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195-587: Yazidis , also spelled Yezidis ( / j ə ˈ z iː d i z / ; Êzidî ), are a Kurdish -speaking endogamous religious group indigenous to Kurdistan , a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq , Syria , Turkey , and Iran . The majority of Yazidis remaining in the Middle East today live in Iraq, primarily in the governorates of Nineveh and Duhok . There

390-409: A Median substratum. Windfuhr and Frye assume an eastern origin for Kurdish and consider it as related to eastern and central Iranian dialects. The present state of knowledge about Kurdish allows, at least roughly, drawing the approximate borders of the areas where the main ethnic core of the speakers of the contemporary Kurdish dialects was formed. The most argued hypothesis on the localisation of

585-625: A dialect continuum , with some mutually unintelligible varieties, and collectively have 26 million native speakers. The main varieties of Kurdish are Kurmanji , Sorani , and Southern Kurdish ( Xwarîn ). The majority of the Kurds speak Kurmanji, and most Kurdish texts are written in Kurmanji and Sorani. Kurmanji is written in the Hawar alphabet , a derivation of the Latin script , and Sorani

780-659: A Shi'i adhān (call to prayer) was implemented in Baghdad and a khutbah (sermon) was delivered in the name of the Fatimid Imam-Caliph. Despite his Shi'i inclinations, Al-Basasiri received support from Sunnis and Shi'is alike, for whom opposition to the Saljuq power was a common factor. On 10 February 1258, Baghdad was captured by the Mongols led by Hulegu , a grandson of Chingiz Khan ( Genghis Khan ), during

975-748: A Sincaq intended for the region they were visiting and paraded it through the Yazidi villages and areas to maintain the spiritual legitimacy and to symbolize the authority of Lalish and the Mîr. Due to the ever-growing large and influential power of the Yezidis, they began to be perceived as a threat by the neighbouring Muslims, leading to a rapid intensification of the Yezidi-Muslim conflict that would last for centuries. Yezidis were subject to brutal persecution by Arabs , Persians , Turks and Sunni Kurds. Two of

1170-754: A Yezidi, in his stead. Despite Qasim Beg paying homage to the Sultan, Sheikh Izz ed-Din was still able to have himself named the Emir of the Kurds after persuading the local Ottoman governors to execute Qasim Beg for treason. However, due to Sheikh Izz ed-Din leaving no heirs after his death, the title was returned to the family of Qasim Beg. Yezidis were a large and numerous group living in many places, namely, based on Evliya Çelebi's reports, in Bingöl , Bitlis , Van , Hazo, Amedi , Diyarbekir , Hasankeyf , Cizir and Duhok . Yezidi leaders occupied important positions within

1365-782: A clan of the Oghuz Turks from Central Asia that converted to the Sunni branch of Islam. In 1040, they destroyed the Ghaznavids , taking over their land and in 1055, Tughril Beg , the leader of the Seljuks, took over Baghdad. The Seljuks expelled the Buyid dynasty of Shiites that had ruled for some time and took over power and control of Baghdad. They ruled as Sultans in the name of the Abbasid caliphs (they saw themselves as being part of

1560-639: A commission of inquiry and to be prepared to answer the charges of using Ottoman troops in combat without being given permission by the Ministry of War . Four months later the Pasha returned to the capital in disgrace. Yezidis finally regained the possession of Lalish in 1904, and the stolen sacred objects were returned to them in 1914. As Hemoye Shero had acquired the Paramountcy of Sinjar, his followers drastically increased in numbers and they began to serve as

1755-614: A compact and organized group which started to be named as the Fuqara tribe. Among the Fuqara, tribal cohesion very much depended on membership in the faqir religious class to which all the male members of the tribe belonged. At the Tur Abdin foothills west of Shingal, Hasan Kanjo, a Yezidi chieftain, converted to Islam and joined the Hamidiye together with his tribe. He later became the right-hand man and lieutenant of Ibrahim Pasha ,

1950-619: A counter-attack against Muslim raiders in his hometown of Bashiqa and inflicting a devastating defeat despite being outnumbered. He went on to become the head of the Bashiqa- Bahzani and in later stages of his life, also the Governor of Mosul. He and his troops fought for the Ottoman side during Battle of Baghdad together with the Mîr of the Yezidis at the time, Zeynal Javkhali, and six other Yezidi chieftains. In 1649, Êzidî Mirza

2145-431: A couple of times per year on average. Annual rainfall, almost entirely confined to the period from November through March, averages approximately 150 mm (5.91 in), but has been as high as 338 mm (13.31 in) and as low as 37 mm (1.46 in). On 11 January 2008, light snow fell across Baghdad for the first time in 100 years. Snowfall was again reported on 11 February 2020, with accumulations across

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2340-546: A currency of his own bearing the inscription "Bedirkhan, the Emir Of Bohtan". However, his success did not last for long, Ottomans attacked again and Bedirkhan Beg, despite offering some resistance, vacated Cizre and took refuge in the fortress of Evreh. His ally, Han Mahmoud , who was on his way to assist Bedirkhan, was intercepted in Tillo and defeated by Ottoman forces and Yezidi fighters. Bedirkhan had to surrender to

2535-679: A determining factor in World War I . In the following years, a dispute occurred among the community on the mountain, causing the power of Musqura and Mihirkan tribes to deteriorate as they included large Muslim sections and were thus traditionally viewed with the suspicion of being inclined to insitage Ottoman interference in the Shingali affairs. On 9 December 1892, Sultan Abdulhamid sent a telegram in which he dismissed Omar Wehbi Pasha from his post and ordered him to remain in Mosul, pending arrival of

2730-555: A few days later, arrived with a small escort at the town of Baadre , where the residence of the Yezidi princely family is located. It is unknown whether he took a small escort out of disdain for the Yezidi leader, or for the purpose of demonstrating his trust in his host. Upon his arrival, Ali Beg had him and his son, Sinjan Agha, treacherously murdered. This murder which was condemned by the Yazidi clergy and Yazidi chieftains, as it went against Yazidi canons and tribal customs. It also led to

2925-590: A further decline of the Yazidi influence, power and population. With the ending of the semi-autonomous Kurdish principalities and the series of Ottoman Tanzimat reforms from the mid-19th century onward made the Yezidi-populated regions more prone to localized political instabilities. Furthermore, being excluded from the status of " People of the Book ", the Yezidis were not granted religious rights that were enjoyed by other groups such as Christians and Jews under

3120-563: A great degree of anger among the Mizuris and provoking them into gathering for great raid against the town of Baadre. In anticipation of the attack, thousands of Yezidi warriors stationed themselves in Baadre. The raid was called off due to fear of Bahdinan forces assembling against the Mizuris when the Pasha of Amadiya, who was also the Prince of Bahdinan and was suspected of having conspired in

3315-536: A grisly ceremony where he would with his own hand slaughter those Yezidis who had refused to convert to Islam. A medical missionary from Urmia who visited Derguleh in 1846 reported seeing 40-50 Yezidi converts in Bedirkhan's castle, enjoying Bedirkhan's special attention and jealousy among his less favoured attendants. Pressure and protests from the European Powers, namely France and England , demanding

3510-399: A large force to Shingal where he was met with the resistance of the Yezidis under the leadership of Ali Beg's wife. After numerous defeats, Muhammad Pasha's forces eventually succeeded in capturing the district. The Yezidis who survived the massacres took refuge in distant areas including but not limited to Tur Abdin , Mount Judi and the less-affected Shingal region. After controlling most of

3705-504: A lord named Miklas would one day build a spectacular city around the area of Baghdad. When al-Mansur heard the story, he became very joyful, for legend has it, he was called Miklas as a child. Mansur loved the site so much he is quoted saying: "This is indeed the city that I am to found, where I am to live, and where my descendants will reign afterward". The city's growth was helped by its excellent location, based on at least two factors: it had control over strategic and trading routes along

3900-731: A mass exodus of Yezidis from Van , Kars , and Bazîd , who together with many Armenians, fled from the Ottoman Empire in masses to Transcaucasia , following their kinsfolk who had already settled in territories of Russian Empire after fleeing during the Russo-Turkish wars in 1828–1829 and 1877-1878 . In May 1918, Ottomans crossed Akhuryan river in order to invade the Armenian Republic . One column captured Alexandropol and marched north of Mount Aragats , where eighty Yezidis were massacred at Kurdsky Pamb , towards

4095-518: A mixed Yezidi tribal force against Turkish convoys and military posts on the route to Nusaybin, causing severe disruptions on Turkish communication lines north of the Shingal mountains . Additionally, he fiercely resisted Ottoman attack on the Shingal mountain when Ottoman troops besieged the mountain and briefly occupied Yezidi villages to the south, using Tel Afar as their logistic base. In 1915/1916

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4290-437: A new Provincial Council was elected. This system of 127 separate councils may seem overly cumbersome; however, Baghdad Province is home to approximately seven million people. At the lowest level, the neighborhood councils, each council represents an average of 75,000 people. The nine District Advisory Councils (DAC) are as follows: The nine districts are subdivided into 89 smaller neighborhoods which may make up sectors of any of

4485-697: A number of other locations whose names are compounds of the Middle Persian word bagh , including Baghlan and Bagram in Afghanistan, Baghshan in Iran itself, and Baghdati in Georgia , which likely share the same etymological Iranic origins. Other authors have suggested older origins for the name, in particular the name Bagdadu or Hudadu that existed in Old Babylonian (spelled with

4680-534: A peace settlement in Shingal and allowed Yezidis of Sheikhan to practice their religion again. The Yezidi Mir, Mirza Beg, among other prominent converts to Islam, resumed their old faith. However, the price for these compromises was enforcement of military service, continuance of the Islamic schools in the settlements on a voluntary basis and the surrender of the Lalish sanctuary to Muslim dervishes , who had established

