Mesopotamia Sentence Examples

Many of the villages of Mesopotamia are built of second-hand bricks of a very good quality, obtained from the ruins of Babylon, and the cement on them is older and probably harder still.

In contrast with the arid plateau of Mesopotamia, stretched the rich alluvial plain of Chaldaea, formed by the deposits of the two great rivers by which it was enclosed.

In the earliest times of which we have any record, the northern portion was included in Mesopotamia; it was definitely marked off as Assyria only after the rise of the Assyrian monarchy.

Trajan still thought of returning to Mesopotamia and of avenging his defeat at Hatra, but he was stricken with sickness and compelled to take ship for Italy.

Before 88 the Parthians had conquered Mesopotamia.

Scarcely two years after the signature of the treaty of Belgrade sinister rumours reached Constantinople from Persia, where Nadir Shah, on his return from India, was planning an attack on Mesopotamia.

As late as the time of Augustus it was but little known in Roman territory, and gained a firm foothold in Italy only gradually, as a result of the intercourse between Rome and Asia consequent upon the erection of the Eastern provinces and the submission and colonization of Mesopotamia.

In 541 he fought under Belisarius in Mesopotamia.

The upper Euphrates consists of two arms, which, rising on the Armenian plateau, and flowing west in long shallow valleys parallel to Mount Taurus, eventually unite and force their way southward through that range to the level of Mesopotamia.

During the next years he fought successfully in Lazica or Lazistan(the ancient Colchis, q.v.), on the Black Sea, and in Mesopotamia.

Having defeated the Quadi and Sarmatians on the Danube, Carus proceeded through Thrace and Asia Minor, conquered Mesopotamia, pressed on to Seleucia and Ctesiphon, and carried his arms beyond the Tigris.

But eventually the British captured Bagdad and overran Mesopotamia from the Persian Gulf to the borders of Syria.

Artemidorus (loo B.C.), quoted by Strabo, gives a similar account of the Sabaeans and their capital Mariaba, of their wealth and trade, adding the characteristic feature that each tribe receives the wares and passes them on to its neighbours as far as Syria and Mesopotamia.

Mosul shares the severe alternations of temperature experienced by upper Mesopotamia.

This approximate relation was first systematically developed by the early inhabitants of Mesopotamia, and formed the startingpoint for all their divisions of time.

The following spring he was in Mesopotamia at Army Headquarters, whence he returned to Cairo as intelligence officer for the Mesopotamia expeditionary force.

From these true Sabians the pseudo-Sabians of IIarran (Carrhae) in Mesopotamia must be carefully distinguished.

The Christian army consisted of the feudatories of the kingdom of Jerusalem, numerous small contingents of European crusaders and the military orders, and contingents from Egypt, Turkestan, Syria and Mesopotamia fought under Saladin.

As to Persian Mesopotamia, he considered its fauna to belong to the same Palaearctic region as Syria, but could scarcely speak with confidence on its characteristic forms. The fifth and last division, Baluchistan and the shores of the Persian Gulf, presented, however, in the animals common to the Persian highland for the most part desert types, whilst the characteristic Palaearctic species almost entirely disappear, their place being taken by Indian or Indo-African forms. The Persian Gulf Arab, though not equal to the pure Arabian, is a very serviceable animal, and has always a value in the Indian market.

It appears, then, that towards the middle of the second millennium before Christ, the Iranians made a great forward movement to the West, and that certain of their princesat first, probably in the role of mercenary leadersreached Mesopotamia and Syria and there founded principalities of their own., much as did the Germans under the Roman Empire, the Normans.

Syria and the south he abandoned to Nabopolassar and his son Nebuchadrezzar; while, on the other hand, Assyria proper, east of the Tigris, the north of Mesopotamia with the town of Harran (Carrlwe) and the mountains of Armenia were annexed by the Medes.

This was followed by a series of other foundations in Mesopotamia, Babylonia and Susiana (EIam).

The possession of the western provinces and the dominant position in western Asia passed to the Armenian Tigranes (qv.), who wrested from the Parthians Mesopotamia and the suzerainty of Atropatene, Gordyene, Adiabene, Osroene.

The ferry over an unusually deep and narrow part of the Euphrates has been used from time immemorial in the passage from North Syria to Haran (Charrae), Edessa and North Mesopotamia, and was second in importance only to that at Thapsacus, by which crossed the route to Babylon and South Mesopotamia.

With regard to origin, several endemic centres are now recognized in Asia and Africa, namely, (I) the district of Assyr in Arabia, on the eastern shore of the Red Sea; (2) parts of Mesopotamia and Persia; (3) the district of Garwhal and Kumaon in the North-West Provinces of India; (4) Yunnan in China; (5) East and Central Africa.

Justinian during those years imprisoned, deprived or exiled most of the recalcitrant clergy of Syria, Mesopotamia, Cilicia, Cappadocia, and the adjacent regions.

How difficult it was for infantry to hold their own against these mounted squadrons was demonstrated by the Roman campaigns, especially in broad plains like those of Mesopotamia.

With this Mesopotamia was regained by the Parthians, and King Artavasdes of Armenia now entered their alliance.

In pursuance of this plan he reduced Armenia, Mesopotamia and Babylonia to the position of imperial provinces.

The Roman war was closed in 165 by a peace which ceded north-west Mesopotamia to Rome.

The remainder of the vassal statesCarmania, Susiana, Mesenc were ended by Ardashir; and the autonomous desert fortress of Hatra in Mesopotamia was destroyed by his son Shapur (Sapor) I., according to the Persian and Arabian traditions, which, in this point, are deserving of credence.

His successors retained the designation, little as it corresponded to the facts, for the single non-Iranian land governed by the Sassanids was, as under the Parthians, the district of the Tigris and Euphrates as far as the Mesopotamian desert; western and northern Mesopotamia remained Roman.

