imported>Givennames at 20:46, 11 April 2025

2025-04-11T20:46:04Z

New page

{{short description|none}}
[[File:تمثال المتنبي في بغداد.jpg|thumb|[[Al-Mutanabbi]], an Iraqi poet]]
[[File:Tablet XI or the Flood Tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh, currently housed in the British Museum in London.jpg|thumb|[[Epic of Gilgamesh]], an [[Epic poetry|epic poem]] from ancient [[Mesopotamia]], regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature, [[British Museum]].]]'''Iraqi literature''' or '''Mesopotamian literature''' dates back to [[Sumerian literature|Sumerian]] times, which constitutes the earliest known corpus of recorded literature, including the religious writings and other traditional stories maintained by the [[Sumer|Sumerian]] civilization and largely preserved by the later [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] and [[Babylonia|Babylonian]] empire.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Mesopotamian religion - Stages of religious development {{!}} Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mesopotamian-religion/Stages-of-religious-development|access-date=2021-12-22|website=www.britannica.com|language=En}}</ref> Mesopotamian civilization flourished as a result of the mixture of these cultures and has been called Mesopotamian or Babylonian literature in allusion to the geographical territory that such cultures occupied in the Middle East between the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Mesopotamian Literature: Characteristics, Authors, Historical Context|url=https://www.lifepersona.com/mesopotamian-literature-characteristics-authors-historical-context|access-date=2021-12-22|website=Life Persona}}</ref>

== Ancient ==
[[File:Cuneiform script.jpg|thumb|An Akkadian inscription]]
{{main|Sumerian literature|Akkadian literature}}
The Sumerian literature is unique because the [[Sumerian language]] itself is unique in its kind because it does not belong to any known linguistic root. Its appearance began with symbols of the things denoting it, then it turned with time to the cuneiform line, and later spread during the third millennium BC. All of them were in Mesopotamia, but they were affected by historical events, so they lost much of their importance, and became the language of religious rituals, after the Semitic Akkadian language overcame them. However, there are texts that date back to after the advent of Christianity. The two languages coincided, and they coexisted for many decades, and written traces appeared in each of them. Including the [[Epic of Gilgamesh]], which was originally classified in Sumerian and reached the Akkadian.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OolDDwAAQBAJ|title=Ele que o abismo viu: Epopeia de Gilgámesh|isbn=978-85-513-0283-5|pages=320|translator-last=Lins Brandão|translator-first=Jacyntho}}</ref>

The Sumerians wrote many mythical and epic texts dealing with creation issues, the emergence of the world, the gods, descriptions of the heavens, and the lives of heroes in the wars that broke out between the nomads and the urbanites. They also deal with religious teachings, moral advice, astrology, legislation, and history. In this same line Akkadian literature also proceeded, so that the two languages converged, and sometimes they shared the same subject.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OolDDwAAQBAJ|title=Ele que o abismo viu: Epopeia de Gilgámesh|isbn=978-85-513-0283-5|pages=320|translator-last=Lins Brandão|translator-first=Jacyntho}}</ref>

== Abbasid ==
[[File:Maqamat hariri.jpg|thumb|Scholars at an Abbasid library. Maqamat of [[Al-Hariri of Basra|al-Hariri]] Illustration by [[Yahya ibn Mahmud al-Wasiti|Yahyá al-Wasiti]], 1237]]
In the beginning of the [[Islamic Golden Age]], during the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid]] period, in which [[Baghdad]] was the capital, the [[House of Wisdom]] in [[Baghdad]], which was a public academy and intellectual center hosted numerous scholars and writers such as [[Al-Jahiz]] and [[Omar Khayyam]]. A number of stories in the ''[[One Thousand and One Nights]]'' feature the Abbasid caliph [[Harun al-Rashid]]. [[Al-Hariri of Basra]] was a notable literary figure of this period.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Al-Khalili|first=Jim|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aJ5zDM1KfewC&q=omar|title=The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance|publisher=Penguin|date=2011-03-31|isbn=978-1-101-47623-9}}</ref>

== 20th century ==
As stated by Ibrahim al-Durubi in ''Al-Baghdadiyun, Akhbaruhum Wa Majalisuhum'' the important figures in the founding of 20th-century Iraqi literature included [[Ma'ruf al-Rusafi]], [[Daisy Al-Amir]] and [[Anastase-Marie al-Karmali]].<ref>al-Durubi, Ibrahim (1958). [https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Al-Baghd%C4%81d%C4%ABy%C5%ABn_akhb%C4%81ruhum_wa-maj%C4%81lisuhum.pdf ''Al-Baghdadiyun, Akhbaruhum Wa Majalisuhum''] (PDF). Baghdad, Iraq: Al-Rabita Press. This book is currently in the public domain.</ref>

In the late 1970s, a period of economic upturn, prominent writers in Iraq were provided with an apartment and car by [[Saddam Hussein]]'s government, and were guaranteed at least one publication per year. In exchange, literature was expected to express and galvanise support for the ruling [[Ba'ath Party]]. The [[Iran–Iraq War]] (1980-1988) fuelled a demand for patriotic literature, but also pushed a number of writers into exile. According to [[Najem Wali]], during this period, "[e]ven those who chose to quit writing saw themselves forced to write something that did not rile the dictator, because even silence was considered a crime."<ref name="Wali2006">WALI, Najem, "Iraq", ''in'' ''Literature from the "Axis of Evil"'' (a [[Words Without Borders]] anthology), {{ISBN|978-1-59558-205-8}}, 2006, pp. 51–54.</ref>

From the late 1980s onwards, Iraqi exile literature developed with writers whose "rejection of dominant ideology and [whose] resistance to the wars in Iraq compelled them to formulate a 'brutally raw [[Realism (arts)|realism]]' characterized by a shocking sense of modernity".<ref name="Wali2006" />
Late 20th-century Iraqi literature has been marked by writers such as [[Saadi Youssef]], [[Fadhil Al-Azzawi]], [[Muhsin al-Ramli|Mushin Al-Ramli]], [[Salah Al-Hamdani]] and [[Abdul Rahman Majeed al-Rubaie]].

==See also==
* [[:Category:Iraqi writers|Iraqi writers]]
* [[:Category:Iraqi novels|Iraqi novels]]
* [[Assyro-Babylonian literature]]
* [[Sumerian literature]]
* [[Culture of Iraq]]
* {{portal-inline|Iraq}}

==Sources==
{{reflist}}{{Iraq topics}}{{Asian topic|| literature}}

[[Category:Iraqi literature| ]]

Iraqi literature - Revision history

imported>Givennames at 20:46, 11 April 2025