4875-541: A powerful and influential figure. His son, Hussein Beg, succeeded him after his death in 1534. Despite the persecution and the brutal rule over the Muslims of Soran, the Yezidis were able to maintain a large political, military power under the short-lived, but prosperous leadership of Hussein Beg and enjoy a rare period of peace and freedom from persecution. The Muslims of Soran opposed Hussein Beg's rule, and attempted to overthrow

5070-482: A retreat there and operated an Islamic school. Lalish would later be largely abandoned and left in ruins, with reports of overgrowth of nettles and shrubbery in places where the roofs had fallen in, and the dome above Sheikh Adi's mausoleum smashed, allowing the sun to shine inside, until Yezidis would rebuild and regain the possession of the sanctuary in 1904. During World War I , the Armenian genocide of 1915 caused

5265-577: A series of meetings in each neighborhood to explain local government, to describe the caucus election process and to encourage participants to spread the word and bring friends, relatives and neighbors to subsequent meetings. Each neighborhood process ultimately ended with a final meeting where candidates for the new neighborhood councils identified themselves and asked their neighbors to vote for them. Once all 88 (later increased to 89) neighborhood councils were in place, each neighborhood council elected representatives from among their members to serve on one of

5460-480: A sign that can represent both bag and hu ), and the Jewish Babylonian Aramaic name of a place called Baghdatha ( בגדתא ). Some scholars suggested Aramaic derivations. Another view, suggested by Christophe Wall-Romana, is that name of "Baghdad" is derived from " Akkad ", as the cuneiform logogram for Akkad (𒀀𒂵𒉈𒆠) is pronounced " a-ga-dè " ("Agade") and its resemblance to "Baghdad"

5655-643: A site north of the Sassanid capital of Ctesiphon , and on 30 July 762 the caliph Al-Mansur commissioned the construction of the city. It was built under the guidance of the Iranian Barmakids . Mansur believed that Baghdad was the perfect city to be the capital of the Islamic Empire under the Abbasids. The Muslim historian al-Tabari reported an ancient prediction by Christian monks that

5850-409: A stop to the massacres of Nestorians and removal of Bedirkhan Beg, led to the Ottoman forces, with the support of Yezidi fighters, invading his territories in 1846–1847. At the beginning of the conflict Bedirkhan was able to successfully defeat the Ottoman army sent against him and afterwards, he decided to sever all connections with the Ottoman Empire by proclaiming independence of his state and creating

6045-435: A strong South-Western Iranian element", whereas "Zaza and Gurani [...] do belong to the north-west Iranian group". Ludwig Paul concludes that Kurdish seems to be a Northwestern Iranian language in origin, but acknowledges that it shares many traits with Southwestern Iranian languages like Persian , apparently due to longstanding and intense historical contacts. Windfuhr identified Kurdish dialects as Parthian , albeit with

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6240-654: A strong tribal structure and were active participants in the political affairs. One of the largest attacks took place in 1844, when Bedirkhan sent a large army to force Yazidis into accepting Islam, those who refused were captured and killed. Seven Yezidi villages converted to Islam out of fear. The local Christian population also suffered massacres in 1843 and 1846 by the hand of Bedirkhan and his allies Han Mahmoud and Nurallah Bey. Yezidis were object of extra attention from Bedirkhan. During Bayram feast , when Muslims celebrate Abraham 's ritual sacrifice of Isaac by slaughtering animals, Bedirkhan would round up Yezidi captives for

6435-510: A variety that was an important literary language since the 14th century, but it was replaced by Central Kurdish in the 20th century. European scholars have maintained that Gorani is separate from Kurdish and that Kurdish is synonymous with the Northern Kurdish group, whereas ethnic Kurds maintain that Kurdish encompasses any of the unique languages or dialects spoken by Kurds that are not spoken by neighbouring ethnic groups. Gorani

6630-548: A worldwide reputation as the "Center of Learning". For much of the Abbasid era, during the Islamic Golden Age , Baghdad was the largest city in the world. Its population peaked at more than one million 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, such as

6825-452: Is a disagreement among scholars and in Yazidi circles on whether the Yazidi people are a distinct ethnoreligious group or a religious sub-group of the Kurds , an Iranic ethnic group . Yazidism is the ethnic religion of the Yazidi people and is monotheistic in nature, having roots in a pre-Zoroastrian Iranic faith . Since the spread of Islam began with the early Muslim conquests of

7020-511: Is a shrine that is located in the Kādhimayn suburb of Baghdad. It contains the tombs of the seventh and ninth Twelver Shi'ite Imams , Musa al-Kadhim and Muhammad at-Taqi respectively, upon whom the title of Kādhimayn ("Two who swallow their anger") was bestowed. Many Shi'ites travel to the mosque from far away places to commemorate those imams. Before the Iraq War in 2003, Baghdad

7215-614: Is an official language in Iraq. In Syria, on the other hand, publishing materials in Kurdish is forbidden, though this prohibition is not enforced any more due to the Syrian civil war . Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish, prohibiting the language in education and broadcast media. In March 2006, Turkey allowed private television channels to begin airing programming in Kurdish. However,

7410-622: Is classified as part of the Zaza–Gorani branch of Indo-Iranian languages. The Zaza language , spoken mainly in Turkey, differs both grammatically and in vocabulary and is generally not understandable by Gorani speakers but it is considered related to Gorani. Almost all Zaza-speaking communities, as well as speakers of the closely related Shabaki dialect spoken in parts of Iraqi Kurdistan , identify themselves as ethnic Kurds. Geoffrey Haig and Ergin Öpengin in their recent study suggest grouping

7605-496: Is compelling. When the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur founded a completely new city for his capital, he chose the name "City of Peace" (Arabic: مدینة السلام , romanized:  Madīnat as-Salām ), which now refers to the Round City of Baghdad proper. This was the official name on coins, weights, and other official usage, although the common people continued to use the old name. By the 11th century, Baghdad became almost

7800-624: Is historically known as a global cultural hub. In 762 AD, Baghdad was founded as the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate , and became its most notable major development project. Within a short time, it evolved into a significant cultural and intellectual center of the Muslim world . This, in addition to housing several key academic institutions, including the House of Wisdom , as well as a multi-ethnic and multi-religious environment, garnered it

7995-474: Is known as the "Gateway of Iraq". The name Baghdad is pre-Islamic, and its origin is disputed. The site where the city of Baghdad developed has been populated for millennia. Archaeological evidence shows that the site of Baghdad was occupied by various peoples long before the Arab conquest of Mesopotamia in 637 CE, and several ancient empires had capitals located in the surrounding area. Arab authors, realizing

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8190-670: Is known as the battle of Saddam City in March 1991. However, as the situations eased, the government began beautifying the city. Saddam built numerous palaces across the country, as well as in Baghdad. He also constructed several monuments in Baghdad. Many of them were built around war-torn period. Most of the palaces were built after the two wars. In 2003, the invasion of Iraq by the United States caused huge damage to Baghdad's transportation, power, and sanitary infrastructure. The coalition forces launched massive aerial assaults in

8385-463: Is less modified than Sorani and Pehlewani in both phonetic and morphological structure. The Sorani group has been influenced by among other things its closer cultural proximity to the other languages spoken by Kurds in the region including the Gorani language in parts of Iranian Kurdistan and Iraqi Kurdistan. Philip G. Kreyenbroek , an expert writing in 1992, says: Since 1932 most Kurds have used

8580-458: Is not a unified language, its many dialects are interrelated and at the same time distinguishable from other Western Iranian languages . The same source classifies different Kurdish dialects as two main groups, northern and central. The average Kurmanji speaker does not find it easy to communicate with the inhabitants of Sulaymaniyah or Halabja . Some linguistic scholars assert that the term "Kurdish" has been applied extrinsically in describing

8775-459: Is not recognized in Turkey, and prior to 2013 the use of Kurdish names containing the letters X , W , and Q , which do not exist in the Turkish alphabet , was not allowed. In 2012, Kurdish-language lessons became an elective subject in public schools. Previously, Kurdish education had only been possible in private institutions. In Iran, though it is used in some local media and newspapers, it

8970-485: Is not used in public schools. In 2005, 80 Syrian and Iranian Kurds took part in an experiment and gained scholarships to study in Kurdistan Region , Iraq, in their native tongue. In Kyrgyzstan , 96.21% of the Kurdish population speak Kurdish as their native language. In Kazakhstan, the corresponding percentage is 88.7%. Baghdad Baghdad is the capital and largest city of Iraq . Situated on

9165-517: Is related to Indo-Iranian bhag and Slavic bog "god." A similar term in Middle Persian is the name Mithradāt ( Mehrdad in New Persian ), known in English by its borrowed Hellenistic form Mithridates , meaning "Given by Mithra " ( dāt is the more archaic form of dād , related to Sanskrit dāt , Latin dat and English donor ), ultimately borrowed from Persian Mehrdad . There are

9360-461: Is translated to simply mean Kurdish. The Mokriani variety of Sorani is widely spoken in Mokrian. Piranshahr and Mahabad are two principal cities of the Mokrian area. Zaza–Gorani languages , which are spoken by communities in the wider area who identify as ethnic Kurds, are not linguistically classified as Kurdish. Zaza-Gorani is classified as adjunct to Kurdish, although authorities differ in

9555-473: Is typically under 50% in summer due to Baghdad's distance from the marshy southern Iraq and the coasts of Persian Gulf , and dust storms from the deserts to the west are a normal occurrence during the summer. Winter temperatures are typical of hot desert climates . From December through February, Baghdad has maximum temperatures averaging 16 to 19 °C (61 to 66 °F), though highs above 21 °C (70 °F) are not unheard of. Lows below freezing occur

