Iraq · A History by Robertson, John -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Foreword Introduction • The Glory and the Curse of Iraq’s Past 1 • Places, Peoples, Potentials

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

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

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

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” Image Section Notes Bibliography