Some more recent sources, including Wikipedia, are listing Tikrit as the capital of Salah ad-Din province. Almost all older sources say it's Samarra, a much larger city. I would like to find a reference to the change of capital, including the date.
Iraqi Kurdistan consists of the provinces of Arbil, Dahuk, At-Ta'mim, As-Sulaymaniyah, and parts of Diyala and Ninawa. There is a provisional Kurdish government functioning there. In summer, 1999, it considered a proposal to create four new provinces in the region under its control. Their names were Aqrah (or Akra), Halabja (Halabjah), Rania, and Soran. On or about 1999-10-10, it formed three new governorates: Aqrah, Halabja, and Harir. As far as I know, the Kurdish government is not internationally recognized, so I wouldn't list them as part of the division of Iraq just yet.
Erratum: In the main table for Iraq on page 185, the population data come from the 1987 census. The population given for Arbil should be 770,439 (the last two digits were transposed). The total population for Iraq should be 16,335,198.
International standard ISO 3166-2 was published on December 15, 1998. It superseded ISO/DIS 3166-2 (draft international standard). For
Iraq, the draft standard showed 18 provinces. The final standard shows the same 18 provinces and the same codes, with two exceptions.
The code for As-Sulaymaniyah has been altered to SU
, and the code for At-Ta'mim has been altered to TS
. Also,
the Arabic name for the type of division is the same as before, but ISO now translates the word into English as "governorates" rather than
"provinces".
Short name | IRAQ |
ISO code | IQ |
FIPS code | IZ |
Language | Arabic (ar) |
Time zone | +3 ~ |
Capital | Baghdad |
In 1900, almost all of Iraq was part of the Ottoman Empire; its southern strip of mostly desert land was in Arabia. The Ottoman Empire was aligned with Germany in World War I. British forces occupied Mesopotamia, or Iraq-Arabi, in 1917. The Treaty of Sèvres (1920) divided up the Ottoman Empire. Iraq was one of the pieces. It was created as a British mandate under the League of Nations. The mandate ended in 1932, whereupon Iraq became independent.
From ~1935 to 1991 there was a lozenge-shaped neutral zone between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. It was occupied only by nomads, and neither Iraq nor Saudi Arabia wanted to be put to the trouble of administering it. After the Persian Gulf War, it was divided evenly between the two countries.
Arabic: well rooted, or lowland
Iraq is divided into 18 muhafazat (sing. muhafazah: provinces).
Province | HASC | FIPS | Population | Area(km.²) | Area(mi.²) | Capital | Pc |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Al-Anbar | IQ.AN | IZ01 | 820,690 | 138,501 | 53,476 | Ar-Ramadi | 31 |
Al-Basrah | IQ.BA | IZ02 | 872,176 | 19,070 | 7,363 | Al-Basrah | 61 |
Al-Muthanna | IQ.MU | IZ03 | 315,815 | 51,740 | 19,977 | As-Samawah | 66 |
Al-Qadisiyah | IQ.QA | IZ04 | 559,805 | 8,153 | 3,148 | Ad-Diwaniyah | 58 |
An-Najaf | IQ.NA | IZ17 | 590,078 | 28,824 | 11,129 | An-Najaf | 54 |
Arbil | IQ.AR | IZ11 | 770,439 | 14,471 | 5,587 | Arbil | 44 |
As-Sulaymaniyah | IQ.SU | IZ05 | 951,723 | 17,023 | 6,573 | As-Sulaymaniyah | 46 |
At-Ta'mim | IQ.TS | IZ13 | 601,219 | 10,282 | 3,970 | Kirkuk | 36 |
Babil | IQ.BB | IZ06 | 1,109,574 | 6,468 | 2,497 | Al-Hillah | 51 |
Baghdad | IQ.BG | IZ07 | 3,841,268 | 734 | 283 | Baghdad | 10 |
Dahuk | IQ.DA | IZ08 | 293,304 | 6,553 | 2,530 | Dahuk | 42 |
Dhi Qar | IQ.DQ | IZ09 | 921,066 | 12,900 | 4,981 | An-Nasiriyah | 64 |
Diyala | IQ.DI | IZ10 | 961,073 | 19,076 | 7,365 | Ba'qubah | 32 |
Karbala' | IQ.KA | IZ12 | 469,282 | 5,034 | 1,944 | Karbala' | 56 |
Maysan | IQ.MA | IZ14 | 487,448 | 16,072 | 6,205 | Al-Amarah | 62 |
Ninawa | IQ.NI | IZ15 | 1,479,430 | 37,323 | 14,410 | Mosul | 41 |
Salah ad-Din | IQ.SD | IZ18 | 726,138 | 24,751 | 9,556 | Samarra | 34 |
Wasit | IQ.WA | IZ16 | 564,670 | 17,153 | 6,623 | Al-Kut | 52 |
18 provinces | 16,335,198 | 434,128 | 167,617 | ||||
|
Iraq uses five-digit postal codes. The first digit indicates the geographic region; the first two digits, the province. The new system was introduced on 2004-05-25 by the Coalition Provisional Authority. According to the press release , Iraq had already developed postal code systems in 1991 and 2003, but they were ineffective.