9750-568: Is until today named after Ali Beg. Christian communities lying in the path of Muhammad Pasha's army were also victim to the massacres, the town of Alqosh was sacked, large number of its inhabitants were put to the sword and the Rabban Hormizd monastery was plundered and its monks, together with the Abbot , Gabriel Dambo, were put to death. A large amount of the ancient manuscripts were destroyed or lost. The monastery of Sheikh Matta suffered

9945-619: Is written in the Sorani alphabet , a derivation of the Arabic script . A separate group of non-Kurdish Northwestern Iranian languages, the Zaza–Gorani languages , are also spoken by several million ethnic Kurds. The classification of Laki as a dialect of Southern Kurdish or as a fourth language under Kurdish is a matter of debate, but the differences between Laki and other Southern Kurdish dialects are minimal. The literary output in Kurdish

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10140-518: The Arabian Nights , are set in Baghdad during this period. It would surpass even Constantinople in prosperity and size. Among the notable features of Baghdad during this period were its exceptional libraries. Many of the Abbasid caliphs were patrons of learning and enjoyed collecting both ancient and contemporary literature. Although some of the princes of the previous Umayyad dynasty had begun to gather and translate Greek scientific literature,

10335-906: The Assyrian Church of the East and the Syriac Orthodox Church , along with the largest Armenian Apostolic and Protestant communities in Iraq, which is also located in Baghdad. The city serves as the headquarters of the Chaldean Catholic Church, with its see located in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows , while the Ancient Church of the East has its see in the Cathedral of the Virgin. The city

10530-408: The National Museum of Iraq was looted by Iraqi citizens during the 2003 US-led invasion. Baghdad's historic Jewish Quarter came to decline, as the war increased fear among the Jews. Numerous Assyrian Christians and Iraqi Mandaean families fled the city. Thousands of ancient manuscripts in the National Library were destroyed. The city also hosts various protests and rallies. In December 2015, Baghdad

10725-418: The Ottoman Empire . The Ottomans had conquered Kurdish regions and installed their own governors in Diyarbekir , Urfa , Shingal and Mosul . In 1516 AD, Sultan Selim the Grim launched an invasion into Syria , capturing Aleppo and Damascus from the Mamluks of Egypt . The chief of the Kurds in Aleppo was Qasim Beg, he had long been at odds with the Mamluks who wished to install Sheikh Izz ed-Din,

10920-435: The Seleucid Empire , which had earlier replaced the city of Babylon. According to the traveler Ibn Battuta , Baghdad was one of the largest cities, not including the damage it has received. The residents are mostly Hanbalis . Baghdad is also home to the grave of Abu Hanifa where there is a cell and a mosque above it. The Sultan of Baghdad, Abu Said Bahadur Khan , was a Tatar king who embraced Islam. In its early years,

11115-404: The Tigris , and it had an abundance of water in a dry climate. Water exists on both the north and south ends of the city, allowing all households to have a plentiful supply, which was quite uncommon during this time. The city of Baghdad quickly became so large that it had to be divided into three judicial districts: Madinat al-Mansur (the Round City), al-Sharqiyya ( al-Karkh ) and Askar al-Mahdi (on

11310-446: The Tigris , it is part of the Baghdad Governorate and is located near the Diyala River . With a population variously estimated at 6 or over 7 million, Baghdad forms 22% of Iraq's total population. In comparison to its large population, the city has a small area at just 673 square kilometers (260 sq mi). It is the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo , and the second-largest city in West Asia after Tehran . Baghdad

11505-418: The event of Kerbela these people have been rich, and no king had ever conquered them before. In 1655, Evliya Çelebi revisited Shingal to catch up with Firari Mustafa Pasha, the governor of Diyarbekir whom Evliya had been ordered to collect an old debt from. Firari Mustafa Pasha had encamped in Shingal to collect taxes from the Yezidis, when he sent a delegation to parley with the locals and demand tax payments,

11700-435: The siege of Baghdad . Many quarters were ruined by fire, siege, or looting. The Mongols massacred most of the city's inhabitants, including the caliph Al-Musta'sim , and destroyed large sections of the city. The canals and dykes forming the city's irrigation system were also destroyed. During this time, in Baghdad, Christians and Shia were tolerated, while Sunnis were treated as enemies. The sack of Baghdad put an end to

11895-414: The 1990s has shown such an approach to be simplistic. Yezidism emerged in the 12th century when Sheikh Adi , who, after studying in Baghdad , established an order of his own called Adawiyya, mentioned in medieval Arabic sources as Akrad 'Adawiyya (Adawiyya Kurds), settled in Lalish valley and introduced his doctrines to the local Kurds at the time practicing an old Iranic faith, which although similar,

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12090-403: The 21st century, some 1.5 million people migrated to Baghdad. The 2013–2017 war following the Islamic State's invasion in 2014 caused hundreds of thousands of Iraqi internally displaced people to flee to the city. The vast majority of Baghdad's population are Iraqi Arabs . Minority ethnic groups include Feyli Kurds , Turkmen , Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriacs and Armenians . The city

12285-491: The 35 member Baghdad Regional Council. The first step in the establishment of the system of local government for Baghdad Province was the election of the Baghdad Provincial Council. As before, the representatives to the Provincial Council were elected by their peers from the lower councils in numbers proportional to the population of the districts they represent. The 41 member Provincial Council took office in February 2004 and served until national elections held in January 2005, when

12480-607: The 7th–8th centuries, Yazidis have faced persecution by Arabs and later by Turks , as they have commonly been charged with heresy by Muslim clerics for their religious practices. Despite various state-sanctions in the Ottoman Empire , Yazidis historically have lived peacefully in proximity with their Sunni neighbours . In modern times, Yazidis face persecution particularly by ISIS . Due to ongoing terrorist attacks in Kurdish regions , many Yazidis sought refuge in Western countries. Recently, some Yazidis have returned to their home villages in Turkey. The 2014 Yazidi genocide that

12675-474: The Abbasid Caliphate. It has been argued that this marked an end to the Islamic Golden Age and served a blow from which Islamic civilization never fully recovered. At this point, Baghdad was ruled by the Ilkhanate , a breakaway state of the Mongol Empire, ruling from Iran. In August 1393, Baghdad was occupied by the Central Asian Turkic conqueror Timur ("Tamerlane"), by marching there in only eight days from Shiraz . Sultan Ahmad Jalayir fled to Syria, where

12870-436: The Abbasid regime). Tughril Beg saw himself as the protector of the Abbasid Caliphs. Baghdad was captured in 1394 , 1534 , 1623 and 1638 . The city has been sieged in 812 , 865 , 946 , 1157 , 1258 and in 1393 and 1401, by Tamerlane . In 1058, Baghdad was captured by the Fatimids under the Turkish general Abu'l-Ḥārith Arslān al-Basasiri, an adherent of the Ismailis along with the 'Uqaylid Quraysh. Not long before

13065-414: The Abbasids were the first to foster Greek learning on a large scale. Many of these libraries were private collections intended only for the use of the owners and their immediate friends, but the libraries of the caliphs and other officials soon took on a public or a semi-public character. Four great libraries were established in Baghdad during this period. The earliest was that of the famous Al-Ma'mun , who

13260-407: The British during World War I . In the Mesopotamian campaign , Baghdad fell in hands of the British forces in 1917. In 1920, Baghdad became the capital of the British Mandate of Mesopotamia , with several architectural and planning projects commissioned to reinforce this administration. After receiving independence in 1932, the city became capital of the Kingdom of Iraq . During this period,

13455-419: The Dasini rulers several times, their initial attempts were unsuccessful and were repelled, until the neighbouring Muslim rulers formed an alliance against Hussein Beg, and captured Erbil while Hussein Beg was absent and on a visit to Sheikhan , or Istanbul according to other sources. Hussein Beg's attempts to retake the city were unsuccessful due to the local support enjoyed by the Muslim rulers and resulted in

13650-454: The Dasinis According to another document dating back to 1571 AD, the Prince of Bahdinan, Sultan Husayn Waly, demanded the Ottomans to send a firman (Order) to the states (Wilayāt) of Jazira , Mosul , Amadiya , and Erbil to arrest the Yezidi leaders. During the first half of the 17th century, Yezidis became a very powerful entity under the leadership of Ezidi Mirza , a young, yet reputable military leader who gained fame after leading

13845-426: The Devil). Under the section Maktel-i Yezidiyan ve Intikam-i Şüheda-i Van (The Killing of Yezidis and the Revenge of the Martyrs of Van), he recounts the Pasha of the city assembling an army of 7,000 soldiers from Ahlat , Adilcevaz and Erçiş to take on the Yezidis and the battle eventually ending up in a victory for the Empire and the Muslims. He describes that this place did not pay Jizya or poll tax and that it

14040-571: The French orientalist, Roger Lescot , the Ottomans launched 15 campaigns against the Yezidis of Shingal and Sheikhan in the 18th century alone. One expedition against the Yezidis of Shingal was led by the Governor of Baghdad, Ali Pasha, who forced many families into converting to Islam. Another expedition in 1809 was led by the new Governor of Baghdad, Sulayman Pasha, who burnt down Yezidi farms and beheaded Yezidi chieftains. The 18th-19th centuries saw

14235-537: The Kurdish languages into Northern Kurdish, Central Kurdish, Southern Kurdish, Zaza , and Gorani, and avoid the subgrouping Zaza–Gorani. The notable professor Zare Yusupova has carried out a lot of work and research into the Gorani dialect (as well as many other minority/ancient Kurdish dialects). During his stay in Damascus , historian Ibn Wahshiyya came across two books on agriculture written in Kurdish, one on

14430-432: The Kurds of Amadiya . This work is very important in Kurdish history as it is the first acknowledgment of the widespread use of a distinctive Kurdish language. Garzoni was given the title Father of Kurdology by later scholars. The Kurdish language was banned in a large portion of Kurdistan for some time. After the 1980 Turkish coup d'état until 1991 the use of the Kurdish language was illegal in Turkey. Today, Sorani

