THE PASHALICK OF BAGDAD. 
247 
kind of irregular oval, comprehending ancient Babylonia, and 
all of Assyria Proper. That portion of the paslialick which 
lies north-east of the Tigris, and comprised the chief part of 
Assyria, is now called Lower Courdistan, (or Kurdistan ;) a name 
not very dissimilar, as Major Kennel observes, to the old Scrip¬ 
ture appellation for Assyria, found in the second book of Kings 
and in the Prophet Amos, both of which, probably, refer to the 
country east of Nineveh as the land of Kir. The rest of the 
vast tract under his highness’s jurisdiction, and which lies 
between the widely-sweeping currents of Tigris and the Eu- 
» 
phrates, commands the no less renowned boundaries of Baby¬ 
lonia, including Chaldea, its most eastern quarter. This insular 
country was also designated by the ancients, by the name of 
Mesopotamia; so denoting its situation between two rivers ; and 
modern times have changed its appellation again ; the Arabians 
calling it A1 Gezera, and the Persians including it within the line 
of Irak Arabi. In passing our eye over these particulars, we 
must feel, that the pride of nations can no where receive a more 
striking lesson, than in looking upon the map of Asia; and 
marking those two kingdoms, which at different times, severally, 
or united, commanded the empire of the East, now reduced to 
the character of a mere province; and attached to one of the 
least considerable potentates of Europe, a power, which, in fact, 
only reigns by sufferance. 
The city of Bagdad, (now to be regarded as the capital of 
Assyria and Babylonia!) is the residence of the Pasha; and, 
according to the character of the man who fills that station, 
proceeds a temporary independence of the paslialick, or its con¬ 
tinued subjection to the Sublime Porte. Being so distant from 
the seat of the Ottoman empire, the sovereign can seldom 
