Al Anbar Governorate
Al Anbar Province
محافظة الأنبار Anbar Province | |
---|---|
Anbar Governorate | |
UTC+3 | |
ISO 3166 code | IQ-AN |
HDI (2017) | 0.684[1] medium |
Website | anbar |
Al Anbar Governorate (
The governorate was known as Ramadi up to 1976 when it was renamed Al Anbar Province, and it was known as Dulaim before 1962. A large majority of the inhabitants of the province are Arab
In early 2014, the
Etymology
The name of the governorate in
Dulaim is the old name of the governorate due to the Dulaim tribe inhabiting the region. It was also called Liwa Al-Dulaim (لواء الدليم) in the Ottoman period and Sanjak Al-Dulaim in the seventeenth century.
History
Al Dulaim Tribe
Al Anbar was known as the Dulaim Province to the concentration of Dulaim Tribe in this region and before them, it was informally named as Sanjak Al Dulaim. During the Ottoman period, the province of Dulaim was created, today known as Al Anbar Governorate. In 1706, Sheikh Itha bin Hamad was appointed as its ruler. But it came into its current form in the 1930s when Iraq was a monarchy.[citation needed]
King Faisal I of Iraq visited the province on July 31, 1921. He was received by Sheikh Ali Al Sulaimani, the ruler of the province, and 6,000 members of the tribe.[citation needed]
Caliphate period
During the reign of
During the Abbasid era in the reign of Caliph
Geography
Anbar is one of the driest governorates in Iraq's western desert climate. Some of Al Anbar is part of the Syrian Desert, characterized by steppe and desert terrain. Most of Al Anbar is considered as a topographical continuation of the Arabian Peninsula plateau region. It has some small hills and a number of wadis, including Wadi Hauran. Given a decline in land preservation and a lack of natural vegetation, the land is often exposed to the elements and prone to severe erosion.
Among the most important agricultural crops are
Climate
The average rainfall in Al Anbar is 115 millimeters (4.53 in) per year. Summer temperatures may reach as high as 52°C (125°F) and may fall as low as 0°C (32°F) in the winter. The Euphrates River is the main water source for residents of the governorate. The river flows southeasterly through seven of Al Anbar's districts:
- Al-Qa'im District
- Anah District
- Haditha District
- Hit District
- Rawah District
- Ramadi District
- Fallujah District
- Ar-Rutba District
Government
- Governor: Sheikh Mohammed Ali Wilber Al-Dulaimi
- Deputy Governor: Ibrahim Al Asal
- Technical Governor's councilor : Engineer Adil Bardan
- Provincial Council Chairman (PCC): Ahmed Hamid al-Alwani[2]
Demographics
Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1977 | 466,100 | — | ||
1987 | 820,690 | +5.82% | ||
1997 | 1,023,736 | +2.24% | ||
2009 | 1,483,359 | +3.14% | ||
2018 | 1,771,656 | +1.99% | ||
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Source: Citypopulation[3] |
In the 1920s, the governorate had a population of 250,000, as did Baghdad, out of a total population of 2 million in Iraq. Today there are 9 million people living in Baghdad, among them a million Anbari people in the city and suburbs; their origins are the people of the Al-Anbar tribes that have moved to Baghdad during the past 500 years and their recent migrations there during the 1920s and 1930s.
Half of the residents in Anbar are living on the banks of the
Districts | Population |
Ramadi | 620,480 |
Fallujah | 590,354 |
Khalidiya | 44,274 |
Heet | 120,414 |
Al-Qa'im | 180,646 |
Rutba | 49,118 |
Haditha | 107,384 |
Anah | 38,154 |
Rawa | 29,643 |
According to
It is estimated that around 90 percent of Anbar's inhabitants are adherents of the Sunni branch of Islam. The remaining ten percent are either
Important mosques in Al Anbar Governorate
The governorate contains a lot of mosques, monuments, and shrines.
Mosque | City |
---|---|
Great state Masjid | Ramadi |
Great Masjid of Ramadi | Ramadi |
Masjid of Sadiq al-Amin | Ramadi |
Notable people from Al Anbar Governorate
- Douglas Aziz (footballer)
- Jamal al-Dhari (tribal leader)
- Gewargis III (religious leader)
- Erfan al-Hiyali (politician)
- Jamal Al-Karboli (politician)
- Fawzi Mutlaq al-Rawi (politician)
Governors Al Anbar Governorate (since 2003)
List of governors in post-Ba'athist Iraq:
- Abdul Karim Bujras al-Rawi
- Faisal Al Gaood (acting)
- Raja Nawaf Farhan al-Mahalawi
- Mamoon Sami Rashid al-Alawani
- Qasim Al-Fahadawi
- Ahmad Khalaf Muhammed al-Dulaimi
- Suhaib al-Rawi
- Mohammed Rikan Al Halbousi
- Ali Farhan Hameed
Anbar during U.S. occupation
The geographic challenge of the Anbar Governorate is demonstrated by two contrasting facts: while it is Iraq's largest governorate, it also is the most sparsely populated. For a governorate that is approximately the size of Bangladesh, it is home to fewer than 1.8 million Iraqis. Most of the population lives in the major cities, like Ramadi and Fallujah, and almost everyone else lives within a short distance of the Euphrates River that snakes from Baghdad to the Syrian border near Al-Qa'im.[7] Its strategic challenge was demonstrated, in part, by casualty statistics. During the first four years of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), the Anbar Province was the deadliest province for American service members, claiming approximately one-third of American fatalities.[7]
The Anbar Province was the Sunni stronghold that had long provided Saddam Hussein with the support he needed to remain in power.
The contrast between the fertile Euphrates River Valley and the rest of the province is striking. Along the Euphrates, groves of fruits and vegetables and acre after acre of date palms are surrounded by a lushness that paints the area a vivid green. Just a few miles from the Euphrates, however, the barren landscape turns brown. With the exception of an occasional Bedouin, the desert is essentially empty. Whether traveling by aircraft, vehicle, or on foot, the Anbar Governorate is vast. During a time when mining roads became a strategy of choice for insurgents, the need to patrol and travel throughout the province became one of the Marine Corps' greatest challenges. The threat of insurgent activity, when combined with the challenges that long-distance travel, choking dust, and stifling heat created, made the Anbar Province a difficult area of operation.[7]
Cities and towns
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See also
- Anbar campaign (2013–14)
- 2005 Al-Anbar governorate council election
- Abdul Sattar Abu Risha
- Anbar Awakening
- First Battle of Fallujah
- Operation Phantom Fury
- Battle of Ramadi
- Battle of Haditha
References
- ^ "Sub-national HDI - Area Database - Global Data Lab". hdi.globaldatalab.org. Retrieved 2018-09-13.
- ^ Omar Sattar (5 December 2016). "Has political crisis in Iraq's Anbar reached a dead end?". Al-Monitor. Retrieved 2017-01-03.
- ^ "Population of Governorates". www.citypopulation.de.
- ^ Parfit, Joseph T. (1920). Marvellous Mesopotamia, The World's Wonderland. London: S. W. Partridge & co., ltd. p. 15.
- ^ "UN Data 2003". iraqcoalition.org. Archived from the original on 2006-12-15. Retrieved 2018-01-01.
- ^ "Irakische Streitkräfte starten Rückeroberung Ramadis". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 2015-05-26.
- ^ a b c d e f "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-09-15. Retrieved 2012-07-25.
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