14625-543: The Mamluk Sultan Barquq protected him and killed Timur's envoys. Timur left the Sarbadar prince Khwaja Mas'ud to govern Baghdad, but he was driven out when Ahmad Jalayir returned. In 1401, Baghdad was again sacked, by Timur. When his forces took Baghdad, he spared almost no one, and ordered that each of his soldiers bring back two severed human heads. Baghdad became a provincial capital controlled by

14820-567: The Mesopotamian Mamluk Sultanate and the Ottoman Empire, until the World War I. The city served as capital of the former British Mandate of Mesopotamia . With the recognition of Iraq as an independent monarchical state in 1932, Baghdad gradually regained some of its former prominence as a significant center of Arab culture . Baghdad has faced severe infrastructural damage due to the Iraq War , which began with

15015-630: The Mizuri chieftain's assassination, announced his opposition to the raid. Thereby, Mulla Yahya al-Mizuri, a cousin or nephew to the Mizuri chieftain and a respected religious dignitary, unsuccessfully attempted to plead for rectification from the Bahdinan princes Ahmed Pasha and his brother, Said Pasha, who declined to sanction punitive action against Yezidis and blamed Ali Agha for naively accepting Ali Beg's offer and venturing into his enemy's own country without adequate escort, furthermore, they also killed

15210-654: The Mongol Jalayirid (1400–1411), Turkic Kara Koyunlu (1411–1469), Turkic Ak Koyunlu (1469–1508), and the Iranian Safavid (1508–1534) dynasties. In 1534, Baghdad was captured by the Ottoman Empire . Under the Ottomans , Baghdad continued into a period of decline , partially as a result of the enmity between its rulers and Iranian Safavids , which did not accept the Sunni control of

15405-498: The Ottoman millet system. By the early 19th century, Yezidis were involved in a long feud with the neighbouring Sunni Kurdish tribe of Mizuri who with one of their clerics had issued in a fatwa in 1724 that Yezidis were infidels and apostates and that killing them was a religious duty. Yezidi women and the Yezidi property were to be considered spoils of war. In another encounter in 1802, the Alghushiyya branch of Mizuris raided

15600-409: The Ottoman Empire, Muhammad Pasha had annexed several neighboring Kurdish principalities to his domains and also intended to seize the Bahdinan emirate and Yazidi lands. In 1815, for the sake of power, he executed his two uncles, Timur Khan and Wahbi Beg, along with their sons, to rid himself of contenders for the rulership. Knowing this, Mulla Yahya persuaded him into sending a punitive force to punish

15795-572: The Ottoman Sultan to eliminate the Yazidis with the justification of Yazidi being apostates. Numerous Ottoman documents reveal the role of the princes, including one dating back to 1568 AD, which reads: The necessity of ending the corruption and evil-doing of the Dasini sect [i.e. Yazidis] and [asking the Ottoman state to send] firmans (orders) to the governors of Mosul and Erbil to punish

15990-571: The Ottoman Sultans and issued fatwas that legitimized the Sultan's killing of Yezidis, enslavement of Yezidi women and the sale of Yezidi slaves in the markets. This resulted in Yezidis being subject to constant Ottoman military pressure and their territories being considered Dar Al-Harb from a religious standpoint. In later periods, Sunni Kurdish princes, particularly those of the Bahdinan principality and its Muslim clerics, requested

16185-596: The Ottomans at Evreh Castle in Eruh , Siirt on the 4 July 1847. He was put in chains with his family and eventually transferred to Constantinople . Towards the end of the 19th century, the Ottoman policies towards Yezidis gained a new dimension under the reign of Abdulhamid II , under whose regime the Muslim Identity became increasingly essential for the Sultan's perceptions of loyalty among his subjects. As missionary activity and nationalism among non-Muslim groups

16380-450: The Ottomans eventually succeeded in capturing the mountain. Evliya Çelebi, who was an eyewitness of the event, reports that 3,060 Yezidis were killed on the Shingal mountain, and writes about the wealth of the Yezidis and the abundance of the Yezidi areas, which he describes as being prosperous in the Yezidis' hands. He reports the spoils from the Ottoman attacks on Yezidis in the following manner: These Yezidis were as wealthy as Croesus, All

16575-550: The Ottomans, with the support of numerous Sunni Kurdish tribes, initiated widespread persecutions against the Christian communities of Mardin , Nusaybin and Cizre . Leading to waves of Christian refugees, including Armenians , Chaldeans , Jacobites and Nestorians fleeing to Shingal in hope of finding shelter among the local Yezidis. By 1916 approximately 900 people had taken permanent residence in Balad (City of Shingal ) and

16770-880: The Roman script to write Kurmanji.... Sorani is normally written in an adapted form of the Arabic script.... Reasons for describing Kurmanji and Sorani as 'dialects' of one language are their common origin and the fact that this usage reflects the sense of ethnic identity and unity among the Kurds. From a linguistic or at least a grammatical point of view, however, Kurmanji and Sorani differ as much from each other as English and German, and it would seem appropriate to refer to them as languages. For example, Sorani has neither gender nor case-endings, whereas Kurmanji has both.... Differences in vocabulary and pronunciation are not as great as between German and English, but they are still considerable. According to Encyclopaedia of Islam , although Kurdish

16965-624: The Shingal mountain, which lasted for three years between the Sacheli tribe and armies of the neighbouring Pashas, ended up in a victory for the mountaineers, who captured around 4,000 prisoners. Yezidis are mentioned in Van Tarihi, a 1715/1716 account by the local imam of the Van city, Ibn-i Nuh, which was about the history of Van. The report describes an Ottoman attack on the Yezidis of Van which took place in 1715. It addresses Yezidi victory during

17160-481: The Syro-Mesopotamian heartland, one of the better-known examples being Mari , while Tell Chuera and Tell al-Rawda also provide examples of this type of urban planning existing in bronze age Syria . This style of urban planning contrasted with Ancient Greek and Roman urban planning, in which cities are designed as squares or rectangles with streets intersecting each other at right angles. Baghdad

17355-575: The Transcaucasian railway line to Baku . The other column marched southeast along the left bank of the Aras river to secure the recently completed line to Tabriz . At Sardarabad , the column marching southeast was confronted by a 4,000 strong Armenian force which included 700 Yezidi cavalry. A few days later, Armenians and Yezidis drove back the northern column from the Bash-Aparan defile on

17550-428: The Turkish government said that they must avoid showing children's cartoons , or educational programs that teach Kurdish, and could broadcast only for 45 minutes a day or four hours a week. The state-run Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) started its 24-hour Kurdish television station on 1 January 2009 with the motto "we live under the same sky". The Turkish prime minister sent a video message in Kurdish to

17745-595: The United States-led invasion of Iraq , the subsequent insurgency and renewed war , resulting in a substantial loss of cultural heritage and historical artifacts . During this period, it had one of the highest rates of terrorist attacks in the world. However, terrorist attacks have gradually been on the decline since the territorial defeat of the Islamic State militant group in Iraq in 2017, and are very rare now. A major center of Islamic history ,

17940-544: The West Bank). Al-Mansur also planned out al-Karkh district so that he could separate the markets from the Round City in order to keep the turbulent populace away from the Round City to ensure that the gates would not be open at night for markets. Over time, the markets became diverse and a home to merchants and craftsmen. Officials with the title of “Muhtasib” were hired to look after markets to prevent cheating and check

18135-464: The Western half known as " Karkh ". The land on which the city is built is almost entirely flat and low-lying, being of quaternary alluvial origin due to the periodic large floods which have occurred on the river. Baghdad has a hot desert climate ( Köppen BWh ), featuring extremely hot, prolonged, dry summers and mild to cool, slightly wet, short winters. In the summer, from June through August,

18330-589: The Yazidis, the Yaresan and the Kurdish Alevis . The shared features among the three religions can be traced back to an ancient faith that was probably dominant among the western Iranic peoples , but distinct from Zoroastrianism and derived from the pre-Zoroastrian Iranic tradition. Early writers attempted to describe Yazidi origins, broadly speaking, in terms of Islam , or Persian, or sometimes even " pagan " religions; however, research published since

18525-495: The Yezidi Qewals, who are trained reciters of Qewls and other forms of sacred oral Yezidi tradition, were sent out to other Yezidi-inhabited areas with military protection from the central administrative region of Shekhan and the spiritual centre of Lalish . This tradition served to preserve the Yezidi faith and doctrine. The Qewals were financed exclusively by the voluntary alms of the faithful. The Qewals and delegates led

18720-400: The Yezidi territory, the Pasha's forces enslaved and took home around 10,000 Yezidi captives, mostly females and children together with Ali Beg, to Rawanduz , the capital of the princedom. Upon the arriving in the capital, the prisoners were asked to convert to Islam, many of them, including Ali Beg and his entourage, rejected the request and thus were taken and executed at Gali Ali Beg , which

18915-451: The Yezidi village of Ghabara in western Sheikhan , killed nearly a hundred people and occupied Lalish for eight months. Furthermore, during this period, conflict erupted between the tribe of Mizuri and the principality of Bahdinan, which resulted in a clash in 1804. The Mizuris stormed into the city of Amadiya and captured the family of the Bahdinan prince, Qubad Pasha, and imprisoned him together with his brother, after which they plundered

19110-508: The Yezidis of Sheikhan. Bedirkhan was a member of the Ezizan family, the hereditary rulers of Bohtan and one of the oldest and most prominent Kurdish families whom according to Sharafkhan Bidlisi were originally adherents of Yezidism . The Ezizan claimed descent from Abd al-Aziz, a son of the famous Islamic commander and companion of the Prophet, Khalid Ibn al-Walid . Yezidis of Tur Abdin had

