292 The National Geographic Magazine 



deed the Hittites were the early precur- 

 sors of the Turks. These successive in- 

 vasions of this region found there the ear- 

 liest development of civilization. This, 

 in its turn, was probably due to the early 

 existence of the same trade which 'has 

 through all modern history been the 

 foundation of commercial prosperity and 

 maritime empire. 



It is not improbable that when all is 

 known it will be found that the reason 

 why the Nile and Euphrates early figure 

 with settled institutions is because in 

 these river valleys the slight advantage 

 given by the opportunity to offer protec- 

 tion and gain tribute from the trade be- 

 tween the East and the West along this 

 connecting region enabled ruler and city 

 to secure their primitive advance over 

 other river valleys not less well situated 

 in climate and product, but lacking the 

 fertilizing fruits of this stream of trade. 

 The sacred caravan which now leaves 

 Cairo and passes along the Sinaitic Pe- 

 ninsula meets the Haj from Damascus 

 in the north and defiles southward along 

 the earliest of these trade trails, which 

 goes through Mecca and ends in Yemen 

 at Aden. The reason why the ancient 

 sanctuary of the Caaba stands at Mecca 

 is because the city is threaded on this 

 route. The development of Islam itself 

 accompanied a period when the closing 

 of the Red Sea route and the interrup- 

 tion of trafic across Persia forced traders 

 through Arabia and led to the attempt 

 of Justinian to secure new trade con- 

 nections with China north of the Black 

 Sea by way of the chain of Nestorian 

 mission stations. 



When from any cause the sea routes 

 are interrupted the land of Arabia flour- 

 ishes and Arabian expansion comes. 

 But the more ordinary trade routes are 

 those which pass by the Red Sea or by 

 the Persian Gulf by diverging caravan 

 routes northwardly to Trebizond ; next 

 due east to Antioch ; and third, more 

 ancient, by Babylon, Tadmor, Damas- 

 cus, to the Phoenician cities. 



Along one or the other of these routes, 

 like beads on a string for three millennia 

 before Christ, slipped the seats of rule 

 over this tract from the daj's of Euggal- 

 Zaggizi, always following more or less 

 closely the shift of trade, always main- 

 taining relations due to their independent 

 commercial share in the Mediterranean 

 trade, first with Sidon and then with 

 Tyre. 



The relation of these routes to the 

 Mediterranean becomes instantly ap- 

 parent in the admirable study of the 

 physiographic conditions of this historic 

 sea, which I owe to Dr. Daniel C. Gil- 

 man. These routes both finally reached 

 the Mediterranean at different points 

 along that great fissure first suggested 

 b}^ Professor Suess, and more latety dis- 

 cussed b}^ Mr. Gregory in his lucid, 

 illuminating, and instructive work. 

 What might be called the germinal 

 point of our civilization is the place ait 

 which this great rift, the largest on the 

 earth's surface, meets the great fold, 

 also the largest of its character, which 

 constitutes the backbone of the Eurasian 

 mass. The link region owes most of 

 its relations to the circumstance that it 

 falls in the angle between the junction 

 of these two great physiographic phe- 

 nomena. The north-and-south uplift 

 attending this rift, which began far 

 south of Eake Tanganjnka and ends in 

 Eebanon (the fish of their streams re- 

 taining traces of their earlier connec- 

 tion) creates the eastern end of the 

 Mediterranean, just as the Mediterra- 

 nean, as a whole, is a depression 'on the 

 southern side of the great Alpine fold. 

 Along this great rift were developed, 

 first Judaism, then Christianity, and 

 last Mohammedism, three world relig- 

 ions, of which the last two today alone 

 survive among all earth's faiths with 

 the capacity for conversion still exist- 

 ent. To the north of the end of this rift 

 lies Asia Minor, itself physiographically 

 a part of the great Asian plain, open- 

 ing: toward it like a funnel between the 



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