Moudhy Al-Rashid

As a reader on, and ponderer about, ancient cultures, my favorite has always been Sumer. They built the first cities, (probably) invented the wheel for transport, and most magnificent of all, invented writing. I wouldn’t call myself a buff, but I do have a 35,000-foot familiarity with the Sumerians. But gosh, has my knowledge grown by leaps and bounds because of Moudhy al-Rashid’s delightful, relatable book, Between Two Rivers.

I didn’t know, for instance, that the cultures that show more occupied the area after the Sumerians faded, Akkadia, Assyria, and Babylonia, among others, held the Sumerian culture in awe, used Sumerian as a lingua franca long after it was dead (the way Latin functioned in Europe through the Middle Ages), and that cuneiform writing evolved over a couple of thousand years to serve as the typescript for Akkadian, Elamite, Hittite, and Old Persian, and other languages. It finally faded out just as the Common Era began and the Phoenician alphabet gained in use.

This is a scholarly book; it has not only the main text, but a) a listing of Selected Artefacts Cited; b) a Timeline of Ancient Mesopotamian History; c) 23 pages of Bibliography; d) copious endnotes, and e) an index. But not only is Dr. Al-Rashid thorough, she is engaging and relatable. Her delight at holding ancient clay tablets in her hand, her wonder at the advanced math the Sumerians applied to understanding and predicting Jupiter’s orbit … this Oxford University lecturer infects us with her energy and enthusiasm. We cannot help share her delight as she recognizes the feelings, aspirations, and timeless issues experienced so long ago.

In addition to praising the accomplishments of these clever ancients, al-Rashid singles out certain individuals for focus or special comment. In the 7th century BCE, a Neo-Babylonian king re-instituted the long-abandoned practice of naming a high priestess to the moon god. His daughter was re-named Ennigaldi-Nanna, and we know her because archeologists unearthed clay tablets about the event, and because an archeologist found a room in her newly built palace. The room contained objects from an astonishing range of time, from decades prior to 1500 years in the past. Was Ennigaldi-Nanna a curator of a museum? Were these objects just there together by random chance? We’ll never know, but the author takes this example and shows how it reflected a culture of honoring the past. The ancient princess inspires the author — she represents a kindred spirit from long ago. The author even asks, is it possible she curated an ancient museum, preserving pieces that were archaic even so long ago?

I’ve read academic texts before, but never one with this kind of personal slant. We learn much about al-Rashid, just as we learn to appreciate the ancient day-to-day women and men trying to get on with life, and apparently succeeding brilliantly. This book is a multivariate joy: informative, brightly descriptive, and engaging. Take it up!

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It’s always astounding to contemplate how ancient people found history fascinating and important just like we do.

In Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History (galley received as part of early review program), Moudhy al-Rashid tells the story of her own fascination with ancient Mesopotamian culture and many aspects of the story of the civilizations along the Tigris and the Euphrates in antiquity by means of the collection of artifacts found by Leonard Woolley in 1925 show more in the palace and temple complex of Ur, seemingly brought together and displayed by Ennigaldi-Nanna, priestess of Ur, and daughter of Nabonidus, the last native Babylonian ruler, whose fall in 539 BCE began the long decline of Sumerian and Akkadian cultural memory.

The collection of artifacts has been called the first “museum”; the author did well at examining this claim and setting forth the challenges with that interpretation. Nevertheless, the artifacts collected indicated a strong interest in the Sumerian/Akkadian heritage by the rulers of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, and were displayed/presented to reinforce their connections with the great rulers of old.

By means of these objects the author sets forth the long history of the city-states and eventually empires along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern-day Iraq. We are exposed to the development and purpose of cuneiform writing; we meet Gilgamesh and all he represented through his epic tales. We meet some of the “regular people” and the lives they would live in these cities. We learn of property disputes and the practice of slavery. We consider what home life might have looked like so long ago. And we learn of the waves of newcomers which would come in and take over and appropriate the existing culture to justify their own rule, and how this would irrevocably change, first with the Persians, but more definitively after Alexander and the Greeks. The final cuneiform tablets are inscribed around the time of Jesus of Nazareth; it would take the better part of another 1900 years before the ruins would be excavated and the stories told once again.

This is a very engaging and accessible introduction to the history of Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, and Babylon, and highly recommended. show less

Cuneiform is a reminder that if I can find something in common with someone who lived 2,000 years ago, then I can certainly find something in common with almost anyone alive today. from Between Two Rivers by Moudhy Al-Rashid

Decades ago we took our son back to his birth city of Philadelphia and showed him the sights, including the University of Pennsylvania Museum. We saw remarkable artefacts from ancient Mesopotamia. I have never forgotten the Ram in a Thicket.

Ram in the Thicket, Penn show more Museum, as I saw it before restoration
I did not at the time know how Pennsylvania came to hold these artefacts, not until reading Between Two Rivers. In 1922, an expedition was sponsored by the British Museum and the University Museum in Pennsylvania, one of the largest digs of its time, lasting twelve seasons. The Ram was one of the thousands of items recovered.

They discovered the ruins of a building that held objects from across thousands of years–a museum! A cuneiform object appeared to be a label for a brick with Sumerian writing, a dead language when the building was standing. We realize that humans have always revered their history and wanted to be remembered by future generations.

Cuneiform preserves the stories of people whose work in many ways made life in ancient Mesopotamia possible. from Between Two Rivers.

I learned that thousands of cuneiform tablets have been discovered, telling the story of humankind’s first agriculture and cities through business records and schoolwork and letters. One tells the story of impoverished children sold into slavery, their mother hoping to buy them back. There are collections of epigrams, including “Fate is a dog, walking always behind a man.”

Kings and rulers rose up, waging brutal war, and leaving behind magnificent tombs filled with treasure and slaughtered human companions. The first laws were engraved on stone as were the images of gods and goddess and the divination that tried to understand them.

Ur was abandoned after the river’s course veered away from it, leaving the city to the sands of time to be discovered thousands of years later. It amazes me how much we know because of marks imprinted on clay tablets. Our own paper and electronic achieves will not survive thousands of years.

A fascinating history, beautifully written.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley. show less

T/FB: 2025 book #43. 2025. 4,000 years of the history of Mesopotamia told through 7 artifacts from widely different eras found together as if in an ancient museum. Very well written and engageing. Would have been excellent if it had some illustrations of the artifacts and a map or 2.