Books about iraq & kurdistan

---

In a remote corner of the world, forgotten for  nearly three thousand years, lived an enclave of Kurdish Jews so  isolated that they still spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus. Mostly  illiterate, they were self-made mystics and gifted storytellers and  humble peddlers who dwelt in harmony with their Muslim and Christian  neighbors in the mountains of northern Iraq. To these descendants of the  Lost Tribes of Israel, Yona Sabar was born.

Yona's son Ariel  grew up in Los Angeles, where Yona had become an esteemed professor,  dedicating his career to preserving his people’s traditions. Ariel  wanted nothing to do with his father’s strange immigrant heritage—until  he had a son of his own.

Ariel Sabar brings to life the ancient  town of Zakho, discovering his family’s place in the sweeping saga of  Middle-Eastern history. This powerful book is an improbable story of  tolerance and hope set in what today is the very center of the world’s  attention. READ MORE

 This book is about the city which houses the mighty Ziggurat. The  Biblical “Ur of the Chaldees” where Abraham was supposedly born. The  site near which the earliest human cultures were found. The site which  held the most glorious Sumerian Dynasty in ancient history. This is the  story of the city that was destined to die and be reborn every  millennium or so, a city full of intrigue, magnificence, tragedy, and  glory. READ MORE

Civilization was born eight thousand years ago, between the  floodplains of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, when migrants from the  surrounding mountains and deserts began to create increasingly  sophisticated urban societies. In the cities that they built, half of  human history took place.

In Babylon, Paul  Kriwaczek tells the story of Mesopotamia from the earliest settlements  seven thousand years ago to the eclipse of Babylon in the sixth century  BCE. Bringing the people of this land to life in vibrant detail, the  author chronicles the rise and fall of power during this period and  explores the political and social systems, as well as the technical and  cultural innovations, which made this land extraordinary. At the heart  of this book is the story of Babylon, which rose to prominence under the  Amorite king Hammurabi from about 1800 BCE. Even as Babylon's fortunes  waxed and waned, it never lost its allure as the ancient world's  greatest city.

Engaging and compelling, Babylon reveals the splendor of the ancient world that laid the foundation for civilization itself.

A failing college student obsessed with Alexander the Great,  Martin enlists in the US Marines to become a different sort of man, a  man like Alexander. From his difficulty at boot camp to his  disappointing deployment to Iraq, Martin fears he may never follow in  Alexander's footsteps. 

Then, after a strategy  change, Martin and his unit arrive in Marjah, "the bleeding ulcer" of  Afghanistan. There he faces heat, fleas, and a hidden enemy. As the  casualties mount, Martin struggles to control his emotions and his  newfound sense of power. Chasing Alexander looks unflinchingly at the  seductive side of war, and its awful consequences. 

The Shanidar Neandertals describes the functional morphology of the  Neanderthals and their place in human evolution based on a  paleontological study of fossils discovered at Shanidar Cave in  northeastern Iraq. Functional interpretations are provided that describe  and discuss the individual fossils. The phylogenetic implications of  the Shanidar specimens are also discussed. Comprised of 14 chapters,  this book begins with an overview of the Neanderthal remains from the  Shanidar Cave and the paleontological data obtained from the fossils.  The discussion then turns to the history of the excavations in Shanidar  Cave and the discoveries of the Neanderthals; morphometrics of the  Shanidar remains; and determination of the age and sex of the Shanidar  Neanderthals. Subsequent chapters focus on various aspects of the  Neanderthal fossils, including the cranial and mandibular remains; the  dental remains; the axial skeleton; and the upper and lower limb  remains. The immature remains are also described, along with bodily  proportions and the estimation of stature. This monograph will be of  interest to archaeologists, anthropologists, paleontologists, and  paleopathologists. 

One very determined woman incontestably held her own and more with  the great figures of the Middle East in the early twentieth century.  That was Gertrude Bell. Highly strung, petulant, aggressive, and  gossipy, she occasionally provided tea but rarely sympathy to the  extraordinary group of British imperial administrators whose adventures  centered on Basra at the head of the Gulf in 1914–1916. Not enough has  been made of the Barra cabal as a group rather than individuals. Nor  have the machinations of the ‘Basra gang’ had the attention given to  figures such as Lawrence of Arabia and General Allenby, individuals who  when all is said and done were not deeply involved in Gulf and Iraqi  affairs. The Arab of Mesopotamia is a collection of once confidential  briefing papers that Bell helped to produce for British army officers  new to the Mesopotamian theater, published in Basra by a military  printer. The tone confirms views that Gertrude Bell and her colleagues  were interested in the possibility of playing on the world stage and  wanted quiet in the shaikhdoms while they pursued notions of a Middle  East empire that would rival the Indian empire. Heady plans were made  for an Imperial service that would include Arabia, Iraq, the  Trans-Jordan, and even the Sudan. While exiting, this ‘mega outlook’ was  opposed to Arab concerns. The apotheosis for Bell was reached in 1921  when Winston Churchill called a famous meet- ing of forty Middle East  experts in Cairo. The conference photography shows her as the lone  woman. Secreted in the Semiramis Hotel, she and the other ‘forty  thieves’ laid out policies whose failures (and Lawrence’s  disillusionment) are well known. Therein lies the tragedy of her life,  perhaps more of a tragedy that than of Lawrence. Almost none of the  undertakings to the Arabs to which she was an enthusiastic participant  were realized. There were a number of these promises, although they were  less publicized than those made in the famous McMahon letters. For  example, the assurances at the 1916 durbar at Kuwait were equally  dishonored: the shaikh of Kuwait received a CSI and Ibn Saud got the  KCIE along with pledges that with the defeat of the Turks: “The dream of  Arab unity ... has been brought nearer fulfillment than dreams are wont  to come, but the role of presiding genius has been recast.” Instead of  an Arabian viceregality that would justify the wonderful title of  ‘Viceroys of the Gulf,’ or of a ‘final’ resolution of the region’s  conflicts, British Imperial administration be- tween the world wars  became a long and unsatisfactory interlude in which little was accom-  plished. Hobson remarks in Imperialism about the use of ‘masked worlds’  and an Imperial Genius for inconsistency: “Most of the men who have  misled ... have first been obliged to mis- lead themselves.” This was  the case with Gertrude Bell, who committed suicide in 1926. After she  and her friends departed the scene, the air went out if the balloon, and  the ‘countervailing disadvantages’ of being misled became apparent to  the Arabs. This little-known book is one key to heady days at Basra when  the Middle East empire seemed likely. 

This thoroughly updated third edition of Bradt's Iraq remains the  only dedicated guide to this ancient land. Up-to-date travel information  is included, plus all the necessary safety details. Ideal for both  armchair and in-destination travel, it covers history, archaeology and  culture, including iconic sites such as Babylon and Ur, the stunning  architecture of the country's mosques, the natural beauty and wildlife  of the Marshes and beautiful Iraqi handicrafts. New for this edition are  more archaeological sites in the south, including Telloh and Charax  Sparinou, Alexander the Great's port city. Muslim sites and festivals  are covered, as is the influence of Shia Islam and the geo-politics of  the region.

The authors bring their considerable  knowledge and understanding of Iraq to provide all the practical and  background information needed for a successful trip. Advice on cultural  awareness and religious sensitivity in the context of Iraqi history,  along with where to get the latest information on which parts of the  country you can still visit, make this an invaluable guide.