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diff --git a/old/52495-0.txt b/old/52495-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index f021fa2..0000000 --- a/old/52495-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,16153 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Amurath to Amurath, by Gertrude Lowthian Bell - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Amurath to Amurath - -Author: Gertrude Lowthian Bell - -Release Date: July 4, 2016 [EBook #52495] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMURATH TO AMURATH *** - - - - -Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images available at The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - - AMURATH TO AMURATH - - - HUNTING CAMPS IN WOOD AND WILDERNESS - - - By H. HESKETH PRICHARD, author of “Through the Heart of Patagonia,” - etc. Illustrated in Colour and Black-and-white by E. G. CALDWELL, - Lady HELEN GRAHAM, and from numerous Photographs. In one Volume. - Crown 4to, price 15_s._ net. - - - A VOICE FROM THE CONGO - - By HERBERT WARD. With many Illustrations. In one Volume. Demy 8vo, - price 10_s._ net. - - - THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC - - (_Popular Edition._) - - By Sir ERNEST SHACKLETON, C.V.O. Fully Illustrated with Coloured - and Black-and-white Illustrations, and a Map. In one Volume. Crown - 8vo, price 6_s._ net. - - - ON AND OFF DUTY IN ANNAM - - By GABRIELLE M. VASSAL. With many Illustrations from Photographs. - In one Volume. Demy 8vo, price 10_s._ net. - - - LONDON: - WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C. - - [Illustration: THE MONASTERY OF RABBÂN HORMUZD.] - - - - - AMURATH - TO AMURATH - - BY - - GERTRUDE LOWTHIAN BELL - - _Author of “The Desert and the Sown,” &c._ - - ILLUSTRATED - - [Illustration: colophon] - - LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN - - MCMXI - - _Copyright London, 1911, by William Heinemann_ - - [Illustration: arabic] - - We wither away but they wane not, the stars that above us rise; - The mountains remain after us, and the strong towers when we are gone. - - Labîd ibn Rabî’ah. - - - - -PREFACE - - -DEAR LORD CROMER, - -When I was pursuing along the banks of the Euphrates the leisurely -course of oriental travel, I would sometimes wonder, sitting at night -before my tent door, whether it would be possible to cast into shape the -experiences that assailed me. And in that spacious hour, when the -silence of the embracing wilderness was enhanced rather than broken by -the murmur of the river, and by the sounds, scarcely less primeval, that -wavered round the camp fire of my nomad hosts, the task broadened out -into a shape which was in keeping with the surroundings. Not only would -I set myself to trace the story that was scored upon the face of the -earth by mouldering wall or half-choked dyke, by the thousand vestiges -of former culture which were scattered about my path, but I would -attempt to record the daily life and speech of those who had inherited -the empty ground whereon empires had risen and expired. Even there, -where the mind ranged out unhindered over the whole wide desert, and -thought flowed as smoothly as the flowing stream--even there I would -realize the difficulty of such an undertaking, and it was there that I -conceived the desire to invoke your aid by setting your name upon the -first page of my book. To you, so I promised myself, I could make clear -the intention when accomplishment lagged far behind it. To you the very -landscape would be familiar, though you had never set eyes upon it: the -river and the waste which determined, as in your country of the Nile, -the direction of mortal energies. And you, with your profound experience -of the East, have learnt to reckon with the unbroken continuity of its -history. Conqueror follows upon the heels of conqueror, nations are -overthrown and cities topple down into the dust, but the conditions of -existence are unaltered and irresistibly they fashion the new age in -the likeness of the old. “Amurath an Amurath succeeds” and the tale is -told again. - -Where past and present are woven so closely together, the habitual -appreciation of the divisions of time slips insensibly away. Yesterday’s -raid and an expedition of Shalmaneser fall into the same plane; and -indeed what essential difference lies between them? But the -reverberation of ancient fame sounds more richly in the ears than the -voice of modern achievement. The banks of the Euphrates echo with -ghostly alarums; the Mesopotamian deserts are full of the rumour of -phantom armies; you will not blame me if I passed among them “trattando -l’ombre come cosa salda.” - -And yet there was a new note. For the first time in all the turbulent -centuries to which those desolate regions bear witness, a potent word -had gone forth, and those who had caught it listened in amazement, -asking one another for an explanation of its meaning. Liberty--what is -liberty? I think the question that ran so perplexingly through the black -tents would have received no better a solution in the royal pavilions -which had once spread their glories over the plain. Idly though it fell -from the lips of the Bedouin, it foretold change. That sense of change, -uneasy and bewildered, hung over the whole of the Ottoman Empire. It was -rarely unalloyed with anxiety; there was, it must be admitted, little to -encourage an unqualified confidence in the immediate future. But one -thing was certain: the moving Finger had inscribed a fresh title upon -the page. I cannot pretend to a judicial indifference in this matter. I -have drawn too heavily upon the good-will of the inhabitants of Asiatic -Turkey to regard their fortunes with an impartial detachment. I am eager -to seize upon promise and slow to be overmastered by disappointment. But -I should be doing an equivocal service to a people who have given me so -full a measure of hospitality and fellowship if I were to underestimate -the problems that lie before them. The victories of peace are more -laborious than those of war. They demand a higher integrity than that -which has been practised hitherto in Turkey, and a finer conception of -citizenship than any which has been current there. The old tyranny has -lifted, but it has left its shadow over the land. - -The five months of journeying which are recounted in this book were -months of suspense and even of terror. Constitutional government -trembled in the balance and was like to be outweighted by the forces of -disorder, by fanaticism, massacre and civil strife. I saw the latest -Amurath succeed to Amurath and rejoiced with all those who love justice -and freedom to hear him proclaimed. For ’Abdu’l Ḥamîd, helpless as he -may then have been in the hands of the weavers of intrigue, was the -symbol for retrogression, and the triumph of his faction must have -extinguished the faint light that had dawned upon his empire. - -The confused beginnings which I witnessed were the translation of a -generous ideal into the terms of human imperfection. Nowhere was the -character of the Young Turkish movement recognized more fully than in -England, and nowhere did it receive a more disinterested sympathy. Our -approval was not confined to words. We have never been slow to welcome -and to encourage the advancement of Turkey, and I am glad to remember -that we were the first to hold out a helping hand when we saw her -struggling to throw off long-established evils. If she can win a place, -with a strong and orderly government, among civilized states, turning -her face from martial adventure and striving after the reward that waits -upon good administration and sober industry, the peace of the world will -be set upon a surer basis, and therein lies our greatest advantage as -well as her own. That day may yet be far off, but when it comes, as I -hope it will, perhaps some one will take down this book from the shelf -and look back, not without satisfaction, upon the months of revolution -which it chronicles. And remembering that the return of prosperity to -the peoples of the Near East began with your administration in Egypt, he -will understand why I should have ventured to offer it, with respectful -admiration, to you. - -GERTRUDE LOWTHIAN BELL. - -_Rounton, Oct. 1910._ - - - - -NOTE - - -The greater part of Chapter IV appeared in the _Quarterly Review_, and -half of Chapter VIII in _Blackwood’s Magazine_; I have to thank the -editors of these journals for giving me permission to reprint my -contributions to them. I am indebted also to the editor of the _Times_ -for allowing me to use, in describing the excavations at Babylon and at -Asshur, two articles written by me which were published in the _Times_. -The Geographical Society has printed in its journal a paper in which I -have resumed the topographical results of my journey down the Euphrates. -The map which accompanies this book is based upon the map of Asiatic -Turkey, recently published by that society, and upon a map of the -Euphrates from Tell Aḥmar to Hît which was drafted to illustrate my -paper. - -Mr. David Hogarth, Mr. L. W. King, Mr. O. M. Dalton and Professor Max -van Berchem have furnished me with valuable notes. To Sir Charles Lyall, -who has been at the pains to help me with the correcting of the proofs, -I tender here my grateful thanks for this and many another kindness. - - - - -CONTENTS - - -CHAP. PAGE - -I ALEPPO TO TELL AḤMAR 1 - -II TELL AḤMAR TO BUSEIRAH 35 - -III BUSEIRAH TO HÎT 77 - -THE PARTHIAN STATIONS OF ISIDORUS OF CHARAX 108 - -IV HÎT TO KERBELÂ 115 - -THE PALACE OF UKHEIḌIR 147 - -V KERBELÂ TO BAGHDÂD 159 - -VI BAGHDÂD TO MÔṢUL 198 - -THE RUINS OF SÂMARRÂ 231 - -VII MÔṢUL TO ZÂKHÔ 247 - -VIII ZÂKHÔ TO DIYÂRBEKR 289 - -IX DIYÂRBEKR TO KONIA 327 - -INDEX 361 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - PAGE - -THE MONASTERY OF RABBÂN HORMUZD _Frontispiece_ - -ALEPPO, THE CITADEL _To face_ 10 - -ALEPPO, HITTITE LION IN CITADEL 10 - -BASALT EAGLE IN THE FRENCH CONSULATE 10 - -ALEPPO, JÂMI’ ESH SHAIBÎYEH, CORNICE 11 - -FIRDAUS, MEDRESSEH OF EL MALIK EẒ ẒÂHIR 11 - -ALEPPO, JÂMI’ EL ḤELAWÎYEH 12 - -FIRDAUS, A TOMB 12 - -ALEPPO, A MAMLÛK DOME 13 - -ALEPPO, A MAMLÛK DOME 13 - -KHÂN EL WAZÎR 14 - -KHÂN ES SABÛN 14 - -WINDOW OF A TURBEH, FIRDAUS 15 - -GATE OF CITADEL, ALEPPO 15 - -ALEPPO, THE GREAT MOSQUE 26 - -TELL AḤMAR FERRY 26 - -TELL AḤMAR 27 - -CARCHEMISH FROM THE BIG MOUND 27 - -TELL AḤMAR, HITTITE STELA 30 - -TELL AḤMAR, EARTHENWARE JAR 30 - -SERRÎN, NORTHERN TOWER TOMB 31 - -SERRÎN, SOUTHERN TOWER TOMB 31 - -SERRÎN, NORTH TOWER TOMB, PLAN AND ELEVATION SHOWING MOULDINGS 36 - -INSCRIPTION IN CAVE NEAR SERRÎN 40 - -WIFE AND CHILDREN OF A WELDEH SHEIKH 46 - -PLAN OF MUNBAYAH 45 - -MUNBAYAH, WATER GATE 47 - -NESHABAH, TOWER TOMB 47 - -MAḤALL ES ṢAFṢÂF 49 - -ḲAL’AT JA’BAR 50 - -ḲAL’AT JA’BAR, MINARET 50 - -ḲAL’AT JA’BAR, HALL OF PALACE 51 - -ḲAL’AT JA’BAR, BRICK WALL ABOVE GATEWAY 51 - -ḤARAGLAH 53 - -ḤARAGLAH, VAULT 52 - -RAḲḲAH, EASTERN MINARET 52 - -RAḲḲAH, PLAN OF MOSQUE AND SECTIONS OF PIERS 57 - -RAḲḲAH, MOSQUE FROM EAST 53 - -RAḲḲAH, ARCADE OF MOSQUE, FROM NORTH 53 - -RAḲḲAH, CAPITALS OF ENGAGED COLUMNS, MOSQUE 56 - -RAḲḲAH, PALACE 56 - -RAḲḲAH, DETAIL OF STUCCO ORNAMENT, PALACE 57 - -RAḲḲAH, DOMED CHAMBER IN PALACE 57 - -RAḲḲAH, BAGHDÂD GATE FROM EAST 58 - -RAḲḲAH, INTERIOR OF BAGHDÂD GATE 58 - -RAḲḲAH, BAGHDÂD GATE RECONSTRUCTED 59 - -ḤALEBÎYEH 59 - -IRZÎ, TOWER TOMB 83 - -IRZÎ, TOWER TOMB 84 - -NAOURA OF ’AJMÎYEH 84 - -THE INHABITANTS OF RAWÂ 85 - -’ÂNAH FROM THE ISLAND OF LUBBÂD 94 - -’ÂNAH, A FISHERMAN 95 - -HÎT, PITCH-SPRING 95 - -HÎT 104 - -HÎT, THE SULPHUR MARSHES 104 - -MINARET ON ISLAND OF LUBBÂD 105 - -MINARET AT MA’MÛREH 105 - -MADLÛBEH 105 - -MA’MÛREH, MINARET 106 - -HÎT, THE BITUMEN FURNACES 108 - -THE EUPHRATES AT HÎT 108 - -THE WELL AT KEBEISAH 109 - -’AIN ZA’ZU 109 - -ḲAṢR KHUBBÂZ AND RUINS OF THE TANK 118 - -ḲAṢR KHUBBÂZ, THE GATEWAY 118 - -ḲAṢR KHUBBÂZ, A VAULTED CHAMBER 119 - -THEMAIL 119 - -ḲAṢR KHUBBÂZ 120 - -THEMAIL 130 - -MUḤAMMAD EL ’ABDULLAH 134 - -KHEIḌIR, MA’ASHÎ AND SHEIKH ’ALÎ 134 - -BARDAWÎ 136 - -BARDAWÎ FROM SOUTH-WEST 135 - -BARDAWÎ, EAST END OF VAULTED HALL 135 - -SHETÂTEH, SULPHUR SPRING 138 - -ḲAṢR SHAM’ÛN, OUTER WALL 138 - -UKHEIḌIR FROM NORTH-WEST 139 - -UKHEIḌIR, INTERIOR FROM SOUTH-EAST 139 - -UKHEIḌIR, GROUND PLAN 149 - -UKHEIḌIR, THE BATH 150 - -UKHEIḌIR, SECOND STOREY 152 - -UKHEIḌIR, THIRD STOREY 152 - -UKHEIḌIR, NORTH-EAST ANGLE TOWER 142 - -UKHEIḌIR, STAIR AT SOUTH-EAST ANGLE 142 - -UKHEIḌIR, INTERIOR OF SOUTH GATE 142 - -UKHEIḌIR, CHEMIN DE RONDE OF EAST WALL 143 - -UKHEIḌIR, NORTH GATE, FROM OUTSIDE 143 - -UKHEIḌIR, FLUTED DOME AT A 146 - -UKHEIḌIR, FLUTED NICHE, SOUTH-EAST CORNER OF COURT D 146 - -UKHEIḌIR, GREAT HALL 147 - -UKHEIḌIR, COURT D AND NICHED FAÇADE OF THREE-STOREYED -BLOCK 148 - -UKHEIḌIR, VAULT OF ROOM I 149 - -UKHEIḌIR, ROOM I 149 - -UKHEIḌIR, CUSPED DOOR OF COURT S 150 - -UKHEIḌIR, CORRIDOR Q 150 - -UKHEIḌIR, VAULTED END OF P, SHOWING TUBE 150 - -UKHEIḌIR, VAULTED CLOISTER O´ 150 - -UKHEIḌIR, GROIN IN CORRIDOR C 151 - -UKHEIḌIR, SQUINCH ARCH ON SECOND STOREY 151 - -UKHEIḌIR, NORTH SIDE OF COURT M 152 - -UKHEIḌIR, SOUTH-EAST ANGLE OF COURT S 152 - -UKHEIḌIR, WEST SIDE OF B^{3} 153 - -UKHEIḌIR, DOOR LEADING FROM V TO W, SEEN FROM SOUTH 153 - -BABYLON, THE LION 170 - -BABYLON, ISHTAR GATE 171 - -BABYLON, ISHTAR GATE 171 - -CTESIPHON, FROM EAST 180 - -CTESIPHON, FROM WEST 180 - -CTESIPHON, REMAINS OF VAULT ON WEST SIDE OF SOUTH WING 181 - -GUFFAHS OPPOSITE THE WALL OF SELEUCIA 184 - -BAGHDÂD, THE LOWER BRIDGE 184 - -BAGHDÂD, TOMB OF SITT ZOBEIDEH 185 - -BAGHDÂD, INTERIOR OF SPIRE, SITT ZOBEIDEH 185 - -BAGHDÂD, BÂB EṬ ṬILISM 190 - -BAGHDÂD, DETAIL OF ORNAMENT, BÂB EṬ ṬILISM 190 - -BAGHDÂD, MINARET IN SÛḲ EL GHAZL 191 - -WÂNEH, IMÂM MUḤAMMAD ’ALÎ 202 - -WÂNEH, IMÂM MUḤAMMAD ’ALÎ 202 - -ḲÂDISÎYAH FROM SOUTH-EAST 202 - -SÂMARRÂ, RUINED MOSQUE FROM SOUTH 203 - -SÂMARRÂ, FROM MALWÎYEH 203 - -SÂMARRÂ, RUINED MOSQUE, INTERIOR OF SOUTH WALL 203 - -ABU DULÂF, FROM EAST 212 - -ABU DULÂF, INTERIOR, LOOKING NORTH 212 - -NAHRAWÂN CANAL 213 - -IMÂM DUR 213 - -IMÂM DUR 215 - -TEKRÎT FERRY 216 - -COFFEE-MAKING, SHEIKH ’ASKAR 216 - -TEKRÎT, THE ARBAÎN 217 - -KHÂN KHERNÎNA, MIḤRÂB 217 - -KHÂN KHERNÎNA, DETAIL OF FLAT VAULT 218 - -KHÂN KHERNÎNA, VAULT, SHOWING TUBE 218 - -KHÂN KHERNÎNA, SETTING OF DOME 219 - -TELL NIMRÛD 219 - -ḲAL’ÂT SHERGÂT, THE ZIGURRAT AND RUINS OF NORTH WALL 222 - -SÂMARRÂ, MOSQUE 232 - -SÂMARRÂ, INTERIOR OF SOUTH GATE, RUINED MOSQUE 223 - -SÂMARRÂ, RUINED MOSQUE, SMALL DOOR IN WEST WALL 223 - -SÂMARRÂ, RUINED MOSQUE, SOUTH-WEST ANGLE TOWER 232 - -SÂMARRÂ, RUINED MOSQUE, WINDOW IN SOUTH WALL 232 - -SÂMARRÂ, MOSQUE, DETAIL OF PIER, SOUTH DOOR 233 - -SÂMARRÂ, RUINED MOSQUE, BIG DOOR IN NORTH WALL 233 - -SÂMARRÂ, EL ’ASHIḲ, WEST END OF NORTH FAÇADE 233 - -EL ’ASHIḲ 236 - -SÂMARRÂ, EL ’ASHIḲ FROM NORTH 238 - -SÂMARRÂ, EL ’ASHIḲ FROM SOUTH 238 - -EL ’ASHIḲ, DETAIL OF NICHING ON NORTH FAÇADE 238 - -ṢLEBÎYEH 239 - -SÂMARRÂ, ṢLEBÎYEH 239 - -SÂMARRÂ, ṢLEBÎYEH, SETTING OF DOME 239 - -SÂMARRÂ, BEIT EL KHALÎFAH 240 - -SÂMARRÂ, BEIT EL KHALÎFAH 240 - -SÂMARRÂ, BEIT EL KHALÎFAH, DETAIL OF VAULT OF SIDE CHAMBER 240 - -BEIT EL KHALÎFAH, FRAGMENT OF STUCCO DECORATION ON ARCH 241 - -SÂMARRÂ, BEIT EL KHALÎFAH, STUCCO DECORATION 241 - -SÂMARRÂ, BEIT EL KHALÎFAH, FRAGMENT OF RINCEAUX WORKED IN -MARBLE 241 - -SÂMARRÂ, BEIT EL KHALÎFAH, STUCCO DECORATION 241 - -STUCCO DECORATIONS, SÂMARRÂ 242 - -SÂMARRÂ, STUCCO DECORATION 242 - -SÂMARRÂ, STUCCO DECORATION 242 - -SÂMARRÂ, FRAGMENT OF POTTERY 242 - -SÂMARRÂ, FRAGMENT OF POTTERY 242 - -ABU DULÂF 244 - -ABU DULÂF, ARCADE 243 - -ABU DULÂF, NICHED PIER OF NORTHERN ARCADE 243 - -MÔṢUL 248 - -MÂR AHUDÂNÎ 258 - -MÔṢUL, MAR JIRJIS 249 - -MÔṢUL, MÂR TÛMÂ 249 - -MÔṢUL, MÂR TÛMÂ 258 - -MÔṢUL, MÂR SHIM’UN 258 - -MÔṢUL, PLASTER WORK IN ḲAL’AT LÛLÛ 258 - -MÔṢUL, TOMB OF THE IMÂM YAḤYÂ 259 - -ḲARAḲÔSH, DECORATION ON LINTEL OF MÂR SHIM’ÛN 264 - -ASSYRIAN RELIEFS AT BAVIÂN 272 - -’ALÎ BEG 273 - -THE KHÂTÛN AT THE DOOR OF SHEIKH ’ADÎ 273 - -SHEIKH ’ADÎ 274 - -ZÂKHÔ 275 - -BRIDGE OVER THE KHÂBÛR 275 - -ḤASANAH, ASSYRIAN RELIEF 290 - -SHAKH, ASSYRIAN RELIEF 290 - -NOAH’S ARK 291 - -JEZÎRET IBN ’UMAR, GATE OF FORTRESS 296 - -JEZÎRET IBN ’UMAR, BRIDGE 296 - -JEZÎRET IBN ’UMAR, FOUNTAIN OF MOSQUE 297 - -JEZÎRET IBN ’UMAR, RELIEFS ON BRIDGE 297 - -PARTHIAN RELIEF, ḲAṢR GHELLÎ 289 - -PARTHIAN RELIEF, FINIK 298 - -THE HILLS OF FINIK 299 - -STELA AT SÂREH 306 - -ḲAL’AT ḤÂTIM ṬÂI, CHAPEL 306 - -MÂR AUGEN 307 - -THE BISHOP OF MÂR MELKO 314 - -KHÂKH, THE NUN 314 - -NARTHEX OF MÂR GABRIEL 315 - -KHÂKH, CHURCH OF THE VIRGIN 315 - -KEFR ZEH, MÂR ’AZÎZÎYEH; PARISH CHURCH 315 - -ṢALÂḤ, MÂR YA’ḲÛB; MONASTIC TYPE 316 - -KHÂKH, CHURCH OF THE VIRGIN 318 - -KHÂKH, CHURCH OF THE VIRGIN, CAPITALS 318 - -KHÂKH, CHURCH OF THE VIRGIN, DOME ON SQUINCH ARCHES 318 - -THE CHELABÎ 319 - -FORDING THE TIGRIS BELOW DIYÂRBEKR 319 - -DIYÂRBEKR, MARDÎN GATE 322 - -DIYÂRBEKR, YENI KAPU 322 - -DIYÂRBEKR, CHEMIN DE RONDE, NORTH WALL 323 - -DIYÂRBEKR, COURT OF ULU JÂMI’ 323 - -ARGHANA MA’DEN 328 - -GÖLJIK 328 - -KHARPÛT, THE CASTLE 329 - -IZ OGLU FERRY 329 - -MALAṬIYAH ESKISHEHR 336 - -VALLEY OF THE TOKHMA SU 336 - -TOMB AT OZAN 337 - -OZAN, TOMB 341 - -THE GORGE AT DERENDEH 340 - -TOMB NEAR YAZI KEUI 340 - -TOMARZA, CHURCH OF THE PANAGIA FROM SOUTH-EAST 341 - -TOMARZA, CHURCH OF THE PANAGIA, SETTING OF DOME 341 - -TOMARZA, WEST DOOR OF NAVE, CHURCH OF THE PANAGIA 346 - -SHAHR, DOORWAY OF SMALL TEMPLE 346 - -FATTÛḤ 347 - -ON THE ROAD TO SHAHR 347 - -SHAHR, TEMPLE-MAUSOLEUM, UPPER AND LOWER STOREYS 348 - -SHAHR, TEMPLE-MAUSOLEUM 348 - -SHAHR, THE CHURCH ON THE BLUFF 348 - -AVSHAR ENCAMPMENT 349 - -ḲAIṢARÎYEH, THE CITADEL 349 - -MOUNT ARGAEUS FROM NORTH-WEST 354 - -NIGDEH, TOMB OF HAVANDA 355 - -NIGDEH, TOMB OF HAVANDA, DETAIL OF WINDOW 355 - -TOMB OF HAVANDA 356 - -MAP OF TURKEY IN ASIA 370 - - - - -AMURATH TO AMURATH - - - - -CHAPTER I - -ALEPPO TO TELL AḤMAR - -_Feb. 3--Feb. 21_ - - -A small crowd had gathered round one of the booths in the saddlery -bazaar, and sounds of controversy echoed down the vaulted ways. I love -to follow the tortuous arts of Oriental commerce, and moreover at the -end of the dark gallery the February sun was shining upon the steep -mound of the citadel; therefore I turned into the saddlers’ street, for -I had no other business that afternoon than to find the road back into -Asia, back into the familiar enchantment of the East. The group of men -round the booth swayed and parted, and out of it shouldered the tall -figure of Fattûḥ. - -“May God be exalted!” said he, stopping short as he caught sight of me. -“It is well that your Excellency should witness the dealings of the -saddlers of Aleppo. Without shame are they. Thirty years and more have I -lived in Aleppo, and until this day no man has asked me to give two -piastres for a hank of string.” He cast a withering glance, charged with -concentrated animosity, upon the long-robed figure that stood, string in -hand, upon the counter. - -“Allah!” said I warily, for I did not wish to parade my ignorance of the -market value of string. “Two piastres?” - -“It is good string,” said the saddler ingratiatingly, holding out what -looked like a tangled bundle of black wool. - -“Eh wah!” intervened a friend. “’Abdullah sells nought but the best -string.” - -I took a seat upon a corner of the counter and Fattûḥ came slowly back, -shaking his head mournfully, as one who recognizes but cannot amend the -shortcomings of mankind. The whole company closed in behind him, anxious -to witness the upshot of the important transaction upon which we were -engaged. On the outskirts stood one of my muleteers like a man plunged -in grief; even the donkey beside him--a recent purchase, though acquired -at what cost of eloquence only Fattûḥ can know--drooped its ears. It was -plain that we were to be mulcted of a farthing over that hank of string. - -Fattûḥ drew a cotton bag out of his capacious trousers. - -“Take the mother of eight,” said he, extracting a small coin. - -“He gives you the mother of eight,” whispered one of the company -encouragingly to the saddler. - -“By God and the Prophet, it cost me more! Wallah, it did, oh my uncle!” -expostulated the saddler, enforcing his argument with imaginary bonds of -kinship. - -Fattûḥ threw up his eyes to the vault as though he would search heaven -for a sign to confound this impious statement; with averted head he -gazed hopelessly down the long alley. But the vault was dumb, and in all -the bazaar there was no promise of Divine vengeance. A man touched his -elbow. - -“Oh father,” he said, “give him the mother of ten.” - -The lines of resolution deepened in Fattûḥ’s face. “Sir, we would -finish!” he cried, and fumbled once more in the cotton bag. The suspense -was over; satisfaction beamed from the countenances of the bystanders. - -“Take it, oh father, take it!” said they, nudging the saddler into -recognition of his unexampled opportunity. - -The hank of string was handed over to Ḥâjj ’Amr, who packed it gloomily -into the donkey’s saddle bags, already crammed to overflowing with the -miscellaneous objects essential to any well-ordered caravan on a long -journey. Fattûḥ and Ḥâjj ’Amr had been shopping since dawn, and it was -now close upon sunset. - -I climbed down from the counter. “With your leave,” said I, saluting the -saddler. - -“Go in peace,” he returned amicably. “And if you want more string Fattûḥ -knows where to get it. He always deals with me.” - -The crowd melted back to its avocations, if it had any, and the -excitement caused by our commercial dealings died away. - -“Oh Fattûḥ,” said I, as we strolled down the bazaar with the donkey. -“There is great labour in buying all we need.” - -Fattûḥ mopped his brow with a red handkerchief. “And the outlay!” he -sighed. “But we got that string cheap.” And with this he settled his -tarbush more jauntily, kicked the donkey, and “Yallah, father!” said he. - -If there be a better gate to Asia than Aleppo, I do not know it. A -virile population, a splendid architecture, the quickening sense of a -fine Arab tradition have combined to give the town an individuality -sharply cut, and more than any other Syrian city she seems instinct with -an inherent vitality. The princes who drew the line of massive masonry -about her flanks and led her armies against the emperors of the West, -the merchants who gathered the wealth of inner Asia into her bazaars and -bartered it against the riches of the Levant Company have handed down -the spirit of enterprise to the latest of her sons. They drive her -caravans south to Baghdâd, and east to Vân, and north to Konia, and in -the remotest cities of the Turkish empire I have seldom failed to find a -native of Aleppo eager to provide me with a local delicacy and to gossip -over local politics. “Here is one who heard we were from Aleppo,” says -Fattûḥ with an affected indifference. “His brother lives in the next -street to mine, and he has brought your Excellency some apples. But they -are not like the apples of Aleppo.” Then we exchange a greeting warm -with fellow-citizenship and the apples are flavoured with good-will, -even if they cannot be expected to vie with the fruit of our own -countryside. - -It was at Aleppo that I made acquaintance with the Turkey which had come -into being on July 24, 1908. Even among those whose sympathies were -deeply engaged on behalf of the new order, there were not many Europeans -who, in January 1909, had any clue to public opinion outside -Constantinople and Salonica. The events of the six stirring months that -had just elapsed had yet to be heard and apprehended, and no sooner had -I landed in Beyrout than I began to shed European formulas and to look -for the Asiatic value of the great catchwords of revolution. In Aleppo, -sitting at the feet of many masters, who ranged down all the social -grades from the high official to the humblest labourer for hire, I -learnt something of the hopes and fears, the satisfaction, the -bewilderment, and the indifference of Asia. The populace had shared in -the outburst of enthusiasm which had greeted the granting of the -constitution--a moment of unbridled expectation when, in the brief -transport of universal benevolence, it seemed as if the age-long -problems of the Turkish empire had been solved with a stroke of the pen; -they had journeyed back from that Utopia to find that human nature -remained much as it had been before. The public mind was unhinged; men -were obsessed with a sense of change, perplexed because change was slow -to come, and alarmed lest it should spring upon them unawares. The -relaxation of the rule of fear had worked in certain directions with -immediate effect, but not invariably to the increase of security. True, -there was a definite gain of personal liberty. The spies had disappeared -from official quarters, and with them the exiles, who had been condemned -by ’Abdu’l Ḥamîd, on known or unknown pretexts, to languish helplessly -in the provincial capitals. Everywhere a daily press had sprung into -existence and foreign books and papers passed unhindered through the -post. The childish and exasperating restrictions with which the Sultan -had fettered his Christian subjects had fallen away. The Armenians were -no longer tied to the spot whereon they dwelt; they could, and did, -travel where they pleased. The nâmûsîyeh, the identification -certificate, had received the annual government stamp without delay, and -without need of bribes. In every company, Christian and Moslem, tongues -were unloosed in outspoken criticism of official dealings, but it was -extremely rare to find in these freely vented opinions anything of a -constructive nature. The government was still, to the bulk of the -population, a higher power, disconnected from those upon whom it -exercised its will. You might complain of its lack of understanding just -as you cursed the hailstorm that destroyed your crops, but you were in -no way answerable for it, nor would you attempt to control or advise it, -any more than you would offer advice to the hail cloud. Many a time have -I searched for some trace of the Anglo-Saxon acceptance of a common -responsibility in the problems that beset the State, a sense the germs -of which exist in the Turkish village community and in the tribal system -of the Arab and the Kurd; it never went beyond an embryonic application -to small local matters, and the answers I received resembled, _mutatis -mutandis_, that of Fattûḥ when I questioned him as to the part he had -played in the recent general election. “Your Excellency knows that I am -a carriage-driver, what have I to do with government? But I can tell you -that the new government is no better than the old. Look now at Aleppo; -have we a juster law? wallah, no!” - -In some respects they had indeed a yet more laggard justice than in “the -days of tyranny”--so we spoke of the years that were past--or perhaps it -would be truer to say a yet more laggard administration. The dislocation -of the old order was a fact considerably more salient than the -substitution for it of another system. The officials shared to the full -the general sense of impermanence that is inevitable to revolution, -however soberly it may be conducted; they were uncertain of the limits -of their own authority, and as far as possible each one would shuffle -out of definite action lest it might prove that he had overstepped the -mark. In the old days a person of influence would occasionally rectify -by processes superlegal a miscarriage of the law; the miscarriages -continued, but intervention was curtailed by doubts and misgivings. The -spies had been in part replaced by the agents of the Committee, who -wielded a varying but practically irresponsible power. How far the -supremacy of the local committees extended it was difficult to judge, -nor would a conclusion based upon evidence from one province have been -applicable to another; but my impression is that nowhere were they of -much account, and that the further the district was removed from the -coast, that is, from contact with the European centres of the new -movement, the less influential did they become. Possibly in the remoter -provinces the local committee was itself reactionary, as I have heard it -affirmed, or at best an object of ridicule, but in Syria, at any rate, -the committees existed in more than the name. Their inner organization -was at that time secret, as was the organization of the parent society. -They had taken form at the moment when the constitution was proclaimed, -and had undergone a subsequent reconstruction at the hands of delegates -from Salonica, who were sent to instruct them in their duties. I came -across one case where these delegates, having been unwisely selected, -left the committee less well qualified to cope with local conditions -than they found it, but usually they discharged their functions with -discretion. The committees opened clubs of Union and Progress, the -members of which numbered in the bigger towns several hundreds. The club -of Aleppo was a flourishing institution lodged in a large bare room in -the centre of the town. It offered no luxuries to the members, military -and civilian, who gathered round its tables of an evening, but it -supplied them with a good stock of newspapers, which they read gravely -under the shadow of a life-sized portrait of Midhat Pasha, the hero and -the victim of the first constitution. The night of my visit the newly -formed sub-committee for commerce was holding its first deliberations on -a subject which is of the utmost importance to the prosperity of Aleppo: -the railway connection with the port of Alexandretta. To this discussion -I was admitted, but the proceedings after I had taken my seat at the -board were of an emotional rather than of a practical character, and I -left with cries of “Yasha Inghilterra!” (“Long live England!”) in my -ears. I carried away with me the impression that whatever might be the -future scope of its activities, the committee could not fail, in these -early days, to be of some educational value. It brought men together to -debate on matters that touched the common good and invited them to bear -a part in their promotion. The controlling authority of the executive -body was of much more questionable advantage. Its members, whose names -were kept profoundly secret, were supposed to keep watch over the -conduct of affairs and to forward reports to the central committee: I -say _supposed_, because I have no means of knowing whether they actually -carried out what they stated to be their duties. They justified their -position by declaring that it was a temporary expedient which would -lapse as soon as the leaders of the new movement were assured of -official loyalty to the constitution, and