Encyclopedia of Islam

Iraq

 

(Official Name: Republic of Iraq)

Located in the heart of the Middle East, Iraq 

covers an area of nearly 169,000 square miles, 

comparable in size to the state of California. This 

area consists of mountain ranges to the east and 

north and vast desert plains to the south and west, 

with the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers traversing it 

diagonally from northwest to southeast. The con-

fluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in the 

southeastern part of the country forms the Shatt 

al-Arab, a 120-mile long river that drains into the 

Persian Gulf. Iraq shares its longest border with 

i

ran

 (formerly known as Persia) to the east, fol-

lowed by s

aUdi

 a

rabia

 to the south, t

Urkey

 to the 

north, s

yria

 to the west, Kuwait to the southeast, 

and  J

ordan

 to the west. It has the fourth-largest 

proven 

oil

 reserves in the world (2006), with 

fields located in the southeast near the Shatt al-

Arab and the Kuwaiti border, and in the north.

The capital of Iraq is b

aghdad

, located in the 

central part of the country. The government oper-

ated as a dictatorial one-party political system 

until 2003, when it was overthrown by a U.S.-led 

invasion. The current government has a constitu-

tion and is technically classified as a parliamen-

tary democracy consisting of a multiparty national 

assembly, or parliament. Iraq’s head of state is the 

prime minister. It also has a president, but this is 

mainly a ceremonial office.

Iraq’s population is estimated to be about 28.2 

million (2008), nearly equally divided between 

males and females. Arabs make up about 75 

percent and Kurds 15 percent to 20 percent, 

with the remainder being small minorities such 

as Turkomans, Assyrians, and Persians. Most of 

the Kurds, Turkomans, and Assyrians live in the 

northern part of Iraq. The main languages spoken 

in Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish (closely related 

to Persian). A small minority speaks Turkoman, 

a Turkic language. Many educated Iraqis speak 

English as a second language. The majority of the 

population are adherents of t

Welve

-i

mam

  s

hiism

(60 to 65 percent), who follow either the U

sUli

(rationalist) or Akhbari (traditionalist) s

chools

of Shii jurisprudence. Most of Iraq’s Shiis live 

south of Baghdad. The rest are mainly Sunnis (32 

to 37 percent), most of whom follow the Hanafi 

School of Sunni jurisprudence. The largest Sunni 

populations are in the central and northern parts 

of the country, including the Kurdish areas. There 

are several small religious communities, includ-

ing Christians (3 percent) as well as Mandeans 

and Yazidis, who adhere to ancient pre-Islamic 

religions. The Sunnis include both Arabs and 

Kurds, while the Shia are mainly Arabs. Christians 

follow either the Assyrian Orthodox Church or 

the Chaldean Church, which is in communion 

with the Roman Catholic Church. Historically, the 

country’s cultural coherence has been challenged 

not only by its ethnic and religious diversity but 

by internal tribal divisions and the pull of greater 

Syria to the west, Turkey to the north, Iran to the 

east, and the Arabian Peninsula to the south.

ANCIENT IrAQ

Iraq has been called the “cradle of civiliza-

tion” because it is one of the first places where