Iraq

Two rivers made Iraq. The Tigris and the Euphrates rise in the mountains of Türkiye, cross a dry plateau in the north-west and run south-east through the flat plain of Mesopotamia, joining as the Shatt al-Arab before reaching the Gulf. In the north and north-east the land climbs into the Zagros, where the Kurdistan Region has cool valleys and orchards; the west is open desert. Near the rivers’ junction lie the Mesopotamian Marshes, a world of reed islands and water buffalo.

Writing, cities and law codes began here: Uruk was among the first cities anywhere, cuneiform appeared around 3200 BC, and Hammurabi of Babylon set out his laws in the eighteenth century BC. In 762 the Abbasid caliphs founded Baghdad, the intellectual centre of the Islamic world until the Mongols sacked it in 1258. After Ottoman rule Britain created the modern state under a League of Nations mandate; it became independent in 1932, the monarchy fell in 1958, and Saddam Hussein ruled from 1979 until the US-led invasion of 2003.

Shi’a pilgrims fill the shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala, and Sunni, Christian, Yazidi and Mandaean communities have equally deep roots. The Iraqi maqam, a classical sung tradition, is protected as intangible heritage, and masgouf, carp split and grilled beside the river, is a Baghdad speciality. Oil from the southern fields around Basra provides most of the state’s income, and date palms, wheat and barley grow on the river plains.