The Saladin or Salah Al-Din Governorate ( ar, محافظة صلاح الدين) is one of

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

's 19 governorates, north of

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

. 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 ( ar, تِكْرِيت ''Tikrīt'' , Syriac: ܬܲܓܪܝܼܬܼ ''Tagrīṯ'') 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. , it h ...

. Before 1976 the province was part of Baghdad Governorate. The province is named after Muslim leader

Saladin Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سه‌لاحه‌دین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt an ...

or Salah ad Din, who hailed from the province. The province is also known as the home of

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...

, who was from the village of Al-Awja.

Overview

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

Samarra Samarra ( ar, سَامَرَّاء, ') is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Saladin Governorate, north of Baghdad. The city of Samarra was founded by Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutasim for his Turkish professional ar ...

, the governorate's largest city, is home to both the Al-Askari Shrine (an important religious site in

Shia Islam Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, mos ...

where the 10th and 11th

Shia Imam In Shia Islam, the Imamah ( ar, إمامة) 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 ...

s are buried), the Sardab where the 12th Imam al-Mahdi went into

occultation An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden from the observer by another object that passes between them. The term is often used in astronomy, but can also refer to any situation in which an object in the foreground blocks ...

, and the Great Mosque of Samarra with its distinctive Malwiya minaret. Samarra was the capital of the

Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttal ...

in the 9th century CE, and today Abbasid Samarra is a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

. The ancient

Neo-Assyrian Empire The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history and the final and greatest phase of Assyria as an independent state. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew ...

Assyrian city of

Assur Aššur (; Sumerian: AN.ŠAR2KI, Assyrian cuneiform: ''Aš-šurKI'', "City of God Aššur"; syr, ܐܫܘܪ ''Āšūr''; Old Persian ''Aθur'', fa, آشور: ''Āšūr''; he, אַשּׁוּר, ', ar, اشور), also known as Ashur and Qal'a ...

is located in Al-Shirqat District on the banks of the

Tigris River The Tigris () is the easternmost 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, and empties into the P ...

. Other sites in the governorate include the Crusader Dome (القبة الصلبية) north of Samarra and the Al-`Ashaq Palace (قصر العاشق). In January 2014, there were plans announced by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki 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 del ...

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

Sunni Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a dis ...

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 rovincesshall 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: Raed al-Jabouri *Deputy Governor: Ammar Hikmat *Provincial Council Chairman: Ahmed Abdel-Jabbar al-Karim

Districts

Al-Daur District Al-Daur District (; also spelled Ad-Dawr) is a district of Saladin Governorate, Iraq. Districts of Saladin Governorate {{Iraq-geo-stub ...

( Al-Daur) * Al-Shirqat District (

Al-Shirqat , settlement_type = Town , image_skyline = , imagesize = , image_caption = , pushpin_map = Iraq , pushpin_label_position =right , pushpin_map_caption = , subdivision_type = Country , sub ...

) *

Baiji District Baiji District () is a district of Saladin Governorate, Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by T ...

(

Baiji The baiji (; IPA: ; ''Lipotes vexillifer'', ''Lipotes'' meaning "left behind" and ''vexillifer'' "flag bearer") is a possibly extinct species of freshwater dolphin native to the Yangtze river system in China. It is thought to be the first dolph ...

) * Balad District ( Balad) * Samarra District (

) * Tikrit District (

) * Tooz District (

Tuz Khurmatu Tuz Khurmatu ( ar, طوزخورماتو, tr, Tuzhurmatu, ku, دووزخورماتوو, translit=Duz Xurmatû, also spelled as Tuz Khurma and Tuz Khormato) is the central city of Tooz District in Saladin Governorate, Iraq, located 55 miles (88 ...

) * Dujail District ( Dujail)

Towns and cities

* Balad *

* Dujail * Al-Dour * Yathrib *

* Sulaiman Bek * Yankjah *

* Al Ishaqi *

Amirli Amirli ( ar, آمرلي, ʾĀmirlī; tr, Emirli) also spelt Amerli, is a predominantly Shia Iraqi Turkmen, Turkmen town in Saladin Governorate, Iraq, approximately 100 km from the Iranian border. It is the centre of a farming region. Histo ...

* Al Seniyah * Al Dhuluiya * Sa'ad (Iraq) * Al-Faris (Bamerni) * Al-Hajaj

Population

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

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

in 2003. No data is available for Dujail District.

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