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The city is extremely ancient, dating back at least to 2300 BC when it was founded as Urbillum by the Sumerians. The name means 4 gods from the semetic roots "arba" (4) and "ila" (god). During Assyrian times it was known as Arbela and was an important religious centre for the cult of the goddess Ishtar. The town's name is sometimes given to the battle of October 1, 331 BC fought between Alexander the Great and Darius III of Persia, which actually took place at Gaugamela , some 100km (80 miles) away. It ended in a catastrophic defeat of the Persian forces and the absorption of Persia into Alexander's short-lived empire.

The current town of Arbil is located on a tell topped by an old Turkish fort. During the medieval period, Arbil became a major trading centre on the route between Baghdad and Mosul, a role which it still plays today with important road and rail links to the outside world.

The parliament of the Kurdish Autonomous RegionThe Kurdish Autonomous Region is a political entity established in 1970 following the agreement of an Autonomy Accord between the government of Iraq and leaders of the Iraqi Kurdish community. A Legislative Assembly was established in the city of Arbil wi was convened in Irbil for many years, but was effectively controlled by Saddam HusseinSaddm Hussein 'Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti Hussein also spelled Husayn and Hussain Arabic: ; born April 28, 1937 1) was President of Iraq from 1979 to 2003. A rising star in the revolutionary Ba'ath Party, which espoused secular Arab nationalism, economic mod until the Kurdish uprising at the end of the 19911991 like 2002, is a palindromic year. It also has the same calendar as 2002, including Easter on March 31. It is a common year starting on Tuesday. Events January January 2 Sharon Pratt Dixon is sworn in as mayor of Washington, DC becoming the first blac Gulf WarSee also: 2003 invasion of Iraq. The Persian Gulf War was a conflict between Iraq and a coalition force of 34 nations led by the United States. The war started with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. The result of the war was a decisive victory. It effectively collapsed in the mid- 1990sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s Years: Events and trends Computers, technology Explosive growth of the Internet; decrease in the cost of computers and other techn when fighting broke out between the two main Kurdish factions, the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of KurdistanThe Patriotic Union of Kurdistan PUK or Yaketi Nishtimani Kurdistan in Kurdish) was a leftist political movement which progressively moved towards the right and has now become a social democratic party. It is a Kurdish Iraqi opposition group led by Jalal (PUK). The city was captured by the KDP in 1996 with the assistance of Saddam Hussein.

Irbil was fairly quiet during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Although the United States had originally intended to use Kurdish and Turkish territory to mount an invasion from the north, this fell through after permission was denied by the Turkish parliament. The city was the scene of rapturous celebrations on April 10, 2003 after the fall of Baghdad. Following the war, the city experienced repeated bomb attacks against coalition forces and Kurdish targets. The worst of these was an attack on a joint PUK/KDP gathering on February 4, 2004 which killed 109 people and was blamed on the militant group Ansar al-Islam.