Man, Past and Present Part 56

The race is richly endowed with the most varied qualities, as shown by the whole tenour of their history. Originally pure nomads, they became excellent agriculturists after the settlement in Canaan, and since then they have given proof of the highest capacity for science, letters, erudition of all kinds, finance, music, and diplomacy. The reputation of the medieval Arabs as restorers of learning is largely due to their wise tolerance of the enlightened Jewish communities in their midst, and on the other hand Spain and Portugal have never recovered from the national loss sustained by the expulsion of the Jews in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In late years the persecutions, especially in Russia, have caused a fresh exodus from the east of Europe, and by the aid of philanthropic capitalists flourishing agricultural settlements have been founded in Palestine and Argentina. From statistics taken in various places up to 1911 the Jewish communities are at present estimated at about 12,000,000, of whom three-fourths are in Europe, 380,000 in Africa, 500,000 in Asia, the rest in America and Australia[1175].

Intimately a.s.sociated with all these Aramaic Canaanitic Semites were a mysterious people who have been identified with the _Hitt.i.tes_[1176] of Scripture, and to whom this name has been extended by common consent.

They are also identified with the _Kheta_ of the Egyptian monuments[1177], as well as with the _Khatti_ of the a.s.syrian cuneiform texts. Indeed all these are, without any clear proof, a.s.sumed to be the same people, and to them are ascribed a considerable number of stones, cylinders, and gems from time to time picked up at various points between the Middle Euphrates and the Mediterranean, engraved in a kind of hieroglyphic or rather pictorial script, which has been variously deciphered according to the bias or fancy of epigraphists. This simply means that the "Hitt.i.te texts" have not yet been interpreted, and are likely to remain unexplained, until a clue is found in some bilingual doc.u.ment, such as the Rosetta Stone, which surrendered the secret of the Egyptian hieroglyphs. L. Messerschmidt, editor of a number of Hitt.i.te texts[1178], declared (in 1902) that only one sign in two hundred had been interpreted with any certainty[1179], and although the system of A.

H. Sayce[1180] is based on a scientific plan, his decipherments must for the present remain uncertain. The important tablets found by H. Winckler in 1907[1181] at Boghaz Keui in Cappadocia, identified with Khatti, the Hitt.i.te capital, have thrown much light on Hitt.i.te history, and support many of Sayce's conjectures. The records show that the Hitt.i.tes were one of the great nations of antiquity, with a power extending at its prime from the Asiatic coast of the Aegean to Mesopotamia, and from the Black Sea to Kadesh on the Orontes, a power which neither Egypt nor a.s.syria could withstand. "It is still not certain to which of the great families of nations they belonged. The suggestion has been made that their language has certain Indo-European characteristics; but for the present it is safer to regard them as an indigenous race of Asia Minor.

Their strongly-marked facial type, with long, straight nose and receding forehead and chin, is strikingly reproduced on all their monuments, and suggests no comparison with Aryan or Semitic stocks[1182]."

F. von Luschan, however, is able to throw some light on the ethnological history of the Hitt.i.tes. When investigating the early inhabitants of Western Asia he was constantly struck by the appearance of a markedly non-Semitic type, which he called "Armenoid." The most typical were the Tahtadji or woodcutters of Western Lycia living up in the mountains and totally distinct in every way from their Mohammedan neighbours. "Their somatic characters are remarkably h.o.m.ogeneous; they have a tawny white skin, much hair on the face, straight hair, dark brown eyes, a narrow, generally aquiline nose, and a very short and high head. The cephalic index varies only from 82 to 91, with a maximum frequency of 86[1183]."

