About Iraq

 Iraq is home to a wide range of landscapes: vast arid deserts to the west, towering mountain belts in the north, mesmerizing marshes in the south, and rich fertile lands in the center, with variations throughout the country. Two great historical rivers exist in Iraq, the Tigris and the Euphrates. For that Iraq was known as the Land between two Rivers (Mesopotamia). They are the largest rivers in the region and it was on their banks that the cities of Iraq existed and where the earliest human civilizations were established. The Tigris and the Euphrates meet in the south to form together Shatt al-Arab, which flows into the Arabian (Persian) Gulf. Such diversity not only bestows an aesthetically pleasing touch to Iraq’s landscape, but also constitutes economic resources that abound with natural wealth. Historically known as Mesopotamia, Iraq was the crown jewel of the Near East in antiquity. Lofty ancient civilizations flourished within its frontiers. Divine messages were revealed in its land, while a great many religious leaders were chosen from among its people. Iraq was the architect of 31 groundbreaking inventions that transformed civilization, most notably the wheel and writing. The Sumerians in the south laid the foundations of unprecedented civilization at the dawn of the 4th millennium BCE, erecting the first-ever cities witnessed by mankind. These urban settlements brought about some key developments and innovations, such as planting and farming, miscellaneous industries, the wheel, setting up schools, wide-scale sophisticated knowledge of mathematics and astronomy, and the cuneiform script (later imparted to the Akkadians and Hittites). Simultaneously, trade, business, handicraft, architecture and other cornerstones of civilization burgeoned greatly in the Assyrian kingdom in the north of today’s Iraq in the 2nd millennium BCE. Iraq was the homeland of Hammurabi, the great lawgiver, who ruled over Babylon from c.1782-1686 BCE and was known as the “Perfect King.” He bequeathed to humanity his monumental obelisk with the inscription of his famed code, compiling 282 laws, such that they shaped the life of society, economy, and politics, as well as enforcing penalties and compensations. Although predated by two earlier codes, Hammurabi’s code has been acclaimed as a milestone in the history of law, i.e. the greatest legal legacy from the distant past, not solely in the Mesopotamian region, but worldwide. As the very heart of Islamic civilization, Iraq rose to fame with a new era of glory. From Iraq’s soil, Islam expanded eastward into Persia and on to China, thus becoming a widespread empire. The two principal cities of Kufa and Basra in Iraq were cradles of knowledge where the majority of Arabic disciplines originated, e.g. rhetoric, grammar, logic, philology, jurisprudence, and Islamic theology. Correspondingly, sciences such as chemistry, mathematics, and astronomy also thrived in the open intellectual atmosphere of the time. Religious diversity was strong, with Muslims, Christians, Jews, and other religions, making their own great cultural contributions. It was in the city of Kufa’s territory that Imam Ali established the capital of Muslims, which subsequently turned into a beacon of justice, knowledge, and wisdom during his reign. His modest house, adjacent to the Grand Mosque of Kufa (Masjid al-Kufa al-Muazzam) is still proudly embraced by the city. From Kufa emerged myriads of renowned figures, such as al-Mutanabbi, a poet of great renown in the Arab world, Jabir Ibn Hayyan, an exquisite chemist with great dexterity, al-Kisa’i, an unrivalled grammarian in the Kufa school of philology, and Abu Hanifah, one of the most ingenious Islamic jurists (faqih) and founder of the Hanafi doctrine. It is for Kufa that the famous form of Arabic script, Kufic, is named and it is one of the most famous and best-known of Arabic styles of calligraphy. Najaf, the successor of Kufa, rose to power in 448 A.H. (1056 AD) with the advent of Shaykh al-Tusi and the launching of a new seminary for religious studies in the vicinity of Imam Ali’s holy shrine. Evolved into the current seminary, al-Hawzah al-Ilmiyyah, it has become a vital destination for students of Shi’a Islam from far and wide, especially from Iran, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Syria, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Turkestan, India, Indonesia and China. Earning itself a sweeping religious popularity, Najaf has since been relentlessly contributing to religious knowledge, not to mention its cultural and literary contributions. With a well-established intellectual milieu, it was and still is the birthplace of numerous luminaries. A plethora of poets and literary writers stood out alongside Islamic jurists such as Muhammed Mehdi al-Jawahiri, awarded the title of ‘the greatest Arabian poet,’ and Jafar al-Khalili, a pioneering reformer, critic and storywriter. Moreover, the city has been honored by innumerable grand Mujtahid-jurists. It is also interesting to note that the largest cemetery in the world is in Najaf because Shiite Muslims from around the world are buried in this holy city. No less important was the city of Basra. Being an international commercial center and a harbor town, it served as a convergence point between the two ends of the older world. It also bustled with scholarly intellectual activity. Study circles brimmed with illustrious scholars, polymaths, poets and Islamic jurists: e.g., al-Khalil Ibn Ahmed al-Farahdi, a lexicographer who compiled the first Arabic dictionary ‘al-Ayn’ and also developed the study of prosody and poetic meters; Sibawaih, an unequalled leading grammarian and philologist; and al-Jahiz, one of the most prominent literary writers and thinkers. It is in the area of Basrah that the famous “Marsh Arabs” are found, an Arab cultural group that has thrived in the marshes of southern Iraq for centuries with their own customs, traditions, and even architecture. As for Baghdad, it was at the apex of the golden age of Islam when it became the capital of the Abbasid dynasty. Its rule extended from the far east of Asia to the far northwest of Africa in today’s Morocco and Mauritania. Soon after its inception, Baghdad evolved to be the most spacious and resourceful city in the world, hosting a diversity of Muslims, Christians, Jews and others. A multitude of philosophical religious polemics were being addressed by its academic institutions, leaving a rich legacy of arts and sciences which carry weight to the whole of mankind, even to this day. In no time, it became a cultural hub transmitting knowledge around the globe.