Iraq

Republic of Iraq

Flag Coat of arms


Motto: الله أكبر   (Arabic)
"Allahu Akbar"  (transliteration)
"God is [the] Greatest"
Anthem: Mawtini  (new)
Ardh Alforatain  (previous)


Capital
(and largest city) Baghdad
33°20′N 44°26′E / 33.333°N 44.433°E / 33.333; 44.433
Official language(s) Arabic, Kurdish,Turkmen
Demonym Iraqi
Government Parliamentary republic
 -  President Jalal Talabani
 -  Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
Independence
 -  from the Ottoman Empire
1 October 1919 
 -  from the United Kingdom
3 October 1932 
 -  Republic
14 July 1958 
 -  Current constitution
15 October 2005 
Area
 -  Total 438,317 km² (58th)
169,234 sq mi 
 -  Water (%) 1.1
Population
 -  2009 estimate 31,234,000 (39th)
 -  Density 71.5/km² (125th)
184.6/sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2009 estimate
 -  Total $111.500 billion 
 -  Per capita $3,570 
GDP (nominal) 2009 estimate
 -  Total $65.838 billion 
 -  Per capita $2,108 
Currency Iraqi dinar (IQD)
Time zone GMT+3 (UTC+3)
 -  Summer (DST) not observed (UTC+3)
Drives on the right
Internet TLD .iq
Calling code 964

Iraq (pronounced /iːˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, Arabic: العراق Al-Irāq), officially the Republic of Iraq (Arabic: جمهورية العراق (help·info) Jumhūrīyat Al-Irāq, Kurdish: كؤماری عێراق‎, Komara Îraqê) is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.

Iraq is bordered by Jordan to the west, Syria to the northwest, Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south. Iraq has a narrow section of coastline measuring 58 km (35 miles) on the northern Persian Gulf. The capital city, Baghdad is in the center-east of the country.

Two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run through the center of Iraq, flowing from northwest to southeast. These provide Iraq with agriculturally capable land and contrast with the steppe and desert landscape that covers most of Western Asia.

Historically, the territory comprising Iraq was known in Europe by the Greek toponym 'Mesopotamia' (Land between the rivers). Iraq has been home to continuous successive civilizations since the 6th millennium BC. The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is identified as the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of writing and the wheel.

Throughout its long history, Iraq has been the center of the Akkadian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid and Abbasid empires, and part of the Achaemenid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, Ottoman and British empires. The Kingdom of Iraq was founded in 1932.

Beginning with an invasion in 2003, Iraq came under military occupation by a multinational coalition of forces, ostensibly American and British.

Sovereignty was transferred to the Iraqi Interim Government in June 2004. A new constitution was then approved by referendum and a new Government of Iraq was elected. As of September 2010, 50,000 US troops remain in the country. The full withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq is mandated by 31 December 2011.

Etymology

The Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name. One dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk (Biblical Hebrew Erech) and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Unug, containing the Sumerian word for "city", URU. However, according to Professor Wilhelm Eilers, "The name al-‘Irāq, for all its Arabic appearance, is derived from Middle Persian erāq lowlands".

Mesopotamia has always been called "the land of Iraq" in Arabic, meaning "the fertile" or "deep-rooted land". During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī ("Arabian Iraq") for lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī ("Persian Iraq" or "Foreign Iraq"), for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the plain south of the Hamrin Mountains and did not include the northernmost and westernmost parts of the modern territory of Iraq.

As an Arabic word, عراق means hem, shore, bank, or edge, so that the name by folk etymology came to be interpreted as "the escarpment", viz. at the south and east of the Jazira Plateau, which forms the northern and western edge of the "al-Iraq arabi" area.

The Arabic pronunciation is [ʕiˈrɑːq]. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ (the only pronunciation listed in the Oxford English Dictionary and the first one in Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary) or /ɪˈræk/ (listed first by MQD), the American Heritage Dictionary, and the Random House Dictionary. /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in US media.

History

Ancient Iraq

Iraq has the common epithet, the "Cradle of Civilization", as it was home to the earliest known civilization on Earth, the Sumerian civilization, which arose in the fertile Tigris-Euphrates river valley of southern Iraq in the Chalcolithic (Ubaid period). It was here in the late 4th millennium BC, that the world's first writing system and recorded history itself were born. The Sumerian civilization flourished for over 3,000 years and was succeeded by the rise of the Akkadian Empire in the 24th century BC. Over two centuries of Akkadian dominance was followed by a Sumerian Renaissance in the 21st century BC. An Elamite invasion in 2004 BC brought the Third Dynasty of Ur to an end. By the 18th century BC a new civilization, Babylonia, had risen to dominance in central and southern Iraq while a contemporaneous state, Assyria, had formed in northern Iraq.

In the 6th century BC, Cyrus the Great of neighbouring Persia defeated the Neo-Babylonian Empire at the Battle of Opis and Iraq was subsumed into the Achaemenid Empire for nearly four centuries. In the late 4th century BC, Alexander the Great conquered the region, putting it under Hellenistic Seleucid rule for nearly two centuries. The Parthians conquered the region during the reign of Mithridates I of Parthia (r. 171–138 BC). From Syria, the Romans invaded the region several times. The Sassanid Persians under Ardashir I destroyed the Parthian Empire and conquered the region in 224 AD. The region was thus a province of the Persian Empire for four centuries, until the Islamic conquest of Mesopotamia in the 7th century AD.

Islamic Golden Age