Land Between the Rivers: A 5000-Year History of Iraq

《兩河之間的土地》是經過十年研究、撰寫與思考後的成果。這是一個龐大的主題：橫跨五千年歷史，從歷史邊緣的吉爾伽美什開始講起。同時，這也是一個從另一個角度來看極為重要的主題。在這片著名的「兩河之間的土地」——文明的搖籃，東方與西方自亞歷山大大帝之前就開始交融與碰撞的地方——其歷史可以說，從某種程度上來看，就是世界的歷史。

故事從古蘇美爾開始。吉爾伽美什為了讓自己名垂千古，於公元前第三千紀之交建造了烏魯克（即今日的伊拉克）的城牆。我們的敘述結束於1958年，當時伊拉克最後一個皇室家族在巴格達一座小型皇宮的台階上慘遭屠殺，而那座城市曾經是中東最具活力、最自由、最充滿希望的首都。

最重要的是，伊拉克，這個世界的樞紐國，其歷史是一場宏大的對抗：人文主義與權力和宿命觀之間的激烈衝突。

Land Between the Rivers is the result of ten years of research, writing, and thinking about the subject. It is an enormous topic: five thousand years, beginning with Gilgamesh at the edge of historical time. It is a big topic in another way. More than anywhere else, the famous Land Between the Rivers, where civilization was born, where East and West have mixed and clashed since long before Alexander, has led an existence that could be called, from a certain perspective, a history of the world.

We begin the story with ancient Sumer, and Gilgamesh building the walls of Uruk ('Iraq') to make a great name for himself around the turn of the third millennium BC. We end it in 1958, as the last royal family of Iraq is slaughtered on the steps of a small royal palace in Baghdad, the most effervescent, free, and promising capital in the Middle East.

Above all, the story of Iraq, the world's hinge country, is that of the great clash pitting humanism against the outlooks of power and fate.