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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Having been led by Capt. Durand's discoveries at Bahrein to look into the question of the antiquities of the Persian Gulf, I have been surprised to find how much new and interesting matter relating to this region has been accumulated since Vincent and Heeren conducted their investigations into “the commerce and navigation of the ancients”; and although, therefore, I have not sufficient leisure at my command at present to work out the inquiry as it deserves to be worked out, I have still thought that the notes collected during my desultory reading might be usefully submitted to a meeting of this Society, both with a view to the partial illustration of the subject, and more especially in the hope of suggesting lines of research to other and more competent students.
page 202 note 1 The late George Smith, in the third chapter of his “Chaldsean Account of Genesis,” p. 37,Google Scholar has extracted from Cory's fragments most of the Greek notices referring to the early mythology and the primitive settlement of Babylonia, and has compared them in a somewhat perfunctory manner with the traditions preserved in the Cuneiform Inscriptions. His account of Héa or Oannes is at any rate far from satisfactory, and really adds very little to what I published on the subject twenty-two years ago in vol. i. of Rawlinson's Herodotus, p. 599. The great desideratum has been to find the Cuneiform original of the Greek 
but up to the present time the search has been unsuccessful. If Lenormaut's conjecture had proved true that 
had the power of khan, the Accadian name for a fish being khanna, then we might have compared 
as a title of Héa with Cannes; but all the evidence goes to show that 
had the phonetic value of nun, and nothing else. The original name of Héa seems to have been 
Adu nuna, which probably meant “the fish king.” (See B.M.I., vol. ii. p. 31, No. 2, which is an etymological commentary on the Accadian text of an unrecovered portion of the “fall” Tablet, other portions of the same commentary which refer to the published text of the fall tablet, being included in B.M.I, vol. v. now almost ready for issue.)Google Scholar
page 203 note 1 It is difficult of coarse in some oases to determine whether the Accadian or Assyrian rendering of a proper name may be the original form. For instance, the evil spirits, companions of Oannes, who are named by Abydenus (following Berosus) 
and 
appear in the Inscriptions as Vadukku and Egimu in Assyrian, but Vaduk and Gigim in Accadian, which are mere variant forms of the same title, and probably signify “the strikers” and “the ravagers;” and I may add that 
is probably Ana-gallú (Arabic 
“the destroyers”) the Greek labial as usual replacing the hard guttural, and 
may be Ana-rabṣú, “the crouchers,” the d and r interchanging. In this view 
will be the only one of the fire monsters of Berosus unidentified.
page 204 note 1 For “the great mountain,” the father of Bel or Ilu, second God of the Babylonian Triad, see B.M.I., iv. 18, 14Google Scholar; iv. 23, 30; iv. 27, 17; iv. 60, 23, and Smith's, Discoveries, p. 392Google Scholar, Ins. line 7. This remarkable feature of the Baby-lonian mythology is named in one passage (iv. 27, 17) Im-kharris or Heaven's hill, and is described as “reaching its head to heaven while its foundations touched the absú,” an indication which, if of any geographical value, will alone suit Kibir-Koh, which stretches out its roots to the great lake at Tíb. I was for some time under the impression that the Sadu rabu or “great mountain” of Bel was represented by the large mound at Niffer, which was especially Bel's city; and where the Ziggurat or Tower was named Bit-Im-Kharris, “the House of Heaven's hill;” but further research has satisfied me that “the great mountain” was a real physical feature, though often used in a mythical sense (as in B.M.I. iv. 60, 23Google Scholar, where the name is bracketed with Niduhki or Bahrein), and provisionally, therefore, I suggest Kibir-koh as its modern representative. Of course the sadu rabu, “father of Bel,” is quite distinct from the Sadu-rabu-matáti or Kharris-gal-kurkurra, in which almost all Assyrian scholars, except Smith, have insisted up to the present time on seeing a sort of Eastern Olympus, but which was in reality nothing more than the great national temple at Assur (or Kileh Shergút), with Necropolis attached, the mat aralli of Botta's Ins. 153, l. 12, and 
