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MESOLOKQHI. 



MESOPOTAMIA. 



7W 



It became remarkable dnring the last Greek mstnreetion against the 

 Turks, in conseqaenee of its siege and the heroic resistance of the 

 Qreek garrison. 



Mesolonghi is bnilt on the edge of a marshy plain, bounded N. by 

 the high ridge of Zygos, ihe ancient Arscynthus, and is protected 

 towards the sea by a Isgune extending about 10 miles along the coast 

 and 5 mQes in width ; and hence perhaps the name of the town, 

 which seems to be a contraction of the Italian words ' mezzo ' and 

 ' lagiina.' With the exception of a few very tortuons channels, the 

 Ugnne is impassable for any craft drawing more water than the 

 ' monoxyU,' or small boats of the inhabitants. The main channel in 

 the south is commanded by the mud-bank of Vassladi, on wliich the 

 Qreeka had built a small fort ; and the main channel in the north, by 

 tho islets of Poros and Anatoliko. At the time of the outbreak of 

 the Qreek rerolution the town contained sereral thousand inhabit- 

 ants, who derived wealth from their extenaiTe fisheries. The fortifica- 

 tions irere in sneh a neglected state that Lord Byron advised the 

 Ore^s to strengthen the plsee by additional works ; but the Turks 

 left them only time to add a rampart of earth &ced with stones, and 

 a ditch, which surrounded the town on the land aide. After the 

 progress of Reahid Pasha, the Turkish commander in Northern 

 Oreeee, in the beginning of 1825, many Greek palikars and others 

 fiodced to Mesolonghi with their families, so that the garrison was 

 increased to about 5000 fighting men. The chief was the veteran 

 Nothi-BoiBuis ; the body of officen was incnased by many foreign 

 vohmteen, mostly German noblemen and gentlenUD. On the 25th 

 of April, 1825, Reshid Pasha appeared in sight of the town, with an 

 army of 20,000 men and a numerous battoing train, to which the 

 besiegers could only oppose 48 bod iron gnns of calibre varying from 

 4- to 4&-pounders, two brass 10-ineh mortars, one howitzer of 5 inches, 

 and one mountain howitzer of 4{th indies. The Turks made the 

 first trench on the 5th of May, and on the night of the llth a terrible 

 bombardment began. Bombardments and stormings now succeeded 

 each other dnring two months, bat the fire was well answered from 

 the rampart, and the Greeks made frequent sallies, in whidi the 

 beeiegerB were almovt always defeated with great loss, espedally on 

 the Sod of July. The Hydriotic fleet being stationed at the entrance 

 ot the lagnne, there was no lack of ammunition and provisions in the 

 town, till, on the 10th of the same month, the great Ottoman fleet 

 appeared off the place, and, after having oUig^ the Hydriotic to 

 avoid a oertun deifieat b^ a hasty retreat, landed a strong body of 

 Tnrka, nnder Hoiein Bet. On the 2$th of July, the 2nd at Aognst, 

 and in the night of the Srd, the fortress was frtriously aaaanltad, snd 

 a terrible cannonade carried destruction among the hoosea and their 

 inhabitants ; bat the Oieeka stood their ground, and were excited to 

 hopes of eerlain victory when, a few days afterwards, the great Oreek 

 fleet under Miaidis and Sakhtouri came in sight, and after a severe 

 conflict defeated sad dispersed the Turkish fleet The maritime 

 blockade was now at an end, and in the beginning of September the 

 garrison was still 4000 strong, with an additional population of 10,000 

 women, children, and aged or infirm men. By orders of Sultan 

 Mahmnd, Ibnlhim Padia, who oommanded m the Morea, then took 

 the chief command, with Reohid Padha as his first lieutanant. 