arbitrary as their functions -may appear it would have been impossible to assert that Asiatic Turkey -was fit to run without leading-strings. But I do not believe that the -enterprise of the committees was sufficient to hamper a strong governor; -and so far as my observation went, the welfare of each province -depended, and must depend for many a year to come, upon the rectitude -and the determination of the man who is placed in authority over it. - -Underlying all Turkish politics are the closely interwoven problems of -race and religion, which had been stirred to fresh activity by exuberant -promises. Fraternity and equality are dangerous words to scatter -broadcast across an empire composed of many nationalities and controlled -by a dominant race. Under conditions such as these equality in its most -rigid sense can scarcely be said to exist, while fraternity is -complicated by the fact that the ruling race professes Islâm, whereas -many of the subordinate elements are Christian. The Christian population -of Aleppo was bitterly disheartened at having failed to return one of -their own creed out of the six deputies who represent the vilayet. I -met, in the house of a common friend, a distinguished member of the -Christian community who threw a great deal of light on this subject. He -began by observing that even in the vilayet of Beyrout, though so large -a proportion of the inhabitants are Christian, the appointment of a -non-Moslem governor would be impossible; so much, he said, for the boast -of equality. This is, of course, undeniable, though in the central -government, where they are not brought into direct contact with a Moslem -population, Christians are admitted to the highest office. He complained -that when the Christians of Aleppo had urged that they should be -permitted to return a representative to the Chamber, the Moslems had -given them no assistance. “They replied,” interposed our host, “that it -was all one, since Christians and Moslems are merged in Ottoman.” I -turned to my original interlocutor and inquired whether the various -communions had agreed upon a common candidate. - -“No,” he answered with some heat. “They brought forward as many -candidates as there are sects. Thus it is in our unhappy country; even -the Christians are not brothers, and one church will not trust the -other.” - -I said that this regrettable want of confidence was not confined to -Turkey, and asked whether, if they could have commanded a united vote, -they would have carried their candidate. He admitted with reluctance -that he thought it would have been possible, and this view was confirmed -by an independent witness who said that a Christian candidate, carefully -chosen and well supported, would have received in addition the Jewish -vote, since that community was too small to return a separate -representative. - -As for administrative reform, it hangs upon the urgent problem of -finance. From men who are overworked and underpaid neither efficiency -nor honesty can be expected, but to increase their number or their -salary is an expensive business, and money is not to be had. How small -are the local resources may be judged from the fact that Aleppo, a town -of at least 120,000 inhabitants, possesses a municipal income of from -£3,000 to £4,000 a year. Judges who enjoy an annual salary of from £60 -to £90 are not likely to prove incorruptible, and it is difficult to see -how a mounted policeman can support existence on less than £12 a year, -though one of my zaptiehs assured me that the pay was sufficient if it -had been regular. In the vilayet of Aleppo and the mutesarriflik of Deir -all the zaptiehs who accompanied me had received the arrears due to them -as well as their weekly wage, but this fortunate condition did not -extend to other parts of the empire. - -The plain man of Aleppo did not trouble his head with fiscal problems; -he judged the new government by immediate results and found it wanting. -I rode one sunny afternoon with the boy, Fattûḥ’s brother-in-law, who -was to accompany us on our journey, to the spring of ’Ain Tell, a mile -or two north of the town. Jûsef--his name, as Fattûḥ was careful to -point out, is French: “I thought your Excellency knew French,” he said -severely, in answer to my tactless inquiry--Jûsef conducted me across -wet meadows, where in spring the citizens of Aleppo take the air, and -past a small mound, no doubt artificial, a relic perhaps of the -constructions of Seif ed Dauleh, whose palace once occupied these -fields. Close to the spring stands a mill with a pair of stone lions -carved on the slab above the door, the heraldic supporters of some -prince of Aleppo. They had been dug out of the mound together with a -fine basalt door, like those which are found among the fourth and fifth -century ruins in the neighbouring hills; the miller dusted it with his -sleeve and observed that it was an antîca. A party of dyers, who were -engaged in spreading their striped cotton cloths upon the sward, did me -the honours of their drying-ground--merry fellows they were, the typical -sturdy Christians of Aleppo, who hold their own with their Moslem -brothers and reckon little of distinctions of creed. - -“Christian and Moslem,” said one, “see how we labour! If the -constitution were worth anything, the poor would not work for such small -rewards.” - -“At any rate,” said I, “you got your nâmûsîyeh cheaper this year.” - -“Eh true!” he replied, “but who can tell how long that will last?” - -“Please God, it will endure,” said I. - -“Please God,” he answered. “But we should have been better satisfied to -see the soldiers govern. A strong hand we need here in Aleppo, that the -poor may enjoy the fruits of their toil.” - -“Eh wah!” said another, “and a government that we know.” - -Between them they had summed up popular opinion, which is ever blind to -the difficulties of reform and impatient because progress is necessarily -slow footed. - -We passed on our return the tekîyeh of Abu Bekr, a beautiful Mamlûk -shrine with cypresses in its courtyard, which lift their black spires -proudly over that treeless land. The brother of the hereditary sheikh -showed me the mosque; it contains an exquisite miḥrâb of laced stone -work, and windows that are protected by carved wooden shutters and -filled with old coloured glass. Near the mosque is the square hall of a -bath, now fallen into disrepair. Four pendentives convert the square -into an octagon, and eight more hold the circle of the dome--as fine a -piece of massive construction as you would wish to see. The sheikh and -his family occupied some small adjoining rooms, and the young wife of my -guide made me welcome with smiles and lemon sherbet. From the deep -embrasure of her window I looked out upon Aleppo citadel and -congratulated her upon her secluded house set in the thickness of -ancient walls. - -“Yes,” she replied, eagerly detailing the benefits of providence, “and -we have a carpet for winter time, and there is no mother-in-law.” - -Aleppo is the Greek Berœa, but the town must have played a part in the -earlier civilizations of North Syria. It lies midway between two Hittite -capitals, Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Cadesh on the Orontes, in the -heart of a fertile country strewn with mounds and with modern mud-built -villages. The chief town of this district was Chalcis, the modern -Kinnesrîn, a day’s journey to the south of Aleppo, but with the -development of the great Seleucid trade-route between Seleucia on the -Tigris and Antioch on the Orontes, which Strabo describes as passing -through Hierapolis, Aleppo, being on the direct line to Antioch, must -have gained in importance, and it was perhaps for this reason that the -little Syrian village saw the Seleucid foundations of Berœa. The Arabic -name, Ḥaleb, retains a reminiscence - -[Illustration: FIG. 1.--ALEPPO, THE CITADEL.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 2.--ALEPPO, HITTITE LION IN CITADEL.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 3.--BASALT EAGLE IN THE FRENCH CONSULATE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 4.--ALEPPO, JÂMI’ ESH SHAIBÎYEH, CORNICE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 5.--FIRDAUS, MEDRESSEH OF EL MALIK EẒ ẒÂHIR.] - -of the original local appellation, which never slipped out of memory and -finally conquered the Greek Berœa. Mohammadan tradition recognizes the -fact that Ḥaleb was the ancient name of the city in the foolish tale -which connects it with the cows of Abraham, the root of the word Ḥaleb -being the verb signifying to milk, and the Emperor Julian knew that -Berœa was the same as Chaleb. Aleppo is not without evidences of a -remote antiquity. Every archæologist in turn has tried his hand at the -half obliterated Hittite inscription which is built, upside down, into -the walls of the mosque of Ḳiḳân near the Antioch gate; among the ruins -of the citadel are two roughly worked Hittite lions (Fig. 2; Mr. Hogarth -was the first to identify them), and I found in the French Consulate a -headless eagle carved in basalt which belongs to the same period (Fig. -3). The steep escarpment of the castle mound is akin to the ancient -fortified sites of northern Mesopotamia. Julian mentions the acropolis -of Berœa. It was protected in a later age by a revetment of stone slabs, -most of which were stripped away by Tîmûr Leng when he overwhelmed the -town in 1401 and laid it in ruins. I know of only one building in Aleppo -the origin of which can be attributed with certainty to the -pre-Mohammadan period, the Jâmi’ el Ḥelâwîyeh near the Great Mosque -(Fig. 6). It has been completely rebuilt; the present dome, resting on -pendentives, with a tambour broken by six windows, belongs to one of the -later reconstructions, but the beautiful acanthus capitals must be -ascribed to the fifth century on account of their likeness to the -capitals in the church of St. Simeon Stylites, a day’s journey -north-west of Aleppo. The great school of architecture which they -represent affected the builders of Islâm through many a subsequent age, -and you will find the Mamlûks still flinging the leaves of the -wind-blown acanthus about the capitals in their mosques. In the tenth -century Aleppo was the chief city of the Ḥamdânid prince Seif ed Dauleh, -a notable patron of the arts. It was he who built the south gate in the -walls, the Bâb Kinnesrîn, and rebuilt the Antioch Gate after its -destruction by Nicephorus Phocas; he repaired the citadel, set the -shrine of Ḥussein upon the hill-side west of the town, and erected his -own splendid dwelling outside the walls to the north. His palace was -ravaged before his death, his gates and mosques have been rebuilt, and -there remains for the period before Saladin little or nothing but the -mosque inside the citadel, built in 1160 by Nûr ed Dîn, the greatest of -the Syrian atabegs, and the Jâmi’ esh Shaibîyeh near the Antioch Gate, -which, in spite of its ruined condition, is one of the loveliest -monuments of the art of Islâm in the whole town of Aleppo (Fig. 4).[1] -Along the top of the wall and carried uninterruptedly round the square -minaret, runs a Cufic inscription, cut in a cavetto moulding. Below it -is a band of interlacing rinceaux, unsurpassed in boldness and freedom -of design, and above it a heavy cymatium, borne on modillions and -adorned with rinceaux. The classical outline of the cornice, together -with the exquisite Oriental decoration, give it a singular hybrid -beauty. This mosque apart, the finest buildings are due to the Ayyûbids, -and chiefly to El Malik eẓ Ẓâhir, the son of Saladin, who ruled in -Aleppo at the end of the twelfth century. Beyond the walls to the south -of the city, in the quarter of Firdaus, the descendants of Saladin held -their court, and though their palaces have disappeared--how much more we -should know of Mohammadan architecture if each successive conqueror had -not ruined the house of his predecessor!--the suburb is still -resplendent with mosques and tombs. Here stands the Medresseh of El -Malik eẓ Ẓâhir, with an arcade borne on capitals that retain a -reminiscence of classical form though they are hung with a garland of -leaves that are closer to the Sasanian than to the Greek (Fig. 5).[2] -Near it is the mosque of Firdaus built by the king’s widow when she was -regent for her son. Over the miḥrâb of this mosque is a bold entrelac -decoration which is to be found also in the shrine of Ḥussein, a -building that - -[Illustration: FIG. 6.--ALEPPO, JÂMI’ EL ḤELAWÎYEH.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 7.--FIRDAUS, A TOMB.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 8.--ALEPPO, A MAMLÛK DOME.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 9.--ALEPPO, A MAMLÛK DOME.] - -owes its present form to El Malik eẓ Ẓâhir.[3] The mosque of Eṣ Ṣâliḥîn -shelters a gigantic footprint of Abraham, and about it lie the tombs of -the pious who sought a resting-place near the site sanctified by the -patriarch--tombstones worthy of a museum, carved with Cufic inscriptions -and with vine scrolls and bunches of grapes. And falling now into -unheeded decay are other memorials of the dead, their walls covered with -delicate tracery and their windows filled with an exquisite lacework of -stone (Fig. 7). They were great builders these princes of Islâm, Ayyûbid -and Mamlûk, and in nothing greater than in their mastery of structural -difficulties. The problem of the dome, its thrust and its setting over a -square substructure, received from them every possible solution; they -bent the solid stone into airy forms of infinite variety (Figs. 8 and -9). Their splendid masonry satisfied the eye as does the wall of a Greek -temple, and none knew better than they the value of discreet decoration. -The restraint and beauty of such treatment of the wall surface as is to -be found in the Khân el Wazîr (Fig. 10) or the Khân es Sabûn (Fig. 11) -bear witness to a master hand. The grace and ordered symmetry of these -façades are as devoid of monotony as are the palace walls of the early -Venetian renaissance, to which they are closely related, and here as in -Venice the crowning beauty of colour is added to that of form and -proportion. But it is colour of the sun’s own making; the sharp black -outline of a window opening, the half tones of a carved panel lying upon -the smooth brightness of the masonry soberly enhanced by the occasional -use of a darker stone, either in courses or in alternate voussoirs. If -you are so fortunate as to have many friends in Aleppo, you will find -that the domestic architecture is no less admirable, and drinking your -coffee under panelled ceilings rich with dull golds and soft deep reds, -you will magnify once again the genius of the artificers of Asia. - -The walls and gates of the city, though they are not so well preserved -as those of Diyârbekr, are fine examples of mediæval fortification. To -the north a prosperous quarter lies beyond the older circuit and the -heraldic lions of the Mamlûks look down upon streets crowded with -traffic. Armorial bearings played a large part in the decorative scheme -of the Mohammadan builders. The type characteristic of Aleppo is a disk -projecting slightly from the wall, carved with a cup from the base of -which spring a pair of leaves. Upon the cup there are strange signs -which are said to have been imitated from Egyptian hieroglyphs, a motive -introduced by the Mamlûks; but I have noticed a variety of coats of the -same period, such as the whorl which fills the disk upon the Bâb el -Maḳâm, and the pair of upright pot-hooks, set back to back, upon the -Jâmi’ el Maḳâmât in the Firdaus quarter. These disks, together with -bands of inscriptions, are the sole ornaments placed upon the city -gates. - -The sombre splendour of the architecture of Aleppo is displayed nowhere -better than in the Bîmâristân of El Malik eẓ Ẓâhir, which was built as a -place of confinement for criminal lunatics and is still used for that -purpose. The central court terminates at the southern end in the lîwân -of a mosque covered with an oval dome; before it lies the ceremonial -water-tank, if any one should have the heart to wash or pray in that -house of despair. A door from the court leads into a stone corridor, out -of which open rectangular stone chambers with massive walls rising to a -great height, and carrying round and oval domes. Through narrow window -slits, feeble shafts of light fall into the dank well beneath and shiver -through the iron bars that close the cells of the lunatics. They sit -more like beasts than men, loaded with chains in their dark cages, and -glower at each other through the bars; and one was sick and moaned upon -his wisp of straw, and one rattled his chains and clawed at the bars as -though he would cry for mercy, but had forgotten human speech. “They do -not often recover,” said the gaoler, gazing indifferently into the sick -man’s cell, and I wondered in my heart whether there were any terms in -which to reckon up the misery that had accumulated for generations under -El Malik eẓ Ẓâhir’s domes. - -[Illustration: FIG. 10.--KHÂN EL WAZÎR.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 11.--KHAN ES SABÛN.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 12.--WINDOW OF A TURBEH, FIRDAUS.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 13.--GATE OF CITADEL, ALEPPO.] - -Like the numismatic emblem of a city goddess, Aleppo wears a towered -crown. The citadel lies immediately to the east of the bazaars. A -masonry bridge resting on tall narrow arches spans the moat between a -crenelated outpost and the great square block of the inner gatehouse. -Through a worked iron door, dated in the reign of El Malik eẓ Ẓâhir, you -pass into a vaulted corridor which turns at right angles under an arch -decorated with interlaced dragons (Fig. 13), and ends at another arched -doorway on which stand the leopards of Sultan Baybars, who rebuilt the -castle in the thirteenth century. Above the entrance is a columned hall, -grass-grown and ruined; passages lead down from it into vaulted chambers -which would seem to have been repaired after Tîmûr had sacked Aleppo. -Some of the blocks used in the walls here are Jewish tombstones dated by -Hebrew inscriptions in the thirteenth century, and since it is scarcely -possible that Baybars should have desecrated a cemetery of his own day, -they must indicate a later period of reconstruction. The garrison was -supplied with water from a well eighty metres deep which lies near the -northern edge of the castle mound. Besides the well-hole, a stair goes -down to the water level, near which point vaulted passages branch out to -right and left. Tradition says that the whole mound is raised upon a -substructure of masonry, but tradition is always ready with such tales, -and the only inscription in the passages near the well is Cufic. At the -northern limit of the enclosure stands a high square tower, up which, if -you would know Aleppo, you must climb. From the muedhdhin’s gallery the -town lies revealed, a wide expanse of flat roof covering the bazaars, -broken by dome and minaret, by the narrow clefts of streets and the -courts of mosque and khân. The cypresses of Abu Bekr stand sentinel to -the north; from that direction Tîmûr entered through the Bâb el Ḥadîd. -In the low ground beyond the Antioch Gate, the armies of the Crusaders -lay encamped; the railway, an invader more powerful than Baldwin, holds -it now. Turn to the east, and as far as the eye can see, stretch rolling -uplands, the granary of North Syria, and across them wind the caravan -tracks that lead into inner Asia. There through the waste flows the -Euphrates--you might almost from the tower catch the glint of its -waters, so near to the western sea does its channel approach here. - -I have never come to know an Oriental city without finding that it -possesses a distinctive personality much more strongly accentuated than -is usually the case in Europe, and this is essentially true of the -Syrian towns. To compare Damascus, for example, with Aleppo, would be to -set side by side two different conceptions of civilization. Damascus is -the capital of the desert, Aleppo of the fertile plain. Damascus is the -city of the Arab tribes who conquered her and set their stamp upon her; -Aleppo, standing astride the trade routes of northern Mesopotamia, is a -city of merchants quick to defend the wealth that they had gathered -afar. So I read the history that is written upon her walls and impressed -deep into the character of her adventurous sons. - -At Aleppo the current of the imagination is tributary to the Euphrates. -With Xenophon, with Julian, with all the armies captained by a dream of -empire that dashed and broke against the Ancient East, the thoughts go -marching down to the river which was the most famous of all frontier -lines. So we turned east, and on a warm and misty February morning we -passed under the cypresses of Abu Bekr and took the road to Hierapolis. -It was a world of mud through which we journeyed, for the rains had been -heavy, and occasionally a shower fell across our path; but rain and mud -can neither damp nor clog the spirit of those who are once more upon the -road, with faces turned towards the east. The corn was beginning to -sprout and there were signs too of another crop, that of the locusts -which had swarmed across the Euphrates the year before, and after -ravaging the fields had laid their eggs in the shallow earth that lies -upon the rocky crest of the ridges between cornland and cornland. -Whenever the road climbed up to these low eminences we found a family of -peasants engaged, in a desultory fashion, in digging out the eggs from -among the stones. Where they lay the ground was pitted like a face -scourged with smallpox, but for every square yard cleared a square mile -was left undisturbed, and the peasants worked for the immediate small -reward which the government paid for each load of eggs, and not with any -hope of averting the plague that ultimately overwhelmed their crops. It -comes and goes, for what reason no man can tell, lasting in a given -district over a term of lean years, and disappearing as unaccountably as -it came: perhaps a storm of rain kills the larvæ as they are hatching -out, perhaps the breeding season is unfavourable--God knows, said Ḥâjj -’Alî, the zaptieh who accompanied me. The country is set thick with -villages, of which Kiepert marks not the tenth part--and even those not -always rightly placed. We passed his Sheikh Najar, and at Sheikh Ziyâd I -went up to see the ziyârah, the little shrine upon the hill-top, but -found there nothing but a small chamber containing the usual clay tomb. -We left Serbes on the right--it was hidden behind a ridge--and took a -track that passed through the village of Shammar. Not infrequently there -were old rock-cut cisterns among the fields and round the mounds whereon -villages had once stood. At Tell el Ḥâl, five hours from Aleppo, a -modern village lies below the mound, and by the roadside I saw part of -the shaft of a column, with a moulded base, while several more fragments -of columns were set up as tombstones in the graveyard. An hour before we -reached Bâb we caught sight of the high minaret of the ziyârah above it. -It is a flourishing little place with a bazaar and several khâns, in one -of which I lodged. The heavy rain-clouds that had hung about us all day -were closing down as evening approached, but I had time to climb the -steep hill to the west of the village, where a cluster of houses -surrounds the ziyârah of Nebî Ḥâshil--so I heard the name, but Abu’l -Fidâ calls it the Mashhad of ’Aḳil ibn Abî Ṭâlib, brother of the Khalif -’Alî[4]--an old shrine of which the lower part of the walls is built of -rusticated stones. The tomb itself was closed, but I went to the top of -the minaret and had a fine view of the shallow fruitful valley of the -Deheb, which, taking its source near Bâb and the more northerly Tell -Batnân, runs down to the salt marshes at the foot of Jebel el Ḥaṣṣ. -Across the valley there is a notable big mound with a village at its -foot, the Buzâ’â of the Arab geographers, “smaller than a town and -larger than a village,” said Ibn Jubeir in the twelfth century. The -ancient Bathnæ where Julian rested under “a pleasant grove of cypress -trees” is represented by Buzâ’â and its “gate” Bâb. He compares its -gardens with those of Daphne, the famous sanctuary of Apollo near -Antioch, and though the gardens and cypresses have been replaced by -cornfields, it is still regarded by the inhabitants of Aleppo as an -agreeable and healthy resort during the hot months of summer. Perhaps we -may carry back its history yet earlier and look here for the palace of -Belesys, the Persian governor of Syria, at the source of the river -Dardes, which Xenophon describes as having “a large and beautiful garden -containing all that the seasons produce.”[5] Cyrus laid it waste and -burned the palace, after which he marched three days to Thapsacus on the -Euphrates; but the Arab geographers place Bâlis (which some have -conjectured to have occupied the site of the Persian palace) two days -from Aleppo, and the position of Thapsacus has not been determined with -any certainty. If it stood at Dibseh, as Moritz surmises,[6] Cyrus could -well have reached it in three marches from Bâb, and I am inclined to -think that Xenophon’s account identifies the satrap’s pleasaunce with -the garden of Bathnæ. In Kiepert’s map the relative distances between -Aleppo and Bâb and Bâb and Manbij are not correct. I rode the two stages -in almost exactly the same time (seven and a quarter hours), and the -caravan took nine hours each day, whereas the map would have the march -to Manbij a good two hours longer than the march to Bâb.[7] - -A stormy wind, bringing with it splashes of rain, swept us next morning -over the wet uplands. About an hour from Bâb we were joined by a -Circassian wrapped in a thick black felt cloak, which, with the white -woollen hood over an astrachan cap, skirted coat with cartridges ranged -across the breast, and high riding-boots, is the invariable costume of -these emigrants from the north. His name was Maḥmûd Aghâ. His father had -left the Caucasus after the Russians took the country and had gone with -all his people to Roumelia, where they settled down and built houses. -And then the Russians seized that land also, and again they left all and -came to Manbij, and the Sultan gave them fields on his own estates. “But -if the Russians were to come here too,” he concluded, with the anxious -air of one who faces an ever-present danger, “God knows where we should -go.” - -“Their frontier is far,” said I reassuringly. - -“Please God,” said he. - -I asked him about the recent elections and found that he took a lively -interest in the politics of the day. He knew the names of the deputies -who had been returned for the vilayet of Aleppo, and said that a -thousand people had given their votes in the Manbij district, though -there should have been many more if all had been on the register. But -they would not trouble to have their names placed upon it. - -“Wallah, no,” observed Ḥâjj ’Alî. “Do you think that the fellaḥîn of all -these villages wish to vote? If they knew that their name was written -down by the government, they would take to their heels and flee into the -desert, leaving all that they have. So great would be their fear.” - -This was a new view of the duties and privileges of citizenship, and -once more I had to shift my ground and look at representative -institutions through the eyes of the Syrian peasant. - -“Then none of the Arab vote?” I asked, when I had accomplished this -revolution of the mind. The Arab are the Bedouin. - -“God forbid!” replied Ḥâjj ’Alî. “Where is Aleppo and where their -dwelling-place!” - -“We are all equal now before the law,” said Maḥmûd Aghâ inconsequently -(but he was thinking of townsfolk, not of the Arab), “and all will be -given an equal justice. We shall not wait for months at the door of the -serâyah before we are given a hearing--and then only with bribes.” - -“I have heard that all are equal,” said I, “and that Christian and -Moslem will serve together in the army. What think you?” - -“Without doubt the Christians may serve,” he answered, “but they cannot -command.” - -In three and a half hours we reached the village of Arîmeh, where there -are two Roman milestones that have been copied by Mr. Hogarth. He dates -them A.D. 197, in which year the Emperor Septimius Severus, whose name -is inscribed upon them, probably completed the road. I suspect that it -followed the Seleucid trade route mentioned by Strabo. There are not -more than a dozen houses at Arîmeh, but the ancient settlement was more -important. Cut stones lie about the modern hovels, and behind them are -ruined foundations, among which we found the fragment of a bas-relief, a -pair of shod feet and another foot beside them: I did not judge it to be -earlier than the Roman period. A large stone block built into the wall -of one of the courtyards bore a much worn foundation inscription of El -Malik eẓ Ẓâhir, his name and the words “he built it” being alone -decipherable. We rode on to Hierapolis across a hollow plain, all -cultivated, the sacred domain of the Syrian goddess “whom some call -Nature herself, the cause that produces the seed of all things.”