The 'Tigris' is the eastern member of the two great rivers that define
Mesopotamia, along with the
Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of
Turkey through
Iraq.
Etymology
The original
Sumerian name was ''Idigna'' or ''Idigina'', probably from ''
★ id (i)gina'' "running water",
[1] which can be interpreted as "the swift river", contrasted to its neighbor, the Euphrates, whose leisurely pace caused it to deposit more silt and build up a higher bed than the Tigris. This form was borrowed and gave rise to Akkadian ''Idiqlat''. Either through a
Persian intermediary or directly from Akkadian, the word was adopted into Greek as ''Tigris'' (which is also Greek for "
tiger").
In
Turkish, ''diş'' means tooth and also explains "sharpness".
Pahlavi ''tigr'' means "arrow", in the same family as
Old Persian ''tigra-'' "pointed" (compare ''
tigra-xauda''),
Modern Persian ''têz'' "sharp". However, it does not appear that this was the original name of the river, but that it (like the
Semitic forms of the name) was coined as an imitation of the indigenous Sumerian name. This is similar to the Persian name of the Euphrates, ''Ufratu'', which does have a meaning in Persian, but is still modeled after the Sumerian name ''Purattu''.
Another name for the Tigris, used from the time of the
Persian Empire, is Arvand Rud, literally Arvand River. Today the name Arvand Rud is the
Persian name for the confluence of the
Euphrates and Tigris rivers which in
Arabic is called
Shatt al-Arab.
The name of the Tigris in languages that have been important to the region:
Description
The Tigris is approximately 1,900 km (1,180 miles) long, rising in the
Taurus Mountains of eastern
Turkey and flowing in a generally southeasterly direction until it joins the Euphrates near
Al Qurna in southern Iraq. The two rivers together form the
Shatt al-Arab waterway, which empties into the
Persian Gulf. The Tigris is joined by many tributaries, including the
Diyala and both the Upper and Lower
Zab rivers.
Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, stands on the banks of the Tigris. The port city of
Basra straddles the Shatt al-Arab. In ancient times, many of the great cities of Mesopotamia stood on or near the Tigris, drawing water from it to irrigate the civilization of the
Sumerians. Notable Tigris-side cities included
Nineveh,
Ctesiphon, and
Seleucia, while the city of
Lagash was irrigated by Tigris water delivered to it via a canal dug around
2400 BC.
Saddam Hussein's hometown,
Tikrit, is also located on the river and derives its name from it.
The Tigris has long been an important transport route in a largely desert country. It is navigable as far as Baghdad by shallow-draft vessels, but rafts are needed for transport upstream to
Mosul. River trade declined in importance during the
20th century as the Basra-Baghdad-Mosul
railway and roads took over much of the freight traffic.
Management and water quality
The Tigris is heavily
dammed in Iraq and Turkey, to provide water for irrigating the arid and semi-desert regions bordering the river valley. Damming has also been important for averting floods in Iraq, to which the Tigris has historically been notoriously prone following snowmelt in the Turkish mountains around April. Recent Turkish damming of the river has been the subject of some controversy, both for its environmental effects within Turkey and its potential to reduce the flow of water downstream.
Coalition forces destroyed Iraq's water treatment plants during the 1990
Gulf War, affecting the water quality of the Tigris.
Since the
2003 invasion of Iraq the Coalition claims the Tigris has seen significant
water quality improvement in Iraq due to efforts of the
United States of America in rehabilitating and expanding
sewage treatment plants. No independent verification has occurred due to the poor security situation.
[1]
Biblical references
In the
Book of Genesis, the Tigris is one of the four rivers branching off the river issuing out of the
Garden of Eden. The prophet
Daniel is said to have received his visions on the banks of the Tigris.
References
1. F. Delitzsch, ''Sumerisches Glossar'', Leipzig (1914), IV, 6, 21.
2. E. Laroche, ''Glossaire de la langue Hourrite'', Paris (1980), p. 55.
See also
★
Assyria
★
Cradle of civilization
★
Euphrates
★
Ilisu Dam Campaign campaign against a planned dam on Tigris in Turkey
★
List of places in Iraq
★
Mesopotamia
★
Tigris-Euphrates alluvial salt marsh
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