Download A) Early Mesopotamian States

Chapter 3: Historical-Geographical Foundation
I) Persistence of Patterns
A) Heritage of Patterns (connecting past with present)
1. Religion
2. Infrastructure
3. Natural Resources
4. Strategic Features
5. Culture and Art
6. Conflict
II) Early Patterns
A. Primitive People and Pristine Environment
- Earliest humanoids in the Paleolithic
(1 million years ago / northern Saudi Arabia)
- Climatic changes leading to ecological adaptations
- Mesolithic (12,000 BCE)
B. Neolithic Revolution
- agricultural revolution (8,000 BCE)
- complex of cultural processes followed
A. Agriculture, Cities and Civilization
- food production, irrigation, trade
- important innovations (plow, wheel, writing, etc.)
- urban development
III) Historical-Political Evolution
A) Early Mesopotamian States
1. Sumerian Empire in 4th Millennium BCE
- major irrigation works
- city states: Eridu, Uruk, Ur, etc.
- excavated ruins well away from any river
-“Gilgamesh” was the fifth King of Uruk,
ruling about 2,700 BCE
Ur (Home of Abraham)
Uruk
Epic of Gilgamesh
One of the earliest known works of
literary writings
2. Akkadians (Semitic group from Arabian Peninsula)
overwhelmed Sumerians about 2,335 BCE
Image of an Akkadian ruler
3. Gutians (from Zagros Mountains) overran Akkadians
in 2,200 BCE
Modern-day Kurdish peoples
as descendants of the Gutians?
Gutian figure
4. Sumerians reemerge and reach peak around 2,000 BCE
- trade with Indus Valley!
Sumerian material artifacts
5. First Babylonian Empire emerged around 2,000 BCE
- created by another Semitic group (“Amorites”)
- power center in Babylon
- Hammurabi the Great (1792-1750 BCE)
- sexagesimal system (“60”), legal code, etc.
Hammurabi the Great
6. other noteworthy in Middle East after 1,700 BCE
- Indo-European Hittites 1,600 – 1,200 BCE
Historical site of Hattusas, Turkey
- Indo-European Kassites (1,530 – 1,170 BC)
Remains of a ziggurat near Agargoaf, Iraq, built during
the rule of King Kurigalzo II (1344-1324 BC).
B) Early Egypt
- evolving Mesopotamian culture of late Neolithic
spread to Nile Valley / importance of Nile
- development of distinct “Egyptian” culture
- writing borrowed and adjusted (“Hieroglyphs”)
- pharaoh as God-like leadership figure
- decline after 1,090 BCE
- Persian conquest in 525 BCE
- Greek conquest in 332 BCE
- Roman control in 30 BCE
Artifacts of the Egyptian culture
C) Mesopotamia to the Roman Conquest
-Assyrian Empire emerged about 1,350 BCE
- known for engineering, commerce, record keeping
- conquered biblical Kingdom of Israel in 8th century BCE
(1. Jewish diaspora)
- overwhelmed by Babylonians in 612 BCE
- Neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) Empire
- Babylonia reemerges, led by Chaldeans (Semitic)
- King Nebuchadnezzar (604-562 BCE)
- Hanging Gardens of Babylon
- Destruction of Jerusalem, other Judean cities
- Deportation of Judeans (Babylonian exile in 586 BCE as 2. Diaspora)
- Persian (Achaemenid) Empire
- neo-Babylonia fell to King Cyrus the Great 539 BCE
- Persians (Indo-Europeans) coming from Iranian Plateau
-Tigris-Euphrates Basin ruled by outsiders for next
2,500 years … until the 20th century CE!
- Persian Empire conquered by Alexander the Great
by 326 BCE
Persepolis
Cyrus the Great
- Empire of Alexander the Great
- Alexander leaves Macedonia only in 334 BCE, and
conquers Persian Empire 8 years later
- founded:
- Alexandria (Egypt)
- Iskenderun (Turkey)
-Qandahar (Afghanistan)
- Importance of Hellenistic ideas
- Antigonid Kingdom (“Macedonia”) fell to Rome in 168 BCE
- Seleucid Kingdom collapses with Rome’s advance and
by 64 BCE “Syria” became a Roman province
- Ptolemaic Kingdom ends with Cleopatra’s suicide in 30 BCE
- Other Semitic Kingdoms & Groups
Hebrews and the Unified Israeli Kingdom (1020 – 922 BCE)
- dividing into a northern Israel and
- southern Judea after death of Solomon
- Israel conquered by Assyrians in 722 BCE
- Judea feel to Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE
Canaanites-Phoenicians (1500 – 530 BCE)
- Mediterranean trade / Carthage (800 BCE) and the Phoenician Wars
of the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE
Aramaeans
- indigenous inland traders, conquered by Assyrians in 732 BCE
D) Roman and Successor Empires
-Roman Empire
- first power from outside the region
- failed to venture beyond Mesopotamia
- Roman ruins throughout the Middle East,
mainly along the Mediterranean coast
- As western Roman Empire declines (5th century CE),
Byzantine with its capital Constantinople thrives
- Becoming more “orientalized” and more Greek
- When Byzantine falls to Ottomans in 1453 CE,
it had survived 1,123 years (!)
