Saladin Governorate

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Saladin Governorate, also known as Salah al-Din, is a province in northern Iraq, north of Baghdad. Its capital is Tikrit. It covers about 24,400 square kilometers and has around 1.6 million people (2018). The governorate is divided into 8 districts.

Named after the medieval leader Saladin, the region is largely Sunni Arab. Saddam Hussein was born in the village of Al-Awja within Saladin.

Key sites include:
- Samarra, the governorate’s largest city, home to the Al-Askari Shrine and the Great Mosque of Samarra with the tall Malwiya minaret. Samarra and its Abbasid era sites are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- The ancient Neo-Assyrian city of Assur, in Al-Shirqat along the Tigris.
- Other notable sights such as the Crusader Dome north of Samarra and Al-Ashaq Palace.

History and governance:
- Until 1976, Saladin was part of Baghdad Governorate.
- In 2011, the administration declared itself semi-autonomous to seek more local control.
- In 2014, there were plans to turn Tuz Khurmatu into a separate governorate because of its Turkmen majority, but this did not happen.
- The Iraqi constitution allows provinces to form a region if enough residents or officials request it (Article 119).

Security and tensions:
- The governorate has experienced insurgency and violence since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Saladin hosts important cultural and historical sites spanning Abbasid to Neo-Assyrian times.