Nasiriyah

Nasiriyah (UK: /ˌnæzɪˈriːə/ NAZ-irr-EE-ə, US: /ˌnɑːsɪ-/ NAH-sirr-; Arabic: ٱلنَّاصِرِيَّة, romanized: an-Nāṣiriyya, BGN: An Nāşirīyah, IPA: [ænnɑːsˤɪˈrɪjjæ]), also spelled Nassiriya or Nasiriya, is a city in Iraq, the capital of the Dhi Qar Governorate. It lies on the lower Euphrates, about 360 km (225 miles) south-southeast of Baghdad, near the ruins of the ancient city of Ur. Its population in 2018 was about 558,000, making it the ninth-largest city in Iraq. It had a diverse population of Muslims, Mandaeans and Jews in the early 20th century; today its inhabitants are predominantly Shia Muslims.

Nasiriyah was founded by the Muntafiq tribe in the late 19th century during the Ottoman era. It has since become a major hub for transportation. Nasiriyah is the center of a date-growing area. The city's cottage industries include boat-building, carpentry and silver working. The city museum has a large collection of Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Abbasid artifacts. The ruins of the ancient cities of Ur and Larsa are nearby and the Euphrates merges with the Tigris for the final time about 10 kilometres from the city.

Nasiriyah features a hot desert climate (BWh according to the Köppen climate classification), with mild winters and very hot summers. Nasiriyah has an average annual mean of 25.0 °C (77.0 °F), an average annual high of 32.3 °C (90.1 °F) and an average annual low of 17.8 °C (64.0 °F). July, the warmest month, has a mean of 36.4 °C (97.5 °F) and an average high of 44.8 °C (112.6 °F) (August has the same average high), while the coolest month, January, has a mean of 11.6 °C (52.9 °F) and an average low of 6.2 °C (43.2 °F).

Nasiriyah receives 127.7 millimetres (5.03 in) of precipitation annually over 42 precipitation days. Summer is drier than winter, and July and August receive no precipitation at all. The wettest month and the month with the most precipitation days is January, which receives 27.4 millimetres (1.08 in) of precipitation on average over 7 precipitation days.

Nasiriyah was founded in 1872 by Nasir al-Sadoon Pasha (Arabic: ناصر السعدون باشا), the sheikh ("chief") of the Muntafiq tribal confederation, after whom the city was named. During that same year, it became the administrative center of the Muntafiq sanjak ("district").

Belgian architect, Jules Tilly, was commissioned to develop a modern urban plan for the city. Tilly introduced a Western-style grid layout, characterised by long, straight, and parallel streets intersecting at right angles, unprecedented in Iraq at the time. This planning approach shaped the city’s infrastructure and facilitated the orderly growth of roads and residential plots, which were arranged in rectangular clusters, consequently, the flat topography of the region made this layout particularly effective. Tilly placed great emphasis on urban aesthetics and functionality, incorporating central squares, wide sidewalks, and public gardens into the design. These green spaces quickly became popular as communal resting areas and contributed to the city’s distinctive charm. Tilly’s urban plan received the approval of Medhat Pasha, who praised its elegance, modernity, and engineering ingenuity. The first structure built under Tilly’s plan was the Government House in 1872, which served as the administrative center until its demolition in 1950.

Nasir Pasha was the head of the Sunni Muslim al-Saadun clan, which was the ruling family of the Muntafiq whose tribesmen were mostly Shia Muslims. At the time of Nasiriyah's founding, Muntafiq power in the Basra Vilayet (southern Iraq) had increasingly given way to Ottoman centralization. However, Nasir Pasha was appointed by the Ottomans as the head of the vilayet (province) and registered large tracts of land around Nasiriyah into his name. His son, Saadun Pasha, became the mutassarif (tax collector) of Nasiriyah, and by 1908, he virtually governed southern Iraq on their behalf, having curried their favor by strongly supporting the 1908 Young Turk Revolution.

It was a major center of trade in Ottoman Iraq and imported foreign goods via commerce with Baghdad and Basra. The chief commodities Nasiriyah produced included leather, grain and ghee. The town contained about 600 well-built stone houses, but most buildings and homes were constructed from mud brick. There were about 350 shops in Nasiriyah as well as five khans (inns). The area surrounding the town was abundant in date palms and grain fields. The town was not protected by a wall like other major administrative centers. In addition to the administrative functions it played for the Muntafiq district, Nasiriyah served as a government outpost and settlement in a generally nomadic region dominated by local Bedouin tribes.