[8] When -we passed over the ground it was still a chiflik, the private property -of ’Abdu’l Ḥamîd, wrested by him bit by bit during the last thirty years -from its owners, the half-settled Arabs. With all the rest of his landed -estates it was appropriated after his deposition in April by the State, -and if it is put up for sale there will be no lack of customers in -Aleppo, for the merchants are eager to lay field to field, and I have -heard them complain of the difficulty of buying land near home, since -all was held by the Sultan. We rode between the air-holes of underground -canals, of which there were a great number bringing water to Hierapolis. -The old line of the city walls is clearly marked, though the Circassian -colony, which grows in numbers and prosperity in spite of the antagonism -of the neighbouring Arabs, is rapidly digging out the stones and using -them in the construction of houses. Just within the walls, as we -approached from the west, is a large pond, surrounded by masonry, the -remains of the stairs by which the worshippers descended into the pool -of Atargatis that they might swim to the altar in its midst. Lucian -declares that the pool wherein were kept the sacred fish was over 200 -cubits deep, but his informants must have exaggerated, inasmuch as -Pocock, who visited Hierapolis in 1787, mentions that the pool was dry, -and does not speak of so remarkable a hole as Lucian’s estimate would -imply. Maundrell, who saw it in 1699, describes it as a deep pit -containing a little water, but choked by the walls and columns of great -buildings that had stood all about it. East of the pool there is a -modern mosque erected by ’Abdu’l Hamîd on the site of a foundation of El -Malik eẓ Ẓâhir. Nothing remained of the earlier building, I was told, -but a ruined minaret,[9] which has now gone. In the ṣaḥn, the court, I -saw three inscriptions of El Malik eẓ Ẓâhir which had belonged to his -mosque. Below the pavement of the ṣaḥn, said the guardian of the mosque, -a second pavement had been found which he believed to have been that of -a Christian church; there were one or two columns lying about here, and -an acanthus capital which was certainly pre-Mohammadan and probably -pre-Christian. Manbij was at one time a bishopric; the earlier -travellers mention several ruined churches which have now vanished, and -Ibn Khurdâdhbeh, one of the first of the Arab geographers, remarks that -“there is no wooden building fairer than the church at Manbij, for it -has arches of jujube wood”[10]--an observation which is repeated with -wearisome iteration by many of his successors. - -The pool and the mosque stand for the two periods of former splendour, -the pagan and the Mohammadan. Bambyce--to give it the classicized form -of its ancient local name[11]--must have been a shrine of some -importance when the Seleucids rechristened it Hierapolis, but, as at -Aleppo, the older word was never forgotten, and Strabo in the first -century calls it by both names. His account is suggestive of the -conditions that prevailed in the Seleucid empire. “The road for -merchants,” says he, “going from Syria to Seleucia and Babylon, lies -through the country of the Scenitæ and through the desert belonging to -their territory. The Euphrates is crossed in the latitude of Anthemusia, -a place in Mesopotamia.[12] Above the river, at a distance of four -schœni, is Bambyce, where the Syrian goddess Atargatis is worshipped. -After crossing the river the road runs through a desert country on the -borders of Babylonia, to Scenæ. From the passage across the river to -Scenæ is a journey of five-and-twenty days. There are on the road owners -of camels who keep resting-places which are well supplied with water -from cisterns, or transported from a distance. The Scenitæ exact a -moderate tribute from merchants, but do not molest them: the merchants -therefore avoid the country on the banks of the river and risk a journey -through the desert, leaving the river on the right hand at a distance of -nearly three days’ march. For the chiefs of the tribes living on both -sides of the river are settled in the midst of their own peculiar -domains, and each exacts a tribute of no moderate amount for -himself.”[13] It is evident that the Alexandrids never succeeded in -subduing the Arab tribes, who pushed up in a wedge along the Euphrates -between their Mesopotamian and their Syrian provinces, and Strabo has -here left us a description of the pre-Parthian line of traffic. Where it -crossed the river it would be hazardous to pronounce. The two most -famous passages of the middle Euphrates were at Birejik and at -Thapsacus: at the former Seleucus Nicator built a bridge,[14] and -Crassus, in the first century before Christ, found a bridge at Birejik -and crossed with all the omens against him, even the eagle of the first -standard turning its head backwards when it was brought down to the -river. But between these two points the Euphrates can easily be crossed -in boats at many places,[15] and in the numerous Roman expeditions -against the Sasanians, when Hierapolis came to be used as a convenient -starting-point for eastern campaigns, the passage seems usually to have -been made lower down than Birejik, more nearly opposite Hierapolis, and -the Mesopotamian road ran thence by Thilaticomum and through the desert -to Bathnæ in Osrhœne.[16] Julian marching from Hierapolis presumably -took this shorter road, for he was anxious to reach Mesopotamia before -intelligence of his movements should have come to the enemy,[17] and it -has been conjectured that he threw his bridge of boats across the river -from Cæciliana, a place mentioned in the Peutinger Tables and identified -tentatively with Ḳal’at en Nejm.[18] There is, however, a ferry just -below the mouth of the Sajûr river which during the last few years has -been used regularly by caravans and carriages going to Urfah, the -ancient Edessa, in preference to the longer road by Birejik. This route -had long been abandoned on account of the insecurity of the deserts -through which it passes. Before the granting of the constitution some -advance had been made towards order, and since the overthrow of Ibrahîm -Pasha, the Kurd, in the autumn of 1908, it has become as safe as can -reasonably be expected. The landing-place on the east bank is at Tell -Aḥmar, a tiny hamlet which has inherited the site of a very ancient -city. Here perhaps Strabo’s road crossed the river;[19] here Julian may -have constructed his pontoon bridge, and it is not improbable that for -the first four or five hundred years of the Christian era it was the -customary point of passage for travellers from Hierapolis to Edessa.[20] -Thapsacus, which lies lower down than Cæciliana-Ḳal’at en Nejm, was of -earlier importance. Xenophon crossed there, and nearly a hundred years -later, Darius, fleeing headlong eastwards with his broken army after the -battle of Issus, with Alexander headlong at his heels, passed over the -river at Thapsacus.[21] - -Julian saw Manbij in the last days of its pagan glory, and for him, as -for Crassus before him, the omens of Hierapolis were unfavourable, for -as he entered the gates of “that large city, a portico on the left fell -suddenly while fifty soldiers were passing under it, and many were -wounded, being crushed beneath the vast weight of the beams and -tiles.”[22] A couple of hundred years later its estate was so much -diminished that no attempt was made to defend it against Chosroes, who -held it to ransom, and then treacherously sacked it. Procopius says that -the space enclosed by the wide circuit of the walls was at that time a -desert, and since it was far too large to be defended by the scanty -remnants of the population, Julian drew in the walls to a smaller -compass.[23] After the Mohammadan conquest, Hârûn er Rashîd made Manbij -one of the fortresses of his frontier province, el ’Awâṣim, the -Strongholds; it passed from hand to hand in the wars carried on by the -Greek emperors and the Crusaders against the khalifs, and finally -remained in the possession of the latter. Under the house of Saladin it -enjoyed a second period of prosperity, and the inscriptions near the -mosque show that El Malik eẓ Ẓâhir, that great builder, must have -expended some of his skill upon it. Ibn Jubeir found it rich and -populous, with large bazaars and a strong castle. But its fortifications -could not protect it against Hûlâkû, who took and sacked it in 1259, and -sixty years later Abu’l Fidâ found most of its walls and houses in -ruins. It never recovered from this disaster, but sank gradually into -the featureless decay from which the Circassian colony is engaged in -rescuing it. - -The khânjî and all others interested in our arrival being happily -engaged in receiving the news of the day from Fattûḥ, I slipped away -alone and walked round the western and southern line of the ruined city -wall. The space within is covered by shapeless heaps of earth, with cut -stones and fragments of columns emerging from them. Towards the -north-east corner, where the ground rises, the hollow of the theatre is -clearly marked just inside the wall, and beyond it a large depression -probably indicates the site of the stadium. The rain-clouds scudded past -upon the wind; little and solitary, a Circassian shepherd boy came -wandering in over the high downs, driving his flock of goats across the -ruins of the wall and through the theatre, where they stopped to graze -in shelter from the furious blast. I followed them half across the -wasted city and turned aside to pay my respects to the tomb of a holy -man, a crumbling mosque, with the graves of the Faithful about it. The -Circassian who has his dwelling in the courtyard hastened to open the -shrine and to relate the story of Sheikh ’Aḳil. He lived in the days of -Tîmûr Leng, and enjoyed so great a reputation that when the conqueror -was preparing to besiege the town, he thought fit to warn the sheikh of -his intentions. Sheikh ’Aḳil begged him to hold aloof for three days, -and having obtained this respite, he counselled the inhabitants to -destroy all that might tempt to pillage. They followed his advice, and -Tîmûr, finding nothing but smoking ruins, passed the city by, while the -populace escaped with their lives. So ran the Circassian’s tale: I give -it for what it is worth. Meantime the baggage had come in and the horses -were being watered at the sacred pool, amid anxious cries from the -muleteers, who had heard rumours of its fabulous depth: “Oh father, look -to yourself! may God destroy your dwelling! no further!” Besides Ḥâjj -’Amr, who had travelled with me before, Fattûḥ had engaged two others, -both Christians, Selîm and Ḥabîb, the latter a brother of his own. These -three, with Jûsef, accompanied me during all the months of the journey, -and I never heard a word of complaint from them, neither had I cause to -complain. - -I had intended to ride next day to Carchemish, sending the caravan -across the ford to Tell Aḥmar, where I meant to join it in the evening, -but the khânji and Maḥmûd Aghâ, who had dropped in to see that we were -comfortably lodged, dissuaded me, saying that if the wind rose, as it -had done that evening, the ferry boats would not come over from Tell -Aḥmar and I should be left on the river bank with my camp on the -opposite side. I was reluctant to give up my scheme, and Fattûḥ backed -me with the observation that the passage was easy and need not be taken -into account. - -“Oh my brother,” Maḥmûd admonished him, “it is the Euphrates!” And we -were all silenced. - -Early in the morning, I left Manbij with Jûsef and Ḥâjj ’Alî, and rode -past a bewildering number of villages unmarked by Kiepert (I noted -Mangâbeh and Wardâna on our left hand, and after them ’Ain Nakhîleh on -our right) to the - -[Illustration: FIG. 14.--ALEPPO, THE GREAT MOSQUE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 15.--TELL AḤMAR FERRY.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 16.--TELL AḤMAR.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 17.--CARCHEMISH FROM THE BIG MOUND.] - -Sajûr valley, which we reached near Chat. We had left the carriage track -and now followed the windings of the Sajûr by a path narrow at best and -none the better for the recent rains. A man on a donkey jogged along -behind us, and I caught fragments of his conversation with Ḥâjj ’Alî. He -asked the meaning of the word ḥurrîyeh (liberty), a question to which he -received no very definite answer. He did not press the point, but -remarked that for his part he knew nothing of the new government, but -this he knew, that no one in these villages had done military service (I -suppose on account of the exemption that was extended to all who dwelt -upon the Sultan’s domains) and no one was written down “‘and el ḥukûmeh” -(on the official register). He prayed God that this fortunate estate -might not suffer change. In three hours from Manbij we reached -Osherîyeh, turned a bit of rising ground and came in sight of the -Euphrates, flowing beneath white cliffs. If I had been instructed in the -proper ceremonies I should have wished to offer up a sacrifice or raise -a bethel stone, but failing these I paid the only tribute that can be -accorded in an ungracious age and photographed it. Ḥâjj ’Alî drew bridle -and watched the proceeding. - -“I see it for the first time,” said I apologetically. - -“Eh yes,” he replied, “this is our Euphrates,” and he turned an -indulgent eye upon the rolling waters that are charged with the history -of the ancient world. - -The path dropped down into the valley and ran under cliffs which are -honeycombed with chambered caves, made, or at least deepened, by the -hand of man. The water was low at this season, and where we joined the -river it was divided into two arms by a long island. Half-an-hour -further down the arms met, and lower still another little island, which -is covered after the snows begin to melt in the northern mountains, was -set in the wide stream. Here was the ferry (Fig. 15). A company of -bedraggled camels and camel-drivers waited on the sands while the -cumbrous boats were dragged up from the point to which they had been -washed by the current. The ferrymen had been weatherbound at Tell Aḥmar, -and the caravans had spent a weary two days by the river’s edge. They -had eaten misery, sighed the camel-drivers; wallah, no bread they had -had, no fire and no tobacco; but with the patient deference of the East -they stood aside when the first boat came lumbering up and observed that -the Consul Effendi had best cross while the air was still. We drove our -horses into the ferry boat, and by a most unnautical process, connected -with long poles, our craft was run ashore upon the island, over which we -ploughed our way and found a second boat ready to take us across the -smaller channel. We landed in Mesopotamia at the village of Tell Aḥmar, -which takes its name from the high mound, washed by Euphrates, under -which it lies (Fig. 16). Jûsef spread out my lunch on the top of the -tell, and we watched the caravan embark from the opposite bank and were -well pleased to have accomplished the momentous passage in good order, -with all our eagles pointing the right way. - -I lingered on the mound, making acquaintance with a world which was new -to me, but immeasurably old to fame. The beautiful empty desert -stretched away east and north and south, bathed in the soft splendour of -the February sun, long gentle slopes and low bare hills, and the noble -curves of the Euphrates bordering the waste. Near the river and -scattered over the first two or three miles of country to the east of -it, there are a number of isolated mounds which represent the site of -very ancient settlements.[24] Of these Tell Aḥmar is by far the most -important. The ridge of silted earth which marks the line of the walls -encloses three sides of a parallelogram, the river itself defending the -fourth side. Strewn about the village are several stone slabs carved in -relief with Hittite figures; outside one of the gates in the east wall -are the broken remains of a Hittite stela, and before the second more -southerly gate lie two roughly carved lions with inscriptions of -Shalmaneser II.[25] By the time I had finished lunch Ḥâjj ’Alî had -selected a villager to serve me as guide to the wonders of Tell Aḥmar, -and we set off together to inspect the written stones. My new friend’s -name was Ibrahîm. As we ran down to Shalmaneser’s lions he confided to -me that for some reason, wholly concealed from him, wallah, he was not -beloved of the Ḳâimmaḳâm of Bumbuj, and added that he proposed to place -himself under my protection, please God. - -“Please God,” said I, wondering to what misdeeds I might, in the name of -my vassal, stand committed. - -The fragments of the Hittite stela were half buried in the ground, and I -sent Ibrahîm to the village, bidding him collect men with picks and -spades to dig them out. The monument had been a four-sided block of -stone with rounded corners, covered on three sides with an inscription -and on the fourth with a king in low relief standing upon a bull (Fig. -18). When we had disengaged the bull from the earth the villagers fell -to discussing what kind of animal it was, and Ibrahîm took upon himself -to pronounce it a pig. But Ḥâjj ’Alî, who had been tempted forth from -the tents to view the antîca, intervened decisively in the debate. - -“In the ancient days,” said he, “they made pictures of men and maidens, -lions, horses, bulls and dogs; but they never made pictures of pigs.” - -This statement was received deferentially by all, and Ibrahîm, with the -fervour of the newly convinced, hastened to corroborate it. - -“No, wallah! They never made pictures of pigs.” - -The whole village turned out to help in the work of making moulds of the -inscriptions, those who were not actively employed with brush and paste -and paper sitting round in an attentive circle. There is little doing at -Tell Aḥmar, and even the moulding of a Hittite inscription, which is not -to the European an occupation fraught with interest, affords a welcome -diversion--to say nothing of the prospect of earning a piastre if you -wait long enough. But on the third day, wind and rain called a halt, and -guided by the sheikh of the neighbouring village of Ḳubbeh I explored -the river-bank. Half-an-hour below Tell Aḥmar, among some insignificant -ruins, we found a small Hittite inscription cut on a bit of basalt, and -close to it a block of limestone carved with a much effaced relief. A -few minutes further to the east a lion’s head roughly worked in basalt -lay upon a mound. The head is carved in the round, but we dug into the -mound and uncovered a large block on which the legs were represented in -relief. We rode on to Ḳubbeh, where the inhabitants are Arabic-speaking -Kurds, and found in the graveyard the fragment of a Latin inscription in -well-cut letters-- - - C O M F - L O N G - H F R - V I A S - -We left the hamlet of Ja’deh a little to the right, and an hour further -down passed the village of Mughârah, beyond which the eastern ridge of -high ground draws in towards the river. In a small valley, just before -we reached the slopes of the hill, I saw the remains of some -construction that looked like a bridge built of finely squared stones, -and on the further side a graveyard with a couple of broken stone -sarcophagi in it. The sheikh said that after rain he had found glass and -gold rings here. He insisted on my inspecting some caves by the water’s -edge where he was positive we should find writing, and I went -reluctantly, for a series of disillusions has ended in destroying the -romantic interest that once hung about caves. These were no better than -I had expected, and the writing was a cross incised over one of the -entrances. The rain had stopped and we rode on to the big mound of Ḳara -Kazâk (Kiepert calls it Kyrk Kazâk), at the foot of which there is a -considerable area covered with cut and moulded stones, and massive -door-jambs still standing upright with half their height buried in the -earth. I should say that it was the site of a town of the Byzantine -period. When we returned to - -[Illustration: FIG. 18.--TELL AḤMAR. HITTITE STELA.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 19.--TELL AḤMAR. EARTHENWARE JAR.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 21.--SERRÎN, NORTHERN TOWER TOMB.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 22.--SERRÎN, SOUTHERN TOWER TOMB.] - -camp Ibrahîm brought me two fragments of a large earthenware jar -decorated round the top with a double line raised and notched in the -clay (Fig. 19). In the band between were set alternately a head in high -relief and a semi-circle of the notched clay. The heads were finely -worked, the eyes rather prominent and the cheeks round and full--a type -which recalled that of the stone heads carved upon the walls of the -Parthian palace at Hatra. Whether it were Parthian or not, the jar was -certainly pre-Mohammadan. - -The night closed in cloudless and frosty, and I resolved to risk the -caprices of the river and ride up next morning to Carchemish, for it is -impossible to lie within half-a-day’s journey of a great capital and yet -make no effort to see it. Before dawn we sent a messenger up the river -and charged him to bring us a boat to a point above the camp, that we -might land on the west bank of the Euphrates above its junction with the -Sajûr, a river which we were told was difficult to cross. In -half-an-hour Fattûḥ and I reached Tell el ’Abr (the Mound of the Ford), -where there is a small village, and on going down to the river found, to -our surprise, that the boat was there before us--but not ready; that -would have been too much to expect. I left Fattûḥ to bale out the water -with which it was filled and went off to inspect Tell el Kumluk, a -quarter of an hour away if you gallop. Here there was no village, but -only a large graveyard with broken columns used as tombstones. By the -time I returned to the river the boat had been made more or less -seaworthy, but a sharp little wind had risen, the swift current of the -Euphrates was ruffled, and the boatmen shook their heads and doubted -whether they would dare to cross. We did not leave the decision to them, -but hurried the horses into the leaking craft and pushed off. The stream -swept us down and the wind held us close to the east bank, but with much -labour and frequent invocation of God and the Prophet we sidled across -and ran aground on the opposite shore. Our troubles were not yet over, -for our landing-place turned out to be a big island, and there was still -an arm of the river before us. The stream had risen during the rain of -the previous day and was racing angrily through the second channel, but -we plunged in and, with the water swirling round the shoulders of our -horses, succeeded in making the passage. We shook ourselves dry and -turned our faces to Carchemish. The road under the bluffs by the -river-side was impassable, and we climbed up a gorge into the rocky -country that lies along the top of the cliff. At one point we saw a mass -of ruins, door-jambs and squared stones, which Kiepert--I know not on -what ground--calls Kloster Ruine. In that bare land we met a cheerful -old man driving a donkey and carrying a rifle. “Whither going in peace?” -said he. “To Carchemish,” we answered (only we called it Jerâblus), and -I fell to considering how often the same question had met with the same -answer when the stony path was full of people from the Tell Aḥmar city -going up and down to learn the news of the capital and bring back word -of the movements of Assyrian armies and the market price of corn. -Fattûḥ, elated by the conquest of the river, bubbled over with talk, -simple tales of his beloved Aleppo, of the ways of its inhabitants great -and small, and of his many journeys to Killîz and ’Ain Tâb, Urfah, -Diyârbekr, and Baghdâd. - -“Your Excellency knows that I was the first man to take a carriage to -Baghdâd, for there was no road then, but afterwards they made it. And as -for my carriage, Zekîyeh has lined it inside and filled it with -cushions, so that the gentry may lie at ease while I drive them. And -have I told you how I got Zekîyeh?” - -“No,” said I mendaciously; I have travelled with Fattûḥ before, and have -not been left unaware of the episodes that led to his betrothal, but -reminiscences that take the listener into the heart of Eastern life bear -repetition. The lady of Fattûḥ’s choice was fourteen when he first set -eyes on her; he went straight to her father and made a bid for her hand, -but the girl was very fair and the father asked a larger dowry than -Fattûḥ could give. “Fortunately,” continued Fattûḥ ingenuously, “he had -an illness of the eyes, and I said to him: ‘There is in Aleppo a doctor -who loves me, and will cure you for my sake.’ But he answered: ‘God give -you wisdom! none can cure me save only God.’ And I mounted him in my -carriage, and drove him to that doctor, and look you, he healed him so -that he saw like a youth. Then he said, ‘There is none like Fattûḥ, and -I will give him my daughter even without a dowry.’ So I bought her -clothes and a gold chain and all that she desired, for I said, ‘She -shall have nought but what I give her.’ And since we married I have -given her gold ornaments and dresses of silk, and when we return from -this journey I will take her on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. And indeed -she loves me mightily, and I her,” said Fattûḥ, bringing his idyll to a -satisfactory conclusion. I have seen Zekîyeh in all the bravery of her -silk gowns and gold ornaments, and I do not think she has ever had cause -to regret the day when Fattûḥ mounted her father in his carriage. - -We rode fast, and in a couple of hours came down to the Euphrates again, -and so over the low ground for another hour till we reached a tell by -the river with a village close to it. This village and tell, as well as -the large mound half-an-hour away to the north-west, and the farm near -it, are all called Jerâblus,[26] and probably local tradition is right -in drawing no distinction between the widely separated mounds, the whole -area between them having been, in all likelihood, occupied by the houses -and gardens of the Hittite capital. Until you come to Babylon there is -no site on the Euphrates so imposing as the northern mound of Carchemish -(Fig. 17). It was the acropolis, the strongly fortified dwelling-place -of king and god. At its north-eastern end it rises to a high ridge -enclosed on two sides in a majestic sweep of the river. From the top of -this ridge you may see the middle parts of the strategic line drawn by -the Euphrates from Samosata to Thapsacus, strung with battlefields -whereon the claims of Europe and Asia were fought out; while to the west -stretch the rich plains that gave wealth to Carchemish, to Europus, and -to Hierapolis. They are now coming back into cultivation as the -merchants of Aleppo acquire and till them, or enter into an agricultural -partnership with their Arab proprietors, and if the Baghdâd railway is -brought this way, as was confidently expected, the returns from them -will be doubled or trebled in value. The northern mound is covered with -the ruins of the Roman and Byzantine city, columns and moulded bases, -foundations of walls set round paved courtyards, and the line of a -colonnaded street running across the ruin field from the high ridge to a -breach that indicates the place of a gate in the southern face of the -enclosing wall. A couple of carved Hittite slabs, uncovered during -Henderson’s excavations and left exposed at the mercy of the weather, -bear witness to the antiquity of the site. It has long been desolate, -but there is no mistaking the greatness of the city that was protected -by that splendid mound. - -Fattûḥ had ordered the boatmen to pull or punt the boat over to the west -bank during our absence; the river was rising and the arm that we had -crossed with difficulty in the morning might have been impassable by -nightfall. The boat was surrounded when we arrived by every one in the -district who happened to have business on the opposite bank, and -recognized in our passage an unusually favourable opportunity for -getting over for nothing. As soon as we had embarked, some twenty -persons and four donkeys hustled in after us and were like to swamp us, -but Fattûḥ rose up in anger and ejected half of them, pitching the lean -and slender Arab peasants over the gunwales and into the water at -haphazard until we judged the boat to be sufficiently lightened. Those -who were allowed to remain earned their passage, for when we presently -ran aground on the head of the island--as it was obvious to the most -inexperienced eye that we must--they leapt out and wading waist high in -the stream, pushed us off. So we galloped home beside the -swiftly-flowing river, aglint with the sunset, and found the camp fire -lighted and the cooking pots a-simmer, and Tell Aḥmar settling down to -its evening meal and to rest. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -TELL AḤMAR TO BUSEIRAH - -_Feb. 21--March 7_ - - -The water of the Euphrates is much esteemed by the inhabitants of its -banks. It is, I think, an acquired taste; the newcomer will be apt to -look askance at the turgid liquid that issues from the spout of his -teapot and to question whether a decoction of ancient dust can be -beneficial to the European constitution. Fattûḥ, being acquainted with -my idiosyncrasies in the matter of drinking water, accepted without a -murmur the sacrilegious decree that that which was destined for my flask -must be boiled; whereby, though we did not succeed in removing all solid -bodies, we reduced them to a comparative harmlessness. But if it cannot -be described as a good table river, the Euphrates is the best of -travelling companions, and the revolution of the seasons will never -again bring me to the last week of February without setting loose a -desire for the wide reaches of the stream and the open levels of the -desert through which it flows, the sharp cold of nightfall, the hoar -frost of the dawn, and the first long ray of the sun striking a -dismantled camp. “There is no road,” said Fattûḥ, “like the road to -Baghdâd: the desert on one hand and the water on the other.” - -Our way next morning took us past Ḳubbeh to Mughârah, which we reached -in three hours. Here we left the river and climbing the low, rocky hill -to the east, found ourselves in a stony and thinly populated country -bounded by another ridge of eastern hill. After twenty-five minutes’ -riding we saw the hamlet of Ḳayyik Debû about half-a-mile to the left of -the track, and in another quarter of an hour we reached a few deserted -houses. Four hours from Tell Aḥmar - -[Illustration: FIG. 20.--SERRÎN, NORTH TOWER TOMB, PLAN AND ELEVATION -SHOWING MOULDINGS.] - -we pitched camp on the further bank of a small stream near the village -of Serrîn, for I wished to examine two towers which stand upon the crest -of a high ridge about half-an-hour to the east. They are called by the -Arabs the Windmills, but in reality they are tower tombs. The more -northerly, which is the best preserved, is 4·20 m. square and two -storeys high (Fig. 20). The walls of the lower storey rise in solid -masonry to a height of about six metres and are crowned by a plain -course of projecting stones, which serves as cornice (Fig. 21). On the -east and west sides, just below the cornice, there is a pair of -gargoyles, much weathered. They represent the head and fore-quarters of -lions. A little below the pair of heads on the west side is a Syriac -inscription, dated in the year 385 of the Seleucid era, _i. e._ A.D. 74, -which states that the tomb was built by one Manu for himself and his -sons.