, literally "the abode (UNUG) of Nanna (LAK-32)".
The site is marked by the ruins of the Ziggurat of Ur, which contained the shrine of Nanna, excavated in the 1930s. The temple was built in the 21st century BC (short chronology), during the reign of Ur-Nammu and was reconstructed in the 6th century BC by Nabonidus. The ruins cover an area of 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) northwest to southeast by 800 metres (2,600 ft) northeast to southwest and rise up to about 20 metres (66 ft) above the present plain level.
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Wasit Governorate
Wasit Province (Arabic: واسط Wāsit) (or Wasit Governorate) is a province in eastern Iraq. Its name comes from the Arabic word meaning "middle," as it lies along the Tigris about midway between Baghdad and Basra. Its major cities include the capital Al Kut, Al-Hai, and the city Wasit. Prior to 1976 it was known as Kut Province.
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Zakho
Zakho (Kurdish: Zaxo, زاخو; Arabic: زاخو; Syriac-Aramaic: ܙܟܼܘ) is a district and a town in Northern Iraq located a few kilometers from the Iraqi-Turkish border.
Zakho is a province of the Dohuk Governorate. The city has 200,000 inhabitants. It may have originally begun on a small island in the Little Khabur which currently flows through the city. The Khabur River flows west of Zakho to form the border between Iraq and Turkey and flows into the Tigris. The most important rivers in the district of Zakho are: the Zeriza river, the Seerkotik river and the Little Khabur river.
There are several theories concerning the derivation of the name "Zakho". Some Aramaic sources maintain that the name comes from the Aramaic "Zakhota" (victory), after the battle fought between the Romans and the Persians near the city, which resulted in a Roman victory.
Another version maintains that the name comes from the Kurdish words "Zey- Khowin" ("river of blood"), possibly referring to the same battle.
A third opinion attributes the name to the Kurdish "Zey" (river) and "Khowak" (a curved place which blocks the water).
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Ak Koyunlu
The Aq Qoyunlu or Ak Koyunlu, also called the White Sheep Turkomans (Persian/Azeri: آق قویونلو), was an SunniOghuz Turkic tribal federation that ruled parts of present-day Eastern Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, northern Iraq, and Iran from 1378 to 1508.
According to chronicles from the Byzantine Empire, the Aq Qoyunlu were present in eastern Anatolia from at least 1340, and most of their leaders, including the dynasty's founder, Uzun Hassan, married Byzantine princesses.
The Aq Qoyunlu Turkomans first acquired land in 1402, when Timur granted them all of Diyarbakır in present-day Turkey. For a long time, the Aq Qoyunlu were unable to expand their territory, as the rival Kara Koyunlu or "Black Sheep Turkomans" kept them at bay. However, this changed with the rule of Uzun Hassan, who defeated the Black Sheep Turkoman leader Jahān Shāh in 1467.
After the defeat of a Ilkhanate leader, Abu Sa'id, Uzun Hassan was able to take Baghdad along with territories around the Persian Gulf. He expanded into Iran as far east as Khorasan. However, around this time, the Ottoman Empire sought to expand eastwards, a serious threat that forced the Aq Qoyunlu into an alliance with the Karamanids of central Anatolia.
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Akkadians
Coordinates: 33°6′N 44°6′E / 33.1°N 44.1°E / 33.1; 44.1
The Akkadian Empire (Akkadian URUAkkad KI, Hittite KUR A.GA.DÈ.KI "land of Akkad"; Biblical Hebrew אַכַּד Akkad) was an empire centered in the city of Akkad (Sumerian: Agade) and its surrounding region in Mesopotamia.
During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism.Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BC (the exact dating being a matter of debate).
The Akkadian Empire reached its political peak between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC, following the conquests of its founder Sargon of Akkad (2334–2279 BC). Under Sargon and his successors, Akkadian language was briefly imposed on neighboring conquered states such as Elam. Akkad is sometimes regarded as the first empire in history, though there are earlier Sumerian claimants.[citation needed]
The precise archaeological site of the city of Akkad has not yet been found.[citation needed] The form Agade appears in Sumerian, for example in the Sumerian King List; the later Assyro-Babylonian form Akkadû ("of or belonging to Akkad") was likely derived from this. The etymology and meaning of Akkad (written a.ga.dèKI or URIKI) are unknown. Centuries later, the neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus mentioned in his archaeological records that Ishtar's worship in Agade was later superseded by that of the goddess Anunit, whose shrine was at Sippar—suggesting proximity of Sippar and Agade. Despite numerous searches, the city has never been found. One theory holds that Agade was situated opposite Sippar on the left bank of the Euphrates, and was perhaps the oldest part of the city of Sippar. Another theory is that the ruins of Akkad are to be found beneath modern Baghdad. Reputedly it was destroyed by invading Gutians with the fall of the Akkadian Empire.
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Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon (20/21 July 356 – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great (Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Μέγας, Aléxandros ho Mégas from the Greek αλέξω alexo "to defend, help" + ανήρ aner "man"), was a king of Macedon, a state in northern ancient Greece. Born in Pella in 356 BC, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle until the age of 16. By the age of thirty, he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from the Ionian Sea to the Himalayas. He was undefeated in battle and is considered one of history's most successful commanders.
Alexander succeeded his father, Philip II of Macedon, to the throne in 336 BC after Philip was assassinated. Upon Philip's death, Alexander inherited a strong kingdom and an experienced army. He was awarded the generalship of Greece and used this authority to launch his father's military expansion plans. In 334 BC, he invaded Persian-ruled Asia Minor and began a series of campaigns that lasted ten years. Alexander broke the power of Persia in a series of decisive battles, most notably the battles of Issus and Gaugamela. He subsequently overthrew the Persian King Darius III and conquered the entirety of the Persian Empire. At that point, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River.
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Assyrians
The Assyrian people, most commonly known as Assyrians and other later names, such as: Chaldeans, Syrians, Syriacs (see names of Syriac Christians), are a distinct ethnic group whose origins lie in ancient Mesopotamia. They are Eastern Aramaic speaking Semites who trace their ancestry back to the Sumero-Akkadian civilisation that emerged in Mesopotamia circa 4000- 3500 BC, and in particular to the northern region of the Akkadian lands, which would become known as Assyria by the 24th Century BC. The Assyrian nation existed as an independent state, and often a powerful empire, from the 24th century BC until the end of the 7th century BC.
Today that ancient territory is part of several nations; Assyria remained a Geo-political entity after its fall, and was ruled as an occupied province under the rule of various empires from the late 7th century BC until the mid 7th century AD when it was dissolved, and the Assyrian people have gradually become a minority in their homelands since that time. They are indigenous to, and have traditionally lived all over what is now Iraq, north east Syria, north west Iran, and Southeastern Turkey. They are predominantly Christian.
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Cyaxares
Cyaxares the Great or Hvakhshathra (Old Persian: 𐎢𐎺𐎧𐏁𐎫𐎼Uvaxštra,Greek: Κυαξάρης; r. 625–585 BC), the son of King Phraortes, was the first king of Media. According to Herodotus, Cyaxares, grandson of Deioces, had a far greater military reputation than his father or grandfather, therefore he is often being described as the first official Median King. The Kurdish people consider Cyaxares as the father of the Kurdish nation.[unreliable source?]
He was born in the Median capital of Ecbatana, his father Phraortes was killed in a battle against the Assyrians, led by Ashurbanipal, the king of Neo-Assyria. After his fall the Scythians took over. In his early age Cyaxares was seeking for revenge. He killed the Scythian leaders and proclaimed himself as King of Medes. After throwing off the Scythians, he prepared for war against Assyria. Cyaxares reorganized and modernized the Median Army, then joined with King Nabopolassar of Babylonia. This alliance was formalized through the marriage of Cyaxares daughter, Amytis with Nabopolassar's son, Nebuchadnezzar II, the king who constructed the Hanging Gardens of Babylon as a present for his Median wife to help with her homesickness for the mountainous country of her birth. These allies overthrew the Assyrian Empire and destroyed Nineveh in 612 BC.
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Cyrus the Great
Cyrus II of Persia (Old Persian:
Kuruš (c. 600 BC or 576 BC–530 BC), commonly known as Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much of Central Asia, parts of Europe and the Caucasus. From the Mediterranean sea and Hellespont in the west to the Indus River in the east, Cyrus the Great created the largest empire the world had yet seen. He also pronounced one of the first historically important declarations of human rights via the Cyrus Cylinder sometime between 539-530 BCE.
The reign of Cyrus the Great lasted between 29 and 31 years. Cyrus built his empire by conquering first the Median Empire, then the Lydian Empire and eventually the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Either before or after Babylon, he led an expedition into central Asia, which resulted in major campaigns that were described as having brought "into subjection every nation without exception". Cyrus did not venture into Egypt, as he himself died in battle, fighting the Massagetae along the Syr Darya in December 530 BC. He was succeeded by his son, Cambyses II, who managed to add to the empire by conquering Egypt, Nubia, and Cyrenaica during his short rule.
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Darbandokeh
Darbandokeh, (Syriac: ܕܪܒܢܕܘܟܐ darbandōḵa), is an Assyrian village located in the sub-district of Harir and in the district of Shaqlawa. It was previously inhabited by both Kurds and Assyrians. The Assyrians of Darbandokeh came right after the Assyrian genocide that took place within the Ottoman Empire. They came from the Shamezdin region, located within Hakkari, Turkey. After force migration in the late 20th century, today no Assyrians remaining in the village of Darbandokeh. Many of them are now living in the Australia, United States, Sweden and Canada.
Darbandokeh is the birthplace of many renowned Assyrians. It is where the current Patriarch of the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East, Mar Dinkha IV, was born. It is also the birthplace of the Secretary General of the Assyrian Universal Alliance, Emanuel Kamber.
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Darius III of Persia
Darius III (the Great) (c. 380 – 330 BC), also known by his given name of Codomannus, was the last king of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia from 336 BC to 330 BC.
After Artaxerxes III of Persia and all of his sons were killed by the vizier Bagoas, the vizier installed a cousin of Artaxerxes III, Codomannus, to the Persian throne as Darius III. When Darius tried to act independently of the vizier, Bagoas tried to poison him, but Darius was warned and forced Bagoas to drink the poison himself. The new king found himself in control of an unstable empire, large portions of which were governed by jealous and unreliable satraps and inhabited by disaffected and rebellious subjects. However, he lacked the skills and experience to deal with these problems.
In 334 BC, Alexander the Great began his invasion of the Persian Empire and subsequently defeated the Persians in a number of battles before looting and destroying the capital Persepolis, by fire, in 331 BC. With the Persian Empire now effectively under Alexander's control, Alexander then decided to pursue Darius, but Darius was killed by a satrap Bessus before Alexander reached him.
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Donald H. Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeld (born July 9, 1932) is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to have served as Secretary of Defense. Additionally, Rumsfeld was a four-term U.S. Congressman from Illinois (1962–1969), Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity (1969–1970), Counsellor to the President (1969–1973), the United States Permanent Representative to NATO (1973–1974), and White House Chief of Staff (1974–1975).
Born in Illinois, Rumsfeld attended Princeton University, graduating in 1954 with a degree in political science. After serving in the Navy for three years, he mounted a campaign for Congress in Illinois' 13th Congressional District, winning in 1962 at the age of 30. Reelected four times, he was a leading co-sponsor of the Freedom of Information Act. Rumsfeld was reluctantly appointed by President Richard Nixon to head the Office of Economic Opportunity in 1969; appointed Counselor by Nixon and entitled to Cabinet-level status, he would also head up the Economic Stabilization Program before being appointed Ambassador to NATO. Called back to Washington in August 1974, Rumsfeld was appointed Chief of Staff by President Ford, recruiting a young one-time staffer of his, Dick Cheney, to succeed him when Ford nominated Rumsfeld Secretary of Defense in 1975.
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Ibn Khallikan
Shams al-Dīn Abū Al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad Ibn Muḥammad Ibn Khallikān (Arabic: شمس الدين أبو العباس أحمد بن محمد بن خلكان) (September 22, 1211 – October 30, 1282) was a 13th Century Shafi'i Islamic scholar of Kurdish origin.
Ibn Khallikan was born in Arbil, Iraq on September 22, 1211, studied there and in Aleppo and Damascus. He also studied jurisprudence at Mosul and then settled in Cairo. He gained prominence as a jurist, theologian and grammarian. Ibn Khallikan married in the year 1252.
He was an assistant to the chief judge in Egypt until 1261 when he assumed the position of chief judge in Damascus. Ibn Khallikan was removed from this position in 1271, returned to Egypt and taught there until being reinstated as judge in Damascus in the year 1278. He retired from this position in 1281 and died in Damascus on October 30, 1282.
