Names for Iraq and her people

[Brennus]

I was wondering if anyone knew what name the peope of Iraq used to refer to themselves as, and indeed what the neighbours of Iraq (apart from the Greeks) referred to the country as?

[Kagemusha]

What Era are you thinking off?

[Arjos]

Iraqiyin "Iraqi", Nahraya "Mesopotamian", Anbat "Nabatean", Babilaya "Babylonian"...

Only the first one is used today I think...

If you ask gamegeek2 or Hax, they should be able to give you a scholar to be answer ^^

[Brennus]

I was thinking about the pre-Islamic era and the era under Ottoman rule, thanks for the replies everyone!

[Fisherking]

You know of course that Iraq was not a nation or region in ancient times don’t you?


It was a made up country to fulfill British policy goals after the first world war.

There are divers peoples living there but they were by no means a Nation prior to the breakup of the Ottoman Empire.

It is rather like Yugoslavia. It was people who disliked our hated each other bound together in a state to fill a gap on the map.

To be fair though, Iraq is the Arabic name for Mesopotamia. That means they are Mesopotamians and all the other peoples who invaded that region over the last eight or ten thousand years.

[RollingWave]

In pre-Islamic or ealyr islamic era they would have most likly been refered to or refer themself as Mesopotamian or Babylonian, though ti depends on which part of Iraq as well, some may as well refer to themself as Assyrians, and of course more often just based on ethnic / tribal background like Kurds / Arabs / Persians etc.. the Mesopotamian region did have their own identity and language back then but graudally lost it to the Arabs.