Similar types were found in the Bektash, who are town-dwellers in Lycia, and in the Ansariyeh in Northern Syria. In Upper Mesopotamia these features occur again among the Kyzylbash, and in Western Kurdistan among the Yezidi. "We find a small minority of groups possessing a similarity of creed and a remarkable uniformity of type, scattered over a vast part of Western Asia. I see no other way to account for this fact than to a.s.sume that the members of all these sects are the remains of an old h.o.m.ogeneous population, which have preserved their religion and have therefore refrained from intermarriage with strangers and so preserved their old physical characteristics[1184]." They all speak the languages of their orthodox neighbours, Turkish, Arabic and Kurdish, but are absolutely h.o.m.ogeneous as to their somatic characters. Two other groups with the same physical type are the Druses of the Lebanon and Antilebanos country, who speak Arabic and pa.s.s officially as Mohammedans, though their secret creed contains many Christian, Jewish and pantheistic elements. To the north of the Druses are the Christian Maronites, said to be the descendants of a Monophysite sect, separated from the common Christian Church after the Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D. "Partly through their isolation in the mountains, partly through their not intermarrying with their Mahometan or Druse neighbours, the Maronites of today have preserved an old type in almost marvellous purity. In no other Oriental group is there a greater number of men with extreme height of the skull and excessive flattening of the occipital region than among the Maronites.... Very often their occiput is so steep that one is again and again inclined to think of artificial deformation." But "no such possibility is found[1185]."

These hypsibrachycephalic groups with high narrow noses, found also in Persia, among Turks, Greeks, and still more commonly among Armenians, were first (1892) called by von Luschan "Armenoid," but "there can be no doubt that they are all descended from tribes belonging to the great Hitt.i.te Empire. So it is the type of the Hitt.i.tes that has been preserved in all these groups for more than 3000 years[1186]." As to their primordial home von Luschan connects them with the "Alpine Race"

of Central Europe, but leaves it an open question whether the Hitt.i.tes came from Central Europe, or the Alpine Race from Western Asia, though inclining to the latter view. The high narrow nose (the essential somatic difference between the Hitt.i.tes and the other brachycephalic Arabs) "originated as a merely accidental mutation and was then locally fixed, either by a certain tendency of taste and fashion or by long, perhaps millennial in-breeding. The 'Hitt.i.te nose' has finally become a dominant characteristic in the Mendelian sense, and we see it, not only in the actual geographical province of the Alpine Race, but often enough also here in England[1186]."

In Arabia itself inscriptions point to the early existence of civilised kingdoms, among which those of the Sabaeans[1187] and the Minaeans[1188] stand out most clearly, though their dates and even their chronological order are much disputed. Possibly both lasted until the rise of the Himyarites at the beginning of the Christian era. All are agreed however that Arabian civilisation reached a very high level in the centuries preceding the birth of the Prophet, before the increase in shipping led to the abandonment of the caravan trade.

The modern inhabitants are divided into the Southern Arabians, mainly settled agriculturalists of Yemen, Hadramaut and Oman, who trace their descent from Shem, and the Northern Arabians (Bedouin[1189]), pastoral tribes, who trace their descent from Ishmael. The two groups have even been considered ethnologically distinct, but, as von Luschan points out, "peninsular Arabia is the least-known land in the world, and large regions of it are even now absolutely _terrae incognitae_, so great caution is necessary in forming conclusions, from the measurements of a few dozens of men, concerning the anthropology of a land more than five times as great as France[1190]." His measurements of "the only real Semites, the Bedawy," gave a cephalic index ranging from 68 to 78, while the nose was short and fairly broad, very seldom of a "Jewish type."

Recently Seligman[1191] has shown that whereas the Semites of Northern Arabia conform more or less to the type just mentioned those of Southern Arabia are of low or median stature (1.62-1.65 m., 63-3/4-65 in.), and are predominantly brachycephalic, the cephalic index ranging from 71 to 92, with an average of about 82.

Elsewhere--Iberia, Sicily, Malta[1192], Irania, Central Asia, Malaysia--the Arab invaders have failed to preserve either their speech or their racial individuality. In some places (Spain, Portugal, Sicily) they have disappeared altogether, leaving nothing behind them beyond some slight linguistic traces, and the monuments of their wonderful architecture, crumbling Alhambras or stupendous mosques re-consecrated as Christian temples. But in the eastern lands their influence is still felt by mult.i.tudes, who profess Islam and use the Arabic script in writing their Persian, Turki, or Malay languages, because some centuries ago those regions were swept by a tornado of rude Bedouin fanatics, or else visited by peaceful traders and missionaries from the Arabian peninsula.

