Amarah
Iraq · Asia
About Amarah
Amarah (Arabic: ٱلْعَمَارَة, romanized: al-ʿAmārah), also spelled Amara, is a city in south-eastern Iraq, located on a low ridge next to the Tigris River waterway south of Baghdad about 50 km (31 mi) from the border with Iran. It lies at the northern tip of the marshlands between the Tigris and Euphrates.
It had a population of about 340,000 in 2002 and 720,000 in 2024. Amarah is the seat of the Maysan Province. A major trading center for the surrounding agricultural area, the city is known for woven goods and silverware. The staple economic goods produced in northern Amarah are winter cereals such as wheat and barley, as well as animals such as sheep and horses.
The city was founded in the 1860s as an Ottoman military outpost from which the empire tried to control the warring Banu Lam and Al Bu Muhammad tribes.
In 1915 Amarah was captured by the British. Before the revolution in 1958 Amarah was known for its feudal system with local estate-holders maintaining private militias.
Abdul Rahim al-Rahmani founded the first bookstore in Amarah in 1922, and the city's first cinema in 1950.
During the eight-year Iran–Iraq War, the eastern parts of the province became the site...
Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.