In any case, the number of Jews in Iraq in the 1st century is pretty tangential to the question of whether a particular Jew, Simon bar Jonah called Peter, was ever there. It's not really a matter of probability ... the more Jews you have, the more likely that Simon Peter is one of them. ;-)
Peter was in Rome. Mark was in Rome. Mark was with Peter. Peter was martyred in Rome. Mark was martyred in Alexandria a couple of years later. Peter was buried a few hundred yards from where he was executed. Mark's bones were taken to Venice.
Well....I guess you have to read a little further to find out that this is excerpted from a speech given by David Dangoor.....thus no footnotes....plenty of sources throughout the web site, though. here's one.... The Jews of Iraq
But on the other hand we "do" know that the Talmud was developed in Des Moines not Babylonia, don't we? And it was developed during the current era....C.E. or A.D. if you prefer. Iowa has always been famous for it's Hebrew Academies.
This was only a few posts back. You may have forgotten to remember it:
[Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XI, Chapter V, Paragraph 2]"When Esdras had received this epistle, he was very joyful, and began to worship God, and confessed that he had been the cause of the king's great favor to him, and that for the same reason he gave all the thanks to God. So he read the epistle at Babylon to those Jews that were there; but he kept the epistle itself, and sent a copy of it to all those of his own nation that were in Media. And when these Jews had understood what piety the king had towards God, and what kindness he had for Esdras, they were all greatly pleased; nay, many of them took their effects with them, and came to Babylon, as very desirous of going down to Jerusalem; but then the entire body of the people of Israel remained in that country; wherefore there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers."
Do you have a first century historical source that says different than Josephus. How about Tacitus? or doesn't he want to sully his reputation for the sake of such a preposterous denial of the facts of history just to keep that Roman Catholic myth of Peter from crashing to earth.
Catholic scholar Richard P. McBrien's: Lives of the Popes records:
"[T]here is no evidence that before his death Peter actually served the Church of Rome as its first bishop, even though the 'fact' is usually taken for granted by a wide spectrum of Catholics and others"[p 29].
Perhaps he has some footnotes and sources that can help you.