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

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