Muthanna Governorate ( ar, المثنى ''Al Muthannā'') or Al Muthanna Province, is a

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

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 the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

, named after the 7th-century Arab general

al-Muthanna ibn Haritha use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , death_cause = , body_discovered = , resting_place = , resting_place_coordinates = ...

. It is in the south of the country, bordering

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

And

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

. Its capital is the city of Samawah.

History

Before 1976 it was part of the Diwaniya Province, which included present-day

Najaf Governorate Najaf Governorate ( ar, النجف, an-Najaf) or Najaf Province is a governorate in central and southern Iraq. The capital is the city of Najaf. The other major city is Al Kufah. Both cities are holy to Shia Muslims, who form the majority of the p ...

and

al-Qādisiyyah Governorate Al-Qadisiyah Governorate ( ar, القادسية, translit=Al Qādisiyah), also known as Al-Diwaniyah Governorate ( ar, ٱلدِّيوَانِيَّة ''ad-Dīwānīyah''), is one of the governorates of Iraq. It is in the center-south of the count ...

. Samawah is very close to the ancient Sumerian- Babylonian city of

Uruk Uruk, also known as Warka or Warkah, was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia) situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.Harm ...

(

Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...

: ''Erech''), which is possibly the source of the name

. After the decline of Babylon following the

Seleucid The Seleucid Empire (; grc, Βασιλεία τῶν Σελευκιδῶν, ''Basileía tōn Seleukidōn'') was a Greek state in West Asia that existed during the Hellenistic period from 312 BC to 63 BC. The Seleucid Empire was founded by the ...

founding of Seleucia, Uruk became the largest city in southern Babylonia, and its name (''Erech'') came to replace ''Babili'' (Babylonia), as the city long outlived the former capital, surviving into the 7th century AD. In February 1991 it was the location of one of the largest tank battles in history during the

Persian Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

, the

Battle of Norfolk The Battle of Norfolk was a tank battle fought on February 27, 1991, during the Persian Gulf War, between armored forces of the United States and United Kingdom, and those of the Iraqi Republican Guard in the Muthanna Province of southern Iraq. T ...

Demographics

Provincial government

*Governor: Mohammed Ali Al-Hassani *Deputy Governor: Sami Al-Hassani *Chairman of Al-Muthanna Provincial Council: Abdul Latif Al-Hassani

References

Governorates of Iraq {{Iraq-geo-stub