Page:An Essay on the Age and Antiquity of the Book of Nabathaean Agriculture.djvu/92

76 of the singularities which have led Dr. Chwolson to adopt his theory; and, 2nd, to explain how the composition of such writings was possible in Babylon, at the period which I have assigned to them.

Two strange peculiarities give an undoubted appearance of solidity to Dr. Chwolson’s hypothesis: the first is the term Canaanite, applied to the reigning dynasty of Babylon at the period of the composition of “The Book of Nabathæan Agriculture;” and the second, that there are names of Babylonian kings mentioned in the “Agriculture” which are not found in any known dynasty. The assertion of Kúthámí as to what concerns the Canaanite dynasty, is not so isolated as it appears at first sight. Many Arabian historians and geographers, some of whom are anterior to the Arabic translation of “The Book of Nabathæan Agriculture,” speak of Canaanite kings reigning at Babylon, and Nemrod is expressly mentioned as the founder of this dynasty, which they connect by the most