The Saladin, Salah ad Din, or Salah Al-Din Governorate (, ) is one of

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

's 19

governorates A governorate or governate is an administrative division headed by a governor. As English-speaking nations tend to call regions administered by governors either states or provinces, the term ''governorate'' is typically used to calque divisions o ...

, north of

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

. It has an area of , with an estimated population of 1,042,200 people in 2003. It is made up of 8 districts, with the capital being

Tikrit Tikrit ( ) is a city in Iraq, located northwest of Baghdad and southeast of Mosul on the Tigris River. It is the administrative center of the Saladin Governorate. In 2012, it had a population of approximately 160,000. Originally created as a f ...

. Before 1976 the governorate was part of

Baghdad Governorate Baghdad Governorate ( ''Muḥāfaẓat Baġdād''), also known as the Baghdad Province, is the capital governorate of Iraq. It includes the capital Baghdad as well as the surrounding metropolitan area. The governorate is one of two small province ...

. The governorate is named after the

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

leader

Saladin Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, h ...

or Salah ad Din, who hailed from the governorate. This governorate is largely

Sunni Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Mu ...

and is also where

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

, former

president of Iraq The President of the Republic of Iraq is the head of state of Iraq. Since the mid-2000s, the presidency is primarily a symbolic office, as the position does not possess significant power within the country according to the Constitution of Iraq, ...

, was born, in the village of

Al-Awja Al-Awja () is a village 8 miles (13 km) south of Tikrit, Iraq on the western bank of the Tigris. It is mainly inhabited by Sunni Muslim Arabs. The village is known for being the hometown and place of burial of former Iraqi President Saddam ...

. Salah Al-Din governorate, a traditional stronghold of Saddam and his Al-Bu Nasir tribe that is located in the heart of the

Sunni Triangle The Sunni Triangle is a densely populated region of Iraq to the north and west of Baghdad inhabited mostly by Sunni Muslim Arabs. The roughly triangular area's points are usually said to lie near Baghdad (the southeast point), Ramadi (the southwes ...

, has been a centre of

insurgencies An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare against a larger authority. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irregular forces face a large, well ...

, tribal rivalries, and political and sectarian violence since the 2003 U.S.-led Coalition invasion of Iraq.

History

Saladin Governorate contains a number of important religious and cultural sites.

Samarra Samarra (, ') is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Saladin Governorate, north of Baghdad. The modern city of Samarra was founded in 836 by the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tasim as a new administrative capital and mi ...

, the governorate's largest city, is home to both the

Al-Askari Shrine Al-Askari Shrine, the Askariyya Shrine, or Al-Askari Mosque is a Shia Muslim mosque and mausoleum in the Iraqi city of Samarra from Baghdad. It is one of the most important Shia shrines in the world. It was built in 944. The dome was destroyed ...

(an important religious site in

Shia Islam Shia Islam is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political Succession to Muhammad, successor (caliph) and as the spiritual le ...

where the 10th and 11th

Shia Imam In Shia Islam, the Imamah () is a doctrine which asserts that certain individuals from the lineage of the Islamic prophet Muhammad are to be accepted as leaders and guides of the ummah after the death of Muhammad. Imamah further says that Imam ...

s are buried), and the

Great Mosque of Samarra The Great Mosque of Samarra is a mosque from the 9th century CE located in Samarra, Iraq. The mosque was commissioned in 848 and completed in 851 by the Abbasid caliph Al-Mutawakkil who reigned (in Samarra) from 847 until 861. At the time of con ...

with its distinctive Malwiya minaret. It also contains an old

Zengid The Zengid or Zangid dynasty, also referred to as the Atabegate of Mosul, Aleppo and Damascus (Arabic: أتابكة الموصل وحلب ودمشق), or the Zengid State (Old Anatolian Turkish: , Modern Turkish: ; ) was initially an '' Atabegat ...

mosque. Samarra was the capital of the

Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 CE), from whom the dynasty takes ...

in the 9th century CE, and today

Abbasid Samarra Samarra is a city in central Iraq, which served as the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate from 836 to 892. Founded by the caliph al-Mu'tasim, Samarra was briefly a major metropolis that stretched dozens of kilometers along the east bank of the Tigr ...

is a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

. The ancient

Neo-Assyrian Empire The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew to dominate the ancient Near East and parts of South Caucasus, Nort ...