The empire, which in extent did not exceed that of the Arsacids with its vassal states, was protected on the east and west by the great Mlii deserts of central Iran and Mesopotamia.

In the west the old conflict for Osroene and northern Mesopotamia (now Roman provinces), with the fortresses of Edessa, Carrhae and Nisibis, still smouldered.

Mesopotamia and Babyloniaeven more than the rsccution Hellenic cities in former timesgravitated to the of the west and looked to Rome for deliverance from the Christians.

In this Chosroes ravaged Cappadocia in 575; but the campaign in Mesopotamia was unsuccessful.

By 1393 he had conquered northern Persia and Armenia, Bagdad, Mesopotamia, Diarbekr and Van, and Ahmad fled to Egypt, where he was received by Barkuk (Barquq) the Mameluke sultan.

His jurisdiction includes Cilicia, Syria (except Palestine) and Mesopotamia.

Baladhuri is said to have spared no trouble in collecting traditions, and to have visited various parts of north Syria and Mesopotamia for this purpose.

Here, on a dark tempestuous night, he surprised and stormed Nisibis, the capital of the Armenian district of Mesopotamia, and in this city, which yielded him a rich booty, he found satisfactory winter quarters.

After studying at Heidelberg, Bonn and Berlin, he graduated at Kiel in 1847, and in the following year went to France, where he was teacher of German at Laval and at Reims. His leisure was given to Oriental studies, in which he had made great progress in Germany, and in 1852 he joined Fresnel's archaeological expedition to Mesopotamia.

The climate is hot, and in the low-lying, swampy districts very unhealthy; the prevailing winds are north-west and south-east, the former hot and dry from the arid districts west of Mesopotamia, the latter bearing much moisture from the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean.

Here he took vengeance for the bitter sarcasms of the inhabitants against himself and his mother by ordering a general massacre of the youths capable of bearing arms. In 216 he ravaged Mesopotamia because Artabanus, the Parthian king, refused to give him his daughter in marriage.

Basing his conclusions upon philological data, such as the names of wheat in the oldest known languages, the writings of the most ancient historians, and the observations of botanical travellers, De Candolle infers that the hdistromeib u a n d original home of the wheat plant was in Mesopotamia, don.

He studied the Koran and its traditions (hadith, sunna) there and on a student journey through Mesopotamia, Arabia and Syria.

The decipherment and interpretation by the learned Jesuits, Fathers Epping and Strassmeier, of a number of clay tablets preserved in the British Museum, have supplied detailed knowledge of the methods practised in Mesopotamia in the 2nd century B.C. 5 They show no trace of Greek influence, and were doubtless the improved outcome of an unbroken tradition.

For two centuries and a half the Avars, a remnantof the Huns entrenched in the Hungarian Mesopotamia, had made descents alternately upon the Germans and upon the Greeks of the Eastern empire.

Valerian recovered Antioch, fought in Mesopotamia with mixed success and finally was taken captive.

Aurelian, who was at the time in Mesopotamia, hastened thither, and ordered him to be seized and put to death.

Many caravanserais in Syria, Mesopotamia and Anatolia have considerable architectural merit; their style of construction is in general that known as Saracenic; their massive walls are of hewn stone; their proportions apt and grand.

On the north it descends abruptly to the Black Sea; on the south it breaks down in rugged terraces to the lowlands of Mesopotamia; and on the east and west it sinks more gradually to the lower plateaus of Persia and Asia Minor.

Tigranes founded a new capital, Tigranocerta, in northern Mesopotamia, which he modelled on Nineveh and Babylon, and peopled with Greek and other captives.

Thus the Aramaic languages may be geographically defined as the Semitic dialects originally current in Mesopotamia and the regions extending south-west from the Euphrates to Palestine.

This dynasty lasted about ninety years; it was supplanted by that of the Abbasids, who removed the seat of empire to Mesopotamia; and Damascus passed through a period of unrest in which it was captured and ravaged by Egyptians, Carmathians and Seljuks in turn.

Verus (163-165) recovered Mesopotamia from Parthia, it was not Edessa but Ilarran that was chosen as the site of a Roman colony, and made the metropolis by Marcus Aurelius (172).

Edessa can claim no share in " the Persian Sage " Aphrahat or Afrahat (Aphraates); but Ephraem, after bewailing in Nisibis the sufferings of the great Persian war under Constantius and Julian, when Jovian in 363 ceded most of Mesopotamia to Shapur II., the persecutor of the Christians, settled in Edessa, which as the seat of his famous school (called " the Persian ") grew greatly in importance, and attracted scholars from all directions.

When the Bagdad caliphs lost control of their dominions, Edessa shared the fortunes of western Mesopotamia, changing with the rise and fall of Egyptian dynasties and Arab chieftains.

In 1182 it fell to Saladin, whose nephew recovered it when it had temporarily passed (1234) to the sultan of Rum; but the " Eye of Mesopotamia " never recovered the brilliance of earlier days.

Yazd in his account of the campaigns of Timur, who reduced Mesopotamia in 1393, still calls the city (1425) Ruha.

In 964-966 he definitely conquered Cilicia and again overran Mesopotamia and Syria, while the patrician Nicetas recovered Cyprus.

I may mention I've got daffodils in flower - the first daffodils seen in Mesopotamia.

Standing on important trade-routes and drawing on the natural resources of Mesopotamia, it was immensely wealthy.

The Argentine " mesopotamia " is well watered by a large number of small streams flowing north and west into the Parana, and east into the Uruguay.

The greater part of it remained in force, even through the Persian, Greek and Parthian conquests, which affected private life in Babylonia very little, and it survived to influence Syro-Roman and later Mahommedan law in Mesopotamia.

This was the Apamea-Zeugma, where the high road from east to west crossed the river, and it is still one of the most frequented of all the passages into Mesopotamia, being the regular caravan route from Iskanderun and Aleppo to Urfa, Diarbekr and Mosul.

