Al-Rumaitha

Last updated
Al-Rumaitha
City
Iraq adm location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Al-Rumaitha
Coordinates: 31°31′15″N45°12′06″E / 31.5209300°N 45.2016870°E / 31.5209300; 45.2016870 Coordinates: 31°31′15″N45°12′06″E / 31.5209300°N 45.2016870°E / 31.5209300; 45.2016870
Country Flag of Iraq.svg  Iraq
Governorates Al Muthanna Governorate
Established1820
Elevation
9 m (30 ft)
Population
 (2014)
  Total115,431
Time zone UTC+3 (AST)

Al-Rumaitha City is a city in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. It is the capital of Al-Rumaitha District. Its population in 2014 was 115,431. The economy is predominantly agricultural, specializing in the production of date palms and grains.

Contents

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 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 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 and Nasiriya to Baghdad. In 1920, the Iraqi revolt against the British began in al-Rumaitha on 30 June, after the British arrested Sheikh Shaalan Abu al-Jun of the al-Dhuwalim tribe. [1] 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 and participated in the anti-British Al-Wathbah uprising 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 and Nuri al-Said.

Geography

Rumaitha is located beside one of the branches of the Euphrates River. It is approximately 25 kilometers north of Samawah, and several roads link the two cities.

Related Research Articles

Ibn Saud Founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (1875–1953)

Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud, known in the West as Ibn Saud, was an Arab tribal, political, and religious leader who founded Saudi Arabia, the third Saudi state. He reigned as the first king of Saudi Arabia from 23 September 1932 to his death in 1953. He had ruled parts of the kingdom since 1902, having previously been Emir, Sultan, and King of Nejd, and King of Hejaz.

Faisal I of Iraq 1st king of Hashemite Iraq from 1921 to 1933

Faisal I bin Al-Hussein bin Ali Al-Hashemi was King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria or Greater Syria in 1920, and was King of Iraq from 23 August 1921 to 1933. He was the third son of Hussein bin Ali, the Grand Emir and Sharif of Mecca, who was proclaimed as King of the Arabs in June 1916.

Yasin al-Hashimi 4th and 17th prime minister of Iraq (1884–1937)

Yasin al-Hashimi, born Yasin Hilmi Salman, was an Iraqi politician who twice served as the prime minister. Like many of Iraq's early leaders, al-Hashimi served as a military officer during Ottoman control of the country. He made his political debut under the government of his predecessor, Jafar al-Askari, and replaced him as prime minister shortly after, in August 1924. Al-Hashimi served for ten months before he was replaced, in turn by Abd al-Muhsin as-Sa'dun. Over the next ten years he filled a variety of governmental positions finally returning to the office of prime minister in March 1935. On 30 October 1936, Hashimi became the first Iraqi prime minister to be deposed in a coup, which was led by General Bakr Sidqi and a coalition of ethnic minorities. Unlike al-Askari, who was then his minister of defense, al-Hashimi survived the coup and made his way to Damascus, Syria, where he died three months later. His older brother and close ally, Taha al-Hashimi, served as Prime Minister of Iraq in 1941.

Nuri al-Said Iraqi politician (1888–1958)

Nuri Pasha al-Said CH was an Iraqi politician during the British mandate in Iraq and the Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq. He held various key cabinet positions and served fourteen terms as the prime minister of Iraq.

Gertrude Bell English writer, traveller, political officer and archaeologist

Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist who explored, mapped, and became highly influential to British imperial policy-making due to her knowledge and contacts, built up through extensive travels in Syria-Palestine, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia. Along with T. E. Lawrence, Bell helped support the Hashemite dynasties in what is today Jordan as well as in Iraq.

Al Anbar Governorate Governorate of Iraq

Al Anbar Governorate, or Anbar Province, is the largest governorate in Iraq by area. Encompassing much of the country's western territory, it shares borders with Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. The provincial capital is Ramadi; other important cities include Fallujah and Al-Qa'im.

Mandatory Iraq Former country

The Kingdom of Iraq under British Administration, or Mandatory Iraq, was created in 1921, following the 1920 Iraqi Revolt against the proposed British Mandate of Mesopotamia, and enacted via the 1922 Anglo-Iraqi Treaty and a 1924 undertaking by the United Kingdom to the League of Nations to fulfil the role as Mandatory Power.

