by Imonikhe Ahimie

Created on: June 28, 2010   Last Updated: June 29, 2010

The Republic of Iraq is a country situate in South West Asia, i.e. in the Middle East. Iraq is a majority Arab country with a population of some 24 million folk, thus making it one of the largest states in the Middle East. The country is bordered on the east by the Kingdom of Jordan and the Republic of Syria, on the south by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Emirate of Kuwait and the Persian Gulf, on the north by the Republic of Turkey and on the east by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The country is the fabled Mesopotamia, the land of two rivers, the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris, and has been the site of many ancient civilizations such as the Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian amongst others. It is also thought to be place where many of the early basics of civilized life, especially writing, were first developed.

In spite of the extreme antiquity of human civilization in the land that is now Iraq, the modern nation state is an extremely recent creation, less than a century old, being created from three of the provinces of the former Ottoman Empire, Mosul, Basra, and Baghdad, following the defeat and dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire following her defeat in World War I. Iraq was a mandated British territory following the war and she became independent in 1932. The capital and largest city is Baghdad, which was built by 2nd Abbasid emperor, Abu Ja’afar Al-Mansur in 762 AD. About eighty percent of the population of Iraq are Arabs, with Kurds, who live mostly in the mountainous northeast of the country, making up much of the rest.

The major religion in modern Iraq is Islam, which was first brought into the territory following the Arab conquest of 637 AD. By 750 AD the religion was firmly entrenched and the capital of the Islamic empire was moved from Damascus to the new city of Baghdad. More than ninety five percent of the population of modern Iraq are Muslims.

Iraqi Islam is broadly divided among the two major sects found in the religion – Shia and Sunni.  Shia Muslims constitute a majority of Iraqi Muslims, about sixty five percent, the rest being Sunni, making Iraq the only major Arab nation that has a majority Shia population. The only other large Middle East nation that has a majority Shia population is Iran, whose inhabitants are not Arabs but mostly Persians. The Shia holy cities of Najaf and Karbala are located in Iraq.

This division in beliefs has been a source of trouble for Iraq for most of its existence. For a long time, the majority

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