In this region Smbat, of the great Bagraduni clan, reorganized their Church, and was succeeded during a space of 170 or 200 years by seven leaders, enumerated by the Armenian Grigor Magistros, who as duke, of Mesopotamia under Constantine Monomachos harried them about 1140.

Its northern or land boundary is more difficult to define; most authorities, however, agree in taking it from El Arish on the Mediterranean, along the southern border of Palestine, between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Akaba, then bending northwards along the Syrian border nearly to Tadmur, thence eastwards to the edge of the Euphrates valley near Anah, and thence south-east to the mouth of the Shat el Arab at the head of the Persian Gulf, - the boundary so defined includes the northern desert, which belongs geographically to Arabia rather than to Syria; while on the same grounds lower Mesopotamia and Irak, although occupied by an Arab population, are excluded.

The former are represented at the present day by the inhabitants of Yemen, Hadramut and Oman, in general a settled agricultural population; the latter by those of Hejaz, Nejd, El Hasa, the Syrian desert and Mesopotamia, consisting of the Bedouin or pastoral tribes (see Arabs and Bedouins).

Indeed, there are tablets in the British Museum labelled 4500 B.C.; and later researches, particularly those of the expedition of the University of Pennsylvania at Nippur, have brought us evidence which, interpreted with the aid of estimates as to the average rate of accumulation of dust deposits, leads to the inference that a high state of civilization had been attained in Mesopotamia at least 9000 years ago.

On the one hand, the general agreement everywhere between the Hebrew accounts and contemporaneous records from Mesopotamia proves beyond cavil that, broadly speaking, the Bible accounts are historically true, and were written by persons who in the main had access to contemporaneous documents.

Mesopotamia seems to imply the view that beth is the preposition "amid," which has the same form,' but need not imply the meaning "between," that is, the idea that there were precisely two rivers.

Gradually settlements were made, the names of many of which are given by the various Assyrian kings who had at one time or another to assert or reassert supremacy over them - such as Chindanu, Laqe, Sulhi along the South Euphrates boundary of Mesopotamia, and various districts bearing names compounded with Bit = settlement (see above), such as Bit-Adini (nearly equal the later Osroene; see Edessa), or Bit-Zamani in the north near Diarbekr.

In the beginning of the 6th century there was another severe struggle in Mesopotamia, which found an anonymous Syriac historian (see Edessa), and in infringement of agreement the Romans strongly fortified Dara against Nisibis.

An inevitable effect of the reign of Islam had been that the kindred language of the Arabs gradually killed the vernacular Syriac of Mesopotamia (see Edessa) as the alien Greek and Persian had shown no tendency to do, and the classical period (4th to 8th centuries) of the only Mesopotamian literature we know, such as it is, useful but uninviting, came to an end (see Syriac Literature).

The XXXII.-3 Euphrates and Tigris have within historical times silted up their mouths to an extent that has materially altered the coast-line of the Gulf and these rivers seem destined in the future to unite El Hasa to Fao, just as in the past they produced the fertile plains of Mesopotamia.

To maintain, Or regain, the suzerainty over Mesopotamia and the vassal states of that region, as also over Atropatene and Armenia, was its most imperative task.

Epiphanius tells of Audaeus of Mesopotamia and his followers, Puritan sectaries in the 4th century, who were orthodox except for this belief and for Quartodecimanism (see Easter).

It was well known among Greek and Roman physicians, and is recorded as being used in Mesopotamia in 2260 B.C.

It is believed that cookie cutters in various forms have existed since approximately 2000 B.C. when the people of Mesopotamia and Egypt used ceramic molds for their sweet little treats.

The next incident is the defeat of Galerius, between Carrhae and Callinicus, where he had entered Mesopotamia (about 296), in the war provoked by Narses in consequence of his relations with Armenia.

When it was retrieved by a signal victory, Diocletian advanced to Nisibis and thence dictated terms of peace by which Mesopotamia to the Tigris was definitely ceded to Rome (298).

Then Mesopotamia enjoyed two short rests (separated by a sharp struggle) while the rivals were engaged elsewhere, when in 363 Julian made his disastrous attempt, and Jovian bought peace at the price, among other things, of Singara and Nisibis - i.e.

In the war of 421, in which the north-east of Mesopotamia was chiefly concerned, the Romans failed to take Nisibis, and it became a natural rallying point for the Nestorians after the decision of Ephesus (431).

Mesopotamia naturally suffered during the time of confusion that preceded and followed the accession of Chosroes II., and the Romans recovered their old frontier (591).

The Arab tribes in Mesopotamia were Christian, and Heraclius at Edessa hoped for their support; but Karkisiya and Hit succumbed (636), and then Tekrit; and Heraclius retired to Samosata.

When in 638 he made another ca attempt, it is said at the entreaty of the Mesopotamian Christians, Arab forces appeared before Rakka, Edessa, Nasibin and other places, and all Mesopotamia was soon in the hands of the Arabs.

The men of Rak k a were compelled to help `Ali, after his march across Mesopotamia from near Mosul, in getting a bridge made at Rakka to convey his men to Siffin.

The cruelties that accompanied the overthrow of the Omayyad dynasty excited a revolt, which spread to Mesopotamia, and Harran had to undergo a siege by one of Merwan's generals.

It was decisive, but there were further risings, involving Mesopotamia.'

Mesopotamia fell partly under the power of Ahmad ibn Tulun of Egypt and his son; but before the end of the 9th century the Hamdanids, descendants of the Arab tribe of Taghlib,.

Later the brothers Nasir ad-Daula and Saif ad-Daula ruled over Mesopotamia and North Syria respectively.

The son of a slave of the third Seljuk sultan, Zangi, governor of `Irak, made himself gradually (Mosul, Sinjar, Jezira, Harran) master of Mesopotamia (1128), capturing Edessa in 1144.

