Summarize - Book Report/Review Example

Data Summary Different world cities have their own distinct history, and some cities are more popular than others. This might be drawn from their history or their present function. People place great importance on the most popular ancient cities. For instance, the ancient city of Mesopotamia is still remembered for different reasons. Different scholars in the past and present have devoted their time to study the circumstances that surrounded Mesopotamia and its purpose in the ancient times. Nonetheless, the ancient city of Mesopotamia attracts great interest, as this was the first city to adopt civilization.

This essay offers a summary of page 15 of the book “Middle Eastern Cities: A Symposium on Ancient, Islamic, and Contemporary Middle Eastern Urbanism,” by Lapidus Ira Marvin, which was published in 1969. This page mainly focuses on the city of Sippar, and explores whether it is typical of Mesopotamia. There is an expansion of the summary, as other similar thoughts, by different authors, on the text are integrated into the summary. Mesopotamia was believed to have many cities. Therefore, it could have been possible to learn the history of urbanization and characteristics of Mesopotamia by studying its different cities.

However, although these cities shared similar characteristics, one of them comes out as marginal, as it does not share similar characteristics with the other cities. This city is Sippar. This therefore, raises the question, “Is Sippar typical of Mesopotamia, for Babylon, even for Northern Babylon?” (Lapidus 15).Different aspects make Sippar marginal. First, this city was characterized by a public granary, which other cities lacked. In addition, in Sippar, contracts dealing with the sale of houses, described houses as “ezibtu,” an indigenous word that means left behind.

This might have special connotations about the city. Furthermore, land in Sippar could not be sold to strangers. This was not until when economic pressures compromised this directive. A major requirement had made real estate dealers in Sippar to be reluctant to sell all of their land, because in order to be fully realized as a citizen, you had to own a part of ezibtu. Nonetheless, this practice was unique to the other cities. These are among the major aspects that put a doubt on whether Sippar was typical of Mesopotamia.

While I only summarized the topic about Sippar, I expanded on the ideas with some additional research. I found two major books that addressed a related topic. These include “Mesopotamia Before History” by Charvat Petr and “Mesopotamia: The Worlds Earliest Civilization” by Kuiper Kathleen. The former explores the region of Mesopotamia as it were between the Palaeolithic period to the period of early states, 100,000 BC to 2334 BC. The author supplements the descriptions in the book by different archaeological sites and significant developments and changes.

Focus is on major cities, including Sippar, and their characteristics. From this, it is possible to determine whether Sippar was typical of Mesopotamia or not. In the latter, the author explores the region of Mesopotamia as an early civilization. Focus is on major developments in the region, culture, and major cities such as Sippar. Comparison of cultures and developments of different cities in this book can also lead to a revelation of the marginalization of Sippar city from other cities in terms of its practices and civilization.

Furthermore, the work by Mahmood explores the city of Sippar including its different characteristics. Major effort is put in finding out whether or not ancient Sippar-Jahrurum and ancient Sippar-Amnânum represented two major cities or one large city. In another article by Adams Robert. “Mesopotamian City and its Hinterlands,” major focus is on Mesopotamia and its cities, including their geography, climate, civilizations, and environment, among others. From this, it is possible to analyze the cities that showed great resemblances, and those that were dissimilar.

Nonetheless, this also paints Sippar city as quite dissimilar from other Mesopotamian cities. In conclusion, although Sippar is considered one of the major cities in Mesopotamia, different aspects that characterize it are dissimilar to other cities within Mesopotamia. This therefore, raises considerable doubts on whether Sippar was typical of Mesopotamia. It is not possible to clear these doubts, since no research has been conducted on the contemporary cities. Nonetheless, the evidence from ancient past is considered too narrow to reflect on a civilization as complex as Mesopotamia.

Works CitedAdams, Robert. “Mesopotamian City and its Hinterlands.” n.d. Viewed 7 October 2013 < http://cdli.ucla.edu/files/publications/cdlj2008_001.pdf > Charvat Petr. “Mesopotamia Before History.” London: Routledge, 2013.Kuiper Kathleen. “Mesopotamia: The Worlds Earliest Civilization.” New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2010Lapidus Marvin. “Middle Eastern Cities: A Symposium on Ancient, Islamic, and Contemporary Middle Eastern Urbanism.” New York: University of California Press, 1969.

Mohmood Lina. “Two Cities of Sippar: Tell Abu-Habbah and Tell ed-Der.” 2006. Viewed 7 October 2013