134-632: Zaghareed (also: Zigareid, Zagharid, al-Zagharid ) is a village in Iraq , which is located in the Al Anbar Governorate north of the city of Fallujah , between the town of Saqlawiyah and the villages of Shiha and Albu Sudayra . In 2016, during the Siege of Fallujah and Operation Breaking Terrorism, there was intense fighting in the area between the Iraqi army and ISIL militants. On 29 May, Iraqi troops seized
268-508: A Handbook for Travelers in Syria and Palestine in 1868 observed that the most beautiful mosques of Damascus were "like Mohammedanism itself, now rapidly decaying" and relics of "the golden age of Islam". There is no unambiguous definition of the term, and depending on whether it is used with a focus on cultural or on military achievement, it may be taken to refer to rather disparate time spans. Thus, one 19th century author would have it extend to
402-700: A coalition of Ba'athist and Sunni militants launched an offensive against the government, initiating full-scale war in Iraq . The climax of the campaign was an offensive in Northern Iraq by the Islamic State (ISIS) that marked the beginning of the rapid territorial expansion by the group, prompting an American-led intervention . By the end of 2017, ISIS had lost all its territory in Iraq. Iran has also intervened and expanded its influence through sectarian Khomeinist militias. In 2014, Sunni insurgents belonging to
536-399: A democratic , federal parliamentary republic . The federal government is composed of the executive , legislative , and judicial branches, as well as numerous independent commissions. Aside from the federal government, there are regions (made of one or more governorates), governorates, and districts within Iraq with jurisdiction over various matters as defined by law. The president is
670-509: A mandate over Syria . In Iraq, under British mandate, tensions were rising as local forces increasingly resisted foreign control. A rebellion erupted , challenging British authority, and the need for a new strategy became clear. In 1921, the Cairo Conference , led by British officials including Winston Churchill and T.E. Lawrence , decided that Faisal, now exiled in London , would become
804-475: A 100-hour-long ground assault against Iraqi forces in southern Iraq and Kuwait. Iraq also attempted to invade Saudi Arabia and attacked Israel. Iraq's armed forces were devastated during the war. Sanctions were imposed on Iraq, following the invasion of Kuwait, which resulted economic decline. After the end of the war in 1991, Iraqi Kurds and Shi'ite Muslims in northern and southern Iraq, led several uprisings against Saddam's regime , but these were repressed. It
938-672: A coastline measuring 58 km (36 miles) on the northern Persian Gulf . Further north, but below the main headwaters only, the country easily encompasses the Mesopotamian Alluvial Plain . Two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates , run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab , thence the Persian Gulf. Broadly flanking this estuary (known as arvandrūd : اروندرود among Iranians) are marshlands, semi-agricultural. Flanking and between
1072-609: A condition, divide the patients into two groups, perform bloodletting only on one group, watch both, and compare the results." Astronomy in Islam was able to grow greatly because of several key factors. One factor was geographical: the Islamic world was close to the ancient lands of the Greeks, which held valuable ancient knowledge of the heavens in Greek manuscripts. During the new Abbasid Dynasty after
1206-553: A decline that would linger through many centuries due to frequent plagues and multiple successive empires. Since its independence, Iraq has experienced spells of significant economic and military growth alongside periods instability and conflict . The region remained a part of the Ottoman Empire until the end of World War I, after which Mandatory Iraq was established by the British Empire in 1921. It gained indepdence as
1340-819: A few citizens and having the state redistribute the land. In 1959, Abd al-Wahab al-Shawaf led an uprising in Mosul against Qasim. The uprising was crushed by the government forces. He claimed Kuwait as part of Iraq, when it the former was granted independence in 1961. The United Kingdom deployed its army on Iraq–Kuwait border , which forced Qasim to back down. He was overthrown by the Ba'ath Party in February 1963 coup . However internal division with Ba'athist factions caused another coup in November, which brought Colonel Abdul Salam Arif to power. The new regime recognized Kuwait's independence. After
1474-505: A hot arid climate with subtropical influence. Summer temperatures average above 40 °C (104 °F) for most of the country and frequently exceed 48 °C (118.4 °F). Winter temperatures infrequently exceed 15 °C (59.0 °F) with maxima roughly 5 to 10 °C (41.0 to 50.0 °F) and night-time lows 1 to 5 °C (33.8 to 41.0 °F). Typically, precipitation is low; most places receive less than 250 mm (9.8 in) annually, with maximum rainfall occurring during
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#17328835001251608-517: A key bridge between Zaghareed and Saqlawiyah in order to facilitate the entry of the security forces from the international highway road into the center of Saqlawiyah. This Iraq geographical location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Iraq Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in West Asia and a core country in the geopolitical region known as
1742-569: A long period of time the personal physicians of the Abbasid Caliphs were often Assyrian Christians . Among the most prominent Christian families to serve as physicians to the caliphs were the Bukhtishu dynasty. Throughout the 4th to 7th centuries, Christian scholarly work in the Greek and Syriac languages was either newly translated or had been preserved since the Hellenistic period. Among
1876-470: A man deprived of sense experience by being blindfolded and free falling would still be aware of his existence. In epistemology , Ibn Tufail wrote the novel Hayy ibn Yaqdhan and in response Ibn al-Nafis wrote the novel Theologus Autodidactus . Both were concerning autodidacticism as illuminated through the life of a feral child spontaneously generated in a cave on a desert island . Persian mathematician Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī played
2010-475: A member of the League of Nations . Faisal's reign was marked by his efforts to balance the pressures of external influence and internal demands for sovereignty. He was admired for his diplomatic skill and his commitment to steering Iraq toward self-determination. Untimely, he died from a heart attack on 8 September 1933, leaving his son Ghazi to inherit the throne. King Ghazi’s reign was brief and turbulent, as Iraq
2144-406: A method that could be generally used to determine the sum for any integral power. He used this to find the volume of a paraboloid . He could find the integral formula for any polynomial without having developed a general formula. Islamic art makes use of geometric patterns and symmetries in many of its art forms, notably in girih tilings. These are formed using a set of five tile shapes, namely
2278-594: A million and 1.5 million people. Kuwait's refusal to waive Iraq's debt and reducing oil prices pushed Saddam to take military action against it. On 2 August 1990, the Iraqi forces invaded and annexed Kuwait as its 19th governorate , starting the Gulf War . This led to military intervention by the United States-led alliance . The coalition forces proceeded with a bombing campaign targeting military targets and then launched
