Hewlêr (Erbil)

Hewlêr's roots reach into the sixth millennium BC, when the first human settlement was raised on an artificial mound that grew layer upon layer as cities rose and fell upon it. Sumerian tablets call it Urbilum and Assyrian records Arba'ilu, where it was an important centre of the cult of Ishtar. It sat astride the trade routes between Mesopotamia and Persia, and prospered both materially and culturally under the Neo-Assyrian empire. In 331 BC its broad plain witnessed the decisive Battle of Gaugamela between Alexander of Macedon and the Persian king Darius III; Persia's defeat there ended the Achaemenid empire and opened the whole East to the Greeks. In the following centuries Hewlêr passed through Seleucid, Parthian, and Sassanid hands before the Islamic conquest of the seventh century AD. Under Islam, Hewlêr knew a golden age under the Beğteginid atabeg Muzaffar ad-Din Gökböri in the twelfth century, who built its great mosque and kept a brilliant court that included the historian Ibn Khallikan, born here. The city was sacked by the Mongols in 1258 alongside Baghdad, but soon recovered its place as a Kurdish-Islamic centre. It entered modern history within the Ottoman state as seat of the Hewlêr sanjak. After the Ottoman collapse in 1918 it was absorbed by the Kingdom of Iraq and then by the Republic, suffering severely under the Ba'ath regime: the Anfal campaign of 1986–1989 destroyed many villages of its hinterland. After 1991 Hewlêr became the recognised capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Today Hewlêr is a capital of more than 1.5 million people, with an international airport, the principal university of Kurdistan (Salahaddin University), and the Kurdish Textile Museum, which preserves thousands of pieces. Its citadel was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2014. The surrounding Erbil Plain has grown wheat and barley since the dawn of agriculture ten thousand years ago — and still feeds the city today.