22 The Arab Horse 



marched to the conquest of India, after 

 having overthrown the Babylonian Em- 

 pire. In a straight line west of Deyr 

 on the Euphrates, and half way between 

 that point and Damascus, is Tadmur, 

 the ancient Palmyra, capital city of 

 Zenobia, that Queen who was conquered 

 by Aurelian, and carried away to Rome 

 to grace his triumphal entry. 



Later in the Christian Era Mohammed 

 established his religion at Mecca and 

 Medina, far down in the Arabian pen- 

 insula. The Mohammedan Khaliphs after- 

 ward made Bagdad their capital, and 

 held a court there that was glittering in 

 riches, the home of art, science, poetry; 

 the scene of the Arabian Nights Enter- 

 tainments until Timour the Tartar with 

 his hordes of barbarians poured down 

 from the North and drowned the country 

 in blood. In ancient days this country 

 was the home of science. Some of the 

 earliest astronomers were Arabs of Chal- 

 dea, and our present system of num- 

 erals, which makes modem mathematical 



