Tall 'Afar

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Sometime during the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Turkish Army founded the city as a sole military outpost constructed on top of a hill. Remains of the fortress can still be seen today. Also garrisoned at the fortress were Turkmen members of the Daloodi tribe who following the withdrawal of the Ottoman Army became the first civilian occupants of the town built around the fortress. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Tal Afar was included in Iraq. In 1920, Tal Afar was used as a base of operations for a planned revolt against the then ruling British. While no official census data exists, the city which had been assessed to have a population of approximately 200,000, had dropped to 80,000, as of 2007, nearly all of whom are Iraqi Turkmen. In Tal Afar itself, the population is mostly Turkmen, about 75 per cent of whom were Sunni Muslims, while a quarter were Shi’ites. While most residents can speak Arabic, Iraqi Turkmen, a Turkic language, is the most common language used throughout the city.