Ibn Khallikan's most renowned work is the biographical dictionary entitled Wafayāt al-aʿyān wa-anbāʾ abnāʾ az-zamān (Deaths of Eminent Men and History of the Sons of the Epoch). He began compiling this work in 1256 and continued until 1274, referencing the works of earlier scholars.Deaths of Eminent Men does not include biographies of individuals already sufficiently covered, such as the Islamic Prophet Muhammad and the caliphs. This work has been translated into English by William McGuckin de Slane, (1801–1878), and is over 2,700 pages long.
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Kara Koyunlu
The Kara Koyunlu or Qara Qoyunlu, also called the Black Sheep Turkomans (Persian/Azeri: قرا قویونلو), were a Shi'iteOghuz Turkic tribal federation that ruled over the territory comprising the present-day Armenia (1406), Azerbaijan, north-western Iran, eastern Turkey and Iraq from about 1375 to 1468.
The Kara Koyunlu Turkomans at one point established their capital in Herat in eastern Persia, and were vassals of the Jalayirid dynasty in Baghdad and Tabriz from about 1375, when the leader of their leading tribe, ruled over Mosul. However, they rebelled against the Jalayirids, and secured their independence from the dynasty with the conquest of Tabriz by Qara Yusuf. In 1400, the armies of Tamerlane defeated the Kara Koyunlu, and Qara Yusuf fled to Egypt seeking refuge with the Mamluks. He gathered an army and by 1406 had taken back Tabriz. In 1410, the Kara Koyunlu captured Baghdad. The installation of a subsidiary Black Sheep Turkomans line there hastened the downfall of the Jalayirids whom they had once served. Despite internal fighting amongst Kara Yusuf's descendants after his death in 1420, and the increasing threat of the Timurids, the Black Sheep Turkomans maintained a strong grip over the areas they controlled.
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Median Empire
The Medes (/midz/) (from Old Persian Māda-) were an ancient Iranian people who lived in Iran in an area known as Media and spoke a northwestern Iranian language referred to as the Median language. Their arrival to the region is associated with the first wave of Iranian tribes in the late second millennium BCE (the Bronze Age collapse) through the beginning of the first millennium BCE.
In the 7th century BCE a unified Median state was formed which together with Babylonia, Lydia, and Egypt became one of the four major powers of the ancient Near East. An alliance with the Babylonians helped the Medes to capture Nineveh in 612 BCE which resulted in the collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Medes were subsequently able to establish their Median kingdom (with Ecbatana as their royal centre) beyond their original homeland (central-western Iran) and had eventually a territory stretching roughly from northeastern Iran to the Halys River in Anatolia. The Median kingdom was conquered in 550 BCE by Cyrus the Great who established the next Iranian dynasty—the Achaemenid Empire.
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Mulla Effendi
Mulla Abu Bakr Effendi, also Mulla Effendi (also spelled Mala Afandi), (Kurdish: مهلا فهندى) (Arabic: ملا أفندي) also Abu Bakr IIII or Küçük Mulla (1863 - December 31, 1942) was a senior Kurdish Muslim cleric, Islamic philosopher, scholar, astronomer, politician, and a prominent Iraqi personality from Arbil, Iraq.
Mulla Effendi was born into a respected and intellectual family of Islamic scholars who settled in Arbil in the 16th century and spent most of their life learning and teaching Islamic studies at the Great Mosque at the Citadel of Arbil. His family was well-known for their piety and learning and influential throughout Kurdistan for hundred years before him.
After being educated at the Great Mosque, Mulla Effendi like his ancestors spent most of his time teaching and learning there. During his life he granted more than hundred scientific licenses for scholars from different parts of Iraq, Iran, and the Middle East in general, and sponsored the daily living and study costs of his students. He also contributed to establishing many schools and mosques in Arbil and in many different villages.
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Mustafa Barzani
Mustafa Barzani (Kurdish: Mistefa Barzani) (March 14, 1903 – March 1, 1979) also known as Mullah Mustafa was a Kurdish nationalist leader, and the most prominent political figure in the modern Kurdish politics. In 1946 he was chosen as the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) to lead the Kurdish revolution against Iraqi regimes. Barzani was the primary political and military leader of the Kurdish revolution until his death in March 1979. He led campaigns of armed struggle against both the Iraqi and Iranian governments.
Mustafa Barzani was born in 1903 in Barzan, a village in northern Iraqi Kurdistan, (then part of the Ottoman Empire). Following an insurrection launched by his tribe, he was moved along with his mother and the rest of his family in to jail, when Barzani was only at the age of 5 years. His father, grandfather, and a brother were later executed by the Ottoman authorities for other insurrections. At an early age he joined other tribal fighters in aiding Sheikh Barzinji's revolt against the British in Iraq.
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Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire or Turkish Empire or Sublime Ottoman State or sometimes also referred to as Turkey (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِيّهٔ عُثمَانِیّه Devlet-i ʿAliyye-yi ʿOsmâniyye (also عثمانلى دولتى Osmanlı Devleti),Modern Turkish: Osmanlı Devleti or Osmanlı İmparatorluğu) was a Turkish empire which lasted from 27 July 1299 to 1 November 1922, when the Sultanate was abolished.
The Ottoman Empire was one of the largest and longest lasting empires in history; such that the Ottoman State, its politics, conflicts, and cultural heritage in a vast geography provide one of the longest continuous narratives. During the 16th and 17th centuries, in particular at the height of its power under the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the empire was one of the most powerful states in the world – a multinational, multilingual empire that stretched from the southern borders of the Holy Roman Empire to the outskirts of Vienna, Royal Hungary (modern Slovakia) and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the north to Yemen and Eritrea in the south; from Algeria in the west to Azerbaijan in the east; controlling much of southeast Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. At the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states, some of which were later absorbed into the empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries.
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Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (Arabic: صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي Ṣaddām Ḥusayn ʿAbd al-Maǧīd al-Tikrītī; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and later, the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organisation Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region, which espoused ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism, Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup, later referred to as the 17 July Revolution, that brought the party to long-term power of Iraq.
As vice president under the ailing General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, and at a time when many groups were considered capable of overthrowing the government, Saddam created security forces through which he tightly controlled conflict between the government and the armed forces. In the early 1970s, Saddam nationalized oil and other industries. The state-owned banks were put under his control, leaving the system eventually insolvent mostly due to the Iran–Iraq War, the Gulf War, and UN sanctions. Through the 1970s, Saddam cemented his authority over the apparatuses of government as oil money helped Iraq's economy to grow at a rapid pace. Positions of power in the country were filled with Sunnis, a minority that made up only a fifth of the population.
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Seljuks
The Great Seljuq Empire (Turkish: Büyük Selçuklu Devleti, Persian: دولت سلجوقیان) was a medieval Persianate,Turko-PersianSunni Muslim empire, originating from the Qynyq branch of Oghuz Turks. The Seljuq Empire controlled a vast area stretching from the Hindu Kush to eastern Anatolia and from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf. From their homelands near the Aral sea, the Seljuqs advanced first into Khorasan and then into mainland Persia before eventually conquering eastern Anatolia.
The Seljuq empire was founded by Tughril Beg in 1037 after the efforts by the founder of the Seljuq dynasty, Seljuq Beg, back in the first quarter of the eleventh century. Seljuq Beg's father was in a higher position in the Oghuz Yabgu State, and gave his name both to the state and the dynasty. The Seljuqs united the fractured political scene of the Eastern Islamic world and played a key role in the first and second crusades. Highly Persianized in culture and language, the Seljuqs also played an important role in the development of the Turko-Persian tradition, even exporting Persian culture to Anatolia. The Seljuqs conquest gave impetus to the progressive Turkicization of parts of Anatolia, Iran and the Caucasus.
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Timur
Timur (Turkish: Demir "iron", Persian: تمور Timūr, Chagatai: Temür "iron"; 8 April 1336 – 18 February 1405), historically known as Tamerlane (from Persian: تيمور لنگ, Timūr-i Lang, Aksak Timur "Timur the Lame" in Turkish), was a Turkic, who conquered West, South and Central Asia, and the founder of the Timurid dynasty. He was the grandfather of Ulugh Beg, who ruled Central Asia from 1411 to 1449, and the great-great-grandfather of Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire, which ruled South Asia for centuries.
Timur envisioned the restoration of the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan. Unlike his predecessors Timur was also a devout Muslim and referred to himself as the Sword of Islam. His armies were inclusively multi-ethnic and multicultural. During his lifetime Timur would emerge as the most powerful ruler in the Muslim world after defeating the formidable Mamluks of Egypt and Syria, the emerging Ottoman Empire and the declining Sultanate of Delhi; Timur had also decisively defeated the Knights Hospitaler at Smyrna and since then referred to himself as a Ghazi. By the end of his reign Timur had also gained complete suzerainty over all the remnants of the Chagatai Khanate, Ilkhanate, Golden Horde and even the Yuan Khanate.
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William J. Hamblin
William James Hamblin (born 1954) is a professor of history at Brigham Young University (BYU). He is a former board member of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) at BYU.[citation needed]
Hamblin served as an LDS missionary in Italy from 1973–75.[citation needed]
Hamblin received his bachelors degree in history from BYU. He did his graduate studies from the University of Michigan, receiving an M.A. in history in 1981, an M.A. in Near East Studies in 1984, and a Ph.D. in history in 1985.[citation needed] The title of his Dissertation was The Fatimid Army During the Early Crusades. Prior to joining the faculty of BYU in 1989 Hamblin was a history professor at the University of Southern Mississippi, an instructor at Campbell University and a middle east intelligence analyst for the United States Department of Defense. Hamblin contributed many articles to The International Military Encyclopedia.
Hamblin lives in Provo, Utah with his wife, the former Loree Peay. They have three children. He is now currently a professor at the BYU Jerusalem Center.[citation needed]
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Irbil
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- Duration: 1:16
- Updated: 20 Jul 2011
The oldest town in Mesopotamia
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Irbil Cheap Hotels - EI Airport Budget Hotel, Irbil Downtown Cheap Hotel
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- Duration: 1:33
- Updated: 10 Aug 2012
--►► irbil.HotelDealsVista.com ◄◄-- Search our site for cheap budget hotels in Irbil Downtown and Erbil International Airport area.
