Duhok

Duhok (Kurdish: دهۆک, romanized: Dihok;[1][2] Arabic: دهوك, romanized: Dohūk;[3] Syriac: ܒܝܬ ܢܘܗܕܪܐ, romanized: Beth Nohadra,[4][5] Lishanid Noshan: דוהוך, romanized: Dohok[6]) is a city in Kurdistan Region, Iraq and the capital city of Duhok Governorate.

## Contents

* 1 Name
* 2 Demographics
* 3 History
* 3.1 Modern times
* 4 Archaeology
* 5 Climate
* 6 Notable people
* 7 See also
* 8 References
* 9 External links

## Name

The city of Duhok received its name from the Kurdish words 'du' (two) and 'hok' (lump) as a tax payment of two lumps from the basket of each passing caravan that often carry wheat and barley.[7] According to a tradition presented by Sasson Nahum, Duhok was initially named Duhok-e Dasinya, signifying "Duhok of the Yezidis". However, after a massacre of the Yezidis, the town was abandoned, leading to the settlement of Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the area.[8]

## Demographics

The city is home to diverse ethnic groups, with Kurds forming the majority, while other minorities include Assyrians, Yazidis, Armenians, and Arabs.[9] The city also hosts tens of thousands of refugees from Syria, mostly Syrian Kurds, and internally displaced persons (IDPs), most of whom are Yazidis and Assyrians who fled after ISIS took control of Sinjar and Mosul, Iraq.[10][11]

According to the Kurdistan Regional Government, as of March 2024, the Kurdistan Region hosts 631,174 IDPs, with 40% of them living in Duhok Governorate. Additionally, there are 251,475 Syrian refugees, of which 131,700 (as of 2022) reside in Duhok Governorate.[12][10]

## History

For a chronological guide to this subject, see Timeline of Duhok.

One of the earliest written references to Duhok appears in the late 15th-century Persian chronicle Kitab-i Diyarbakriyya by Abu Bakr Tihrani, which mentions Duhok in accounts of Aq Qoyunlu military campaigns.[13]

The city joined the Kurdish principality of Badinan sometime in the 13th or 14th centuries under the foundation of the Kurdish Hakkari tribe. As observed by Evliya Çelebi in Seyahatnâme (Book of Travels), the principality was divided into: Akre, Zaxo, Shixoyi, Duhok, Zibari, and Muzuri.[14]

In 1820, Rich described Duhok as a small town comprising 300 houses, serving as the principal site for the Doski tribe, accompanied by eighty additional villages. The missionary Henry Aaron Stern (1851) observed Dohuk's diverse population, which included Jewish residents. Stern further noted that the kiahya, or village mayor, was an Assyrian Christian of Chaldean Catholic affiliation. By 1859, Rabbi Yehiel found two minyans of Jews in the area. The Muslim and Assyrian Christian communities comprised around a hundred households. Stern also mentioned the large Yazidi population at the time, as well as the fact that it was initially called "Dohuk-e-Dasiniya", i.e Duhok of the Yazidis, potentially implying that it was founded or heavily influenced by Yazidis[8]

In 1929, the settled population reached approximately 3,500 inhabitants, with Kurds forming the majority. Among the 550 households, 65 were Assyrian Christian, and 30 were Jewish.[8]

### Modern times

The University of Duhok was founded on 31 October 1992.[15]

In March 2024, an ancient Assyrian archaeological site was vandalized with Islamist slogans. This incident drew criticism from the Assyrian community, in line with the Kurdistan Region's ongoing failure to preserve their ancient artifacts. Notably, in 2016, the Halamata reliefs were spray-painted with the Kurdish flag and subsequently stolen.[16][17]

On 1 April 2025, during the Kha b-Nisan (Assyrian New Year) parade in downtown Duhok, a man armed with an axe attacked Assyrians celebrating the event while shouting Islamist slogans, injuring a 17-year-old boy and a 75-year-old woman.[18] The assailant, later identified as a Syrian Kurdish national affiliated with the Islamic State, was quickly subdued by nearby Assyrians.[19] The incident was described as a terrorist attack by the Assyrian deputy governor.[19]

## Archaeology

Seven kilometers southwest of Duhok, Halamata Cave is an archaeological site containing the Assyrian relief carvings known as the Maltai Reliefs, associated with the northern canal system built by the Assyrian king Sennacherib (r. 704–681 BC) to carry water to his capital city of Nineveh".[20]

In 2020, researchers discovered in the Balyuz hills, ten kilometers west of Duhok City, an ancient tablet with Greek inscription which dates back to 165 BC. The inscriptions refer to Demetrius, the region's ruler during that time.[21]

## Climate

According to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification system, Duhok, like most of Upper Mesopotamia, has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Csa) featuring sweltering, virtually rainless summers and cool to cold, wet winters. Precipitation falls in the cooler months, being heaviest in late winter and early spring. The city experiences around two or three snowy days yearly, with more severe falls in the uplands. Summers are virtually rainless, with rain returning in late autumn.

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## Notable people

* Haviv Shimoni (1933-1994), politician
* Yitzhak Mordechai (born 1944), general and politician
* Karim Findi (born 1946) Kurdish author and writer
* Tamar Fattah Ramadhan Kuchar (?), politician
* Nimrud Baito (born 1952), politician
* Janan Sawa (born 1956), musician
* Dalshad Said (born 1958), musician
* Pascal Esho Warda (born 1961), Assyrian politician and former Minister of Immigration and Refugees in Iraq
* Fadhil Barwari (1966-2018), military officer
* Sami Khoshaba Latchin, sleeper agent of the Iraqi government
* Hogir Hirori (born 1980), film director
* Khalid Mushir (born 1981), footballer
* Jassim Mohammed Haji (born 1984), footballer
* Salih Jaber (born 1985), footballer
* Bina Qeredaxi (born 1988), Kurdish filmmaker and media promoter from Iraq
* Kovan Abdulraheem (born 1988), Paralympic athlete
* Shahyan Tahseen (born 1988) Kurdish news anchor and TV presenter
* Helket Idris Abid (born 1988), Kurdish director, writer, actor and journalist
* Kurdwin Ayub (born 1990) Kurdish-Austrian filmmaker
* Zana Allée (born 1994), footballer
* Rewan Amin (born 1996), footballer
* Ahmad Allée (born 1996), footballer

## See also

* List of largest cities of Iraq
* Duhok Dam
* Duhok International Airport

## References

1. ↑ "K24 rêjeya dengdanê li navçeyên cuda yên Herêma Kurdistan belav kir" (in ku). Kurdistan24. https://www.kurdistan24.net/ku/news/90900b5c-a142-417c-90ff-64d8b0ca1672.
2. ↑ "كوردستانی سەرسوڕهێنەر- وێبسایتی فەرمی دەستەی گشتی گەشت و گوزار". http://bot.gov.krd/kurdish/duhok-province/duhok.
3. ↑ قناة التغيير. "دهوك تغرق بالفيضانات والدفاع المدني يحذر المواطنين الخروج من منازلهم - نشرة أخبار الثالثة" (in ar). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5thcd_qsq38.
4. ↑ Kadr, Salahden Ghareb (2010) (in de). Klimatische Optimierung von verdichteten Wohnhäusern in Irakisch-Kurdistan. Univerlagtuberlin. ISBN 978-3-7983-2238-7. https://books.google.com/books?id=KbpFJ8TMHyoC&pg=PA81.
5. ↑ "Duhok". http://syriaca.org/place/76.
6. ↑ Jared Greenblatt (2011). The Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Amәdya. p. 11. ISBN 978-90-04-18257-8.
7. ↑ "Duhok City". https://dhk-pti.com/website/DuhokCity.php.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Zaken, M. (2007-01-01), "Chapter Three. Dohuk" (in en), Jewish Subjects and Their Tribal Chieftains in Kurdistan (Brill): pp. 79–96, doi:10.1163/ej.9789004161900.i-376.24, ISBN 978-90-474-2212-9, https://brill.com/display/book/9789047422129/Bej.9789004161900.i-376_006.xml, retrieved 2023-10-10
9. ↑ "Life in Duhok". https://auk.edu.krd/about/life-in-duhok/.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "International aid for IDPs and refugees in Duhok decreasing". 2022-06-24. https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/28788-International-aid-for-IDPs-and-refugees-in-Duhok-decreasing.
11. ↑ Khalel, Sheren; Vickery, Matthew (27 October 2014). "The Forgotten Yazidis". Foreign Policy Magazine. https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/10/27/the-forgotten-yazidis/.
12. ↑ "Kurdistan Region: A Beacon of Hope for Displaced Persons and Refugees". 2024-03-03. https://gov.krd/dmi-en/activities/news-and-press-releases/2024/march/kurdistan-region-a-beacon-of-hope-for-displaced-persons-and-refugees/.
13. ↑ Ebu Bekr-i Tihrani. Kitâb-ı Diyarbekriyye. Translated by Mürsel Öztürk. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 2014, pp. 61, 157. ISBN 978-975-16-2752-0.
14. ↑ Bruinessen, Martin van (1 January 2000). "Kurdistan in the 16th and 17th centuries, as reflected in Evliya Çelebi's Seyahatname". The Journal of Kurdish Studies 3 (2000), 1-11. https://www.academia.edu/6040973/Kurdistan_in_the_16th_and_17th_centuries_as_reflected_in_Evliya_Çelebis_Seyahatname.
15. ↑ "University of Duhok (UoD)". https://uod.ac/about/.
16. ↑ team, T. I. I. (2023-03-05). "Islamists vandalize Assyrian archeological site in Iraqi Kurdistan" (in en-US). https://theinsightinternational.com/islamists-vandalize-assyrian-2023-03-05.
17. ↑ "Thieves raid 2700-year-old site in Duhok". Rudaw. 5 Mar 2018. https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/050320186.
18. ↑ Clements-Thrower, Antony (2025-04-03). "Man with axe screams ISIS slogans as he attacks Christians attending festival" (in en). https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/man-axe-screams-isis-slogans-34984917.
19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Bechocha, Julian (1 Apr 2025). "Two injured in axe attack during Akitu celebrations in Duhok". https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/010420253.
20. ↑ "Maltai Rock Reliefs | Mapping Mesopotamian Monuments". https://mcid.mcah.columbia.edu/art-atlas/mapping-mesopotamian-monuments/monuments/maltai-sample.
21. ↑ "Researchers in Kurdistan's Duhok find artifact over 2,000 years old". https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/383310/Researchers-in-Kurdistan's-Duhok-find-artifact-over-2,000-years-old#:~:text="After careful study, we found,East and spread Greek influence.
22. ↑ "Dahuk, Iraq Climate". My Forecast. http://www.myforecast.com/bin/climate.m?city=66292&metric=true.
23. ↑ "Dahuk, Iraq travel weather averages". CantyMedia. https://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weatherall.php3?s=602776&cityname=Dahuk,+Dahuk,+Iraq&units=.

## External links

* Iraq Image – Dahuk Satellite Observation

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