History of Iraq

Iraq, known in Classical Antiquity as Mesopotamia, was home to some of the oldest civilizations in the world,[1][2] with a cultural history of over 10,000 years.[3][4] hence its common epithet, the Cradle of Civilization. Mesopotamia, as part of the larger Fertile Crescent, was a significant part of the Ancient Near East throughout the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. Successively ruled by the Assyrian, MedoPersian, Seleucid and Parthian empires during the Iron Age and Classical Antiquity, Iraq was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate and became a center of the Islamic Golden Age during the medieval Abbasid Caliphate. After a series of invasions and conquest by the Mongols and Turkmens, Iraq fell under Ottoman rule in the 16th century, intermittently falling under Mamluk and Safavid control. Ottoman rule ended with World War I, and Iraq came to be administered by the British Empire until the establishment of the Kingdom of Iraq in 1932. The Republic of Iraq was established in 1958 following a coup d'etat. The Republic was controlled by Saddam Hussein from 1979 to 2003, into which period falls the Iran-Iraq war and the First Gulf War. Saddam Hussein was deposed in 2003 following the US-led invasion of the country. After the invasion, the situation deteriorated and from 2007 Iraq has been in or on the brink of a state of civil war.

Ancient Mesopotamia
Sumer and Akkad
Sumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Iraq. It is the earliest known civilization in the world and is known as the Cradle of Civilization. The Sumerian civilization spanned over 3000 years[5] and began with the first settlement of Eridu in the Ubaid period (mid 6th millennium BC) through the Uruk period (4th millennium BC) and the Dynastic periods (3rd millennium BC) until the rise of Babylonia in the early 2nd millennium BC. The Ubaid period marks the Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic phase in Mesopotamia, which represents the earliest settlement on the alluvial plain in the south. Early urbanization begins with the Ubaid period, around 5300 BC. The Ubaid culture gives way to the Uruk period from c. 4000 BC. The invention of the wheel and the beginning of the Chalcolithic period fall into the Ubaid period. The Sumerian historical record remains obscure until the Early Dynastic period, when a now deciphered syllabary writing system was developed, which has allowed archaeologists to read contemporary records and inscriptions. Classical Sumer ends with the rise of the empire of Akkad in the 23rd century BC. Following the Gutian period, there is a brief "Sumerian renaissance" in the 21st century, cut short in the 20th century BC by Amorite invasions. The Amorite "dynasty of Isin" persisted until ca. 1700 BC, when Mesopotamia was united under Babylonian rule.

Ubaid period: 5300 4100 BC (Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic) Uruk period: 4100 2900 BC (Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age I) o Uruk XIV-V: 4100 3300 BC o Uruk IV period: 3300 3000 BC o Jemdet Nasr period (Uruk III): 3000 2900 BC Early Dynastic period (Early Bronze Age II-IV) o Early Dynastic I period: 2900 2800 BC o Early Dynastic II period: 2800 2600 BC (Gilgamesh) o Early Dynastic IIIa period: 2600 2500 BC o Early Dynastic IIIb period: ca. 2500 2334 BC Akkadian Empire period: ca. 2334 2218 BC (Sargon) Gutian period: ca. 2218 2047 BC (Early Bronze Age IV) Ur III period: ca. 2047 1940 BC

Babylonia and Assyria

Main articles: Babylonia and Assyria Babylonia was a state in central and southern Iraq with Babylon as its capital. During the third millennium BCE, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism.[6] The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian (and vice versa) is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a massive scale, to syntactic, morphological, and phonological convergence.[6] This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the third millennium as a sprachbund.[6] Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as the spoken language of Mesopotamia somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BCE (the exact dating being a matter of debate),[7] but Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary and scientific language in Mesopotamia until the first century CE. Babylonia emerged out of the Amorite dynasties (c. 1900 BC) when Hammurabi (c. 1792 BC 1750 BC), unified the territories of the former kingdoms of Sumer and Akkad. The Babylonian culture was a synthesis of Akkadian and Sumerian culture. Babylonians spoke the Akkadian language, and retained the Sumerian language for religious use, which by Hammurabi's time was declining as a spoken language. The rulers of Babylonia carried the title "King of Sumer and Akkad". The earliest mention of the city of Babylon can be found in a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad, dating back to the 20th century BC. Following the collapse of the last Sumerian "Ur-III" dynasty at the hands of the Elamites (2002 BC traditional, 1940 BC short), the Amorites gained control over most of Mesopotamia, where they formed a series of small kingdoms. During the first centuries of what is called the "Amorite period", the most powerful city states

were Isin and Larsa, although Shamshi-Adad I came close to uniting the more northern regions around Assur and Mari. One of these Amorite dynasties was established in the city-state of Babylon, which would ultimately take over the others and form the first Babylonian empire, during what is also called the Old Babylonian Period.

[edit] Neo-Assyrian Empire

Main article: Neo-Assyrian Empire The Neo-Assyrian Empire is usually considered to have begun with the accession of Adad-nirari II, in 911 BC, lasting until the fall of Nineveh at the hands of the Babylonians in 612 BC.[8] In the Middle Assyrian period, Assyria had been a minor kingdom of northern Mesopotamia, competing for dominance with Babylonia to the south. Beginning with the campaigns of Adad-nirari II, Assyria became a great regional power, growing to be a serious threat to 25th dynasty Egypt. It began reaching the peak of its power with the reforms of Tiglath-Pileser III (ruled 745 727 BC).[9][10] This period is well-referenced in several sources, including the Assyro-Babylonian Chronicles and the Hebrew Bible. Assyria finally succumbed to the rise of the neo-Babylonian Chaldean dynasty with the sack of Nineveh in 612 BC.

[edit] Neo-Babylonian Empire

Main articles: Neo-Babylonian Empire and Chaldea Eventually, during the 800s BC, one of the most powerful tribes outside Babylon, the Chaldeans (Latin Chaldaeus, Greek Khaldaios, Assyrian Kaldu), gained prominence. The Chaldeans rose to power in Babylonia and, by doing so, seem to have increased the stability and power of Babylonia. They fought off many revolts and aggressors. Chaldean influence was so strong that, during this period, Babylonia came to be known as Chaldea. In 626 BC, the Chaldeans helped Nabo-Polassar to take power in Babylonia. At that time, Assyria was under considerable pressure from an Iranian people, the Medes (from Media). Nabo-Polassar allied Babylonia with the Medes. Assyria could not withstand this added pressure, and in 612 BC, Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, fell. The entire city, once the capital of a great empire, was sacked and burned. Later, Nebuchadnezzar II (Nabopolassar's son) inherited the empire of Babylonia. He added quite a bit of territory to Babylonia and rebuilt Babylon, still the capital of Babylonia. In the 6th century BC (586 BC), Nebuchadnezzar II conquered Judea (Judah), destroyed Jerusalem; Solomon's Temple was also destroyed; Nebuchadnezzar II carried away an estimated 15,000 captives, and sent most of its population into

exile in Babylonia. Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 BC) is credited for building the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

[edit] Classical Antiquity

[edit] Achaemenid and Seleucid rule
Main articles: Babylonia (Persian province), Achaemenid Assyria, and Seleucid Empire Various invaders conquered the land after Nebuchadnezzar's death, including Cyrus the Great in 539 BC and Alexander the Great in 331 BC, who died there in 323 BC. In the 6th century BC, it became part of the Achaemenid Empire, then was conquered by Alexander the Great and remained under Greek rule under the Seleucid dynasty for nearly two centuries. Babylon declined after the founding of Seleucia on the Tigris, the new Seleucid Empire capital.

