Note 5 — Chapter I

It would even appear that the confusion consequent upon the death of the great Macedonian, and upon the feuds and struggles for empire among his generals, was taken advantage of by the princes in the north of Arabia, to extend their dominion beyond the frontier of the peninsula. From the earliest times the wandering tribes had been in the habit, more particularly during the scarcity of winter, to extort the dangerous license of encamping on the skirts of Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt, and had often extended their incursions to the very heart of Chaldæa, or Babylonia (Irak). They now took formal possession of a part of the latter country (hence called to the present day Irak-Arabi), and established in it a new Arabian state, the kingdom of Hira. Tribes from Yemen emigrated to the territory of Syria, and established the state of Gassan, in the country north of Damascus. We must not omit to mention, however, that some historians place the establishment of the states of Hira and Gassan at a much later period.