2412-482: A mosque, boarding house, and a library. It was maintained by a waqf (charitable endowment), which paid salaries of professors, stipends of students, and defrayed the costs of construction and maintenance. The madrasa was unlike a modern college in that it lacked a standardized curriculum or institutionalized system of certification. Muslims distinguished disciplines inherited from pre-Islamic civilizations, such as philosophy and medicine, which they called "sciences of
2546-795: A one-sided referendum was held in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region regarding Kurdish independence , which resulted in 92% (of those participating in the region) voting in favor of independence. The referendum was rejected by the federal government and regarded as illegal by the Federal Supreme Court . Following this, an armed conflict ensued between the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government which resulted in Kurdish defeat and capitulation; Kurdistan Region subsequently lost territory it had previously occupied, and
2680-512: A peace treaty was signed between Saddam and Barzani, granting autonomy to Kurds . He introduced free healthcare and education, nationalized oil, promoted women's rights and developed infrastructure. Within few years, Iraq became one of the most developed countries in the world. In 1974, the second Iraqi–Kurdish war began and border clashes with Iran took place on Shatt al-Arab . Iran supported Kurdish militants. The Algiers Agreement signed in 1975, by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Saddam solved
2814-506: A railway and an oil pipeline to the Mediterranean . Although Faisal succeeded in securing greater autonomy for Iraq, British influence remained strong, particularly in the country’s oil industry. In 1930, Iraq signed a treaty with Britain that gave the country a measure of political independence while maintaining British control over key aspects, including military presence and oil rights. By 1932, Iraq gained formal independence, becoming
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#17328835001252948-520: A referendum with a 78% overall majority, although the percentage of support varied widely between the country's territories. The new constitution was backed by the Shia and Kurdish communities, but was rejected by Arab Sunnis. Under the terms of the constitution, the country conducted fresh nationwide parliamentary elections on 15 December 2005. All three major ethnic groups in Iraq voted along ethnic lines, as did Assyrian and Turcoman minorities. Law no. 188 of
3082-431: A regular decagon , an elongated hexagon , a bow tie, a rhombus , and a regular pentagon . All the sides of these tiles have the same length; and all their angles are multiples of 36° (π/5 radians ), offering fivefold and tenfold symmetries. The tiles are decorated with strapwork lines (girih), generally more visible than the tile boundaries. In 2007, the physicists Peter Lu and Paul Steinhardt argued that girih from
3216-426: A significant role in the development of algebra , arithmetic and Hindu–Arabic numerals . He has been described as the father or founder of algebra . Another Persian mathematician, Omar Khayyam , is credited with identifying the foundations of Analytic geometry . Omar Khayyam found the general geometric solution of the cubic equation . His book Treatise on Demonstrations of Problems of Algebra (1070), which
3350-507: A source of law in place of qiyas and extension of the notion of sunnah to include traditions of the imams . The body of substantive Islamic law was created by independent jurists ( muftis ). Their legal opinions ( fatwas ) were taken into account by ruler-appointed judges who presided over qāḍī 's courts, and by maẓālim courts, which were controlled by the ruler's council and administered criminal law. Classical Islamic theology emerged from an early doctrinal controversy which pitted
3484-451: A young age with study of Arabic and the Quran , either at home or in a primary school, which was often attached to a mosque. Some students would then proceed to training in tafsir (Quranic exegesis) and fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), which was seen as particularly important. Education focused on memorization, but also trained the more advanced students to participate as readers and writers in
3618-400: Is among global centers for oil and gas industry . In addition, the country has been popular for its agriculture and tourism. Since its independence, it has experienced spells of significant economic and military growth alongside periods instability and conflict . The country is putting efforts to rebuild after the war with foreign support . There are several suggested origins for
3752-460: Is at risk of desertification . Nearly 40% of Iraq "has been overtaken by blowing desert sands that claim tens of thousands of acres of arable land every year". However, in 2023, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani announced that government was working on a wider "Iraqi vision for climate action". The plan would include promoting clean and renewable energy, new irrigation and water treatment projects and reduced industrial gas flaring, he said. Sudani said Iraq
3886-487: Is based on French civil law as well as Sunni and Jafari ( Shi'ite ) interpretations of Sharia. Islamic Golden Age The Islamic Golden Age was a period of scientific, economic and cultural flourishing in the history of Islam , traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 13th century. This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign of the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (786 to 809) with
4020-769: Is either / ɪ ˈ r ɑː k / (the only pronunciation listed in the Oxford English Dictionary and the first one in Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary ) or / ɪ ˈ r æ k / (listed first by MQD ), the American Heritage Dictionary , and the Random House Dictionary . When the British established the Hashemite king on 23 August 1921, Faisal I of Iraq , the official English name of
4154-652: Is estimated that as many as 100,000 people, including many civilians were killed. During the uprisings, the United States, the United Kingdom, Turkey and France, claiming authority under UNSC Resolution 688 , established the Iraqi no-fly zones to protect Kurdish population from attacks and autonomy was given to Kurds. raq was also affected by the Iraqi Kurdish Civil War from 1994 to 1997. Around 40,000 fighters and civilians were killed. Between 2001 and 2003,
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4288-545: Is listed in The Guinness Book Of Records as the world's oldest degree-granting university. The Al-Azhar University was another early madrasa now recognized as a university. The madrasa is one of the relics of the Fatimid caliphate. The Fatimids traced their descent to Muhammad's daughter Fatimah and named the institution using a variant of her honorific title Al-Zahra (the brilliant). Organized instruction in
4422-481: Is made up of lines of altitude and azimuth with an index, horizon, hour circle, zenith, Rete , star pointer, and equator to accurately show where the stars are at that given moment. Use of the astrolabe is best expressed in Al-Farghani 's treatise on the astrolabe due to the mathematical way he applied the instrument to astrology, astronomy, and timekeeping. The earliest known Astrolabe in existence today comes from