[edit] Parthian and Roman rule

Main articles: Asuristan, Osroene, Adiabene, Mesopotamia (Roman province), and Assyria (Roman province) The Seleucids were succeeded by the Parthian Empire in the 3rd century BC. At the beginning of the second century AD, the Romans, led by emperor Trajan, invaded Parthia and conquered Mesopotamia, making it an imperial province. It was returned to the Parthians shortly after by Trajan's successor, Hadrian.

[edit] Sassanid Empire

Main article: Asuristan In the 3rd century AD, the Parthians were in turn succeeded by the Sassanid dynasty, which ruled Mesopotamia until the 7th century Islamic conquest. In the mid-6th century the Persian Empire under the Sassanid dynasty was divided by Khosrow I into four quarters, of which the western one, called Khvrvarn, included most of modern Iraq, and subdivided to provinces of Mishn, Asuristn, dibene and Lower Media. The term Iraq is widely used in the medieval Arabic sources for the area in the centre and south of the modern republic as a geographic rather than a political term, implying no greater precision of boundaries than the term "Mesopotamia" or, indeed, many of the names of modern states before the twentieth century. The area of modern Iraq north of Tikrit was known in Muslim times as Al-Jazirah, which means "The Island" and refers to the "island" between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. To the south and west lay the Arabian deserts, inhabited largely by Arab tribesmen who occasionally acknowledged the overlordship of the Sassanian Emperors.

Until 602, the desert frontier of the Persian Empire had been guarded by the Arab Lakhmid kings of Al-Hirah, who were themselves Arabs but who ruled a settled buffer state. In that year Shahanshah Khosrow II Aparviz (Persian )rashly abolished the Lakhmid kingdom and laid the frontier open to nomad incursions. Farther north, the western quarter was bounded by the Byzantine Empire. The frontier more or less followed the modern Syria-Iraq border and continued northward into modern Turkey, leaving Nisibis (modern Nusaybin) as the Sassanian frontier fortress while the Byzantines held Dara and nearby Amida (modern Diyarbakr).

[edit] Arab conquest and Abbasid Caliphate

The Age of the Caliphs

632-661

Prophet Mohammad, 622-632 Umayyad Caliphate, 661-750

Patriarchal Caliphate,

This earthenware dish was made in 9th century Iraq. It is housed in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Main articles: Muslim conquest of Iraq, Abbasid Caliphate, and Islamic Golden Age The first organised conflict between local Arab tribes and Persian forces seems to have been in 634, when the Arabs were defeated at the Battle of the Bridge. There was a force of some 5,000 Muslims under Ab `Ubayd ath-Thaqaf, which was routed by the Persians. This was followed by Khalid ibn al-Walid's successful campaign which saw all of Iraq come under Arab rule within a year, with the exception of the Persian Empire's capital, Ctesiphon. Around 636, a larger Arab Muslim force under Sa`d ibn Ab Waqqs defeated the main Persian army at the Battle of al-Qdisiyyah and moved on to capture the Persian capital of Ctesiphon. By the end of 638, the Muslims had conquered all of the Western Sassanid provinces (including modern Iraq), and the last Sassanid Emperor,

Yazdegerd III, had fled to central and then northern Persia, where he was killed in 651. The Islamic conquest was followed by mass immigration of Arabs from eastern Arabia and Mazun (Oman) to Khvarvrn. These new arrivals did not disperse and settle throughout the country; instead they established two new garrison cities, at al-Kfah, near ancient Babylon, and at Basrah in the south. The intention was that the Muslims should be a separate community of fighting men and their families living off taxes paid by the local inhabitants. In the north of the North eastern Iran, Mosul began to emerge as the most important city and the base of a Muslim governor and garrison. Apart from the Persian elite and the Zoroastrian priests, who did not convert to Islam and thus lost their lives and property, most of the Mesopotamian peoples became Muslim and were allowed to keep their possessions. Khvarvrn, now became a province of the Muslim Caliphate, known as `Irq. The city of Baghdad was built in the 8th century and became the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate. During this period, Baghdad served as the intellectual center of the Muslim world for several centuries, up until the sack of Baghdad in 1258. Many famous Muslim scientists, philosophers, inventors, poets and writers were active in Iraq during the 8th to 13th centuries.

[edit] Ottoman Iraq and Mamluk rule

Further information: Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Iraq, and Mamluk rule in Iraq During the late 14th and early 15th centuries, the Black Sheep Turkmen ruled the area now known as Iraq. In 1466, the White Sheep Turkmen defeated the Black Sheep and took control. In the 16th century, most of the territory of present-day Iraq came under the control of Ottoman Empire as the pashalik of Baghdad. Throughout most of the period of Ottoman rule (1533-1918) the territory of present-day Iraq was a battle zone between the rival regional empires and tribal alliances. Iraq was divided into three vilayets:

Mosul Province Baghdad Province Basra Province

The Safavid dynasty of Iran briefly asserted their hegemony over Iraq in the periods of 1508-1533 and 1622-1638. During the years 1747-1831 Iraq was ruled by the Mamluk officers of Georgian origin who succeeded in obtaining autonomy from the Sublime Porte, suppressed tribal revolts, curbed the power of the Janissaries, restored order and introduced a program of modernization of economy and military. In 1831, the Ottomans managed to overthrow the Mamluk regime and again imposed their direct control over Iraq.[11]

