excursion from Makallah on the coast, into the interior of the country.
He visited among other places an extensive valley called Wadi Doan,
which he thus describes. "The sudden appearance of the Wadi Doan, took
me by surprise and impressed me much with the grandeur of the scene. The
ravine, five hundred feet wide and six hundred feet in depth, is
enclosed between perpendicular rocks, the debris of which form in one
part a slope reaching to half their height. On this slope, towns and
villages rise contiguously in the form of an amphitheatre; while below
the date grounds, which are covered with a forest of trees, the river
about twenty feet broad and enclosed by high and walled embankments is
seen winding through fields laid out in terraces, then pursuing its
course in the open plain, irrigated by small canals branching from it.
My first view of the valley disclosed to me four towns and four
villages, within the space of an hour's distance." He also gives an
account of some curious spots of quicksand, in the midst of the great
desert of El-Akkaf, which are regarded with superstitious horror by the
wandering Bedouins. A cord of sixty fathoms in length with a plummet at
the end, which he cast into one of them, disappeared in the course of
five minutes. His narrative is published in the fourteenth volume of the
Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London.
In spite of the glowing descriptions of ancient authors, the idea
hitherto entertained of this region in modern times, has been that of a
succession of desert plains and sand-hills, with nothing to give
animation to the arid scene but solitary groups of Bedouins and
occasionally a passing caravan. The recent explorations, however, of
which the one just quoted is a specimen, show that this is far from
being a correct view of the entire country. The coast is thickly studded
with fishing-villages and small seaports, which still carry on, though
on a diminished scale, the trade with India and the Persian gulf, which
has existed ever since the dawn of history. It is true, the general
appearance of the country along the coast, consisting as it does of
successive ranges of sand-hills, is such as to naturally give rise to
the views entertained and promulgated by navigators, who have had no
opportunity of visiting the interior. But the deeper researches that
have been made during the last ten or twelve years, show that these
opinions are very erroneous; for besides that there are a number of
green valleys running down to the coast, produced by streams provided
with water for at least a good part of the year, no sooner has the
traveller surmounted the first range of sand-hills, than his sight
begins to be regaled with numerous well watered valleys and mountains
covered with verdure. Besides this, even in those parts of the country
where the surface is naturally a desert plain, the inhabitants have
possessed from the remotest times the art of forming flourishing oases,
in which to establish their hamlets and towns; an operation which, as
Wellsted remarks, is effected with a labor and skill that seem more
Chinese than Arabian. This traveller says: "The greater part of the face
of the country being destitute of running streams on the surface, the
Arabs have sought in elevated places for springs or fountains beneath
it. A channel from this fountain-head is then, with a very slight
descent, bored in the direction in which it is to be conveyed, leaving
apertures at regular distances, to afford light and air to those who are
occasionally sent to keep it clean. In this manner water is frequently
conducted from a distance of six or eight miles, and an unlimited supply
is thus obtained. These channels are usually about four feet broad and
two feet deep, and contain a clear and rapid stream. Few of the large
towns or oases but had four or five of these rivulets or feleji running
into them. The isolated spots to which water is thus conveyed possess a
soil so fertile, that nearly every grain, fruit, or vegetable, common to
India, Arabia, or Persia, is produced almost spontaneously; and the
tales of the oases will be no longer regarded as an exaggeration, since
a single step conveys the traveller from the glare and sand of the
desert into a fertile tract, watered by a hundred rills, teeming with
the most luxuriant vegetation, and embowered by lofty and stately trees,
whose umbrageous foliage the fiercest rays of a noontide sun cannot
penetrate."[65]
These oases and the towns situated in them, date from various periods;
some of those already discovered being evidently of considerable
antiquity. In describing some of these towns, Wellsted says: "The
instant you step from the Desert within the Grove, a most sensible
change of the atmosphere is experienced. The air feels cold and damp;
the ground in every direction is saturated with moisture; and from the
density of the shade, the whole appears dark and gloomy. To avoid the
damp and catch an occasional beam of the sun above the trees, the
houses are usually very lofty. A parapet encircling the upper part is
turreted; and on some of the largest houses guns are mounted. The
windows and doors have the Saracenic arch; and every part of the
building is profusely decorated with ornaments of stucco in bas relief,
some in very good taste. The doors are also cased with brass, and have
rings and other massive ornaments of the same metal." These descriptions
relate to the province of Oman, the eastern extremity of Southern
Arabia. The glimpses already obtained of this ancient and famous land,
sufficiently prove that the fortunate traveller who shall succeed in
obtaining access into the interior of the country, which has always been
a _terra incognita_ to Europeans and their descendants, will find an
abundance of objects of interest to reward his zeal and self-devotion.
