Hannibal
03-20-2003, 11:09 PM
Iraq was the epicenter of modern civilization not once but twice. It’s rich in history and culture and it’s also the birthplace of one my personal hero’s. :)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A history of Iraq, the cradle of Western civilization
Eric Black, Star Tribune
Published February 2, 2003
Iraq, which gave the world Saddam Hussein, is also the birthplace of writing, the plow and the first great code of law. It's also the birthplace of Abraham, father of the Jews and the Arabs.
In earlier epochs, the territory now called Iraq was the center of the greatest powers of the day. At other times it was conquered by Alexander the Great, ravaged by the Mongols and dominated by empires based in Persia, Turkey and Britain.
Follow that history to the present, and you find Iraq at the epicenter of world attention, this time as the likely target of an attack by the greatest power of the early 21st century. Trace the history back about 12,000 years and you find two great rivers -- the Tigris and Euphrates -- meeting at the cradle of Western civilization.
The Fertile Crescent between those rivers provided the ample water, rich land and favorable climate that made possible major breakthroughs in early human history. Of the many names by which the territory has been known, the most common is Mesopotamia, a Greek term that means the land between the rivers.
Agriculture may have started there. The earliest evidence of animal and plant domestication has been found in and around northern Iraq, from more than 10,000 years ago.
Five thousand years ago, territory now in southern Iraq was the home of the Sumerian civilization, which contributed such breakthroughs as the wheel, the plow and writing.
Other ancient civilizations were based in Iraqi territory, such as the Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian empires. Babylon was about 50 miles south of where Baghdad now stands. Hammurabi, the famous Babylonian king who ruled in the late 18th century B.C., promulgated the most highly developed legal code that survives from early history. It was, for example, the first known legal code that took into account whether a crime had been committed deliberately or accidentally.
An Iraqi soldier in World War II.
Nebuchadnezzar, a later Babylonian king and builder of the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon, attacked Jerusalem to put down a rebellion, destroyed the temple King Solomon had built there (587 B.C.), and dragged much of the Jewish population back to Babylon, (the episode known as the Babylonian Captivity), where a number of Bible stories are set. For example Daniel, of lion's den fame, got his start as a soothsayer by interpreting Nebuchadnezzar's dreams, according to the Bible.
Many Bible stories -- starting with Adam and Eve -- are set in and around Mesopotamia, either literally or according to tradition. The Bible says that the patriarch Abraham came from Ur, a great city of ancient Mesopotamia. The story of the Tower of Babel is set in Babylonia. And Nineveh, the metropolis to which God sent Jonah to warn the people to change their wicked ways, was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, near the northern Iraq city of Mosul.
But after the Nebuchadnezzar period, Mesopotamia's centuries as a center of empires were mostly over, and the territory instead became one over which other great empires fought. Cyrus the Great, creator of the ancient Persian Empire, conquered Mesopotamia in the mid-6th century B.C.
Alexander the Great took it from the Persians during his brief but action-packed life, made his capital in Babylon, and died there of a sudden illness in 323 B.C. Mesopotamia fell back under Persian domination in the next several centuries.
The Iraqi population, mostly Persian-speaking Christians during that period, became mostly Arab-speaking Muslims after Islamic warriors took control of the territory in the 7th century A.D., just after the death of the Prophet Mohammed.
Iraq has been a mostly Arab-Muslim nation ever since. Iraq is an Arabic word that appears in the Qu'ran and has been a geographical term for the general area throughout the Muslim era.
The territory also played an important role in the schism between Sunnism and Shiism, the two major Muslim sects, which arose in the 650s between backers of two rivals claiming to be the fourth caliph, the title taken by Mohammed's successors. Shiites evolved from those who backed the claim of Mohammed's cousin and son-in-law, Imam Ali. Ali had his base in Basra, and the first big battle in the intra-Muslim war, known as the Battle of the Camel, was fought on Iraqi territory.
1001 Arabian Nights
Baghdad, the capital of modern Iraq, was a small village until 762, when the rulers of the Abbasid Caliphate built their capital there. It soon became the center of the Muslim world and one of the world's greatest cities.
