Encyclopedia of Islam

Iraq

  

367  J

---

domestication of plants and 

animals

 occurred and 

cities with monumental 

architectUre

 and writing 

were constructed. The ancient civilizations that 

flourished there between the fourth millennium 

and the first millennium 

b

.

c

.

e

. were those of the 

Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians, and Babylo-

nians. Their religious life emphasized the worship 

of multiple gods and goddesses whose images 

were housed in great temples and shrines in the 

major cities. Many of these deities represented 

cosmic and natural forces, such as Anu, the god of 

the heavens, Antu, the earth goddess and wife of 

Anu, Enlil, the lord of the winds, and Ea (Enki), 

the god of the sweet waters. There was also Inanna 

(Ishtar), a youthful goddess associated with the 

planet Venus and fertility, and Erishkigal, god-

dess of the underworld. Ancient Mesopotamian 

deities also governed aspects of human culture, 

such as kingship, warfare, writing, childbirth, 

and magic. One of the most important works of 

Mesopotamian literature was the creation hymn 

“Enuma elish” (When on High), written on clay 

tablets in the Akkadian language. Another impor-

tant literary work of the Mesopotamians was the 

Epic of Gilgamesh, which related the adventures 

of a king named Gilgamesh and his companion 

Enkidu. The Code of Hammurabi is one of the ear-

liest compilations of law in history and may have 

influenced the law codes of the Hebrew Bible. 

Mesopotamian civilization produced a vast num-

ber of other cuneiform writings, from economic 

records and histories to incantations and religious 

hymns.

In addition to its agricultural wealth, Iraq 

benefited from its location along major trade 

routes that linked it to Central Asia, i

ndia

, Africa, 

and the Mediterranean world. It prospered from 

this trade, but its prosperity and strategic loca-

tion also made it a prize for conquest by outside 

powers throughout its history. During the first 

millennium 

b

.

c

.

e

., Iraq was ruled by a succession 

of large empires, some of them native, others for-

eign. The first of these was that of the Neo-Assyr-

ians, based in northern Iraq (tenth to seventh 

centuries 

b

.

c

.

e

.). This was followed by that of 

the Neo-Babylonians (seventh to sixth centuries 

b

.

c

.

e

.), or the Chaldeans, which is remembered 

for its destruction of the temple of Yahweh in 

J

erUsalem

 in 586 

b

.

c

.

e

. and removing its Israelite 

population into captivity in Babylon, the imperial 

capital in southern Iraq. The land of the Tigris and 

Euphrates Rivers became part of the great Persian 

empire of the Achaemenid dynasty, based in Iran, 

during the sixth to fourth centuries 

b

.

c

.

e

. One of 

the things this dynasty is remembered for is allow-

ing the Israelite Jews to return to Jerusalem and 

rebuild their temple in 538. The empire fell when 

the Middle East was conquered by the armies of 

a

leXander

 

the

 g

reat

 of Macedon (d. 323 

b

.

c

.

e

.) 

during the last decades of the fourth century 

b

.

c

.

e

.

The Seleucid dynasty, heirs of one of Alexander’s 

generals, ruled Iraq between 312 and 141 

b

.

c

.

e

.

They built a capital city called Seleucia on the 

Tigris about 20 miles southeast of where Baghdad 

would later be built by Muslim rulers. Parthian 

armies from Iran invaded Iraq during the second 

century 

b

.

c

.

e

. and swept the Seleucids away. They 

began to use Ctesiphon, a town next to Seleucia, 

as their regional capital. During the second cen-

tury 

b

.

c

.

e

., the Parthians began to engage with 

Roman armies for control over Middle East trade 

routes, and the two empires continued to battle 

with each other intermittently for more than two 

centuries.

ISlAMIC IrAQ

Early in the reign of the caliph U

mar

 

ibn

 

al

-

k

hattab

 (r. 634–644 

c

.

