🛍️ Iraq: souvenirs
Iraq's craft heritage runs from Baghdad's copper lane to the reed work of the marshes - and dates that set the world standard. Here is what travellers bring home from Iraq, where the good versions live, and the export questions worth a look - alongside our 69 written places.
🛒 The classic buys
Copperware
Baghdad's Safafeer market has hammered copper for centuries - trays, pots and engraved pieces from the remaining workshops.
Dates and date products
Iraq's palms grow celebrated varieties - buy boxed khestawi and barhi dates, date syrup (dibis) and date sweets.
Carpets and kilims
Kurdish weaving in the north - Erbil's bazaar sells wool rugs and saddlebags from regional looms.
Marsh-reed craft
Woven mats and baskets from the southern marshes - the craft of a UNESCO-listed landscape.
Silverwork and jewellery
Traditional designs in the bazaars of Baghdad, Najaf and Erbil - buy hallmarked from established shops.
⚠️ Check before you buy
- Antiquities are absolutely off-limits - Iraq's heritage laws are strict and international enforcement is real; buy nothing old.
- Keep receipts for carpets and silver - customs may ask.
✗ Better left behind
- Anything presented as ancient - cylinder seals, tablets, coins - illegal to export and mostly fake anyway.
- Old manuscripts and Qurans - cultural property.
Markets shift, workshops close and open, and the best souvenir is still the one with a story you were there for. Buy from makers where you can, keep receipts for anything substantial, and when a deal feels too good, it usually is.