Editing Euphrates (section)

=== Ancient history ===
<!-- deleted file removed [[File:The ancient city of Mari.jpg|thumb|Artist's impression of [[Mari, Syria|Mari]] during the 3rd–2nd millennia BCE|alt=A wide valley with a meandering river and a straight canal branching off and flowing through a circular city with two concentric city walls, surrounded by agricultural fields]]-->
During the [[Jemdet Nasr period|Jemdet Nasr]] (3600–3100 BCE) and [[Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia)|Early Dynastic periods]] (3100–2350 BCE), southern Mesopotamia experienced a growth in the number and size of settlements, suggesting strong population growth. These settlements, including [[Sumero-Akkadian]] sites like [[Sippar]], Uruk, [[Adab (city)|Adab]] and [[Kish (Sumer)|Kish]], were organized in competing [[city-state]]s.<ref>{{harvnb|Adams|1981}}</ref> Many of these cities were located along canals of the Euphrates and the Tigris that have since dried up, but that can still be identified from [[remote sensing]] imagery.<ref>{{harvnb|Hritz|Wilkinson|2006}}</ref> A similar development took place in [[Upper Mesopotamia]], [[Subartu]] and [[Assyria]], although only from the mid 3rd millennium and on a smaller scale than in Lower Mesopotamia. Sites like [[Ebla]], [[Mari, Syria|Mari]] and [[Tell Leilan]] grew to prominence for the first time during this period.<ref name=akkermansschwartz233>{{harvnb|Akkermans|Schwartz|2003|p=233}}</ref>

Large parts of the Euphrates basin were for the first time united under a single ruler during the [[Akkadian Empire]] (2335–2154 BC) and [[Third Dynasty of Ur|Ur III]] empires, which controlled – either directly or indirectly through vassals – large parts of modern-day Iraq and northeastern Syria.<ref name=vandemieroop63>{{harvnb|van de Mieroop|2007|p=63}}</ref> Following their collapse, the [[Old Assyrian Empire]] (1975–1750 BCE) and Mari asserted their power over northeast Syria and northern Mesopotamia, while southern Mesopotamia was controlled by city-states like [[Isin]], [[Kish (Sumer)|Kish]] and [[Larsa]] before their territories were absorbed by the newly emerged state of [[Babylonia]] under [[Hammurabi]] in the early to mid 18th century BCE.<ref name=vandemieroop111>{{harvnb|van de Mieroop|2007|p=111}}</ref>

In the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE, the Euphrates basin was divided between [[Kassites|Kassite]] Babylon in the south and [[Mitanni]], Assyria and the [[Hittites|Hittite Empire]] in the north, with the [[Middle Assyrian Empire]] (1365–1020 BC) eventually eclipsing the Hittites, Mitanni and Kassite Babylonians.<ref name=vandemieroop132>{{harvnb|van de Mieroop|2007|p=132}}</ref> Following the end of the Middle Assyrian Empire in the late 11th century BCE, struggles broke out between Babylonia and Assyria over the control of the Iraqi Euphrates basin. The [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]] (935–605 BC) eventually emerged victorious out of this conflict and also succeeded in gaining control of the northern Euphrates basin in the first half of the 1st millennium BCE.<ref name=vandemieroop241>{{harvnb|van de Mieroop|2007|p=241}}</ref>

In the centuries to come, control of the wider Euphrates basin shifted from the Neo-Assyrian Empire (which collapsed between 612 and 599 BC) to the short lived [[Median Empire]] (612–546 BC) and equally brief [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]] (612–539 BC) in the last years of the 7th century BC, and eventually to the [[Achaemenid Empire]] (539–333 BC).<ref name=vandemieroop270>{{harvnb|van de Mieroop|2007|p=270}}</ref> The Achaemenid Empire was in turn overrun by [[Alexander the Great]], who defeated the last king [[Darius III of Persia|Darius III]] and died in Babylon in 323 BCE.<ref name=vandemieroop286>{{harvnb|van de Mieroop|2007|p=287}}</ref>

Subsequent to this, the region came under the control of the [[Seleucid Empire]] (312–150 BC), [[Parthian Empire]] (150–226 AD) (during which several [[Neo-Assyrian]] states such as [[Adiabene]] came to rule certain regions of the Euphrates), and was fought over by the [[Roman Empire]], its succeeding [[Byzantine Empire]] and the [[Sassanid Empire]] (226–638 AD), until the [[Early Muslim conquests|Islamic conquest]] of the mid 7th century AD. The [[Battle of Karbala]] took place near the banks of this river in 680 AD.

In the north, the river served as a border between [[Kingdom of Armenia (antiquity)|Greater Armenia]] (331 BC–428 AD) and [[Lesser Armenia]] (the latter became a Roman province in the 1st century BC).