History Of Iraq
By: Haidar Albaghdadi
IRAQ .. Age Of Empires:
Various invaders conquered the land after Nebuchadnezzar's death,
including Cyrus the Great in 539BC and Alexander the Great in 331BC. In
the second century BC, it became part of the Persian Empire, remaining
thus until the 7th century AD, when it was captured by Arab Muslims
(Abbasids). The capital was moved to Baghdad which became an important
commercial and cultural centre in the Middle Ages.
Mongol invaders in AD1258 sacked Baghdad and murdered the Abbasid
caliph. After much conflict over supremacy, the country was conquered
by the Turks in the 17th century and became part of the Ottoman Empire.
Turkish rule continued unchecked, and with very little development,
until the end of the 19th century.
IRAQ ..The Cradle of Civilization:
The territory of present-day Iraq is approximately equivalent to that of ancient
Mesopotamia, which fostered a series of early civilizations. Â The earliest of these was known as civilization of Sumer, which arose probably in the 4th millennium
BC and had its final thrive under the 3rdrd millennium BC. Ur of the Chaldees was a
great and famous Sumerian city, dating from this time. dynasty of Ur at the end
of the 3
The following
stages saw periods of control by Babylonia and Assyria. Cyrus the Great of
Persia gained control of the region in 539BC and the region remained under Persian
rule until its conquest by Macedonian king Alexander the Great in 331 BC. Following
Alexander's death, the Greek Seleucid dynasty ruled Mesopotamia for some 200
years and linked the region to the Hellenistic culture. Afterwards, a long
period dominated by Arsacids, Sassanids followed until Muslim Arabs conquered the
region in the 7th century AD.