In the chap­ter titled “By the Riv­er Tigris, 1872,” the nar­ra­tive unfolds dur­ing the Yazi­di fes­ti­val “Çarşe­ma Sor,” known as ‘Red Wednes­day,’ mark­ing the arrival of spring and new begin­nings. The vil­lagers of Zêrav engage in tra­di­tion­al cel­e­bra­tions by paint­ing eggs, clean­ing homes, and mak­ing can­dles from sheep fat. The atmos­phere is fes­tive, yet Arthur, an out­sider from Eng­land, finds him­self in a cul­tur­al jux­ta­po­si­tion, as he explains that his New Year comes in the dead of win­ter, elic­it­ing polite curios­i­ty from the local chil­dren.

As the cel­e­bra­tion reach­es its peak on the sev­enth sun­set, Arthur is invit­ed to the sheikh’s house, an unusu­al hon­or for an out­sider. He observes as the vil­lagers lay out food, and the scent of rose­mary and sage fills the air. Among the atten­dees is Leila, a faqra, who begins to per­form rit­u­al­is­tic div­ina­tion with her daf. The scene esca­lates when Leila enters a trance and sings a haunt­ing melody that tran­scends time. Arthur is cap­ti­vat­ed yet deeply unset­tled when she starts utter­ing omi­nous prophe­cies that pre­dict a mas­sacre of the Yazi­di peo­ple.

Her intense behav­ior shifts to despair as she cries out “Fir­man,” which not only sig­ni­fies per­mis­sion but omi­nous­ly con­veys a license for vio­lence against her com­mu­ni­ty. The chill­ing specifics of the prophe­cy detail impend­ing destruc­tion and loss, includ­ing the oblit­er­a­tion of sacred sites and a warn­ing to escape to the moun­tains when the dan­ger­ous forces arrive.

As the moment lingers in silence, the chil­dren return to the joy of the fes­tiv­i­ties, unaware of the dark­ness shared in their brief absence. Arthur, unable to sleep that night, grap­ples with a heavy sense of fore­bod­ing and the bur­dens of his­to­ry that weigh upon the Yazidis. The rem­nants of Nin­eveh haunt him as he con­sid­ers the painful truth of prophet­ic knowl­edge. He won­ders whether it is bet­ter to remain in bliss­ful igno­rance rather than face the grim real­i­ties of their doomed future. The chap­ter clos­es with an eerie feel­ing of impend­ing change, mir­rored in nature around him, sug­gest­ing a loom­ing cat­a­stro­phe on the hori­zon.

In an evoca­tive scene by the Riv­er Tigris in 1872, Leila accom­pa­nies Arthur to his exca­va­tion site, shar­ing her beliefs about spir­i­tu­al con­nec­tions with­in the Yazi­di cul­ture. She speaks of the con­cept of “axiretê,” or the next world, empha­siz­ing that every Yazi­di should have a spir­i­tu­al sib­ling to rely on. Leila shares a play­ful thought about her own “heav­en­ly sis­ter” liv­ing upstream, whom she humor­ous­ly sug­gests would trans­form into water after death to meet her again. Arthur, how­ev­er, feels dis­com­fort about the dis­cus­sion of death, par­tic­u­lar­ly after Leila’s unset­tling div­ina­tion. He strug­gles with his emo­tions, wish­ing to com­fort her but restrained by the strict Yazi­di codes.

Arthur reveals to Leila his own loss, hav­ing had a younger broth­er die from con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed water—a tragedy he hasn’t for­giv­en him­self for. This shared sor­row deep­ens their con­nec­tion as Leila lis­tens with com­pas­sion. The nar­ra­tive quick­ly shifts as Arthur receives an urgent sum­mons from the Pasha of Mosul, which he must heed. At the pasha’s res­i­dence, he faces scruti­ny for his asso­ci­a­tion with the Yazidis, labeled as “hea­thens” and “dev­il-wor­ship­pers.” Despite the pasha’s mock­ing demeanor, Arthur defends the Yazi­di peo­ple, indi­cat­ing his desire to learn their lan­guage from the chil­dren in the vil­lage.

The pasha, eager to exert author­i­ty, ques­tions Arthur’s motives for the exca­va­tion and insin­u­ates that he seeks not just a poem but also pow­er and fame. The arrival of the high qadi inten­si­fies the atmos­phere, as the qadi express­es dis­dain for the Yazidis and cold­ly explains that lying to them is per­mis­si­ble. Arthur’s heart races with con­cern for the Yazidis as he sens­es the dan­ger encroach­ing upon them.

