A Geographical and Historical View of the World: Exhibiting a Complete Delineation of the Natural and Artificial Features of Each Country: and a Succinct Narrative of the Origin of the Different

A Geographical And Historical View Of The World: Exhibiting A Complete Delineation Of The Natural And Artificial Features Of Each Country: And A Succinct Narrative Of The Origin Of The Different Nations, Their Political Revolutions, And Progress In Arts, Sciences, Literature, Commerce &C. The by John Bigland. This work offers a concise, early 19th?century continental survey of the Near East and adjacent regions, tracing from ancient Mesopotamia through the rise of Islam, then turning to the Arabian Peninsula and Asiatic Russia. It blends geography with antiquities, political history, religion, culture, economy, and cartography, and provides brief sketches of major rulers and thinkers. The volume covers Mesopotamia and Syria, Hebrew history, Persian and Hellenistic periods, and the Arab/Islamic rise, followed by portraits of Mecca and Medina and reflections on land, climate, resources, and trade networks. Emphasizing religion as a political force, urban growth and Islamic science, it draws on classical and early modern authorities to offer a broad, comparative atlas of empires—from Babylon and Persia to Byzantium and the Ottoman world—within a changing global order.