ABSTRACT

In comparison with Greek and Hellenistic cultures, Mesopotamian culture at first sight, undeniably, seems alien and strange. The democratic history of Iraq can be seen to have a lineage tracing back as far as civilization itself. Its ancestry lies in the ancient myths recounted by the early Mesopotamians as the region developed its first sophisticated human settlements and systems of governance. They not only pre-empted Greek developments and the birth of the discourse of Western democracy, but outlasted the much lauded Athenian polis, with Mesopotamian councils continuing to convene until at least as late as 187 BCE. Ancient Mesopotamia is a rich cultural motif which has been frequently appropriated and worked into political, educational, sociological and literary discourses which have long underpinned notions of national unity and cultural pride amongst the Iraqis. To describe the democratic practices found in myths such as Enuma Elish and epics like Gilgamesh, the renowned Danish Assyriologist Thorkild Jacobsen coined the term 'Primitive Democracy'.