iii. Character of Surface.[1]—(1) The tract between the Belikh and the Euphrates is in its middle section exceedingly fertile, as is implied in the name Anthemusia, and according to v. Oppenheim (Z. d. Gesellsch. f. Erdkunde, 36, 1901, p. 80) the same is true of the southern portion also. The plain extending from Urfa to a dozen miles below Ḥarrān has a rich red-brown humus derived from the Nimrūd Dāgh east of Edessa. (2) The rolling plains north of the ʽAbd al ʽAzīz Sinjār mountain wall are intersected by the many streams of the Khābūr system (the Arab geographer Mustaufī speaks of 300 feeders), which under favourable political and administrative conditions would produce a marked fertility. At Naṣībīn (Nisibis) rice is cultivated with success. (3) The country south of the mountain range is steppe land, imperfectly known, and of little use except for nomadic tribes, apart from the banks of the rivers (on which see Euphrates, Tigris). It consists mainly of grey dreary flats covered with selenite; and a little below the surface, gypsum. Bitumen is found at Hīt, whence perhaps its name (Babylonian Id in Tukulti Ninib II.’s inscription referred to above), and near the Tigris.[2]
iv. Climate.[3]—Mesopotamia combines strong contrasts of climate, and is a connecting link between the mountain region of western Asia and the desert of Arabia. At Dēr ez-Zōr, for example, the heat is intense. (1) In the steppe, during the sandstorms which frequently blow from the West Arabian desert the temperature may rise to 122° F. On the other hand, in winter the warm currents coming in from the Persian Gulf being met to a large extent by northerly currents from the snow-covered tracts of Armenia, are condensed down on to the plain and discharge moisture enough to cover the gravel steppes with spring herbage. (2) In the higher plains, in mid winter, since the high temperature air from the gulf is drawn up the valleys of the Euphrates and the Tigris there may be, e.g. at Mōṣul, a “damp mildness.” In spring the grass on the rolling plains is soon parched. So when the hot sandstorms blow in the lower steppe the scorching heat is carried right up to the foot of the mountains. On the other hand, since the spurs of the Taurus bring the winter cold a long way south, and the cold increases from west to east as we leave the mild coast of the Mediterranean, far down into the Mesopotamian plain the influence of the snow-covered ridges can be felt, and in the higher parts of the plain snow and ice are not infrequent; and although there is no point of sufficient altitude to retain snow for long, the temperature may fall as low as 14° F., especially if the cold north winds are blowing.
The cycle of vegetation begins in November. The first winter rains clothe the plain with verdure, and by the beginning of the year various bulbous plants are in bloom. The full summer development is reached in June. By the end of August everything is burnt up; August and September are the low-water months in the rivers, March to May the time of flood.
v. Flora.[4]—(1) Botanical lists have been published by von Oppenheim (Vom Mittelmeer zum Persischen Golf, ii. 373–388) of a collection made in 1893 containing 43 entries for Mesopotamia, and by E. Herzfeld (Herbaraufnahmen aus Ḳalʽat-Šerḳāṭ-Assur, in Beiheft II. zur Or. Lit.-Zeit, 1908, pp. 29–37) of a collection made in 1903–1905 in the neighbourhood of Assur, containing 181 entries. (2) The following are among the more important products of the central zone of Mesopotamia: wheat, barley, rice (e.g. at Sarūj, the Khābūr), millet, sesemum (for oil, instead of olive), dura (Holcus sorghum and H. bicolor); lentils, peas, beans, vetches; cotton, hemp, safflower, tobacco; Medicago sativa (for horses); cucumber, melons, water-melons, figs (those of Sinjar famed for sweetness), dates (below, ʽĀna and Tekrīt); a few timber trees; plane and white poplar (by streams), willow and sumach (by the Euphrates). The sides of Ḳaraja-Dāgh, J. ʽAbd el-ʽAziz and Sinjār are wooded, but not now the neighbourhood of Nisībis. (3) In the steppe the vegetation is that which prevails in similar soil from Central Asia to Algeria; but many of the arborescent plants that grow in the rockier and more irregular plateaux of western Asia, and especially of Persia, have been reported as missing. Endless masses of tall weeds, belonging to a few species, cover the face of the country—large Cruciferae, Cynareae and Umbelliferae—also large quantities of liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra and echinata) and Lagonychium, and the white ears of the Imperata. In autumn the withered weeds are torn up by the wind and driven immense distances.
vi. Fauna.[5]—The following abound: wild swine, hyaena, jackal, cheetah, fox; gazelle (in herds), antelope species (in the steppe); jerboa, mole, porcupine, and especially the common European rat (in the desert); bat, long-haired desert hare. The following are rare: wild ass; beaver, said to have been observed on the Euphrates; wolf, among others a variety of black wolf (Canis lycaon), said to be found in the plains; lion, said to roam as far as the Khābūr. On the Euphrates are the following: vulture, owl, raven, &c., also the falcon (Tinnanculus alaudarius), trained to hunt. Among game birds are: wild duck and goose, partridge, francolin, some kinds of dove, and in the steppe the buzzard. The ostrich seems almost to have disappeared. Large tortoises abound, and, in the ʽAin el-ʽArūs pool, fresh-water turtles and carp. Of domestic animals in the steppe the first place belongs to the camel; next come goat and sheep (not the ordinary fat-tailed variety); the common buffalo is often kept by the Arabs and the Turkomans on the Euphrates and the Tigris; on the Euphrates is found the Indian zebu.