Dis­turbed by the pasha’s words, Arthur returns to the vil­lage after being sum­moned, con­tem­plat­ing whether to share his trou­bling expe­ri­ences with the sheikh’s fam­i­ly. Lat­er, while exam­in­ing his new­ly unearthed tablets, he dis­cov­ers a vital piece of the Flood Tablet, ignit­ing hope for his research. As he con­tem­plates his suc­cess deep into the night, his thoughts stray to Leila, whom he real­izes he has feel­ings for, result­ing in an intro­spec­tive mono­logue about love and con­nec­tion. The chap­ter cul­mi­nates in a poignant moment as Leila, in a dream­like state, kiss­es Arthur on the cheek, leav­ing him both elat­ed and appre­hen­sive about their del­i­cate bond.

In 1872, Arthur finds him­self on a mound in Nin­eveh, sur­vey­ing the chaot­ic rem­nants of ancient archae­ol­o­gy where local peo­ple have scav­enged stones from his­toric walls. He over­sees thir­ty labor­ers who toil beneath the relent­less sun, their sounds rem­i­nis­cent of a speed­ing train, cre­at­ing a steady rhythm of exca­va­tion. How­ev­er, the harsh real­i­ties of their work weigh upon him, as he wor­ries about the dwin­dling funds to pay the labor­ers. Despite the exhaus­tion, Arthur retreats to a makeshift tent dur­ing the heat of the day to study cuneiform tablets, dri­ven by the deter­mi­na­tion to recov­er lost lit­er­ary trea­sures.

His curios­i­ty leads him to dis­cov­er rem­nants of an ancient boat­yard, hint­ing at for­got­ten har­bors beneath the parched land­scape. Once a thriv­ing trade hub, the area is now cov­ered by time’s pass­ing and human neglect. Arthur reflects on the his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance of the region, par­tic­u­lar­ly on the ini­tial dis­cov­er­ies made in Ashurbanipal’s palace, where tablets were over­shad­owed by the glam­our of stat­ues, lead­ing to their mis­man­age­ment and neglect.

He learns that arte­facts unearthed have often suf­fered dam­age dur­ing ear­li­er exca­va­tions due to chaot­ic meth­ods and a lack of care. The rival­ry between French and British teams com­pels them to rush their find­ings to Europe, feed­ing an insa­tiable desire for Mesopotami­an antiq­ui­ties, inten­si­fy­ing their com­pe­ti­tion. The trag­ic inci­dent of an attacked trans­port ship reveals the per­il in retriev­ing his­tor­i­cal trea­sures, as the arte­facts des­tined for Europe sink into the Tigris Riv­er.

Arthur, feel­ing a mix of humil­i­ty and con­fu­sion, pon­ders the lega­cy of past civ­i­liza­tions. He con­tem­plates the ephemer­al­i­ty of grandeur, real­iz­ing that behind every tri­umph lies a neglect­ed side steeped in bru­tal­i­ty. Each evening, he returns to the Yazi­di vil­lage, form­ing bonds with its inhab­i­tants, par­tic­u­lar­ly with Leila, the faqra, who shares enchant­i­ng sto­ries and music. Her pres­ence cap­ti­vates him, pulling him into a nar­ra­tive that thrives sole­ly through oral tradition—an intrigu­ing con­trast to his schol­ar­ly pur­suits of writ­ten texts. Arthur’s evenings merge with Leila’s tales of water, draw­ing him deep­er into the Yazidis’ vibrant cul­tur­al fab­ric, forg­ing con­nec­tions and insights that enrich his under­stand­ing of their her­itage amidst the rem­nants of ancient civ­i­liza­tions.

In the vil­lage of Zêrav, Arthur is warm­ly wel­comed by curi­ous chil­dren and elder­ly men, includ­ing a sheikh in white attire who car­ries an intri­cate­ly designed cane. After express­ing grat­i­tude for their hos­pi­tal­i­ty, Arthur and his guide are led to the sheikh’s home, where they are offered goat’s milk and a lav­ish din­ner fea­tur­ing chick­en biryani and kub­ba Mosul. The sheikh con­veys that every guest is con­sid­ered God-sent, mak­ing Arthur grate­ful he chose to vis­it.

Dur­ing din­ner, Arthur observes his guide’s reluc­tance to par­take in the meal, which pro­vokes an unex­pect­ed appetite in him. Arthur express­es sym­pa­thy towards the sheikh regard­ing the neg­a­tive per­cep­tions some hold about his vil­lage, to which the sheikh replies with resilience, acknowl­edg­ing life’s unfair­ness but affirm­ing their strength as a com­mu­ni­ty.

