Nasiriyah

Coordinates: 31°02′38″N 46°15′27″E / 31.04389°N 46.25750°E / 31.04389; 46.25750
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Nasiriyah
ٱلنَّاصِرِيَّة
City
Nasiriyah is located in Iraq
Nasiriyah
Nasiriyah
Location of Nasiriyah within Iraq
Coordinates: 31°02′38″N 46°15′27″E / 31.04389°N 46.25750°E / 31.04389; 46.25750
Country Iraq
GovernorateDhi Qar
DistrictNasiriyah
Established1872
Population
 • Estimate 
(2018)[1]
558,446

Nasiriyah (

Shia Muslims.[3]

Nasiriyah was founded by the

Muntafiq tribe in the late 19th century during the Ottoman era.[4] It has since become a major hub for transportation.[3] Nasiriyah is the center of a date-growing area. The city's cottage industries include boat-building, carpentry and silver working.[5] The city museum has a large collection of Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Abbasid artifacts. The ruins of the ancient cities of Ur and Larsa
are nearby and the Euphrates merges with the Tigris for the final time about 10 kilometres from the city.

Climate

Nasiriyah features a hot desert climate (BWh according to the Köppen climate classification), with mild winters and very hot summers. Nasiriyah has an average annual mean of 25.0 °C (77.0 °F), an average annual high of 32.3 °C (90.1 °F) and an average annual low of 17.8 °C (64.0 °F). July, the warmest month, has a mean of 36.4 °C (97.5 °F) and an average high of 44.8 °C (112.6 °F) (August has the same average high), while the coolest month, January, has a mean of 11.6 °C (52.9 °F) and an average low of 6.2 °C (43.2 °F).

Nasiriyah receives 127.7 millimetres (5.03 in) of precipitation annually over 42 precipitation days. Summer is drier than winter, and July and August receive no precipitation at all. The wettest month and the month with the most precipitation days is January, which receives 27.4 millimetres (1.08 in) of precipitation on average over 7 precipitation days.

Climate data for Nasiriya (1991–2020)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 18.2
(64.8) 		21.2
(70.2) 		26.8
(80.2) 		33.0
(91.4) 		39.6
(103.3) 		44.2
(111.6) 		46.1
(115.0) 		46.5
(115.7) 		43.0
(109.4) 		36.4
(97.5) 		26.3
(79.3) 		20.1
(68.2) 		33.5
(92.3)
Daily mean °C (°F) 12.3
(54.1) 		15.1
(59.2) 		20.1
(68.2) 		25.9
(78.6) 		32.5
(90.5) 		36.7
(98.1) 		37.9
(100.2) 		38.2
(100.8) 		34.4
(93.9) 		28.3
(82.9) 		19.4
(66.9) 		13.9
(57.0) 		26.8
(80.2)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) 6.9
(44.4) 		8.9
(48.0) 		13.5
(56.3) 		18.9
(66.0) 		24.7
(76.5) 		27.7
(81.9) 		29.5
(85.1) 		29.2
(84.6) 		25.7
(78.3) 		20.7
(69.3) 		13.3
(55.9) 		8.6
(47.5) 		19.0
(66.2)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 21.4
(0.84) 		14.7
(0.58) 		19.5
(0.77) 		15.0
(0.59) 		3.3
(0.13) 		0.0
(0.0) 		0.0
(0.0) 		0.0
(0.0) 		0.9
(0.04) 		7.3
(0.29) 		22.6
(0.89) 		21.9
(0.86) 		126.6
(4.98)
Average
relative humidity
(%) 		65.8 56.7 46.4 39.4 28.0 20.6 19.6 21.3 25.5 36.3 54.0 64.6 39.8
Source: NOAA[6]

History

Establishment and Ottoman era

beth manda
(house of worship) in Nasiriyah, 2016

Nasiriyah was founded in 1872 by Nasir al-Sadoon Pasha (

mutassarif (tax collector) of Nasiriyah, and by 1908, he virtually governed southern Iraq on their behalf, having curried their favor by strongly supporting the 1908 Young Turk Revolution.[8]

