6. Doureperan, or Turaberan.
7. Ararad, centre of the whole.
8. Vasbouragan, or Vaspuracan.
9. Siunik’h, or Suaies.
10. Artsak’h, or Arzakh.
11. F ’haidagaran, or Phaitaran.
To the South,
12. Aghdsnik’h or Akhtznies.
13. Mogk’h or Moeks.
14. Gordjaik’h, or Corchas.
15. Persian Armenia, or Parsca Haic.
Very few of these names are to be met with in the present
day. The existing divisions maybe considered as regulated by
the extent of the pâshâlics of Erz-Rmn and Kars, with the
addition of the greater portions of those of Diyâr Bekr, Van,
and Erivan. The great cities were Artaxata, Vaspurcania,
and Shemiramgerd, near lake, Van.1 The ancient capital
of Hai-ass-tan was Ani ; a city, the extent and magnificence
of which is still much vaunted by the Armenians, who delight
in saying that it contained 1000 churches and 100,000
houses. This immense metropolis was in the country of
Shirag,2 at the confluence of the Akhouran and Rhah rivers,
which fall into the Araxes ; where its site is marked by a
double line of walls and numerous fragments of columns, &c.
It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1319, and Kars then
became the residence of the kings of the race of Payratides,
as Nisibis was that of Tigranes ; and finally Sis of the latest
monarchs.
The divisions of Armenia Major and Minor were, however,
only made after the time of Antiochus the Great, or
190 years B. c. ; and the dispersion of the Armenians over
Asia and parts of Europe followed the Turkish conquest in
the sixteenth century
1 Visited by the late Professor Schultz.
* Probably the Syraeene of Ptolemy. A colony of Bulgarians settled here
about 120 years before Christ.-St. Martin, Mémoires sur l'Arménie.
3 Aperçu, &c,, Tome IV., p. 245 to 248.
CHAPTER VI.
DESCRIPTION OF BABYLONIA, MESOPOTAMIA, AND ASSYRIA.
Babylonia.— Shape of Mesopotamia.— Limits and Extent.— Mountains.—
Lakes.—Climate.—Vegetable Productions.—Birds.— Animals.-—Manufactures.—
Commerce.—Revenue.—Army and Resources of the Pdshdlic of
Baghdad.—Towns.—Inhabitants—Sabeans, Yezidis, and Arabs.—Population
of the Province.—Government.—Comparative Geography.—Seroug.—
II¿ran.—Babel.—Accad.—Erech.—Limits of Ancient Babylonia.—Ancient
Assyria.—Nineveh.—Rehoboth.—Calah and Resen.—Kalddni Country.—
Mountains and Rivers, and Produets of Kurdistan.-—Manna.—Animals.—
Curds.—Villages.—Houses.—Population.
B a b y l o n ia , the first independent kingdom of the earth, was
situated between the estuary of the Shatt-el-Arab and the
western extremity of the river Khabur; and adjoining this
lay the monarchy of Assyria, whose formation immediately
followed that of the former kingdom, and was blended with
it. The names of both Babylonia and Assyria still remain ;
the former being more particularly applied to the south-eastern
part of the pashalic of Baghdad, and the latter to a portion
near the north-western extremity, from whence the name of
Ashur (El Athur) spread to other countries, and more particularly
to the tract under consideration, or Syria between
the rivers, which name in a great measure superseded the
older one of Babylonia.
Contrary to the description given by some of the ancient
geographers, as well as the strict meaning of the expressive
term Aram-naharaim, Mesopotamia has been supposed to
have its southern extremity at the Median Wall, instead of
approaching the shores of the Persian Gulf.
The shape of Mesopotamia, which is that of an isosceles