Duhok

Duhok, also spelled Dihok (Arabic: دهوك‎,[2] Kurdish: Dihok ,دهۆک‎,[3][4] Syriac: ܒܝܬ ܢܘܗܕܪܐ‎, romanized: Beth Nohadra[5][6][7]) is the capital of the Duhok Governorate in Iraq's Kurdistan Region. The city is encircled by mountains along the Tigris river. Duhok has a growing tourist industry. Its population has increased rapidly since the 1990s, as the rural population moved to the cities after villages were destroyed by the Iraqi Army during the 1991 uprisings in Iraq. The University of Duhok, founded in 1992, is a renowned center for teaching and research. The city of Duhok is natively populated by Kurds and Assyrians.

Duhok
City
View on Duhok with the Duhok Dam in the background
Duhok
Duhok
Duhok (Iraq)
Coordinates: 36°52′N 43°0′E
Country Iraq
Region Kurdistan
GovernorateDuhok Governorate
DistrictDuhok District
Government
 • MayorAli Tattar
Elevation
1,854 ft (565 m)
Population
 (2018)
 • Total340,900+[1]
Time zoneUTC+3 (Arabian Standard Time)
Postcode
42001
Area code(s)062
Websitehttp://duhok.gov.krd

Duhok Governorate contains many mosques and historical shrines and tombs built during the Ayyubid period and historical sites from the Guti Medes, and still exist in the present, including the Great Duhok Mosque, the Azadi Mosque, the Saladin Salah Din Al - Ayoubi Mosque and the Great Mosque in Akre. It also has historical churches such as the Mar Odisho Church in the village of Dooreh (located in the Amadiya District), the Church of Mart Shmoni and the Church of Sultana Mahdokht (established in 325 AD) in the village of Araden. Located in Sheikhan district is the Yazidi Lalish Temple.

Etymology

Duhok is probably derived from the Duhuka people, an Indo-European Hittite tribe, who along with Khilakki tribe dwelt in 24 cities in the mountains of modern southern Turkey, north of Habur and Duhok. They were vassals of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, however, after they refused to submit to the yoke of Esarhaddon, he led an expedition against them and subjugated them.[8][9][10]

History

Throughout history to the present time, Duhok has acquired a strategic position historically and geographically. It has changed hands between Akkadians, Sumerians, Assyrians, Amorites, Gutians, Hurrians, Hattians, Persians, Arabs, Turks.

Between 25th century BCE to 15th century BCE the area was inhabited by non Semitic Subarians and Hurrians. In 15th century BCE the Assyrians conquered the region after the fall of the Mittanian Empire until 7th century BCE. Under the rule of Assyrians it was named to Nohadra (and also Bit Nuhadra or Naarda). It became part of the Median Empire but later came under the control of the Persian empire. During Parthian-Sassanid Beth Nuhadra was part of Adiabene, During the Christian era it became an eparchy within the Church of the East's metropolitanate of Ḥadyab (Erbil).[11][12]

The city became prominent again in 1236, when Hasan Beg Saifadin joined the Kurdish Badinan principality. In 1842, the principality was dissolved by the Ottomans and the region administered from the city of Mosul.[13]

Duhok by night

In 1898 there were eleven small private schools in the city, including two Christian and two Jewish schools. In 1920 there were, in all of Iraq, only five primary schools that were accessible for girls, and one of them was in Duhok.

In September 2005, Duhok held a cultural festival for the first time to which Kurdish writers from many countries were invited. Duhok has been a center for many refugees since 2014 as the Kurdistan Regional Government was the only part of Iraq to take in both Iraqi and Syrian refugees.

Demographics

Multiple travelers commented on its ethnic composition in the 19th and early 20th century.