[27] The second storey is decorated with fluted engaged columns, -four on either side, the outer pair forming the angles. The bases of -these columns rest upon a course of masonry adorned with three fasciæ: -it is to be noted that the mouldings are not carried straight through to -the angles, but are returned one within the other like the mouldings of -a door lintel. The Ionic capitals carry a plain Ionic entablature -consisting of an architrave with fasciæ, which are here taken through to -the corners, a narrow frieze and a cyma of considerable projection. -Probably the whole was surmounted by a stone pyramid. There are two -burial chambers, one in each storey. The lower chamber can be entered by -a door in the east wall which was originally closed by a large block of -stone. The entrance to the upper chamber, high up in the east wall -between the columns, was closed in the same fashion, and the block of -porphyry which sealed it is still intact.[28] Pognon, who has given the -best description and illustrations of the monument, mentions five other -examples of tower tombs crowned with pyramids, one of them being the -southern tower at Serrîn. The well-known tower tombs of Palmyra and the -Ḥaurân are not capped by a pyramid, nor is the face of their walls -broken at any point by engaged columns. I believe the type illustrated -at Serrîn to be compounded of the simple tower tomb and the canopy, or -cyborium, tomb.[29] The cyborium tomb exists in an infinite number of -variations in Syria, in the mountain district near Birejik (whence M. -Cumont has supplied me with four examples, three of them as yet -unpublished[30]), in Asia Minor and in the African Tripoli. Sometimes -the columns stand free,[31] sometimes they are engaged in the walls,[32] -sometimes they are represented only by engaged angle piers,[33] -sometimes by free standing angle piers,[34] and occasionally column and -pier have dropped away and the plain wall alone remains,[35] but the -pyramidal roof is an almost constant feature, which, even in the -simplest of these tombs, recalls the original canopy type. In the hill -side near the tower I noticed several rock-cut mausoleums, now -half-choked with stones and earth, and the hill was no doubt the -necropolis of a town lying in the low ground that stretches down to the -modern village by the stream.[36] The second tower, of which only the -south wall remains, is situated on the southern end of the ridge, -half-an-hour’s ride from the first (Fig. 22). It differs slightly in -detail from the other. In the lower storey a shallow engaged pier stands -at either angle, while in the upper storey, in place of the porphyry -block, there is an arched niche between the two central engaged columns. -The fasciæ returned at the corners reappear, but the columns are not -fluted. The hill top commands a wide view over country which appears to -be entirely desert. My guide, who was a Christian from Aleppo, an agent -of the Liquorice Trust for the Serrîn district, said that there was no -settled population to the east of us, and that the few Arab encampments -which were visible upon the rolling steppe were those of the Benî Sa’îd, -a subdivision of the Benî Faḥl. As we sat in the sunshine under the -tower, Jirjî related tales of his neighbours, the Arab sheikhs, for whom -he entertained, as the townsman will, feelings that ranged between -contempt and fear--contempt for their choice of a black tent in the -desert as a dwelling-place, and fear inspired by the authority which -they wielded from that humble abode. But chiefly his simple soul was -exercised by the swift downfall of Ibrahîm Pasha, who for so many years -had been, as the fancy prompted him, the scourge or the mighty protector -of all the inhabitants of northern Mesopotamia, a man with whom the -government had to make terms, while the great tribes stood in awe of him -and the lesser tribes fled at the whisper of his name. Jirjî, like many -another, refused to believe that he was dead, and entertained us with -wild surmises as to the manner of his possible return from the unknown -refuge where he lay in hiding. “God knows he was a brave man,” said he. -“Oh lady, do you see Ḳal’at en Nejm yonder?” And he pointed west, where -across the Euphrates the walls and bastions of the fortress crowned the -precipitous bank. “There he forded, he and eight hundred men with him, -when he hastened back from Damascus to his own country, hearing that the -government was against him. They swam the river with their horses and -rested that night at Serrîn. But the Pasha was grave and silent: God’s -mercy upon him, for he befriended us Christians.” Ḥâjj ’Alî shook his -head. “He wrecked the world,” said he. “Praise God he is dead.” -Somewhere between the two opinions lies the truth. I suspect that though -the way in which his overthrow was accomplished left much to be desired, -the Millî Kurds, of whom he was the chief, had gained under his bold -leadership a pre-eminence in lawlessness which no government was -justified in countenancing. But since he is dead, peace to his memory, -for he knew no fear. - -We could not see the river from Serrîn, but next morning I rode down to -it and looked across to the splendid walls of Ḳal’at en Nejm. The -castle, seated upon a rocky spur, encloses the steep slopes with its -masonry until it seems like a massive buttress of the hill, as ageless -and no less imperishable than the rock itself. We turned away from this -stern ghost of ancient wars and rode from the Euphrates up a bare valley -wherein we came upon a great cave, inhabited by a few Arabs. It -contained three large chambers, - -[Illustration: FIG. 23.--INSCRIPTION IN CAVE NEAR SERRÎN.] - -the opening of which had been fenced in by the latest inhabitants with -screens made of rushes. Upon one of the walls I found a curious -inscription written in characters not unlike those seen by Sachau in a -cave near Urfah[37] (Fig. 23). The Arab women with their children in -their arms clamoured round me, and I distributed among them what small -coins I had with me, without satisfying the claims of all. One scolding -wench ran after us up the valley vociferating her demand that ten paras -should be given to her swaddled babe. We had not ridden far before -Jûsef’s horse slipped and fell upon a smooth stone, dismounting his -rider, who was at no time too certain of his seat. “Allah!” ejaculated -Ḥâjj ’Alî; “it was the woman’s curse that brought him down.” But the -malediction had missed fire, or perhaps it was only ten paras’ worth of -damnation, for Jûsef and his horse scrambled up together unhurt. At the -head of the valley we came out on to a green sward. The rains on this -side of the river had been scanty and the grass had scarcely begun to -grow, but already there were a few encampments of the Faḥl in sheltered -places which later in the season would be set thick with the black tents -of the ’Anazeh, who do not come down to the river until the rain pools -are exhausted in their winter quarters. The thin blue smoke of the -morning camp fires rose out of the hollows and my heart rose with it, -for here was the life of the desert, in open spaces under the open sky, -and when once you have known it, the eternal savage in your breast -rejoices at the return to it. As we rode near the tents a man galloped -up to us and begged for a pinch of tobacco. He was clothed in a ragged -cotton shirt and a yet more ragged woollen cloak, but Ḥâjj ’Alî looked -after him as he turned away and observed, “His mare is worth £200.” - -In three hours from Serrîn we caught up the baggage animals at the last -village we were to see until we reached Raḳḳah. Mas’ûdîyeh is its name. -On a mound close to the river Oppenheim found three mosaic pavements, -parts of which are still visible, but the most beautiful of the three -has been almost destroyed and nothing remains of it but a simple -geometrical border of diagonal intersecting lines.[38] Beyond Mas’ûdîyeh -we crossed a long belt of sand, lying in a bend of the river; we left a -small mound (Tell el Banât) a mile to the east, climbed a ridge of bare -hill and dropped down into a wide stretch of grass country, empty, -peaceful and most beautiful. It was enclosed in a semicircle of hills -that stood back from the river, and from out of the midst of it rose an -isolated peak known to the Arabs as Ḳuleib. This land is the home of the -Weldeh tribe, and not far from the Euphrates we found a group of their -tents pitched between green slopes and the broad reaches of sand which -give the spot its name, Rumeileh, the Little Sands. It was the -encampment of Sheikh Ṣallâl, and no sooner had we arrived than the -sheikh’s son, Muḥammad, came out to bid us welcome and invite us to his -father’s tent. The two zaptiehs and I took our places round the hearth -while Muḥammad roasted and pounded the coffee beans, telling us the -while of the movements of the great tribes, where Ḥâkim Beg of the -’Anazeh was lying, and where Ibn Hudhdhâl of the Amarât, and similar -matters of absorbing interest. Sheikh Ṣallâl was in reduced -circumstances by reason of a recent difference of opinion with the -government. His brother had been enlisted as a soldier and had -subsequently deserted, whereupon the government had seized Ṣallâl’s -flocks and clapped the sheikh into gaol, and finally he had sold “the -best mare left to us, wallah!” for £T37 and with the money procured his -own release. - -“Eh billah!” said Ḥâjj ’Alî, shaking his head over the confused tale in -which, as is usual in these episodes, the wrongdoing seemed to be shared -impartially by all concerned. “Such is the government!” - -“And now, oh lady,” pursued the sheikh, “we have neither camels nor -sheep, for the government has eaten all.” - -“How do you live?” said I, looking round the circle of dark, bearded -faces by the camp fire. - -“God knows!” sighed the sheikh, and turning to Ḥâjj ’Alî he asked him -what was this new government of which he heard, and liberty, what was -that? - -“Liberty?” said Ḥâjj ’Alî, evading the question; “how should there be -liberty in these lands? Look you, they talk of liberty, but there is no -change in the world. In Aleppo many men are murdered every week, and who -knows what they are doing, those envoys whom we sent to Constantinople?” - -In spite of his misfortunes Sheikh Ṣallâl designed to entertain me at -dinner and had set aside for that purpose an ancient goat. My attention -was attracted to it by the sound of bleating in the women’s quarters and -I was just in time to save its life, expending myself, however, in -protestations of gratitude. Muḥammad ibn Ṣallâl took me round the -encampment before the light failed and pointed out the foundations of a -number of stone-built houses. Behind my tents the summits of some grassy -mounds were ringed round with circles of great stones, of the origin of -which he knew nothing. I counted five of them; in the largest lay -foundations of small rectangular chambers. - -As we walked back to the tents Muḥammad said reproachfully: - -“Oh lady, you have not laughed once, not when I showed you the ruins, -nor when I told you the name of the hills.” - -I hastened to amend my ways, and thus encouraged he enumerated a string -of ruined sites in the neighbourhood and accepted an invitation to serve -us as guide next morning. He prepared himself for the journey by -slipping on four cartridge belts, one over the other, although our -whole road lay in the Weldeh country, and the worst enemy we -encountered was a raging wind which sent the Euphrates sands whirling -about us and obscured the landscape near the river. In about an hour we -climbed up on to the higher ground of the grass plain at a point called -Shems ed Dîn, where among a heap of cut stones I found fragments of an -entablature carved with dentils and palmettes. Perhaps the ruins were -the remains of a tower tomb. At Tell eẓ Ẓâher, an hour further south, we -saw heaps of unsquared building-stones. Above this site stood Sheikh -Sîn, a steep hill which we ascended, but found no trace of construction -on it. I sent my zaptieh down to stop the baggage and bid Fattûḥ camp at -the mound of Munbayah near the river, and with Muḥammad turned inland to -a hill called by him Jernîyeh, some five miles to the east. Muḥammad -rode across the downs at a hand gallop in the teeth of the wind, and I -behind him, too much buffeted by the storm to call a halt. The immediate -reason for our haste, as I presently discovered, was a couple of pedlars -from whom he desired to buy soap, a commodity of which he stood in great -need. The two men were Turks; they greeted me with effusion as a fellow -alien in those wastes, and at parting pressed upon me a handful of -raisins with their blessings. We galloped on faster than before and -arrived breathless at Jernîyeh which lifts its solitary head a hundred -feet or more above the surrounding plain. On the summit are three large -mounds into which the Arabs had dug and uncovered fine cut stones; I -conjecture that there may have been here watch towers or tower tombs -belonging to the town of which the ruins lie below, to the south of the -hill. These ruins comprise a large low mound ringed round with a wall -and a ditch, and a considerable area covered with remains of buildings -made of unsquared stones. Occasionally the plan of house or court was -marked out upon the grass and Muḥammad showed me several deep -cisterns--altogether a very remarkable ruin field though it is not named -on Kiepert’s map. On our way back to the river we climbed Tell el Ga’rah -and found the foundations of a fort on the top of it. Here we picked up -a much-weathered Byzantine coin and a quantity of sherds of glazed Arab -pottery, blue and green and purple. Munbayah, where my tents were -pitched--the Arabic name means only an elevated spot--has been -conjectured to be the Bersiba of Ptolemy’s catalogue of place names. It -is an irregularly-shaped double enclosure, resting on one side on the -river (Fig. 25). The line of the walls is marked by high grass mounds, -but here and there a bit of massive polygonal masonry, large stones laid -without mortar, crops out of the soil. The outer enclosing wall is not -continued along the north side, but ends in a heap of earth and stones -which looks like the ruins of a tower or bastion. To the south there is -a clearly-marked gate in the outer wall, corresponding with a narrower -opening in the inner line of fortification; another gate leads out to -the north, and facing the river there are traces of a broad water gate, -protected on either side by a wall that drops down the slope towards the -stream (Fig. 26). Twenty minutes further down the bank lies another -mound, Tell Sheikh Ḥassan. There are vestiges of construction by the -water’s edge between the two mounds, and south of Tell Sheikh Ḥassan the -ground is broken by a large stretch of ruin mounds, among which I saw a -rude capital. In another half-hour down stream, at ’Anâb, there is again -an enclosure of grassy heaps strewn with stones. For a distance of about -three miles, therefore, the left bank of the river would seem to have -been inhabited and guarded, though possibly at different dates. Jernîyeh -and Munbayah are by far the most interesting sites which I saw on the -little-known stretch of the river between Tell Aḥmar and Ḳal’at Ja’bar; -it is useless to conjecture in what way, if at all, they were connected -with each other, but in both places I should like to clear away the -earth and see what lies beneath. - -If it had been possible to cross the Euphrates I would have examined the -high tell of Sheikh ’Arûd which had been all day the fixed point for my -compass, but though there was a boat to be had, the intolerable wind -continued till nightfall and made the passage impracticable. The mental -exasperation produced by wind when you are living and - -[Illustration: PLAN of the Mounds of MUNBAYAH - -_Stanford’s Geog^{l} Estab^{t}, London_ - -FIG. 25.] - -trying to work out of doors, passes belief. The blast seizes you by the -hand as you would hold your compass steady, dances jigs with your camera -and elopes with your measuring tape, and when after an exhausting -struggle you return vanquished to your tent, it is only to find your -books and papers buried in sand. Moreover, commissariat arrangements -were complicated by the interruption of communications with the opposite -side of the river. Fortunately I had foreseen that there would be little -food for man or beast on the left bank, where no travellers pass, and -contrary to my habits had laid in a provision of tinned meats, for which -we had reason to be thankful. The baggage animals were lightly loaded -and could carry four days’ corn besides their packs; when this ran short -Fattûḥ went foraging in every Arab encampment, but occasionally the -horses were without their full allowance, for at this time of the year -the Arabs themselves are very scantily supplied. We soon learnt to place -no reliance on assurances, however emphatic, that the next sheikh down -the river would be well furnished, and as our road led us into regions -that had suffered more and more severely from the lack of rain, we gave -up all hope of ekeing out our corn with the grass which never grew that -year. The corn, too, became dearer, until at Baghdâd it touched famine -prices. On the upper parts of the river there is no fuel and we carried -charcoal for cooking purposes; but when the tamarisk bushes began to -appear, about a day’s march north of Raḳḳah, the muleteers boiled their -big rice pot over a fire of sticks and the zaptiehs warmed their hands -in the sharp chill of the early morning at the heap of embers that had -been kept alive all night. The zaptiehs are supposed to feed themselves, -but except on the rare occasions when we were on a high road, they -shared the meals of my servants. I would find them sitting in the dark -round the steaming dish served up by Ḥâjj ’Amr, and with them the Arab -who had been our guide that day, or one who had dropped in towards -supper time to give us information of the road, or any aged person -considered by Fattûḥ to be worthy of our hospitality. We held many a -frugal feast - -[Illustration: FIG. 24.--WIFE AND CHILDREN OF A WELDEH SHEIKH.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 26.--MUNBAYAH, WATER GATE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 28.--NESHABAH, TOWER TOMB.] - -under the stars where the waters of the Euphrates roll through the wild. - -During the next day’s ride we followed the course of the river closely, -save where the grassy edge of the desert was separated from the water by -a tract of sand and stones covered in time of flood, and therefore -devoid of all trace of settled habitation. The tents of the Weldeh were -scattered along the banks and occasionally a small bit of ground had -been scratched with the plough and sown with corn. At one point we saw -the white canvas tent of a man from Aleppo who was engaged in -negotiating an amicable partnership with the Weldeh sheikhs. The -majestic presence of the river in the midst of uncultivated lands, -which, with the help of its waters, would need so little labour to make -them productive, takes a singular hold on the imagination. I do not -believe that the east bank has always been so thinly peopled, and though -the present condition may date from very early times, it is probable -that there was once a continuous belt of villages by the stream, their -sites being still marked by mounds. Half-an-hour from ’Anâb we passed -Tell Jifneh, with remains of buildings about it; in another hour and a -half there were ruins at Ḥallâweh, and forty minutes further we came to -a big mound called Tell Murraibet. From this point the grass lands -retreated from the Euphrates, leaving place for a wide stretch of sand -and scrub opposite Old Meskeneh. Kiepert marks two towers on some high -ground to the east, but they must have fallen into ruin since Chesney’s -survey, for I could not see them. Six hours from Bersiba we reached in -heavy rain the tents of Sheikh Mabrûk and pitched our camp by his, so -that we might find shelter for our horses under his wide roof. We were -about opposite Dibseh, which was perhaps the famous ford of Thapsacus. -Mabrûk told me that in summer, when the water is low, camels can cross -the river just above Dibseh; at Meskeneh a ferry boat is to be had, but -at no other point until you come to Raḳḳah. - -Next morning a young man from the sheikh’s tent, cousin to Mabrûk (all -the unmarried youths of the sheikh’s family are lodged in his great -house of hair) rode with us to Ḳal’at Ja’bar. He told me of a ruin -called Mudawwarah (the Circle), an hour and a half away to the east: it -may represent one of Kiepert’s towers, but according to Ibrahîm’s -account nothing is now to be seen but a heap of stones. We rode out of -the camp with a troop of women and children driving donkeys into the -hills, where they collect brushwood. - -“Last year,” said my companion, “they dared not stray from the tents, -lest the horsemen of Ibrahîm Pasha should attack them and seize the -donkeys. Wallah! the children could not drive out the goats to pasture, -and every man sat with his loaded rifle across his knees and watched for -the coming of raiders. For indeed he took all, oh lady; he robbed rich -and poor; he held up caravans and killed the solitary traveller.” - -“Eh wah!” said the zaptieh, “and the soldiers of the government he -killed also. He was sultan in the waste.” - -“But now that he is gone,” continued Ibrahîm, “we are at rest. And as -soon as we heard of his death we blessed the government, and all the men -of the Weldeh rode out and seized the flocks that he had captured from -us, and more besides. And behold, there they pasture by the river.” And -he pointed to some sheep grazing under the care of a couple of small -boys. - -“Then all the desert is safe now?” said I. - -“Praise God!” he answered, “for the ’Anazeh are our friends. We have no -foes but the Shammar, and their lands are far from us.” - -Before we reached Ḳal’at Ja’bar we galloped up into the low hills to see -a rock-cut tomb. Through a hole in the ground we let ourselves down into -a chamber 5·10 m. × 7·00 m., with nine arcosolia set round it, each -containing from four to six loculi (Fig. 27). On one of the long sides -there was a small rectangular niche between the arcosolia. Ibrahîm -called the place Maḥall es Ṣafṣâf and assured me that it was the only -cavern known to him in these hills. From here he took me down to a mound -named Tell el Afrai, which lies about a quarter of a mile from the -river. On the landward side - -[Illustration: FIG. 27.--MAḤALL ES ṢAFṢAF.] - -it is protected by a dyke forming a loop from the Euphrates. At one time -the water must have filled this moat, but the upper end has silted up -and the channel is now dry. Out of the mound, which is unusually large, -the rains had washed a number of big stones, some of them squared. We -were now close to the two towers of Ḳal’at Ja’bar, one being a minaret -that rises from the centre of the fortress, while the other, known to -the Arabs as Neshabah, stands upon an isolated hill to the -north-west[39] (Fig. 28). Of the Neshabah tower nothing remains but a -rectangular core of masonry (unworked stones set in thick mortar) -containing a winding stair which can be approached by a doorway about -four metres from the ground. Below the door there is a vaulted niche -which looks like the remains of a sepulchral chamber. All the facing -stones have fallen away, but the core is ridged in a manner that -suggests the former existence of engaged columns, and I believe that -Neshabah is a tower tomb older than the castle, rather than the outlying -watchtower of an Arab fort.[40] The buildings at Ḳal’at Ja’bar are -mainly of brick, though some stone is used in the walls and bastions -that surround the hill-top (Fig. 29). The entrance is strongly guarded; -from the outer gate-house a long narrow passage, hewn out of the rock, -leads into the interior of the castle. Among the ruins within the walls -are a vaulted hall and parts of a palace composed of a number of small -vaulted chambers. The construction of the small vaults struck me as -having stronger affinities with Byzantine than with the typical -Mesopotamian systems, and I should not assign to them a very early date. -The palace had also contained a hall of some size, but only the south -wall is standing (Fig. 31). It is broken by a deep recess, possibly a -miḥrâb, with a doorway on either side, and the upper part is decorated -with a row of flat trifoliate niches. In the centre of the castle a -round minaret rises from a massive square base (Fig. 30). Towards the -top of the minaret there is a double band of ornamental brickwork with a -brick inscription between. I could not decipher the inscription, owing -to its great height, but the characters were not Cufic, and the round -shape of the minaret makes it improbable that it should be earlier than -the twelfth century. Beyond the minaret is a vaulted cistern. The -shelving north-west side of the hill is defended by a double ring of -brick towers, but on the south-east side, where the rocks are -precipitous, there is little or no fortification. The brick walls of the -buildings above the gate-way are decorated with string courses and bands -of diamond-shaped motives, the diamonds set point to point or enclosed -in hollow squares (Fig. 32). - -The history of the castle is not easy to disentangle from the accounts -left by the Arab geographers. An earlier name for it was Dausar, but -even this does not seem to have been applied before the seventh century, -though Idrîsî, writing in the twelfth century, ascribes its foundation -to Alexander. He is the first author who mentions Dausar and he gives no -authority for his statement as to its origin. Opposite Dausar, on the -right bank of the Euphrates, stretches the battlefield of Ṣiffîn, where -in A.D. 657 the Khalif ’Alî met the forces of the Umayyad Mu’âwiyah. -Tradition has it that ’Alî entrusted his ally Nu’mân, a prince of the -house of Mundhir, with the defence of these reaches of the Euphrates, -and that a servant of the latter, Dausar by name, built the castle which -was called after him. It took its present name from an Arab of the -Ḳusheir, from whose sons it was wrested (in A.D. 1087) - -[Illustration: FIG. 29.--ḲAL’AT JA’BAR.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 30.--ḲAL’AT JA’BAR, MINARET.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 31.--ḲAL’AT JA’BAR, HALL OF PALACE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 32.--ḲAL’AT JA’BAR, BRICK WALL ABOVE GATEWAY.] - -by the Sultan Malek Shah, the Seljuk.[41] It was held by the Franks of -Edessa during the first Crusade and captured by the Atabeg Nûr ed Dîn -towards the middle of the twelfth century. It passed into the hands of -the Ayyûbids, and in Yâḳût’s time (1225) was held by Ḥâfiẓ, the nephew -of Saladin. Benjamin of Tudela says that he found a colony of 2,000 Jews -settled at Ja’bar, which was then a much-frequented ferry.[42] I did not -observe any signs of habitation outside the castle, except a few caves -in the rocks to the south; but half-an-hour further down the river, on a -bluff called Kahf (Chahf in the Bedouin speech) ez Zaḳḳ, there are -traces of houses which may represent the Jewish settlement. In Abu’l -Fidâ’s day (fourteenth century) the castle of Ja’bar was ruined and -abandoned. The greater part of the existing buildings might well have -been erected by Nûr ed Dîn, and failing further evidence it is to him -that I should ascribe them. - -Under Kahf ez Zaḳḳ we found the tents of Ḥamrî, one of the principal -sheikhs of the Weldeh, a sturdy white-bearded man in the prime of age, -with the fine free bearing of one long used to command. He sat in the -sunshine and watched the pitching of our camp, ordering the young men of -the tribe to bestir themselves in our service, one to gather brushwood, -another to show the muleteers the best watering-place on the muddy -river-bank, a third to fetch eggs and sour curds, and when he had seen -to our welfare, he strode back to his tent and bade me follow. The -coffee was ready when I arrived, and with the cups the talk went round -of desert politics and the relation of this sheikh with that all through -the Weldeh camps. The glow of sunset faded, night closed down about the -flickering fire of thorns, a crescent moon looked in upon us and heard -us speaking of new things. Even into this primeval world a rumour had -penetrated, borne on the word Liberty, and the men round the hearth fell -to discussing the meaning of those famous syllables, which have no -meaning save to those who have lost that for which they stand. But -Sheikh Ḥamrî interposed with the air of one whose years and experience -gave him the right to decide in matters that passed the common -understanding. - -“How can there be liberty under Islâm?” said he. “Shall I take a wife -contrary to the laws of Islam, and call it liberty? God forbid.” And we -recognized in his words the oldest of the restrictions to which the -human race has submitted. “God forbid,” we murmured, and bowed our heads -before the authority of the social code. - -On the following day a dense mist hung over the valley. An hour from -Kahf ez Zaḳḳ the path left the Euphrates at a spot called Maḥârîz where -there are said to be ruins, but owing to the fog I could see nothing of -them.[43] Three-quarters of an hour later we returned to the river and -rode under low cliffs in which there were caves; my guide called the -place Ḳdirân, which is, I suppose, Kiepert’s Ghirân. Here again we left -the water’s edge, and half-an-hour later the fog melted away and -revealed a monotonous green plain with the camels of the Weldeh -pasturing over it. In summer it is a favourite camping-ground of the -’Anazeh. At Billânî, three and a half hours from our starting-point, we -rejoined the Euphrates. Billânî is visible from afar by reason of a -number of bare tree-trunks set in the ground to mark the Arab graves -which are grouped about the resting-place of some holy man. The ancient -sanctity of the place is still attested by numerous shafts of columns -among the graves, but seventy years ago Chesney could make out a small -octagonal temple.[44] It was a fine site for temple or for tomb. The -river comes down towards it through many channels in the shape of a -great fan, gathers itself into a single stream, broad and deep, and so -sweeps under the high bank on which the fragments of the shrine are -scattered, and beyond it round a wide bend clothed with thickets of -tamarisk and thorn and blackberry. Through these thickets we rode for -two hours and a half, and - -[Illustration: FIG. 34.--ḤARAGLAH, VAULT.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 35.--RAḲḲAH, EASTERN MINARET.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 37.--RAḲḲAH, MOSQUE FROM EAST.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 38.