[edit] 20th century

Main article: 20th century history of Iraq

[edit] British mandate and Kingdom of Iraq

Main articles: British Mandate of Mesopotamia and Kingdom of Iraq Ottoman rule over Iraq lasted until World War I when the Ottomans sided with Germany and the Central Powers. In the Mesopotamian campaign against the Central Powers, British forces invaded the country and suffered a major defeat at the hands of the Turkish army during the Siege of Kut (191516). After the war the Ottoman Empire was divided up, and the British Mandate of Mesopotamia was established by League of Nations mandate. Britain imposed a Hshimite monarchy on Iraq and defined the territorial limits of Iraq without taking into account the politics of the different ethnic and religious groups in the country, in particular those of the Kurds and the Assyrians to the north. During the British occupation, the Shi'ites and Kurds fought for independence. Although the monarch Faisal I of Iraq was legitimized and proclaimed King by a plebiscite in 1921, nominal independence was only achieved in 1932, when the British Mandate officially ended. In 1945, Iraq joined the United Nations and became a founding member of the Arab League. At the same time, the Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani led a rebellion against the central government in Baghdad. After the failure of the uprising Barzani and his followers fled to the Soviet Union. In 1948, Iraq entered the 1948 Arab-Israeli War along with other members of the Arab League. In February 1958, King Hussein of Jordan and `Abd al-Ilh proposed a union of Hshimite monarchies to counter the recently formed Egyptian-Syrian union. The prime minister Nuri as-Said wanted Kuwait to be part of the proposed ArabHshimite Union. Shaykh `Abd-Allh as-Salm, the ruler of Kuwait, was invited to Baghdad to discuss Kuwait's future. This policy brought the government of Iraq into direct conflict with Britain, which did not want to grant independence to Kuwait. At that point, the monarchy found itself completely isolated. Nuri as-Said was able to contain the rising discontent only by resorting to ever greater political oppression.

[edit] Republic of Iraq

Inspired by Nasser, officers from the Nineteenth Brigade, 3rd Division known as "The Four Colonials", under the leadership of Brigadier Abd al-Karm Qsim (known as "az-Za`m", 'the leader') and Colonel Abdul Salam Arif overthrew the Hashimite monarchy on 14 July 1958. The new government proclaimed Iraq to be a republic and rejected the idea of a union with Jordan. Iraq's activity in the Baghdad Pact ceased.

In 1961, Kuwait gained independence from Britain and Iraq claimed sovereignty over Kuwait. A period of considerable instability followed. Qsim was assassinated in February 1963, when the Ba'ath Party took power under the leadership of General Ahmed Hasan al-Bakr (prime minister) and Colonel Abdul Salam Arif (president). Nine months later `Abd as-Salam Muhammad `Arif led a successful coup against the Ba'ath government. On 13 April 1966, President Abdul Salam Arif died in a helicopter crash and was succeeded by his brother, General Abdul Rahman Arif. Following the Six Day War of 1967, the Ba'ath Party felt strong enough to retake power (17 July 1968). Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr became president and chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC).

Promoting women's education in the 1970s. In July 1979, President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr resigned, and his chosen successor,General Saddam Hussein, assumed the offices of both President and Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council. Territorial disputes with Iran led to an inconclusive and costly eight-year war, the IranIraq War (1980 1988, termed Qdisiyyat-Saddm 'Saddam's Qdisiyyah'), which devastated the economy. Iraq declared victory in 1988 but actually achieved a weary return to the status quo ante bellum. A long-standing territorial dispute led to the invasion of Kuwait in 1990. In November 1990, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 678, permitting member states to use all necessary means, authorizing military action against the Iraqi forces occupying Kuwait and demanded a complete withdrawal by 15 January 1991. When Saddam Hussein failed to comply with this demand, the Gulf War (Operation "Desert Storm") ensued on 17 January 1991. Probably as many as 100,000 Iraqi soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians were killed. On 6 August 1990, after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 661 which imposed economic sanctions on Iraq, providing for a full trade embargo, excluding medical supplies, food and other items of humanitarian necessity, these to be determined by the Security Council sanctions committee. After the end of the Gulf War and after the Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait, the sanctions were linked to removal of weapons of mass destruction by Resolution 687 [2]. From 1991 until 2003 the effects of

government policy and sanctions regime led to hyperinflation, widespread poverty and malnutrition. During the latter part of the 1990s the UN considered relaxing the sanctions imposed because of the hardships suffered by ordinary Iraqis. According to UN estimates, between 500,000 and 1.2 million children died [3] during the years of the sanctions. The United States used its veto in the UN Security Council to block the proposal to lift the sanctions because of the continued failure of Iraq to verify disarmament. However, an oil for food program was established in 1996 to ease the effects of sanctions. Iraqi cooperation with UN weapons inspection teams was questioned on several occasions during the 1990s. UNSCOM chief weapons inspector Richard Butler withdrew his team from Iraq in November 1998 because of Iraq's lack of cooperation. The team returned in December.[12] Butler prepared a report for the UN Security Council afterwards in which he expressed dissatisfaction with the level of compliance [4]. The same month, US President Bill Clinton authorized air strikes on government targets and military facilities. Air strikes against military facilities and alleged WMD sites continued into 2002.

[edit] Recent history (2003present)

[edit] 2003 invasion of Iraq
Main article: 2003 invasion of Iraq After the terrorist attacks by the group formed by the multi-millionaire Saudi Osama bin Laden on New York and Washington in the United States in 2001, American foreign policy began to call for the removal of the Ba'ath government in Iraq. Conservative think-tanks in Washington had for years been urging regime change in Baghdad, but until the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, official US policy was to simply keep Iraq complying with UN sanctions. The Iraq Liberation Act, fully three years prior to the 9-11 terrorist attacks, codified regime change in Iraq as the official policy of the United States government. It was passed 99-0 by the United States Senate. The US urged the United Nations to take military action against Iraq. The American president George Bush stated that Saddm had repeatedly violated 16 UN Security Council resolutions. The Iraqi government rejected Bush's assertions. A team of U.N. inspectors, led by Swedish diplomat Hans Blix was admitted, into the country; their final report stated that Iraqis capability in producing "weapons of mass destruction" was not significantly different from 1992 when the country dismantled the bulk of their remaining arsenals under terms of the ceasefire agreement with U.N. forces, but did not completely rule out the possibility that Saddam still had Weapons of Mass Destruction. The United States and the United Kingdom charged that Iraq was hiding Weapons and opposed the team's requests for more time to further investigate the matter.

Resolution 1441 was passed unanimously by the UN Security Council on 8 November 2002, offering Iraq "a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations" that had been set out in several previous UN resolutions, threatening "serious consequences" if the obligations were not fulfilled. The UN Security Council did not issue a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq. In March 2003 the United States and the United Kingdom, with military aid from other nations, invaded Iraq.

