Political Landscapes along the Central Euphrates River, Then and Now

By Adam Miglio

Headlines across media outlets of all types remind us of the troubling events in Syria and Iraq. Yet when reading the stories behind the headlines, it quickly becomes apparent that modern geo-political boundaries are of secondary significance to understanding these current events. A New York Times interactive map, for example, presents the areas under ISIS control, visually representing the complex geographical, social, and political realities ‘on the ground.’

What is clear from this graphic, and others like it, is that the events in the region are not constrained by the modern boundaries drawn up by European nation-states nearly a century ago; rather, contemporary events gesture toward the region’s enduring physical landscape as well as its dynamic historical geography.

The history of Syria and Iraq stretches back millennia. In the course of this long history, one of the best-documented ancient periods is the first half of the second millennium BCE (ca. 1775–1762 BCE). During this time, society and politics along the central Euphrates River valley was inextricably intertwined with nearby regions, many of which are recurrent in contemporary news reports such as the Sinjar to which the Yazidi fled for refuge in August 2014.

Our knowledge of the history of ancient Syria and Iraq during the second millennium BCE owes a noteworthy debt to the French expedition at the ruins of Tell Hariri, the ancient city of Mari. Mari is located approximately ten miles north of the present-day border between Syria and Iraq. Excavations began at the ruins of this ancient city in 1933 and have continued with only a few interruptions until Syria’s recent political disputes escalated to war just a few years ago. And during the past 80 years, many remarkable artifacts have been recovered, including an exceedingly rich collection of nearly 20,000 cuneiform tablets.

Among the tablets found at ancient Mari roughly 3,500 of them are letters, a majority of which come from the reign of the city’s last king, Zimri-Lim. Zimri-Lim’s officials, family, and royal counterparts from neighboring states dispatched missives to Mari that reveal a geo-political landscape that stretched from the northern reaches of Iraq along the Euphrates River and into northeastern Syria, very much the region at the center of today’s conflict with ISIS.

The sources from Mari also provide remarkable details about the diverse subsistence and tribal groups that animated the history of this region nearly four millennia ago.  For example, large numbers of mobile pastoralists, along with their flocks, traversed the landscape stretching from the central Euphrates, to the environs of modern-day Aleppo and to the areas beyond the Jebel Sinjar. These populations crisscrossed the river valleys and moved through the steppelands along regular routes.

The regular movements of mobile pastoralists helped to provide networks between geographically distant locales. And pastoralist groups frequently laid claim to these routes and put pressure on sedentary, agricultural populations. Thus mobile pastoralists played an important role in animating politics along the rivers of Syro-Mesopotamia, in the island of steppeland between them– the Jezira, and along the Habur River and its tributaries. And at the center of the conflict with ISIS today are reports of activities along similar routes that stretch from the Kurdish regions of northern Iraq into the suburbs of Baghdad.

It was not only subsistence groups, however, that defined the socio-political landscape during Zimri-Lim’s reign. Groups that self-identified as tribes also significantly shaped this world. The word tribe, when applied to the sources from Mari at least, should not necessarily evoke ideas of simplistic socio-political organization by comparison with the state. Rather, tribes provided merely a means of identification that differed from city-based or other state-based identities, being characterized by sophisticated socio-political organization. In fact, tribes were among the most important political actors during Zimri-Lim’s reign. And, today, while the diverse populations along the central Euphrates River valley are different from those known in the archives at Mari, these many contemporary groups in the region continue to play dynamic roles in shaping the region’s complex history.

In Zimri-Lim’s time, the two best-known tribes were the Simal and Yamina, both of which he confederated into his state. Furthermore, beyond the immediate authority of Zimri-Lim, several other tribes also prominently figure into the period’s history. Tribes such as the Numha and Yamut-bal, which were connected with the environs of the Sinjar, were in close contact with Zimri-Lim and the tribal populations that he helped to govern. As a result, the Numha and Yamut-bal significantly constrained and shaped the political history of the region. Zimri-Lim, himself a member of the Simal tribe, had to domestically negotiate his confederation of the Simal and Yamina tribes and shrewdly leverage both his identity as head-of-state as well as his membership with the Simal tribe in his conduct of international politics.A watershed event toward the end of Zimri-Lim’s reign brings his strategy in international politics into sharp relief. In his conduct of international politics, Zimri-Lim relied heavily on tribal connections, particularly the relationship between his own tribe, the Simal, and the Yamut-bal. This strategy, however, left Zimri-Lim vulnerable when this alliance was unexpectedly undercut. By Zimri-Lim’s tenth year the Elamites, who were situated in the environs of modern-day Iran, mounted a sustained offensive against several of the states in southern Mesopotamia and the northern regions of the Habur. One of the many effects of this military incursion was the undoing of this crucial tribal alliance, which ultimately left Zimri-Lim susceptible to the ambitious expansion of the well-known king Hammu-rabi of Babylon, who captured the city of Mari and brought an end to Zimri-Lim’s reign.

The long and intricate history of the central Euphrates and its neighboring regions can be securely traced back to the first half of the second millennium BCE. Viewing this ancient past gives us perspective on the long and complex history of this region and its current political turmoil. In particular, we see how the geography of this land has profoundly affected both ancient and contemporary events as well as how the diverse social landscapes along the central Euphrates has shaped the course of this region’s history.

Adam E. Miglio is Assistant Professor of Archaeology and History at Wheaton College and the author of Tribe and State: The Dynamics of International Politics and the Reign of Zimri-Lim.

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