Mesopotamia fell to one of his sons, Saif ad-Din, and branches sprang up at Sinjar and Jezira.

Mesopotamia remained in the hands of the Ayyubite family till the appearance of the Mongols.

In 1502 Mesopotamia passed for a time into the hands of the Safawid shah, Ishmael; but in 1516 it came under the Osmanli Turks, to whom it has belonged ever since.

Since Mesopotamia finally came into the power of the Ottoman sultans considerable changes in the population have occurred.

About that time parts of a confederation of tribes which had taken the name of Shammar from a moun tain in their neighbourhood, moved northwards from Central Arabia in search of better pasture, &c. Successfully displacing their forerunners, they made themselves at home in the Syrian steppe - until their possession was in turn disputed by a later emigrant from Arabia, for whom they finally made room by moving on into Mesopotamia, over which they spread, driving before them their predecessors the Tai (whose name the Mesopotamian Aramaeans had adopted as a designation for Arab in general), partly north of the Sinjar, partly over the Tigris.

Two of his sons became involved in a quarrel with the government, in consequence of which for years all Mesopotamia was in danger, till the second was put to death in 1868, and Ferhan, the eldest son, a peaceable man who had been made pasha, became supreme.

He kept to the far north of Mesopotamia to avoid his brother Ferhan; but finally half-sedentary tribes on the Khabur and the Belikh became tributary to him, and a more or less active warfare sprang up between the brothers, which ended in a partition of Mesopotamia.

Willcocks' irrigation schemes had not up to 1910 affected "Mesopotamia" directly.

The annual Consular Reports most nearly bearing on Mesopotamia are those for Aleppo, Mosul, Bagdad and Basra.

At the present day the lion is found throughout Africa (save in places where it has been exterminated by man) and in Mesopotamia, Persia, and some parts of north-west India.

Conquering Pharaohs brought home trains of prisoners and spoil, embassies came thither of strange people in every variety of costume and of every hue of skin, from Ethiopia, Puoni (Punt), Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Libya, and the islands of the Mediterranean, bringing precious stones, rare animals, beautiful slaves, costly garments and vessels of gold and silver, while the ground shook with the movement of colossal architraves, statues and obelisks.

Of the wandering Arab tribes, the most powerful is the great tribe of Shammar, which ranges over all Mesopotamia.

Thus Celaenae in Phrygia became Apamea; Haleb (Aleppo) in Syria became Beroea; Nisibis in Mesopotamia, Antioch; Rhagae (Rai) in Media, Europus.

Soon after 130 Babylonia too was conquered by the Parthian, and Mesopotamia before 88.

In Babylonia, also, in Susiana and Mesopotamia, Hellenism had been established in a system of cities for 200 years before the coming of the Parthian.

Just so, Crassus in 53 B.C. found a welcome in the Greek cities of Mesopotamia.

Though the early years of his reign were marked by numerous disasters, famine, pestilence and earthquake, of which the second seems to have been exceedingly serious, he reunited under his sway the whole of the empire which had belonged to his brother, and his generals conquered for him parts of Mesopotamia and Armenia, and in 1215 he got possession of Yemen.

Before Kamils death he was mentioned in public prayer at Mecca as lord of Mecca (Hejaz), Yemen, ZabId, Upper and Lower Egypt, Syria and Mesopotamia.

At other military fronts than France the system adopted was similar, but special difficulties occurred in regard to the despatches from Mesopotamia, which were censored at the Front, in India and at home.

The countries north and east of the Tigris and the northern part of Mesopotamia with the city of Harran (Carrhae) became subject to the Medes.

Residents in the towns along the Persian Gulf are exposed to the same dangers from disease as are experienced in similar places in Mesopotamia and Persia (see Mesopotamia and Persia).

It is worthy of notice that Haran, in upper Mesopotamia, which also was a home of Abraham, was likewise a famous site of worship of the god Sin, and that the name of that god also appears in Mount Sinai, which was historically connected with the origin of the Hebrew nation and religion.

She is also the author of the Review of the Civil Administration of Mesopotamia, issued as a White Book by the India Office, Dec. 1920.

Damascus is closely connected with Galilee and Gilead, and has always been in contact with Mesopotamia, Assyria, Asia Minor and Armenia.

This has been the origin of the long succession of Semitic waves - Babylonian, Assyrian, Canaanite, Hebrew, Nabataean, Moslem - that have flowed over Mesopotamia and Palestine; there is every reason to suppose that they will be followed by others, and that the Arab will remain master at the end, as he was in the beginning.

In 639 the armies of Syria and Irak were face to face in Mesopotamia.

In a short time they had taken from the Aryans all the principal old Semitic lands - Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Assyria and Babylonia.

In the year 639 Omar named him governor of Damascus and Palestine; Othman added to this province the north of Syria and Mesopotamia.

Ziyad set out with the purpose of subduing Mesopotamia and marching thence against Irak.

Ashtar, Mokhtar's governor of Mesopotamia, submitted and acknowledged the Caliphate of Ibn Zobair.

But the storms in Irak and Mesopotamia had not yet altogether subsided.

Merwan, the caliph's brother, who was appointed governor of Mesopotamia and Armenia, and in 692 beat the army of Justinian II.

He had great military capacity and introduced important reforms. On the murder of Walid he prepared to dispute the supreme power with the new caliph, and invaded Mesopotamia.

He did not, however, wish to reside in Damascus, but transplanted the seat of government to his own town, Harran in Mesopotamia.

He then equipped ro,000 Syrians, and ordered them to rejoin the army of 20,000 men from Kinnesrin (Qinnasrin) and Mesopotamia, who, under Yazid b.

Whilst Merwan besieged Homs, Dahhak returned to Mesopotamia and took Mosul, whence he threatened Nisibis, where Abdallah, the son of Merwan, maintained himself with difficulty.

