Great Zab

Location of the Great Zab and the Little Zab river system in the Shatt al-Arab

Great Zab

Template: Infobox River / Obsolete

The Great Zab, and Upper Zab (Arabic الزاب الاعلى, DMG az Zab al -A ʿ lā, Kurdish: ze Gewre, Persian زاب بزرگ; Zab -e Bozorg, Syriac Aramaic: ܙ ܒ ܐ ܥ ܠ ܝ ܐ; Zawa ` Elaya, Turkish: Büyükzap Suyu, Greek Λύκος, Lykos; Latin: Lycus, unclear language according Akkadian sources: Elamunia ), is a river and springs in southeastern Turkey, from where it flows into the Tigris 426 km south of Mosul in Iraq.

It forms approximately the limit of the inhabited part of Kurds of Iraq. On January 16, 750 was the Zab scene of a battle between the Abbasids and the Umayyads. The Abbasids under Abu al - Abbas as- Saffah defeated the Umayyads under Marwan II decisively and thus brought about a change in the dynasty of caliphs.

On both sides of the Great Zab lived until 1915 in Hakkari most strains of the Christian Assyrians.

At the Great Zab Bekhme the dam was begun with the construction. The work is interrupted, however, the continued construction uncertain.