Rivers of the Sultan

The Tigris and Euphrates in the Ottoman Empire

Faisal H. Husain

The first book-length history of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the period after the Mongol conquest.
Offers a comprehensive reconstruction of early modern environmental conditions in the Tigris-Euphrates plain
Provides a regional and global context to events that had been treated in the past as entirely local affairs.

Rivers of the Sultan

The Tigris and Euphrates in the Ottoman Empire

Faisal H. Husain

Description

The Tigris and Euphrates rivers run through the heart of the Middle East and merge in the area of Mesopotamia known as the "cradle of civilization." In their long and volatile political history, the sixteenth century ushered in a rare era of stability and integration. A series of military campaigns between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf brought the entirety of their flow under the institutional control of the Ottoman Empire, then at the peak of its power and wealth.

Rivers of the Sultan tells the history of the Tigris and Euphrates during the early modern period. Under the leadership of Sultan Süleyman I, the rivers became Ottoman from mountain to ocean, managed by a political elite that pledged allegiance to a single household, professed a common religion, spoke a lingua franca, and received orders from a central administration based in Istanbul. Faisal Husain details how Ottoman unification institutionalized cooperation among the rivers' dominant users and improved the exploitation of their waters for navigation and food production. Istanbul harnessed the energy and resources of the rivers for its security and economic needs through a complex network of forts, canals, bridges, and shipyards. Above all, the imperial approach to river management rebalanced the natural resource disparity within the Tigris-Euphrates basin. Istanbul regularly organized shipments of grain, metal, and timber from upstream areas of surplus in Anatolia to downstream areas of need in Iraq. Through this policy of natural resource redistribution, the Ottoman Empire strengthened its presence in the eastern borderland region with the Safavid Empire and fended off challenges to its authority.

Placing these world historic bodies of water at its center, Rivers of the Sultan reveals intimate bonds between state and society, metropole and periphery, and nature and culture in the early modern world.

Rivers of the Sultan

The Tigris and Euphrates in the Ottoman Empire

Faisal H. Husain

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: The Amphibious State
Chapter 1: Fortresses
Chapter 2: Shipyards
Part II: The Water Wide Web
Chapter 3: Arable Lands
Chapter 4: Grasslands
Chapter 5: Wetlands
Part III: The Rumblings of Nature
Chapter 6: Havoc
Chapter 7: After the Flood
Conclusion
Appendices
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Rivers of the Sultan

The Tigris and Euphrates in the Ottoman Empire

Faisal H. Husain

Author Information

Faisal H. Husain, Assistant Professor of History, Pennsylvania State University

Faisal H. Husain is Assistant Professor of History at the Pennsylvania State University. His articles have won prizes from the American Society for Environmental History and the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association.

Rivers of the Sultan

The Tigris and Euphrates in the Ottoman Empire

Faisal H. Husain

Reviews and Awards

Finalist, George Perkins Marsh Prize of the American Society for Environmental History

"Rivers of the Sultan... offers a fascinating glimpse into the political, social and economic histories of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers." - Usman Butt, Middle East Monitor

"Faisal Husain sets himself a truly formidable goal: to write an integrated history of the Ottoman Empire in the Tigris-Euphrates watershed. To succeed requires a polymath's grasp of hydrology, botany, irrigation, grazing, shipping, climate, fiscal affairs, and political structures. Against the odds, he triumphs and with a verve and elegance of exposition that makes this a model of interdisciplinary, environmental history." - James C. Scott, Yale University

"Original and deeply researched, Rivers of the Sultan is both an important new history of Ottoman Iraq and a major contribution to Middle East environmental history. Combining ecological, social, and political perspectives, it offers vital insights into the nature and transformation of Ottoman rule." - Sam White, author of The Climate of Rebellion in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire

"In this exemplary study, Faisal H. Husain analyzes the Ottoman Empire's management of the Tigris and Euphrates. Rivers of the Sultan reconstructs insightfully the ecological relations between the imperial center and its Eastern periphery and brings to life a lively history of various historical actors, from Ottoman governors, to cultivators of crops, to tribal confederations, who benefited from the rivers and their management. The book reminds us how the maintenance of law and order, the control of wealth, the politics of infrastructure, and the movements of grains and arms were deeply intertwined into the history of water itself. A fascinating exploration of irrigation, wetland exploitation as well as of natural disaster, famine and floods, this book changes the ways in which we evaluate Iraq's past and present." - Orit Bashkin, University of Chicago

Rivers of the Sultan

The Tigris and Euphrates in the Ottoman Empire

Faisal H. Husain

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Posted on April 6, 2021

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