Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/58

Rh 48 MESOPOTAMIA the ruins of HAERAN (see vol. xi. p. 454). In the Mongolian period Harran fell into decay, and at present it is a mere heap of ruins. A third town of this region is Serug (Gen. xi. 20) ; in the Greek period it was called Batne, but the Syrians retained the name Serug, which is still in use (Seruj). The town lies between Harran and the Euphrates, in a plain to which it gives its name. On the left bank of the Euphrates lay Apamea (the modern Birejik), connected with Zeugma on the other side by a bridge, and farther south, at the mouth of the Bilechas (modern Belik), was the trading town and fortress Nicephorium, founded by command of Alexander, and completed by Seleucus Nicator, in memory of whose victory it was named. From the emperor Leo it received the designation Leonto- polis. The spot is now known as Rakka (see below). Farther up the fruitful valley of the Belik lay the town of Ichnae (Chne). Farther south lay Circesium (Chaboras of Ptolemy, Phaleg of Isidor), not to be identified, as is usually assumed, with Carchemish ; from the time of Diocletian it was strongly fortified. The site is at present occupied by a wretched place of the name Karkisiya. Carchemish probably lay near the bridge of Membij, the present Kalat el-Nejm. In ancient times a highly nourishing district must have stretched along the river Chaboras (Khabiir) to its principal source at Ras-ain (&quot;Fountain-head,&quot; Syr. RisKaina, the Rhesgena of Ptolemy), a town which was for some time called Theodosiopolis, because after 380 A.D. it was extended and embellished by Theodosius. Justinian fortified it. The strip of completely desert country which now stretches along the lower course of the Khabiir was called in antiquity Gauzanitis, and corresponds to the Gozan of 2 Kings xviii. 6 (Guzana or Guzanu in the cuneiform inscriptions). The country to the east of the upper Khabur is in many respects similar to that which has just been described. As the watershed of the Tigris is not far distant, the Masius range sends down into Mesopotamia only insignificant streams, the most important being the Hermas, the Mygdonius of the Greeks. On its banks was situated Nisibis, the chief city of the district, which commanded the great road at the foot of the mountains leading through the steppe, which here from the scarcity of water comes close up to the edge of the hills. In the old Assyrian empire Nasibina was the seat of one of the four great administrative officials. In the time of the Seleucids the site was occupied by the nourishing Greek colony of Antiochia Mygdonia ; but the new designation, transferred to the river and the vicinity of Nisibis from the Mace donian district of Mygdonia, afterwards passed out of use. Nisibis was an important trading city, and played a great part in the wars of the Romans against the Persians. Captured by Lucullus, surrendered by Tigranes, recovered by Trajan, again abandoned by Hadrian, once more occu pied under Lucius Verus, and strongly fortified by Severus, it was at length raised to be the capital of the province, and remained the frontier fortress of the Romans till in the time of Jovian it was ceded to the Persians. After the loss of Nisibis the emperor Anastasius in 507 founded to the north-west the fortress of Dane or Daras (the modern Dara), also called Anastasiopolis, which from the reign of Justinian, who increased its strength, remained for a time the residence of the dux Mesopotamia. Besides these strongholds, many fortified posts were established by the Byzantine empire in this district. Antoninopolis must be mentioned as an important town ; this was refortified by Constantino under the name of Constantia, and has left its ruins near Tela between Harran and Nisibis. Mardin too was a fortress of a similar kind, and the town of Singara, at the southern foot of the mountain of the same name, was an advanced post of the Roman power. The south or steppe portion of Mesopotamia was from early times the roaming-ground of Arabic tribes ; for Xenophon gives the name of Arabia to the district on the left bank of the Euphrates to the west of the Khabur ; and elsewhere it is frequently stated that the interior at a distance from the rivers was a steppe inhabited by Arabes Scenitae (Tent Arabs). Along the bank of the two great rivers ran a belt of cultivated country, and the rocky islands of the Euphrates were also occupied by a settled population. On the Euphrates, beginning towards the north, we must mention first Zaitah or Zautha, south-east of Circesium; next Corsothe, at the mouth of the Mascash; then Anatho or Anathan, the modern Ana ; and finally Is (Hit). On the Tigris the point of most importance is Carnse v (Katvat of the Anabasis), south from the mouth of the Great Zab near the present Kal at Sherkat ; and not far distant towards the interior was Atrse or Hatrse, also called Hatra, the chief town of the Arab tribe of the Atreni. It was besieged without success by Trajan and Severus ; by the 4th century it was already destroyed ; but tho interesting ruins, which can scarcely be visited owing to the plundering habits of the Bedouins, still bear the namo of El-Hadhr. They lie in the heart of the steppe, and were formerly well supplied with water. All these districts came in 640 A.D., or perhaps a little earlier, into the power of the Arabs, who named them Jezira (island) or Jeziret Akur, 1 and divided them according to tribes into three portions, the land of Bekr, of Rebi a, and of Modhar. The district of Modhar ran along the side of the Euphrates, and its chief towns were Orfa and Rakka ; the district of Rebi a comprised the plain of Mosul as far as the country on the Khabur (chief towns Mosul and Nisibis), and the district of Bekr (Diyar Bekr) the more mountainous country to the west of the upper Tigris (chief town Amid or Diarbekr). In general the Arabs consider a part of the mountain territories which lie between the two rivers to belong to Jezira, as is best seen from the following notice given by Abulfeda: &quot;El-Jezi ra is the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates, yet many places on the other side of the Euphrates, which properly belong to Syria, are also included, as well as places and even dis tricts on the east side of the Tigris. The exact boundary line thus runs from Malatia by Sumeisat, Kal at er-Rum (Rum-Kala of tho maps), and Bire (Birejik) to the point opposite Membij, and then by Balis, Er-Rakka, Karkisiya, Er-Rahaba (on right bank), and Hit to Anbdr. Here the Euphrates ceases to form the boundary, which runs across to the Tigris in the direction of Tekri t, and ascends the Tigris as far as Es-Sinn (Senna) to El-IIaditha and Mosul, thence to Jeziret ibn Omar, then to Diarbekr, and so back to Malatia.&quot; From the Arabic geographers and travellers we gain the impression that a great part of Mesopotamia, with the ex ception of the southern steppe of course, must at that timo have been in a very flourishing condition; the neighbourhood of Nisibis especially is celebrated as a very paradise. In fact it is only since the Turkish conquest of the country under Sultan Selim in 1515 that it has turned into a desert and gradually lost its fertility. As the nomadic Arabs have continually extended their encroachments, agriculture has been forced to withdraw into the mountains ; and this is especially true of the western portions of Mesopotamia, the district of Ras-ain, and the plain of Harran and Seruj, where huge mounds give evidence that the w r hole country was once covered with towns and villages. Under the Turks El-Jezira does not form a political unity, but be longs to different pashaliks. From this brief survey it appears that Mesopotamia, like Syria, constitutes an intermediate territory between the great eastern and western monarchies, Syria inclining 1 Philostratus (c. 200 A.D.) already reports that the Arabs called Mesopotamia vr/cros.