Mesopotamia itself was in danger, when Merwan at last was able to march against the enemy.

Ibn Hobaira was at last free to send Ibn Dobara with an army to Mesopotamia.

Durham, killed under the reign of Hisham for heretical opinions, had followers in Mesopotamia, and that, when Merwan became caliph, the Khorasanians called him a Ja`d, pretending that all'Ja`d had been his teacher.

In Bathaniya and the IIauran, in the north of Syria, in Mesopotamia and Irak Khorasan insurrections had to be put down with fire and sword.

To his brother Abu Ja`far he gave Mesopotamia, Azerbaijan and Armenia; to his uncle Abdallah b.

Traversing Mesopotamia and Syria, he entered Cilicia, and established himself on the banks of the Jihan (Pyramus).

Here you find articles in the encyclopedia on topics related to Ancient Mesopotamia.

The Arab astronomers measured a degree on the plains of Mesopotamia, thereby deducing a fair approximation to the size of the earth.

The union of Mardin and Aleppo under the sway of these two amirs, connecting as it did Mesopotamia with Syria, marks an important stage in the revival of Mahommedan power (Stevenson, Crusades in the East, p. 109).

The Indo-Europeans whom we find in Mesopotamia (the Kassites and Mitannians) * and in Palestine about 1400 B.C. can hardly have entered western Asia before 2000 B.C. or thereabouts, and it is probable that the Hittites belonged to the same wandering.

Ptolemy were translated into Arabic, and in 827, in the reign of the caliph Abdullah al Mamun, an arc of the meridian was measured in the plain of Mesopotamia.

Three years later we find that Cyrus has become king of Persia and is engaged in a campaign in the north of Mesopotamia.

That the ascetic ideal was by no means wholly extinct is evident from the Book of Governors written by Thomas, bishop of Marga, in 840 which bears witness to a Syrian monasticism founded by one Awgin of Egyptian descent, who settled in Nisibis about 3 50, and lasting uninterruptedly until the time of Thomas, though it had long been absorbed in the great Nestorian movement that had annexed the church in Mesopotamia.

The next summer, however, on Mr. Austen Chamberlain's resignation owing to the Mesopotamia report, he returned to the India Office as Secretary of State and began a tenure of that post which will always be memorable in Indian annals.

He migrated to Haran 1 in Mesopotamia, apparently the classical Carrhae, on a branch of the Habor.

He has been viewed as a chieftain of the Amorites, as the head of a great Semitic migration from Mesopotamia; or, since Ur and Haran were seats of Moon-worship, he has been identified with a moon-god.

The scope of the archaeologist's studies must include every department of the ancient history of man as preserved in antiquities of whatever character, be they tumuli along the Baltic, fossil skulls and graven bones from the caves of France, the flint implements, pottery, and mummies of Egypt, tablets and bas-reliefs from Mesopotamia, coins and sculptures of Greece and Rome, or inscriptions, waxen tablets, parchment rolls, and papyri of a relatively late period of classical antiquity.

If we go back in imagination to the beginning of the Victorian era and ask what was then known of the history of Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, we find ourselves confronted with a startling paucity of knowledge.

As to the exact dates of early Egyptian history there is rather more of vagueness than for the corresponding periods of Mesopotamia.

Indeed, approximate accuracy is not attained until we are within sixteen hundred years of our own era; but the sequence of events of a period preceding this by two thousand years is well established, and the recent discoveries of Professor Petrie carry back the record to a period which cannot well be less than five thousand, perhaps not less than six thousand years B.C. Both from Egypt and Mesopotamia, then, the records of the archaeologist have brought us evidence of the existence of a highly developed civilization for a period exceeding by hundreds, perhaps by thousands, of years the term which had hitherto been considered the full period of man's existence.

For some centuries the inhabitants of Palestine were subject to periodical attacks from the warlike inhabitants of Mesopotamia, as even the most casual reader of the Bible is aware.

We have seen that written documents have been preserved in Mesopotamia to which such a date as 4500 B.C. may be ascribed with a good deal of confidence; and that from the third millennium B.C. a flood of contemporary literary records comes to us both from Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Hundreds of thousands were slaughtered; hundreds of thousands set marching for Syria and Mesopotamia perished on the way by hardship, disease, starvation; those who escaped became fugitives; from first to last at least three-quarters of a million Armenians perished in Asia Minor in a population of less than two millions.

In Mesopotamia from 1915 onward the Ottoman Empire had been faced by serious British military operations, here, too, with various changes of fortune.

The exception is the Syriac-speaking Church of Edessa and Mesopotamia.

Towards the close of the 10th century, at the time the Fihirst was written, the Manichaeans in Mesopotamia and Persia had already been in large measure ousted from the towns, and had withdrawn to the villages.

Sixteen Mahommedan princes, mostly Ayyubite, of Syria and Mesopotamia, under the leadership of Malik al-Kamil, prince of Egypt, marched with considerable forces into Asia Minor against him.

For example, under Trajan Mesopotamia reached the gulf and was bounded by Assyria and Armenia.

In view of historical and geographical facts there is much to be said for applying the name Mesopotamia to the country drained by the Khabur, the Belikh, and the part of the Euphrates connected therewith.

Measured on the Tigris Mesopotamia would stretch from some where between Jeziret-ibn-`Omar and Mosul to somewhere below Tekrit.

At one time, however, Mesopotamia was teeming with life.

Parts of Mesopotamia have probably always harboured wandering tribes.

Functionally, Mesopotamia is the domain that lies between Babylonia and the related trans-Tigris districts on the one hand, and the west Asian districts of Maritime Syria and Asia Minor on the other.

Who the earliest inhabitants of Mesopotamia in approximately historical times were is not yet clear.

