Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/61

Rh MESOPOTAMIA 51 from the Euphrates we must mention the Saklawi ye channel (Nahr Isa), the Nahr Melik, the Nahr Zemberanfye, and especially the Nahr-en-Ni l, constructed by the famous Omayyad governor Hajjaj. Eastwards from the Tigris strikes the great Nahrawan channel ; and right through the country of the two rivers runs the Shatt-el Hai from Kiit-el- Amara, almost due south to the Euphrates, parallel with the Shatt-el-Kehr. Many of these have been silted up ; from those, however, which are still maintained there is derived a considerable revenue, and by the restoration of many of the old channels, traces of which are met with at every step, the country might be again raised to that condition of high civilization which it enjoyed not only in antiquity but partly even in the time of the later caliphs. The classical writers are unanimous in their admiration of this country ; and it is at least certain that nowhere else in the whole world was the principle of the application of canals to the exigencies of agriculture worked out so successfully. The most luxuriant vegetation was diffused over the whole country ; and three crops were obtainable in the year. It is this alone which makes it intelligible how this region in the most remote antiquity attained a high civilization, and for centuries played, it may be said, one of the principal parts in the history of the world. In the matter of civilization, indeed, no country of the ancient world was its equal ; a multitude of great cities once flourished within its borders. Even the Arabic writers are unanimous in regard to the extremely favourable influence which the character of the country exercised on the intellectual activity, spirit, and capacity of its inhabitants. AVe need not here discuss the question recently started as to whether the Biblical garden of Eden is to be sought in this locality, two canals of the Euphrates and Tigris being identified with the Gihon and Pison of Gen. ii. ; but it is certain at least that this lower country of the two rivers might well pass in antiquity for the lie plus ultra of civilization, and exercised the most powerful political and intel lectual influence on the surrounding regions. The question often raised as to whether the Semites were derived from this district may also be left untouched. From the Bible we know that an ancient name of the district was Shinar, though this has not hitherto been discovered in the cuneiform inscriptions. The name Kush is applied in the Bible to its oldest non-Semitic inhabitants. The northern half of the country was called Akkad, the southern Sumer. But it must not be forgotten that the rivers never formed ethnographic and political boundaries ; and thus Sumer extended to the coast of the Persian Gulf and Akkad as far as the Lower Zab, the eastern affluent of the Tigris. As a less ancient designation of the whole country may be reckoned mat Kalda, the country of the Chaldeans (Hebr., ercts Kasdtm) ; originally Kalda is said to have designated central Babylonia. Of still later date is the name derived from the capital, the country of Babel (ercts Babel], as an equivalent of which mat Bdbtld appears in the cuneiform inscriptions (in the Darius lists Baliru}. From this was developed the Greek designation Babylonia, Ba0v&amp;lt;avta (as early as Xenophon). That the country was densely peopled may be gathered from the fact that about 704 B.C. eighty-nine fortified towns and eight hundred and twenty smaller places in the Chaldsean country were captured during one military expedition. Of separate districts of the country we may mention Karduniash, the district in the vicinity and especially to the north of Babylon ; and southward by the sea-coast the important country of Bit Yakin, governed by kings of its own. At a later date we find on the coast and at the mouth of the Pallacopas canal the maritime town of Teredon, which is also mentioned by the classical writers. Besides Babylon and Borsippa, the larger cities were the double city of Sippar (Sefarvayim, 2 Kings xvii. 24, 31) and Akkad on the left bank of the Euphrates on the present Nahr Isa ; Erech, i.e., Warka, on the left bank of the Euphrates; Ur on the Palla copas, not far from the place where the Shatt-el-Hai falls into the Tigris ; Nippur, i.e., Tell Niffer ; Kutha (2 Kings xvii. 24), Kalne (Gen. x. 10), in the north, Opis at the junction of the Adhem (Physcus) with the Tigris. Huge mounds give evidence of the extent of these cities. A number of the canals were navigable, and at the same time, when the bridges were destroyed, they formed defensive moats against the incursion of enemies from the north. And the same purpose was served by the great wall (after wards the Median Wall of the Greeks) which ran across the country from river to river between the points of their nearest approach. During the period of Greek domination a Greek city, Seleucia, which afterwards attained great prosperity, was founded by Seleucus I. in an extremely favourable situation on the right bank of the Tigris. In the south of the country, too, there was a Greek seaport town first called Alexandria on the Tigris and afterwards Antiochia. After the conquest of Babylonia by the Parthians (130 B.C.) a small Arabian kingdom grew up in those parts called Characene or Mesene, after the town of Chara or Maisan. It was under Parthian and for a time under Roman supremacy. The city of Vologesia, founded by Vologeses to the south-west of Babylon, near Ullais, in the neighbourhood of the later Kufa, was one of the capitals of the Parthian power. In the time of