--RAḲḲAH, ARCADE OF MOSQUE, FROM NORTH.] - -then camped under a mound called Tell ’Abd ’Alî, not far from a couple -of very poor tents of the Afâḍleh, with the river a mile away. The night -was exquisitely still, but from time to time an owl cried with a shrill -note like that of a shepherd-boy calling to his flocks. - -[Illustration: FIG. 33.--ḤARAGLAH.] - -Our camp proved to be but two hours’ ride from Raḳḳah. A little more -than half-way between the two places we reached the enigmatic ruin which -is known to the Arabs as Ḥaraglah, a name which may be a corruption of -Heraclea. It consists of a rectangular fortress, almost square, with a -series of small vaulted chambers forming the outer parts of the block -and, as far as I could judge, larger vaulted chambers filling up the -centre (Fig. 33). At the four angles there are round towers. The -building as it now stands is merely a substructure, a platform resting -on vaults, on which stood an upper storey that has disappeared. The -masonry is mostly of unsquared stones laid in a bed of very coarse -mortar mixed with small stones, but the vaults are of brick tiles, and -it is noticeable that these tiles are not laid in the true Mesopotamian -fashion, whereby centering could be dispensed with (_i. e._ in narrow -slices leaning back against the head-wall), but that the double ring of -tiles is treated like the voussoirs of a stone arch and must have been -built on a centering (Fig. 34). This structure would be enough to show -that the work does not belong to the Mohammadan period. The fortress is -ringed round by an outer wall, now completely ruined. Beyond it to the -south runs a dyke, and beyond the dyke, some 500 m. south-east of the -central fort, there is another mound on which I saw cut stones larger -than the stones used at Ḥaraglah. Still further to the south lies a -third mound, Tell Meraish, with a second dyke to the south of it. The -two dykes appeared to be loop canals from the Euphrates and must -therefore have formed part of an extensive system of irrigation; -probably there had once been a considerable area of cultivation under -the protection of the fortress.[45] - -So we came to Raḳḳah and there joined forces with the army of Julian, -who had marched down from Carrhæ and the head waters of the Belîkh 1,500 -years ago and more--the account of the march given by Ammianus -Marcellinus is, however, irreconcilable with the facts of geography, for -he says that Julian reached Callinicum in one day from the source of the -river Belias, whereas it is at least a two days’ journey. Callinicum was -not the earliest town upon the site of Raḳḳah, though the record of -history does not go back further than to its immediate predecessor, -Nicephorium, which some say was founded by Alexander and others by -Seleucus Nicator. When Julian stopped there to perform the sacrifice due -at that season to Cybele, Callinicum was a strong fortress and an -important market. Chosroes, a couple of hundred years later, finding it -insufficiently guarded, seized and sacked it. Justinian rebuilt the -fortifications, but in A.D. 633, according to Abu’l Fidâ, it fell to the -Mohammadan invaders. In A.D. 772 the Khalif Manṣûr strengthened the -position with a second fortified city, Râfiḳah (the Comrade), built, it -is said, upon the same round plan as Baghdâd, which was another city of -his founding. Hârûn er Rashîd built himself a palace either in Raḳḳah or -in Râfiḳah, and used the place as his summer capital. In the subsequent -centuries the older foundations fell into ruin and the Comrade, which -continued to be a flourishing town, usurped its name, so that in Yâkût’s -day (1225) the original Raḳḳah had disappeared, but Râfiḳah was known as -Raḳḳah. Here is fine matter for confusion among the Arab geographers, -and they do not fail to make the most of it. White Raḳḳah, Black Raḳḳah, -Burnt Raḳḳah, and no less than two Middle Raḳḳahs figure upon their -pages, and it is impossible to determine whether any or none of these -titles stands for Râfiḳah, or which of them denotes the old Raḳḳah. But -by 1321 when Abu’l Fidâ wrote, all the Raḳḳahs were reduced to -uninhabited ruin (perhaps by the Mongol hordes of Hûlâgû), and it only -remains for the traveller to collect the names of sites, which his Arab -guide will furnish with an alacrity that runs ahead of accuracy, and -apply them as he thinks best to the list of recorded towns. And lest I -should fail to add my quota to the tangled nomenclature, I will hasten -to state that at a distance of an hour and ten minutes east of the ruins -that lie about the modern village, I rode over a large stretch of ground -on which there were traces of habitation and was told that its name was -Brown Raḳḳah--(Raḳḳat es Samrâ)--and on further inquiry I learnt that -nearer to the Euphrates there was a similar area called Red -Raḳḳah--(Raḳḳat el Ḥamrâ)--but as I neglected to visit the spot I need -not do more than mention that Kiepert marks Black Raḳḳah--(Raḳḳat es -Saudâ)--at about the place where it must be. - -To come to matters less controvertible, the modern Raḳḳah consists of -two villages, of which the westernmost has recently been erected by a -Circassian colony upon high broken ground that certainly indicates the -existence of an older settlement. Beyond it to the east there is a large -semi-circular enclosure, the straight side turned towards the Euphrates -and lying at a distance of about a mile from that river. The walls are -built of sun-dried brick alternating with bands of burnt brick, and set -at regular intervals with round bastions. There are clear traces of a -moat or ditch and of a second, less important, wall beyond it. The Arab -village lies in the south-west corner of this enclosure, near the centre -are the ruins of a mosque with a round minaret, on the east side the -remains of a large building, probably a palace, and at the south-east -corner part of a gate called the Baghdâd gate. Still further east there -is yet another ruin field. Towards the middle of it rises a square -minaret standing in a rectangular space which has been enclosed by walls -of sun-dried brick, no doubt a mosque (Fig. 35). The minaret is of -brick, but it rests upon a square base formed of large blocks of -marble. The brickwork is broken by six horizontal notched rings, the -uppermost surmounting a wide band of ornamental brick. The notches in -the brick were obviously intended to contain some other material, -possibly wood, which has now perished. There are numerous fragments of -columns in the neighbourhood of the minaret. The only other buildings -are, north of the minaret, a small domed ziyârah, which local tradition -would have to be the tomb of Yaḥyâ el Barmakî, who, as well as his more -famous son Ja’far, was vizir to Hârûn er Rashîd, and not far from the -Baghdâd gate a similar shrine, known as the Ziyârah of Uweis el Ḳaranî. -Uweis fell in A.D. 657 in one of the engagements fought on the Euphrates -between ’Alî and Mu’âwiyah, but his tomb is of no great interest except -in so far as it is composed of older materials. Over the doorway is an -inscription which states that “this fortress and shrine were repaired by -Sultan Suleimân, son of Selîm Khân,” who reigned from 1526-1574.[46] It -is obvious that the stone must have been brought from elsewhere, since -the inscription cannot refer to the insignificant structure on which it -is placed. In the adjoining graveyard there are many fragments of -columns, presumably taken from the mosque, and some much battered -capitals, one of them worked with acanthus leaves. I saw, too, a small -marble double column of the type so common in the early Christian -churches of Asia Minor. - -It is tempting to suppose that in the eastern ruin field we have the -site of the oldest city, Nicephorium-Callinicum-Raḳḳah, that the columns -were derived from Hellenistic or Byzantine buildings and re-used in a -mosque of which nothing now remains but the square minaret.[47] I think -it not - -[Illustration: FIG. 39.--RAḲḲAH, CAPITALS OF ENGAGED COLUMNS, MOSQUE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 40.--RAḲḲAH, PALACE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 41.--RAḲḲAH, DETAIL OF STUCCO ORNAMENT, PALACE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 42.--RAḲḲAH, DOMED CHAMBER IN PALACE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 36.--RAḲḲAH, PLAN OF MOSQUE AND SECTIONS OF PIERS.] - -improbable that the semi-circular enclosure represents Manṣûr’s -foundation, Râfiḳah, though it does not follow that any of the existing -ruins, except perhaps parts of the wall, belong to his time. They are -nevertheless of great importance in the history of Mohammadan art. The -mosque is surrounded by a wall of sun-dried brick broken by round -bastions (Fig. 36). In the centre of the ṣaḥn, or court, there is a -small ziyârah recently rebuilt, and in the north-east corner the round -brick minaret springs from a square stone base composed of ancient -materials (Fig. 37). The upper part of the minaret is decorated with -bands of brick dog-tooth ornament. One of the great arcades which -enclosed the ṣaḥn still stands on the south side (Fig. 38).[48] An -inscription over the central arch states that the mosque was repaired by -the Atabeg Nûr ed Dîn in 1166, and I conjecture that the minaret is of -his building.[49] The mosque is of the true Mesopotamian type, of which -the most famous examples are the two mosques at Sâmarrâ and the mosque -of Ibn Ṭûlûn at Cairo. With all these it shows the closest structural -affinities, and it may be assumed that Nûr ed Dîn retained the original -plan when he repaired the building. The stucco capitals of the engaged -columns on the piers belong to the same family as the elaborate stucco -ornaments of Ibn Ṭûlûn, which date from the latter half of the ninth -century, and in both cases the decorative motives employed are probably -Mesopotamian in origin (Fig. 39). Stucco decorations are also the main -feature of the group of palace ruins near the east wall. The most -noticeable of these is a rectangular tower-like structure (Fig. 40), -where the chamber on the ground-floor shows bold stucco ornament on -which are traces of colour (Fig. 41). On the walls of another chamber of -the palace, which was covered with a dome set upon squinch arches, there -is a row of arched niches, the arch being cusped on the inside. Below -the niches is a brick dog-tooth string-course (Fig. 42). The squinches -contain a primitive stalactite motive. There are two other small rooms, -both of which are roofed with an oval dome (3·87 m. × 3·32 m. - -[Illustration: FIG. 43.--RAḲḲAH, BAGHDÂD GATE FROM EAST.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 44.--RAḲḲAH, INTERIOR OF BAGHDÂD GATE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 46.--ḤALEBÎYEH.] - -and 4·02 m. × 2·03 m.); in both cases the dome is very shallow and the -rectangular substructure is adapted to the oval by means of wooden beams -laid across the angles. Everywhere wooden beams were used in conjunction -with brick, and it is to be borne in mind that though the country round -Raḳḳah is now entirely devoid of trees, all the Arab geographers speak -of the well-wooded gardens and groves of fruit-trees that surrounded the -town. In the tower-like building and in the Baghdâd gate bands of wood -were laid in the face of the wall, but the wood has perished, leaving -the space it occupied to tell of its former presence, as in the eastern -minaret. The cusp motive can be seen in the blind arcade on the exterior -of the Baghdâd gate (Fig. 43). In the interior there is a bay to the -south which appears to have been covered by a barrel vault, and may have -been balanced by a similar bay to the north of the doorway, for the -blind arcade on the outside of the gatehouse breaks off abruptly at the -northern end and must certainly have been carried further (Fig. 44). -This would allow for a northern bay corresponding to the bay that still -appears south of the door. The vaulting of the gate has fallen, but from -the indications that are left it appears certain that while the south -bay was covered by a barrel vault the central space was occupied by a -groin (Fig. 45).[50] - -[Illustration: FIG. 45.--RAḲḲAH, BAGHDÂD GATE, RECONSTRUCTED.] - -The whole of the two areas of ruin are strewn with potsherds of the -Mohammadan period, and over the greater part of the walled city the -ground is honeycombed with irregular holes and trenches, the excavations -of peasants in search of the now celebrated Raḳḳah ware. A few years ago -their labours were rewarded by a large find of unbroken pieces, many of -which made their way through the hands of Aleppo dealers to Europe, and -though such a stroke of good fortune is rare, perfect specimens are -occasionally unearthed, and I saw a considerable number, together with -one or two fragments of exquisite glass embossed with gold, during the -two days I spent at Raḳḳah. In some instances the original factories and -kilns have been brought to light, and it is not unusual to see bowls or -jars which have been spoilt in the baking and thrown away by the potter. -No exhaustive study of Raḳḳah ware has as yet been made, though it is of -the utmost importance in the history of the arts of Islâm. The -fabrication of it must have reached a high state of perfection during -the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, to which period the pieces which -have been preserved are usually assigned. - -At Raḳḳah matters fell out in a way which, if they had not been handled -firmly, might well have wrecked my plans, for a telegram arrived from -the Vâlî of Aleppo directing all whom it might concern to put a stop to -my progress down the left bank of the Euphrates, on account of the -disturbed condition of the desert. The Vâlî commanded that I should be -turned back across the river and conveyed carefully from guardhouse to -guardhouse along the high road. It was the Mudîr of Raḳḳah who was -ultimately responsible for the execution of these orders, and he, honest -man, was much perplexed when he discovered that one side of the -Euphrates was not the same to me as the other, nor was he helped to a -better understanding when I explained that I preferred the Jezîreh, the -Mesopotamian bank, because no one travelled there. The Shâmîyeh, the -Syrian bank, he hastened to assure me, was also chôl (wilderness), if -that was what I desired, and he begged me to believe that I should find -the guardhouses most commodious. Thereupon I took up the question on a -different issue, and called his attention to the fact that the Vâlî, who -was newly appointed to Aleppo, could not have heard how peaceful the -desert had become since the death of Ibrahîm Pasha. The Mudîr admitted -the truth of this observation, and we compromised by sending a telegram -to the Vâlî, asking him to reconsider his decision. But the telegraphic -system of the Turkish empire leaves an ample margin for the exercise of -individual discretion in emergencies, and since upon the third day no -reply had been received, I was spared from showing a direct disregard of -official dictates, while the Mudîr, seeing my caravan set out towards -the Belîkh, wisely made the best of a bad business and sent a couple of -zaptiehs with me. One of them was a Circassian who had little Arabic, -but the other, Maḥmûd by name, proved an agreeable and intelligent -fellow-traveller, well informed, and a keen politician. - -It is exactly two hours’ ride from Raḳḳah to the Belîkh. Our path lay -between stretches of marsh, which must always have existed hereabout, -for the word Raḳḳah means a swamp. Where we crossed the Belîkh it was a -muddy brook, almost all the water having been drawn off for irrigation -purposes, and the bridge was merely a few bundles of brushwood laid upon -some poles. I sent the caravan down the bank of the Euphrates and taking -one of my zaptiehs with me, turned slightly inland towards a group of -hills called Jebel Munâkhir, the Nebs. In about two hours we reached a -small outlying limestone tell on the top of which there were traces of -masonry. Jebel Munâkhir, a mile or so from the tell, is an extinct -volcano, and the lava beds extend almost to the tell. We climbed to the -summit of the mountain and found the crater to be a distinctly marked -basin with broken sides. On one of the peaks there is a ziyârah, a -square enclosure made of undressed stones piled together without mortar, -and a small tomb-chamber of the same construction. I looked carefully -for any trace of ancient work, but my search was rewarded only by -finding clumps of pale blue irises growing among the rocks. The west -massif of Jebel Munâkhir, on which we were standing, rises several -hundred feet above the level of the plain, and we had an extensive view -over the unknown desert to the north. About three miles to the east lay -another but smaller block of hill called Jebel Munkhar esh Sharḳî, the -Eastern Neb, and on the horizon, almost due north, we could see some -rising ground which my guide, an Arab of those parts, stated to be Jebel -’Uḳala.[51] Below it there are wells, and another well, Abu Tuṭah, lies -between it and the Belîkh. Between Jebel Munâkhir and Jebel ’Abdu’l -’Azîz (which I could not see) there is a low ridge of hill, Jebel Beiḍâ. -All through this desert country there are small wells of water (jubb is -the Arabic word) sufficient to supply the ’Anazeh, who pasture their -flocks here during the spring; I saw a few of their encampments, but the -greater part of the tribe was still in winter quarters further to the -east and south. The tents along the river were those of the -’Afaḍleh--’Ajeil el Ḥamrî is the chief sheikh of the tribe, but I did -not happen to meet him. An hour’s ride from the hills we reached a large -encampment at a spot called Ḳubûr ej Jebel, near the Euphrates. The name -means the Graves of the Mountain, but I could not hear of any tombs in -the neighbourhood. Our own tents were pitched an hour further down on -some grassy mounds by the river far from any Arabs; Meiḍa, my guide -called the place. In the low ground between Ḳubûr ej Jebel and Meiḍa, -but above flood-water level, we crossed an area ringed round with a -notable deep ditch. Somewhere near my camp Julian must have received his -Arab reinforcements. On leaving Nicephorium, he marched along the bank -of the Euphrates, “and at night he rested in a tent, where some princes -of the Saracen tribes came as suppliants bringing him a golden crown and -adoring him as master of the world, and of their own nations.... While -he was addressing them,” pursues Ammianus Marcellinus,[52] “a fleet -arrived as large as that of the mighty lord Xerxes; ... they threw a -bridge over the broadest part of the Euphrates. The fleet consisted of -one thousand transports bringing provisions and arms, and fifty ships of -war, and fifty more for the construction of bridges....” At this point a -hubbub arose in the servants’ tents; the golden crowns and the -battleships went tumbling on to the grass, and I ran out just in time to -see a troop of little shadowy forms hurrying in the moonlight across the -sands by the water’s edge. They were wild pig, the only herd we -encountered. - -It is essential to have a local man by you if you would ascertain local -names (even then the nomenclature is apt to be confusing), and -accordingly I took an Arab with me next morning. We rode in five minutes -to a grassy mound by the river, Khirbet Hadâwî, in another quarter of an -hour to Khirbet ed Dukhîyeh, and in twenty minutes more to Jedeideh. At -none of these places did I see any trace of construction, but at Abu -Sa’îd, ten minutes further, there is an ’Anazeh mazâr with graves round -it marked by fragments of columns and small basalt mills for grinding -corn. It would be interesting to know from what period these mills date; -I saw quantities of them in the burial-grounds between Munbayah and Tell -Murraibet, but none of the Arabs know what they are, and when they find -them they use them as tombstones. At Abu Sa’îd we turned away from the -river and rode inland in a north-easterly direction. The great bare -levels were more than usually enchanting that morning; the hot sun beat -upon them, a sharp little wind, the very breath of life, swept across -them, and all the plain was aromatic with sweet-scented plants. -Presently we passed a few ’Anazeh tents, and I stopped and gave the -aristocracy of the desert a respectful salutation. An inmate of the -tents, hearing my greeting, picked up his spear, mounted his mare and -bore us company for a mile or two; I do not know what dangers he -expected to encounter or whether the spear was merely for sheref -(honour), but when time hangs as heavy as it does in an Arab tent, you -may as well put in the hours by carrying a spear about the countryside -as in any other manner. We engaged in an exceedingly desultory -conversation, in the course of which he called out to me: - -“Lady, my mare is sick.” - -“God cure her,” said I. - -“Please God!” he returned. “It is her mind--her mind is sick.” But I -could suggest no remedy for that complaint, whether in man or beast. - -When he left us, the zaptieh and I began to talk of the prospects of -good administration under the new order. Maḥmûd was by birth a Turk, a -native of Kars, whence he had migrated when it fell into the hands of -the Russians. His long acquaintance with the Arabs had only served to -enhance in his estimation the Turkish capacity for government, and the -granting of the constitution had raised it yet higher. “The Turks -understand politics,” said he, “and look you, the constitution was from -them. But as for the Arabs, what do they know of government?” He placed -great confidence in the Young Turks, and said that every one except the -effendis was in favour of the dastûr (the constitution). “The effendis -fear liberty and justice, for these are to the advantage of the poor. -But they, being corrupt and oppressors of the poor, set themselves in -secret against the dastûr, and because of this we have confusion -everywhere. And if one of them is sent to Constantinople as a deputy his -work will not be good, for he will work only for himself. And in the -vilayets there will be no justice unless the English will send into each -province an overseer (mufattish) who will look to it that the dastûr is -carried out. Effendim, do you see my clothes?” I examined his ragged -nondescript attire; save for the torn and faded jacket it would have -been difficult to recognize in it a military uniform. “Twice a year the -government gives us clothes, but they never reach us at Raḳḳah. The -officers in Aleppo eat them, and with my own money I bought what I wear -now.” - -“Are you paid?” I inquired. - -“The government owes me twenty-four months’ pay,” he answered. - -I asked what he thought of the scheme for enlisting Christians. - -“Why not?” said he. “The Christians should help the Moslems to bear the -burden of military service.” And then he added, “If there be no -treachery.” - -There was no need to ask him what he meant by the last phrase. I had -heard too often from the lips of Christians the expression of a helpless -fear that the new régime must founder in blood and anarchy, after which -the nations of Europe would step in, please God, and take Turkey for -themselves. This forecast was not by any means confined to the -Christians, but they, of all others, should have refrained from putting -it into words, for it did not encourage patriots like Maḥmûd to believe -in their loyalty. - -We reached our goal, Tell esh Sha’îr, in two hours and forty minutes -from Abu Sa’îd, but the time in this case represents about twelve miles, -since we were not riding at caravan pace. There were no buildings on the -tell, but a number of large stones had been dug out of it and set up as -a landmark--rijm, the Arabs call such guiding stone heaps. Two shepherds -of the ’Anazeh joined us while we were at lunch, much to their material -advantage, for we shared our provisions with them; from them I learnt -that there had once been a well here, but that it was now choked up. -They knew of no ruins in the desert beyond, and my impression is that -there has never been any settled population in this region, away from -the Euphrates. We struck back to the river in a south-easterly -direction, and in three hours came to our camp, pitched by some Afaḍleh -tents on a mound of which I have not recorded the name. It is the -boundary between the kazas of Raḳḳah and of Deir, and lies about an -hour’s march below a site called by Kiepert the Khân. From our camp we -rode in an hour to the ruins of Khmeiḍah, where there were vestiges of a -considerable town, squared stones, baked brick walls and a stone -sarcophagus. An Arab on a broken-down mare joined us here, and as we -rode together Maḥmûd described to me the nature of the authority -exercised by the government over the tribes, and particularly the -incidence of the sheep-tax. - -“Effendim,” said he, “you must know that the government levies the -sheep-tax from each sheikh.” Four piastres per head of sheep is the -amount. “And the scribe having computed the number of sheep that belong -to those tents, he calls upon the sheikh to make good the sum due, and -perhaps the sheikh will have to pay 2,000 piastres. Then he levies from -the men of his tents 3,000 piastres, and to the government he gives -1,800.” - -“True, true,” said the Arab beside us. “Wallah, so it is.” - -“And then,” pursued Maḥmûd, “another man is sent out by the government, -with his clerk and half-a-dozen of us zaptiehs. And all this costs much -money. And the sheikh levies another 500 piastres, and pays 150 -piastres; and so it goes on till the sum is found, but the expenses of -collection are heavy. And as for the tax on cultivated land, the owner -gives a bribe to him who is sent to value it, and he estimates the -produce at less than half the real amount. And so it is with the -sheep-tax. Effendim, do you think that all the sheep are counted? No, -wallah! Last year the cornlands of the Shâmîyeh between Raḳḳah and Deir -paid only £800, and the sheep-tax in the Jezîreh was no more than -£2,000.” - -“Eh yes,” said the Arab, “but the government takes much.” - -“The sheikhs take much,” returned Maḥmûd. “Oh Ma’lûl, is it not true -that they levy a tax for themselves on every tent?” - -“Eh wallah!” said the Arab. - -“But if the men of the tents make complaint, the sheikh attacks them and -slays them.” - -“Allah, Allah! he knows the truth,” cried Ma’lûl in vociferous approval. - -“And they have no protection,” concluded Maḥmûd. - -“Eh wah!” responded the Arab, “who is there to protect us?” - -So the ancient tyrannies bear sway even in the open wilderness. - -Three-quarters of an hour from Khmeiḍah we passed another mound strewn -with potsherds, and thirty-five minutes further down we came upon the -ruins of Abu ’Atîḳ. They lie upon high rocky ground that drops steeply -into an old bed of the Euphrates from which the river has retreated into -a new bed a few hundred yards away. The whole area is covered with stone -and brick foundations, some of them built of great blocks of hewn -basalt, and the site must represent a city of no small importance. Below -it the river is forced into a narrow defile where it flows between steep -hills. A little valley, Wâdî Mâliḥ, joins the main stream half-an-hour -from the ancient town, and it was here that we were overtaken by a -breathless zaptieh from Raḳḳah who was the bearer of the answer to my -telegram to the Vâlî of Aleppo. It was a refusal, politely worded, to -my request that I should be permitted to travel down the left bank of -the Euphrates, and with it came a covering letter from the Mudîr of -Raḳḳah saying that if I did not return he would be obliged to recall the -zaptiehs he had sent with me. I fear that even those who cannot properly -be numbered among the criminal classes catch an infection from the -lawless air of the desert, but whatever may be the true explanation of -our conduct, we never contemplated for a moment the alternative of -obedience, and bidding a regretful farewell to friend Maḥmûd, we went on -down the defile. Maḥmûd came galloping back to give us a final word of -advice. “Ride,” said he, “to Umm Rejeibah, where you will find a ḳishlâ -(a guardhouse), but do not camp to-night in a solitary place, for this -is the country of the Baggârah, and they are all rogues and thieves.” - -The Euphrates, gathered into a single channel, flows very grandly -through the narrow gorge. At first the hills slope down almost to the -water’s edge, but afterwards they draw back and leave room for a tract -of level ground by the stream. An hour and a half from Wâdî Mâliḥ the -valley widens still more, and on the opposite bank the great castle of -Ḥalebîyeh lifts its walls from the river almost to the summit of the -hill, a towered triangle of which the apex is the citadel that dominates -all the defile (Fig. 46).[53] Twenty minutes lower down, the -Mesopotamian bank is crowned by the sister fortress of Zelebîyeh. It is -a much less important building. The walls, set with rectangular towers, -enclose three sides of an oblong court; the fourth side--that towards -the river--must also have been walled, and it is probable that the -castle approached more nearly to a square than at present appears, for -the current has undermined the precipitous bank and the western part of -the fortifications has fallen away. The masonry is of large blocks of -stone, faced on the interior and on the exterior of the walls, while the -core is mainly of rubble and mortar. There are six towers, including -the corner bastions, in the length of the east wall, and between the two -central towers is an arched gate. On the north and south sides there is -now but one tower beyond the corner. Each tower contains a small -rectangular chamber approached by an arched doorway. The court is -covered with ruins, and on either side of the gate there is a deep -arched recess. Under the north side of the castle hill there are -foundations of buildings in hewn stone, but the area of these ruins is -not large. - -The name Zelebîyeh carries with it the memory of an older title; in the -heyday of Palmyrene prosperity a fortress called after Zenobia guarded -the trade route from her capital into Persia, and all authorities are -agreed that the fortress of Zenobia described by Procopius is identical -with Ḥalebîyeh. Procopius states further that Justinian, who rebuilt -Zenobia and Circesium, refortified the next castle to Circesium, which -he calls Annouca. The Arab geographers make mention of a small town, -Khânûḥah, midway between Ḳarḳîsîyâ (Circesium) and Raḳḳah,[54] and the -probable identity of Annouca and Khânûḳah has already been observed by -Moritz.