[edit] Post-invasion history

Main articles: Iraq War, Post-invasion Iraq, 2003present, and Reconstruction of Iraq

Occupation zones in Iraq as of September 2003. In 2003, after the American and British invasion, Iraq was occupied by Coalition forces. On 23 May 2003, the UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution lifting all economic sanctions against Iraq. As the country struggled to rebuild after three wars and a decade of sanctions, it was racked by violence between a growing Iraqi insurgency and occupation forces. Saddam Hussein, who vanished in April, was captured on 13 December 2003. Jay Garner is appointed Interim Civil Administrator with three deputies, including Tim Cross. Garner was replaced in May 2003 by L. Paul Bremer, who was himself replaced by John Negroponte in 19 April 2004 who left Iraq in 2005. Negroponte was the last US interim administrator. Terrorism emerged as a threat to Iraq's people not long after the invasion of 2003. Al Qaeda now has a presence in the country, in the form of several terrorist groups formerly led by Abu Musab Al Zarqawi. Al-Zarqawi was a Jordanian militant Islamist who ran a militant training camp in Afghanistan. He became known after going to Iraq and being responsible for a series of bombings, beheadings and attacks during the Iraq war. Al-zarqawi was killed on 7 June 2006. Many foreign fighters and former Ba'ath Party officials have also joined the insurgency, which is mainly aimed at attacking American forces and

Iraqis who work with them. The most dangerous insurgent area is the Sunni Triangle, a mostly Sunni-Muslim area just north of Baghdad. By the end of 2006 violence continued as the new Iraqi Government struggled to extend complete security within Iraq. U.S. and Coalition forces remained in Iraq. An increasingly disturbing trend had arisen - sectarian fighting. As the country attempted to move from occupation by western forces to a new entity within the Middle East, a new phase of conflict seemed to have erupted within Iraq. This new phase of conflict was waged predominately along the religious sectarian lines that the Americans had used to divide the population. Fighting was primarily between the majority Shia and the minority Sunni. But there were reports of infighting as well. To outside observers, as well as people in Iraq who supported the American military presence, the cause of violence was obscure - as developments came faster than could be easily analyzed. Reported acts of violence conducted by an uneasy tapestry of independence activists and opponents of foreign domination steadily increased by the end of 2006. These attacks become predominately aimed at Iraqi collaborators rather than foreign occupation forces. Violence was conducted by Sunni groups, nationalists and others who sought an Iraq freed from foreign rule that include the Iraq Insurgency, which has been fighting since the initial U.S. invasion of 2003. Also, criminal elements within Iraq's society seemed to perpetuate violence for their own means and ambitions. Iraqi nationalist and Ba'athist elements (part of the insurgency) remained committed to expelling U.S. forces and also seemed to attack Shia populations, presumably, due to the Shia parties' collaboration with Iran and the United States in making war against their own nation. Further, Islamic Jihadist - of which Al Qaeda in Iraq is a member - continued to use terror and extreme acts of violence against collaborationist populations to advance their religious and political agenda(s). The aims of these attacks were not completely clear, but it was argued in 2006/7 that these attacks were aimed at fomenting civil conflict within Iraq to destroy the legitimacy of the newly created collaborationist Iraqi government (which many of its nationalist critics saw as illegitimate and a product of the U.S. government) and create an unsustainable position for the U.S. forces within Iraq. The most widely reported evidence of this argument stemmed from the 23 February 2006 attack on the Al Askari Mosque in Samarra, one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest sites. Analysis of the attack suggested that the Mujahideen Shura Council and Al-Qaeda in Iraq were responsible, and that the motivation was to provoke further violence by outraging the Shia population. [5] The Mujahideen Shura Council was said to have been headed by Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi.[13] In mid-October 2006, a statement was released, stating that the Mujahideen Shura Council had been disbanded and was replaced by the "Islamic State of Iraq". It was formed to resist efforts by the U.S. and Iraqi authorities to win over Sunni supporters of the insurgency.

In response to attacks like the one against the Askari Mosque, violent reprisals escalated. Shia terror organizations associated with the American occupation forces within Iraq gained increasing power and influence in the collaborationist Iraqi government. Additionally, the militias, it appeared in late 2006, had the capability to act outside the scope of government. As a result these powerful militias, it seemed as of late 2006, were leading reprisal acts of violence against the Sunni minority. A cycle of violence thus ensued whereby Sunni insurgent or nationalist attacks followed with government and American backed reprisals often in the form of Shi'ite death squads that sought out and killed Sunnis. Many commentators on the Iraq War began, by the end of 2006, to refer to this violent escalation as a civil war.

Geography of Iraq
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThe geography of Iraq is diverse and falls into four main regions: the desert (west of the Euphrates River), Upper Mesopotamia (between the upper Tigris and Euphrates rivers), the northern highlands of Iraqi Kurdistan, and Lower Mesopotamia, the alluvial plain extending from around Tikrit to the Persian Gulf. The mountains in the northeast are an extension of the alpine system that runs eastward from the Balkans through southern Turkey, northern Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, eventually reaching the Himalayas. The desert is in the southwest and central provinces along the borders with Saudi Arabia and Jordan and geographically belongs with the Arabian Peninsula. Iraq holds a special distinction in the history of geography: a clay tablet generally accepted as "the earliest known map" was unearthed in 1930 during the excavation of Ga-Sur at Nuzi Yorghan Tepe, near the towns of Harran and Kirkuk, 200 miles (322 km) north of the site of Babylon. The tablet, measuring 6.8 7.6 in (173 193 mm), is usually dated from the dynasty of Sargon of Akkad between 2,300-2,500 BC; an even earlier date for the tablet was promulgated by archeologist Leo Bagrow,[1] placing it in the Agade Period (3,800 BC).

Major geographical features

Most geographers, including those of the Iraqi government, discuss the country's geography in terms of four main zones or regions: the desert in the west and southwest; the rolling upland between the upper Tigris and Euphrates rivers (in Arabic the Dijlis and Furat, respectively); the highlands in the north and northeast; and the alluvial plain through which the Tigris and Euphrates flow. Iraq's official statistical reports give the total land area as 438,446 km2 (169,285 sq mi), whereas a United States Department of State publication gives the area as 434,934 km2 (167,929 sq mi).

Aqrah, Ninawa province

[edit] Upper Mesopotamia

Further information: Upper Mesopotamia The uplands region, between the Tigris north of Samarra and the Euphrates north of Hit, is known as Al Jazira (the island) and is part of a larger area that extends westward into Syria between the two rivers and into Turkey. Water in the area flows in deeply cut valleys, and irrigation is much more difficult than it is in the lower plain. Much of this zone may be classified as desert.