Post-din­ner, while sip­ping cof­fee, the sheikh warns Arthur about the local Pasha of Mosul, who sees his arrival as an oppor­tu­ni­ty for wealth. Con­fi­dent­ly, Arthur clar­i­fies his true inten­tion: find­ing an ancient poem relat­ed to the Great Flood. The sheikh assures him he is in the right place, steeped in his­to­ry linked to the Ark and the Del­uge.

As the evening pro­gress­es, the sheikh inquires about Arthur’s per­son­al life. Arthur reveals he has a fiancée but bat­tles an inter­nal con­flict regard­ing his emo­tions, feel­ing drawn irre­sistibly by a ‘ghost riv­er’ away from per­son­al ties. He meets the sheikh’s adopt­ed daugh­ter, Leila, who is iden­ti­fied as a faqra, pos­sess­ing a unique spir­i­tu­al insight into the world.

That night, Arthur has a rest­less sleep due to a strange rustling out­side. He glimpses Leila sleep­walk­ing, serv­ing as an enig­mat­ic con­nec­tion to deep­er truths. The next day, he wakes to the laugh­ter of chil­dren and dis­cov­ers his guide has left. The vil­lagers offer a delight­ful break­fast while Dis­han, the sheikh’s son, steps in to assist Arthur as a new trans­la­tor.

Arthur express­es a desire to start exca­vat­ing near the archae­o­log­i­cal site of Ni-ne-veh. The sheikh gen­er­ous­ly invites Arthur to stay while he works, empha­siz­ing a belief that shar­ing food enhances its val­ue. Ener­gized by this warm­ly received invi­ta­tion and hope­ful about his mis­sion, Arthur looks for­ward to exca­vat­ing Kouyun­jik, where lay­ers of his­to­ry await him beneath the sur­face, as he recon­nects with the essence of an ancient world.

In the chap­ter titled “By the Riv­er Tigris, 1872,” Arthur embarks on a chal­leng­ing jour­ney from Con­stan­tino­ple to Mosul, cov­er­ing almost 900 miles. As he nav­i­gates through Mesopotamia, he grap­ples with its com­plex tapes­try of reli­gions and cul­tures, observ­ing the stark dif­fer­ences among peo­ple from the same region. In spite of the bewil­der­ment, he finds famil­iar­i­ty in the ancient land­scape, recall­ing images from his read­ings of ancient civilizations—irrigation canals, reed-based homes, and a sense of time­less­ness envelop­ing the past.

Dur­ing a stay at Jacob’s Inn near the Tigris, Arthur is humor­ous­ly crit­i­cized by a friend for the ined­i­ble meal served, high­light­ing the cul­tur­al quirks of his trav­els. The term “Ori­ent” per­plex­es him, lead­ing him to reflect on Napoleon’s his­tor­i­cal cam­paigns and his fas­ci­na­tion with the Mid­dle East. Napoleon’s mis­sion suf­fused with Enlight­en­ment ideals con­trasts stark­ly with the real­i­ties of the region, hint­ing at deep­er con­flicts between East­ern and West­ern per­spec­tives.

As Arthur trav­els along the Tigris, which he per­ceives as more unpre­dictable than the Nile, he con­tem­plates its his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance, filled with both beau­ty and feroc­i­ty. The riv­er serves as a liv­ing mem­o­ry, and its cur­rents remind him of the fragili­ty of life and his­to­ry alike. Images of ancient pros­per­i­ty jux­ta­posed with cur­rent pover­ty haunt him, sig­ni­fy­ing the stark real­i­ties that have shaped the land­scape.

Upon arriv­ing in Mosul, Arthur attends a ban­quet host­ed by the pasha, where cul­tur­al mis­un­der­stand­ings sur­face, par­tic­u­lar­ly when he fails to respond to the pasha’s implied expec­ta­tions. The inter­ac­tion is laced with ten­sion as the pasha’s scruti­ny ampli­fies Arthur’s dis­com­fort. His Lev­an­tine friend warns him of the pasha’s sus­pi­cions regard­ing his inten­tions in the region, as he attempts to remain stead­fast in his pur­pose of uncov­er­ing and pre­serv­ing antiq­ui­ties.

Despite the swirling doubts about his motives as a for­eign archae­ol­o­gist, Arthur’s excite­ment reignites as he approach­es the leg­endary ruins of Nin­eveh. The chap­ter con­cludes with Arthur insist­ing on a short­cut that leads him to a vil­lage called Zêrav, whose dark rep­u­ta­tion rais­es the guide’s con­cerns about dev­il-wor­ship­pers. Arthur’s deter­mi­na­tion is pal­pa­ble, set­ting the stage for antic­i­pat­ed con­flicts in a land steeped in sto­ried his­to­ry and present dan­gers.

Wait­ing ai

Wait­ing ai

Wait­ing ai

Wait­ing ai

Wait­ing ai