The earliest Babylonian monarch of whose presence in Mesopotamia there is positive evidence is Lugalzaggisi (before 2500 s.c.), who claims, with the help of En-lil, to have led his countless host victorious to the Mediterranean.

Excavation in Mesopotamia may in time cast some light on the questions whether the Semites really reached Babylonia by way of Mesopotamia,' when, and whom they found there, and whether they partly settled there by the way.

That Sargon was or became supreme in Mesopotamia cannot be doubted, since there is contemporary evidence that he conquered Amurru.

Mesopotamia certainly felt the Sumero-Babylonian civilization early.

Mesopotamia would naturally share in the wide trade relations of the time, probably reaching as far as Egypt.

That the Amurru passed through Mesopotamia, and that some remained, seems most probable.

Not quite so successful eventually was the similar enterprise farther north at Asshur [or Assur (q.v.)] on the east margin of Mesopotamia, although we do not know the immediate outcome of the struggle between Asshur and the first Babylonian king, Sumu-abi.

It is just as uncertain how long Asshur remained under the Babylonian suzerainty of which there is evidence in the time of Khammurabi, and what the relation of Asshur to western Mesopotamia was under the early kings whose names have lately been recovered.

All these matters will no doubt be cleared up when more of the many tells of Mesopotamia are excavated.

The mystery of the Hyksos has not yet been solved; but it is not impossible that they had relations with Mesopotamia.

As they all bear Aryan names, and in some of their treaties appear Aryan deities (Indra, Varuna, Mithra, &c.), it is clear that Mesopotamia had now a further new element in its population, bearing apparently the name Kharri.

The most natural explanation is that Aryans had made their way into the highlands east of Assyria, and thence bands had penetrated into Mesopotamia, peacefully or otherwise, and then, like the Turks in the days of the Caliphate, founded dynasties.

On the tangled politics of this period, especially Mesopotamia's relations with the north-west, the Boghaz-Keui documents may be expected to throw a great deal of light.

When Mitanni fell Babylon no doubt adhered to its older claims on Mesopotamia; but the Kassite kings could do little to contest the advance of Assyria, although several rectifications of the boundary between their spheres are reported.

The references to these people, who practically make their first appearance in the Amarna correspondence, 2 show that they were unsettled bands who took advantage of the loosening of authority to introduce themselves into various parts of the country, in this case Mesopotamia.

Their position in Mesopotamia must have been very like that of the Shammar at the present time (see ad fin.).

Now that Mesopotamia had passed out of the hands of Babylon, all that the later kings could do was to encourage local Mesopotamian rulers in their desire for independence (Nabuapluiddin).

When the policy of transporting people from one part of the empire to another was developed, new elements were introduced into Mesopotamia, amongst them Israelites, of whom perhaps traces have been found in the neighbourhood of IIarran at Kannu'.

He was defeated by Nebuchadrezzar at Carchemish (605 B.C.), and Mesopotamia was confirmed to Babylon.

Its troubles began again shortly after Nebuchadrezzar's death; the Medes seized Mesopotamia and besieged IIarran.

Before long, however, the overthrow of Astyages by Cyrus cleared Mesopotamia, and Nabonidus (Nabu-naid) was able, drawing on the resources of the whole of Syria for the purpose, to restore the famous temple of Sin at Harran, where a few years later he erected in memory of his mother, who seems to have been a priestess there, the stele published in 1907 by Pognon.

The fragmentary nature of the records does not enable us to follow the steps by which Cyrus became master of Mesopotamia, .in which he probably met with little or no resistance.

Nor does it appear with certainty to which of the twenty satrapies into which, according to Herodotus, the Persian empire was divided, Mesopotamia belonged; probably it was included in 'Abar nahara.

Although Aramaic inscriptions of the Assyrian period, like those of Zanjirli or that of King ZKR of Hamath, have not been found in Mesopotamia, already in the time of Shalmaneser II.

How Mesopotamia was affected by the passing of Persian armies on their way to suppress revolts in Syria or Egypt, or to conquer Greece, we do not know; on the whole it probably enjoyed unwonted peace.

The route followed by Alexander, though he also crossed at Thapsacus, took him unresisted across the northern parts; but the poor people of Mesopotamia suffered from the measures taken by their satrap Mazaeus to impede Alexander's progress.

It is improbable that cuneiform and the Babylonion language continued to be used in Mesopotamia during the Hellenistic period, as it did in Babylonia, where it was certainly written as late as the last century B.C.;1 and may have been a learned language till the second Christian century.

Mesopotamia naturally had its share of suffering in the struggles that disturbed the time, when Eumenes or Seleucus traversed it or wintered there.

It was in Mesopotamia that a large part of the army of Antiochus VII.

It was perhaps a Parthian governor of Mesopotamia that was called in to help Strato of Beroea against Demetrius III.; but before long Mesopotamia (especially the district of Nisibis) was attached to the growing dominions of Armenia under its ambitious king Tigranes, perhaps with the consent of Sinatruces (Sanatruces).

The lost territory, however, was recovered by Phraates III., and Mesopotamia was guaranteed to Parthia by the treaties of Lucullus and Pompey (66 B.C.).

Mesopotamia narrowly escaped being the scene of the struggle when Antonius in 36 finally decided to make his disastrous attempt against Phraates IV.

When in 115 Trajan entered Mesopotamia from the north no serious resistance was offered, and it became a province as far as Singara.

Hatra successfully withstood siege, however, and Hadrian abandoned Mesopotamia, setting the boundary at the Euphrates.

Then, when Vologaeses, yielding to his growing discontent, took advantage of the death of Antoninus to invade Armenia the Romans were victorious (164), and after the storming of places such as Nicephorium, Edessa, Nisibis, western Mesopotamia was once more Roman as far as the Khabur, Carrhae becoming a free city and Osroene a dependency.