There is however another class of interesting objects, relating to the
ancient history of the country, which I have not alluded to until now,
because I wish to speak of them more particularly. These are the ancient
_inscriptions_, of which a number have already been discovered and in
part decyphered.
Several Arabian writers have stated that there existed in the southern
part of their country, before the time of Mohammed, a kind of writing
which they call Himyaritic, after the name of the ancient inhabitants of
the country, the Beni Himyar. But the confused nature of these accounts,
together with the Arab practice of giving the name of Himyaritic to
every ancient mode of writing which they were unable to read, caused the
story to be regarded as little better than fabulous. In the year 1808
the late Baron de Sacy published a learned treatise on the subject, in
which he collected all the Arabian accounts; but no further progress was
made in the enquiry, until the discovery of a number of inscriptions on
various massy ruins situated along the coast and in the interior, by
officers attached to the surveying expedition already spoken of, in the
years 1834 and '5.
Copies of these inscriptions were transmitted to the late Dr. Gesenius
of Halle, one of the first Orientalists of Europe. After making some
progress in the investigation, he gave up the subject to his colleague
Dr. Roediger, who had devoted himself to it with great ardor and success.
The latter published a copious dissertation containing the results he
had arrived at, which he reprinted in 1842 by way of an appendix to his
German edition of Wellsted's Travels in Arabia. By comparing the
characters of the inscriptions with the Himyaritic alphabets contained
in some Arabic manuscripts and with the present Ethiopic alphabet, he
was enabled to ascertain the powers of the letters, and even to
interpret, with various degrees of certainty, many portions of the
inscriptions themselves. Thus, these venerable records, which in all
probability have for many ages been dumb to every human being, are in a
fair way of being made to yield up to modern scientific research
whatever information they may contain. That this information must be
interesting and valuable to the historian is inferred from the imposing
nature of the structures on which they are found, and whose existence
but a few years ago was as little looked for in this part of the world
as in the forest wilds of Oregon. A full account of these discoveries
and of the attempts at decyphering the inscriptions was published in
1845 in the first volume of the Transactions of the Ethnological Society
of this city. I will therefore merely proceed to state what has been
accomplished in the matter since the time when that account closes.
In the beginning of 1843, the same year in which M. Wrede made his
exploration, a French physician of the name of Arnaud being then at
Jiddah, received from M. Fresnel, the French consular agent at that
port, accounts of the Himyaritic inscriptions discovered by the officers
of the Indian Navy, and of the interest they had created in Europe. M.
Arnaud's enthusiasm being excited on the subject, he resolved to take a
share in these arduous researches. The grand object of his ambition was
to reach Mareb, the ancient capital of Hadramaut and the residence of
the famous Queen of Sheba, whose name according to the Arabians was
Balkis. Two English officers had undertaken the journey several years
ago, and had reached Sana, a town within three or four days' journey of
it; but the suspicions of the native authorities becoming excited, their
further progress was prevented.