The monotheism proclaimed by these zealous preachers is often spoken of as a special inheritance of the Semitic peoples, or at least already possessed by them at such an early period in their life-history as to seem inseparable from their very being. But it was not so. Before the time of Allah or of Jahveh every hill-top had its tutelar deity; the caves and rocks and the very atmosphere swarmed with "jins"; a.s.syrian and Phoenician pantheons, with their Baals, and Molochs, and Astartes and Adonais, were as thickly peopled as those of the h.e.l.lenes and Hindus, and in this, as in all other natural systems of belief, the monotheistic concept was gradually evolved by a slow process of elimination. Nor was the process perfected by all the Semitic peoples--Canaanites, a.s.syrians, Amorites, Phoenicians, and others having always remained at the polytheistic stage--but only by the Hebrews and the Arabs, the two more richly endowed members of the Semitic family.

Even here a reservation has to be made, for we now know that there was really but one evolution, that of Jahveh, the adoption of the idea embodied in Allah being historically traceable to the Jewish and Christian systems. As Jastrow points out, the higher religious and ethical movement began with Moses, who invested the national Jahveh with ethical traits, thus paving the way for the wider conceptions of the Prophets. "The point of departure in the Hebrew religion from that of the Semitic in general did not come until the rise of a body of men who set up a new ideal of divine government of the universe, and with it as a necessary corollary a new standard of religious conduct. Throwing aside the barriers of tribal limitations to the jurisdiction of a deity, it was the Hebrew Prophets who first prominently and emphatically brought forth the view of a divine power conceived in spiritual terms, who, in presiding over the universe and in controlling the fates of nations and individuals, acts from self-imposed laws of righteousness tempered with mercy[1193]."

FOOTNOTES:

[1150] The divergent views of orientalists concerning Semitic (linguistic) origins are summarised by W. Z. Ripley, _The Races of Europe_, 1900, p. 375.

[1151] E. Meyer, _Geschichte des Altertums_, I. 2, 1909, -- 336. O.

Procksch, however, while regarding the origin of the Semites as an unsolved problem, considers Arabia as their centre of dispersal rather than their original home. As far as early Semitic migrations can be traced he thinks they indicate a north to south direction, and he sees no cause for disputing the Biblical account (_Gen._ ii. 10 ff.) deriving the descendants of Shem "from the neighbourhood of Ararat, i.e.

Armenia, across the Taurus to the North Syrian plain." "Die Volker Altpalastinas," _Das Land der Bibel_, I. 2, 1914, p. 11. Cf. also J. L.

Myres, _The Dawn of History_, 1911, p. 115.

[1152] For the discussion as to whether Semites or Sumerians were the earlier occupants of Babylonia see p. 263 above.

[1153] Hugo Winckler, "Die Volker Vorderasiens," _Der Alte Orient_, I.

1900, pp. 14-15 and _Auszug aus der Vorderasiatische Geschichte_, 1905, p. 2.

[1154] Cf. A. C. Haddon, _Wanderings of Peoples_, 1911, p. 21.

[1155] J. L. Myres, _The Dawn of History_, 1911, pp. 118-9. For an admirable description of the Semitic migrations see pp. 104-5, and for the geographical aspect, see E. C. Semple, _Influences of Geographic Environment: on the basis of Ratzel's System of Anthropo-Geography_, 1911, pp. 6-7 and under "Nomads" in the Index.

[1156] G. Elliot Smith, _The Ancient Egyptians_, 1911, p. 133.

[1157] C. H. W. Johns, _Ancient Babylonia_, 1913, pp. 18-19. For culture see pp. 16-17.

[1158] O. Procksch, "Die Volker Altpalastinas," _Das Land der Bibel_, I.

2, 1914.

[1159] Cf. E. Meyer, "Sumerier und Semiten in Babylonien," _Abh. der Konigl. Preuss. Akad. der Wissenschaft_. 1906; L. W. King, _History of Sumer and Akkad_, 1910, p. 40 ff.

