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The Tigris ( ; see below) is the eastern of the two great that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian Desert and , before merging with the Euphrates and reaching to the Persian Gulf.
The Tigris passes through historical cities like Mosul, Tikrit, Samarra, and Baghdad. It is also home to archaeological sites and ancient religious communities, including the Mandaeans, who use it for Masbuta. In ancient times, the Tigris nurtured the Assyria, with remnants like the relief of King Tiglath-Pileser.
Today, the Tigris faces modern threats from geopolitical instability, dam projects, poor water management, and climate change, leading to concerns about its sustainability. Efforts to protect and preserve the river's legacy are ongoing, with local archaeologists and activists working to safeguard its future.
In Kurdish languages, it is known as , "the Great Water".
The name of the Tigris in languages that have been important in the region:
| Akkadian | , |
| Arabic | دِجلَة, ; حُدَاقِل, Ḥudāqil |
| Aramaic | דיגלת, |
| Armenian | Տիգրիս, , Դգլաթ, |
| Ancient Greek | ἡ Τίγρης]], -ητος, ; ἡ, ὁ Τίγρις, -ιδος, |
| Hebrew language | חִדֶּקֶל, Genesis 2:14 |
| Hurrian language | E. Laroche, Glossaire de la langue Hourrite, Paris (1980), p. 55. |
| Persian language | Tigrā; Middle Persian: Tigr; Dejle |
| Sumerian | |
| Syriac language | ܕܸܩܠܵܬܼ |
| Turkish language | Dicle |
| Kurdish | Dîcle, Dijlê, دیجلە |
Close to its confluence with the Euphrates, the Tigris splits into several channels. First, the artificial Shatt al-Hayy branches off, to join the Euphrates near Nasiriyah. Second, the Shatt al-Muminah and Majar al-Kabir branch off to feed the Central Marshes. Further downstream, two other distributary channels branch off (the Al-Musharrah and Al-Kahla), to feed the Hawizeh Marshes. The main channel continues southwards and is joined by the Al-Kassarah, which drains the Hawizeh Marshes. Finally, the Tigris joins the Euphrates near al-Qurnah to form the Shatt-al-Arab. According to Pliny and other ancient historians, the Euphrates originally had its outlet into the sea separate from that of the Tigris.Pliny: Natural History, VI, XXVI, 128-131
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 . Notable Tigris-side cities included Nineveh, Ctesiphon, and Seleucia, while the city of Lagash was irrigated by the Tigris via a canal dug around 2900 B.C.
.Larsen, M.T., The Conquest of Assyria: Excavations in an Antique Land , Routledge, 2014, pp 344-49
Recent Turkish damming of the river has been the subject of some controversy, for both its environmental effects within Turkey and its potential to reduce the flow of water downstream.
Water from both rivers is used as a means of pressure during conflicts.Vidal, John. " Water supply key to the outcome of conflicts in Iraq and Syria, experts warn", The Guardian, 2 July 2014. .
In 2014 a major breakthrough in developing consensus between multiple stakeholder representatives of Iraq and Turkey on a Plan of Action for promoting exchange and calibration of data and standards pertaining to Tigris river flows was achieved. The consensus, known as the "Geneva Consensus On Tigris River", was reached at a meeting organized in Geneva by the think tank Strategic Foresight Group.
In February 2016, the United States Embassy in Iraq as well as the Prime Minister of Iraq Haider al-Abadi issued warnings that Mosul Dam could collapse. The United States warned people to evacuate the floodplain of the Tigris because between 500,000 and 1.5 million people were at risk of drowning due to flash flood if the dam collapses, and that the major Iraqi cities of Mosul, Tikrit, Samarra, and Baghdad were at risk.
In Hittites and Hurrian mythology, Aranzah (or Aranzahas in the Hittite language nominative form) is the Hurrian name of the Tigris River, which was deified. He was the son of Kumarbi and the brother of Teshub and Tašmišu, one of the three gods spat out of Kumarbi's mouth onto Mount Kanzuras. Later he colluded with Anu and the Teshub to destroy Kumarbi (The Kumarbi Cycle).
The Tigris appears twice in the Old Testament. First, in the Book of Genesis, it is the third of the four rivers branching off the river issuing out of the Garden of Eden. The second mention is in the Book of Daniel, wherein Daniel states he received one of his visions "when I was by that great river the Tigris".Daniel 10:4
The Tigris River is also mentioned in Islam in Sunan Abi Daud 4306. The tomb of Imam Ahmad Bin Hanbal and Syed Abdul Razzaq Jilani is in Baghdad and the flow of Tigris restricts the number of visitors.
Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, also wrote The Hidden Words around 1858 while he walked along the banks of the Tigris river during his exile in Baghdad.
The river featured on the coat of arms of Iraq from 1932 to 1959.
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