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Iraq

العراق

The land of Ur and the Sawad under Persian rule: home of the Lakhmid client kingdom at al-Hira, the Jewish settlements that migrated to the Hijaz, and the banks of the Euphrates giving onto the Jazira tribes.

Depth

At a glance

Era
Pre-Islamic Arabia
Region
Levant & Iraq
Review
Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

Overview

Iraq: the land of Ur from which Abraham emigrated, seat of the Persian-subject kingdom of al-Hira, and home of the Jews' old migrations to the Hijaz.

The place

The father-stock of the Arabised Arabs, Abraham, is from the land of Iraq — from a town called Ur on the western bank of the Euphrates near Kufa 1.

Persia ruled Iraq and its neighbours since Cyrus the Great; in it stood the Lakhmid kingdom of al-Hira as wardens over the desert Arabs 2. From it a part of Palestine's Jews emigrated to the Hijaz in the era of the Babylonian conquests 3.

For young visitors

Iraq is the land of the Tigris and Euphrates; from it Abraham set out, and in it were al-Hira's kings, Persia's allies.

Connections

Explore the connections

Site of
The Massacre of the Hajj Caravan by Fulayta ibn al-Qarri
Contains
Ur
Mentioned in
Muwatta 62· Muwatta 762

People and things also explored

Dhimma (the covenant of protection)· Jizya (capitation on treaty peoples)· Tithe on the trade of non-Muslims (ushr)· Muwatta, Book of Prayer· Muwatta, Book of Zakat· Abu Talha al-Ansari· Anas ibn Malik· Malik ibn Anas

Sources

  1. al-Raheeq al-Makhtum — Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri
  2. Muhadarat Tarikh al-Umam al-Islamiyya — Muhammad al-Khudari
  3. Qalb Jazirat al-Arab — Fuʾad Hamza
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Iraq”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/place/iraq/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-12.

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Wing

Place

Cities, sites and routes on a map that moves through time. Related

Dhimma (the covenant of protection)

Dhimma in al-Baladhuri is the written covenant of security granted to treaty peoples of the Book: its formula in the Prophet's letter to Najran runs 'they have God's protection and the protection of His messenger over their persons, religion, lands, wealth, absent and present', and its stipulated terms in the Najran peace include that they not be seduced from their religion or its ranks, nor levied nor tithed, and in the letter's text that no bishop be removed from his bishopric, no monk from his monasticism, no right of theirs or their images — crucifixes and icons — be altered, and no army tread their land, while whoever of them took usury the Prophet's protection was quit of him; the letter of the people of Maqna grants 'God's protection and His messenger's' with security and pardon for every blood; and the dhimma was renewed under the caliphs — Abu Bakr wrote to the people of Najran on the model of the Prophet's letter, and Uthman called them 'a people who have a dhimma' when he remitted two hundred of their hullas.