Carchemish

“ We may regard these 'Holy Cities,' placed under the protection of a goddess and wholly devoted to her worship, as peculiarly characteristic of the Hittite race. Their two southern capitals, Kadesh and Carchemish, were cities of this kind, and their stronghold at Boghaz Keui was presumably also a consecrated place. Their progress through Asia Minor was characterised by the rise of priestly cities and the growth of a class of armed priestesses. ”

“ It is not until we leave the mountainous region originally occupied by the Hittite race, and descend into the valleys of Syria, that the annals of their neighbours begin to tell us something about their fortunes and achievements. The history of their two southern capitals, Carchemish and Kadesh, broken and imperfect though it may be, is not an utter blank. ”

“ A century or two afterwards Tiglath-Pileser I of Assyria found his passage across the Euphrates barred by the Hittites of Carchemish and their Kolkhian mercenaries. From this time forward the Hittites proved dangerous enemies to the Assyrian kings in their attempts to extend the empire towards the west, until at last in b.c. 717 Sargon succeeded in capturing their rich capital, Carchemish, and in making it the seat of an Assyrian satrap. ”

“ We saw that the well-preserved pictographs were in the fine style of Carchemish, and more in number than on any one Hittite monument yet discovered, and knew that we had not come in vain to Tell Ahmar. To get due record of the monument, however, would be the work of hours. The sun was westering, and idlers, who had followed our tracks, spoke of yet other stones, and especially of “lions, written not thus, but otherwise—like nailmarks.” ”

“ The fullest development of business and commerce, however, does not show itself until the 8th and 7th centuries B.C., when Nineveh was a busy centre of trade. Sidon and Tyre had been ruined by the Assyrian kings indeed, it is very possible that the obstinate wars with the Phoenician cities had their origin in commercial jealousy, and trade had accordingly transferred itself to Carchemish, which was conveniently situated on the Euphrates. The maneh of Carchemish became the standard of weight, and Aramaic the common language of trade. The interest upon money was usually at 4 per cent. ”

“ In the neighbourhood of Carchemish Hittites and Arameans were mingled together, and Pethor was at once a Hittite and an Aramean town. In short, the Hittites in Syria were like a conquering race everywhere; they formed merely the governing and upper class, which became smaller and smaller the further removed they were from their original seats. Like the Normans in Sicily or the Etruscans in ancient Italy, they tended gradually to disappear or else to be absorbed into the subject race. ”

“ It is a very fine city, large and fortified, and surrounded by gardens and plantations.
Thence it is a day's journey to Karkisiya which is Carchemish, on the river Euphrates. Here there are about 500 Jews, at their head being R. Isaac and R. Elhanan. Thence it is two days to El-Anbar which is Pumbedita in Nehardea [121] . Here reside 3,000 Jews, and amongst them are learned men, at their head being the chief rabbi R. Chen, R. Moses and R. Jehoiakim. Here are the graves of Rab Jehuda and Samuel, and in front of the graves of each of them are the synagogues which they built in their lifetime. ”

“ Assyria entered upon a new career of conquest, and under its new rulers established an empire which extended over the whole of Western Asia. In B.C. 717 Carchemish finally fell before the armies of Sargon, and its last king Pisiris became the captive of the Assyrian king. Its trade and wealth passed into Assyrian hands, it was colonised by Assyrians and placed under an Assyrian satrap. The great Hittite stronghold on the Euphrates, which had been for so many centuries the visible sign of their power and southern conquests, became once more the possession of a Semitic people. ”

“ The man would not be mastered, but if mastered is not crushed. He questions each moment of his own sufferings, each moment of his people's oncoming doom. He debates with God on matters of justice. He wrestles things out with God and emerges from each wrestle not halt and limping like Jacob of old, but firm and calm, more clear in his mind and more sure of himself—as we see him at last when the full will of God breaks upon his soul with the Battle of Carchemish and he calmly surrenders to his own and his people's fate. ”

