Between Two Rivers

One of Library Journal's Best Books of 2025 Humanity’s earliest efforts at recording and drawing meaning from history reveal how lives millennia ago were not so different from our own.

"A search for human traces amid the mountains of cuneiform fragments that, stamped by human hands, carry the source code of the harsh, impassive civilizations that rose and fell between the Tigris and Euphrates… breathes life into the dry clay of philology and bureaucracy."

"Al-Rashid of Oxford University takes readers on a tour of this most distant niche of human history, attempting to illuminate still further the daily lives behind the dusty relics they left behind."

"Between Two Rivers provides remarkable insights into ancient lives. . . . Even at a distance of nearly four millennia, it is impossible not to be moved."

"A must-read, millennia-spanning history. . . . [Moudhy Al-Rashid is] a gifted storyteller, able to spin a yarn of gold from very fragmentary sources."

"Moudhy Al-Rashid manages to combine insightful scholarship with a warm personal presence… The world it explores is fascinating and crucially important."

"Fascinating and magnificent, beautifully written and explained: Between Two Rivers is a masterpiece."

"A tender, moving, and vivid history of ancient Mesopotamia and how it still speaks to us. . . . Spectacular!"

"Absorbing, learned and witty. . . . An ingenious, passionate ‘history of histories’ [in which] we vividly witness how lives across the millennia are revealed and connected by archaeology and cuneiform."

"I have never read a book on Mesopotamia that so beautifully brings to life the people themselves. . . . It melts away the sense of time. A wonderful read."

"An extraordinary invitation to the magical land of Mesopotamia. . . . Stunning."

"Moudhy al Rashid describes her job of reading ancient Mesopotamian texts as like shaking hands with strangers. She introduces them in this marvelous book, which not only brims with her humanity but offers fascinating and often funny insights into everyday life in this crucial era of world history. Fart jokes to exam stress, motherhood and tax evasion: you'll find something here that reminds you that it is not as remote as you might think."

"A highly readable introduction to an era of history that deserves to be better known."

Moudhy Al-Rashid is an honorary fellow at the University of Oxford’s Wolfson College, where she specializes in the languages and history of ancient Mesopotamia. Originally from Saudi Arabia, where she grew up, she now lives in Oxfordshire with her family and their dogs.