Amedi or Amadiya ( ku, ئامێدی, Amêdî, ;

Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages a ...

: , Amədya), is a town in the Duhok Governorate of

Kurdistan Region Kurdistan Region ( ku, هەرێمی کوردستان, translit=Herêmî Kurdistan; ar, إقليم كردستان), abbr. KRI, is an autonomous region in Iraq comprising the four Kurdish-majority governorates of Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Duhok ...

of Iraq. It is built on a

mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by a ...

in the broader

Great Zab The Great Zab or Upper Zab ( (''al-Zāb al-Kabīr''), or , , ''(zāba ʻalya)'') is an approximately long river flowing through Turkey and Iraq. It rises in Turkey near Lake Van and joins the Tigris in Iraq south of Mosul. The drainage basin o ...

river valley.

Etymology

According to

Ali ibn al-Athir Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ash-Shaybānī, better known as ʿAlī ʿIzz ad-Dīn Ibn al-Athīr al-Jazarī ( ar, علي عز الدین بن الاثیر الجزري) lived 1160–1233) was an Arab or Kurdish historian ...

, the name Amadiya is eponymous to

Imad al-Din Zengi Imad al-Din Zengi ( ar, عماد الدین زنكي; – 14 September 1146), also romanized as Zangi, Zengui, Zenki, and Zanki, was a Turkmen atabeg, who ruled Mosul, Aleppo, Hama, and, later, Edessa. He was the namesake of the Zengid ...

who built a fortress there in 1142. Another theory is that the name is named after

Imad al-Dawla Ali ibn Buya ( fa, علی بن بویه, ar, علی بن بویه), commonly known by his '' laqab'' (honorific epithet) Imad al-Dawla (; c. 891/2 – December 949), was the founder of the Buyid amirate of Fars, ruling as its ''amir'' (ruler) ...

, but this theory is less likely. According to Professor Jeffrey Szuchman, Amedi is of

Hurrian The Hurrians (; cuneiform: ; transliteration: ''Ḫu-ur-ri''; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri or Hurriter) were a people of the Bronze Age Near East. They spoke a Hurrian language and lived in Anatolia, Syria and Norther ...

or Urartian origin.

History

From Early Bronze Age until it came under the control of the

Mitanni Mitanni (; Hittite cuneiform ; ''Mittani'' '), c. 1550–1260 BC, earlier called Ḫabigalbat in old Babylonian texts, c. 1600 BC; Hanigalbat or Hani-Rabbat (''Hanikalbat'', ''Khanigalbat'', cuneiform ') in Assyrian records, or '' Naharin'' ...

Empire in the 16th century BCE, Amedi region was part of the kingdom of

Kurda Kurda was an ancient city-state and kingdom located in Northern Mesopotamia. Kurda emerged during the Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia) and is attested in the administrative texts of this era as a city state and geographical territory in Upper Me ...

and it was entirely inhabited by non Semitic Subarians. During the rule of the Mittanian Empire the inhabitants of this region were known as Zubarians. After the fall of the Mittanian Empire, the city of Amedi was conquered by Ashurnasirpal I of

Assyria Assyria ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...

in 11th century BCE after he fought the Nairi and Barzani people. After the fall of the Assyrian Empire, the Amedi region came under the rule of the

Medes The Medes ( Old Persian: ; Akkadian: , ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were an ancient Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media between western and northern Iran. Around the 11th century BC, ...

. When Xenophon passed through the region in 4th century BCE he referred to its inhabitants as Medes. Later Amedi area was incorporated into the

Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest em ...

under the name of Media Magna. Under the rule of

Parthian Empire The Parthian Empire (), also known as the Arsacid Empire (), was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe in conqu ...

Amedi region was part of the Barchan (Barzan) district. eventually it became an integral part of

Sasanian Empire The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...

in the district of Adiabene until it was conquered by the Muslims in 640s, after they defeated the Kurds in Tikrit, Mosul and Saharzor. Then, for several centuries, after the expulsion of the

caliphs A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

from Baghdad in the 7th century, it was ruled by a

pasha Pasha, Pacha or Paşa ( ota, پاشا; tr, paşa; sq, Pashë; ar, باشا), in older works sometimes anglicized as bashaw, was a higher rank in the Ottoman political and military system, typically granted to governors, generals, dignita ...

from the royal Abbas family, reputed to be one of the richest families in the region. Amedi was the birthplace of the pseudo-Messiah,

David Alroy David Alroy or Alrui ( ar, داود ابن الروحي, , fl. 1160), also known as Ibn ar-Ruhi and David El-David, was a Jewish Messiah claimant born in Amadiya, Iraq under the name Menaḥem ben Solomon (). David Alroy studied Torah and Talmud ...

(

fl. ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...

1160). In 1163, according to Joseph ha-Kohen's "'Emeḳ ha-Baka", the Jewish population numbered about a thousand families and traded in gall-nuts. Alroy led a revolt against the city but was apparently defeated and killed in the process. The Spanish Jewish historian R. Schlomo Ibn Verga (1450–1525) portrayed the Jewish community of Amadiya at the time of Alroy as wealthy and contented. Amedi was the seat of the semi-autonomous Badinan Emirate, which lasted from 1376 to 1843. There are ruins of the Qubahan School in Amedi which was founded during the region of Sultan Hussein Wali of Bahdinan(1534-1576) AD for the study of Islamic Sciences. There are also ruins of a synagogue and a tomb attributed to Ezekiel a church in the small town. One of the icons of the city is the

Great Mosque of Amadiya Great Mosque of Amadiya () is a historic mosque in the town of Amadiya, Iraqi Kurdistan. It was first founded in 1177 during the Abbasid era, and has been renovated several times throughout its history. Description The iconic minaret, which rea ...

which dates back to the 12th century and the oldest and largest in the region. In 1760, the Dominican Leopoldo Soldini founded a mission for Kurdistan in Amedi, with his colleague Maurizio Garzoni. Garzoni lived there for fourteen years and composed a 4,600 word Italian-Kurdish dictionary and grammar. The dictionary is a key work because it represents the first study of the Kurdish grammar and language; for this reason, Garzoni is often called the “father of Kurdology”. In 1907, the population numbered 6,000, of whom 2,500 were

Kurds ug:كۇردلار Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian peoples, Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Ir ...

, 1,900

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

and 1,600

Chaldean Catholic , native_name_lang = syc , image = Assyrian Church.png , imagewidth = 200px , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows Baghdad, Iraq , abbreviation = , type ...

Assyrians.

Geography

Climate

Amedi has a hot-summer

Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

: ''Csa'') with hot summers and cool, wet winters. Being the most northerly city in Iraq, it is the mildest major city in the country. Snow falls occasionally in the winter.

Gallery

File:Badinanporten.jpg, Citadel of Al Amadiya Badinan-Gate-Amedia-Iraq-August-2009.jpg, The Badinan Gate, and the entrance to the Citadel File:Minaret of the main mosque in Amedi 2.jpg,

Image:Amadiya gate 1994.jpg Amedi city, Dihok.jpg Image:Amedi From Badinan Gate.jpg

Notable people

Tahsin Taha Tahsin Muhammed Salim Taha ( Kurdish:تەحسین محەممەد سليم تەھا) (25 May 1941 - 28 May 1995). was a Kurdish singer. Taha was born in Amadiya District in Iraqi Kurdistan. Tahsin Taha finished his school in the city of Amadiya a ...

References

External links

{{Authority control Cities in Iraqi Kurdistan Assyrian communities in Iraq Kurdish settlements in Iraq Populated places in Dohuk Province Historic Jewish communities in Iraq District capitals of Iraq Mesas