[55] But I think it likely that the flourishing mediæval Arab -town was situated not in the confined valley below Zelebîyeh but at Abu -’Atîḳ, where the ruin field is much larger. It may be that there was a -yet older settlement at Abu ’Atîḳ, and that the stone foundations there -belonged to the town of Annouca which stood at the head of the defile, -while the castle of the same name guarded the lower end. - -We struck across the barren hills and so came down in an hour and half -to Ḳubrâ, a ziyârah lying about a quarter of a mile from the river. -There were no tents to be seen, whether of the Baggârah or of any other -tribe, and no man from whom we could ask the way; by misfortune we -happened to be that day without an Arab guide, and mindful of Maḥmûd’s -parting injunctions, we began to look eagerly ahead for the ḳishlâ. -Some way lower down, the Euphrates swept close under a low ridge which -we were obliged to climb, and once on the top we espied Ḳishlâ el -Munga’rah nestling under the further side of the slope. It had taken us -two and a half hours to reach it from Zelebîyeh. The ḳishlâ, which was -built ten years ago and is already falling into ruin, was garrisoned by -eight soldiers. They gave us an enthusiastic welcome and helped us to -pitch our tents under the mud walls of the guardhouse; visitors are -scarce, and the monotony of existence is broken only by episodes -connected with the lawless habits of the Baggârah. I never came into -contact with the tribe, but I was told that, alone among the river -Arabs, they had been the allies of Ibrahîm Pasha and were consequently -gôm (foes) of the ’Anazeh and their group. Enmities of this kind are -usually accompanied by overt acts, and the Baggârah had their hand -against every man. - -It would be difficult to exaggerate the isolation of the guardhouses -which are scattered through remote parts of the Turkish empire. The -garrisons receive but a scanty allowance of their pay, and a still -scantier of clothing; frequently they are left unchanged for years in -the midst of an ungrateful desert where the task assigned to them is too -heavy for them to perform--eight men, as the soldiers at Munga’rah -observed, cannot keep a whole tribe in check--and where there is no -alternative occupation. Often enough I have contemplated with amazement, -in some lonely ḳishlâ or ḳarâghôl, the patient Oriental acceptance of -whatever fate may be allotted by the immediate or the ultimate -authority; and many an hour has passed, far from unprofitably for the -understanding of the East, while a marooned garrison has shown me, with -a pitiful and childlike eagerness, its poor little efforts to while away -the weary days--here a patch of garden snatched from the wilderness, -where only a hand-to-hand struggle with the drifting sand can keep the -rows of wizened onions from total extinction; there a desultory -excavation in a neighbouring mound, in which if you dig far enough a -glittering treasure must surely lie; a captive quail for snaring, -warmly pressed upon me for my evening meal, or the small achievements in -what may, for want of an exacter term, be called carpentry, with which -the living-room is adorned. If you will reckon up the volume of -unquestioning, if uninstructed, obedience upon which floats the ship of -the Turkish State, you will wonder that it should ever run aground. - -The relaxation of the men of Munga’rah was taken among the ruins that -covered the top of the hill. Umm Rejeibah is a large area enclosed in a -wall, clearly marked by mounds, with a ditch beyond it. On the north -side an old channel of the river sweeps under the hill, and before the -water left this course, it had carried away a part of the ground on -which the city stood. The walls break off abruptly where the hill has -fallen away, and it is therefore difficult to determine the exact shape -of the enclosure. It appears to have been an irregular octagon. Towards -its northern extremity the hill-top is seamed by the deep bed of a -torrent draining down to the present channel of the Euphrates; it cuts -through the ruins and reveals in section what is elsewhere hidden by an -accumulation of soil. On the slope of its bank the soldiers had observed -traces of masonry, and by digging a little way into the hill had -disclosed a small circular chamber with brick walls and a white -tesselated pavement. Just above the ḳishlâ, in an Arab graveyard, there -are fragments of columns and basalt flour mills. - -The oldest, raggedest and most one-eyed of the garrison accompanied us -to Deir: I had not the heart to refuse his proffered escort, since it -would enable him to spend a night in the local metropolis. The road was -entirely without interest. About an hour from Deir cultivation began on -the river bank in patches of cornland irrigated by rude water-wheels; -jird is the Arabic word for them. We reached the ferry in six hours. The -road from Aleppo to Môṣul crosses the Euphrates at Deir, and some ten -years ago it was proposed to replace the ferry by a bridge. The work was -actually put in hand and has advanced at the rate of one pier a year, -according to my calculations; but it can scarcely be expected that this -rate of progress will be maintained, since the point has been reached -where the piers must be built in the bed of the stream, and construction -will necessarily be slower than it was when the masons were still upon -dry ground. We pitched our camp upon the left bank and there spent -thirty-six hours, resting the horses and laying in provisions. The -bazaars are well supplied, but Deir is not in other respects remarkable. -It is first mentioned by Abu’l Fidâ, in A.D. 1331,[56] and contains, so -far as I know, no vestiges of older habitation. It is built partly upon -an island; the gardens of this quarter, exactly opposite my camp, were -rosy with flowering fruit-trees. None but the richer sort, and such as -have flocks to bring over, cross the river in the ferry boats; more -modest persons are content with an inflated goat-skin. I had not seen -this entertaining process, except on the Assyrian reliefs in the British -Museum, and I watched it with unabated zest during the greater part of -an afternoon. You blow out your goat-skin by the river’s edge, roll up -your cloak and place it upon your head, tuck your shirt into your -waistcloth and so embark, with your arms resting upon the skin and your -legs swimming in the water. The current carries you down, and you make -what progress you can athwart it. On the further side you have only to -wring out your shirt, don your cloak and deflate your goat-skin, and all -is done. - -The Mutesarrif of Deir had recently been removed and the new man had not -yet arrived, but I paid my respects to his vicegerent, the Ḳâḍî, a -white-bearded old Turk, who did not regard my visit as an honour, though -he promised me all I wanted in the matter of zaptiehs. The interview -took place while he was sitting in the seat of judgment and was -presently interrupted by a case. It was a dispute concerning a debt -between a merchant and an Arab Sheikh. The sheikh came in dressed in the -full panoply of the desert, black-and-gold cloak, black kerchief and -white under-robe; his skin was darkened by the sun, his beard -coal-black. The merchant was a shaven, white-faced townsman in a -European coat. The pair were, to my fancy, symbolic of the East and the -advancing West, and I backed the West, if only because the merchant had -the advantage of speaking Turkish, and the Ḳâḍî was anything but -proficient in Arabic. After a few moments of angry recrimination they -were both dismissed to gather further evidence; but the Ḳâḍî called the -sheikh back and shook his finger at him. “Open your eyes, oh sheikh,” -said he. Asia, open your eyes! - -I have some friends in Deir, Mohammadan gentlemen of good birth and -education; to them I went for information as to passing events, no news -from the outer world having reached me for a fortnight. They told me -that the Grand Vizir, Kiamil Pasha, had fallen, which was true; and that -the Mejlis had quarrelled with the Sultan and were about to depose him, -which was only prophetic. They made me realize how different an aspect -the new-born hopes of Turkey wore on the Bosphorus, or even on the -Mediterranean, from that which they presented to the dwellers on the -Euphrates: I had already passed beyond the zone that had been quickened -by the enthusiasm of European Turkey into some real belief in the advent -of a just rule. One of my friends had received an invitation to join the -local committee, but he had refused to do so. “I am lord over much -business,” said he, “but they are the fathers of idle talk.” All -thinking men in Deir were persuaded that a universal anarchy lay before -them; the old rule was dead, the new was powerless, and the forces of -disorder were lifting their heads. “Yes,” said another, “revolution -means the shedding of blood--and the land of the Ottomans will not -escape. Then perhaps the nations of Europe will come to our aid and we -shall all have peace.” I replied that the only substantial peace would -be one of their own making, and that good government takes long to -establish. “What benefit have I,” he protested, “if my children’s -children see it?” I asked whether they had heard any rumours of an Arab -movement, and they answered that there was much wild writing in the -newspapers of a separate Arab assembly, and that words like these might -stir up trouble and revolt. “But where is unity? Aleppo hates Deir, and -Deir hates Damascus, and we have no Arab nation.” The financial -position, both public and private, they pronounced to be hopeless. “I -know a man,” said one, “who has land on the Euphrates that might be -worth £15,000 and is worth as many piastres. He dares not put money into -irrigation because he could not get protection against the tribes and -his capital would bring him no return. But indeed there is not enough -capital in all Deir to develop the land.” He complained that the best -land was chiflik, the private property of the Sultan, and this I mention -because it is a grievance that has already been remedied--may it be of -good omen! The conversation left me profoundly discouraged, there was so -much truth in all that I had heard, together with so complete an absence -of political initiative. Thus it is through all the Asiatic provinces, -and the further I went the more convinced did I become that European -Turkey is the head and brains of the empire, and that if the difficult -task of reform is to be carried out in Asia it can only be done from -western Turkey. I believe that this has been recognized in -Constantinople, for the provincial governors appointed under the new -régime have been almost invariably well chosen. - -On March 6 we took the road again, still following the left bank of the -Euphrates. The country down these reaches of the river is, as Xenophon -says, exceptionally dull: “the ground was a plain as level as the sea.” -Below Deir the Euphrates has left its original channel and now runs -further to the west, and there was generally a stretch of low ground, an -older bed, between our road and the stream. This alluvial land is thinly -populated and partly irrigated by water-wheels. Along the higher ground, -which had once been the bank but is now touched only by the extreme -points of the river loops, there were occasional mounds representing the -villages of an earlier age. The baggage animals travelled in six and -three-quarter hours to Buseirah, which lies in the angle formed by the -Khâbûr and the Euphrates. The site is very ancient. Xenophon when he -arrived at the Araxes (the Khâbûr) found there a number of villages -stored with corn and wine, and the army rested for three days collecting -provisions. Diocletian made Circesium the frontier station of the Roman -empire. He fortified it with a wall, says Procopius, terminating at -either end on the Euphrates in a tower, but he did not protect the side -of the town along the Euphrates. The stream sapped one of the towers, -the walls were allowed to fall into decay, and Chosroes in his first -expedition had no difficulty in taking possession of the fortress. -Justinian repaired the ruined tower with large blocks of stone, built a -wall along the Euphrates, and added an outer wall to that which already -existed, besides improving the baths in the town. Under the name of -Karḳîsîyâ, Circesium continued to be a place of some importance during -the Middle Ages. Iṣṭakhrî (tenth century) praises its gardens and -fruit-trees, but the later geographers describe it as being smaller than -its neighbour Raḥbah, on the opposite side of the Euphrates, and with -this it fades out of history. - -Extensive though not very scientific excavations were being carried on -when I was at Buseirah. The peasants were engaged in digging out bricks -from the old walls, ostensibly to provide materials for a bridge over -the Khâbûr. I was therefore able to see more of the ruins than was -revealed to former travellers, and my conviction is that I saw nothing -that was older than the time of Justinian, while most of the work -belonged to the Arab period. The excavations were so unsystematic that -it was never possible to make out a ground plan, but in one place the -peasants had dug down at least 5 m. below the upper level of the ruin -heaps, and had cleared some small chambers near the northern -fortification wall. The materials used in these buildings were square -tiles in two sizes (42 × 45 × 3 cm. and 21 × 21 × 3 cm.) laid in mortar -as wide as the tiles themselves, and small roughly-squared stones also -laid in thick mortar. The lower parts of the chambers were of large -tiles, the upper parts of stone. From the traces left upon the walls, -the rooms would seem to have been roofed over with barrel vaults, and -there were some remains of brick arched niches below the stonework. -Above these rooms, which were possibly only a vaulted substructure, -there were foundations of upper rooms constructed of the smaller tiles. -The face of the tile walls had been covered with plaster. There were -simple patterns moulded in the broad sides of tiles: [Illustration] At -the south-east angle of the enclosing wall stands a tower, round and -domed and built entirely of the smaller tiles. The dome is slightly -flattened and I believe the structure to be Mohammadan work. The -Euphrates flows at a distance of about a mile from the city enclosure, -but in all probability its course was once immediately under the wall, -and the bed has made the same change here as it has done immediately -above Circesium. The modern Buseirah must be the site of the ancient -city, and I conclude that in Diocletian’s time the Euphrates flowed -under the mound and that this was the side which was not fortified until -Justinian’s day. - -In the Arab village, which has sprung up near the south-west corner of -the ruins, there are portions of a large building which the natives call -the church. It is surrounded on three sides by a very thick wall, -roughly built of brick and rubble, with round towers at the angles. -Within the wall there are remains of a niched structure which, so far as -I could judge, consisted of two domed octagonal chambers. The masonry is -of brick and rubble, plastered over, and both this ruin and the outer -wall seem to have been built out of older materials pillaged from other -parts of the town and mixed indiscriminately together. Finally there is -a substructure of brick, octagonal in plan and covered by a much -flattened brick dome. The flattened dome is typically Mohammadan: I do -not remember any instance where it can be assigned with certainty to an -earlier period, and I am therefore led to the conclusion that the whole -building cannot be older than the time of the khalifs. The area of the -city is strewn with potsherds, by far the greater proportion being -unmistakably Arab and closely related to the coarser sorts of Raḳḳah -ware. Almost all the coins that were brought to me were Arab. - -My tents were pitched outside the city wall, at the extreme limit of the -Roman empire, a frontier line which you must travel far to find. Did -Julian, with the ominous news from Gaul in his hand, feel any misgiving -when he ordered the building of the bridge over which his army was to -pass to the irrevocable destruction that Sallust predicted in his -letters? “No human power or virtue,” says Ammianus Marcellinus, “can -prevent that which is prescribed by Fate.” Impending disaster, long -since fallen, leapt again from his pages and stood spectral upon the -banks of the Khâbûr. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -BUSEIRAH TO HÎT - -_March 7--March 18_ - - -At Buseirah we were confronted with one of the difficulties that awaits -the traveller in the Jezîreh. Since there is no traffic along the left -bank of the river, there are no zaptiehs to serve as escort; my two -zaptiehs from Deir were to have been relieved at Buseirah, but there was -only one available man there, and he feared the return journey alone, -and was therefore extremely reluctant to come with us. We solved the -question by carrying off Muṣṭafâ, one of the men from Deir, whereupon -Ḥmeidî, the Buseirah zaptieh, consented to bear him company. Both were -to return from Abu Kemâl, three days’ journey lower down. This plan -suited Ḥmeidî well, for he was a doubly married man, and while one of -his wives remained at Buseirah, the other dwelt at Abu Kemâl. His beat -was between the two places. “And so,” he explained, “I find a wife and -children to welcome me at either end.” - -“That is very convenient,” said I. - -“Yes,” he replied gravely. - -We crossed the Khâbûr in a ferry-boat so badly constructed that loaded -animals could not enter it, and in consequence all the packs had to be -carried down to the river and re-loaded on the other side. I pitied -Cyrus from the bottom of my heart, and regarded Julian’s bridge with -feelings very different from those that had been conjured up by the moon -of the previous night. The level ground on the opposite side was covered -with potsherds, most of them blue and green glazed wares, and all, so -far as I saw, Mohammadan. An hour later we passed over another small -area strewn thickly with the same pottery, and while I was acquainting -Ḥmeidî with the nature of the evidence it supplied, I took occasion to -confide to him my belief that the ruin at Buseirah which they call the -church dates from the Mohammadan period. - -“Effendim,” he replied, “what you have honoured us by observing is quite -correct. The origin of that church is Arab. It was doubtless built by -Nimrod, who lived some years before Hârûn er Rashîd.” - -“That is true,” said I, with a mental reservation as to parts of the -statement. - -Between the Khâbûr and the Euphrates, Kiepert marks an ancient canal and -names it the Daurîn. According to the map it leaves the Khâbûr at a -point opposite to the village of Ḥöjneh and joins the Euphrates opposite -Ṣâliḥîyeh.[57] The existence of the canal cutting is well known to all -the inhabitants of these parts (they call it the Nahr Dawwarîn), but -they affirm that its course is much longer than is represented by -Kiepert, and that it touches the Euphrates at Werdî. My route on the -first day lay between the canal and the Euphrates, at a distance that -varied from an hour to half-an-hour from the river, and though I did not -see the Dawwarîn, its presence was clearly indicated by the line of -Ḳanâts (underground water conduits) running in a general southerly -direction--NNW. to SSE. to be more accurate--across ground that was -almost absolutely level. The whole of this region must once have been -cultivated, and it had also been thickly populated.[58] Twenty-five -minutes’ ride beyond the potsherds where Ḥmeidî had sketched for me the -history of Buseirah, we passed some foundations constructed out of the -smaller sort of tiles which I had observed in the town. A quarter of an -hour further there was a low mound called Tell el Kraḥ, covered with -tiles and coloured pottery--indeed the pottery was continuous between -the one patch of broken tiles and the other, and Nimrod had evidently -been very busy here. The villages represented by these remains had been -supplied with water from the Dawwarîn. In another hour and five minutes -we reached a considerable mound, Tell Buseyiḥ; it formed three sides of -a hollow square, the side turned towards the river being open. We were -now close to the Euphrates and could see, about half-a-mile away, a long -tract of cultivation and the village of Tiyâna on the water’s edge. We -turned slightly inland from Buseyiḥ and in fifty minutes came to the -mounds of Jemmah where, so far as identification is possible on a hasty -survey, I would place Zeitha. “Here,” says Ammianus Marcellinus, “we saw -the tomb of the Emperor Gordian, which is visible for a long way off.” -Jemmah consists of a large area surrounded by a wall and a deep ditch; -beyond the ditch lies broken ground where, at one point, the Arabs had -scratched the surface and revealed what looked like a pavement of solid -asphalt; still further away there is an Arab graveyard strewn with -fragments of the smaller tiles. Except in the graveyard there are no -tiles and very little pottery, none of it characteristically mediæval -Mohammadan. The ditch had been fed by a water channel coming from the -north-east, no doubt an arm of the Dawwarîn if it were not the canal -itself. We rode from Jemmah to the Euphrates in an hour and ten minutes -and found the camp pitched immediately below the village of Bustân. The -baggage animals had been six hours on the march from the Khâbûr. The -climate was changing rapidly as we journeyed south. The last cold day we -experienced was March 2, when I had ridden out to Tell esh Sha’îr; on -March 7 when we camped at Bustân the temperature at three o’clock in the -afternoon was 70° in the shade, but the nights were still cold. - -A strip of irrigated land and numerous villages lay along the river for -the first two hours of the succeeding day’s march. We were forced to -ride outside the cornfields that we might avoid the water conduits, but -I do not think we missed anything of importance, for every twenty or -thirty years the Euphrates rises high enough to submerge the -cultivation, and the floods must have destroyed all vestiges of an older -civilization. The low-lying fields cannot have been, within historic -times, a former bed of the stream, as was the case above Buseirah; an -occasional mound near the river showed that the bank had long been -inhabited. We passed on the high ground a tell that looked like the site -of an ancient village which had received its water from the Nahr -Dawwarîn. An enormous amount of labour is expended upon the irrigation -of the cornfields; sometimes there is a double system of jirds, those -nearest the river watering the lowest fields and filling deep channels -whence the water is again lifted by another series of jirds to the -higher level. In the lower ground the peasants grow a little corn and -clover for early pasture and sow a second crop when the spring floods -have retreated. After two hours’ riding we entered a long stretch of -sand heaped up into little hills which were held together by tamarisk -thickets; it is apt to be submerged when the river is high, and we saw -more than one overflow channel filled with pools of stagnant water. On -the Syrian side the Euphrates is hemmed in here by hills whereon stands -the castle of Ṣâliḥîyeh. In this wilderness we came upon some Arabs who -were ploughing up a desolate spot in search of locusts’ eggs. - -“Are there many locusts here?” said I, for locusts are not accustomed to -lay their eggs in sand. - -“No,” they answered, “there are none here; but, as God is exalted! there -are thousands lower down.” - -“Then why do you plough here?” I asked, with the tiresome persistence of -the European. - -“The government ordered it,” said they, and resumed their task. - -In another hour we reached Tell ech Cha’bî (el Ka’bî?) where there is an -Arab cemetery, the graves covered with unglazed potsherds. Ḥmeidî told -me that when the Arabs bury their dead in such places they dig into the -mound and extract broken pottery to strew upon the graves; the Bedouin -use no pottery, their water-vessels being of copper or of skin. While we -sat upon the top of the tell lunching and waiting for the caravan, which -was delayed for nearly an hour in the loose sand, Ḥmeidî gave me his -views on politics. - -“Effendim,” said he, “we do not care what sultan we have so long as he -is a just ruler. But as for ’Abdu’l Ḥamîd, he keeps three hundred women -in his palace, and, look you, they have eaten our money.” Wherein he -wronged the poor ladies; it was not they who scattered the revenues of -the State. - -In thirty minutes we came to Tell Simbal, a small sandy mound; in one -hour and fifteen minutes more to Tell el Hajîn, with a village by the -river, and after another hour and twenty minutes to Tell Abu’l Ḥassan, -where we camped, seven and a quarter hours from Bustân. Abu’l Ḥassan is -marked in Chesney’s map as “mound.” It is a very striking tell rising -fifty feet above the river; upon the summit are Arab graves strewn with -coarse pottery and with undressed stones dug out of the hill, and for a -distance of a quarter of an hour’s walk to the north and east there are -fragments of brick upon the ground. The graves are those of the Jebbûr, -who, said Ḥmeidî, left this district thirty years ago and migrated to -the Tigris, where I subsequently saw them. Nearly all the Silmân have -also gone away, and though their camping grounds are marked by Kiepert -on the Euphrates, their present quarters are on the Khâbûr. The Deleim -and the Ageidât, a base-born tribe, together with the Bu Kemâl, now -occupy the Euphrates’ banks, and the ’Anazeh come down to the river in -the summer. There was no living thing near our camp except an enormous -pelican, who was floating contentedly on the broad bosom of the stream. -Our advent roused in him the profoundest interest, and as he floated he -cast backward glances at us, to see what we were doing in his -wilderness. - -A pleasant four hours’ march, mostly through tamarisk thickets that were -full of ducks, pigeons and jays, brought us to the ferry opposite Abu -Kemâl. When we had pitched our tents near the reed-and mud-built village -of Werdî, Fattûḥ and Selîm went across to buy corn and Ḥmeidî to report -our arrival and ask for fresh zaptiehs. The village of Abu Kemâl has -recently been removed to a distance of about a mile from the right bank, -because the current has undermined the foundations of the original -village, which now stands deserted and in ruin. But it is chiefly on the -left bank that the river has played tricks with the land. Within the -circuit of a great bend in the channel, the ground for three miles or so -is extremely low, and is partially submerged when the stream comes down -in flood. The low ground is bounded on its eastern side by a rocky ridge -which crosses the desert from a point a little to the south of the -Khâbûr, passes behind what I suppose to be the course of the Dawwarîn, -and terminates in the bold bluffs of Irzî above the Euphrates, at the -lower limit of the Werdî bend. When the river is exceptionally high it -covers the whole area up to the hills; my informant, one ’Isâ, an Arab -of the Bu Kemâl, remembered having once seen this occur; but in ordinary -seasons it merely overflows a narrow belt and fills a canal that lies -immediately under the eastern hills. The canal is fed by two branch -canals from the river and joins the Euphrates under the bluff of Irzî. -The river rises “at the time of the flowering of pomegranates,” said -’Isâ, “for unto all things is their season,” that is, about the middle -of April; but the big canal under the hills was still half full of water -when I saw it in March, and the crops were irrigated from it by jirds. -It is known locally as the Werdîyeh, but I was informed that it was in -fact the lower end of the Dawwarîn which joins the Euphrates here and -not at Ṣâliḥîyeh.[59] The site of Werdî is generally believed to be that -of Xenophon’s Corsote, “a large deserted city which was entirely -surrounded by the Mascas.” The river Mascas was a plethron (100 ft.) in -breadth; the army of Cyrus stayed there three days and the soldiers -furnished themselves with provisions.[60] By the Mascas, Xenophon is -understood to have meant a loop canal, and I think it probable that the -canal was not merely a small loop enclosing the bend of the river, but -that it is represented to this day by the Dawwarîn and the irrigation -system connected with it. - -[Illustration: FIG. 47.--IRZÎ, TOWER TOMB.] - -But if Werdî be the descendant of Corsote, at least one other town must -be placed between these two in the genealogical table. The bluff at the -lower end of the river bend is covered with the ruins of Irzî, which -have been remarked by every traveller who has passed by, either on the -river or on the west bank. Balbi, who descended the Euphrates in 1579, -says that the ruins occupied a site larger than Cairo and appeared to be -the massive walls and towers of a great city. So far as I know no one -has examined them closely, and when I climbed up the hill I found, not -the bastioned walls that I had expected, but a number of isolated tower -tombs. They stand in various stages of decay round the edge of the bluff -and over the whole extent of a high rocky plateau which cannot be seen -from below. There are no traces of houses, nor any means of obtaining -water from the river, nor any cisterns for the storage of rain. Balbi’s -city is a city of the dead; it is the necropolis of a town that stood, -presumably, in the irrigated country below. The towers were all alike -(Fig. 47). They are built of irregular slabs of stone, the shining -gypsum of which the hill is formed, laid in beds of mortar. Each tower -rests upon a square substructure, about 1·70 m. high; in this -substructure are the tombs, hollowed out of the solid masonry, irregular -in number and in position. In the best preserved of the towers I could -see but one tunnel-like grave opening on the west side (Fig. 48), while -there were two or three to the north and east. The tombs are covered by -a small vault made of two stones leaning against one another. Above the -substructure the walls are broken by corner piers of small projection, -with two engaged columns between them. The columns are crowned by -capitals made of a single projecting slab, above which a slightly -projecting band of plaster forms an entablature. Then follows a plain -piece of wall about a metre high upon which stands an upper order of -engaged columns, half as large as those below, so that there was place -for five between the corner piers, if these were repeated on the upper -part of the tower. A door between the corner pier and one of the engaged -columns opens on to a winding stair which leads to the top of the tower. -No rule was observed as to the direction of the compass in which the -doors were placed. The towers cannot be as old as Xenophon’s time; they -are more likely to date from the first or second century of the -Christian era; therefore the town to which they belonged must have been -later than Corsote, and Corsote, it will be remembered, was deserted -when he saw it. It is easy to understand that a city lying in the low -ground might have been destroyed by inundations, and to imagine that a -region so favourably situated for purposes of cultivation, and provided -with an elaborate system of irrigation, should have been repopulated in -a later age. And this is the explanation which I offer.