THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION 



137 



rated fields lay the pasture land, which 

 was all held in common. The fields were 

 covered with a network of canals, which 

 distributed the precious river-water, and 

 the whole system of irrigation was care- 

 fully regulated and supervised. 



KINS-PEOPLE OP THE JEWS 



Not much later than 4000 B. C. we 

 find the whole land in the power of the 

 representatives of the same Semitic race 

 which has given us Abraham, Moses, and 

 David, and also Mahomet and Islam. 

 The Semitic rule makes its appearance in 

 the person of an impressive and romantic 

 figure, one of the first of the great found- 

 ers of world-empires, Shargani-shar-ali, 

 better known as Sargon, King of Akkad. 



Fortunately we know, with a fair 

 amount of certainty, when he reigned, 

 for the last king of Babylon, Nabuna'id, 

 states that when he laid bare the founda- 

 tion-inscription of Naram-Sin, son of 

 Sargon, in the temple of Shamash, at 

 Sippara, he was informed that Naram- 

 Sin had reigned 3,200 years before his 

 time. This fixes Naram-Sin at about 

 3750 B. C. and Sargon about 3800 B. C, 

 so that he belongs to about the time of 

 the rise of settled government in Egypt. 



A GARDENER BECOMES KING 



Apparently, like many of the great men 

 of history, he was of humble and obscure 

 birth. The Chronicle of Kish states that 

 "at Akkad, Sharrukin, the gardener, 

 warder of the temple of Zamama, be- 

 came king." But, whatever his origin, 

 the impression which he made on follow- 

 ing ages was great and la-sting. When 

 men looked back to the beginnings, they 

 saw the figure of Sargon standing, great 

 and vague, the first man who really 

 counted in their history ; and they hon- 

 ored him accordingly. 



One of the greatest of Assyrian con- 

 querors called himself Sargon also, after 

 this early king, and around the name of 

 the first unifier of the land there grew up 

 a legend which presents a curious paral- 

 lel to the story of the infancy of Moses. 

 The Assyrian scribes of the eighth cen- 

 tury B. C. make him relate the story of 

 his early days, as follows : 



"Sargon, the powerful king, King of Akkad, 

 am I. 



My mother was of low degree, my father I 

 did not know. 



The brother of my father dwelt in the moun- 

 tain. 



My city was Azupirani, situate on the bank of 

 the Euphrates. 



My humble mother conceived me; in secret 

 she brought me forth. 



She placed me in a basket-boat of rushes; 

 with pitch she closed my door. 



She gave me over to the river, which did not 

 rise over me. 



The river bore me along; to Akki, the irri- 

 gator, it carried me. 



Akki, the irrigator, . . . brought me to 

 land. 



Akki, the irrigator, reared me as his own son. 



Akki, the irrigator, appointed me his gardener. 



While I was gardener, Ishtar looked on me 

 with love. 



(Forty ?)-four years I ruled the kingdom." 



This gardener-king was evidently a 

 man of genius and force. Not only did 

 he unite Babylonia under his rule, but he 

 carried his conquests westward to the 

 Mediterranean, north and east to Ar- 

 menia and Elam, and south to Arabia and 

 the islands of the Persian Gulf. His do- 

 ings were held up as the model for all 

 subsequent kings, and if the omens in any 

 reign were the same as those under which 

 the great Sargon of Akkad had gone 

 forth to victory, any king of Babylon or 

 Assyria would march out, confident that 

 success was certain. 



About 2300 B. C. there rises another 

 great figure, one of the men who mold 

 human history and keep the world mov- 

 ing onward — a man also who, if some 

 scholars are right, came into close con- 

 tact with Abraham, and, great as he was, 

 found the contact not at all to his ad- 

 vantage. 



In Genesis xiv we read how "Amra- 

 phel, King of Shinar ; Arioch, King of 

 Ellasar ; Chedorlaomer.King of Elam, and 

 Tidal, King of Goiim," made war 011 the 

 kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, who had 

 rebelled against their overlord Chedor- 

 laomer ; how Abraham's nephew. Lot, was 

 captured by them, and how the Patriarch 

 rescued Lot and defeated the invaders. 

 Now these kings may possiblv be identi- 

 fied with actual kings of the time. Tidal, 

 King of Goiim, may be Thargal of Gu- 

 tium; Arioch of Ellasar may be Rim-Sin 



