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Ghazaliya

Neighborhood of Baghdad

Summary

Neighborhood of Baghdad

Field	Value
name	Ghazaliya
native_name	الغزالية
native_name_lang	ar
settlement_type	Neighborhood
image_skyline	Combined Population Engagement Mission DVIDS113799.jpg
image_caption	Umm al-Maarik Mosque, 2003
pushpin_map	Iraq Baghdad
pushpin_map_caption	Location in Baghdad
mapframe	yes
coordinates
subdivision_type	Country
subdivision_name	Iraq
subdivision_type1	Governorate
subdivision_name1	Baghdad Governorate
subdivision_type2	District
subdivision_name2	Mansour district
established_title	Established
established_date	1980s
unit_pref	Metric
population_footnotes
population_total	~100,000
population_density_km2	auto
timezone1	Arabian Standard Time
utc_offset1	+3
postal_code_type	ZIP code
area_code_type	Area code

Ghazaliya () is a neighborhood in the western outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq, in the city's Mansour district. To the north of Ghazaliya is the neighborhood of Al-Shu'ala, to the east is Al-Adel, to the south is Al Khadhraa, and to the west is Abu Ghraib. It is a working-class neighborhood of about 100,000 residents. Ghazaliya is situated around six major streets that all end at farms that formerly belonged to Uday Hussein, the son of Saddam Hussein.

Etymology

There are two theories regarding the origin of the name Ghazaliya.

The first theory suggest that the district got its name because the area used to be inhabited by gazelles (; or “ghazal”), and thus the place came to be known as “الغزالية”; that is, “Ghazaliya” or “the abode of the gazelles”.

The second theory suggests the district is located at an area that used to be partially owned by a woman named غزالة (Ghazala). She and her sister Junyina were the owners of the land that is district Ghazaliya today. Junyina owned the other half of the land, and until the 1990's the name of the district was “Ghazaliya and Junyina”. Eventually the name Ghazaliya came to be used to refer to both lands which comprise the district today.

History

Ghazaliya was built in the Mid-1980s and was home for many military officers during Saddam Hussein's rule. It was a middle to high class area of mainly Sunni Muslims with some Shia, Christians and others. Saddam hid here during the first Gulf War. That place where Saddam had hidden was turned into the largest mosque in Baghdad which was named Um Al-Maarik mosque. After the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 the Shia named it Um Al-Baneen for about 7 months then the Sunnis took back the control of the mosque and named it جامع أم القرى Umm al-Qura Mosque. .

When Sunni–Shia conflict flared in Iraq following the February 2006 al-Askari Mosque bombing in Samarra, Shia militias pushed into Ghazaliya from neighboring Al-Shu'ala. Sunnis turned to Al-Qaeda in Iraq and Shia families fled. Ghazaliya's mixed community split into a Sunni southern section and a Shia northern section. The US Army built concrete walls to segregate the two communities and to create a secure perimeter.

References

McDonnell, Patrick J.. (8 July 2014). "Iraq militants' advance casts shadow over Baghdad neighborhood". Los Angeles Times.
Anderson, Jon Lee. (19 November 2007). "Inside the surge". The New Yorker.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

neighborhoods-in-baghdad 1980s-establishments-in-iraq

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