IRAQ

officially Republic of Iraq, Arabic Al-'iraq, or Al-jumhuriyah Al-'iraqiyah Middle Eastern country situated at the northwest end of the Persian Gulf, covering an area of 167,975 square miles (435,052 square km), including 357 square miles (924 square km) of inland water but excluding a neutral zone that has been administered jointly with Saudi Arabia since 1922. The capital is Baghdad. Extending about 865 miles (1,390 km) from north to south and 775 miles (1,250 km) from east to west at its widest point, Iraq is bordered on the north by Turkey, on the east by Iran, on the southeast by the Persian Gulf, on the south by Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and on the west by Syria and Jordan. The population in 1991 was estimated to be 18,317,000. officially Republic of Iraq, Arabic Al-Iraq, or Al-Jumhuriyah al-Iraqiyah country of southwestern Asia. It is the easternmost country of the Arab world, located at about the same latitude as the southern United States. It is bordered on the north by Turkey, on the east by Iran, on the west by Syria and Jordan, and on the south by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Iraq's total area is 167,975 square miles (435,052 square kilometres), excluding the neutral zone that has been administered jointly with Saudi Arabia since 1922. A 1981 agreement to partition the neutral zone has not been implemented. Iraq has 12 miles (19 kilometres) of coastline along the northern end of the Persian Gulf, giving it 357 square miles of territorial sea, equivalent to 0.2 percent of the land area; it is thus the least favoured Middle Eastern state for access to the sea and offshore sovereignty. The national capital is Baghdad. Called Mesopotamia (Land Between the Rivers) in classical times, the region's extensive alluvial plains gave rise to the world's earliest civilizations. It became known as Iraq in the 7th century. Modern Iraq was created in the aftermath of World War I and gained independence in 1932. Iraq is one of the world's leading oil producers. In recent decades oil revenues have been used for ambitious projects and development programs and to build one of the most powerful armed forces in the Arab world; its strength was demonstrated during the Iran-Iraq War (198088) and in the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Iraq has experienced some political instability since the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958. Internal dissent has been vigorously suppressed, particularly among the Kurdish minority in the north. The government is keen to encourage strong national consciousness and to play an effective role as a regional power in the Middle East. Additional reading General works Comprehensive overviews may be found in Helen Chapin Metz (ed.), Iraq: A Country Study, 4th ed. (1990); Christine Moss Helms, Iraq: Eastern Flank of the Arab World (1984); Phebe Marr, The Modern History of Iraq (1985), with a brief treatment of the land, people, and civilizations of the past; and Stephen Hemsley Longrigg and Frank Stoakes, Iraq (1958). Also useful are the yearly updated essay on Iraq in The Middle East and North Africa (annual); and entries in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 4 vol. and suppl. (191338), with a new ed. in progress (1960 ). Geography Alvin J. Cottrell (ed.), The Persian Gulf States: A General Survey (1980), puts Iraq into its historical and regional context. Peter Beaumont, Gerald H. Blake, and J. Malcolm Wagstaff, The Middle East: A Geographical Study, 2nd ed. (1988), gives a more technical geographical background. Flora of Iraq, vol. 1, Introduction ed. by Evan Guest (1966), provides information not only on vegetation but on the topography, geology, soils, and climate of the country as well.Gavin Young, Iraq: Land of Two Rivers (1980), provides a beautiful guide to the chief towns, the landscape, and the people. Wilfred Thesiger, The Marsh Arabs (1964, reissued 1985), is a classic study of Iraq's unique marsh-dwellers. Relations with the Kurds are examined by Gerard Chaliand (ed.), People Without a Country (1980), a scholarly review by experts of the Kurdish question; Edgar O'Ballance, The Kurdish Revolt: 19611970 (1973), an examination of the military and political aspects; and Edmund Ghareeb, The Kurdish Question in Iraq (1981), detailing the government's dealings with the Kurds since 1968. Iraqi Jews are discussed in Nissim Rejwan, The Jews of Iraq: 3000 Years of History and Culture (1985); and Abbas Shiblak, The Lure of Zion: The Case of the Iraqi Jews (1986).The economic development of Iraq is examined by Kathleen M. Langley, The Industrialization of Iraq (1961); Fahim Qubain, The Reconstruction of Iraq, 19501957 (1958); and Rony