From Mesopotamia to Iraq: A Concise History

190 Pages·2009·2.08 MB·English

by  Hans J. Nissen

From Mesopotamia to Iraq

From Mesopotamia to Iraq
A Concise History
Hans J. Nissen and Peter Heine
Translated by Hans J. Nissen
The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London
Hans J. Nissen is professor of ancient Near Eastern
archaeology at the Free University of Berlin.
Peter Heine is professor of Near Eastern studies at
Humboldt University in Berlin.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2009 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2009
Printed in the United States of America
Originally published as Von Mesopotamien zum Irak:
Kleine Geschichte eines alten Landes, by Hans J.
Nissen and Peter Heine © 2003 Verlag Klaus Wagen-
bach, Berlin.
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-58663-2 (cloth)
ISBN-10: 0-226-58663-4 (cloth)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-58664-9 (paper)
ISBN-10: 0-226-58664-2 (paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nissen, Hans J.
[Von Mesopotamien zum Irak. English]
From Mesopotamia to Iraq : a concise history /
Hans J. Nissen and Peter Heine; translated by
Hans J. Nissen.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-58663-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-58664-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-226-58663-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-226-58664-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Iraq—History—To 634. 2. Iraq—
Civilization—To 634. I. Heine, Peter. II. Title.
DS71.N5713 2009
956.7—dc22
2008051323
The paper used in this publication meets the mini-
mum requirements of the American National Standard
for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Contents
Preface vii
1 Landscape, Climate, Population 1
2 The Beginnings of Sedentary Life
(Ca. 10,000–4000 bce) 7
3 The First Urban Society and the Use of Writing
(Ca. 4000–3200 bce) 21
4 City-States and the Way toward the Central State
(Ca. 3200–2350 bce) 42
5 The First Central States
(Ca. 2350–1595 bce) 59
6 Babylonia as Part of the Near Eastern Community of States
(1595–1200 bce) 77
7 The Empires of the Assyrians and the Babylonians
(1200–539 bce) 90
8 The Achaemenid Empire
(539–331 bce) 107
9 Alexander and the Seleucids in Babylonia
(331–141 bce) 114
10 The Empires of the Parthians and the Sasanians
(141 bce to 642 ce) 120
11 The Islamic Conquest
(622–1258) 134
12 Iraq as Part of the Ottoman Empire
(1258–1918) 144
13 Iraq under the Monarchy
(1921–1958) 151
14 The Republic of Iraq
(1958–2008) 155
Chronology, 1600 bce to 1900 ce 165
Selected Bibliography 171
Illustration Credits 175
Index 177
Preface
In April 2003, the world watched in horror as part of Iraq’s cul-
tural heritage disintegrated among the rubble of Saddam Hus-
sein’s regime. Looters descended on the Iraq National Museum
in Baghdad, Arabic manuscripts disappeared from the National
Library, and countless Iraqi government records were destroyed.
For those to whom Iraq meant only terror, weapons of mass de-
struction, or oil, several thousand years of history between the
Tigris and the Euphrates opened into view. Basic techniques and
concepts of civilization, without which human society would not
have attained its present level, had their origin there. A writing sys-
tem, the prerequisite of modern and premodern societies, was part
of the human knowledge that spread from Mesopotamia, as were
bureaucratic techniques such as archiving, still basic to any mod-
ern administration, or early forms of monotheism. Such “fi rsts”
will be highlighted in the following pages. But the uniqueness of
the ancient Mesopotamian culture rests not only on countless in-
novations of this kind but, to an even greater degree, on the fact
that we can follow its gradual development and its absorption into
the cultural canon over a period of ten thousand years, almost
without major gaps.
The recent catastrophe has therefore affected not only a city or a
nation but the whole world, irrespective of the way various societ-
ies have developed historically. An important part of the cultural
memory and heritage of humankind was lost during the invasion
of Iraq, even though a number of antiquities have been recovered
which were thought to be lost forever. The failure to guard these
vii
treasures remains a disgrace not only for the invaders but even for
those who despised Saddam’s political and societal system.
The general shock following the looting and destruction of
the art and documents from Ur and Nineveh, from Babylon and
Ctesiphon, indicates that many people attach greater signifi cance
to Mesopotamia than to other countries in the Middle East, even
those with histories as long as Mesopotamia’s. This is the more
remarkable because scholarly interest has focused less on modern
Iraq than on countries like Egypt or Lebanon. That the political
and military events in Iraq have drawn such attention suggests that
they touch deep layers of cultural identity. The disapproval of a
preemptive strike against Iraq voiced throughout Europe resulted
less from timidity in dealing with confl icts than from a profound
awareness of Iraq as a part of the ancient world where some of
the basic rules of human coexistence had been formulated for the
fi rst time.
In hardly any other continuously inhabited part of the globe
can we trace developments in politics, economy, and culture over
such an extended time. Both the geographical position of Iraq and
its oil have created confl icting interests among foreign powers. In
this context we seek to highlight the historical facts that made Iraq
and our world what they are today.
viii Preface
1 Landscape, Climate, Population
The name “Mesopotamia” (from the Greek, “between the rivers”)
was coined by the Romans for the area between the Euphrates
and the Tigris, which for some centuries was Rome’s easternmost
province. Though the area then included part of today’s Syria,
“Mesopotamia” now is widely used to denote the territory of Iraq
within its modern confi nes. The vast plains formed partly by the
alluvial fi ll of the rift valley separating the African and the Eurasian
tectonic sheets characterize the landscape. Mesopotamia includes
the western foothills of the huge range of the Zagros Mountains,
pushed up by those sheets. The Tigris follows an almost straight
course through the original valley, while the Euphrates, having
originated in almost the same area as the Tigris, joins this valley
only after a wide loop through modern Syria. Ultimately the two
rivers fl ow jointly into the Persian Gulf, the lower part of the val-
ley. For millennia, the sediments carried by the rivers gradually
fi lled the valley, forming a vast alluvial plain. We assume that this
process ended about ten thousand years ago, though minor changes
may have occurred later.
The fi lling occurred at irregular intervals: during relatively
warm periods, abundant precipitation in the source areas caused
the rivers to carry more water and consequently more debris and
sediment than during cooler phases. These major or minor changes,
however many there were, occurred in times when nonsedentary
humans were hardly affected. A shift to a slightly cooler climate
in the course of the fourth millennium bce, however, had a major
impact on subsequent development. Around 2000 bce, the climate
1