A History of Babylonia and Assyria, Book I: Prolegomena
Robert William Rogers author
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CHAPTER III
EARLY EXPLORERS IN BABYLONIA
WHEN the city of Nineveh fell, and when Babylon was finally given over to the destroyer, a deep darkness of ignorance settled over their ruins. The very site of Nineveh was forgotten, and, though a tradition lived on which located the spot where Babylon had stood, there was almost as little known of that great capital as of its northern neighbor. In the Middle Age the world forgot many things, and then with wonderful vigor began to learn them all over again. In the general spell of forgetfulness it cast away all remembrance of these two great cities. Even the monk in his cell, to whose industry as a copyist the world owes a debt that can never be paid, reeked little of barbarous cities, whose sins had destroyed them. He knew of Jerusalem and of Bethlehem, for these had imperishable fragrance in his nostrils. They were sacred cities in a sacred land, and he sighed as he thought that they were now in the hands of infidels. But Nineveh and Babylon, they were mentioned, it is true, in the prophets; but then Nahum had cursed the one and Isaiah predicted the destruction of the other, and they had received their deserts. Where they might be he knew not, nor cared. But after a time came the period when Europe began to relearn, and that with wonderful avidity. The Crusades roused all Europe to a passionate interest in the Orient. Palestine, Syria, and Egypt were traversed by one after another of travelers who visited sacred scenes and came home to tell wonderful stories in Europe. Of these almost all were Christians, who knew in greater or less degree the New Testament, but were for the more part hopelessly ignorant of the Old Testament. They would fain see the land of the Lord, but cared little for associations with Old Testament prophets, heroes, or kings. But at last there appeared a man who had wider interests than even those that concerned the land of Palestine. He was a Jewish rabbi of Tudela, in the kingdom of Navarre. The Rabbi Benjamin, son of Jonah, set out from home about 1160 A. D., and journeyed overland across Spain and France, and thence into Italy. As he went he made the most careful notes of all that he saw, and gave much attention to the learned and pious men of his own faith whom he met. From Italy he passed over to Greece, and then on to Constantinople, with which he was profoundly impressed. After he had visited the sacred spots in Palestine he went over the desert by way of Tadmor, and crossed the Euphrates, and then journeyed on east. ward to the Tigris, where he visited the Jews of Mosul. Of Mosul and its surroundings he has this to relate: "This city, situated on the confines of Persia, is of great extent and very ancient; it stands on the banks of the Tigris, and is joined by a bridge to Nineveh. Although the latter lies in ruins, there are numerous inhabited villages and small towns on its site. Nineveh is on the Tigris distant one parasang from the town of Arbil."52 From Nineveh Benjamin of Tudela passed on down the river and visited Baghdad, then a great center of culture both Mohammedan and Jewish, and this was more to him than even its wealth, and it is as to a climax that his last sentence concerning this city comes "The city of Baghdad is three miles in circumference, the country in which it is situated is rich in palm trees, gardens, and orchards, so that nothing equals it in Mesopotamia. Merchants of all countries resort thither for purposes of trade, and it contains many wise philosophers, well skilled in sciences, and magicians proficient in all sorts of enchantment."53 From Baghdad Benjamin went on to Gihiagin or Ras-al-Ain, which he mistakenly identified with Resen (Gen. x, 12), and then continues his narrative thus: "From hence it is one day to Babylon. This is the ancient Babel, and now lies in ruins; but the streets still extend thirty miles. The ruins of the palace of Nebuchadnezzar are still to be seen, but people are afraid to venture among them on account of the serpents and scorpions with which they are infested. Twenty thousand Jews live about twenty miles from this place, and perform their worship in the synagogue of Daniel, who rests in peace. This synagogue is of remote antiquity, having been built by Daniel himself; it is constructed of solid stones and bricks. Here the traveler may also behold the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, with the burning fiery furnace into which were thrown Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; it is a valley well known to everyone. Hillah, which is at a distance of five miles, contains about ten thousand Jews and four synagogues.... Four miles from hence is the tower built by the dispersed Generation. It is constructed of bricks called al-ajurr; the base measures two miles, the breadth two hundred and forty yards, and the height about one hundred canna. A spiral passage, built into the tower (in stages of ten yards each), leads up to the summit, from