4556-450: Is obligatory upon every Muslim". This injunction was seen to apply particularly to scholars, but also to some extent to the wider Muslim public, as exemplified by the dictum of al-Zarnuji , "learning is prescribed for us all". While it is impossible to calculate literacy rates in pre-modern Islamic societies, it is almost certain that they were relatively high, at least in comparison to their European counterparts. Education would begin at
4690-470: The ahl al-hadith movement, led by Ahmad ibn Hanbal , who considered the Quran and authentic hadith to be the only acceptable authority in matters of faith, against Mu'tazilites and other theological currents, who developed theological doctrines using rationalistic methods. In 833 the caliph al-Ma'mun tried to impose Mu'tazilite theology on all religious scholars and instituted an inquisition ( mihna ), but
4824-502: The 14 July Revolution in 1958 was led by the Brigadier General and nationalist Abd al-Karim Qasim . This revolt was strongly anti-imperial and anti-monarchical in nature and had strong socialist elements. King Faysal II , Prince Abd al-Ilah , and Nuri al-Sa'id , along with the royal family were killed brutally. Qasim controlled Iraq through military rule and in 1958 he began a process of forcibly reducing surplus land owned by
4958-407: The 6th millennium BC , the fertile alluvial plains between Iraq's Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, referred to as the region of Mesopotamia , gave rise to some of the world's earliest cities , civilizations , and empires . It was known as a " Cradle of Civilisation " that saw the inventions of a writing system , mathematics , timekeeping , a calendar , astrology , and a law code . Following
5092-710: The Al-Azhar Mosque began in 978. Arabic became a trade language . The Muslim-ruled Spanish capital of Córdoba , which surpassed Constantinople as the Europe 's largest city, also became a prominent world leading centre of education and learning producing numerous polymaths. Juristic thought gradually developed in study circles, where independent scholars met to learn from a local master and discuss religious topics. At first, these circles were fluid in their membership, but with time distinct regional legal schools crystallized around shared sets of methodological principles. As
5226-487: The Fragile States Index , Iraq was the world's 31st most politically unstable country. Transparency International ranks Iraq's government as the 23rd most corrupt government in the world. Under Saddam, the government employed 1 million employees, but this increased to around 7 million in 2016. In combination with decreased oil prices, the government budget deficit is near 25% of GDP as of 2016 . In September 2017,
5360-448: The Iberian peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal) in the 10th century. It was easier to manufacture than parchment , less likely to crack than papyrus , and could absorb ink, making it difficult to erase and ideal for keeping records. Islamic paper makers devised assembly-line methods of hand-copying manuscripts to turn out editions far larger than any available in Europe for centuries. It
5494-615: The Iraqi National Alliance . The Iraqi National Movement is led by Iyad Allawi , a secular Shia widely supported by Sunnis. The party has a more consistent anti-sectarian perspective than most of its rivals. The Kurdistan List is dominated by two parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party led by Masood Barzani and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan headed by Jalal Talabani . Baghdad is Iraq's capital, home to
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5628-422: The Islamic State group seized control of large swathes of land including several major cities, like Tikrit , Fallujah and Mosul , creating hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons amid reports of atrocities by ISIL fighters. An estimated 500,000 civilians fled from Mosul. Around 5,000 Yazidis were killed in the genocide by ISIS, as a part of the war. With the help of US-led intervention in Iraq ,
5762-515: The Kingdom of Iraq in 1932. Following a coup d'état in 1958 , Iraq became a republic, led by Abdul Karim Qasim followed by Abdul Salam Arif and then Abdul Rahman Arif. The Ba'ath Party came to power in the 1968 and ruled as one-party state , under the leadership of Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr , followed by Saddam Hussein , who started major wars against Iran and Kuwait . In 2003, the Iraq War started after
5896-619: The Kurdistan Regional Government and Ansar al-Islam engaged in conflict, which would merge with the upcoming war. After the September 11 attacks , George W. Bush began planning the overthrow of Saddam in what is now widely regarded as a false pretense . Saddam's Iraq was included in Bush's " axis of evil ". The United States Congress passed joint resolution , which authorized the use of armed force against Iraq. In November 2002. The UN Security Council passed resolution 1441 . On 20 March 2003,
6030-1009: The Middle East . With a population exceeding 46 million, it is the 35th-most populous country. It consists of 18 governorates . The country is bordered by Turkey to the north , Saudi Arabia to the south , Iran to the east , the Persian Gulf and Kuwait to the southeast , Jordan to the southwest , and Syria to the west . The capital and largest city is Baghdad . Iraqi people are diverse; mostly Arabs , as well as Kurds , Turkmen , Yazidis , Assyrians , Armenians , Mandaeans , Persians and Shabakis with similarly diverse geography and wildlife . Most Iraqis are Muslims – minority faiths include Christianity , Yazidism , Zoroastrianism , Mandaeism , Yarsanism and Judaism . The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish ; others also recognized in specific regions are Assyrian , Turkish , and Armenian . Starting as early as
6164-698: The Muslim conquest , Baghdad became the capital and the largest city of the Abbasid Caliphate . During the time of the Islamic Golden Age , the city evolved into a significant cultural and intellectual center, and garnered a worldwide reputation for its academic institutions, including the House of Wisdom . It was largely destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258 during the siege of Baghdad , resulting in
6298-765: The Neo-Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great , who declared himself the " King of Babylon ." The city of Babylon , the ancient seat of Babylonian power, became one of the key capitals of the Achaemenid Empire. Ancient Iraq, known as the Mesopotamia, is home to world's first Jewish diaspora community, which emerged during the Babylonian exile. The Babylonians were defeated by
6432-530: The Sharif of Makkah , the European powers had different plans for the region. Following the British withdrawal of support for a unified Arab state , Hussein's son, Faisal , briefly declared the Kingdom of Syria in 1920, encompassing parts of what are now Lebanon , Palestine , Jordan , and Syria . However, the kingdom was short-lived, crushed by local opposition and the military might of France, which had been granted
6566-660: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy , translation of philosophical texts from Arabic to Latin in Western Europe "led to the transformation of almost all philosophical disciplines in the medieval Latin world". The influence of Islamic philosophers in Europe was particularly strong in natural philosophy, psychology and metaphysics, though it also influenced the study of logic and ethics. Ibn Sina argued his " Floating man " thought experiment concerning self-awareness , in which
