Skip to main content

Full text of "Travels in Chaldæa, including a journey from Bussorah to Bagdad, Hillah, and Babylon, performed on foot in 1827. With observations on the sited and remains of Babel, Seleucia, and Ctesiphon"

See other formats 


Google 



This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project 

to make the world's books discoverable online. 

It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject 

to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books 

are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover. 

Marks, notations and other maiginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the 

publisher to a library and finally to you. 

Usage guidelines 

Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the 
public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing tliis resource, we liave taken steps to 
prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying. 
We also ask that you: 

+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for 
personal, non-commercial purposes. 

+ Refrain fivm automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine 
translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the 
use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help. 

+ Maintain attributionTht GoogXt "watermark" you see on each file is essential for in forming people about this project and helping them find 
additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it. 

+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just 
because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other 
countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of 
any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner 
anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liabili^ can be quite severe. 

About Google Book Search 

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers 
discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web 

at |http: //books .google .com/I 



--^1 ■■ Hpi 



rrf"". "^T.^ 



ADTIQliB flEBS FOUIKB AT BABTLOJ, 
It, Af Auiiars ftfirliioD. 




TRAVELS 



IN 

C H A L D iE A, 

INCLUDING 

A JOURNEY FROM BUSSORAH TO BAGDAD, 
HILLAH, AND BABYLON, 

PERFORMED ON FOOT IN 1827. 

WITH 

OBSERVATIONS ON THE SITES AND REMAINS OF 
BAB£L, SELEUCIA, AND CTESIPHON. 



BY CAPT. ROBERT MIGNAN, 



», 



OF THE HON. EAST INDIA COMPANY 8 SERVICE ; 

Irately in command of the Escort attached to the Political Residept in Turkish 

Arabia, and Member of the Royal Anatic Society of 

Great Britain and Ireland. 



LONDON: 

HENRY COLBURN AND RICHARD BENTLEY, 

NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 

1829. 



HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF SOMERSET, 

THE FOLLOWING WOEK 

IS, BV PERMISSION, 

INSCRIBED, 

WITH PEOFOUND RESPECT, AND 

SINCERE GBATITUDi:, 

BY 

THE AUTHOR. 



LONDOV, 
Octoier, 1889. 



PREFACE. 



Notwithstanding much has already been 
written regarding the ruins of the once mighty 
Babylon, it must be acknowledged that all our 
information on this interesting subject, is far 
from sufficient to make the curious investiga- 
tor thoroughly acquainted with even the mere 
remains of this formerly renowned capital. 

Though I flatter myself that my narrative 
wiU add considerably to the knowledge which 
the public already possess, and though many 
abler investigators than myself may hereafter 
prosecute their researches on the same ground, 
still the tale of Babylon, even in her desolation. 



VI PREFACE. 

will probably long remain untold, and the 
features that distinguished her days of prospe- 
rity never be perfectly traxjed. 

Among those who have recently written of 
Chaldaea, Rich has confined himself to Babel; 
and to the information which he has furnished, 
Keppel has added some slight notices of re- 
markable vestiges on either bank of the Tigris; 
both, at the same time, conceding what was due 
to the critical observations and acute inferences 
of Major Rennell. 

I have endeavoured to extend the researches 
of the two former, and to verify their conclu- 
sions ; and I trust that my labours will throw 
additional light upon the descriptions of the an- 
cients, as well as confirm the hypothesis adopt- 
ed by Buckingham, whose observations on the 
ruins appear to me to be more critical, correct, 
and comprehensive, and more fully to accord 
with the earliest accounts, than those of any 
other modern traveller. 

Of the ancients, Herodotus and Diodorus 
Siculus are the most valuable guides; then 



PREFAC e. VU 

Arrian and Strabo, and some of the earlier 
historians of the Roman Empire; next to 
these, much important ini^rmation regarding 
Babel and Chaldaea may be obtained from 
the Talmud of the Jews, and from the Bib- 
lical writings of many learned Christians of 
those countries, which might be explained by 
the priests still versed in the Syriac and Chal- 
daic dialects. From the Chaldaic books of the 
Sabseans too, some interesting facts might be 
derived; as also from a dose examination of 
the earlier Mohammedan historians, such as 
Tebari and Masudi; from the geography of 
Abulfeda, and of Yacuti ; and from biographical 
writings such as Semaani's Kitab ul Ansab. 
With these, and the aid of modern geogra- 
phy, many valuable details in illustration of 
the early state and history of Chaldsea might 
stiU be elicited. 

To that eminent and accurate geographer. 
Major Rennell, I am greatiy indebted. This 
gentleman has been pleased to express his 
approbation of my labours; and I feel pecu- 



Yin PKEFACE. 

liar satisfaction in thus publicly acknowledg- 
ing the many acts of kindne;ss which I have 
experienced from him. 

I am also under obligations for assistance 
and counsel to Major Taylor, the Honourable 
East India Company's Political Resident at 
Bussorah, whose attainments in Oriental lite- 
rature ai:e too well known to require men- 
tion. To him I am indebted for all the trans^ 
lations of Arabic inscriptions given in this 
Volume, and also for many of the valuable 
notes which I have annexed. I sincerely trust 
that he will one day present the world with 
an account of this most interesting land, as 
few have enjoyed better opportunities of doing 
justice to the subject. 

A map of my route is prefixed, together 
with a plan of the ruins, to the distance of 
about eight miles on either side of the prin- 
cipal mounds. Drawings of some remarkable 
buildings, costumes, &c. are given, which it is 
hoped will not prove unacceptable.- 



PREFACE. IX 

Whatever merit may be attached to these 
illustrations, is, in strict justice, due to the 
correct and masterly pencil of Mr. Richard 
Craggs, who has produced them from my own 
rude sketches. 

My aim, throughout this work, has been 
rather to delineate the various remarkable ob- 
jects that presented themselves to my attention, 
than to enter deeply into useless theory and 
vain speculation; — ^in short, to furnish an ac- 
curate account of the existing remains of an- 
cient grandeur, to describe their present deso- 
lation, and to trace something like a correct 
outline of the once renowned Metropolis of 
Chaldasa. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Author determines to visit Babylonia. — Departure 

from Bussbrah Hamlet of Nohar Omer. — Situation of 

Suaeb Supposed site of the Garden of Eden. — ^Village of 

Zetchiah. — Controversy with Arabs. — Tomb of Ozair. — 
Jewish Pilgrimage. — Character of the Arabs. — Camp of the 
Beni Lam. — Appearance of the tribe. — Their occupation, &c. 
— ^The River Al Hud, or Hid.— Curious culinary operations. 
— Filthy state of the Arabs, dress, &c — The Hararine 
Mountains. — The Tigris. — Inland navigation. — Monotonous 
aspect of the country. — Mountains of Lauristan. — Course of 
the Tigris. — ^Trade between Bussorah and Bagdad. — Arab 
encampment . . Page 1 — ft3 

CHAPTER n. 

Village of Koote. — Its situation. — ^The Camel and the 
Dromedary. — The Canal of Hye. — Singular amusement — 
Ruins of a bridge. — Supposition respecting them. —General 
aspect of the Desert. — Approach to the cities of Seleucia 
and Ctesiphon. — No swans to be seen. — Extensive sand- 
banks. — Navigation of the Tigris. — ^Weapons of the Arabs. 
— The lion — The Eelauts, a wandering tribe. — ^Their beha- 
viour. — ^The Author's progress impeded. —Remarkable ruins. 
— Extensive wall. — Mumlihah. — Unsuccessful researches. 

^4—43 



XU CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER III. 

Water-courses. — Remarkable mounds.— Blocks of black 
stone. — Fruitless excavation. — Earthen vase. — Party of 
horsemen. — Insulated pile, called Shejur. — Curious column. 
— Remains of a wall. — Earthen vases. — Ruins, called Hoo- 
mania. — Discovery of Athenian coins. — Fleet of boats. — 
Their singular construction. — The Kooffah, a wicker-basket. 
Ruins of a Fort. — ^Armed horseman. — Appearance of the 
river. — View of Tank Kesra. — History of the Arabs 44 — 67 

CHAPTER IV. 

City of Ctesiphon. — Extensive mound. — High wall. — Sup- 
posed canal. — Ancient remains. — Description of Tauk 
Kesra. — Search made for coins, &c. — -Sack of the Palace 
of Tauk Kesra by the Saracens. — ^Valuable spoils. — Rich 
carpet. — Decay of Ctesiphon.— ^Tomb of Selman Pauk. — 
Annual pilgrimage to it. — Mosque, tombs, &c, — Seleucia. 
— Ruins of the city. — Fragments of a bridge. — Sites of the 
two cities. — Impediments in the way of research. — Cala- 
mities of Seleucia. — Bridge of boats over the Diala. — Arri- 
val at Bagdad . . . 68—88 

CHAPTER V. 

Mr. Rich. — His character. — The Pasha Daoud. — Risafah, 
a lofty niinaret. — Village of Kauzumeen. — Mosque. — Tomb 
of Zobeide. — ^The Talism Gate. — Inscription. — Monastery 
of Dervishes. — The Madraset. — Caravansary and mosque 
founded by Mirjan. — Number of vagrants .t— Their extreme 
wretchedness. — ^The Author assumes the Turkish dress. — 
TuU Akerkouf. — Canal. — Bronze figure. — Extensive ruins. — 
Robberies of the Arabs. — Circular pillars. — Azad Khaun. — 
Sheikh Shoubar. — Iskanderia. — Hadjee Suleiman. — Hillah. 
— Entrance to Babylon. . . 89 — 117 



CONTENTS. Xm 

CHAPTER VI. 

Extensive mounds. — The Mujellibah.— Town of Hillah. — 
Its situation, filthy state, &c. — Mahmoud Beg, the present 
governor. — Gardens. — Rapidity of the Euphrates. — Re- 
marks on ancient Babylon. — The city built by Semiramis. 
— Extent of the walls. — Erection of a bridge. — Palaces. — 
Temple to Jupiter. — The city enlarged and beautified by 
Nebuchadnezzar. — Hanging gardens. — Canals. — Ancient 
splendour of the city, — Taken by Cyrus. — Besieged and 
captured by Darius. — Height of the walls. — Decay and 
desolation of Babylon . . 118 — 137 

CHAPTER VII. 

Description of Babylon by Herodotus. — Its great extent. — 
Principal structures. — The Castellated Palace. — ^Temple and 
tower of Belus. — Tunnel made by Semiramis under the 
Euphrates. — The Belidian and Cissian Gates. — Extraordi- 
nary number of gates to the city. — Account of the Tower 
of Belus. — Its elevation. — Chapels attached to it. — Sepul- 
chre of Belus. — Large statue. — Height of the tower, its 
form, &c. — Conjectures respecting it. — Extensive ranges 
of walls. — Supposed removal of ruins. — Concluding remarks 
on Babylon ... 138 — 160 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Departure for Babylon. — El Mujellibah. — Curious Tradi- 
tion. — Description of this Ruin. — Mode of Brick-making.—* 
Excavations. — Superstition of the Natives. — Prophecies of 
Jeremiah. — ^Village of Elugo. — Remarkable Niche. — Disco- 
veries of Mr. Rich. — Large earthen Sarcophagus. — Grandeur 
of the Ruins. — Extensive Embankment. — Lofty Elliptical 
Moiind. — Al Kasr, 6r the Palace. — Numerous Ravines.-^ 
Square piers, or buttresses.T—Inscriptions.-^Supposed site of 
the Pensile Gardens. — Granite Slab. — ^The Pensile Horti. 

161—182 



XIV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Curious tree, called Athleh. — Sonnini's account of it, — 
Statue of a lion. — Remains of buildings. — Square pilaster. — 
Babylonian writing on the Bricks. — Fragment of calcareous 
sand-stone. — Art of enamelling. — Bricked platform. — Con- 
jecture respecting it. — Discovery of cylinders, gems, coins, 
&c. — ^The Khezail tribe. — Banks of the river. — Brazen 
clamps. — Urns. — Extensive mound .r—Village of Jumjuma.-— 
Predictions of Scripture. — The Birp Nemroud. — Vitrified 
masses of brickwork . . . 183 — 210 

CHAPTER X 

Immense hill. — Koubb^^ a Mahometan building. — Exca- 
vations made by the 4rabs. — Urns, Alabaster Vase, &c. — 
Custom of Urn-burial. — ^Tombs described by Captain Basil 
Hall. — ^Village of Ananah. — Situation of Babylon. — Pyra- 
midal Ruin, called El Hamir. — Mode of building.— Cha- 
racters on the Bricks. — Cylindrical Bricks.- 'Colossal bronze 
figures. — Tomb -if a bn Hassan. — Departure from Hillah. 
— Predictions of x *ah —The Author's arrival at Bagdad 

211—236 

APPENDIX.— Notes . 237—268 

History of Modern Bussorah . 269 — 286 

Notes . . . . 287—290 

Memoir on the Ruins of Ahwaz 291 — 312 

Babylonian Writing . . . 313 — 320 

An Itinerary from Bussorah to the City of Tabreez, 
or Taurus .... 321 — 833 

List of Journeys performed by the Author, in the Years 
1826, 1827, and 1828 . .334 



PLATES. 



/ 

/ 



1. Antique Gem found at Jabylon 

2. Map of Babylonia and Chaldsea 

3. Bussorah from the Euphrates \ 

4. Plan of the Ruins of Babylon 

6. The Mujellibah 

7. The North face of the Kasr, or Palace 

J- 

8. Embankment ^.:th Urns, Amran Hill,ar ;|'/v>m^ 

9. View of Birs Nemroud from the>NJ!iflW.. '. J 



PAGE 

To face the Title. 

1 
2 
138 
162 
176 
198 
202 



WOOD ENGRAVINGS. 



1. Tomb of Ozair, a Jewish Saint 

2. Remains of an ancient Bridge 

3. Ancient Vase found near Hoomania 

4. A Bagdad baghalah, raft, and ghun boat 

5. The interior floor, and upper margin of the Kooffah 

6. Remains of a Wall on the site of Seleucia 

7. Bronze Figure found near Akerkouf 



a 

30 
51 
55 
56 
88 
103 



XVI VIGNETTES. 

PAGE 

8. Remarkable Ruin called Tull Akerkouf . .106 

9. SouihfaCeoftheMujellibah . . ,165 

10. Brick Columns on the Kasr; and the Athlah . .178 

11. Ornamental Fragment found at the Palace . 190 

12. Western face of the Birs Nemroud . . . 205 

13. Vitrified Mass of Brick-work at the Birs . . 208 

14. Babylonian Characters on two bricks found at the Kasr -, 226 

15. A Babylonian Cylinder in the Author's possession . 228 

16. Bronze Figures found at Babylon . . 229 









I 

^5: 






^K 









5: 



^ 




'^ .^ 




N. 



Fhi ■' 



!- li 



m 



A 



^ 



iw^ 



«5 



^^ 



TRAVELS 



IN 



BABYLONIA, CHALD^A, 



S^c. S^c. 



CHAPTER I. 



The Author determines to visit Babylonia. — Departure from 
Bussorah. — Hamlet of Nohar Omer. — ^Situation of Suaeb. — 
Supposed site of the Garden of Eden. — ^Village of Zet- 
chiah. — Controversy with Arabs. — ^Tomb of Ozair.— Jewish 
Pilgrimage. — Character of the Arabs. — Camp of the Beni 
Lam. — Appearailce of the tribe.— Their occupation, &c,— 
The River Al Hud, or Hid. — Curious culinary opera- 
tions. — ^Filthy state of the Arabs, dress, &c.— The Hum- 
rine Mountains. — ^The Tigris. — Inland navigation. — Mono- 
tonous aspect of the country. — Mountains of Lauristan.— 
Course of the Tigris. — Trade between Bussorah and Bag. 
dad. — ;Arab encampment. 

Having determined on a journey into the 
heart of Babylonia, to visit the remains of an- 
cient cities hitherto but little explored and 
less perfectly described, and fearing lest some 

B 



2 DEPARTURE FROM BUSSOHAH. 

revolution in the Turkish government might 
suddenly render the country totally impassa- 
ble, as is not unfrequently the case, I quit- 
ted Bussorah, on the 22nd of October, 1827, 
and proceeded along the banks of the Shut- 
ul-Arab, or the river of the Arabs, in a north- 
erly direction, purposing to note minutely 
every thing worthy the investigation of the 
antiquary, or interesting to the general ob- 
server. 

I was accompanied by six Arabs, completely 
armed and equipped after the fashion of the 
country, having taken with me a small boat, 
tracked by eight sturdy natives, in order to facili- 
tate my researches on either bank of the stream. 
A compact canteen, a few changes of linen, two 
blankets, and a carpet about the size of a 
hearth-rug, formed an ample and comfortable 
travelling apparatus. 

At sunset we reached a small hamlet, called 
Nohar Omer, on the western bank, where we 
found Ajeel, at the head of the powerful tribe 
of Montefik Arabs, occupjdng an extensive 



CURIOUS MINARET. — SUAEB. 3 

encampment of reed huts and tents, some com- 
posed of goats' haLr, and some of cotton doth. 
A little beyond this, at the village of Dair, 
stands a minaret, which, according to many- 
Mohammedan writers, has some daims to an- 
tiquity: I am informed that the natives all 
concur in attributing its existence to the Genii, 
which circumstance renders it an object of much 
veneration among them. Barren women sup* 
pose that a visit to the sacred spot wiU render 
them prolific; which, no doubt, tends to in- 
crease the number of its votaries. * 

At eight o'clock the next morning we cross- 
ed the mouth of the Kerkha, or Howizah river, 
at Suaeb ; f a station so called from a small col- 
lection of huts, situated about a mile up the 
stream, which is here fifty yards broad, and 
..extremely tortuous. One hour more brought 

* See Appendix, note A. 

t It is absolutely necessary here to remark, that Kinneir 
has made the mouth of this river twenty miles below Koorna, 
whereas it is barely three. — Vide Kinneir's " Geographical 
Memoir of the Persian Empire,'' p. 92. 

B 2 



4 KOOKNA. 

US to Kooma, the Apamea of the ancients, 
from Apama, the wife of Seleucus Nicator, 
in whose honour he founded the town.* It 
stands ^ on the most southern extremity of 
Mesopotamia, at the conflux of two of the 
finest rivers in the East, the Euphrates and 
Tigris ; and' though now an insignificant place, 
the existing extensive ruins attest its former 
importance.! 

Contmumg along the banks of the Tigris, 
in a direction north, ten degrees west, (the 

* Seleucus Nicator founded thirty-five cities in greater 
and lesser Asia; sixteen of which he named Antioch, from 
Antiochus, his father; nine Seleucia, from his own name; six 
Laodtcea, from Laodice, his mother ; three Apamea, from 
Apama, his first wife, (of which this city was the chief ;( 
aiid one Stratonicea, from Stratonice, his last wife. Accor- 
diag to Dean Prideaux, he was a great protector of the Jews, 
and the first that gave them settlements in those pro- 
vinces of Asia,' which lie on this side of the river Euphrates. 
As they had been faithful and serviceable to him in his 
wars, and in many other respects, he granted them 
great privileges in all the cities which he built. — 
Vide Prideaux's " Connection of the Old and New Testa- 
ment.'' 

t See Appendix^ B. 



GARDEN OF EDEN. 5 

Euphrates branching off due W.S;W. by com- 
pass,) we almost immediately had on either 
bank the untrodden Desert. * This is conjec- 
tured to have been the site of the Garden of 
Edeii ; consequently there appeared, as the pro^ 
phet Joel says, chap. ii. ver. 3, " The land 
of Eden before us, and behind us a desolate 
wilderness." The absence, alas ! of all cultiva- 
tion, the noisy rippling of the rapid stream, the 
sterile, arid, and wild character of the whole 
scenCj formed a contrast to the rich and delight- 
ful accounts delineated in Scripture, f 

In the afternoon we reached Zetchiah. My 
Arab guards were afraid to proceed without the 

* The natives, in travelling over these pathless deserts, are 
compelled to explore their way by the stars, in the same 
manner as Diodorus Siculus (lib. l,p. 156, edit Rhodoman,) 
expressly states, that travellers in the southern part of Arabia 
directed their course by the bears, ««•© rmy^Apxroav. 

t It should seem that Paradise lay on the confluent 
stream of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, but principally on 
the eastern bank, which divided into, two branches above 
the garden, and two more below it. From the description of 
Uiese. rivers by ancient historians and geographers, Majpr 



b ^ETCHXAH. 

permission of .the chief, or.hef^d of the^ village. 
After waitmg a fjew minutes, three wildJooking 
fellows came' to t^s from the opposite ^ bank, 
each armed with a brace of pistols, sabre, and a 
dagger in the girdle, I, produced a letter from 
the . Montefik Sheikh, to. whom they profess al- 
legiance ; but, without noticing it, they said, if 
I. did not instantly pay the customary tax, 
they wjould prevent my proceeding on my 
journey. 

After allowing the guards to tire themselves 
with wrangling, without any effect, I paid the 
goomruck, or tribute. They then asked if I had 
any dates, coffee, tobacco, and powder, adding, 

Rennell infers, that in ancient times they preserved distinct 
courses to the sea, until the reign of Alexander ; although 
at nio great distance of time afterwards they became united', 
and joined the sea in a collective stream. The Cyrus and 
Araxes also kept distinct courses in ancient times. This, 
however, does not invalidate a primsBval junction of these 
rivers, before the Deluge, which certainly produced a pro- 
digious alteration in the face of the primitive globe. Be- 
sides, the changes in the beds of other great rivers, such as 
the Nile, the Ganges, and Barampooter, even in modern 
times are known to be very great. — Dr. Hales's **New 
Analysis of Chronology." 



CONTROVERSY WITH ARABS. 7 

at the same time, th^t, as I was an English- 
man, I could procure as much of those arti- 
cles as 1 desired for nothing. Perceiving now 
that they wished to detain me, I frankly told 
them, that if they would allow me to pursue 
my joumey, I would give them some dates 
and coffee ; but on the contrary, if I returned, 
they woidd not only lose these things, but 
incur the displeasure, perhaps the punishment, 
of the Montefik Sheikh. This had the desired 
ejffect ; they immediately accepted some coffee, 
made the usual salutation,* and returned to 
their homes, f 

Half a mile beyond Zetchiah is a ruined 
mosque, around which are a few solitary date- 

* The Bedoweens retain a great many of the customs and 
manners we read of in sacred as well as profane history ; 
heing, except in their religion, the same people they were 
two or three thousand years ago. Upon meeting one ano-^ 
ther they still use the primitive salutation, *' Peace be unto 
you ;" though they have made it a religious compliment, as 
if they said, " Be in a state of salvation.'* — Shaw's " Travels 
in Barbary." 

t The Sheikh of this village pays 50,000 piastres, (eyne) 
or 4500/. yearly to the Montefiks, This sum is collected 



^ 



8 TOMB OF OZAIR. 

trees; and nearly opposite is a canal, which 
is navigable as iar. as the city of Howizah; it 
runs E. N. £. and contains a large body of 

On the following day, shortly after sunr 
rise, we arrived.* at a tomb, which is called 
by the Arabs Ozair: I could collect, nothing 
concerning its history, from my rude atten- 
dants. A good burnt-brick wall surrounds it, 
on passing which I found a spacious domed 
doister inclosing a square sepulchre, containing 



from the Bagdad trading boats and the cultivation of an ei- 
tensive tract on eithcT side of the Tigris. They also plunder 
all those who are so unfortunate as. to fall.into their power. 



JEWISH PILGRIMAGE. 9 

the ashes of Ezra, a Jewish saint. The in- 
tenor is paved with the same sky-blue tile as 
adorns the dome, which affords a very bril- 
liant appearance, particularly when the sun 
shines upon it. Over the doorway, are two 
tablets of black marble, filled up with Hebrew 
writing. The appellative Ozab: has, I suspect, 
been assigned to it by. the Jews, who errotie- 
ously suppose the spot to. contain the bones of 
the prophet Ezra. Hither they perform a yearly 
pilgrimage from Bussorah, when the natives of 
the country waylay, rob, and strip them, and 
in tins state the pilgrims invariably return to 
their homes. Were any resistance offered, three 
or four Arabs would think no more of depriv- 
ing a dozen Jfews of their lives, than of eating 
so many onions. * In fact, the Arab is here 
absolute master — no law (human or divine) re- 
strains him ; if he has not what he wants, he 
takes it, whenever and wherever he can find 

* It is a vulgar and common saying in the country, that 
when you are in the company of Arabs, much less* at their 
mercy, your life is not worth an onion. 



10 camel's thobn. 

it; if refused, he uses force; if resisted, the 
i^ponent is murdered : thus lives the indepen- 
dent, restless freebooter of the Desert.* 

This day, October 25th, a prickly shrub, 
called in the country the Camets thorn, f was so 
thick, I could scarcely continue my route along 
the banks of the river. In the short space of 
eighteen hours we travelled successively to- 
wards every point of the compass, proving how 

4 

* Ishmael lived by prey and rapine in the wilderness ; 
and his posterity have all along infested Arabia and the 
neighbouring countries with their robberies and incursions. 
They live . in a state of continual war with the rest of the 
world, and are both robbers by land, and pirates by sea. 
As they have been such enemies to mankind, it is no wonder 
that mankind haye been enemies to them again; that several 
attempts have been made to extirpate them ; and even now, 
as well as formerly, travellers are forced to go with arms, 
and in caravans or large companies, and to march and keep 
watch and guard like a little army, to defend themselves 
from the assaults of these freebooters.-rBishop Newton's 
" Dissertation on the Prophecies." 

t See Appendix, C. — Camels browse upon it in preference 
to any other herb. The mastication of it produces a frothy 
salivation at the mouth, which appears to give great pleasure 
to the animal. — Vide Morier's " Travels," vol. ii. chap. vii. 
page 115^ 



B£NI LAM AHABS. 11 

tedious and prolonged is an advance into Baby* 
Ionia, when following the course of this serpen- 
tine stream. Still continuing along the banks, 
I met with buffaloes plunging into the water, 
and saw. large flocks of the pelican * spreading 
theh- silvery wings, and perching on the backs 
of these animals, which easily accommodated 
themselves to the incumbrance. 

At three, p. m. we saw an encampment of 
Arabs crossing the river on inflated sheep-skinSi 
An hour after, I passed through the camp of 
the Beni Lam Arabs, extending eight miles 
along the eastern bank : from them I met with 
no disrespect; curiosity was their predominant 
feeling, to gratify which they impeded my pro- 
gress by pressing forward with unhesitating 
freedom. The men and women appeared ex- 
tremely poor, and with their children, horses, 
mules, dogs, and asses, huddled together be- 
neath theh: long goat-hair tents, formed a mot- 
ley group of objects, of the true Syntactical 

* The Pelecanus fuscus of Linnaeus. 



12 DESCRIPTION OF THE 

. Picturesque, not often seen in such striking 
associations: the whole would have been i a 
capital scene for the potent pencil of a Wilkie, 
or the graver of a Cruikshank. The tents: of 
these "wanderers of the Desert" formed no 
regular street, but were spread over the plain 
in. the greatest disorder.* Having passed 
through this (to all appearance) friendly tribe, 
and looking back, the. Desert, as far as the eye 
could reach, waS: covered with flocks of sheep, 
belonging to this great and powerful tribe. No 
tents whatever occupied the western bank of 
the river. A large troop •. of horsemen were 
exercising on a part of the plain, that made 
an excellent parade-*ground, which displayed 
to advantage the regularity of their move- 
ments. 

Hanway, in. his account of Persia, when 
speaking of the Arabs, says: "^ Their expert- 

* They had possessions of flocks and possessions of 
herds. Genesis xxvi. v. 14. The habits of each assimilated 
with those of Jacob, a plain man dwelling in tents,— Id. 
XXV. V. 27. 



BENI LAM ARABS. 13 

ness in the use of the lance and sabre^ renders 
them fierce and intrepid. Their skill in horse- 
manship^ and their capacity of bearing the heat 
of their burning plains, give them also a supe- 
riority over their enemies. Hence every petty 
chief in his own district considers himself as a 
sover^gn prince, and as such exacts customs 
from all passengers. When they plunder cara- 
vans travelling through their territories, they 
consider it as reprisals on the Turks and Per- 
sians, who often make inroads into their coun- 
try, and carry away their com and their flocks. 
They generally marry within themselves." 

The only occupation of this tribe is to stop 
the Bagdad boats, to drain the purses of their 
owners, and to oppress the poor villages around 
them with taxes. Benevolence is as foreign to 
them as gratitude ; their hearts are as impenetra- 
ble as their distant mountains. AU around seenis 
convulsed and faUen ; nature appears to lan- 
guish, and to inform the traveller how wretched 
is the state of the people. The river meanders 
most capriciously, our bearings for the last two 



14 I>£SCKIPTIOK Ol" THE 

hours having been N. jE.; N.K; E.; E.S.E.j S.; 
S.W.; W. ; N.W.; and N, Atnme, p.m. I 
forded a river, called Al Hud, or Hid;* the 
Beni Lam inhabit its banks ; it appeared to con- 
tain a considerable body of water, capable of 
admitting the largest boats, particularly when 
full; at this time, however, the water had 
fallen fifteen feet. The natives of the country 
assert that boats may even reach Howizah by 
it; and the direction it takes, appears to justify 
their assertion. They call the Tigris Hudy 
hence to Kooma. 

Having bought a couple of sheep for my 
people, I was witness to some curious culinary 
operations. The entrails were ripped oppn; 
pieces of which, with the hoofs, dipped once 
or twice into the water, were eaten by them 
raw ; the rest of the animal, unflayed and un- 
shorn, was put into a vessel and half boiled, 
when they drank the soup^ and voraciously 
devoured the scarcely-warmed carcase. They 
are a very filthy set of people, particularly 

* See Appendix, D. 



BENI LAM AEABS. 15 

in their food: had their Prophet enjoined 
impurity, instead of deanliness, his command- 
ment could not have been more vigilantly re- 
garded to the letter, for their nature is brutal 
and obscene; their morals are in a more vi- 
tiated and depraved state than Europeans can 
possibly imagine * 

Shortly after daybreak we came up with a 

* The fine, honourable, hospitable character generally 
attributed to the Desert Arabs is at present a fiction ; it once 
may have been their just right ; but alas ! is now *' Hyperion 
to a Satyr." For this change many reasons might be given ; 
one will suffice — the great intercourse they are at priesent 
constantly enjoying with towns and cities. Dr. Shaw, in 
his Travels in Barbary, says : " The Arabs are naturally 
thievish and treacherous ; and it sometimes happens that 
those very persons are overtaken and pillaged in the morn- 
ing, who were entertained the night before with all the 
instances of friendship and hospitality. Neither are they 
to be accused for plundering strangers only, and attacking 
almost every person whom they find unarmed and defence- 
less, but fdr those many implacable and hereditary animo- 
sities which continually subsist among them ; literally ful- 
filling to this day the prophecy of Hagar, that ** Ishmael 
should be a wild man; Iiis hand should be against every 
man, and every man's hand against him." The Doctor was 
himself plundered by a party of Arabs, in his journey from 
Ramah to Jerusalem, although he was escorted by a strong 
party of Turkish soldiers, and at the same time paid a large 



16 BENI LAM ARABS. 

small encampment of huts, constructed with 
mats, made of the date-leaf. Women covered 
with rags, men in old tattered cloaks, and 
children in a state of nudity, flying at my 
approach, were the objects that attracted my 
attention. One poor woman, bolder than her 
companions, ventured forward, and exclaimed 
to my guards, " Why, why ! have you 
brought a wild man amongst us ?" As far as 
the appearance of a beard, not lately trimmed, 
justified her inference, the woman's question 
was, perhaps, not ill-founded; I was wild as 
wandering palmer. On taking leave of these 
poor people, we threw dates among them, 
which, although it created a temporary ccmi- 
fusion, gave them, ultimately, the usual de- 
light of a successful scramble.* At noon, 

sum to the Arabs, in order to secure a safe passage across 
their desert. This is a proof, not only of their indepen- 
dence and enjoyment of their liberty, but of their utter 
abuse of it. 

* The Arabs are not so scrupulous as the Turks and Per- 
sians about their women ; and though they have th^ harem, 
or women's part of the tent, yet such as they are acquainted 
with come into it. 



NAVIGATION OF THE TIGRIS. 17 

we saw, for the first ^me, the Hamiine 
mountains; the view of them gave me re* 
newed life and energy. Those only who have 
resided for years or even months in a flat 
countiy, oan appreciate the nature of my sen- 
sations. 

October 27* — ^We reached AM Ghurbee, on 
the north, and Ali Shurgee, on the south bank, 
points at which the Imim Ali is said to have 
encamped, when on a pilgrimage to Persia. 
Near this the riVer has fallen thirty feet, by 
actual measurement : as the banks are not once 
in fifty miles half this height, it is evident that 
in the month of June, when the Tigris is at 
its fullest height, the whole country must be 
overflowed, and the innumerable canak branch- 
ing ofi^ in every direction, (at present dry,) be- 
come perfectly navigable. It is impossible to 
reflect, without admiration, on the inland navi- 
gation of which this country is capable, or to 
consider without deep sorrow into what barbai^ 
rous hands it has fallen. There is not the most 
distant prospect of improvement. If there 



18 MOUNTAINS OF LAURISTAN.- 

were any hope of a revolution bringing im- 
provement, it would here be virtue to wish for 
one. 

For the last three days, there had been 
such a provoking sameness in the appearance 
of the country, that had my weary limbs 
tiot convinced me I was moving onward, 
I could almost have supposed myself within 
the influence of the magnetised mountain of 
the Arabian Nights. The river still pursued 
a; Winding course, concealing iti^lf behind con- 
tinued headlands, covered with fresh brush- 
wood. On the right side the mountains of 
LauHstan, of a bare and bluish appearance^ 
form a rnarked contrast with the freshness of 
the river's channel* It isr singular, that al- 
though these banks are proverbial for being 
the resort of lions and other wild animals, 
and travellers tell u& of having seen them by 
day, and their repose at night having been dis-> 
turbed by their roar, I have as yet been grati-^ 
fied neither by the pleasure of the first, nor agi- 
tated by the alarm of the second predicament. 



' TRADE OF ]3trsS0RAH AND BAGDAD. 19 

It IS hardly hecessaty to add^ that the same 
waters subserve to the wants of Persia and 
Mesopotamia, waft the modem Baghalah of 
the merchant of Bagdad, and the old air-sup- 
ported rafts^ and asphaltic corades of Mosul, 
the ancietit Jfineveh.* • 

The commeitial intercourse between Bus- 
sorah and !lBagdad Consists of Indian Manufac- 
tures, brought chiefly from Calcutta aild the 
Malabar coast, by ships of five hundred t6ns 
burthen ; of which, about eight trade Up the 
Persian Gulf annually, under th^ English flag, 
and several under Arab tod Persian CoIotiriSi 
The following passage, eittfacted from Rati- 
wolfi^'s Travels, will prdve the trad^ between 
these two places to have been very considerable 

4 

in his day. 

• " In this town there is a great depositioii 
of merchandizes, by reason of its' tomnid- 
dious situation, which are brought hither 

by sea as well ias by land from several parts, 

• - ... . 

* See Appendix, K 
C 2 



20 TRADE BETWEEN 

chiefly from Natolia, Syria, Armenia, Constant- 
tinople, Aleppo, Damascus, &c. to carry them 
farther into the Indies, Persia, &c. So it hap 
pened, that during the time I was there, on 
the 2nd day of December, in 1574fj there ar- 
rived twenty-five ships, with spice and other 
precdous drugs, here, which came over sea 
from the lU'dic^, by the way of Ormutz, to 
Balsora, a town belonging to the Grand Turk^ 
situated on the frontiers, the farthest that he 
hath south-eastwards, within six days' journey 
from hence, where they load their goods into 
small vessels, and so bring them to Bagdat, 
which joiimey, as some say, taketh them up 
forty days. Seeing that the passage, both by 
water and Iwd, belongeth both to the King 
of Arabia and the Sophi of Persia, which also 
have their towns and forts on their confines, 
which might easily be stopped up by them; 
yet, notwithstanding all this, they may keep 
good correspondence with one another; they 
keep pigeons, chiefly at Balsora, which, in case 



BU8SOBAH AND BAGDAD. 81 

of necessity, might be soon sent back again 
with letters to Bagdat. When loaden ships 
arriTe at Bagdat, the merohantc^ chiefly those 
that bring spice to carry through the deserts into 
Turkey, have their peculiar places in the open 
fields without the town of Ctesiphon, where 
each of them fixeth his tents, to put his spices 
imdemeath, in sacks, to keep them there safe, 
until they have a mind to break up in whole 
caravans; so that at a distance one would 
rather believe that soldiers were lodged in 
them, than merchants ; and rather look for 
arms than merchandizes; and I thought my- 
self, before I came so near, that I could smell 
them.** ♦ 

Towards the afternoon a southerly wind 
sprang up, and rather than my boat should 
lose the advantage of it, (the current being 
very strong against us,) I embarked for three 
hours ; when I again pursued my tour on foot. 

• Pp. 145, 146. 



22t ARAB ENCAMPMENT. 

The wild brushwood^ in which it yras not verjr^ 
difficult to be lost, was inhabited by great 
numbers of the feathered tribe. I observed, 
small. bird§ of several different kinds, but ^w 
none with rich plumage. The river here has 
fallen so considerably, th^t one-half of i1;s bed 
is quite dry, composed of sand ^nd day 
banks. 

A\ sunset I passed through an extensive camp 
of Arabs ; they were as civil and as respect- 
ful as those \ had hitherto met with^ and. 
appeared to be living in the most primitive 
gtate, chiefly employed in making a doth from, 
the >vool of their sheep, They first spin it into 
yam, winding the threads round small stones j 
these they hang on a sticky fixed in a hori- 
zontal position^ between some shrubs or trees,, 
to form a woof ; then passing other threads^ 
alternately between these, they thus wea,ve 
the cloth with which they clothe themselves. 
None of these encampments afforded a drop 
of milk, or a single egg. Towards night, par- 
ties of both sexes were crossing the stream in 



ARAB ENCAMPMENT. 2S 

a state of nudity, upon a stratum of rush, 
which is evidently of the same kind as the 
" vessels of bulrushes upon the waters,'* al- 
luded to by Isaiah, in chap, xviii. ver. 2. 



CHAPTER II. 

Village of Koote. — Its situation. — ^The Camel and the Dro* 
medary. — The Canal of Hye. — Singular amusement. — 
Ruins of a bridge. — Supposition respecting them. — ;-General 
aspect of the Desert. — Approach to the cities of Seleucia 
and Ctesiphon. — No swans to be seen. — Extensive sand- 
banks.-^Navigation of the Tigris. — ^Weapons of the Arabs. 
— ^The lion. — The Eelauts, a wandering tribe. — ^Their be- 
haviour. — The Author's progress impeded. — Remarkable 
ruins. — Extensive wall. — Mumlihah. — Unsuccessful re- 
searches. 

October 29th. — This day brought me to 
Koote, a wretched village composed of a col- 
lection of cottages constructed with mud, and 
surrounded by a wall of the same materiaL It 
is situated on the eastern bank of the Tigris, 
and is erroneously reckoned half-way between 
Bussorah and Bagdad, since it is more hy a jour* 
ney of two days. Its position also is incor- 
rectly laid down on the map of Colonel Mac- 
donald Kinneir; for during the last eight-and- 



THE CAMEL AND THE DKOM£DABY« 25 

forty hours, our course has varied from £. S, £. 
to^. S. W. and W. S. W., making almost no- 
thing to the North. Large herds of camels 
were grazing in every direction, left without 
men or dogs : some allowed the stranger to ap* 
proach, aiid betrayed no alarm ; . whilst others 
appeared much frightened, and were extremely 
wild. They were all of a white colour, and 
belonj^ed to a powerful Arab chief, who resided 
in the neighbourhood. 

Mr. Buckingham, whose extensive travels in 
the East were attended by circumstances which 
gave him every facility of <5orrect observaidony 
faasr, in his work on Mesopotamia, Tendered a 
faithful description of this valuable inhabitant 
of the Desert. He remarks, that "the prevail- 
iJig opinion in Europe is, that of the two kinds 
6f this animal, the single-humped is the camel, 
and the double-humped the dromedary. The 
fact, however, is nearer the reverse. The dou- 
ble-humped camel is found only in Bactria, and 
the fcountries to the north and east of Persia ; 
and these, being natives of a colder dimate, and 
living in more fertile countries than the 6th» 



26 THE CAMEL AND THE DROMEDARY. 

species, are shorter, thicker, more muscular,^ 
covered with a dark-brown shaggy, hair, and 
heavier and stronger by far than any other 
camels* Froux this race of the. double-humped 
animal^ I am not aware of dromedaries being 
ever produced. : The only camel seen in. Arabia,, 
Africa, Egypt, Syria, and Mesopotamia, is the. 
single-humped. This, inhabiting a hot climate, 
and having always a scanty supply of food and 
water, is taller, more slender, of a paler colour,, 
aiid altogether lighter in form and flesh, than 
the Bactrian camel* Its hair is as short, and 
its skin as sleek, as that of the horses or bul- 
locks of England. It is from this race only 
that dromedaries are produced ; these are mere- 
ly single-humped camels of good blood and 
breed, which, instead of being used for burthen,^ 
are appropriated only to carrying riders and 
performing journeys of speed. They bear in- 
deed the same relation to other single-humped 
camels, that race-horses do to other horse? :. 
care being taken, by preserving the purity of 
their descent, and improving their blood, to 
keep thexn aljvays fit for and appropriated to 



. CANAL OF HYE. 27 

this particular purpose. They are trained^ in 
Egypt, into dromedary corps for the supply of 
lancers and couriers, and perform wonderful 
journeys, both as to speed, and distance. They 
are called, by the Arabs, Hedjeen; while the 
camel is called Gemel^ or Jemel^ according to the 
district in which the hard or soft pronunciation 
of the g prevails." ♦ 

Immediately opposite the village is a canal 
called the Hye, which runs into the Euphrates 
to the north of Soogishiookh :f its banks are a 
noted haunt for lions, and other ferocious ani- 
mals.. At this time its bed is perfectly dry^ 
though it is navigable for eight months in the 
year. Hence to the mouth of the river Al Hud, 
the Arabs call this beautiful stream Amor ah. 

During the whole of the day it rained so 
hard, that my progress was not so great as I 
wished and expected; at night, however, the 
cold was piercing ; tod my followers, who were 

* See Buckingham's Travels in Mesopotapiia^vol. ii. p. 1^07^ 
t Literally the Sheikh's bazaar, or mart. This town is 
the head-quarters of the Montefik Arabs, who occupy both 
banks of the ri^er, north and south, to a great distance. 



28 SINGULAR AMUSEMENT. 

iiL high spirite at having advanced so far, as 
well as from the pleasure they felt in breatfajmg 
their native air, (many of whom were from 
the country near Bagdad,) collected themselves 
round a fire, formed a circle, and exhibited 
their native dance till midnight. For music, 
they were contented with a kettle covered with 
a round empty sheep-skin bag, which in general 
is used for holding, oil, but on the present oc- 
casion served to form a drum. The harmony 
of the instrument was heightened by the 
clapping of hands, and a loud chorus of so 
peculiar a strain, that I am incapable of de- 
scribing it, and such as I never heard before. 
Qne person at a time came forward and danced, 
keeping up a constant wriggling motion with 
bis feet, hands, breast, and shoulders, until his 
gestures became too fatiguing to be con- 
tinued. 

The deportment of these people in towns 
bears a striking contrast to the insolent inde- 
pendence they assume in the Desert, They are 
^ merry t^^, with a keen relish for drollery, 
endued with a power ovei: their features, that is 



BUINS OF A BBIDG£. 99 

shown off in the richest exhibitions of grimace. 
I gave them a sheep» which they roasted whole, 
and devoured in a few minutes; they were 
shortly afterwards in a profound sleep.* 

At sunrise on the following morning, after 
making a present to the Sheikh f of the village, 
I departed ; and four hours' march over a barren 
phdn brought me near the ruins of a bridge, 
which evidently has spanned the river ; for, from 
the disturbed rippling of the water, I could 
distinctly observe where the fragments lay be- 
neath. By this time the rain had ceased ; the 
rising sun, gleaming upon the river, threw a 
beautiful radiance over the brushwood in the 
direction of the mountains : I embarked as soon 
as my boat came up, and had the satisfaction 
of examining these remains. The bed of the 
river here is considerably enlarged ; the bridge 
occupies a central position, and Consists of three 
equal piers, of the finest kiln-burnt bricks, which 
exhibit a great resemblance to the Babylonian 

* See Appendix, F. 

t Presents are considered in Eastern countries essential to 
kind and civil intercourse. 