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Sexy Diana Karazon in Kurdistan Erbil Irbil Hawler Slemani Kirkuk Kurdish Music Video Song new 2012
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- Duration: 13:44
- Updated: 27 Nov 2012
Sexy Diana Karazon in Kurdistan Erbil Irbil Hawler Slemani Kirkuk Kurdish Music Video Song new 2012
http://wn.com/Sexy_Diana_Karazon_in_Kurdistan_Erbil_Irbil_Hawler_Slemani_Kirkuk_Kurdish_Music_Video_Song_new_2012
Diana Karazon Kurdistan Concert Hawler Irbil Kurdish Music Song New Gorani xosh xxxSlemanyxxx
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- Duration: 6:34
- Updated: 19 Nov 2012
Diana Karazon Kurdistan Concert Hawler Irbil Kurdish Music Song New Gorani xosh xxxSlemanyxxx
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Nawshirwan Mustafa voting Kurdistan elections KNN tv Slemany Hawler Irbil Kurdsat tv Gorran
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- Duration: 2:30
- Updated: 18 Nov 2012
Nawshirwan Mustafa voting Kurdistan elections KNN tv Slemany Hawler Irbil Kurdsat tv Gorran
http://wn.com/Nawshirwan_Mustafa_voting_Kurdistan_elections_KNN_tv_Slemany_Hawler_Irbil_Kurdsat_tv_Gorran
kurdistan irbil
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- Duration: 4:46
- Updated: 10 Aug 2012
kurdistan
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CBS NEWS - Kurdistan Report Sulaymaniyah Irbil Hawler Kirkuk KNN tv xxxSlemanyxxx
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- Duration: 9:50
- Updated: 17 Nov 2012
CBS NEWS - Kurdistan Report Sulaymaniyah Irbil Hawler Kirkuk KNN tv xxxSlemanyxxx
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damon iraq irbil silk road cnn 416x234 dl
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- Duration: 5:11
- Updated: 11 Jan 2012
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kurdistan-irbil
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- Duration: 4:46
- Updated: 11 Aug 2012
kurdistan
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nancy ajram in iraq kurdistan ( IRBIL ) by : Ary Salayee
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- Duration: 1:11
- Updated: 01 Sep 2012
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nancy ajran in iraq kurdistan ( IRBIL ) by : Ary Salayee
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- Duration: 4:40
- Updated: 04 Jan 2012
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Ishik University - University - Irbil, Iraq - Ishik University.flv
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- Duration: 1:52
- Updated: 24 Oct 2012
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nancy ajram in iraq kurdistan ( IRBIL) by : Ary Salayee
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- Duration: 0:30
- Updated: 01 May 2012
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Karl Ross Post 16 - Helping Mothers Irbil, Iraq
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- Duration: 7:39
- Updated: 18 Jul 2011
Karl Ross Post 16 - Helping Mothers Irbil, Iraq
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kurdistan celebration of 2011-hawler-irbil.MP4
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- Duration: 1:31
- Updated: 28 Nov 2011
firework in kurdistan celebration of 2011 "12:01 "
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Turkey steps up economic relations with Iraq's Kurdish region
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- Duration: 2:19
- Updated: 17 Nov 2012
In the Kurdish capital of Irbil, a new world of luxury stores, hotels and restaurants has emerged due to Turkish investment. The Kurdish region was one of the poorest in Iraq, but in the past five years tens of billions of dollars have been invested there. There are more than 1000 Turkish companies registered, and Turkish construction workers are changing Irbil's skyline using an estimated 30000 Turkish labourers from its own economically depressed Kurdish areas. This leads many to believe that Turkey's closer relationship with Iraq is not only political, but economic. Al Jazeera's Jane Arraf reports from Irbil, Iraq
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Crazy dance - Raghse Khafan barobachehayeh shiraz/irbil.AVI
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- Duration: 2:01
- Updated: 13 Sep 2011
Crazy dance - Raghse Khafane barobachehayeh shiraz/irbil
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Lion Of Irbil - UMP 45 multi-kill on Hardcore
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- Duration: 0:15
- Updated: 25 May 2012
Game Clip
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352d CACOM CA Team to Irbil and Sulamaiya Iraq OIF 2003
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- Duration: 9:53
- Updated: 06 Sep 2012
As XO of CPA Youth and Sport I was able to fly with the acting CPA Minister to award Irbil and Sulamaiya youth. IRBIL, Iraq Youth here received a gift from US Army soldiers this month when a team from the 352nd Civil Affairs Command, an Army Reserve unit from Riverdale, Md., made a special delivery to youth centers in Sulaimania and Irbil in northern Iraq. The team delivered 1200 soccer balls, as well as other sports equipment, during their six-day visit to northern Iraq, which included visits to 36 youth-related and government project sites
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2010 night in Irbil
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- Duration: 1:04
- Updated: 06 Jun 2012
video uploaded from my mobile phone
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Hawlêr - Herdi Selah (Erbil, Arbil, Irbil, Hewler, Arbaelo)
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- Duration: 2:24
- Updated: 02 Nov 2012
Erbil is the Capital of Southern-Kurdistan. The most democratic and wonderful place in the entire Middle-East. Open your eyes, it is Kurdistan. This song is from Herdi Selah and the video is made by Kurdboy19 Enjoy it! Long live Hawler, Mahabad, Qamishlo, Kerkuk, Mardin and DIYARBAKIR (AMED) God bless Kurds and Kurdistan
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Mr Masud barzany at Majdy Mall in Irbil
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- Duration: 0:20
- Updated: 03 Sep 2010
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Lion Of Irbil - Blindfire Headshots
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- Duration: 0:08
- Updated: 12 Mar 2012
Game Clip
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photo: AP / Sepahnews
27 Nov 2012
WASHINGTON -- The drone wars are here. While President Obama ponders new legal and moral guidelines to govern America's growing use of armed robot aircraft, the world outside the White House is engaged in a revolutionary frenzy of building, arming and flying killer drones ... More than 50 countries operate surveillance drones and, increasingly, are fitting them with weapons. The U.S ... spy drone was shot down last December ... On Oct ... 988 miles ... ....(size: 8.4Kb)
photo: AP / Jerome Delay
27 Nov 2012
M23 rebels controlling the eastern city of Goma in the DR Congo have said they are not about to withdraw as demanded by regional leaders. The rebels said on Tuesday there were still in charge of Goma, just hours after General Aronda Nyakairima, the head of the Ugandan military, was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying that their leader, Sultani Makenga, had told him he would pull out of Goma and Sake ... 276 Source. ... Share ... News ... ;">....(size: 17.7Kb)
photo: UN / Jan Golinski
27 Nov 2012
Doha conference is warned that climate models do not yet take account of methane in thawing permafrost. Frozen ground in Siberia. Permafrost covers nearly a quarter of the northern hemisphere. Photograph. Francis Latreille/Corbis. The United Nations sounded a stark warning on the threat to the climate from methane in the thawing permafrost as governments met for the second day of climate change negotiations in Doha, Qatar ... ....(size: 5.3Kb)
photo: UN / Rick Bajornas
28 Nov 2012
By Victor Kotsev. Thursday is shaping up as a big day in Palestinian history. Exactly 65 years after the United Nations resolution partitioning British Mandatory Palestine was adopted (and rejected at the time by the Arabs), the General Assembly will vote on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's proposal for non-member state status for Palestine within the borders of the period between the 1948 and the 1967 wars ... Â. Palestinian horizon....(size: 16.8Kb)
photo: AP
26 Nov 2012
This town of 19,000 nestled in an idyllic mountain pass of impossibly green pastures and golden autumn trees is on the front lines of Turkey's rapidly escalating guerrilla war. In a struggle for autonomy as well as independent language and education rights, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has waged a low-grade conflict in Turkey for decades ... 4 just as a Turkish army tank rolled by ... "The violence is getting worse....(size: 8.8Kb)
The Washington Post
29 Nov 2012
ANTAKYA, Turkey — Clashes between Arab rebels and Kurdish militants in northeastern Syria are bringing additional complexities to the already murky front lines in the country’s civil war ... Dozens of Arabs and Kurds have been killed in the fighting that followed. Loading... Various Kurdish groups have met in Irbil, the capital of neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan, and have attempted to form a united opposition to the Arab forces ... ....(size: 5.1Kb)
PhysOrg
27 Nov 2012
Jason Ur, the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, earlier this year launched a five-year archaeological project—the first such Harvard-led endeavor in the war-torn nation since the early 1930s—to scour a 3,200-square-kilometer area around Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, for signs of ancient cities and towns, canals, and roads ... spy satellites ... ....(size: 3.6Kb)
CNN
27 Nov 2012
November 27, 2012 -- Updated 1411 GMT (2211 HKT). The remains of one of three car bombs burns in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on November 27, 2012 ... All three occurred in the northern part of Kirkuk, which is a mainly Kurdish area. Read more. Iraq free of sectarian violence during Ashura ... Read more ... U.S. officials ... Last week, all Kurdish political parties met in Irbil and expressed a united position to defend the Kurdistan region ... 0 ... TED ... ....(size: 8.0Kb)
CNN
27 Nov 2012
November 27, 2012 -- Updated 1703 GMT (0103 HKT). The remains of one of three car bombs burns in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Tuesday. Baghdad (CNN) -- At least 29 people were killed and 126 wounded Tuesday in eight car bombings in Iraq ... Falluja is about 37 miles (60 kilometers) west of Baghdad ... U.S. officials ... Last week, all Kurdish political parties met in Irbil and expressed a united position to defend the Kurdistan region ... 0 ... ... ....(size: 9.2Kb)
The Independent
21 Nov 2012
Col. Dhia al-Wakil, a spokesman for the Iraqi army, said the additional troops were dispatched "only as a precautionary measure, to face any possible attack from the pesh merga." ... "It was personal, not political ... Indeed, the speed with which a seemingly minor fracas spiraled into a full-fledged crisis underscores the dangers of the many unresolved disputes between Baghdad and Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish region ... U.S ... ....(size: 5.8Kb)
my SA
20 Nov 2012
BAGHDAD (AP) — The commander of Kurdish Peshmerga forces warned Tuesday that his troops might attack Iraqi government soldiers at "any minute" after the central government sent tanks and armored vehicles toward the disputed city of Kirkuk ... U.S ... "We are on high alert ... Gen ... Also Tuesday, Iraqi President Jalal Talbani, a leading Kurdish figure, met the head of the autonomous region, Massoud Barzani, in the city of Irbil his spokesman said. ....(size: 2.9Kb)
Star Tribune
20 Nov 2012
BAGHDAD - The commander of Kurdish Peshmerga forces warned Tuesday that his troops might attack Iraqi government soldiers at "any minute" after the central government sent tanks and armored vehicles toward the disputed city of Kirkuk ... U.S ... Gen ... Also Tuesday, Iraqi President Jalal Talbani, a leading Kurdish figure, met the head of the autonomous region, Massoud Barzani, in the city of Irbil his spokesman said. ....(size: 3.1Kb)
The Washington Post
20 Nov 2012
Loading... Comments Weigh In Corrections?. Recommend. Personal Post. Gallery. Images from around the world. Take a look at some of the week’s best photographs from around the globe ... Anup Kaphle ... Max Fisher ... Indeed, the speed with which a seemingly minor fracas spiraled into a full-fledged crisis underscores the dangers of the many unresolved disputes between Baghdad and Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish region ... U.S ... ....(size: 5.6Kb)
The Washington Post
14 Nov 2012
ally. At least 14 people were reported injured in clashes overnight as protesters set fire to cars and gas stations and damaged at least one government building in a provincial town ... Loading... Comments Weigh In Corrections? ... Within hours after the announcement of subsidy cuts, protests broke out in Amman, the capital, as well as provincial cities Karak, Maan and Irbil, where throngs of demonstrators blocked traffic and chanted slogans ... ....(size: 5.4Kb)
Turkish Press
14 Nov 2012
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be heading to Egypt to attend the second meeting of the Turkish-Egyptian High-level Strategic Cooperation Council (HSCC). During his visit, he will also deliver a speech at the Turkey-Egypt Business Forum ... AA Arabic News Services completed its structuring in Cairo, Tunis, Beirut, Rabat, Tripoli, Irbil, Gaza, Ramallah and Doha, and its head office is placed in Istanbul ... Published ... Â ... study ... ....(size: 6.1Kb)
The People's Voice
12 Nov 2012
The channel, Barada TV is based in London and has close affiliations with the Movement for Justice and Development, a London-based network of Syrian exiles ... interviewing Abu Ismail a six year Iraqi Al Qaeda veteran on his journey into what he believes is the start of the apocolypse, in the article Chulov states Ismail received funding from a âbenefactorâ in the northern city of Irbil, Iraq⦠... It is sympathetic to al-Qaida ... -###- ... ....(size: 11.5Kb)
Real Clear Politics
02 Nov 2012
The Iranian challenge to US interests and allies is the most pressing strategic issue for Washington in the Middle East ... President Obama has defined US interests narrowly, instead of viewing Iran through a broader regional prism ... Ankara and Irbil have moved steadily closer, and against Iranian interests, on a host of issues, ranging from energy supply, to Syria, to the push to unseat Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ... 1 . 2 ... ....(size: 3.1Kb)
The Dallas Morning News
26 Oct 2012
Roxane Farmanfarmaian is an internationally acclaimed Middle East scholar who currently lectures at the University of Utah and the University of Cambridge, in the United Kingdom. During a recent visit to speak to the World Affairs Council of Dallas-Fort Worth, Points asked her for an update on developments around the Middle East ... That’s the trick ... It was always there ... And the daylight between Irbil and Baghdad is getting wider and wider....(size: 19.5Kb)
This article is about the city in Iraq. For other uses, see Erbil (disambiguation).
| Erbil Kurdish: ھەولێر Arabic: أربيل Aramaic: ܐܪܒܝܠ |
|
|---|---|
.jpg) |
|
 Erbil
|
|
| Coordinates: 36°11′28″N 44°0′33″E / 36.19111°N 44.00917°E / 36.19111; 44.00917Coordinates: 36°11′28″N 44°0′33″E / 36.19111°N 44.00917°E / 36.19111; 44.00917 | |
| Country |  Iraq |
| Autonomous region |  Kurdistan[1] |
| Province | Erbil |
| Settled | 9000 BC |
| Government | |
| • Governor | Nawzad Hadi |
| Population (2009 est.) | |
| • Total | 1,293,839 |
Erbil (Hewlêr in Roman-alphabet Kurdish) (also written Arbil, or Irbil) (Akkadian: Arba-ilu; Arabic: اربيل Arbīl; Kurdish: ھەولێر Hewlêr; Sumerian: Urbilum; Syriac-Aramaic: ܐܪܒܝܠ Arbaelo) is, with a population of approximately 1.3 million (2009), the fourth largest city in Iraq after Baghdad, Basra and Mosul.[2] It is located 80 kilometres (50 miles) east of Mosul, and is the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Urban life at Erbil can be dated back to at least 6000 BC,[3][4] and it is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.[3][4] At the heart of the city is the ancient Citadel of Arbil. The Hurrians were the first to establish Urbilum and expand their rule to the rest of northern Mesopotamia. The city has since been under the rule of many regional powers, including the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Arabs, and the Ottomans. Erbil's archaeological museum houses a large collection of pre-Islamic artifacts, and is a center for archaeological projects in the area.[5]
Contents |
Etymology[link]
The name Erbil was mentioned in Sumerian holy writings (c. 2000 BC) as Urbilum, Urbelum or Urbillum,[6] and it may be Sumerian in origin. It is thought to originate from Sumerian UR (city) + BELA (high) meaning the city located in the upper area. The initial ar element also appears in a number of Hurrian place names.