19305-1015: The Yezidis replied "if Melek Ahmed Pasha had come back to fight them, they would rub their faces in his footprints, but for Mustafa Pasha, they would only give ten loads of silk", which enraged Mustafa Pasha and provoked him into calling for reinforcements and launching an expedition against the Yezidis of Shingal, the result of this expedition is unknown. In Evliya's works, the tribes of Rojkî , Halitî (Xaltî), Çekvânî, Bapirî, Celovî, Temânî, Mervanî, Beddi, Tâtekî, Gevarî, Gevaşî, Zêbarî , Bezikî , Modikî , Kanahî and Şikak are mentioned as Yezidis. A lot of phrases are used by Evliya when referring to Yezidis, namely: Saçlı Kürdü (long-haired Kurds), Yezidi Ekrad (Yezidi Kurds), Saçlı Yezidi Kürdleri (long-haired Yezidi Kurds), kavm-i na-pak (impure group), bed-mezheb (bad sect), bî-din (faithless), savm u salât ve hacc u zekât vermezler (they do not know anything about these pillars of Islam ), kelb-perest (dog worshippers), and firka-ı dal" (heretic sect). In 1671, another battle in

19500-635: The Yezidis, he divided his force into two groups, one led by his brother, Rasul, and the other one led by himself. These forces marched in March 1832, crossing the Great Zab River and first entering and killing many inhabitants of the Yezidi village, Kallak-a Dasinyya, which was situated near Erbil and was the border between Yezidis and Soran Principality until the 19th century. These forces proceeded to march and capture other Yezidi villages. After arriving in Sheikhan , Muhammad Pasha's forces seized

19695-475: The Yezidis. Accounts regarding the manner in which he persuaded Muhammad Pasha vary from him visiting and seeking the aid of the wali of Baghdad, who upon hearing the Mullah's grievances sent a letter to Muhammad Pasha and urged him to punish Yezidis for their misdeeds, to the Mullah directly visiting Muhammad Pasha, with whom he was on very friendly terms. Muhammad Pasha prepared an army of 40,000 to 50,000 against

19890-413: The areas that were inhabited by them. The Yezidi territory was divided into seven administrative centres, each having its own Sincaq (banner, flag, province, region), more commonly known as Tawis among the Yezidis. Sincaqs are sacred bronze effigies bearing the image of a bird or peacock to symbolize Tawûsî Melek . They serve as symbols of power for each administrative centre, namely: Every six months,

20085-522: The arrival of the Saljuqs in Baghdad, al-Basasiri petitioned to the Fatimid Imam-Caliph al-Mustansir to support him in conquering Baghdad on the Ismaili Imam's behalf. It has recently come to light that the famed Fatimid da'i , al-Mu'ayyad al-Shirazi, had a direct role in supporting al-Basasiri and helped the general to succeed in taking Mawṣil , Wāsit and Kufa . Soon after, by December 1058,

20280-481: The attempt to quell the violence. The Jews experienced further hardships. Between 1950 and 1951, Jews were targeted in series of bombings. According to Avi Shlaim , Israel was behind bombings, which is also believed by the majority of the Iraqis. The city's population grew from an estimated 145,000 in 1900 to 580,000 in 1950. A development plan for Greater Baghdad was planned during the reign of King Faisal II. However,

20475-502: The authorities and neighbouring powers at various times, some Yezidi tribes allied with Qara Yusuf of Kara Qoyunlu , while others allied with Uzun Hasan of the rival Aq Qoyunlu against the Timurids . During Saladin 's reign, Yezidis served as troops, ambassadors and they were given lands to govern. Yezidis came into contact with the Ottomans for the first time in the early 16th century and lived as semi-independent entities under

20670-428: The average maximum temperature is as high as 44 °C (111 °F) and accompanied by sunshine. Rainfall has been recorded on fewer than half a dozen occasions at this time of year and has never exceeded 1 mm (0.04 in). Even at night, temperatures in summer are seldom below 24 °C (75 °F). Baghdad's record highest temperature of 51.8 °C (125.2 °F) was reached on 28 July 2020. The humidity

20865-478: The caliph. The word Yazidi means 'the servant of the creator'. Other scholars derive it from Old Iranian yazata , Middle Persian yazad , "divine being". Another derivation of the word origin relates to Ez dā ('Created me'). Yazidis also refer to Xwedê ez dam ('God created me') and to Em miletê ezdaîn ('We are the Ezdayi nation'). Scholars have discovered many striking similarities between

21060-713: The campaign of the Pasha had crucial influence in setting a widespread religious revival in motion at Shingal . Yezidi refugees fleeing from Sheikhan , including both the commoners and the clergy, took shelter on Shingal mountain and their stories about the atrocities in Sheikhan that were committed by Muslims facilitated the vigoruous millenarian and anti-Muslim propaganda that were carried out by two religious personalities from Sheikhan who had settled in Shingal, Mirza al-Kabari and Alias Khallu. Slogans about an imminent and new Yezidi reign of justice and prosperity against Muslim oppression were successful in mobilizing large sections of

21255-409: The capital and most important commercial centre of the mountain, as he gained the support of local Christian merchants and thus was able to expand his economic and political prestige and dominance. In 1918, when the Yazidis of Shingal mountain received an ultimatum from Ottomans to hand over the weaponry and the Christian refugees that they were sheltering, or otherwise face consequences. The Yezidis tore

21450-454: The central part of the building, there was a green dome that was 39m high. Surrounding the palace was an esplanade , a waterside building, in which only the caliph could come riding on horseback. In addition, the palace was near other mansions and officer's residences. Near the Gate of Syria, a building served as the home for the guards. It was made of brick and marble. The palace governor lived in

21645-521: The city and remained in there until at the request of Ahmed Pasha, another Bahdinan prince who ruled Akre , the Yazidis of the Dina tribe came to the aid and the Mizuris were expelled from Amadiya, restoring order in the city. Ahmed Pasha sought to put an end to inter-tribal feuds and reconcile his neighbours. Thus, the Yezidi leader Ali Beg, sent a word the Mizuri chieftain Ali Agha al-Balatayi, expressing

21840-627: The city in 1967 and 1973 were delivered by the Polish planning office Miastoprojekt-Kraków, mediated by Polservice. Saddam International Airport was opened in 1982. However, the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s was a difficult time for the city, as money was diverted by Saddam Hussein to the army and thousands of residents were killed. Iran launched a number of missile attacks against Baghdad in retaliation for Iraqi Army's continuous bombardments of Tehran's residential districts. Between 1990 and 1991,

22035-455: The city in the war. After the invasion, the airport was renamed as Baghdad International Airport. Following the fall of Baghdad , the government lost its power. Saddam's statue was toppled at Firdos Square , which marked the overthrow of his regime. Also two minor riots took place in 2003, on 21 July and 2 October, caused some disturbance in the population. Religious and ethnic minorities such as Christians, Mandaeans and Jews began leaving

22230-487: The city is known for its numerous historic mosques . It includes museums such as the Iraq Museum , Baghdadi Museum and Abd al-Karim Qasim Museum . Baghdad is also nicknamed as "City of Palaces", as its home to numerous palaces such as Abbasid Palace , Radwaniyah Palace and Al-Faw Palace . Previously being multi-religious city, the city is also many churches , mandis and synagogues . Through its airport, Baghdad

22425-470: The city served as administrative centers for the delivery of municipal services but until 2003 had no political function. Beginning in April 2003, the U.S. controlled Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) began the process of creating new functions for these. The process initially focused on the election of neighborhood councils in the official neighborhoods, elected by neighborhood caucuses. The CPA convened

22620-624: The city was impacted by the Gulf War. The multinational alliance targeted numerous sites in Baghdad, in the Gulf War air campaign . Baghdad was bombed during the Gulf War by the multinational alliance force . Shortly after the end of the war, civil unrest began in the city, during the 1991 uprisings. Sadr City , a Shia populated neighborhood, was sight of clashes between Shia rebels and the Ba'ath Forces Republican Guard led by Qusay Hussein , which

22815-462: The city was known as a deliberate reminder of an expression in the Qur'an , when it refers to Paradise . It took four years to build (764–768). Mansur assembled engineers, surveyors, and art constructionists from around the world to come together and draw up plans for the city. Over 100,000 construction workers came to survey the plans; many were distributed salaries to start the building of the city. July

23010-433: The city's nine district councils. The number of neighborhood representatives on a district council is based upon the neighborhood's population. The next step was to have each of the nine district councils elect representatives from their membership to serve on the 37 member Baghdad City Council. This three tier system of local government connected the people of Baghdad to the central government through their representatives from

23205-543: The city's population was between 1.2 million and 2 million. Baghdad's early meteoric growth eventually slowed due to troubles within the Caliphate , including relocations of the capital to Samarra (during 808–819 and 836–892), the loss of the western and easternmost provinces, and periods of political domination by the Iranian Buwayhids (945–1055) and Seljuk Turks (1055–1135). The Seljuks were

23400-554: The city's population were Iraqi Shi'ites . Sunni Muslims make up 29–34% of Iraq's population and they are still a majority in west and north Iraq. As early as 2003, about 20 percent of the population of the city was the result of mixed marriages between Shi'ites and Sunnis. Following the civil war between the Sunni and Shia militia groups during the U.S. occupation of Iraq , the population of Sunnis significantly decreased as they were pushed out of many neighborhoods. Masjid Al-Kadhimain

23595-553: The city, with fear of getting targeted in the attacks. As they were subjected of kidnapping, death threats and attacks. The Iraqi Film Archive building was also bombed by the coalition forces. The Iraq War took place from 2003 to 2011, but an Islamist insurgency lasted until 2013. It was followed by another war from 2013 to 2017 and a low-level insurgency from 2017, which included suicide bombings in January 2018 and January 2021 . Priceless collection of artifacts in

