THE EUPHRATES

GEORGE RAWLINSON

EUPHRATES is probably a word of Arian origin. It is not improbable that in common parlance the name was soon shortened to its modern form of Frát, which is almost exactly what the Hebrew literation expresses.

The Euphrates is the largest, the longest, and by far the most important of the rivers of Western Asia. It rises from two chief sources in the Armenian Mountains, one of them at Domli, twenty-five miles north-east of Ezeroum, and little more than a degree from the Black Sea; the other on the northern slope of the mountain range called Ala-Tagh, near the village of Diyadin, and not far from Mount Ararat. Both branches flow at first towards the west or south-west, passing through the wildest mountain-districts of Armenia; they meet at Kebban-Maden, nearly in longitude 39° east from Greenwich, having run respectively 400 and 270 miles. Here the stream formed by their combined waters is 120 yards wide, rapid and very deep. The last part of its course, from Hit downwards, is through a low, flat, and alluvial plain, over which it has a tendency to spread and stagnate; above Hit, and from thence to Samosata, the country along its banks is for the most part open but hilly; north of Samosata, the stream runs in a narrow valley among high mountains, and is interrupted by numerous rapids. The entire course is calculated at 1,780 miles, nearly 650 more than that of the Tigris, and only 200 short of that of the Indus; and of this distance more than two-thirds (1,200 miles) is navigable for boats, and even, as the expedition of Col. Chesney proved, for small steamers. The width of the river is greatest at the distance of 700 or 800 miles from its mouth. The river has also in this part of its course the tendency already noted, to run off and waste itself in vast marshes, which every year more and more cover the alluvial tract west and south of the stream. From this cause its lower course is continually varying, and it is doubted whether at present, except in the season of the inundation, any portion of the Euphrates water is poured into the Shat-el-Arab.

The annual inundation of the Euphrates is caused by the melting of the snows in the Armenian highlands. It occurs in the month of May. The rise of the Tigris is earlier, since it drains the southern flank of the great Armenian chain. The Tigris scarcely overflows, but the Euphrates inundates large tracts on both sides of its course from Hit downwards.

The Euphrates has at all times been of some importance as furnishing a line of traffic between the east and the west. Herodotus speaks of persons, probably merchants, using it regularly on their passage from the Mediterranean to Babylon. Alexander appears to have brought to Babylon by the Euphrates route vessels of some considerable size, which he had had made in Cyprus and Phœnicia. They were so constructed that they could be taken to pieces, and were thus carried piecemeal to Thapsacus, where they were put together and launched. The disadvantage of the route was the difficulty of conveying return cargoes against the current. According to Herodotus, the boats which descended the river were broken to pieces and sold at Babylon, and the owners returned on foot to Armenia, taking with them only the skins. The spices and other products of Arabia formed their principal merchandise. On the whole there are sufficient grounds for believing that throughout the Babylonian and Persian periods this route was made use of by the merchants of various nations, and that by it the east and west continually interchanged their most important products.

The Euphrates is first mentioned in Scripture as one of the four rivers of Eden. We next hear of it in the covenant made with Abraham where the whole country from “the great river Euphrates” to the river of Egypt is promised to the chosen race. In Deuteronomy and Joshua we find this promise was borne in mind at the time of the settlement in Canaan; and from an important passage in the first Book of Chronicles it appears that the tribe of Reuben did actually extend itself to the Euphrates in the times anterior to Saul. Here they came in contact with the Hagarites, who appear upon the middle Euphrates in the Assyrian inscription of the later empire. It is David, however, who seems for the first time to have entered on the full enjoyment of the promise, by the victories which he gained over Hadadezer, king of Zobah, and his allies, the Syrians of Damascus. The object of his expedition was “to recover his border,” and “to establish his dominion by the river Euphrates”; and in this object he appears to have been altogether successful; in so much that Solomon, his son, who was not a man of war, but only inherited his father’s dominions, is said to have “reigned over all kingdoms from the river (the Euphrates) unto the land of the Philistines and unto the border of Egypt.” Thus during the reigns of David and Solomon the dominion of Israel actually attained to the full extent both ways of the original promise, the Euphrates forming the boundary of their empire to the north-east, and the river of Egypt to the south-west. The “Great River” had meanwhile served for some time as a boundary between Assyria and the country of the Hittites, but had repeatedly been crossed by the armies of the Ninevite kings, who gradually established their sway over the countries upon its right bank. The crossing of the river was always difficult; and at the point where certain natural facilities fixed the ordinary passage, the strong fort of Carchemish had been built, probably in very early times, to command the position. Hence, when Necho determined to attempt the permanent conquest of Syria, his march was directed upon “Carchemish by Euphrates,” which he captured and held, thus extending the dominion of Egypt to the Euphrates, and renewing the old glories of the Rameside kings.

These are the chief events which Scripture distinctly connects with the “Great River.” It is probably included among the “rivers of Babylon,” by the side of which the Jewish captives “remembered Zion,” and wept, and no doubt is glanced at in the threats of Jeremiah against the Chaldean “waters” and “springs,” upon which there is to be a “drought,” that shall “dry them up.” The fulfilment of these prophecies has been noticed under the head of Chaldæa. The river still brings down as much water as of old, but the precious element is wasted by neglect of man; the various water-courses along which it was in former times conveyed, are dry; the main channel has shrunk; and the water stagnates in unwholesome marshes.