The history of the Middle East is traditionally structured around the rise and fall of dynasties and states. The widely perceived view is that after the glories of an earlier golden age the region went into a steady and prolonged decline: populations decreased, ancient cities decayed and nomadism spread at the expense of civilized culture. In this pioneering text Peter Christensen challenges this story of decline. Long out of print but now reissued with a new introduction by the author, this important work is both a foundational text in the environmental history of the Middle East and a pioneering reassessment of traditional ideas about the historical processes of Iran and the Middle East region.
Author(s): Peter Christensen
Publisher: I.B. Tauris
Year: 2015
Language: English
Pages: 414
City: London
Tags: Iran, Mesopotamia, Environmental History, Agriculture
Title Page......Page 3
Contents......Page 4
Preface to the New Edition......Page 6
List of Tables......Page 13
A Note on Transliteration and Measures......Page 14
Acknowledgments......Page 16
Introduction: Universal History, the Middle East, and the Environmental Perspective......Page 17
Part 1. Starting Points: Themes and Sources......Page 23
1. A Melancholy Prospect......Page 24
2. The Middle East, Iranshahr, and the Persian Empires......Page 30
3. Sources......Page 38
Part 2. "The Heart of Iranshahr": Mesopotamia and Khuzistan......Page 65
Introduction......Page 66
4. The Twin Rivers......Page 67
5. The Construction of the Transverse Canals......Page 77
6. The Climax of Irrigation: Mesopotamia under Sassanian Rule......Page 88
7. The Crisis of the Seventh Century: Environmental and Demographic Disaster......Page 96
8. From Crisis to Continued Decline: Mesopotamia between Two Plague Pandemics......Page 110
9. Khuzistan......Page 134
Part 3. The Oases on The Iranian Plateau......Page 147
10. Environment and Irrigation Technologies......Page 148
11. Early Settlement Patterns......Page 159
12. Growth and Stabilization of the New Settlement Pattern: Djibal......Page 178
13. Fars......Page 203
14. Kirman......Page 222
15. Khurasan......Page 233
16. Azarbaydjan......Page 254
17. Recapitulation and Comparison: Contrasting Highlands with Floodplain......Page 265
Part 4. Sistan......Page 272
18. Environment and Early Settlement......Page 273
19. The Zenith of Sistan......Page 279
20. The Decline of Sistan......Page 290
Conclusion......Page 298
21. Decline and Resilience: Patterns in the History of Iranshahr......Page 299
Abbreviations used in Notes and Bibliography......Page 307
Bibliography......Page 308
Notes......Page 339
Index......Page 385
eCopyright......Page 414