[edit] Lower Mesopotamia

Further information: Mesopotamian Marshes and Shatt al-Arab An Alluvial plain begins north of Baghdad and extends to the Persian Gulf. Here the Tigris and Euphrates rivers lie above the level of the plain in many places, and the whole area is a river delta interlaced by the channels of the two rivers and by irrigation canals. Intermittent lakes, fed by the rivers in flood, also characterize southeastern Iraq. A fairly large area (15,000 km2 or 5,800 sq mi) just above the confluence of the two rivers at Al Qurnah and extending east of the Tigris beyond the Iranian border is marshland, known as Hawr al Hammar, the result of centuries of flooding and inadequate drainage. Much of it is permanent marsh, but some parts dry out in early winter, and other parts become marshland only in years of great flood. Because the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates above their confluence are heavily siltladen, irrigation and fairly frequent flooding deposit large quantities of silty loam in much of the delta area. Windborne silt contributes to the total deposit of sediments. It has been estimated that the delta plains are built up at the rate of nearly twenty centimeters in a century. In some areas, major floods lead to the deposit in temporary lakes of as much as thirty centimeters of mud. The Tigris and Euphrates also carry large quantities of salts. These, too, are spread on the land by sometimes excessive irrigation and flooding. A high water table and poor surface

and subsurface drainage tend to concentrate the salts near the surface of the soil. In general, the salinity of the soil increases from Baghdad south to the Persian Gulf and severely limits productivity in the region south of Al Amarah. The salinity is reflected in the large lake in central Iraq, southwest of Baghdad, known as Bahr al Milh (Sea of Salt). There are two other major lakes in the country to the north of Bahr al Milh: Buhayrat ath Tharthar and Buhayrat al Habbaniyah.

Northern Iraq

[edit] Baghdad area

Main article: Baghdad Belts Between Upper and Lower Mesopotamia is the urban area surrounding Baghdad. These "Baghdad Belts" can be described as the provinces adjacent to the Iraqi capital and can be divided into four quadrants: Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and Northwest. Beginning in the north, the belts include the province of Salah ad Din, clockwise to Baghdad province, Diyala in the North-east, Babil and Wasit in the south east and around to Al Anbar in the west.

[edit] Highlands
Main articles: Northern Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan The northeastern highlands begin just south of a line drawn from Mosul to Kirkuk and extend to the borders with Turkey and Iran. High ground, separated by broad, undulating steppes, gives way to mountains ranging from 1,000 to 4,000 meters (3,281 to 13,123 ft) near the Iranian and Turkish borders. Except for a few valleys, the mountain area proper is suitable only for grazing in the foothills and steppes; adequate soil and rainfall, however, make cultivation possible. Here, too, are the great oil fields near Mosul and Kirkuk. The northeast is the homeland of most Iraqi Kurds.

[edit] Desert
Main article: Syrian Desert

The desert zone, an area lying west and southwest of the Euphrates River, is a part of the Syrian Desert, which covers sections of Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. The region, sparsely inhabited by pastoral nomads, consists of a wide, stony plain interspersed with rare sandy stretches. A widely ramified pattern of wadis - watercourses that are dry most of the year - runs from the border to the Euphrates. Some wadis are over 400 km (250 mi) long and carry brief but torrential floods during the winter rains.

[edit] Tigris-Euphrates river system

Main article: Tigris-Euphrates river system The Euphrates originates in Turkey, is augmented by the Balikh and Khabur rivers in Syria, and enters Iraq in the northwest. Here it is fed only by the wadis of the western desert during the winter rains. It then winds through a gorge, which varies from two to 16 kilometers in width, until it flows out on the plain at Ar Ramadi. Beyond there the Euphrates continues to the Hindiyah Barrage, which was constructed in 1914 to divert the river into the Hindiyah Channel; the present day Shatt al Hillah had been the main channel of the Euphrates before 1914. Below Al Kifl, the river follows two channels to As-Samawah, where it reappears as a single channel to join the Tigris at Al Qurnah. The Tigris also rises in Turkey but is significantly augmented by several rivers in Iraq, the most important of which are the Khabur, the Great Zab, the Little Zab, and the Adhaim, all of which join the Tigris above Baghdad, and the Diyala, which joins it about thirty-six kilometers below the city. At the Kut Barrage much of the water is diverted into the Shatt al-Hayy, which was once the main channel of the Tigris. Water from the Tigris thus enters the Euphrates through the Shatt al-Hayy well above the confluence of the two main channels at Al Qurnah. Both the Tigris and the Euphrates break into a number of channels in the marshland area, and the flow of the rivers is substantially reduced by the time they come together at Al Qurnah. Moreover, the swamps act as silt traps, and the Shatt al Arab is relatively silt free as it flows south. Below Basra, however, the Karun River enters the Shatt al Arab from Iran, carrying large quantities of silt that present a continuous dredging problem in maintaining a channel for ocean-going vessels to reach the port at Basra. This problem has been superseded by a greater obstacle to river traffic, however, namely the presence of several sunken hulls that have been rusting in the Shatt al Arab since early in the IranIraq war. The waters of the Tigris and Euphrates are essential to the life of the country, but they sometimes threaten it. The rivers are at their lowest level in September and October and at flood in March, April, and May when they may carry forty times as much water as at low mark. Moreover, one season's flood may be ten or more times as great as that in another year. In 1954, for example, Baghdad was seriously threatened, and dikes protecting it were nearly topped by the flooding Tigris. Since Syria built a dam on the Euphrates, the flow of water has been considerably diminished and flooding was no longer a problem in the mid-1980s. In 1988 Turkey was also constructing a dam on the Euphrates that would further restrict the water flow.

Until the mid-twentieth century, most efforts to control the waters were primarily concerned with irrigation. Some attention was given to problems of flood control and drainage before the revolution of July 14, 1958, but development plans in the 1960s and 1970s were increasingly devoted to these matters, as well as to irrigation projects on the upper reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates and the tributaries of the Tigris in the northeast. During the war, government officials stressed to foreign visitors that, with the conclusion of a peace settlement, problems of irrigation and flooding would receive top priority from the government.

[edit] Settlement patterns

In the rural areas of the alluvial plain and in the lower Diyala region, settlement almost invariably clusters near the rivers, streams, and irrigation canals. The bases of the relationship between watercourse and settlement have been summarized by Robert McCormick Adams, director of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. He notes that the levees laid down by streams and canals provide advantages for both settlement and agriculture. Surface water drains more easily on the levees' backslope, and the coarse soils of the levees are easier to cultivate and permit better subsurface drainage. The height of the levees gives some protection against floods and the frost that often affect low-lying areas and may kill winter crops. Above all, those living or cultivating on the crest of a levee have easy access to water for irrigation and household use in a dry, hot country.

Ancient Citadel of Arbil Although there are some isolated homesteads, most rural communities are nucleated settlements rather than dispersed farmsteads; that is, the farmer leaves his village to cultivate the fields outside it. The pattern holds for farming communities in the Kurdish highlands of the northeast as well as for those in the alluvial plain. The size of the settlement varies, generally with the volume of water available for household use and with the amount of land accessible to village dwellers. Sometimes, particularly in the lower Tigris and Euphrates valleys, soil salinity restricts the area of arable land and limits the size of the community dependent on it, and it also usually results in large unsettled and uncultivated stretches between the villages.

Fragmentary information suggests that most farmers in the alluvial plain tend to live in villages of over 100 persons. For example, in the mid-1970s a substantial number of the residents of Baqubah, the administrative center and major city of Diyala Governorate, were employed in agriculture. The Marsh Arabs (the Madan) of the south usually live in small clusters of two or three houses kept above water by rushes that are constantly being replenished. Such clusters often are close together, but access from one to another is possible only by small boat. Here and there a few natural islands permit slightly larger clusters. Some of these people are primarily water buffalo herders and lead a semi-nomadic life. In the winter, when the waters are at a low point, they build fairly large temporary villages. In the summer they move their herds out of the marshes to the river banks. The war has had its effect on the lives of these denizens of the marshes. With much of the fighting concentrated in their areas, they have either migrated to settled communities away from the marshes or have been forced by government decree to relocate within the marshes. Also, in early 1988, the marshes had become the refuge of deserters from the Iraqi army who attempted to maintain life in the fastness of the overgrown, desolate areas while hiding out from the authorities. These deserters in many instances have formed into large gangs that raid the marsh communities; this also has induced many of the marsh dwellers to abandon their villages. The war has also affected settlement patterns in the northern Kurdish areas. There, the persistence of a stubborn rebellion by Kurdish guerrillas has goaded the government into applying steadily escalating violence against the local communities. Starting in 1984, the government launched a scorched-earth campaign to drive a wedge between the villagers and the guerrillas in the remote areas of two provinces of Kurdistan in which Kurdish guerrillas were active. In the process whole villages were torched and subsequently bulldozed, which resulted in the Kurds flocking into the regional centers of Irbil and As Sulaymaniyah. Also as a military precaution, the government has cleared a broad strip of territory in the Kurdish region along the Iranian border of all its inhabitants, hoping in this way to interdict the movement of Kurdish guerrillas back and forth between Iran and Iraq. The majority of Kurdish villages, however, remained intact in early 1988. In the arid areas of Iraq to the west and south, cities and large towns are almost invariably situated on watercourses, usually on the major rivers or their larger tributaries. In the south this dependence has had its disadvantages. Until the recent development of flood control, Baghdad and other cities were subject to the threat of inundation. Moreover, the dikes needed for protection have effectively prevented the expansion of the urban areas in some directions. The growth of Baghdad, for example, was restricted by dikes on its eastern edge. The diversion of water to the Milhat ath Tharthar and the construction of a canal transferring water from the Tigris north of Baghdad to the Diyala River have permitted the irrigation of land outside the limits of the dikes and the expansion of settlement.

[edit] Area and boundaries

Delal Bridge in Zakho, near the border with Turkey In 1922 British officials concluded the Treaty of Mohammara with Abd al Aziz ibn Abd ar Rahman Al Saud, who in 1932 formed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The treaty provided the basic agreement for the boundary between the eventually independent nations. Also in 1922 the two parties agreed to the creation of the diamond-shaped Neutral Zone of approximately 7,500 km2 (2,900 sq mi) adjacent to the western tip of Kuwait in which neither Iraq nor Saudi Arabia would build dwellings or installations. Bedouins from either country could utilize the limited water and seasonal grazing resources of the zone. In April 1975, an agreement signed in Baghdad fixed the borders of the countries. Through Algerian mediation, Iran and Iraq agreed in March 1975 to normalize their relations, and three months later they signed a treaty known as the Algiers Accord. The document defined the common border all along the Khawr Abd Allah (Shatt) River estuary as the thalweg. To compensate Iraq for the loss of what formerly had been regarded as its territory, pockets of territory along the mountain border in the central sector of its common boundary with Iran were assigned to it. Nonetheless, in September 1980 Iraq went to war with Iran, citing among other complaints the fact that Iran had not turned over to it the land specified in the Algiers Accord. This problem has subsequently proved to be a stumbling block to a negotiated settlement of the ongoing conflict. In 1988 the boundary with Kuwait was another outstanding problem. It was fixed in a 1913 treaty between the Ottoman Empire and British officials acting on behalf of Kuwait's ruling family, which in 1899 had ceded control over foreign affairs to Britain. The boundary was accepted by Iraq when it became independent in 1932, but in the 1960s and again in the mid-1970s, the Iraqi government advanced a claim to parts of Kuwait. Kuwait made several representations to the Iraqis during the war to fix the border once and for all but Baghdad repeatedly demurred, claiming that the issue is a potentially divisive one that could inflame nationalist sentiment inside Iraq. Hence in 1988 it was likely that a solution would have to wait until the war ended.

Area: total: 437,072 km2 (168,754 sq mi) land: 432,162 km2 (166,859 sq mi) water: 4,910 km2 (1,900 sq mi) Land boundaries: total: 3,631 km (2,256 mi) border countries: Iran 1,458 km (906 mi), Saudi Arabia 814 km (506 mi), Syria 605 km (376 mi), Turkey 331 km (206 mi), Kuwait 242 km (150 mi), Jordan 181 km (112 mi) Coastline: 58 km (36 mi) Maritime claims: continental shelf: not specified territorial sea: 12 nmi (22.2 km; 13.8 mi) Elevation extremes: lowest point: Persian Gulf 0 m highest point: Cheekah Dar 3,611 m (11,847 ft) (not Haji Ibrahim 3,600 m/11,811 ft) True

[edit] Resources and land use

Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, phosphates, sulfur Land use: arable land: 12% permanent crops: 0% permanent pastures: 9% forests and woodland: 0% other: 79% (1993 est.) Irrigated land: 25,500 km2 or 9,800 sq mi (1993 est.) While its proven oil reserves of 112 billion barrels (17.8109 m3) ranks Iraq second in the world behind Saudi Arabia, the United States Department of Energy estimates that up to 90 percent of the country remains unexplored. Unexplored regions of Iraq could yield an additional 100 billion barrels (16109 m3). Iraq's oil production costs are among the lowest in the world. However, only about 2,000 oil wells have been drilled in Iraq, compared to about 1 million wells in Texas alone.[2]

[edit] Environmental concerns

Natural hazards: dust storms, sandstorms, floods

Environment - current issues: government water control projects have drained most of the inhabited marsh areas east of An Nasiriyah by drying up or diverting the feeder streams and rivers; a once sizable population of Shi'a Muslims, who have inhabited these areas for thousands of years, has been displaced; furthermore, the destruction of the natural habitat poses serious threats to the area's wildlife populations; inadequate supplies of potable water; development of Tigris-Euphrates Rivers system contingent upon agreements with upstream riparian Turkey; air and water pollution; soil degradation (salination) and erosion; and desertification. Environment - international agreements: party to: Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification Major ecoregions: Arabian Desert and East Sahero-Arabian xeric shrublands (PA1303) Mesopotamian shrub desert (PA1320)

Minor ecoregions: Zagros Mountains forest steppe (PA0446) Middle East steppe (PA0812) Eastern Mediterranean conifer-sclerophyllous broadleaf forests (PA1207) South Iran Nubo-Sindian desert and semi-desert (PA1328) Tigris-Euphrates alluvial salt marsh (PA0906) Red Sea Nubo-Sindian tropical desert and semi-desert (PA1325) Persian Gulf desert and semi-desert (PA1323)

Climate

Dust storms in Iraq, July 30, 2009. Average temperatures in Iraq range from higher than 48 C (118.4 F) in July and August to below freezing in January. Most of the rainfall occurs from December through April and averages between 100 and 180 millimeters (3.9 and 7.1 in) annually. The mountainous region of northern Iraq receives appreciably more precipitation than the central or southern desert region. Roughly 90% of the annual rainfall occurs between November and April, most of it in the winter months from December through March. The remaining six months, particularly the hottest ones of June, July, and August, are dry. Except in the north and northeast, mean annual rainfall ranges between 100 and 170 millimeters (3.9 and 6.7 in). Data available from stations in the foothills and steppes south and southwest of the mountains suggest mean annual rainfall between 320 and 570 millimeters (12.6 and 22.4 in) for that area. Rainfall in the mountains is more abundant and may reach 1,000 millimeters (39.4 in) a year in some places, but the terrain precludes extensive cultivation. Cultivation on nonirrigated land is limited essentially to the mountain valleys, foothills, and steppes, which have 300 millimeters (11.8 in) or more of rainfall annually. Even in this zone, however, only one crop a year can be grown, and shortages of rain have often led to crop failures. Mean minimum temperatures in the winter range from near freezing (just before dawn) in the northern and northeastern foothills and the western desert to 2 to 3 C (35.6 to 37.4 F) and 4 to 5 C (39.2 to 41 F) in the alluvial plains of southern Iraq. They rise to a mean maximum of about 16 C (60.8 F) in the western desert and the northeast, and 17 C (62.6 F) in the south. In the summer mean minimum temperatures range from about 27 to 34 C (80.6 to 93.2 F) and rise to maximums between roughly 42 and 47 C (107.6 and 116.6 F). Temperatures sometimes fall below freezing and have fallen as low as 14 C (6.8 F) at Ar Rutbah in the western desert. They are more likely, however, to go over 49 C (120.2 F) in the summer months, and several stations have records of over 53 C (127.4 F). The summer months are marked by two kinds of wind phenomena. The southern and southeasterly sharqi, a dry, dusty wind with occasional gusts of 80 kilometers per hour (50 mph), occurs from April to early June and again from late September through November. It may last for a day at the beginning and end of the season but for several days at other times. This wind is often accompanied by violent duststorms that may rise to heights of several thousand meters and close airports for brief periods. From mid-June to mid-September the prevailing wind, called the shamal, is from the north and northwest. It is a steady wind, absent only occasionally during this period. The very dry air brought by this shamal permits intensive sun heating of the land surface, but the breeze has some cooling effect. The combination of rain shortage and extreme heat makes much of Iraq a desert. Because of very high rates of evaporation, soil and plants rapidly lose the little moisture obtained

from the rain, and vegetation could not survive without extensive irrigation. Some areas, however, although arid, do have natural vegetation in contrast to the desert. For example, in the Zagros Mountains in northeastern Iraq there is permanent vegetation, such as oak trees, and date palms are found in the south.

Iraqi people
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to:navigation, search Iraqi people
Ancient: Gilgamesh, Sargon of Akkad, Gudea of Sumer, Hammurabi of Babylon, Ashurnasirpal II of Assyria, Nebuchadnezzar II Medieval: Harun al-Rashid, Al-Ma'mun, Al-Kindi, AlMasudi, Alhazen, Al-Jazari, Al-Mutanabbi, Saladin Modern: Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, Abd al-Karim Qasim, Saddam Hussein, Nazik Al-Malaika, Zaha Hadid, Nazem AlGhazali, Kathem Al-Saher, Younis Mahmoud

Total population 37,000,000+ Regions with significant populations

Iraq Syria Jordan United Kingdom United States Brazil Iran Egypt Germany Lebanon UAE Yemen Turkey Australia Sweden Netherlands Cuba

31,234,000 [1] 2 million+ [2] 1-2 million 450,000+ [3][4] 350,000+ [5] 70,000340,000+ 203,000+ [6] 150,000+ [7] 150,000+ [8] 100,000+ [9] 100,000+ [10] 100,000+ [11] 60,00090,000+ 80,000+ [12] 70,000+ [13] 50,000+ 40,000+

Greece .
Languages

5,00040,000+ [14] more countries .

Languages of Iraq include

Iraqi Arabic, North Mesopotamian Arabic, Kurdish, many varieties of Neo-Aramaic, Turcoman, Mandaic, Shabak Ancient languages Sumerian, Akkadian, Aramaic Religion Predominantly Islam Others Christianity, Judaism, Mandaeism as well as several other minority religions Related ethnic groups Iraqi people consist of and are related to Arabs, Assyrians, Caucasians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Iranians, Lebanese, Bahranis, Mizrahim, Palestinians, Syrians, Turks
Y-DNA Haplogroup J2 originated in Northern Iraq [15]

The Iraqi people or Mesopotamian people are natives or inhabitants of the country of Iraq,[16][17] known since antiquity as Mesopotamia (Arabic: , Aramaic: ,)and by virtue of a wide-ranging diaspora, throughout the Arab World, Europe, the Americas and Australasia. Before the arrival of Islam from the Arabian Peninsula, the population was mainly a non-Arabic speaking one but also witnessed a minority Arab presence, like Bani Assad, Taghlib, Banu Tamim and Lakhmid tribes among others.[18][19] After the arrival of Islam, Iraq witnessed a large migration from Arabia.[20] At some point, Iraq underwent a campaign of administrative and linguistic Arabization following the Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia. [21] As a result, most of the non-Arabic speaking population gradually adopted Arabic due to it being the only language of the Qur'an. This change was facilitated by the fact that Arabic, being a Semitic language, shared a close resemblance to Iraq's traditional languages of Akkadian and Aramaic. While Arabic was the common language spoken by Iraqi Muslims from the 8th century AD onwards (Iraqi Arabic and North Mesopotamian Arabic as well as Literary Arabic), many of Iraq's Christians had no need of completely adopting the language, as prayers were not held in Arabic but in Aramaic. This is the reason why, even nowadays, many Christian Iraqis (who identify primarily with the people of ancient Assyria) speak mainly Neo-Aramaic (a modern form of the ancient Aramaic) but also Arabic (usually only the Iraqi or North Mesopotamian dialects).

