Trades in Peace and War
Isaac Taylor
thinks the Greeks had derived their weights and coins from the Babylonians
through the Amorites and Lidyans of Asia Minor.
The Arameans
had tribes in Iraq, Sinai and Palestine. They spread what they had derived
from Mesopotamia. The Greek got in contact with them in the Eastern ports
of Asia Minor up to the frontiers of Sinai. They copied from them the means
of civilization and commerce long before they were known to the peoples
of Europe. The Greeks are old-established navigators; but they had anticipated
the Canaanites in this trade as the latter were devoted to transit trade,
which they almost monopolized in the Eastern Mediterranean until after
the days of Alexander the Great, and the rise of Alexandria. They were
greatly helped in promoting by the abundance of timber for shipbuilding
in Canaan, of crops which they sold and exchanged in the near and remote
ports, and by the site of their country along the shores of a sea into
which flocked the Asian traders from the farthest countries.
It is possible
that the Greeks learnt shipbuilding from the Canaans or the Babylonians.
Perhaps the story of Noah and his ark is of interest in this respect, because
his ark is the oldest vessel mentioned in history. Undoubtedly that vessel
was not built in the lands of the Greeks; it was built in countries near
to the lands of the Old Testament, or near to the land between Iraq and
Palestine. Traces of the Old vessels of Phoenicians were found in South
Africa. Herodotus mentioned the trips of Phoenicians and Egyptian during
the reign of the Pharaoh Nichaos. They were the first people to be well-acquainted
with the Eastern Coast of Mica whereas the Greeks know that part of Africa
by hearsay in the age of Homer.
However difficult having precedence may be nowadays, it was not difficult
for the Canaanites - whom the Greeks called Phoenicians - to widen the
range of their navigation, and to build maritime settlements in distant
parts on a scale that was never attained by the Greeks in the old times.
If they had derived from the Semites weights, coins, writing, star
observation and the characteristics of astronomical days, it is very probably
that they had learnt from them the trades of navigation, commerce, shipbuilding
and their steering across the seas in accordance with astrology and stars.
It can be noted from the speech about the Greek's derivations from the
above states in the affairs of daily life and general civilization that Epicures, called the father of medicine, was brought up in the island of
Qoss, and that Galen, the most reputed doctor in Greece, was brought up
in Asia Minor, and that they traveled across the Lands of Canaan, Aramea
and Egypt. There is no disagreement that Epicures and Galen derived their
science from the medicine of ancient Pharaohs. But the knowledge derived
by the people of Asia Minor from Canaan and Babylon must include medical
information, which is concomitant with the ancient civilizations, and cannot
be excluded under supposition.
This is
a brief summary of the ancient civilization; there was not a trade in peacetime
which the Greeks had not learnt from Arab descendants, or which they had
not taken down from those who had anticipated them..
Under these circumstances - namely that the Semites were wholly of Arab
lineage - they must have the credit of initiating the arts of war from
which the Romans had benefited, particularly from the famous Carthagean
leader, Hannibal. The battle of Cannae in which the Romans were defeated
and lost nearly half their troops is still debatable and a pivot around
which revolves discussion and research work and a reference for the latest
arts of warfare in the European Military Schools. This battle was
an instance of the many different arts of warfare with which that Great
Leader surprised the Romans, such as the transport of troops on land and
by sea, their landing on the open shores and climbing with them to the
peaks of the mountains; the use of newly invented ships in the sea, the
initiation of quick plans for using animals in terrestrial battles, such
as the elephant and the horse.
There is
evidence to the origin of Hannibal that can be derived from his name, birth-
place and the history of his emergence. This evidence can be fallen back
upon in case the historian links Hannibal to Arab lineage, and does not
consider him a pure Arab. He emerged in the third century B.C. when -the
Arab nation was on the verge of its modern evolution (which lasts until
this day) his name was in a dialect of Arabic, prevalent at that time or
very nearly Arabic. His name «Hanna Baal» is a synonym of the
name «Namal Baal» or «Namat Allah» (meaning God's
grace in Arabic). His native town was called «Qarriet Hdash»
(meaning the modern village). It was miss-constructed and written «Qartash»,
then «Cartage» as pronounced by the Romans. His father was
called «Hami Al-Qarrieh» (meaning protector of the village)
and has been changed to «Hamilcar».
The above treatise can be summed up in the following words the Europeans
were the disciples of the Arabs before Europe has posed itself as the tutor
of others. This fact cannot be discounted by the allegation that the
Sumerians - inhabitants of Mesopotamia - were descendants of the
Aryans. However, this allegation is worth studying and deserves to be given
more weight.
It is an established fact, over which there in no divergence of views,
that the astronomical information acquired by the Europeans, and on which
they had based their belief in the planets and the days, has a Babylonian
tinge whether in the nouns or in the epithets. The art of writing was exported
to Europeans and Indians by the sons of the Arabian Peninsula in the North
and South. Whatever the opinion regarding initiation in the first stages
of evolution may be, it is very clear that the first derivations by Europeans
from the lessons of astronomy, writing, Rouaqi wisdom, cause of commerce,
navigation and construction have carried the Semitic stamp. These derivations
had not any trace of a Sumerian origin.
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