Place · river

Great Zab

Also known as Upper Zab

The Great Zab is a river rising in the mountains of south-eastern Turkey and flowing through Iraqi Kurdistan to join the Tigris south of Mosul. Its valleys formed the heartland of Kurdish principalities such as Bahdinan and Soran. In 750 its banks saw the Battle of the Zab, in which the Abbasids defeated the last Umayyad caliph.

Great Zab
Image: jamesdale10 · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 2 profiles

Abbasid CaliphateFoundation, SummaryUmayyad CaliphateDecline, Summary

Mentioned in 2 state histories

Bahdinan emirateSoran emirate

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Great Zab. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/great-zab
MLA
“Great Zab.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/great-zab. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Great Zab.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/great-zab.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Great Zab’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/great-zab (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