Tigris–Euphrates river system
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The Tigris and Euphrates, with their tributaries, form a major river system in Western Asia. From sources originating in the Armenian Highlands of eastern Turkey they flow by/through Syria through Iraq into the Persian Gulf. The system is part of the Palearctic Tigris–Euphrates ecoregion, which includes Iraq and parts of Turkey, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Jordan. The region has historical importance as part of the Fertile Crescent region.
Quotes
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- In those ancient days, when the good destinies had been decreed, and after An and Enlil had set up the divine rules of heaven and earth, then ... Enki, the master of destinies, ... founded dwelling places; he took in his hand waters to encourage and create good seed; he laid out side by side the Tigris and the Euphrates, and caused them to bring water from the mountains; he scoured out the smaller streams, and positioned the other watercourses.
- Debate between Bird and Fish (mid to late (late 3rd millennium BCE to early 2nd millennium BCE). [1]
- By hand Enten guided the spring floods, the abundance and life of the Land, down from the edge of the hills. He set his foot upon the Tigris and Euphrates like a big bull and released them into the fields and fruitful acres of Enlil. He shaped lagoons in the water of the sea. He let fish and birds together come into existence by the sea.
- Debate between Winter and Summer (mid to late 3rd millennium BCE). [2]
- After day had broken and Utu had risen, the sun god of the Land lifted his head high. The king combined the Tigris with the Euphrates. He combined the Euphrates with the Tigris. Large vessels were placed in the open air, and he stood small vessels beside them, like lambs lying on the grass.
- Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, Neo-Sumerian period (ca. 21st century BCE). English
- All those who have done odious deeds will be seated here into the stocks, until the Euphrates dries up at its mouth and the Tigris changes its course, until all the seas dry up and all the rivers, brooks and springs have overflowed.
- Left Ginza 3.11:33-38. In: Gelbert, Carlos (2011). Ginza Rba. Sydney: Living Water Books, p. 126-7. ISBN 9780958034630.
About the Euphrates
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- In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.
- My guides, sniffing the air like dogs, led me from crumbling room to room, saying, 'This is jessamine, this violet, this rose'. But at last Dahoum drew me: 'Come and smell the very sweetest scent of all', and we went into the main lodging, to the gaping window sockets of its eastern face, and there drank with open mouths of the effortless, empty, eddyless wind of the desert, throbbing past. That slow breath had been born somewhere beyond the distant Euphrates and had dragged its way across many days and nights of dead grass, to its first obstacle, the man-made walls of our broken palace.
- T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1922), Ch. 3.
- Now scantier limits the proud arch confine,
And scarce are seen the prostrate Nile or Rhine;
A small Euphrates thro' the piece is roll'd,
And little eagles wave their wings in gold.- Alexander Pope, Moral Essays. Epistle to Addison. line 27.
- To the right is Manda ḏ-Hiia;
he has erected a throne for Yušamin
at the mouth of the Fraš-Ziwa (Euphrates).- Right Ginza 15.16:320-3. In: Gelbert, Carlos (2011). Ginza Rba. Sydney: Living Water Books, p. 416. ISBN 9780958034630.
About the Tigris
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- Every object and being in the universe is
a jar overflowing with wisdom and beauty,
a drop of the Tigris that cannot be contained
by any skin. Every jarful spills and makes the earth
more shining, as though covered in satin.- Rumi, "The Gift of Water" Ch. 18 : The Three Fish, p. 200
- The heavens were separated from the earth, … my father Enlil created me in a single day, and then the Tigris charged like a great wild bull.
- Strong Copper, in Debate between Silver and Copper, middle to late 3rd millennium BCE.
- Tigris! Torrent of four thousand years,
Millions, men of war sucking at your strength,
Living in holes at your side,
Agape as you broke bridges, sent ferrymen adrift!
How many armies sought to cross you here,
How muezzins lived and died, call’d to prayer;
Yet you seemed aloof to all their striving,
Your ripples looked indifferent to their stares,
Their drinking, marching, gravities.- Garry Trompf in Nasoraia, Brikha (2022). The Mandaean Rivers Scroll (Diwan Nahrawatha). New York: Routledge. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-367-33544-1.
