Tikrit

Tikrit (تكريت, also transliterated as Takrit or Tekrit) is a town in Iraq, located 140 km northwest of Baghdad on the Tigris river (at 34.61°N, 43.68°E). The town, with an estimated population in 2002 of about 28,900, is the administrative centre of the province of Salah ad Din.

Related Topics:
Iraq - 140 km - Baghdad - Tigris river - 2002 - Salah ad Din

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The town is first mentioned in the "Fall of Assyria Chronicle", as being a refuge for the Babylonian king Nabopolassar during his attack on the city of Assur in 615 BCE. Over a thousand years ago, it possessed a fortress and a large Christian monastery. It was renowned as a centre for the production of woolen textiles. Around 1137, the legendary Kurdish leader Saladin was born there; among his many achievements he defended Egypt against the Crusaders, and recaptured Jerusalem in 1187. The modern province of which Tikrit is the capital is named after him. The town, and much of Iraq with it, was devastated in the 14th century by the Mongol invasion under Timur Lenk. In September 1917, British forces captured the town during a major advance against the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

Related Topics:
Assyria - Nabopolassar - Assur - Christian - 1137 - Kurdish - Saladin - Egypt - Crusader - Jerusalem - 1187 - 14th century - Mongol - Timur Lenk - 1917 - British - Ottoman Empire - World War I

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The town is now perhaps best known for being the birthplace in 1937 of the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who frequently liked to compare himself with Saladin. Many senior members of the Iraqi government during his rule were drawn from Saddam's own Tikriti tribe, the Al Bu Nasir, as were members of his Iraqi Republican Guard, chiefly because Saddam apparently felt that he was most able to rely on relatives and allies of his family. The Tikriti domination of the Iraqi government became something of an embarrassment to Saddam and prompted him in 1977 to abolish the use of surnames in Iraq to conceal the fact that so many of his key supporters bore the same surname, al-Tikriti (as did Saddam himself).

Related Topics:
1937 - Saddam Hussein - Iraqi Republican Guard - 1977

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