6700-669: The Timurid Renaissance under the Timurid dynasty . With a new and easier writing system , and the introduction of paper , information was democratized to the extent that, for probably the first time in history, it became possible to make a living from only writing and selling books. The use of paper spread from China into Muslim regions in the eighth century through mass production in Samarkand and Khorasan , arriving in Al-Andalus on
6834-521: The Translation Movement for some translations is estimated to be equivalent to about twice the annual research budget of the United Kingdom's Medical Research Council . The best scholars and notable translators, such as Hunayn ibn Ishaq , had salaries that are estimated to be the equivalent of professional athletes today. The House of Wisdom was a library established in Abbasid -era Baghdad , Iraq by Caliph al-Mansur in 825 modeled after
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#17328835001256968-591: The Umayyads in 661. Karbala is considered as one of the holiest cities in Shia Islam, following the Battle of Karbala , which took place in 680. With the rise of the Abbasid Caliphate in the mid-8th century, Iraq became the center of Islamic rule, with Baghdad , founded in 762, serving as the capital. Baghdad flourished during the Islamic Golden Age , becoming a global center for culture, science, and intellectualism. However,
7102-510: The academy of Jundishapur . During this period, the Muslims showed a strong interest in assimilating the scientific knowledge of the civilizations that had been conquered. Many classic works of antiquity that might otherwise have been lost were translated from Greek , Syriac , Middle Persian , and Sanskrit into Syriac and Arabic, some of which were later in turn translated into other languages like Hebrew and Latin . Christians , especially
7236-517: The alluvial plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. As an Arabic word, عراق ʿirāq means "hem", "shore", "bank", or "edge", so that the name by folk etymology came to be interpreted as "the escarpment ", such as at the south and east of the Jazira Plateau, which forms the northern and western edge of the "al-Iraq arabi" area. The Arabic pronunciation is [ʕiˈrɑːq] . In English, it
7370-534: The crusades in the 12th century resulted in a weakening of the Islamic empire from which it never recovered. Regarding the end of the Gola, Mohamad Abdalla argues the dominant approach by scholars is the "decline theory.": The golden age is considered to have come into existence through a gigantic endeavor to acquire and translate the ancient sciences of the Greeks between the eighth and ninth centuries. The translations era
7504-410: The king of Iraq . This decision was seen as a way to maintain British influence in the region while placating local demands for leadership. Upon his coronation, he focused on unifying a land formerly divided into three Ottoman provinces — Mosul , Baghdad , and Basra . He worked hard to gain the support of Iraq's diverse population, including both Sunnis and Shiites , and paid special attention to
7638-437: The law of sines is attributed; he wrote " The Book of Unknown Arcs of a Sphere " in the 11th century. This formula relates the lengths of the sides of any triangle, rather than only right triangles , to the sines of its angles. According to the law, where a , b , and c are the lengths of the sides of a triangle, and A , B , and C are the opposite angles (see figure). The earliest use of statistical inference
7772-430: The withdrawal of US troops in 2011, the occupation ceased and war ended. The war in Iraq has resulted in between 151,000 and 1.2 million Iraqis being killed . The subsequent efforts to rebuild the country amidst sectarian violence and the rise of the Islamic State began after the war. Iraq was galvanized by the civil war in Syria. Continuing discontent over Nouri al-Maliki 's government led to protests , after which
7906-415: The "world's first true scientist". Avicenna made rules for testing the effectiveness of drugs, including that the effect produced by the experimental drug should be seen constantly or after many repetitions, to be counted. The physician Rhazes was an early proponent of experimental medicine and recommended using control for clinical research. He said: "If you want to study the effect of bloodletting on
8040-482: The 15th century resembled quasicrystalline Penrose tilings . Elaborate geometric zellige tilework is a distinctive element in Moroccan architecture . Muqarnas vaults are three-dimensional but were designed in two dimensions with drawings of geometrical cells. Jamshīd al-Kāshī 's estimate of pi would not be surpassed for 180 years. Ibn Muʿādh al-Jayyānī is one of the several Islamic mathematicians on whom
8174-426: The 2003–2011, flow is restored and the ecosystem has begun to recover. Iraqi corals are some of the most extreme heat-tolerant as the seawater in this area ranges between 14 and 34 °C. Aquatic or semi-aquatic wildlife occurs in and around these, the major lakes are Lake Habbaniyah , Lake Milh , Lake Qadisiyah and Lake Tharthar . The federal government of Iraq is defined under the current Constitution as
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#17328835001258308-550: The Arabic writings attributed to Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (written c. 850–950), would remain the basis of all theories of metallic composition until the eighteenth century. Likewise, the Emerald Tablet , a compact and cryptic text that all later alchemists up to and including Isaac Newton (1642–1727) would regard as the foundation of their art, first occurs in the Sirr al-khalīqa and in one of
8442-447: The Ba'ath Army and expelling Ba'athists from the new government. The insurgents fought against the coalition forces and the newly installed government. Saddam was captured and executed. The Shia–Sunni civil war took place from 2006 to 2008. The coalition forces were criticized for war crimes such as the Abu Ghraib torture , the Fallujah massacre , the Mahmudiyah rape and killings and the Mukaradeeb wedding party massacre . Following
8576-476: The Iraqi forces successfully defeated ISIS. The war officially ended in 2017, with the Iraqi government declaring victory over ISIS. In October 2022, Abdul Latif Rashid was elected president after winning the parliamentary election. In 2022, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani became Prime Minister . The electrical grid faces systemic pressures due to climate change, fuel shortages, and an increase in demand. Corruption remains endemic throughout Iraqi governance while
8710-465: The Islamic period. It was made by Nastulus in 927-28 AD and is now a treasure of the Kuwait National Museum . In about 964 AD, the Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi , writing in his Book of Fixed Stars , described a "nebulous spot" in the Andromeda constellation , the first definitive reference to what is now known to be the Andromeda Galaxy , the nearest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way . The geocentric system developed by Ptolemy placed
8844-411: The Mamluk regime and reimposed their direct control over Iraq. Iraq's modern history began in the wake of World War I, as the region emerged from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Arab forces, inspired by the promise of independence, had helped dismantle the Ottoman hold on the Middle East, but the dream of a united, sovereign Arab state was soon dashed. Despite agreements made with Hussein ibn Ali ,
8978-408: The Persian Empire, under the leadership of Cyrus the Great . Following the fall of Babylon, the Achaemenid Empire took control of the Mesopotamian region. Enslaved Jews were freed from the Babylonian captivity, though many remained in the land and thus the Jewish community grew in the region. Iraq is the location of numerous Jewish sites, which are also revered by the Muslims and Christians. In
