Iraqis

People

Iraqis (Arabic: العراقيون) are people who originate from the country of Iraq. Iraq consists largely of most of ancient Mesopotamia, the native land of the indigenous Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian, and Babylonian civilizations, which was subsequently conquered, invaded and ruled by foreigners for centuries after the fall of the indigenous Mesopotamian empires. As a direct consequence of this long history, the contemporary Iraqi population comprises a significant number of different ethnicities. However, recent studies indicate that the different ethno-religious groups of Iraq (Mesopotamia) share significant similarities in genetics, likely due to centuries of assimilation between invading populations and the indigenous ethnic groups. Iraqi Arabs are the largest ethnic group in Iraq, while Kurds are the largest ethnic minority, Turkmens are the third largest ethnic group, while other ethnic groups include Yazidis, indigenous Assyrians, Mandaeans, Armenians, and Marsh Arabs. The daily language of the majority of Iraqis is Mesopotamian Arabic, and has been ever since the Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia and the replacement of Akkadian-influenced Aramaic, most notably during the Abbasid Caliphate during of which Baghdad became the capital of the caliphate and the center of Islamic Golden Age. However, Mesopotamian Arabic is considered to be the most Aramaic-influenced dialect of Arabic, due to Aramaic having originated in Mesopotamia, and spread throughout the Fertile Crescent during the Neo-Assyrian period, eventually becoming the lingua franca of the entire region prior to the Islamic invasions of Mesopotamia. In addition, Neo-Aramaic, Kurdish, Turkish and Mandaic are other languages spoken by Iraqis and recognized by Iraq's constitution.