The early 9th century was a golden age for Muslim culture, and Baghdad was its center. The tales of the 1001 Arabian Nights, featuring Aladdin, Ali Baba and Sinbad the Sailor, are set in this period's thriving Baghdad. The classic texts of ancient Greece are alive today because Iraq-based scholars translated them into Arabic during this flowering of arts, science and medicine.
Saladin, the 12th-century Muslim leader of legendary chivalry who defeated the Crusaders, was a Kurd, born in Tikrit -- very near where Saddam Hussein was born.
Baghdad remained an important Islamic capital for centuries until the next campaign of conquest swept through the region. Hülagü, a grandson of Genghis Khan, led a Mongol army that utterly destroyed Baghdad in 1258. Hülagü made a pyramid of the skulls of Baghdad's scholars, religious leaders and poets, and destroyed Iraq's highly developed canal system.
This incident provided the background for a recent tirade by Saddam. On Jan. 17, pledging to repel any U.S. invasion, Saddam warned that "the people of Baghdad have resolved to compel the Mongols of this age to commit suicide on its walls." Referring to President Bush as "the Hülagü of this age," he called on Iraqis to "tell him in a clear, loud voice, 'Oh, evil, cease your evil doings against the mother of civilization.' "
In 1401, another Mongol warrior, Tamerlane, sacked Baghdad, massacred thousands of Iraqis and devastated hundreds of towns.
Iraq has never regained the global importance it achieved between the time of Sumer and the Mongol destruction.
Historian Eva von Dassow, who teaches about ancient civilization at the University of Minnesota, said that "regardless of what Americans nowadays think of Iraq now, it indisputably has a long and impressive cultural history and has made enormous contributions to the world. It is valid to call the ancient Near East, including Mesopotamia and Egypt, the cradle of the civilization that became Western."
British rule
In the centuries after the Mongol disaster, Iraq served mostly as a buffer or battleground between the great empires based in Turkey and Persia. During most of the period from 1538 to 1914, Iraq was dominated by the Ottoman Turks, who divided what is now Iraq into three provinces.
During World War I, the tottering Ottoman Empire finally fell apart, and the British took control of Iraq. This was a source of substantial bitterness, since the British had encouraged Arabs during the war to believe that they would have independence.
Instead, Iraq got the status, under the League of Nations, of a "mandate" territory, which meant it would be under British supervision while preparing for full independence. The Iraqi population was enraged, and a major rebellion broke out in 1920, which was put down by British aerial bombardment. It was the first use of bombardment from airplanes in such an operation.
Resentment over British imperialism continued for four decades, and that tradition of resenting outside powers almost certainly feeds anti-American attitudes today.
The boundaries of modern Iraq were settled by British officials, including Winston Churchill, who combined three Ottoman districts, the northern mostly Kurdish district administered from Mosul; the middle mostly Sunni Arab district, which contained Baghdad; and the southern mostly Shiite district, whose major city was Basra.
In Arab nationalist thinking, these decisions reflected the British desire to create an inherently unstable nation, lacking historical legitimacy and forcing three antagonistic groups to live together, so the country would never be strong and unified and would be more easily controlled by outsiders.
When the British drew Iraq's boundaries, they lopped off Kuwait, even though it had been part of the Basra district during Ottoman times. This map-drawing was at the core of Saddam's argument that by invading Kuwait, he was only recapturing Iraq's lost 13th province.
Historian Renee Worringer, who teaches Mideast history at the University of Minnesota, said many Americans seem unaware of the degree to which Iraqi attitudes toward the United States are shaped by their previous experience with Western imperialism.
"The perception is that the modern boundaries of Iraq were created by outsiders, who ignored historic divisions within the country between Sunni, Shia and Kurd, because they were guided by their own interests. In the case of the British, their interests were to control the oil, and to have a land route to India. . . .
"People tend to forget the profoundness of the anti-imperial sentiment created by this period. It still exists and it has an effect on views of the U.S. today, especially after 10 years of sanctions that have starved and frustrated people. It has reminded Iraqis that there is still an imperial power out there trying to control us and to exploit our oil wealth. If I was Iraqi, given the experience they've had with outside powers . . . I would assume the oil is the main motive for the Americans now."
