Nineveh Governorate

Short description: Governorate of Iraq

Nineveh Governorate

محافظة نينوى (Arabic)

Governorate

Top–bottom, L-R:
View over Tigris river • Hatra
Mosul Rural area • River Gate toward Tigris river, 2019
Mosul Museum • Heritage house

Flag of Nineveh Governorate
Flag

Seal

Coordinates:  [ ⚑ ] : 36°0′N 42°28′E﻿ / ﻿36°N 42.467°E﻿ / 36; 42.467
Country|  Iraq
Capital| Mosul
Government

• Governor| Abdul Qader al-Dakheel
Area

• Total| 37,323 km2 (14,410 sq mi)
Population

(2025)

• Total| 4,261,980[1]
• Rank| 2nd
ISO 3166 code| IQ-NI
HDI (2024)| 0.699[2]
medium
Website| ninava.gov.iq

Nineveh Governorate[lower-alpha 1] is a governorate in northern Iraq. It has an area of 37,323 km2 (14,410 sq mi) and a population of 4,261,980 people as of 2025.[8] Its largest city and provincial capital is Mosul, which lies across the Tigris river from the ruins of ancient Nineveh. Before 1976, it was called Mosul Province and included the present-day Dohuk Governorate.[9]

The region is home to many historical sites including the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh, and the ruins of Hatra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site which was part of the 2nd-century Arab Kingdom of Hatra. An ethnically, religiously and culturally diverse region, where the second largest city, Tal Afar, has an almost exclusively Turkmen population.[10]

## Contents

* 1 Recent history and administration
* 1.1 Provincial elections
* 2 Geography
* 2.1 Borders
* 2.2 Districts
* 3 Demographics
* 3.1 Proposed Assyrian autonomous region
* 4 See also
* 5 Notes
* 6 References
* 7 Further reading

## Recent history and administration

Former governor Atheel al-Nujaifi in the Yezidian Academy, Hanover, Germany, 2014

Its two cities endured the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and emerged unscathed. In 2004, however, Mosul and Tal Afar were the scenes of fierce battles between US-led troops and Iraqi insurgents. The insurgents moved to Nineveh after the Battle of Fallujah in 2004.

After the invasion, the military of the province was led by (then Major General) David Petraeus of the 101st Airborne Division and later by (then Brigadier General) Carter Ham as the multi-national brigade for Iraq. During the time, the American civil head of the local office of the Coalition Provisional Authority was US Foreign Service Officer and former Kurdish refugee to the States, Herro Mustafa. Mustafa administered her nominees on the provincial council and through members of the Kashmoula family.

In June 2004, Osama Kashmoula became the interim governor of the province and in September of the same year he was assassinated en route to Baghdad. He was succeeded as interim Governor by Duraid Kashmoula, who was elected governor in January 2005. Duraid Kashmoula resigned in 2009.[11] In April 2009, Atheel al-Nujaifi, a hardline Arab nationalist and member of Al-Hadba, became governor.[12] While al-Nujaifi's Arab Muttahidoon bloc lost its majority to the Kurdish Brotherhood and Coexistence Alliance List in the 2013 provincial election, al-Nujaifi was reelected as governor by a larger Sunni Arab coalition[13] that was later formalized as the Nahda Bloc.

In June 2014, insurgents from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (known as ISIS or ISIL) overran the capital Mosul, forcing an estimated 500,000 refugees to flee the area,[14] including governor al-Nujaifi,[15] who was subsequently deposed by the Iraqi Parliament.[16]

While the Kurdish list proposed Hassan al-Allaf, an Arab affiliated with the Islamic Party,[17] the provincial council elected Nofal Hammadi (formerly Loyalty to Nineveh List) with the votes of the Nahdha bloc.[18]

An offensive to retake Mosul from ISIL control began in October 2016, with Iraqi and Kurdish soldiers supported by a U.S.-led coalition of 60 nations.[19]

### Provincial elections

## Geography

### Borders

The province borders the governorates of Dohuk, Kirkuk, Erbil, Saladin, and Anbar. It also shares a border with Syria, mostly Al-Hasakah Governorate, and Deir ez-Zor Governorate.