of B.M.I., vol. i. p. 32, 32. Bel was sometimes called “the great mountain” himself, and was enshrined with the other Gods and Goddesses, in the famous temple of Sadu-rabu-matáti at Assur. See Botta's Ins. pl. 131, l. 19.Google Scholar
page 205 note 1 See B.M.I., vol. iv. p. 45, l. 35. In the same passage, 
the Accadian name for the absú, is explained as “the ahode of knowledge,” Bit-nimiki, in reference, no doubt, to the primitive colonists who came from the Persian Gulf.Google Scholar
page 205 note 2 See col. 1, l. 27 of Deluge tablet. I call Surippak an inland town because neither in ancient nor in modern times has a city ever been built on the sea-shore at the mouth of a great river like the Euphrates, for the simple reason that in such a position the city would be buried under alluvial deposit in the course of a very few years. Surippak is mentioned as late as the time of Khamnmragas, about B.C. 1500, but not later. See Smith's, “Early History of Babylon,” Journ. of Soc. of Bib. Arch. vol. i. p. 59, where, however, the name is expressed under its Accadian form of Mairu (for Mazu).Google Scholar
page 206 note 1 B.M.I., vol. ii. p. 60, l. 21. Ptolemy calls Aracia the Island of Alexander, but for what reason is not apparent. His island of Tabiaua in the immediate vicinity was named after the river Táb, and his 
represents of course the 
of the Persians. The Achœmenian Palace of Taoce, mentioned by Strabo, was probably at the modern village of Dalakí, where there is a fine mound of great apparent antiquity; but the most promising site for excavation in that part of Persia would seem to be at the village of Hindián on the Táb river, where, according to the traveller Mosáer Ibn Mohalhal, there were in his time (tenth century) “wonderful remains and magnificent buildings, from which they excavated buried treasures as they do in Egypt, together with temples of marvellous workmanship and Pyrœa.” The ruins still exist, as I have heard, between the two arms of the river about one stage south of Bébuhán.Google Scholar
page 207 note 1 Vincent, in his Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients, vol. i. p. 522,Google Scholar would identify the Icarus visited by Archias with the island of Felícheh off Grane Harbour, but admits that the distance does not correspond; while he supposes Ptolemy's Ichara to be a distinct island and one of the Bahrein group. When we consider the enormous extent of new land, at least fifty miles in length, that has been formed at the mouth of the Euphrates since the time of Alexander, it must be evident that it is a hopeless task to attempt tp verify the Greek measurements by a comparison with modern distances.
page 207 note 2 Vincent supposes Neptune's Island, noticed by Nearchus, to be the modern Angar, or as it is now called Hinjám, but Angar or Argan is almost necessarily Organa, and Neptune's Island, seen from it in the offing, can only be, I think, the Greater Tomb. Argan or Hinjám, where we now have a telegraph station, is, it must be remembered, exactly in the line of navigation up the Gulf and close to Kishm, so that it could not possibly be described as “an islet in the offing.”
page 208 note 1 See Diod. Sic. lib. i. cap. 2. It has also occurred to me that the epithet 
applied to Cannes by Berosus, and hitherto unexplained, may possibly represent the ethnic title Musari, or Egyptian, in allusion to the nationality of the primitive colony.
page 208 note 2 This curious passage I transcribe at length: 
.—Pasch. Chron. ed. Dindorf, , vol. i. p. 64Google Scholar. Observe that although Andubar is said to have taught the Indians, the whole chapter copied from Semironius relates to Babylonian tradition, and the name of Arphaxad, who was the supposed father of the Chaldseans, points in the same direction. It was common to name teachers after trees; thus the preceptor of Manes was named Budda or ‘the Terebinth tree.’
page 209 note 1 Compare especially B.M.I., vol. iv. p. 60, col. 1, lines 23, 24, 26, and 38;Google Scholar and it is not impossible bnt that 
who was certainly one of the Gods of Nidukki (B.M.I., vol. iv. p. 25, l. 18)Google Scholar, may be a form of the Snn-god, being joined with Biseba, which was another name for the sun, in B.M.I., vol. ii. p. 69, lines 66, 67.Google Scholar
page 209 note 2 Compare B.M.I., vol. ii. p. 54, l. 66,Google Scholar restored from duplicate copy, with B.M.I., vol. ii. p. 60, l. 30.Google Scholar
page 210 note 1 For the benefit of Assyrian students I quote the various passages where these equivalent readings severally occur: (a) 
Lakhamun = Ziru-panit of Nidukki, B.M.I., vol. ii. p. 54, l. 58,Google Scholar restored from duplicate copy. 
