These statements of Xenophon already indicate a demarcation of the territory afterwards called Mesopotamia, as well as its division into two sections. The fertile portion, inhabited by agricultural Aramaeans, stretched from the Euphrates to the Chaboras; the desert portion, the home of wandering tribes, extended to the Tigris. It would be rash, however, to conclude from this that Mesopotamia designated the whole territory between the Euphrates and Tigris; indeed it is possible that Aram, Naharayim, the Aram of the country of the two rivers, originally meant only the main portion of the fertile country inhabited by Syrians. In this case the two boundary rivers must have been, not the Euphrates and the Tigris, but the Euphrates and the Chaboras. After the final occupation of the country by the Romans (156 A.D.), the political province of Mesopotamia was practically confined to this more limited district. Though in ordinary usage the Euphrates and Tigris are considered as the two rivers which bound Mesopotamia, the one bank of the river cannot be geographically separated from the other, and consequently narrow strips of country on the right bank of the Euphrates and on the left bank of the Tigris must be reckoned to the country “between” the rivers. On the other hand, the country between the sources of the Euphrates and the Tigris has from early times been reckoned not to Mesopotamia but to Armenia. In this direction the Masius range forms the proper boundary, and it is only on rare occasions that theoretical geographers extend the name Mesopotamia over the more northern districts, Sophene, &c. Purely theoretical too, and not to be approved, is the extension of the definition so as to include the land of Babylonia ('Irâk l Arabi), that is, the country as far south as the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris, or even as far as their embouchure in the Persian Gulf.

From what has been said it appears that Mesopotamia reaches its northern limits at the points where the Euphrates (q.υ.) and the Tigris break through the mountain range and enter the lowlands. In the case of the Euphrates this takes place at Sumeisât (Samosata), in that of the Tigris near Jeziret ibn 'Omar (Bezabdâ) and Mosul (Nineveh). Consequently the irregular northern boundaries are marked by the lowland limits of those spurs of the Taurus mountains known in antiquity as Mons Masius and now as Karaje Dâgh and Tur 'Abdin. Towards the south the ancient boundary was the so-called Median Wall, which, near Pirux Shapur, not much to the south of Hit (the ancient Is), crossed from the Euphrates in the direction of Kadisiya (Opis) to the Tigris. There the two rivers approach each other, to diverge again lower down. At the same place begins the network of canals connecting the two rivers which rendered the country of Babylonia one of the richest in the world; there too, in a geological sense, the higher portion of the plain, consisting of strata of gypsum and marl, comes to an end; there at one time ran the line of the sea-coast; and there begin those alluvial formations with which the mighty rivers in the course of long ages have filled up this depressed area. Mesopotamia thus forms a triangle lying in the north-west and south-east direction, with its long sides towards the north and southwest. It extends from 37° 30' to about 33° N. lat. and from 38° to 46° E. long., and has an area of some 55,200 square miles. The points at which the rivers issue from among the mountains have an absolute altitude of between 1000 and 1150 feet, and the plain sinks rapidly towards the southern extremity of Mesopotamia, where it is not more than about 165 feet above the sea. As a whole the entire country consists of a single open stretch, save that in the north there are some branches of the Taurus—the Nimrιid Dâgh near Orfâ, the long limestone range of'Abd-el'Aziz, running north-north-west, and farther to the east the Sinjar range, also of limestone, 7 miles broad and 50 miles long, running north-north-east. Between these two ranges—near the isolated basaltic hill of Tell Kôkab (Hill of Stars)—runs the defile by which the waters of the Chaboras, swollen by the Jaghjagha and other affluents from the Masius, find their way into the heart of Mesopotamia. The Khâbùr proper, the ancient Chaboras, which rises in the three-hundred copious fountains of Râs-ain (the ancient Rhesaena), and ultimately falls into the Euphrates near Karkisiyâ (Circesium), forms the boundary between the two, or more correctly the three, great divisions of Mesopotamia. These divisions are (1) the northern country to the west of the Khâbùr, (2) the northern country to the east, and (3) the steppe-land. In the country to the north-west of the Khâbùr we must probably, as already mentioned, recognize the true ancient Aram Naharayim. Under the dominion of the Seleucids it bore the name of Osrhoene, or better Orrhoene, and was for a time the seat of a special dynasty which at a later date at any rate was Arabian (Abgar). The capital of this kingdom was Orfa (Roha), the Edessa of the Greeks and Romans, the Orrhoi of the Syrians; it was at a later date a Roman colony, and bore also the name of Justinopolis. This once flourishing city lies on the small river Daisan (the ancient Scirtus). South of Edessa lie the ruins of Harran (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 (Serùj). 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 Leontopolis. 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 (C i haboras 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 Karkisiyâ. Carchemish probably lay near the bridge of Membij, the present Kalat el-Nejm.

In ancient times a highly flourishing district must have stretched along the river Chaboras (Khâbür) to its principal source at Râs-ain (“Fountain-head,” Syr. RisKaina, the Rhesaena 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 Khâbür 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 Khâbür 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 flourishing Greek colony of Antiochia Mygdonia; but the new designation, transferred to the river and the vicinity of Nisibis from the Macedonian 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 occupied 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 Darae or Daras (the modern Dârâ), 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 Constantine 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 Khâbür; 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 Carnae '(Kαιvαi of the Anabasis), south from the mouth of the Great Zab near the present KaΓat Sherkât; and not far distant towards the interior was Atrae or Hatrae, 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 the interesting ruins, which can scarcely be visited owing to the plundering habits of the Bedouins, still bear the name 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 Akιιr, 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 Rebfa comprised the plain of Mosul as far as the country on the Khâbür (chief towns Mosul and Nisibis), and the district of Bekr (Diyâr 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:—

“El-Jezira 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 districts on the east side of the Tigris. The exact boundary line thus runs from Malatia by Sumeisat, KaΓat er-Rüm (Rum-Kala of the maps), and Bire (Birejik) to the point opposite Membij, and then by Balis, Er-Rakka, Karkisiyâ, Er-Rahaba (on right bank), and Hit to Anbar. Mere the Euphrates ceases to form the boundary, which runs across to the Tigris in the direction of Tekrit, anti ascends the Tigris as far as Es-Sinn (Senna) to El-Haditha and Mosul, thence to Jeziret ibn Omar, then to Diarbekr, and so back to Malatia.”

From the Arabic geographers and travellers we gain the impression that a great part of Mesopotamia, with the exception of the southern steppe of course, must at that time 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 Râs-ain, and the plain of Harran and Serüj, where huge mounds give evidence that the whole country was once covered with towns and villages. Under the Turks El-Jezira does not form a political unity, but belongs 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 more to the west, and Mesopotamia to the east. In virtue of its position it frequently formed both the object and the scene of contest between the armies of those mighty monarchies, and it is wonderful how a country so often devastated almost always recovered. The roads, it is true, which traversed the territory were not mere military highways, but the main routes of traffic for Central Asia, Western Asia, and Europe. It is only in modern times, and since these lines of commercial intercourse have ceased to be followed, that the general condition of things has been so entirely altered.

The number of roads which in ancient times traversed the country was very considerable; the Euphrates formed not a barrier but a bond between the nations on either side; at many places there were at least boat-bridges (zeugma) across. One of the most important of the ancient crossing-places must be sought, where in fact it still exists, at Birejik, the ancient Apamea-Zeugma. From this point a great road led across to Edessa (Orfa); there it divided into two branches, the northern going by Amid (Diarbekr) and the other by Mardin and Nisibis to Mosul (Nineveh). In quite recent times, in order to avoid the direct route across the desert and through the midst of the Bedouins, the post-road makes a great circuit from Nisibis by Jeziret ibn t 0mar to Mosul. A second route crossed the Euphrates somewhat more to the south, and joined the other via Harran and Rhesaena. The principal crossing of the earlier times (Xenophon) was at Thapsacus, almost opposite Rakka; and it will be remembered also how important a part Thapsacus (Tiphsah) plays in the Old Testament. Sometimes a route along the Euphrates to Babylonia was followed, as is still frequently done by caravans at the present day; but even in ancient times this course was attended by more or less difficulty, the country being occupied by the chiefs of independent Arab tribes, with whom the travellers had to come to terms.

The ancient condition of things must consequently be considered as essentially analogous to that of the present day; the central districts away from the rivers were occupied at certain seasons, according as they yielded pasture, by nomadic cattle-grazing tribes, the physical character of the country being then and now the same on the whole as that of the Syrian desert, which belongs not to Syria but properly to Arabia. On the banks of the rivers were settled half-nomadic Arab tribes,—tribes, that is, which were more or less on the way to the agricultural stage, or which, having become altogether agricultural, had nevertheless, owing to frequent intercourse with the Bedouins, lost little of their original character, and even maintained their independence. The same movement takes place over and over again: Arab tribes migrating from Arabia, that officina gentium, gradually settle down wherever circumstances prove favourable, and by this very change in their mode of life make their first step towards civilization. In this way a continual stream of Arabs has flowed into the civilized countries of Mesopotamia. On the Assyrian monuments are figures of Arabs riding on camels; evidently the Assyrians had carried on war against the Bedouins settled in their territory. At an early period the Tai Arabs were the neighbours of the Aramaeans, and consequently all Arabs bear in Syriac the name of Tayôyé. The district between Mosul and Nisibis received the name Béth ‘ Arbâyé from its being occupied by Arabs. These Tai Arabs, whose original home was Central Arabia, are still settled partly near Nisibis and partly east of Mosul; but they have to some extent lost their old noble Bedouin manners. The wandering Arab tribe which at the present time is dominant in Mesopotamia is the Shammar; they have driven back the Aneze, the most powerful tribe of the

Syrian desert. It is only two or three generations ago that the Shammar came from Nejd; but they have already broken up into two great parties. The head of the one division is Ferhân, who has more or less completely submitted to the Turks, and has consequently obtained the title of pasha; to him adhere the Shammar tribes between Mosul and Baghdad, and those also to the east of the Tigris. The head of the tribes who roam over the greater part of Mesopotamia—pasturing their camels and sheep to the east of the Chaboras in the colder season and to the north in the hotter—is the chivalrous Fâris. These western tribes are totally independent of the Turkish Government, and have offered determined opposition to the attempts of the authorities at Dér to force them to a settled way of life; they still lay the peasants of Mesopotamia under contribution by exacting Khuwwe, “brother-money,” or a portion of grain. The Shammar live in almost perpetual feud with their relations to the east, and especially with the Aneze on the Syrian bank of the Euphrates, the so-called Shâmiye. Many other Bedouin tribes might here be mentioned; but it may be enough to name the Delém on the Euphrates as an example of a tribe just in process of becoming agricultural. In the northern parts of Mesopotamia there are a number of tribes of mingled Kurds and Arabs which have to a greater or less degree abandoned their tents for fixed habitations and the tillage of the ground; such are the Beraziye near Orfa, the Milliye between Orfa and Mardin, and the Kikiye nearer Mardin and also in the neighbourhood of Mosul. It is extremely hard to obtain trustworthy statistical information about the number of the Bedouins; the Shammar may have a total strength of some 3500 tents. In the difficult contests which it has to carry on with those independence-loving tribes, the Turkish Government acts in general on the principle divide et impera.

The Kurdish element only appears sporadically in the true Mesopotamian plain; but the Yezidis, who form the population of the Sinjar range, may be referred to this stock. He who encounters the uncanny figure of one of these people will hardly be able to restrain a slight shudder, especially if he remembers the graphic descriptions of the Yezidi robbers in Morier’s Ayesha. Of the old Aramaean peasantry there are no longer any important remains in the plain, the Aramaeans having withdrawn farther into the Kurdish highlands, where, in spite of their wild Kurdish neighbours, they are more secure from exactions of every kind. The plain of the northern country of the two rivers...