Sulaymaniya

   Sulaymaniya, or Slemani in Kurdish, with a population of some 825,000, is the second largest city in the area ruled by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of northern Iraq. It is also the name of one of the three provinces that make up the KRG. Often called the cultural capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, Sulaymaniya is located in the Sorani or southeastern area of northern Iraq. Compared to ancient Irbil, the largest city in the KRG region, Sulaymaniya is a much newer city, as it was only founded in 1785 when it became the capital of the Baban emirate. The city was named for Buyuk Suleyman Pasha, who was the governor of Baghdad in 1780-1802. After the last Baban mir was deposed in 1850, the Barzinji family of sheikhs came to wield great power.

   In more modern times, Sulaymaniya was the seat of Sheikh Mahmud Barzinji, who led several failed uprisings against Great Britain during the 1920s. More recently, the city served as the capital of the regional administration of Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). It is the site of one of the major universities in Iraqi Kurdistan and in the past few years has shared amply in the relative prosperity brought on by the KRG autonomy and the receipt of 17 percent of the national budget in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. The city also has a modern international airport.