which we have a prospect of twenty miles, the country being one wide plain and quite level. The heavenly fire, which struck the tower, split it to its very foundation."54 That Benjamin of Tudela actually did visit Mosul, and that he there saw across the river the great mounds which marked the ruins of Nineveh there is no reason to doubt, but it is not so clear that he also saw the ruins of Babylon. He did make the visit to Baghdad, for that city is described in the terms of an eyewitness. It is, however, not certain that he had really seen the ruins of Babylon, for his description lacks the little touches which accompanied the former narrative. He is here probably reproducing simply what he had heard from others concerning these ruins. Benjamin of Tudela wrote his narrative in Hebrew. It was known to the learned during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, but was not printed until 1543, when it appeared at Constantinople in the rabbinic character. In 1633 it appeared, with a Latin translation, at Leyden. It later appeared in English and French, and thus became known over a large part of Europe. Though thus well known, the book of Benjamin appears to have attracted no attention to the buried cities of Nineveh and Babylon. Like the first scant notices of Persepolis given by the earlier travelers, these notes of Benjamin of Tudela would bear fruit in a later day, for they would incite other travelers to visit the same mysterious ruins. The next word of information concerning the ancient sites was brought to Europe by another Jew, the Rabbi Pethachiah of Ratisbon, whose recollections were set down by one of his disciples, after the scanty notes which he had made by the way. The time was now hastening on toward the period when men of Europe began to travel extensively in the Orient, and of these many visited both Mosul and Baghdad. Most of them, however, did not pay any attention to the ruins which lay near these cities. Many, like Sir John Mandeville (1322-56), made no journey to these sites, but were contented to report what they had heard concerning them. Marco Polo appears to have cared nothing for the ruins, and, though he visited both Mosul and Baghdad, never refers to them. Others confounded Baghdad with Babylon, and really believed that the Mohammedan capital was the same city as that which Nebuchadnezzar had made powerful. In 1583 the Orient was visited by John Eldred, an English traveler and merchant, whose quaint notice of Babylon and of Nineveh was among the very first hints which came directly to England concerning these great cities. His account is as follows: "We landed at Felugia the 8th and 20th of June, where we made our abode seven dayes, for lack of camels to caree our goods to Babylon. The heat at that time of the yeare is such in those parts that men are loath to let out their camels to travell. This Felugia is a village of some hundred houses, and a place appointed for dischargeing of such goods as come downe the river: the inhabitants are Arabians. Not finding camels here, we were constrained to unlade our goods, and hired an hundred asses to carie our English merchandizes onely to New Babylon over a short desert; in crossing whereof we spent eighteen houres, travelling by night and part of the morning, to avoid the great heat. "In this place which we crossed over stood the olde mightie citie of Babylon, many olde ruines whereof are easilie to be scene by daylight, which I John Eldred have often behelde at my goode leisure, having made three voyages between the New citie of Babylon and Aleppo over this desert. Here also are yet standing the dunes of the olde tower of Babell, which being upon a plaine ground seemeth a farre off very great, but the nearer you come to it, the lesser and lesser it appeareth sundry times I have gone thither to see it, and found the remnants yet standing about a quarter of a mile in compasse, and almost as high as the stone worke of Paules steeple in London, but it heweth much bigger.55 The brickes remaining in this most ancient monument be half a yard thicke and three quarters of a yard long, being dried in the Sunne only, and betwene every course of brickes there lieth a course of mattes made of canes, which remaine sounde and not perished, as though they had beene layed within one yeere. The citie of New Babylon joyneth upon the aforesaid desert where the Olde citie was, and the river of Tygris runneth close under the wall, and they may if they will open a sluce, and let the water of the same runne round about the towee. It is about two English miles in compasse, and the inhabitants generally speake three languages, to wit, the Persian, Arabian, and Turkish tongues the people are of the Spanyards complexion: and the women generalie where in one of the gristles of their noses a ring like a wedding ring, but somewhat greater, with a pearle and a Turkish stone set therein, and this they doe be they never so poore."56 The old confusion between Baghdad and Babylon plainly exists in the mind of Eldred, but apart from that error his words have a magical ring in them, and