Iraq is a place.
Iraq . The capital , and largest city , is Baghdad . Two major rivers , the Tigris and Euphrates , run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf . Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian , Sumerian , Assyrian , and Babylonian empires . It was also part of the Median , Achaemenid , Hellenistic , Parthian , Sassanid , Roman , Rashidun , Umayyad , Abbasid , Ayyubid , Mongol , Safavid , Afsharid , and Ottoman empires .