E. Gabbay, Communism and Agrarian Reform in Iraq (1978). Society, economy, and foreign policy are discussed by a number of Iraqi and Western specialists in Tim Niblock (ed.), Iraq: The Contemporary State (1982).John F. Devlin, The Ba'th Party: A History From Its Origins to 1966 (1976), details the growth of the Arab nationalist party that rules Iraq and Syria. Critical analyses of contemporary Iraq are contained in Committee Against Repression And For Democratic Rights In Iraq, Saddam's Iraq: Revolution or Reaction?, new ed., rev. and updated (1989); and in Samir Al-Khalil, Republic of Fear (1989). Gerald Henry Blake History Iraq from c. AD 600 to 1055 Hugh Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates (1986), is a general history of the Middle East in the early Islamic period. A masterly discussion of the geography, religion, and society of late Sasanian and early Islamic Iraq may be found in Michael G. Morony, Iraq After the Muslim Conquest (1984). Guy Le Strange, The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate (1905, reprinted 1977), offers a readable description of Iraq in this period based on the ancient Arab geographers. Fred Mcgraw Donner, The Early Islamic Conquests (1981), examines 6th- and 7th-century Iraq and Syria. Important evidence on the agricultural economy is presented in Robert Mcc. Adams, The Land Behind Baghdad: A History of Settlement on the Diyala Plains (1965). Works on the 'Abbasid Caliphate include Jacob Lassner, The Shaping of 'Abbasid Rule (1980); Hugh Kennedy, The Early Abbasid Caliphate: A Political History (1981); David Waines, The Third Century Internal Crisis of the Abbasids, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 20(3):282306 (October 1977); and, on later 'Abbasid administration, Dominique Sourdel, Le vizirat abbasside de 749 936 (132 324 de l'hgire), 2 vol. (195960). A full account of Buyid rule can be found in Heribert Busse, Chalif und Grossknig: Die Buyiden im Iraq (9451055) (1969). Roy P. Mottahedeh, Loyalty and Leadership in an Early Islamic Society (1980), discusses the Buyids, their subjects, and their social structure. For cultural life in the 10th century, see the classic by Adam Mez, The Renaissance of Islam (1937, reissued 1975; originally published in German, 1922); and the more recent work by Joel L. Kraemer, Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam: The Cultural Revival During the Buyid Age (1986). Hugh Kennedy Iraq from 1055 to 1534 Abbas Al-Azzawl, Ta'rikh al-'Iraq bayn Ihtilalayn, 8 vol. (193556), remains the only comprehensive work on the history of Iraq during the period 10551534, though it is outdated and inaccessible to the non-Arabophone world. On dynasties and ruling groups, the most useful reference is C.E. Bosworth, The Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Handbook, rev. ed. (1980). Economic aspects are examined in E. Ashtor, A Social and Economic History of the Near East in the Middle Ages (1976). An important study, W. Barthold (V.V. Bartold), Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion, 4th ed. (1977; originally published in Russian, 2 vol., 18981900), also furnishes much information on the later Seljuq and Khwarezm-Shah periods. On the remarkable career of the 'Abbasid caliph an-Nasir, see Angelika Hartmann, An-Nasir li-Din Allah (11801225): Politik, Religion, Kultur in der spten 'Abbasidenzeit (1975). David Morgan, The Mongols (1986), provides a survey of the empire. A number of chapters in The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 5 (1968), and vol. 6 (1986), though not dealing directly with Iraq, are nevertheless valuable for its history during the Seljuq, Mongol, Timurid, and Turkmen periods. John E. Woods, The Aqquyunlu: Clan, Confederation, Empire: A Study in 15th / 9th Century Turko-Iranian Politics (1976), is another current treatment of the Turkmen period. John E. Woods Ottoman Iraq (15341918) The most comprehensive history of Ottoman Iraq available in English is found in Stephen Hemsley Longrigg, Four Centuries of Modern Iraq (1925, reprinted 1968), but it is essentially a political narrative and exhibits some of the worst characteristics of Orientalism. Less detailed and with a wider geographic focus but less biased is P.M. Holt, Egypt and the Fertile Crescent, 15161922: A Political History (1966). Viewing Iraq within the Ottoman context, the best general study of Ottoman history and institutions is Halil Inalcik, The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age, 13001600, trans. from Turkish (1973, reprinted 1989). Stanford Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, 2 vol. (197677), is chronologically broader and factually detailed. The eight essays in the section entitled The Central