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Scope and limitations of this book I am trying here to present the natural history of a land largely created and dominated by two great rivers, the Euphrates and Tigris. All rivers have two main functions, quite different from lakes; they transport water and eroded material sometimes over large distances. The astute Greeks, who penetrated here in the 4th century B.C., called the land Mesopotamia, an apt name; it is the only region in the Near East, except Egypt, having the benefit of large rivers. Another name coined in antiquity was 'Fertile Crescent', stretching from Egypt to present day Iraq; Herodotus marvelled at the fertility of the soils, the abundance of water and the magnificent cities of Mesopotamia. Thus a further role of some great rivers is recognized as foci of human development. The desire to collate this book arose from a similar motif as in the Nile book (1976), the intricate connection between man and rivers.
List of contents
I. The land and its life.- 1. Panorama of Mesopotamian Iraq.- 2. Response of the living world to present conditions.- 3. Palaeo-ecology.- II. Mesopotamian Waters, Regime and Hydrobiology.- 4. Near East waters as wider background.- 5. Rivers of Mesopotamia as dominating factor.- 6. Water characteristics, by J. F. Tailing.- 6a. Phytoplankton, by J. F. Tailing.- 7. General biology of Iraq waters.- 8. The fishes of the Euphrates and Tigris, by K. E. Banister.- Epilogue.- Summary. Reflections general and personal.- Annexe. The Mesopotamian past as seen by eyewitnesses.- References to chapters 1-5 and 7.- Remark. Chapters 6, 6a and 8 have their own references, as they will be available as reprints..