### Districts

Districts within Nineveh Governorate

Nineveh Governorate comprises nine districts (excluding Aqrah), listed below with their areas[20] and populations as estimated in 2018:[21]

No.  | District  | Name
in Arabic  | Population
in 2018  | Area in
sq. km

|
|
|
|

1\.  | Mosul | الموصل | 1,905,174 | 4,318
2\.  | Tel Afar | تلعفر | 511,004 | 4,286
3\.  | Sinjar | سنجار | 325,816 | 3,576
4\.  | Al-Hamdaniya | الحمدانية | 210,601 | 740.6
5\.  | Tel Keppe | تلكيف | 210,263 | 1,218
6\.  | Makhmūr | مخمور | 209,545 | 2,682
7\.  | Al-Ba'aj | البعاج | 179,520 | 8,359
8\.  | Al-Hadar (Hatra) | الحضر | 59,429 | 11,130
9\.  | Shekhan | شيخان | 43,984 | 466
| Total |  | 3,729,998 | 36,700

* Mosul

Mosul

* Tel Afar

Tel Afar

* Hamdaniyah

Hamdaniyah

* Tel Keppe

Tel Keppe

* Hatra

* Shekhan

Shekhan

## Demographics

Historical population

Year| Pop.| ±% p.a.
1977 | 1,105,700| —
1987 | 1,479,430| +2.95%
1997 | 2,042,852| +3.28%
2009 | 3,106,948| +3.56%
2018 | 3,729,998| +2.05%
Source: Citypopulation[22]

Nineveh Province is multiethnic, with Arabs constituting the majority,[23] while Assyrians, Turkmens, Kurds, and Yazidis who live in both in towns and cities, and in their own specific villages and regions, constitute the minority. There are also many Armenians, Kawliya, Mandeans, and Shabaks.

The majority are Sunni Muslim, with 80% of the Arabs and Turkmens being Sunni Muslim, as well Kurds also being Sunni Muslim. About 5–10% of the population is Shia Muslim. Generally, Yazidis, Shabaks and Mandeans are followers of their respective heritage religions, Yazidism, Shabakism, and Mandaeism.

The primary spoken language is Arabic. Minority languages include Turkmen, Neo-Aramaic dialects, Kurdish (predominantly Kurmanji) and Armenian.

### Proposed Assyrian autonomous region

Many Assyrian leaders advocate an autonomous Assyrian homeland within the Nineveh Province (mostly in the Nineveh Plains region) for the Assyrian population.[24]

## See also

* 2005 Nineveh governorate election
* Assyrian homeland
* Genocide of Yazidis by the Islamic State
* List of churches and monasteries in Nineveh
* List of Yazidi settlements
* Nineveh Plains
* Persecution of Christians by the Islamic State
* Proposals for Assyrian autonomy in Iraq

## Notes

1. ↑ (Arabic: محافظة نينوى, romanized: muḥāfaẓat Naynawā;[3] Syriac: ܗܘܦܪܟܝܐ ܕܢܝܢܘܐ, romanized: Hoparkiya d’Ninwe,[4][5] Sorani Kurdish: پارێزگای نەینەوا, romanized: Parêzgeha Neynewa[6][7])