It was a major center of trade in Ottoman Iraq and imported foreign goods via commerce with Baghdad and

mud brick. There were about 350 shops in Nasiriyah as well as five khans (inns). The area surrounding the town was abundant in date palms and grain fields. The town was not protected by a wall like other major administrative centers. In addition to the administrative functions it played for the Muntafiq district, Nasiriyah served as a government outpost and settlement in a generally nomadic region dominated by local Bedouin tribes.[9]

British and Hashemite rule

Spice shop in Nasiriyah in April 2007

During World War I, the British conquered the city, controlled at the time by the Ottoman Empire, in July 1915. Some 400 British and Indian and up to 2,000 Turkish soldiers were killed in the battle for Nasiriyah on 24 July 1915.[10]

In 1920, Nasiriyah had 6,523 inhabitants. The population was ethnically diverse with Arab Muslims accounting for 72.7% of the inhabitants, Jews 8%, Mandeans 9.7%, Persians 4.6%, Lurs 4.3% and Christians, Turks, and Indians forming the remainder of the population.[2]

The Iraqi Communist Party's first cell was founded in Nasiriyah by Yusuf Salman Yusuf (known as "Fahd") in the 1930s.[11] It was also the birthplace of Fuad al-Rikabi, who founded the Iraqi Baath Party in the 1950s. At the time, the Iraqi Baath consisted mostly of people from Nasiriyah, namely Rikabi's relatives and associates.[12]

Gulf War

Kindergarten students from Mumsuna school in Nasiriyah attend the opening of Ziggurat of Ur in 2009 (it had been closed following the U.S. invasion in 2003).

During the 1991

revolt against the rule of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. The revolt was violently subdued by the Iraqi military with heavy loss of life and much physical damage. Many of its inhabitants were massacred by Iraqi government forces.[13]

Until the

Arabic: منطقة الصابئة, lit. 'Sabian Zone'), located on the northern banks of the Euphrates River.[15]

Iraq War

Main article: Battle of Nasiriyah

In March 2003, Nasiriyah was one of the first major battles of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. Phillip Mitchell of the International Institute for Strategic Studies so described the town's strategic importance to The Guardian:

Nasiriyah is a major administrative headquarters and is also [Iraqi General] Majid's military district headquarters. It is a major strategic crossing point of the Euphrates. For all those reasons Nasiriyah will be well defended, which will slow the Mech [invasion] down for a while.

— Phillip Mitchell, Gains in south spur thrust in Baghdad – The Guardian

On March 23, the U.S. invasion force was ambushed near the city: 11 US soldiers were killed and Army Private

truck bomb killed 18 Italian soldiers and 11 civilians in November 2003 (see 2003 Nasiriyah bombing), and clashes erupted here in April 2004.[citation needed
]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Major Cities citypopulation.de
  2. ^ a b Field Museum of Natural History, 1940, p. 258.
  3. ^ a b Mockaitis 2013, p. 291.
  4. ^ a b c d Çetinsaya 2006, p. 88.
  5. ^ Dabrowska & Hann 2008, p. 268.
  6. ^ "World Meteorological Organization Climate Normals for 1991-2020 — Nasiriya". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved January 1, 2024.
  7. ^ a b Dickson 1949, p. 554.
  8. ^ Dickson 1949, p. 556.
  9. ^ Lorimer 1915, pp. 163–164.
  10. ISBN 9781851094202
    . Retrieved 2009-09-13.
  11. ^ Ismael 2008, p. 20.
  12. ^ Al-Ali 2007, p. 74.
  13. ^ Mockaitis 2013, p. 292.
  14. ^ Dabrowska & Hann 2008.
  15. ^ Mandaean community in Nasiriyah.
  16. ^ Marine captain faulted in friendly fire incident – CNN.com

Bibliography

External links

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