30 EUINS OF A BRIDGE. 

material in dimension and composition, and 
are- as hard as stone. This is a singular cir- 
cumstance, when we consider that they are, for 
the greater part of the year, beneath the sur- 
face of the stream. The extent of the i:uins, 
■&t present above water, is sixty feet in length, 
and seventeen in breadth ; and the height of 
the most perfect pier, eight. This was the first 
time I had met with any remains of antiquity: 
none of my people had ever seen these before, 
having always passed the spot when the river 
Was at the fuU. 



ASPECT OF THE DESERT. 31 

Colonel Macdonald Kinneir, on his journey 
from Constantinople to Bussorah^ in the yesct 
1813y' mentions the circumstance of his boat 
being^ stranded on one of the piers of an an- 
cient stone bridge, and that it was so old, no 
one could teU by whom, or in what age, it was 
erected** As the position of this bridge agrees 
within a- few miles to the one he alludes to, I 
apprehend it must be the same ; but Kinneir 
is mistaken when he says it is of stone. My 
boatmen were at first afraid to approach it, as 
the **^ stones," they said, might materially in- 
jure their boat ; it was only on extracting the 
bricks that they were convinced of its being 
of this material. The face of the country was 
still open and flat, presenting to the eye one 
vast level plain, where nothing is f o be seen 
but here and there a herd of half-wild camels, 
whose fiesh is thought by the Arabs to be su- 
perior to venison. ,1 

This immense tract is Very rarely diversi-* 
fied with any trees of moderate growth; but 

• Vide Kinneir's ** Travels in Asia Minor, Armenia, antf 
Kurdistan," page 501. . 



32 SUNRISE AND SUNSET. 

i 

abounds in brushwood and short-fived herbage, 
occupied by numbers of partridges, hares^ and 
gazelles, which reign supreme lords of an 
immeasurable wild, bounded only by the hori- 
zon. When the orb of day rises, he appears 
emerging fix)m the earth, without rays, until 
considerably above the horizon ; and on sink- 
ing into the golden chambers of the west, his 
beams disappear long before the body of the 
orb is covered. 

The soil of this Desert consists of a hard 
clay mixed with sand, which, at noon, be- 
comes so heated by the sun's rays, (althoogh 
the nights are cold,*) that I find it too hot 

* Thus I was ; in the day the drought consumed me, and 
the frost by night ; and my sleep departed from my eyes. — 
(Grenesis xxxi. 40«) 

" In Europe the days and nights resemble each other^ with 
respect to the qualities of heat and cold: but it is quite 
otherwise in the East. In the lower Asia, in particular, the 
day is always hot : on the contrary, in the height of summer 
the nights are as cold as at Paris in the month of March b 
I have tfayelled in Arabia and in Mesopotamia, the theatre 
of the adventures of Jacob, both in winter and in summer, 
and have found the truth of what the Patriarch said, * That 
he was scorched with heat in the day, and stiffened with cold 
in the night.' This contrariety in the qualities of the air in 
twenty-four hours is extremely great in some places, and not 



THE SIMOOM. 33 

to walk over it with any degree of com- 
fort. It is not, howevw, my intention to de- 

conceivable by those that have not felt it: one would imagine 
he had passed in a moment from the violent heats of summer 
to the depth of winter. The heat of the sun is tempered by 
the coolness of the nights, without which the greatest part 
of the East would be barren and a desert : the earth could 
not produce any thing."— 5tr J. Chat din. 

The hot pestilential south wind, which blows from these 
deserts, commences from the 20th of June, and continues 
for about seven weeks. It is thus described by Mr. Bruce:—- 
'* This hot wind is called by the Arabs Samumy or Simoom. It 
is generally preceded by an extreme redness in the air, and 
usually blows from the south-east, or from the south^ a little 
to the east. It appeared in the form of a haze, in colour 
like the purple part of a rainbow, but not so compressed, or 
thick : it was a kind of blush upon the air. The guide warned 
the company, upon its approach, to fall upon their faces, with 
their mouths close to the ground, and to hold their breath as 
long as they could, to avoid inhaling the outward air. It 
moved very rapidly, about twenty yards in breadth, and about 
twelve feet high from the ground; so that," says Bruce, ** I had 
scarcely time to turn about and fall upon the earth, with my 
head to the northward, when I felt the heat of its current 
plainly upon my face. We all fell upon our faces until the 
Simoom passed on, with a gentle ruffling wind. When tjie 
meteor, or purple haze, had passed, it was succeeded by a 
light air, which still blew so hot as to threaten suffocation, 
which sometimes lasted three hours, and left the company 
totally enervated and exhausted, labouring under asthmatic 
sensations, weakness of stomach, and violent head-aches, 
from imbibing the poisonous vapour." — Brvce*s Travels, 



34 EXTENSIVE SAND-BANK. 

tain the reader by an enumeration of my 
sufferings from bodily fatigue; those who 
have crossed these desert wilds are already ac- 
quainted with their dreary tediousness, even 
on horseback ; what it is on foot they can 
easily imagine. The thought, however, that 
I was graduaUy approaching the sites of the 
once magnificent and renowned cities of Seleu- 
cia and Ctesiphon, with the Tigris still flowing 
beneath the solitary remains of ancient splen- 
dour, amply compensated me for all my trou- 
bles, and animated me with renewed strength 
and vigour. 

I perceived no swans upon the surface 
of the stream : hoping to meet with some of 
these birds, I had traced its current for miles, 
but was still disappointed. In vain, too, I 
looked for the smallest stones ; there is not one 
in the district ; nor are . there any fragments of 
ruined edifices, to tell of " long forgotten ages." 

At four, p. m. I saw a very extensive 
sand-bank, that stretched more than half 
over the bed of the river: it was studded 
throughout with innumerable small cupolas of 



NAVIGATIOTQ of TAE TIGRIS- 85 

day; and as the eye glanced quickly over the 
whole, it reminded one exactly of the domeis 
which cover the bazaars at Ispahan, Shiraz, 
and other Persian cities. 

The root, from which is procured what in 
England is called ligtwrice/^ is so abundant 
throughout the country, that it is burnt as 
fire-wood. 

Some modem travellers have remarked that 
this river is totally unnavigable in the dry sea- 
son, which is incorrect. The Tigris, during 
the whole year, contains a sufficient body 
of water for moderate-sized boats, and these 
heavily laden. Several, requiring a great 
drafught of water, quitted Bussorah a few days 
before me, and, although the river had been re- 
markably low all the i^ason, their progress was 
not interrupted by a want of water. The 
gt^t and only difficulty they had to contend 
with, was the savage inhabitants of these banks ; 
not the lion, but a fiercer animal-^the Desert 

* The Glycyrrhiza, with both smooth and scabrous peri- 
carps. The Arabs call it soos. The Glycyrrhiza echiaata 
is the most abundant. 

D 2 



86 THE EELAUTS. 

Arab, who never goes in search of his wild, 
neighbour; but, should he chance to meet the 
king of the forest, he slays him in self-defence. 
The Arab's chief weapons being the sword and 
spear, he is not always certain of conquering 
his foe. For this reason all the people here- 
abouts are much alarmed by the circumstance of 

« 

the lion making this part his favourite haunt. 

At sunset we saw some fires at a short dis- 
tance. On going to the spot, we found a camp 
of one of the wandering tribes, known by the 
name of Eelauts*, — as usual, poor— but happy, 
contented, and civil. A few sheep and goats 
appeared to be their only property. The left 
nostril of most of the women of this tribe was 
perforated, to admit a gold or silver ring, from 
which hung a pearl or turquoise. 

How widely different is the behaviour of 
these poor people from, that of the roving Arab, 

• Wandering pastors of Persian or Coordish origin. Po- 
cocke describes all their riches to consist in goats and sheep, 
and says that they live in great poverty, having nothing 
except a f(&w dates and goats' milk. 



PRIMITIVE MANNERS OF THE ARABS. S7 

who accosts the traveller in an overbearing, 
insolent tone, and haughty manner; who is 
only deterred from attacking and robbing the 
stranger through fear — the sole reason which 
compels him to restrain his lawless wishes 
whenever he may chance to meet an European ! 
Richards, in his Lectures on Prophecy, re- 
marks, that " the region inhabited by the Arabs 
is situated in that portion of the globe in which 
society originated and the first kingdoms were 
formed. The greatest empires of the world 
arose and fell around them. They have not 
been secluded from correspondence with foreign 
nations, and are thus attached through ignor- 
ance and prejudice to simple and primitive man- 
ners. In the early periods of history they were 
united, as allies, to the most powerful monarchs 
of the East, under their victorious Prophet 
They once carried their arms over the most 
considerable kingdoms of the earth ; through 
many succeeding ages the caravans of the mer- 
chant, and the companies of Mahometan pil- 
grims, passed regularly over their deserts : even 



88 author's PK06EE8S IMPEDED. 

their roU^oQ hf^; und^^oin^ a tote} cha^e. T^et 
^ these drcumstances, lyhieh, it might jbe swp- 
po^ed^ .would have subdued the rmo^ ^ubboni 
prejudices, fmd altered the most inveterate 
habits, have produced no effect upon the Arabs ; 
and ttibey still preserv/e, unimpaired, a most 
exact res^nblance to the first descendants of 
Ishmael." 

October 31st — I was detained a great part 
of this day, from my boat having grounded. 
As my guards w«e required to assist in floating 
her off, they would not allow of mj^ proceeding 
until they could rejoin me, the road being (in 
thdr opinion) unsafe for any person to travel 
unattended, much less an Englishman. I was 
reluctantly obliged to yield to their wishes, and 
seating myself on the margin of the stream, re- 
mained for some hours contemplating with de- 
light t^e umniffled course of the waters gliding 

beneath me. 

While reflecting on the various remains 
of antiquity connected with the history of this 
beautiful river, an Arab tapped me on the 



REMARKABLE RUINS. S9 

shoulder, and said, if I accompanied him, he 
would show me the ruins of a wall at no great 
distance, and on the water's edge. I instantly 
foUowed him, and had the company of my 
guards likewise, who were determined not to 
lose sight of me. 

Cont^iuing in a northerly direction for two 
hours, we came to a round pillar, filled up with 
earth and broken tile, built of furnace-burnt 
bricks, placed together alternately in a hori- 
zontal and vertical position, situated within 
twelve feet of the water's edge. After digging 
ten feet perpendicularly, and clearing away the 
rubbish from within, I did not arrive at its 
foujidation ; the diameter was five feet and a 
half. It is very evident that the river has here 
considerably encroached, for its bed is covered 
with broken bricks and fragments of building. 
The bank is thirty-five feet in height; and 
from the pillar I distinctly traced a wall buHt 
into the bank (which extends due north) f(x 
three hundred and seventy-two feet, of the 



40 RKMARKABLE RUINS. 

same material as the pillar, but much smaller 
xthan such portions as I extracted from the 
bridge yesterday, and more nearly resembling 
those made use of at the present day in the 
cities of Bagdad and Bussorah. There are 
several hollows and mounds all over the plain, 
extending from the summit or margin of the 
bank in an easterly direction. 

The whole surface of this tract was strewed 
with bricks and broken pottery, of various kinds 
and colours ; but I could trace no remains of 
building, nor any thing embedded within the 
mounds, although I dug into all of them. 
From their soft state it appears that they 
have been robbed of all their valuable burnt 
material, which bids defiance to the hand of 
time. A few more years will, I fear, remove 
every vestige of this extensive wall, a great 
portion of which has been washed into the 
river, as is evident from the vast quantity 
of bricks lying beneath the water. This place 
is on the eastern bank, and is called by the 



MUMLIHAH. 41 

natives Muinlah ; they can give the traveller 
no infonnation whatever concerning it. 

In Keppel's Narrative of a journey overland 
from India, vi& Bussorah and Bagdad, a place 
called Mumlihah is mentioned, and this spot 
coincides with it in every respect, with the ex- 
ception of its being placed on the opposite side 
of the river, whither I went with his book in 
my hand, and made a diligent search to dis- 
cover the ruins spoken of, but was unsuc- 
cessful * 

* The author of the Personal Narrative appears to have 
derived much of his information on this part of the country 
from the ignorant Arabs who were with him. These people 
never agree in regard to traditionary tales, and the names 
of places. It is only upon the authority of well-informed 
respectable men, who have resided all their lives in the coun- 
try, that we can depend for any authentic details : and even 
their accounts border upon the marvellous. In the Personal 
Narrative is the following passage in speaking of this spot : — 

" We came upon some extensive ruins on the left bank of 
the river, which our guides called Mumliheh ; instead of show- 
ing fragments of pillars, or any marks by which we might 
conjecture the order of architecture, they exhibit an accu- 
mulation of mounds, which, on a dead flat, soon attract the 



42 TKACK OF A LION. 

The square masses of brick (mentioned in the 
note) must have been washed away, if ever any- 
existed; for no traces of such builelings remain. 
As it is some years since Keppel visited this 
spot, and the river is still advancing with great 
force and rapidity, I have little doubt that a 
few more yearly freshes will sweep away even 
the present remains, " and leave not a wreck 

behind." 

The smell of wild animals was extremely 
offensive at this place ; and, as a heavy shower 
of rain had fallen during the night, render- 
ing the soil moist, we traced the footsteps 
of a lion to an extensive patch of brushwood, 
where, very probably, he was concealed. Not 
one of my guards would approach or attempt 
to disturb the bushes, pretending not to see the 

eye of a traveller, and have, at first sight, the appearance of 
sandy hillocks. On a nearer inspection they prove to be square 
masses of brick, facing the cardinal points, and though some- 
times much worn by the weather, are built with much regu- 
larity: the neighbourhood of these large mounds is strewed 
with fragments of tile, broken pottery, and manufactured 
vitreous substances." 



DEFECTIVE EYESIGHT. 48 

thicket which was before them; nevertheless 
they are very near-sighted. I have seldom met 
with a man that can distinguish with accm^cy 
an object at the distance of half a mile ; and 
many of them cannot fix their eyes on any given 
spot without causing much annoyance to their 
organs of vision. 



CHAPTER III. 

Water-courses. — Remarkable mounds. — Blocks of black 
stone. — Fruitless excavation. — Earthen vase. — Party of 
horsemen. — Insulated pile, called Shejur. — Curious co- 
lumn. — Remains of a wall. — Earthen vases. — Ruins, called 
Hoomania. — Discovery of Athenian coins. — Fleet of boats. 
— Their singular construction. — ^The KoofFah, a wicker- 
basket. — Ruins of a Fort. — Armed horseman — Appear- 
ance of the river. — ^View of Tauk Kesra. — History of the 
Arabs. 

November 1st. — During the course of to- 
day I crossed no less than forty water-courses, all 
running in an easterly direction, dug for the 
purpose of facilitating the irrigation of the in- 
terior part of the country, and carrying off the 
exuberant waters* * I occasionally saw the ske- 

* ** Towards Babylon and Seleucia, where the rivers Tigris 
and Euphrates swell over their banks and water the country, 
the same kind of husbandry is practised as in Egypt, but to 



REMARKABLE MOUNDS. 45 

letons of cattle, probably destroyed by the wild 
beasts ; on this account, the flocks of every en- 
campment are always driven at sunset into a 
thorny inclosure within the tents. At three in 
the afternoon I crossed the stream, and pro- 
ceeded four miles from the left bank, in a 
westerly direction, to some mounds, which 1 
reached at four. They stretched for nearly a 
mile north and south, and were composed of soft 
day, externally covered with broken pieces of 
pottery, fragments of tile, flint glass, and shells. 
The highest mound, which occupied a central 
position, I estimated at five and twenty feet, 
surrounded by minor ridges of hillock; which 
are invariably the proofs of ruined buildings. 
On the top of the largest, to my great surprise, I 
stumbled upon some blocks of black stone, mea- 
suring four or five feet square, and completely 
honeycombed from exposure. Hitherto I felt 
convinced that no stone was to be found in the 

better effect and greater profit. The people here let in the 
water by sluices and flood-gates as they require it." — Piin. 
Nai. Hist, book 18, c. Id. 



46 FKUITLESS EXCAVATION. 

country ; and the prevailing opinion of ail those 
who have examined the remains of antiquity in 
these parts, has been, that burnt and unbumt 
bricks were the chief, I may add, only matmaiis 
used for building in past times, as well as at 
the present day. 

Concluding, then, that these stones' must have 
been extracted from beneath the tumulus, B 
commenced clearing a^ay aX the basd ; and as 
far as I dug, I foimd that the mound rested on 
layers of stone, each meslsuring about five feet 
square, so firmly joined together, that my 
digging implements broke to pieces, and obliged 
me to discontinue any farther attempt at exca- 
vation. Th^e was no dppearantie of erect build- 
ing whatever, nor any burnt or unbumt bricks, 
except on the summit, where I saw some frag- 
ments of brickwork perfectly black, petrified, 
and molten. I found a large portion of an 
earthen vase, (similar to some I have dug up 
near a village 'called Reschire, five miles to the 
south of Bushire in the Persian Gulph,) and 
human bones lying by it. This vessel was 



PARTY OF HORSEMEN. 47 

made of baked day/ and appeai^ed painted over: 
we had to delve with our hands for two feet 
deep, previous to extracting it. That there were 
several more I am convinced, as they are never 
iTound singly, but in long rows nearly touching 
each other, and fronting east and west. By 
this time the sun had gone down, and having 
to walk the same distance back to regain the 
bank of the river, we reluctantly left the spot. 

Returning, I saw a great number of gazelles 
and several hares started from the brushwood. 
On reaching the river and looking towards the 
place we had recently quitted, I descried a party 
of horsemen crossing the plain, and felt ex- 
tremely happy at having escaped their notice ; 
otherwise we might have been subjected to 
considerable annoyance by the meeting. * I 

* ** The manner in which the Arabs make war and pillage 
the caravans, is by keeping at the side of them, or following 
them in the rear, at a greater or smaller distance^ according 
to their forces, which may be easily done in Arabia, on ac- 
count of its being one great plain ; and in the night they fall 
silently upon the camp, and carry off one part before the rest 
are under arms." — Sir John Chard&n, 



48 SHEJUR, AN INSULATED PILE. 

should not omit to mention here, that the above 
noticed mounds are among the few for which 
the Arabs have no name ; nor is any ridiculous 
tale attached to the spot. 

November 2nd. — As the sun rose above 
the distant mountains, I pursued my route 
in a westerly direction along the right bank, 
with four of my escort armed with swords and 
matchlocks. Towards noon we arrived at a 
solitary insulated pile, to which my Arabs gave 
the appellation of Shejur: it was a heap of ar- 
gillaceous earth extending one hundred yards 
north and south, its elevation varying from ten 
to fifteen feet; it was bounded on aU sides 
by the same barren desert, without a tree or 
any sign of cultivation. The surface of this 
mound was strewed with tile, kiln-burnt brick, 
a few small stones, glass, and several blocks of 
grey marble, thickly coated on one side with 
bitumen, as hard as the stone to which it was 
attached, and requiring our united strength to 
break off the smallest portion, so tenaciously 
did it adhere to the marble. This heap ap- 



CUBIOUS COLUMN. 49 

peared to have lost all its perfect bricks, being 
particularly soft and unpleasant to walk over. 
After digging round its base for two hours, with- 
out perceiving any remains of building, we 
crossed over to the left bank, and proceeded on ' 
a bearing of west for five-and-twenty minutes, 
when we reached a column situated on a gentle 
declivity, constructed of the finest kiln-burnt 
material, fastened together horizontally and 
perpendicularly by thin layers of cement, join- 
ing the whole together with great delicacy. 
The hand of Time had corroded it to such a 
degree, that the periphery of its base, which 
is only sixteen feet, supports the upper portion, 
the circumference of which is sixty-two feet, 
and its height is twenty; its vertex was 
terribly shattered, and irregularly torn by the 
elements. 

Hence extensive ridges of mounds, varying 
in height and extent, are seen branching in 
every direction. At a hundred yards to the 
right of the column, I dug into a heap of 
ruins, (evidently the largest on the plain,) and 

E 



50 REMAINS OF A WALL.. 

discovered the remains of a wall, (the bricks 
of which measured a square of nine inches,) 
likewise steps and the subverted portion of 
another column, corresponding, in dimensions 
and the materials of its composition, with the 
standing one already mentioned. This pile 
was extremely solid, and would have taken a 
considerable number of men to lay it open, 
by clearing away the accumulated earth and 
rubbish. 

On a mound at some distance to the north- 
east, I observed the bases of walls that have 
been razed to the ground. The bricks of 
which they were composed must have been 
removed, or thrown down and buried beneath 
the shapeless and dilapidated ruin ; for I could 
not discover any traces of them. The surface 
of all the. hillocks was covered with broken 
bricks, varnished tile, pottery, shells, and vitri- 
fied stones and glass. I computed their circum- 
ference at eight miles, as I was two hours and 
a half walking round them. 

Three hours after the sun went down, by 



BAKTHEN VASES. 51 

the light of the lovely moon and starry sky, 
I was hurried from this interesting spot; my 
Arabs would remain no longer in the desert, 
wondering what there possibly could be in a 
heap of conAised rubbish to engross so much 
of my time and attention. 

Proceeding W. N.W. we almost immediately 
reached the river's bank, where some elevated 
hillocks attracted my curiosity, exhibiting frag- 
ments of brickwork and pottery. The river 
appears to have encroached; I met with se- 
ver^ earthenware vases,* containing human 



id unr Hiirmaiiii. 



' See Appendix, G. 
E 2 



52 KUINS, CALLED. HOOMANIA. 

bones, which had undergone the action of fire. 
These urns measured three feet in length, by 
one and a half in depth and width, though some 
appeared to be of greater dimensions* They 
were terminated at one extremity by a cover 
without bottom, and at the other by a pointed 
handle. I could only find the smallest pos- 
sible fragments of bone with the ashes, and 
these became dust on being touched ; even sim- 
ple exposure to the atmosphere produced near- 
ly a similar effect. 

The Tigris is here nearly as broad as 
the Shut-ul-Arab at Basrah; two thirds of 
its bed being completely dry, and composed of 

» 

a mixture of sand and day, which fatigued 
us greatly by walking over it. This heavy 
soil was nearly the means of my missing the 
boat altogether; as the crew had proceeded, 
regardless of my orders to remain at anchor 
until my return. These remains are called, 
by the natives of the country, Hoomania. 
At this place, on the 5th of March, 1812, 



ATHENIAN COINS. 58 

on the bank of the stream, the crew of 
a boat, who were cutting wood for sale at 
Bagdad, discovered pieces of silver, edging 
out of the margin of the bank, which was thus 
exposed, from its having been washed down by 
the action of the current. 

On dividing their newly-acquired treasure, 
they quarrelled among themselves ; when one 
of the party hastened to Bagdad, and informed 
the Pasha's officers of the circumstance, who 
instantly despatched people to the spot, and on 
examination foimd, and brought away, between 
six and seven hundred ingots of silver, each 
measuring from one to one and a-half feet in 
length ; and an earthen jar, containing upwards' 
of two thousand Athenian coins, all of silver. 
Many were purchased at the time by the late 
Mr. Rich, formerly the East India Company's/ 
Resident at Bagdad, and are now in his valu- 
able collection, since bought by Government, 
and deposited in the British Musemn. No 
coins were found of gold, or copper ; and the 



54 A FLEET OF BOATS. 

whole were lodged in the treasury of Abdalla 
Pasha. 

November 3. — I cannot say whether we 
missed any antiquities on our road this day or 
not, as our path lay through an almost im- 
penetrable forest of brushwood, which extend- 
ed into the Desert as far as the eye could 
reach. We passed a fleet of boats laden with 
wood, for use at Bagdad. They load half-ifiast 
high, so that if a fresh breeze were blowing, 
they would be obliged to lay-to until it sub- 
sided. 

These vessels are of a most singular con- 
struction, being put together with reeds and 
willow, thickly coated with bitumen : the prow 
is the broadest part of the boat, being ex- 
tremely blufi^, and the whole as cliunsy and 
unwieldy as possible. 



BAGDAD WOOD-BOAT. 



round wickCT-basket, called in Arabic 
; towed astem of each boat for the 
purpose of communicating with the shore; these 
are also covered with naptha, and are in use on 
the Euphrates, and likewise on the Diala. Theu- 
shape and construction belong to the most re- 
mote ages, being mentioned by Herodotus ;• 
Mid it is worthy of remark, that they have un- 

• See the description of these round vicker-baskets, in the 
account given by Herodotus of Babylon. 



56 THE KOOFFAH. 

dergone little or no change since he visited 
this country ; though, by the by, they at pre- 
sent exhibit no external covering of skin, as 
it would appear they cUd from the account of 
that famous historian. The foUowing engrav- 
ing exhibits the peculiar structure of the in- 
terior floor and upper margin of the Kooifah, 
as seen fro^ above. 



November 4.— At ten this morning I visited 
the ruins of a fort on the left bank of the river. 



ARMED HORSEMAN. 57 

My Arabs said it was extremely ancient, but 
its appearance ill accorded with their opinion* 
Hence an unbroken range of mounds are dis- 
cernible on the horizon, in a south-westerly 
direction. They appeared at a considerable 
distance, and were perhaps some of the dark 
heaps of fallen Babylon. 

Every man we meet in the Desert is looked 
upon as an enemy. At noon we discovered 
an armed horseman pacing across the plain. 
The moment my escort saw him, they were off 
Uke lightning to demand his business, whence 
he came, and whither he was going? at the 
same time brandishing their swords, and turn- 
ing their matchlocks over their heads. The 
armed Arab struck his stirrups into his horse's 
sides, and was off in a second. Had there been 
three or four, my people woidd have pretend- 
ed they could not see them, or probably have 
begged me to retreat beneath the bank to es- 
cape observation, as they would never hazard 
the conflict, without being fully convinced of its 



58 TAUK KESRA. 

terminating successfully. They are very cow- 
ardly, and when in their power, will tjrrannize 
over a weaker party to the utmost; they 
well know, therefore, the consequences of 
capture. 

The river has suddenly appeared very dis- 
coloured, and were it not for the' ciirrent, I 
should scarcely have been able' to distingtdsh 
its bed from the sands on its sh(»re; it 
is conaderably more rapid, owing to the 
falls of snow arid rain in the upper coim- 
try. At Bagdad the stream is * proverbial 
for its cleiEimess. If this is a specimen, 
(as I am told it is,) I had certainly form- 
ed a very erroneous idea of its transparent 
properties. 

Shortly after sunset we had an imperfect 
view of Tank Kesra,* a ruined arch on the site 
of Ctesiphon, bearing due North across the 
Desert, about fourteen miles distant in a di- 
rect line, but nearly forty when following 

* The Arch of Kesra. Kesra is a name proper to the two 
last races of Persian monarchs. 



HISTORY OF THE ARABS. 59 

the course of the stream, so great is its si- 
nuosity. 

Previous to entering upon a description of 
the remains of those cities "we are approaching, 
I shall, on the authority of that learned divine, 
Newton, trace the history of the Arabs, from 
the time of their ancestor, Ishmael, who, we 
learn from sacred history, was bom in the year 
1910 before Christ, and died in 1773, after 
having attained the age of one hundred and 
thirty seven years. 

" It is said of Ishmael that he dwelt in the 
wilderness, and became an archer: such were 
the Itureans, whose bows and arrows are fa- 
mous in all authors; such were the mighty 
men of Kedar, in Isaiah's time ; and such the 
Arabs have been from the beginning, and are 
at this time. . 

" It was late before they admitted the use 
of fire-arms among them ; the greater part of 
them are still strangers to theni, and stiH conti- 
nue skilful archers. In the time of Moses they 
dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is, before 



60 HISTORY Ot THE ARABS. 

Egypt, as thou goest towards Assyria: but 
yet we do not find that they were ever sub^ 
jeet to either of then- powerful neighbours, the 
Egyptians or Assyrians. The conquests of Se- 
sostris, the great king of Egypt, are much mag- 
nified by Diodorus Siculus ; and probably he 
might subdue some of the southern provinces 
of Arabia bordering upon Egypt ; but he was 
obliged, as Diodorus informs us, to draw a line 
from Heliopolis to Pelusium, to secure Egypt 
from the incursions of the Arabs. They were 
therefore not subjects, but enemies to the 
EgjrptianS ; as they were likewise to the As- 
syrians, for they assisted Belesis and Arbaces 
in overturning that empire, — assisted them, not 
as fellow rebels, but as an independent state, 
with their auxiliary forces. 

" The next great conquerors of the East, 
were Cjnrus and the Persians ; but neither he 
nor any of his successors ever reduced the 
whole body of the Ai^bs to subjection. They 
might conquer sonke of the exterior, but never 
reached the interior parts of the country : and 



HXSTOBY OF THE ABABS« 6l 

Herodotus, the historian, who lived nearest to 
those times, expressly says,* th^t the Arahs 
were never reduced hy the Persians to the} 
condition of subjects, but were considered by 
them as friends, and opened to them a passage 
into Egypt, which, without the assistance and 
permission of the Arabs, would have been ut^ 
terly impracticable : and, in another plaqe, he 
says, that while Phoenicia, Palestine, Syria, 
and the neighbouring countries were taxed, 
the Arabian territories continued free from 
paying any tribute. They were then regarded 
as friends, but afterwards they assisted with 
their forces, Amyrtceus, king of Egypt, against 
Darius Nothus, and Euagoras, king of Cyprus, 
against Artaxerxes Mnemon ; so that they act- 
ed as friends or enemies to the Persians, ju^t as 
they thought proper, and as it suited their hu- 
mour or their interest. 

* '^Arabei^ nunquam h, Persis in servitutem redact! sunt, sed 
hospites extiterunt; quum Cambysi aditum in iEgyptum: 
permisissent : quibus invitis haudquaquam fuissent in- 
gressi Persae -ffigyptum." — Herod, lib. iii. sec. 88, p. 198, 
£dit. Gale. 



62 HISTORY OF THE ARABS. 

*^' Alexander the Great then overturned the 
Persian empire, and conquered Asia. The 
neighbouring princes sent their ambassadors to 
make \he\t submissions. The Arabs alone dis- 
dained to acknowledge the conqueror, and scorn- 
ed to send any embassy, or to take any notice 
of him. This slight provoked him to such a 
degree, that he meditated an expedition against 
them; and the great preparations which he 
made for it, showed that he thought them a 
very formidable enemy : but death intervened, 
and put an end to all that his ambition or re- 
sentment had formed against them. 

" Thus they happily escaped the fury of his 
arms, and were never subdued by any of his 
successors. Antigonus, one of the greatest of 
his successors, made two attempts upon them, 
one by his general Athenaeus, and the other 
by his own son, Demetrius, but both without 
success. The former was defeated, and the 
latter was glad to make peace with them, and 
leave them at their liberty. Neither would 
they suffer the people employed by Antigonus, 



HISTORY OF THE ARABS. 63 

to gather the bitumen on the lake Asphaltit^ 
whereby he hoped greatly to increase his re- 
venue. The Arabs fiercely attacked the work- 
men and the guards, and forced them to desist 
from their undertaking. So true is the asser- 
tion of Diodorus, that * neither the Assyrians 
formerly, nor the kings of the Medes and Per- 
sians, nor yet of the Macedonians, were able to 
subdue them ; nay, though they led many, and 
great forces, against them, yet they could not 
accomplish their attempts.* We find them 
afterwards sometimes at peace, and sometimes 
at war with the neighbouring states; some- 
times joining the Syrians, and sometimes the 
Egyptians ; sometimes assisting the Jews, and 
sometimes plimdering them ; and in all respects 
acting like a free people, who neither feared 
nor courted any foreign power whatever. 

" The Romans then invaded the East, and 
subdued the coimtries adjoining, but were never 
able to reduce Arabia into the form of a Ro- 
man province. It is too common with histo- 
rians to say that such or such a country was 



64 HISTOEY OF THE ARABS. 

conquered, when, perhaps, only part of it was 
so. It is thus that Plutarch asserts^ that the 
Arabs submitted to Lucullus;* whereas the 
most that we can believe is, that he might sub- 
due £|ome particular tribes ; but he was recall- 
^d» and the command of the Roman army in 
Asi^ Was given to Pompey. Pompey, though 
he triumphed over the three parts of the world, 
could not y^t conquer Arabia. He carried his 
arms into the country, obtained some victories, 
and compelled Aretas to submit ;f but other 
affairs soon obliged him to retire, and, by retir- 
ing, he lost all the .^vantages which he had 
gained. 

** His forces were no sooner withdrawn, than 
the Arabs made their incursions again into the 
Roman provinces. J^ns Callus, if in the reign 
of Augustus, penetrated far into the country, 
but a strange distemper made terrible havock 
in his army ; and, after two years spent in this 

* Plutarch, in Lucullo, passim. 

t Plutarch, in Pompeio, p. 640. Edit. Paris, 1624. 

X Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 1126. Edit. Amstel. 1707. 



HIiirTOEY OF TH£ ARABS. 65 

unfortunate expedition, he wfus glad to escape 
with the small remainder of his forces. 

" The Emperor Trajan reduced some parts of 
Arabia^ but he could never subdue it entirely ; 
mdp when he besieged the city of the Haga* 
renesy as Dio says,* his soldiers were repelled 
by whirlwindSL About eighty years after, the 
En^eror Severus twice besieged the same dty 
with a numerous army, and a formidable train 
of military engines ; but he had no better suc^ 
eess than Trajan. He made some assaults, but 
was bafHed and defeated, and returned with 
precipitation as great as his vexation for his 
dis^pointment. And if such great emperors 
smd able warric^^s as Trajan and Severus could 
not succeed in their attemptsi it is no wonder 
that the following emperors could prevail no- 
thing. The Arabs continued their meursions 
and depredations, in Syria and othar Rom^n 
provinces, with equal licence and impunity. 

" Such was the state and condition of the 

• IHofnis Hist. lib. 68. p. 785. Edit. Leuoclav. Hanov. 

• • * - • . 



66 HISTORY OF THE ARABS. 

Arabs, to the time of their famous prophet 
Mohammed, who laid the foundations of a 
mighty empire: and then, for several centu- 
ries, they were better known among the Euro-* 
pean nations by the name of the Sarraceni, or 
Saracens, the Arraceni of Pliny,* and the Ha-^ 
garenes of Holy Scripture, f Their conquests 
were, indeed, amazingly rapid; they can be 
compared to nothing more properly than to a 
sudden flood, or inundation. In a few yeari^ 

the Saracens overran more countries, and sub-* 
dued more people than the Romans did in cen- 
turies; and they were then not only free an^ 
independent of the rest of the world, but were 
themselves masters of the most considerable 
parts of the earth. And so they continued for. 
above three centuries ; and after their empire: 
was dissolved, and they were reduced within; 
the limits of their native country, they still; 
maintained their liberty against the Ta^iars, 

4 

* Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. cap. 32. 

t Hagarenes, the descendants of Ishmael. They axe call- 
ed also Ishmaelites and Saracens. Calmet's Diet. 



HISTORY OF THE ARABS. 67 

Mamalukes, Turks, and all foreign enemies 
whatever.* 

" Whoever were the conquerors of Asia, they 
were still unconquered, stiU continued their 
incursions, and preyed upon all alike. The 
Turks have now for several centuries been 
lords of the adjacent countries ; but they have 
been so little able to restrain the depredations 
of the Arabs, that they have been obliged to 
pay them a sort of annual tribute for the safe 

* 

passage and security of the pilgrims, who usu- 
ally go in great companies to Mecca; so that 
the Turks have rather been dependent upon 
them, than they upon the Turks. And they 
still continue the same practices, and preserve 
the same superiority, if we may believe the 
concurrent testimony of modem travellers of 
all nations."f 

* The Saracens began their conquests A.D. 622. Their 
empire was broken and divided A.D. 936. See BHiir's. 
Chronol* Tables, 33 — 39. 

t Newton on the Prophecies, vol. i, pp. 46—54. 



F 2 



CHAPTER IV. 



Gity of CtesiphoB.-^Extensive mound, — High wall. — Sup- 
posed canal. — ^Ancient remains. — Description of Tauk 
. Kesra.— Search made for coins, &c. — Sack of the palactf 
of Tank Kesra by the Saracens. — ^Valuable spoils. — Rich, 
carpet. — Decay of Ctesiphon. — Tomb of Selman Pauk'.— 
Annual pilgrimage to it. — Mosque^ tombs, &c. — Seleucia. 
— Ruins of the city,— Fragments of a bridge. — Sites of the 
two cities.-^Impediments in the way of research.— Cala- 
mities of Seleucia. — Bridge of boats over the Diala. — ' 
Arrival at Bagdad. 

November 5th. — From daylight until noon^ 
I have parsed a succession of broken vases, made 
ctf baked clay; the inner portion of each was. 
highly polished, of various colours, and some^ 
had human bones sticking to them. They were 
all close upon the left bank of the Tigris ; and 



EXTENSIVfe MOUNH^. €9 

it is to be remarked^ that whenever a running 
stream is in the vicinity of an ancient isite, 
these earthen coffins are sure to be found on 
its bank. 

Half an hour after, I crossed over to the 
right, or eastern bank, when I was on the 
site of Ctesiphon ;* and immediately observed 
mounds, superficially covered with the same 
fragments and materials as I have already 
mentioned in describing those hillocks I had 
hitherto met with. This spot is called by the 
natives the " Garden of Kisra ." The first 
mound, which was composed of fumace-bimxt 
bricks as a foundation, and sun-dried, mixe4 
up with chopped straw, for the superstructure^ 
one coxu^e separated from another by irregular 
layers of reeds, extended from the bank of the 
river, in a northerly direction, for seven hun- 

♦ " The Parthians, in order to do by Seleucia as the 
Greekdy vho built that place, had done by: Babylon, built 
^the city of Ctasiphony within three miles of it, in the. trac)c 
called Chalonitis, in order to dispeople and impoverisb it, 
though it is now the head city of the kingdom.**- P/trt. 
^fl^ Hist. b. vi. c. 26. 



A 



70 SUPPOSED canal: ' 

dred and fifty feet ; its height and thickiiefi 
varied from thirty to thirty-six feet. 

The elevation of the wall that edged from 
out this mound, on the margin of the bank^ 
was forty feet. It then formed an angle, and 
stretched away North-west for eight hundred 
yards, when there was a breach, or gap, one 
hundred and thirty-five feet wide, probably 
once occupied by some grand gate of entrance. 
The wall, or rampart line, then re^commences, 
and runs on the same bearings for seven hmv 
dred and fifty yards more, when we came to 
another break, which appeared to be the bed of 
a canal^ as the stratum, or. channel, varied from 
fifteen to twenty feet deep ; the breadth being 
one hundred and fifty yards, and therefore ca^ 
pable of admitting a very large body of water. 
The direction of the dry bed of this channd 
was North-east, and appeared to extend to an 
unbroken : ridge of mounds running , North- 
west and South-east at the distance of eight 

« • • • . 

or nine miles. 



TAUK K£SRA. Yl 

The high wall> already followed^ embraces an 
"extensive area, where no vestiges of former 
buildings exist, and runs to the verge of the 
riVen Its summit and sides are covered with 
the remains of ancient building ; and it is asto- 
nishing, that, after the lapse of so niany cen- 
turies, these walls appear to have lost nothing 
of their regular construction. 

From the bed of the canal, and a quarter of 
a mile to the North-west, avet a space hiarked 
l)y memorials of the past, interspersed ^Vith 
patches of tlie camel thorn, stands the Tank 
Kesra, a magnificent monument of antiquity^* 
surprising the spectator with the perfect state 
of its preservation^ after having braved the 
warring elements for sb many ages ; without an 
emblem to throw any light upon its history ; 
without proof, or character to be traced on 
any brick or wallr 

This stupendous, stately fragment of ages 

• See Appendix, H. 



78 TAVK iCESRA; 

long since forgot, is built of fme furhace- 
bumt bricks, each measuring twelve indies 
square by two and three quarters thick, and 
coated with cement. The full extent of the 
front, or eastern face, is three hundred feet- 
It is divided by a high semicircular arch, sup- 
ported by walls sixteen feet thick ; the arch 
itself making a span of eighty-six feet, and 
rising to the height of one hmidred and three 
feet. The front of the building is ornamented 
and surmounted by four rows of small arched 
recesses, resembling in form the large one* 
The style and execution of these are mojt 
delicate, evincing a fertile invention and great 
experience in the architectural art< 

From the vestibule a hall extends to the 
depth of one hundred and fifty-six feet East 
and West, where a wall forms the back of the 
building, a great portion of which, togeth^ 
with part of the roof, is broken down. In 
the centre of the wall, or western face of the 
structure, a doorway, measuring twenty-four 



ANCIENT REMAINS, 78 

feet high by twelve wide, leads to a contiguous 
heap of mounds, extending to the bank of the 
river, about a quarter of a mile distant. The 
general shape of these hillocks is elliptical, and 
their cm^umference two miles* 

To the right are fragments of walls, and 
broken masses of brickwork; to the left, and 
therefore to the south of the arch, are the re^ 
mains of vast structures, which, though encum^ 
bered with heaps of earth, are yet sufSdently 
visible to fill the mind of the spectator with 
astonishment, at the thought that the destroy«- 
ing hand of Time could have failed in entirely 
concealing, from the inquiring eye, these 
wrecks of remote antiquity.* 

* The natives of this country assert^ that the ruins are of 
the age of Nimrod, of whom, in Scripture, it is said, " And 
the beginning of bis kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and 
Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar." — Gen. chap. x. 
ver. 10. 

A celebrated antiquary, M. de Broses, one of the Presi- 
dents of the Royal Academy in Paris, supposes that Calneh 
stood on the site of Ctesiphon. — Memoires de fjcademie 
Rot/ak, tome xxvii. p. 8 1 . 



74 SEARCH FOE COINS, &C. 

I diig into the sides and bases of inaiiy of 
thes6 mouiids. Their foundations were inva- 
riably .(Composed of the fire-burnt brick, while 
the sun-burnt formed the exterior or higher 
mass of each heap. I had the satisfaction of disr 
coveriiig a silver coin of one of the Parthian 
kings, a brass Coin of Seleucus Nicator, and 
three? talismanic perforated cyUnders, which 
diflFer in no respect from the Babylonian. All 
are in an : equally perfect state. There is no 
doubt that the natives often pick up coins of 
gold, silver, and copper ; for which they always 
find a ready sale in Bagdad. Indeed, some of 
the wealthy Turks and Armenians, who are 
collecting for several French and German 
Consuls, hire people to go in search of coins, 
medals, and antique gems : and I am assured 
they never return to their employers empty- 
handed. 

The riches contained within the venerable 
pile I have jilst described appear to have 
been immense. The sack of the palace by the 
Saracens, as related by Gibbon, took place in 



VALUABLE SPOILS. 75 

the A. D. 6S7. " The capital was taken by 
assault, and the tumultuous resistance of the 
people gave a keener edge to the sabres of the 
Moslems, who shouted with religious transport, 
^ This is the white Palace of Chosroes ! this 
is the promise of the Apostle of God !' The 
poor robbers of the Desert were suddenly en* 
riched beyond the measure of their hope or 
knowledge. Each chamber revealed a new 
treasure, secreted with art, or ostentatiously 
displayed. The gold and silver, the various 
wardrobes and costly furniture, surpassed (says 
Abulfeda,) the estimate of fancy or numbers* 
One of the apartments of the palace was deqo* 
rated with a carpet of silk, sixty cubits in 
length, and as many in breadth ; a paradise, 
or garden, was depictured on the ground ; the 
flowers, fruits, and shrubs, were imitated by 
the figures of the gold embroidery, and the 
coloin'S of the precious stones j ana the ample 
square was encircled by a variegated and ver- 
dant border. 