might well induce others to set out to see such sights. He appears not to have seen the ruins of Nineveh at all, but another Englishman, who sailed from Venice in 1599, was more fortunate and also more romantic. There is more of eloquence in Anthony Shirley (or Sherley ), who thus wrote of both cities: "I will speake of Babylon; not to the intent to tell stories, either of the huge ruines of the first Towne or the splendour of the second, but--because nothing doth impose anything in man’s nature more than example--to chew the truth of God’s word, whose vengeances, threatened by His Prophets, are truely succeeded in all those 57 parts.... .All the ground on which Babylon was spred is left now desolate; nothing standing in that Peninsula between the Euphrates and the Tigris, but only part, and that a small part, of the greate Tower, which God hath suffered to stand (if man may speake so confidently of His greate impenetrable counsels) for an eternal testimony of His work in the confusion of Man’s pride, and that Arke of Nebuchadnezzar for as perpetual a memory of his greate idolatry and condigne punishment.58 .Nineve, that which God Himself calleth That greate Citie, hath not one stone standing which may give memory of the being of a towne. One English mile from it is a place called Mosul, a small thing, rather to be a witnesse of the other’s mightinesse and God’s judgment than of any fashion of magnificence in it selfe."59 In these words is sounded for the first time the note which would bring eager explorers to these mounds. The former travelers had looked curiously upon these mounds and then passed on; this man saw in them facts which illustrated the Hebrew prophets. In a later day expeditions would go out from England for the very purpose of seeking in them books which might confirm or illustrate the history and the prophecy of the Hebrew people. The real force behind the large contributions of money for these explorations was this desire to know anything that had any possible bearing on the scriptures of the Old Testament. Anthony Shirley did not see that day, but he belonged to it in spirit. In all these notices of passing travelers ignorance was mingled with credulity, and definite knowledge was wanting. The most that had been accomplished was the perpetuation and the stimulation of interest in these cities. The very small amount of progress that had been made is indicated by the publication in 1596, at Antwerp, of the great Geographical Treasury of Ortelius,60 an alphabetic list of places, with such descriptive geographical facts added as were then known. Ortelius states that certain writers identified Nineveh with Mosul, but as he had no definite information, he had to let the matter rest at that. Of Babylon even less was known. All the authorities quoted by Ortelius, except Benjamin of Tudela, identify Babylon with Baghdad, and that position he accepts. It is clear from this that there was need for more travelers who should see, and understand as well what they saw. A beginning is made by an English traveler, John Cartwright, whose tone is very similar to that of Sherley, though he makes more of a contribution to the knowledge of the subject: "Having passed over this river [the Choaspes] we set forward toward Mosul, a very antient towee in this countrey, sixe dayes journey from Valdac, and so pitched on the banker of the river Tigris. Here in these plaines of Assiria, and on the bankes of the Tigris, and in the region of Eden, was Ninevie built by Nimrod, but finished by Ninus. It is agreed by all prophane writers, and confirmed by the Scriptures that this citty exceeded all other citties in circuit, and answerable magnificence. For it seemes by the ruinous foundation (which I thoroughly viewed) that it was built with four sides, but not equall or square; for the two longer sides had each of them (as we gesse) an hundredth and fifty furlongs, the two shorter sides, ninty furlongs, which amounteth to foure hundred and eighty furlongs of ground, which makes three score miles, accounting eight furlongs to an Italian mile. The walls whereof were an hundredth foote upright, and had such a breadth, as three Chariots might passe on the rampire in front: these walls were garnished with a thousand and five hundreth towers, which gave exceeding beauty to the rest, and a strength no lesse admirable for the nature of those times."61 After these descriptions of the past and present of Nineveh, Cartwright supplied some extracts from its history and then concluded thus: .Finally, that this city was farre greater than Babilon, being the Lady of the East, the Queene of Nations, and the riches of the world, hauing more people within her wall, than are now in some one kingdome: but now it is . destroyed (as God foretold it should be by the Chaldaeans) being nothing else, then ( ) a sepulture of her self, a litle towne of small trade, where the Patriarch of the Nestorians keeps his seate, at the deuotion of the Turkes. Sundry times had we conference with this Patriarch: and among many other speeches which past from him, he wished us that
....
