THE NATIONS OF THE NORTH-EAST
Canaan is but the southern continuation of Syria, which shades off, as
it were, into the waterless wilderness. The name of Syria is usually
supposed to be an abbreviation of Assyria, but it is more probable that
it comes from Suri, the name by which the Babylonians denoted
Mesopotamia and Syria of the north, and in which Assyria itself was
sometimes included. As we have seen, the Syria of our own maps, and more
especially the southern half of it, was commonly known to the
Babylonians as the land of the Amorites; in the later inscriptions of
Assyria the place of the Amorites is taken by the Hittites. When Assyria
appeared upon the scene of history the Hittites had become the dominant
people in the west.
The main part of the population of Syria and Mesopotamia was
Aramæan--that is to say, it consisted of Semites from Arabia who spoke
Aramaic dialects. But it was exposed to constant attacks from the north,
and from time to time passed under the yoke of a northern conqueror. At
one time it was the Hittites who poured down the slopes of Mount Taurus
and occupied the fertile plains and cities of northern Syria. At another
time a kindred people from the highlands of Armenia established a
kingdom in Mesopotamia known as that of Mitanni to its own subjects, as
that of Aram-Naharaim to the Hebrews.
The northern invaders sundered the Semites of the West from those of the
East. The kings of Mitanni held guard over the fords of the Euphrates,
and intrigued in Palestine against the Egyptian Pharaohs. But this did
not prevent them from marrying into the Pharaoh's family, while their
daughters were sent to the harem of the Egyptian king. Towards the end
of the Eighteenth dynasty the sacred blood of the Pharaohs became
contaminated by these foreign alliances. For two generations in
succession the queen-mother was a Mitannian princess, and a king finally
sat upon the Pharaohs' throne who attempted to supplant the religion of
which he was the official head by a foreign cult, and thereby brought
about the fall of his house and empire.
The power of Mitanni or Aram-Naharaim--Aram of the Two Rivers--does not
seem to have long survived this event. Chushan-rishathaim, we learn from
the Book of Judges, held Palestine in subjection for eight years, until
he was driven out by the Kenizzite Othniel, and about the same time
Ramses III. of Egypt records his victory over the Mesopotamian king.
After this we hear no more of a king of Aram-Naharaim in Canaan or on
the frontier of Egypt, and when the name of Mitanni is met with a little
later in the Assyrian inscriptions it is that of a small and
insignificant state.
The Hittites had grown at the expense of Mitanni, but their glory too
was of no long duration. In the days of Ramses II., the Pharaoh of the
Oppression, their power was at its height. From their southern capital
at Kadesh on the Orontes their armies had gone forth to contend on equal
terms with the forces of the Nile, and after twenty-one years of
warfare, peace was made between the two combatants, neither side having
gained an advantage in the long struggle. The text of the treaty is
engraved on the walls of Karnak. There we may read how the two rivals
swore henceforth to be friends and allies, how the existing boundaries
of their respective territories in Syria were to remain unchanged for
ever, and how a general amnesty was to be granted to the political
fugitives on either side. It was only the criminal to whom the right of
asylum in the dominions of the other was denied.
In the war they had waged with Egypt the Hittite princes of Kadesh had
summoned their vassal allies from the distant coasts of Asia Minor.
Lycians and Dardanians had come from the far west; and were joined by
the troops of Aram-Naharaim from the east. The extension of Hittite
supremacy to the shores of the Ægean Sea is testified by the monuments
it has left behind. Hittite inscriptions have been found near Smyrna
engraved on the rocks, as well as the figures of Hittite warriors
guarding the westernmost pass of the ancient road. The summer residences
of the Hittite princes were on the eastern bank of the Halys. Here the
roads of Asia Minor converged, and here we still see the sculptured
bas-reliefs of a Hittite palace and long rows of Hittite deities.