Shammar

The tribe of Shammar is a tribal Arab Qahtan confederation, descended from the ancient Yemeni tribe of Qahtan as they originated in Yemen before migrating into present day Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest and most influential Arab tribes. The historical and traditional seat of the tribe's leadership is in the city of Ha'il in what was the Emirate of Jabal Shammar in Saudi Arabia. In its "golden age", around 1850, the tribe ruled much of central and northern Arabia from Riyadh to the frontiers of Syria and the vast area known as Al Jazira in Northern Iraq.

Kingdom of Iraq Independent Iraqi monarchy (1932 – 1958)

The Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq was a state located in the Middle East from 1932 to 1958.

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 Army, against the British who published the new land ownership and the burial taxes at Najaf. The revolt gained momentum when it spread to the largely tribal Shia regions of the middle and lower Euphrates. Sheikh Mehdi Al-Khalissi was a prominent Shia leader of the revolt. Using heavy artillery and aerial bombardment, the uprising was suppressed by the British.

14 July Revolution 1958 overthrow of the monarchy in Iraq

The 14 July Revolution, also known as the 1958 Iraqi coup d'état, took place on 14 July 1958 in Iraq, and resulted in the overthrow of the Hashemite monarchy in Iraq that had been established by King Faisal I in 1921 under the auspices of the British. King Faisal II, Prince 'Abd al-Ilah, and Prime Minister Nuri al-Said were executed by the military.

Al-Baggara or Bakara is an Arab tribe of the Euphrates tribes spread widely between Syria, Jordan and Turkey. The tribe was named by the name of their grandfather, Imam Muhammad al-Baqir, one of the grandsons of Ali ibn Abi Talib.

Arab Kingdom of Syria 1919–1920 de facto state in Western Asia

The Arab Kingdom of Syria was a self-proclaimed, unrecognized state that began as a "fully and absolutely independent... Arab constitutional government" announced on 5 October 1918 with the permission of the British military, gained de facto independence as an "Emirate" after the withdrawal of the British forces from OETA East on 26 November 1919, and was proclaimed as a Kingdom on 8 March 1920.

Iraqi nationalism

Iraqi nationalism is a form of nationalism which asserts the belief that Iraqis are a nation and promotes the cultural unity of Iraqis of different ethnoreligious groups such as Mesopotamian Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Yazidis, Mandeans, Shabaks, Yarsans, and others. Iraqi nationalism involves the recognition of an Iraqi identity stemming from ancient Mesopotamia including its civilizations and empires of Sumer, Akkad, Babylon and Assyria. Iraqi nationalism influenced Iraq's movement for independence from Ottoman and British occupation. Iraqi nationalism was an important factor in the 1920 Revolution against British occupation, and the 1958 Revolution against the British-installed Hashemite monarchy.

Bani Malik or Banu Malik is one of the major Arab tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. They are descendants of Malik al-Ashtar al-Nakh'ei who fought with Ali ibn Abi Talib, the cousin of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Faisal II of Iraq 3rd and final King of Hashemite Iraq (1939-58)

Faisal II was the last King of Iraq. He reigned from 4 April 1939 until July 1958, when he was killed during the 14 July Revolution. This regicide marked the end of the thirty-seven-year-old Hashemite monarchy in Iraq, which then became a republic.

This is a timeline of major events in the history of the modern state of Jordan.

Ramadan al-Shallash

Ramaḍān Pāshā al-Shallāsh was a prominent rebel commander of the 1925 Great Syrian Revolt and, prior to that, a military officer in the Ottoman and Sharifian armies.

Siege of Najaf (1918) World War 1 Siege

The siege of Najaf was an engagement between the British Army and Iraqi rebels in the city of Najaf during the First World War. The city had fallen under the control of four sheikhs in 1915 after an anti-Ottoman uprising, and was put under British control in 1917. In 1918, as it became clear that the British were aiming to occupy rather than liberate Iraq, an anti-British movement named Jam'iya al-Nahda al-Islamiya was formed in Najaf to oppose British rule. The uprising began on 19 March when a British officer, W.M. Marshall was murdered in the citadel of Najaf. The British subsequently laid siege to the city on 23 March, cutting all supply routes to the city before it ultimately surrendered on 4 May 1918. Rebel leaders were sentenced to death on 25 May. The extent of the rebellion's impact on the development of Iraqi nationalism is disputed.

Sheikh Shaalan bin Inad Abu al-Jun was an Iraqi politician, and one of the leaders of the Iraqi revolt of 1920.

References

  1. Abbas Kadhim (1 November 2012). Reclaiming Iraq: The 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State. University of Texas Press. p. 70. ISBN   978-0-292-73924-6.