Islamic Lands in the Ottoman Period, part 3 of vol. 1 of The Cambridge History of Islam, ed. by P.M. Holt, Ann K.S. Lambton, and Bernard Lewis (1970, reissued 1980), pp. 293523, provide a brief but reliable survey of Ottoman history with some attention paid to the empire's Arab provinces. Eighteenth-century political, economic, and social developments in the Arab provinces are treated in some detail in H.A.R. Gibb and Harold Bowen, Islamic Society and the West, 1 vol. in 2 (195057). The last decades of Maml uk rule are the subject of Tom Nieuwenhuis, Politics and Society in Early Modern Iraq: Mamluk Pashas, Tribal Shayks, and Local Rule Between 1802 and 1831 (1982). Roderic H. Davison, Reform in the Ottoman Empire, 18561876 (1963, reissued 1973), gives an excellent account of 19th-century Ottoman reforms, including information on Midhat Pasa's role in their implementation in Iraq. Landholding is examined in two articles by Albertine Jwaideh, Midhat Pasha and the Land System of Lower Iraq, Middle Eastern Affairs, 3:106136 (1963), and The Sanniyeh Lands of Sultan Abdul Hamid II in Iraq, in George Makdisi (ed.), Arabic and Islamic Studies in Honor of Hamilton A.R. Gibb (1965), pp. 326336. Other economic topics are treated in substantial articles included in M.A. Cook (ed.), Studies in the Economic History of the Middle East (1970); and in Charles Issawi (ed.), The Economic History of the Middle East, 18001914 (1966, reissued 1975). Richard L. Chambers Iraq since 1918 Stephen Hemsley Longrigg, Iraq, 1900 to 1950 (1953, reissued 1968), is comprehensive. The period of the British mandate is adequately treated in Philip W. Ireland, 'Iraq: A Study in Political Development (1937, reprinted 1970); and more recently in Peter Sluglett, Britain in Iraq, 19141932 (1976), based on British documents. A study of the political development of Iraq after independence is covered in considerable detail in Majid Khadduri, Independent Iraq, 19321958: A Study in Iraqi Politics, 2nd ed. (1960), Republican Iraq: A Study in Iraqi Politics Since the Revolution of 1958 (1969), and Socialist Iraq: A Study in Iraqi Politics Since 1968 (1978). Uriel Dann, Iraq Under Qassem: A Political History, 19581963 (1969), may also be consulted. Mohammad A. Tarbush, The Role of the Military in Politics: A Case Study of Iraq to 1941 (1982), focuses on the interventions in politics of the Iraqi officer class between the two world wars. The political and class history of a more recent period may be found in Hanna Batatu, The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq: A Study of Iraq's Old Landed and Commercial Classes and of Its Communists, Ba'thists, and Free Officers (1978). The war in the Persian Gulf between Iraq and Iran is analyzed by several pre-armistice works: Majid Khadduri, The Gulf War: The Origins and Implications of the Iraq-Iran Conflict (1988); Shahram Chubin and Charles Tripp, Iran and Iraq at War (1988); Kaiyan Homi Kaikobad, The Shatt-al-Arab Boundary Question: A Legal Appraisal (1988), a detailed legal view of the Iran-Iraq river boundary dispute; and Edgar O'Ballance, The Gulf War (1988), which includes a detailed chronology and maps. Post-armistice publications include Hanns W. Maull and Otto Pick (eds.), The Gulf War: Regional and International Dimensions (1989); and Efraim Karsh (ed.), The Iran-Iraq War: Impact and Implications (1989). Majid Khadduri Administration and social conditions Government National government Under a provisional constitution adopted in 1970, Iraq is a republic, with legislative power theoretically vested in an elected legislature, executive power in a president and Council of Ministers, and judicial power in an independent judiciary. Because of the revolutionary nature of Iraqi politics, however, the political system operates with little reference to constitutional provisions. Opposition to the government is suppressed by an efficient security organization. All legislative and executive powers are in practice exercised by the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), all of whose members also belong to the Regional Command of the ruling Ba'th (in full: Arab Socialist Ba'th [Renaissance]) Party. Many RCC members are army officers. The RCC elects its chairman, who is also president of the republic, prime minister, and the commander of the armed forces. The president and the Council of Ministers are accountable to the RCC. After the Ba'th party came to power in July 1968, Iraq became in effect a one-party state. Nominally all governing institutions espouse the Ba'th ideology of Arab nationalism and socialism based on Islamic communal doctrines. In 1973 the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) agreed to join a Ba'th-dominated