Al-Rumaitha City is a city in

Muthanna Governorate Muthanna Governorate ( ar, المثنى ''Al Muthannā'') or Al Muthanna Province, is a province in Iraq, named after the 7th-century Arab general al-Muthanna ibn Haritha. It is in the south of the country, bordering Saudi Arabia And Kuwait. Its ...

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 ...

. It is the capital of

Al-Rumaitha District Al-Rumaitha District ( ar, قضاء الرميثة) is a district of the Al Muthanna Governorate, Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a ...

. Its population in 2014 was 115,431. The economy is predominantly agricultural, specializing in the production of

date palms ''Phoenix dactylifera'', commonly known as date or date palm, is a flowering plant species in the palm family, Arecaceae, cultivated for its edible sweet fruit called dates. The species is widely cultivated across northern Africa, the Middle Eas ...

and grains.

Name

Al-Rumaitha is named after the saxaul plant, ''al-ramth'' in Arabic. It has had other names in the past. It was called al-'Auja (العوجة, ''crooked'') due to the way the river distorts the shape of the city, and al-Abyad (الاأبيض, ''white'') due to the supposed presence of the

white lion The white lion is a rare color mutation of the lion, specifically the Southern African lion. White lions in the area of Timbavati are thought to have been indigenous to the Timbavati region of South Africa for centuries, although the earliest ...

in its environs.

History

The city contains 35 archaeological sites, pertaining to different time periods from the Babylonian to the Islamic eras. During the

British occupation of Iraq The Kingdom of Iraq under British Administration, or Mandatory Iraq ( ar, الانتداب البريطاني على العراق '), was created in 1921, following the 1920 Iraqi Revolt against the proposed British Mandate of Mesopotamia, ...

, the British used al-Rumaitha, at that time a small village, as a military camp to support the supply and transportation of British forces moving from

Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is han ...

and

Nasiriya Nasiriyah ( ar, ٱلنَّاصِرِيَّة; BGN: ''An Nāşirīyah''; also spelled ''Nassiriya'' or ''Nasiriya'') is a city in Iraq. It is on the lower Euphrates, about south-southeast of Baghdad, near the ruins of the ancient city of Ur. ...

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 ...

. In 1920, the

Iraqi revolt against the British The Iraqi revolt against the British, also known as the 1920 Iraqi Revolt or the Great Iraqi Revolution, started in Baghdad in the summer of 1920 with mass demonstrations by Iraqis, including protests by embittered officers from the old Ottoman ...

began in al-Rumaitha on 30 June, after the British arrested Sheikh Shaalan Abu al-Jun of the al-Dhuwalim tribe. Members of his tribe mounted a raid on the government holding facility and freed him. The city also supported the anti-British

1941 Iraqi coup d'état The 1941 Iraqi coup d'état ( ar, ثورة رشيد عالي الكيلاني, ''Thawrah Rašīd ʿAlī al-Kaylānī''), also called the Rashid Ali Al-Gaylani coup or the Golden Square coup, was a nationalist coup d'état in Iraq on 1 April 1941 t ...

and participated in the anti-British

Al-Wathbah uprising The Al-Wathbah uprising ( ar, انتفاضة الوثبة) or simply Al-Wathbah ( ar, الوثبة), which means The Leap in Arabic, was the term that came to be used for the urban unrest in Baghdad in January 1948. The protests were sparked by th ...

of 1948. King Faisal I visited the city in 1922, as did Ghazi in 1937 and Faisal II in 1948, accompanied by

'Abd al-Ilah 'Abd al-Ilah of Hejaz, ( ar, عبد الإله; also written Abdul Ilah or Abdullah; 14 November 1913 – 14 July 1958) was a cousin and brother-in-law of King Ghazi of the Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq and was regent for his first-cousin once r ...

and Nuri al-Said.

Geography

Rumaitha is located beside one of the branches of the

Euphrates River The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers''). Originating in Turkey, the Eup ...

. It is approximately 25 kilometers north of

Samawah , nickname = Samawa , settlement_type = City , motto = , image_skyline = مدينة السماوة.jpg , imagesize = , image_caption = Samawah , image_flag = , fl ...

, and several roads link the two cities.

References

Districts of Muthanna Governorate {{Iraq-geo-stub