'A General Sketch of the History of Persia' [‎435] (482/636)

MESOPOTAMIA.
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unarmed merchantmen to pass up and down in safety;
and they still continue to reconcile the turbulent Arab
chiefs, to prevent the constant scenes of bloodshed
which formerly occurred at the pearl fisheries, and
above all their indefatigable exertions to suppress the
slave trade have been crowned with considerable
success.
The Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. is destined to become a route of
the greatest importance, when the Euphrates Valley
Eailroad is completed, and the shortest route to India
is finally adopted.
Many of the most important events in the world's
history have taken place on the shores of the river
Euphrates, or on its sister stream the Tigris. Here
stood the capitals of mighty empires, which rose up
one after the other, as ages rolled on, Nineveh, Babylon,
Ctesiphon, and Baghdad. Here God's chosen people
endured a long captivity. Here the fate of nations was
often decided in battles, fought by armies which had been
collected from every part of the known world. Nor
is this region less memorable as the site where men
first sought to discover the secrets of nature. Ages
ago the Chaldseans watched the motions of the planets,
from the banks of the Euphrates, and the astronomers
of the Khalifah el-Mamun measured the arc of a
degree on the plains of Mesopotamia before Egbert had
conquered the nations of the English Heptarchy.
The most ancient commerce in the world was carried
on by navigating the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and the rivers of
Mesopotamia. Herodotus tells us how rafts, floating on
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