i.e. Lakhama or Lakhamu, as the ‘female principle of Nature’ (same as Anata, wife of Ann), B.M.I., vol. ii. p. 54, l. 9, vol. iii. p. 59, l. 15,Google Scholar and Creation Tablet, l. 10. (b) 
Pap-nun, gloss for 
Tasmit, B.M.I., vol. ii. p. 48, l. 39,Google Scholar but 
“Pip-nun (great giver?) of heaven and earth” is a name for Zirtt-panit, B.M.I., vol. ii. p. 54, l. 54,Google Scholar restored from duplicate, and is applied to the same Goddess as wife of Merodach, B.M.I., vol. iv. p. 21, l. 52;Google Scholar while in an unpublished list “Pap-nun of heaven and earth” is wife of 
‘the proclaimer of good fortune,’ who was a mere secondary form of Nebo, or Mercury, see B.M.I., vol. iii. p. 66, col. 3, l. 30, and col. 7, l. 29,Google Scholar and B.M.I., vol. iv. p. 59, l. 43.Google Scholar
page 210 note 2 If Lakh-amun were a genuine reading, it might be explained as ‘the messenger of Ammon’ (
lakh=sukkkal), and would seem to have been borrowed from Egypt, like Huras, Bar, Parra, and several other names common to Egyptian and Babylonian divinities; but I cannot venture to generalize on a single example.
page 211 note 1 A few references seem to be here required. Gula is associated with 
Lakhmu (to be distinguished from Lakhamu), apparently as man and wife, on a fragment in the Museum giving a very complete list of the Gods, and as yet unpublished. For her title as ‘great mother of the black-heads,’ see B.M.I., vol. iv. p. 61, l. 27,Google Scholar where she is joined with 
or Ninip, her usual partner, either under his own name or under the secondary form of 
Damu. Her best-known title is Lady of Nisinna or Karrak, which was probably the same place as the Karaka of the list of Darius, and the Charax of later geography (modern Mohamrah, near the mouth of the Euphrates), see B.M.I., vol. ii. p. 51, l. 34,Google Scholar and compare B.M.I., vol. iv. p. 63,Google Scholar lines 15 and 21. For her title of Mupallidat miti ‘she who restores the dead to life,’ see B.M.I., vol. iv. p. 19, l. 8,Google Scholar and B.M.I., vol. ii. p. 39, l. 31, and p. 62, l. 15.Google Scholar From the many passages indeed in which she is invoked, it is evident she was considered the arbitress of life and death, see Michaux Stone, col. 4, l. 5, B.M.I., vol. iii. p. 41, l. 29, and p. 43, col. 4, l. 15. It must be admitted that there is no evidence to connect Gula, directly with Nidukki or Bahrein, though it is tolerably certain that her worship prevailed extensively in the Persian Gulf.Google Scholar
page 212 note 1 The meaning of the Accadian name Nidukki may be either ‘possessing altars’ or ‘possessing a God,’ for the letter 
used as a monogram, has both significations, and either of these would be suitable to the holy character of the island; but it is difficult to find a similar signification for the Assyrian equivalent Tilvun or Tilmwn, if we are restricted to a Semitic etymology. It is quite possible, however, that Tilmwn may be an adopted name, Til being allied to Tilla, a Turanian correspondent to Akkad ‘high lands,’ and mun being explained in Syllabary 156 by dabtū ‘favour or blessing,’ so that the meaning of the name might be ‘the blessed hill’ or perhaps ‘the blessed isle.’
page 212 note 2 See Journal of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, vol. vi. pp. 348 and 399.Google Scholar M. Lenormant, I see, credits Prof. Jules Oppert with the original identification of Milukh as the 
of the Greeks, but this is, I believe, incorrect. My “Illustrations of Egyptian History from the Cuneiform Inscriptions” appeared in vol. vii. new series, of the “Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature” (Feb. 1861), long before M. Oppert published anything on the subject, and in that paper will be found, not only the suggestion regarding Meroe, but most of the other identifications of Egyptian Historical and Geographical names which Brugsch regards as one of the most interesting discoveries of the age.