76 YALUABLE SPOILS. 

** The Arabian General persuaded his soldiers 
to relinquish their claim, in the reasonable hope 
that the eyes of the Caliph would be delighted 
with the splendour of the workmanship. Re- 
gardless of the merit of art and the pomp of 
royalty, the rigid Omar divided the prize 
among his brethren of Medina: the picture 
was destroyed; but such was the intrinsic 
value of the materials, that the share of 
Ah alone was sold for twenty thousand 
drains* 

"A mule that carried away the tiara and 
cuirass, the belt and bracelets of Chosroes, was 
overtaken by the . pursuers. The gorgeous 
trophy was presented to the commander of the 
faithful, and the gravest of the companions 
condescended to smile when they beheld the 
white beard, the hairy arms, and uncouth figure 
of the veteran, who was invested with the 
spoils of the g^^eat king. The sack of Ctesir 
phon was followed. by its desertion and.^adual 
decay. The Saracens disliked the air an4 



TOMB OF SELMAN PAUK. 7T 

situation of the place ; and Omar was advised 
by his General to remove the seat of govern-^ 
toent to the westem> side of the Euphrates.^ 

At a distance of five hundrpd yards North, 
ten degrees West of Tank Kesra, is the tomb 
of Selman Pauk, otherwise Selman the Pure, 
or Pious,f who, the Turks affirm, was once d 
Christian, but eventually became a follower of 
the prophet Mohammed, who appointed him 
his barber; which situation he filled for many 
years. Hence, all the professors and operators 
of chirurgery, phlebotomy, chiropody, ** et hoc 
genus amnt:' perform a yearly pilgrimage from: 
Bagdad to his tomb ; which is ^rrounded by 
a brick wall, encompassing a good court, and 
having commodious accommodation, ^answering 
every purpose of a caravansary. 

To the South-west, and consequently in an 
oblique direction between the Tauk and the 
river, stand the ruins of a mosque, and two 

♦Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. ix. 
cap. '5 1 . 

t See Appendix, I. 



7^ . MOSQUE, TOMBS, &C. 

tnoiildering^ tombs, forpiing an affecting con- 
trast to its contemporary. These relics contain 
the ashes of Hadhaifah^ the secretary of the 
prophet, and the Caliph Moostasem Billah, who 
was killed by Hulakoo,* the Mogul conqueror 
of Persia, and grandson of the famous Zengis,. 
or Ghengis Khan. 

. Among the scattered fragments of brick- 
work and loose pieces of tile and stones within 
the ruined quadrangular wall, enclosing the 
tombs, I found the exuviae of snakes in 

m 

abundance ; and from its vicinity to the Tigris^ 
it must severely suffer by the regular over- 
flowings of its waters. 

Having examined the remains of Ctesiphouy 
I crossed over to the site of the once magnifi^ 
cent and populous Greek city, f and at every 

• This Prince establbbed the Mogul dynasty. 

f " Seleucia was built by Seleucus Nicator, forty miles 
from Babylon^fl^ a 'point of the confluence of the Euphrates^ 
with the TigriSy hy a canal. There were six hundred thousand 
citizei^s here at one time, and all the commerce and wealth 
of Babylon had flowed into it. The territory on which it^ 
stood was called Babylonia ; but it was itself a free state. 



SELEUCIA. 79: 

step had new occasion to muse upon the scene 
of desolation which presented itself, as far 
as the eye could reach^ Time, violence^ and 
repeated inimdations have levelled every things 
I looked in vain for monuments, pillairs, aque-> 
ducts, and huild^gs. Bricks of every kind, 
mixed up with layers of $traw; varnished 
tUes, and pottery of every colour, (the pre- 
dominant one being blue); stones calcareous, 
sandy, and granite ; flint-glass, shells, and a 
variety of vitreous and nitrous substances; 
these, and these alone, compose what remains 
of the once magnificent Seleucia. 

There is not a single entire ^ building ; no- 
thing but 8 small remnant of a wall and a 
few portions of decayed brickwork, is left to 
mark the foot of the spoiler, and bid us 
mbiun in silence and solitude over fallen and 
departed grandeur. The traveller ought to 

and thq people lived after the laws and manners of the Ma- 
cedonians. The form of the walls was said to resemble an 
eagle spreading her wings, and the soil around it was thought 
the most fertile in the East " — Plin, Nat. Hist.h. vi. c. 26. 



80. SITES OF THE TWO CITIES, 

visit Seleuda, previous to passing over to 
Ctesiphon; by so doing, he will not expect 
to meet with any thing half so grand as the 
arch which rivets him to the spot, which, in 
this part of the world, in point of architectu- 
ral beauty, is perfectly unique. 

This structure I surveyed first, so ardent was 
my solicitude to reach the porch of the build- 
ing, after having caught a glimpse of it the 
evening before. With a mind full of its beau- 
ties. I passed on ta Seleueia ; and there being no 
building, not even the fragment of one visible, 
I experienced, I must confess, great grief and 
disappointment. It is, however, surprising, that 
so much is still left to mark the sites of th^e 
once great cities, situated as they are in a 
country that is inundated for so many months 
in the season. Even at this moment, whidi is 
the driest time of the whole year, there are 
pools of water inhabited by large flocks of 
bitterns ;* and herbage is scattered over th^ 

* The Ardea stellaris of Linnaeus. 



FRAGMENTS OF A BRIDOE. 81 

phm ; but on the site of Ctesiphon, the smallest 
insect under heaven would not find a single 
blade of grass wherein to hide itself, nor one 
drop of water to allay its thirst. 

Although former travellers who have visited 
this spot, do not speak of any remains on the 
river, I have no hesitation in pointing to the 
fragments of a bridge, which appears once to 
have connected the two cities, from the vast 
quantity of ruined materials lying in heaps on 
either bank, composed of fire-burnt bricks 
made of argiQaceous earth, and a great quan- 
tity of detached brickwork beneath the water. 
The shallowness of the river afforded me an 
opportunity of observing this very particu- 
larly, and induced me to procure the aid of 
divers, who invariably brought up bricks broken 
and unbroken, remarkable for their hardness 
and solidity. Hence I would infer, that these 
fragments now resting on the river's bed, could 
only have been appropriated to the purpose al- 
ready mentioned. 

The reader will be better able to judge of 

G 



82 IMPEDIMENTS TO. RESEARCH. 

the extent of the irregular mounds and hillocks 
that overspread the sites of these renowned 
cities, when I tell him, that it would occupy 
some months to take the bearings and dimen- 
sions of each with accuracy. In this under- 
taking, great interruption and much molesta- 
tion would be offered by the Arabs who ,tend 
their cattle, sheep, and camels on the spot^ 
and who are so very suspicious, that no excava- 
tion can be made without their supposing some 
hidden treasure has been discovered. Conse- 
quently, these people would do all in their 
power to prevent the antiquary from continu- 
ing his researches, or even remaining here for 
any length of time. At this period it would be 
impossible to make the attempt, both from the 
disturbed and unsettled state of the country, 
which, I lament to add, is scarcely ever in a 
state of tranquillity, and froip the spirit of re- 
bellion and tyranny innate in the heart of all 
Moslemites from Constantinople to the Eryr- 
threan Sea. I do not apply this remark to 
Greece, as I am in hopes we have driven 
them from that sacred soil. 



CALAMITIES OF SELEUCIA. 88 

The prevailing report and opinion among 
the Turks at the time I am writing is, that 
. the combined powers of Europe have accom- 
plished this much-wished-for event. I have 
now only to add, that the greater part of the 
remains of Ctesiphon extend in a northerly di- 
rection; whilst the masses of ruin on the site 
of Seleuda stretch away to the southward, and 
are altogether at a greater distance from the 
bank of the river than Ctesiphon. The Greek 
city appears to occupy a more considerable 
tract of country, although its remains are, to 
all appearance, of lesser magnitude than its Par- 
thian neighbour.* 

I shall briefly notice, in this part of my 
journal, on the authority of Gibbon, the re- 
peated calamities and ultimate ruin of the 
chief of the Macedonian conquests in Upper 
Asia. For many ages, Seleuda retained the 

* The site of Seleucia is in the neighbourhood of a very 

ancient place, called Coche, ^* in confluente Euphratis, 

fossa perducta atque Tigris/' say^i Pliny : this canal bears 

the appellative, Nahar Malka, " quod significat fluvius 

regum." 

6 2 



84 RISE AND FALL OF 

genuine character of a Grecian colony, re- 
nowned for arts, military virtue, and the love 
of freedom. The independent republic was go- 
verned by a senate of three hundred nobles ; 
the people consisted of six hundred thousand 
citizens. The walls of the city were strong, 
and as long as concord prevailed among the 
several orders of the state, the inhabitants 
viewed with contempt the power of the Par- 
thian : but the madness of faction was some- 
times provoked to implore the dangerous aid 
dF the common enemy, who was posted almost 
at the gates of the colony. 

The Parthian monarchs, like the Mogul so- 
vereigns of Hindostan, delighted in the pas- 
toral life of their Scythian ancestors ; and the 
Imperial camp was pitched in the plain of 
Ctesiphon, on the eastern bank of the Tigris, 
at the distance of only three miles from Se- 
leucia. The innumerable attendants on luxury 
and despotism resorted to the court, and the 
little village of Ctesiphon insensibly grew into 
a great city. < 



SELEUCIA AND CTESIPHON. 85 

Under the reign of Marcus, the Roman ge- 
nerals penetrated as far as Ctesiphon and Se- 
leuda, A. D. 165. They were received as 
friends by the Greek colony ; they attacked as 
enemies the seat of the Parthian king^ ; yet 
both cities experienced the same treatment 
The sack and conflagration of Sieleuda, with 
the massacre of three hundred thousand of the 
inhabitants, tarnished the glory of the Roman 
triumph. Both cities lie about nineteen miles 
to the South of Bagdad. 

November 7th. — It was past midnight be- 
fore I persuaded myself to quit the moulder- 
ing waUs of this ancient city. The cloudless 
sky was studded with stars, and the air so 
beautifully soft and pure, that I could not be 
unmindful of being in the land of Chaldea> 
where the shepherds lay gazing on the same 
constellations, and from them derived the first 
lessons of astronomy. 

For two hours I had been seated beneath a 
ruined rampart of the city, which appeared to 
be the most perfect mass on the desert plain. 



86 BRIDG£ OF BOATS. 

It extended five hundred yards North, and 
rose from heneath the mounds for twenty-five 
feet. From this spot, hy the light of the 
moon, I beheld, for the last time, the crumbling 
an^ solitary ruins. The deep repose of the 
scene was scarcely disturbed; for the breeze 
that wafted the sound of the browsing camel's 
tinkling bell, was all that broke the calm 
silence that prevailed around me, and 



•" Mid Heaven's blue arch serene, 



Th' unclouded moon smiled down upon the scene," 

While contemplating these scattered frag- 
ments by the light of the moon, the solemnity 
and stillness of the scene, and the memorials of 
departed grandeur on all sides, powerfully af- 
fected my imagination ! 

Leaving Seleucia, I proceeded North-west 
till noon, when I crossed the Diala, over a 
bridge of boats. Its mputh is sixty yards 
broad^ and at this time the stream was run- 
ning with rapidity, a proof that the rains had 
already fallen on the mountains. When this 



AERIVAL AT BAGDAD. 87^ 

river is low, the natives are unable to drink of 
its waters, their qualities being so very saline. 
The people of the country only know this 
<!lassical river by the appellation of Diala ; its 
apparent course from this place is N. N. W.* 

At five in the afternoon, I reached the sub- 
urbs of the celebrated residence of the Caliphs; 
when, to escape observation, I embarked on 
the Tigris, and had a fine view of Bagdad. 
The lofty pointed minarets, and swelling 
domes of the beautifully-shaped mosques re- 
flecting the rays of the sun, gave them a white 
appearance, and exhibited a very striking effect, 
which disappeared on my entering the walls 
of the city; where 1 was met by two Nou- 
bechi'sf, who conducted me to Aga Minas, 
the British Agent, who kindly received and 
hospitably entertained me. This Armenian is 
an intelligent and active servant of the Indian 

• Hence to Koote, the Tigris is called Diglah, from a 
town of that name about fifty miles to the North of 
Bagdad. , 

+ Armed footmen of the British residency in the Pa- 

shalic. 



88 HOSPITABLE RECEPTION. 

govanment; having held the situation of 
Dragoman to the East India Company's late 
re^dents in this cily for thirty years. His 
father was also an effectiTe servant in the tdme 
of Sir Harford Jones. 



CHAPTER V. 



Mr. Kich.— His character. — The Pasha Daoiid.t— Risafah, a 
lofty minaret. — ^Village pf Kauzumeen. ^Mosque. — ^Tomb 
of Zobeide. — ^The Talisin Grate. — Inscription. — Monastery . 
of Dernshes.— ^Tbe Madraset, — Caravansary and mosque 
founded by Mirjan. — Number of vagrants. — ^Their extreme 
wretchedness. — ^The Author assumes the Turkish dress. 
--"Tail Akerkottf. — Canal. — ^Bronze figure. — Extensive 
rmns.-^Robberies of the Arabs. — Circular pillars.-— Azad 
Khaun.^ — Sheikh Shoubar. — Iskanderia.— Hadjee Sulei- 
man. — Hillah. — Entraace to Babylon. 

The English trayeller arriving in this city, 

» - . 

will not fail to meet with the greatest attention 
from all classes of people, on account of the 
high veneration and i*espect they bear to the 
memory of the lamented Mr. Rich, the late 
British Resident ; who upheld the honour of 
the nation he represented, and at the same 
time gained the greatest reputation himself. 



90 MR. RICH — HIS character: 

during an administration of fourteen years.* 
The Turks and Christians fondly cherish the 
recollection of his many amiable qualities, and 
his name is imprinted on their hearts — too 
deeply, ever to be forgotten. I need hardly 
add, what heart-felt satisfaction this gave me ; 
and, on walking through the streets, I could 
not but contrast the deportment of the Mos- 
lems with their Persian neighbours, particularly 
at the city of Shirauz, where the English tra- 
veller cannot with any degree of personal safe- 
ty traverse the town without an attendant of 
the British Agent, and even then he is often 
stoned, and always abused and ridiculed. 

Bagdad f is well known, from, having been 

* Mr. Rich was appointed the East India Company's 
resident at Bagdad, in 1806. In the year 1821, he quitted 
that city on a visit to Shirauz, (via Basra, and Bushire,) 
whence he was destined never to return, being carried off by 
an attack of Cholera Morbus, after an illness of eight hours. 
His remains were interred without the city walls ; but the 
heartless Persians could not allow them to repose undisturb- 
ed, to the eternal disgrace of the Prince Houssain Ali Mirza; 
and in 1826, the Envoy to the Persian court removed his 
remains to the Armenian burying-ground at Ispahan, 

t See Appendix, K, This city is called by Marco Polo, 
Baldachi, 



BAGDAD. 91 

the residence of the Caliphs ; and, according to 
the observations made by several British officers, 
is in latitude 33° 19' 40" N. Colonel Macdonald 
Kinneir makes its longitude 44° 24" E. That 
accomplished writer, in his admirable Memoir of 
the Persian Empire, has given such a correct ac- 
count of this city, (as also of the town of Hillah, 
on the Euphrates,) that it would be presump- 
tion in me, and only engrossing the tune and 
exhausting the patience of the reader, were I 
to offer any detailed description ; though I trust 
for forgiveness in submitting a few notices 
here, on the principal buildings and monu- 
ments still standing to perpetuate the memo- 
ry of niany of the earlier commanders of the 
faithfiil. 

According to the best-informed Mahome- 
dan writers, the city was commenced by the 
Caliph Mansoor il Dewaniky, in the year 139, 
and completed in 146,* This Caliph erected 
a mosque without the walls, called Imaum 
Athum, and a college, both which buildings 

* It is to be remarked that all these dates are of the 
Hcgira. 



9S THE PASHA DAOUD. 

are still to be seen ; though on a part of th^ 
jsite of the latter, Daoud Pasha has erected a 
feuperb mosque, and two stately minarets^ 
This man arrrived at Bagdad at the begui- 
ning of Suleiman Pa$ha's government, and was 
brought up like the other slaves in the palace. 
From the post of Mohrdar^ or keeper of the 
seals, he was elevated to that of DufterdaVy or 
keeper of the records, when Suleiman Pasha 
gave him one of his daughters in marriage. 
Bqing on bad terms with his brother-in-law, he 
was neglected and slighted. 

During this period he gave himself up to the 
study of divinity and Turkish law, until Ab- 
dalla's elevation to the Musnud. This Pasha 
appointed Daoud likewise to the situation of 
Dufterdar, in which capacity he displayed both 
wisdom and courage. He also held a similar office 
under Saaeed Pasha, who wished to make him 
his Kehyahy or lieutenant ; but, being suspect- 
ed of intrigue, he was superseded, and fearing 
lest he might lose his head, fled to Sulimaniah^ 
where, with the assistance of Mahommed Ali 



RISAFAH. 9S 

Mit*za, he in a short time succeeded to the 
Fashalick; in which elevated situation he has 
ever iSince remained.* 

Mansoor's eldest son, Mahommed il Mahdee^ 
btdlt a lofty nunaret, in the year 168, called 
Risafah, and situated in a bazaar now termed 
the Thread-market. It is the highest and old- 
est in the city, and stands near the centre ; it iS 
encircled with a Cufic inscription, beautifully 
executed in brickwork, but nearly defaced. 
Its spire, whence you may obtain a beautiful 
view of the river and its environs, still adds 
grace and dignity to the city. On a clear day 
the Tauk Kesra at Ctesiphon is plainly dis^ 
cernible. 

The celebrated Haroun al Raschid erected a 
tonib to the memory of his lamented judge, 
Abu Yusuf, at Kauzumeen, a village about 
one hour's ride from the walls of Bagdad. 
That place is much visited by the Moslems, 

* Keppel is decidedly wrong, when he asserts that this 
Pasha was a beggar at the palace gate. I have heard that 
Ddoud was for some time in the service of Sir John 
Malcolnu 



94 TOMB OF ZOB&IDE. 

from the circumstance of two descendants of 
the Prophet being interred there. 

The largest mosque in E^uzumeen was 
built by Shah Ismael, in the year 914 ; it has 
since been beautifully adorned by Aga Maho- 
med Khan, uncle to the present Shah, and the 
&st Persian sovereign that made Tehraun a 
royal residence. 

In the year 198, Haroun's eldest son, Maho- 
med Ameen, built a mosque, situated within 
the walls; near which stand the tomb and 
shrine of the beautiful Zobeide,* the wife and 
favourite of Al Raschid. This was erected by 
his second son, Abdalla al Mamoon, in 212. 
It is, however, a mean and inferior memorial 
for so celebrated a woman, and, consequently, 
cannot fail to create disappointment. The 
building is octangular, capped with a cone, ex- 
actly resembling a pine-^pple, a form never 



* " Nom d'une fille de Gi^fer Ben Mansour, que ie Khalife 
Haroun al Raschid epousa solennellement, et qui fut m^re 
du Khalife Amin. Le Peleriuage qu'elle fit k la Mecque 
s'est rendu celebre, k cause des grandes aumdnes qu'elle fit 
sur sa route." — D*Herbel6t. 



THE TALISM GATE 95 

adc^ted at the present day: though there is 
a structure within the city which bears some 
resemblance to that mode of building ; it Was 
erected in the year 622, and is called Sheikh 
Shahaiib-ul Deen. 

The Talism gate is well worthy of obser- 
vation; being the finest and largest in Bagdad, 
measuring fifty-six feet in height by fifty-one 
in diameter. It is walled up, in honour of 
Sultan Murad IV. who quitted the city by it, 
on his return to Constantinople, after having 
recovered Bagdad from the Persians. Some 
writers erroneously suppose, that the gate was 
built on occasion of the Sultan's triumjphal 
entry ; but this custom is only observed at the 
departure of royalty, from which time the gate 
is held sacred. 

There is now within the walls a caravansary, 
Imilt by a Pasha in 999 ; one of its gates is 
closed up in a like manner, and for a similar 
reason. The following is a literal translation 
of the Arabic inscription, written round the 
outer face of the Talism : 



96 INSCKIPTION. 

** In the name of the merciful and benefi- 
cent. — *And if Abraham and Ismdael take the 
laws from the temple^ our Lord will accept at our 
hands that thou art the hearer, the vnse'* — This 
is what he commanded should be built; ouJr 
Prince and Lord, the Imaum (obedience to 
whom is binding on all mankind); AbuH abbas 
Ahmed Al nasir li din Illah, chief of the true 
believers ; the successor appointed by the Lord 
of all worlds ; the evidence of God, (on whom 
be glory and exaltation,) to all his creatures: 
— ^the peace and mercy of God be upon his 
spotless ancestors i may his true call on man«- 
kind to submission, aid, and guidance, con- 
tinue to be the bounden duty of the faithful, 
in listming and attention. The completion was 
vouchsafed in the year 618, The mercy of 
God be on our master Mohammed, and his 
pious and immaculate house/' f 

In 590, the Caliph built a banquetting-house, 
on the left bank of the Tigris, within the city 

* A verse of the Koran, usually introduced in such dedi- 
catory lines. t See Appendix, L. 



THE MADRASET. 97 

walls^ which, since the time of Sultan Murad, 
has been a monastery of dervishes, of the Bek- 
tash order, so named from their fomider, Had- 
jee Bektash; and, in 625, Moostanser Billah 
founded a school, which is now a khaun ; and 
the old kitchen is the present Custom-house. 

The annexed inscription is to be traced on 
the walls of the Madraset, ul Mustansaiiah, si- 
tuated at the head of the bridge in Bagdad : 

*^ In the name of the merciful and beneficent 
God. — * And there is a sect amongst t/au who i«- 
vite to hatiness, command piety;, and forbid vice; 
and these are the savedJ ^ The servant of God, 
and his Khalif, Abu Jaaf^ al Mansoor al 
Mustanser Billah, chief of the faithful, with 
whose dominion may God exalt the Moslems, 
eommanded the commencement of this pro- 
pitious college ; looking to the favour of that 
being who destroyeth not the reward of the 
pious^ and desiring the acceptance of the 
Lord of worlds, and the chief of prophet^; 

* A verse of the. Koran, as above. 

H 



98 INSCRIPTION. 

whose excellent commands and dominion may 
God assist, by the power of whose resplendent 
kingdom may he exalt the cause of Islam, and 
by its comeliness bless mankind with the re- 
splendent truths 

" This glorious college was completed with 
the aid of the all-powerful, and of the uncon- 

* 

taminate scripture, and with supplications to 
the strong pillar of support, and this in the 
year 680. Peace to our master Mohammed the 
prophet, and to his house." * 

In the year 758, Miijan, minister to the 
Sultan, came from Persia, whence he solicited 
permission to proceed on a pilgrimage to 
Mecca ; but his subsequent conduct in seizing 
on the government of Bagdad, proved that 
this holy project was but a mere pretence^ He 
founded a khaun, or caravansary, which is in 
good repair to this day ; and a mosque, called 
-after himj Meijaniah, upon the walls of which 
this inscription is to be seen : 

* See Appendix, M. 



THE MERJANIAH. 99 

*^ In the name of Grod, the merciful and the 
beneficent. — * As to temples^ God hath permitted 
that they should be raised^ and that, in them, 
men should remember his name and should glorify 
him therein, in the morning and in the evening; 
men whom neither traffic nor sale beguileth from 
the remembrance of God! * The dependent on 
the compassion of the most merciful king, Mir- 
jan, son of Abdallah, son of Abdurrahman, the 
Sultani, the Oolkhani, commenced this: may 
his devotion find acceptance with God in both 
worlds ; and the peace of God be on our master 
Mohammed and his family, and his companions, 
pious and uncontaminate, A. H. 758.'' f 

The pleasure I derived from making these 
short excursions in and around the city, was 
greatly diminished at beholding the numbers of 
vagrants who were seen lying about the streets} 
victims of poverty, sickness, and famine. The 
women and children were truly piteous objects, 
and in a state of nudity. I never saw such mi- 

♦ From the Koran. f See Appendix, N. 

H 2 



100 NUMBER OF VAGRANTS. 

s6teT)le examples of human wretchedness. These 
poor creatm^es, I was informed, had migrated 
from Mosul in hopes of finding employment, 
and escaping that fatal scoiu'ge the cholera 
morbus y which raged to such a degree this 
summer, that there were not people to gather 
in the harvest. Those who found purchasers, 
sold their children to the highest bidder : while 
the remaining inhabitants who were less fortu- 
nate, were said to have been seen sacrificing 
their ofi«pring to their own uncontrollable hunger. 
For the sake of human nature, I sincerely trust 
this is an exaggeration; I received it from 
scarcely dubitable authority, as a true, and 
faithful picture of the suffering people of 
Mosul. 

Those children who were old enough filed 
from their parents, and one poor boy is now 
with me, (an only son,) who left his aged arid 
Ibrlorh mother, from the horrible apprehension 
of sharing a similar fate. In fact, two months 
ago, young and beautiful girls were publicly 



Turkish dress. 101 

sold in this city for a sum equivalent to ten 
pounds sterling! and many of these hapless 
creatures were Christians ! ! Let us hasten from 
the contemplation of this mournful picture ! 

November 20th. — I proposed visiting an old 
ruin, about nine miles from the city; but as 
the Arabs had been committing some depre* 
dations in the neighbourhood, it was deemed 
advisable by my kind host, Aga Mina?, that 
I shoidd assume the dress of the countryi 
which I strongly recommend to every tra- 
veller whose object is a laudable curiosity, and 
a wish to gain some insight into the manners^ 
habits, and customs of the inhabitants; After 
equipping myself in a new Turkish dres$, I» 
issued from the Agent's house, and crossed: 
the Tigris by a floating bridge of thirty-twa 
boats.* On clearing the walls I was joined 
by a guard, consisting of five Arabs armed with 
swords and spears. 

• The river opposite the Babil-Jisser is two hundred yards 
in breadth. 



102 TULL AKERKOUF. 

After a walk of three hours^ on a bearing 
due W. N, W., we gained the summit of an 
elevated mounds supporting a ponderous mass 
of ruin, which is called by the Arabs TuU 
Akerkouf, vulgarly Agergoaf, and by the Turks 
Nemroud Tepessy, both which appellations sig- 
nify the Mound of Nemroud, or Nimrod, not 
the Tower of Nemroud, as it has been translated. 
Our path was partially strewed with loose 
pieces of burnt and unbumt brick and tile. 
At times we saw a dead camel, from which we 
scared several hungry hawks^ that were feast- 
ing on the offensive carcase* 

At the seventh mile we crossed the dry bed 
of a canal of great magnitude, supposed by 
some to be the river Narraga of Pliny, near 
which, he says, was a city called Hipparenum.* 
This canal is said to be the remains oi^ the ca- 
nal of Isa, and is supposed to connect the Tigris 

* ^' Sunt etiamnum in Mesopotamii oppida : Hipparenum, 
ChaldffiOTum doctrina clarum, et hoc, sicut Babylonia, juxta 
fluvium Narragam, qui dedit civitati nomen, Muros Hip- 
parenorum Persae diruere.'* — FUn. lib. vi. cap. 26. 



CANAL. 108 

with the river Euphrates, at ap<Hnt where these, 
rivers approach each other; but in followingits 
course I found that it discharges itself into the 
Tigris four miles below Bagdad : a circum- 
stance that refutes its identity with the canal 
of Isa. This channel ran North and South. 
Hence, until we arrived in the vicinity of the 
ruins, we passed small parties of Arabs, who 
were employed in tending their flocks and 
herds. Not far from one of these encampments 
I found a bronze figure, appweiitly of an Eu-^ 
ropean, in the costume of the middle ages. 



104 EXTENSIVE RUINS. 

The ruins of a city are here very ajpparent^ 
extensive undulating mounds stretdiing to- 
wards the South and East ; while to the North 
and West they are comparatively small, and 
extend only a short distance from their giant- 
like neighbours. This ruin sweeps irregularly 
upwards, and its form appears to have been 
originaUy square, for the bricks are placed so 
as to favour this opinion ; it does not, however, 
exactly face the cardinal points, as some former 
travellers assert. It is entirely composed of 
sun-dried bricks, made of clay mixed with 
chopped straw, each measuring a square of 
nine inches by four in thickness. At every 
seventh* course of bricks, a layer of reeds is 
placed between the horizontal courses of the 
brickwork, without any apparent cement. These 
layers are very regular from top to bottom ; but 

* Mr. Ri6h is mistaken, when he says that the layers 
of reed are between every fifth or sixth layer of bricks, 
and that the number is not regulated.' He has likewise 
made the circumference of the ruin one hundred feet less 
than it really is« — Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon, p. 41. 



tULL AKERKOUF. 105 

• * 

the bricks composing this colossal mass are of 
uncommon beauty, when we consider the ma- 
terial of which they are composed. This struc- 
ture certainly has been the habitation of some 
important personage ; nay, I almost fancy I 
beheld the residence of a rich and powerful 
sovereign.* 

The ruin is, without doubt, solid, and is 
pierced with small holes, which appear to have 
been designed ,for the purpose of admitting a 
free current of air; but some imagine tiiey held 
the scaffolding when the workmen were em- 
ployed in its erection. Large wooden beams 
are passed through, apparently to strengthen 
the huge fabric of brickwork. On the North- 
eastern face, nearly in the centre, is an aperture, 
somewhat resembling a Gothic window ; for 
what purpose it was intended, it is now impos- 

* **^ CepeDdant on ne peutpas bien decider aujdurd'hui a quel 
dessein. cet edifice a ete elev^. Peut-^tre 6toit-ce le terreia 
BUT lequel un des premieres Califes de Bagdad, ou mdme un des 
Rois do Perse qui residoit k al Modaien, avoit une maisoD 
de campagne, pour prendre un air fraix et froid, sur la hau- 
teur." — M. Niebuhr, Voyage en Arable^ ii.tome p. 248. 4to. 



EXTKNSIV^E RUINS. 



sible to determine. Tavemier relates, that " a 
little way from Bagdad, there is the foundatibn 
of a city, which may seem to have been a large 
league in compass. There are some of the 
walls yet standing, made of burnt brick, ten 
feet square, and three thick."* Tavemier, ^o 
doubt, alludes to these ruins; he conceived it 
to be the remains of some tower, built by one 

* Tiivernier, vol. ij. c. v. 



TULI. AKERKODFp 107 

of the Arab princes, for a beacon to assemble 
his subjects in time of war: this, in all pro- 
bability, was near the truth. From the sum- 
mit to the base of the brickwork, it is one hun- 
dred and twenty-five feet,* the circumference 
is four hundred feet, and from the brickwork 
to the foundation of the rubbish, which now 
forms its pedestal, it is twenty feet. A vast 
number of dried bats are to be seen in the 
small cavities of the structure. I do not think 
this ruin ever exhibited the written character, 
or the bitumen which is used throughout the 
Babylonian remains; nor in searching among 
the surrounding mounds, could I trace vestiges 
of Jbuilding in any mass resembling the rem- 
nants of a regular architectural structure ; 
though the surface of these moimds was 
strewed with broken bricks, earthenware ves- 
sels, vitrified pieces of clay, many perfectly 
black; and small stones, once forming a por- 
tion of, but now surviving the clay that formed 

* Niebuhr states the height of this ruined monument at 
seventy Danish feet. 



108 RUINS OF BABYLON. 

the principal ingredient of every brick. Ad 
the rain fell in torrents, I only remained at 
Akerkouf for two hours : I came prepared to 
attempt some excavations on its site, but the 
weather precluded the practicability of it, and 
compelled us to retrace our steps to Bagdad, 
where we arrived at nightfall. 

My attention now became devoted to the 
ruins of Babylon, the parent city of the 
world, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, 
the audacious assailant of the empjrrean, — ^now 
a heap and a wilderness, a dwelling-place for 
dragons, and bereaved of man; still lowering 
o'er the Desert, still frowning defiance and dis- 
dain of time and the warring elements, though 
spumed alike by the heel of the Ottoman, the 
Israelite, and the sons of Ishmael. 

With an imagination loaded and oppressed 
by the recollection of its splendour and its 
vicissitudes, I hastily concluded a few neces- 
sairy preparations, and retaining the Turkish 
dress, started on the morning of the 28th, 
and crossed the bridge of boats already noticed,- 



ROBBERIES OF THE ARABS. 109 

with a small cavalcade consisting of a Chocadar* 
from the Pasha, who acted as Tissaphemes, 
one Chaoosh, (a herald, or running footman,) in 
the service of Aga Minas, and an armed Desert 
Arab, who considered that his presence would 
be of more utility in case of any attack on 
the road, than the united force of a whole 
caravan. 

The Arabs are certainly retrogressive, in 
point of improvement and civilization. Seven 
years ago, a robbery on the Hillah road was 
unheard of; now, it occurs weekly : large cara^ 
vans are stopped and plundered, and no inquiry 
or search is made after the audacious perpe- 
trators. In fact, the other day, a rich caravan 
had scarcely quitted the gates of this city, on 
its route to Aleppo, before the people of the 
Desert attacked it, and carried off property to 
a very considerable amount. 

But to return : — Clearing the walls, I dis- 
mounted, and proceeded on foot, over an excel- 

* Chokhadar, or Ich Agdsi of the Pashalic of Bagdad ; 
one of the pages of the Pasha's presence. 



^ 



110 KEYAH KHAUN. 

lent road running S. 10° W., while my horse- 
men went before, and amused themselves by 
throwing the jereed, an amusement too often 
described to need any description from me. 

The first objects that attract the eye on leav- 
ing the city, are two low circular piUars on each 
side of the road, built chiefly of brick, inlaid 
with the heads of two hundred of the Khezail 
Arabs, taken by the Pasha's army in their last 
engagement with this tribe. * A little before 
nine we passed a khaun, or caravansary, which 
must once have been a handsome building ; but 
is now forsaken, and falling fast into ruins. It 
is called Keyah Khaun, from its founder Ah- 
med, the Kehyah, lieutenant or mini ster, of 
Suleiman Pasha ; t it is about seven miles and 
a half from Bagdad. 

• The Zobeide Arabs inhabit the whole of this district. 

f Rather more than fifty years ago, this three-tailed Ba- 
shaw was the Mutessellim (governor) of Bussorah. On the 
surrender of that city to the Persians, he was taken prisoner, 
and conveyed to Shirans, where he remained until the death 
of Kerim Khan in 1779, at which period he eiFected his 
escape, and successfully sued the Porte for the pashalic of 
Bagdad. 



AZAD KHAUN. Ill 

At a distance of five miles from it, is Azad 
IChaun, a miserable dirty halting-place, built by 
Omar Pasha in the year of the Hegira 1092, 
Continuing, as usual, S. 10** W. we passed 
another caravansary, called by the Al-abs 
Bir-en-neuss, or el*Neuss, its true appellative 
being Bur-il-nusf, meaning a weU half dug oiit^ 
or the half-way well. There is a Turkish tomb 
here, but whether of saint or of sinner I could 
not learn. 

. From Azad Khaun to this last station^ we 
crossed the remains of several dry water-chan-* 
nels and canals, of great depth and width, some 
of which are attributed to Nebuchadnezzar^ 
King of Babylon.* Of these the famed Jluvius 
regum of that monarch is liot the least im-^ 
portant, though at present dry and neg-^ 
lecteA 

On an elevated and conspicuous mound, 
within six hundred yards of the road, is a 
quadrangular ruin, composed of reeds and sun- 

• See Appendix, O. 



• 



112 SHEIKH SHOUBAR. 

dried bricks, thirty feet high, and two hundred 
and fifty in circumference. The ground about 
it was covered with the usual vestiges of fonner 
buildings. The spot is called by the natives 
Sheikh Shoubar, and is visible at a considerable 
distance. About half-way between, the two last 
stages, and over a small canal, is an old ruinous 
bridge, of one arch, of the best fire-burnt ma* 
terial. 

Next to Mushhed Ali,* the finest hawks in 
the country for hunting the antelope are taken 
here. Antelopes are found in the neighbour- 
hood in great numbers ; for during the whole 
of the day, we saw these beautiful quadrupeds 
feeding among the thistles and short herbage, 
occasionally bounding before us as we disturbed 
them by our presence. They are freque&tiy 
shot by the Arabs, who are too lazy to take 
them in the chase. From Khaun Azad to this 

* This city, according to Kinneir, was founded by Alex- 
ander the Great, and was, for a considerable time, called 
Alexandria. It is thirty miles from Hillah, and four from 
Kufa, a town founded by Oman 



ISKANDERIA. 113 

» 

plaee I made the distance seven miles and a 
half. 

One hour before sunset brought us to a 
very spacious caravansary, the customary halt- 
ing place. It is called Iskanderia, from the 
ruins of a village, and the bed of a canal 
in the neighbourhood. A ruinous khaun of 
the same name is still standing, though now 
deserted. The present inhabited building was 
ejected during the last century, at the expense 
of the late Mohammed Hussein Khan, formerly 
Nizain-ad-Dowlah, or Home Minister of Futteh 
Ali Shah, for the convenience of Persian pilgrims, 
when on their road to Messhed Ali, the most dis* 
tinguished place of pilgrimage which they pos- 
sess. From several ridges of earth covered with 
vestiges of building, lying in every direction, I 
should imagine this spot to be the site of some 
Conisiderable town ; and the bricks are so plenti- 
ful, that the material of which the mehzil is 
oonstructed, was gathered upon the spot. Is- 
kanderia is two hours journey from Bir-d-Nusf, 
and lies in latitude S2^ 56' 18", longitude 4"" 

I 



I 



114 HADJ££ SULEIMAN. 

• 

west of Bagdad. The water is very noxioiis 
here, as well as at all the caravanserais between 
Bagdad and Hillah. 

November 29th.— We advanced at daylight, 
in the usual direction south, varying at in- 
tervals a little to the eastward, when two hoturs 
and three-quarters brought us to a mean build- 
ing, called Hadjee Suleiman. It was founded 
by an Arab, upon whose family the Sultan 
Murad conferred the title of Beg, answerii^ 
to our Baronet, as it is hereditary — with this 
difference, that on the father's death, should 
there be one or moie sons, they all enjoy the 
title at the same time. 

At this caravansary a deep canal crosses tihe 
road, cut from the Euphrates, near the village 
of Naseriat, which bears north twenty-five 
degrees west. Journeying for two hours mosfe 
we reached Muhawwil, where there is a viUage 
of Fellahs, and consequently some cultivation 
is visible, for the first time since we quitted 
Bagdad. In fact, the whole country is an unin* 



MUHAWWIL. 115 

teresting, dull, and flat plain, without an ob* 
ject to please the eye, or rdUeye the monoto« 
nous irksome scene, exc^t the abrupt embank-* 
ments of canal beds. The dreaiine^ of this 
tract forcibly elucidates the words of thie pro- 
phet Jeremiah : — '' I was truly led through the 
wilderness, through a land of deserts and of 
pits, through a land of drought, ^ and where 
no man dwelt.*' ♦ 

The distance is fourteen miles firom the flne 
khaun at Iskanderia, to MuhawwO; which 
place I consider to be only separated from the 
commencement of the site of ancient Babylon, 
by the high embankments of three canals, (one 
of which, I am . inclined to think, may hare 
been the diteh of the venerable city ;) over the 
first of which is a bridge of one arch, (decidedly 
modem) f and a large body of running water, 

« • 

(introduced from the Euphrates by a Pasha, 

* Jeremiah, chap. ii. ▼. 6. 
t This bridge has since fallen in. 

I 2 



116 DEEABY APPROACHES 

for the purposes of irrigation,) taking a direc- 
tion east and west. Hence vestiges of former 
andent edifices are discovered, ramifications of 
wHich extend for an immense distance over the 
desert. 

Half an hoiu* before sunset I entered 
the suburbs of Hillah, and crossed a bridge 
of tliirty-four boats, constructed of pon- 
toons, like that of Bagdad, but in worse 
repair. . I ascertained the breadth of the Eu- 
phrates, at this point, to be 150 yards. From 
the last caravansary at Muhawwil, the road 
was covered, on every side, with irregular 
hillocks and mounds, formed over masses of 
ruin, presenting, at every step, memorials of 
the past. In fact, our path lay through the great 
mass of ruined heaps on the site of ** shrunken 
Babylon ;** — and I am perfectly incapable of 
conveying an adequate idea of the dreary, 
lonely nakedness that appeared around me, on 
entering the gates of the once mighty metro- 
polis, where " the queen of nations " sat en- 



TO BABYLON. 117 

throned; nor can I portray the overpowering 
sensation of reverential awe that possessed my 
mind, while contemplating the extent and 
magnitude of ruin and devastation on every 
side. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Extensive mounds. — ^The MujelliMh. — ^Town of Hillah. — 
Its situation, filthy state, &c. — Mahmoud Beg, the present 
goveraor. — Gardens. — Rapidity of the Euphrates. — Re- 
marks on ancient Babylon. — ^The city built by Semiramis. 
— ^Extent of the walls. — ^Erection of a bridge. — ^Palaces- — 
Temple to Jupiter. — ^The city enlai^d and beautified by 
Nebuchadnezzar. — Hanging gardens. — Canals. — ^Ancient 
splendour of the city .—Taken by Cyrus.— Besieged an<l 
captured by Dariusw-^Height of th^ walls. — Decay and 
desolation of Babylon. 

After passing the second canal embank- 
ment, a circular mound of great elevation ap- 
peared on the right of the road. The superficies 
of its summit and sides was covered with frag- 
ments of buildings, composed of fumace-bumt 
brick, bitumen, reeds, and pieces of stone en- 
graved with the arrow-headed writing upon 
them ; while portions of the ground in the 
immediate vicinity were white with nitre. 



THE HUJELUBAH. 119 

Three hundred yards further, there is another 
oi much greater altitude, its vertex being 
thickly covered with broken painted tile, glass, 
and bricks. Hence dependent mounds branch 
off in every direction, all of equal antiquity witii 
Babylon itself. 

Two miles beyond this is a massive em- 
bankment, extending towards the east and 
west, and seeming to endose the ruins at 
dther extremity. Its superficies exhibits frag- 
ments of decayed brick, stones, pottery, and 
tile. To the south, at about a quarter of a 
mile to the right of the road, is a vast moun- 
tain of ruin, (the MujeUibah,) towering above 
a series of intervening mounds in inexpressible 
grandeur. Although no very distinct traces of 
a ditch can be found, nor can any decided cha* 
racteristic mark of tiie exterior walls of the vene- 
rable city be discovered by the superficial investi- 
gator ; yet, from its present appearance and situ- 
ation, I cannot entertain the shadow of a doubt 
of its being a remnant of those ruined masses ; 
and could the antiquary prosecute an unin- 



120 SITUATION OF HILLAH. 

terrupted, comprehensive, and close examina- 
tion, he would, in all probability, discovier the 
line of these long-sought mural demarcationsr. 
Can we ever sufficiently lament the circum- 
stance of the country being in the hands of 
barbarians ? 

The distance of the before mentioned embank- 
ment from Hillah is full five miles, and the 
circular mounds eight.* Hillah f itself is dis- 
ta-nt from Bagdad forty-nine miles; it is si- 
tuated in latitude ^2** 31' 18", longitude 44^ 20' 
east of Greenwich. The accurate Niebuhr has 
placed it in latitude 32'' 28', and Beauchamp 
32** 25'. - The latter performed the journey 
twice from Bagdad to HiUah, in sixteen hours 
and thirty minutes. The town was built in 
the year of the Hegira 496, from the ruins of 
Babylon, which, on the eastern side of the 
river, lie about two miles distant. 

Hillah is an insignificant place, and nearly 

* The limits of the celebrated city, by Strabo's computa- 
tion, is 385 furlongs, by Diodorus 360, by Curtiud 368, land 
Herodotus (the oldest author of them all) 480 ; or a little 
more than sixty miles in circuit. 

t See Appendix P. 



RAPIDITY OP THE EUPHRATES. 121 

rivals the dty of Bussorah in filth and ofiensive 
effluvia. Its population has been decreasing, 
particularly since it became the scene of con- 
tention and bloodshed about two years and a 
balf ago : I could not learn the amount of it 
with any degree of precision, but I think it 
may be estimated at six thousand souls. The 
present governor, Mahmoud Beg, or rather 
Bey, is an officer in the service of the Pasha 
of Bagdad: he farms it for four lacs of raej 
piastres yearly, a sum equivalent to £7000 

sterling. 

The gardens in the vicinity are extremely 

prodttctive, although agriculture is greatly neg- 
lected ; in fact, a few words will forcibly de- 
scribe its pr^ent state, and exhibit the poverty, 
indolence, oppression, and desolation that reign 
over it. 

