Covering 6,000 years of history--from the ancient Mesopotamian civilizations to the fall of Saddam Hussein and the current war in Iraq. A Brief History of Iraq is a comprehensive look at the changing landscape of this interesting country.

Table of Contents

• List of Illustrations
• List of Maps
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Iraq, the First Society (Prehistory to 539 B.C.E.)
• 2 From the Persian Empire to the Sassanians (539 B.C.E.-651 C.E.)
• 3 Iraq under the Umayyad Dynasty (651-750)
• 4 Abbasid and Post-Abbasid Iraq (750-1258)
• 5 Turkish Tribal Migrations and the Early Ottoman State (1256-1638)
• 6 Imperial Administration, Local Rule, and Ottoman Recentralization (1638-1914)
• 7 British Occupation and the Iraqi Monarchy (1914-1958)
• 8 The Growth of the Republican Regimes and the Emergence of Baathist Iraq (1958-1979)
• 9 The Rule of Saddam Hussein and the Difficult Legacy of the Mukhabarat State (1979-2003)
• 10 The War in Iraq (2003-2008)
• Postscript
• Appendixes
• 1 Basic Facts about Iraq
• 2 Chronology
• 3 Bibliography
• 4 Suggested Reading