23790-444: The city. Administratively, Baghdad Governorate is divided into districts which are further divided into sub-districts . Municipally, the governorate is divided into 9 municipalities, which have responsibility for local issues. Regional services, however, are coordinated and carried out by a mayor who oversees the municipalities. The governorate council is responsible for the governorate-wide policy. These official subdivisions of

23985-464: The city. Between 1623 and 1638 , it returned to Iranian rule before falling back into Ottoman hands. Baghdad has suffered severely from visitations of the plague and cholera , and sometimes two-thirds of its population has been wiped out. The city became part of an eyalet and then a vilayet . For a time, Baghdad had been the largest city in the Middle East. The city saw relative revival in

24180-454: The clerics Mulla Yahya al-Mizuri and Muhammad Khati, rejected any chance of reconciliation. Yezidis of Sheikhan were defeated and subject to devastating massacres where slaughter of both the elderly and young, rape and slavery were some of the tactics. Yezidi property, including gold and silver was plundered and looted, and numerous towns and villages previously inhabited by the Yezidis were demographically islamized. Afterwards, Muhammad Pasha sent

24375-520: The culture of the vine and the palm tree, and the other on water and the means of finding it out in unknown ground. He translated both from Kurdish into Arabic in the early 9th century AD. Among the earliest Kurdish religious texts is the Yazidi Black Book , the sacred book of Yazidi faith. It is considered to have been authored sometime in the 13th century AD by Hassan bin Adi (b. 1195 AD),

24570-493: The date of the foundation of the city would be astrologically auspicious, and Mashallah , a Jew from Khorasan , Iran . Within a generation of its founding, Baghdad became a hub of learning and commerce . The city flourished into an unrivaled intellectual center of science , medicine , philosophy , and education , especially with the Abbasid translation movement began under the second caliph Al-Mansur and thrived under

24765-529: The death of 500 Yezidi warriors. After the defeat, Hussein Beg was summoned back to Istanbul and executed. As the relations were deteriorating with the Ottomans and strained with the Sunni Kurds, the Ottomans exploited from these tensions and used religious differences to control both groups. In 1566, Abu al-S'ud al-'Amadi al-Kurdi, who was the Mufti of the Ottoman Empire and Sheikh al-Islam , cooperated with

24960-463: The deserted villages, they were ambushed and the Pasha, together with his brother were killed. The panic-stricken troops fled to Mosul while being pursued by the fighters of the Dina tribe. The sequel of this encounter is not recorded. The enslavement of Yezidi captives and military action against Yezidis was legitimized by Muslim theologians, who classified Yezidis as heretics. At least eight expeditions are recorded between 1767 and 1809 and according to

25155-486: The desire for peace and friendship and offering him to act as a kirîv (sponsor) for the circumcision of his son. However, another prince of Bahdinan, Said Pasha, persuaded Mîr Elî Beg to kill the Mizuri chieftain and rid everyone of him, intending to put another tribal leader in his position. Some sources report that he threatened Mîr Elî Beg that he would kill his entire family if he refused to do this. Ali Agha al-Balatayi responded favourably to Mîr Elî Beg's invitation and

25350-553: The details. groups Kurdish with Zaza Gorani within a "Northwestern I" group, while Glottolog based on Encyclopædia Iranica prefers an areal grouping of "Central dialects" (or "Kermanic") within Northwest Iranic, with Kurdish but not Zaza-Gorani grouped with "Kermanic". Gorani is distinct from Northern and Central Kurdish, yet shares vocabulary with both of them and there are some grammatical similarities with Central Kurdish. The Hawrami dialects of Gorani includes

25545-472: The directions of these destinations. The distance between these gates was a little less than 2.4 km (1.5 mi). Each gate had double doors that were made of iron; the doors were so heavy it took several men to open and close them. The wall itself was about 44 m thick at the base and about 12 m thick at the top. Also, the wall was 30 m high, which included merlons , a solid part of an embattled parapet usually pierced by embrasures . This wall

25740-719: The district. Throughout the 18th century, Yezidi mirs of Sheikhan were subjects to the Kurdish Principality of Amadiya , a semi-autonomous fiefdom which guarded the Ottoman frontiers in the east. The rulers, who were strict Sunni Muslims claiming descent from the Abbasids , had ruled Amadiya since the Timurid period. Amadiya was also home to a Jewish community and included Nestorians who were actively proselytized by Dominican missionaries who were stationed there from 1759 to 1779. Yezidis are briefly mentioned by one of

25935-410: The districts above. The following is a selection (rather than a complete list) of these neighborhoods: Baghdad's population was estimated at 7.22 million in 2015. The surrounding metropolian region's population is estimated to be 10,500,000. It is second largest city in the Arab world, after Cairo and fourth largest metropolitan area in the Middle East after Cairo and Tehran. At the beginning of

26130-468: The end of 2014, only 1,500 Assyrians remained in Dora. The majority of the citizens are Muslims with minorities of Christians , Yezidis , Jews and Mandeans also present. There are many religious centers distributed around the city including mosques, churches, synagogues and Mashkhannas cultic huts. The city historically has a predominantly Sunni population, but by the early 21st century around 52% of

26325-501: The ethnic territory of the Kurds remains D.N. Mackenzie 's theory, proposed in the early 1960s (Mackenzie 1961). Developing the ideas of P. Tedesco (1921: 255) and regarding the common phonetic isoglosses shared by Kurdish, Persian, and Baluchi , Mackenzie concluded that the speakers of these three languages may once have been in closer contact. Kurdish varieties are divided into three or four groups, with varying degrees of mutual intelligibility. In historical evolution terms, Kurmanji

26520-521: The exclusive name for the world-renowned metropolis. Christophe Wall-Romana has suggested that al-Mansur's choice to found his "new city" at Baghdad because of its strategic location was the same criteria which influenced Sargon's choice to found the original city of Akkad in the exact same location. After the fall of the Umayyads , the first Muslim dynasty, the victorious Abbasid rulers wanted their own capital from which they could rule. They chose

26715-408: The expeditions launched against Shingal from Mosul and Baghdad became less severe and was counted as a cost of doing business by the raiders. In 1785, the governor of Mosul, Abd el-Baqi Pasha led a raid on the nomadic Dina tribe of Yezidis living east of Tigris near Duhok , led by a young chief named Kor Namir Agha (The Blind Namir Agha) who was blind in one eye. Whilst the Pasha's troops were looting

26910-493: The fifteenth century. From the 15th to 17th centuries, classical Kurdish poets and writers developed a literary language. The most notable classical Kurdish poets from this period were Ali Hariri , Ahmad Khani , Malaye Jaziri and Faqi Tayran . The Italian priest Maurizio Garzoni published the first Kurdish grammar titled Grammatica e Vocabolario della Lingua Kurda in Rome in 1787 after eighteen years of missionary work among

27105-438: The first waves of attacks and Yezidis capturing the Pasha of the city of Van during the battle. Under the section titled as Harb-i Yezidiyan Der Sahra-yi Canik Ba-Vaniyan (The battle of the Yezidis with Vanis at the desert of Canik) , Ibn-i Nuh lists the names of important people who died during the battle and describes a dreadful situation for the Muslims and Islam at the hands of what he describes as Cünd-i Şeytan (The army of

27300-534: The formation of Mu'tazili theology, as well as Al-Tabari culminating in the scholarship on the Quranic exegesis . Baghdad is likely to have been the largest city in the world from shortly after its foundation until the 930s, when it tied with Córdoba . Several estimates suggest that the city contained over a million inhabitants at its peak. Many of the One Thousand and One Nights tales, widely known as

27495-471: The great-grandnephew of Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir (d. 1162), the founder of the faith. It contains the Yazidi account of the creation of the world, the origin of man, the story of Adam and Eve and the major prohibitions of the faith. According to The Cambridge History of the Kurds , "the first proper 'text'" written in Kurdish is a short Christian prayer. It was written in Armenian characters, and dates from

27690-499: The initiative of completing his tasks through violence due to the lack of cooperation from Yezidis. Around 500 Yezidis died in the Shingal campaign of November–December 1892, Lalish was forcibly converted into a madrasah , sacred objects of the Yezidis were confiscated, mosques built in Yezidi villages and the Yezidi Mir Mirza Beg was provoked into converting to Islam. However, in contrast to the expectations of Ottomans,

27885-490: The language the Kurds speak, whereas some ethnic Kurds have used the word term to simply describe their ethnicity and refer to their language as Kurmanji , Sorani , Hewrami , Kermanshahi , Kalhori or whatever other dialect or language they speak. Some historians have noted that it is only recently that the Kurds who speak the Sorani dialect have begun referring to their language as Kurdî , in addition to their identity, which

28080-551: The large Shikak , Reşan , Dumilî/Dumbuli , Memkan, Kîkan, and Musareşan tribes. In addition, Sherefkhan Bidlisi writes in Şerefname that seven of the most important Kurdish tribes were Yezidi. Yezidism was the official religion of numerous Kurdish emirates and principalities, including the principalities of Bohtan , Mahmudi , Donboli and the Emirate of Kilis . Starting from the 14th century, Yezidis built up their own internal religious and political administrative apparatus in

28275-415: The latter part of the 18th century, under Mamluk government. Direct Ottoman rule was reimposed by Ali Rıza Pasha in 1831. From 1851 to 1852 and from 1861 to 1867, Baghdad was governed, under the Ottoman Empire by Mehmed Namık Pasha . The Nuttall Encyclopedia reports the 1907 population of Baghdad as 185,000. Baghdad and southern Iraq remained under Ottoman rule until 1917, when they were captured by

28470-399: The latter part of the building and the commander of the guards in the front. In 813, after the death of caliph Al-Amin , the palace was no longer used as the home for the caliph and his family. The roundness points to the fact that it was based on Arabic script . The two designers who were hired by Al-Mansur to plan the city's design were Naubakht , a Zoroastrian who also determined that