The Hittite empire broke up into a multitude of small principalities. Of
these Carchemish, now Jerablûs, on the Euphrates, was perhaps the most
important. It commanded the ford across the river, and the high-road of
commerce from east to west. Its merchants grew rich, and "the mina of
Carchemish" became a standard of value in the ancient world. Its capture
by Sargon destroyed a rival of Assyrian trade, and opened the road to
the Mediterranean to the armies of Assyria.
The decay of the Hittite and Mitannian power meant the revival of the
older Aramæan population of the country. The foreigner was expelled or
absorbed; Syria and Mesopotamia became more and more Semitic. Aramæan
kingdoms arose on all sides, and a feeling of common kinship and
interests arose among them at the same time. To the north of the Gulf of
Antioch, in the very heart of the Hittite territory, German excavators
have lately found the earliest known monuments of Aramæan art. The art,
as is natural, is based on that of their Hittite predecessors; even the
inscriptions in the alphabet of Phoenicia are cut in relief like the
older hieroglyphs of the Hittites. But they prove that the triumph of
the Aramæan was complete. The foreigner and his works were swept away;
no trace has been discovered of a Hittite text, barely even of a Hittite
name. The gods are all Semitic--Hadad the Sun-god and Shahr the
Moon-god, the Baal of Harran, and Rekeb-el, "the Chariot of God."
Hittite inscriptions have been found at Hamath on the Orontes. But they
must belong to a period earlier than that of David. The rulers of Hamath
who made alliance with David bear Semitic names. The crown-prince came
himself to Jerusalem, bringing with him costly vessels of gold and
silver and bronze. His name was Hadoram, "Hadad is exalted;" but out of
compliment to the Israelitish king, the name of Hadad was changed into
that of the God of Israel, and he became known to history as Joram. A
common enmity united Hamath and Israel. The war with Ammon had brought
David into conflict with Zobah, an Aramaic kingdom which under
Hadad-ezer was aiming at the conquest of the whole of Syria. In the
reign of Saul, Zobah was divided into a number of separate clans or
states; these had been welded together by Hadad-ezer, who had added to
his empire the smaller Aramaic principalities of central Syria. Geshur,
Maachah, Damascus all acknowledged his authority. He had secured the
caravan-road which led across the desert, past the future Palmyra, to
the Euphrates, and eastward of that river the Aramæan states sent him
help in war. Like the Pharaohs of a former generation, he had erected a
monument of his victory on the banks of the great river, marking the
farthest limit of his dominions.
Hamath was threatened by the growing power of Hadad-ezer, when a new
force entered the field. Joab, the commander of the Israelitish army,
was a consummate general, and the veterans he led had been trained to
conquer. Ammon was easily crushed, and while its capital was closely
invested the Israelitish troops fell upon the Aramæans in campaign after
campaign. Victory followed victory; the forces of Zobah and its allies
were annihilated, and the Aramæan states as far as Hamath and even the
Euphrates became the tributaries of David. Wealth flowed into the royal
treasury at Jerusalem; the cities of northern Syria were plundered of
their bronze, and the yearly tribute of the subject states, as well as
the proceeds of the desert trade, yielded an unfailing revenue to the
conqueror. The attempt of Hadad-ezer to found an Aramæan empire had
failed.
But the empire of David was hardly longer lived. The murder of Joab, and
the unwarlike character and extravagance of Solomon, brought about its
downfall. Damascus revolted under Rezon; and though in the war that
ensued Solomon succeeded in keeping the cities of Zobah which kept guard
over the caravan road, it never returned to Israelitish rule. When the
disruption of the Israelitish kingdom came after Solomon's death, the
Aramæans rallied round the successors of Rezon. Damascus increased in
strength, and at times laid northern Israel under tribute. Between the
two kingdoms there was indeed constant intercourse, sometimes peaceful,
sometimes hostile. Syrian merchants had bazaars in Samaria, where they
could buy and sell, undisturbed by tolls and exactions, and Israelitish
traders had similar quarters assigned to them by treaty in Damascus.