In 1820, Rich described it as a small town of 300 houses, which was the principal site of the Doski tribe, together with eighty other villages. The missionary Henry Aaron Stern (1851) commented on Duhok's mixed population and noted that it included Jewish residents, adding that the kiahya, or mayor of the village, was a Chaldean Catholic. In 1859, Rabbi Yehiel found there two minyans of Jews. The Muslims and Christians formed about a hundred households. In 1929, its settled population was about 3,500 inhabitants, with Kurds forming the majority. Out of the 550 households, 65 were Christian and 30 were Jewish. A sizeable number of Nestorian refugees previously from Tiyari and a lesser number of Chaldeans from the Turkish districts of Merga and Bothan migrated into Duhok in the aftermath of World War I. In 1929, the qada of Duhok had a mixed population of 29,858, composed mostly of Muslim Kurds (18,307), Christians 5,784 (19.3%), Muslim Arabs 2,068, Yezidis 2,870, and Jews 829 (2.7%).[14]

The city's population is 340,000. It consists mostly of Kurds with a significant Assyrian, Chaldean and Syriac communities. The Assyrians of Duhok boast one of the largest churches in the region, the Mar Marsi Cathedral, and is the center of an eparchy.[15] Tens of thousands of Yazidi and Assyrian Christian internally displaced persons (IDPs) live in the city as well due to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) expansion in Iraq in 2014 and the subsequent Fall of Mosul and the Nineveh Plains region after two more months of fighting, in addition to the Sinjar massacre in which 5,000 Yezidis were massacred during the genocide of Yazidis by ISIL.[16][17] According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM-Iraq), as of June 2019, Duhok Governorate hosted 326,106 IDPs across 169 different locations.[18]

Educational institutions

Educational institutions in Duhok include:

  • University of Duhok
  • Duhok Polytechnic University
  • Nawroz University
  • Duhok Private Technical Institute
  • University of Cihan
  • Sardam International School
  • Da Vinci World School
  • Da Vinci institute

Sport
Duhok Stadium

The city is home to several sporting clubs including Duhok SC, a professional football club that plays in the Iraqi Premier League. Another football team from the city is Zeravani SC, which plays in the Kurdish Premier League. Duhok also has a range of other sport clubs, including the Duhok Basketball Club. Duhok SC Basketball competes in the Iraqi Division I Basketball League and came third in FIBA Asia Champions Cup in 2012.

Duhok SC won the Iraqi Premier League championship for the first time in the 2009/2010 season, beating Al-Talaba SC 1–0.

Duhok International Airport

Duhok International Airport is the third airport in Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Climate

According to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification system, Duhok has a borderline semi-arid (BSh) and Mediterranean climate (Csa) with extremely hot, prolonged, dry summers and mild to cool, wet winters, similar to most of Upper Mesopotamia. Precipitation falls in the cooler months, being heaviest in late winter and early spring. The city can get around two or three snowy days per year, with heavier falls in the uplands. Summers are virtually dry, with rain returning in late autumn.

Climate data for Duhok, Iraq
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 20
(68)		 27
(81)		 30
(86)		 34
(93)		 38
(100)		 41
(106)		 45
(113)		 46
(115)		 44
(111)		 39
(102)		 31
(88)		 24
(75)		 46
(115)
Average high °C (°F) 11
(52)		 14
(57)		 19
(66)		 24
(75)		 32
(90)		 38
(100)		 42
(108)		 41
(106)		 37
(99)		 29
(84)		 20
(68)		 13
(55)		 27
(80)
Daily mean °C (°F) 7
(45)		 10
(50)		 14
(57)		 18
(64)		 25
(77)		 31
(88)		 34
(93)		 34
(93)		 29
(84)		 22
(72)		 14
(57)		 9
(48)		 21
(69)
Average low °C (°F) 3
(37)		 5
(41)		 9
(48)		 13
(55)		 18
(64)		 23
(73)		 27
(81)		 26
(79)		 21
(70)		 15
(59)		 8
(46)		 6
(43)		 15
(58)
Record low °C (°F) −4
(25)		 −6
(21)		 −1
(30)		 3
(37)		 6
(43)		 10
(50)		 13
(55)		 17
(63)		 11
(52)		 4
(39)		 −2
(28)		 −2
(28)		 −6
(21)
Average rainfall mm (inches) 101
(4.0)		 120
(4.7)		 111
(4.4)		 70
(2.8)		 38
(1.5)		 0
(0)		 0
(0)		 0
(0)		 1
(0.0)		 10
(0.4)		 57
(2.2)		 108
(4.3)		 616
(24.3)
Average precipitation days 9 9 10 9 4 1 0 0 1 3 6 10 62
Average snowy days 1 0 — 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — —
Average relative humidity (%) 60 53 46 39 23 15 13 15 17 28 42 62 34
Source 1: My Forecast[19]
Source 2: Levoyageur for rainfall[20]