vii. Towns.[6]—The towns that have survived are on the rivers. Such are Samsat (see Ṣamosata), Raḳḳa (Nicephorium) above the mouth of the Belikh, Dēr ez-Zōr, a rising town on the right bank, where there is (since 1897) a stone bridge, ʽAna (on an island; see Ana), Hīt (Is, Bab. Id), on the Euphrates; Jezīret ibn ʽOmar, Mōṣul (q.v.), Tekrīt, on the Tigris; Edessa (q.v.), Ḥarrān (q.v.); on confluents of the Belīkh; Vērānshehr (Tela), Rās al-ʽAin (Rhesaena), Mardin (half-way up the mountain wall), and Nasībīn (Assyr. Nasibina Nisībis), on confluents of the Khābūr; Sinjār (Singara) on the Tharthār. Villages are more numerous than has often been supposed. Von Oppenheim counted in the district west of Edessa and Ḥarrān, in a stretch of two days’ march, 300 flourishing villages.
At one time, however, Mesopotamia was teeming with life. The lines of the rivers are marked at frequent intervals by the ruins of flourishing towns of Assyrian, Roman and Caliphate times. Such are Bīrejīḳ, Jerāblūs, Tell Aḥmar, Ḳāl ʽat en-Najm, Bālis, Ḳarkīsīya (Qarqisiya, Circesium), on the Euphrates; Ḳuyunjiḳ, Nimrūd on the Tigris; Khorsābād on a small tributary; ʽArbān, Tell Khalaf, on the Khābūr. The interesting oasis town el-Ḥaḍr (Hatra) is near the Tharthār. Excavation has hardly begun. The country is covered with countless mounds (tells), each of which marks the site of a town. The documents from the ancient Tirqa said to have been found at ʽIshāra, a few miles below Ḳarḳīsiyā, are referred to below (§ 4). At Anaz (＝Dūr of Tiglathpileser IV.) was found in 1901 a slab (Pognon, Inscript. sém. de la Syrie, Plate xxvi. No. 59) with a bas-relief and an inscription of the governor of Dūr, Mushēzib-Shamash.[7] The stele referred to below (§ 7, end) as being probably[8] Nabonidus’s was found in 1906 some 15–20′ W. of Eski-Ḥarran, a little nearer to it than to Hmeira, which is west of Eski-Ḥarran an hour and a half north-east of the ruins of Ḥarran. Parts of Mesopotamia have probably always harboured wandering tribes. Exactly how far the intervening lands beyond reach of the streams have done so it is difficult to make out. Fraser (Short Cut to India, p. 134) insists that in the undulating plains the direct rainfall is quite sufficient for agricultural purposes.
viii. Political Divisions.—On the whole the natural lie of the country has been reflected in the political divisions, which have of course varied in detail. We only mention some of those most often occurring. In the pre-Persian period, besides those referred to elsewhere, we may cite Kashyari (Ṭūr ʽAbdin), Guzanu (Gozan of 2 Kings xvii. 6; in the Khābūr district), Bīt Adini (Osroene), Kummukh (north-west corner and beyond); in the Roman period, Osroene (q.v.), Mygdonia (in the east), and in Syriac usage Bēth ʽArbāyē (between Nisībis and Mōṣul); in the Arab period, Diarbekr (Ṭūr ʽAbdin), Diār Rebī’a (Mygdonia), Diār Muḍar (Osroene).
ix. Roads.[9]—The routes of communication have probably changed little in the last 5000 years. It has not yet been proved that Edessa is an ancient city (see Edessa: § 2 but it probably was, and its neighbour Harrān, the tower of which can be seen from it, bears a name which seems to indicate its position as a highway? centre. (1) An obvious series of routes followed the course of the rivers: from Thapsacus (Dibse) down the Euphrates, from Jezīret ibn ʽOmar down the Tigris, from Circesium up the Khābūr. The Euphrates was crossed at Bīrejiḳ (Til Barsip ?), or Jerablus (Carchemish?), or Tell Aḥmar (unidentified), or Thapsacus.[10] (2) Probably the modern route from Samosata eastwards behind the Ḳaraja Dāgh to Diārbekr was also well known. The same is doubtless true of the route from Osroene by Rās al-ʽAin and Nasībīn, and that by Véranshehr and Mardin to the Tigris. About other cross-roads, such as those from Ḥarrān to Tell Shaddada on the lower Khābūr, or from ʽĀna by al-Ḥaḍr to Mōṣul it is difficult to say.
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. Its position has given it a long, complicated and exciting history. The great rivers, in later times theoretically regarded as its boundaries, History: Earliest Times. have never really been barriers (cf. e.g. Winckler, Altorient. Forschungen, iii. 348), whence the vagueness of the geographical terminology in all times. Its position, along with its character, has prevented it often or long, if ever, playing a really independent part.
Who the earliest inhabitants of Mesopotamia in approximately historical times were is not yet clear. It is possible that its
- ↑ Ritter, Erdkunde, xi. 493–498.
- ↑ See Geog. Journ. lx. 528–532 (with map).
- ↑ Ritter, xi. 498–499.
- ↑ Ibid., xi. 499–502.
- ↑ Ibid., xi. 502–510.
- ↑ Ritter, Erdkunde, xi. 279–492.
- ↑ For the interpretation cf. Or. Lit.-Zeit. xi. 242–244.
- ↑ On the interpretation see P. Dhorme, Rev. Bibl. (Jan., 1908).
- ↑ Ritter, Erdkunde, xi. 265–278.
- ↑ On these and other crossing places, see Ritter, Erdkunde, x. 959–1004.
