MESOPOTAMIA is the name by which Baby lonia was designated after the Macedonian con quest. Strictly, it comprises all the country between the Euphrates and the Tigris, but the name is usually restricted to the part of it S. and E. of Orfa and Marlin. The most of it is within the province of Baghdad. The upper part of it is called al-Jazirah, and the lower part Irak-Arabi.
Its limits were somewhat differently defined by ancient writers.
Strabo says that the Tigris washes the eastern side of Mesopotamia, and the river Euphrates its southern and western ; whilst the Taurus separ ates it from' Armenia on the north. Pliny, who is still more distinct, says that Mesopotamia has the Tigris to the east, the Euphrates west, the Persian Gulf south, and the Taurus north, with a length of 800 miles and a breadth of 360 miles, the city of Charax being at the extremity of the gulf (lib. vi. c. xxvii.). Mesopotamia extends above 10° in longitude, from Balis, in long. 38° 7' 10" E., to the estuary of the old Karun, in lat. 7° 31' 5" N., and long. 48° 45' 16" E.; from the shores of the Persian Gulf, in lat. 30°, to Sumeisat, in lat. 37° 31' 5" N. ; its greatest width being about 170 miles, from Jaber Castle to Hisn Keifa on the Tigris, and its extreme length nearly 735 miles. The irregular triangle thus formed has a super ficies of nearly 76.117 square miles, including the shores of the gulf from the Pallacopas to the old Karun. Truffles and wild capers, peas, spinach, and the carob, Ceratonia siliqua, are found in Mesopotamia. A pea called Arab addis is par
ticularly mod. The principal towns of Mesopo tamia Bekr, Hisn Keifa, Jezireh, Mosul, Tekrit, Sammara, and Kut-el-Amarah along the Tigris ; Erzingan, Kemakh, Egin, Kebban Maden, 3falatiyah, Ram, Kal'ah, Bir, Rakkah, Deir, Bawd, Anah, Hadisah, El' Um, Jibbah, Diwaniyah, Lam lun, Sheikh-el-Shuyukh, and Kurnah along the Euphrates ; in addition to Suverek, O'fah, Haran, Seroug, Ras-el-aM, Hardin, Nisibis, Sinjar, El Hadhr, Kerbelah, Meshed Ali, Sainawah, Zobeida, and many other villages, both in the mountains and along the streams, between the two great rivers. Grano or Quade, Mohammarah, and Basrah are the ports ; and the last, being the principal, is next in importance to Baghdad, the capital. The inhabitants consist of Arabs, Osmanli Turks, Kurd, Turkoman, Syrians, Jews, and Christians. Arabic is the general language, Turkish, Kurdish, Chal dee, Syriac, • and Syro-Chaldann dialects being the exceptions. The Sunni Muhammadan religion is prevalent ; but in Upper Mesopotamia there are many Christians of the creed of Nestorius (some of whom have become Roman Catholics), and Jacobite as well as Roman Catholic Syrians.
The races that have ruled here have been many, and from the most remote times, and remnants are still to be traced of former dominant peoples in the varied languages still spoken. The present rulers are the Turks of Constantinople.