I was much struck with the force and ra- 
pidity of the Euphrates at HiUah, from having 
always heard it asserted that the Tigris flowed 
more swiftly. At this point the attribute is 
inapplicable; for, at the time I am writing, 
the stream is pursuing its course at the rate 



1S8 OBSKEVATIONB ON BABYLON. 

of three knots and a half an hour^ while tiie 
Tigris flows at scarcely three. * From the house 
in which I lodged^ (about two furlongs from 
the bridge,) I could at night distinctly hear 
the rushing of the water beneath the bridge; 
whereas it is never audible at Bagdad, not 
even to those who live on the brink, and op- 
posite the floating bridge. Hence, 1 conceive 
that the epithet ^^ sluggish," when applied to 
the majestic Euphrates, is improper. 

Diodprus Siculus, who wrojte about fifty 
years before the birth of Christ, observes, that 
the city was in ruins long before his time, 
and that the spot was an object of interest 
and inquiry. The following observations on 
imcdent Babylon are so minute and elaborate, 
that they may not prove unacceptable. 

** Semiramis, who was naturally of an as- 
piring spirit, and ambitious to excel all her 
predecessors in glorious actions, employed all 

* In May IS^S, I again crossed these mere^ and ascer- 
tained their respective velocity. The Euphrates flowed past 
Hillah at seven knots an hour, and the Tigpris at five knots 
and a half. 



EXTBNT OF THE WALLS. ISS 

her thoughts about the fauildiiig of Babylon $ 
atad having provided .^chittets, artificers, and 
all other niscessaries for the tindertaidng» she em^ 
pk>yed two milHons of m^i in building of the 
cily. It wafi so erected, is that the river Eu* 
phmtes ran through the middle of it, and sur* 
rounded Wijfh a wall of three hundred and sixty 
furlongs in circuit, and adorned with many 

r 

stately turl'ets ; and such was the state and 
gratideul: of the work, that the walls were of 
that, breadth, as that six chariots abreast might 
be driVen together upon them. .The hei^t was 
such^ as. exceeded all men's belief that heard of 
it (fl/i Ctesias relates). 

"But Clitarchus,*and those who afterwards 
jreiit over with Alexander into Asia, have 
written that the walls were three hundred and 
sixty-five furlongs, the queen making them of 
th^t comps^s, to the end that the furlongs 
should bie as many in nunxber, as the days of 
the ytear. They were of brick, cemented with 
hitusaen'; in height, as Ctesias says, fifty or- 
gy^s, (each six* feet,) but, as some of the later 
authors report, but fifty cubits only, and that 



134 ERECTION OF A BRIDGE. 

the breadth was but a little more than what 
would allow two chariots to be driven in front. 
There were two hundred and fifty turrets; in 
height and thickness, proportionable to tlie 
largeness of the wall. It is not to be wonder^ 
ed at, that there were so few towers upon a 
wall of so great a circuit, being that in many 
places round the dty, there were deep morasses, 
so that it was judged to no purpose to raise tur- 
rets there, where they were so naturally fortified. 
Between the wall and the houses, there was a 
s^Bce left round the city of two himdred feet. 

*• That the work might be the more speedily 
despatched, to each of her friends was allotted a 
furlong, with an allowance of all expenses neces- 
sary for their several parts, and commanded all 
should be finished in a year*s time, which being 
diligently perfected with the queen's approba- 
tion, she then made a bridge over the narrowest 
part of the river, five furlongs in length ; on ei- 
ther side of the river she raised a bank as broad 
as the wall, and with great cost drew it out in 
length an hundred furlongs. She built like^ 



PALACBS. 125 

wise two palaces at eadi end of the bridge, on 
the banks of the river, where she might have a 
prospect over the whole city, and make her 
passage, as by keys, to the most convenient 
places in it, as she had occasion. 

" And whereas the Euphrates runs through 
the midst of Babylon, making its course to the 
south, the palaces lie the one on the east, and 
the other on the west side of the river, both 
built at exceeding costs and expense. For that 
on the west had a high and stately waU, made 
of well-burnt bricks, sixty furlongs in compass, 
(seven miles and a half;) within this was drawn 
another, of a round circumference, upon which 
were portrayed on the bricks, before they were 
burnt, all sorts of living creatures, as if it were 
io the life, laid with great art in curious co- 
lours. This wall was in circuit forty furlongs, 
three hundred bricks thick, and in height (as 
Ctesias says,) fifty orgyas, or one hundred yards, 
upon which were turrets one hundred and forty 
yards high. 

^* The third and most inward wall immedi- 



126 PALACES. 

ately surrounded the palace, thirty furlongs jya 
compass, and far surmounted the middle wall 
both in height and thickness, and on this waU 
and towers were represented the shapes of all 
sorts of living creiatures, artificially represented 
in the most lively colours. To this palace like- 
wise she built three gates, under which were 
apartments of brass for entertaimnents, into 
which passages were opened by a certain en-* 
gine. 

" This palace far excelled that on the othar 
side of the river, both in greatness and adorn- 
ments. For the outmost wall of that^ (name- 
ly on the west,) made of weH-bumt hrick, 
was but thttty furlongs in compass- When the 
river was turned aside into a reservoir, and a 
vault buUt across it^ old bed, the stream was 
sufTered to flow over the work in its dd chan- 
nel, so that Semiramis could go from one pa* 
lacd to the other by this vault, without passing 
over the river. She made, likewise, two brazen 
gates, at either end of the vaults, whidi conti* 
nued to the time of the Persian empire. 

" In the MIDDLE OF THE CITY, she built a 



TBMPLK TO JUPITER. 



12T 



texkiple to Jupiter, whom the Babylonians call 
Bdus, of which, since writers diifer among 
themselves, and the work is now whoUy decay- 
ed throu^ length of time, there is nothing 
that can with certainty be related concerning 
it ; yet it is apparent that it was of exceed- 
ing great height; and that, by the advantage 
of it, the Chaldean astrologers exactly observed 
the setting and rising of the stars. The whole 
was built of brick cemented with bitumen, 
witfh great art and cost. Upon the top were 
placed three i^tatues of beaten gold, of Jupiter, 
Juno, and Rhea, with other splendid vessels, 
tables, and ornaments of gold and precious 
stones, weighing altogether about six thousand 

Babylonish talents. But all these the Persian 

» 

kings sacrilegiously carried away, and length of 
time has either altogether consumed or much de- 
faced the palaces, and the other structures, so 
that at this day but a small part of this Baby- 
lon is inhalnted, and the greatest part which 
lay within the wall is turned into pasture and 
tilbge."* 

* Diodorus Siculus, book ii.' chapter d. 



128 HANGING GARDENS/ 

After Nineveh was destroyed, Babylon he^ 
came the queen of the East. Semiramis is said 
by some, and Belus, who is probably the same 
as Nimrod, by others, to have foimded this 
dty. It was Nebuchadnezzar, however, that 
made it <Mie of the wonders of the world ; he 
enlarged and beautified it to such a degree, 
that he may, in a manner, be said to have built 
it, as he boasts, (in Daniel iv. 30.) It was, ac-, 
cording to the lowest account given of it by an- 
cient historians, a regular square forty-five miles 
in compass, enclosed by a wall two hundred 
feet high and fifty broad, in which there were 
one hundred gates of brass. Its principal or- 
naments were, the temple of Belusy in the 
middle of which was a tower of eight stories of 
building, upon a base of a quarter of a mile 
square; a most magnificent palace;' and the 
famous hanging gardens, which were an arti- 

ji 

ficial mountain raised upon arches, and planted 
with trees of the largest as well as the most 
beautiful sorts. 

The old palace was four miles in cotnpass ; 



CANALS. 129 

the now, built by Nebuchadnezzar, was four 
times as large. Two canals were made by Ne- 
buchadnezzar a hundred miles above the city : 
one on the eastern side of the Euphrates, called 
Naharmalcha, or the royal river, by which the 
Euphrates was let into the Tigris ; the other 
on the western side, called Pallacopas, by 
which the redundant waters of the Euphrates 
were carried into a vast lake forty miles square, 
contrived not only to lessen the inundation, 
but for a reservoir, with sluices, to water the 
barren country on the Arabian side. There 
were also prodigious banks of brick and bitu- 
men carried a long way on each side of the 
river, to keep it within its channel." — Dean 
Prideau.v's Connection of the Old and New Testa- 
ment. 

Babylon was a very great and a very an- 
dent dty, as well as Nineveh. It is indeed 
generally reckoned less than Nineveh ; for ac- 
cording to Strabo, it was only 385 furlongs in 
compass: but Herodotus, who was an older 
author than any of them, represents it of the 

K 



180 ANCIENT SPLENDOUU 

same dimensions as Nineveh, that is, 480 fiir- 
longs, or above 60 miles in compass ; but the 
difference was, that Nineveh was constructed 
in the form of a parallelogram, and Babylon 
was an exact square, each side being 120 fur- 
longs in length. So that, according to this 
account, Babylon occupied more ground than 
Nineveh ; for by multiplying the sides, one by 
the other, it will be found, that Nineveh con- 
tamed within its walls only 13,500 furlongs, and 
Babylon 14,400. It was too as ancient, or more 
ancient than Nineveh; for in the words of 
Moses, speaking of Nimrod, {Genesis, chap. x. 
v. 10.) it was the beginning of his kingdom, that 
is, the first city, or the capital city in his do- 
minions. Several heathen authors say, that 
Semiramis, but most, (as Quintus Curtius as- 
serts,) that Belus built it ; arid Belus was very 
piobably the same as Nimrod. But whoever 
was the first founder of this city, we may rea^ 
sonably suppose that it received very great im- 
provements afterwards, and Nebuchadnezzar 



OF THE CITT. 181 

particularly repaired, enlarged, and beautified 
it to sueh a degree, that he may in a manner 
be said to have built it; as he boasted him- 
self, (Daniely chap. iv. v. 30.) " Is not this 
great Babyloti that I have built for the 
house of the kingdom, by the might of my 
power, and for the honour of my majesty ?" — 
Nor is this asserted only in Scripture, but is 
likewise attested by heathen authors — Megas- 
thenes, Berosus, and Abydenus, — ^whose words 
are quoted by Josephus and Eusebius. By 
one means or other, Babylon became so great 
and so famous a city, as to give name to a 
very large empire ; and it is called in Scripture 
great Babylon ;" " the glory of kingdoms ;" 
the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency ;" the 
" golden city ;" the " lady of kingdoms ;" the 
" praise of the whole earth :" and its beauty, 
strength, and grandeur ; its walls, temples, pa- 
laces, and hanging gardens ; the banks of the 
river, and the artificial canals and lake, made 
for the draining of that river in the seasons of 

K 2 



(( 



«< 



182 TAKEN BY CYRUS. 

its overflowings, are described with such pbmp 
and magnificence by heathen authors, that it 
might deservedly be reputed one of the won- 
ders of the world. Its gates of brass, and its 
broad waJls, are particularly mentioned in Scrip- 
ture : the city had a hundred gates, twenty- 
five on each side, all made of solid brass. : its 
walls, according to Herodotus, were three hun- 
dred and fifty feet in height, and eighty-seven 
in thickness, and six chariots could go abreast 
upon them, as Diodorus afiirms after Ctesias. 

The city was taken in the night of a great 
annual festival, while the inhabitants were 
dancing, drinking, and revelling ; and, as Aris- 
totle reports, it had been taken three days, be- 
fore some parts of the city perceived it : but 
Herodotus's accoimt is more modest and pro- 
bable ; that the extreme parts of the city were 
in the hands of the enemy, before they who 
dwelt in the middle of it suspected any thing 
of their danger. After this it never recovered 
its ancient splendour ; from an imperial, it be- 
came a tributary city; from being governed 



BESIEGED BY DARIUS. 193 

by its own kings, and governing strangers, it 
was in its turn governed by strangers; and 
the seat of empire being transferred to Shu- 
shan, it decayed by d4Bgrees, till it was reduced 
at last to utter desolation. 

Xenophon informs us, that Cyrus obUged 
the Babylonians to deliver up all their arms 
upon pain of death, distributed their best 
houses among his officers, unposed a tribute up- 
on them, appointed a strong garrison, and com* 
pelled the Babylonians to defray the charge, 
being desirous to keep them poor, as the best 
means of keeping them obedient. 

But, notwithstanding these precautions, they 
rebelled against Darius, and, in order to hold 
out to the last extremity, took all their wo- 
men, and each man choosing one of them, 
out of those of his own family whom he liked 
best, they strangled the rest, that uimecessary 
mouths might not consume their provisions. 
They sustained the siege and all the efforts of 
Darius for twenty months ; and at length the 
city was taken by stratagem. 



134 HEIGHT OF THE WALLS. 

As soon as Darius had made himself master 
of the place, he ordered three thousand of the 
principal men to he crucified, and thereby ful- 
filled the prophecies of the cruelty which the 
Medes and Persians . would use towards the 
Babylonians; he likewise demolished the wall, 
and took away the gates, neither of which, 
saith Herodotus, had Cyrus done before * But 
either Herodotus or Berosus must have been 
mistaken ; or we must suppose that the orders 
of Cyrus were never carried into execution; 
or we must understand Herodotus to speak of 
the inner wall, as Berosus spoke of the outer : 
and yet it does not seem very credible, when 
the walls were of that prodigious height and 
thickness, that there should be an inner and an 
outer wall too, much less that there should 
be three inner and three outer walls, as Berosus 
affirms. 

Herodotus computes the height of the wall 

* Muros circumcidit, et portas omnes amolitus est ; quo- 
rum neutrum Cyrus jecerat prius eidem a se captae. — He- 
rod, lib. 3. cap. p. 223. —Edit. Gale. 



CIRCUIT OF THE CITY. 185 

to be two hundred cubits, but later authors 
reckon it much lower; Quintus Curtius at one 
hundred ; Strabo, who is a more exact writer, at 
fifty cubits. Herodotus describes it as it was 
originally ; and we may conclude, therefore, that 
Darius reduced it from two htindrcfd to fifty 
cubits. 

Xerxes, after his. return from his unfortunate 
expedition mto Greece, partly out of religious 
zeal, bdng a professed enemy to . image wor- 
ship, and partly to reimburse himself after his 
immense expenses, seized the sacred treasures, 
and plundered or destroyed the temples and 
idols of Babylon. — Such was the state of Baby- 
lon under the Persians. 

When Al^icander came thither, though 
Quintus Curtius says that the whole drcuit of 
the dty was three hundred and sixty-eight fur- 
longs, yet he affirms that only for the space of 
nin^ furlongs it was inhabited. The Eu- 
phrates having been turned out of its course 
by Cyrus, and never afterwards restored to 
its former channel, all that side of the country 



186 DECAY AND DESOLATION 

was flooded by it. Alexander indeed purposed 
to have made Babylon the seat of his empire, * 
and actually set men at work to rebuild the 
temple of Belus, and to repair the banks of the 
river ; but he met with some difliculties in the 
work, and death soon after put an end to this 
and all his other projects, and none of his suc- 
cessors ever attempted it ; and Seleucia being 
built a few years afterwards in the neighbom*- 
hood, Babylon in a little time became wholly 
desolate. 

Seleucia not only robbed it of its inhabi- 
tants, but even of its name, being called 
also Babylon by several authors ; quas tamen 
Babylonia cognominatur. (Plinii Nat. Hist) 
We leam further from a fragment of Diodorus 
Siculus, which is produced by Valesius, and 
quoted from him by Vitringa, that a king of 
Parthia, or one of his peers, surpassing all the 
famous tyrants in cruelty, omitted no sort of 

* Arrian de Exped. Alex. lib. vii. cap. 17. Strabo^ lib. 
xvi. p. 7S8. Edit. Paris, p. 1073. Edit. Amstel. 1707. 



OF BABYLON. 187 

punishment, but sent many of the Babylonians, 
and for trifling causes, into slavery, and burnt 
the forum and some of the temples of Ba- 
bylon, and demolished the best parts of the 
city. This happened about 130 years before 
Christ. • 

* Bishop NewtOD on the Prophecies. 



.1 



CHAPTER VII. 

Description of Babylon by Herodotus. — Its great extent.— 
Principal structures. — ^The castellated palace. — Temple 
and tower of Belus. — ^Tunnel made by Semiramis under 
the Euphrates. — ^The Belidian and Cissian Gates. — Extras 
ordinary number of gates to the city. — Account of the 
Tower of Belus. — Its elevation. — Chapels attached to it. — 
Sepulchre of Belus. — Large statue. — Height of the tower, 
its form, &c. — Conjectures respecting it. — Extensive ranges 
of walls. — Supposed removal of ruins. — Concluding re- 
marks on Babylon. 

m 

According to the description of this city 
by Herodotus, it stood in a large p^ain: the 
exterior of it was a square, surrounded by a 
lofty wall ; and it was divided into two equal 
parts by the Euphrates, which passed through 
it. In the centre of one of these divisions, 

s 

stood the temple and tower of Belus; in the 



1 



J 



EXTENT OF THE CITY. 139 

other, the spacious palace of the king. We 
have akeady spoken of the extraordinary di- 
mensions of the wall that surrounded Babylon ; 
which are variously estimated at from 360 to 
480 stades. The last of these numbers is (as 
we have seen) from Herodotus, whose measures, 
both of the enceinte and every other part, are 
enormous and improbable, occasioned, as we 
are ready to believe, by corruptions of the text. 
As an instance of the latter, he is made to say, ! 
that reeds were placed at every thirtieth course 
of brick work, in the Babylonian buildings ; 
but modem travellers find them at every sixth, 
seventh, or eighth course, in Aggarkuf, appa- i 
rently a Babylonish building; and M. Beau- 
champ discovered them at every course, in some 
of the buildings in Babylon. We have therefore 
disregarded his calculations on the present oc- 
casion. 

Even the dimensions given by Strabo are 
beyond probability, as far as respects the height 
of the walls, which he reckons at fifty cubits, 
or seventy-five feet. The thickness, thirty-two 



140 WALLS AND RAMPARTS. 

feet, if meant of an earthen rampart faced with 
brick, falls short of our modem ramparts, which 
are about forty-eight feet at the base ; the pa- 
rapet alone being eighteen feet, yet leaving an 
ample space for two carriages to. pass each 
other, which is the most that Strabo says of 
the space on the wall of Babylon. As a can- 
non-proof parapet was not required at Baby- 
lon, several carriages might have gone abreast 
on a rampart of equal solidity with ours. There 
is, therefore, nothing extraordinary in this par- 
ticular. 

Respecting the height and thickness of the 
walls of Babylon, there are great variations in 
the different reports. Probably, we ought to 
receive the accounts of the later writers as the 
most correct; for the same reason that we gave 
a preference to their statements respecting the 
extent of the city. The Macedonians and 
latter Greeks had more leisure to examine and 
measure the objects that presented themselves, 
than casual observers. Pliny seems to have 
copied Herodotus ; whilst Strabo probably fol- 



MEASURES OF BABYLON. 141 

lowed the Macedonian reports. Diodonis also 
makes a striking distinction bettveen the ac- 
counts of the early and the later writers. It 
may have been, that fifty cubits, or about 
seventy -five feet, was the height of the city 
wall, measured, perhaps, from the bottom of 
the ditch ; . and the thickness, thirty- two. 

The following are the statements of the dif- 
ferent authors, respecting the measures of Ba- 
bylon. 

Circuit of Height of the walls. Breadth of the walls, 
stades. Cubits. Fret. Cubits. Feet. 

Herodotus 480 200 = SCO 50 = IS 

Pliny, 60 M.P 480 

Ctesias 360* 300 

Clitarchus 365 

Curtius 368 100 = 150 32 

Strabo 385 50= 75 32 

With respect to the two principal structures 
in this stupendous city, the castellated palace^ 
(called by some, the citadel,) and the temple and 
tower of Belus, — ^the general description of the 

• Fifty orgyia are given; it should probably be fifty 
cubits. 



142 TEMPLE AND TOWER 

first, is given by Diodoms; of the latter, by 
Herodotus. They are both wonderful in their 
kind : the first, for the extent of the ground 
which it covered, and which is represented to 
have been a square of near a mile and a half ; 
the other for its bulk and height, its base alone 
being said to be a cubic stade^ surmounted by 
seven towers, which successively diminished 
as they rose. More wiH be said concerning 
this tower in the sequel; when it will ap- 
pear, that there must either be an error in 
the text of Herodotus in this place, or that 
he had been grossly deceived in his infor- 
mation. 

Herodotus has not said in which of the divi- 
sions of the city the temple and palace were re- 
spectively situated ; but it may be pretty clearly 
collected from Diodorus, that the temple stood 
on the east side, and the palace on the west ; 
and the remains found at the present day accord 
with this idea. For, Diodorus describes the 
great palace to be on the west side, the lesser 
palace on the east; and there also was the 



OF B£LUS. 148 

bmzen statue of Belus. Now^ he makes such 
a distinction between the two palaces, as plainly 
shows, that the one on the west was to be 
regarded as the palace ; and, consequently, 
was the palace intended by those, who represent 
a palace to answer on the one side, to the tem- 
ple of Belus on the other. It is also to be 
inferred from Herodotus, Clio, 181, that the 
palace and the citadel were the same : he says, 
" the royal palace fills a large and strongly 
defended space," in the cent,* of one of the 
divisions. Diodorus says, that the temple stood 
in the centre of the citi/ ; Herodotus, in the 
centre of that division of the city in which 
it stood, as the palace in the centre of its 
division. 

The description of Diodorus is pointed, with 
respect to the fact that the palace was near to 
the bridge, and consequently to the river bank : 
and he is borne out by the accounts of 
Strabo and Curtius, both of whom represent 
the hanging gardens to be very near the 
river; and all agree that they were within. 



144 TUNNEL UNDER 

or adjacent to, the square of the fortifijtd 
'palace* 

They were supplied with water, drawn up 
by engines from the Euphrates. Consequently, 
the palace should have stood nearer to the 
centre of the city itself, than to that of the 
division in which it stood, since the division 
was more than four miles broad ; and it appears 
natural enough that the princess should avail 
herself of the prospect of a noble river, a sta- 
dium in breadth, flowing near the palace, in- 
stead of withdrawing two miles from it.f And 

* Strabo, p- 738, says, that '' the Euphrates flows through 
the middle of the city ; and the pensile gardens are adjacent 
to the river, from whence they were watered." 

t Diodorus has described a vaulted passage under the bed 
of the Euphrates, by which the queen (Semiramis) could 
pass from one palace to the other, on different sides of the 
river, (which was a stadium in breadth^ according to Strabo, 
p. 738,) without crossing it. This serves at least to show, 
that the palaces were very near to the river banks* 

At a time when a tunnel, of more than . half a mile in 
length, under the Thames, is projected, it may not be amiss 
to mention the reported dimensions of the tunnel made by 
Semiramis* under the Euphrates; which, however^ was no 
more than 500 feet in length, or less than one-fifth of the 



THE EUPHEATES. 145 

it appears probable, that the temple was also 
at no great distance from the opposite bank of 
the river ; that is, the eastei^n bank.* 

A presumptive proof of the supposed posi- 
tion of the temple, should the words of Diodo- 

projected tunnel under the Thames. That of Semiramis is 
said to have been fifteen feet in breadth and twelve in 
height, to the springing of the arch ; perhaps twenty in all. 
The ends of the vault were shut up with brazen gates. Dio< 
dorus had an idea that the Euphrates was five stadia in 
breadth* — See lib. ii. c. i. 

The Euphrates was turned out of its channel, in order to 
effect this purpose. Herodotus, who is silent concerning the 
tunnel, says, that the river was turned aside, in order to build 
a bridge. Diodorus describes a bridge also. There is an 
absurd story told by both these historians, respecting the 
disposal of the water of the river, during the time of building 
the bridge, &c. According to them, the water was received 
into a vast reservoir, instead of the obvious and usual mode 
of making a new channel, to conduct the river clear of the 
work constructing in its bed into the old channel, at a point 
lower down. 

• Here it is propeTr to remark, that there is this specific 
di£ference between the descriptions of Herodotus and Diodo- 
rus : the first says, that the centres of the two divisions were 
occupied, respectively, by the palace and temple ; but Diodo- 
rus, by two palaces ; and although he speaks of the temple 
also, yet he does not point out its situation. The square of 
the temple itself was two stadia. 



146 THE BELIDIAN AND 

rus be regarded as ambiguous, is, that the gate 
of the city, named Belidian, and which we must 
conclude to be denominated from the temple, 
appears pretty clearly to have been situated 
on the east side. When Darius Hystaspes 
besieged Babylon, (Thalia, 155, et seq.) the 
Belidian and Cissian gates were opened to him 
by Zopyxus; and the Babylonians fled for 
refuge to the temple oi Belus, as, we may 
suppose, the nearest place of security. The 
Cissian or Susian gate must suxdy have been 
in the eastern front of the city, as Susa lay to 
the east; and^ by circumstances, the Belidian 
gate was near it, as the plan was laid that 
Persian troops were to be stationed opposite 
to these gates ; and it is probable that matters 
would be so contrived, as to facilitate, as much 
as possible, the junction of the two bodies of 
Persian troops that were first to enter the city, 
as a kind of forlorn hope. 

It may also be remarked, that the gates at 
which the feints were made, previous to the 
opening of the Belidian and Cissian, were those 



CISSIAN GATES. 147 

of Ninus^ Chaldea, and Semiiaxnis. The firsts 
towards Ninus ot Nineveh, must have been, 
of course, to the norths and the Chaldean to the 
south; and perhaps that of Semiramis to the 
north-east^ between the Belidian and Ninian, a^ 
that of Cissia to the south-east, between the 
Belidian and Chaldean. As it is unquestion- 
able that the Ninian and Cissian gates were 
in the eastern division of Babylon, since the 
countries whence they are respectively deno- 
minated Ue to the east of the Euphrates, it 
may be collected that the attack was confined 
to that division alone, (and what army could 
invest a fortress thirty-four miles in circuit?) 
If this be admitted, the Belidian gate, and 
temple of Belus, must have stood on the east 
side of the Euphrates.* 

* Herodotus says, that there were a hundred gates in the 
circuit of the city, which being a space of thirty-four miles, 
allows three gates to each mile. It is certain that in modern 
fortresses, the communications with the country are not so 
numerous, in proportion to their extent ; nor, on the other 
hand, are they so far asunder as to have only three in a front 
of eight and a half miles. Probably the rest might have 
been smaller portals, which were shut up during a siege. 

l2 It 



148 ACCOUNT OF THE 

Taking for granted, then, that the tower of 
Belus stood in the eastern division of the dty, 
let us examine the accounts of it. 

It appears that none of the Greeks who de- 
scribe it, had seen it till after it had been either 
ruined by Xerxes, or gone so far to decay, that 
its origmal design was not apparent. Herodo- 
tus himself, therefore, admitting that he view- 
ed it, might not be a perfect judge of the de- 
sign, or of the original height of the superstruc- 
ture. This may account for his exaggerated 
description ; perhaps imposed on him, by some 
of the citizens of Babylon, long after the upper 
stories had fallen to ruin. The mass of rub- 
It may indeed be concluded, that there were fewer gates 
and communications with the country on the west, than 
elsewhere ; for it may be recollected, that Alexander wished 
to enter the city by the west, (after his return from India,) in 
order to avoid the evil foretold by the soothsayers ; but was 
compelled to give up the attempt, by reason of the marshes 
and morasses on that side. — (See Arrian, lib, vii.) — We are 
told also by Diodorus, lib. ii. chap. 1., that the number and 
depth of the morasses round about Babylon, made a smaller 
number of towers, in the nature of bastions, necessary for the 
defence of the wall. There were only two hundred and fifty 
of these, in the whole circuit of thirty-four miles. 



TOWEK OF BELUS. 149 

bish, mentioned by Strabo, seems to prove 
this. 

All the descriptions are very brief; and 
Strabo is the only one who pretends to give 
the positive measure of the elevation of the 
tower; though all agree in i^tating it to be very 
great. The square of the temple, says Herodo- 
tus, was two stadia (one thousand feet ;) and the 
the tower itself one stadium ; in which Strabo 
agrees. The former adds, " In the midst, a 
tower rises, of the solid depth and height of 
one stadium ; upon which, resting as a base, 
seven other turrets are built in regular succes- 
sion. The ascent is on the outside, which, 
winding from the groimd, is continued to the 
highest tower ; and in the middle of the whole 
structure, there is a convenient resting-place. 
In the last tower is a large chapel, in which is 
placed a couch, magnificently adorned; and 
near it a table of solid gold, but there is no sta- 
, tue in the place." Clio, 181.— He afterwards 
describes another chapel, lower down in the 
structure, with golden statues, tables, and altars : 



150 SEPULCHRE OF BELUS. 

all of which appear to have been f OTciHy taken 
away by Xerxes, who also put the priest to 
death. 

Strabo says, that the sepulchre of Belus was a 
pyramid of one stadium in height, whose base 
was a square of like dimensions; and thst it 
was ruined by Xerxes. Arrian agrees in this 
particular ; and both of tiiem say, that Alexan- 
der wished to restore it, that is, we may sup- 
pose, both the tower and temple, but that he 
found it too great a labour : for it is said that 
ten thousand men were not able to remove the 
rubHsh, in the course of two months. Arrian 
calls it a stupendous and magnificent fabric; 
and says, that it was situated in the heart of 
the dty. Diodorus, lib. ii. chap. 1. says, that 
it was entirely gone to ruin, in his time; so 
that nothing certain could be made out, con- 
cerning its design, but that it was of an ex- 
ceeding great height, built of brick, and ce- 
mented with bitumen ; in which the others ge- 
nerally agree. 

Diodorus adds, that on the top was a statue 



HEIGHT OF THE TOWER. 151 

of Belus, forty feet in height^ in an upright 
posture. It has been the practice to make the 
statues placed on the tops of buildings^ of such 
a height as to appear of the natural size, when 
viewed from below : and if this /rule was fol- 
lowed in Babylon, the tower must have been 
of about the height of five hundred feet; for 
the statue itself, in order to be viewed from a 
convenient station, dear of the base, and ad* 
mitting the retreats of the stories to be regular, 
must have been from six hundred to six hun- 
dred and fifty feet; and at that distance, a 
statue of forty feet high would have appeared 
nearly of the size of a man. 

That it was exceeding lofty, may be conceiv- 
ed by the mode of expression of those who de- 
scribe it ; and if it be admitted that the whole 
fabric was a stadium in height, as Strabo says, 
and as appears probable, even this measure, 
which is about five hundred feet, must be al- 
lowed to be a vast height for so bulky a struc- 
ture raised by the hands of man; for it is about 
twenty feet higher than the great pyramid of 



152 FORM OF THE TOWER. 

Memphis; arid would exceed the loftiest pile 
in Great Britain (Salisbury steeple) by one hun- 
dred feet. But as the base of the great pyramid 
is about seven hundred feet square, or nearly 
half as large again as that of the tower of Be- 
lus, the solid contents of the pyramid must have 
been much greater. The Greeks with Alex- 
ander, who saw and described the tower, had 
also seen the pyramids; but they make no 
comparison between either their bulk or their 
altitudes. The tower, from its having a nar- 
rower base, would appear much more than 
twenty feet higher than the pyramid. The 
space occupied by the mass of ruins taken for 
the tower of Belus, appears, as far as can be 
judged, to agree with the idea that may be 
collected from the descriptions of it; consider- 
ing that, as so great a portion of it was formed 
of earth, very much of the mass must have 
been washed down by the rain ; which, accord- 
ing to Delia Valle and Beauchamp, has worn 
deep ravines in its sides. Much also, must 



CONJECTURES RESPECTING IT. 16S 

have been dispersed, in dry seasons, by the 
winds. 

* With respect to the form of the tower — some 
have surmised, that the winding path on the 
outside gave occasion to the report of eight 
towers placed one above the other : but had it 
derived its character from this circumstance 
alone, it would have had a very different ap- 
pearance from that of a regular pyramidal form, 
as is described by Strabo : although a winding 
path might have been so contrived, as to pre- 
serve the regularity of the figure. Authors 
differ also, in respect to the manner in which 
the tower was completed at the top. Hero- 
dotus says, that it terminated in a spacious 
dome, in the nature of a chapel or temple; but 
others say, an observatory. Diodorus asserts, 
that the statue of Belus was at the top : Hero- 
dotus, lower down the building. Who shall 
decide ? Xerxes is said to have removed the 
statues; so that, of course, Herodotus could not 
have seen them. 



154 REMOVAL OF RUINS. 

There can be but little doubts that the 
base has been mcreased by the falling ruins; 
although it may be supposed, that such parts 
of them as consisted of burnt bricks have been 
removed, as most of the other ruins of the 
same kind have been, and as even the foimda* 
tions of the city walls, and of other structures 
ill Babylon, continue to be to this day ; and 
that for the piupose of building houses in other 
places. At all events, the base of the ruin 
must far exceed that of the original fabric: 
and by the way, we may conclude, that, if 
the Greeks found the tower of Belus, when in 
such a state, as that the dimensions of its base 
could be ascertained — a stadium in length and 
breadth — ^the standard of the stadium must have 
been nearer 500 than 600 feet. 

Indeed it can hardly be supposed, even 
when the furnace-baked bricks of the ruin 
were removed, that the remaining matter 
would form a mass of less than 600 feet on 
each side ; supposing it to have been 500 ori- 
ginally. It may be inferred, that the upper- 



LAH6B TREES. 155 

most stories consisted more of masonry than 
earth; but the lower, chiefly of earth, which 
was retained ui its place, by a vast wall of sun* 
dried bricks; the outer part, or focing of 
which; was composed of such as had under- 
gone the c^>eration of fire. Strabo says, that 
the sides of the tower were of burnt bricks. 

The hanging gardens, (as they are called,) 
which occupied an area of about three acres and 
a half, had trees of a considerable size growing 
in tiban: and it is not improbable that they 
were of a species different from those of the 
natural growth of the alluvial soiL of Baby- 
Ionia. Curtius says, that some of them were 
eight cubits in girth; and Strabo, that there 
was a contrivance to prevent the large roots 
from destroying the supersteucture, by build- 
ing vast hollow piers, which were fiUed with 
earth to receive them. 

It may reasonably be concluded, that very 
great dianges have taken place in the course 
of the river, since the date of the descriptions 
of Babylon, by the early Greek authors. 



156 EXTENSIVE WALLS. 

No doubt the temple of Belus was farther 
from the river at that time, than accord with 
the descriptions of the modems (taking the 
mount of ruins, Mujellibah, for the tower) ; so 
that the river ran more to the west. 

M. D'Anville informs us, in his Euphrates 
and Tigris, pages 116, 117, that he had seen a 
MS. relation of the travels of the missionary, 
P^re Emanuel de St. Albert, which the author 
had communicated to M. BeUet, at Constan- 
tinople ; and which the latter fiad sent to 
D'Anville's great patron, the Duke of Orleans. 
In it, the author says, " that he had seen in 
the western quarter of Babylon (the other 
quarter he did not visit,) extensive ranges of 
walls, partly standing, partly fallen, and of so 
solid a construction, that it was scarcely pos- 
sible to detach the bricks from them. The 
Jews, settled in those parts, call these remains 
the prison of Nebuchadnezzar/* M. Niebuhy 
visited a ruin on the west side of the Eu- 
phrates ; but from the brevity of P^re Ema- 
nuel's description, we cannot determine, abso- 



MATERIALS OF THE WALLS. 157 

lutely, whether the rums seen by these two 
gentlemen were one and the same, but we 
should certainly conclude the contrary : for what 
Niebuhr saw, was, in his idea, rather a vast 
heap of bricks than a structure ; having above, 
or rising out of it, a tower of furnace-baked 
brick of great thickness. Nothing is said con- 
cerning the nature of the cement; nor any 
reeds mentioned, either by Pfere Emanuel, or 
M. Niebuhr. 

As we do not hear of any remains of the 
superstructure of the walls of Babylon, at this 
time, it may be concluded that the materials of 
them have been generally removed, to build 
other places. But this was not done in very 
early times; for although ^the city declined 
soon after the foundation .of Seleucia, and was 
deserted in the time of Pliny, yet it appears 
that the city walls, as well as the tower of 
Belus, remained, although not entire. We 
learn both from Niebuhr and Beauchamp, that 
the foundations of buildings, and apparently of 
the walls of the city, also, continue to be dug 



158 CONCLUDING R£MARKS 

up, and transported to other places, for the 
purposes of huildmg. The bricks are to be 
traced amongst the buildings of Bagdad and 
other cities ; as we find Roman bricks in and 
about those towns that were formerly Roman 
stations in this Island. 

Those who have made it their business to ex- 
amine and inquire into such matters, have al- 
ways found that the materials of ancient cities 
have been employed in the building of new 
<mes, in cases where new foundation have 
been established in the same neighbourhood; 
and when such materials could conveniently 
be transported by inland navigation, they are 
found at very great distances from their ancient 
situation: much farther, indeed, than Bagdad 
or Seleucia are from Babylon. In effect, the 
remains of ancient cities throughout the world, 
are those only, which are either too firmty 
cemented to be worth the labour of separating ; 
too far distant from a convenient situation, to 
be worth the expense of transportation; or 
which, from theur natiu'e^ are not applicable to 



ON BABYLON. 159 

<»diiiary purposes. For a desarted city is 
nothing else than a quarry above ground^ in 
which the materials are ready shaped to every 
one's hands. And although^ during the times 
of regular government, these ruins may become 
private property, or the property of the state, 
yet in the history of every country, there 
have been intervals of anarchy and confusion, 
during which such rums have been regarded as 
common to all. 

We may safely conclude that Babylon stood 
in the place assigned to it. Many circum- 
stances concur to prove this : for the distances 
given by Herodotus from /*, or Hit ; and by 
Strabo, and the Theodosian tables, from Se- 
leuda ; the traditions of the Orientals concern- 
ing it; their reports of its latitude, and the 
name of the district rounds it, which is Bab£l 
to this day ; together with the ruins, which are 
of no ordinary kind ; all conspire to place the 
site of andent Babylon at and about the pre- 
sent town of Hillah : and the particular ruin 
which may be taken for that of the tower of 



160 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

Belus, (which was said to stand in the centre of 
one of the divisions,) at three and a half British 
miles to the N.N. W. of HiUah.* 

• See Renneirs Geography of Herodotus, section xiv. — 
A learned and invaluable work, to whose pages all will be 
delighted to recur. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Departure for Babylon. — El Mujellibah. — Curious tradition. 
— Description of this Ruin. — Mode of Brick-making. — Ex- 
cayations. — Superstition of the Natives.— Prophecies of 
Jeremiah. — ^Village of Elugo. — Remarkable Niche. — Dis- 
coveries of Mr. Rich. — Large earthen Sarcophagus. — Gran- 
deur of the Ruins. — Extensive embankment. — Lofty ellip- 
tical Mound. — Al Kasr, or the Palace. — Numerous Ravines. 
— Square piers, or buttresses. — Inscriptions. — Supposed 
site of the Pensile Gardens. — Granite Slab. — ^TThe Pensiles 

Horti. 

November 30th.r-At daylight, 1 departed 
for the ruins, with a mind absorbed by the 
objects which I had seen yesterday."* An. 
hour's walk, indulged in intense reflection, 
brought me to the grandest and most gigantic 
Northern mass, on the eastern bank of the Eu- 

♦ See Appendix, Q 

. V- 
M 



163 £L MUJELLIBAB. 

phrates, and distant about four miles and a 
half from the eastern suburb of Hillah. It is 
called by the natives. El IVIujellibah, " the 
overturned:" also Haroot and Maroot, from 
a tradition handed down, with little deviation, 
from time immemorial, that pear the foot of 
the ruin there is a well invisible to mortals, in 
which those rebellious angels were condemned 
by God to be hung with their heels upwards, 
until the day of judgment, as a punishmait 
for their wickedness.* 

This solid mound, which I consider, from its 
situation and magnitude to be the remains 
of the Tower of Babel, an opinion likewise 
adopted by that venerable and highly distin- 
guished geographer Major BenneU, is a vast 
oblong square, composed of kiln4)umt and 
sun-dried bricks, rising ii*re^ularly to the 
height of one hundred and thirty-nine feet, at 
the south-west; whence it slopes towajfds the 
north-east to a depth of a hundred and ten 

* See D'Herbelot, and Appendix, page 257. 



CURIOUS TRADITIOli. 1^ 

feet. Itar sides face the four cardinal points : 
I measured them carefully ; and the following 
is the full extent- of each face. That to the 
north, along the visible face, is S74 yards; to 
the south, 256 yards ; to the east, 226 yards ; 
and to the west, 240 yards .♦ The summit is 
an uneven flat strewed with broken and un- 
broken bricks, the perfect ones measuring 
thirteen inches square, by three thick. Many 

* Pliny, in describing Mesopotamia, says, " Babylon Chal- 
daianim gentium caput diu summam claritatem obtinuit in 
toto orbe, propter quam reliqua pars Mesopotamia Assy* 
riseque Babylonia appellata est, sexaginta millia passuum 
amplexa, muris ducenos pedes altis, quinquagenos latis, in 
singulos pedes temis digitis mensnr^ ampliore quim nostra,' 
interfluo Euphrate, mirabili opere utroque. Durat adhuc 
ibi Jovis Beli templum. Inventor hie fuit sideralis scientiae. 
Cetero ad solitudinem rediit, exbausta vicinitate Seleucis?, 
ob id conditee a Nicatore intra nonagesimum lapidem, in 
confluente Euphratis fossa perducti, atque Tigris; quae tamen 
Babylonia cognominatur, libera hodie ac sui juris, Macedo* 
numque moris. Ferunt ei pl^bis urbanse DC. M.. esse : situm 
yero moenium, aquilae pandentis alas ; agrum totius Orientis 
fertilissimum. Invicem ad banc exhauriendam, Ctesiphon- 
tem juxta tertium ab ea lapidem in Chalonitide condidere 
Parthi, quod nunc caput est regnorum. Et postquam nihil 
proficiebatur, nuper Vologesus rex aliud oppidum Vologeso 
— certam in vicino condidit." 

M 3 



ij64 MODE QF BEICKrMAKING. 

exhibited the arrow-headed characterji which 
lippeared remarkably fresh. . Pottery, bitumen, 
vitrified and petrified brick, shells and glajss, 
were all equally abundant. The principal ma- 
terials composing this ruin are doubtless mud 
bricks baked in the sun, and mixed up with 
straws. Many of the ancient ruined cities of 
Persia are likewise described as being built of 
unburnt bricks beaten up with straw or rush, 
perhaps to make the ingredient adhere, and 
then baked in the sun.* This mode of making 
bricks is of the greatest antiquity ; for even in 
the days of the Egjrptian bondage, I apprehend 
it to be alluded to, when Pharaoh commanded 
the taiskmasters of the people and their officers, 
saying, " Ye shall no more give the people 
straw to make brick, as heretofore; let them 
go and gather straw for themselves.'* — Exodia^ 
chap. V. ver. 7. 

It is not difficult to trace brickwork along 
each front, particularly at the south-west angle, 

. * Vide Morier's. Second Journey through Persia, cap. xiii. 
page 207» 



EXCAVATIONS. 16S 

which is faced by a wall, composed jrartly of 
kiln-burnt brick, that in shape exactly re- 
sembles a watch tower or small turret* On 
its summit there are stiU considerable traces of 
erect building : at the western end is a drcular 



Soaih (u< M Ihe HnjilUtnli. 

* Pietro Delia Valle, a Romw Uaveller, visited Babylon 
in 161fi. He says, whea speaking of this ruin, " Its sitnte- 
tion and form correspond with that pyramid which Strabo 
calb the Tower of Belus." — ".It is built with large and thick 
biicks,-as I carefully observed, having caused excav^ons to' 
be made in several places for. that purpose; bat they do not. 
appear to have been burned, but dried in the sun, which is 
estcemely faot in those parts. Thfse sun-^aked bricks, in 



IBS RUINS DESCRIBED. 

mass of solid brickwork, sloping towards the 
top and rising from a confused heap of rubbish. 
The chief material forming this fabric appeared 
similar to that composing the ruin called Aker^ 
kouff— :a mixture of chopped straw, with slimi^ 
used as cement;* and regular layers of un- 
broken reeds between the horizontal courses 
of the bricks. The base is greatly injured by 
time> and the elements; particularly to the 
south-east, where it is cloven into a deep fur- 
row from top to bottom, 

whose substance were mixed bruised reeds and straw, and 
which were laid in clay mortar, compose the great mass 
of the building; but other bricks were also perceived at 
certain intervals, especially where the strongest buttresses 
stood, of' the same size, but burned in a kiln, and set in good 
lime and bitumen J* -^Yide Pietro Delia Valle's Travels, 
vol. ii. let 17« 

* " And they had brick fbr stone, and slime had they for 
mortar." Genesis^ chap. i. v. 4. — The cement, here men- 
tioned by the name of slime, was probably what the ancients 
called asphaltusy or bitumen ; Assyria abounds with it. He- 
rodotus, -and many ancient authors affirm, that the walls of 
Babylon were cemented with it Arrian says, "The temple 
of Belus, in the midst of the city of Babylon, was made of 
brick/ cemented with asphaltus.*' 



PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH. l67 

The sides of the rtiin exhibit hollows worn 
partly by 'the weather^ but mcHre generally^ 
foraaed by the Arabs, who are incessantly 
digging for bricks, and hunting for antiqui^ 
ties. Several of these excavations I entered, 
and have no reason to suppose that they are 
inhabited by such ferocious animals as the 
generality of travellers assert. There certainly 
was an offensive smell, and the caves were | 
strewed with bones of sheep and goats, de*- 
voured miost ptobably by the jackals that re- 
sort thither in great' numbers; and thousands ^ 
of bats and owls have filled many of these 
cavities*.. 

r The natives me very reluctant to follow the 
visitor into these dens, and dislike remaining 

* " Because of the wrath of the Lord, it shall not be in- 
habited, but it shall be wholly desolate ; every one that 
goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her 
plagues. How is Babylon become a desolation among the 
nations ! The wild beasts of the desert, with the wild beasts 
of the islands, shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell 
therein ; and it shall be no more inhabited for ever ; neither 
shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. As God 



168 PROPHECIES OF JERBMIAfi. 

near the ruins ^ after sunset, xather irom the 
fear of demons and evil spirits, than from any 
attack of lions or other wild beasts^ Indeed, 
by their account, there are not half a dozen 
lions within thirty miles round Babel ; though, 
about sixty miles below Hillah, on the banks 
of the river, in a considerable patch of brush- 
wood, those animals are very numerous. It 
appears, that -the only risk attendant on enters 
ing the recesses in all the .mounds, is the lia^ 
bility of being stung l^ venomous reptile^ 
>vhich are vfery numerous throughout the ruins^ 
This circumstance is an apt illustration of the 
prophecies of Jeremiah, "And Babylon shall 
become heaps, a dT*^eUing^place • for dragons^ 
an ' astonishment, and an hissing, without -an 
inhabitant." — Jeremiah, chap. li. ver. 87. 

RauwoUf, a G^erman traveller, passed thefse 
ruins in 1574. He speaks of a village which 

' overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and the neighbour cities, 
thereof, saith the Lord j so shall no man abide there, nei- 
ther shall anyson of nian dwell therein. "^^—Jcremwi A, chap. •!. 
ver. 13. 23. 39, 40. 

9 ' 



VILLAGE OF ELUGO. 169 

he named Elugo, occupying a part' of Babylon. 
This village, I imagine, may have been the town 
of Nil, marked down in my plan of the ruins. 
I shall here quote a part of his description ; it 
is as follows : — " The village of Elugo now 
lieth on the place where formerly old Babylon, 
the metropolis of Chaldaea, was situated. The 
harbour is a quarter of a league's distance from 
it, where people go ashore in order to proceed 
by land to the celebrated city of Bagdad, which 
is a day and a half's journey from thence east^ 
ward on the Tigris. 

" Just below the village of Elugo is the hUl 
whereon the castle stood, and the ruins of its 
fortifications are still visible, though demolished 
and uninhabited. Behind it, and pretty near 
to it, did stand the Tower of Babylon. It is 
stiU to be seen, and is half a league in dia- 
meter ; but so ruinous, so low, and so full of 
venomous creatures, which lodge in holes made 
by them in the rubbish, that no one durst 
approach nearer to it than within half a 
league, except during two months in the 



170 MR. RICH'S DISCOVERIES. 

winter, when these animals never stir out of 
their holes." 

In the north-west face of this huge mound 
is a niche six feet high, by three deep ; it is 
particularly noticed by Mr. Rich, in his me- 
moir on Babylon; this recess is very clearly 
discernible to the distance of full two miles on 
approaching the ruin from the north ; and it 
being near the summit renders it a conspi- 
cuous spot. The natives call this the ^cr- 
daubj signifying a cellar, or vaulted cham- 
ber: this aperture is well worthy the most 
minute examination^ from its being .a place 

of sepulture. 

Rich here discovered a wood^i coffin, con- 
taining a skeleton in high preservation. Under 
the head of this coffin was a round pebble, at- 
tached to the coffin; on the outside. was a 
brass bird, and inside an ornament of the same 
material, which had been suspended to some 
part of the skeleton. This places the antiquity 
of these remains beyond aU dispute ; and Rich 
adds, that the skeleton of a child was also found. 



LARGE ;EAUTHEN SARCOPHAGUS. 171 

These circumstanqes caused me to exert my ut- 
most attention ; and as far as my means went, 
I set men to work at a distance of twenty yards 
eastward of the niche. 

After four hours' digging perpendicularly 
from the summit, they discovered six beams: 
of date-tree wood running apparently into the: 
centre of the mound. In half an hour after, I 
pulled out a large earthen sarcophagus nearly . 
perfect, lined with bitumen, and filled with 
human bones ; but on attempting to remove it, ; 
the vessel broke in pieces. This sarcophagus, 
was larger and broader than any I had ever 
seen, being upwards of five feet in length, by 
three and a half in diameter, On the slightest, 
possible touch the bones bec^nj^ a white pow- 
der, and the pieces of date-WQpd could scarcely, 
withstand the same gentle handling without, 
being converted into dust. From digging in 
an easterly direction, every five or six yards,. 
I verified Mr. Rich's conjecture, that the 
passage filled with earthen urns extends all 
along the northern front of the pile ; though I 



172 GRANDEUR OF THE RUINS. 

could find no gallery filled with skeletons en- 
closed in wooden coffins ; nor am I inclined to 
believe, that any exist in this or any other ruin 
at Babylon.* 

The Mujellibah appeared to me to have an 
air of ancient grandeur, which, contrasted with 
the present solitude of the scene, cannot fail 
to temper the curiosity of the traveller with 
awe and reverence. On pacing over the loose 
stones and fragments of brickwork which lay 
scattered through the immense fabric, and sur- 
veying the sublimity of the* ruins, I naturally 
recurred to the time when these walls stood 
proudly in their original splendour, — when the 
halls were the scenes of festive magnificence ; 
and when they resounded to the voices of those 
whom death hath long since swept from the 
earth. 

This very pile was once the seat of luxury 
and vice ; now abandoned to decay, and ex- 
hibiting a melancholy instance of the retribu- 

* See Rich's second Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon, 
page 29. 



EXTENSIVE EMBANKMENTS. 178 

tion of Heaven * It stands alone : the solitary 
habitation of the goat-herd marks not the for- 
saken site; a projecting embankment sur- 
rounds it on the north-eastern and north- 
western sides; two small canals, endose the 
western line, whence the Euphrates is distant 
a little more than half a mile. 

* Babylon never recovered its ancient splendour after it 
was taken by CyruSi but, upon the removal of the seat of 
empire from thence by the Persians, it by degrees decayed, 
till it was at last reduced to an utter solitude. Berosus, in 
Josephus, says^ that Cyrus ordered the outer walls to be 
pulled down; the Persian kings ever regarded Babylon with 
ajealous eye. 

Darius Hystaspes, upon a revolt, greatly depopulated the 
place, lowered the walls, and. demolished the gates; Xerxes 
destroyed the temples : the building of Seleucia on the 
Tigris exhausted Babylon by its neighbourhood, as well as 
by the immediate loss of inhabitants taken away by Seleucus 
to people his new city ; a king of the Parthians soon after 
carried away into slavery a great number, and destroyed the 
most beautiful parts of the city. 

in more modern times, St. Jerome (who lived in the fourth 
century) mentions Babylon as nothing more than a chase 
for wild beasts to feed and breed there, for the King of 
Persians hunting. The place thereabouts is represented as 
being overrun with serpents, scorpions, and all sorts of veno- 
mous and unclean creatures. — BUhop Newton on the Prophecies. 



174 SITUATION OF A LOFTY 

The embankment, which is of great height 
and breadth, is strewed with vestiges of old 
building, and embraces a most extensive area ; 
commencing from the north-west of the Mu- 
jellibah, passing before its northern and eastern 
faces ; and nmning due south for a quarter of 
a mile, where it is crossed by the Nil canal.* 
Jt then takes a direction S. 45° E. for two 
miles, when there is a gap of 305 feet, which 
forms an angle towards the east: on its 
southern side the ruined rampart begins again, 
and runs south-west for a mile and a half, join- 
ing a group of low mounds to the south of 
Amran hill, till it is concealed from view by 
a date grove extending to the river's bank. 
The whole forms two sides of a triangle, 
with its apex opened to the space already 
mentioned. 

Not far from the centre of this great area, 
formed by the rampart or embankment now 
traced, stands a lofty elliptical mound, which I 
suppose to be the remains of the lesser palace. 

* See Appendix, R. 



ELLIPTICAL MOUND, 175 

It extends 825 yards in lengthy 125 in breadth, 
and 60 feet in height,. and is composed of frag- 
ments of I»ight and red. burnt brick ; and the 
Babylonian writing, instead of being on the 
smooth surface of the brick, appears aUn^ its 
edge from three to eight lines ; consequently the 
characters are smaller than the more abundant 
writing, and are altogether executed with great 
taste and delicacy. These bricks are very rare, 
and of great value ; which wiU appear evident 
when I state that it is almost impossible to pro- 
cure a perfect specimen from the exhausted 
state of the ruin. 

From this red coloured mass, the Mujellibah 
bears N. 20" W. Hillah, S. 10" W. and the 
Birs Nemroud, S. 30° W. This mound rises 
to the west of an unequal and inferior range of 
hUlocks, and joins another ridge branching off 
to the southward for the distance of a mile, 
and something less than hdf that breadth.* 

* As all ancient authors agree in placing the Tower or 
Temple of Belus " in the midst of the cityy* I leave the reader 
to judge, whether even this conical mound has not greater 
claims to an identity with the Tower of Babel, than the one 



176 AL KASR. 

This cluster- of hills is of the same height as 
another range extending along the eastern front 
of the Kasr, and running due north for one 
mile; at the same time occupying nearly, the 
whole of the ground from the north face of 
the Kasr to the river's bank. 

Adjoining these heaps, a little to the south-, 
ward, stands an enormous pile, which the natives 
have distinguished by the name of Al Kasr, or 
" The Palace," and which, next to the Mujel- 
libah, is the most attractive and conspicuous 
object on this side of the river, rearing its rugged 
head seventy feet above the level of the plain ; 
I feel confident that here lie the debris of the 
great Western palace, for the ground on the 
eastern face of this ruin is low, soft, and indent- 
ed, as if the river had wandered from its origi- 
nal course. Its form is very irregular ; its length 
is 820 yards, and its breadth 610. It is deeply 
furrowed throughout by ravines of great length, 
depth, and width ; and crossing each other in 

designated Birs Nemroud, which I shall presently describe, 
and which is almost universally considered to be the ruins of 
that once magnificent structure. 



NUMEROUS RAVINES. 177 

every direction. Some are full sixty feet deep, 
which may be prindpally attributed to the 
Arabs, who were constantly at work to obtain 
the valuable bricks, which, from the vicinity of 
the river, are with little trouble and expense 
conveyed to Hillah, or any towns north or 
south. 

In some of these artificial ravines, fragments 
of detached wall are still standing, composed of 
burnt bricks cemented together with bitumen, 
with their faces, or inscribed parts, placed 
downwards. 

The freshness of the inscriptions, on extract- 
ing many of these bricks, was amazing, Jn 
the fragments of building on the summit of 
the mound, neither bitumen nor reeds can be 
tracedj there being but a simple layer of mortar 
to bind the materials together. 

The very heart of this pile appears to be en- 
turely of the finest furnace-baked brick ; a fact 
which strikingly distinguishes it from the Mu* 
jellibah, where the sun-dried material is pre- 
dominant. On the top of this ruin, which is 

N 



i 



na COLUMNS. 

911 that is left us of the greater palace, are ibe 
remains of square piers or buttresses, defying 
the generally destructive power of time. These 
columns measured from sixteen to eighteen feet 



in height, and nine in thickness. I found it 
utterly impossible to detach any of the bricks, 
so firmly did they adhere together. Hence, I 
imagine that this very circumstance is the cause 
of their extraordinarily fresh appearance and 
excellent preservation. Their colour is a pale 



INSCRIPTIONS. 179 

yellow, and several of these masses appear to 
lean from their centre, perhaps from some con- 
vulsion of nature. 

The cuneifdRxi^ or Babylonian inscriptions, 
are very plainly discernible, after minute exa- 
mination, on those bricks that project beyond 
the line of their original position. The ob- 
server must kneel down find look upwards ; 
for it is to be remembered, that the inscribed 
part of every single brick is placed downwards ; 
evidently showing that the writing thereon was 
never intended to be seen or read; which is an 
extraordinary circumstance, and not easily ac- 
counted for. 

It is astonishing that the thinnejst layer of 
cement imaginable should hold the courses of 
brickwork so firmly and securely together. 
The natives appear to have entirely discon- 
tinued their work of havoc here, from the total 
impossibility of extracting a perfect brick. 
There are very conspicuous fragments of de^ 
tached wall along the western, and a part of the 
northan face of the Kasr, which (as this part ' 

N 2 



180 GEANITE SLAB. 

is the reputed site of the famous Pensile Gardens 
ascribed to Nebuchadnezzar,) perhaps supported 
the terraces attached thereto. 

Indeed it is easier to trace several long pas- 
sages among the deep and innumerable ravines^ 
than might be supposed, after the lapse of so 
many ages; but these fragments of building 
are daily becoming more hidden from view, 
and the avenues closed up with broken bricks,- 
rubbish, glazed pottery, and huge masses of 
stone. I win however particularize a single 
spedmen, in order to give some idea of their 
gigantic dimensions. 

In one of the subterranean passages of a 
deeply furrowed ravine, I discovered a granite 
slab fifteen feet long, and five and a half wide ; 
the surface of which exhibited bitumen with 
an impression of woven matting, or straw, ap- 
parently laid on in a perfect unbroken state* 
This drcumstance may, in some degree, identify 
the site of the Pensiks Horti, which, we learn 
from ancient authors, were raised on pillars 
by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon^ to gra- 



THE PENSILES HOETI. 181 

tify his wife Amy ctis, the daughter of Asty. 
ages, king of Media. 

Quintus Curtius makes them equal in height 
to the walls: of the city, viz. fifty feet. They 
are said to have contained a square of four 
hundred feet on each side, and were carried up 
mto the air in several terraces, laid above one 
another, and the ascent from terrace to terrace 
was by stairs ten feet wide. The pilasters 
(no trace of the arch being found throughout 
the ruins) sustaining the whole pile were raised 
above one another, and the fabric was strength- 
ened by a wall, surrounding it on every side, 
of twenty-two feet in thickness. 

The floors of each of the terraces were laid in 
the following manner : on the top of the pillars 
were first placed large fiat stones, sixteen feet 
long and four broad ; and over them was a layer of 
reed, mixed with a great quantity of bitumen, 
over which were two rows of bricks closely 
cemented together by plaster, and over all 
were thick sheets of lead ; and, lastly, upon the 
lead was laid the mould of the garden. The 



182 THE P£NSIL£S HOETI. 

mould, or earth, was of such a depth, as to ad- 
mit the largest trees to take root and grow ; 
and it was covered with various kinds of trees, 
plants, and flowers. In the upper terrace there 
was an aqueduct or engine, whereby water was 
drawn up out of the river for watering the 
garden. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Curious tree called Athleh. — Sonnini's account of it. — Sta- 
tue of a lion. — Remaius of buildings. — Square pilaster. — 
Babylonian writing on the bricks. — ^Fragment of calca- 
reous sand-stone. — Art of enamelling. — Bricked platform. 
— Conjecture respecting it. — Discovery of cylinders, gems, 
coins, &c. — ^The Khezail tribe. — Banks of the river. — 
Brazen clamps. — Urns. — Extensive mound. — Village of 
Jumjuma. — Predictions of Scripture.— The Birs Nemroud. 
— Vitrified masses of brickwork. 

On the northern front of the Kasrah, or great 
western Palace, upon an artificial pyramidal 
height, stands a solitary tree, which the natives 
of these parts call Athleh.* It appears to be of 

* A variety of the Tamarix Orientalis.— See Appendix, S. 
Mr. Rich, oddly enough, calls this tree a lignum vitce. 

Sonnini, in his travels in Upper and Lower Egypt, gives a 
very accurate drawing of this tree, and thus describes it : — 

^'But a tree which appears to be indigenous in that 
country is the atld, a species of large tamarisk, {Tmnarix 
Orientdis, Forskal, Flora Egyptiaco-Arabica, p. 206.— lin. 
Idth. edit.) as yet little known. Linnaeus has not mentioned 



184 CURIOUS TREE 

the greatest antiquity, and has been a superb 
tree ; perhaps a scion of the monarch of the hang- 
ing gardens. Its present height is only twenty- 
it; and if it is described in the thirteenth edition of his 
Systema Naturce, in which the author had no hand, it is be- 
cause Gmelin^ the editor, has availed himself of the indica- 
tion given of it by Forskal. 

This atle, which is different from the common tamarisk 
(Tamarix Gallica, L) by its size, as well as its specific cha-^ 
racters, upon which 1 shall quote a traveller perfectly versed 
in the science of botany, (Differt a Tamar. Gallica, cujus ram 
squamatif squamis alternis, sessilihus lanccolatis; ramuli breves^ 
imbricati: foliis lanceolatis confectis, Forskal^) attains the 
height and thickness of the oak. Its leaves are alternate, 
long, very narrow, and of a pale green. I will not dwell up- 
on its description, having had a drawing made of the trunk 
and a branch of one of these trees. I regret, that at the 
time this drawing was made, there were neither flowers nor 
fruit upon the specimen which the Surtist had to pourtray. 

These trees are, in general, covered with galnuts, adher- 
ing to the branches. I have observed that, before they were 
dried, these galls were filled with a liquor of a very beautiful 
deep scarlet, from which the arts may perhaps be able to 
derive considerable benefit; :for the galls are exceedingly 
numerous, and the trees that bear them grow all over both 
Upper and Lower Egypt. I dwell the more upon this re- 
mark, because I have read in a manuscript catalogue of 
plants, which was in the possession of a companion of M. 
Tott, that the atU is a species of the tamarisk which grows in 
Upper Egypt, towards Sahil, Now^ there is scarcely a single 



CALLED ATHLEET. 185 

three feet ; its trunk has been of great circum- 
ference : though now rugged and rifled, it still 
stands proudly up ; and, although nearly worn 
away, has still sufficient strength to bear the 
burthen of its evergreen branches, which stretch 
out their arms in the stem grandeur of decaying 
greatness. The fluttering and rustling sound 
produced by the wind sweeping through its 
delicate branches, has an indescribably melan- 
choly effect ; and seems as if it were entreating 
the traveller to remain, and unite in mourning 
over fallen grandeur. 

I scarcely dared ask, why, when standing 
beneath this precious relic of the past, and 
prophet of the futm-e, I had nearly lost the 
power of forcing myself from the spot ? 

" I turned from all it brought, to those it could not bring." 

village in Lower Egypt, which, among the trees that sur- 
round it, has not several atles. The wood of this tree serves 
for various purposes; amongst others, for charcoal. It is 
the only wood that is common in Egypt, either for fuel or 
for manufacturing ; indeed, it is a common proverb among 
the inhabitants, that *' were the at IS to fail, the world would 
go iW'—Vide Sonmrn's Travels in Egyjft, pp. 247, 248. 4to. 



186 STATUE or A LION. 

. Proceeding two hundred and four feet east 
of the old tree, and on an uneven spot of 
ground, surrounded by vestiges of buildings, 
is to be seen, lying on its right side, a lion ; be- 
neath him is a prostrate man, extended on a 
pedestal, which measures, nine feet in length, 
by three in width. The whole is from a block 
of stone of the ingredient and texture of granite, 
the scale colossal, and the sculpture in a very 
barbarous style ; much inferior to the Persepo- 
litan specimens of this art.* The head of the 
lion has been knocked off by the violence of 
some modern Vandal. When Mr. Rich visited 
Babylon, this statue was in a perfect state. 
In his interesting investigations, he remarks 
of the lion, that " in the mouth was a drcu- 
lar aperture, into which a man might introduce 
his fist." 

From its vicinity to the river, (within five 



. * The Hon. Major Keppel has inaccurately stated this 
colossal piece of sculpture to be in black marble, — See his. 
Travels iri Assyria. 



IMMENSE RUINS. 187 

hundred yards,) little toil and expense would 
enable the antiquary to remove it from the 
mutilation of barbarians ; and boats are pro- 
curable at HiUah, which would convey it to. 
Bussorah. I trust I shall be believed when I 
state, that the want of funds was the only rea- 
son that prevented my transporting this valu- 
able relic of antiquity to India; where no 
great expense would attend its embarkation 
for England. 

Beauchamp, in speaking of this ruin, says, 
" On this side of the river are those im- 
mense ruins which have served, and still serve, 
for the building of Hillah, an Arabian city,, 
containing ten or twelve thousands souls. 
Here are found those large and thick brides, 
imprinted with unknown characters, specimens 
of which I have presented to the Abb^ Bar- 
thelemy. This heap, and the Mount of Babel, 
are commonly called by the Arabs, MakUm- 
bah, that is to say, turned topsy-turvy. I was 
informed by the master-mason employed to 



188 SQUARE PILASTER. 

dig fof bricks, that the places from which he 
procured them were large thick walls, and 
sometimes chambers. He has frequently found 
earthen vessels, engraved marbles, and, about 
eight years ago, a statue as large as life, which 
he threw among the rubbish. On one wall of 
a chamber he found the figures of a cow, and 
of the sun and moon, formed of varnished 
bricks. Sometimes idols of clay are found, re- 
presenting human figures." Vide Beauchamfs 
authority y quoted by Major Rennell in his invalua- 
bk Illustrations of the Geography of Herodotus. 

Eighty yards to the west of the fallen statue, 
a vast quantity of perfect building is observable 
in detached fragments of architectural Ip-bour ; 
and some pieces of square pillars or columns 
cover the surface of this elevated terrace. The 
whole is of the finest furnace brick. On a high 
spot, about fifty-five feet above the level of the 
plain, I distinctly traced a large square pilaster 
rising out of a conical mound. - The bricks 
which composed it measured thirteen inches 



BABYLONIAN WRITING. 189 

4square» By three thick, and were joined toge- 
ther with an almost imperceptible layer of 
cement. 

I employed thirty men to clear away the 
rubbish, and we dug down along its western 
face to a depth of twenty feet» when we ar- 
rived at the bricks, where bitumen alone was 
found to he the binding material. Here I had 
no trouble of extracting them with .an iron in- 
strument something like a pick-axe. The ar- 
row-headed or cuneiform writing was stamped 
on all, but differed as to the number of lines. 
They varied from three to ten lines ; the first 
number was the commonest, or most abundant, 
and the latter the most rare. 

The writing was more deeply engraven on 
these bricks than on any others I had met'with. 
I found one with the Babylonian writing both 
on its face and edge, but unfortunately it was 
broken. I regard it as a unique specimen; 
never having seen, or heard of another like it. 
I discovered also an om^ental fiat fragment 



190 ART OF ENAHELLIKO. 

of calcareous sand-stone, glazed with brown 
enamel on the superior surface, and bearing the 
raised figure in good relief represented in the 

accompanying woodcut. 



This proves that the Babyloiuans had per- 
fectly acquired the art of enamelling. Siodorus 
Siculus informs us, that among the great va^ 
riety of painting represented upon the walls of 
the palacej Semiramis Was seen on horseback, 
piercing with' her dMt a paHdier ; and her hus- 
band Ninus, in the act of fixing to the earth 



BRICKED PLATFORM. 191 

with his spear a savage lion.^ M^ Beauehamp 
found several varnished bricksi, on one of which 
was the %ure of a lion, and on another the 
sun and moon. He likewise saw imperfectly 
the colossal lion ahready noticed. 

Upon clearing away a 9pace of twelve feet 
square at the base of the pilaster, I laid open a 
bridked platform beautifully fastened together 
with bitumen, each brick measuring nineteen 
inches and three quarters square, by three and a 
half thick, with the written characters along 
the edge^ instead of being in an upright column 
on the face. I will venture to assert, that 
these bricks are the largest hitherto found ; 
as all former visitors and writer^ on this ve- 
nerable place agree in saying, that the largest 

bricks measiwe only fourteen inches square. I 

• Diod. Sic. lib. ii. p. 97. The prophet Ezekiel^ in de- 
nouncing the vengeance of Heaven upon Judah, says, ** She 
saw men pourtrayed upon the wallf the images of the Chaldeans 
pourtrm/ed with vermilion^ girded with girdles upon their 
loihs> exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them 
princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of 
Chaldea." — Ezekiel xxiii. ver. 14, 15. 



192 DISCOVERY OF ANTIQUITIES. 

have removed two of these immense Bricks 
to Bussorah; one of which has since been pre- 
sented to Sir John Malcolm, Gtovemor of 
Bombay. 

The platform, I have no doubt, extended for 
a considerable space; and it is not improbable 
that it was the flooring of some chamber, or 
serdaub; perhaps a terrace attached to the 
Pensile Gardens; for, deducting the twenty 
feet of perpendicular digging, it is still 
greatly raised above the general level. In 
making a very careful and fatiguing isearch 
throughout the accumulated earth, which we 
removed from this fine platform, my labours 
were amply compensated by the discovery of 
four cylinders, three engraved gems, one of 
which is represented in the frontispiece to this 
volume; and several silver and copper coins; 
which at first appeared like so many black 
stones, so thickly were they incrusted with ver- 
digris. On cleansing one of the copper coins, 1 
found it to be of Alexander the Gr^at. The 
others were of the Syrian, Parthian, Roman, 



VILLAGE OF JEBBOUEYAH. 198 

and Kufic dynasties, in the best state of pre- 
servation. 

The cylinders are of ha3matite, cornelian, 
opal, jasper, agate, chalcedony, sardonyx, cry- 
stal, and bone, and are generally found by the 
Kliezail Arabs among a considerable group 
of mounds, called Boursa,* about ten miles 
to the south of Hillah, close to a village termed 
by them Jerboueyah. 

My friend John Robert Steuart, Esq. pos- 
sesses a very extensive and valuable collection 
of these antiquities, and has devoted much 
time to the study of these hieroglyphics. He 
imagines that the figures carved upon the lon- 
gitudinally-perforated cylinders, denote imita- 
tions of groups which were represented upon 
the walls of the Temple of Belus, or of the 
various deities worshipped by the Babylonians ; 
and likewise sacrifices to them. Mr. Landseer 
has published an interesting work, entitled 
" Sabasan Researches," in which he discusses 

* See Note on Babylon, page 255, 

O 



194 THE KHEZAIL TRIBE. 

the objects of these representations at great 
lengthy referring them to planetary and astro- 
nomical combinations, or calculations of na- 
tivities, &c. 

The powerful and warlike Khezail tribe in- 
habit the banks as far as the large village of 
Semavah, on the Euphrates, where the women 
are proverbial throughout the country for 
beauty of feature, and perfect symmetry of 
form. The highly interesting spot where I 
laid open the platform, is one thousand two 
hundred and fifty feet from the bank of the 
river ; a little to the north, and upon the bank, 
is an enclosure of date-trees, and among them 
some attempts at cultivation, of a parched 
and sickly appearance. 

The stream continues in view meandering 
for a considerable distance, surrounded by ob- 
jects well calculated to heighten the solemn 
impression of the scene of the principal ruins. 
Here, along the banks, are several osiers, per- 
haps the very wiUows upon which the daugh- 



BANKS OP THE RIVER. 195 

te» of Israel hung their harps and wept. " By 
the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, 
we wept, when we remembered Zion: we 
hanged our harps upon the willows in the 
midst thereof." Psalm cxxxvii. ver. 1, 2. This 
is the woful lamentation of one of the Jewish 
captives of Babylon, either at the time of their 
captivity, or at their return from it. It eon- 
tains a mournful reflection on their banishment 
from their native country, combined with the 
insolent behaviour of their enemies ; and fore- 
tels the future destruction which awaited the 
dty of Babylon and its devoted inhabitants. 
As I strolled along the banks of the river, 
the /^exquisitely beautiful and sweetly-pathetic, 
stanzas of Lord Byron, in his Hebrew Melo- 
dies, on this very subject, forced themselves 
on my attention — 

" We sat down and wept by the waters 
Of Babel." 

Before I quitted these ruins, I continued 
along the bank for half a mile, when I came to 

o 2 



196 BRAZEN CLAMPS. 

the spot whCTe Mr. Rich discovered the urns 
with human bones. Here it was, after a diU- 
gent search of two hours among the fragments 
of brick and masonry on the water's edge, that 
I foimd two large brazen clamps exhibitmg 
these forms. 




What they appertained to, I do not pre- 
tend to determine; though it is not impro- 
bable they belonged to the bridge * which was 
thrown over the Euphrates; and this spot, 
from its vicinity to the reputed site of the Pa- 
lace, and the famous Hanging-gardens, may 
perhaps accord with the generally-received ac- 
counts of its position. The traveller Rauwolff, 
who approached these ruins by water, notices 
the remains of an ancient brick bridge h^e 

• " She (Nitocris) afterwards, nearly in the centre of the 
city, with the stones above-mentioned, strongly compacted 
with iron and lead, erected a bridge," &c. — fferodohu, Clio. 
clxxxvi. 



M. RAUWOLFF. 197 

alluded to. He says : — " This country is so dry 
and barren, that it cannot be tilled; and so 
bare, that I should have much doubted whe- 
ther this potent and powerful dty (which once 
was the most stately and famous one of the 
world, situated in the pleasant and fruitful 
country of Sinar,) did stand there, if I should 
not have known it by its situation, and several 
ancient and delicate antiquities that stiU are 
standing hereabouts in great desolation. First, 
by the old bridge, which was laid over the 
Euphrates, (which also is called Sud by the 
prophet Baruch in his first chapter,) whereof 
there are some pieces and arches still remain- 
ing, and to be seen at this very day, a little 
above where we landed. These arches are built 
of burnt brick, and so strong, that it is admi- 
rable, and that so much the more, because all 
along the river as we came from Bir, where 
the river is a great deal smaller, we saw never 
a bridge; wherefore I say it is admirable which 
way they could build a bridge here, where the 
river is at least half a league broad, and very 



198 POLISHED VASES. 

deep besides."— pp. 137, 188. A correct idea 
of the bank fOled with ums, and of Annan 
hill behind it, may be formed on reference to 
the accompanymg engraving. 

Vast quantities of various-coloured tile and 
brick were here lying upon the bed of the 
river, which appears to be gradually encroach- 
ing, the bank being perpendicular, and greatly 
injured by the action of the water. I extracted 
large portions of highly-polished vases from 
this bank, to all of which adhered human 
bones, which on attempting to separate from 
the urn, became immediately pulverised. 

From the south-western face of the palace, 
or Kasr, a long mound ninety yards in breadth 
by half that height runs north and south ; to 
the north-west angle of Amran hiU, so cialled 
by Mr. Rich. The superficies of the interven- 
ing ground is covered with long reeds,* and the 

* The reeds we now see growing in many parts of the 
ruins, are particularly noticed in Scripture ; indeed, they are 
said to have been so high, together with the mud on which 
they stood, as to have formed, as it were, another wall round 
the city. 



EXTBNSIVK MOUND. 199 

«oil is peculiarly damp, as if it had been over- 
flowed, here and there exhibiting a very swampy 
and nitrous appearance. In fact, here are very evi- 
dent traces of the Euphrates having altered its 
course ; and if we admit this, the breadth of the 
river (from the appearance of its ancient bed) was 
160 yards. Major RenneU is unquestionably 
correct in pronouncing this " the deserted bed 
of the river Euphrates/' It is indeed surprising 
that the idea did not immediately occur to Mr. 
Rich. The great mass of this latter heap oc- 
cupies more ground than the Kasr, and has 
evidently formed an immense range of biiild- 
ing; it would be rather more elevated, were 
the standing pilasters on the palace removed. 
It forms a triangle : its northern front extends 
860 yards ; its southern, 1420. 

The whole is deeply furrowed in the same 
manner as the generality of the mounds. The 
ground is extremely soft and tiresome to walk 
over, and appears completely exhausted of all its 
building materials ; nothing now is left save one 
towering hill, the earth of which is mixed with 



200 TOMB OF AMRAK. 

fragments of broken brick, red varnished pot- 
tery, tile, bitumen, mortar, glass, shells, and 
pieces of mother-of-pearl. 

To the south-west of the mound, a tomb in 
good repair contains the bones of Amran, who, 
the natives say, was a son of Ali. The keeper 
of this tomb may be likened to Job's forsaken 
man, dwelling in desolate cities, and in houses 
which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to 
become heaps (chap. xv. ver. 28.) : and a hun- 
dred yards to the E. S. E. of this building there 
is a solid block of white marble, measuring six 
feet long, three wide, and three and a half 
inches thick ; but no writing, device, or bitu- 
men, is to be traced upon it. 

To the westward of this, the ground is flat, 
without any marks of building, and is bounded 
by the river's embankment (already noticed) 
on its opposite side, where Rich found a num- 
ber of urns filled with human bones which had 
undergone the action of fire.* 

* Note on urns from Desatir, page 248. 



PREDICTIONS OF SCRIPTURE, 201 

A little below this there is a ridge of mounds 
extending from a date-grove on the verge of the 
stream, to the south-west of a village called Jum- 
juma, which appellative means a skull, and like- 
wise according to Castell and Golius, "Puteus 
in loco salsuginoso fossus." The mounds then 
stretch towards the remains of a tomb of the 
same name, form a right angle behind it, taking 
an easterly course, where they are traversed by 
the Bagdad road. 

I had been walking a full hour by the light 
of the rising moon, and could not persuade 
my guides to remain longer, from the appre- 
hension of evil spirits. It is impossible to era- 
dicate this idea from the minds of these peo- 
pie, who are very deeply imbued with super- 
stition. 

I have now concluded my description of the 
ruins on the east side of the Euphrates, within 
the probable bounds of Babylon. It will be 
seen how exactly the divine predictions have 
been fulfilled. In the language of Scripture, 
she is truly " wasted with misery, her habita- 



802 THE BIRS NEMROUD, 

tions are not to be found ; and for herself, the 
worm is spread over her." 

December Sd. — Attended by three hoi^ie. 
men from the commanda* of the Pasha of Bag- 
dad's army encamped near Hillah, in addition 
to my own people, I set out for the western 
shore of the rivier, and for the purpose of ex- 
amining the most remarkable of all. the Baby- 
lonian remains, whidi the Tiirks, Arabs, and 
Jews name Birs* Nemroud, meaning the Tower 
or Akron of Nimrod. 

The indefatigable Niebuhr conceived it to be 
the Tower of Babel, or Temple of Belus; a 
supposition which has been supported by Rich, 
and nearly all succeeding travellers : some of 
whom, in describing this ruin, assert that it is 
called by the Jews Nebuchadnezzar's Prison.^ 
I can only say, that at the present moment it is 

• See Appendix, T. p. 258. 

t In an Itinerary written nearly 700 years ago by Benja- 
min of Tudela, a Jew who lived in the twelfth century, it is 
said, that '' Ancient Babylon is now laid waste, but some 
ruins are still to be seen of Nebuchadnezzar's Palace ; and 
men fear to enter there, on account of the serpents and 



A REMARKABLE RUIN. 203 

known by one name alone-^Birs Nemroud, or 
Nimrod.* 

We proceeded over a plain covered with nitre, 
at intervals crossing some dry canal beds, and 
small pools of water, and starting large flocks of 
bitterns. This put me in mind of the follow- 
ing passage in Isaiah. — ** I will also make it 
a possession for the bittern, and pools of 

scorpions which are in the midst of it." Many writers ima- 
gine the Birs is the ruin spoken of by the Jew ; but as it is 
so far from the river^ and some danger to be apprehended by 
visiting it, I think it more probable the Mujellibah is here 
alluded to. 

Mr. Rich, and, I may add, all those travellers who have 
more recently visited and described the Birs Nemroud, ap- 
pear to identify it with the Tower, because it more nearly 
resembles the state of decay into which we might suppose 
that edifice to have fallen, after the lapse of ages, than any 
other remain within the circumference of Babylon. This mode 
of judging from appearances cannot be admitted, nor that 
slender hypothesis of Sir Robert Ker Porter, when describ- 
ing the Mujellibah. It runs thus : — " From the general ap^ 
pearance of this piece of ruin, I scarcely think that its solid 
elevation has ever been much higher than it stands at pre- 
sent/' The reader will bear in mind, that the base of 
this mound extends S22 feet in length, while its height 
is only 139. He will, I think, see the futility of Sir Ro- 
bert's remark. 

• Appendix, V. p. 259. 



204 SITUATION OF THE 

water, and I will sweep it with the besom of 
destruction.''* 

A walk of two hours and a quarter in a S.W. 
direction brought me to the base of its eastern, 
front. It lies five miles distant from the west- 
em suburb of Hillah. On my first beholding 
this " mountainous" massf it bore a little to the 
westward of south, appearing like an oblong 

• Isaiah, chap. xiv. ver. 23. — *^ Cyrus took the city of Baby- 
lon in the year 539 before Christ, by diverting the waters of 
the Euphrates, which ran through the midst of it, and enter- 
ing the place at night by the channel. It was two furlougs 
wide; but he had made it fordable by means of the lake 
and trenches which he had prepared. The river being thus 
turned, by the breaking down of dams and banks, and no 
care taken afterwards to repair the breach, all the country 
was overflowed and drowned, and ultimately a whole pro- 
vince lost. Alexander, who intended to have made Babylon 
the seat of his empire, set about remedying the mischief; 
but t di£Bculties arising, he soon after dying, and the work 
being never more thought of, that country has remained 
bog and marsh ever since." — Dean Prideaux. 

+ '* Though Babylon was seated in a low watery plain, yet 
it is in Jeremiah (chap. li. ver. 25.) called a "mountain," 
on account of its power and greatness, as well as of the vast 
height of its walls and towers, its palaces and temples ; and 
Berosus, % speaking of some of its buildings, says, that they 
appeared most like mountains." — Newton on the Prophecies. 

X Ttfv oyjjiv avoBtip ofioioraTijv tou opaai — quibus speciem 
dedit montibus persimilem.-— Jo^epA. Antiq, lib. x. 



BIRS NEMROUD. S05 

hill, surmounted by a tower. The total cir- 
cumference of its base is exactly seven hundred 
and twenty-two yards. Its eastern face extends 
one hundred and sixty-ieight yards in width, 
and only two stages of a hill are distinct- 
ly observable. The first measures in height 
seventy feet, whence the second sweeps irregu- 
larly upwards, to the height of one hundred 
and twenty feet, crowned by the ruin of a tur- 
ret. This is a solid mass of the finest kiln- 
bumt masonry, the drcumference of which 



c Bin Nemrond. 



206 COMPOSITION OF THE 

is ninety feet, viz. that face looking towards 
the south, twenty-seven feet; to the east, thirty; 
to the west, twenty-four; and to the north, nine^ 
It is one hundred and ninety feet from the 
foundation of the pile to the base of the tower ; 
and from the basement of the tower to its un- 
even summit, thirty-five. This measurement is 
taken at the western face, where the tower as- 
sumes a pyramidal form towards the top ; whence 
it is rifted or split half-way down its centre. 
The southern face of the mound is the most 
perfect ; and the western, which the foregoing 
engraving exhibits, the least ; perhaps from the 
effects of the violent winds which prevail from 
that point. On digging into the base of this 
edifice, I found it composed of coarse sun-dried 
bricks, fastened together by layers of mortar 
and reed. At the depth of fourteen feet, bitu- 
men was observable. 

The bricks are so firmly cemented^ that it is 
utterly impossible to detach any of them. They 
are a little thinner than those composing the 
ruins on the eastern bank of the river ; and I 



BIRS NEMROUD. 207* 

could not, from their firm position, ascertain 
whether they had any mscription, though, from 
the written fragments lying about, I have no 
doubt they all bear the Babylonian character 
on their lower faces. 

V 

This tower-like ruin is pierced throughout 
with small square apertures, probably to pre- 
serve the fabric from the influence of damp; 
and instead of bitinnen, a very thin layer of 
lime is spread between every single brick. On 
the summit of the pile, at the foot of the stand- 
ing brickwork composing the tower, and on 
the north and western faces, are several im- 
mense brown and black masses of brickwork, 
more or less changed into a vitrified state, look- 
ing at a distance like so many edifices torn 
up from their foundations, being generally of 
an irregular form, and some resting on mere 
pivots. 



HUGii; FRAGMENTS. 



Vltriaed Hui of Biiek-work u die Bin. 

Previous to examination, I took them for 
masses of black rock : some 'of these huge frag- 
ments measured twelve feet in height, by 
twenty-four in circumference, and from the 
circumstance of the standing brickwork hav- 
ing remained in a perfect state, the change ex- 
hibited in these is only accoimtable from their 
having been exposed to the fiercest fire, or ra- 
ther scathed by lightning.* 

' " The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, 
and her high gates skatl be burnt mti_fire." — Jer. ch. li, v. 58. 



LARGE BRICKS. 209 

A little below these vitrified masses, on the 
north-west face of the ruin, fine brickwork 
is distinctly visible, each brick measuring one 
foot square, by four inches thick. There are 
also small square holes running deep into the 
pile, and in some places the bricks are greatly 
injured by exposure. 

Still descending, there is a larger ruin of 
this kind of wall, which assumes an angular 
form. The bricks here are thirteen inches 
long, by four and one quarter thick, and are 
cemented together with a coarse layer of lime 
upwards of an inch deep, with an impression 
only of matting or straw. They are not level, 
but slope gently from the north face towards 
the east, and from the east face towards the 
south — a curious circumstance. Below this 
is a large square deep hole, through which the 
materials of the structure are very discernible, 
consisting piincipaUy of sun-dried bricks of 
similar dimensions as the kUn-baked. 

These appear cemented together by mor- 
tar and bruised reeds, or chopped straw, an 



210 APPEARANCE OF THE RUIN. 

inch in thickness^ and through this mass holes 
measuring two feet in height, by one in width, 
appear to penetrate to the heart of the building. 
Bitumen, which is found at the base of most of 
the ruined structures, is Ukewise discernible in 
this pile. » None is to be found in the upper por- 
tion. This, it must be remarked, confirms the 
following passage of Herodotus, — " i/a rg>/^«owa 
^yiMV vhvSov^ &c. 

The whole summit and sides of this moun- 
tainous ruin are furrowed, by the weather and 
by human violence, into deep hoUows and 
channels, completely strewed with broken 
bricks stamped with three, four, six, and seven 
lines of writing, stones, glass, tile, large Cakes 
of bitumen, and petrified and vitrified sub^ 
stances. 



CHAPTER X. 



Immense hill. — Konbb6, a Mahometan building.^-^Excava- 
tions made by the Arabs,— Urns, Alabaster Vase, &c. — 
Custom of Urn-burial. — ^Tombs described by Captain Basil 
HalU — ^Village of Ananah. — Situation of Babylon. — ^Py- 
ramidal Ruin, called £1 Hamir.— Mode of Building.— 
Characters on the Bricks. — Cylindrical Bricks. — Colossal 
bronze Figures. — Tomb of All Ibn Hassan.— Departure 
from Hillah. — ^Predictions of Isaiah. — ^The Author's ar- 
rival at Bagdad. 