9112-610: The Persian contribution to this new Islamic civilization is of immense importance. The work of Iranians can be seen in every field of cultural endeavor, including Arabic poetry, to which poets of Iranian origin composing their poems in Arabic made a very significant contribution." While cultural influence used to radiate outward from Baghdad, after the Mongol destruction of the Abbasid Caliphate, Arab influence decreased. Iran and Central Asia, benefiting from increased cross-cultural access to East Asia under Mongol rule , flourished and developed more distinctively from Arab influence, such as
9246-557: The Quran and hadith. The classical theory of Islamic jurisprudence elaborates how scriptures should be interpreted from the standpoint of linguistics and rhetoric. It also comprises methods for establishing authenticity of hadith and for determining when the legal force of a scriptural passage is abrogated by a passage revealed at a later date. In addition to the Quran and sunnah, the classical theory of Sunni fiqh recognizes two other sources of law: juristic consensus ( ijmaʿ ) and analogical reasoning ( qiyas ). It therefore studies
9380-419: The United States-endorsed sectarian political system has driven increased levels of violent terrorism and sectarian conflicts. Climate change is driving wide-scale droughts while water reserves are rapidly depleting. The country has been in a prolonged drought since 2020 and experienced its second-driest season in the past four decades in 2021. Water flows in the Tigris and Euphrates are down 30-40%. Half
9514-402: The United States-led coalition forces invaded Iraq and overthrew Saddam. The war subsequently turned into an insurgency and sectarian civil war , with American troops withdrawing in 2011. Between 2013 and 2017, Iraq was once more in a state of war, with the rise and subsequent fall of Islamic State . Today post-war conflict in Iraq continues at a lower scale, which has been an obstacle to
9648-626: The United States-led coalition invaded Iraq, as part of global war on terror . Within weeks, coalition forces occupied much of Iraq, with the Iraqi Army adopting guerrilla tactics to confront coalition forces. Following the fall of Baghdad in the first week of April, Saddam's regime had completely lost control of Iraq. A statue of Saddam was toppled in Baghdad, symbolizing the end of his rule. The Coalition Provisional Authority began disbanding
9782-644: The adherents of the Church of the East ( Nestorians ), contributed to Islamic civilization during the reign of the Umayyads and the Abbasids by translating works of Greek philosophers and ancient science to Syriac and afterwards to Arabic . They also excelled in many fields, in particular philosophy , science (such as Hunayn ibn Ishaq , Yusuf Al-Khuri , Al Himsi , Qusta ibn Luqa , Masawaiyh , Patriarch Eutychius , and Jabril ibn Bukhtishu ) and theology . For
9916-453: The ancients" or "rational sciences", from Islamic religious sciences. Sciences of the former type flourished for several centuries, and their transmission formed part of the educational framework in classical and medieval Islam. In some cases, they were supported by institutions such as the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, but more often they were transmitted informally from teacher to student. The University of Al Karaouine , founded in 859 AD,
10050-507: The application and limits of analogy, as well as the value and limits of consensus, along with other methodological principles, some of which are accepted by only certain legal schools. This interpretive apparatus is brought together under the rubric of ijtihad , which refers to a jurist's exertion in an attempt to arrive at a ruling on a particular question. The theory of Twelver Shia jurisprudence parallels that of Sunni schools with some differences, such as recognition of reason ( ʿaql ) as
10184-420: The attempts to impose a caliphal writ in matters of religious orthodoxy ultimately failed. This controversy persisted until al-Ash'ari (874–936) found a middle ground between Mu'tazilite rationalism and Hanbalite literalism, using the rationalistic methods championed by Mu'tazilites to defend most substantive tenets maintained by ahl al-hadith . A rival compromise between rationalism and literalism emerged from
10318-400: The boundaries of the schools became clearly delineated, the authority of their doctrinal tenets came to be vested in a master jurist from earlier times, who was henceforth identified as the school's founder. In the course of the first three centuries of Islam, all legal schools came to accept the broad outlines of classical legal theory, according to which Islamic law had to be firmly rooted in
10452-632: The city's prosperity declined following the Buwayhid and Seljuq invasions in the 10th century and suffered further with the Mongol invasion of 1258. Iraq later came under the control of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. During the years 1747–1831, Iraq was ruled by a Mamluk dynasty of Georgian origin, who succeeded in obtaining autonomy from the Ottoman Empire. In 1831, the Ottomans managed to overthrow
10586-507: The country changed from Mesopotamia to the endonymic Iraq . Since January 1992, the official name of the state is "Republic of Iraq" ( Jumhūriyyat al-ʿIrāq ), reaffirmed in the 2005 Constitution . Iraq largely coincides with the ancient region of Mesopotamia , often referred to as the cradle of civilization . The history of Mesopotamia extends back to the Lower Paleolithic period, with significant developments continuing through
10720-569: The country's Shiite communities, symbolically choosing the date of his coronation to coincide with Eid al-Ghadeer , a key day for Shiite Muslims. His reign laid the foundations of modern Iraq. Faisal worked to establish key state institutions and fostered a sense of national identity. His education reforms included the founding of Ahl al-Bayt University in Baghdad, and he encouraged the migration of Syrian exiles to Iraq to serve as doctors and educators. Faisal also envisioned infrastructural links between Iraq, Syria, and Jordan , including plans for
10854-411: The country's capacity to produce energy with four oil, gas and renewables projects. According to experts, the project will "accelerate Iraq’s path to energy self-sufficiency and advance Iraq’s collective climate change objectives". The wildlife of Iraq includes its flora and fauna and their natural habitats . Iraq has multiple and diverse biomes which include the mountainous region in the north to
10988-408: The country's farmland is at risk of desertification . Nearly 40% of Iraq "has been overtaken by blowing desert sands that claim tens of thousands of acres of arable land every year." Iraq lies between latitudes 29° and 38° N , and longitudes 39° and 49° E (a small area lies west of 39°). Spanning 437,072 km (168,754 sq mi), it is the 58th-largest country in the world. It has
11122-690: The country's stability. A federal parliamentary republic country, Iraq is considered an emerging middle power . It is a founding member of the United Nations , the OPEC as well as of the Arab League , the Organization of Islamic Cooperation , Non-Aligned Movement , and the International Monetary Fund . With a strategic location, the country has one of the largest oil reserves in the world and