[61] - -The practice of burying the dead above “the common crofts, the vulgar -thorpes,” is still observed by the Arabs. All their graves lie loftily -upon the nearest height, even if it should be only a mound by the river. -From my camp I watched one of their funeral processions making its slow -way from the village of Abu Kemâl towards some barren hills. Three or -four miles the dead man was carried across the desert to find his -resting-place among the graves of his ancestors, and no tribesman would -have been content to lay him at the village gates, like a Turk or a town -dweller. They carried him to the hills and so performed, as in the days -of the Irzî city, their final service. - -Fattûh and Selîm returned after nightfall, and reported the zaptieh -problem to be still unsolved. Even at Abu Kemâl there was but one man, -and we were forced once again to commandeer Muṣṭafâ, who saw himself -dragged further and - -[Illustration: FIG. 48.--IRZÎ, TOWER TOMB.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 49.--NAOURA OF ’AJMÎYEH.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 50.--THE INHABITANTS OF RAWÂ.] - -further from his home at Deir. We promised that he should return from -Ḳâyim with ’Abdullah, the zaptieh from Abu Kemâl, and Muṣṭafâ agreed -with alacrity to this arrangement. All zaptiehs of my acquaintance enjoy -travelling, with its contingent advantage of a regular daily fee from -the effendi whom they escort. But neither he nor ’Abdullah knew the way -along the left bank. “We have never heard of any one who wished to go by -this road, wallah!” Moreover, they stood in considerable fear of the -tribes whom we might encounter. I therefore engaged as guide ’Isâ, the -affable, ragged person who had conducted me to Irzî, but since we were -fully loaded with corn, we could not mount him and he marched smilingly -for seven hours through a temperature of 83° in the shade. We rode over -the Irzî bluffs and dropped by a steep and rocky path into the plain on -the farther side, between the hills and the meandering river. To the -right the village of Rabâṭ, with a long stretch of corn, lay near the -water’s edge, and though our path lay only through tamarisk thickets, -traces of numerous irrigation canals showed that the ground must once -have been under cultivation. The plain is known as the Ḳâ’at ed Deleim, -the land of the Deleim, and the tents of that tribe were to be seen on -the banks of the Euphrates. It did not take me long to discover that we -should reach Ḳâyim, or rather the point opposite to it, for it lies on -the right bank, in about five hours from Werdî, and my heart sank to -contemplate another long delay while we crossed and changed zaptiehs; -therefore I refused to go down to the Euphrates and cut straight across -a bend over high stony ground. So it happened that we never went near -Ḳâyim, and the two kidnapped zaptiehs were embarked before they knew it -on the road to ’Anah. We touched the river again seven hours from Werdî, -where we found an encampment of the Jerâif, and since we were completely -ignorant of what lay ahead, we pitched our tents there, opposite an -island which Kiepert calls Ninmala. I found it almost impossible to get -at any names for the numerous islands in these reaches of the Euphrates. -The generic word for them is khawîjeh, and they bear no other title in -the local speech. The Jerâif or Jerîfeh is a tribe which belongs -properly to the right bank, but a few tents had come over on account of -the terrible drought, there being always more pasture in the Jezîreh -than in the Shâmîyeh. They are usually, so ’Isa explained, gôm to his -tribe, the Bu Kemâl, but a truce had recently been patched up and he was -received as hospitably as any of us. - -There lies below ’Ânah and to the west of the Euphrates a region of -desert through which few travellers have passed. The track of Chesney’s -journey of 1857 skirts it to the west; Thielmann crossed it nearly forty -years later a little further to the east; Huber, following the Damascus -post-road, touched its northern edge. So said Kiepert, and with this -meagre information as a base I questioned that night the Arabs gathered -round Fattûḥ’s cooking fire as to the north-west corner of the Sasanian -Empire. Among them was an aged man who had been to Nejd, in Central -Arabia, and had brought back thence a bullet which was still lodged in -his cheek; he knew that country, and if I would give him a horse he -would take me to all the castles therein, Khubbâz, ’Amej, Themail, -Kheiḍir.... - -“Where is Kheiḍir?” said I, for the name was unknown to me or to -Kiepert. - -“Beyond Shetâteh,” answered a lean and ragged youth. “I too know it, -wallah!” - -“Is it large?” I asked. - -“It is a castle,” he replied vaguely, and one after another the men of -the Jerâif chimed in with descriptions of the road. The sum total of the -information offered by them seemed to be that water was scarce and raids -frequent, but there were certainly castles; yes, in the land of Fahd Beg -ibn Hudhdhâl, the great sheikh of the Amarât, there was Kheiḍir. I made -a mental note of the name. - -The region which we had now entered is particularly lawless. The -government makes no attempt to control the Bedouin, and according to -their custom they are occupied exclusively in raiding one another and in -harrying the outlying property of the inhabitants of Rawâ, the town -opposite to ’Ânah. In addition to the depredations of the local tribes, -the country is swept by armed bands of the Shammar from far away to the -east, and of the Yezîdis, whom the Mohammadans call Devil Worshippers, -from the Jebel Sinjâr. Accordingly when we asked for a guide, we were -told that there was no one who would come with us alone, lest he should -be attacked on his solitary return by blood enemies from half the world -away. We took with us, therefore, two horsemen, ’Affân, of the sheikhly -house, and Murawwaḥ, the one armed with a rifle and the other with a -rusty sword, and for the better part of the day we discussed the -observance of blood feud. The old man with the bullet in his cheek, who -was on his way to Baghdâd and proposed to travel with us as far as -possible, served as an illustration of the text. It had a purely -objective interest, for in spite of the fears exhibited by the Jerâif, -there was very small risk of our meeting with a foe; the season for -raiding is the summer, but the spring is a close time. ’Affân was -eloquent in describing the long rides across the desert in the burning -heat: “Lady, I have ridden four days with no water but what I could -carry; that was when we bore off cattle and mules from the Jebel -Sinjâr.” - -“Eh billah!” asseverated Murawwaḥ, and felt for the hilt of his rusty -sword. - -We had not gone far before my mare shied out of the path and there swung -up beside us a jovial personage mounted on a blood camel with his -serving-man clinging behind him. He proved to be a sheikh of the Amarât, -who are a branch of the ’Anazeh, and indeed he was own brother to Fahd -ibn Hudhdhâl. His appearance suited his high birth. He was wrapped in a -gold-bordered cloak, a fine silk kerchief was bound about his head, and -his feet were shod with scarlet leather boots; he was tall and well -liking, as are few but the great sheikhs among the half-fed Bedouin. He -related to me the business which had brought him so far from his own -people. One of the Jerâif had murdered a man of the Amarât, and the two -tribes being on friendly terms, Sheikh Jid’ân (such was his name) had -crossed the river to demand the summary execution of the murderer or the -payment of blood money. He was hunting the man down through the Jerâif -tents. - -“Shall you find him?” I asked. - -“Eh wah!” he affirmed and laughed over his task. - -Him too I questioned concerning Kheiḍir. “Go forward to ’Ânah,” he said, -“and there any man will take you to Kheiḍir. And if you come to my -tents, welcome and kinship.” So we parted. - -In thirty-five minutes from the camp we passed the mound of Balîjah with -Arab graves upon it; then for three hours we saw nothing of interest -until we came to the mazâr of Sultan ’Abdullah, a small modern shrine. -Somewhere near it are the ruins of Jabarîyeh, but they must lie closer -to the mazâr than Kiepert would have them. I rode on looking for them -for half-an-hour, and when I questioned ’Affân he replied: “Jebarîyeh? -It is under the mazâr. When you turned away I thought you did not wish -to see those ruins.” It was too hot to go back. We were now opposite -Ḳal’at Râfiḍah, a splendid pile upon the right bank of the Euphrates, -and here we left the caravan with Murawwaḥ to guide it and followed the -course of the river to Ḳal’at Bulâḳ, which the Arabs call Retâjah, an -hour and a quarter’s ride in blazing sun. We found there a small square -fort with round towers at the angles, the whole built of sun-dried -brick. Though it is in complete ruin, I believe it to be modern, -probably a Turkish ḳishlâ, but I saw some fragments of stone and mortar -building which are, at any rate, older than the mud fort, and the site -is so magnificent that it can scarcely have been neglected in ancient -times. The hill on which the ruins stand is all but converted into an -island by an abrupt turn of the river, which washes the precipitous rock -on three sides. The current is gradually undermining the high seat of -Retâjah and the greater part of the older stone building has fallen into -the stream. We had a hard gallop to catch up the caravan, and a long -pull over rocky ground before we sighted the river again, flowing in -wide and tranquil curves under the sunset. On either side the banks were -lined with naouras, the Persian water-wheels. The quiet air was full of -the rumble and grumble of them, a pleasant sound telling of green -fields and clover pastures, but there were no villages or any other sign -of man. As I looked, I knew that we had passed over an unseen frontier; -whether the geographers admitted it or no, this was Babylonia. - -We rode down wearily to the first naoura and there threw ourselves from -our horses. The river turned the wheel, the wheel lifted the water, the -water raced down the conduit and spread itself out over a patch of corn -and round the roots of a solitary palm-tree, and all happened as if it -were a part of the processes of nature, like the springing of the palm -tree and the swelling of the ears of corn. But it was nature in -leading-strings, and the lords of creation, in a very unassuming guise, -surged up from a hole in the ground roofed with palm fronds and bade us -welcome to their domain--two men and a little boy who watched over the -crops on behalf of a Rawâ merchant. The place has a name, ’Ajmîyeh, and -a history, if only I could have deciphered it in the cut stones and -fragments of wall which the river slowly washed bare and then washed -away. But the immediate present was of greater importance. Before the -moon was up, supper was spread by the naoura, and the watchmen, the boy, -the Arabs and the old man with the bullet were sharing with my servants -and zaptiehs an ample meal of rice. We had marched ten hours. - -In the morning I saw that quantities of pottery were washed out of the -bank together with the stones. Much of it was glazed with black upon the -inside, some was the usual coloured Mohammadan stuff, and there were -pieces of the big pointed jars, unglazed, which belong to every age. -Beyond the corn lay masses of similar potsherds; the river bank must -once have been strewn with small villages. When we had ridden for -half-an-hour we met three horsemen of the Jerâif, and ’Affân declared -that he would return with them to his tents, and as for Murawwaḥ he -might cross with us to ’Ânah and go home along the right bank. I had no -objection to raise, and as Murawwaḥ did not demur to the scheme ’Affân -was allowed to leave us. Murawwaḥ was a small man and a lean, mounted -on a half-starved mare, himself half starved, with naked feet, a ragged -cotton cloak thrown over his head to protect him from the sun, and a -rusty sword by his side to defend him from his enemies. We had struck up -a wordless friendship and now that ’Affân was gone we fell into talk. I -asked him whether he had heard of liberty. - -“Eh wah!” he answered, “but we know not what it means.” - -“It means to obey a just law,” said I, seeking for some didactic -definition. But Murawwaḥ knew nothing of obedience nor yet of just rule. - -The zaptieh ’Abdullah took up my word. “Oh Murawwaḥ,” said he, “when -there is liberty in this land, there will be no more raiding and the -Arabs will serve as soldiers.” - -“No wallah!” returned Murawwaḥ firmly. - -’Abdullah laughed. “Slowly, slowly,” he said, “the government will lay -hands on the desert, and the Arabs will be brought in, for they are all -thieves.” - -Murawwaḥ drew himself up on his hungry mare. “Thieves!” he cried. -“Thieves are dogs. How can you compare the Arabs with them? We will not -bow our heads to any government. To the Arabs belongs command.” And he -slashed the air defiantly with his tamarisk switch as he proclaimed the -liberties of the wilderness, the right of feud, the right of raid, the -right of revenge--the only liberty the desert knows. - -Three hours and a half from ’Ajmîyeh we stopped at a naoura, Natârîyeh, -to water our horses, and just beyond it we were overtaken by -half-a-dozen angry men from Rawâ, mounted and carrying rifles. The cause -of their ride and of their anger they were not slow to make known to us. -The watchman at their naoura had sent in word to Rawâ that the Deleim -had come down and were pasturing their mares in the corn. “And we went -to the Ḳâimmaḳâm and asked for soldiers to drive them off, and the -Ḳâimmaḳâm answered, ‘Go ask the Vâlî of Baghdâd, for I have none.’ As -God is exalted! there were but two soldiers in the ḳishlâ of Rawâ. And -we took our rifles and mounted our mares and rode out alone, and all -last night we hunted them through the desert until we were so far from -the river that we dared not go on. We are six men, look you, and the -Deleim are counted by thousands. So we returned, and a curse upon the -government that cannot protect our property, and may all Arabs burn in -hell!” - -At this point one of them perceived Murawwaḥ, who was riding in discreet -silence by my side. “Listen, you! dog son of a dog,” he cried. “We lay -out our capital and you take the interest; we sow and you gather the -harvest, yes, without reaping, and we may starve that you and your -accursed brothers may fatten. I have a mind to take you as hostage to -Rawâ and hold you till we get our due.” Murawwaḥ, though for a free -child of the desert he was unfortunately placed between zaptiehs and -angry citizens, was not alarmed by the threat. We had changed parts as -soon as we neared civilization, and he now edged nearer to me, knowing -that he was safe under my protection, but for which he would not have -ventured into Rawâ where there were too many reckonings scored up -against the tribes. - -We were not to escape without ourselves taking a lesson in the elements -of raiding. Half-an-hour or so from Natârîyeh, Jûsef came riding up from -the caravan, which was behind us, to ask if we had seen anything of the -donkey, the unrivalled donkey purchased in Aleppo, and to our -consternation we discovered that he was missing. There had been a few -Arabs at Natârîyeh, and while we were engaged in watering the baggage -animals, the donkey had strayed away to make acquaintance with some -low-born Bedouin donkeys and had remained behind. Fattûḥ and ’Abdullah -rode back and speedily found him (he was twice the size of the others), -but his pack saddle and other trappings were gone. Thereupon Fattûḥ, -like the merchants of Rawâ, took the law into his own hands, drove off -an Arab donkey together with our own, and declared that unless the Arabs -restored our property to us that night at ’Ânah he would sell theirs in -the open market and keep the money. Thus it was that we turned raiders -like every one else who lives in the desert. Fattûḥ caught me up two -and a half hours later opposite the island of Ḳarâbileh, where I had -stopped to lunch, and we sent Murawwaḥ back to reclaim the pack saddle, -bidding him join us at ’Ânah. He was exceedingly loth to obey this -order, saying that he dared not enter ’Ânah alone, and I never expected -to see him again, in spite of the fact that he had not received his -bakhshîsh. In another twenty minutes we were riding through the fruit -gardens and palm groves of Rawâ--the fruit-trees were all in flower, a -delectable sight for travellers in the wilderness. While the ferry-boats -were being brought up I climbed the hill to the modern citadel (Rawâ, so -far as I am aware, has no ancient history) and thence looked down upon -the long thin line of ’Ânah, houses and palm-trees folded between the -hills and the river, and afar the island that was ancient Anatho, -floating upon the broad waters. The population of Rawâ swarmed up the -hill after me, watching my every movement with strained attention, and -before we were fairly embarked I registered a vow that no caravan of -mine should ever again pass through the town, so exasperating it is to -find two hundred people in your path whichever way you would turn (Fig. -50). When once we had crossed the river we fell into a merciful -obscurity; the post-road runs through ’Ânah, and it matters not a para -to anybody but the khânjî whether one European more or less comes down -it. The khânjî, a friend of Fattûḥ’s, was unfeignedly glad to see us, -and his khân looked good, but better still the patch of ground behind -that stretched down to the water’s edge. Here with the consent of mine -host we pitched our tents, in full view of an exquisite little island, -green with corn and shaded by palm-trees; and whatever love you bear the -desert there can be no doubt that green growing things are pleasant to -the eye, and that the spirit rests comfortably upon the assurance that a -good dinner, not tinned curry, will shortly be forthcoming. Just as it -was ready, behold Murawwaḥ, obedient to the call of hunger--minus his -sword indeed, for he had left it in pawn to the ferryman, but bringing -with him the owner of the donkey we stole, together with the goods that -had been stolen from us. And every one came to his own again. But the -episode has never faded from Fattûḥ’s memory, and in the hour of -reminiscence he is wont to say, “Your Excellency remembers how we raided -the Arabs? May God be exalted! We have travelled much in the desert, and -the only raid we ever saw was one of our own making.” - -There was another arrival at our camp that night. Late in the evening -Jûsef inquired whether I would receive a soldier, and thinking it was -to-morrow’s zaptieh, I consented. A grizzled man appeared at the tent -door and sat down on his heels. - -“Peace be upon you,” said he. - -“And upon you peace,” I answered. - -“Effendim,” he said, “I am a man advancing in years.” He made the -gesture of one who strokes a venerable beard, although his chin was -bare. “And for long I have prayed for a son. Praise be to God, this -night God has granted my request.” - -“Praise be to God,” said I. - -“God give you the reward,” he rejoined. “Effendim, in honour of this -exceptional occasion, will you kindly help with the expenses?” - -Now it happened somewhere about the year 1300 B.C. that Hattusil, King -of the Hittites, wrote to the King of Babylon, and among other matters -of international interest, he observed that the reason for the -interruption of diplomatic relations with the court of Babylonia was the -uncertainty of travel caused by the movements of the Bedouin. No other -consideration, he said, should have prevented him from dispatching his -ambassador to the son of so excellent a father. The conditions described -in Hattusil’s letter hold good until to-day. The Bedouin are still -masters of the desert road, and established order is helpless before the -lawless independence of the tribes. The truth is that nomad life and -civilization are incompatible terms: the peaceful cultivator and the -merchant cannot exist side by side with the sheikh, and either the -settled population must drive the Bedouin from out their borders, or the -Bedouin will put progress and the accumulation of wealth beyond the -power of the most industrious. Until we drew near to ’Ânah, our road -had led us through regions which the Arabs hold in undisturbed -possession. No caravans pass down the east bank of the Euphrates; no -towns are built there; save for the spasmodic labours of the half -settled tribes, no fields are cultivated. But with the first naoura of -the Rawâ townsmen the conditions were altered, and when we crossed the -river we plunged into the struggle that has been waged for all time -between the nomad and the State. For four days we followed the high road -to Baghdâd--unwillingly enough, since I was ever looking for a door into -the Syrian desert--and I had opportunity to study the oldest problem of -government. - -The town of ’Ânah has been lengthening steadily ever since the sixteenth -century, for Rauwolff says that it is one hour long, and della Valle -two, and I know that it is three. But it was and remains a single street -wide, a Babylonish mud-built thoroughfare, green with palms, murmurous -with naouras and lapped by the swift current of the Euphrates (Fig. 51). -From the hilltop of Rawâ I had already caught sight of the only vestiges -of antiquity that ’Ânah can boast, the ruined castle and tall minaret -upon the island of Lubbâd at the lower end of the town. Here stood the -fortress which, “like many others in that country, is surrounded by the -Euphrates.”[62] Julian, seeing the difficulties of a siege, came to -terms with the inhabitants, who surrendered to him and were treated with -all kindness. But the fortress he burnt. I was determined not to leave -’Ânah without visiting the island, and having settled with Fattûḥ the -length of the day’s march, I left him to buy provisions and load the -caravan, and rode down to a ferry opposite the island. The boat was -commonly used to transport stones from the castle, and when we arrived -it was in course of being loaded on the other side. Much shouting at -length attracted the attention of the ferryman, and we went into a -neighbouring coffee-house to await his coming. A party of citizens had -gathered together over the morning cup; we joined the circle and shared -in the coffee and the - -[Illustration: FIG. 51.--’ÂNAH FROM THE ISLAND OF LUBBÂD.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 52.--’ÂNAH, A FISHERMAN.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 53.--HÎT, PITCH-SPRING.] - -talk. The men in the coffee-house entertained no hope that the -constitutional or any other government would succeed in establishing -order. - -“Ever since the days of the Benî Ghassân,” said one (and I could have -added “ever since the days of the Hittites”), “the Arabs have ravaged -the land, and who shall stop them? The government does nothing and we -can do nothing. We have no power and all of us are poor.” - -“In the last six years,” said another, “we have had fourteen Ḳâimmaḳâms -at ’Ânah. Not one of these gave a thought to the prosperity of the town, -but he extorted what money he could before he was removed.” - -“There is a new Ḳâimmaḳâm on his way here,” I observed. - -“True,” he replied. “When the telegram came last summer telling of -liberty and equality, the people assembled before the serâyah, the -government house, and bade the Ḳâimmaḳâm begone, for they would govern -themselves. Thereat came orders from Baghdâd that the people must be -dispersed; and the soldiers fired upon them, killing six men. And we do -not know what the telegram about liberty and brotherhood can have meant, -but at least the Ḳâimmaḳâm was dismissed.” - -My zaptieh broke in here. “Effendim,” said he, “it fell out once that I -was in Bombay--yes, I was sent from Baṣrah with horses for one of the -kings of India. And there I saw a poor man whose passport had been -stolen from him, and he carried his complaint to the judge. Now the -judge was of the English, and he fined the thief and cut off two of his -fingers. That is government; in India the poor are protected.” - -“Allah!” said one of the coffee-drinkers in undisguised admiration. - -I knew better than to question the validity of the anecdote, and, with -what modesty I could assume, I accepted the credit that accrued from it. - -“But even the English,” pursued another, “cannot hold the tribes. -Effendim, have the Afghans submitted to you? Wallah, no.” - -He had laid his finger upon a knotty point, and I took up the question -from a different side. - -“Have not you men of ’Ânah sent a deputy to the mejlis?” I asked. - -“Eh wallah!” they answered. - -“Let him make known in Constantinople the evils under which you suffer, -that the government may seek for a remedy.” - -The suggestion was received in silent perplexity. - -“For what purpose did you pay the deputy to go to Stambûl?” I pursued. - -“The order came,” replied one of my interlocutors. “We do not know why -the deputy was sent. Doubtless he has his own business in Stambûl and he -is not concerned with ’Ânah.” - -“His business is yours,” I said; “and if he will not see to it, at the -next election you must choose a better man.” - -“Will there be another election?” said they, and I found all ’Ânah to be -under the impression that their representative held a life appointment. - -The island is a little paradise of fruit-trees, palms and corn, in the -middle of which is a village of some thirty houses built in the -heaped-up ruins of the castle. From among the houses springs a tall and -beautiful minaret, octagonal in plan (Fig. 56). Its height is broken by -eight rows of niches, each face of the octagon bearing in alternate -storeys a double and single niche, all terminating in the cusped arch -which is employed at Raḳḳah. Some of the niches are pierced with windows -to light the winding stair. The tower rises yet another two storeys, but -the upper part is of narrower diameter, and the windows and niches are -covered with plain round arches. At the northern end of the island the -walls and round bastions of the fortress stand in part, but they are not -very ancient. Ibn Khurdâdhbeh, who is the first of the Mohammadan -geographers to mention ’Ânah, says only that it is a small town on an -island;[63] in Abu’l Fidâ’s time it was still confined to the -island;[64] Rauwolff (1564) notices the town on the island and the town -on the right bank;[65] Yâḳût (1225) speaks of the castle, but the walls -which I saw cannot be as old as his day. The minaret may belong to a -different period, and de Beylié places it in the earliest centuries of -Islâm.[66] I think that there was probably a fortress on the island long -before the first written record which has come down to us, but I was -close upon a generation too late to see the remains of it. From two -informants in ’Ânah I heard that there had been big stone slabs at the -northern end of the island “with figures of men upon them and a writing -like nails,” but they had fallen into the water within the memory of the -older inhabitants and had been washed away or covered by the stream. -This tale of cuneiform inscriptions would not in itself be worth much, -but while I was examining the minaret, a villager brought me a fragment -of stone covered with carving in relief which was unmistakably Assyrian. -I asked him whence it came, and he replied that it had formed part of a -big stone picture which had fallen into the river. I bought from him a -broken bowl inscribed with Jewish incantations of the well-known -type.[67] - -The island was once connected with both banks by bridges. There are some -traces of the section that led across to the Jezîreh, and many piers of -the Shâmîyeh bridge stand in the river. Though these piers no longer -serve the purpose for which they were intended, they are still put to -use, for the inhabitants of the island spread nets between them, and the -fish swimming down with the current are entangled in the meshes and so -caught (Fig. 52). We pulled up one of the nets as we passed, and it -produced two large fish which I bought for a few pence. It is curious -that the Bedouin neglect the ample supply of food with which the river -would furnish them; in spite of frequent inquiries we had never found -fish in their tents. - -Just below the houses of ’Ânah on the Shâmîyeh bank there were mounds -by the river from which, said my zaptieh, the people get antîcas after -rain, and sometimes small gold ornaments are washed out of them. On the -opposite bank I could see ruins for a distance of an hour’s ride from -’Ânah; they ended at a big mound called Tell Abu Thor, which appeared to -be a natural outcrop of the rock, though there were many small, -seemingly artificial, mounds about it.[68] An hour and a half from ’Ânah -we passed another rocky hill, also called Tell Abu Thor, but I could see -no traces of ruins round it. From the summit of the tell there was a -fine view of the little fortified island of Tilbês, the island castle of -Thilutha, whose inhabitants refused to surrender to Julian. I could see -the bastions of masonry on the upper end of the island, together with -the ruins of a castle on the Jezîreh bank, and if there had been any -possibility of crossing the river I should have gone down to it; but -there was no ferry nearer than ’Ânah. I did not follow the winding -course of the Euphrates from ’Ânah to Hît. Many of the ruins marked in -Chesney’s map deserve a careful survey, but my mind was now set upon -another matter, and we rode on from stage to stage hoping each day that -the next would provide us with a guide into the western desert. My -zaptieh, Muḥammad, lent a sympathetic ear to the scheme which I -developed to him as we rode. The arm of the law, weak enough on the -Euphrates, does not reach into the wilderness, and his duties had taken -him but a little way west of the road; the main difficulty to be -encountered was the lack of water, a difficulty much enhanced by the -drought. - -“God send us rain!” he sighed. “Effendim, at this time of the year I am -used to stay my mare at such places as these” (he pointed to the hollows -in the barren ground), “and while I smoke a cigarette she will have -eaten her fill of grass. But this year there is no spring herbage, and -in the season of the rains, forty days have passed without rain. All the -waterpools in the Shâmîyeh are exhausted, and the Arabs are crossing to -the Jezîreh lest they die, for their flocks can give no milk.” - -Presently we met a train of thirsty immigrants driving their goats to -the Euphrates. Muḥammad called to them and asked if they would give us a -cup of leben, sour milk. A half-starved girl shouted back in answer: - -“If we had leben we should not be crossing to the Jezîreh.” - -“God help you! ” cried Muḥammad. “Cross in the peace of God.” - -A little further we passed through a number of newly-made graves, -scattered thickly on either side of the road. “They are graves of the -Deleim,” said Muḥammad. “A year ago a bitter quarrel arose within the -tribe, and here they fought together and seventy men were slain. They -buried them where they fell, the one party on one side of the road, and -the other on the other side.” - -We travelled fast and in five hours from ’Ânah came down to the river at -Fḥemeh, where we found our tents pitched near a ḳishlâ. The guardhouse -is the only building here, the village of Fḥemeh being in the Jezîreh -about half-an-hour up stream. About the same distance lower down lies -the island of Kuro, which is perhaps Julian’s Akhaya Kala, but I saw it -only from afar and do not know whether there are still ruins upon it. We -had parted at ’Ânah from Cyrus and from Julian; they marched with their -armies down the Jezîreh bank, and our road lost much of its charm in -losing the shadowy pageants of their advance. - -We were tormented during the next three days by an intolerable east -wind. It blew from sunrise to sunset, and, for aught we could tell, it -might have issued from the mouth of a furnace, so scorching was its -dust-laden breath. I heard of ruins at Sûs, a place where the Jerâif own -cornfields; but it lay at the head of a peninsula formed by a great bend -of the stream, and I had no heart to go so far out of the way.[69] We -reached Ḥadîthah in six hours from Fḥemeh and camped there, partly -because we were weary of the wind and dust, and partly because Muḥammad -had advised me to seek there for a guide into the desert. The nearer we -came to that adventure, the more formidable did it appear, and I was -beginning to realize that it would be folly to take a caravan across the -parched and stony waste, and to revolve plans for sending the muleteers -to Kerbelâ and taking only Fattûḥ with me to Kheiḍir. At Ḥadîthah we met -an aged corporal, who declared that nothing would be easier than to go -straight thence to Ḳaṣr ’Amej, and for water we should find every night -a pool of winter rain. He had crossed the desert two years ago and there -had been no lack of water. - -“But this year there has been no rain,” I objected; “and all the Arabs -are coming down to the river because of the great drought. Where, then, -shall we find the pools?” - -“God knows,” he answered piously, and I put an end to the discussion and -turned my attention to the ruins of Ḥadîthah. - -The village, like all the villages in these parts, lies mainly upon an -island, though a small modern suburb has sprung up upon the right bank. -At the upper end of the island are the ruins of a castle, not unlike the -ruins at ’Ânah. A bridge had been thrown over both arms of the river, -and a straight causeway across the island had connected the two parts. -Needless to say, the bridge has fallen. Still more remarkable, and quite -unexpected, was a large area of ruins some way inland on the Shâmîyeh -side, hidden from the river village by a ridge of high ground. It must -have been the site of a big town. In one place I saw four columns lying -upon the ground, no doubt pre-Mohammadan, though upon one of them were -four lines of a much-defaced Arabic inscription of which I could read -only a few words.[70] Nearer to the river, and visible from it, are a -number of small mazârs, remarkable only because their pointed dome-like -roofs show the same construction that is to be seen in the famous tomb -of the Sitt Zobeideh at Baghdâd. - -From ’Ânah the river landscape is exceedingly monotonous: a few naouras -and a patch or two of cultivation, each with its farmhouse, a small -domestic mud fortress with a tower; an occasional village set in a grove -of palm-trees on an island in midstream. The houses were of sun-dried -brick, the walls sloping slightly inwards, and crowned with a low mud -battlement--line for line a copy of their prototypes on the Assyrian -reliefs. This world, which was already sufficiently dreary, was rendered -unspeakably hideous by the east wind. River, sky and mud-built houses -showed the universal dun colour of the desert, and even the palm-trees -turned a sickly hue, their fronds dishevelled by the blast and steeped -in dust. - -An hour and a half from Ḥadîthah we crossed the Wâdî Ḥajlân, in which -there is a brackish spring. Just opposite its mouth are the remains of a -castle on an island, Abu Sa’îd, but the greater part of the island, and -with it the castle, has been carried away by the stream. Below it is the -palm-covered island of Berwân. Twenty minutes further we passed over a -dry valley, Wâdî Fâḍîyeh, where I left the high road and crossed the -desert to Alûs, which we reached in an hour and forty minutes. Kiepert, -following Chesney, calls it Al’ Uzz, but I doubt whether this spelling -can be justified; the Arab geographers knew it as Alûs or Alûsah, and -the name has not changed until this day. The village stands on an -island, but there is also a ruined castle on the right bank of the -river. We rode straight from Alûs to Jibbeh in two hours, though the -zaptiehs reckon it three for a caravan. There was nothing to encourage -us to loiter, inasmuch as our path lay over a horrible wilderness, -stony, waterless and devoid of any growing thing. Rather more than -half-way across we came to the ’Uglet Ḥaurân, a valley which is said to -have its source in the Ḥaurân mountains south of Damascus. At the point -where we crossed it, it was dry, but my zaptieh told me that there were -springs higher up and that in wet years the water will flow down it from -the Ḥaurân to the Euphrates. The wind was so strong that I could not row -over to the village which stands on the island of Jibbeh, though I was -tempted by the tall round minaret that rises from among the palm-trees. -As far as I could see through my glasses, it bears an inscription on its -summit and a brick dog-tooth cornice. On the Jezîreh bank there is a -large and well-preserved fortress. We reached the solitary khân of -Baghdâdî a few minutes later; the caravan was there before us, having -accomplished what is reckoned to be a nine-hours’ stage in eight hours -sixteen minutes. The village of Baghdâdî is an hour’s march lower down, -and the khân by which we camped was only four months old; “Before that,” -said Fattûḥ, “we used to sleep under the sky, and there was no one but -us and the jackals.” I had heard that Fadh Beg Ibn Hudhdhâl had a garden -at Baghdâdî, and I cherished a hope that we might meet there one of his -family who would help us on the way to Kheiḍir; but when we passed by -the garden a solitary negro was in charge, and as the palms were not yet -three feet high, I could not blame Fadh Beg for not having elected to -dwell among them. There was nothing to be done but to ride on to -Hît.[71] - -From Baghdâdî the road climbs up into the barren hills. It is no better -than a staircase cut out of the rock, and Fattûḥ admitted that carriage -driving is not an easy matter here. He added that the stage from -Baghdâdî to Hît is less secure than any other, by reason of its being -infested by the Deleim who exact a toll from unguarded caravans. We had -found two zaptiehs at the khân and had taken one on with us when we sent -the Ḥadîthah man back, leaving the khân protected by a single zaptieh, -so limited is the number of soldiers posted along the road. If you are -not a person of sufficient consequence to claim an escort, you must wait -until a body of travellers shall have collected at Baghdâd or Aleppo, as -the case may be, and set forth in their company, since it is not safe -to venture singly over the Sultan’s highroad. We met that morning a -large caravan of people driving, riding in panniers, and walking. No -matter what their degree, all wore the singularly abandoned aspect to -which only the Oriental on a journey can attain, and the shapelessness -of their baggage enhanced their personal disqualifications. About -half-an-hour after the caravan had passed, we came upon five or six -ragged peasants, who stopped us and lifted their voices in lamentation. -They had been held up by five Deleimîs in the valley below; their cloaks -had been taken from them, and the bread that was to have sufficed them -till they reached ’Ânah: “We are poor men,” they wailed. “God curse -those who rob the poor!” - -“God curse all the Deleim!” cried Fattûḥ. “Why did you linger behind the -caravan in this part of the road?” - -“We were weary and one of us had fallen lame,” they explained. “But have -a care when you reach the valley bottom; five men with rifles are -lurking among the sand-hills.” - -Their tale filled me with a futile anger, so that I desired nothing so -much as to catch and punish the thieves, and without waiting to consider -whether this lay within our power, I galloped on in the direction -indicated by the peasants, with Fattûḥ, Jûsef and the zaptiehs at my -heels. We were all armed and had nothing to fear from five robbers. The -valley was a sandy depression with a sulphur stream running through it. -We searched the sand-hills without success, but when we came down to the -Euphrates, there were five armed men strolling unconcernedly along the -bank as though they would take the air. Now, you do not wander with a -rifle in your hand in unfrequented parts of the Euphrates’ bank for any -good purpose, and we were persuaded that these black-browed Arabs were -the five we sought. Probably they had intended to reap a larger harvest, -but finding the caravan too numerous they had contented themselves with -the stragglers. Unfortunately we had no proof against them: the bread -was eaten and the cloaks secreted among the stones, and though we spent -some minutes in heaping curses upon them, we could take no steps of a -more practical kind. The zaptieh, for his part, was in an agony of -nervous anxiety lest we should propose to relieve them of their rifles. -He looked forward to a return journey alone to Baghdâdî, and it is not -good for a solitary man to have an outstanding quarrel with the Deleim. -Finally I realized that we were wasting breath in useless bluster and -called Fattûḥ away. If we were to concern ourselves with the catching of -thieves, we might as well abandon all other pursuits in Turkey. - -The town of Hît stands upon an ancient mound washed by the Euphrates -(Fig. 54). Among the palm-trees at the river’s edge rise columns of inky -smoke from the primitive furnaces of the asphalt burners, for the place -is surrounded by wells of bitumen, famous ever since the days when -Babylon was a great city.[72] Heaps of rubbish and cinders strew the -sulphur marshes to the north of the town, and a blinding dust-storm was -stirring up the whole devil’s cauldron when we arrived. It was -impossible to camp and we took refuge in the khân, where we were so -fortunate as to meet with an English traveller on his way back from -India, the first European whom I had seen since we left Aleppo. The -dust-storm rose yet higher towards evening, and though we closed the -shutters of the khân--there was no glass in the windows--the sand blew -in merrily through the chinks, and we ate a gritty supper in a -temperature of ninety-three degrees. - -Hît was the last possible starting-point for the Syrian desert, and no -sooner had we arrived than I summoned Fattûḥ and presented him with an -ultimatum. We had failed to get any but the most contradictory reports -of wells upon the road to Kheiḍir and I would not expose the caravan to -such uncertain chances, but if we went alone we could carry enough water -for our needs. It only remained to dispatch - -[Illustration: FIG. 54.--HÎT.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 55.--HÎT, THE SULPHUR MARSHES.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 56.--MINARET ON ISLAND OF LUBBÂD.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 57.--MINARET AT MA’MÛREH.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 59.--MADLÛBEH.] - -the muleteers along the highway and to find a guide for ourselves. - -“Upon my head!” said Fattûḥ blandly. “Three guides wish to accompany -your Excellency.” - -“Praise be to God,” said I. “Bid them enter.” - -“It would be well to see each separately,” observed Fattûḥ, “for they do -not love one another.” - -We interviewed them one by one, with an elaborate show of secrecy, and -each in turn spent his time in warning us against the other two. Upon -these negative credentials I had to come to a decision, and I made my -choice feeling that I might as logically have tossed up a piastre. It -fell upon a man of the Deleim, a tribe to whom we were not well -disposed, but since the country through which we were to pass was mainly -occupied by their tents, it seemed wiser to take a guide who claimed -cousinship with their sheikhs. He was to find an escort of five armed -horsemen and to bring us to Kheiḍir in return for a handsome reward, but -we undertook to engage our own baggage camels. One of the drawbacks to -this arrangement was that no camels were to be got at Hît, and I felt -the more persuaded that we had struck a bad bargain when Nâif came back -and said: - -“How do I know that you will keep your word? Perhaps to-morrow you will -choose another guide.” - -“The English have but one word,” said I; it is a principle that should -never be abandoned in the East. We struck hands upon it and Nâif left us -“in the peace of God.” - -Fattûḥ needed a day to complete his preparations, and I to see the pitch -wells of Hît which lie some distance from the town. I did not see them -all, but from the accounts I heard they would appear to be five in -number. The largest is called the Marj (the Meadow); it is an hour and a -quarter north-east of Hît and is said to be inexhaustible. The pitch is -better in quality here than elsewhere, and the peasants can, when they -choose, get 2,000 donkey-loads from it daily. The next in importance is -at Ma’mûreh, but it is not worked. The pitch flows out over the desert -and dries into an asphalt pavement about half-a-mile square. Further -south is a small spring, Lteif, from which they get twenty loads a day, -and near the town there is a fourth well which yields fifty loads a day -(Fig. 53). The fifth well is on the other side of the Euphrates, at -’Atâ’ut; the average yield from it is twenty loads a day. - -Near the asphalt beds of Ma’mûreh, about an hour south-west of Hît, lie -the ruins of a village clustered round a minaret (Fig. 57). All the -buildings were constructed of small unsquared stones set in mortar; the -minaret was plastered on the outside and seemed to have been built of -large blocks of stone and mortar, firmly welded together before they had -been placed in position. The round tower, narrowing upwards and -decorated at the top with a zigzag ornament, was placed upon a low -octagonal structure which in turn rested upon a square base (Fig. 58). I -climbed the winding stair that I might survey the country through which -Nâif was to take us. It was incredibly desolate, empty of tent or -village save where to the west the palm-groves of Kebeisah made a black -splash upon the glaring earth. The heavy smoke of the pitch fires hung -round Hît, and the sulphur marshes shone leprous under the sun--a -malignant landscape that could not be redeemed by the little shrines -which were scattered like propitiatory invocations among the gleaming -salts. - -[Illustration: FIG. 58.--MA’MÛREH, MINARET.] - -About a mile from Ma’mûreh there is a still more remarkable ruin known -as Madlûbeh. It is a large, irregularly shaped area marked off from the -desert by heaps of stones half buried in sand. Standing among these -heaps, and no doubt in their original position, there are a number of -large monolithic slabs placed as if they were intended to form a wall -(Fig. 59). Many of these must have fallen and been covered with the sand -if the enclosure were at any time continuous, and perhaps the heaps are -composed partly of buried slabs. Two stand in line with a narrow space -between like a door (one of them was 5 m. long × 1·3 m. thick, and it -stood 2 m. out of the ground); in another there was a small rectangular -cutting that suggested a window-hole on the upper edge (it was 10 m. -long × 1·3 m. thick, and stood about 3 m. out of the ground). The stones -were carefully dressed on all sides. They may have formed the lower part -of a wall of which the upper part was of sun-dried brick or rubble, but -at what age they were placed in those wilds a cursory survey would not -reveal. - -When I returned to the khân, Fattûḥ greeted me with the intelligence -that the Deleimî had broken his engagement. Nâif admitted that for -ordinary risks the money we had offered would have been sufficient, but -Kheiḍir lay in the land of his blood enemies, the Benî Ḥassan, and he -would not go. Perhaps he hoped to force us to a more liberal proposal, -but in this he was disappointed. A bargain is a bargain, and we fell -back upon my boast that the English have but one word. In this dilemma -Fattûḥ suggested that he should see what could be done with the Mudîr, -and having a lively confidence in Fattûḥ’s diplomacy, I entrusted him -with my passports and papers, of which I kept a varied store, and gave -him plenipotentiary powers. He returned triumphant. - -“Effendim,” said he, “that Mudîr is a man.” This is ever the highest -praise that Fattûḥ can bestow, and my experience does not lead me to -cavil at it. “When he had read your buyuruldehs he laid them upon his -forehead and said, ‘It is my duty to do all that the effendi wishes.’ I -told him,” interpolated Fattûḥ, “that you were a consul in your own -country. He will give you a zaptieh to take you to Kebeisah, and if you -command, the zaptieh shall go with you to Ḳal’at Khubbâz, returning -afterwards to Hît. And it cannot be that we shall fail to find a guide -and camels at Kebeisah, which is a palm-grove in the desert; for all the -dwellers in it know the way to Kheiḍir. As for the caravan, another -zaptieh will take it to Baghdâd.” - -“Aferîn!” said I. “There is none like you, oh Fattûḥ.” - -“God forbid!” replied Fattûḥ modestly. “And now,” he proceeded, “let me -bring your Excellency an omelet, for I am sure that you must be hungry.” -But I understood this exaggerated solicitude to be no more than a covert -slur upon the culinary powers of Mr. X.’s servant, who had provided us -with an abundant lunch during Fattûḥ’s absence, and not even so -voracious a consul as I could face a second meal. Fattûḥ retired in some -displeasure to inform the muleteers that they would journey to Baghdâd -and Kerbelâ and there rejoin us, please God. - -We explored the village of Hît before nightfall, and a more malodorous -little dirty spot I hope I may never see. “Why,” says the poet, -concerning some unknown wayfarer, “did he not halt that night at Hît?” -and it is strange that Ibn Khurdâdhbeh, who quotes the question, should -have been at a loss for the answer. Possibly he had no personal -knowledge of Hît. On the top of the hill there is a round minaret, -similar in construction to the minaret of Ma’mûreh, but I saw no other -feature of interest. The sun was setting as we came down to the -palm-groves by the river. The fires under the troughs of molten bitumen -sent up their black smoke columns between the trees (Fig. 60); -half-naked Arabs fed the flames with the same bitumen, and the Euphrates -bore along the product of their labours as it had done for the -Babylonians before them. So it must have looked, this strange factory -under the palm-trees, for the last 5,000 years, and all the generations -of Hît have not altered by a shade the processes taught them by their -first forefathers. - - - - -THE PARTHIAN STATIONS OF ISIDORUS OF CHARAX - - -The only modern record of the road along the left bank of the Euphrates -from Raḳḳah to Deir is the rather meagre account given by Sachau; Moritz -travelled down the left bank from Deir to Buseirah, but I know of no -published description of the road from Buseirah to ’Ânah. It has not - -[Illustration: FIG. 60.--HÎT, THE BITUMEN FURNACES.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 61.--THE EUPHRATES AT HÎT.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 62.--THE WELL AT KEBEISAH.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 63.--’AIN ZA’ZU.] - -therefore been possible hitherto to attempt to place in any continuous -sequence the sites given by ancient authorities. Of these the fullest -list is that of the Parthian stations furnished by Isidorus of Charax -(_Geographi Græci Minores_, ed. by Müller, Vol. I. p. 244). It begins -with the fixed point of Nicephorium (Raḳḳah) and ends with another fixed -point, that of Anatho (’Ânah). Between these two lies Nabagath on the -Aburas. The Aburas may safely be assumed to indicate the Khâbûr, and -Nabagath is therefore Circesium-Buseirah. The following comparative -table shows my suggestions for the remaining stations, combined with -those which have already been made by Ritter and others. The times given -are the rate of travel of my caravan; between Raḳḳah and Deir I had the -advantage of comparing them with Sachau’s time-table. No two caravans -travel over any given distance at exactly the same pace, but the general -average works out without any grave discrepancy. I have often tried to -reckon the speed at which my caravan travels and have come to the -conclusion that it is very little under three miles an hour, say about -two and seven-eighths miles an hour. Isidorus computes his distances by -the schœnus. According to Moritz 1 schœnus = 5·5 kilometres. From -Buseirah to ’Ânah I travelled over Isidorus’s road at the rate of 1 -schœnus in 1 hr. 7 min., which would bring the schœnus down to 5·166 -kilometres. The section from Raḳḳah to Buseirah is not so easy to -calculate because Isidorus has in two places omitted to give the exact -distance between the stations, but my rate of travel was not far -different here from that noted in the other sections. So much for the -average. The individual distances do not tally so exactly, and in -attempting to determine the sites, the evidence that can be gathered -from the country itself seems to me to weigh heavier in the scale than -the measurements given by Isidorus, especially as his inexactitude is -proved by the fact that the sum of the distances he allows from station -to station do not coincide with the total distances, from the Zeugma -(Birejik) to Seleucia, and from Phaliga to Seleucia, as he states them. -In both cases the sum of the small distances comes to a larger figure -than that which he allows for the totals-- - - Zeugma to Seleucia 171 sch. - -total of distances between stations 174 sch., without the two omitted by -him. - - Phaliga to Seleucia 100 sch. - -total of distances between stations 120 sch. without one omitted by him. - -As regards the second section, Kiepert believed that a copyist’s error -of 10 sch. too much had been made in Isidorus’s table between -Izannesopolis and Aeipolis (the modern Hît), but even this correction -will not bring the totals together (Ritter, Vol. XI. p. 738). The road -from the Zeugma to Nicephorium does not follow the river, and I am -therefore unable to control the statements of Isidorus above Raḳḳah; nor -do I know the section between Hît and Seleucia. I need scarcely say that -my table is of the most tentative character; it begins with the ninth -station of Isidorus, Nicephorium. - - * * * * * - -The first remarkable site which I saw on the river below Raḳḳah was the -large area surrounded by a ditch, half-an-hour above my camping-ground. -Isidorus’s tenth station from Zeugma is Galabatha. Ritter (Vol. XI. p. -687) observes that it must be above Abu Sa’îd, and the area enclosed by -the ditch fulfils that condition. The eleventh station is Khubana which -I put at Abu Sa’îd, where there are fragments of columns and other -evidences of antiquity. The twelfth station is Thillada Mirrhada; I have -placed it at Khmeiḍah (squared stones, brick walls, a broken -sarcophagus), but the claims of Abu ’Atîḳ are considerable, the extent -of the ruin field at the latter place being much larger than at -Khmeiḍah. But Abu ’Atîḳ is 7 hrs. 5 min. from Abu Sa’îd, and the caravan -time between Khmeiḍah and Abu Sa’îd (6 hrs. 5 min.) is already rather -long for the 4 sch. allowed by Isidorus. The thirteenth station is -Basilia with Semiramidis Fossa. Ritter long ago pointed to the -probability of its having been situated at Zelebîyeh (Vol. XI. p. 687). - - - -----------------------------+-----------+---------------+------- - Isidorus | | | - --------------+--------------+ Schœni | Modern Sites | Time - Stations | Description | | | - --------------+--------------+-----------+---------------+------- - | | | | hrs. - | | | | min. - --------------+--------------+-----------+---------------+------- - 9. | Greek town | -- | Raḳḳah | -- - Nicephorium | founded by | | | - | Alexander | | | - 10. | Deserted | 4 | Ditch | 6 15 - Galabatha | village | | | - 11. Khubana | Village | 1 | Abu Sa’îd | 1 30 - 12. | | | | - Thillada | Royal | 4 | Khmeiḍah | 6 5 - Mirrhada | station | | | - 13. Basilia | Temple of | | | - | Artemis | ? | Zelebîyeh | 3 40 - | built by | | | - | Darius, | | | - | village | | | - | surrounded | | | - | by wall | | | - Semiramidis | Euphrates | | | - Fossa | dam | | | - 14. Allan | Walled | 4 | Umm Rejeibah | 3 - | village | | | - 15. Biunan | Temple of | 4 | Near Deir | 6 - | Artemis | | | - 16. Phaliga | Village | 6 | ? | -- - 17. | Walled | Near | | - Nabagath | village on | Phaliga | Buseirah | 7 - | Aburas | | | - 18. Asikha | Village | 4 | Jemmah | 5 10 - 19. Dura | Town founded | 6 | Abu’l | 8 20 - Nicanoris | by | | Ḥassan | - | Macedonians, | | | - | called | | | - | Europus by | | | - | Greeks | | | - 20. Merrhan | Castle and | 5 | Irzî | 6 30 - | walled | | | - | village | | | - 21. Giddan | Town | 5 | Jabarîyeh? | -- - 22. | -- | 7 | Ḳal’at | 9 25 - Belisibiblada | | | Bulâḳ | - 23. Island | -- | 6 | Ḳarâbileh? | -- - 24. Anatho | Island | 4 | Lubbâd, | 11 50 - | | | island | - | | | opposite | - | | | ’Ânah | - 25. Olabus | Island, | 12 | Ḥadîthah | 12 - | Parthian | | | - | treasure- | | | - | house | | | - 26. | -- | 12 | Chesney’s | -- - Izannesopolis | | | Ḳaṣr | - | | | | - 27. Aeipolis | Bitumen | 16 | Hît | 17 30 - | wells | (6?) | | - - - - - - -----------------------------+-------------+-------------+ - Isidorus | | | - --------------+--------------| Xenophon | Pliny | - Stations | Description | | | - --------------+--------------+-------------+-------------+ - | | | | - | | | | - --------------+--------------+-------------+-------------+ - 9. | Greek town | -- | Nicephorium - Nicephorium | founded by | | | - | Alexander | | | - 10. | Deserted | -- | -- | - Galabatha | village | | | - 11. Khubana | Village | -- | -- | - 12. | | | | - Thillada | Royal | -- | -- - Mirrhada | station | | | - 13. Basilia | Temple of | | | - | Artemis | -- | -- | - | built by | | | - | Darius, | | | - | village | | | - | surrounded | | | - | by wall | | | - Semiramidis | Euphrates | | | - Fossa | dam | | | - 14. Allan | Walled | -- | -- | - | village | | | - 15. Biunan | Temple of | -- | -- | - | Artemis | | | - 16. Phaliga | Village | -- | Phaliscum | - 17. | Walled | | | - Nabagath | village on | Villages | -- | - | Aburas | on Araxes | | - 18. Asikha | Village | -- | -- | - 19. Dura | Town founded | -- | -- | - Nicanoris | by | | | - | Macedonians, | | | - | called | | | - | Europus by | | | - | Greeks | | | - 20. Merrhan | Castle and | Corsote | -- | - | walled | | | - | village | | | - 21. Giddan | Town | -- | -- | - 22. | -- | -- | -- | - Belisibiblada | | | | - 23. Island | -- | -- | -- | - 24. Anatho | Island | -- | -- | - | | | | - | | | | - | | | | - 25. Olabus | Island, | -- | -- | - | Parthian | | | - | treasure- | | | - | house | | | - 26. | -- | -- | -- | - Izannesopolis | | | | - | | | | - 27. Aeipolis | Bitumen | -- | -- | - | wells | | | - - -----------------------------------------+-------------+---------+----------- - Isidorus | | | | - --------------+-------------- | Ptolemy | Ammianus | Zosimos |Herodotus - Stations | Description | | Marcellinus | | - --------------+---------------+------------+-------------+---------+--------- - | | | | | - | | | | | - --------------+---------------+------------+-------------+---------+--------- - 9. | Greek town |Nicephorium | Callinicum | -- | -- - Nicephorium | founded by | | | | - | Alexander | | | | - 10. | Deserted | -- | -- | -- | -- - Galabatha | village | | | | - 11. Khubana | Village | -- | -- | -- | -- - 12. | | | | | - Thillada | Royal | -- | -- | -- | -- - Mirrhada | station | | | | - 13. Basilia | Temple of | | | | - | Artemis | -- | -- | -- | -- - | built by | | | | - | Darius, | | | | - | village | | | | - | surrounded | | | | - | by wall | | | | - Semiramidis | Euphrates | | | | - Fossa | dam | | | | - 14. Allan | Walled | -- | -- | -- | -- - | village | | | | - 15. Biunan | Temple of | -- | -- | -- | -- - | Artemis | | | | - 16. Phaliga | Village | -- | -- | -- | -- - 17. | Walled | | | | - Nabagath | village on |Khabura | Circesium | -- | -- - | Aburas | | | | - 18. Asikha | Village |Zeitha | Zeitha | -- | -- - 19. Dura | Town founded |Thelda | -- | -- | -- - Nicanoris | by | | | | - | Macedonians, | | | | - | called | | | | - | Europus by | | | | - | Greeks | | | | - 20. Merrhan | Castle and | -- | Dura | -- | -- - | walled | | | | - | village | | | | - 21. Giddan | Town | -- | -- | -- | -- - 22. | -- |Bonakhe | -- | -- | -- - