Iraq

Iraq is a southwest Asian country bordering Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan and Kuwait. Historically, the region has been known as Mesopotamia, and is the site of the world's oldest civilization, Sumer. Nowadays, the country is a constitutional electoral Islamic republic on its way to securing its territory.

Iraq has long been one of the centers of Arabic-language culture, and Arab identity is fairly heavily ingrained among the Arabic-speaking community (to the point where Iraq was the only country not to border Israel to participate in all three Arab-Israeli Wars (1948, 1967, and 1973). The joke in Arab high culture is that Egypt writes, Lebanon writes, and Iraq reads.

Not to be confused with Qurac, though it is often portrayed in this manner in media.

Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Mitannis, Assyrians and Chaldeans, Oh My!

Iraq under the Persian Empire

The Islamization of Iraq

Iraq under the Ottomans and Mamelukes

Brits, Kings and an Iraqi Republic

The Saddam Regime

Iran-Iraq War

For more information on Iraq's recent history, see The War on Terror.

Iraq and its inhabitants in fiction

 * The online game Kuma War follows events from the period in a rather literal case of a Real Life Writes the Plot storyline.
 * Shows up as a setting for numerous levels in Project Reality, in the post-Saddam phase.
 * Former President Saddam Hussein is Satan's homosexual lover in South Park,.
 * Generation Kill, which follows a group of US Marines through daily life in post-Saddam Iraq.
 * Valley Of The Wolves Iraq, a Turkish film, which flopped outside of it's home country.
 * Sayid on Lost is Iraqi, so a number of his centric episodes take place in Iraq (with Hawaii doubling.)
 * The cancelled Konami pseudo-Survival Horror game Six Days In Fallujah was set during the Second Battle of Fallujah, a city in Iraq.
 * Oran, one of the heroes (well, Anti Heroes) of Broken Saints, hails from Baghdad. Interestingly enough, unlike most other instances, Oran was introduced well before the second Gulf War, and was actually written in response to the Western interference in the Middle-East during the 90s. And unlike with most other instances, it is his deep religiosity which causes him to have doubts about his violent actions.
 * The Devils Double deals with Uday Hussein's body double.
 * See the shows listed in "Iraq War" in the During the War article.