The Byzantine Empire
Many of the areas added under Justinian will be lost within the next century:
- expansion of Islamic empire (North Africa, Levant, Iberia)
- arrival of Lombards and Franks in “Italy”
- thus Byzantine shrinks fairly quickly to today’s SE-Europe and Turkey
-Islamic Empires
-Arab (Semitic) intrusion into Mesopotamia and
Syria-Palestine in 633 CE
- creating much of today’s cultural patterns
- Prophet Muhammad as founder of Islam
and important unifying force
- Within a century after Muhammad’s death,
an Islamic Empire stretched from SW-Europe
to Central Asia
- Umayyad Empire in 661 CE, power shift to Damascus
- Abbasid Dynasty in 750 CE, power shift to Baghdad
- Harun al-Rashid (766-809 CE)
The Spread of Islam
-Seljuks, Crusaders & Mongols
- Islamized Seljuk Turks are from Central Asia
- moved into Iranian Plateau and
entered Baghdad in 1055 CE
- left Abbasid caliphs as figureheads
- defeated Byzantine near Lake Van in 1071 CE
- paved way for Ottomans
- Crusaders arrived in successive waves
- destruction of Holy Sepulcher in 1009 CE
- defeat of Byzantine at Manzikert in 1071 CE
- 1096, 1147, 1189, 1202, and 1228 CE
- established several Crusader Kingdoms
- after two centuries driven out by Muslims
- little impact on Middle East, but experience
stimulated European Renaissance
Al-Hakim (the “Mad Caliph”) destroys Church of Holy Sepulcher in 1009 CE
Pope Urban II initiates First Crusade (CE 1095-99)
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is rebuilt by 1048 CE
with the help of Byzantium by successors of Al-Hakim
The Crusaders and their Origin
- Mongols
- Although short-lived, 13th century invasion of
Mongols and Tatars made far-ranging territorial
conquests
- Ghenghis Khan’s grandson Hulagu ravaged
Mesopotamia
- Ottomans
- Like Seljuks, Ottomans were Turkish tribe from
Central Asia who had converted to the Islam
- Beginning in 14th century, steadily expanded
- Holdings remained constant from early 1600s to WWI
- Remarkable longevity like Byzantine
Persia
Parthian Empire
- despite Alexander the Great’s conquest, Iranian identity reasserted
itself in 248 BCE with the emerging Parthian Empire
Sassanian Empire
- Parthian Empire was overthrown by the Sassanians in 226 CE
- Sassanian Empire collapsed under the assault of Arab Muslims
in the 630s/640s
Other Persian Developments
- after Arab irruption and centuries of outside control,
Persian Safavids emerged in Iranian Plateau in 1500s
-with changes in dynasty, Persia steadily progressed
as monarchy until 1979:
Afshars (1736), Zands (1750), Qajars (1794),
Pahlavis (1925)
- Mossadegh, oil, and the CIA in 1953 (!)
- Islamic Republic of Iran since 1979 (!)
- Some Inferences:
1) Four major power foci in Middle East:
- Anatolian Plateau
- Iranian Plateau
- Tigris-Euphrates Basin (Mesopotamia)
- Nile Valley
2) Not one power has ever succeeded in
controlling the entire core of the Middle East
3) Arabian Peninsula has always maintained its
independence and has been source of migrants
4) political-geographical history of Middle East has to
great extent revolved around cyclic interactions of
powers in Asia Minor and Iranian Plateau
5) Since WWII, the emergence of Israel and the rise of
Middle East’s petroleum age have re-orchestrated
political, military, and economic interrelationships
The Temple Mount in Jerusalem
Déjà vu?
“Oh ye Egyptians, they may say to you that I have not
made an expedition hither for any other object than that
of abolishing your religion … but tell the slanderers
that I have not come to you except for the purpose of
restoring your rights from the hands of the oppressors.”
(Napoleon, Alexandria, 1798)
“Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as
conquerors or enemies, but as liberators ….
It is the hope and desire of the British people and the nations
in alliance with them that the Arab race may rise once more
To greatness and renown among the peoples of the earth.”
(General Maude (British Forces), Baghdad, 1917)
“Unlike many armies in the world, you came not to conquer,
not to occupy, but to liberate, and the Iraqi people know this.”
(Donald Rumsfeld, Baghdad, 2003)