..
. before we departed, to see the Iland of Eden, but twelue miles up the riuer, .... . ." Keen as Cartwright was after historical and legendary material, he continued the error of confusion of Baghdad and Babylon. His descriptions, however, contained some new matter: "Two places of great antiquity did we thoroughly view in the country: the one was the ruines of the old tower of Babel, (as the inhabitants hold unto this day) built by Nymrod, the nephew of Cham, Noahs stone.... "And now at this day that which remayneth, is called, the remnant of the tower of Babel: there standing as much, as is a quarter of mile in compasse, and as high as the stone-worke of Paules steeple in London. It was built of burnt bricke cimented and joyned with bituminous mortar, to the end, that it should not receiue any cleft in the same. The brickes are three quarters of a yard in length, and a quarter in thicknesse, and between euery course of brickes, there lyeth a course of mats made of Canes and Paume-tree leaves, so fresh, as if they had beene layd within one yeere. "The other place remarkable is, the ruines of old Babilon, because it was the first citie, which was built after the Flond.... This city was built upon the riuer Eyphrates, as we found by expert ence, spending two dayes journey and better, on the ruines thereof. "Amongst the other stately buildings was the temple of Bel, erected by Semiramis in the middle of this citie.... Some do thinke, that the ruines of Nimrods tower, is but the foundation of this temple of Bel, & that therefore many trauellers haue bin deceiued, who suppose they haue seene a part of that tower which Nimrod builded. But who can tell whether it be the one or the other? It may be that confused Chaos which we saw was the ruines of both, the Temple of Bet being founded on that of Nimrod."62 There are not wanting indications in this narrative that Cartwright knew the description of Sherley, whom he almost seems to quote in the comparison with St. Paul’s Cathedral. The visiting of Babylon and Nineveh was now becoming as much of an international matter as was the observing of the ruins of Persepolis at a slightly later time. Gasparo Babbi,63 a Venetian, Alexander Hamilton, an Englishman, and Don Garcia de Silva y Figueroa, a Spaniard, followed soon after Cartwright, but made no advance in their investigations beyond that which had been seen by their predecessors. Following these came the great traveler, Pietro della Valle, who has received so much attention already in a former narrative concerning Persepolis.64 He made the same mistake of confusing Baghdad with ancient Babylon, but he visited Hillah, which probably few of his predecessors had done. He also visited the great mound near Hillah, called Babil by the natives. This, Pietro delta Valle believed, was the ruin of the Tower of Babel. This mound he had sketched by an artist, and from it he collected some bricks, which he afterward took back to Rome. One of these was presented to Athanasius Kircher, the Jesuit, who wrote a learned treatise on the Tower of Babel. Kircher believed that this brick had formed part of the original Tower of Babel, wrecked by the hand of God, a silent monitor from the great age of the dispersion of tongues. He placed it in his museum, and it is still preserved. This is probably the very first Babylonian antiquity which came into Europe, and must always have a great interest on that account. Though it was not what Pietro della Valle and Kircher supposed, it was, nevertheless, a brick from the glorious period of Babylonian history, and to the world of letters had a meaning of tremendous import. It was the harbinger of great stores of tablets and of building bricks which were soon to flow from that land. Far beyond the dreams of the mediaeval student of the Tower of Babel were this first brick and those which were to follow, to carry the thoughts of men. After these men of the world, others bent on errands of religion passed up and down the valley - Augustinians, Jesuits, Carmelites, and Franciscans-some of whom visited the sites covered with ruins, while others were content to report what they had heard. They were generally impressed with the thought that they were in lands where God had signally manifested his displeasure with the sons of men, but none of them appear to have felt any quickening of imagination at the thought of the great deeds of human history which had there been enacted. They naturally knew no more of the meaning of the mounds than did those who had preceded them. Agathic atrioventricular seawater marmot! Heterodiode postsurgical sprays diagometer reverse subballast cavernitis scoop guying recrement pylorin dibbler. Reedbuck gender epididymography; spinnery slub radiolocating swapper. Circumintestinal. tadalafilnaproxen 500cialis tadalafilsoma onlineplavixvoltarentriamcinolonesoma onlinetramadol hclcleocinariceptzolpidem
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