page 212 note 3 If the tradition were confirmed of a very early colonization of Babylonia from Egypt, we might well suppose the names of Milukh and Magan to have been brought round to the Persian Gulf by the original immigrants from the Red Sea, and might thus be justified in searching for an etymology in the dialects of the Valley of the Nile. Lenormant at one time suggested a direct Semitic derivation for Milukh by comparing it with the Hebrew 
‘salt,’ and curiously enough the town of Gerrha was actually built of blocks of rock-salt, so that the name, if thus derived, would be most appropriate to the locality; but such an explanation would take no account of the contrast between Mayan and Milukh, and I cannot therefore accept it. Still less can I approve of Lenormant's later reading of Keslukh (Biblical Casluchim) instead of Milukh (Journ. Bib. Arch. vol. vi. p. 402Google Scholar). I would prefer to derive Milukh from a root resembling 
though probably Egyptian rather than Assyrian. With regard to Ophir and Apirak, which I have ventured to regard as synonyms of Milukh, there is much uncertainty. Khupur is no doubt given in B.M.I., vol. ii. p. 50,Google Scholar l. 51, as aa Accadiau term for “Highland”; but I find it difficult to admit, with Sayce, that this is a mere modified form of Khapir, or Aipir, or Apar (Ezra iv. 9), which was the vernacular name of the Susians or Elamites; for the full name of the country inhabited by these tribes was Khaltapirti, Naksh-i-Rustam Ins. l. 17 (which appears almost unaltered in the 
of Ptolemy adjoining 
), and the other forms of Khalpirti, Khapirti, Khapir, and Apar, were mere degradations of the original title, a still further corruption having survived in Lapet, which was the name applied to the city of Ahwaz as late as the Arab conquest (Procop. Edit. Dindorf, vol. ii. p. 504Google Scholar). I think it safer then not to attempt to connect Ophir and Apirak etymologically with the Susian Apir, but to be content with showing that, whatever may have been the meaning of the names, the two places–that is, 1st, the port visited by the fleets of Solomon, and which, in Genesis x. 29, is bracketed with Havileh at the mouth of the Euphrates; and 2nd, the country taken by Naram-Sin (together with Magan) after the conquest of Nidukki–must have been on the Arabian coast opposite to Bahrein, and most possibly at or near the spot afterwards occupied by Gerrha. And I may conclude my remarks on the subject by suggesting that the name of Hupir, which is given to the king of Nidukki or Tilmun in the Annals of the second Sargon, may possibly reproduce the original title of the great emporium of commerce in the immediate neighbourhood, which was usually expressed in Hebrew by 
.
page 213 note 1 For notices of Nidukki see B.M.I., vol. ii. p. 46,Google Scholar lines 5, 48; vol. ii. p. 51, l. 17; vol. ii. p. 53, l. 11; vol. iii. p. 60, l. 18; vol. iii. p. 4, l. 70, restored from duplicate; vol. iv. p. 60, passim; vol. iv. p. 25, l. 18. In an unpublished fragment containing an interesting geographical list, two names are found as correspondents to Nidukki, Tilmun and Aznú, 
immediately followed by Mayan and Milukh. Aznú is otherwise unknown, but may represent the lesser island of Bahrein.
