E. Randall Floyd: Democracy in the Land of Caliphs and Conquerors
[E. Randall Floyd is the author of more than 15 books and a former history professor at Augusta State University. He resides in Kurdistan, where he is a professor of history at the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani, and is working on several new books.]
SULAIMANI, Iraq --- The rugged brown hills of northern Iraq are a long way from the lush gardens of Augusta, but this quiet and ancient land of caliphs and conquerors has been my home for the past year and a half.
I came to Iraq as a teacher -- a professor of history at the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani, an American-styled institution nestled in the purple shadows of Kurdistan's lofty Zagros Mountains, one of the oldest and most history-laden regions in the world.
Even though I dreaded the long separation from family and friends -- and the perils of living in a war zone -- the opportunity was simply too dramatic to pass up.
AS A HISTORIAN and writer, I had long dreamed of visiting Mesopotamia -- the fabled "Land Between Two Rivers," as the ancient Greeks called it, a region known for its ziggurats and mosques and famous conquerors from Nebuchadnezzar and Hammurabi to Alexander the Great....
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SULAIMANI, Iraq --- The rugged brown hills of northern Iraq are a long way from the lush gardens of Augusta, but this quiet and ancient land of caliphs and conquerors has been my home for the past year and a half.
I came to Iraq as a teacher -- a professor of history at the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani, an American-styled institution nestled in the purple shadows of Kurdistan's lofty Zagros Mountains, one of the oldest and most history-laden regions in the world.
Even though I dreaded the long separation from family and friends -- and the perils of living in a war zone -- the opportunity was simply too dramatic to pass up.
AS A HISTORIAN and writer, I had long dreamed of visiting Mesopotamia -- the fabled "Land Between Two Rivers," as the ancient Greeks called it, a region known for its ziggurats and mosques and famous conquerors from Nebuchadnezzar and Hammurabi to Alexander the Great....