[1160] In the a.s.syrians von Luschan detects traces of the hyperbrachycephalic people of Asia Minor and Armenia, for they appear to differ from the pure Semites especially in the shape of the nose. Meyer regards this variation as possibly due to a prehistoric population, but, he adds, studies of physical types both historically and anthropologically are in their infancy. E. Meyer, _Geschichte des Altertums_, I. 2, 1909, -- 330 A.

[1161] C. H. W. Johns, _Ancient a.s.syria_, 1912, p. 8.

[1162] _Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statements_, 1902 onwards.

See also L. B. Paton, Art. "Canaanites," in Hastings' _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_.

[1163] Tell Ta'anek, 1904, _Denkschriften_, Vienna Academy, and "The German Excavations at Jericho," _Pal. Expl. Fund Quart. St._ 1910.

[1164] _Tell el-Mutesellim_, 1908.

[1165] _Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statements_, 1902, p. 347 ff.

[1166] L. W. King, _History of Sumer and Akkad_, 1910, p. 55; C. H. W.

Johns, _Ancient Babylonia_, 1913, pp. 61-2; L. B. Paton, Art.

"Canaanites," Hastings' _Ency. of Religion and Ethics_, 1910; E. Meyer, _Geschichte des Altertums_, I. 2, 1909, ---- 396, 436; O. Procksch, "Die Volker Altpalastinas," _Das Land der Bibel_, I. 2, 1914, p. 25 ff.; G.

Maspero, _The Struggle of the Nations, Egypt, Syria, and a.s.syria_, 1910.

[1167] [Greek: Phoinikes], probably meaning red, either on account of their sun-burnt skin, or from the dye for which they were famous. For the Phoenician physical type cf. W. Z. Ripley, _Races of Europe_, 1900, pp. 287, 444.

[1168] In the Old Testament "Canaanite" and "Amorite" are usually synonymous.

[1169] A. C. Haddon, _Wanderings of Peoples_, 1911, p. 22. For a general account of Phoenician history see J. P. Mahaffy, in Hutchinson's _History of the Nations_, 1914, p. 303 ff.

[1170] Cf. Morris Jastrow, _Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions_ (Haskell Lectures), 1913.

[1171] See S. A. Cook, Art. "Jews," _Ency. Brit._ 1911; O. Procksch, "Die Volker Altpalastinas," _Das Land der Bibel_, I. 2, 1914, p. 28 ff.

[1172] From Old French _Juis_, Lat. _Judaei_, _i.e._ Sons of Jehudah (Judah). See my article, "Jews," in Ca.s.sell's _Storehouse of General Information_, 1893, from which I take many of the following particulars.

[1173] W. M. Flinders Petrie attributes the variation to environment, not miscegenation. "History and common observation lead us to the equally legitimate conclusion that the country and not the race determines the cranium." "Migrations," _Journ. Anthr. Inst._ x.x.xVI.

1906, p. 218. He is here criticising the excellent discussion of the whole question in W. Z. Ripley's _The Races of Europe_, 1900, Chap. XIV.

"The Jews and Semites," pp. 368-400, with bibliography. Cf. also R. N.

Salaman, "Heredity and the Jews," _Journ. of Genetics_, I. p. 274.

[1174] F. von Luschan, "The Early Inhabitants of Western Asia," _Journ.

Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XLI. 1911, p. 226.

[1175] M. Fishberg, _The Jews_, 1911, p. 10.

[1176] As Heth, settled in Hebron (_Gen._ xxiii. 3) and the central uplands (_Num._ xiii. 29) but also as a confederacy of tribes to the north (1 _Kings_ x. 29, 2 _Kings_ vii. 6).

[1177] This identification is based on "the casts of Hitt.i.te profiles made by Petrie from the Egyptian monuments. The profiles are peculiar, unlike those of any other people represented by the Egyptian artists, but they are identical with the profiles which occur among the Hitt.i.te hieroglyphs" (A. H. Sayce, _Acad._, Sept. 1894, p. 259).

[1178] "Corpus insc. Hetticarum," _Zeitschr. d. d. morgenland.

Gesellsch._ 1900, 1902, 1906, etc.

[1179] "Die Hett.i.ter," _Der Alte Orient_, I. 4, 1902, p. 14 n. The sign in question, a bisected oval, is interpreted "G.o.d."