11256-443: The decline theory has become the preferred paradigm in general academia. The various Quranic injunctions and Hadith (or actions of Muhammad ), which place values on education and emphasize the importance of acquiring knowledge, played a vital role in influencing the Muslims of this age in their search for knowledge and the development of the body of science. The Islamic Empire heavily patronized scholars. The money spent on
11390-624: The dispute and Iran withdrew support for the Kurds, resulting their defeat in the war. In 1973, Iraq participated in the Yom Kippur War against Israel, alongside Syria and Egypt . An attempt to ban an annual pilgrimage Karbala caused an uprising by Shia Muslims across Iraq . Another Shia uprising took place from 1979 to 1980, as a followup to the Islamic Revolution in Iran. On 16 July 1979, Saddam
11524-503: The duration of the caliphate, or to "six and a half centuries", while another would have it end after only a few decades of Rashidun conquests, with the death of Umar and the First Fitna . During the early 20th century, the term was used only occasionally and often referred to as the early military successes of the Rashidun caliphs . It was only in the second half of the 20th century that
11658-635: The eastern part of the Syrian Desert . Rocky deserts cover about 40 percent of Iraq. Another 30 percent is mountainous with bitterly cold winters. The north of the country is mostly composed of mountains; the highest point being at 3,611 m (11,847 ft). Iraq is home to seven terrestrial ecoregions: Zagros Mountains forest steppe , Middle East steppe , Mesopotamian Marshes , Eastern Mediterranean conifer-sclerophyllous-broadleaf forests , Arabian Desert , Mesopotamian shrub desert , and South Iran Nubo-Sindian desert and semi-desert . Much of Iraq has
11792-504: The end date of the golden age to around 1350, including the Timurid Renaissance within it, while others place the end of the Islamic Golden Age as late as the end of 15th to 16th centuries, including the rise of the Islamic gunpowder empires . The metaphor of a golden age began to be applied in 19th-century literature about Islamic history , in the context of the western aesthetic fashion known as Orientalism . The author of
11926-429: The end of the golden age with the end of the caliphates is a convenient cut-off point based on a historical landmark, but it can be argued that Islamic culture had entered a gradual decline much earlier; thus, Khan (2003) identifies the proper golden age as being the two centuries between 750 and 950, arguing that the beginning loss of territories under Harun al-Rashid worsened after the death of al-Ma'mun in 833, and that
12060-577: The essence of objects flows into the eyes. Alhazen correctly argued that vision occurred when light, traveling in straight lines, reflects off an object into the eyes. Al-Biruni wrote of his insights into light, stating that its velocity must be immense when compared to the speed of sound. The early Islamic period saw the establishment of some of the longest lived theoretical frameworks in alchemy and chemistry . The sulfur-mercury theory of metals , first attested in pseudo-Apollonius of Tyana's Sirr al-khalīqa ("The Secret of Creation", c. 750–850) and in
12194-533: The establishment of the Caliphate in the late 7th century AD, after which the region became known as Iraq. Within its borders lies the ancient land of Sumer , which emerged between 6000 and 5000 BC during the Neolithic Ubaid period . Sumer is recognized as the world's earliest civilization, marking the beginning of urban development, written language, and monumental architecture. Iraq's territory also includes
12328-482: The federal government has been severely punishing it both politically and economically. In gradual steps, the federal government has consistently weakened Kurdistan Region’s ability to administer its own affairs by revoking crucial authorities that had previously defined its autonomy. Furthermore, since it won a pivotal ICC arbitration case, the federal government has also been refusing Kurdistan Region access to its most important source of income, namely, oil exports, and
12462-506: The following centuries, the regions constituting modern Iraq came under the control of several empires, including the Greeks , Parthians , and Romans , establishing new centers like Seleucia and Ctesiphon . By the 3rd century AD, the region fell under Persian control through the Sasanian Empire , during which time Arab tribes from South Arabia migrated into Lower Mesopotamia, leading to
12596-594: The formation of the Sassanid-aligned Lakhmid kingdom . The Arabic name al-ʿIrāq likely originated during this period. The Sasanian Empire was eventually conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate in the 7th century, bringing Iraq under Islamic rule after the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah in 636. The city of Kufa , founded shortly thereafter, became a central hub for the Rashidun dynasty until their overthrow by
12730-527: The head of state, the prime minister is the head of government, and the constitution provides for two deliberative bodies, the Council of Representatives and the Council of Union. The judiciary is free and independent of the executive and the legislature. The National Alliance is the main Shia parliamentary bloc, and was established as a result of a merger of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's State of Law Coalition and
12864-605: The heartlands of the Akkadian , Neo-Sumerian , Babylonian , Neo-Assyrian , and Neo-Babylonian empires, which dominated Mesopotamia and much of the Ancient Near East during the Bronze and Iron Ages. Iraq was a center of innovation in antiquity, producing early written languages , literary works , and significant advancements in astronomy , mathematics , law , and philosophy . This era of indigenous rule ended in 539 BC when
12998-496: The inauguration of the House of Wisdom , which saw scholars from all over the Muslim world flock to Baghdad , the world's largest city by then, to translate the known world's classical knowledge into Arabic and Persian . The period is traditionally said to have ended with the collapse of the Abbasid caliphate due to Mongol invasions and the Siege of Baghdad in 1258. There are a few alternative timelines. Some scholars extend
13132-738: The institution, and it placed its holder within a genealogy of scholars, which was the only recognized hierarchy in the educational system. While formal studies in madrasas were open only to men, women of prominent urban families were commonly educated in private settings and many of them received and later issued ijazas in hadith studies, calligraphy and poetry recitation. Working women learned religious texts and practical skills primarily from each other, though they also received some instruction together with men in mosques and private homes. Madrasas were devoted principally to study of law, but they also offered other subjects such as theology, medicine, and mathematics. The madrasa complex usually consisted of
13266-406: The latter has had no other option but to concede. Some have argued that this signals the Iraqi government’s intention to abandon federalism and return to a centralized political system , and in a leaked letter sent in 2023 to the U.S president, the prime minister of Kurdistan region wrote of an impending collapse of Kurdistan Region. In October 2005, the new Constitution of Iraq was approved in
13400-592: The latter's death in 1966, he was succeeded by his brother, Abdul Rahman Arif . Under his rule, Iraq participated in the Six Day War in 1967. Arif was overthrown in the 17 July Revolution in 1968. The Ba'ath Party came to power, with Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr as the president of Iraq. However, the government gradually came under the control of Saddam Hussein , Iraq's then vice-president. Saddam sought to achieve stability between Iraq's ethnic and religious groups. The first Iraqi–Kurdish war ended in 1970, after which