Later, Akkadians/Assyrians rendered the name to mean four gods (arba'ū ilū).[7] The city was a centre for the worship of the goddess Ishtar. In classical times the city was known by its Aramaic name, Arbela. In Old Persian the city was called Arbairā.[8] The modern Kurdish name of the city, Hawler, appears to be a corruption of the local Neo-Aramaic name Arbel by a series of metatheses of consonants.[7]
History[link]
_of_Hewl%C3%AAr_(Erbil).jpg)
Ancient history[link]
It has been claimed that Erbil is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in history.[9] The Neo-Sumerian ruler of Ur, Amar-Sin sacked Urbilum in his second year, ca. 1975 BC)[6]
Erbil was under the Assyrian Empire from around 2000 BC until 608 BC, and it remained part of the Assyrian province under Persian, Greek, Parthian, Roman and Sassanid rule.
Under the Median Empire, Cyaxares might have settled a number of people from the Ancient Iranian tribe of Sagarthians in Arbela and Kirkuk, probably as a reward for their help in the capture of Nineveh.[10] The Persian emperor Cyrus the Great occupied Assyria in 547 BC, and established there an Achaemenid satrapy called in Old Persian Aθurā (Assyria), with Arbela as the capital.[11]
The Battle of Gaugamela, in which Alexander the Great defeated Darius III of Persia in 331 BC, took place approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) west of Erbil. After the battle, Darius managed to flee to the city, and, somewhat inaccurately, the confrontation is sometimes known as the "Battle of Arbela".
Erbil became part of the region disputed between Rome and Persia under the Sasanids. The ancient Syriac kingdom of Adiabene (the Greek form of Ḥadyab) had its center at Erbil, and the town and kingdom are known in Jewish Middle Eastern history for the conversion of the royal family to Judaism.[12] Its populace then converted during the first and second century to Christianity, with Pkidha becoming traditionally its first bishop around 104 AD.[13][14] The metropolitanate of Ḥadyab in Arbela became a centre of eastern Syriac Christianity until late in the Middle Ages.[15]
Medieval history[link]
Arbela was an early center of the Syriac Christianity. By 100 AD there was a bishop seated in the city. As many modern Assyrians use Biblical (including Jewish) names, most of the early bishops had Jewish/Biblical names, which does not suggest that many of the early Christians in this city were converts from Judaism.[16] It served as the seat of a Metropolitan of the Assyrian Church of the East. From the city's Christian period come many church fathers and well-known authors in Syriac. The city's Aramaic-speaking Assyrian population remained significant in size until destruction of the city by the forces of Timur in 1397.[17]
_Kurdistan.jpg)
In the Middle Ages, Erbil was ruled successively by the Umayyads, the Abbasids, the Buwayhids, the Seljuks and then by the Atabegs of Erbil (1131–1232), under whom it was a Turkmen state; they were in turn followed by the Ilkhanids, the Jalayirids, the Karakoyun and the Akkoyun. Erbil was the birthplace of the famous 13th century Muslim historian and writer Ibn Khallikan.
Modern history[link]
The modern town of Erbil stands on a tell topped by an Ottoman fort. During the Middle Ages, Erbil became a major trading centre on the route between Baghdad and Mosul, a role which it still plays today with important road links to the outside world.
The parliament of the Kurdistan Autonomous Region was established in Erbil in 1970 after negotiations between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) led by Mustafa Barzani, but was effectively controlled by Saddam Hussein until the Kurdish uprising at the end of the 1991 Gulf War. The legislature ceased to function effectively in the mid-1990s when fighting broke out between the two main Kurdish factions, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). The city was captured by the KDP in 1996 with the assistance of the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein. The PUK then established an alternative Kurdish government in Sulaimaniyah. KDP claimed that on March 1996 PUK asked for Iran's help to fight KDP. Considering this as a foreign attack on Iraq's soil, the KDP asked the Iraqi government for help.
The Kurdish Parliament in Erbil reconvened after a peace agreement was signed between the Kurdish parties in 1997, but had no real power. The Kurdish government in Erbil had control only in the western and northern parts of the autonomous region. During the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, a United States special forces task force was headquartered just outside of Erbil. The city was the scene of rapturous celebrations on April 10, 2003 after the fall of the Ba'ath regime.
During the US occupation of Iraq, sporadic terrorist attacks have hit Erbil. Parallel bomb attacks against Eid celebrations killed 109 people on February 1, 2004. Responsibility was claimed by the Islamist group Ansar al-Sunnah, and stated to be in solidarity with the Kurdish Islamist faction Ansar al-Islam.[citation needed] Another bombing on May 4, 2005 killed 60 civilians.[citation needed]
The Erbil International Airport opened in the city in 2005.
Main sights[link]
Citadel of Erbil[link]
The Citadel of Arbil is a tell or occupied mound, in the historical heart of Erbil, rising between 25 and 32 metres (82 and 105 ft) from the surrounding plain. The buildings on top of the tell stretch over a roughly oval area of 430 by 340 metres (1,410 × 1,120 ft) occupying 102,000 square metres (1,100,000 sq ft). It has been claimed that the site is the oldest continuously inhabited town in the world.[4] The earliest evidence for occupation of the citadel mound dates to the 5th millennium BC, and possibly earlier. It appears for the first time in historical sources during the Ur III period, and gained particular importance during the Neo-Assyrian period. West of the citadel at Ary Kon quarter, a chamber tomb dating to the Neo-Assyrian period has been excavated.[5] During the Sassanian period and the Abbasid Caliphate, Erbil was an important centre for Christianity. After the Mongols captured the citadel in 1258, the importance of Erbil declined.
During the 20th century, the urban structure was significantly modified, as a result of which a number of houses and public buildings were destroyed. In 2007, the High Commission for Erbil Citadel Revitalization (HCECR) was established to oversee the restoration of the citadel. In the same year, all inhabitants, except one family, were evicted from the citadel as part of a large restoration project. Since then, archaeological research and restoration works have been carried out at and around the tell by various international teams and in cooperation with local specialists, and many areas remain off-limits to visitors due to the danger of unstable walls and infrastructure. The government plans to have 50 families live in the citadel once it is renovated.
The only religious structure that currently survives in the citadel is the Mulla Afandi Mosque. When it was fully occupied, the citadel was divided in three districts or mahallas: from east to west the Serai, the Takya and the Topkhana. The Serai was occupied by notable families; the Takya district was named after the homes of dervishes, which are called takyas; and the Topkhana district housed craftsmen and farmers. Other sights to visit in the citadel include the bathing rooms (hamam) built in 1775 located near the mosque and the Textile Museum.[18]
Other sights[link]
- The covered Erbil Qaysari Bazaars, sometimes known as Kaisary market, lies below the main entrance to the citadel and stocks mainly household goods and tools.
- The 36 m high Mudhafaria Minaret, situated in Minaret Park several blocks from the citadel, dates back to the late 12th century AD and the reign of Erbil king Muzaffar Al-Din Abu Sa’eed Al-Kawkaboori. It has an octagonal base decorated with two tiers of niches, which is separated from the main shaft by a small balcony, also decorated. Another historical minaret with turquoise glazed tiles is nearby.
- Sami Rahman Park
- Franso Hariri Stadium
- The Mound of Qalich Agha lies within the grounds of the Museum of Civilization, 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) from the citadel. An excavation in 1996 found tools from the Halaf, Ubaid and Uruk periods.[5]
- Kurdish Textile Museum
Culture[link]
Sports[link]
The local major football team is Arbil SC which plays its football matches at Franso Hariri Stadium which is based in the south part of central Erbil. Erbil SC were the first Kurdish team to make it to theAFC Champions league.
See also[link]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Arbil |
References[link]
- ^ "Kurdistan Regional Government". KRG. http://krg.org/articles/detail.asp?lngnr=12&smap=03010300&rnr=140&anr=23911. Retrieved 2012-05-21.
- ^ "Largest Cities in Iraq". mongabay.com. 2002-01-01. http://www.mongabay.com/igapo/Iraq.htm. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
- ^ a b "Czech archaeologists uncover Stone Age tools in Erbil, Iraq". Radio Prague. 2010-03-17. http://www.radio.cz/en/section/czechstoday/czech-archaeologists-uncover-stone-age-tools-in-arbil-iraq. Retrieved 08-12-2010.
- ^ a b c "Erbil Citadel". UNESCO. http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5479/. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
- ^ a b c 'Directorate Antiquities of Erbil's Guide' Brochure produced by General Directorate of Antiquities, KRG, Ministry of Tourism
- ^ a b Hamblin, William J. (2006). Warfare in the Ancient Near East to 1600 BC. Routledge. p. 111. ISBN 0-415-25589-9. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=en9tzr1-VM4C.
- ^ a b Khan, Geoffrey (1999). A grammar of neo-Aramaic: the dialect of the Jews of Arbel, Part 1, Volume 47. BRILL. p. 2. ISBN 978-90-04-11510-1. http://books.google.com/books?id=we7Q1AxbiOYC&pg=PA2.
- ^ "Iranica: Arbela". Iranicaonline.org. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/arbela-assyrian-arbailu-old. Retrieved 2012-05-21.
- ^ Erbil: World's oldest, and continously inhabited city - 8,000 Years, Allvoices.com
- ^ ASAGARTA, Encyclopedia Iranica
- ^ E. Herzfeld, The Persian Empire, ed. G. Walser, Wiesbaden, 1968, pp. 304-07
- ^ Adiabene,Jewish Kingdom of Mesopotamia, Jonah Gabriel Lissner
- ^ MŠIHA-ZKHA. "HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ADIABENE UNDER THE PARTHIANS AND THE SASSANIDS". Tertullian.org. http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/arbela_02_text.htm.
- ^ Neusner, Jacob (1969). A history of the Jews in Babylonia, Volume 2. Brill Archive. p. 354.
- ^ British Institute of Persian Studies (1981). Iran , Volumes 19-21. the University of Michigan. pp. 15, 17. http://books.google.com/books?ei=OUL-Td73A4rBtAbc6aHvDQ&ct=result&id=rNdtAAAAMAAJ&dq=adiabene+syriac+metropolitanate&q=adiabene.
- ^ Gillman, Ian and Hans-Joachim Klimkeit. Christians in Asia before 1500. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1999) p. 33
- ^ Edwin Munsell Bliss, Turkey and the Armenian Atrocities, (Chicago 1896) p. 153
- ^ 'Erbil Citadel' Brochure, High Commission for Erbil Citadel Revitalization (HCECR). www.erbilcitadel.org
External links[link]
- i Erbil – Portal for international visitors
- Livius.org: Arbela
- Hospitality in Hawler Directory of hotels in Arbil with contact information, photos and reviews.
http://wn.com/Erbil
Related pages:
http://it.wn.com/Arbil
http://cs.wn.com/Arbíl
http://id.wn.com/Arbil
http://es.wn.com/Erbil (ciudad)
http://ru.wn.com/Эрбиль
http://nl.wn.com/Arbil (stad)
http://pt.wn.com/Arbil
http://pl.wn.com/Irbil
http://fr.wn.com/Erbil
http://de.wn.com/Arbil
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erbil
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
| Nawshirwan Mustafa | |
|---|---|
| Nawshirwan Mustafa | |
| Leader of the Movement for Change | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1944 Silemani, Kurdistan |
| Political party | Movement for Change |
| Residence | Silemani, Kurdistan |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Profession | Historian |
| Religion | Muslim |
| Website | www.gorran.net |
Nawshirwan Mustafa (Kurdish: Newşîrwan Mistefa) is the General Coordinator (رێکخەری گشتی / rêkxerî giştî) of the Movement for Change and the leader of the official opposition in the Kurdistan Region.[1]
Contents |
Early life[link]
Nawshirwan Mustafa was born in Silemani, Kurdistan Region 1944, the eldest of two sons of Mustafa Émin, Mustafa's grandfather Émin Khider was a financier of the Kingdom of Kurdistan and it's government according to the newspaper Pêşkewtin. Nawshirwan whose name means the immortal soul, was named by his father after the twentieth Sassanid Emperor Khusro I Anōšīravān (dadgar). Silemani has been the seat of the Mustafa family since the city was founded in 1784. Unlike Kurdistan's other prominent political leaders Masoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, Mustafa hails from a city not a village and is not a member of a tribe.
