Koy Sanjaq

Koy Sanjaq, Koye)
Sorani Kurdish: کۆیە‎,
Kurmanji Kurdish: Koye
Koy Sanjaq, Koye)
Location in Iraq
Koy Sanjaq, Koye)
Koy Sanjaq, Koye) (Iraq)
Coordinates: 36°04′59″N 44°37′47″E / 36.08306°N 44.62972°E / 36.08306; 44.62972
Country  Iraq
Autonomous region  Kurdistan
Province Arbil Governorate
Elevation 582 m (1,909 ft)
Population (2009)
 • Total 44.987[1]
Time zone UTC+3
 • Summer (DST) not observed

The town Koy Sanjaq (Sorani Kurdish: کۆیە‎, Kurmanji Kurdish: Koye, also known as Koya; Arabic: كوي سنجق‎, from Turkoman, koy, "town", "village", sanjaq, "district", together: district town), original Kurdish name Bijhenjar, is located in the Erbil Governorate of Iraqi Kurdistan, close to the Iranian border. Most of the town was property of two families (the Ghafuri’s and the Hawezi’s) Which were also known by the title of Agha which represents them for being wealthy.

Wallace Lyon, travelling through the town in 1923, compared it to Sulaymaniyah and noted that it was a centre for tobacco. The governor at the time was Jamil Agha Hawezi, succeeding the late Hama Agha Ghafuri. In the 1960s then it was all passed on to Fatih Agha Hawezi. [2]

The population is between 50,000 and 100,000. [3] A specific variant of the Aramaic language, Koy Sanjaq Surat, a dialect of Aramaic, is spoken by about 1,000 in {Harmota} or {Armota} Assyrians who settled in the town by the end of the 1800s. [4]

Famous people from the city include the Kurdish poet Haji Qadir Koyi, Sheikh Jangi Talabani (older brother of former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani), Zeki Ahmed Henari, Haji Agha, Hama Aghai Gewre Ghafuri, Kaka Ziad Aghai Ghafuri (Co-Founder and Vice President of KDP), Zozik Hamid Ghafuri, Jalal Talabani, Omar Debaba, Tahir Tewfiq, Mamosta Aziz, Malay Gewre, Jalal Aghai Hawezi, Fatih Aghai Hawezi, Haji Bakir Aghai Hawezi, Sajid Abdulwahid, Dildar, Dr Xalid Ghafuri, Amin Agha, Mela Masoum, Dr Fuad Masum, Sewa Koyi. The former president of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, who was born in the nearby village of Kelkan, went to school here. In 1949 he joined the town's branch of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).[5]

A university, known in English as "Koya University" was set up in the town in 2003.

Photo of University of Koya by Hwnar M. Smail

References

  1. ↑ , Rastlos.com. Retrieved 2014-01-04.
  2. ↑ Fieldhouse, David Kenneth (2002). Kurds, Arabs and Britons: the memoir of Wallace Lyon in Iraq 1918-44. Tauris. Retrieved 2009-09-08.
  3. ↑ "Koi Sanjaq". Collins. Retrieved 2009-09-11.
  4. ↑ Moseley, Christopher (2007). Encyclopedia of the world's endangered languages. Routledge. Retrieved 2009-09-11.
  5. ↑ Gunter, Michael M. (1999). The Kurdish predicament in Iraq: a political analysis. Social Science. Retrieved 2009-09-12.

Coordinates: 36°05′N 44°38′E / 36.083°N 44.633°E / 36.083; 44.633


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