13534-413: The medieval Islamic world include the synthesis of ammonium chloride from organic substances as described in the works attributed to Jābir, and Abū Bakr al-Rāzī's experiments with vitriol , which would eventually lead to the discovery of mineral acids like sulfuric acid and nitric acid by thirteenth century Latin alchemists such as pseudo-Geber . Al-Biruni (973–1050) estimated the radius of
13668-453: The movement of the capital in 762 AD to Baghdad, translators were sponsored to translate Greek texts into Arabic. This translation period led to many major scientific works from Galen , Ptolemy , Aristotle , Euclid , Archimedes , and Apollonius being translated into Arabic. From these translations previously lost knowledge of the cosmos was now being used to advance current astrological thinkers. The second key factor of astronomy's growth
13802-550: The name. One dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin. Another possible etymology for the name is from the Middle Persian word erāq , meaning "lowlands." An Arabic folk etymology for the name is "deeply rooted, well-watered; fertile ". During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī ("Arabian Iraq") for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿAjamī ("Persian Iraq"), for
13936-490: The names that come directly from Arabic origins or are the translations of Ptolemy's Greek descriptions which are still in use today. Alhazen played a role in the development of optics . One of the prevailing theories of vision in his time and place was the emission theory supported by Euclid and Ptolemy, where sight worked by the eye emitting rays of light, and the other was the Aristotelean theory that sight worked when
14070-506: The nation remained divided. Iraq's Sunni-dominated monarchy struggled to reconcile the diverse ethnic and religious groups, particularly the Shiite, Assyrian, Jewish and Kurdish populations, who felt marginalized. In 1958, these tensions culminated in a military coup, inspired by the revolutionary wave sweeping across the Arab world, particularly the 1952 Egyptian Revolution . A coup d'état known as
14204-585: The next six years Iran was on the offensive. The Sunni-led Arab countries and the United States supported Iraq throughout the war . In 1981, Israel destroyed a nuclear reactor of Iraq. In midst of the war, between 1983 to 1986, Kurds led rebellion against the regime . In retaliation, the government coordinated Anfal campaign , led to the killing of 50,000–100,000 civilians. During the war, Saddam extensively used chemical weapons against Iranians. The war, which ended in stalemate in 1988, killed between half
14338-551: The planets. One of the first to criticize this model was Ibn al-Haytham , a leader of physics in the 11th century in Cairo. Then in the 13th century Nasir al-Din al-Tusi constructed the Maragha Observatory in what is today Iran. Al-Tusi found the equant dissatisfying and replaced it by adding a geometrical technique called a Tusi-couple , which generates linear motion from the sum of two circular motions. Then, Ibn al-Shatir who
14472-404: The political system has exacerbated sectarian conflict. Climate change is driving wide-scale droughts across the country while water reserves are rapidly depleting. The country has been in a prolonged drought since 2020 and experienced its second-driest season in the past four decades in 2021. Water flows in the Tigris and Euphrates are down between 30 and 40%. Half of the country's farmland
14606-474: The president of Kurdistan Region officially resigned, and finally, the regional government announced that it would respect the Federal Supreme Court's ruling that no Iraqi province is allowed to secede, effectively abandoning the referendum. According to a report published by The Washington Institute for Near East Policy , a U.S-based think tank, since Kurdistan Region’s failed bid to gain independence,
14740-621: The prominent centers of learning and transmission of classical wisdom were Christian colleges such as the School of Nisibis and the School of Edessa , the pagan center of learning in Harran , and the renowned hospital and medical Academy of Gondishapur, which was the intellectual, theological and scientific center of the Church of the East. Many scholars of the House of Wisdom were of Christian background and it
14874-510: The region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the plain south of the Hamrin Mountains and did not include the northernmost and westernmost parts of the modern territory of Iraq. Prior to the middle of the 19th century, the term Eyraca Arabica was commonly used to describe Iraq. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of
15008-563: The seat of government. Located in the Green Zone , which contains governmental headquarters and the army, in addition to containing the headquarters of the American embassy and the headquarters of foreign organizations and agencies for other countries. According to the 2023 V-Dem Democracy indices Iraq was the third most electoral democratic country in the Middle East . In 2023, according to
15142-537: The subsequent Anglo-Iraqi War , the United Kingdom invaded Iraq for fear that the government might cut oil supplies to Western nations because of its links to the Axis powers . The war started on 2 May, and the British, together with loyal Assyrian Levies , defeated the forces of Al-Gaylani, forcing an armistice on 31 May. Regency of King Faisal II began in 1953. The hopes for Iraq’s future under Faisal II were high, but
15276-453: The sun, moon, and other planets in orbit around the Earth. Ptolemy thought that the planets moved on circles called epicycles and that their centers rode on deferents . The deferents were eccentric , and the angular motion of a planet was uniform around the equant which was a point opposite the deferent center. Simply, Ptolemy's models were a mathematical system for predicting the positions of
15410-431: The term came to be used with any frequency, now mostly referring to the cultural flourishing of science and mathematics under the caliphates during the 9th to 11th centuries (between the establishment of organised scholarship in the House of Wisdom and the beginning of the crusades ), but often extended to include part of the late 8th or the 12th to early 13th centuries. Definitions may still vary considerably. Equating
15544-478: The tradition of commentary on the studied texts. It also involved a process of socialization of aspiring scholars, who came from virtually all social backgrounds, into the ranks of the ulema . For the first few centuries of Islam, educational settings were entirely informal, but beginning in the 11th and 12th centuries, the ruling elites began to establish institutions of higher religious learning known as madrasas in an effort to secure support and cooperation of
15678-461: The two major rivers are fertile alluvial plains , as the rivers carry about 60,000,000 m (78,477,037 cu yd) of silt annually to the delta . The central part of the south, which slightly tapers in favour of other countries, is natural vegetation marsh mixed with rice paddies and is humid, relative to the rest of the plains. Iraq has the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range and
