Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) — overview, history and impact

Since the end of June 2014, the organization has only called itself Islamic State. According to political scientist Volker Perthes, the organization, which he characterizes as a "jihadist state-building project," wants to emphasize that it wants to expand beyond Iraq and the Levant by abandoning former name components.

Until the end of 2014, the organization called itself "Islamic State in Iraq and Syria" (Arabic الدولة الإسلامية في العراق والشام, DMG ad-daula al-islāmiyya fī l-ʿIrāq wa-š-Šām; can also be translated as "... in the Levant" or "... in Greater Syria"), from which the common abbreviations ISIS, ISIL, and ISIG are also derived. A foreign term is the rather negative abbreviation Daesh (داعش, DMG dāʿiš, also spelled Daesh, Da'ish, or Daaish), coined in 2013 by the Syrian activist Khaled al-Haj Salih, which is derived from the initial Arabic letters and is widespread in the Arabic-speaking world.

The abbreviation داعش, DMG dā'iš 'ISIS' ("Islamic State in Iraq and Syria") looks similar in Arabic script to the term داعس, DMG dāʿis 'one who tramples something underfoot'. Therefore, this abbreviation is forbidden within IS-occupied territories, and there is a threat of punishment if it is used. In numerous Middle Eastern countries, however, this abbreviation has been adopted into the local vocabulary. This is intended to deliberately counter the organization's own name, which has positive connotations in the Islamic sense, and to avoid a direct association with Islam.

The IS does not speak of borders, but of "fronts", thus fulfilling an important characteristic of an openly aspired empire. Further, former names of the organization or its predecessors (JTJ, Az-Zarqawi network, TQJBR, AQI) are given in the History section.

IS was considered the richest terrorist organization in the world with an estimated fortune of two billion US dollars (as of January 2015). During the conquest of Mosul and the looting of the central bank, 429 million US dollars alone ended up in the hands of the IS in June 2014. The IS "business model" was based on several pillars:

• Oil: IS was largely financed by the revenue from the sale of crude oil from captured oil fields. Until the first air strikes on oil fields in October 2014, oil was produced and sold daily for 3 million US dollars. By the end of 2014, the figures had dropped to around 360,000 US dollars per day.
• Looting: An additional source of income was the sale of antique finds from looted excavations at archaeological sites and the looting of museums. By the end of 2014, archaeological finds from Syria alone worth 30 million US dollars are said to have been smuggled into the West and brought here into the art trade with forged papers.
• Ransom and slavery: Claims from kidnappings as well as the "auctioning" of children and women (especially captured Yazidis and Christians) on slave markets represent another source of income. Girls and women between the ages of 10 and 20 were auctioned for the equivalent of 68 euros; children up to the age of 9 fetched prices as high as the equivalent of 135 euros. Abducted Western hostages were released for between 3 and 5 million US dollars.
• Donations: The IS is financed by donations from wealthy private individuals, religious foundations and mosque associations, especially from Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
• Taxes: The IS collects taxes from traders, which are 10% each for sales and property taxes, as well as customs duties (between $200 and $500 per shipment). In addition, the IS received rental income for over 20,000 apartments and shops in Mosul amounting to 3 million US dollars per month. The IS kept detailed records of all transactions.

The Islamic State proclaims on its websites and social networks the introduction of a gold dinar, which is successively put into circulation.