The Historians' History of the World 01 [Prolegomena; Egypt, Mesopotamia]

Halévy, Jos., Revue Sémitique d’épigraphie et d’histoire ancienne. Paris, 1893.—Harkness, M. E., Egyptian Life and History. London, 1884.—Heeren, A. H. L., Ideen ueber die Politik, den Verkehr und den Handel der vornehmsten Völker der Alten Welt, 3 edit. Göttingen, 1815, 4 vols. English translation: Historical Researches, etc. Oxford, 1878, 5 vols.

Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren was born at Arbergen, near Bremen, 1760; died at Göttingen, 1842. The celebrated author of Historical Researches into the Politics, Intercourse, and Trade of the Carthaginians, Ethiopians, and Egyptians was, during the greater part of his life, Professor of History at Göttingen; he had, however, earlier in his career, filled the chair of Philosophy in the same university, and the happy mingling of the philosophical with the historical cast of mind is at all times evidenced in his writings. The historical writings of Professor Heeren cover a wide field, but his greatest renown was achieved with his History of the Nations of Antiquity. In this Professor Heeren broke new ground. His scheme of treatment was quite different from that of any one who had preceded him. His intention was not so much to elucidate the political history, as to deal with those commercial relations and social customs which, after all, are the chief foundations of a nation’s life. In particular he was perhaps the first great historian who fully grasped the import of the commercial relations of ancient nations. He made himself master of all knowledge obtainable in his day bearing on this topic, and his work at once took rank as the foremost authority on its subject. So much as this goes almost without saying, for hardly any one attains to professorship in a German university who has not the qualities of scholarship calculated to make him an authority on any topic which he will undertake to treat. But, what is much more unusual among the Germans, Professor Heeren had also the gift of style. His work is not only authoritative, but readable. Indeed, in this regard, it is surpassed even now by very few works in the domain of history. As evidence of this characteristic, the works of Professor Heeren were at once translated both into French and into English, and have the widest popularity in France, England, and America. In the nature of the case, the authoritative character of his works cannot have been maintained at their original standard, since the new discoveries and excavations in the Orient have so altered the phases of our conception of oriental history. In one sense, therefore, it is unfortunate that Professor Heeren could not have written after the excavations of Layard in Nineveh had given the new stock of material for ferreting out the history of Mesopotamia. Nevertheless, as far as it went, the history of Heeren was founded firmly upon facts which the new researches have left unshaken, and his work, as a whole, still has great value for the historical student of the period. There are sections of it, indeed, which have neither been supplanted nor duplicated.