An open quadrangular area extends for a 
considerable distance around the Birs, though 
its base is encircled by small ridges of mounded 
earth. I must not, however, pass unnoticed 
one immense hill scarcely a hundred yards dis- 
tant from the eastern front of this stupendous 
fabric It stretches away north and south to a 
breadth of 450 yards, when its extreme points 

p 2 



212 THE KOUBBi. 

curve and meet to the eastward, after having 
occupied a space of 650 yards. Its height is 
fifty-five feet. This mound is also very deeply 
furrowed into countless channels, covered with 
nearly the usual debris of former building, ex- 
cept that the fragments of vases and glazed 
potter)' are inconceivably fresh and abundant. 

On its summit is a Mohammedan building, 
called Koubb^, generally pronounced Goubbak, 
meaning, in Arabic, a cupola, or dome. It goes 
by the name of Makam Ibrahim Khalil :* the 
Arabs say, that Nimrod ordered a fire to be 
kindled near it, and commanded the pro- 
phet Abraham to be cast into it ; while that 
" mighty hunter before the Lord" viewed the 
frightful exhibition from the summit of his 
tower f . 

The ruined portion of another Koubb6 stands 
a little to the south, called Makam Saheb Ze- 

* " Ibrahim al Nabi et Ibrahim Khalil Allah ; c*est a 
dire, Abraham le Prophet ou Tami de Dieu, est le m^me 
qu' Abraham le Patriarche, qui est reconnu pour pere par lea 
Arabs, aussi bien que par les Juifs." — Vide D'herbelot, 

t See Appendix. Note V. page 259. 



EiCCAVATIONS- 2IS 

man, to which also several curious traditions 
are attached. It being a clear day, I was in- 
duced to remain till near sunset to see if I 
could observe the gilt domes of Meshhed Ali, 
which bears south, and Messhed Hussein 
north-west, but I was unsuccessful. 

At a distance of two hundred and seventy 
feet from the northern and western faces of the 
Birs, and on an eminence, there are several 
deep cavities formed by the Arabs, when dig- 
ging for hidden treasure. The intervening 
space has no elevated traces of building 
(though there are vestiges of pavement and 
old foundations); but close to these excava- 
tions are portions of masonry, composed of 
furnace-brick, stamped with three lines of cu- 
neiform writing. I directed my attention to 
the largest excavated spot, and found it ten 
feet deep by six square. In its sides were 
bricks irregularly and, apparently, hastily 
placed; and, on digging along each face, I 
discovered them to be filled with urns contain- 
ing ashes alone. 



814 URN-BURIAL. 

On examining one, I picked out an enamel- 
led bead perforated through the centre, said 
some teeth ; the interior portion of which be- 
came pulverised on being touched; but the 
enamel had remained as hard, and the polish m 
the same beautiful condition, as if it had just 
belonged to a living being. These urns had no 
bitumen whatever attached to them, and I 
found it impossible to extract one in a perfect 
state ; on removing the earth around, they in- 
stantly broke to pieces. The fragments of an 
alabaster vase were lying. at the north end of 
this excavation. 

It woidd appear that um-burial, so far from 
being confined to the Greeks and Romans, as 
supposed to be the case by some authors who 
have lately written on the sepulchral vases 
found at Babylon ; independently of the proof 
already * afforded in the Appendix,* of the 
sanction of this practice by the religious insti- 
tutes of the Desatir, was venerated by the an- 

• See Note G. p. 248. 



CUSTOMS IN THE LOO-CHOO ISLANDS. Sl5 

cient Persians. A similar custom obtains among 
the idolaters of the Loo-choo Islands, as is evi- 
dent by the following extract from the inte- 
resting volume of Captain Basil Hall. 

" They have large tombs or cemeteries for 
their dead, being mostly of the Chinese form, 
viz. that of a horse-shoe. They are formed 
of stones and mortar, and are covered with a 
coat of ch6enam, (sheU lime,) which is al- 
ways kept nicely whitewashed and dean 
swept: some are more 'highly finished than 
others; their size varies from twenty to thirty 
feet in length, by twelve to fourteen feet 
broad. The coffin, when closed, is placed in 
the vault under the tomb, and is not touch- 
ed for six or seven years, by which time the 
flesh is found to have separated and wasted 
away; the bones are then collected, and put 
into jars ranged in rows on the inside of the 
vault. Burning is never used at any stage 
of the proceedings, nor under any drcum- 
stances. In the course of time, when these 
become crowded, the vases are removed to 



216 TOMBS. 

houses appropriated to their reception abov6- 
ground: such must have been the building 
described by Mr. Clifford, in the village near 
Port Melville. 

" The lower orders, who cannot afford these 
expensive tombs, take advantage of hollow 
places in the rocks, which, by a little assistance, 
are made seciu-e vaults. In the cliffs behind 
the village of Oonting, the galleries cut for 

the reception of the vases must have been the 
work of men possessed of power and au- 
thority. Not being fully aware what the 
Chinese customs are with respect to the dead, 
in ordinary cases, it is impossible for us to say 
how nearly they resemble those of Loo- chop, 
but there are certainly some points of re- 
semblance." * 

The whole tract between Hillah and these 
ruins, appears very marshy, sterile, and sandy. 
Three lakes, or marshes, are very conspicuous 

* See ** Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the west coast 
of Gorea, and the great Loo-choo Island." Cap. iii. page 
204. 4to. 



VILLAGE OF ANANAH. 317 

hence, the first bearing S. W. the second 
W.N.W. and the third, N.N.E.— One of Isai- 
ah's prophecies concerning Babylon, is named 
" The burden of the desert of the sea," (ch. xxi. 
V. 1.) for Babylon was seated in a plain, and 
surrounded by water. The propriety of the 
expression consists in this, not only that any 
large collection of waters, in the Oriental style, 
is called a sea, but also that the places about 
Babylon are said from the beginning to have 
been called the sea. It was a great barren 
morassy desert originally : such it became after 
the taking of the city by Cyrus, and such it 
continues to this day. — Bishop Newton on the 
Prophecies. 

Eight or nine miles to the N.N. W. of Birs 
Nemroud, parallel with the embankment on 
the eastern bank of the Euphrates, and nearly 
opposite the Kasr, is a village called Ananah, 
upon the river's bank; to the north-west a 
long, low, dark hillock runs apparently north 
for three hundred and twenty yards, when- it 
turns to the east, and continues in that direc- 



218 SITUATION OF 

tion to the bank of the river, where portions of 
6un^ed and fomace-baked bricks are plainly 
discernible* 

Near tlie village of Thamasia, (which name 
would indicate its foundation by Shah Tha/knas 
of the Sefi house^) four miles to the westward 
of Hillah, and situated withm a grove of date- 
trees, there are several elevated mounds, com- 
posed of the kiln-burnt fabric, with the arrow- 
headed writing upon them, extending nearly 
to the eastern ridge of low hiUocks which sur- 
rounds the Birs, and strewed over with pot- 
tery, broken bricks and colour^ tUe, but 
having no actual remains of ancient edifices. 
In following these heaps of ruin, I could not 
at every step help feeling convinced, that an- 
dent Babylon occupied a very great portion of 
the western as well as the eastern bank of the 
Eiuphrates ; and admitting this, the Birs Nem- 
i^ud, by many (in my opinion most inaccurate- 
ly) supposed to be the Tower of Babel, or 
Temple of Belus, will not be so far removed 
from a division of the city as I had at first sup- 



ANCIENT BABYLON. 219 

posed ; and certainly, from its present situation, 
I conclude that this grand heap, apparently the 
remains of a bastion or battlement, erected as a 
defence to thiiS quarter, stood in the south-west 
angle of the mighty city on the western side 
of the river. It does not appear to me at all 
unaccountable, that as many traces of building 
should be found on this side of the river as on 
the other ; because we are expressly told, that 
Babylon resembled a country walled in, rather 
than a city ; the walls, according to Herodotus, 
being sixty miles in circumference, and within 
this circuit a great portion of ground was 
cultivated with com; in fact, a sufficient 
quantity to support the inhabitants during a 
long siege. 

I should not omit to state, that there are 
many urns containing ashes (the bones being 
in the smallest fragments) in the bank from 
^Ananah to within one hundred and fifty yards 
of the north end of the town of Hillah, and 
there are very visible traces of them on the op- 
posite side, and for the same distance. These 



220 EL HAMIR. 

are not placed horizontally only, but in every 
possible position; their dimensions vary in a 
great degree, while their contents differ very 
materially from those urns at the Mujellibah, 
where the bones are in a perfect state * 

I shall conclude with noticing a very remark- 
able conical ruin peculiarly worthy the atten- 
tion of the antiquary. It is distant from Hillah 
eight miles, in a direction E. N. E. and the na- 
tives distinguish it by the name of El Hamir.f 
On reaching the foot of this ruin, I was imme- 
diately struck with the great similarity it bore 
to the Birs ; particularly the upper portion or 
mass of deep red brickwork resembling the 
breastwork of a fort. Each face of this higher 
portion is of greater dimensions than the stand- 
ing turret-like building on the top of the 
mound of Nemroud, although the proportions 
of its base are nearly a third less. It is not 
difficult to derive from this remain of anti- 

* See Note on Urns, and the mode of burial, p. 248, 
t See Appendix, W. p, 267. 



MODE OF BUILDING. 221 

quity, conceptions as grand as those suggested 
by the view of Birs Nemroud. Its circumfe- 
rence I found to be two hundred and eighty- 
yards, or eight hundred and forty feet. Its 
height is seventy-five feet. 

The foundation is composed of sun-dried 
brick, which extends half-way up the pile, the 
remainder being fumace-bumt, of a coarse 
fabrication. This pyramidal ruin is crowned by 
a solid mass of masonry, the bricks of which 
were so soft, that pieces might easily be broken 
off; but those composing the interior were as 
firm and hard as at the Kasr, and rather larger. 
The brickwork on the summit faces the cardinal 
points, and is much dilapidated. The face 
fronting the north measures thirty-six feet, 
the south thirty-seven, the east forty-seven, 
and the west fifty. 

The bricks are cemented together with a 
thick layer. of day, and between the courses of 
brickwork, at irregular distances, a layer of 
white substance is perceptible, varying from 



S22 USE OF REEDS IN BUILDING. 

one quarts to an inch in thickness^ not unlike 
burnt gypsum, or the sulphate of lime. From 
the peculiarly mollified state of the bricks, I 
apprehend this white powder is nothing more 
than common earth, which has undergone this 
change by the influence of the air on the day 
composing the bricks. 

I have heard it more than once advanced^ 
that the white layers interposed between the 
bricks in this ruin are merely what remain of 
the courses of reeds. It however appiears to me, 

« 

that, granting the atmospheric action had re* 
duced their exposed surface to the colour of 
plaster, yet the peculiar structure of the vege- 
table substance would have been discernible as 
long as its component partides held together. 
In no case did I see this; I condude, there- 
fore, that these white layers are not the rem- 
nants of reeds. 

Throughout the ruin, small square apertures, 
similar to those at Birs Nemroud, are observ- 
able ; but neither lime nor bitumen can be seen 



INSCRIPTIONS. 223 

adhering to the bricks, though large pieces of 
Hie latter substance are very abundant at the 
base of the mound.* 

The Babylonian writing on these bricksi^ 
which measure fourteen inch^ long^ twelve 
and a half broad, and two thick, contained ten 
lines in an upright column, and many stamped 
across to the angles of the brick; whereas at 
the MujeUibah, Birs, and Kasr, I only met with 
three, four, six, seven, and nine lines. It was 
only at the platform that I found specimens with 
ten lines, which must certamly be considered 
rare. These inscriptions appear to have been 
stamped on the brick while in a soft state, by a^ 
block of wood, and in a very great degree re- 
semble the nail-headed writing of Persepolis^ 
though their form and arrangement dijQer. 

In speaking of these most curious antiques, 
Mr, Rich says, " No idea of the purpose these 
inscriptions were intended to answer, can be 

• See Appendix^ X. Note on Babylonian bricks^ p. 267. 



224 INSCRIPTIONS, 

formed from the situation the bricks are found 
in, which is such as to preclude the possibility 
of their being read till after the destruction of 
the buildings they composed. At the ravine in 
the mound of the Kasr, I was present at the 
extracting of above a hundred of them, and 
found that they were all placed on the layers of 
cement with their faces or inscribed partsr down- 
wards ; so that the edges only (which formed 
the front of the wall) were visible : and from 
subsequent observation I ascertained this to be 
the case in every ruin where they are found ; a 
proof that they were designedly placed in that 
manner. 

** The prospect," he ^ continues, " of one day 
seeing these inscriptions deciphered and ex- 
plained, is probably not so hopeless as it has 
been deemed. Leaving the attempt to those 
who have more leisure, ability, and inclination 
for such undertakings, than I possess, I shall 
content myself with suggesting, that from the 
specimens now before us, some points may be 



INSCRIPTIONS. aS& 

estf^blished, the importances of which those 
skilled in the art of deciphering will readily 
acknowledge. 

*^ The language may safely be pronounced to 
be Chaldee ; the system of letters an alphabeti- 
cal and not a symbolical one ; and each figure 
We see OR; the bricks, a simple letter, and not a 
ivord or a compound character ; the number of 
different characters, with their variations, may 
be therefore easily ascertained, Any one, 
however, who ventures on this ' task, should 
hav^ a^ thorough knowledge of the Chaldean 
language, as well as indefatigable application : 
aided by these qualifications, and furnished 
with a sufficient quantity of specimens, he 
ipigbt^ undertake the labour with some pro- 
sp^qt of success," 

I shall here take the opportunity of remark- 
fog, that it appears the Babylonians had three 
different styles of written characters, answer- 
ing to our large hand, small text, and round 
hand. The two first are found on the bricks 

Q 



INSCRIPTIONS. 



whicb measure from twelve to thirteen inches 
square, by thfee and a half thick. 



t The latter style of written characters is seen 
on other bricks rather less than half ihat size, 
on ^lindrical barrels made, of thie very- finest 
fiimace-baked dity", and on tablets of the same 
mataial, but varying in shape and size ; some 
of which,* I should imagine, from being per- 
forated through their centre or sides, have 
been worn as amulets or talismans. 

These inscription cover the whole surface 
aid sides^ without'being confined within a mar- 
gin, as they invariably are on the bricks, and 
ilidr characters assume a more cursive appear- 
^ce. The barrels are very different from the 
lon^tudinally perforated talismanic cylinders ; 
which, in addition to the arrow-headed or cunei- 
form writing, invariably exhibit mythological 
figures of men, women, and animals ; while the 
former are covered with the small running-hand 
alone, executed with such delicacy and nicety, 
that to copy them correctly is a task almost 
impracticable. 

Of these, only four have (to my knowledge) 
been hitherto found: two are in the British 

Q 2 



f28 CYLINDRICAL BRICK. 

Museum, belonging to Mr. Rich's taollection ; 
the third and fourth are in the possession of 
private individuals. With the greatest difficulty, 
in my examination amongst the fallen edifices 
of Babel, and laborious search after every 
fragment and vestige, of antiquity that might 
remain of a people of the primitive ages 
of the world, I had the good fortune to find 
on^ of these beautiful specimens of Babylonian 
brick-writing, in one of the innumerable unex- 
plored winding passages, at the eastern side of 
that remarkable ruin the Kasr, w great castel- 
lated palace. It was deposited within a small 
square recess,^ near a fine perfect wall, the kiln- 
burnt materials of which were all bid in bitu- 
men, and the ground was strewed with frag- 
ments of alabaster sarcophagi, and Camelled 
brick, stHl retaining a brilliant lustre. 

Many fractured masses of granite of incon- 
ceivable magnitude, (some chiselled in a py- 
ramidal form,) prevented my penetrating far 
into this intricate labyrinth ; the way t6 which 



CYLINDRICAL BRICK. 229 

}s by a souterrain, and must be entered in a 
creeping posture. The annexed engraving 
exhibits an exact representation of the shape 
of this cylindrical brick, which is very similar 
to those possessed by Mr. Kich; but its pro- 
]K)rtions are much greater, as it measures 
nine inches in length, by sixteen in circmn- 
ferenee. 



Bronze antiquities, generally much corroded 
with rust, but exhibiting small figures of men 
and animals, are. often fouhd amongst the 



S30 COLOSSAI^ BRONZE FIOUIIES. 

ruins : these are valuable and interesting,^ as 
being the earliest specimens of the metallurgic 



i i 



Diodorus Siculus observes, that on the 
walls of the palace were colossal figures in 
bronze, xoiKxas sixonag — representing Ninus, Se- 
miramis, the prindpd people of their court ; 
and even whole armies drawn up in order of 
battle.* These designs must, have required 
the greatest skill, and no small labour. Tlie 
art of fusing the most stubborn metals was 
" Wb. ii. p. 97. 



t!AKAL BEDS. 881 

known from the earliest days» as we find in 
Genesis, chap. iv. ver. 22.) that Zillah bore Tu- 
bal Cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass 
andiron; and the innumerable golden statues 
that ornamented the temple and palace, are 
sui&cient proofs of the knowledge of this 
art. I was unsuccessful in tracing any samples 
of those mill-stones mentioned by Xenophon, 
in his Anabasis, lib. i. cap. 2. as having been 
dug up by the inhabitants of the Euphrates ; 
which, after being formed, were conveyed to 
Babylon for isale. 

At a considerable distance to the northward 
and eastward of El Hamir, a very large as*' 
semblage of mounds, the remains of some ex- 
tensive buildings, are divided by a canal run- 
ning south. The ground surrounding this spot 
is covered with nitre, and cut by countless ca- 
nal beds pf great antiquity ; while very visible 
veetiges of ancient edifices exist : but the place 
being so far removed from the site of the ve- 
nerable city, and seeing no end to my re- 



292 TOMB OF AILI IBN HASSAN. 

searches if attempting to prosebute them fari 
ther to the eastward^ which I well kneiir wotdd 
have elided in disappointment, from the lin- 
settled and unsafe btate of the doiintry ; I ww 
induced, however reluctantly, to ' retrace iny 
steps to Hillah. 

The direction from £1 Hamir to the town; 
was S, 60" W. for an hour, the whole^ of 
which tiine wa;s occupied in- crossing the dry 
bediis of innumerable canals; some of great 
depth, and varying from ninety to one hun- 
dred and fifty feet in width. Their course was 
S.E. Other minor channels run north and 
south, extending as far as the eye can reach. 

Three miles and a half from El Hamir, on 
the direct road to Hillah, in the centre of a 
small date grdve, is situated the tomb of ^Ali 
Ibn Hasisan. Fr6m this sequestered, shady^ and 
beautiful spot, the MujeUibA bore N. 70^ W., 
El Hamir, K. 45" W., and Hillah Minairet; 
S. 10'' W. An hour and a half brought me to 
the bridge a little after isunset. It is not' im-^ 



SVVTOgEB 'StTBUKBA^ B191MAINS. fi^ 

{xrObable that the aboye^notiiced moimdi^ may 
hiave ' f CNrmed *&aine exterior building to the 
gi^efettoetiiopoliB ; and thfe dreumstance of the 
arrovir^headed writfaig being engraved on the 
lower face of every brick/ bears ample testi- 
mony to the gifeat aiiti^uity of the spot, were 
aiiy doilbt entertained, from its being so far 
remaved &om the generaUy received position 
0f ,the ' walls of the city. 

Desirous as I may be, of not hazarding an 
unfounded hypothesis, as to the portions of the 
andent capital^ which the remains now se^i to 
the north-east and south-west of the river might 
have suggested; yet El Hamir and the Birs are 
so convenietitly placed in those relative lateral 
bearings with the Ka^, as the central pile, at 
two extreme points of the quadrangular area 
of the dty, that the probability of these two 
masses forming parts of its two farther.quarters, 
ofteta forced itself on my attention.. As i I 
hav^ aibready observed, the mounds beyond 
'Al Hantiir to the north-east^ might too, if not 



8S4 DEPARTURE FROM HILLAH, 

parts of the wall, have been suburban retiuuns 
of thi9 side of the metropolis. Speculation 
alone is left to us: until the ruins about liiis 
celebrated spot are more correctly observed and 
clearly delineated, little, more can be said with 
truth as the basis of the assertion. 

On the 6th of December, I bade adieu to 
HUlah and the m^estic Euphrates. I could 
not but reflect, that the masses of the most 
ancient capitals in Europe bore no comparison 
with the mighty ruins which still exist on its 
banks. From an elevated spot near the ^- 
lage of Moha^wil, I turned to take a parting 
glance at the tenantless and desolate metro- 
polis. It was impossible not to be reminded of 
the fulfilment of the predictions of Isaiah; 
and I involuntarily ejaculated, in the words of 
that sublime and poetical book:— "Babylon, 
the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the 
Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God 
overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It sbaU 
never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt 



PB£BICTIONS QF ISAIAH- 2S5 

in ftom generation to generation; neither shall 
the Arabian pitch his tent there ; neither shall 
the shepherds make their fold there.* But 
wild beasts of the desert shall lie there ; and 
|;heir houses shall be full of doleful creatures $ 
and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall 
dance there. And the wild beasts of the 
islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and 
dragons in their pleasant palaces.*' ( Isaiah, chap, 
xiii. ver. 19, 20, 21, and part of 22.) How 
wonderful is the fulfihnent of these predictions, 
and what a convincing argument of the truth 
and divinity of the Holy Scriptures I 

It was after sunset: I saw the sun sink be- 
hind the Mujellibah : and, again taking a long 
last look at the decaying remains of Babylon 
and her deserted shrines, obeyed, with infinite 
regret, the summons of my guides. 

* What a faithful] picture of complete desolation is 
this ! — ^for it is coismcm in these parts for shepherds to make 
use of ruined edifices to shelter their flocks in ; and it implies 
a great degree of solitude, when it is said, that the ruins of 
Babylon shall be fit for wild beasts only to resort to. 



M6 



ARfti vaL a^ BAai^Ab. 



After traversing t&e v^st wastcfs of Babylonia 
for three days, I reached Bagdad in safety; 
inexpressibly delighted with the scenes ' I had 
contemplated during the ten days of absence 
from that city, the recollection of which, no 
time can, ever efface from my memory. 



I ' 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 



NOTES. 

Note Ay paged. 



P'hb Tower at Dair.}-— Path Uildh ebn Alwan il Kaabt^ ia 
bis history of tbe modem Basrah, entitled Zdd ul Musdfir^ 
written a century and a half ago, speaks of ** Dair, a town 
north-twest of Basrah, remarkable for a tower of such co- 
lossal dimensions and beautiful structure, as to appear to be 
the work of Genii." — Ibn ul Wardi, in the Khaiicilat ul 
Aj4ib, in addition to a similar account^ says, that ** strange 
sounds are occasionally heard to proceed from the interior 
of the tower." 

Great antiquity is attributed to this minaret by all the 
Batives of the country. References to this spot, and to its 
^Id canal, which formed one of a number anciently exca- 
Tated, to irrigate this dry though rich soil, might easily .be 
multiplied, if necessary ; but the two authorities above adr 
duced appear sufficient to justify the remark in the text. 



240 NOTES. 

Note 6, page 4. 

(^Kooraa, or Apamea.] — Koorna was thus named by Se- 
leucus, in honour of Apama, the daughter of Artabazus* the 
Persian. — See Universal History, Ancient, vol. ix. page 
179, edit. 1747. 



Note C, page 10. 

[The Camel's thorn.]— Tliis lowly plant affords a beauti- 
ful -exemplification of the merciful, care of Providence. It 
abounds in th^ deserts of Arabia, India, Africa, Tartary, 
laid Persia. In most of the^6 wilds, it Isthe only food) of 
the cameli that valuable inhabitant of silch^ unMendly 
t^astes. Its lasting verdure refreshes the eye of the traveU 
ler ; and, from the- pi^perty possessed by its deep'-searching 
tmigh roots, of GoUecting' the scanty moisture of these arid 
plains, well known to the Arab^ it is converted to the essen-* 
tial purposes; of aiding in. the production of a grateful and 
healthy nourishment f<Mr. man. ... 

« 

The stem of the plant is in spring divided near the root j 
a single seed of the water-melon is> then, inserted in the 
fissure, and the earth replaced about ^h^ stem of the thorn. 
The seed becomes a parasite, and the nutritive matter 
whieh the brittle succulent roots- of the melon are ill-adapted 
to coUeet, is abandantly supplied by the deeper searching. 



NOTES, 241 

ftnd toagher fibres of the root of the earners thorn. An abun* 
dance of good water-melons is thus periodically forced by the 
Arab from a soil incapable of other culture. This valuable 
native of the desert is the hedysarum alkagi. It bears its 
small oval leaves but a few days early in spring. The beau- 
tiful crimson flowers appear later in the same season, and 
are succeeded by the short moniliform pod peculiar to this 
genus. 



Note D, page 14. 

[Al Hid.3 — This is a canal flowing into the Kerkha, near 
Hawizahy through groves of a species of calamus, growing 
luxuriantly in a low tract of country, between the Tigris and 
the Kerkha, inundated by the overflow of the former. On 
the subject of the canals and marshes of this region, an. ap- 
posite quotation may be gleaned from a Persian biographical 
work, entitled Megalis al Moumenin. The author of the 
Moajum (the celebrated Yacuti of Harna,. the geographer,) 
remarks of Howaizah, that it is the diminutive of Houzah^ 
which signifies collected or brought together. This district 
was peopled and organized by Amir Dabis ebn Ghadhb the 
Asadi, in the Khalifat of Tayaa lillah, who here formed 
colonies of his tribe and dependants. This Dabis is of the 
same tribe and name, though not the same individual, as the 
one who founded the town of Hillah on the Euphrates^. 
Hawaizah is placed between W&sit, Basrah, and Khuzistan, 



242 NOTES. 

in the tnidst of lakes and marshes which were formed by the 
inundations of the Tigris, in the time of Kesra Parwiz. 

The same author also remarks, that the islands of Susiana 
are considered to form a part of this district. He enumerates 
three hundred and sixty distinct villages, the capital of 
which was named Madinah. They produced rice, dates, 
silk, oranges, limes, grapes, fish, and game in abundance. 
The inhabitants, who are Shiahs, are very numerous, war* 
like, highly superstitious, and notoriously predatoiy and 
revengeful. 



Note £, page 19 « 

[The Kelek, or leathern raft of Assyria.]— The mode of 
navigation on the Euphrates, with vessels so peculiarly con- 
structed, as the vT^Iol a-KurtvUf or Navigia conacia of the 
ancient, and the Kelek of the modem Babylonians, remains 
unaltered ; and it is but justice to the father of history to 
clear his text of the unintentional misinterpretation of his 
translators, and their followers, in this essential passage, 
and to prove more fully and clearly that he had seen 
what he so exactly depicts. It appears that the force of 
his description, and the error of his translators, are to be 
found here ; vofji^iag hitig rafiofifevo^ irotJ]<roovTai, ^repireivotKri 
Tovroio"! hoL fiipag crreyourrgt^oig ^coflev &otf80s tpivov^ whereby 
the historian seems to describe most correctly what is done at 
the present day. It may be thus rendered : " having felled wil- 



NOTES, 648 

low-8parS| they put them in order, and extended around 
them outwardly leathern ba^ (involucra vel segestria coria<* 
Gia,) as a substratum or pavement." 

This giving a pavement or substratum of skins to a raft 
of willow-spars tied tight together, has been misinterpreted 
willow-ribs covered with a coating of skins* At pre^ 
sent, the trunk of the wild poplar is made use of> which 
is supported upon inflated bags of sheepskin flayed with 
peculiar art. The boat is managed as described by 
Herodotus; the spars are separated and sold at Bag* 
dad; and the emptied skins carried back on camels, 
horses, mules^ or asses^ as best may suit the proprietor 
of them, to serve in supporting another load of spars 
and merchandise^ 

Besides the Kellek, or raft^ there is a round ribbed boat, 
or corricle, used on the Tigris and Euphrates, covered, not 
with skins, but bitumen. But of this, the only valuable 
article is the bitumen ; the ribs aie of bin willow rods, or 
the midrib of the frond of the date-tree, and are useless, if 
the boat be broken up. 

Two other kinds of boats used on both rivers^ one long, 
sharp, and narrow, and another high and crescent-shaped, ^ 
both rudely formed with wooden ribs and planks, and coated 
with bitumen, deserve to be noticed here; they however 
have nothing to do with the description of the air-sup* 
ported raft of the venerable and veracious Historian, — See 
Herodotus, Clio. chap. 194. 

Diflering as the explanation of this passage of Herodotus, 
as here given, does from the descriptions of two modern 

R 2 



244 J^OTES, 

scholars celebrated for their knowledge of the dialect . of 
their ancient original, it is perhaps necessary that the 
ground of difference or dissent should be explored. The 
authorities here relied upon are, the present. method of con- 
struction of the vessel presumed to be alluded to by Hero-* 
dotuSy and the facility with which .the interpretation hereip 
adopted^ may be derived from the meanings applicable to 
the words of the text.. Had not the word vofiia$ onc^ 
occurred in the chapter whence it was quoted, in a sense 
adverse to such a signification, it might have been inter- 
preted " campestris" and <* agrestis," as attributive of 
hitig the willowy but it has been translated by ** ribs," 
and " costas," derivable, I suppose, from '* divido," one 
acceptation of " vifiar the root; while ours would have 
flowed from ^^ pasco,'' the other signification of the same* 

The term " o-TeyflMTTpiBa/'* ia rendered by the word "bags," 
because *< segestrium," or " segestre," its Latin equivalents, 
express something not remotely dissimilar to the term here 
used: — they mean . ticken pr linen, or leathern sack^ which 
contains the stuffing of a mattress or quilt, particularly, a^ 
well as these last generally ; they also signify the wrappers 
in which various goods are contained, or with which they 
are enveloped. Now the leathern bags, or sacks, on which 
the spars of the raft rest, are precisely the same as those in 
which goods of various kinds are preserved by the Arabs of 
Mesopotamia to this day. 



NOTES. 246: 



Note F, page 29. 

It may here be not devoid of amusement to offer some 
war-cries of the Arab tribes variously versified. 

SONG- 

4 

I. 

The Youth of the Hero^ though quenched. in war. 
Than Eld of the Craven is dearer far. 

Chorus^ 

A fair maid for the brave ^ 
A deep brand for the slave, 
Who can shun the death strife, 
For contemptible life. 



SONG. 

II. 

Why pause ye, friends ? Our daughters urge 
On, though their song our dying dirge. 

Chorus, 

Our charge the spring torrent^ 
The wild rushing current; 
Our blade the red lightning. 
Our havoc o'er-bright'ning. 



246 KOTES. 



SONG. 
III. 

Nor spare thy noble blood. 
Thou chieftain Arab free ! 

Thy boy but marks the flood, 
That he may bleed like thee. 

Chorus. 

If war be thy feast, 
If sloth be thy fast, 

Then not thou the least 
Nor honour'd the last. 



SONG. 

IV, 



Welcome the-cry of the foeman to war! 
My brand shall gleam o'er him his fatal star. 

Chorus. 

Whose the desert couch 
Ne'er to foe may crouch; 
Thick, though, as the sands, 
Charge the rival bands. 



^'OT£8. 247 



SONG. 



V. 



Strive nobly, martyr, and be free ; 
Heaven opes, and Houris strive for thee. 

Chorus, 
None shall wed the flying slave ; 
£*en dogs shall bay the dastard knave. 

A few remarks are here necessary, from the attempt which 
has been made to render the Arabic as closely as possible 
into English verse. Each song and chorus form a separate 
cry sung by the bravest of the tribe who advance to battle ; 
the song, by three or four of the most expect, and the 
chorus in replication by the remainder. The women often 
accompany the men, and encourage them by songs and 
musical instruments ; and revive their drooping powers by 
administering water during the battle. 

This encouragement is alluded to in the second specimen. 
In the third, allusion is made to the fast of the month 
Ramdhan, and the festival at its conclusion; comparing 
war to the pleasures of the second^ and peaceful sloth to 
the bitterness of the other. The figure in the last chorus 
points at the dishonour of an Arab flying from battle to his 
tents ; where not only the tribe itself, but the very dogs 
shun the coward. 



248 KOTES. 



NoteG, page 51. . 

[Sepulchral vases.] — By some who have lately described 
these lu^brious vestiges of the Babylonians, they have been 
assumed to contain the bones of Greeks and Romans, ra- 
ther than of Asiatics ; from the presumption that (^ch a 
mode of burial did not accord with the religious opinions and 
institutions of these last.* 

The following quotation will prove the contrary, as well 
as the fact, that similar vases are found in abundance in 
situations where these two great Western Empires had not 
colonised, or even inhabited ; at Bushire, for instance, the 
Mesambria of Nearchus and Arrian, within less than two 
miles of the sea-shore. The passage referred to is taken 
from Mr. Erskine's translation of the '*Des&tir;'^ and is 
given in the words of that accomplished Orientalist. — See 
Des^tir, vol. ii. page 29, verse 154, of the Book of the 
Prophet, the Great Abad. 

*^ A corpse you may place in a vase of aquafortis, or con- 
sign it to the fire, or to the earth. — Commentary. The 
usage of the Fersendajians regarding the dead, was this: 
After the soul had left the body, they washed it in pure 
water, and dressed it in clean and perfumed vestments; 

* See Rich's Second Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon, twenty* 
■ninth page. Eeppel's Travels, vol. i.- pages 200, 201, second edition ; 
and also, the Travels of Sir Robert Ker Porter in Babylonia, vol. xi« 
p. 373. 



NOTES. 249 

tfaey then put it into a vase of aquafortis, and when the 
body was dissolved, carried the liquid to a place far from 
the city, and poured it out ; or else they burned it in fire, 
after attiring it as has been said ; or they made a dome, and 
formed 'a deep pit within it, which they built and whitened 
with stone, brick, and mortar; and, on its edges^ niched 
were constructed and platforms erected, on which the dead 
were deposited ; or they buried a vase in the earth, and en'- 
closed the corpse in it ; or buried it in a coffin in the ground ; 
and, in the estimation of the Fersendajians, the most eligible 
of a]l these was the vase of aquafortis." 



Note H, page 71. 

[T^ i Kesra.] — Hamdallah Mustouf i, in the geographical 
treatise entitled Nozhat ul Q(i]{ib, says, that Maddyen is th^ 
work of Tahm^lrath Divband, of the PishdAdi dynasty of 
Persian kings, who named it Gardab^d ; Jumshid com- 
pleted it, and called it Teisebtln. It is the largest of the 
seven chief cities of Ir4q, and was thence called Mad^yen. 
Its six rivals are Kadesiah, Riimiah, Hirah, B^bil, Halwd,n, 
and Nahrawin; all of which are now in ruins. Jumshid 
biuilt a stone bridge over the Diglah, which excited the ad- 
miration of Alexander; but the succeeding Persian race of 
kings destroyed this noble specimen of art. 

Ardashir Babegan, who improved the city and made it 
his capita], was desirous of restoring the bridge, but without 



250 NOTES. 

effect; he consequently formed one of chains. The sue* 
ceeding Kesras retained this city as their capital, which 
Shapour Dhu '1 A^^tdf embellished, and wherein Nusbirwan 
erected the Aiwan i K^srd. This is a palace buil); of burnt 
bricks and lime; and to this time not a brick has been 
removed. 

The area of the building was a square of one hundred and 
fifty gaz ; its principal hall was forty-two gaz in extent, 
eighty- two long, and sixty-five high. Encircling it were 
smaller buildings and apartments worthy of the principal 
structure. 

Abu Dawaniq, the Khalifah, was desirous of removing 
the materials of this city for the use of his projected capital 
at Bagdad; Sooleimdn ebu Khdlid, his Wazir, dissuaded 
hinufrom this, saying, that he would be reproached by man- 
kind, for the destruction of one city to aid in the foundation 
of another, as betraying a want of resources. 

The monarch reprobated his minister's lurking tenderness 
for the fame of the Kesra ; and, commencing the work of 
destruction, soon found that the expense attendant on the 
disjunction and removal of. the materials of the city would 
far exceed the cost of new preparations. He was now anxious 
to desist ; but was reminded by the Wazir, that, having 
commenced, he should persevere, or he would be ex- 
posed to the imputation of being less powerful than the 
founders of the city. Sooleimin advised however, at the 
same time, that the t^q, or arch, should remain untouched, 
as a lasting evidence to mankind of the prophetic character 



NOTES. 261 

of Mohammed, on the night of whose birth it was miracu^ 
lously rent Madayen ia now in ruins. On the western 
side, however, a small town remains; and on the e£Miterq, the 
tomb of Selman i Farsi. 



Note I, page 77. 

The following explanatory lines may be added from the 
Oriental Dictionary of D'Herbel6t, in voce. 

[Selman.] — "Abou Abdalla Selman Al Farsi, appelle 
aussi Selman Al Khair. C'est le nom d'un affranchi de 
Mahomet, qui ^toit Persien de nation. Uon dit qu'ii 6toit 
Chretien, et qu'il avoit \A les livres Saints et toyage beau- 
coup. Cependant, il fdt des premiers et des plus consider- 
ables entre les Musulmans ; ensuite que quelques«uns disent 
de luy que bana aleslam, c'est ^ dire, que c'est luy qui b&ti 
le Musulmanisme. 

^MI y a dans la yie de Mahomet, que dans la journ6e du 
Khandak, c'est k dire, du fossk ou de la tranch^e. Ma* 
homet ayant assigne quarante brasses de terrain h, creuser 
pour chaque dixaine d'hommes, chacun vouloit avoir Sel- 
man de son c6t6, a cause de sa vigueur, et les fugitifs de la 
Mecque d'un cot^ et les Auxiliaires de Medine de I'autre, 
fetant divisez sur son sujet, Mahomet pronon^a ces paroles : 
Selman menna ahel albeit— Selman est h nous et de n6tre 
Maison ; et il ajo(ita m£me, V hou ahed alladhin eschtacat 



252 NOTEI?. 

fil'iahetn alginnat— €t il est un de ceux que leParadis desire^* 
c*est a dire, du nombre des predestinez. 
' '^ L'Auteur du Raoudhat alakhiar rapporte,- que Selmaic 
mourut dans la ville de Madam, capitale de la Perse, de 
laquelle Omar Tavoit fait Gouvemeur Tan $5 de I'Hegire, k 
r^ge de deux cent cinquante ans. 

'* Le m^me auteur ajoiite, qu'il vivoit du travail de ses 
mains, et qu'il donnoit le surplus de ce qu'il gagnoit aux 
pauvres. Abon Horairah et Ans Ben Malek, deux per- 
sonnages de grande aiitorite sur les traditions, avoient re9u 

« 

les leurs de Selman, et Selman imm^diatement de Ma« 
homet." 



Note K, page 90. 

[Bagdad.] — ^The following account of this celebrated city is 
extracted from the Noshat ill QjdKih of Hamdallah Mustoufi* 

*^ Baghdad is the metropolis of the Arabian Ir^, and a city 
of Islim, situated on the Diglah. In the age of the Kesras, 
there was on this site,, on the western side, a Village named 
Kerkh^ founded by Sh^piir Dhu '1 Akt^f ; and on the eastern 
bank the small town of SsLb^t, a dependency of Nahraw^n. 

<<The KesrsL Aniishirw^n laid out ten parks and gardens in 
the open country in the vicinity, and called them Bighd^. 
By the Arabs it is named Qiibbet ul Isldm. Almansiir Bil-^ 
lahy the second Abbasside Khalif, surnamed Abu Dawdniq^ 
founded the city A. H.. 145, building chiefly on the western 



NOTES. 253 

« 

fthore. His son, Mahdi Billah, fixed his seat on the eastern, 
side of the river, and added considerably to the mass . of 
edifices, which, in the reign of his successor, H4rdn, were, 
increased to the extent of an area of four Farsakhs, by one, 
and a half. His heir, Mootasim Billah, removed the capital 
to S^mirah, to free the inhabitants from the violence of his 
Mamelukes. 

*^ His example was followed by seven of his successors, 
until, in the reign of Mootadhid Billah, the sixteenth Abbas- 
side Khalif, the seat of government was transferred to Bagh- 
dad, where b1\ his successors have retained it Miiktafi 
Billah, the son of the preceding, founded the Dar v Shd,ti- 
biyyah, and the J^maa, on the eastern shore ; and Miis- 
tadhhir Billah surrounded it with a ditch, and wall of lime 
and kilnbricks; the portion, of which 16 the east, named 
Haramein, was eighteen thousand k^ms long, and had four 
gates; the Khor^s4n, the Khilif, the Hatabiyah, and the 
Siiq us SAltan. . 

^* The western, or quarter of Kerkh, is guarded by a wall of 
twelve thousand kims ; and most of the edifices of the city 
are] of lime, and burnt bricks." — The author describes the 
fur as good to strangers, or natives; the inhabitants, and, 
particularly the women, as healthy, fat, ruddy, and devoted 
to gaiety; cattle as thriving, but some kinds scarce; the 
pasturage excellent ; the grain abundant, and highly nutri- 
tive. The soil rich and productive, rather more favourable 
for plants of warm than cool stations. He particularly al- 
ludes to the lofty stature which the Tamarix Qrientalis 



S54 NOTES. 

and the Ricinuft Communis usually attain in the genial soil 
of this country. Shrines, and tombs of holy men, are abun^ 
dant, both in the city and in its immediate and more remote 
vicinity ; too numerous to be noticed in this place. 



[L.M. N.] 

These refer to some Arabic notes in the author's possession, 
which it was first intended to give in the Appendix, but which 
it was afterwards thought desirable to omit. 



Note O, page 111, 

[Nabocadnassar.] — ** Les Arabes appellent ainsi celui que 
nous appellons vulgairement Nabuchodonosor. Ce mot 
Arabe est assez conforme au nom que les Hebreux lui don- 
nent. Les memes Arabes appellent plus ordinairement ce 
Prince, qui etoit Roi des Assyriens et des Babyloniens, Bakht^ 
ou Bokht al Nassar, nom qui est aussile plus en usage chez les 
Persans et chez ]es Turcs. Les Historiens Orientaux, et prin* 
cipalement les Persiens, donnent aussi a ce Prince les noms 
de Raham et de Gudarz." — D'Herbel6t, tome 3, page 1. 



Note P, page l^i 



[Hillah.] — ^The author of the Majalis uLMoumenin, under 
the article of Hillah, states, that it is a large city between 



NOTES* 255 

Kiifah and Baghdid, and that the site was originally named 
Jimiain. The first individual who settled and constructed 
houses on the spot was Amir Seif ud doulah Sadagah ebn 
Mansiir ebn Ali ebn Mazid the Asadi, whose ancestors dwelt 
in the neighbourhood of Nil, on the Euphrates. While the 
different Seljicke Princes of Ir&q were in open dissension 
against each other, he acquired rank and riches, kept up 
an army, and in Moharram of the year A. H. 595, came to 
J^iain, and encamped in the neighbourhood of, what then 
was, a forest tenanted solely by animals of prey. He shortly 
cleared the place, and founded a city, which became in time 
one of the most flourishing of Ird.q ; and this is the modem 
Hillah. 



Note Q, page 161. 

BABEL. 

Extracts from MasMi. 

[I.]— The Farit then flows on to Rakkah, to Rakbah, 
Hit, and Amb^r, at which point several canals are divided 
from the river ; as, for instance, the canal of Isa, which, after 
passing beyond Baghdad, falls into the Diglah. It then winds 
towards the sites of S{ir&, Kasr ebn Hobairah, Kdfah, J4- 
miain, Ahmedabad, Albirs, and the mounds, &c. Sec. — Vide 
Mas. chapter of the course of the river Fardt. 

[H.] — Many of the most able and distinguished historians 
are of opinion that the first kings of B&bil were those pris- 



256 NOTES. 

tine monarchs of the world who first settled and civilized 
mankind^ and that the first race of Persian potentates were 
their successors by conquest^ as the empire of Rome increas- 
ed on the subjection of the Greeks. 

They maintained, that the first of these Princes of Babil 
was Nemroud the Mighty, whom they suppose to have reign- 
ed during sixty years, and to whom they attribute the exca- 
vation of the canals, in the province of Irdq, derived from 
the stream of the Far^t. One of these is the celebrated 
canal of Kiitha, on the road to Kdfah, between Kasr ebn 
Habairah and Baghdad. — See Mas, chapter of the Kings of 
BabeL 

[III.] — ^The capital of the kingdom of Aferaid{in was 
Bi.bi) ; which is one of the climates of the earth, so desig- 
nated from the name proper to one of its towns. This town 
is situated on both banks of one of the canals derived 
from the Farat, in the province of Iraq, distant an hour's 
journey from the city named Jisr. i. Bdbil and the canal 
of Albirs; from which last-named town, the produce ,of 
|;he Birseean looms, the cloths of Birs, derive their appel- 
lation. 

