of the moon at Harran, to which the Sabeans performed frequent pilgrimages as late as the rise of Islamism.[1]
I think it is clear from the above that the Chaldeans must have existed as a distinct people before the time of Chesed, Nahor's son, (Gen. xxii. 22,) who is regarded by some as the progenitor of the Chasdira or Chaldeans. Ainsworth's idea is that "Chesed only united the scattered tribes of a pre-existing race, or else, by founding a dynasty, created a nation for the land of Ur, which existed in the first years of Abraham, and was only emphatically distinguished by the Hebrews as 'Ur in the land of the Chaldees,' subsequently to the times both of Abraham and Chesed."[2] This view is confirmed by a passage in the Lookâté, the old Syriac MS. referred to in a former chapter, which states that "in the time of Nahor, Terah's father, the books and learning of the Chaldeans, their sorcery and witchcraft, were taken into Egypt."[3] The idea of a Chaldean dynasty, separate from that of Babylon, is also supported by the following additional quotation from the same author: "In his time, [Terah's,][4] Hesron [?] his brother warred with Kesrones king of Babel and slew him, and took the empire from Babel. In his time also reigned the first king of the Assyrians, whose name was Boolsan, [or Boolasan,] and he built many cities."[5]
- ↑ Decline and Fall, chap. 1.
- ↑ Assyria, Babylonia, and Chaldea, p. 154.
- ↑ If this assertion can be relied on, it settles the question whether the arts and sciences sprang from the Chaldeans or the Egyptians.
- ↑ That Terah was of noble descent, and a person of some consequence in his day, may be gathered from the retinue of his son Abraham, and the respect which was paid him by the kings of Sodom and Salem after he had routed the four confederate kings in the valley of Shaveh. See Genesis xiv.
- ↑ The above quotations are preceded in the original by the following account of Peleg and Arao or Reu. (Gen. xi. 18, 20.)
"Peleg:—In his days the languages were divided, when men designed to build a tower to reach up to heaven.
"Arao:—In his time the mighty Nimrod rose, the first king of Babel, and in Egypt Panopus, who was called Misraim after the name of Misraim their father. Then men first began to use weapons in war."
If the chronology of the above quotations is correct, the first Chaldeo-Babylonian dynasty began with Nimrod, who was succeeded by Kesrones, contemporary with whom was Boolsan the first king of Assyria. It would be an interesting discovery, if in the attempts which are now being made to read the cuneiform monuments, these names could be identified. Several notices of this kind,
