From Aflaq to Tammuz Last changed 27 December Introduction. Iraq has long been a path breaking nation in the Middle East. It was the first modern Arab state to achieve full independence on 13 October It was also the first modern Arab state to suffer a coup d'etat led by General Bakr Sidqi on 29 October which set the general course of Middle East history away from constitutional government and toward the dominance of military strongmen.
Iraq is famous for being the geographic location of the most ancient civilization on Earth - the Sumerian civilization founded years ago. But modern Iraq owes little more to this ancient people, whose entire language family and ethnic identity vanished millennia ago, than does any other nation of western civilization. Even the peoples that replaced the Sumerians - the Akkadians Babylonians - are gone along with the entire Eastern Semitic language group to which the belonged.
The culture, language, and identity of modern Iraq is Arab -- it is descended from the nomadic Beduin peoples of the Arabian Peninsula, and the Western Semitic language they spoke.
The dominance of the Arab peoples in the Middle East is due directly to Muhammad - the Prophet of Islam. In the Seventh Century AD the Arabs united under the inspiration of Muhammad's leadership and teachings, and in the space of thirty years conquered vast stretches of the Middle East, permanently establishing Arabic culture as the dominant cultural force in the region. Despite the essential role of Islam in Arabizing the Middle East, Arab identity is not tied to Islam.
There are millions of Arab Christians, who carry on a tradition from pre-Islamic times. Remarkably, Saddam Hussein as been playing a key role in Iraqi history for most of the state's 70 year existence.
