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.