The mode of proceeding adopted by M. Arnaud, who spoke the Arabic
fluently, was to travel as a Mussulman, in company with a caravan going
to the place. His plan was happily crowned with success. In the middle
of July he reached the city, where he saw the imposing remains of the
ancient dam, said to have been built across the valley of Mareb by
Balkis herself, and which, by collecting an immense body of water near
the metropolis, whence the surrounding country was irrigated, had given
rise to the fertility and beauty for which the region was celebrated in
ancient times. On these remains M. Arnaud discovered a number of
inscriptions, as also among the ruins of the former city; among the most
remarkable of these is one called Harem Balkis, which is thought to be
the remains of the palace of the ancient Sabean kings. The inscriptions
of which Mr. Arnaud brought away copies with him amount to fifty-six in
number. The tour of M. Wrede was also not unproductive in this respect.
He copied, among others, a long inscription in Wadi Doan; which,
according to the interpretations that have since been made of it,
contains a list of kings more copious than those which have been left us
by Albulfeda and other historians of the middle ages.
When M. Arnaud returned to Jiddah from his hazardous and toilsome
expedition, M. Fresnel, who had originally moved him to the undertaking,
set about studying the new inscriptions, aided by the previous labors of
the German scholars and his own knowledge of Arabic and the modern
Himyaritic. Possessing a far more abundant supply of materials than had
been collected before, he was able to assign to a few doubtful
characters their proper values. He transmitted to Paris a fair copy of
the original inscriptions, and also a transcription of them in the
Arabic character, showing how they should be read. A fount of Himyaritic
types having been constructed for the express purpose at the Imprimerie
Royale, they were all published in the course of last year in the
Journal Asiatique, together with several letters on the subject from M.
Fresnel. The form of the characters in these inscriptions is essentially
the same as in those discovered before; but, whereas the former ones all
read from right to left like the Arabic of the present day, some of the
new ones are found to read alternately from right to left and from left
to right, like some of the inscriptions of ancient Greece. M. Fresnel's
attention has been mainly directed to the collection and identification
of the proper names of persons, deities, and places, in which the
inscriptions abound, and in which he recognises many names mentioned in
Scripture, and in Greek, Roman, and Arabian authors. Thus he identifies
the deity 'Athtor with the Ashtoreth or Venus of the Hebrews. He finds
in an inscription at Hisn Ghorab the word Kana, showing the correctness
of the conclusion already arrived at that this is the _Cane emporium_ of
Ptolemy. He identifies the ruins of Kharibeh, a day's journey to the
west of Mareb, with the Caripeta of Pliny, the furthest point reached by
the Roman commander, AElius Gallus, in his expedition into Arabia Felix,
in the reign of Augustus Caesar. He has also recognised many names of
Himyaritic sovereigns mentioned by Arabian writers, among others those
of the grandfather and uncle of Queen Balkis. M. Fresnel has also begun
to translate the inscriptions connectedly, a work of great labor and
difficulty. He has already furnished an improved reading and translation
of one at Sana, which had been copied before by English officers, and
interpreted by Gesenius and Roediger, and has offered a translation of
another found by M. Arnaud, on the Hiram Balkis at Mareb.
The discoveries already brought to light, merely serve to show the
richness of the mine that yet remains to be explored. Other expeditions
are now planning, or in progress of execution, for penetrating into
other parts of the country; and eminent scholars are busied in
elucidating the treasures which the enterprize of travellers is bringing
to light. Their united exertions cannot fail, at least, to accumulate
many curious particulars relative to the history of one of the most
remarkable and least known nations of past ages.
The Rev. T. Brockman, who was sent by the Royal Geographical Society of
England for the purpose of geographical and antiquarian research in the
Arabian peninsula, had proceeded up the coast from Aden to Shehar,
midway between Aden and Muscat, and had coasted along to Cape Ras
al-Gat. Subsequently in attempting to reach Muscat, he was arrested by
sickness at Wadi Beni Jabor, where after a few days he died. His papers,
which will be sent to the Geographical Society, are thought to contain
matters of interest respecting this region.[66]
The following list embraces all of consequence that has been
written on Southern Arabia and the Himyaritic Inscriptions.
Pococke, Specimina Historiae veterum Arabum. Oxford, 1649,
reprinted 1806.
De Sacy, sur divers Evenemens de l'histoire des Arabes avant
Mahomet, in Mem. de Lit. de l'Acad. Francaise, Vol. L. Paris,
1805.