28665-490: The letter up and sent the messengers back naked. Kurdish languages Ancient Medieval Modern Kurdish ( Kurdî , کوردی ) is a Northwestern Iranian language or group of languages spoken by Kurds in the region of Kurdistan , namely in southeast Turkey , northern Iraq , northwest Iran , and northern Syria . It is also spoken in northeast Iran, as well as in certain areas of Armenia and Azerbaijan . Kurdish varieties constitute

28860-461: The local Yezidi populace. This prompted Omar Wehbi Pasha to launch an unsuccessful intervention in Shingal, which resulted in the faqir , Hemoyê Shero , who had earlier declared himself the Paramount of Shingal, together with his followers becoming the focus of anti-Muslim resistance and increasing their military capacity by seizing a huge amount of Turkish armaments and ammunition which would be

29055-498: The missionaries, Padre Maurizio Garzoni, who reported "the post of the executioner is always given by the princes of Amadiya to a Yezidi, who never loath to shed Muslim blood." Yezidi mirs of Sheikhan were also involved in several rebellions against Amadiya principality; in 1770–1771, Bedagh Beg, who was Mir of Sheikhan at the time, joined a rebellion against the Prince of Amadiya, Ismail Pasha. Bedagh Beg eventually got captured and fined, and 16 years later, his son and successor, Jolo Beg,

29250-517: The most known early and major expeditions against the Yezidis took place in 1246, when the Yezidi leader, Sheikh Hassan ibn Adi was killed by Badr Ad-Din Lulu , and 1414, when a joint army of neighbouring Sunni Kurdish tribes ransacked Lalish. During these conflicts, many important Yezidi chiefs were forcibly converted to Islam, leading to a gradual decline of the Yezidi power from the 15th century. However, Yezidis were also able to establish alliances with

29445-519: The multitudes of troops from the provinces of Van and Diyarbekir and Mardin who came to the aid of Melek Ahmed Pasha, all the Kurdistan soldiery who participated in plundering the money and food and drink and copper vessels and household furnishings and the like which emerged over ten days from the Saçlı Dağı caves, could not carry away more than a drop in the sea and a mote in the sun. For ever since

29640-552: The neighborhood, through the district, and up to the city council. The same process was used to provide representative councils for the other communities in Baghdad Province outside of the city itself. There, local councils were elected from 20 neighborhoods ( Nahia ) and these councils elected representatives from their members to serve on six district councils ( Qada ). As within the city, the district councils then elected representatives from among their members to serve on

29835-459: The old Dynasty and Khanjar was replaced by Jolo Beg's son, Hasan Beg. In Shingal, Yezidis had gained notoriety for raiding every caravan passing between Mardin and Mosul . Yezidi raiders operated as far as in the routes between Anah and Baghdad , where one band attacked a caravan in 1782 and seized 30 donkey-loads of cotton goods. Caravans that were escorted by well-armed guards were often able to fight off raiders, whereas fate of other caravans

30030-722: The opening ceremony, which was attended by Minister of Culture and other state officials. The channel uses the X , W , and Q letters during broadcasting. However, most of these restrictions on private Kurdish television channels were relaxed in September 2009. In 2010, Kurdish municipalities in the southeast began printing marriage certificates , water bills, construction and road signs , as well as emergency, social and cultural notices in Kurdish alongside Turkish. Also Imams began to deliver Friday sermons in Kurdish and Esnaf price tags in Kurdish. Many mayors were tried for issuing public documents in Kurdish language. The Kurdish alphabet

30225-679: The other side with their ferries. Under the reign of Sultan Suleyman in 1534, the Yezidi leader, Hussein Beg was given the control over the domain of the Soran Emirate together with its capital of Erbil , and the Bahdinan Emirate with its capital of Amediye . Hussein Beg's father, Hassan Beg, had allied himself with the victorious Ottomans after the Battle of Chaldiran and was famed for his diplomatic and political expertise, which helped him bring Mosul under his rule and become

30420-541: The powerful chieftain of Milan confederacy and highly regarded by the Sultan Abdulhamid. Hasan Kanjo built a fortress at Haleli, east of Viranşehir , to serve as a base for fighting the desert Arab tribes including the Shammar . Members of his tribe had been allowed to keep their Yezidi faith and were camped around the fortress. In Mosul, a new Governor by the name of Aziz Pasha was appointed; he had arranged

30615-480: The pre-Islamic origins of Baghdad's name, generally looked for its roots in Middle Persian . They suggested various meanings, the most common of which was "bestowed by God". Modern scholars generally tend to favor this etymology, which views the word as a Persian compound of bagh ( [REDACTED] ) "god" and dād ( [REDACTED] ) "given". In Old Persian the first element can be traced to boghu and

30810-521: The project was ceased, when new the government came to power. On 14 July 1958, members of the Iraqi Army , under Abdul-Karim Qasim , staged a coup to topple the Kingdom of Iraq . King Faisal II , former Prime Minister Nuri al-Said , former Regent Prince Abd al-Ilah , members of the royal family, and others were brutally killed during the coup. Many of the victim's bodies were then dragged through

31005-609: The provincial Ottoman system and were appointed as governors as far as Tikrit and Kerek. Yezidis were also participants in commerce and river transportation of their territory through contact with other ethnicities and religions. Evliya Çelebi describes the quality of Yezidi products in the following manner: The quality of Yezidis' grapes and honey is priceless, and their raisins are highly priced in Baghdad , Basra and Lahsa markets. They have many Berry trees. Sinjar has important mineral[s] as well. Çelebi also reports that Yezidis collected fees by taking people from Hasankeyf to

31200-403: The remaining space in the center is unknown. The circular design of the city was a direct reflection of the traditional Near Eastern urban design . The Sasanian city of Gur in Fars , built 500 years before Baghdad, is nearly identical in its general circular design, radiating avenues, and the government buildings and temples at the center of the city. Much earlier, circular cities had existed in

31395-474: The resulting Anglo-Iraqi War and after Rashid Ali al-Gaylani and his government had fled, the Mayor of Baghdad surrendered to British and Commonwealth forces. On 1–2 June, during the ensuing power vacuum , Jewish residents were attacked following rumors they had aided the British. In what became known as the Farhud , over 180 Jews were killed, 1,000 injured and hundreds of Jewish properties were ransacked. Between 300 and 400 non-Jewish rioters were killed in

31590-420: The same fate. After putting Yezidis of Sheikhan to the sword, Muhammad Pasha invaded the rest of the Bahdinan , attacking Akre and after a few days, besieging the fortress of Akre which was regarded as almost impregnable and meeting the resistance of the Kurdish tribe of Zibari. Thereafter he marched towards Amadiya which capitulated after a brief siege. The entire region, from Khabur to Great Zab rivers,

31785-430: The scholarship involved not only Arabs, but also Persians , Syriacs , Nestorians , Jews , Arab Christians , and people from other ethnic and religious groups native to the region. These are considered among the fundamental elements that contributed to the flourishing of scholarship in the Medieval Islamic world. Baghdad was also a significant center of Islamic religious learning, with Al-Jahiz contributing to

31980-420: The seventh caliph Al-Ma'mun . Baytul-Hikmah or the "House of Wisdom" was among the most well known academies, and had the largest selection of books in the world by the middle of the 9th century. Notable scholars based in Baghdad during this time include translator Hunayn ibn Ishaq , mathematician al-Khwarizmi , and philosopher Al-Kindi . Although Arabic was used as the international language of science,

32175-582: The slopes of Mount Aragats. However, during the first week of June, an armistice was reached whereby the Ottomans could use the key railways, but would leave Yerevan and Echmiadzin to the Armenians. The Yezidi participation in the decisive Battle of Sardarabad is still commemorated by Armenians. Yezidis in Tur Abdin and Shingal also formed common causes with Christians and fought defensively from their mountain strongholds. Yezidis in Shingal were led by Hemoye Shero , who in 1914-1915 sheltered Christian refugees fleeing from persecution and in 1917, led raids with

32370-407: The son of Mulla Yahya. As a result, he turned to the Pasha of Rawanduz , Muhammad Pasha . During that time, Muhammad Pasha had become the most powerful and independent ruler in Kurdistan. He had begun minting his own coins and declared independence from the Ottoman Empire. Meanwhile, the Ottomans were preoccupied with the rebellion of Muhammad Ali Pasha in Egypt , who had declared independence from

32565-403: The streets of Baghdad. Baghdad was also site for opposition and coup attempts against Qasim's rule by Arab nationalists. During the 1970s, Baghdad experienced a period of prosperity and growth because of a sharp increase in the price of petroleum , Iraq's main export. New infrastructure including modern sewerage, water, and highway facilities were built during this period. The masterplans of

32760-402: The substantial Jewish community (probably exceeding 100,000 people) comprised between a quarter and a third of the city's population. On 1 April 1941, members of the " Golden Square " and Rashid Ali al-Gaylani staged a coup in Baghdad . Rashid Ali al-Gaylani installed a pro- German and pro- Italian government to replace the pro-British government of Regent Abd al-Ilah . On 31 May, after

32955-450: The time, streets were frequently washed free of debris and trash. In fact, by the time of Harun al-Rashid, Baghdad had a few thousand hammams . These baths increased public hygiene and served as a way for the religious to perform ablutions as prescribed by Islam. Moreover, entry fees were usually so low that almost everyone could afford them. In the center of the city lay the mosque , as well as headquarters for guards. The purpose or use of

33150-412: The village of Khatara and marched onwards to Alqosh , where they were confronted by a joint force of Yezidis and the Bahdinan who were led by Yusuf Abdo, a Bahdinan leader from Amadiya , and Baba Hurmuz, who was the head of the Christian monastery in Alqosh . These joint forces then left their positions and relocated to the town of Baadre . Ali Beg wished to negotiate, but Muhammad Pasha, influenced by

