John Robertson

Iraq (eBook, ePUB)

A History

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

Cities, scripts, literature, the rule of law all were born in Iraq. That so many see this ancient land as nothing more than a violent backwater steeped in chaos is a travesty. This is the place where, for the first 5,000 years of human history, all innovations of worth emerged. It was the cradle of civilization.

In this unrivalled study, John Robertson details the greatness and grandeur of Iraq's achievements, the brutality and magnificence of its ancient empires and its extraordinary contributions to the world. The only work in the English language to explore the history of the land of two rivers in its entirety, it takes readers from the seminal advances of its Neolithic inhabitants to the aftermath of the American and British-led invasion, the rise of Islamic State and Iraq today. A fascinating and thought-provoking analysis, it is sure to be greatly appreciated by historians, students and all those with an interest in this diverse and enigmatic country.

This paperback edition features a new epilogue, bringing the work up to date and looking ahead to Iraq's future.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Simon + Schuster LLC
• Seitenzahl: 400
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. September 2016
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781786070258
• Artikelnr.: 48039377

Autorenporträt

John F. Robertson is Professor of Ancient and Middle Eastern Studies at the Central Michigan University.

Inhaltsangabe

Foreword
Introduction: The Glory and the Curse of Iraq’s Past
1 Places, Peoples, Potentials: the Enduring Foundations of Life in Iraq
The “Land Between the Rivers”
Distribution of Raw Materials and Natural Resources
Iraq’s Accessibility and Vulnerability to External Forces
The Peoples and Social Patterns of Iraq
2 Cradle of Civilization
“History Begins at Sumer”
The First Cities and the Invention of Writing
The Early Dynastic Period (Ca. 2900–2350 BCE)
The Akkad Period (Ca. 2350–2150 BCE)
The Ur III Period (Ca. 2100–2000 BCE)
The Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian Periods (Ca. 2000–1595 BCE)
The Kassite and Middle Assyrian Periods (1595 to Ca. 1000 BCE)
Transition to Empire, Ca. 1100–900 BCE
The Great “World Empires” (Ca. 900–539 BCE): The Neo-Assyrian and
Neo-Babylonian Periods
3 Cradle of Empires
The Rediscovery of “The Might That Was Assyria”
Assyria and the Bible: Creating a Bogeyman
Assyrian Zenith
Babylon: The Curse of an Ancient Image
“The Greatness That [Really] Was Babylon”
The Long Twilight of Iraq’s Ancient Imperial Era
4 Cradle of Religions, Crucible of Conflicts
Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia/Iraq
The Achaemenid Persians and the Religion of the Wise Lord
Alexander the Great and the Coming of Hellenism
Iraq under Parthian Rule: Religious Toleration and Vitality
From Palestine to Mesopotamia: Iraq as a Cradle of World Religions
Iraq under the Sassanids: Religious Mosaic and Holy War
Jews under the Sassanids
Christians under the Sassanids
“Gnostics” and the Apostle of Light
5 Iraq, Islam, and the Golden Age of the Arab Empire
Prelude to the Coming of Islam and the Arab Conquest of Iraq
Muhammad and the Origins of the Community of Islam
The Arab Muslim Conquest of Iraq: The Early Forging of Arab (Versus
Persian) Identity
Iraq and the Early Forging of Shi‘ite (Versus Sunni) Identity
Iraq under Umayyad Rule
The Abbasid Caliphate: Iraq as the Center of Islamic Civilization
Abbasid Decline: Iraq Drifts Away from Center Stage
6 Interlude: From Cradle to Backwater
Iraq under the Buyids, Seljuks, and Mongols
The Coming of the Seljuks and Turkish Authority
The Crusades and Saladin
The Mongol Invasion and Its Aftermath
Iraq in the Era of the “Gunpowder Empires”
European Inroads
The Seeds of Iraq’s Revival
7 The Creation and Zenith of Modern Iraq
Setting the Stage
World War I and Its Aftermath: The Hashemite Monarchy, the British, and Oil
Enter Oil
The Birth of Iraqi and Arab Nationalisms
The Nationalist Response to British Domination
Arab and Iraqi Nationalism, the Cold War, the Emergence of Israel, and the
Poisoned Blessing of Oil
The Republic: Competing Nationalisms, Resistance to the West, and New
Wealth
The Continuing Development and Impact of Iraqi and Arab Nationalism under
the Republic
Iraq’s Conquest of Its Oil under the Republic
8 The Long Descent
Republican Iraq and the Cold War Powers until 1980
Saddam’s Qadissiya: The Iran–Iraq War, 1980–88
The Crisis with Kuwait
Operation Desert Storm
1991–2003: The Scourge of Sanctions
The Anglo-American Invasion of Iraq
Epilogue: “Tell Me How This Ends”
Afterword
Notes
Bibliography
Index