History of Iraq










Iraq, known in Classical Antiquity as Mesopotamia, was home to the oldest civilizations in the world, with a cultural history of over 10,000 years, 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 Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Medo-Persian, Seleucid and Parthian empires during the Iron Age and Classical Antiquity, Iraq was conquered by the Arab Rashidun Caliphate in the 7th century AD, 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 Turks, 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'état. The Republic was controlled by Saddam Hussein from 1979 to 2003, into which period falls into the war with Iran and the Gulf War. Saddam Hussein was deposed following the 2003 US-led invasion of the country. Following the invasion, the situation deteriorated to the extent that in 2006-2007, Iraq was on the brink of civil war. However, conditions improved following a surge in U.S. troops in 2007-2008, and the war was declared formally over in December 2011, with the U.S. troops leaving the country.


Ancient Mesopotamia

Main articles: Mesopotamia and History of Mesopotamia
See also: Ancient Near East
Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. It has been identified as having "inspired some of the most important developments in human history including the invention of the wheel, the planting of the first cereal crops and the development of cursive script, Mathematics, Astronomy and Agriculture."
Sumer and Akkad

Main articles: Sumer and Akkadian Empire
See also: Third Dynasty of Ur
Sumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Iraq. It is the earliest known civilization in the world, making Iraq one of the Cradles of Civilization. The Sumerian civilization spanned over 3000 years 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 Early Dynastic periods (3rd millennium BC) until the rise of Assyria and Babylonia in the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium BC respectively.
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 Semitic Akkadian Empire in the 24th 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, a Semitic people from the north east Levant who founded Babylon as an independent state in 1894 BC. The Amorite dynasty of Isin persisted until c. 1600 BC, when southern Mesopotamia was united under Kassite Babylonian rule.
The north of Mesopotamia had become the Akkadian speaking state of Assyria by the late 25th century BC. Along with the rest of Mesopotamia it was ruled by the Akkadian Empire from the late 24th to mid 22nd centuries BC, after which it once again became independent.
  • Ubaid period: 5300 – 4100 BC (Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic)
  • Uruk period: 4100 – 2900 BC (Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age I)
    • Uruk XIV-V: 4100 – 3300 BC
    • Uruk IV period: 3300 – 3000 BC
    • Jemdet Nasr period (Uruk III): 3100 – 2900 BC


  • Early Dynastic period (Early Bronze Age II-IV)
    • Early Dynastic I period: 2900–2800 BC
    • Early Dynastic II period: 2800–2600 BC (Gilgamesh)
    • Early Dynastic IIIa period: 2600–2500 BC
    • Early Dynastic IIIb period: c. 2500–2334 BC


  • Akkadian Empire period: c. 2334–2218 BC (Sargon)
  • Gutian period: c. 2218–2047 BC (Early Bronze Age IV)
  • Ur III period: c. 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. It was founded as an independent state by an Amorite king named Sumuabum in 1894 BC. During the third millennium BCE, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism.[10] 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.[10] This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the third millennium as a sprachbund.
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),[11] but Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary and scientific language in Mesopotamia until the 1st century CE.
Babylonia emerged out of the Amorite dynasties (c. 1900 BC) when Hammurabi (c. 1792–1750 BC), unified the territories of the former kingdoms of Sumer and Akkad. The Babylonian (and Assyrian) 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 24th century BC. Following the collapse of the 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 1st 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.
Assyria

Main article: Assyria
Main article: Neo-Assyrian Empire
Main article: Achaemenid Assyria
[LEFT]Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom in what is now Northern Iraq, extant as a nation state from the late 25th or early–24th century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia (present day northern Iraq), that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur (Akkadian: