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 civilisation 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 monopolised 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 shipbuiliding 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 Phienicians 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 civilisation that Epicurus, 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 travelled across the Lands of Canaan, Aramea and Egypt. There is no disagreement that Epicurus 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 civilisations, and cannot be excluded under supposition.

This is a brief summary of the ancient civilisation; 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 misconstructed 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.