page 213 note 2 See especially B.M.I., vol. iv. p. 38,Google Scholar lines 13, 14. In the very curious list of countries and their descriptive titles, B.M.I., vol. ii. p. 51, it is very probable that the two names in line 18, which follow Magan and Milukh, refer to the Bahrein Islands. One is 
Tila=
, and the other Saggis 
or Mercury. The title ‘region of springs’ exactly suits Capt. Durand's description of Bahrein.Google Scholar
page 214 note 1 See Smith's translation of the Sargon tablet, restored from a duplicate copy, in the Journal of the Society of Biblical Archæology, vol. i. p. 46,Google Scholar and his translation of the Naramsin record in the same paper, p. 51. With regard to his reading of Apirak and Magan for the two names on the Naramsin vase, I entertain some doubt. I repeatedly studied the inscription from the original vase, and satisfied myself that the first letter of the fifth line was 
as indeed it is printed (B.M.I., vol. i. p. 3, No. vii.), from a squeeze which I then took; and I cannot see my way to reading this character as api.Google Scholar
page 215 note 1 The augment of locality is found in many of the old Accadian names, such as Asnunak, Surippak, Susinak, Apirak, etc. It is probably a relic of ki ‘place.’ Sayce has shown some reason for reparding Apir, the vernacular name of Susiana, as a synonym of Numma or Elam ‘upper’ (Journ. Bib. Arch. vol. iii. p. 468Google Scholar), and Mayan is certainly used in B.M.I., vol. iv. p. 13, l. 16, for ‘lower,’ in contradistinction to eliti or ‘upper.’Google Scholar
page 215 note 2 I used to consider all the names in the fragment, B.M.I., vol. iii. p. 69, lines 53–58,Google Scholar from Mitra to Biséba, as titles for the ‘sun,’ and I then supposed Maganda-anna to be the same as ina isid samé ‘in the lower part of heaven,’ an epithet constantly applied to the sun (B.M.I., vol. iv. p. 28, l. 25,Google Scholar and Bib. Arch. vol. v. p. 438 and vol. vi. p. 383);Google Scholar but it seemed impossible that ‘the dark God,’ Ilu zalam, which is used for the shadow of the sun in B.M.I., vol. i. p. 18, l. 44, could also represent the sun itself; and I prefer, therefore, now referring all the names, excluding Biséba, to Mercury. I may add that the title of ‘the dusky God’ very possibly survives in the modern village of Dhelum.Google Scholar
page 216 note 1 Asaridu, which is given in the lists as the equivalent both of 
and 
(read by Lenormant as Sag-gis), usually means ‘the first’ or ‘chief’ or ‘eldest,’ but ‘nearest’ seems to be also quite a legitimate rendering. The etymology is unknown, but I conjecture it to be the word from which the Arabs have derived their name of 
Atáríd, for Mercury, by substituting the ain for alif, and hardening the sibilant, as in 'Athtar for Istar or Venus, Aturia for Assyria, etc.
page 216 note 2 See B.M.I., vol. ii. p. 60, l. 38.Google Scholar The most direct identification of Nebo with the Fire God occurs in the inscription on the famous tablet which gives the numerical value of the Assyrian deities, and which, though often quoted, has never, I believe, been published in extenso. Here the last God of the second division, which must necessarily answer to Nebo, is named 
For the identificatio11 of the Fire God with the lightning, birka, see B.M.I., vol. iii. p. 66, col. 2, l. 20, and col. 7, l. 10.Google Scholar
page 217 note 1 Strabo, , p. 766.Google Scholar
page 217 note 2 Artemidorus, as quoted by Strabo, , p. 779, alludes to this eponymous character of Erythras, when he says that some of the natives called him a son of Perses, who formerly reigned in these parts.Google Scholar
page 217 note 3 Syllabary 483 and B.M.I., vol. ii. p. 21, l. 41.Google Scholar In the latter passage sur is the gloss for Inzu, 
‘the red-brown goat,’ or 
(Capricorn or Tebeth), which Sayce calls ‘the double ship’! Assyriologists do not seem to have discovered that the gunu, of the lists is everywhere ‘colour’ (Chald. 
), and that the ideographic representative was usually the prefix 
, as in 
‘a fish,’ 
‘fish-colour,’ 
‘ahead,’ 
‘head-colour,’ 
‘mud-colour’ (?), 
etc.
page 218 note 1 See Strabo, , loc. cit.Google Scholar
page 218 note 2 Before quitting the subject of Nidukki, I may allude to a curious passage in B.M.I., vol. ii. p. 60, col. 3,Google Scholar which seems to refer to some fabulous voyage of the king of the island, in a ship built for the purpose. The passage is too imperfect to be made out clearly, and the geographical names are in many cases mutilated; but I strongly suspect that the list was intended to represent a sort of Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. The catalogue of names reads as follows: Nidukki, Nibiru, Grusé, Suli …, Istar offspring of Nigara, Nigara offspring of Nigira, mountains of Purru …, Pasiri, Pasa …, Tobar, Khiliba …, Khilibana, Kumad …, Tilikhasbat, Sandarippi, Sé …, and Basi.