On his assassination near Carrhae (217), Macrinus was defeated at Nisibis and had to purchase peace, though he retained Roman Mesopotamia, reinstating the princely house in Osroene.

A rest for Mesopotamia seems to have followed; but in 258 Shapur, tempted by the troubles in the Roman empire, overran the country taking Nisibis and Carrhae, and investing Edessa, and .vhen Valerian invaded Mesopotamia he was eventually made prisoner, by Edessa (260).

After Shapur's cruel victories in Syria, however, he was defeated by Odaenathus, who relieved Edessa, and Mesopotamia became for ten years practically part of an Arabian Empire (see Palmmyra), as it was to be four centuries later.

In consequence of the revolt of Zenobia Mesopotamia was lost to Rome, and the Euphrates became the frontier.

Aurelian overthrew the Palmyran rule; but he was assassinated before he could carry out his intended expedition against Persia, Probus was assassinated before he was able to do anything (or much), and although Carus easily overran Mesopotamia, which became Roman again, and even took Ctesiphon, the Romans retreated on his death (283-4).

In the first year of his reign all the strong places of Kinnesrin and Mesopotamia were formed into a special province, which received the name of al-`Awasim ("the defending fortresses"), with Manbij (Hierapolis) as its capital.

Harthama was ordered to return to Khorasan; Tahir was made governor of Mesopotamia and Syria, with the task of subduing Nasr b.

Mahommed fled to Mesopotamia, but were made prisoners.

At that moment a Kharijite, named Mosawir, who in 867 had risen in Mesopotamia and beaten more than one general of the government, took Balad and menaced Mosul.

Tulun became a mighty prince, whose sway extended over Syria and a part of Mesopotamia.

The Kharijites in Mesopotamia, who for many years had molested the government, were finally crushed with the aid of their former ally IHamdan, who became the founder of the well-known dynasty of the IHamdanites.

The vizier Ibn Moqla tried to maintain his authority at least in Irak and Mesopotamia, but without success.

The empire was by this time practically reduced to the province of Bagdad; Khorasan and Transoxiana were in the hands of the Samanids, Fars in those of the Buyids; Kirman and Media were under independent sovereigns; the Hamdanids possessed Mesopotamia; the Sajids Armenia and Azerbaijan; the Ikshidites Egypt; as we have seen, the Fatimites Africa, the Carmathians Arabia.

In Mesopotamia and Irak several petty states arose on the ruins of the dominions of the Hamdanids and of the Abbasids.

In the west of Atabeg (prince's guardian) Zengi, the prince of Mosul, had extended his dominion over Mesopotamia and the north of Syria, where he had been the greatest defender of Islam against the Franks.

Turkish army in Mesopotamia, and succeeded in investing Gen.

The limits of the Biblical Ararat are not known, but they must have included the lofty Armenian plateau which overlooks the plain of the Araxes on the north, and that of Mesopotamia on the south.

It seems that Valens 1 crossed the Euphrates in 373, and in Mesopotamia his troops drove back the king of Persia to the farther bank of the Tigris.

In 1867 an outbreak of plague was reported in Mesopotamia (Irak), among the marshes of Hindieh bordering on the lower Euphrates.

The disease appeared in 1877 in other parts of Mesopotamia also with less severity than in 1876, but over a wider area, being now announced at Samara, a town 70 m.

The existence of plague in Bagdad or Mesopotamia was not again announced till the year 1884, when accounts again appeared in the newspapers, and in that July the usual official statement was made that the plague had been stamped out.

Such are the date in Mesopotamia (a second species of Phoenix occurs in the Canaries); most European fruits, e.g.

The rebellion spread to Cyprus; and when Trajan advanced from Mesopotamia into Parthia the Jews of Mesopotamia revolted.

In Asia Minor, Syria and Mesopotamia there is little to record of progress in material development beyond the promises held out by the Euphrates Valley railway concession to a A s i a German company.

The genesis of Mandaeis.m and the older gnosis from the old and elaborate BabylonioChaldaean religion is clearly seen also in the fact that the names of the old pantheon (as for example those of the planetary divinities) are retained, but their holders degraded to the position of demons - a conclusion confirmed by the fact that the Mandaeans, like the allied Ophites, Peratae and Manichaeans, certainly have their original seat in Mesopotamia and Babylonia.

The future of archaeological study in Mesopotamia depends upon the political conditions, which have not hitherto been considered favourable to the resumption of excavation in that country.

In Mesopotamia more than any other country literary results have been regarded as archaeology, owing to the enormous mass of the written material recovered, which has caused the study of the art and general civilization of different periods to be neglected in comparison with the same subjects in Egypt.

Tobit ben Korra (836-901), born at Harran in Mesopotamia, an accomplished linguist, mathematician and astronomer, rendered conspicuous service by his translations of various Greek authors.

The Peshitta version of the Old Testament must have been originally made mainly by Jews, of whom we know there were colonies in Mesopotamia in the 2nd century.

After a training at Edessa, he lived for a long time at Mt Izla in Mesopotamia, whence he proceeded to Cyprus, but returned to Mt Izla shortly before his death.

The Hatti now pushed southwards in force, overcame the kingdom of Mitanni and proceeded partly to occupy and partly to make tributary both north Syria and western Mesopotamia where some of their congeners were already settled.

This improvement was first proposed by Rabbi Samuel, rector of the Jewish school of Sora in Mesopotamia, and was finally accomplished in the year 360 of our era by Rabbi Hillel, who introduced that form of the year which the Jews at present follow, and which, they say, is to endure till the coming of the Messiah.

In Mesopotamia and Yemen disturbance was endemic; nearer home, a semblance of loyalty was maintained in the army and among the Mussulman population by a system of delation and espionage, and by wholesale arrests; while, obsessed by terror of assassination, the sultan withdrew himself into fortified seclusion in the palace of Yildiz.