Assyrian city of

Assur Aššur (; AN.ŠAR2KI, Assyrian cuneiform: ''Aš-šurKI'', "City of God Aššur"; ''Āšūr''; ''Aθur'', ''Āšūr''; ', ), also known as Ashur and Qal'at Sherqat, was the capital of the Old Assyrian city-state (2025–1364 BC), the Midd ...

is located in

Al-Shirqat District Al-Shirqat District () is a district of Saladin Governorate, Iraq. The district's capital is the town of Al-Shirqat. Other settlements include Khanugiyah, Mukhayim, Qaryat al Ḩūrīyah al Jadīdah, Al-Khadraniyah, Aynah, Ijamasa, and Jamaf. T ...

on the banks of the

Tigris River The Tigris ( ; see below) is the eastern of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, before merging ...

. Other sites in the governorate include the Crusader Dome (القبة الصلبية) north of Samarra and the Al-`Ashaq Palace (قصر العاشق). Today, the Saladin Governorate has a diverse population of

Arabs Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of yea ...

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

Turkmens Turkmens (, , , ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia, living mainly in Turkmenistan, northern and northeastern regions of Iran and north-western Afghanistan. Sizeable groups of Turkmens are found also in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, ...

and

Assyrians Assyrians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to Mesopotamia, a geographical region in West Asia. Modern Assyrians share descent directly from the ancient Assyrians, one of the key civilizations of Mesopotamia. While they are distinct from ot ...

. In January 2014, there were plans announced by Prime Minister

Nouri al-Maliki Nouri Kamil Muhammad-Hasan al-Maliki (; born 20 June 1950), also known as Jawad al-Maliki (), is an Iraqi politician and leader of the Islamic Dawa Party since 2007. He served as the Prime Minister of Iraq from 2006 to 2014 and as Vice President ...

to make the Tuz Khurmatu district into a new governorate due to its Turkmen majority. However, these plans were not implemented.

Autonomy

In October 2011, the governorate's administration declared itself a semi-autonomous region, explaining that the declaration was in response to the

central government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or deleg ...

's "domination over the provincial council authorities". Saladin, which is a largely

governorate, is also hoping that by declaring themselves an autonomous region within Iraq, it will entail them to a larger portion of government funding. The council cited " article 119 of Iraq's constitution" in its call for autonomy, which states that "one or more governorates shall have the right to organize into a region" if one third of the Provincial Council members or one tenth of the voters request to form a region".

Provincial government

*Governor: Ammar Jabr al-Jubouri *Deputy Governor: Ammar Hikmat *Provincial Council Chairman: Ahmed Abdel-Jabbar al-Karim

Districts

* Al-Daur District ( Al-Daur) *

(

Al-Shirqat Al-Shirqat is a town west of the Tigris in Saladin Governorate, Iraq, located 294 kilometres (183 mi) northwest of Baghdad. It is the main town of the Al-Shirqat District, and is near the ruins of the ancient Assyrian city of Assur. History ...

) * Baiji District (

Baiji The baiji (''Lipotes vexillifer'') is a probably extinct species of freshwater dolphin native to the Yangtze river system in China. It is thought to be the first dolphin species driven to extinction due to the impact of humans. This dolphin is ...

) * Balad District ( Balad) * Samarra District (

) * Tikrit District (

) * Tooz District (

Tuz Khurmatu Tuz Khurmatu (, , , also spelled as Tuz Khurma and Tuz Khormato) is the central city of Tooz District in Saladin Governorate, Iraq, located south of Kirkuk. Its inhabitants are predominantly Shia Turkmen, with a minority of Arabs and Sunni ...

) *

Dujail District Dujail District (; formerly, Al-Faris) is a district in the southern part of Saladin Governorate, Iraq. Its main settlement is the small town of Dujail. Dujail was the site of the Dujail Massacre by Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (2 ...

(

Dujail Dujail (; alternate spelling: Ad Dujayl) is a town in Saladin Governorate, Iraq. It is about north of Baghdad. It was the site of the 1982 Dujail Massacre, in which between 142 and 148 people, including children, died.

Towns and cities

File:مسجد ومزار الأربعين وسط مدينة تكريت العراقية يضم رفاة اربعين شهيداً من شهداء الفتح الاسلامي للمدينة.jpg,

File:Samarra City 1.jpg,

File:Tuz Kurmatu.jpg,

Population

The following table shows the populations of the districts of Saladin Governorate, according to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

in 2003. No data is available for

References

External links

Article and video on civilians massacre
on BBC News.

on CNN. {{Authority control Governorates of Iraq Saladin 1976 establishments in Iraq States and territories established in 1975