Sadiyah has been the center town of Sadiyah Sub-District since the Ottoman era.[9] Sadiyah was used as winter pasture by the Kurdish Kalhor and Sanjâbi tribes who would pay pasturage dues to the Ottomans.[10] As part of the revolt of 1920, Sadiyah fell on 14 August 1920 largely due to the work of the Kurdish Dilo tribe.[11]
Kurds constituted 50% of the town in the 1947 census[12] and 40.5% in 1957.[9] Arabs constituted 47.1% of the population in 1957, while Iraqi Turkmens were 12.4%.[9] In the 1965 census, Arabs were the majority with 58.4% while Kurds constituted 24.7% and Turkmens were 9.6%.[13] In the 1977 census, the Arab population increased to 90.2%, while Kurds and Turkmens were 5.1% and 4% respectively.[14] In 1987, Arabs were 87.8% of the population, Kurds were 16.8% and Turkmens were 5.4%,[15] while the numbers were 83.1%, 9.9% and 7% for Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens, respectively in 1997.[16] More recent estimates state that Kurds constituted 38% in 2003 and 12% in 2012.[17]
After the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Kurdistan Region pressured Arab settlers in Khanaqin to settle in Sadiyah which increased the Arab population further.[7]Peshmerga was deployed to the town in 2011 after request from the federal government in Baghdad to counter the attacks on the local Kurds.[18] The dire security after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, forced more Kurds to leave the town.[19][7]