e

.), a series of skirmishes 

between Arab Muslim and Persian forces ended 

with a complete defeat of the Persian army at 

the Battle of al-Qadisiyya (ca. 636), changing the 

course of Iraq’s history for centuries to come. The 

Sasanian dynasty that had ruled Iraq and Persia 

since it had deposed the Parthians in 226 never 

recovered from the blow. When the last Sasanian 

king finally died in 651, Muslims had become the 

undisputed rulers of the region. Several garrisons 

built for immigrant Arab Muslim armies in Iraq 

K  368  

Iraq

---

evolved rapidly into major new towns: Basra, 

Kufa, and Wasit. They were bolstered by an indig-

enous Arab population (mostly Christian) based 

in Iraq’s older cities and in rural areas. A new 

postconquest Iraqi society emerged consisting of 

a mixed population of Arabs, Jews, Kurds, Chris-

tians, Zoroastrians, Africans, Indians, and tribal 

groups, all subject to Muslim rulers. Iraqi Arabs 

and non-Arabs who converted to Islam became 

clients of Arab Muslim tribes and clans, gaining 

second-class status. Other groups acquired 

dhimmi

(protected) status, which allowed them to main-

tain their own communal organization and reli-

gious laws as long as they bowed to the authority 

of Muslim government, paid their taxes, and did 

not engage in proselytizing. Adherence to ancient 

polytheistic forms of religion, already in decline, 

virtually came to an end in postconquest Iraq 

with loss of political patronage and conversion to 

monotheistic religions, especially Islam.

Ruled by governors appointed by the 

caliphs

in  m

edina

  and later by the Umayyad dynasty in 

d

amascUs

, Iraq was a major source of wealth for 

the early Muslim empire and a gateway to Per-

sia and lands beyond. It had a large, diversified 

population and productive agricultural lands and 

developed into an important political center. a

li

ibn

  a

bi

  t

alib

 (d. 661) was able to become the 

fourth caliph with the support of Kufa’s popula-

tion, and it was near Basra that he defeated rivals 

at the Battle of the Camel (656). Ali made Kufa 

the capital, but after his assassination there, the 

first Umayyad caliph, Muawiya (r. 661–680), 

moved it to Damascus. Years later h

Usayn

 

ibn

 a

li

sought to rally his father’s old supporters in his 

campaign to become the Muslim head of state, 

but he and his supporters were massacred on the 

way to Kufa at k

arbala

 by Umayyad troops. Early 

Shii movements and other anti-Umayyad senti-

ments continued to stir in Iraq and beyond to the 

distant plains of Persia until they coalesced into 

the Abbasid Revolution, which ended Umayyad 

rule in Syria in 750 and brought forth the new 

a

bbasid

 c

aliphate

.

The Abbasids ruled much of Islamdom from 

Iraq until the 10th century, when they had to 

bow to various regional soldier dynasties who 

paid them nominal allegiance. They ruled from 

Baghdad, originally a round city founded in 762 

by Mansur, the second Abbasid caliph (r. 754–

775), as a royal fortress. It grew rapidly, however, 

into a center of medieval urban civilization that 

outshone all the cities of the Middle East–Medi-

terranean region in its cultural importance, opu-

lence, and power. Under Abbasid rule, the major 

branches of Islamic law and learning flourished in 

Iraq, while the Sunni and Shii branches of Islam 

crystallized. 

sUFism

 grew from Iraqi soil through 

the contributions of legendary ascetics, teachers, 

and visionaries such as 

al

-h

asan

 

al

-b

asri

 (d. 728), 

r

abia

 

al

-a

daWiyya

 (d. 801), Maaruf al-Karkhi (d. 

ca. 815), al-Muhasibi (d. 857), m

ansUr

 

al

-h

allaJ

(d. 922), a

bU

  h

amid

 

al

-g

hazali

 (d. 1111), and 

a

bd

 

al

-q

adir

 

al

-J

ilani

 (d. 1166). Iraq’s 

cities

 were 

also famous for their poets, philosophers, and 

scientists. Even when the Abbasid political power 

waned, the intellectual and cultural achievements 

that had been realized in Iraq had a lasting impact 

that extended far beyond the frontiers of the Mus-

lim Middle East.

The Abbasid era was brought to an end by 

the Mongols, nomadic warriors who rode in from 

Central Asia and ravaged cities in Persia and Iraq, 

finally plundering Baghdad in 1258. Although the 

Mongol rulers, known as the Ilkhanids, converted 

to Islam, they relegated Iraq to provincial status 

and divided it into a northern and a southern dis-

trict. While Persia prospered under Mongol rule, 

Iraq’s urban populations declined, and neglect of 

its irrigation systems led to a marked decrease in 

its agricultural production. Baghdad was plun-

dered for a second time in 1401 by t

amerlane

,

a Mongol warrior king. In the following cen-

tury, the country experienced further political 

fragmentation as it fell into the hands of local 

rulers—Arabs, Kurds, and Turkomans. During 

the 16th and 17th centuries, it became a frontier 

between the expansionist projects of the Persian