Mustafa attended the Royal King Faisal school at Silemani and was also taught foreign languages by private tutors at an early age, he went onto study at Baghdad University and then later at Vienna University.
Mustafa speaks in his native language Kurdish both Sorani and Kurmanji and is fluent in Arabic, Persian, English and German.
Posts Held[link]
- Secretary General Komalai Ranjdaran 1970-1992
- Commander in Chief of Peshmerga Forces 1976-1992
- Deputy Secretary General Patriotic Union of Kurdistan 1976-2006
- Leader of the Movement for Change 2009–present
Kurdistan Democratic Party[link]
Mustafa joined the KDP at the age of 17 while still at high school, he rapidly climbed the ranks and was appointed the head of the KDP youth branch, and was later offered the post of head of the KDP branch of Sulaymaniyah by its then party president Mustafa Barzani, however Nawshirwan flatly refused the offer and resigned from the KDP. Mustafa cites differences in opinion over the approach as to how Kurdish independence should be brought about as the reason for the fallout between himself and the KDP in his biography[citation needed]. Before his resignation Mustafa had organised cells of sympathisers who would also leave the KDP along with himself, these cells would later go on to constitute some of the members of his future political party Komalai Ranjdaran.
Komalai Ranjdaran[link]
Mustafa founded the Komalai Ranjdaran party in 1970[citation needed] and became its Secretary General in the same year. Komala began as a secret society holding meetings in safe houses and producing propaganda which was spread through there underground network across Kurdistan, the organisation was sometimes called "the brotherhood" by its members.
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan[link]
Mustafa was in his final year of studies at Vienna University when the Barzani rebellion collapsed. After talks with Jalal Talabani, they decided that a new Kurdish movement needed to be organized to fill the vacuum. He made his way to Damascus where a number of meetings between prominent Kurdish politicians about the future of the Kurdish resistance were taking place. The result of these meetings was the foundation of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, an umbrella organization. At the meeting it was announced that Jalal Talabani would become the Secretary General and Nawshirwan the deputy Secretary General. In an understanding between the two leaders it was decided that Nawshirwan would lead and organize the movement in Kurdistan while Talabani would publicize and champion the cause[citation needed].
Following his return, Mustafa soon took over the leadership of the Komalai Ranjdaran party becoming its Secretary General, which he placed in the Patriotic Union. Jalal Talabani who led Shoresh Garan also placed his party in the Patriotic Union and a number of smaller parties followed suit. This move by them echoed the agreement which they had formulated in exile, thus leading to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. However, these party's would continue to act largely autonomously within the PUK and it was only in 1991 that they fully integrated into one single party, when Nawshirwan resigned from his post as Secretary General of Komala while still retaining the post of deputy secretary general of the PUK, and dissolved the Komalai Ranjdaran (which compiled over 100% of the PUK membership) to increase the unity within the PUK and allow for the transition of power from the Peshmerga (the military wing of the PUK) to the civilian population.
Between 1976 and 1992, Nawshirwan was the PUKs chief strategist as well as its Chief negotiator. Alongside his political role, Nawshirwan was the Commander in Chief of all Peshmerga forces under the control of the PUK, earning the respect of the Kurdish people for his years of servitude, courage and tactical prowess in battle against the Ba'thist forces of Saddam.[citation needed][2][3]
But he is more notable for his role in the Kurdish Uprising of March 1991 Raparin which he and small number of his inner circle planned, organized and executed. This uprising led to the creation of the safe haven in Iraqi Kurdistan and its subsequent autonomy from the Iraqi government. Nawshirwan, because of his leadership of the Uprising, is accredited with being known in Kurdish circles as the “architect"[4] of Raparin. This Uprising was also very important because it was the first time since the creation of Iraq that all of Southern Kurdistan including Kirkuk, Khanaqin and Kurdish areas around Mosul were liberated and under direct Kurdish rule. For this achievement alone Nawshirwan has taken his place in Kurdish history along side other organizers of great Kurdish uprisings Sheikh Mahmoud Barzinji (1919), Sheikh Said Piran (1925) and Sheikh Ubeydullah (1880s)[citation needed].
After the Kurdish elections in 1992 which resulted in a power sharing agreement, Nawshirwan argued that instead the PUK should go to parliament as the opposition party because power sharing may cause tensions between the PUK and KDP. Nawshirwan, after 1992, took a backseat role in Kurdish politics and returned to writing though he still wielded so much influence that he "could ignite Kirkuk with a single telephone call"[5] according to The New Yorker.
After 1992, Nawshirwan limited his involvement in Kurdish politics to matters of national importance. He refrained from interfering in the day to day running of the region, which he considered solely the job of the Kurdistan Regional Government. However he was involved in the appointment of various prime ministers and cabinet ministers as well as their dismissals. Nawshirwan left Iraqi Kurdistan briefly and lived in London where he focused on writing about Kurdish political history, but soon returned after the PUK and KDP became entangled in a civil war, he attempted to reconcile Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani over meditations in Washington, Dublin, Ankara and Tehran. After the 1998 peace accord, Nawshirwan remained resident in Kurdistan and gradually began to return to public political life and resume full official duties of the deputy secretary general. However due to differences between Nawshirwan and Talabani over the management of the PUK he left public political life in 2006 to set up a media organisation.
Nawshirwan welcomed the US led coalition which toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime, seeing it as an opportunity to redraw the role of Kurds in Iraq. As soon as the old regime had been removed, he ordered the establishment of a PUK office in Baghdad. He assumed the role of chief Kurdish negotiator on Transitional Administrative Law which was established under the governing council and the CPA. He designed Article 58 which addressed the issue of normalizing Arabised areas of Kurdistan and threatened that if this article was not included, Kurds would no longer be a part of Iraq. Although this demand was met, he returned to Kurdistan stating the Kurds had seceded on too many of their initial demands and had not been given their fair share.
Nawshirwan returned again as the Chief Kurdish negotiator during the drafting of the permanent constitution and to insure the inclusion of Article 140 which was an amended version of the TALs Article 58 and another Article which provided the Kurds with veto power. He again returned and stated that the Kurds had not received what they were entitled to. Nawshirwan in 2005 turned his attention to domestic politics of the Kurdistan Region and began to call for administrative reform, saying that bad governance was crippling the region and damaging Kurdish national interests. He launched a campaign of reform which was ultimately blocked by the leadership of both the PUK and KDP. This resulted in Nawshirwan's surprise resignation on 5 December 2006 as deputy Secretary General during a politburo meeting, where he stated “irreconcilable differences" in the areas of policy and methods of governance for his decision. Nawshirwan has backing from the strategically important Hamewand tribe, whose leaders, among others, have publicly announced their support for his reform movement. He is known for his strong stance on the implementation of the rule of law and his plans to modernize the Kurdish economy in a free market fashion.
Wusha Corporation[link]
Nawshirwan, in March 2007, established the Wusha Corporation in the Sulaimaniyah. In response to a question as to why he had established such as vast media outlet, Nawshirwan stated, "we have attempted to change Kurdish politics from the inside, now let us attempt it from the outside". Nawshirwan has had a long history of pushing for a free media in the region in an interview with the London based Al-Sharq al-Awsat on 31 May 2003, he stated Iraq and Kurdistan need to "enact news laws that live up to the spirit of the age and are in line with the principles of human rights and civil society."
Branches of the Wusha Corporation:
- Kurdish News Network, 24hr International News Channel
- Rozhnama, Weekly Newspaper
- Sbeiy, News Website
- Dangi Gorran, 24hr Radio Station
The company's newspaper, Rozhnama; heavily criticized Jalal Talabani for deciding in March 2008 to sack party members from the PUK for speaking out against politicians in the press.[6]
Movement for Change[link]
Nawshirwan was the head of the main opposition list, Change List, in the Iraqi Kurdistan legislative election, 2009.[7] The Change List is a broad coalition which consists of independents, members of the PUK and KDP, and elements from many established parties in Iraqi Kurdistan.
File:Goran11.JPG
Change List which was found by Nawshirwan Mustafa in 2006
The Change List won the support of more than 51% of the As Sulaymaniyah Governorate voters. The Change list participated in the Iraqi parliamentary election, 2010 and won 8 seats in both the As Sulaymaniyah and Arbil Governorates.
Jalal Talabani in November 2011 sent a delegation to see Nawshirwan on his behalf to "seek reconciliation" the delegation were told that “Talabani should reconcile with the People, not with Gorran” and that “we do not have any personal issue with Talabani”,[8] the speedy attempt at reconciliation by Talabani was seen as a fearful response to Mustafa's one on one meeting with Barzani, in which Talabani was fearful that Barzani may seek Mustafa as his new political ally. Mustafa has flatly refused to meet Talabani despite his various requests,[9] the relationship between the one time friends had reached an all time low after the two traded accusations about each other's actions during the Kurdish revolution in the media.[10]
Quotes About Mustafa[link]
- Fouad Ajami, The foreigner's gift: the Americans, the Arabs, and the Iraqis in Iraq, Free Press, 2006: "Mustafa is a man who straddles the worlds of literature and politics, he is graceful and reserved"[11]
- Cameron W. Barr, The Christian Science Monitor, March 27, 2003: "Mustafa, a gray-haired eminence in the Kurdish movement, was the architect of the Kurds' 1991 uprising against the regime of President Saddam Hussein"[12]
- Chris Kutschera, The Middle East magazine, May 2008: "Mustafa is the enfant terrible of the Iraqi Kurdish national movement" and "he says loudly what many people dare not even whisper".[13]
- Quil Lawrence, National Public Radio, May 5, 2009: "Mustafa is stern and often abrupt, but he's considered clean, even by a jaded and cynical Kurdish public".[14]
- Jeffrey Goldberg, The New Yorker, April 14, 2003: "It has been said that Mustafa is a man who could ignite Kirkuk with a single telephone call" and that his "his spies and rebels had seized cities across Kurdistan within days of Saddam’s retreat from Kuwait"[15]
- Lennox Samuels, Newsweek, Jun 23, 2009: "The fact is that Gorran's standard bearer, Nawshirwan Mustafa, is also one of the peshmerga's heroes, just like KDP boss Massoud Barzani and PUK leader Jalal Talabani"[16]
- Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times, November 7, 2007: "Mustafa the steely-eyed intellectual turned guerrilla commander helped secretly organize the 1991 uprising against Saddam Hussein that challenged Baghdad's rule in the north and led to the establishment of the Kurdish autonomous region"[17]
- Barham Salih KRG Prime Minister in an interview with Nalia Radio and Television Channel, October 2011, "Kak Nawshirwan Mustafa is a notable leader of Kurdistan who also historically revived the Kurdish revolution in 1976, he was my superior for 30 years and is the intellectual giant of our Kurdish nation"[18]
- Gareth R. Stansfield, Iraqi Kurdistan: Political development and emergent democracy, "Mustafa is recognised as being guru-style ideologue, he represents a curious mix of an institutional historical figure, and yet is aggressively non-conformist within the PUK"[19]
- Hasan Kanbolat, Today's Zaman, "Mustafa has created a powerful opposition alternative unforeseen in politics in Kurdistan"[20]
- The United States Department of State, Wikileaks, U.S state department refers to Mustafa as the "legendary Peshmerga commander"[21]
Publications[link]
-
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
- Mustafa, Nawshirwan (1997). La kanārī Dānubawa bo khaṛī Nāwzang:political events in Iraqi Kurdistan from 1975 to 1978. Kurdistan: Zargata. ISBN None.
- Mustafa, Nawshirwan (1997). Panjakan yaktari ashkenin: political events in Iraqi Kurdistan fro 1979 to 1983. Kurdistan: Zargata. ISBN 3-9806140-3-4.
- Mustafa, Nawshirwan (1999). Khulāna la bāznadā: the inside story of events in Iraqi Kurdistan 1984-1988. Kurdistan: Meľbenî Awedanî Kurdistan. ISBN 3-9806140-3-4.
- Mustafa, Nawshirwan (1992). Kurd u Ejam. Kurdistan: Zargata. ISBN None.
- Mustafa, Nawshirwan (1993). Hukumati Kurdistan: Kurd le gemey Sovieti da. Kurdistan: K.I.B. ISBN 90-900635-6-0.
- Mustafa, Nawshirwan (1998). Mīrāyatī Bābān lah nǐwān bardāshī R̮ǔm ū ʻAjamʹdā. Kurdistan: Melbendî Awedanî Kurdistan. ISBN 3-9806140-1-8.
- Mustafa, Nawshirwan (2000). Kurdistanî ʻÊraq: serdemî qełem u muraceʻat, 1928-1931. Kurdistan: Zargata. ISBN None.
- Mustafa, Nawshirwan (2002). Jian: Be tementirîn rōjnamey kurdî 1926 - 1938. Kurdistan: Zargata. ISBN None.
- Mustafa, Nawshirwan (2004). Jian: Çend lapereyek le mêjûy rojnamewaniy Kurdî, 1938-1958: rojnamewaniy nihênî. Kurdistan: Zargata. ISBN None.
- Mustafa, Nawshirwan (1981). Karesati Hekari. Kurdistan: Zargata. ISBN None.
- Mustafa, Nawshirwan (1995). Kêşey Partî û Yekêtî. Kurdistan: Zargata. ISBN None.
- Mustafa, Nawshirwan (2009). Ême û Ewan. Kurdistan: Zargata. ISBN None.
- Mustafa, Nawshirwan (2012). Edeb û Tarikhi Kurdi. Kurdistan: Zargata. ISBN None.
See also[link]
Official party sites[link]
References[link]
- ^ Muir, Jim (2009-07-24). "Iraqi Kurds vote in 'vibrant' elections". BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8167986.stm. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
- ^ Standard website
- ^ Iraq’s Political Machinations | Workers Bush Telegraph
- ^ *The Christian Science Monitor, Lessons on how to oust Hussein, http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0327/p08s01-woiq.htm
- ^ * The New Yorker, WARTIME FRIENDSHIPS, http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/04/14/030414fa_fact?currentPage=all
- ^ Washington Institute for Near East Policy, The Future of the Iraqi Kurds, http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/pubPDFs/PolicyFocus85.pdf
- ^ KurdishMedia.com: News about Kurds and Kurdistan
- ^ Kurdistan Tribune, PUK leader Talabani seeks reconciliation with Gorran leader, http://kurdistantribune.com/2011/puk-leader-talabani-seeks-reconciliation-gorran-leader/
- ^ EKurd, Kurdistan opposition leader Nawshirwan responds to speech of Talabani, http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2010/1/independentstate3414.htm
- ^ EKurd, Jalal Talabani says Nawshirwan Mustafa secession was aggressive, http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2011/6/state5169.htm
- ^ Fouad Ajami, The foreigner's gift: the Americans, the Arabs, and the Iraqis in Iraq, http://books.google.com/books?id=kaFtAAAAMAAJ&q=Mustafa+Emin&dq=Mustafa+Emin&hl=en&sa=X&ei=y9YST_HaEtOw8QOz7PzyAw&ved=0CFEQ6AEwBjgK
- ^ Cameron W. Barr, Lessons on how to oust Hussein, http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0327/p08s01-woiq.html
- ^ CHRIS KUTSCHERA 35 YEARS of JOURNALISM, The Voice of the Opposition from Within, http://www.chris-kutschera.com/A/Nawshirwan.htm
- ^ QUIL LAWRENCE, Iraqi Kurds Try To Reform Two-Party System, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103805844
- ^ Jeffrey Goldberg, Letter From Northern Iraq: Wartime Friendships, http://www.jeffreygoldberg.net/articles/tny/letter_from_northern_iraq_wart.php
- ^ Lennox Samuels, Count Your Change, http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/06/23/count-your-change.html
- ^ Borzou Daragahi, IRAQ: Man on the hilltop, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2007/11/man-on-the-hill.html
- ^ Barham Salih, NRT Channel, http://nrttv.com/K_Direje.aspx?Jimare=8509
- ^ Gareth R. Stansfield, Iraqi Kurdistan: Political development and emergent democracy, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=FB4ErXPRRd0C&pg=PA91&dq=mustapha+puk&hl=en&ei=IhjATv3eL4SIhQfKm-m4Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=mustafa&f=false
- ^ Hasan Kanbolat, Toward a Talabani and Nawshirwan alliance in northern Iraq, http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist-181936-toward-a-talabani-and-nawshirwan-alliance-in-northern-iraq.html
- ^ The United States Department of State, Wikileaks, http://dazzlepod.com/cable/09BAGHDAD778/
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Mistefa, Nawshirwan |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | 1944 |
| Place of birth | Silemani, Kurdistan |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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| Nancy Ajram نانسي عجرم |
|
|---|---|
 Nancy Ajram in December 2007 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Nancy Nabil Ajram |
| Born | (1983-05-16) May 16, 1983 (age 29) |
| Origin | Beirut, Lebanon, Arabia |
| Genres | Arabic Pop, World, pop |
| Occupations | singer |
| Years active | 1998–present |
| Labels | EMI Arabia (1998) Megastar (2001–2005) In2Musica (2008–present) |
| Website | Official website |
Nancy Nabil Ajram (Arabic: نانسي نبيل عجرم), (born May 16, 1983) is a multi-platinum recording artist and Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF.[1] With the support of her father, Nancy began performing as a child and released her first studio album by the age of 15. Her breakthrough occurred with the start of her collaboration with well-known producer Jiji Lamara, when she released her smash-hit "Akhasmak Ah" and 3rd studio album, Ya Salam. In 2004, she released her second international best-seller "Ah w Noss", which spawned several smash-hits, "Ah w Noss", "Lawn Ouyounak", and "Inta Eih" at which point Nancy had established pop icon status in the Middle East.
Her 2008 album "Bitfakkar Fi Eih" spawned seven singles and won Nancy's first World Music Award as Best-selling Middle Eastern Artist, the youngest Arab WMA winner to date. She has released seven studio albums to date and numerous other chart-topping singles such as "Sehr Ouyouno", "Atabtab", "Moegaba", "Ehsas Jdeed", "El Donya Helwa", "Mashi Haddi", and "Fi Hagat".
Nancy Ajram is the first and only female sponsor and spokesperson of Coca-Cola in the Middle East and Arab world. Considered by many as an Arabic music icon of the decade, Nancy was described on the Oprah Winfrey Show as one of the most influential personalities of the Middle East. Nancy has made the list of Most Powerful Arabs on Arabian Business several times, and was similarly listed by Newsweek as one of the most influential Arabs.[2][3] Nancy's official Facebook page is the most subscribed Arabic artist page on the social-networking site and the first to reach 3 million subscribers,[4] and her music video for "Fi Hagat" was an Internet phenomenon and is currently the most viewed Arabic music video on the Internet, on Youtube with over 26.3 million views to date.[5]
Contents |
Early life and beginnings[link]
Nancy Ajram was born into an Orthodox Christian family on May 16, 1983 in Achrafieh, a district in Beirut, Lebanon.[6]
In 1995, at the age of twelve, Nancy Ajram took part in a variety show, Noujoum Al-Moustakbal, ("Stars of the Future"), a Lebanese reality television competition, which finds new solo musical talent. Ajram won a gold medal in the Tarab category after singing a song by Umm Kulthum.
Ajram studied music with renowned Lebanese musicians and despite being less than 18 years old at the time, the syndicate of professional artists in Lebanon accepted her as a member. Her first singles were titled "Hobbak Allam Albi elGheere" by Abdo Mounzer, and "Oulha Kelma Ala Shani". At the age of 15, she released her first album, Mihtagalak ("I Need You') in 1998. It was followed by Sheel Oyoonak Anni ("Stop Staring") in 2000, which achieved more success.
Music career[link]
[edit] 2002-2004: Akhasmak Ah
Ajram's breakthrough was when she began working with Jiji Lamara, an experienced producer and manager. In early 2003, Ajram rose to instant fame with the success of the lead single "Akhasmak Ah" and the release of her third studio album, Ya Salam ("Oh Wow") which was a best-seller. The music video of "Akhasmak Ah" caused a controversy; reminiscent of older Arabic films, Nancy appeared as a cafe manager who dances and flirts with its customers. The release of the next music videos, "Ya Salam" and "Sehr Ouyouno" quietened down criticism as they better introduced Nancy's vocal abilities and style to the public.[citation needed]
[edit] 2004-2006:Ah w Noss, Coca-Cola
Her fourth album, Ah w Noss ("Yes, and a half"), was released on April 12, 2004, and it was also an important marking point in Nancy's career. The tremendous success that "Ah w Noss" achieved, stabilized Nancy's position as an A-List star in the Arab music industry. Nancy then filmed "Lawn Ouyounak" (Color of Your Eyes), which portrayed Nancy as a bride in a traditional Lebanese wedding. After the release of the album, Nancy Ajram signed-up with Coca-Cola to be their official celebrity spokesperson for the Levant, Arabia and North Africa regions. Her first Coke commercial featured her hit, "Oul Tany Kida?" (Say That Again?), which was filmed with the international Italian director Luca Tomassini. The commercial's success lead to it being filmed as a music video behind the scenes of the commercial. The 4th hit single from the album, "Inta Eih?" (What Are You?), was a slow directed by Samir Sfeir. Nadine Labaki directed another clip that featured Nancy as a wife who sees her husband cheating on her yet she hides it in torment to save their relationship. The music video received tremendous positive reviews and Nancy was greatly praised. Leading Egyptian actors and directors, like Faten Hamama praised Nancy's acting abilities and movie offers doubled for Nancy. Nancy also opened for Enrique Iglesias's first concert in Egypt in 2004.
[edit] 2006-2008:Ya Tabtab Wa Dalla, Shakhbat, El Donya Helwa
Main article: Ya Tabtab...Wa Dallaa
File:Ana Yalli.jpg
Ajram in her first Damas (Farfasha) campaign, photographed by Fares Al Jammal. 2006
Her fifth album, Ya Tabtab Wa Dallaa was released on February 15, 2006. Atabtab was considered Nancy's best album to date, with six music videos released, eight radio hits, and five songs used for commercials.
The title song's video was Nancy's last video directed by Nadine Labaki, as she then started working on her movie Caramel. Nancy then released the video of her Coca-Cola hit "Moegaba" (Admirer), as well as a video and commercial for her newly signed Damas Jewelry contract advertising their "Farfasha" set. The song used was Ana Yalli which was promoted before the album's release. Nancy then cooperated for the first time with prominent Lebanese director Said el Marouk, filming "Ehsas Jdeed" (A New Feeling) which is widely considered to be the most successful song of the album. The video, which was a salute from Said to his deaf and mute parents, depicted the story of a rich woman who falls in love with a deaf and mute man. Later in 2007, Nancy released all together the video of "Elli Kan" (All That Was) for Damas's second campaign, her Coca-Cola Side of Life commercial featuring a new single "El Donya Helwa" (Life is Beautiful), and a video and album directed towards children, titled Shakhbat Shakhabit (Scribbled Scribbles). "El Donya Helwa", Nancy's 7th commercial, is considered one of her most successful commercials representing her style and Coca-Cola's with colors, happiness, and music, and it led her to release a Live album featuring the single.
Ajram's sixth album was fully dedicated to children with a variety of songs aimed towards teaching children good values and morals, something she has wanted to do for a long time. The music video was her second cooperation with Said El Marouk and featured four songs from her album, the most successful of which were "Shakhbat Shakhabit" & "Shater Shater". Nancy performed these songs at several fund-raising events for children and other children's events, such as the children's TV channel MBC3, and the children's entertainment TV Show "Star Zghar". She then filmed with Fadi Haddad, the director of photography of her previous works with ElMarouk, a video for the song "Resala Ilal Aalam" (A Message to the World) which talks about world peace. The video was released on May 25, 2008, the day the Lebanese president General Michel Suleiman was elected ending a deadlock that lasted since November. It was the first video for Nancy that had an entirely graphical world that implied the suffering of children worldwide and the need to bring out a more colorful and happy world for them. Old rumors claimed that the video was presented to the UNICEF. In 2007, Nancy performed alongside Lionel Richie in Egypt at a launching event.
[edit] 2008–2010: Betfakkar Fi Eih, WMA, Oprah, UNICEF & motherhood
Main article: Betfakar Fi Eih
In February and March 2008, Nancy released three Coca-Cola commercials that featured a brand new hit from her long awaited album. The song, "Meen Gheyri Ana (Noss elKawn)" (Who Else?) was made by the successful Yey and Ana Yalli trio (Nizar Francis, Samir Sfeir, and Tarek Madkour). The single was an instant hit and served as a highly successful promotion 5 months before the release of the album. Nancy released her seventh studio album after several delays on July 30, 2008, which has been highly anticipated by fans for almost three years. This long awaited comeback album held lots of surprises for her fans with a huge change in her style that presented her matured vocal abilities like never before. Nancy's 7th album, Betfakkar Fi Eih?!, is considered to be one of her most successful albums so far as it won her first World Music Award in her career. The album included her first "Tarab" song called "Biteegy Sirtak" since 1998's Mihtagalak album, and in general had a wide mix of several different styles ranging from dance, beat, pop, to drama, romance, Tarab and oldies. Even though the hit video had mixed opinions, the second video of "Min Dally Nseek" was much more accepted, peaking at #1 for seven consecutive weeks in Melody Hits.[7] The same musical trio who created "Ehsas Jdeed" did one of the instant radio-hits of the album, "Lamset Eed" (Touch of a Hand), which was filmed with Leila Kenaan with a high budget, and the song and music video peaked charts for months. With this album Nancy signed a celebrity endorsement deal with Sony Ericsson, as a special w595 phone was released holding Nancy's signature, and Wana Ben Idek was chosen as the commercial song.
