Calif’s head that appears as an ornament on
golden harp from Ur, ca. 2500 B.C.
IRAQ, A REPUBLIC since the 1958 coup d’etat that ended the reign
of King Faisal II, became a sovereign, independent state in 1932.
Although the modern state, the Republic of Iraq, is quite young,
the history of the land and its people dates back more than 5,000
years. Indeed, Iraq contains the world’s richest known
archaeological sites. Here, in ancient Mesopotamia (the land
between the rivers), the first civilization--that of Sumer--
appeared in the Near East. Despite the millennium separating the
two epochs, Iraqi history