Tikrit

Tikrit تكريت
City
Looking north along the Tigris towards Saddam Hussein's Presidential palace in April 2003
Tikrit Tikrit's location inside Iraq
Coordinates: 34°36′36″N 43°40′48″E / 34.61000°N 43.68000°E / 34.61000; 43.68000
Country	Iraq
Governorate	Salah ad Din
Government
• Mayor	Omar Tariq Ismail
Elevation	137 m (449 ft)
Population (2012)
• Total	160,000
Tikrit c. 2000

Tikrit c. 2000

Tikrit (Arabic: تكريت‎‎ Tikrīt, Syriac: ܬܓܪܝܬ‎ Tagriṯ) sometimes transliterated as Takrit or Tekrit, is a city in Iraq, located 140 kilometres (87 mi) northwest of Baghdad and 220 kilometres (140 mi) southeast of Mosul on the Tigris River. It is the administrative center of the Saladin Governorate. As of 2012^[update], it had a population of 160,000.

In recent years the city has been the site of conflict cumulating in the Second Battle of Tikrit from March through April 2015, resulting in the displacement of 28,000 civilians. The Iraqi government regained control of the city from the Islamic State on March 31, 2015.

As a fort along the Tigris (Akkadian: Idiqlat), the city is first mentioned in the Fall of Assyria Chronicle as being a refuge for the Babylonian king Nabopolassar during his attack on the city of Assur in 615 BC.

Tikrit is usually identified as the Hellenistic settlement Birtha.

Until the 6th century, Christianity within the Sasanian Empire was predominantly dyophysite under the Church of the East, however, as a result of Miaphysite missionary work, Tikrit became a major Miaphysite(Orthodox Christian) centre under its first bishop, Ahudemmeh, in 559. Under Marutha of Tikrit, the bishopric was elevated into a maphrianate and the city's ecclesiastical jurisdiction extended as far as central Asia.