the Sasanids, too, as well as ill that of the Parthians, the country of the lower Euphrates and Tigris played a leading part ; it formed in fact the main centre of the Persian kingdom. The city of Ctesiphon, founded by the Greeks on the east side of the Tigris opposite Seleucia, was the winter residence of the Parthian kings, and the imperial capital of the Sasanids. Under the name of Madain (The Cities) it continued to flourish till the rise of Baghdad in the 9th century. The neighbourhood of Ctesiphon was called in the time of the Sasanids Suristan, a translation of the Aramaean desig nation Beth-Aramaye, &quot;country of the Syrians,&quot; for the land was mainly occupied by Aramaeans. By a notable substitution the Arabs afterwards gave the name Nabat, i.e., Nabataeans, to these Aranuean peasantry, who, it may be added, were already found in these parts at the time of the Babylonian empire. On the west side of the Tigris the Arab kingdom of Hi ra formed the bulwark of the Sasanid power. As the result mainly of the battle of Kadisiya (east of Hira) in 635 A.D., the whole of this wealthy country fell into the hands of the Moslems, and it soon con stituted the centre of their power, especially when the Abbasids, with true political insight, transferred thither the capital of the empire and founded Baghdad. The chief cities of the older Arabic period were Kufa (in the neighbourhood of the earlier Hira to the south of ancient Babylon) and Basra (or BVKSORAH, q.v. ) in the neighbourhood of the earlier Maisan. After these two cities the country was divided into the Sawad, &quot;rich arable district,&quot; of Basra and that of Kufa. Sawad was also employed as a name for the whole country ; and more or less identical with this designa tion is the name Irak still in use. Sometimes also the term Sawad- el- Irak is employed ; but at a later date the country is distinguished as Irak Arabi (Arabian Irak) from the Persian Irak Ajemi to the east, the ancient Media. The Arabian geographer Yakut makes the distinction that the country called Sawad reaches farther to the north (viz., to the district of the Upper Zab). Abulfeda gives the boundaries of Irak as follows: &quot; In the west of the country lie El-Jezira and the desert, in the south the desert, the Persian Gulf, and Khuzistdn, in the east the mountain country as far as Holwan (near the principal pass through the Zugrus range). Thence the boundary runs ag;iin towards Mesopotamia. Thus the greatest breadth of Irak is in the north, and its narrow extremity is formed by the island Abbadan in the Shatt-el- Arab (the united Euphrates and Tigris) to the south of Basra. &quot; From what has been said it appears that Irak extended far beyond the country between Euphrates and Tigris. Abulfeda says clearly that Irak lies on the Tigris as Egypt on the Nile ; for according to this view the Tigris flows through the middle of the country. Irak consequently lies between 30 and 34 30 N. lat. and between 44&quot; and 48 30 E. long. ; of its area it is impossible to form an estimate under such varying conditions. For some details see BAGHDAD. From the union of the rivers upwards, in the case of the Euphrates as far as 26 N. lat. (above Bakka), in that of the Tigris to 35 N. lat., the valleys are known as ez-zor, the depression, in opposition to the more elevated desert-plateau. It has been surmised that in this name is to be recognized the Dura of the Old Testament (Daniel iii. 1). Very little of the ancient condition of the country has been pre served ; and there are now but few remains of ancient buildings, scarcity of stone having all along led to the use of bricks. Irak has played its part. It is only by the expenditure of immense sums, far beyond the financial capacity of the Turkish Govern ment, that the ancient canals could be restored and the swamps formed by them drained. The whole land falls into two unequal portions, an extensive dry steppe with at any rate a healthy desert climate, and an unhealthy region of swamps. There is a good deal more agriculture along the Euphrates than along the Tigris ; but swamps, with almost impenetrable reed thickets, com posed of a kind of Agrostis, are at the same time much more exten sive. The slightly more elevated districts are the special habitat of the date palm, which by itself forms dense groves bordering the banks particularly on the lower Euphrates, for a distance of several days journey. This part of the country consequently has a some what monotonous but in its own way imposing aspect. A luxu riant vegetation of water-plants is to be found in the swamps, which are the haunt of numerous wild beasts wild swine, lions, different kinds of aquatic animals and birds. The swamps are inhabited by a wild race of men, dark of hue, with many negroes amongst them. They live in reed huts, and cultivate rice ; and they weave straw mats. In the main they keep pretty free both of the Turkish Government and of the semi-Bedouins and Bedouins of Irak. The Khazael especially who dwell to the south of ancient Babylon often give the Government trouble, through their passion for independence. Less turbulent are the Bedouins in the interior of the country the Zobeid, the Afaij, and the Abu Muhammed ; but on the other hand the Beni Lam (7500 tents strong), who occupy the great tract of country east of the Tigris to the south of Baghdad, have often been a source of great annoyance to the pashas of that city. A still more difficult task is the management of the Sham- mar, who come and pitch their tents to the south-east of Baghdad ; and also the Muntefitch on the southern Euphrates put the whole ad-