Iraq

Sumerian Civilisation — The First Civilisation

Sumer in southern Mesopotamia developed the world's first cities, writing system, and centralised government.

Invention of the Wheel at Ur

The wheel — humanity's most transformative invention — first appeared in Mesopotamia around 3500 BCE.

Akkadian Empire — the world's first empire

The empire founded by Sargon of Akkad c.2334 BCE, the first multi-ethnic state in history to unify diverse peoples under centralised rule.

Epic of Gilgamesh — The World's Oldest Literature

The story of King Gilgamesh of Uruk is the earliest surviving great work of literature, predating Homer by 1,500 years.

Old Babylonian Empire — Hammurabi's code of law

The empire centred at Babylon from c.1894–1595 BCE, whose king Hammurabi issued one of the earliest law codes in history.

Code of Hammurabi

Babylon's king Hammurabi issued one of the world's earliest and most complete written legal codes.

Neo-Assyrian Empire — the ancient world's first superpower

The empire that dominated the Near East from 911–609 BCE, known for its military innovation, systematic cruelty, and creation of the world's first great library.

Babylonian Astronomy — the first star catalogs

The Babylonians of Mesopotamia produced the world's first systematic records of the night sky — from at least 700 BCE they tracked planetary movements, predicted eclipses, and built the mathematical astronomy that would underpin Greek and later Islamic science.

Neo-Babylonian Empire — Nebuchadnezzar and the exile of the Jews

The Neo-Babylonian Empire (626–539 BC) destroyed Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, deported the Jewish people to Babylon, and built the legendary Hanging Gardens — one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Battle of Carchemish — Babylon defeats Egypt for the Middle East

At Carchemish on the Euphrates in 605 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon destroyed the Egyptian army under Pharaoh Necho II — deciding who would control the ancient Near East for the next century and ending Egypt's last attempt at regional dominance.

Alexander the Great Conquers Babylon

Alexander's conquest of Babylon in 331 BCE made it the capital of his vast empire and introduced Hellenistic culture to Mesopotamia.

Battle of Gaugamela — Alexander ends the Persian Empire

The Battle of Gaugamela (331 BCE) was Alexander's decisive victory over Darius III — outnumbered at least two to one, he drew the Persian cavalry away with a calculated feint then drove directly at Darius, who fled, sealing the fate of the Achaemenid Empire.

Neo-Babylonian Empire and Nebuchadnezzar II

Nebuchadnezzar II rebuilt Babylon into the greatest city in the ancient world and created the Hanging Gardens.

Battle of al-Qadisiyyah — Arab conquest of Persia

The 636 CE battle in which Arab Muslim armies crushed the Sassanid Persian empire, opening Iran and Iraq to Islamic rule.

Battle of Siffin — Islam's great schism

The inconclusive battle of Siffin in 657 CE between Caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib and the rebel governor Muawiyah set in motion the Sunni-Shia split that divides Islam to this day.

Battle of Karbala — the martyrdom of Husayn

The 680 CE battle in which Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of Muhammad, was killed by the Umayyad army — the founding tragedy of Shia Islam.

Abbasid Caliphate — the Islamic Golden Age

The Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258 AD) was the golden age of Islamic civilisation, when Baghdad was the largest city on earth and Muslim scholars preserved Greek, Persian, and Indian knowledge in mathematics, medicine, and astronomy.

Abbasid Caliphate and Baghdad's Golden Age

The Abbasid Caliphate made Baghdad the largest city in the world and the centre of a golden age of science and philosophy.

House of Wisdom — Baghdad's Academy of Sciences

The House of Wisdom was the world's greatest library and research institution, translating and advancing all branches of knowledge.

Al-Khwarizmi — the inventor of algebra

Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi's Kitab al-Mukhtasar fi Hisab al-Jabr wal-Muqabala (c. 830 CE) invented algebra as a systematic discipline — the word "algebra" comes from "al-jabr" in his title, and his own name, Latinised as "algoritmi," gave us the word "algorithm."

Battle of Qarqar — the earliest battle with multiple sources

At Qarqar on the Orontes River in 853 BCE, an Assyrian army under Shalmaneser III met a coalition of twelve kings including Ahab of Israel and Hadadezer of Damascus — the earliest battle recorded in multiple independent contemporary sources.

Al-Battani — the Islamic astronomer who corrected Ptolemy

Al-Battani (858–929 CE), working in Raqqa in modern Syria, was the greatest astronomer of the Islamic Golden Age — his precise observations corrected Ptolemy's errors, calculated the length of the solar year to within 2 minutes, and influenced Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler.

Fall of Baghdad — the Mongol sack of 1258

The Mongol destruction of Baghdad in 1258, ending the Abbasid Caliphate and devastating the centre of Islamic civilisation.

Mongol Sack of Baghdad

Hulagu Khan's Mongol army destroyed Baghdad in 1258, killing up to a million people and ending the Abbasid Caliphate.

Ottoman Rule over Mesopotamia

The Ottoman Empire controlled Iraq for four centuries, organising it into three provinces: Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra.

Discovery of Oil in Iraq

The discovery of vast oil reserves transformed Iraq's economy and made it a central arena of 20th-century geopolitics.

Iraqi Mandate and Independence

After WWI, Britain controlled Iraq under a League of Nations Mandate before granting independence in 1932.

Second Battle of Fallujah — bloodiest urban combat since Hue City

The November–December 2004 battle in which US, Iraqi, and British forces cleared Fallujah of insurgents in some of the heaviest urban fighting since the Vietnam War.