Tikrit

Tikrit (Arabic تكريت; also transliterated as Takrit or Tekrit) is a city in Iraq, located 140 km northwest of Baghdad on the Tigris, the river to which it owes its name. In 2002 it had an estimated population of 260,000 inhabitants, and it is the capital of the Governorate of Saladino. In June 2014 it was occupied by forces of the Islamic State terrorist group, and in April 2015, Iraqi troops fully recaptured the city from the Islamic State.

History

Antiquity

As a fortress along the Tigris (Akkadian: Idiqlat), the city is first mentioned in the autumn of the Chronicle of the Fall of Assyria as a refuge for the Babylonian king Nabopolassar during his attack on the city of Assur in 615 B.C. C.

Tikrit is often identified with the Hellenistic settlement of Birtha.

According to tradition, the Christian presence in Tikrit dates back to the first century. The city became an important Christian cultural center, a situation that continued into the first centuries of Muslim rule. Starting in the 9th century, many Christians moved to the north, to the Mosul and Nineveh area, especially due to the growing oppression of the Christian population by Muslim rulers. It was recognized as a center for the production of woolen fabrics. The Arab Uqaylid dynasty seized Tikrit in 1036. Around 1138, the legendary leader Saladin was born there, and his many achievements include defending Egypt against Christian crusaders and recapturing Jerusalem in 1187. He gives his name to the governorate from which he It is capital Tikrit. The city, and much of Iraq with it, was devastated in the 14th century by the Mongol invasion under Tamerlane. In Ottoman times it became a small settlement nestled in the Rakka Eyalate.

20th and 21st centuries

In September 1917, British forces captured the city in a breakthrough against the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

The city is among Westerners known for being the birthplace, in 1937, of Saddam Hussein, who often liked to compare himself to Saladin. Many high-ranking members of the Iraqi government during his rule were drawn from Saddam's own Tikrit tribe, the Al Bu Nasir, as were members of his Iraqi Republican Guard, mostly because Saddam apparently felt he was the most capable. to trust relatives and family allies. The Tikriti domination of the Iraqi government became an embarrassment for Hussein, and in 1977 he abolished the use of surnames in Iraq to hide the fact that many of his key supporters bore the same surname, al-Tikriti (as made by Saddam himself). Saddam Hussein was buried near Tikrit, in his hometown of Owja after he was hanged on December 30, 2006.

Daesh invasion

On June 30, 2014, forces of the Sunni terrorist group Islamic State seized control of the city in the First Battle of Tikrit. The Iraqi government attempted to retake the city three times, without success. However, between March and April 2015, Iraqi forces managed to penetrate and drive the Islamic State out of the city in the Second Battle of Tikrit.

Featured Characters

• Saladin (1138-1193), one of the great rulers of the Islamic world, being sultan of Egypt and Syria and including their Palestinian domains, Mesopotamia, Yemen, Hiyaz and Libya.
• Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr (1914-1982), politician and military, fourth president of Iraq 1968-1979.
• Saddam Hussein (1937–2006), political and military, president of Iraq in the period 1979-2003.