Towards the end of November the combined fleet of Turkey, Egypt, 

 and Baibaiy, drove the Greek fleet from the lagune, and kept a utrict 

 watch over its entrance. In the first week of January 1826 Ibrfliim 

 Pasha appeared in the Torkidi camp vrith 14,000 Egyptians, and an 

 ample sopply of provision s and ammnnitiaa. Although the inhabit- 

 ants were oo the verge of starvation they would not capitulate, and 

 continued their <leadly sorties, when at last, Ibrdfaim, after having 

 taken the islands of Poros and Anatoliko, made the town a heap of 

 ruins by an nnintermpted bombardment from the 25th to the 27th of 

 January, and after that eontinued his terrible assaults. On the 6th of 

 April however his forces were driven bad with i«iiTn«n«i. alaugliter, 

 and had the GreAs availed themselves of tiie coofosion in Uie Egyptian 

 camp, they might hsve escaped with theb&miliesL Their ammunition 

 and food being completely exhausted, so that even cats and rats were 

 devonred with avidity, the garrison resolved to cut its way through 

 the Egyptian camp. Three thousand fighting men were to rush 

 headlong npon the iiesiegera on the 22nd of April, snd cut a way for 

 5000 women and children, while the retreat was to be covered by a 

 thotend men, and the fortress guarded by a few devoted warriors who 

 wevsraady to saetifioe their lives for the safety of their brethren. Bat 

 the plan was betrayed to IbrtOiim Pasha, and when the heroes of 

 MesdoogU appeared ontside their shattered stzongfaold, they were 

 saddenly nrronnded by the main body of the Egyptians. A dreadful 

 ceiiffiet ensaed. Five hundred men were cot down by the infiiriated 

 benegers; 1800 parsons, of whom 200 were females, ewsped; of these, 

 however, 900 were rtarved to death in the moantaina ; and IbrAim 

 boasted of having taken prisonen 8000 soldien, and frt>m 8000 to 4000 

 women and children. 



Thus fell Mesolonghi after a siege of twelve months, and after 100,000 

 Aot and shells had been ezchuiged between the besic^ and the 

 hcaieBers. Its melandioly fate excited the sympathy of all Europe, 

 and there is searoely a moden language in which poems were not 

 written on the heroes of MsatdaoaU. Lord Byron died at Meaolonidil 

 April 19,1824. ' " 



(Gordon, ffiflorj pflhe Ontt SetohHion.) 



MESOPOTAMIA (from the Greek nf(ros, middle, and xero^r, river), 

 ' the coimtry between the rivers,' is a term which was used by the 

 Greek and Roman geogmphers (Strabo and others) to comprehend all 

 the countries which lie between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, and 

 it is still in use. The Arabs and Turks call this country, by the corres- 

 ponding name of Al Jezirah, or 'the island.' Mesopotiunia was called 

 in the Old Testament Aram-Naharaim, that is, ' Anun,' or ' Syria 

 between the two rivers.' By ancient geographers it was considered to 

 be bounded N. by Mount Maaiaa (Karajah-Dagh), a branch of Mount 

 Taurus, and S. by the Median Vail and the canals which connected 

 the Tigris and Euphrates, by which it was separated from Babylonia. 

 The name did not come into ose till after the time of the Macedonian 

 conquest of Asia. The southern part of Mesopotamia Xenophon calls 

 Arabia (' Anab.,' L 6, sec. 1); and other writers included it, especially 

 the northern part, under the general name of Syria. (Strabo, p. 737.) 

 It was considered by the Romans a division of Syria. (Mela, i. 11 ; 

 Pliny, T. 13.) The northern part of Mesopotamia, as thus restricted, 

 was in ancient times divided into two parts by the river Aborraa or 

 Chaboras (Khabour), called Arazes by Xenophon ('Anab.,' i. 4, sec. 19), 

 which rises in Mount Hasins, and receiving the Mygdonius (Jakhjakbah) 

 on the east, flows into the Euphrates at Ciroesium, the Carchemish of 

 the Old Testament Of these divisions the western was called Osroene, 

 and the eastern Mygdonia. 



