At the start of the fourth millennium BC, at the edge of historical time, civilization first arrived with the advent of cities and the invention of writing that began to replace legend with history. This occurred on the floodplains of southern Iraq where the great rivers Tigris and Euphrates meet the Persian Gulf. By 3000 BC, a city called Uruk (from which “Iraq” is derived) had 80,000 residents. Indeed, as Bartle Bull reveals in his magisterial history, “if one divides the 5,000 years of human civilization into ten periods of five centuries each, during the first nine of these the world’s leading city was in one of the three regions of current day Iraq”—or to use its Greek name, Mesopotamia.

Inspired by extensive reporting from the region to spend a decade delving deep into its history, Bull chronicles the story of Iraq from the exploits of Gilgamesh (almost certainly an historical figure) to the fall of the Iraqi monarchy in 1958 that ushered in its familiar modern era. The land between the rivers has been the melting pot and battleground of countless outsiders, from the Akkadians of Hammurabi and the Greeks of Alexander to the Ottomans of Suleiman the Magnificent. Here, by the waters of Babylon, Judaism was born and the Sunni-Shia schism took its bloody shape.

Central themes play out over the millennia: humanity’s need for freedom versus the co-eternal urge of tyranny; the ever-present conflict and cross-fertilization of East and West with Iraq so often the hinge. We tend to view today’s tensions in the Middle East through the prism of the last hundred years since the Treaty of Versailles imposed a controversial realignment of its borders. Bartle Bull’s remarkable, sweeping achievement reminds us that the region defined by the land between the rivers has for five millennia played a uniquely central role on the global stage.

Praise for Land Between the Rivers:

“A sweeping and superbly written epic . . . Bull highlights the human, and humanist, threads in the political tapestry.”—Dominic Green, Wall Street Journal

“Inspired by firsthand experience of the region . . . Conceptual originality and laudable ambition.”—Marc Van de Mieroop, New York Times Book Review

“A sweeping history of the cradle of civilization between the Tigris and the Euphrates, underscoring the region’s unique gifts to humanity. As a journalist and longtime observer of the region rather than a historian, Bull conveys the excitement of uncovering new intellectual treasures for the reader as he moves from the first Sumerian civilization to the archaeological discoveries at Nineveh in the 1840s . . . Engaging research and bottomless detail by an avid observer and student of the region.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Succeeds in weaving this daunting welter of material into a work that is not just clear and coherent, but also enthralling and thought-provoking . . . [Bull] makes excellent use of the journalist’s skill of picking out a telling personal story to illustrate the wider picture . . . [A] masterly work of compression . . . Bull’s enjoyable book encourages us to think more about a place that has made profound contributions to humanity and retains a geopolitical and cultural significance that we neglect at our peril.”—Literary Review (UK)

“A comprehensive history of the region . . . A nice sense of forward movement, compelling the reader to keep turning pages . . . Bull just wants you to think about Iraqi history and the Muslim world, and how we got to where we are today. And he does a bang-up job of it.”—Douglas J. Johnston, Winnipeg Free Press

“A work of great ambition that sets out five millennia of the history of one of the great cradles of global civilisations. Bartle Bull has done a fantastic job to explain how the land between the rivers had shaped local, regional and global affairs—and used his deep knowledge of contemporary Iraq to produce an account that is informed, filled with insights and a cracking read too.”—Peter Frankopan, bestselling author of The Silk Roads and The Earth Transformed

“Elegant, erudite, ambitious, inventive—a remarkable blend of research, imagination and first-hand experience.”—Rory Stewart, author of The Places in Between

“Dazzling erudition and narrative flair come together in this superb history of Iraq. Bartle Bull has traveled the length and breadth of the country, he has toiled away in libraries and archives, and the result is a grand, sweeping book, full of insight and brimming with all the agonies and ecstasies which have befallen the cradle of civilization during its tumultuous 5,000-year story. Land Between the Rivers is essential reading and a magnificent achievement.”—Justin Marozzi, author of Islamic Empires: The Cities That Shaped Civilization

“Iraq’s history is that of much of human civilization and to do it justice in a single volume requires a combination of learning, discernment and flair that few possess. Bartle Bull is one of the few. Panoptic, fearless and beautifully written, Land Between the Rivers is a stunning achievement.”—Christopher de Bellaigue, author of The Lion House and The Islamic Enlightenment