National Progressive Front, and in 1974 a group of Kurdish political parties, including the Kurdish Democratic Party, joined. In 1979, after serious disagreements with the Ba'th leadership, the ICP left the Front, and it was subsequently proscribed by the government. In addition to the ICP, there are several other illegal opposition parties. No election was held from 1958 until 1980, when a 250-member National Assembly was elected by universal adult suffrage. This assembly has little real authority. In 1989 a committee was set up to draft a new, more democratic constitution, which would extend the power of the National Assembly and permit the formation of new political parties. Local government Iraq is divided for administrative purposes into 18 muhafazat (governorates), 3 of which make up the Kurdish Autonomous Region. Each governorate has a governor, or muhafiz, appointed by the minister of the interior. The governorates are divided into 91 qadawat (districts), headed by district officers; each district is divided into nahiyat (tracts), headed by directors. Altogether there are 141 tracts in Iraq. The Kurdish Autonomous Region was formed by government decree in 1974. It contains the governorates of Dahuk, As-Sulaymaniyah, and Irbil and is governed by an elected 50-member legislative council. Towns and cities have their own municipal councils, each of which is directed by a mayor. Baghdad has special status and its own governor. Cultural life The fundamental cultural milieu of Iraq is both Islamic and Arab and shares many of the customs and traditions of the Arab world as a whole. Within Iraq, however, there is rich cultural diversity. A variety of peoples were embraced by Iraq when it was carved out of the Ottoman Empire in 1920. These included the nomadic tribes of the arid south and west, related to the Bedouin of neighbouring states; the peasant farmers of central Iraq; the marsh dwellers of the south; the dryland cultivators of the northeast; and the mountain herders of Kurdistan. Adaptations to these contrasting environments have generated a mosaic of distinctive regional cultures manifested in folk customs, food, dress, and domestic architecture. Such regional differences are reinforced by the ethnoreligious contrasts between Kurds and Arabs and by the fundamental division within Islam between Shi'ites and Sunnites. These divisions are less marked than they were 50 years ago but are still evident in the human geography of Iraq. Rapid urban growth has accelerated social change in Iraq as a higher proportion of the population has been exposed to modern, largely Westernized, life-styles. Traditional social relationships, in which the family, the extended family, and the tribe were the prime focus, remain fundamentally important in rural areas but are under pressure in the towns. Alcohol and Western-style entertainment are freely available, a circumstance that is much deplored by Muslim fundamentalists. The number of fundamentalists in Iraq, as elsewhere in the Middle East, is increasing. The role of women is changing, with a higher proportion participating in the labour force in spite of encouragement from the government to stay at home and raise large families. Literary and artistic life flourish, especially in Baghdad, where Western artistic traditionsincluding ballet, theatre, and modern artare juxtaposed with more traditional Middle Eastern forms of artistic expression. Poetry thrives in Iraq; Iraqi poets such as Muhammad Mahdi al-Jawahiri (b. c. 1900) and Nazik al-Mala'ika (b. 1923) are known throughout the Arabic-speaking world. The Ministry of Culture and Information has endeavoured to preserve traditional arts and crafts such as leatherworking, copper working, and carpet making. Efforts to create Iraqi culture have been less successful. There are a number of museums and a National Library in Baghdad. The city also has some fine buildings from the golden age of 'Abbasid architecture in the 8th and 9th centuries. A number of renowned archaeological sites are located in Iraq, and artifacts from these sites are displayed in excellent museums such as the Mosul Museum and the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. In normal times more than a million tourists visit Iraq each year, many of them Shi'ites visiting much-revered shrines at Karbala' and An-Najaf. The media in Iraq are well-developed. There are a national television service and a number of regional television stations, including a Kurdish station. The leading Arabic newspapers are Ath-Thawra (Revolution) and Al-Jumhuriyah (The Republic), and there is a variety of other newspapers and periodicals. All communications media are owned and controlled by the government. Gerald Henry Blake