The period of British rule brought an outsider to the Iraqi throne. The Mecca-based Hashemite clan had been the main British ally during World War I and believed the Brits had promised to help them become the royal family of a post-war independent pan-Arab nation. Instead, the Brits paid them back piecemeal. One Hashemite prince, Abdullah, was placed on the throne of the newly created nation of Transjordan (now Jordan).
Another Hashemite prince, Faisal, was briefly king of post-war Syria, but Syria was controlled by the French, who ousted Faisal. The Brits then slipped him in as ruler of newly created Iraq in 1921. The Brits carefully staged a plebiscite, in which 96 percent of Iraqis voted to accept Faisal as king. The ballot, foreshadowing Saddam's later electoral style, offered voters only one name.
In 1932, under an agreement with Britain, Iraq gained the status of an independent nation, although it remained under British influence.
King Faisal died in 1933, while undergoing medical treatment in Switzerland. His son Ghazi, the new king, was only 21, Western-educated and lacking background in Iraqi tribal politics. In 1936, Iraq underwent the first of many military coups (they didn't overthrow the king, but rather the civilian government). Ghazi died in a 1939 car crash and was succeeded by his infant son, Faisal II.
Saddam Hussein, by the way, was born under King Ghazi on April 28, 1937, in the village of Ouija outside Tikrit. His father died (according to some accounts) or abandoned the family about the time Saddam was born. He was raised by his mother and at times by a physically abusive stepfather and his uncles. The family was not well off.
Over the next decades, the monarchy declined in power and Iraq was riven by conflict fueled by pan-Arabism, anti-imperialism and other trends. The British reinvaded and occupied Iraq during World War II to keep it from falling under German influence.
The monarchy was overthrown in 1958 by a pan-Arabist faction that executed Faisal II and ended British domination of Iraq. Iraq has called itself a republic ever since, although it lacks the democratic trappings that Westerners associate with that term.
Click Here for more (http://www.startribune.com/stories/1762/3626448.html)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A history of Iraq, the cradle of Western civilization
Eric Black, Star Tribune
Published February 2, 2003
Iraq, which gave the world Saddam Hussein, is also the birthplace of writing, the plow and the first great code of law. It's also the birthplace of Abraham, father of the Jews and the Arabs.
In earlier epochs, the territory now called Iraq was the center of the greatest powers of the day. At other times it was conquered by Alexander the Great, ravaged by the Mongols and dominated by empires based in Persia, Turkey and Britain.
Follow that history to the present, and you find Iraq at the epicenter of world attention, this time as the likely target of an attack by the greatest power of the early 21st century. Trace the history back about 12,000 years and you find two great rivers -- the Tigris and Euphrates -- meeting at the cradle of Western civilization.
The Fertile Crescent between those rivers provided the ample water, rich land and favorable climate that made possible major breakthroughs in early human history. Of the many names by which the territory has been known, the most common is Mesopotamia, a Greek term that means the land between the rivers.
Agriculture may have started there. The earliest evidence of animal and plant domestication has been found in and around northern Iraq, from more than 10,000 years ago.
Five thousand years ago, territory now in southern Iraq was the home of the Sumerian civilization, which contributed such breakthroughs as the wheel, the plow and writing.
Other ancient civilizations were based in Iraqi territory, such as the Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian empires. Babylon was about 50 miles south of where Baghdad now stands. Hammurabi, the famous Babylonian king who ruled in the late 18th century B.C., promulgated the most highly developed legal code that survives from early history. It was, for example, the first known legal code that took into account whether a crime had been committed deliberately or accidentally.
An Iraqi soldier in World War II.
Nebuchadnezzar, a later Babylonian king and builder of the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon, attacked Jerusalem to put down a rebellion, destroyed the temple King Solomon had built there (587 B.C.), and dragged much of the Jewish population back to Babylon, (the episode known as the Babylonian Captivity), where a number of Bible stories are set. For example Daniel, of lion's den fame, got his start as a soothsayer by interpreting Nebuchadnezzar's dreams, according to the Bible.
