IRAQ This chart shows the climate of Baghdad Situated in Iraq’s central plains the city has average daily temperatures of nearly 95ºF 35ºC in July and August Temperatures as high as 124ºF 51ºC have been recorded in the summer Temperature and rainfall in Baghdad 24-hour Average Temperature ºC 35 Rainfall mm 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 J FMAMJ J A S O N D Source www worldclimate com Climate Most of Iraq including the lowlands experiences long hot dry summers lasting from May to October although the weather can be more humid near the rivers Winters are short and mild with almost all rain falling between November and April Desert regions have blisteringly hot dry summers while the damper northeast of the country has shorter cooler summers Precipitation in the northeastern highlands can be in excess of 39 inches 1,000 mm during the year much of which falls during the winter as snow Heavy snows melting in spring can cause flooding farther south in central and southern Iraq Culture Iraq has a rich history of ancient civilizations stretching back over 7,000 years Today 97 percent of Iraq’s approximately 27 million people are Muslim The Sunni faith is dominant in the surrounding Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia Kuwait and Jordan but Shia Muslims form the majority in Iraq outnumbering Sunni Muslims by roughly two to one Despite religious and political differences Shia and Sunni Muslims are ethnically similar Both Shia and Sunni Muslims place great importance on their immediate family as well as more tribal links with their extended family The country’s major languages are Arabic and Kurdish About 25 million Kurds live in a mountainous region running across Syria Turkey Iran and Iraq Most of Iraq’s 6 million Kurds speak a dialect called Kurdi or Sorani which is the official form of Kurdish and similar to the modern Persian language of Farsi Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims They have retained their own distinctive cultural identity notably their music and dance 8
INTRODUCTION The Marsh Arabs live in southern Iraq Although their lifestyle has remained largely unchanged for thousands of years the Marsh Arabs culture was almost totally destroyed under Saddam Hussein ruled 1979 2003 A tiny number of Marsh Arabs still survive making reed boats and fishing Iraq has many other small ethnic groups including Christian Assyrians the seminomadic Muslim Turkmen of the north Turks and Armenians Urban centers Urban life began in the Middle East thousands of years ago as traders exchanged their goods in cities such as Babylon built in about 2000 BCE in what is now central Iraq Although Babylon no longer exists Iraq has many large cities and towns which are home to 70 percent of the population Baghdad on the Tigris River in central Iraq was founded in 762 CE by the caliph Mansur Baghdad is the capital of Iraq with a population of nearly 6 million Mosul is situated on the banks of the Tigris in northern Iraq Its population of around 2 million is mainly Kurdish with a large minority of Christian Arabs Basra in southeastern Iraq is the country’s major port Basra is a center of oil refining and its location on the Shatt al-Arab waterway is ideal for exporting oil Iraq shares its borders with six other countries Jordan and Syria are to the west with Saudi Arabia to the south Turkey to the north and Kuwait to the southeast Its longest boundary 904 mi 1,458 km is with Iran to the east TURKEY Tall Afar Mosul Irbil Kou Senjaq Al Sulaymaniyah Kirkuk Halabja SYRIA Tuz T i R g i v r i e s r E u p R i v h r a t e e r s Ramadi Baqubah Baghdad Ar Rutbah IRAQ Karbala JORDAN Al Habbariyah Al Hillah Najaf Key Capital city Cities over 1,000,000 people Cities over 100,000 people Cities under 100,000 people SAUDI ARABIA 0 0 miles 200 kilometres 200 Al Kut Al Hayy As Samawah Nasiriyah IRAN Al Amarah Basra KUWAIT Persian Gulf
CHAPTER 2 History The very first human settlements or societies began to grow in an area called the fertile crescent curving around from the Nile River valley of ancient Egypt into Mesopotamia or today’s Iraq Eight thousand years ago small settlements developed in the upper valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers Instead of moving on nomads started to settle down and irrigate the plains with ditches for agriculture Early history The most notable of Mesopotamia’s early settlers were the Sumerians whom experts generally 10 credit with inventing cuneiform the first form of writing The Sumerians wrote down the earliest surviving epic poems and invented the plow and probably the wheel too Babylon The famous ancient city of Babylon was established in modern-day Iraq nearly 62 mi 100 km south of Baghdad In the 1700s BCE a great warrior named Hammurabi took power in the region and founded the Babylonian empire Adopting the Sumerian form of writing King Hammurabi wrote down one of the earliest written collections of laws known as the Code of Hammurabi Babylon’s golden era occurred in the first half of the sixth century BCE during the rule of King Nebuchadnezzar II He built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World There is still controversy about their location but most experts believe they were in or near the royal palace in Babylon
Samarra on the Tigris River in central Iraq is one of the largest archaeological sites in the world The ninth-century Great Mosque and the famous al-Malwiyah a spiral minaret are remarkable monuments of the Abbasid caliphate Samarra is a center of pilgrimage for Shia Muslims one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World Today very little remains of Nebuchadnezzar’s Summer Palace which is thought to have once contained the Hanging Gardens Foreign domination From the sixth century BCE the lands of Mesopotamia were conquered by a succession of different empire builders Persia today’s Iran invaded the country in 539 BCE Then in 331 BCE Greece under Alexander the Great defeated the Persians Two hundred years later the Persians once again ruled Babylon A new era in Iraq’s history began in 637 CE with the arrival of Arab armies from the Arabian Peninsula south of Mesopotamia The Muslim Arabs defeated the Persian rulers of Mesopotamia FOCUS DIVISION AMONG MUSLIMS The Muslim faith was founded by the prophet Mohammed c 570 632 CE After his death there was a dispute over the leadership of Islam One group believed that the caliph should come from Mohammed’s own family Ali Mohammed’s son-in-law and cousin thought he should be caliph and his group became known as the Shi’at Ali faction or party of Ali now called the Shias Although Ali was recognized in Mesopotamia and Persia a second and larger group centered on Damascus in Syria followed a different successor Mu’awiya ibn Abi Sufyan These Sunni Muslims believed that the best spiritual leader should be chosen and that he did not necessarily need to descend directly from the Prophet at Qadisiyah on the Euphrates Baghdad was founded in the middle of the eighth century The city and its surrounding region were ruled by the caliph or leader al-Mansur from the Abbasid dynasty For the next 500 years Abbasid caliphs ruled Mesopotamia Under their rule Baghdad became one of the world’s most beautiful cities and a great center of learning and Arabic culture Al-Kufa 105 mi or 170 km south of Baghdad and Mosul in northern Iraq were also important Arab cities 11