33345-409: The village of Bardahali, which had by then turned into the headquarters of the Fuqara tribe. Hemoye Shero, the chief of Fuqara, promoted Christian settlement on the Mountain through granting them his protection in accordance with a Shingali custom which encouraged the settlement of Christians if a local Yazidi agha would guarantee for them. This helped Hemoye Shero to seize full control of Shingal city,

33540-416: The weighs and measures of stocks. Baghdad eclipsed Ctesiphon, the capital of the Sassanians, which was located some 30 km (19 mi) to the southeast. Today, all that remains of Ctesiphon is the shrine town of Salman Pak , just to the south of Greater Baghdad which is where Salman the Persian is believed to have been buried. Ctesiphon itself had replaced and absorbed Seleucia , the first capital of

33735-495: Was a hectic city during the day and had many attractions at night. There were cabarets and taverns, halls for backgammon and chess, live plays, concerts, and acrobats. On street corners, storytellers engaged crowds with tales such as those later told in Arabian Nights. Storytelling became a profession called " al-Qaskhun " which survived until the modern era. The four surrounding walls of Baghdad were named Kufa , Basra , Khurasan , and Syria ; named because their gates pointed in

33930-405: Was able to escape, enlist allies and lay siege to a ruined fort where the Persian cavalry had held Yezidi women captive. The defenders were at the edge of being overrun when the shah's nephew brought reinforcements and stopped the siege. As, who was abandoned by his allies, considered committing suicide, but finally surrendered himself to Nadir Shah instead and was eventually appointed the governor of

34125-419: Was also home to a large Jewish community and regularly visited by Sikh pilgrims from India. The historic "Assyrian Quarter" of the city — Dora , which boasted a population of 150,000 Assyrians in 2003, made up over 3% of the capital's Assyrian population then. The community has been subject to kidnappings , death threats , vandalism, and house burnings by al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups. As of

34320-409: Was appointed as the governor of Mosul, a title which he held until his death in 1651. Êzidî Mirza is mentioned in several Yezidi sagas until today. During the 17th century, the Ottomans launched numerous expeditions against the Yezidis in Shingal, who had long controlled the trading routes around Shingal, attacked Ottoman caravans and refused to pay the taxes levied by the Ottomans. The first expedition

34515-520: Was brought under Muhammad Pasha's rule, including Zakho and Duhok . Muhammad Pasha appointed Musa Pasha, a relative of the Bahdinan prince Said Pasha, as the governor of the capital. Musa Pasha, who had been on bad terms with Said Pasha, had offered valuable assistance to Muhammad Pasha during the attack on Amadiya. Between 1840 and 1844, Yezidis of Tur Abdin were repeatedly attacked by the ruler of Bohtan , Bedirkhan Beg , who had previously aided Muhammad Pasha during his incursions against Bahdinan and

34710-457: Was caliph from 813 to 833. Another was established by Sabur ibn Ardashir in 991 or 993 for the literary men and scholars who frequented his academy. This second library was plundered and burned by the Seljuks only seventy years after it was established. This was a good example of the sort of library built up out of the needs and interests of a literary society. The last two were examples of madrasa or theological college libraries. The Nezamiyeh

34905-505: Was carried out by the Islamic State saw over 5,000 Yazidis killed and thousands of Yazidi women and girls forced into sexual slavery , as well as the flight of more than 500,000 Yazidi refugees. The Yazidis' own name for themselves is Êzidî or, in some areas, Dasinî , although the latter, strictly speaking, is a tribal name. Some western scholars derive the name from the Umayyad Caliph Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiya (Yazid I). However, all Yazidis reject any relationship between their name and

35100-438: Was chosen as the starting time because two astrologers , Naubakht Ahvazi , an Iranian Zoroastrian , and Mashallah , an Iranian Jew , believed that the city should be built under the sign of the lion , Leo . Leo is associated with fire and symbolizes productivity, pride, and expansion and Leo's connection symbolically to Mithra. The bricks used to make the city were 18 in (460 mm) on all four sides. Abu Hanifah

35295-518: Was considered the Abode of War. He also mentions that some Christians lost their lives and that many women and children held as captives. In 1743, Nadir Shah , launched an invasion in the west and was aiming to capture Mosul , sent a force to subdue the Yezidi chieftain As after capturing Altun Kopru and Kirkuk . As had often raided the western provinces of Persia from his base in the mountains around Koi Sanjak . The Persians defeated an army of several thousand Yezidis and killed their leader Yezid. As

35490-485: Was designed as a circle about 2 km (1.2 mi) in diameter, leading it to be known as the "Round City". The original design shows a single ring of residential and commercial structures along the inside of the city walls, but the final construction added another ring inside the first. Within the city there were many parks, gardens, villas, and promenades. There was a large sanitation department, many fountains and public baths, and unlike contemporary European cities at

35685-492: Was embraced by many Kurdish tribes and emirates . Yezidi manuscripts, called mişûrs which were written down in the 13th century, contain lists of Kurdish tribes who were affiliated to Yezidi Pir saints. Only two of the total of 40 manuscripts have been published so far, namely the Mişûr of Pîr Sini Daranî and the Mişûr of Pîr Xetîb Pisî, the list in the Mişûr of Pîr Sini Daranî include some large tribes that have been mostly, or fully islamized today, including but not limited to

35880-414: Was founded by the Persian Nizam al-Mulk , who was vizier of two early Seljuk sultans. It continued to operate even after the coming of the Mongols in 1258. The Mustansiriyah madrasa , which owned an exceedingly rich library, was founded by Al-Mustansir , the second last Abbasid caliph, who died in 1242. This would prove to be the last great library built by the caliphs of Baghdad. By the 10th century,

36075-463: Was home to a large Jewish community, which numbered around 150,000, constituting around 25% of the population. Baghdad was leading center for Jewish learning in the 19th century. Due to increase in persecution of Jews, most of them fled Iraq in 1951. Until the 2003 war, Iraq retained a substantial Jewish community of 1,000 people. Around 500 to 600 Jews lived in Baghdad, primarily in old Jewish quarters of Bataween and Shorja . Meir Taweig Synagogue

36270-425: Was home to more than 300,000 Christians, primarily concentrated in several neighborhoods with a Christian majority, the most notable being al- Karrada and al-Dora , which had around 150,000 Christians before the war. The Christian community in Baghdad is divided among various denominations, mainly the Chaldean Catholic Church and the Syriac Catholic Church . There is also a significant presence of followers of

36465-399: Was involved in another rebellion, but had to later retreat. In 1789–1790, Jolo still maintained the title of Mir and was involved in battles against the Tayy Arabs, who were raiding Sheikhan, but in the following year, Jolo and his brother were executed by Ismail Pasha, who appointed a Khanjar Beg as the Mir in their stead. However, after quarrels with Khanjar, the Mir position was returned to

36660-455: Was led by the Ottoman Grand Vizier, Nasuh Pasha , and took place in 1613 AD, which resulted in a Yezidi victory and 7,000 of the Ottoman soldiers being slaughtered according to the reports of Evliya Çelebi . In 1640, another expedition against the Yezidis of Shingal was launched by another Grand Vizier, Melek Ahmed Pasha of Diyarbekir. The Ottoman troops surrounded Shingal mountains and stormed Yezidi positions. Despite heavy casualties,

36855-606: Was mostly confined to poetry until the early 20th century, when more general literature became developed. Today, the two principal written Kurdish dialects are Kurmanji and Sorani. Sorani is, along with Arabic , one of the two official languages of Iraq and is in political documents simply referred to as "Kurdish". The Kurdish varieties belong to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European family . They are generally classified as Northwestern Iranian languages, or by some scholars as intermediate between Northwestern and Southwestern Iranian. Martin van Bruinessen notes that "Kurdish has

37050-445: Was often a total loss or a ransom. The favourite targets were lightly armed official couriers who relied on speed to reach their destination. In one case, a captured courier was found to be carrying 40,000 carats of high-grade pearls. As a result, several expeditions were launched against the Yezidis; the punitive expeditions from Baghdad, first one launched in 1715 and a later one in 1753, inflicted heavy casualties. However, subsequently,

37245-479: Was on the rise, conversion to Islam in order to ensure their political loyalty was crucial in the perspective of Abdulhamid's government. Conscription was one of the steps taken in order to convert them. Thereafter, Yezidis would be subject to persecution from Omer Wehbi Pasha, who had been sent to Mosul by the Sultan for a task involving institutionalization of a conscription system, collection of taxes, resettlement of tribes, and crushing local tribal rebellions. He took

37440-406: Was selected by UNESCO as the first Arab city of the center of literary creativity. The city attracted global media attention on 3 January 2020, when Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was assassinated in a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad Airport. The city is located on a vast plain bisected by the Tigris river. The Tigris splits Baghdad in half, with the eastern half being called " Risafa " and

37635-442: Was separate from Zoroastrianism and was of pre-Zoroastrian origin. After his death in 1162 AD, his disciples and successors blended his doctrines and teachings with the local and ancient Iranic traditions. Because of this, Yezidi tradition uses many terms, images and symbols of Sufi or Islamic origin, meanwhile still to a larger extent preserving pre-Islamic mythology, symbology, rituals, festivals and traditions. Yezidism

37830-407: Was surrounded by another wall with a thickness of 50 m. The second wall had towers and rounded merlons, which surrounded the towers. This outer wall was protected by a solid glacis , which is made out of bricks and quicklime . Beyond the outer wall was a water-filled moat. The Golden Gate Palace, the residence of the caliph and his family, was in the heart of Baghdad, in the central square. In

38025-406: Was the counter of the bricks and he developed a canal, which brought water to the work site for both human consumption and the manufacture of the bricks. Marble was also used to make buildings throughout the city, and marble steps led down to the river's edge. The basic framework of the city consists of two large semicircles about 19 km (12 mi) in diameter. The inner city connecting them

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