Archaeology

In 2020, researches discovered in Balyuz hills, ten kilometers west of Duhok city, an ancient tablet with Greek inscription which dates back to 165 B.C. The inscriptions refers to Demetrius, the ruler of the region during that time.[21]

See also

References
  1. "Iraq: Governorates, Major Cities & Urban Centers - Population Statistics, Maps, Charts, Weather and Web Information". www.citypopulation.de.
  2. "مقتل وإصابة ثلاثة من "البشمركة" بهجوم لـ"الكردستاني" في دهوك". The New Arab (in Arabic). Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  3. "K24 rêjeya dengdanê li navçeyên cuda yên Herêma Kurdistan belav kir". Kurdistan24 (in Kurdish). Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  4. "كوردستانی سەرسوڕهێنەر- وێبسایتی فەرمی دەستەی گشتی گەشت و گوزار". bot.gov.krd. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  5. Kadr, Salahden Ghareb (2010). Klimatische Optimierung von verdichteten Wohnhäusern in Irakisch-Kurdistan (in German). Univerlagtuberlin. ISBN 978-3-7983-2238-7.
  6. Scheler, Claudia Rammelt (Hg ) in Verbindung mit Jan Gehm und Rebekka (2019-04-26). Pluralität und Koexistenz, Gewalt, Flucht und Vertreibung: Christliche, jesidische und muslimische Lebenswelten in den gegenwärtigen Umbrüchen im Nahen Osten (in German). LIT Verlag Münster. ISBN 978-3-643-14293-1.
  7. "Duhok". Retrieved Oct 6, 2020.
  8. Williams, Henry (2018). Ancient Mesopotamia. Ozymandias Press. ISBN 978-1-5312-6292-1.
  9. Campbell, John (1891). The Hittites: Their Inscriptions and Their History. J.C. Nimmo. p. 248.
  10. Williams, Henry Smith. The Historians' History of the World Vol.1 (of 25) (Illustrations): Prolegomena; Egypt, Mesopotamia. THE TROW PRESS.
  11. Société des études arméniennes, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Association de la revue des études arméniennes (1989). Revue des études arméniennes, Volume 21. pp. 303, 309.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. NAARDA, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854)
  13. BAHDĪNĀN. "Encyclopaedia Iranica". www.iranicaonline.org.
  14. M. Zaken, Jewish Subjects and Their Tribal Chieftains in Kurdistan, 376 pp., Brill, 2007.
  15. Mar Narsi church. "Dhouk". www.ishtartv.com.
  16. Khalel, Sheren; Vickery, Matthew (27 October 2014). "The Forgotten Yazidis". Foreign Policy Magazine.
  17. Interactive. "Iraq's exodus". www.aljazeera.com.
  18. "DTM-IOM-Iraq Mission". iraqdtm.iom.int. Retrieved 2019-08-08.
  19. "Dahuk, Iraq Climate". My Forecast. Retrieved 2014-01-04.
  20. "Climate, weather, temperatures - City : DUHOK". Levoyageur. Retrieved 2014-01-04.
  21. Researchers in Kurdistan's Duhok find artifact over 2,000 years old
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