Hamdanid dynasty
The Hamdanid dynasty, a branch of the Banu Taghlib, took over Sinjar in 970. Toward the end of the century, Diyar Rabi'a was conquered by another Arab dynasty, the Uqaylids, who likely built the original citadel of Sinjar. During this century, Kurdish Yazidis are known to have inhabited the Sinjar Mountains, and since the 12th century, the area around the mountains have been mainly inhabited by Yazidis. who venerate them and consider the highest to be the place where Noah's Ark settled after the biblical flood. The Yazidis have historically used the mountains as a place of refuge and escape during periods of conflict. Gertrude Bell wrote, in the 1920s: "Until a couple of years ago the Yezidis were ceaselessly at war with the Arabs and with everybody else."