Iraqi people

The Iraqi people (Arabic: الشعب العراقي al-shaab al-Iraqi, Kurdish: گه‌لی عیراق gelê Îraqê, ʿmma ʿIraqāyā) or Mesopotamian people (Arabic: شعب بلاد ما بين النهرين) are natives or inhabitants of the country of Iraq, known since antiquity as Mesopotamia (Arabic: بلاد الرافدين), with a large diaspora throughout the Arab World, Europe, the Americas, and Australasia. From late Assyrian and Babylonian times until the early Islamic era, the Iraqi people spoke Aramaic but also witnessed a minority Arab presence, like Bani Assad, Taghlib, Banu Tamim and Lakhmid tribes among others.

Arabic had been a minority language in Iraq since the 8th century BC, it was spoken in Hatra in the 1st and 2nd centuries, and by Iraqi Christians in Al-Hirah from the 3rd century, and from the 7th century following the Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia it became the common language of Iraqi Muslims, due to Arabic being the language of the Qur'an and the Caliphate. This change was facilitated by the fact that Arabic being a Semitic language, shared a close resemblance to Iraq's traditional languages of Akkadian and Aramaic. Some of Iraq's Christians and Mandaeans retained dialects of Aramaic, since it remained the...
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