Near the town of Babil is an excavation usually known as 
the well of the prophet Daniel, which is much frequent- 
ed^ both by Jews and Christians, on certain anniversary 
festivals peculiar to each sect. Any individual visiting this 
town cannot but be struck by the amazing mass of ruined 
structures thrown together in scarcely distinguishable heaps. 



NOTES. 257 

The opinion is very prevalent that these are HirAt and M4- 
rut, the angels mentioned in the Koran, in the passage 
which marks the fate and designation of BibiL — See Mas. 
Chap. Of the Kings of Babil. 

PV.] — Muhammad ebn Histram al Kalbi relates, on the 
authority of his father, and other Arabian authors of note, 
that they believed that the first king of the world was Ash- 
kedan ; and that thus also were named the earliest monarchs 
of the first race of the Persian kings, down to 'Dkrk ebn 
Ddr^. The next were called Ardawin, who were princes of 
the Nabatsean race, -and of the number of the Miil6k ul 
Tawiyif. They were of the province of Ir^k from the vi- 
cinity of Kasr ebur Hobalrah and the river Far^t, and J^- 
miain and Siir^ and Ahmedabadj and Albirs to the districts 
bordering on the sea and its shores. — See Mas. Chap. Of 
the Persian Kings intermediate between the first and second 
dynasty. 



Note R, page 174. 

[Nil Canal.]— This canal is so named from a town on the 
Euphrates, between Baghdad and Kufah, according to Abul^^ 
feda-in his table of Iraq ; and Semaaniy in voccy in his Kitdb 
id Ansdb, says that indigo was there made and sold. 



258 NOTES. 

Note S. page 183. 

[The Athlah.] — ^This picturesque inhabitant of Babylon 
is, if not a distinct species^ at least a beautiful variety of 
the Tamarix Orientalis, whjch it resembles in every respect, 
except that the common petioles> on which the small scaly 
leaves are strung, are longer, more slender, and less bur- 
thened with leaves, springing from the sides, than the com- 
mon Tamarisk of the country. From the Arabic Materia 
Medica of £bn Kibti the Baghdadi who flourished A.H. 
711, may be learnt, in voce, that the " Athl is a large va- 
riety of the Turfd, or Tamarisk ; and is a well-known tree 
which the people of Baghdad plant over their graves, and 
in other situations. It rivals the tallest cypresses in sta- 
ture/'^-^See, io confinnation. Note K.* 



Note T, page 202. 

[The Birs.] — ^The word Birs, as applied to the mound 
of Nimrod, cannot be satisfactorily explained in Arabic 
as a derivative of this language; and it would appear, 
that all attempts to deduce it from the Hebrew or Ghal- 
daic tongues, have failed; as they are founded on a 

* My friend,' Aylmer Bourke Lambert, Esq. Vice Prendent of the 
Linnean Society, FRS. MRAS. &c. Ac. showed me a beautifiil sped- 
men of the Tamarix Orientalis, which I found to be the same as the 
AiUah. 



NOTES. S59 

change of the radical Ie£te» of the word, the great and 
ovenphehning sia of most etymologBtsu The QamAs gives 
Bira as the name of a tomi ov district between Htllah and 
Kufah^ which, is still known; and is conjoined with Babel, 
in the Chaldsdc Sidr^ Rabbi of the Saboaans, un<ler the 
name of B4ssif; whence the Bonosippa of SirabQ,.andothejr 
ancient autJiors^ directiy; proceeds. 



Note V, page 2QS. 

[Nemrod.] — In the first chapter of Misiidi's General His- 
tory, near its close, the author remarks, that, of the sons of 
Shem, son of Noah, Mish, son of Aram, son of Shem, occu- 
pied the land of Babel; where was bom Nimrod, son of 
Mish, who erected the vast T6wer or Palace at Babel, and 
a bridge on the Euphrates. He was king of Nabat, and in 
his reign the separation of tongues took place. 

Masiidi places the birth of this mighty monarch, to whomi 
he attributes a reign of five hundred years* duration, in the 
age of Reu, son of Peleg. In this age^ too, appeared the 
first dawnings of idolatry ; which mode of adoration was 
adopted to avert public evils of various kinds that threatened 
the existing race of mankind. 

The author farther states, that in the life of Terah, also 
named Azar, the worship of the heavenly bodies was intro- 
duced by Nimrod, and their respective gradations of rank 
ascertained. Great public calamities, and changes of domi- 

s 2 



260 NOTES. 

nion in the East and in the West, occurred: at this time, 
a period equally remarkable for the introduction of astro- 
logy, and the influence of its predictions on the minds of 
men. Nimrod was also informed that a child would be 
bom, who would dissipate these idle dreams, and destroy 
their idolatry ; which inducing the monarch to command the 
presence of the child, Abraham was placed in concealment- 
When he had advanced a little in age, he came forth from 
his cave, and, attracted by the beauty of the heavenly host, 
admired each in succession, and pronounced it to be his Lord. 

Gabriel however turned his heart, and instructed him in 
the love and adoration of the One Eternal God. Abraham 
increased in holiness and piety, and derided and exposed the 
gods of his tribe and people. Their complaint was carried 
to Nimrod, who exposed him to the action of fire ; but the 
Lord kept him cool and unhurt: and in that day, the planets, 
and their temples, in all parts of the earth, were humbled. 

Hamdallah Mustoufi, in his chapter on mountains, rivers, 
&c. and in his first division, treating of the direction 
and extent of the routes and roads of Persia towards the 
neighbouring countries, remarks as follows : — " From 
Baghdad to Najaf, beyond the limit of Mn, are, first to 
the village of Sarsar, two farsangs ; thence to the village of 
Qarijeh, seven farsangs ; thence to the river of Nil, seven 
farsangs; within half a farsang of which station, on the 
banks of the Farit, is the city of Bibil. From the river of 
Nil to the town of Hillah, are two farsangs ; thence to the 
ci^y of KAfah, seven farsangs ; and one farsang on the left 



NOTES. 261 

of this road is Birs, which was a residence of NemroM^ at 
•which he eotposed Ibrahim Khalil, on whom be peace^ to the 
action of fire** 

To these notices it may be as well to subjoin a few par- 
ticulars collected from other sources, confirmative of the acr 
count of the Arabian Historian above quoted. Terah, the 
father of Abraham, it is said, (Suidas, in voce, ASgotof^y and 
^8g8^f Lex. tom. i. and ii.) made statues and images for 
the purposes of that idolatrous worship, which had been 
transmitted to him from his ancestor Serug, and which he 
encouraged by example and exhortation. 

Some Jewish authors relate (apud Genebrand, in Chrtin.) 
that Abraham pursued the same occupation ; and Maimonides 
(More Nevochim, c. 29.) says, that he was educated in the 
religion of the Sabaeans, who acknowledged no deity but the 
stars, and that he was led by his own reflection^ to the ber 
lief of an intelligent Creator and Governor of the universe ; 
but that he did not renounce paganism till the fiftieth year 
of his age. That he was brought up in the religion of the 
Sabeeans, is an opinion adopted by Spencer, (De Leg, Heb, 
Ritual, lib. ii. c. i. § 2. vol. i. 279. — See Sabaism.) 

Suidas (nbi supra^J informs us, that at sixteen years of 
age he cautioned his father against seducing men to idolatry 
for the sake of pernicious gain, and taught him that there 
is no other God besides^Him who dwells in Heaven, and 
created the whole world. It is added, that he destroyed the 
statues and images of his father, and departed with him 
from Chaldsea. 



268 NOTE8. 

Otlieni.Telat6, (Heidegger Hist. Patriarch, torn. iii. p. 86.) 
that his iather deputed Abraham to 6ell \m statues in hi« 
absence, and that a man, who pretended to be a- purchaser, 
haying ascertained that he was fifty years of age, remon- 
strated with him for adoring, at such an age, a being iwhich 
is but a day old. Abraham, impressed and confounded by 
this «9iiio»Btrance, destroyed them all^ excepting the largest, 
before his father's return ; and he told him, that haviiigfiM- 
sented an oblation of flour to the idols, the stoutert t)f them, 
in whose hands he had placed a hatchet, hewed the oUiers to 
pieces with that weapon. 

Terah replied, that this was bantering, because t^e<idols 
had not sense to act in this manner ; upon which Abraham 
retorted these words upon his father against the worship of 
such gods. But he was >deliveMd up by Terah to Nimrod, 
tfae«OTereign of the country; and'hecassehe refused 'tawor- 
ehip the fire, according to his t)rder, he was thrown into the 
midst of the flames, -from which he escaped uninjured. 

Mr; David Levi, in his Lingua Sacroy has' given an account 
of this tradition extracted from Medrash Bereschith ; aond/it is 
related by Jerome, (Trad. Hebraic, in Genesin;) who seems 
to admit its geaeial credibility. However, if ^we allow that 
Abndiam, being bora and educated in an iddatrous country 
and fMBily, might have been addicted in ray early life tothat 
superstition, it is certain that he renounced it, and that he^as 
providentially vemoved from a scene of danger, and that he 
contributed to propagate just sentiments ooncerning the Ddty 



I^OTES. 968 

wherever he sojoumed. The fame of his wisdom, piety, and 
virtue, spread far and wide amoag the nations of the world : this 
appears from the testimonies. of Berosus, HecatoeuSi Nicho- 
las of Damascus, cited by Josephus, (Antiq. b. i. c. 7. apud 
Oper. torn. i. p. 28. ed Hayerc.) and also from what is said of 
him by Alexander Polyhistor, Eupolemus, Artapenus, and 
others, whose testimonies may be seen in Eusebius's Preep* 
Evang. lib. ix. cap. 16, 17, 18, 19. His name is mentioned 
with honour all over the East to this day. In just deduction 
from the premises detailed, it may be affirmed, that the Di- 
vine promise to this Patriarch was the foundation of that 
grand scheme for preventing the universal prevalence of 
idolatry, and for preserving among mankind the knowledge 
and worship of the only true God, which, after undergoing 
several variations and improvements, was to last to the 

end of time. 

" Les Arabesdisent, que ce mot signifie la m^me chose que 
Marftd ; c'est h dire, un rebelle et un revolte, nom qui con- 
vient fort bien a celuy qui fut I'auteur de la premiere re- 
volte des hommes contre Dieu, par la structure qu'il entre- 
prit de la Tour de Babel, et c'est celuy que nous appellons 

Nembrod. 

« Selon le Tarikh Montekheb, le Nembrod des Hebreux 
est le m^me que le Zhohac des Persiens, roy de la premiere 
dynastie des princes qui ont regne dans le monde depuis 
le deluge. Mais, selon Tauteur du Mefatih al61oun, Nem- 
brod est le mfeme que Caicaous, second roy de la seconde 



264 NOTES. 

4ybastie de Perse, ^ommee des Cai'anides. Ce m^me au- 
teur donne au mot de Nemrod, ou Nemroud, une ^tymologie 
Persienne, a s^avoir, Nemurd, qui signifie celuy qui ne 
mourt point ; et il dit, que ce surnom d'lmmortei fut donnfe 
^ Caicaous, k cause des longues aune^s qu*il regua. Car 
tous les Historiens de Perse le font regner plus de cent 
cinquante ans. 

"Mirkhoud, dans son Raoudhat Alsafa, 6crit conform^ment 
au sentiment de cet auteur que nous venous d*alleguer, que 
Ton a impute k Caicaous la folie de vouloir escalader le Ciel, 
ce qui conyient assez bien avec le dessein extravagant de 
Nemrod et des autres constructeurs de la Tour de Babel, de 
la maniere qu*il est couch^ dans les livres saints. 

'' Mais ce m^me auteur ajoiite, qu'il n'y a gu^res d'ap- 
parence, que Caicaous, qui a pass6 pour un Prince fort sage 
entre les Persans, ait eu une telle pensee. Car pour monter 
au Ciel, poursuit Mirkhoud, parlant en bbn Musulman, il 
faudroit ^tre monte sur un Al Borac, et conduit par 
Gabriel, ce qui etoit reserve par un privilege singulier 
a Mahomet. 

" L'auteur du Lebtarikh dit, que Nemrod etoit Ben Kenyan, 
Ben Kham ; c'est h, dire, fils de Chanaan et petit fils de Cham, 
fils de Noe, et qu'il etoit frere de Cous, sumomme en Persien 
Fil Dendan ; c'est a dire, Dent d'Elephant. Ce Coua, ou 
Caous, pourroit ^tre Chus, fils de Chanaan, dontparle TEcri- 
ture, et duquel sont descendus les Abissins ou Ethiopiens, 
que les Juifs appellent encore aujourd'hui Conschum. 

" L'auteur du livre intitule MMern fait le recit fabuleux 



NOTKS. 265 

d'une Histoire, de laquelle il prend Ali pour gamnt, daas 
les termes qui suhrent. 

** Nemrod ayant fait jetter Abraham, qui refusoit de le re 
connottre pour le souverain Maitre et le Dieu du monde, 
dans une fournaise ardente, surpris de Pen voir sortir sans 
avoir soufFert la moindre atteinte du feu, dit k ses courtisans : 
• Je veux aller au Ciel pour y voir ce Dieu si puissant qu'A- 
braham nous pr^he.' Ces gens luy ayant repr^sente, que 
le Ciel etoit bien haut, et qu'il n'^toit pas facile d'y arriver, 
Nemrod ne se rendit point a leurs avis, et commanda en 
mSme terns, que Ton bitit une tour la plus ^levee qu'il se 
pourroit. On travailla trois ans entiers k ce batiment; et 
Nemrod ^tant monte jusqu'aii plus haut, fut bien etonne, en 
regardant le Ciel, de le voir encore aussi eloign^ de luy, que 
s'il ne s'en fut pas approche. Mais ce qui luy causa et don- 
na plus de confusion, fut d'apprendre le lendemain, que cette 
haute tour avoit ete renvers^e. 

*' Nemrod ne fut point rebute cependant par uii accident si 
etrange, et voulut que Ton en reblLtit une autre plus forte et 
plus haute. Mais cette seconde toiir eut le m^me destin que 
la premiere, ce qui fit prendre k cet insense le dessein ridi- 
cule de se faire porter jusqu'au Ciel dans un coffre^ tire par 
quatre de ces oiseaux mondtrueux, nommez Kerkes, dont les 
anciens auteurs de TOrient font mention dans leurs romans. 

** Le m^me auteur decrit exactement cette machine^ de 
quelle mani^re ces oiseaux y 6toient attachez, et dit enfin, 
que Nembrod s'etant apper9U de I'inutiiite de son projet^ 
apres avoir erre et vole quelque terns par les airs, plongea si 



266 NOTES. 

Toderaent en 'terre que la montagne pa -ces.oiseftux le jet- 
terent, en fut ebranlee, suivant ce qui est port6 xlans I'Al- 
coran au chapitre intitule Ibrahim, v. en kair roekrhom 
letezoul menho algebab ; cW a dire, les machines etlts strata- 
'gimesdesitnpies, Kxmt jusqu*a faire trembler Us montognes, 
■ ** Neitfbrcfd^ ap]>e« aroir vH echouer une entreprise t^m^raire, 
et ne poiivant faire la guerre k Dieu m^me en personne^ 
'-comme il ayoit projette, au lieu de reconnoitre la puissance 
'de ce souverain Maitre et d'adorer son unite, persista toii- 
jours -dans le sentiment impie qu'il avoit de luy m^me, et con^ 
tinua h maltraiter tous ceux qui adoroient une autre divinite 
que luy dans ses 6tats. Cest ce qui fit que Dieu luy dta, 
-par la division et par la confusion des langues, la plus grande 
partie de ses sujets, et punit ceux qui demeurerent attachez 
k luy, par une nuee de moucherons qui les fit presque tous 
]perir, selon k mpport de Demiathi. 

" Uauteur du Lebab ajoftte, qu^un de ces moucherons 6tant 
ent^ pat les narmes de Nembrod^ penetra jusqu'a une des 
membranes de son oerveau, oxX grossissant de jour en jour, il 
fay causa une «i grande douleur, qu'il etoit oblige de se faire 
battre lai^e avec »n maillet, pour pouvoir prendre quelque 
reposy et qifil soufirit ce supplice pendant Fespace de quatre 
cent ans, Dieu voulant punir par la plus petite de ses crea- 
tures, cehiy qui «e Tantoit insolemment d'etre le Maitre de 
tout. £bn Batrik dit que Nembiod etoit Mage et Sabien de 
religion, et que ce fut luy qui itablit le premier le culte et 
I'adoration du feu. 
" II y a des historiens qui apqpeUent les plus anctens rois des 



NOTES. 367 

Babylbniefns, qui ont 8iicced6 k Nenrbrod, Nemared ; c'est ^ 
dire, les NBmbrodiens. Car ce mot de Nemared est plurier 
Arabiqne que Nembrod, et signifie aussi dans la mSme langua 
des rebelles et des tyran8."-^D'Herbel6t, tome tioisiemei 
page 32. 

Note W, page 220. 

[Al Hamir.]— This word appears to^e derived from the 
Arabic root hamara, which signifies -to be, or become red. 
it is the form of the present participle, and has been ap- 
plied to this mound, to denote the red mass or edHice. ^e 
colour and its attributive name are favourites with the people 
of the East generally, as " purple'* and ** porphyrian" seem 
to have been in the ancient West. Alhambra also, one 
of the four wards of the ancient city of Granada, is deducible 
from the same root. It was so called by the Moors, from 
the red colour of its materials, Alhambra signifying a red 
house. Sir Robert Porter asserts that Al Hymer (as he 
calls it) is not to be traced from the Arabic, whereas it is one 
of the commonest words in the language. 



Note X, page 223. 

[Babylonian Bricks.] — Beloe, in his Translation of Hero- 
dotus, Clio. cap. 1 79, says — " They used as cement a com- 
position of heated biti\men, which, mixed with the tops of 



268 NOTES. 

reed , was placed betwixt every thirtieth course of bricks/' 
The passage in the Latin translation of Laing's edition of 
Wesseling's Herodotus, is better rendered, and more con- 
formable with the mode of cement preserved to this day. 
** Postea pro coeno vel calce utentes bitumine ferventi et per 
tricesimas latericias compages constipantes crates arundi- 

num," &c. &c. 

The text of Herodotus is still the most correct of the 
three, for his rsAftori is the clay cement now used; for 
which the aa-^dXTco dsp/x^, or simple hot bitumen, was sub-'- 
stituted in the courses near the earth, or under it; his 
retpo'ws KdKafJLMV, the stems, and not the tops of the reeds, 
which to this day appear in layers between the bricks at the 
ruins of Babel. Beloe's version of this passage is licentious ; 
and Herodotus still the best and clearest narrator. 



HISTORY OF 

MODERN BUSSORAH, 

BETWEEN THE YEARS OF THE MOHAMMEDAN JERA, 

953 AND 1076: 

EQUIVALENT TO THOSE OF THE CHRISTIAN 
PERIOD, 1546 AND 1665. 



N.B. The notes to this Account of Bassorah immediately succeed the text. 



The following is a short, though correct, 
sketch of the history of modern Bussorah, be- 
tween the years of the Mohammedan sera,. 953 
and 1076, equivalent to those of the Christian 
period, 1545 and 1665. It is taken from the 
work of a learned Arab of the tribe KMb, that 
at present occupy a large portion of Susiana, 
the modem Kuzistan, on the left bank of the 
Euphrates. He was an eye-witness, and even 
a sufferer in some of the scenes described in the 
latter portion of the narrative. The history 



970 HISTO&T OF UOIKBXS BUSKntAH. 

was composed in the year of the Hejrah, 1078. 
A. D. 1667. 

The geographical matter contained in the 
notes subsequent to, and illustrative of^ the 
historical portion of this nsmtive, will tend to 
explain the positions laid down in the map 
prefixed to this work ; it is completely new, 
and from a source not usually accessible to 
Englishmen. 

Bosairah is the diminutive of Basrah, a well- 
known dty and district on the banks of the 
Shat tl Arab, the modern Busrah. The united 
streams of the Digleh and Farat, from their 
confluence at the fort of Koomah, flow past its 
she. The ancient Basrah, built in tl^ age of 
Omar ebn ul IQiattab, is now in ruins. Shobd 
says, that in it was the mosque of Ali, son of 
Abu TSlib, now also in mins. * Two hundred 
rads of dates were there sold for a dln&r. One 
of its canals, in the days of its prosperity, was 
that of Obillah, perhaps the Ashar of the pre- 

• See Note, page 287. 



HISTORY OF MODERN BUSSORAK S7t 

sent dtsy ; and 01»Uei1i itsdf prolMibfy the m»* 
dem Basrah. 

A canal, called Ash^, intellects the nsodem 
Basrah in a south-westerly direction* The du 
vision on its right, or north-western bank, is 
called !N adiuin. Many lesser canals are derived 
from the principal stream of the Ash&r, towards 
the sotrth-east ; on which are placed other 
flourishing divisions of the district which, in 
their aggregate, constitute what is now called 
Basrah. 

The first of these is Boraiha ; * next Toofhat 
ul Abb&s ; then Saimar ; Mahallat ahl id Dasr; 
Al HoC^z ; Almin Easar ; in which are the re-* 
sidence of the Governor and the custon]i»hotise, 
where duties on the various imports from India, 
Arabia, and Turkey, are levied. Others of its 
well-peopled quarters are Mishraq ; S(ig (il 
Ghazl; Muhommad ul Jaw&d; Adhaibah; 
Nabbat til Jab^, &c. ; as well as many more, 
wldch, with their bazaars, well supplied with 

• See Note A. 



272 HISTORY OF MODERN BUSSORAH. 

every necessary article, exceed all descrip- 
tion. 

The tide waters its . gardens twice in a day 
and night, which produce delicious fruits of 
every kind, pleasing to the eye, or gratifying 
to the palate. The whole of these divisions, as 
well as that first named, Nadhran, are included 
within a fortified wall. Basrah was taken in 
the. reign of SultAn Sulaiman, son of Sallm, 
from the Arab Al. e. Maghamis 61 Muntafiq, 
A. H. 985. Sultan Miihanmiad, son of Morad, 
whose reign commenced A. H. 1002, reigned 
nine, yeai's ; in his reign Afr^siS^b Pasha govern- 
ed Basrah. 

Shaikh, Abdul AU ben Bahmah, however, in 
his work, Q^tr dl Gham^m, conceives, that he 
is referable to Pair only on the mother's side ; 
and that his paternal ancestry is deducible from 
the Seljucks of Tartary ; from whose monarchs, 
after the lapse of fourteen successions, the 
power of this house passed to Othman, the 
founder of the Ottoman dynasty. 

The father of Afrasi^b unquestionably mar- 



HISTORY OF MODEEN BUSSORAH. 273 

ried a lady of Dair, from whom issued the suIk- 
ject of this memoir. The cause of his elevaticm 
to the govermnent of Basrah, as far as can he 
discovered, was as follows. He was writer in 
the office of military account at Basrah, at a 
period when the inhahitants imited to expel 
their Turkish Pasha, named Ali, who finding 
his revenues daily decreasing, and with them 
the resource for maintaining his garrison, sold 
the government to Afr^siSh for eight hundred 
purses, of 3000 muhammadis each : under the 
sole condition, that the Khothah should continue 
to be delivered in the name of the Sultan Afrfi^ 
si4b, who agreed to the terms of contract, and 
the Tiu-kish Pasha departed for Constantinople. 
The government of Afr^siab was just and 
vigorous. He reduced the territory of Goban, 
then held by a Turk named Bektash Agha, the 
scoiu'ge of his neighbours; the governor of 
Dih'aq, and Seyyed Mubarek Khan, Prince 
of Hawizah.* The first he beis;i^ged and 

• See Note B. 
T 



874 laifiTOBT OF MODERN BUSSOSAH. 

obi^ged: to surrender with the sole promise of 
his Ma He 'reduced all the islands of the 
lower river ;> and, after compelling the Prince 
of Hawizah to restore the territory on the left 
bank bf the Euphrates, dependent on Basrah^ 
which he had usurped, he refused the fiitur^ 
payment of a tribute formerly remitted to the 
Bersians of that district. His power com- 
menced A. H. 1005, and lasted seven years. 

Afraisiiab transmitted an hereditary succes* 
sion to his son Ali Pasha, an encourager of 
learned m^i ; a protector of his people ; a wise 
and prudent administrator of the laws; and 
a cherisher of the resouiPoeis of his territory. 
The celebrated poet. Shaikh Abdul .All ebn 
R^dimah, the laureate of this bouse, shed a 
lustre on the • age of Ali, whose ^court might 
justly be compared with that of Ras^chid, for 
the . treasures of art^ ^sdence, ^d litoratore 
which formed its splendid bmamients. 

Dunng this Paidialick,' the islands of the 

higher Euphrates were subdued,^ after having 

> 

* See Note C. 



;i^ :*-vi^' »^ 



HIS^COlIlY OF / MODSRN BUSSORAH* 275 ' 

js^BS^ediithe^^Q^^ of the Saltan. 

TBte fort.^of Muamixdr wBs'Wfmted £rom the 
Pasha of /Bagdad^ arid thst of Zakkiah from 
the ;sfon of jHis Highness's deputy* 

A:large .tany was seat against him by tiie 
Peraan Eiag, Shah Ahbas| first under Imam. 
Q)tdi Khan; whdn the t^it}^ maititained a power-^^ 
full siege^ . biit ; the love of the Pasha's^^ siihjeets 
kept them firm in their adherence, till on the 
arrival, in the Persian camp, of intelligenee of 
the decease of this monarch, they hastily re- 
treated; abandcming Hieir guns, baggage, and 
puMic property, to a large amornit^^ in the year 
Ai iLi 10S6. The pow» of AU Pasha conti- 
nued fojty-five years. 

(1 All was succeeded by his son Hussein Pa* 
shu^? whose violenxse: and' injustice very soon 
^issinged 'the . heartsr of his sul^ects, and en^ 
Couraged fats uncles,- the sons of AMsi&b, 
Ahmed Agfaia;, and TPaMihl. Beg^ to revolt. 
They proceeded ' to> Conrtantinople, and pttjr 
«ure4' an ord^r for the disposal of Hussein^ 

* See Note D. 

t2 



V79 HISTORY OF MODEEN BUSSORAH. 

and their own elevation in his stead, They 
were accompanied by a large army, under th6 
command of M\!lrtezi Pasha of Bagdad. 

When Hussein heard of their approach, he 
assembled his chief men in consultation ; but 
soon discovered that they were averse to him, 
and inclined to the interests of his imcles. He 
upon this fled with his family and dependants 
to Diiraq, where leaving his consort and hei^ 
followers, he proceeded to Behbehan, and re- 
mained there^ 

In the mean time Mtirteza Pasha, with 
Ahmed Agha, and Fathhi Beg, entered Bas-. 
rah without opposition ; and the ..Pasha was 
so pleased with the place, that he put the 
two sons of Afr^si^b to death, and seized on 
the government for himsel£ This treacherous 
murder so disgusted the citizens and subjects, 
that they combined with the people of Jeza^ 
yir, and rose in rebellion against Miirtez^ 
whose agents and servants they put to death 
wherever they were found; and thus obliged 



.HISTORY OP MODERN B0SSOKAH. 877 

the Pasha to fly with the remainder of his 
jsuite and garrison. 

The people of Basrah repented of their con- 
duct to Hussein, who was still residing at 
Behbehan; they sent him offers of submission^ 
and he gladly returned to his government 
A/H. 1064. 

Hussein increased his fcMiner oppression of 
the people ; but patronised literature with uur 
bounded munificence ; and exhibited th6 most 
vigilant submission to the power of the SultaA, 
from whom, by force of princely offerings, 
he bought the Wezar^t. 

A. Hi 1073, Hussein advanced with an 
army against Lahsa, and having reduced it, 
plundered the inhabitants, and put many of 
them to death. This unprovoked aggression, 
however, drew upon him the anger of the 
Sultan. Muhammed Pasha, son of Ali Pasha, 
fled to Constantinople, and complained of the 
outrage committed by Hussein; which was 
punished by the despatch of ah Imperial armv^ 



1278 HISTORY OF MODEEN BUSSOKAH. 

against Basrah, under Ibrahim Pasha. Hu»- 
sem continued to govern, till this army came 
m the year fh-st mentioned, from first to last, 
twenty-one years up /to the period of his fli^t, 
as will be detailed hereafter. : •. ■.'-. 

In this year the Turks came ih great force 
to Bosairah. Hussein Pasha, at this-^time 
gov^or ctf the country,' heard of their, ap- 
proach^ /and adopted every means of resi^ance. 
He strengthened and added to the fortifica- 
tions, and directed all useless members of the 
popidation to leave the city in successive 
bands, which movement commenced on the 
first of the month JamSdi th. Thani. 

A portion of the citizens of most, considera- 
tion having compUed with the commands of 
the governor, the remainder evinced a dispo^ 
sitioii to resist his. mandate. He however, 
suspecting their intentions, proclaimed that tibte 
Hfe and propierty of any :individual directed- to 
depart, who should be found, in the >tawtt;Cfl:i 
the third day subsequent, should be. fi^rfeited. ; 

The proclamation above related, caused the 



HISTORY OF MODERN BUSSOEAH; 179 

greatest oonfusioii and misery to the inhabi- 
tants, who poured forth in such multitudes, 
as to impede the' common passage ; the su£Per- 
iogs of . women, who^ now for the first time, 
appeared unveiled, thinking only of their chil- 
dren, were indeiicribable. Some were so heavily 
laden, that both mother and infant perished oh 
the road. 

The ties of nature appeared dissolved : father, 
son, brother, and husband, deserted those dear- 
est to them, and filedi for individual safety. 
The author witnessed the heart-rending scene, 
which was > ag^avated by a dfdage' of ram, 
that destroyed the bridges at Boraiha and 
Minawl.^ 

During the flight, maay endeavoured to save 
themselves on frail rafts of reed, and the canal 
and; rivers were fiUed with them. At length, 
on the fourth morning, the city of Basra, its 
bazaarSj coffee-house, mosques, and squares, 
colleges, and places of public assembly, were 
wholly deserted. 

* See Note E. 



980 HISTORY OF MODEBN BUS80RAH; 

Husseiii sternly continued his plan of ren-^ 
dering his country a desert ; and, in the middle 
of the month Rajab, the whole of the western 
bank of the river was cleared of inhabitants^ 
who were plundered, beaten, and forced from- 
their homes by two officers of Hussein, set over 
them; namely, Ibn Shatter Ahmed, for Sir- 
rajee,* and Amir Hassan ebn JahmS.s for the 
rest of the Juniib. f 

Ibn Shater, sumamed Ali, was one of the 
slaves of Hussein ; while Amir Hassan, son of 
Thamas, was numbered among the free servants 
of Hussein Pasha ; and a native of D&raq, of 
the tribe or quarter of Hauz. His father left 
his native place for Basrah, and enti&i'ed the 
SCTvice of Hussein Pasha: owing, it is said, 
to the fear of Mahdi Sultan, governor of DA- 
raq. Hfe presented a gift to Hussein Pasha, 
part of which was hiis son Hassan, whose for- 
tunes were rapidly promoted, until he became 
deputed to the government of GobSn ; aiid 

• See Note F. f See Note G. 



HISTORY OF MOD£BN BUSSORAH. S81 

during his administration the events above 
narrated occurred. 

The same system of depopulation was next 
extended to the district of the Shimal * and to 
tdie Jez&yer ; and was attended with similar 
scenes of misery, and the like disastrous results. 
In this case the exiles fled to Sah^b, Suaib, and 
Hawizah« 

On the eighth of Shawwal, A. H, 1076;, an 
imperial army, headed by Ibrdhtm Pasha of 
Bagdad, advanced against Basrah, for the pur^. 
pose of deposing its Governor, who had in- 
curred the displeasure of his Sovereign for hi§ 
wanton attack on the Fashalick of Lahsa, be* 
fore mentioned ; which was undertaken in con- 
sequence of the perfidious advice of Yahya 
Agha, the minister of Hussein Pasha, Ibrahim 
is said to have been attended by seven other 
Pashas, at the head of fifty thousand Imperial 
troops. On hearing this, Hussein raised the 
new fort of Qdmat, and prepared to sustain a 
siege. 

• See Note H. 



282 HIStOBY OF MOBBEN BUSSOBAH. 

When IbrAhttn had reached the town of 
Arja, on the Tigris, he called upon the allegi-* 
ance of the people of Basrah, and partieularly 
addressed himself to the powerfiil famify 6f the 
Kawawizah * at whoise head nbw Was Sheikh 
Dhu '1 Kafal. They threw off the authorily 
of Hussein, expelled the females of his family 
from the town, and put to death the deputy, 
Muhammed ben Biiddgh. 

Hussein Pasha, on learning tHs, surprised 
the Kawawizah in the night, and decapitated 
Sheikh Dhu Kafal, whose death remained un- 
discovered tin morning ; and with whoni some 
of his chief companions were also put to death. 
This secret and decisive retribution put the re- 
mainder of the Sheikh's adherents to flight, 
Ibrahim Pasha, however, continued his advance 
against Koomah, which he besieged closely, 
though without ultimate success, for three 
months. 

At the end of this time, pkeiflic arrangements 

* See Note I. 



HISTO&Y PF MODBBN. BUSSOfiAm 283 

were entered into; YahyaAgha, the minister, 
was deputed to accompany Ibrahim Fadia, who 
promised to procure an^ imperial rescmpt in 
faypur of Hussein/ which should be brought to 
him by Yahya. 

Qn the departure of Ibrahim^ four of the 
Kawawizah, viz/ Ahmed ibh Mahmiid, 'and 
Ibrahim ben Ali, and two other m6re: obscure 

« 

individuals, impelled by fean and the desire of 
revenge, accompanied the perfidious^ Yahya to 
the' foot of the Inipajal throne, ostensibly to 
procure the confirmation of Hussein, but, in 
reality^ ' to forward their individual views. In 
this they succeeded* so well by thdiu insidious 
complaints, as ta prbcure the nomination of 
Yahya to the govteiment of his master, aid- 
ed by a large Turkish force to compel his 
submission. 

The Imperial army advanced to the number, 
some have said, of eighty thousand Turkish 
troops, and reached thdb* destination, ndar 
Basrah, on the 14th Kajab, A. H. 1078. 
A. D. 1657. 



SI84 HISTORY OF MODERN BUSSORAH: 

, The opposing parties soon came to a general 
engagement, and the result was the complete 
overthrow of the Arabs, the dispersion of the 
survivors, and the flight of the Pasha from the 
field of battle. The action took place in the 
neighbourhood of Kooma, to which Hussein 
Pasha trusted in his peril ; but his females were 
lodged in tents, on the opposite bank of the 
Euphrates, at SahSb and SuSib.* 

After the Turks had driven the Arabs from 
the field, they were under the necessity of be- 
sieging Hussein in the fort of Aliyah, so called 
from AJi Pasha his father, who raised thi§ forti- 
fication for his future security, and the protec- 
tion of his power, after his memorable subju- 
gation of the district of Jezdyir, 

There was previously, however, a small 
fortified post, called Koomah, the. name of 
^hich, as appears, is preserved to this day, 
Hussein Pasha, after being freed from the 
attack^ of Ibrahim Pasha, added considerably 

* See Note K. 



-filSTOEY OF MODEEN BUSSORAR. <2S5 

to its capabilities of defence* It is formed of 
three concentric fortifications, built of tnud, 
with a considerable clear space intervening be- 
tween the successive cinctures ; the river washeis 
it on two sides, and on the* third a deep ditch 
filled from the united streams. Though it was 
deemed impregnable, and Hussein attempted 
all that the crisis demanded^ and his acknow- 
ledged military talents supplied, yet, after a 
long and rigorous siege, he was compelled to 
fly. The Pasha crossed over to his family at 
Sahib, followed by the disorganized remnant 
of his forces. 

The natives of Sahdb and SuSib, alarmed at 
their having sheltered their chief in the vicinity 
of the conquering force, and knowing the sure 
-consequence of this severe reverse of fortune, 
at once abandoned their dwellings and pro- 
perty, and fled with the utmost precipitation 
to Hawaizah. 

On the eleventh of Ramadhin the conquer- 
ors took possession of the town of Basra ; and, 
from the morning till the noon of Friday, put 



S86 HISTORY OF: MODSRNi BUSaORAH. 

tp death four thousand mdiyiduals> and treated 
it as tbe Basrah army had formerly treated 
Lahsa ; when, having satisfied their vengeance, 
a general amnesty was prodaimed throughout 
the city. 

Hussein, on bis flight from- the fort of 
Aliyah, proceeded directly to D6raq; when, 
leaving his family, he advanced, to !Shiraz, to 
Sulaiman, King of Persia; with the view of 
seeking his interference aiid aid to recovejr his 
power. This attempt, however, was rendered 
ineifectual by the malice of - some of . the cour- 
tiers, who had previously suffered from Hussein, 
and now induced the King to reject bis petition. 
He then, with his son Ali Beg; journeyed to 
India, to the: city ofOojain, by the. monarch »f 
whi^h (K>untiy he was entrusted.with the diarge 
of a .district; and, in defence of whose, mte- 
rests, both of them fedl in the' field of battle; 
not, however, before they had been joined l^ 
the females of their fimSy &om D&raq^ whose 
descendants still exist there. 



NOTES. 



A. 

The site of the ancient city of Omar, and the portion of a 
wall, the remains of the Musjid, or Mosque of Ali, the ne- 
phew of Mahomet, not of Ali the Barmecide, as sometimes 
supposed, are to be found at the modem town of Zobair, 
eight miles south-west of the present Basrah. The traces of 
the canal of Obillah, the Apologus of Arrian and Nearchus, 
may yet be traced from the Euphrates, almost as far as the 
vicinity of Zobair. 

Boraihah, is the diminutive appellation of a quarter of the 
town of Basrah ; the last to the north-eastward dividing 
this from Minawi : the inhabitants are potters, mat-makers, 
and such poor craftsmen. 

B. 
Howaizah, a town of Khuzistan, and, at this time, capital 
of the province. It has a fort, in which only the deputy, and 
a garrison of the King of Persia, reside : the native governor 



888 NOTES. 

and his suite are lodged without the bounds of this citadel ; 
the town is, however, surrounded by a fortified wall. 

C. 

Jez^yir, the name of an extensive district, composing many 
stations of importance. The first is the village of the Beni- 
Mansur, Bir Homaid, and Nahr Antar, which are the prin- 
cipal positions. It is said to be pierced by three hundred 
canals, among which are Nahr Saleh, Deyar Beni Asad, Deyar 
Beni Muhammed, Fathiyah, Kalaa, Nahr.Sebaa, Batinah, 
Maussuriyah, Iskanderiah, Igarah, and others which we can- 
not enumerate. The northern boundary of this district is 
Kut. e. Mua. 

It is inhabited by various tribes, who have successfully 

* r* 

assisted the Imperial arms ; and, having revolted from the 
government of Basrah, had succeeded in establishing an 
independent power against the united forces of Basrah and 
Hawaizah. This independence was preserved, not less from 
the bravery of the inhabitants, than from the great difficulty 
of approaching their insular positions, in the broad expanse 
of the Euphrates, over the district in which they are situated, 
until the age of Ali Pasha, who reduced the country, and 
so broke the spirit of its population, that, from that hour, 
the tameness of the people of Jezllyer has become a trite 
prt)verb, 

D. 

Hussein Pasha was the son of AH Pasha, son of Afrasiab, 
of Dair, a town north-west of Basrah, remarkable for a tower 



HOTBg. e89 

of such colossal dimensions ind beautiful structure^ as to 
a{>{)ear the work of supefrnattural beings. 

' - E. 

Minawi^ a fort* situated between Bastah and tHd river 
£ui>Hrates ; bounded bn the iiorth-west by the baifal AsHar^ 
and on the south-east by the cansll bf Nfaiia^i. 

F. 

Sarragi is one of the most flourishing cr^ks in ttie n^igh- 
bourhoodof Basrah. 

G. 

The district of the Junub, or South, comprehends many 
noble canalsy and populous villages and towns, between Bas- 
rah and the sea, on the south-eastern shore of the Euphrates. 
The successive order of the principal towns is this ; com- 
mencing from Basrah^ Minawi^ Sarraji, Hamdan, Mahaigaran, 
Yusafie, Abu 1 Khasib, Faryadhi, Nafali, Zam, Mutarowd- 
aat ; Khist, Shabb&ni, which is the last of the flourishing 
dependencies of Busrah^ 

H. 

Shemal, the north-western districts above Basrah, to jbl 
small town known by the name of Shirsh, comprehending 
many villages; as Robat, Maagal, Dan, Nahr Omar, and 
Shirsh. This district is still more flourishing than that of 

Mnub. 

Xj 



S90 NOTES. 

I- 

The family of Kaw^wizah are so named from Sheikh Ma- 
hammed Al Kaww&Zy the head of a religioas sect of Moham- 
medans in great repute in Basrah, whose mausoleum still 
exists in the suburbs. Sheikh Abdul-sallim, the founder of 
this family, and the favourite pupil of the Sofi sage, was sur- 
named, from his preceptor, Kawwiz ; and transmitted a name 
to his posterity, which distinguishes its members at the pre- 
sent day* Sheikh Abdul-sall4m bad a numerous posterity, 
among whom are the following: Muhammed, Mahmedd, 
Taha, Ali, Dhu-l-Kafal, Saleh, Miisleh, Junard, &c. 

K. 

Sahib, a place on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, 
neac Kooma, whence caravans load and depart for Ha- 
waizah. 

Sudib, a station with a fort of the same name, opposite to 
Kooma, on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, and near 
Sahab. 



M EM O I R 



' ON 



THE RUINS OF AHWAZ; 

READ BEFORE THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCEBTY OP GREAT 
BRITAIN AND IRELAND, JUNE 14, 1828; AND PRINTED 
IN THE SECOND VOLUME OF THEIR TRANSACTIONS. 



It having been my intention, for some time, 
to visit a few of the ruined cities whose decay 
has converted realms to deserts, strewing them 
with fragments of arches and pillars, that once 
arose in majesty over heroic warriors, but now 
impede the path of the shepherd and his flocks ; 

« 

I set out from the shores of the Euphrates, in 
September 1826, for the purpose of examin- 

V 2 



292 MEMOIR ON 

ing the remains of the once celebrated city of 
AhwS^z, situated ninety-two miles (horizontal 
distance) north-east of Bussorah, on the banks 
of the noble river Karoon, in the province of 
Khuzistan, the mciidiitt Suisiiiiia. 

As there are only a few ruined villages, un- 
worthy the traveller's and reader's notice, until 
you arrive in its immediate vicinity, I shall 
pass over the time that elapsed during my 
journey ; it is sufficient to state^, that the whole 
country is ^ flftt, hkre, monotonous, icnd uncul- 
tivated waste, abandoned by its former inha- 
bitants to rapacious animals, and to still fiercer 
hordes of wild and ferocious Arabs, who occa- 
sionally pitch their flying camps when in search 
of pasturage or plunder. 

Previous to my quitting Bussorah, I pro- 
cured Kinneir's Geographical Memoir of the 
Persian Empire, as a guide and for reference J 
it beihg the only book I have seen, in our 
language, thdt attempts any description of 
Ahwte. 
' Of the foundation of this city, I hav^ it tiot 



THE BUfNS OF AHWAZ. 899 

in my power to assign the date. Its name 06^ 
curs very early in the annals of Islam. The 
specimens too of its architectural decdrationsy 
wliich I brought from tiie ruins, are decidedly 
Moslim, bearing inscriptions in no character 
but the early Xufic, or Arabic language; a 
remark equally applicable to the coins and 
gems usually found there; with the excep- 
tion of a few small intaglios on comelian, 
or Oriental onyx ; the only evidences of an an- 
tiquity more remote than the era of Mohammed. 
All these circumstances would appear to lead 
to one of two conclusions; either that the 
remains now seen are those of a city founded 
by the first KhaHfs of the Ommiad dynasty, 
or that additions had been made to the edifices 
already erected \(y the Persians, on a »te antece- 
dent to the epoch of the advance and victories 
of the adherents of Islam.. The zenith, howr 
ever, of its prosperity was attained Under the 
earlier Khalifs of the house of Abbd.s ; nor did 
it long survive their fall. 