“ The territory covered by them is a square, the base of which is formed by a line running from Carchemish through Antioch into Lykaonia, while the remains at Boghaz Keui and Eyuk constitute its northern limit. We must regard this region as having been the primeval home and starting-point of the Hittite race. They will have been a population which clustered round the two flanks of the Taurus range, extending far into Kappadokia on the north, and towards Armenia on the east. ”

“ No allusion to the city and its inhabitants occurs in the Assyrian inscriptions, and we may conjecture that it had been destroyed by the Syrians of Damascus. As Membij took the place of Carchemish, so Emesa or Homs took the place of Kadesh.
We have seen that the Hittites were a northern race. Their primitive home probably lay on the northern side of the Taurus. What they were like we can learn both from their own sculptures and from the Egyptian monuments, which agree most remarkably in the delineation of their features. ”

“ I find that the name of Hittite was confined to that portion of the race which lived eastward and southward of the Taurus. In Asia Minor itself, their first cradle and home, they called themselves Kas or Kasians; it was the kingdom of Kas over which the Hittite lords of Boghaz Keui claimed to rule, and it is still as kings of Kas that they are entitled on the monuments of Carchemish, though here they also acknowledge the name of Hittite. ”

“ Towards the end of the twelfth century before our era, therefore, the Hittites were still strong enough to keep one of the mightiest of the Assyrian kings in check. It is true that they no longer obeyed a single head; it is also true that that portion of them which was settled in the land of Kummukh was overrun by the Assyrian armies, and forced to pay tribute to the Assyrian invader. But Carchemish compelled the respect of Tiglath-pileser ”

“ He was sent by his father against the rulers of several provinces that had revolted; and he took Carchemish, and all that belonged to the Egyptians, from the Euphrates to the Nile. Jehoiakim, who was tributary to Nechoh king of Egypt, he attacked and reduced; and obliged to become tributary to Babylon. At the end of three years he revolted; and then a mixed army, of Chaldeans, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites, was sent against him, who ravaged the country, and took three thousand and twenty-three prisoners, whom they brought to Babylon, [489] . ”

“ We know from the Egyptian records that the Hittites could write, and that a class of scribes existed among them, and, since Hamath lay close to the borders of the Hittite kingdoms, it seemed reasonable to suppose that the unknown form of script discovered on its site was Hittite rather than Hamathite. The conjecture was confirmed almost immediately afterwards by the discovery of the site of Carchemish, the great Hittite capital, and of inscriptions there in the same system of writing as that found on the stones of Hamah. ”

“ One of the bravest of his captains tells us on the walls of his tomb how he had captured prisoners in the neighbourhood of Aleppo, and had waded through the waters of the Euphrates when his master assaulted the mighty Hittite fortress of Carchemish. Kadesh on the Orontes had already fallen, and for a time all Western Asia did homage to the Egyptian monarch, even the king of Assyria sending him presents and courting, as it would seem, his alliance. The Egyptian empire touched the land of Naharina on the east and the 'great land of the Hittites' on the north. ”

“ Against Kadesh and "the great king of the Hittites" the Egyptian forces were driven in vain, and after twenty years of warfare Ramses II., the Pharaoh of the Oppression, was fain to consent to peace. A treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, was drawn up between the two rivals, and Egypt was henceforth compelled to treat with the Hittites on equal terms. The Khattâ or Khatâ of the Assyrian inscriptions are already a decaying power. They are broken into a number of separate states or kingdoms, of which Carchemish is the richest and most important. ”

“ In the presence of Samas-yukin-akhi, Latturu, and Nebo-sum-utsur.'
V. 'The seal of (Dagon-melech) the master of the slaves.—Imannu, the woman U ... and Melech-ur [Melchior] , three persons, have been sold, and thou, [Pg 137] O Enuma-ili, the holder of the highplaces which have been erected at the entrance to Dur-Sargon, hast received them from Dagon-melech for three manehs of silver (£27) according to the standard of Carchemish. The full price hast thou paid. These slaves have been bought and taken. Withdrawal from the contract and agreement is forbidden. Whoever shall act fraudulently (?) ”