On November 9, 2008, about a month after her marriage, Nancy Ajram won her first World Music Award for her best-selling album Betfakkar Fi Eih. In her short speech, Nancy thanked her parents, Jiji Lamara, her fans and album makers, and husband, saying "2008 has been a fantastic year - a successful album, my wedding, and now a World Music Award, what can I ask for more?"
On September 28, 2009, the Oprah Winfrey Show aired an episode titled "Fame Around the World" that talked about the most famous celebrities around the globe in brief reports. Representing the Middle East region and Arab world, Nancy Ajram appeared in a report featured on the show and was described by Oprah as "the Britney Spears of the Middle East". Nancy Ajram is the first and only Middle-Eastern artist ever mentioned on the show.
[edit] 2010–2011: World Cup, N°7
Main article: 7_(Nancy Ajram album)
In the summer of 2010, Nancy was nominated by Coca-Cola Middle East to sing, along with K'naan, his international hit and song for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, "Wavin' Flag". The Arabic version, titled "Shaggaa Be Alamak" and directed to the Middle East region, had its Arabic parts written by Ayman Bahgat Amar (who previously wrote Ah w Noss, Atabtab, Eftah Albak for Nancy) and the music remastered by Tarek Madkour. The original music video was used for K'naan's parts while Nancy's parts were filmed separately in Lebanon on the same protocol under Leila Kenaan's co-direction. Both the video and song were aired heavily during the FIFA season and part of the song was particularly played during commercial breaks on Al-Jazeera channel, which exclusively aired the games to the Arab world.
On August 30, 2010,[8] Nancy's official Facebook page posted a 16-second preview of the music video for Nancy's next single, "Fi Hagat". The preview shows Nancy wearing her makeup and getting in the car on a rainy day. Later, it was announced that Nadine Labaki directed the video, thus making her comeback to music video direction after her 4-year break. The video is also the first collaboration between Ajram and Labaki since 2006's "Atabtab." The full music video premiered on September 6, 2010 at 8:00PM on Arabica TV and MTV Lebanon.[9] As of January 2011, Nancy became the first and most viewed Arabic music video on the Internet.[10]
In November, 2010, Nancy's Facebook page hit one million fans, becoming the most subscribed Arabic Facebook page on the site. Nancy expressed how thankful she was and promised her followers to add news and updates to the page. Later, the page announced "Sheikh El Shabab" and "Ya Kether" as the second and third singles from 7, respectively. The video for the second single premiered on December 23, and received favorable reviews from Arabic media, however, it did not achieve the same explosive rate of Internet views as did the first single "Fi Hagat", with only 750,000 views in a month. The album marks a shift in Ajram's career and launches her to a more international image, and is, to date, her second fastest selling album. It earned Nancy her second World Music Award as the middle east's best selling album.
2010–2012: Second kids' album[link]
In 2012, Ajram joined social networking website Twitter, and received ten thousand followers in two days. She immediately followed fellow singer Elissa and was followed back by her. The singer took her personal account to announce the video shoot of a fourth video from her seventh album, titled "Min Ma Ando." She also announced in late February that was nearly done working on a second album dedicated for kids. Ajram is set to embark a US tour in the summer of 2012.
Personal life[link]
In September 2008, Nancy wed Dr. Fadi El Hachem in Cyprus after a three-year relationship; the wedding ceremony, in Lebanon, was attended mainly by close friends and family and was only made based on their request. Nancy continued her work during pregnancy, during which she filmed "Min Dally Nseek", "Lamset Eed" and her first Sony Ericsson commercial. She also participated in several concerts, such as Layali Febrayer and received her World Music Award.
On May 16, 2009, Nancy gave birth to her first child, a daughter she named "Mila." Short for Milagrosa (miraculous in Spanish), Mila is also a traditional, Levantine name popular in rural Lebanon and meaning a "blooming tree".[11] However, Nancy revealed that the name was Fadi's choice inspired by the Ukraine-born US actress, Milla Jovovich. Nancy released a song for her daughter, "Ya Rab Tekbar Mila" (I Pray that Mila Grows Up) on the same day. In a survey done by Rotana Magazine, Nancy was voted as the "Most Beautiful Mom" of 2009.[12] Nancy chose not to reveal photos of her daughter Mila until they both appeared on the cover of "Prestige" magazine in an exclusive photoshoot. Mila later appeared in the set of Nancy's music video "Ya Kether" in the presence of the media who publicized her pictures.
In October 2010, a month after the release of her seventh studio album, Nancy announced that she was four months pregnant with her second child, a girl. During that period she had filmed "Sheikh El Shabab" and "Ya Kether" consecutively to be released during her pregnancy period. Nancy Ajram revealed on Mothers day special on MTV that she decided to name her daughter Ella. Ella was born on 23 April 2011.
Nancy Ajram is an Orthodox Christian.[13]
Awards and titles[link]
- 1995 Nojoom Al Mustaqbal Golden Award - (Ajram's most significant pre-stardom award)
- 2003, 2005, 2007 Murex D'or Award - Best Female Lebanese Singer of the year, Beirut [14]
- 2003, 2006 Murex D'or Award - Best Video of the Year, Beirut.
- 2003: Ya Salam - Nadine Labaki, 2006: Ehsas Jdeed - Said elMarouk)
- 2003 The Golden Lion Award, Egypt
- 2003, 2007 LG Music Award
- 2003, 2005 Zahrat elKhaleej Magazine - Best Female Arab Singer, Dubai
- 2004, 2010 Zahrat elKhaleej - Best Music Video of the Year, Dubai (Lawn Ouyounak, Fi hagat - respectively)
- 2004 Arabian Music Awards - Best Female Arab Singer of the year, Dubai
- 2005 Newsweek - Most Influential Arab Personalities, Kuwait
- 2005 - Honor from the Opera House of Egypt
- 2007 - Certificate from the Pope of Rome
- 2007 Middle East Music Awards (Mobinil) - Best Female Arab Singer of the year, Cairo [15]
- 2007, 2009[16] Arabian Business - World's Most Influential Arabs, Most Influential Contemporary Female Singer in 2007,[17] Most Powerful Arab Singers[3]
- 2007 Kol elArab Survey - Best Arabic Star of the year 2007 [18]
- 2008 9th Annual Doha Festival - Honor Award, Doha
- 2008 World Music Award - World's Best-Selling Middle-Eastern Artist, 20th Annual WMA, Monaco [19]
- 2008 Student Choice Award - [College Student Survey]: Best Album of the Year 2008, Beirut [20]
- 2008 AlJumhuriya newspaper, Freedom Magazine - Best Female Arab Star of 2008, Egypt.. only? [21]
- 2009 Regional Ambassador for the UNICEF in the Middle East & North Africa
- 2009 Al-Jazirah Newspaper survey : Best Female Arab singer of the Year. Saudi Arabia
- 2010 Stars Cafe Magazine - Best selling female artist of the decade.
- 2010 World Travel Award - Best Female world singer of the Year .
- 2010 Sama Al Noujoum-Best Female Singer 2010/Fi hagat Best Music Video[22]
- 2010 Panet Survey-Best Female singer[23]
- 2010 Arab Sound Awards -Best Arabic Female Singer[24]
- 2010 Music My Life- Fi Hagat Best Song Of 2010
- 2010 Best Of Lbc 2010- N 7 Best Album/Fi Hagat- Best Music Video[25]
- 2010 Panorama Fm (MBC)-N 7 Best Arabic Album.[26]
- 2010-2011 Jaras Scoop Awards-Best Female Singer [27]
- 2010-2011 Melody Fm Awards-Best Female Singer
- Stars Cafe Awards 2010:
- Best Female Artist
- Best Album : 7
- Best Song: Fi Hagat
- Best Lyrics: Fi Hagat
- Best Arrangement: Fi Hagat
- Best Music Video: Sheikh El Shabab
- 2011 Won two awards from "Murex D'or 2010" ceremony in Lebanon. First award as the Star of Lebanese song, and the second award for the category of best music video for the song "Sheikh El Shabab."[28]
- 2011 Best Female Singer- "Woujouh Men Lebnan" awards.
- 2011 Arabian Business- Most Famous Celebrity in the Middle East [29]
- 2011 World Music Awards World's Best-Selling Middle-Eastern Artist (Nancy 7)
Philanthropy and humanitarian work[link]
Ajram has participated in numerous charity events and concerts that she considers a priority in her music career. In the year 2006, Ajram opened an organization under the name "Jam'iyet Nancy Ajram Al-Khayria" (Nancy Ajram's Charity Organization) in Beirut, Lebanon, that works on collecting and distributing money for the poor. Nancy also released a song about peace, "Resala Ilal Aalam" (A Message to the World), in her children's album as a music video, which was rumored to be presented to the Unicef. Ajram also participated amongst over 100 other prominent Arab artists in a huge production called "ElDhameer elArabi", a 10-year sequel to "AlHelm Al Arabi" that outlines the major political events in the Arab world in the past ten years.
In June 2008, Nancy participated in The Big Ball, a charity event in Dubai which raised over Dhs 940,000 for helping underprivileged children [30] by auctioning one of her favourite dresses and encouraging children's fund-raising events; she announced, "The Big Ball is doing a wonderful thing and I'm happy to support it. I'm coming for my love of children and because I want to help underprivileged children find a happy place in this world. Children inspired my latest album Shakhbat Shakhabit and especially the song "Resala lel3alam" (A Message to the World)." [31] Ajram, however, continues to refuse announcing her other charitable projects to the public.
On October 22, 2009, the UNICEF chose Ajram to be the first female regional ambassador for the Middle East and North Africa, as was announced in a press conference held in Beirut. Nancy announced that she will be starting her charity projects in 2010. In late 2009 she appeared in the UNICEF's commercial marking the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, joining other influential Middle Eastern celebrities such as Kazem el-Saher, Saber el-Rebai and Karess Bashar.
Criticism and controversy[link]
- Many rumors of boycotts against Ajram's concerts filled the internet, although none appeared to be true.[32]
- In October 2003, a riot broke out outside a concert by Ajram in Bahrain. Islamists from the country's main opposition parties, including Al Wefaq, attacked concert goers. Al Wefaq's leaders defended the action, as it was the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.[32] In May 2006, Ajram returned to perform in Bahrain without any incidents.
- On her official website, Nancy Ajram has apologized[33][34] for anti-Iranian remarks [35] falsely attributed to her on a website posing as her homepage.
- Nancy Ajram has expressed extreme anger towards recent circulating rumors in Egypt regarding the spread of nude photos of her on mobile phones. A large number of youths around Egypt and around the Arab world have been spreading nude photos of the singer supposedly taken at a women's spa for a full body wax. Nancy, however, denies the spa visit and claims such photos are fake.[36]
Discography[link]
Studio albums[link]
- 1998: Mihtagalak
- 2001: Sheel Oyounak Anni
- 2003: Ya Salam
- 2004: Ah W Noss
- 2006: Ya Tabtab...Wa Dallaa
- 2008: Betfakkar Fi Eih?!
- 2010: 7
Children's albums[link]
- 2007: Shakhbat Shakhabit
- 2012: TBA
DVDs and live albums[link]
- 2004: Live at the Jarash Festival [DVD] - MegaStar
- 2005: Ma La Ta'arifunahu 3an Nancy Ajram [DVD] - MBC
- 2006: Ah w Noss: Collector's Edition [CD and DVD] - MegaStar
- 2006: Ya Salam: Collector's Edition [CD and DVD] - MegaStar
- 2007: Shakhbat Shakhabit [DVD]
- 2007: ElDonya Helwa - Live [Live CD]
- 2008: The Best of Nancy Clips [DVD]
- 2008: Greatest Hits [Compilation CD] - EMI
- 2009: Awwel Marra [Old Live Songs CD] - Artline Music
Non-album singles[link]
Nancy released several songs dedicated to special countries in the Arab world, starting with "Kuwait alShahama" in 2005. In early 2006, she released a single, "Ana Masry" ("I am Egyptian"), timed to coincide with Egypt's hosting and winning of the African Cup of Nations football tournament, taking it by storm. Its video showed Egyptians representing the diversity of the country lip-sync the patriotic lyrics of the song. Nancy also released a song for the rival Egyptian soccer teams "Ahly and Zamalek", being the first to do so after Sabah. Nancy released a sensual song for Lebanon called "Habib elOmr" composed by Ziad Boutrous, which preceded the 2006 Lebanese war. After the 2007 "Nahr el Bared" war, Nancy dedicated a song composed by Samir Sfeir to the Lebanese Army, called "Khalleek Bwejj elGhadab".