Historia Jemanae, e cod. MS. arabico, ed. G.T. Johannsen. Bonn,
1828.
Travels in Arabia, by Lieut. Wellsted, 2 vols. 8vo. London,
1838.
Memoir on the south coast of Arabia, by Capt. Harris. Journal
Royal Geographical Society, Vol. VI. IX.
Narrative of a Journey from Mokha to Sana: by C.J.
Cruttenden.--Ibid. Vol. VIII.
Gesenius, Ueber die Himjaritischen Sprache und Schrift, Halle,
1841.
Roediger, Versuch ueber die Himjaritischen Schriftmonumente.
Halle, 1841. This was republished, with many improvements, in
an Appendix to the author's German translation of Wellsted's
Travels. 2 vols. Halle, 1842.
Ewald, on an inscription recently dug up in Aden, Zeitschrift
fuer die Kunde des Morgenlandes, 1843.
The Historical Geography of Arabia, or the Patriarchal
Evidences of Revealed Religion. By the Rev. Charles Forster, 2
vols. 8vo. London, 1844.
F. Fresnel. Letters to M. Jules Mohl, on the Himyaritic
Inscriptions. Paris, 1845.
Account of an excursion to Hadramaut, by Adolph Baron Wrede.
Journal Royal Geographical Society, Vol. XIV.
Memoir of the south and east coast of Arabia, by Capt. S.B.
Harris.--Ibid. Vol. XV.
SCLAVONIC MSS.--It is stated in the Russian papers that M.
Grigorowitsch, professor of the sclavonic tongues in the Imperial
University of Kasan, has returned to that capital from a two year's
journey in the interior of Turkey, by order of the Russian government,
in search of the graphic monuments of the ancient Sclavonic nations. He
has brought home fac-similes of many hundred inscriptions, and 2,138
Sclavonian manuscripts--450 of which are said to be very ancient, and of
great importance.
THE CAUCASUS.--The results of a scientific expedition for the
exploration of the Steppes of the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus, and of
Southern Russia, under the direction of M. Hommaire de Hell, has lately
been published. This portion of the East has been little noticed by
travellers, and the present work has therefore added much to our
previous knowledge of the country. It is accompanied by a large map, on
which the geographical and geological peculiarities are defined with
great minuteness and elegance.[67]
ASSYRIA AND PERSIA.
The discoveries recently made, and the researches now in progress in
those regions of the world known in ancient times as Assyria, Babylonia
and Persia, are among the most interesting and important of the age. Of
the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians we know nothing, but what we find
in the Bible, or what has been preserved and handed down to us by the
Greek historians. Unlike Egypt, who has left so many records of her
greatness, of her knowledge of the arts, and of her advancement in
civilization, in the numerous and wonderful monumental remains in the
valley of the Nile, the Assyrians were supposed to have left nothing, no
existing monuments as evidences that they ever had an existence, save in
the vast and misshapen heaps along the banks of the Euphrates and
Tigris, believed to wash the spots where the great cities of Nineveh and
Babylon once stood. The site of Nineveh still remains doubtful; and so
literally have the prophecies in regard to Babylon been fulfilled, that
nothing but vast heaps of rubbish, of tumuli, and traces of numerous
canals, remains. The language of the Assyrians is unknown, and the
impressions of characters in the form of a wedge or arrow-head stamped
upon the bricks and other relics dug from these heaps, have been looked
upon as mysterious and cabalistic signs, rather than the representatives
of sounds, or belonging to a regular form of speech. For more than
twenty centuries, these countries have been as a blank on the page of
history; and all we have gathered from them consists in the observations
of curious travellers, who, at the risk of their lives, have ventured to
extend their wanderings this way.
