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Land Between the Rivers

A 5000-Year History of Iraq

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Land Between the Rivers

By: Bartle Bull
Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
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Land Between the Rivers is the result of ten years of research, writing, and thinking about the subject. It is an enormous topic: five thousand years, beginning with Gilgamesh at the edge of historical time. It is a big topic in another way. More than anywhere else, the famous Land Between the Rivers, where civilization was born, where East and West have mixed and clashed since long before Alexander, has led an existence that could be called, from a certain perspective, a history of the world.

We begin the story with ancient Sumer, and Gilgamesh building the walls of Uruk ('Iraq') to make a great name for himself around the turn of the third millennium BC. We end it in 1958, as the last royal family of Iraq is slaughtered on the steps of a small royal palace in Baghdad, the most effervescent, free, and promising capital in the Middle East.

Above all, the story of Iraq, the world's hinge country, is that of the great clash pitting humanism against the outlooks of power and fate.©2024 Bartle Bull (P)2024 W.F. Howes Ltd Ancient Middle East Middle Ages Royalty Iran Imperialism Africa Ancient History Ancient Greece
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Iraq’s history told in a captivating and loving manner, including great explanations of how the Iraqi society was formed over centuries.

Tale of Iraq

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This is entertaining and interesting, if a little bit biased. His interpretation of Muhammad's life is quite selective and says some controversial and debated elements like they are fact, I feel he is more sympathetic to Shia Islam than Sunni, which i think he could have maybe made more clear.
The main criticism though is that from a third of the way through its not really a history of Iraq, it becomes a history of the people who invaded Iraq, so you hear more about Constantinople and Mecca than you do Baghdad at points.

Good book- but not really about Iraq

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