Badinan was a Kurdish principality, which had roughly the size of today Iraqi province of Dohuk. The Principality was founded around the 13th or 14 Century by a Kurd named Baha ad-Din. His name gave the name to the principality in modified form. He emigrated from what is now Şemdinli Hakkari in the area at a Amedi. Amediye became the capital of the Badinan.

The area was in the north and northeast of Mosul plain, east of the Great Zab and west of the Euphrates. In the north Badinan bordering on the Principality of Botan in Hakkari and in the west and south of the principality of Soran. A ruler of the principality of Soran overran even Badinan 1832 and took the city Amedi. Badinan status was revoked in 1842 as the Principality and connected to the vilayet Mosul.

Badinan was only one of several Kurdish principalities, which were formally the Osmanen been subordinate, but due to special arrangements liberating from tax deliveries and as far as possible autonomous.

Large trunks of the Principality were Mzuri and Zibari. There were also some other trunks like the Rikan, the Berwari, the Mahal, the Siyabravi, the Tayli, the Buhli, the Sindi and the Süleymani. Muslim and Yazidi Kurds, Assyrians and Jews formed the Christian population of the Principality.

Badinan is considered today still as area designation in the Kurdistan Iraq, it covers the cities Duhok, Zaxo, Amediye, Akre and Sinjar.

Furthermore Badinan is the name for the local development of the Kurmandschi, which is spoken in this region.