- 2005 "Kuwait Al Shahama"
- 2005 "Ana Masry"
- 2005 "Agbal" - (released in "Afdal Ma Endana" UAE compilation album)
- 2006 "Ahli w Zamalek"
- 2006 "Habib el Omr"
- 2007 "Bwejj el Ghadab"
- 2007 "El Dunya Helwa" [Coke Single] - (featured in Live performances album)
- 2009 "Ya Rab Tikbar Mila"
- 2009 "Efta7 Albak Tefra7" [Coke Single] - (released on Coke official website)
- 2010 "Masr el Ma7rousa"
- 2010 "Salemoli 3alaih"
- 2011 "Wahshani Ya Masr Moot"
- 2011 "7adri La3bek"
- 2011 "papa Porto"
Group works
- 2003 Il7a2ni (Follow Me) for the Lebanese Marathon, featuring Haifa Wehbe, Dina Hayek, Joe Ashkar, and Yuri Mrakadi.
- 2005 La Ma Khelset El Hekaya (It's Not Over) after the assassination of late president Rafiq elHariri, featuring Nawal elZoghbi, Haifa Wehbe, Wael Kfoury, Sabah, Maya Nasri, and many others.
- 2008 ElDhameer el 3arabi (The Arab Conscience) the sequel to the well-known "elHelm al3arabi" along with more than 100 artists including Wadih elSafi, Assala, Latifa, and Cheb Khaled.
Soundtracks
Ramadan 2009: Ibn elArandaly
- Intro: "Ya Ibn el Arandaly"
- Outro: "Kol elHekaya"
Ramadan 2011: "Samara"
- intro: "Samara"
- outro: "Samara"
Global Coke slogans[link]
Coca-Cola Middle East have always incorporated International Coke slogans into pan-Arab campaigns with Nancy. In 2007, Coca-Cola released their international trademark campaign of their popular slogan "The Coke Side of Life", which focused on themes such as fun, happiness, colors, and life. A collaboration with Nancy Ajram lead to the making of the song "El Donya Helwa" (The World is Beautiful) for which a commercial was filmed with an American director on international standards and hi-tech effects. Nancy insisted on filming in Lebanon which had been hit by war a while back. "El Donya Helwa" is considered Coca-Cola Middle East's and Nancy Ajram's most successful commercial to date; the single became one of Ajram's most successful songs, leading to its release as a single track in a "Live" album with live performances from her last studio album Atabtab.
In 2009, as the campaign was sequeled internationally with "Open Happiness", Coke Middle East and Nancy released "Eftah Albak Tefrah". However, due to Nancy's pregnancy and giving birth, she was unable to participate in the print or TV campaigns that year and the song was used on the International commercial instead. A website was launched for that campaign entitled "Eftah Tefrah".
In 2010, Coca Cola released an Arabic version of Wavin' Flag originally by K'naan. The Arabic version "Wavin' Flag / Shagga' Bi Alamak Da" (In Arabic شجّع بعلمك ده) has Nancy Ajram featuring K'naan and meant for pan-Arab promotion of 2010 FIFA World Cup to be held in South Africa.
Videography[link]
Main article: Nancy Ajram videography
Commercials and Official music videos[link]
Ajram's success as a singer led to high-profile advertising deals with Coca-Cola and Sony Ericsson and Damas Jewelry. Nancy remained the only Arab star promoting Coke until late 2007 when Egyptian sensations Mohammed Hamaki and Tamer Hosni joined in as well, as she still remains the only female. Coca-Cola and Nancy formed a great team since five years making commercials and music videos that stood out in the Arab world, synchronising local campaigns with worldwide slogans.
File:Nancy Ajram Circus Moegaba 2006.jpg
Nancy in the Coca-Cola "Circus" Campaign, 2006
Middle East Coke Campaigns
| Year | Title | Album | Director | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | "Mihtagalak" | Mihtagalak | Elie Fghaly | |
| 2001 | "Sheel Ouyounak Anni" | Sheel Ouyounak Anni | Guy Zahlan | |
| 2002 | "Akhasmak Ah" | Ya Salam... | Nadine Labaki | |
| 2003 | "Ya Salam" | |||
| "Sehr Oyouno" (Yey) | ||||
| 2004 | "Ah w Noss" | "Ah w Noss" | ||
| "Lawn Ouyounak" | ||||
| 2005 | "Oul Tany Kida" | Luca Tommassini | ||
| "Inta Eih" | Nadine Labaki | |||
| 2006 | "Ya Tabtab Wa Dalla" | Ya Tabtab..Wa Dallaa | ||
| "Moegaba" | Harry Rankin, Mike Lipscombe | |||
| "Ana Yalli" | Pascale D'Ash | |||
| "Ehsas Jdeed" | Said elMarouk | |||
| 2007 | "Elli Kan" | Diamantino Ferreira | ||
| "Mishtaga Leik" | ||||
| "Shakhbat Shakhabit" (ft. Katkouta, Shater, Eid Milad) |
Shakhbat Shakhabit
[Children's Album] |
Said elMarouk | ||
| 2008 | "Risala Ilal Aalam" | Fadi Haddad | ||
| "Betfakkar Fi Eih" | Betfakkar Fi Eih?! | Said elMarouk | ||
| "Min Dally Nseek" | ||||
| 2009 | "Lamset Eed" | Leila Kanaan | ||
| "Ibn elGiran" | Mike Harris | |||
| "Mashi Haddi" | Leila Kanaan | |||
| 2010 | "Shaggaa' Be Alamak" (Wavin' Flag) (with K'Naan) |
Single | Codirector: Leila Kanaan | |
| "Fi Hagat" | 7 | Nadine Labaki | ||
| "Sheikh El Shabab" | Leila Kanaan | |||
| 2011 | "Ya Kether" | Sophie Boutros | ||
| Year | Coke Hit | Theme | # of Ads | Campaign |
| 2005 | Oul Tany Kida | Concert | 3 | TV,MV,print |
| Instrumental: Lawn Ouyounak | Tickle, Munroe, Wink | 3 | TV,print | |
| 2006 | Moegaba | Circus | 1 | TV,MV,print |
| Ashtiki Minno | Coke Bottle | 1 | TV | |
| 2007 | ElDonya Helwa | The Coke Side of Life | 1 | TV,print |
| - | Have a Coke | - | print only | |
| 2008 | Meen Ghayri Ana? Noss elKawn | Live on the Coke Side of Life | 3 | TV,MV,print |
| 2009 | Eftah Albak Tefrah | Open Happiness | - | |
| 2010 | Shaggaa' Be Alamak (Wavin' Flag) | 2010 FIFA World Cup | - | MV,print |
| 2010 | Fi Hagat | - |
DAMAS's youth-inspired set called "Farfasha", which are gold collections from the World Gold Council said to be chosen by Nancy herself, was promoted by her in three different campaigns. Each campaign had a new collection for the set and a song, commercial, and music video, starting with "Ana Yalli", then "Elli Kan" from Atabtab, and last with "Ibn elGiran" from Betfakkar fi eih?!.
A survey by Sony Ericsson where Nancy was named the most popular Arab star led them into signing a deal with her as their celebrity spokesperson. The company co-sponsored the release of her best-selling album Bitfakkar Fi Eih. In Febrauary 2009 the W595i phone was officially released with a Nancy special edition kit that held her signature on the back of the phone, a free copy of her album and ringtones of her songs. This was accompanied by print advertising, a press conference in Dubai, as well as a commercial set in March 2009 that featured Nancy and the song "Wana Ben Idek" from her best-selling album Bitfakkar Fi Eih.
References[link]
- ^ UNICEF appoints singer Nancy Ajram as Regional Ambassador for the Middle East and North Africa (accessed Oct.23,2009)
- ^ Nancy Ajram - Power 100, (accessed July 8th, 2009)
- ^ a b gallery&id=514657&img=3&mment=n The Most Powerful Arab Singers, Arabian Business, 2007, (accessed December 2008)
- ^ "Fi Hagat" Nancy Ajram first on Youtube, FilFan, (accessed January 21st, 2011)
- ^ Ajram, Nancy (1983–) - PERSONAL HISTORY, INFLUENCES AND CONTRIBUTIONS, BIOGRAPHICAL HIGHLIGHTS, PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY:, THE WORLD’S PERSPECTIVE, LEGACY, CONTEMPORARIES - Lebanes...
- ^ www.melodyhits.tv
- ^ Niet compatibele browser | Facebook
- ^ Niet compatibele browser | Facebook
- ^ YouTube - Nancy Ajram - Fi Hagat / نانسى عجرم - في حاجات
- ^ سليمى حمدان - mbc.net. "فن ونجوم - نانسي عجرم تضع مولودتها.. وتطلق عليها اسم ميلا". MBC.net. http://www.mbc.net/portal/site/mbc/menuitem.ff2c047b71869fec9318c4cd480210a0/?vgnextoid=f9dbb32adc351210VgnVCM1000008420010aRCRD&vgnextchannel=4e9ee30e61801110VgnVCM100000f1010a0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=mbcArticle. Retrieved 2010-05-15.
- ^ نانسي عجرم أجمل أم في 2009 (Accessed Sep. 19th, 2009)
- ^ (Tweet posted by Nancy Ajram on her official Twitter page)
- ^ "Murex d'Or - 2004". Adserver.naharnet.com. http://adserver.naharnet.com/pub/murex/Murex2004.htm. Retrieved 2010-05-15.
- ^ Mobinil Music Awards - Nancy Ajram Best Arab Female 2007, (accessed June.27th, 2009)
- ^ Arabian Business Power 100, 2009, (accessed April 12th)
- ^ Arabian Business
- ^ نانسي عجرم نجمة العام 2007, Elaph, Dec. 28, 2007, (accessed Jan.9,2009)
- ^ www.worldmusicawards
- ^ 2009 تكريم النجوم, Elaph, Jan. 20, 2009, (accessed Jan. 28,2009)
- ^ احتفالية حب في عيد ميلاد "الجمهورية" و"حريتي" (accessed June 27th, 2009)
- ^ جريدة البشاير | نانسي عجرم أفضل مطربة ولطيفة الأسوأ |
- ^ اخبار محلية - نتائج استطلاع بانيت لشخصيات واحداث 2010
- ^ Arabsounds.nl
- ^ lbcfanclub.tk
- ^ http://www.mbc.net/portal/site/FM
- ^ [http://bisara7a.com/?ajax_readnews.php%3Fid=3500 Bisara7a - Online also an intersopw which tells lies, she was accused of being a muslim yet she hasnt pubilsized it yet. Entertainement Magazine]
- ^ "Arab stars receive top honors at Murex d’Or Awards". Daily Star (Jounieh). 25 June 2011. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Culture/Music/2011/Jun-25/Arab-stars-receive-top-honors-at-Murex-dOr-Awards.ashx#axzz1QhXmj2fu. Retrieved 30 June 2011. "Nancy Ajram, who like Wehbe has triumphed at the ceremony in past years, won the best Lebanese singer prize, as well as best music video for 'Shiekh al-Shabab.'"
- ^ Arabian Business Power 500
- ^ The Big Ball raises over Dhs940,000 for the benefit of underpriviledged children across the region, AME Info, October 28, 2008
- ^ Nancy Ajram to attend The Big Ball as it aims to raise $250,000 for the education of underprivileged Arabian Business, May 8, 2008
- ^ a b Arab Pop Video: "Weapon of Singing Destruction"?, Associated Press, October 23, 2003. Retrieved November 23, 2006.
- ^ RadioJavan.com - News - "Nancy Ajram Apologized For Fake Message"
- ^ Nancy Ajram Official website - Response contained under "News" section
- ^ Nancyajram.com Retrieved on July 1, 2007
- ^ albawaba.com Middle East news information::Nancy Ajram innocent of posing in the nude
External links[link]
- Nancy Ajram Official Website
- Fiascos affect Arab music awards, 17 May 2004 BBC (Ajram voted best newcomer)
- Arab youth revel in pop revolution by Sebastian Usher, 21 May 2007, BBC
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Ajram, Nancy |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | May 16, 1983 |
| Place of birth | Beirut, Lebanon |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