## References

1. ↑ "Which Provinces Have More Women Than Men?Kirkuk Second of Women Heading Households" (in en). https://kirkuknow.com/en/news/71435.
2. ↑ "Iraq National Human Development Report 2025" (in en). https://www.undp.org/iraq/publications/iraq-national-human-development-report-2025.
3. ↑ "محافظة نينوى" (in ar). https://ninava.gov.iq/.
4. ↑ "Bahra Magazine" (in syr). http://www.zowaa.co.uk/bahra/s145-1.pdf.
5. ↑ Gregorius bar Hebraeus, “” based upon Jean Baptiste Abbeloos and Thomas Joseph Lamy (eds.), Gregorii Barhebræi (Louvain: Peeters, 1872–1877), Digital Syriac Corpus, last modified 4 May 2018, https://syriaccorpus.org/373.
6. ↑ "PDK û rewşa Civata Parêzgeha Neynewa di perlemana Îraqê de" (in ku). Kurdistan24. https://www.kurdistan24.net/ku/news/65767e49-d7f9-4763-b03c-7b05450e4745.
7. ↑ "ئەنجوومەنی پارێزگای نەینەوا: پارێزگار دەستیلەکارکێشایەوە و پەسەندمان کرد" (in ku). 19 November 2019. https://www.rudaw.net/sorani/middleeast/iraq/191120191.
8. ↑ "Which Provinces Have More Women Than Men?Kirkuk Second of Women Heading Households" (in en). https://kirkuknow.com/en/news/71435.
9. ↑ "Ninewa – NCCI Governorate Profile". 2010. p. 4. https://www.ncciraq.org/images/infobygov/NCCI_Ninewa_Governorate_Profile.pdf.
10. ↑ "The Ba'ath Party and Insurgency in Tal Afar". https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/military-review/Archives/English/MilitaryReview_2008CRII0831_art008.pdf.
11. ↑ Parker, Ned (22 January 2009). "Iraq governor looks back on troubled tenure". Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-jan-22-fg-iraq-governor22-story.html.
12. ↑ Sly, Liz (23 June 2009). "In Nineveh, tensions between Iraqi Kurds and Arabs simmer". Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-jun-23-fg-iraq-kurds23-story.html.
13. ↑ Abdullah Salem (22 August 2013). "Voter's Revolution in Ninawa – Local minorities take over Provincial government". Niqash. http://www.niqash.org/en/articles/politics/3276/local-minorities-take-over-provincial-govt.htm.
14. ↑ Robertson, Nic; Smith-Spark, Laura (11 June 2014). "Fresh off Mosul victory, militants in Iraq wrest control of Tikrit". CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2014/06/11/world/meast/iraq-violence/index.html.
15. ↑ "Iraqi insurgents 'seize new city'". BBC News. 11 June 2014. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25588623.
16. ↑ Hamza Mustafa (29 May 2015). "Iraq: Nineveh governor sacked following ISIS advances". Asharq al-Awsat. http://english.aawsat.com/2015/05/article55343707/iraq-nineveh-governor-sacked-following-isis-advances.
17. ↑ "Member of Nineveh's Council: Two Candidates for the Post of the Governor And Negotiations To Select One of Them". NINA. 21 June 2015. http://ninanews.com/News_Details.aspx?QUvx7hpaRJSocGRGbNL01Q%3d%3d.
18. ↑ "Nofal Hammadi of al-Nahetha bloc elected as Governor of Nineveh succeeding al-Nujaifi". Shafaq. 5 October 2015. http://english.shafaaq.com/politics/16118.html.
19. ↑ Winter, Charlie (20 October 2016). "How ISIS Is Spinning the Mosul Battle". The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/10/isis-mosul-propaganda-iraq-kurds-peshmerga/504854/.
20. ↑ COSIT (Central Organization for Statistics and Information Technology), Baghdad.
21. ↑ "Nīnawā (Governorate, Iraq) – Population Statistics, Charts, Map and Location". https://www.citypopulation.de/en/iraq/admin/01__nīnawā/.
22. ↑ "Population of Governorates". http://www.citypopulation.de/en/iraq/cities/.
23. ↑ "Ninewa". European Union Agency for Asylum. https://euaa.europa.eu/country-guidance-iraq-2022/ninewa.
24. ↑ "Iraqi Christians ask EU to support the creation of a Nineveh Plain Province". http://europeanpost.co/iraqi-christians-ask-eu-to-support-the-creation-of-a-nineveh-plain-province/.

## Further reading

* Report on the Administrative Changes in Kirkuk and the Disputed Regions, Erbil: Kurdistan Regional Government Ministry of Extra Regional Affairs, June 2007, http://perleman.org/files/articles/130508111135.pdf, retrieved 5 April 2015

Template:Nineveh plains Template:Provinces of Iraq

0.00

(0 votes)

Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineveh Governorate. Read more

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Place:Nineveh_Governorate&oldid=4266234"
*[Pop.]: Population
*[±% p.a.]: Per annum growth rate