Editing Culture of Iraq (section)

=== Pre-Islamic ===
[[File:Tablet XI or the Flood Tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh, currently housed in the British Museum in London.jpg|thumb|Flood Tablet of the [[Epic of Gilgamesh]]]]'''Sumerian literature''' constitutes the earliest known corpus of recorded literature, including the religious writings and other traditional stories maintained by the Sumerian civilization and largely preserved by the later Akkadian and Babylonian empires. These records were written in the [[Sumerian language]] during the [[Middle Bronze Age]].

The [[Sumer]]ians invented one of the first [[History of writing|writing]] systems, developing [[Sumerian cuneiform]] writing out of earlier [[proto-writing]] systems by about the 30th century BC. The [[Sumerian language]] remained in official and literary use in the [[Akkadian empire|Akkadian]] and [[Babylonian empire|Babylonian]] empires, even after the spoken language disappeared from the population; literacy was widespread, and the Sumerian texts that students copied heavily influenced later [[Babylonian literature]].

==== Poetry ====
Poetry is the most dominant form of literature in Iraq and the country is known for having notable poets.

An ancient Mesopotamian poem gives the first known story of the [[invention of writing]]:<blockquote>Because the messenger's mouth was heavy and he couldn't repeat [the message], the Lord of [[Uruk|Kulaba]] patted some clay and put words on it, like a tablet. Until then, there had been no putting words on clay.

— Sumerian epic poem ''[[Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta]]''. Circa 1800 BC<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Daniels|first1=Peter T.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ospMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA45|title=The World's Writing Systems|last2=Bright|first2=William|last3=Bright|first3=Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Anthropology University of California Los Angeles Research Fellow Center for the Study of Native American Languages of the Plains and Southwest William|date=1996|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-507993-7|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Boudreau|first=Vincent|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jsWL_XJt-dMC&pg=PA71|title=The First Writing: Script Invention as History and Process|date=2004-12-09|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-83861-0|language=en}}</ref>

</blockquote>'''Gilgamesh''' ([[Sumerian language|Sumerian]]: 𒀭𒄑𒉋𒂵𒈨𒌋𒌋𒌋, <small>romanized:</small> ''Gilgameš''; originally [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]]: 𒀭𒉋𒂵𒈩, <small>romanized:</small> ''Bilgamesh'') was a major hero in [[Ancient Mesopotamian religion|ancient Mesopotamian mythology]] and the protagonist of the ''[[Epic of Gilgamesh]].''

The [[Epic of Gilgamesh]] ([[Help:IPA/English|/ˈɡɪlɡəmɛʃ/]]) is an [[Epic poetry|epic poem]] from ancient [[Mesopotamia]], regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature. The literary history of [[Gilgamesh]] begins with five [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] poems about Bilgamesh (Sumerian for "Gilgamesh"), king of [[Uruk]], dating from the [[Third Dynasty of Ur]] (<abbr>c.</abbr> 2100 BCE). These independent stories were later used as source material for a combined epic in [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]]. The first surviving version of this combined epic, known as the "Old Babylonian" version dates to the 18th century BCE and is titled after its [[incipit]], '''''Shūtur eli sharrī''''' ("Surpassing All Other Kings"). Only a few [[Clay tablet|tablets]] of it have survived. The later Standard Babylonian version compiled by [[Sîn-lēqi-unninni]] dates from the 13th to the 10th centuries BCE and bears the incipit '''''Sha naqba īmuru'''''<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Nergal and Ereshkigal(standard Babylonian Version) (1.109)|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2211-436x_cos_acosb_1_109|access-date=2021-05-09|website=Context of Scripture Online|doi=10.1163/2211-436x_cos_acosb_1_109}}</ref>("He who Saw the Abyss", in modern terms: "He who Sees the Unknown"). Approximately two-thirds of this longer, twelve-tablet version have been recovered. Some of the best copies were discovered in the [[Library of Ashurbanipal|library ruins]] of the 7th-century BC [[Assyrian king]] [[Ashurbanipal]].
[[File:في شارع المتنبي تمثال الشاعر ابو الطيب المتنبي.jpg|thumb|199x199px|[[Al-Mutanabbi|Al-Mutanabi]], regarded as one of the greatest, most prominent and influential poets in the [[Arabic language]]; much of his work has been translated into over 20 languages worldwide.]]