Editing History of Iraq (section)

== Middle Ages ==
=== 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.

=== Abbasid Caliphate ===
{{Main|Abbasid Caliphate|Islamic Golden Age|Anarchy at Samarra|Iranian Intermezzo}}
[[File:Abbasids850.png|thumb|Abbasid Caliphate at its greatest extent]]
The city of [[Baghdad]], established in the 8th century as the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, quickly became the leading cultural and intellectual hub of the [[Muslim world]] during the [[Islamic Golden Age]]. At its peak, Baghdad was the largest and most multicultural city of the [[Middle Ages]], with a population exceeding a million. However, its prominence was dramatically curtailed in the 13th century when the [[Mongol Empire]] sacked the city and destroyed its famed library during the [[Siege of Baghdad (1258)]].

In the 9th century, the Abbasid Caliphate entered a period of decline. During the late 9th to early 11th centuries, a period known as the "[[Iranian Intermezzo]]", parts of (the modern territory of) Iraq were governed by a number of minor Iranian emirates, including the [[Tahirid dynasty|Tahirids]], [[Saffarid dynasty|Saffarids]], [[Samanid Empire|Samanids]], [[Buyid dynasty|Buyids]] and [[Sallarid dynasty|Sallarids]]. [[Tughril]], the founder of the [[Seljuk Empire]], captured Baghdad in 1055. In spite of having lost all governance, the Abbasid caliphs nevertheless maintained a highly ritualized court in Baghdad and remained influential in religious matters, maintaining the orthodoxy of their [[Sunni]] sect in opposition to the [[Ismaili]] and [[Shia]] sects of Islam.

=== Mongol invasion ===
{{Further| Seljuk Empire |Siege of Baghdad (1258)}}
[[File:Mongol Empire map.gif|thumb|267x267px|The Mongol Empire's expansion]]
In the later 11th century, Iraq fell under the rule of the [[Khwarazmian dynasty]]. Both Turkic secular rule and Abbasid caliphate came to an end with the [[Mongol invasions]] of the 13th century.<ref>[[Thomas T. Allsen]] ''Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia'', p.84</ref>
The Mongols under [[Genghis Khan]] had [[Mongol conquest of Khwarezmia|conquered Khwarezmia]] by 1221, but Iraq proper gained a respite due to the death of Genghis Khan in 1227 and the subsequent power struggles.
[[Möngke Khan]] from 1251 began a renewed expansion of the [[Mongol Empire]], and when caliph [[al-Mustasim]] refused to submit to the Mongols, [[Battle of Baghdad (1258)|Baghdad was besieged and captured]] by [[Hulagu Khan]] in 1258. Estimates of the number of dead range from 200,000 to a million.<ref>{{cite magazine|last= Frazier |first= Ian |url= https://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/04/25/050425fa_fact4?currentPage=4 |title= Annals of history: Invaders: Destroying Baghdad |magazine= The New Yorker |date= 25 April 2005 |page= 4 |access-date=25 January 2013}}</ref> With the destruction of the Abbasid Caliphate, Hulagu had an open route to Syria and moved against the other Muslim powers in the region.<ref name="Morgan. pp. 132">Morgan. ''The Mongols''. pp. 132–135.</ref>

The Mongols destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate and Baghdad's [[House of Wisdom]]. The city has never regained its previous pre-eminence as a major centre of culture and influence. Some historians believe that the Mongol invasion destroyed much of the [[irrigation]] infrastructure that had sustained Mesopotamia for millennia. Other historians point to [[soil salination]] as the culprit in the decline in agriculture.

=== Turko-Mongol rule ===
{{Main|Ilkhanate|Timurid Empire|Jalayirid Sultanate|Qara Qoyunlu|Aq Qoyunlu|Eldiguzids}}
[[File:Fall Of Baghdad (Diez Albums).jpg|thumb|[[Siege of Baghdad|Conquest of Baghdad]] by the Mongols in 1258]]
Iraq now became a province on the southwestern fringes of the [[Ilkhanate]] and Baghdad would never regain its former importance.

The [[Jalayirids]] were a [[Mongol]] [[Jalayir]] dynasty<ref>Bayne Fisher, William "The Cambridge History of Iran", p.3: "(From then until the Timur's invasion of the country, Iran was under the rule of various rival petty princes of whom henceforth only the Jalayirids could claim Mongol)</ref> which ruled over [[Iraq]] and western [[Persia]]<ref>The History Files [http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsMiddEast/EasternPersia.htm Rulers of Persia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210512181607/https://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsMiddEast/EasternPersia.htm |date=2021-05-12 }}</ref> after the breakup of the Ilkhanate in the 1330s. The Jalayirid sultanate lasted about fifty years, until disrupted by [[Timur|Tamerlane]]'s conquests and the revolts of the "Black Sheep Turks" or [[Qara Qoyunlu]] [[Oghuz Turks|Turkmen]].

The mid-14th-century [[Black Death]] ravaged much of the [[Islamic world]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/islam/mongols/blackDeath.html |title=The Islamic World to 1600: The Mongol Invasions (The Black Death) |publisher=The University of Calgary |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090131180742/http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/islam/mongols/blackDeath.html |archive-date=31 January 2009 }}</ref> The best estimate for the Middle East is a death rate of roughly one-third.<ref>{{cite web|author=Kathryn Jean Lopez |url=http://old.nationalreview.com/interrogatory/kelly200509140843.asp|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120216075334/http://old.nationalreview.com/interrogatory/kelly200509140843.asp|archive-date=16 February 2012 |url-status=dead|title=Q&A with John Kelly on The Great Mortality on National Review Online |publisher=Nationalreview.com |date=14 September 2005 |access-date=9 November 2016}}</ref>

In 1401, a warlord of Mongol descent, Tamerlane (Timur Lenk), invaded Iraq. After the [[Siege of Baghdad (1401)|capture of Baghdad]], most of its citizens were massacred. Timur also conducted massacres of the indigenous [[Assyrian people|Assyrian Christian]] population, and it was during this time that the ancient Assyrian city of [[Assur]] was finally abandoned.<ref>Nestorians, or Ancient Church of the East at Encyclopædia Britannica</ref> After Tamerlane's death in 1405, there was a brief attempt to re-establish the sultanate in southern Iraq and [[Khūzestān Province|Khuzistan]]. The Jalayirids were finally eliminated by [[Kara Koyunlu]] in 1432.