Iraqis
Iraqis (Arabic: العراقيون) are people who originate from the country of Iraq.[24]
"The Iraqis" redirects here. For the Iraqi political party, see The Iraqis (party).
Iraqi Arabs are the largest ethnic group in Iraq,[25] followed by Iraqi Kurds, then Iraqi Turkmen as the third largest ethnic group.[26][27] Other ethnic groups include Yazidis, Assyrians, Mandaeans, Armenians, and Marsh Arabs.[28][29][30]
Iraq consists largely of most of ancient Mesopotamia, the native land of the indigenous Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian, and Babylonian civilizations, which was subsequently conquered, invaded and ruled by foreigners for centuries after the fall of the indigenous Mesopotamian empires. As a direct consequence of this long history, the contemporary Iraqi population comprises a significant number of different ethnicities.[31] However, recent studies indicate that the different ethno-religious groups of Iraq (Mesopotamia) share significant similarities in genetics, likely due to centuries of assimilation between invading populations and the indigenous ethnic groups.[32]
The daily language of the majority of Iraqis is Mesopotamian Arabic, and has been ever since the Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia and the replacement of various Eastern Aramaic languages, most notably during the Abbasid Caliphate during which Baghdad became the capital of the caliphate and the center of Islamic Golden Age. However, Mesopotamian Arabic is considered to be the most Aramaic-influenced dialect of Arabic, due to Aramaic having originated in Mesopotamia, and spread throughout the Fertile Crescent during the Neo-Assyrian period, eventually becoming the lingua franca of the entire region prior to the Islamic invasions of Mesopotamia. [33][34][35][36] In addition, Kurdish, Turkish (Turkmen), Neo-Aramaic and Mandaic are other languages spoken by Iraqis and recognized by Iraq's constitution.[37]
In ancient and medieval times Mesopotamia was the political and cultural centre of many great empires and civilizations, such as the Akkadian Empire, Assyria, Assyrian Empire and Babylon Empire.[38][39] The ancient Mesopotamian civilization of Sumer is the oldest known civilization in the world,[40] and thus Iraq is widely known as the Cradle Of Civilization.[38] Iraq remained an important centre of civilization for millennia, up until the Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia and subsequently Abbasid Caliphate (of which Baghdad was the capital), which was the most advanced empire of the medieval world (see Islamic Golden Age). Hence Mesopotamia has witnessed several emigration and immigration in the past.
Further information on Iraq's civilization and cultural history can be found in the following chronology of Iraqi history:
Language[edit]
Iraq's national languages are Arabic and the Kurdish languages. The two main regional dialects of Arabic spoken by the Iraqi people are Mesopotamian Arabic (spoken in the Babylonian alluvial plain and Middle Euphrates valley) and South Mesopotamian Arabic and North Mesopotamian Arabic (spoken in the Assyrian highlands).[48] The two main dialects of Kurdish spoken by Kurdish people are Central Kurdish (spoken in the Erbil and Sulaymaniyah Governorates)[49] and Northern Kurdish (spoken in Dohuk Governorate).[49] In addition to Arabic, most Assyrians and Mandaeans speak Neo-Aramaic languages. Mesopotamian Arabic has an Aramaic substratum.[33]