From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawler)
Hawler (also written Erbil or Irbil; Arabic: اربيل,
Arbīl; Kurdish: Hewlêr) is believed by many to be the oldest
continuously-inhabited city in the world and is one of the larger cities in
Iraq. Its estimated population was 990,000 inhabitants. The city is the
capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government.
A restored section of the ancient city wall in the centre of
Hawler
History
Ancient history
Urban life at Hawler can be dated back to at least the twenty-third century
BCE. The city's archaeological museum contains only pre-Islamic objects. The
name Hawler was mentioned in the Sumerian holy writings (about 2000 B.C.) as
"Orbelum" or "Urbilum". Others believe the name derives from the Akkadian
arba'ū ilū, meaning four gods. The city was a centre for the worship of the
Assyrian goddess Ishtar. In classical times, the city was known by its
Aramaic name, Arbela. The Battle of Gaugamela, in which Alexander the Great
defeated Darius III of Persia in 331 BCE, took place about one hundred
kilometres (eighty miles) west of Hawler. After the battle, Darius managed to
flee to the city, and, somewhat inaccurately, the confrontation is sometimes
known as the Battle of Arbela. Hawler became, like Amida (Diyareker), part of
the region disputed between Rome and Persia under the Sassanians. Under
Emperor Trajan it was named the Roman province of Assyria, and after a
century of independence was reoccupied by Rome. The petty kingdom of
Adiabene (Greek form of Aramaic Hadyab) had its center at Hawler, and the
town and kingdom are known in Jewish Middle Eastern history for the
conversion of the royal family to Judaism, although the general population
may have remained eclectic but with a strong eastern Christian presence. The
queen of the Adiabenians apparently adopted Christianity, and it spread
throughout this region, so that the area became a Christian stronghold. It
served as the seat of a Metropolitan of the Church of the East. It is known
from Butler's Lives of the Saints (see Martyrs of Hadiab) as the site of the
Selucid martyrdom of almost 350 Christians in the year 345. It remained an
Aramaic speaking area until its destruction by the forces of Timurlane in
1397. From its Christian period come many church fathers and well-known
authors in Syriac, the classical language off-shoot of Aramaic. In the wake
of Timur's raids, when only one Christian village is alleged to have
survived, Hawler increasingly became a Muslim-dominated town. As is attested
in the region in general, those who converted to Islam became enfolded into
the ethnic Muslim culture of the region, whether Turkish, Arab, Persian or
Kurdish. Hawler is also the birth place of the famous Islamic Kurdish
historian and writer of 13th century, Ibn Khallikan. The modern town of
Hawler stands on a tell
topped by an Ottoman fort. During the Middle Ages,
Hawler
became a major trading centre on the route between Baghdad and Mosul, a role
which it still plays today with important road and rail links to the outside
world. A small population of Assyrian Christians (about 15,000) live mostly
in suburbs such as Ankawa. The Kurdish name, Hewlar, is sometimes promoted,
for this historic town of Mesopotamia has no attestation in historical
records and is not used as the international designation for the city which
is known as - Hawler
Modern history
The parliament of the Kurdish Autonomous Region was established in
Hawler in
1970 after negotiations between the Iraqi government and the Kurdish
militants, but was effectively controlled by Saddam Hussein until the
Kurdish uprising at the end of the 1991 Gulf War. Since the overthrow of
Saddam, only isolated, sporadic violence has hit Hawler, unlike many other
areas of Iraq. The new Iraqi constitution of 2005 explicitly recognizes the
Kurdish Regional Government, and the two parallel administrations, in
January 2006, signed an agreement to unify the administration of the entire
Kurdish region under a new multi-party government in Hawler. In May 2006 the
unitary government of the Kurdish region was formally presented.
Communications
Hawler has
been a center of communications for many centuries. It was a major stop on
the
Silk
road.
A new international airport flying the Kurdish, but not the
Iraqi flag, was opened in the fall of 2005. It has scheduled connections to
a number of airports in Europe and the Middle East.
Famous writers of
Hawler
Historical landmarks
View of
Hawler