Many Bible stories -- starting with Adam and Eve -- are set in and around Mesopotamia, either literally or according to tradition. The Bible says that the patriarch Abraham came from Ur, a great city of ancient Mesopotamia. The story of the Tower of Babel is set in Babylonia. And Nineveh, the metropolis to which God sent Jonah to warn the people to change their wicked ways, was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, near the northern Iraq city of Mosul.
But after the Nebuchadnezzar period, Mesopotamia's centuries as a center of empires were mostly over, and the territory instead became one over which other great empires fought. Cyrus the Great, creator of the ancient Persian Empire, conquered Mesopotamia in the mid-6th century B.C.
Alexander the Great took it from the Persians during his brief but action-packed life, made his capital in Babylon, and died there of a sudden illness in 323 B.C. Mesopotamia fell back under Persian domination in the next several centuries.
The Iraqi population, mostly Persian-speaking Christians during that period, became mostly Arab-speaking Muslims after Islamic warriors took control of the territory in the 7th century A.D., just after the death of the Prophet Mohammed.
Iraq has been a mostly Arab-Muslim nation ever since. Iraq is an Arabic word that appears in the Qu'ran and has been a geographical term for the general area throughout the Muslim era.
The territory also played an important role in the schism between Sunnism and Shiism, the two major Muslim sects, which arose in the 650s between backers of two rivals claiming to be the fourth caliph, the title taken by Mohammed's successors. Shiites evolved from those who backed the claim of Mohammed's cousin and son-in-law, Imam Ali. Ali had his base in Basra, and the first big battle in the intra-Muslim war, known as the Battle of the Camel, was fought on Iraqi territory.
1001 Arabian Nights
Baghdad, the capital of modern Iraq, was a small village until 762, when the rulers of the Abbasid Caliphate built their capital there. It soon became the center of the Muslim world and one of the world's greatest cities.
The early 9th century was a golden age for Muslim culture, and Baghdad was its center. The tales of the 1001 Arabian Nights, featuring Aladdin, Ali Baba and Sinbad the Sailor, are set in this period's thriving Baghdad. The classic texts of ancient Greece are alive today because Iraq-based scholars translated them into Arabic during this flowering of arts, science and medicine.
Saladin, the 12th-century Muslim leader of legendary chivalry who defeated the Crusaders, was a Kurd, born in Tikrit -- very near where Saddam Hussein was born.
Baghdad remained an important Islamic capital for centuries until the next campaign of conquest swept through the region. Hülagü, a grandson of Genghis Khan, led a Mongol army that utterly destroyed Baghdad in 1258. Hülagü made a pyramid of the skulls of Baghdad's scholars, religious leaders and poets, and destroyed Iraq's highly developed canal system.
This incident provided the background for a recent tirade by Saddam. On Jan. 17, pledging to repel any U.S. invasion, Saddam warned that "the people of Baghdad have resolved to compel the Mongols of this age to commit suicide on its walls." Referring to President Bush as "the Hülagü of this age," he called on Iraqis to "tell him in a clear, loud voice, 'Oh, evil, cease your evil doings against the mother of civilization.' "
In 1401, another Mongol warrior, Tamerlane, sacked Baghdad, massacred thousands of Iraqis and devastated hundreds of towns.
Iraq has never regained the global importance it achieved between the time of Sumer and the Mongol destruction.
Historian Eva von Dassow, who teaches about ancient civilization at the University of Minnesota, said that "regardless of what Americans nowadays think of Iraq now, it indisputably has a long and impressive cultural history and has made enormous contributions to the world. It is valid to call the ancient Near East, including Mesopotamia and Egypt, the cradle of the civilization that became Western."
British rule
In the centuries after the Mongol disaster, Iraq served mostly as a buffer or battleground between the great empires based in Turkey and Persia. During most of the period from 1538 to 1914, Iraq was dominated by the Ottoman Turks, who divided what is now Iraq into three provinces.
