Culture of Iraq

Iraq has a rich cultural heritage that goes back thousands of years. In fact, Iraq can lay legitimate claim to having the oldest culture on the planet.

Not only was the first set of recorded laws, Hammurabi's Code, engraved during the heyday of the Babylonian civilization in Iraq (1700 BCE) but one of the earliest known written texts that survives to this day was recorded much earlier, during the Sumerian period. This is the Epic of Gilgamesh, a mythologized quest story about a Sumerian king and his wild companion Enkidu, who return from their time among the gods to build civilization.

Also dating from the late Sumerian period is the Ziggurat of Ur, an architectural achievement unparalleled in its time.

Iraq's next cultural renaissance was during the Abbasid period, between the eighth and tenth centuries A.D., after Islam had arrived in the region. With Baghdad as their capital, the Abbasid caliphs (Islamic heads of state) presided over a Golden Age of learning. Their culture invented algebra, developed an early version of the scientific method, and wrote One Thousand and One Nights. They also saved classic texts from ancient Greek and Rome that might have otherwise been lost in the European Dark Ages, translating them into Arabic.

Modern Iraq has a culture that is proud of both its ancient and Islamic heritages, but is also forward-looking. Music is very popular, utilizing not only the traditional oud and tambourine, but modern recording technology and electronic synthesizers. The Iraqi National Orchestra travels around the world to play concerts, and the National Museum of Iraq is a world-renowned repository of ancient cultural artifacts. Though the orchestra hall and the museum were, respectively, burned and looted during the occupation of Baghdad, the orchestra now has a new home and the museum is expected to reopen soon.

Perhaps the best way to get a sense of where young Iraqis are at, culturally, is to read their blogs. One of the most prominent blogs that sprung up in Iraq after the occupation is Baghdad Burning, written by a young woman who identifies herself only as Riverbend. Her entries are political, sometimes angry and often very moving. The blog itself has not been updated since 2007, but entries from it have been published in book form. A more humorous take on being a woman in Iraq can be found on Neurotic Iraqi Wife. First-person accounts from within a country can often say more about day to day life there than news reporting ever does.