“ In the meantime of their lying in this sad pickle in desart places, the man of God, blest Cargill, came down from England; a happy tryst to many godly, zealous souls, who had a gale of zeal upon their spirits and feared no danger on the right hand if they held off the left. Immediately he was called to preach in Darmade-muirs, by some who retained their former zeal and faithfulness. That Sabbath-morning, John Gibb David Jamie, Walter Ker, John Young, and twenty-six women were lying in the Deer-slunk, in midst of a great flow moss, betwixt Clydesdale and Lothian about a mile distant. ”

“ But from it came another idea which I saw at once was practicable.
“There is work for you at last, Karasch,” I said to him as soon as he arrived; “difficult, and perhaps dangerous; and I am going to trust to you.”
“I will do my best, Excellency, whatever it be,” he answered, with his customary directness.
“Ugly things are going to occur in the city; a revolution accompanied probably with violence is on the eve of taking place; and no one can say for certain what will or will not happen. ”

“ Karasch started to say something, but she checked him with a glance and a gesture.
“Any news of Petrov or Gartski?” I asked him; and again she gave the answer for him.
“They will give us no trouble now, none at all,” she said, with gentle firmness. “You can rest quite assured.”
Again Karasch wanted to speak and again she stopped him just as before with a glance and a quick gesture. I understood then.
“I want to speak to Karasch alone,” I said.
“No, you must not speak to him yet. There will be plenty of time when you are better. Go away, Karasch; you disturb Burgwan and excite him.” ”

“ I went over to them and found that Karasch had strapped the man’s legs tight together and was holding on to the strap with his one arm while the Austrian was fighting and wrestling to get free.
“Down, Chris. You may loose him, Mademoiselle,” I said; and the good dog came instantly to heel. “Stand from him, Karasch,” I called next. “Now, sir, you must stop those cries; or I shall put the dog on you.”
“This is an outrage, an infernal outrage, and you shall all suffer for it,” he cried, furiously.
“It’s done by my orders. The outrage is that you should endeavour to force yourself upon us.” ”

“ It was for me you risked your life in that fight.”
“Karasch ought to hold his tongue.”
We reached the spot where we had rested, and sat down to wait for Karasch.
“I have been thinking this morning,” she said, slowly.
“We all have some thinking to do before we are out of our plight.”
“You call this a plight,” and she smiled. “Why, [127] see what a lovely wild country it is. I could live in these hills—live, I mean, in the sense of keen, rare enjoyment. Look.” She pointed from one hill to another with kindling eye. “The freedom of it. The very air is different from all other.” ”

“ It was on the morning of Tuesday, January 25th, as I sat at breakfast with Pawsy in her chair at one end and with Kaiser at the other, drumming on the floor for another bit of bacon, that I said to myself:
“It is just one month to-day since I clapped eyes on a human being; and the ones I saw then were not very good humans, being thieving and drunken Indians.” And when I said this I had not forgotten (when had it been once out of my mind, waking or sleeping?) what I saw on New-Year’s night; but I knew not if I were to count that as human or what. ”

“ Mischief shall hurt the violent man.
They came to Glasgow in haste, fearing a rescue of the prisoners: and while waiting at the tolbooth, till the magistrates came to receive them, one John Nisbet, the Archbishop's factor, said to Mr. Carvill in ridicule, three times over, Will you give us one word more? (alluding to an expression he used sometimes when preaching) ; to whom Mr Cargill said with regret, "Mock not, lest your lands be made strong. The day is coming, when you shall not have one word to say though you would." ”

“ We do not feel obliged to believe it. People who are historically as well as religiously “convinced against their will, are of the same opinion still.” We stick to the Middle Ages, when the tradition was so fully credited that a bas-relief, a kind of emblazonry, of the bust of an Amazon was placed over the principal gate of the city, with the words below: Carcas sum—I am Carcas.
According to a popular legend, Charlemagne besieged Carcassonne twice. The second time it was defended by Anchises, King of the Saracens, who was aided by Satan himself and an efficient corps of African sorcerers. ”