Map - Sadr City (Sadr)

Sadr City (مدينة الصدر), formerly known as Al-Thawra (الثورة) and Saddam City (مدينة صدام), is a suburb district of the city of Baghdad, Iraq. It was built in 1959 by Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim and later unofficially renamed Sadr City after Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr.

Sadr City – or more accurately Thawra District (حيّ الثورة) – is one of nine administrative districts in Baghdad. A public housing project neglected by Saddam Hussein, Sadr City holds around 1 million residents.

Sadr City was built in Iraq in 1959 by Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim in response to grave housing shortages in Baghdad. At the time named Revolution City (مدينة الثورة), it provided housing for Baghdad's urban poor, many of whom had come from the countryside and who had until then lived in appalling conditions. Naziha al-Dulaimi was instrumental in turning the vast slums of eastern Baghdad into a massive public works and housing project that came to be known as Revolution City. It quickly became a stronghold of the Iraqi Communist Party, with resistance to the Baathist-led coup of 1963 becoming prevalent within the city itself. The development was devised by the Greek planner Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis, who also designed Islamabad and Riyadh.

In 1982, the district was renamed Saddam City. In the 1980s, the district became known for poverty and communist organizing, with illegal documents and, in some cases, people themselves being hidden from the authorities in overflowing septic tanks. The proliferation of communism in the district was seen by some as ironic, given how Doxiadis's design had been considered "anticommunist" with the view that it promoted a village atmosphere in an effort to ease the transition of rural migrants to the city.

After the Saddam Hussein was removed from power in April 2003, the district was unofficially renamed Sadr City after deceased shiite leader Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr.