Editing History of Iraq (section)

=== Islamic conquest ===
{{Main|Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia}}

[[File:Map of expansion of Caliphate.svg|thumb|The Age of the Caliphs {{legend|#a1584e|Muhammad, 622–632}} {{legend|#ef9070|Rashidun Caliphate, 632–661}} {{legend|#fad07d|Umayyad Caliphate, 661–750}}]]
[[File:Dish from 9th century Iraq.jpg|thumb|This [[earthenware]] dish was made in 9th-century Iraq. It is housed in the [[Smithsonian Institution]] in [[Washington, D.C.]]]]

The first organized conflict between invading Arab-Muslim forces and occupying Sassanid domains in Mesopotamia seems to have been in 634, when the Arabs were defeated at the Battle of the Bridge. There was a force of some 5,000 [[Muslims]] under Abū `Ubayd ath-Thaqafī, which was routed by the Persians. This was followed by [[Khalid ibn al-Walid]]'s successful campaign, which saw all of Iraq come under Arab rule within a year, with the exception of the Sassanid Empire's capital, [[Ctesiphon]]. Around 636, a larger Arab Muslim force under [[Sa`d ibn Abī Waqqās]] defeated the main Persian army at the [[Battle of al-Qādisiyyah]] and moved on to capture Ctesiphon. By the end of 638, the Muslims had conquered all of the Western Sassanid provinces (including modern Iraq), and the last Sassanid Emperor, [[Yazdegerd III]], had fled to central and then northern Persia, where he was killed in 651.

The Islamic expansions constituted the largest of the Semitic expansions in history. These new arrivals established two new garrison cities, at [[Kufa]], near ancient [[Babylon]], and at [[Basra]] in the south and established [[Islam]] in these cities, while the north remained largely [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] and Christian in character.