Anciently the country on both sides of the Euphrates was habitable as far as the river Khabur; at the present time it is all desert from Birejik downward, the camping ground of Bedouin Arabs, the great tribe of Anazeh occupying esh-Sham, the right bank, and the Shammar the left bank, Mesopotamia of the Romans, now called elJezireh or the island.

Although he wrote poetry, also an anthology of verses on the monasteries of Mesopotamia and Egypt, and a genealogical work, his fame rests upon his Book of Songs (Kitab ul-Aghani), which gives an account of the chief Arabian songs, ancient and modern, with the stories of the composers and singers.

The population of the southern part of Mesopotamia - the strip of land enclosed between the Tigris and the Euphrates - was, according to Graetz, mainly Jewish; while the district extending for about 70 m.

Syriac is the eastern dialect of the Aramaic language which, during the early centuries of the Christian era, prevailed in Mesopotamia and the adjoining regions.

By the western gates of Makran prehistoric irruptions from Mesopotamia broke into the plains of Lower Sind, and either passed on towards the central provinces of India or were absorbed in the highlands south of Kalat.

Philopator (reigned 187-176), consisted of Syria (now including Cilicia and Palestine), Mesopotamia, Babylonia and Nearer Iran (Media and Persis).

The foundation of the system is obviously to be sought in Gnosticism, and more particularly in the older type of that doctrine (known from the serpent symbol as Ophite or Naassene) which obtained in Mesopotamia and Further Asia generally.

All our historical sources support the view taken above that Edessa, the capital of the kingdom which the Greeks and Romans called Osrhoene, was the earliest seat of Christianity in Mesopotamia and the cradle of Syriac literature.

He seems to have lived as a priest and physician at Ras'ain in Mesopotamia most of his life.

Elam and the northern part of Mesopotamia were also subjugated, and rebellions were put down both in Kazalla and in Babylonia itself.

The great majority of the horses that come into the market as Arabs, are bred in the northern desert and in Mesopotamia, by the various sections of the Aneza and Shammar tribes, who emigrated from Nejd generations ago, taking with them the original Nejd stock.

The Argentine " mesopotamia," between the Parana and Uruguay rivers, belongs in great measure to this same region, being partly wooded, flat and swampy in the north (Corrientes), but higher and undulating in the south (Entre Rios).

The three great rivers that form the La Plata system - the Paraguay, Parana and Uruguay - have their sources in the highlands of Brazil and flow southward through a great continental depression, two of them forming eastern boundary lines, and one of them, the Parana, flowing across the eastern part of the republic. The northern part of Argentina, therefore, drains eastward from the mountains to these rivers, except where some great inland depression gives rise to a drainage having no outlet to the sea, and except, also, in the " mesopotamia " region, where small streams flow westward into the Parana and eastward into the Uruguay.

In the " mesopotamia " region the flora is similar to that of the southern Chaco, but in the Misiones it approximates more to that of the neighbouring Brazilian highlands.

Until the advent of the nomads from central Asia, and the devastation of Mesopotamia and the opposite Syrian shore of the river, there were many flourishing cities along its course, the ruins of which, representing all periods, still dot its banks.

He made considerable progress in the following two years, but he was greatly criticized for the size of his estimates, and especially for the large forces retained in Mesopotamia and Palestine.

Mesopotamia and Assyria were given back to the Parthians, and the Armenians were allowed a king of their own.

And small finds of it on other sites have shown that it was usual all over Mesopotamia, and connects on the one side with the early pot fabrics of Asia Minor and on the other with the pottery of Anau and the kurgans of Turkistan, found by Pumpelly.

The Indian rupee and the Persian kran are widely circulated through Mesopotamia; in Basra transactions are counted in krans, taking as a fixed exchange £T1 = 34.15 krans.

A native of Tella in Mesopotamia, he obtained the favour of the empress Theodora while on a mission to Constantinople, and resided in that city for fifteen years (528-543).

A little south of Samarra the stony plateau of Mesopotamia ends, and the alluvial plain of Irak, ancient Babylonia, begins.

The gradual replacement of Syriac by Arabic as the vernacular language of Mesopotamia by degrees transformed the Syriac from a living to a dead language.

Returning through of Syria, and stopping at Tyre to make final arrangements for the conquered provinces, he traversed Mesopotamia and 1 See Bauer,"Die Schlacht bei Issus" in Jahreshefte d.

As far as the Khabur Mesopotamia seems to have been a wellinhabited country from at least the 15th century B.C., when it constituted the Hittite kingdom of Mitanni, down to about the 12th century A.D., and the same is true of the country on the Syrian side of the Euphrates as far as the eastern limit of the Palmyrene.

On Lord Milner's retirement in the spring of 1921 he succeeded him as Secretary of State for the Colonies; and a new arrangement was made by which the responsibility for Mesopotamia and Palestine was taken over by the Colonial Office.

His home appears to have been at Samosata.2 By the beginning of the 4th century much progress had been made with the organization of the Christian church not only within the Roman district of Mesopotamia, but also to the east and south-east within the Sasanian Empire, round such centres as Seleucia-Ctesiphon on the Tigris (near Baghdad), Karka de-Beth Selokh (modern Kerkuk) and Beth Lapat or Gundeshabhor (in the modern province of Luristan).

The present writer believes that the date palm was really indigenous to this district of the Jerid, as it is to countries of similar description in southern Morocco, southern Algeria, parts of the Tripolitaine, Egypt, Mesopotamia, southern Persia and north-western India; but that north of the latitude of the Jerid the date did not grow naturally in Mauretania, just as it was foreign to all parts of Europe, in which, as in true North Africa, its presence is due to the hand of man.

Hadrian's first important act was to abandon as untenable the conquests of Trajan beyond the Euphrates (Assyria, Mesopotamia and Armenia), a recurrence to the traditional policy of Augustus.