page 219 note 1 See, among other passages, B.M.I., vol. ii. p. 60, l. 34.Google Scholar A dissertation of some extent, if not of much interest, on Nebo's connexion with writing and learning, will be found in my essay “On the Eeligion of the Babylonians and Assyrians” (Herodotus, , vol. i. p. 639Google Scholar). The Babylonian Hermes was well known to the later Greeks as the reputed author of the Chaldœan oracles, and there are two Gods mentioned in the lists under the names of Irmis and Kharmis, from whom the Greeks may perhaps have borrowed the title, though their function seems to have been to protect the ziggurats or ‘towers of the temples,’ rather than the libraries. B.M.I., vol. iii. p. 66, col. 7, l. 13.Google Scholar
page 219 note 2 Justin, , xviii. 3, § 2: “Tyriorum gens condita a Phœnicibus fuit, qui terræ motu vexati, relicto patri solo, Assyrium stagnum primuni, mox mari proximum littus incolueruut, conditâ ibi urbe, quam à piscium ubertate Sidoua appellaverunt.” This abundance of fish is probably another trace of the cult of Oannes.Google Scholar
page 219 note 3 I extract the following account of Tib from Yacut: “It is a small town between Wásit and Khuzistán. The inhabitants are Nabt to the present day, and their language Nabathœn. Dáúd Ibn Ahmed Ibu Said, a merchant oi Tib, 
(the peace of God be on him), says as follows: It is current amongst us that Tíb was founded hy Seth, the son of Adam, and that its people continued in the religion of Seth, which is the same as Sabæism, until Islám arose, when they became Muhammedaus. There were some wonderful talismans in Tíb, some of which have become obsolete, while others remain in force to the present day, one of them being that any wasp entering the place dies immediately; and almost up to our present time no snake or scorpion was to be found in the place, and to this very day neither a black and white crow nor a magpie can come there.” Among the many arguments in favour of identifying Tíb with the Eden of Genesis, I may mention two which are not generally known. The Jukhá, answering to the Gihou of Genesis, is the name of the eastern arm of the Tigris on one side of Tíb; while the Phison, called in the Samaritan version Kadúf, and answering to the Kerkha or Eulæus, which comes from Mihrjdn Kadaf, 
or Seimerrah, and alone of all the Babylonian rivers contains the Soham or ‘onyx stone,’ is on the other. For the Accadian name of Tsibba (equivalent to Tib), applying to End or 
‘the blessed city,’ see B.M.I., vol. iv. p. 21, l. 40.Google Scholar
page 220 note 1 It is impossible to overlook the fact that in both of the Biblical apologues relating to Nineveh, the account, I mean, of the journey of Jonah, and the apocryphal story of Tobit, a fish plays the principal part, which, if it be a mere coincidence, is at least remarkable; but I must reserve any further remarks on the fish legend for another occasion.
page 220 note 2 I take this opportunity of asserting my own claim to the discovery that the Carchemish of the Bible (Gargamis of the Inscriptions) was represented not by Circessium, at the mouth of the Khabúr, but by Hierapolis, or Mabog, considerably to the north, an identification which, in the late excellent article in The Times newspaper on the history of the Hittites, was credited to Signer Maspero. I announced this discovery in 1853 (see my paper on the “Early History of Babylonia,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. XV. p. 231Google Scholar), and pointed out that the Syrians translated Carchemish by Mabog (2 Chron. xxxv. 20), a name derived from the ‘mother of the Gods,’ or ‘Syria Dea,’ who was worshipped there. And here I may add, as a curious coincidence, that Atargatis (or 
Tar‘atá), the Syriac name for the great Goddess, signifies ‘a gate’; and that Camis, the name of the great Goddess of the primitive Italians, seems to have had the same signification, as she was also called Janua (the wife of Janus). Is it then allowable to translate Kar-gamis (or Carchemish) “the fort of the Goddess Gamis or Camis (the gate)”? The same Goddess seems to have been called Bábia by the Syrians of a later age.
page 222 note 1 There were five Bishops of the Nestorian Church at this period in the province of Catara (mod. 