During World War I, the tottering Ottoman Empire finally fell apart, and the British took control of Iraq. This was a source of substantial bitterness, since the British had encouraged Arabs during the war to believe that they would have independence.
Instead, Iraq got the status, under the League of Nations, of a "mandate" territory, which meant it would be under British supervision while preparing for full independence. The Iraqi population was enraged, and a major rebellion broke out in 1920, which was put down by British aerial bombardment. It was the first use of bombardment from airplanes in such an operation.
Resentment over British imperialism continued for four decades, and that tradition of resenting outside powers almost certainly feeds anti-American attitudes today.
The boundaries of modern Iraq were settled by British officials, including Winston Churchill, who combined three Ottoman districts, the northern mostly Kurdish district administered from Mosul; the middle mostly Sunni Arab district, which contained Baghdad; and the southern mostly Shiite district, whose major city was Basra.
In Arab nationalist thinking, these decisions reflected the British desire to create an inherently unstable nation, lacking historical legitimacy and forcing three antagonistic groups to live together, so the country would never be strong and unified and would be more easily controlled by outsiders.
When the British drew Iraq's boundaries, they lopped off Kuwait, even though it had been part of the Basra district during Ottoman times. This map-drawing was at the core of Saddam's argument that by invading Kuwait, he was only recapturing Iraq's lost 13th province.
Historian Renee Worringer, who teaches Mideast history at the University of Minnesota, said many Americans seem unaware of the degree to which Iraqi attitudes toward the United States are shaped by their previous experience with Western imperialism.
"The perception is that the modern boundaries of Iraq were created by outsiders, who ignored historic divisions within the country between Sunni, Shia and Kurd, because they were guided by their own interests. In the case of the British, their interests were to control the oil, and to have a land route to India. . . .
"People tend to forget the profoundness of the anti-imperial sentiment created by this period. It still exists and it has an effect on views of the U.S. today, especially after 10 years of sanctions that have starved and frustrated people. It has reminded Iraqis that there is still an imperial power out there trying to control us and to exploit our oil wealth. If I was Iraqi, given the experience they've had with outside powers . . . I would assume the oil is the main motive for the Americans now."
The period of British rule brought an outsider to the Iraqi throne. The Mecca-based Hashemite clan had been the main British ally during World War I and believed the Brits had promised to help them become the royal family of a post-war independent pan-Arab nation. Instead, the Brits paid them back piecemeal. One Hashemite prince, Abdullah, was placed on the throne of the newly created nation of Transjordan (now Jordan).
Another Hashemite prince, Faisal, was briefly king of post-war Syria, but Syria was controlled by the French, who ousted Faisal. The Brits then slipped him in as ruler of newly created Iraq in 1921. The Brits carefully staged a plebiscite, in which 96 percent of Iraqis voted to accept Faisal as king. The ballot, foreshadowing Saddam's later electoral style, offered voters only one name.
In 1932, under an agreement with Britain, Iraq gained the status of an independent nation, although it remained under British influence.
King Faisal died in 1933, while undergoing medical treatment in Switzerland. His son Ghazi, the new king, was only 21, Western-educated and lacking background in Iraqi tribal politics. In 1936, Iraq underwent the first of many military coups (they didn't overthrow the king, but rather the civilian government). Ghazi died in a 1939 car crash and was succeeded by his infant son, Faisal II.
Saddam Hussein, by the way, was born under King Ghazi on April 28, 1937, in the village of Ouija outside Tikrit. His father died (according to some accounts) or abandoned the family about the time Saddam was born. He was raised by his mother and at times by a physically abusive stepfather and his uncles. The family was not well off.
Over the next decades, the monarchy declined in power and Iraq was riven by conflict fueled by pan-Arabism, anti-imperialism and other trends. The British reinvaded and occupied Iraq during World War II to keep it from falling under German influence.
The monarchy was overthrown in 1958 by a pan-Arabist faction that executed Faisal II and ended British domination of Iraq. Iraq has called itself a republic ever since, although it lacks the democratic trappings that Westerners associate with that term.
Click Here for more (http://www.startribune.com/stories/1762/3626448.html)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------