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A further distinction is usually made between Northern or [[Upper Mesopotamia]] and Southern or Lower Mesopotamia.<ref name=miqueletal>{{citation |last1=Miquel |first1=A. |last2=Brice |first2=W.C. |last3=Sourdel |first3=D. |last4=Aubin |first4=J. |last5=Holt |first5=P.M. |last6=Kelidar |first6=A. |last7=Blanc |first7=H. |last8=MacKenzie |first8=D.N. |last9=Pellat |first9=Ch. |editor1-first=P. |editor1-last=Bearman |editor2-first=Th. |editor2-last=Bianquis |editor3-first=C.E. |editor3-last=Bosworth |editor4-first=E. |editor4-last=van Donzel |editor5-first=W.P. |editor5-last=Heinrichs |editor3-link=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |title=Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition |year=2011 |publisher=Brill Online |location=Leiden |chapter=ʿIrāḳ |oclc=624382576 }}</ref> Upper Mesopotamia, also known as the ''Jazira'', is the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris from their sources down to [[Baghdad]].<ref name=canard/> Lower Mesopotamia consists of southern Iraq, [[Kuwait]] and parts of western Iran.<ref>{{Citation|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=nAemO6HmOgYC&pg=PA2 |title=Who Were The Babylonians?|work= Bill T. Arnold|year=2004|pages=2|postscript=}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Ix4X-0QykDAC&pg=PT108&dq |title=From Adam to Noah-The Numbers Game: Why the Genealogy Puzzles of Genesis 5|work= Leonard Timmons|year=2012|pages=|postscript=}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=K-4OtwAACAAJ&d |title=Southern Mesopotamia During the Bronze Age|work= Lisa E. Gross|year=2003|pages=|postscript=}}</ref> In modern academic usage, the term Mesopotamia often also has a chronological connotation. It is usually used to designate the area until the [[Muslim conquests]], with names like Syria, Jazirah, and Iraq being used to describe the region after that date.<ref name=fosterpolingerfoster/><ref name=bahrani>{{citation |last1=Bahrani |first1=Z. |editor1-last=Meskell |editor1-first=L. |title=Archaeology under fire: Nationalism, politics and heritage in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East |year=1998 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=978-0-415-19655-0 |pages=159–174 |chapter=Conjuring Mesopotamia: imaginative geography a world past }}</ref> It has been argued that these later euphemisms are [[Eurocentrism|Eurocentric]] terms attributed to the region in the midst of various 19th-century Western encroachments.<ref name=bahrani/><ref>Scheffler, Thomas; 2003. “ 'Fertile crescent', 'Orient', 'Middle East': the changing mental maps of Southeast Asia,” ''European Review of History'' 10/2: 253–272.</ref>

==Geography==