Changes in the Euphrates River: Ecology and Politics in a Rural Ottoman Periphery, 1687–1702

Between 1687 and 1702, the Euphrates River changed course and jeopardized the stability of the eastern Ottoman Empire when a large segment of it changed course. The abrupt channel shift became entangled in a complex web of troubles (climatic, epidemiological, political, and financial) that reinforced each other and left behind a profoundly altered ecological and political landscape in a rural region southwest of Baghdad. It facilitated the fall of a traditional center of power in the region and accelerated the rise of the Khaza’il tribe.