Description

‘Elegant, erudite, ambitious, inventive – a remarkable blend of research, imagination and first-hand experience.’ Rory Stewart

‘A work of great ambition… an account that is informed, filled with insights and a cracking read too.’ Peter Frankopan

Iraq is where civilisation was born, where East and West have mixed and clashed since long before Alexander, and it was here by the waters of Babylon where Judaism was born and the Sunni-Shia schism took its bloody shape. Inspired by extensive reporting from the region and a decade delving deep into its history, Land Between the Rivers chronicles Iraq’s uniquely central role on the global stage throughout the past five millennia.

We begin the story with ancient Sumer and Gilgamesh building the walls of Uruk (‘Iraq’) to make a great name for himself at the edge of historical time. We end it in 1958, as the last royal family of Iraq is slaughtered on the steps of a small palace in Baghdad, the most effervescent, free and promising capital in the Middle East.

Bartle Bull’s remarkable, sweeping achievement reminds us that the region defined by the land between the rivers
has, throughout history, played host to the contest pitting humanism against the machinations of power and fate.

Publisher Review

Elegant, erudite, ambitious, inventive – a remarkable blend of research, imagination and first-hand experience. * Rory Stewart * Dazzling erudition and narrative flair come together in this superb history of Iraq. Bartle Bull has travelled 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’ * Justin Marozzi, author of Islamic Empires * 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’ * Christopher de Bellaigue, author of The Lion House and The Islamic Enlightenment * Bull conveys the excitement of uncovering new intellectual treasures for the reader… Engaging research and bottomless detail by an avid observer and student of the region. * Kirkus *