The provinces are further subdivided into qadhas and nahiyas.
Al-Muthanna includes the Iraqi half of the former Neutral Zone.
The Kurdish Autonomous Region consists of the provinces of Arbil, Dahuk, and As-Sulaymaniyah.
Modern Iraq comprised roughly the vilayets (governorates) of Bagdad, Bassora (or Busra), and Mosul, plus a small section of Zor, under the Ottoman Empire, as well as a northern section of Arabia. A good deal of the western and southern border lies in desert lands, and has remained indefinite until quite recently. All province boundaries, especially those in the desert, have been subject to frequent change.
Province | 1935 | 1947-10-19 | 1957-10-12 | Area(km.²) | Capital | Modern |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Amara | 264,508 | 307,021 | 329,840 | 17,945 | Al-Amarah | Maysan |
Arbil | 180,671 | 239,776 | 273,383 | 15,315 | Irbil | Arbil |
Baghdad | 499,410 | 817,205 | 1,313,012 | 19,922 | Baghdad | Baghdad, Salah ad-Din |
Basra | 286,312 | 368,799 | 503,330 | 18,022 | Al-Basrah | Al-Basrah |
Diwaniya | 416,831 | 378,118 | 520,470 | 83,343 | Ad-Diwaniyah | Al-Qadisiyah, Al-Muthanna, An-Najaf |
Diyala | 215,900 | 272,413 | 329,836 | 15,742 | Ba'qubah | Diyala |
Dulaim | 129,836 | 192,983 | 253,023 | 137,969 | Ar-Ramadi | Al-Anbar |
Hilla | 211,666 | 261,206 | 354,779 | 6,889 | Al-Hillah | Babil |
Karbala | 124,290 | 274,264 | 217,375 | 7,170 | Karbala | Karbala' |
Kirkuk | 223,634 | 286,005 | 388,839 | 19,543 | Kirkuk | At-Ta'mim, As-Sulaymaniyah |
Kut | 138,200 | 224,938 | 295,899 | 14,814 | Al-Kut | Wasit |
Mosul | 453,004 | 595,190 | 755,447 | 50,881 | Mosul | Ninawa, Dahuk |
Muntafiq | 231,990 | 371,867 | 458,848 | 14,452 | An-Nasiriyah | Dhi Qar |
Sulaimani | 184,204 | 226,400 | 304,895 | 11,993 | As-Sulaymaniyah | As-Sulaymaniyah |
14 provs. | 3,560,456 | 4,816,185 | 6,298,976 | 434,000 | ||
|
Spelling note: the original place names are in Arabic. There are many different schemes for transliterating from the Arabic to the Roman alphabet. Many of the variant names are just alternate transliterations of the same name. The definite article "al-" is sometimes omitted or inserted. The l of "al-" is usually assimilated to the following consonant if that consonant is ch, d, n, s, sh, or t.
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