Culture
Main article: Culture of Iraq Further information: History of Iraq Like many of its Semitic and non-Semitic neighbors, the Iraqi people developed a number of significant civilizations in Iraq, or Mesopotamia, widely regarded as the cradle of civilization. The region was the centre of five great empires or civilizations (or seven, if counting the Neo-Babylonian Empire and Neo-Assyrian Empire as separate empires), known as ancient Sumer, the Akkadian Empire, the Babylonian Empire (who brought a significant number of Jews into the land between the two rivers who would eventually form the Jewish population of Iraq), the Assyrian Empire, and the medieval Islamic Abbasid Caliphate. The Ancient Iraqi civilization of Sumer is the oldest known civilization in the world, and thus Iraq is known as the cradle of civilization. Iraq remained an important centre of civilization for millennia, up until the Abbasid Caliphate (of which Baghdad was the capital), which was the most advanced empire of the medieval world (see Islamic Golden Age). Further information on Iraq's civilizations, which has influenced and was influenced by many other great civilizations around the world, can be found under the following articles and the sub-links found within the respective pages:

Ancient Iraq

Sumer Akkadian Empire Babylonia o Chaldea o Neo-Babylonian Empire Assyria o Neo-Assyrian Empire

Persian Empire

Achaemenid Assyria Adiabene Asuristan o Ctesiphon

Islamic Golden Age

Muslim conquest of Iraq Abbasid Caliphate

Ottoman Iraq

Mamluk rule in Iraq

British Mandate of Mesopotamia Kingdom of Iraq Republic of Iraq

[edit] Genetics
Besides Sumer, Akkad, Assyria and Babylon, the land of Mesopotamia has been continuously conquered and assimilated by armies of invading empires (including the Median Empire, Persian Achaemenid and Sassanid empires, Macedonian Empire (followed by the Seleucid Empire), Parthian Empire, Roman Empire, the Islamic Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates, the Mongol and Timurid empires, Safavid Empire, Ottoman Empire, and British Empire) over the course of its history. As a result, Iraqis share a mixed genetics. It has been found that Y-DNA Haplogroup J2 originated in Northern Iraq. [15] In spite of the importance of this region, genetic studies on the Iraqi people are limited and generally restricted to analysis of classical markers due to Iraq's modern political instability, [22] although there have been several published studies displaying the genealogical connection between all Iraqi people and the neighbouring countries, across religious and linguistic barriers. Many historians and archaeologists, provide strong circumstantial evidence to posit that Iraq's Marsh Arabs share the strongest link to the ancient Sumerians, the original inhabitants of Iraq.[1] The Beni Delphi (sons of Delphi) tribe of Iraq is believed to have Greek origins, from the Macedonian soldiers of Alexander the Great and the colonists of the Seleucid Empire. The Assyrian population has also been found to "have a distinct genetic profile that distinguishes their population from any other population."[23] "The Assyrians are a fairly homogeneous group of people, believed to originate from the land of old Assyria in northern Iraq", and "they are Christians and are possibly bona fide descendants of their namesakes."[24] Regarding the homogeneity of the Assyrian people, according to a recent study by Kevin MacDonald, the Assyrians tend to encourage endogamy.[25] "The genetic data are compatible with historical data that religion played a major role in maintaining the Assyrian population's separate identity during the Christian era". [23] Due to the scarce genetic information on the Iraqi people, the following information is based on a historical perspective rather than on proven fact. However, in addition to the few ethnic groups listed above, it is believed that the Iraqi people also share Arab, Persian, Jewish, Greek, Roman, Turkic and, to a lesser extent, other Asian and European genetics. This is part of a general Iraqi identity beyond its Mesopotamian and Islamic heritage.

[edit] Identity
The single identity and heritage of the Iraqi people is most commonly seen in the Iraqi cuisine. Iraqi cuisine has changed and evolved since the time of the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians and Abbasids; however several traditional Iraqi dishes have already been traced back to antiquity [26] such as Iraq's national dish Masgouf and Iraq's national cookie Kleicha which have been traced back to Sumerian and Babylonian times respectively [27][28] Nowadays, the demonym "Iraqi" includes all minorities in the country, such as the Kurds and Turkmen (although these groups often specify their ethnicity by adding a Suffix such as "Iraqi Kurdish" or "Iraqi Turkmen"). In a novel written by acclaimed Swiss-Iraqi author Salim Matar, entitled The Women of the Flask, Matar writes that most Iraqis claim that:

[We] are Iraqis. [We] go back to the ancient Mesopotamians.

Salim Matar

[edit] Languages
The two main regional dialects of Arabic spoken by the Iraqi people are Mesopotamian Arabic (spoken by approximately 18.1 million Iraqis (i.e. the majority) and thus commonly known as "Iraqi Arabic") and North Mesopotamian Arabic (spoken by approximately 7.8 million Iraqis in Iraq's north around the city of Mosul and thus commonly known as "Maslawi") [2]. In addition to Arabic, Christians in Iraq speak Syriac, a modern version of the ancient Aramaic language spoken by Jesus[citation needed] and all people in the Mesopotamian region before the arrival of Islam and Arabization during the Islamic Conquest of Mesopotamia. The Mandaic language is a dialect of the Eastern Aramaic language, which is thus also derived from the Semitic family of languages. All religious manuscripts of the Mandaeist Faith concerning rites were written in this language.[3].

[edit] Religion
Iraq has many devout followers of its religions. In 1968 the Iraqi constitution established Islam as the official religion of the state as the majority of Iraqis are Muslim (both Sunni and Shia).

In addition to Islam, many Iraqi people are Christians belonging to various denominations, which include the Chaldean Catholic Church and with an estimated 900,000 members, the Assyrian Church of the East with about 300,000 members and the Syriac Orthodox Church with an estimated 100,000 as well as various Protestant churches [4] [5]. Other religions also include, Mandaeist Faith, Shabaks, Yezidis and followers of other minority religions. Furthermore Jews were also present in Iraq but their population has dwindled following the creation of Israel and the rise of the Ba'ath Party in Iraq. Present estimates of the Jewish population in Baghdad are seven[29] or eight[30].

[edit] Diaspora
Main articles: Iraqi diaspora and Refugees of Iraq The Iraqi diaspora is not a sudden exodus but one that has grown exponentially through the 20th century as each generation faced some form of radical transition or political conflict. There were at least two large waves of expatriation of both Christians and Muslims alike. A great number of Iraqis left the country during the regime of Saddam Hussein and large numbers have left during the Second Gulf War and its aftermath. The United Nations estimates that roughly 40% of Iraq's remaining and formerly strong middle-class has fled the country during and after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. From 1950 to 1952 Iraq saw a great exodus of roughly 120,000 - 130,000 of its Jewish population under the Israel-led "Operation Ezra and Nehemiah". Even though more than 120,000 Iraqi Jews left the country between 1950 and 1952, the recent Iraqi diaspora represents the largest exodus of refugees in the Middle East since the state of Israel was created in 1948 [6].