Bardarash (, ) or ʿAshā'ir al-Sabaʿ () is a town and subdistrict in

Nineveh Governorate Nineveh Governorate (; , ) is a governorate in northern Iraq. It has an area of and an estimated population of 2,453,000 people as of 2003. Its largest city and provincial capital is Mosul, which lies across the Tigris river from the ruins of a ...

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 ...

. It is regarded as part of

Akre District Akre District (, ) is a district in northern Iraq, disputed between the Iraqi Federal Government and the Kurdistan Regional Government. The administrative center is the city of Akre Akre (, , ) is a city located in Kurdistan Region of Iraq ...

in the Nineveh Governorate by the Iraqi government, however, it is '' de facto'' controlled by the

Kurdistan Regional Government The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is the official executive body of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq. The cabinet is selected by the majority party or list who also select the prime minister of the Iraqi Kurdish poli ...

, as part of the Bardarash district of the

Dohuk Governorate Duhok Governorate (, , ) is a Governorates of Iraq, governorate in the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Its capital is the city of Duhok. It includes Zakho, near the Ibrahim Khalil border crossing with Şırnak Province, Turkey. It borders ...

. Bardarash is mostly inhabited by

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 ...

Muslims 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 ...

Etymology

The Kurdish name of the town is derived from "ber" ("stone" in Kurdish) and "reş" ("black" in Kurdish), and thus translates to "black stone", whereas the Arabic name ʿAshā'ir al-Sabaʿ translates to "seven clans" in reference to the seven

clans A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, a clan may claim descent from a founding member or apical ancestor who serves as a symbol of the clan's unity. Many societie ...

that reside at Bardarash: the Zangana, Darbazi, Bot, Razgary, Gezh, Chopani, and the Řožbayānī.

History

In the aftermath of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Ismāʿīl Agha and Ḥājjī Agha were noted as the tribal leaders of the ʿAshā'ir al-Sabaʿ by British intelligence at the onset of the British administration of Iraq. Ismāʿīl Agha was the head of the Bizaini section of ʿAshā'ir al-Sabaʿ and was known to be pro-British. He suffered considerably due to the proximity of the Assyrian refugee camp at Mindan in 1920 and his rivalry with Ḥājjī ʿAbdallāh ibn Raḥmān of Jujjar in the

Aqra Aqra, properly ʿAqra, was a diocese of the Chaldean Catholic Church founded in the mid-19th century. It was united with the Archeparchy of Mossul to create the Archeparchy of Mossul-Aqra on December 22, 2018. Background Before the fourteenth ...

district was observed in a British intelligence report in 1923. In 1997, 79 villages were recorded as part of the Bardarash subdistrict with a total population of 47,564 people. A camp was established at Bardarash for Iraqis displaced by the

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS occupied signi ...

and was later semi-decommissioned in December 2017. The camp was reopened for refugees in October 2019, and over 7000

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 ...

from northern Syria who had fled the

2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria On 9 October 2019, the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) and the Syrian National Army (SNA) launched an offensive against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and later it involved the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in northern Syria. It was code-named the Op ...

arrived within a week. The camp's population grew to an estimated 11,000 refugees by November, of whom roughly 75% were women and children, and reached 14,031 refugees by July 2020. By June 2021, 13,986 refugees had left after having obtained residency permits in the

Kurdistan Region Kurdistan Region (KRI) is a semi-autonomous Federal regions of Iraq, federal region of the Iraq, Republic of Iraq. It comprises four Kurds, Kurdish-majority governorates of Arabs, Arab-majority Iraq: Erbil Governorate, Sulaymaniyah Governorate ...

whilst 1488 had returned to Syria, leaving 3541 at the camp.

Gallery

File:Bardarash traditional.jpg, Man from Bardarash in traditional attire File:Bardarash mosque.jpg, Mosque at Bardarash

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{Commons category Populated places in Dohuk Province Kurdish settlements in Iraq Populated places in Nineveh Governorate Subdistricts of Iraq