"Damask couches" were already famous, and Ahab sent a contingent of
10,000 men and 2000 chariots to the help of Ben-Hadad II. in his war
against Assyria. This Ben-Hadad is called Hadad-idri or Hadad-ezer in
the Assyrian texts; Ben-Hadad, in fact, was a god, who was worshipped by
the Syrians by the side of his father Hadad.
In the struggle with Assyria the Aramæan forces were led by Hamath. Most
of the states of western Asia contributed troops; even the "Arabs" took
part in the conflict. But the confederates were overthrown with great
slaughter at Karkar on the Orontes in B.C. 853, and immediately
afterwards we find Ahab at war with his late ally. Hadad-idri lived only
a few years longer. In B.C. 842 he was murdered by Hazael, who seized
the throne. But Hazael, like his predecessor, was soon called upon to
face an Assyrian army. Year after year the Assyrians invaded the
territories of Damascus, and though they never succeeded in capturing
the capital, the country was devastated, and a countless amount of booty
carried away. The Syrian kingdom was utterly exhausted, and in no
condition to resist the attacks of the Israelitish kings Jehoash and
Jeroboam II. Jehoash, we are told, gained three victories over his
hereditary enemy, while Jeroboam occupied its cities. When an Assyrian
army once more appeared at the gates of Damascus in B.C. 797, its king
Mariha was glad to purchase peace by rich presents and the offer of
homage. Gold and silver, bronze and iron in large quantities were
yielded up to the conqueror, and Damascus for a while was the vassal of
Nineveh.
But a respite was granted it in which to recover its strength. Civil war
sapped the strength of the kingdom of Israel, and Assyria fell into
decay. Freed from its enemies, Damascus again amassed wealth through the
trade across the desert, and was recognised as the head of the smaller
Aramæan states. In conjunction with the Israelitish king Pekah, Rezon
II. proposed to overthrow Judah and supplant the Davidic dynasty by a
Syrian vassal-prince. The fall of Judah would have meant the fall also
of Edom and the submission of the Philistines, as well as that of Moab
and Ammon. The strength of its capital made Judah the champion and
protector of southern Canaan; with Jerusalem in their hands, the
confederate rulers of Damascus and Samaria could do as they chose. Ahaz
of Judah turned in his despair to the Assyrians, who had once more
appeared on the scene. Tiglath-pileser III. had overthrown the older
Assyrian dynasty and put new life into the kingdom. In the interests of
the merchants of Nineveh he aimed at incorporating the whole of western
Asia and its commerce into his empire, and the appeal of Ahaz gave him
an excuse for interfering in the affairs of Palestine. Ahaz became his
vassal; Pekah was put to death, and an Assyrian nominee made king in his
place, while Rezon was shut up in his capital and closely besieged. For
two years the siege continued; then Damascus was taken, its last king
slain, and its territory placed under an Assyrian satrap.
Hamath had already fallen. A portion of its population had been
transported to the north, and their places filled with settlers from
Babylonia. Its king had become an Assyrian vassal, who along with the
other subject princes of Asia attended the court held by Tiglath-pileser
at Damascus after its capture, there to pay homage to the conqueror and
swell his triumph. A few years later, on the accession of Sargon, Hamath
made a final effort to recover its freedom. But the effort was
ruthlessly crushed, and henceforward the last of the Aramæan kingdoms
was made an Assyrian province. When an Aramæan tribe again played a part
in history it was in the far south, among the rocky cliffs of Petra and
the desert fortress of the Nabathean merchants.
In the Book of Genesis, Mesopotamia, the country between the Euphrates
and Tigris, is called not only Aram-Naharaim, "Aram of the Two Rivers,"
but also Padan-Aram, "the acre of Aram." Padan, as we learn from the
Assyrian inscriptions, originally signified as much land as a yoke of
oxen could plough; then it came to denote the "cultivated land" or
"acre" itself. The word still survives in modern Arabic. In the Egypt of
to-day land is measured by _feddans_, the _feddan_ (or _paddmi_) being
the equivalent of our acre. _Paddan_ was used in the same sense in the
Babylonia of the age of Abraham. Numerous contracts have been found for
the lease or sale of estates in which the "acreage" or number of
_paddani_ is carefully stated. The application of the name to the plain
of Mesopotamia was doubtless clue to the Babylonians. An early
Babylonian king claims rule over the "land of Padan," and elsewhere we
are told that it lay in front of the country of the Arman or Aramæans.
It was in western Padan that the kingdom of Mitanni was established. Its
founders, as we have seen, came from the north. From the river Halys in
Asia Minor to Lake Urumiyeh, east of Armenia, there was a multitude of
tribes, most of whom seem to have belonged to the same race and to have
spoken dialects of the same language. The Hittites of Cappadocia and the
ranges of the Taurus have already been described. East of them came the
Meshech and Tubal of the Bible as well as the kingdom of Comagênê, of
which we often hear in the Assyrian texts. But of all these northern
populations the most important--at all events in the later Old Testament
age--were the inhabitants of a country called Biainas, but to which its
neighbours gave the name of Ararat. Ararat corresponded to southern
Armenia, Biainas being the modern Van, and the Mount Ararat of modern
geography lying considerably to the north of it. In the ninth century
before our era a powerful dynasty arose at Van, which extended its
conquests far and wide, and at one time threatened to destroy even the
Assyrian empire. It signalised its accession to power by borrowing the
cuneiform writing of Nineveh, and numerous inscriptions exist recording
the names and victories of its sovereigns, the buildings they erected,
and the gods they served. The language of the inscriptions is strange
and peculiar; it seems to be distantly related to modern Georgian, and
may be akin to the dialects of the Hittites or of Mitanni.
If we may trust the representations of the Assyrian artists, the people
of Ararat did not all belong to the same race. Two ethnic types have
been handed down to us--one with beardless faces, resembling that of the
Hittites, the other of a people with high fore-heads, curved and pointed
noses, thin lips, and well-formed chin. Both, however, wear the same
dress. On the head is a crested helmet like that of the Greeks, on the
feet the Hittite boot with upturned end; the body is clad in a tunic
which reaches to the knee, and a small round target is used in battle.
For many centuries the Semites and the people of the north contended for
the possession of the Syrian plains. Horde after horde descended from
the northern mountains, capturing the Aramæan cities and setting up
kingdoms in their midst. At one time it seemed as if the Semites of the
east and west were to be permanently sundered from one another. The
decay of Babylonia and Egypt enabled the Mitannians and Hittites to
establish themselves in Mesopotamia and Syria, and to gain possession of
the fords of the Euphrates and the great lines of trade. But the
northerner was not suited by nature for the hot and enervating climate
of the south. His force diminished, his numbers lessened, and the
subjugated Semite increased in strength. Mitanni perished like the
Hittite empire, and with the rise of the second Assyrian empire the
intruding nations of the north found themselves compelled to struggle
for bare existence. Ararat had become the leader among them, and in the
latter days of the older Assyrian dynasty had wrested territory from the
Assyrians themselves, and had imposed its dominion from the borders of
Cappadocia to the shores of Lake Urumiyeh. But on a sudden all was
changed. Tiglath-pileser swept the land of Ararat to the very gates of
its capital, destroying and plundering as he went, and a war began
between north and south which ended in the triumph of Assyria. Ararat
indeed remained, though reduced to its original dimensions in the
neighbourhood of Lake Van; but its allies in Comagênê and Cappadocia, in
Cilicia and among the Hittites, were subjugated and dispersed. The
tribes of Meshech and Tubal retreated to the coasts of the Black Sea,
and Ararat and its sister-kingdom of Minni were too exhausted to
withstand the invasion of a new race from new quarters of the world. The
Aryan Kimmerians from Russia poured through them, settling on their way
in Minni; while other Aryans from Phrygia made themselves masters of
Ararat, which henceforth took the name of Armenia. The Aramæan was
avenged: the invaders who in days before the Exodus had already robbed
him of his lands were themselves pursued to their northern retreats. The
south proved to them a land of decay and destruction; Gog and his host
were given, "on the mountains of Israel," to the vulture and the beast
of prey.