Pietro della Valle, Le Brun, Niebuhr, Ker Porter, Rich, and Ouseley,
have given us descriptions of the ancient remains in Persia and Assyria,
particularly those at Persepolis, Pasargadae, and Babylon. These consist
of views of the monuments and sculptures, together with copies of the
inscriptions in the cuneiform, or arrow-head character. The object of
the edifices, the subject of the sculptures, and the meaning of the
inscriptions, were wholly matters of conjecture; and it seemed a
hopeless task to arrive at any conclusions in relation to them, until
some key should be discovered, by the means of which the language should
be made known, and the numerous inscriptions decyphered. No bilingual
tablet, such as the Rosetta stone of Egypt, had been discovered; and,
although it appeared that many of the inscriptions were recorded in
three different languages, no means seemed to exist by which
philologists could obtain a clue to their meaning. With this dark
prospect in view, the task of decyphering the arrow-headed characters
was attempted by M. Grotefend, one of the most sagacious and
distinguished philologists of Europe. The particulars of the attempt and
its results, we shall briefly state.
At Persepolis it is known are extensive ruins, chiefly belonging to a
large edifice, with every indication that this edifice was originally a
royal palace. History and tradition supported this belief; and the
general character of the sculptures and architecture, together with the
inscriptions, would carry its origin back to a period some centuries
before the Christian era. It was doubtless the work of one of the great
monarchs of Persia; of Cyrus, Cambyses, Xerxes, Darius, or some other
with whom history is familiar.[68] On some of the monuments at
Persepolis, are inscriptions in the Pehlvi character, parts of which
have been decyphered by M. de Sacy. In one of these, the titles and name
of a king are often repeated; these titles M. Grotefend thought might be
repeated in the same manner in the arrow-head characters.[69]
Over the doorways and in other parts of this edifice, are portraits,
evidently of kings, as there is always enough in the dress and insignia
of a monarch to enable one to detect him on any ancient monument. Over
these portraits are inscriptions; these it was natural to suppose
related to the person represented, and if so, contained the name of the
king and his titles. Such would be the conclusion of any one who
reflected on the subject, and such was the belief of M. Grotefend and
other philologists. In these inscriptions one group of characters was
repeated more frequently than any other, and all agreed that the
decyphering of this group would furnish a key to the whole. On this
group of characters then our Savans set to work.
According to the analogy of the Pehlvi inscriptions, decyphered by De
Sacy, it was believed that the inscriptions then under consideration,
mentioned the name of a king son of another king, that is the names of
father and son. M. Grotefend first examined the bas-reliefs at
Persepolis, to ascertain the particular age of the Persian kings to
which they belonged, in order that he might discover the names
applicable to the inscription. A reference to the Greek historians
convinced him that he must look for the kings of the dynasty of the
Achaemenides, and he accordingly applied their names to the characters of
the inscriptions. "These names could obviously not be Cyrus and
Cambyses, because the names occurring in the inscriptions do not begin
with the same letter; Cyrus and Artaxerxes were equally inapplicable,
the first being too short and the latter too long; there only remained
therefore the names of Darius and Xerxes;" and these latter agreed so
exactly with the characters, that Mr. Grotefend did not hesitate to
select them. The next step was to ascertain what these names were in the
old Persian language, as they come to us through the Greek, and would of
course differ somewhat from the original. The ancient Zend, as preserved
in the Zendavesta, furnished the only medium through which the desired
information could be obtained.[70] He next ascertained that Xerxes was
called _Kshershe_ or _Ksharsha_; and Darius, _Dareush_. A farther
examination gave him the name of _Kshe_ or _Ksheio_ for 'king.'[71] The
places or groups of characters corresponding with these names, were then
analyzed and the value of each character ascertained. These were then
applied to other portions of the inscriptions, and led to the
translation of two short ones, as well as to the formation of a
considerable portion of the alphabet.
Such was the result of Professor Grotefend's labors up to the year 1833.
His first discovery was made and announced as early as 1802, but an
account of his system of interpretation did not appear until 1815, in
the appendix to the third German edition of Heeren's Researches. This
was afterwards enlarged in the translation of Heeren published at Oxford
in 1833, when it was first made known to English readers. In 1837 he
published a treatise containing an account of all the Persepolitan
inscriptions in his possession, and another in 1840 on those of Babylon.