Mesopotamia

**Mesopotamia . . .**
is a toponym for the area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system, along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern Iraq, as well as some parts of northeastern Syria, some parts of southeastern Turkey,and some parts of the Khūzestān Province of southwestern Iran.

Widely considered as the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian empires. In the Iron Age, it was ruled by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian empires. The indiginous Sumerians and Akkadians (including Assyrians & Babylonians) dominated Mesopotamia from the dawn of written history circa 3100 BC to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. It was then conquered by the Achaemenid Empire. It fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BC and after his death it became part of the Greek Seleucid Empire, by around 150 BC Mesopotamia was under the control of the Parthians. Mesopotamia became a battle ground between the Romans and Parthians, with parts of Mesopotamia (particularly Assyria) coming under periodic Roman control. In 226 AD it fell to the Sassanid Persians, and remained under Persian rule until the 7th century AD Arab Islamic conquest of the Sassanid Empire. A number of primarily Christian native Mesopotamian states existed beween the 1st Century BC and 3rd Century AD; Adiabene, Oshroene and Hatra.