The name Mesopotamia, taken in its proper sense, ought to include 

 all the country that is inclosed, or neariy so, between the two rivers; 

 but from the boundaries ascribed to Mesopotamia by Strabo and others 

 it is clear that the upper plain of the Tigris was not comprised in this 

 designation. This phun, lying between the Kharzan-Dagfa or Mudi- 

 Dagfa, the andent Niphates, on the north, and the Karajah-Dagfa 

 (Mons Manas) and Jebel-Mardin on the south, has been already 

 partially dewiribed in the article Arhrtia (voL i., 614-517). We shall 

 here add some farther particulars concerning it, and then notice suc- 

 cessively the great sontiiem plain of Mesopotamia, which embi-aces all 

 the countries between the two rivers, from 36° 30" N. lat to the 

 Chalu or Median Wall, whieh begins on the hanks of the Tigris, 

 near 84* K. lat, and twminates on the Euphrates, near 33° SO' 

 N. lat ; and, lastiy, the plain of Babylonia (Irak-Arabi), whieh 

 extends southward from the Median Wall to the confluence of the 

 two rivers. 



The upper Plain of the Tigris is included in the hilly re^n of 

 Mesopotamia, which extends south from the Kbarzan-Tagh to the great 

 caravan-road that runs from Bir-eh-jik, on the Euphrates, to Mosul on 

 the Tigris, through Urfah or Orfab, Mardin, and Ninbin. This region 

 lies between 88* SO' and 87* N. lat, and between 88* snd 43° E. long., 

 and extends about 100 miles trom north to south, and 250 miles from 

 east to west so that its area may be roughly estimated at 26,000 

 square miles. 



This country may be considered as a lower terrace of the table-land 

 of Armenia. The northern districts are about 2500 fuet above the 

 sea-level, from whidi elevation it gradually descends to about 1000 

 feet, or somewhat more, where it is contiguous to the aontheni plain 

 of Mesopotamia along the catavan-road. Only the most eastern part 

 of this road between Tel-Rumaltih and Mosul u at a lower level, and 

 rans throngh the Great Desert Plain. 



The highest part of this region is that which on the west borders 

 on the banks of the Euphrates between Izoglu and Gerger, where the 

 river forms its 800 eataiaeta ; and on the east on the upper course of 

 the Tigris between its sonree anid the town of Diarbekr, which is 

 nearly 2500 feet above the sea : the source of the Tigris is nearly 5000 

 feet The level of the surface of the Euphrates near the confluence of 

 the K«ra-Sn and Murad is upwards of 2500 feet, and at Gerger pro- 

 bably less than 1 800 feet But the rocky mountain masses which rise 

 abruptly from the water's edge, at many places perpendicularly, 

 generally attain near the river an elevation of between 2000 and 8000 

 feet and a greater height at some distance from it The highest 

 portion of this tract must therefore be more than 5000 feet, and it 

 may be 6000 feet In the depressions are small villages surrounded 

 by walnirt-trees and a littie cultivation, but the inhabitants derive 

 their subsistence chiefly from their cattle and sheep. 



East of this mountain tract lies the Plain of Diarbekr, or of the 

 Upper Tigris, which extends from some miles west of the town of 

 Diaurbdcr to some distanoe east of the town of Sort, about 120 ndlea 

 in length, and from the Kharsan Mountains on the north to the 

 Kaisj^-Dogh on the south, from 40 to 50 miles; on the east it is 

 shut up by the mountains of Kurdistan. The sonthem elope of 

 Rharzan, or Mosh-Dagh, is in many places intermpted by terraces 

 from two to three miles in width. 'These terraces are generally used 

 as pasture-grounds ; they are cut by wide valleys, which descend from 

 the sammit of the range to the plain bdow, and are drained by feeders 

 of the Tigris, already noticed in the artide AncBiru. Rich crops of 

 wheat and barley are obtained everywhere, and in some places, where 

 irrigation can be practised, rice is grown. The sides of the hills which 

 inclose the valleys, and the valleys themselves, are partly covered with 

 orchards and plantations, consisting of wahiats, figs, vines, pome- 

 granates, mulberries, and the fruit-trees of Northern Europe. In 

 some places cotton, mdons, and plsntiuns are grown to some extant 

 The steeper portions of the mountains are chiefly covered with woods, 

 in which the manna and gall oaks abound. In some parts the steep 