15812-415: The ulema. Madrasas soon multiplied throughout the Islamic world, which helped to spread Islamic learning beyond urban centers and to unite diverse Islamic communities in a shared cultural project. Nonetheless, instruction remained focused on individual relationships between students and their teacher. The formal attestation of educational attainment, ijaza , was granted by a particular scholar rather than
15946-468: The wet marshlands along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, while western part of the country comprises mainly desert and some semi-arid regions. Many of Iraq's bird species were endangered, including seven of Iraq's mammal species and 12 of its bird species. The Mesopotamian marches in the middle and south are home to approximately 50 species of birds, and rare species of fish. At risk are some 50% of
16080-665: The winter months. Rainfall during the summer is rare, except in northern parts of the country. The northern mountainous regions have cold winters with occasional heavy snows, sometimes causing extensive flooding. Iraq is highly vulnerable to climate change . The country is subject to rising temperatures and reduced rainfall, and suffers from increasing water scarcity for a human population that rose tenfold between 1890 and 2010 and continues to rise. The country's electrical grid faces systemic pressures due to climate change, fuel shortages, and an increase in demand. Corruption remains endemic throughout all levels of Iraqi governance while
16214-490: The work of al-Maturidi (d. c. 944), and, although a minority of scholars remained faithful to the early ahl al-hadith creed, Ash'ari and Maturidi theology came to dominate Sunni Islam from the 10th century on. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes) played a major role in interpreting the works of Aristotle, whose ideas came to dominate the non-religious thought of the Christian and Muslim worlds . According to
16348-499: The works attributed to Jābir. Substantial advances were also made in practical chemistry. The works attributed to Jābir, and those of the Persian alchemist and physician Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (c. 865–925), contain the earliest known systematic classifications of chemical substances. However, alchemists were not only interested in identifying and classifying chemical substances, but also in artificially creating them. Significant examples from
16482-464: The world's marbled teal population that live in the marshes, along with 60% of the world's population of Basra reed-warbler . The Asiatic lion , in the present-day extinct in the region, has remained a prominent symbol of the country throughout history. Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes , during the time of Saddam's government, caused there a significant drop in biological life. Since
16616-474: The year 1959 (Personal Status Law) made polygamy extremely difficult, granted child custody to the mother in case of divorce, prohibited repudiation and marriage under the age of 16. Article 1 of Civil Code also identifies Islamic law as a formal source of law. Iraq had no Sharia courts but civil courts used Sharia for issues of personal status including marriage and divorce. In 1995 Iraq introduced Sharia punishment for certain types of criminal offences. The code
16750-420: Was "moving forward to conclude contracts for constructing renewable energy power plants to provide one-third of our electricity demand by 2030". In addition, Iraq will plant 5 million trees across the country and will create green belts around cities to act as windbreaks against dust storms. In the same year, Iraq and TotalEnergies signed a $ 27 billion energy deal that aims to increase oil production and boost
16884-412: Was a significant step in the development of algebra, is part of the body of Persian mathematics that was eventually transmitted to Europe. Yet another Persian mathematician, Sharaf al-Dīn al-Tūsī , found algebraic and numerical solutions to various cases of cubic equations. He also developed the concept of a function . Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) discovered the sum formula for the fourth power, using
17018-596: Was acceded to the presidency and chairmanship of the supreme executive body in July 1979. Following months of cross-border raids with Iran, Saddam declared war on Iran in September 1980, initiating the Iran–Iraq War (or First Persian Gulf War). Taking advantage of the post- Iranian Revolution chaos in Iran, Iraq captured some territories in southwest Iran, but Iran recaptured all of the lost territories within two years, and for
17152-400: Was followed by two centuries of splendid original thinking and contributions, and is known as the "golden age" of Islamic science. This so-called "golden age" is supposed to have lasted from the end of the ninth to the end of the eleventh century. The era after this period is conventionally known as the "age of decline". A survey of literature from the nineteenth century onwards demonstrates that
17286-430: Was from these countries that the rest of the world learned to make paper from linen. The centrality of scripture and its study in the Islamic tradition helped to make education a central pillar of the religion in virtually all times and places in the history of Islam. The importance of learning in the Islamic tradition is reflected in a number of hadiths attributed to Muhammad, including one that states "Seeking knowledge
17420-515: Was given by Al-Kindi (c. 801–873, also known as "Alkindus" in Europe), in Risalah fi Istikhraj al-Mu'amma ( A Manuscript on Deciphering Cryptographic Messages ) which contains the first description of the method of frequency analysis . Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) was a significant figure in the history of scientific method , particularly in his approach to experimentation, and has been described as
17554-494: Was impacted by numerous coup attempts. He died in a motor accident in 1939, passing the throne to his young son, Faisal II , who ascended to the throne at just 3 years old. Faisal II’s uncle, Crown Prince Abdullah , assumed regency until the young king came of age. On 1 April 1941, Rashid Ali al-Gaylani and members of the Golden Square staged a coup d'état and installed a pro-German and pro-Italian government. During
17688-498: Was led by Christian physician Hunayn ibn Ishaq , with the support of Byzantine medicine . Many of the most important philosophical and scientific works of the ancient world were translated, including the work of Galen , Hippocrates , Plato , Aristotle , Ptolemy and Archimedes . Persians also were a notably high proportion of scientists who contributed to the Islamic Golden Age. According to Bernard Lewis : "Culturally, politically, and most remarkable of all even religiously,
17822-440: Was the religious observances followed by Muslims which expected them to pray at exact times during the day. These observances in timekeeping led to many questions in previous Greek mathematical astronomy, especially their timekeeping. The astrolabe was a Greek invention which was an important piece of Arabic astronomy. An astrolabe is a handheld two-dimensional model of the sky which can solve problems of spherical astronomy. It
17956-644: Was working in Damascus in 1350 AD employed the Tusi-couple to successfully eliminate the equant as well as other objectionable circles that Ptolemy had used. This new model properly aligned the celestial spheres and was mathematically sound. This development by Ibn al-Shatir, as well as the Maragha astronomers remained relatively unknown in medieval Europe. The names for some of the stars used, including Betelgeuse , Rigel , Vega , Aldebaran , and Fomalhaut are several of
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