Etymology also favours the %dew above 



y' 



294 MEMOIR ON 

taken : Ahwd^z as well as Hawaizah,* another 
town of Khuzistan,f are two Arabic forms of 
one root. The earlier name of the former, 
according to Abulfeda, in his Geographical 
tables, was Hormuzin Skehr, strictly a Persian 
appellation ; a compound too, evidently not 
of modern date ; while the various districts of 
Khuz, whence Susia or Cissia, were combined 
under the common name Al Ahwdz, and their 
capital was designated by the Arabic term 
Suq ul AhwdZy that is to say, the mart or empo- 
rium of Al Ahwdz, or of the districts. 

The illustrious Arabian geographer above 
quoted, says, that " Ahw^z is one of the 
largest districts of the province of Kh^zistan. 

* Hawaizah signifies a small collection of inhabitants ; 
the diminutive of the root Huz — " People ; bodies of men." 
It is also the name of a town of Susiana, of a date much 
subsequent to that of the city of Ahw^z ; and, like it, raised 
on the site of a more ancient place. 

+ The Persian Dictionary, " Borh^ni Pdtao," under the 
word KhAzy and Kh^izistin, states that these are both names 
of a country in Persia, of which Shuster is the capital ; 
and that the first signifies, also, sugar ; and the second, 
any country productive of the sugar-cane ; or a manufac- 
tory of this article. 



THE EUINS OF AHWAZ. 895 

The river of Ahwaz waters the shores of the 
city, iifi longitude 75% latitude 31% and passes 
westward to Asker Makrain, in longitude 76% 
latitude 81' 15'. It nearly equals the Tigris 
in hreadth; and its hanks are adorned with 
gardens and pleasure-houses, and enriched 
hy extensive plantations of sugar-cane, and 
other valuable productions of the vegetable 
kingdom*"* 

According to Samaani^ as stated in his Bio- 
graphical and Genealogical Dictionary, its 
pristine fame and prosperity no longer existed, 
any more than its proud palaces, and learned, 
luxurious and wealthy citizens, in the middle 
of the twelfth century of our era.f 

The notice of the earliest date is extracted 
from the Tohfat ul Alem; a modern work, com- 
posed for the information, and at the desire, 
of the celebrated Mir Alem of Hyderabad, by 
Mir Abdul Latif, a learned relative, and na- 
tive of Shuster, the present capital of Susiana ; 

* Ahulfeda Taqwin ul Bildan ; cap^ de Fluviis. 
t Kit&b ul Ans&b in f)oce Ahw&z, 



wliich commences with Bucb an excellent gene^ 
ral description of the prqvince, that I phjafll 
jSubmit it to my readers without farther pre^- 
ftce or apology. 

. " The dty of AhwSa is one of the largest 
cities of the earth, and in Khuzisl:^ ; (^ in- 
deed, in the other Kingdoms of tjie vorJd> few 
are to b^ seei) equal to it in siz0 and extent*. 
What are now thick and impervious woods, 
wpre once extensive plsptations of sugar-cone. 
I^arge vats aiid naanufj^tpries of sugar were 
also in pxistencf^; and mill-stones, ^nd oth&r 
implements of the ^t of thg sugar-bfiker> 
aj:e, even now, so profusely scattered over 
the ancient site, that it is impossible to 
iiumber them. 

. " During the dynasty of the Abbassides, tlxe 
.city was at the height of its prosperity. Its 
extent in breadth is suppo$ed to be forty p^ra-* 
sangs, throughout which n4ns and remains of 
magnificent edifices, baths, caravanseras, and 
mosques, are strewed. Extensive as they may 
appear, the inhabitants wei'e always in litiga- 



THE niaiVlB OF AHWAZ. 897 

l&aA regarding houses and ground, as spaces 
sufficiently open and ample could not be had 
for their aceommodation. These Khalifs, with- 
in whose dominions was comprehended most 
of the habitable world, named this city * the 
source of food and of wealth ;' the inhabitants 
of which, in their riches and luxury, excelled 
' the rest of the world. 

^* The riyer of Dizftily a stream nearly equal 
in size to that of the Kurariy enters the latter 
below Bandikir; and here the united waters 
are termed the river of Akwdz. The Bund 
of Ahwdz restrained their course, so that the 
waters completely overflowed the land, and not 
a drop was lost to the aid of cultivation* The 
interme4iate country was covered with planta-^ 
tions of sugafrcane ; and the sugar was convey-r 
ed to every p?rt of the world, as none of foreign 
manufaeture was then imported into the terri- 
tories of Persia or 'Rdm. 

" Thus the inhabitants became rich and iux^ 
urious, and renqwned throughout the earth. 
As wealth, hdweyer, is the parent of pride and 



298 M£:SiOlE ON 

insubordination, these wealthy citizens revolted 
from the Khalifs; until Ali ebn Muhammad^ 
the Astrologer, sumamed * Prince of the Zan«- 
gis/ from having recruited his army among 
the Zangis or Nubian slaves of Kh^zistS^n and 
Basrah, took the field with a powerful force, 
and contended for years against the monarchs 
of the House of AbbS.s. 

" In the course of these hostilities, the people 
served in the ranks of one or other of the rival 
armies, and were swept away in numbers by 
the chalices of war, until, in the end^ the Kha^ 
lifs triumphed. The rebellious spirit of the 
people, however, had so disgusted these prinieesi 
that they ceased to favour or embellish the 
city; and the remaining population, left to 
itself, fell into private feuds and bickerings.- 
Anarchy and oppression ensued ; the weaker 
fled, industry ceased, and, with it, the usual 
resort of commercial adventurers, and the pro- 
duction of wealth. The last poor remnslnt 
of this numerous, wealthy, and luxurious 
people abandoned, in despair, their plantations. 



THE RUINS OF AHWAZ. 1299 

ind the other sources of their riches and de- 
structive pride, and sunk into desolation. 

** The ruins are covered with heaps of stone 
and fallen masonry ; and the inhabitants of 
the small modern town are repaid for their 
lahour, in searching among the ruins, after 
the periodical falls of rain, hy the discovery 
of gold and silver coins, medals, and sculptures. 
Several gold coins of the Abhassides were 
shown to me, ^yhile residing in Basrah, by 
en old inhabitant of AhwSz. They bore on 
one side an impression, in the Kufic character, 
of the usual creed ; on the margin of the 
other, the names of the four first Khalifs ; and 
in the central field, the titles ot Alk&dirbillah^ 
A.H. 381. Skeletons are not unfreqiiently 
disinterred. The heat of summer, and of the 
Sammumy is here excessive."* 

With the exception, perhaps, of Seistdn, no 
province of Persia is less known, or more 
worthy of investigation, than Khiizistdn. To 
the antiquary, particularly, it presents many 

* Tohfat ul Alim in voceAhw&z. 



300 MEMOIB ON 

objects of interest, in the ancient remains at 
Ahwdz, Shuster^ Susa, and Diz/Al. It may 
also put forth the additional daim of pos- 
sessing the last remnant of the Ghaldees md 
Sabaeans, the oldest people upon earth,— -the 
last depositaries, not improbably, of the ear- 
liest philosophical and theological systems of 
the human rac^ ; though, hs$ fortunately^ the 
originators also of its most complicated my- 
thology, and most degrading superstitiom ; the 
professors at once of the purest tiotibns of 
pa undivided Godhep.d, arid th^ soui^e of the 
inapurest heretical leaven which has defoimied 
Judaism, Chrislianity, or Mohammedanism. 

A considerable portion of their ecirliest lite* 
rature is preserved; and it is not improbable 
that, with competent aid, thdr hitherto oiys<- 
terious doctrines m^y be satisfactol'ily elucir 
dated. Major Taylor is fortunately isn pos- 
session of their n>ost important worlqs, ^nd 
^f th^ yduable services of their Chief Priest ; 
and has made such progress in the language 
as to have already translated some of the most 



THE BUIKS OF AHWAZ. 801 

interesting chapters of their Sidrd Rabbdy pr 
bbok of Smpture, entitled by the erudite and 
indefatigable Norbery, * Liber AdamiJ 

So far the genferal description of Arabian 
Ituthors.-^! shall now proceed to give the result 
of my own investigations on this interesting 
spot.^ The modem town of Ahwkz occupies 
but a small poition of the site of the old city on 
the eastern bank of the Karoon; and exhibits 
a meaii and solitary appearance, contrasted with 
the immense mass of itiiXi that rears its rugged 
head behind* Its houses bxb built etxtirdy of 
atone brought from the ruifis ; and it can only 
boast of one decent building, — a mosque appa- 
rently modern. 

The pc^ulati6n at present does not excfeed 
sixteen hundred souIsl Considerable ttaoeb 
^ire discernible of the bund that Was thrown 
across the river; chiefly^ if niot entirely, for 
the purposes of .irrigatioxu A pslrt of the 
wall is still standing, remarkable for its high 
state of preservation ; it i^ in many places ten 
feet high, and nearly as much in breiidtb; 



302 MEMOIR oir 

while it extends upwards of one hundred feef 
in length, without any intermediate hreaeh. 
Indeed, on examination, I found many single 
blocks of stone measuring eight and ten feetl 

The river dashes over the bund with great 
violence, washing; with its surges the stony 
hase, and, accelerated by a strong current al-^' 
ways running to the southward with rapidity, 
is projected into a fall ; the sound of which 
is to be heard from a very great distance; 
Boats of every description are obliged to dis- 
charge their goods previous td an attempt at 
passing over ; ^id, even then, the passage^ is 
attended with much danger. I underi^tood 
that they are frequently swamped. 

The Karoon is one hundred and sixty yards 
in breadth at each side of the dyke, and of 
great depth; therefore the shallowness oppo- 
site the town is caused by the great mass of 
masonry below the surface. The remains of 
this bund are the portions which Kinneir apf 
pears to assign to the remnants of the palace 
of Artabanes, the last of the Parthian kings. 
Upon what authority he asserts that ani/ palace 



THE RUINS OF A^HWAZ. SOS 

was erected across the river, or that it was the 
winter residence of Artabanes, I am at a loss 
to discover. Kinneir also mentions that many 
of the excavations in the rocks bore the exact 
form and dimensions of a coffin : for these 
septdchral recesses I looked in vain ; although, 
towards the south end of the town, there are 
several singular cavities, arid a few water-mills 
erected between the rocks ; the latter pro- 
bably constructed since his visit. 

The remains of a bridge I found where he 
places it, namely, behind the town ; and here . 
too commences the whole mass of ruins, extend- 
ing, at least, ten or twelve miles in a south- 
easterly direction ; while its ' greatest breadth 
covers about half that distance. I could not 
find any person who had been • to the end of 
these ruins. According to the inhabitants, their 
extient would occupy a journey of two months. 
Althbugh this is doubtless an exaggeration, it 
may be as well to mention, as an hypothesis, 
that they extend to the neighbourhood of 
Ram Hormis. 
AU the mounds are covered with hewn^ stone; 



304 MRMOm OK 

burnt brick; tQes^ and pott^. The first whiebl 
ascended I found nearly two huHdied feet hi^fa. 
In mat! J parts flights of steps are. plainly dis- 
i^emible, in good preservation; aiid at the baste of 
this mass of ruins I dug into some graves, and 
found stones measuring five and six febt in 
length. Hence it was I bronght^ a^&y severd 
stbnes itith inscriptions upon theifa in the Kofie 
character, knd Others with fret^work^— all in£^ 
cative of an etii subsequent ta the MoHam^ 
medan. I likewise found some Kufic 6oins 
in gold and silver ; otie was neaorly a thouraiid 
years old, and is as fresh in appearance as if it 
had been only just from the mint* 

In every direction I found vast hekps erf (AtJ' 
eular flat stbnes, perforated in the bentre, a.ppa^ 
irently u«ed for the purpose of grinding graiii ; 
though rseith^r coiossal, indeed, for Mch a pttr-^ 
po^e> s& they generally measured foor^ five, 
smd si?t feet in diameter i and some exMbit&fl 
chai-sicters upon thetn. The above-mentioned 
nlound tdriei^ iik height dnd bteadtb, dnd ei^ 
tends so far, that my eye could not comprehend 
its limits : It is the first of magnitude tipoh the 



THE BUINS OF AHWAZ. SOS 

plaiii. Five hundred yards to the west of this 
is a ruined edifice, entirely of stone, meajsuring 
fifty feet in height by twenty in breadth. 
Here are. sevexal flights of steps, which may, . 
without difiiculty, be traced to its summit, 
although they are much mutilated, and injured 
by exposure to the atmosph^e. 

About a mile to the east^ separated by a deep 
ravine, stands an immense pile of materials, 
consisting of huge blocks of stone, brick, and 
tile of various colours. The Arabs who accom- 
panied me, said it was the remains of a palace. 
Its ascent is gradual, but fatiguing from the 
niunerous furrows which have been, apparently, 
worn by water in its passage. The height is^ 
at the lowest estimate, one hundred feet from 
the plain below. On its summit there are inaiiy 
stone foundations and pavements, as frei^ as if 
only recently laid, down, together with several 
rounded troughs, some of which were of I^erse* 
pcditan marble in its rough state. 

From numerous caverns we started lat^ge 
troops of jackals ; and I picked up a nnmbejif 
of porcupne quills. I found it impossible to 

X 



S06 MEMOIR ON 

descend on the opposite side, the face being 
nearly perpendicular, and exhibiting many 
frightful chasms. At the base of this pile, the 
camers-thom sprang up luxuriantly, and con- 
siderably relieved thfe landscape, the general 
dreariness and sterility of which were gloomy 
beyond all conception. 

This ruin is about three mUes from the east- 
ern bank of the river. Proceeding onwards for 
eight hundred yards, in a northerly direction, 
a conical mound is very conspicuous : its circufn- 
ference is six hundred feet : the sides exhibit the 
remains of walls nine feet in thickness. At its 
foundation, I traced a beautiful wall of mason- 
ry for twenty-one feet, which, without doubts 
formed the front of some building, finely exe- 
cuted, and very little injured by time : it joins 
another ruined heap, covered with vestiges 
and fragments of glazed tile, a coarse kind of 
crystal, pieces of alabaster, and bits of glaits. 

Fifty yards in a direct line east, seven square 
stone cisterns, sixteen feet long, and prqpor- 
tionably deep, iare still to be seen, highly po- 
Hshed internally; and in a perfect state« These 



THE RUINS OF AHWAZ. '307 

iremains of ancient splendour throw a mournful 
shade over the desolate scene. Six or seven 
aqueducts are to be traced from a ravine, which 
probably conducted the water to these cisterns. 
Several mounds of masonry form one con- 
nected chain of rude, unshapen, flaked rock, 
lying in such naturally-formed strata, that the 
very idea that any part of the materials had 
been accumulated by human labour, from a 
.distant site, is scarcely admissible. The soil on 
which these ruins rest is peculiarly soft and 
sandy : the country does not become rocky 
until the immediate vicinity of Shushter ; and 
even water-carriage thence is attended with 
considerable toil and expense. Yet the height 
of these mountainous ruins and misshapen 
masses induces me to think, that the site 
must have been by nature elevated at the 
time the city was built; although, from the 
flatness of the surrounding country, I should 
be inclined to oppose such a conjecture ; more 
particularly as there are no mountains between 
the Shut-ul-Arab and the Bucktiari chain, 
which is seen hence running N.W. and S.E. 

X 2 



308 MEMOIR ON 

Let me not be supposed to exaggerate, when I 
ass&ct that these piles of ruin, irregular, craggy, 
and in many places inaccessible, rival in appear- 

« 

ance those of the Bucktiari, and are discernible 
-from them, and for nearly as many miles in an 
opposite direction. 

It is a singular fact, that almost every mound 
I passed over was strewed with shells of diffe- 
rent sorts and sizes. I observed them also on 
the water's edge, along the banks of the Karoon : 
we may therefore suppose, that at some former 
period, the river, or more probably canals from 
it, flowed through the dty. Glass, of all co- 
lours, is equally abundant ; and fragments of 
alabaster and pottery are remarkably fresh. 

Many of the kiln-burnt bricks that lie on 
the surface of the mounds, appear once to have 
home some written character ; but exposure to 
the weather, and probably occasional inunda- 
tions caused by the melting snows of the adja- 
cent mountidns, have nearly effiu^ed all traces of 
it ; though, as I have already mentioned, the 
character on the hewn stone is as dear and plain, 
as if only just from the sculptor's hands. 



THE RUINS OF AHWAZ. <809 

1^0 bitumen was observable on the brickii ; a 
circumstance I much regretted, as it would have 
afforded a strong proof in favour of the anti- 
quity of the spot. I however met with seve^ 
ral small intaglios, generally denominated ^eab, 
and probably used as such; similar to those 
found at Hamaddn, Nineveh, and Babylon.* 
The round perforated stones that I have alluded 
to, must, from the Arabian accounts already 
quoted, have belonged to sugar manufactories. 
Their numbers are countless. I followed them 
for a great distance in successive rows, in small 
dry rivulets ; resting so firmly together, that it 
would have occupied the labour of several days 
to have removed any of them. 

The Arabs are always digging up and re- 
moving stones, for the purposes of building ; 
yet then* expenditure has been nothing when 
compared to the vast quantities of stone and 
brick that are scattered about. Perhaps they 
have excavated a space of three hundred yardd, 

* The villagers assured me they had procured many 
engraved gems when digging for bricks ; and that the Jeym 
purchased them at good prices^ to sell to the Faringheez* 



SIO MEMOIR ON 

but certainly to no greater extent, whjch. is a 
proof how . abundant the hewn stone is^ for 
there is not a house in the town built of any 
other material. I am convinced, that as large 
a. dty as any now existing, might be erected 
from the ruins that I saw. I was prevented 
examining many mounds of great magnitude, 
that extend to the verge of the horizon, . from 
not being able to prevail upon any one to ^^«v 
. company me. The Sheikh, it appears, did nojt 
de^Qi it safe to permit me to penetrate far into 
the desert. . 

The ruins of Ahw&z extend likewise, for 
a considerable distance, on the western bank of 
the river, in a northerly direction^ and exhibit 
the same appearance as : the mounds on the 
eastern side; though the former are; not to be 
compared with these in point of magnitude. 
The bund that was thrown across, seems to 
have nearly connected the. city together ; but, 
as there is abundant room for conjecture, and 
much ground for idle supposition, it is better, 
and wiser, merely to state what is visible : this 
I have attempted to do ; though, perhaps, with 



TH£ BUINS OF AHWAZ. 311 

a feeble pen. Nevertheless^ whatever opmioiis 
may be entertauied regarding this once famous 
capital of a flourishing province, we must con- 
cur in ranking it lower, in point of antiquity, 
than either Persepdis or Susa — to say nothing 
of the " mighty Babylon" — or, how could we 
persuade ourselves, that Alexander the Great, 
strict and attentive in observation, as enterpris- 
ing aiid successful in war, should have navi- 
gated the Karobn, and have made no mention 
of the dty, when comparatively insignificant 
towns attracted his notice ? I repeat, it is my 

firm conviction, that this city, now one vast 
heap of ruins, was erected long since the days 

of that illustrious warrior. 
. I cannot refrain here from observing how 
much we have to regret, that the able and 
ingenious author of the Greographical Memoir 
on Persia should not more minutely have in- 
vestigated and described the ruins of this city ; 
particularly as he informs us, that he was en- 
camped six months on the banks of the Karoon. 
From the above description, though inade- 
quate to convey a just and accurate idea of 



SIS RUIKS OF AHWAZ. 

the eif;tent and magnitude o? these rums^ it 
will be seen how worthy they are of a diligent 
investigation, and what a favourable opportunity 
^as lost by Kinneir, who was traveling under 
the immediate auspices of the Ambassador,*^a 
eircumstance, in itself, peculiady calculated to 
secure a due degree of attention and protection 
from the natives of the district. 

To conclude, it must ever be a subject of 
deep regret, that the difficulty of exploring 
the remains of any spot of antiquity should be 
height^ed by the passions of a people disposed 
to turbulence and riot. The desolation which, 
under the influence of a barbarous Grovemment, 
has for years been advancing over Susiana, one 
of the finest provinces of the East, whether as 
regards soil and climate, or the facilities of 
comtderdal intercourse, irresistibly impresses 
on the mind the mutability of earthly dignity. 



BABYLONIAN WRITING. 



In a preceding page of this work, I have cursorily adverted 
to the characters stamped upon the Babylonian bricks. I 
may be permitted to say a few words upon this undeciphered 
writing. This character is known by the names of cunei- 
form, nsdl-headed, artow-headed, as descriptive of its shape ; 
and Babylonian, os Persepolitan, according to the sites 
where it has been discovered. Inscriptions in this character 
have been found upon the sides of mountains and monuments, 
at the greatest and oldest cities of the East— Hamadan, 
the ancient Ecbatana, Susa, Van, Persepolis, Nakshi- 
Roustam, Murgaub, the ancient Pasagardse, Babylon, anfl 
Nineveh : and as this style of writing is found in all these 
places, we cannot but be fully convinced, that it is the 
primeval character of the most ancient people in the 
world« 



314 BABYLONIAN WRITING. 

The inscriptions upoD the bricks found at ancient Babylon 
have a remarkable resemblance to those that are engraved 
upon the pillars and columns at PersepoHs ; a circumstance 
which proves a very near affinity between these two most 
ancient nations, and affords a strong additional argument 
for the high antiquity of those superb and splendid 
remains. 

That learned and indefatigable antiquarian, M. Grotefend, 
when speaking of this character, observes, that the elemen- 
tary forms of the cuneiform writing are only two, the wedge 
and the angle, being devoid of curves. The general direc- 
tion of the wedges, are with their points downwards, or 
towards the right, either in perpendicular, horizontal, or 
sloping positions. - The rectangles' have always one dinec- 
tion, their opeqing being turned towards the right. These 
characteristics show how an inscription ought to be held, 
and mark that it follows a horizontal, and not a perpendi- 
cular line. The strokes so frequently drawn between the 
rows of characters sufficiently show thi^ rule : though there 
are exceptions, in compliance with any peculiar form; on the 
tablet of the inscription ;; for : instance, on small cylinders, 
where the letters appear in an upright column. 
. ; There are three kinds of the^e letters, all of which are to 
be seen at Persepoiis, and Susa, on. eyery piece of sculpture 
where an inscription is exhibited ; and then it is repeated 
three times, eaqh repetition being in one of the. three different 
species of character, though all of the same genus. The 
three species of cuneiform, or arrow-headed writing, are 



BABYLONIAN WRITING. 815 

distiaguislied by the. ^eater or less multiplying of the two 
ftltidamental formS)- and also their positions. The first 
contains the greatest mingling of the fundamental forms; 
the. second shows more horizontal. wedges, and fewer angles 
than the first, and diSers from the third by possessing fewer 
sipping wedges^ and none that cross each other. . The third 
exhibits more . sloping wedges than the second, and also 
admits, their crossing. All the cuneiform inscriptions of 
Persia are much less complicated than those on the Baby- 
lonian bricks and tablets. . 

From the result of these observations, it appears that the 
characters are alphabetical, and to.be read, like our own; 
borxkleft to right.. Mr.. Price, in his dissertation upon the 
antiquities of, Persepolis, remarks — ^^<v From. what has come 
under my. notice, I have reason to think there are still books 
that, have ^ been preserved by the learned or curious, from 
h^h antiquity down to the present time, which books might 
contain historical or other tradition in the Sabean character : 
the arrow- head, I should suppose, was confined to sculpture, 
or.gravte subjects, and seldom, used in manuscripts. But, 
alter all, it. amounts to .the same, whether a letter or word be 
formed with arrow-^heads, minims, or. other strokes ; the 
powers would , be the same in either, if the writing were 
not so ornamental in one shape, as it might be in the 
other. 

"The Pahlavi alphabet was introduced into Persia by the 
Afeigi, for religious purposes; some of its letters were at first 
partly modelled from the Sabean characters; but in the course 



816 BABYLONIAN WBITINO. 

of time the primitive fonns changed, and little of the Ss^bean 
remained in them. Notwith$tan£ng the Babean alphabet^ 
was nearly abandoned by the Persians^ the greater part of 
its letters have continued in use among other nations, by 
being adopted in their alphabets. There seems to have 
been a very ^irly intercourse between the Hebrews, the 
Syrians* the Persians, and the Tartars, if one may judge by 
analogy of words and signs in common to their primitive 
languages, and by some of their alphabets/' 

There are various opinions with respect to the origin of 
writing ; but I believe no one has ever succeeded in produdng 
sufficient proof as to what age it was ^scovered in, nor who 
was the inventor of this useful art. It is not unlikely that 
writing was known to the inhabitants before the Flood, be^ 
cause the arts must have attained to perfection among such 
an immense population as had spread itself over the face of 
th^ earth, during an interval of more than two thousand yean 
from the creation. 

. Tlie Antediluvians may not only have excelled in most of 
);he arts known to us, but in many that sank with the people 
to rise no more. After the Deluge, those arts most connected 
with personal comfort and convenience, would be the first 
used and improved. Building, one of the firsts must have 
been brought to considerable perfection when the Tower of 
Babel was commenced ; but the folly of the people, in their 
vain attempt to carry it up to Heaven, proves that philo- 
sophy and astronomy had made no great figure among them 
at that time, though the inferior arts may have attained tp 



BABYLONIAN IITRITING* 817 

perfectioti. Their method of burning bricks has perhaps 
never since been equalled. 

Some foundations have been discovered at Babylon, which, 
from their thickness and depth in the earth, are allowed, by 
men of judgment, to be part of the foundations of the Tower 
of Babel. The bricks axe square, and not unlike floor-bricks : 
some of than have come under my inspection ; each has 
a stamp upon it, containing characters which have some re*< 
semblance to those of the Persepolitan. This circumstance 
might lead us to suppose the Antediluvians may have used the 
same sort of characters. These bricks, being in the founda- 
tions, must have been moulded previous to the confusion of 
tongues ; therefore if the words they contain were deciphered, 
they would elucidate th^ question, as to which among the 
number that came from Babel, was the Antediluvian lan- 
guage ; Or, in the general confusion, whether no entire re- 
mains of it were left. 

Some may consider the Hebrew to have been the primitive 
tongue, because it was used by the chosen people ; some 
may plead for the Sanscrit, on the ground that Sanscrit 
words are found in every language on earth ; while others 
may support the Chinese, for its paucity of sounds and its 
simplicity of construction. But, after all arguments that can 
be adduced on the subject, the conclusion rests entirely on 
conjecture and uncertainty. 

The order of the Sabean alphabet agrees nearly with that 
of the Hebrew ; but whether the Hebrew borrowed its order 
of the Sabean, or the Sabean of the Hebrew, is a point I am 



318 BABYLONIAN WRITING. 

not able to decide ; but, judging from comparisoiiy I think it 
is likely the Hebrew bonowed its alphabet and order from 
the Sabean, because a few of its letters haVe an affinity^to 
some of the Sabean letters. The Sabean bordering on the 
shape of the Persepolitan, which having an affinity to the 
Babylonian, renders it possible that the Persepolitan may be 
derived from the Babylonian alphabet, which is the highest 
antiquity we can trace. 

'* The instrument that forms the basis of all the letters or 
characters in the Persepolitan inscriptions, is the head of an 
arrow — to a martial people, one of the most familiar objects. 
There is a singular coincidence in some of the Persepolitan 
numerals, in common with the Roman and Chinese ; the let* 
ter < formed of two arrow-heads joined together obliquely, 
represents the letter H ; which letter, being the fifth of the 
Sabean, as well as of the Hebrew alphabet, represents the 
number five ; and so in the Persepolitan : change the posi«* 
tion of it, and you have the Roman V, the numeral for five. 
Two of these placed together, form the letter X, the ,RK>man 
numeral for ten; the same in Persepolitan and in Chinese. 
There Js another coincidence with regard to the letters 41 and 
m, which can scarcely be the effect of accident: the letters a 
and tn rather appear to have been derived from the Persepo- 
litan alphabet. . 

It is useless, however, in thb place^ wandering farther 
into a wilderness of conjecture, without any hope of pene- 
trating into the real origin of an art which is lost in the 
abyss of time; and which, if not invented by Moses, the 



BABYLONIAN WRITING. 319 

presumed author of the book of Job, we are utterly at a loss 
to know to whom to ascribe the Wonderful discoveryt 

Note. — "The ordinary buildings were constructed of 
bcicksy baked in the sun only; these were in their nature loose 
and friable, and easily reduced to their original elements. 
The walls :and public edifices in general consisted of 
bricks burned in the furnace ; ttj^ese, being hard and durablci 
were carried away for the purpose of constructing Seleucia, 
Ctesiphon, Bagdad, Bussora, and all the other great cities 
that rose to eminence upon the decline of Babylon. When 9 
in addition to all this, it is considered that this same system 
of depredation has been going on for above 2000 years, 
in a country which, from its situation, has ever been the 
favourite legion for the erection of great cities by the 
successive tyrants of Asia, and yet that such immense 
masses of them, as described by recent travellers, should 
still remain in the neighbourhood of Hillah, it must excite 
his wonder, that, instead of the enormous heaps of ruins 
described in their pages, any remains at all of the Babylo- 
nian capital should at this day exist." — Appendix to Observo' 
tions on the Ruins of Babylon : by the Rev. Thomas Maurice, 
pp. 200, 201 4to. 

Note.—" We may be permitted to conjecture, that the 
Euphrates once pursued a course different from that which 
^t now follows, and that it flowed between the pyramid of 
Haroot and Maroot, and the mound and ruins {already 
mentioned as half a mile farther to the west. The present 
course of the river would appear to justify thif conclusion ; 



S20 BABYLONIAN WRITING; 

for it bends suddenly towards these mounds, and has the 
appearance of having formerly passed between them. 
Should this conjecture be admitted, then will the ruins 
just mentioned be found to answer the description given by 
the ancients of the materials, size, and situation of the 
two principal edifices in Babylon."— ftnitrtV^ Gtograpkieal 
Memoir oft he Pernan Empire^ page JS79. 



AN ITINERARY, 

FROM BUSSORAH TO THE CITY OF TABREEZ, 

OR TAURIS, 

By SEMAVAH, MESHED ALI, KUFA, HTLLAH, BAGDAD, 

AND SULIMANIAH, 

PERFORMED BY THE AUTHOR IN THE SUMMER OF 1828. 



ITINERARY. 



FROM BUSSORAH TO BAGDAD. 

Quit the modern city of Bussorah, or Basrah, by the 
„ „ Zobeir Gate. 

!• 30. Over a barren desert, pass some watch-towers on the 
left, and also a pretty tomb. 

— 15. See the ruins of Old Basrah. 

— 5. On an eminence to the left, a very ancient lofty pillar, 

and projecting wall, being the remains of the Musjed 
of Ali, the nephew of Mohammed. Eeppel has 
erroneously stated this ruin to be the mosque of Ali 
the Barmecide. Right, a tamarisk and well. 

— 5. Observe the remains of old Mohammedan foundations 

and pavements, and cross the dry bed of a canal. 

— 5. The clean town of Zobeir. 

Y 2 



324 ITINERARY, 

H* M« 

— SO, Cross an aqueduct in ^ood preservation. 

— 15. Vestiges of wall, and a bastion of the old city. 

35. The town of Sooksheeook, standing on the western 

bank of the Euphrates, over a dreary, bladeless, flat 

* 

desert, without a single undulation of surface, 
and no . water. The plain being elevated only 
fifteen feet above the level of the river, it is in 
autumn overflowed, and impassable for horsemen. 
Sooksheeook i» inhabited by the Montetik Arabs. 
Until lately it was the Northern limit of the pow- 
erfal Sheikh of Montefidge, whose control now 
extends to Semavah. The inhabitants of Sook- 
sheeook breed and export some of the finest 
30. — horses in Irik. 

The large village of Semavah, on the river's bank* 
Country still uncultivated. The male inhabitants of 
this town are extremely tall and hideous ; the fe- 

2, males, beautiful, and much secluded. 

Cross from Ir&k into Mesopotamia, by the Euphrates, 
which is here nearly fordable, and only fifty yards 
broad. Its bed is drained to irrigate this part of 
Mesopotamia, which is covered with the richest pas- 
turage, on a soil producing all the necessaries of life. 
Its innumerable canals communicate with a river so 
happily situated, as to command a ready commerce 
with all the towns on the Euphrates and Tigris ; and 
its countless villages, surrounded by water, and luxu- 
riantly shaded by thick shrubberies, are very thickly 



ITINERARY. 325 

H. M. 

peopled by the Kbez^il ; Arabs, who are civil and 
hospitable to strangers* 

6. — The deserted town ofsRomaheyyeh, cut by the Eu- 
phrates, which is near this one hundred yards wide. 
The dead bodies from Lemlopn are i^ere conveyed 
over in Kooffahsy on their way to Messhed Ali. 

4. — The village of Sorab, on the western side of the river. 
Plantations of tobacco. Country , flat, dreary, and 
uninteresting. 

12, — The old, decayed city of Kufa, founded by Omar. 
Four miles to the westward, Messhed Ali stands con- 
spicuous. It is governed by a Zabit, who is subject 
to the Pasha of Bagdad ; and yields a great annual 
revenue, exacted of those who journey hither, 
as well as by the dead who are brought from every 
part of Asia. — ^The usage of disposing of the corpses 
deserves notice. Those relatives who can only 
afford a limited donation for the supposed salva- 
tion of the departed, are looked upon disrepu- 
tably; and the defunct is, in consequence, thrown 
headlong into a deep well dug for the purpose ; but 

those whose offerings are liberal, can get their dead 
* 

easily interred ; until others, equally rich, and ambi- 
tious for a sacred spot, arrive ; then the remains of 
the first are removed from its grave, and cast into 
the well, to make room for those of the second. 
— ^The natives here are very jealous and uncivil to 
strangers. The author has reason* to remember the 



826 ITINERARY. 

H. M. place, as he was unceremoniously attacked, and 

nearly shot ; it was only upon his invoking the pro- 
tection of Ali, that he was permitted to continue his 
journey. 
Over an ugly desert extends a succession of mounds 
composed of the usual vestiges of brick, tile, &c. 
some of which are of considerable elevation. These 
ruins stretch to within two miles of the western 
boundary of the site of Babylon. 
8. -« The town of Hillah, situated upon the banks of the 
Euphrates, ^d occupying a part of the site of an- 
cient Babylon. 
12 — The city of Bagdad. Already described, and governed 
109 45 ^y ^ Pashaw of three tails. The rate of travelling 
this journey may be averaged at four miles an hour. 



BAGDAD TO SULIMANIAH. 

The population of Bagdad is at present estimated at 
sixty thousand souls. 

Quit Bagdad by a gate at the North, and proceed in 
that direction, through much cultivation, with the 
Tigris, and many rich productive gardens on the 
left. 
!• — Pads the remains of the lines thrown up by Nader 
Shah, in the year A. D« 1735, on the Persians be- 
sieging the seat of the Caliphs. 



ITINERARY. 827 

5. -<- The village of Howesb, situated upon the banks of the 
river, amidst a thick palm-tree wood. In the month 
of June, the richness and luxuriance of the country 
were remarkably striking. 

2, -» A poor village in the midst of a date-grove. 

— do. Cross the dry bed of a canal. 

— 25. Cross a very deep canal. 

1. — Extensive masses of earth, brick, and tile, evidently 

indicating the remains of a town. The whole is sur- 
rounded by a deep moat. General direction of the 
road, N. 50° E. 

2. — Cross a very broad and tortuous canal : the country 

flat and uninteresting. Road due E. 

1. 25, The ruined, uninhabited village of Delli- Abbas, called 

by the Arabs Guntarah^ from a decaying causeway 
on the spot, spanning a branch of the river Diala, 
or Pasitigris. Two miles to the right is a consider- 
able group of mounds. 
^' — Commence ascending the Hamrine mountains : the 
roads unusually rugged. 

2. — Descend into an immense ovaUplain, and cross a kind 

of island surrounded by ditches, which only contain 
water after rain, or at the season of increase. At a 
distance on the left is a good brick bridge of six 
' arches, built' by Ali Pasha several years ago. 
*• — Traverse the plain, which is swampy, in a direction 
N. 10^ E. and reach tl^e village of Kara uppa, 
situated beneath a chain of hills. 



828 ITINERARY. 

— 10. Cross a stream, said by the natives to be a Inranch of 

the Diala. 

— 5. Ascend bleak and barren hills, over a stony road. 

— 45. Descend into a plain. 
1. — Cross an old bridge. 

— 6. Cross a torrent bed. 

3. ^ — The small but pretty town of Kifri, at the entrance of 

a ridge of rocky mountains. 
2« — Cross ba^re, ugly, and sulphureous mountains. Twelve 
miles hence are naphtha springs, and about twenty 
miles off are salt mines. 

4. — A topnb on the left. Road E. 

— 15. Cro$$ the bed of a river^ and pass a deserted hamlet. 

Cross a mountain torrent. 
12, — The village of .Doldn, over a singularly wild, romantic, 

and mountainous district, infested by Koordish 
tribes, who are under no subjection* whatever ; the 
country is finqly clothed with- forests of oak, and 
walnut-trees. 

— 15. Ascend a most difficult and fatiguing, pass. 

1. dO. A village on the brink of a tremendous precipice. 
— 5. Descend a very abrupt chasm. 

5. 5. Pass over an undulating, w^U cultivated country, con- 

sisting of pretty insulated elevation^, separated by 
small plains, and watered by clear meandering 
brooks, with little scattered hamlets, beautifully 
' shaded by cherry and other trees. The whole is 
surrounded by lofty mountains* 



ITINERARY. 829 

5.- Sulimaniahy the capital of Koordistan, standing in the 

centre of an amphitheatre of mountains, called the 
Sharizool (the ancient Siozuros) chain, was built 
by Suliman Pasha, of Bagdad. Mahmoud Pasha, its 
present governor, is nominally under the authority 
of the Bagdad government, although the revenue 
is reaped by the Persian. The city contains eight 
thousand inhabitants ; but the Pasha's officers pre- 

4 

tend that they amount to fifteen thousand, nearly 
all of whom are Koords. The traveller will find 
a good lodging in the house of M. Morandi, 

an Italian doctor, who is much attached to the 
English. The time occupied from Dolan to this 
city, cannot convey an idea of the distance, the 
greater part of the road being very rugged and diffi- 
cult to pass. The usual rate of travelling through 
Koordistan is about four miles an hour. 



48. 55. 



SULIMANIAH TO TABREEZ. 

Proceed, on quitting*the capital of southern Koordistan, 
in an easterly direction, over a stony road and stu- 
pendous mountains, crossing at intervals small tor- 
rents, which form pretty cascades, and give the 
rocks a fine polish by their action. In the ravines, 
between the mountains, are shady shrubberies of 
apple, pear, cherry, walnut, mulberry, oak, and 



330 ITINERAKY. 

poplar trees, encompassed by vines growing in the 
greatest luxuriance, and watered by murmuring 
brooks. 
8. — The village of Shamalah, situated in a ravine between 
the mountains. 

— 10. A stream with many dark-coloured snakes. 

The appearance of the mountains becomes extremely 
beautiful ; their verdant peaked summits and slop- 
ing sides are covered with oak-trees; and much 
cultivation is here apparent. 
. — 50. Cross a river running west, through a rocky chasm, 

into a small triangular plain, at a little distance 
from the road. 
<S. ... A forest of oak-trees. 

1. — Descend into a plain. 

2, — The village of Bostan. 

Continue in a northerly direction, across a circular 
valley, through which a stream playfully meanders 
in a direction east and west. 

— 15. Ascend a very steep range of hills. The country un- 

cultivated, and covered with low bushes. 

— 45. A thick wood. The road runs due north. 

1. — A very difficult descent into an oblong plain. 

5. — The small town of Banna, situated in a pretty plain 
beneath the mountains. The population is Koor- 
dish, amounting to one thousand souls, under the 
walee of Sennah. 

2, — The road winds east, through a valley well cultivated 

vrith grain. 



ITINERARY. 331 

H. M. 

15. A village at the front of a range of hills, the inhabi- 
tants of which are a mixture of Eoords and Per- 
sians. The road turns abruptly to the left, or 
north. There is likewise a road to Sauk Bullak^ or 
the cold springs, as its name implies. This route is 
infested by a band of lawless Koords, who have al- 
ways evinced a habit of defiance and resistance to 
the Turkish and Persian governments. The author 
encountered a party of this uncivilized horde, who 
attacked him and his guards so violently with 
spears, that in self-defence they were compelled to 
use their pistols, and in a few minutes unhorsed 
three of their assailants, who were left for dead. 
The road leads over a strata of rock, which is very 
difficult to pass. 

2. — Enter a gorge in the mountains, upon whose summits 
are patches of snow ; and follow the course of a 
torrent. 

6. — A poor village in a cultivated plain, surrounded by 
conical hills. Cross an ugly plain in a north- 
easterly direction. 

— 15, A village upon an eminence to the left of the road. 

— 15. Another, upon a hill. * The country now becomes 

more level, and the road much pleasanter. 

— 30. Cross a stream, the water of which is almost absorbed 

in the irrigation of the plain. 
4. — A chain of hills on the right, at whose base the road 
winds. On the left, a river runs parallel with the 
road. 



332 ITINERARY. 

H. M. 

3. — Observe the remains of a stone dyke ecect^d acrjoss a 

river which runs into the Lake Ouroomia. Quit 
the bank of the river/ and proceed over a large bar- 
ren plain. 

^. The town of Miundow in the plain. Here are three 

mpsques^ two caravanserais, and a well-supplied 
bazaar. According to the estimated distance of the 
natives. Lake Ouroomia is about ten hours' journey 
to the left, or north. The course of the road N. 30* 
£. by compass. 

4, — A straggling village at the extremity of the plain. 

— 10. Ascend some hills. 

— , 20. A distant view of Lake Ouroomia, over an uninterest- 
ing plain* 
2. — Descend into a valley, and cross a bridge over a rapid 
stream. 

— SO. Enter the large town of Bonow, or Binaub, standing 

in the midst of verdant meadqws, rich orchards, 
and smiling gardens, affording abundance of. fruit 
of every kind. On the east, a Ipfty range of moun- 
tains bounds the view, which is extremely beau- 
tiful. 

— 15. Ascend from the town, by a steep, road running along 

the foot of the mountainsi on the right. Nine miles 
distant on the left, the north-easter^ sho^e of the 
lake interrupts the view of ploud qapped heights. 

7, After a very long and tedious def^ldi ^ gradual descent 

into a plain. The lake abput two miles distant 



ITINERARY. 333 

H. M. 

— 30. A small hamlet embosomed in gardens. Proceed 

along a partially cultivated plain, over a stony 

road, with the hills on the right, in a direction 

N. SO** E. 

5. — A large village. 

2. — Enter Tabreez, or Tauris, the capital of Azerbijan, the 

I- I . ^ 

^- ^ ancient Antropatia, and residence of his Royal High- 

ness Abbas Mirza, heir apparent to the Persian 

throne. 



LIST OF JOURNEYS 

PERFORMED BY THE AUTHOR IN THE TEARS 1826, 1827, 1828. 



1. From Bussorah to the ruins of Ahw&z, in Khuzistan, 
th.e ancient Susiana. 

2. From Bussorah to the ruins of Shapour, by Bushire, 
Kauzeroon and Shiraz. 

S. From Bussorah to Babylon, by Bagdad and Hillah. 

4. From Bussorah to Seleucia, and Ctesiphon, by the Tigris* 

5. From Bussorah to Bagdad, by Irdk Arabia, Ul Jezira, 
and Mesapotamia. 

6. From Bagdad to Erbill, the ancient Arbella. 

7. From Bagdad to the ruins of Nineveh, by Kerkouk, the 
ancient Corcura, vel Demetrius. 

8. From Bagdad to Tauris, the capital of Azerbijan, by 
Sulimaniah and Lake Ouroomia. 

9. From Tauris to Tiflis, the capital of Georgia. 

10. From Tiflis to St. Petersburgh, by Caucasus, Novo- 
Tcherkask, Tula, and Moscow. 

1 1. From St. Petersburgh to Lubec, Hamburg,and London. 

« 

THE END. 



LONDON : 
PRINTKII BY SAMUEL BBNTLSY, 
Dorset Strcet> Fleet Street.