). holding the sees of Dirím, Masamig, Talon, Khata, and Hajar. Assemanni identifies Talon with 
or Bahrein, without any hesitation, but on examining the Syriac authorities whom he quotes, I doubt his correctness. I observe that the insular see is always named Dirín, which approaches nearer to the 
of Strabo than does Talon. Dirín also heads the list, and it was from hence that George the Monk took rich altar cloths back to Assyria, probably imported from India; these several indications pointing to the island of Bahrein rather than to any town in the interior. There may, perhaps, have been two distinct names, Tila (as in Tilmun, 
etc.) applying to the island, and Tyrine, or Dirín, applying to the chief town of the island; whilst Talon more probably represented Thelum or Dhelum, the port at the entrance of the Gerrha bay on the coast opposite. See Asseman. Bib. Orien. vol. iv. p. 736, and passages referred to. Assemanni was a great Orientalist, but a poor Geographer, and his identifications are always liable to suspicion. In the present instance he thus supposes Catara to represent Socotra, not apparently knowing that the coast south of Bahrein was named Qatar or Gattar.Google Scholar
page 223 note 1 For the authorities regarding the position of Tyrine and Ogyris, see Strabo, , p. 766,Google Scholar and Cellarius, , p. 700.Google Scholar Yacút says of 'Uqeir that “it is a village on the sea-shore opposite to Hajar;” and of Qatar, “In the district of Bahrein, on the coast of Khatt, 
between ‘Omin and’ Uqeir, is a village named Qatar, from whence came the red-striped cloths, called Qatariyeh.”
page 224 note 1 Beladheri, in his famous Futúh, has a special chapter on the conquest of Bahrein, . Edit, de Goeje, , p. 79 to 86Google Scholar.
page 225 note 1 The capital of Hajar is further said by Yacút, quoting from some anonymous author, to be As-Safá and Musftaḳḳar, a sort of double city, which is thus described: “Et-Mushaḳḳar is a very strong fort of the Abd-ul-Ḳais in Bahrein, used by them as a place of defence. They had also another fortress called As-Ṣafá in front of the city of Hajar. The Jámi mosque was in Mushaḳḳar, and between the two forts there flowed a river which was called El-‘Ain, and which went to the city of Muhammed Ibn-El-Ghimr, etc.” I know nothing of these places, and, in fact, have never met with the names except in Yacút's great Dictionary. Ibn-Howkal gives the names of the cities of Bahrein as Hajar, El-Ḳatif, El-'Uqeir, Bisheh, and El-Kharj, while he describes Awál as the name of the Island, belonging to Abu-Sa'id and Suliman Ibn-El-Hassan, the famous Carmathian leaders, who levied an enormous tribute from the ships which traded there.
page 225 note 2 Yacút, quoting from Abu-Mansur, says that the coast of ‘Omán was throughout called Al-Khatt, the chief places on the coast being El-Ḳatíf, El-'Uqeir, and Ḳatar, and then adds, on his own part, “All these places belong to the sea-coast of Bahrein and ‘Omán; they used to bring here oamboo spears from India, which were afterwards exported and sold to the Arabs;” and so in Babylonian times they brought teak-wood from India to Magan, and used it in building temples and palaces under the name of 
B.M.I., vol. iii. p. 28, l. 38.Google Scholar
page 226 note 1 Mokadassí, (p. 71) says of Hajar or Bahrein, that its capital is El-Ahsá, and its chief places Sabún, Az-Zarká, El-'Uqeir, and Awál, while Yamámeh is a dependency. El-Ahsá (mod. Lhassa) he describes more particularly as “the capital of Hajar, which is also called Bahrein; a large place with abundance of palms, and very populous, but notorious for heat and drought; about one stage from the sea … and the chief place of the Carmathiaus, etc.” Yacút adds that El-Ahsá is “a well-known town of Bahrein. It was founded and fortified and made the capital of Hajar, by Abu-Tahir El-Hassan, eon of Abu-Sa'íd, the Carmathian leader, and is still a celebrated and very populous place.” Yacut further says that the name of Bahrein comes from “a certain lake (or Boheireh) at the gate of the town of Al-Ahsá, which is about three miles square, and the water of which is stagnant and salt, and of no use for cultivation. Al-Aḥsá is about ten farsakhs from the sea.”Google Scholar
page 226 note 2 Edit, de Goeje, , p. 22.Google Scholar
page 227 note 1 Nicand. Alexiph. Ters. 244. The route followed by the caravans from Gerrha to Palmyra was probably the same which, in a contrary direction, Mr. Palgrave pursued from Syria by Háíl, Riadh, and El-Aḥsá to Ḳatif.