Portal:Iraq/Intro
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The Republic of Iraq (Arabic: العراق transliteration: al-‘Irāq العراق , Kurdish: عيَراق), is a Middle Eastern country in southwestern Asia encompassing most of Mesopotamia as well as the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range and the eastern part of the Syrian Desert. It shares borders with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan to the west, Syria to the northwest, Turkey to the north, and Iran to the east. It has a very narrow section of coastline at Umm Qasr on the Persian Gulf.
There are several suggestions for the origin of the name of Iraq; one dates back to the Sumerian city of Uruk (or Erech). Another suggestion is that Iraq comes from the Aramaic language, meaning "the land along the banks of the rivers." Some suggest that the word was adapted from the Arabic for "well-grounded country", as something of a marketing ploy by the British.
Under the Sassanid dynasty, there was a region called "Iraq Arabi" which referred to the southern part of modern Iraq. Al-Iraq was the name used by the Arabs themselves for the land since the 6th century.
