Tuz Khurmatu
city
Tuz Khurmatu (Arabic: طوزخورماتو, Turkish: Tuzhurmatu, Kurdish: دووز خورماتوو, romanized: Dûz Xurmatû, also spelled as Tuz Khurma and Tuz Khormato) is the central city of Tooz District in Saladin Governorate, Iraq, located 55 miles (89 km) south of Kirkuk. Its inhabitants are predominantly Shia Turkmen, with a minority of Arabs and Sunni Kurds.
Etymology
The name of the city is in the local Iraqi Turkmen dialect, meaning salt and dates.
History
Naphtha, oil and asphalt was found in the town in the 18th century.
The city was populated by both Kurds and Turkmens in the 19th century, during the era of Ottoman Iraq. Claudius Rich visited the town in 1820 and stated that the town had a population of 50,000. In 1882 Major General Gerard visited the town and stated that the town had a bazaar, 300 houses, 100 regulars and 30 zaptiyehs.
John Gordon Lorimer visited Tuz Khurmatu in 1912, stating that the town consists of about 600 houses and around 3,000 inhabitants, and that some 20 households are Jews, with the rest being Turks who have been settled here from old.
The town was captured by United Kingdom in May 1918 and were met with joy from the locals. The local Hamawand tribe would offer their assistance to secure the area.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Tuz Khurmatu” as city. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as city. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1023334. Authority coordinates are 34.888, 44.633. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1820, 1882, 1912 and 1918.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Tuz Khurmatu”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Tuz Khurmatu primary sources, Tuz Khurmatu archive and Khurmatu research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Tuz Khurmatu”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Tuz Khurmatu” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.