Customer Reviews

A Short History of Iraq: From 636 to the Present

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This is the best brief book on Iraq and its history as it tells the story of this country starting with its pre-Islamic times of the Sessanids and going well into modern day. The brilliance of this book is based on two factors. First, its choice of what to highlight and what to leave out was extremely successful and relevant for those who want to read history to understand modern day Iraq, and second, its dependency on the bottom lines of reliable secondary sources instead of amassing a big number of quotes from primary sources in order to make a point or two.

The choice of what to cover and how to cover events from Iraq's history yielded this extremely helpful book that brings 5000 years of history into this concise and brief book.

Abdullah's style is extremely catching and flows with practically no repetition. Unlike most history books on the subject, Abdullah economizes with the number of names and dates that he included in the book in order not to distract the reader's attention by bombarding him/her with an unlimited number of often irrelevant names.

Furthermore, Abdullah maintains much needed objectivity when telling Iraq's story at the time most of history books on the Middle East are loaded with prejudice and either explicit or hidden propaganda.

Other valuable insights include Abdullah's tracing of the regional influence on Iraq, both from the Sunni Arab West and the Shiite Persian East. Abdullah also writes with the current internal Iraqi divisions in mind and as you finish the book, you will certainly end up with the impression that history repeats itself.

Grasping to make some sense of the chaos that is today's Iraq, I found A Short History of Iraq by T.A.J. Abdullah to be a throroughly engaging and enlightening read. Concise and with no apparent ax to grind Abdullah helps the inquiring reader gain some clarity to questions like "Who are these people of the Garden of Eden, caught betwen the Persians and the Turks?" What is the attraction of the poor of Baghdad to figures like Muqtada al-Sadr? What are the roles of Imams and shaykhs? How do the lingering shadows of the Ottoman Empire give a modern basis to the strife between Shi'i and Sunni. What is so important about Najaf and Karbala, why does everyone seem so contentious and why were the British so anxious to move back into Basra as the invasion wound down. After reading Professor Abdullah's book, today's chaos will seem no less chaotic. Taking account of two thousand years of turbulent history, however, gives one a feeling of empathy for the people civilizaton's oldest melting pot, and maybe a grain of hope.

I would recommend A Short History of Iraq to anyone who longs for a better understanding or feels compelled to offer an opinion on what he sees on the evening news, not the least of whom might be the commentators. I would like to say "Thank you" to Professor Abudllah for his timely work.