"كتيّب بلاد الرافدين. المجلد I. ١٩١٨" [‎٧‎٧] (٥٦٨/٨٦)

(itq)
HISTORY 77
trade with the Persian Gulf and India. There followed a migration
en masse of Arabs with their families and belongings, who descended
upon the country and made it their own. Many of the resident
population perished by the sword; many fled; others fell victims
to the floods and to plague and famine, which raged at this period.
But there is little doubt that a large proportion embraced Islam
and adopted Arabic speech, and it is to them that we must trace
in great measure the administration and cultural achievements on
which rests the fame of the Abbasid rulers of Baghdad. The Arab
conquest was eventually carried up to the Taurus range. In northern
Mesopotamia a numerous Christian population continued to exist under
Moslem rulers.
About the time of the Mohammedan conquest Babylonia was
visited with a catastrophe which in the southern and south
eastern part of the country had permanently disastrous results.
Towards the end of the fifth century a . n. a heavy flood in the
Tigris burst its banks and overflowed the lands to the south and
south-west, probably impeding the current of the Euphrates. The
Sassanids, however, repaired the damage, and most of the flooded
lands were brought back into cultivation. But about the year
a.d . 629 the Euphrates and the Tigris came down in such floods
as had never before been seen. Both rivers burst their banks
in innumerable places, and finally laid all the surrounding country
under water. The Sassanid king, Parvez, made desperate efforts to
reclaim the country, sparing neither money nor men's lives ; ' indeed',
the Arab historian reports, ' he crucified in one day forty canal-
workers at a certain breach and yet was unable to master the flood'.
During the succeeding years of anarchy, when the Moslem armies
began to overrun Mesopotamia, and the Sassanian monarchy perished,
the dykes, such as still existed, naturally remained uncared for, 'and
breaches came in all the embankments, for none gave heed, and the
landowners were powerless to repair the dykes, so that the swamps
every way lengthened and widened'. It seems to have been at this
time that the main stream of the lower Tigris was diverted to the
channel now known as the Shatt el-Hai, where it remained until
the sixteenth century. The new Arab rulers of the country were
hardly qualified by their previous training or their temperament to
take the charge of complicated works of irrigation. These nomads
were not without the ability to appreciate civilized influences, but
the fame and success of the empire which they founded depended
mainly upon the work and genius of their Greek and Persian
ministers and administrative staffs. But it must not be supposed
that the circumstances of Mesopotamia were even then, or for cen-