At the beginning Sumer (a region of Mesopotamia) was the birthplace of writing, the wheel, agriculture, the arch, the plow, the saw, irrigation, beer, the spear, money, calendar and many other innovations, and is often referred to as the Cradle of Civilization. The Sumerians developed the earliest known writing system – a pictographic writing system known as cuneiform script,
Read More
Rashad Salim’s efforts to discover and preserve knowledge of ancient boatbuilding crafts played a key role in the resurgence of interest in Iraq’s maritime heritage. Above, Salim with a pair of shasha reed bundle boats (Photo: © Rashad Salim). When he first glided through the Euphrates as a child in his grandfather’s “tarada,” a traditional Mesopotamian boat, J
Read More
Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, at his home in the holy city of Najaf, receives Pope Francis on March 6, 2021. Photo: AFP/Ayatollah Sistani's Media Office By any historical measure, it was a game-changer: the first meeting since the 7th century between a Roman Catholic Pope and a Shiite spiritual leader regarded as a “source of emulation.” I
Read More
Pope Francis with Iraq’s top Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Photograph: Reuters Pope Francis has had a symbolic meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, one of the most senior clerics in Shia Islam, in Iraq’s holy city of Najaf. The historic meeting in Sistani’s home was months in the making, with every detail painstakingly discussed and negotiated b
Read More
IEN is publishing Child Labor in Iraq thesis to bring attention to the fact that child labor has risen in Iraq due to poverty and wars. It is critical for academia, researchers, and governmental institutions to devote serious effort and focus to develop long term solution to such issue which would affect individual child future and the society as a whole. ABSTRACT One in
Read More