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Iraq: its people, its society, its culture (Survey of world cultures)

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This is one of the most-complete works descibing the evolution of Iraqi cultures. My favorite quotes:
p. 15. The many Arabs, mostly Christian, living under Persian rule in lower Iraq at first supported their Persian masters against the Moslem invaders but gradually transferred their allegience. Persian power was completely submerged once the Arabs decided to occupy the area west of the Euphrates. Final subjugation of Iraq was accomplished under the second caliph, Omar, in a decisive battle at Al Qadisiyah in 637. The religion and, somewhat more slowly, the language of the conquerors were accepted by the majority of the population. The civilization of Iraq entered into a new phase with the advent of Islam but its essential continuity was not broken, and far from accepting the cultural elements brought by the victors it assimilated them so thoroughly that the Arab golden age that followed centered in Iraq, not Arabia. In this fusion it was the Arabs rather than the old population of Mesopotamia that were culturally absorbed.
Pg16--The Shiite doctrines attribute to Ali and his descendants a divine right to rule, a claim which accords with ancient Persian theories concerning the basis of kingly power. It contrasts with the Sunnite view, which emphasizes as the practical test of legitimacy the actual possession of power.
--The individual is bound to his kinsmen by a network of mutual obligations which is strongest within the extended family but which can also draw the whole lineage together in instances of any external threat. Where there are several lineages within a village, for example, rivalry is common and not infrequently leads to feuds; but in dealing with the outside world the village usually proves itself capable of acting as a unit.
The extended family, uniting a group of closely related males and their wives and children, has long been a more important unit of work and residence in the Iraqi village than the nuclear family composed of a married couple and their children.
--the non-kinship patterns of association found in the villages are perhaps more reliable than any other indicator in determining village class structure. The only formally organized groups found in Iraqi villages are the religious tariqahs (associations).Males of all classes may join a tariqah, and , theoretically at least, class lines are wiped out by membership; this is not true in fact, however, since the tariqahs are almost invariably controlled by men who are village leaders for other reasons There is little evidence, moreover, that contacts initiated within the tariqah carry over into other aspects of life.
--The bulk of the population continues to rely on the informal word-of-mouth communications which are the traditional news channels of the Middle East. The coffeehouse provides a center where news is read aloud and broadcasts are interpreted and discussed, later to reappear in distorted form as gossip in the marketplace or rumors in the public bath or in the courtyard of the mosque. The bedouin obtains news during infrequent visits to towns and villages and from wayfarers and merchants. On the rare occasions when a newspaper fins its way into a tribal area a sayyid (a person claiming descent from the Prophet Mohammed who often functions as a religious leader) may read and interpret it, but the average bedouin's zest for information traditionally has been limited to news concerning one's family and tribal matters .With the exercise of increasing control over tribal affairs by the government, it is likely that the bedouin's interest in events outside his own home is being whetted by access to the radio sets which are being acquired by more and more bedouin (and Kurdish) tribal leaders.
The rumor and gossip circulated by informal channels are not subjected to critical scrutiny or any process of verification. The significance of reports is magnified or minimized indiscriminately ; consequently the factual and emotional content of public opinion varies widely from place to place and is inevitably based upon a mixture of truths, half-truths, and falsehoods.
--The merchant in the Middle East traditionally has functioned as more than the link between producer and consumer. When he actually traveled with his goods he was the conveyor of news between towns and villages, and was often moneylender as well as trader. Many Iraqi merchants still combine these activities, but the trend is toward greater specialization and the new businessman is less than both merchant and banker.
--Two essentials of modern commerce--adequate credit and systematic market information--have developed only slowly and with difficulty in Moslem countries. Traditionally the religious injunction against the taking of interest worked against the growth of credit institutions in Moslem society, and Moslem merchant was forced to resort to devious and generally disapproved means of obtaining credit. A further handicap was present in the indifference of the old-style merchant to statistical information, which was no doubt related to his highly personal and informal way of doing business. Direct and indirect western influence, including the example of the European and indigenous non-Moslem enterprises in the country, has produced a new generation of Iraqi Moslem businessmen who have adopted modern methods and deprecate the religious inhibitions and "backwardness" of their more conservative co-religionists.
--The tradition family in Iraq, as elsewhere in the Middle East, in addition to providing its members with support and social orientation in childhood, remains throughout their lives a primary agency for economic cooperation, social control, and mutual protection. The first loyalty of an individual is to his family--on whose wealth, welfare, and reputation are his own are to a considerable degree dependant. Prescriptions relating to family honor are binding, and there is a strong tradition of kin solidarity, reinforced by Islam but long antedating its event. Relatives may quarrel but in the face of an outside threat the family displays its fundamental cohesiveness.
Deeply ingrained family loyalty manifests itself in business and public life no less than in domestic matters and personal relationships. The mutually protective attitude of relatives is taken as a matter of course and kinsmen are expected to render one another special favors and services. Taken for granted, the widespread practice of securing employment and favored treatment for relatives bears no stigma of nepotism and relatives tend to be preferred business partners since they are more "reliable" than persons over whom one does not have the hold of kinship ties.

To see where Iraqi groups and subgroups came from, this is the best starting point for serious investigations. See the other resources at civilsocietyiraq on Kenneth Tyler's great seedwiki system.