PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. Fifty years ago, the opinion was held by some that we could watch, in the tradition of the most ancient realms of the East, the first awkward steps in the childhood of the human race, while others believed that it was possible to discover there the remnants of an original wisdom, received by mankind at the beginning of their course immediately from the hand of heaven. The monuments of the East, subsequently discovered and investigated by the combined labour of English, German, and French scholars, have added an unexpected abundance of fresh information to the Hebrew Scriptures and the narratives of the Greeks, which, till then, were almost our only resource. No one can any longer be ignorant that Hither Asia at a very remote period was in possession of a rich and many-sided civilisation. The earliest stages of that civilisation in the valley of the Nile, of the Euphrates and the Tigris, on the coasts and in the interior of Syria are, it is true, entirely hidden from our knowledge; even the far more recent culture of the Aryan tribes we can only trace with the help of the Veda and the Avesta back to the point at which they were already acquainted with agriculture, and possessed considerable artistic skill. Our object in regard to the ancient East is not to retrace the beginning of human civilization, but rather to understand and establish the value and extent of those early phases of civilisation to which the entire development of the human race goes back. The way to this aim is clearly sketched out for us. A minute comparison of tradition with the results of the successful advance of Oriental studies, a conscientious examination of the one by the other, opens out to us the prospect of discerning more precisely the nature of those ancient constitutions and modes of life. To this purpose I have undertaken to contribute by a descriptive treatment of the subject. Such an attempt appeared to me indicated by the consideration that the fragments of our knowledge-and more than fragments we do not at present possess, and never shall possess, even though we assume that the number of monuments be considerably increased-if conscientiously brought together, would produce the most effective impression by exhibiting the connection of all the various sides of those ancient civilisations-and if to this collection were added the conclusions that can be drawn from it and from the monuments about the political life, the religion, the manners and laws, the art and trade of those nations...
About the Author: Maximilian Wolfgang Duncker (* October 15, 1811 in Berlin, + July 21, 1886 in Ansbach) was a German historian and politician. Maximilian Duncker was a son of Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Publisher bookseller Duncker (1781-1869), founder of the publishing house Duncker & Humblot, and his wife Fanny Auguste Babette nee Wolff. His brothers were the publisher Alexander Duncker (1813-1897), the Berlin politician Hermann Carl Rudolf Duncker (1817-1892), member of the Prussian National Assembly, and the publisher and publicist Franz Duncker (1822-1888), co-founder of the Hirsch-Duncker associations, Maximilian Duncker married 1842 Charlotte Guticke. After visiting the Friedrich-Wilhelm Gymnasium in Berlin studied Maximilian Duncker history, philosophy and philology in Berlin and Bonn. He received his doctorate in 1834 for Dr. phil. After his military service as a one-year volunteer, he was in 1834 at the Royal Library in Berlin worked. In the same year began investigations against Maximilian Duncker because of his membership in the fraternity Marcomannia Bonn [1], which he had joined in 1832. This led in 1837 to the sentencing to six years imprisonment and the prohibition of the acquisition of public office. After half a year in prison in Köpenick he was pardoned and received in 1838 permission for Habilitation. This took place one year later at the University of Halle. He was until 1842 a lecturer in history and at the same time worked in a leading position in his father's publishing house. From 1842 to 1857 he was an associate professor of history at Halle. In 1851, a criminal case against him was initiated on the basis of his writing four months of foreign policy. 1855 would Duncker thanks to the support of university lecturers in the Prussian Ministry of Culture, Johannes Schulze (1786-1869), almost made the leap to a proper history professor at the University of Greifswald. The conservative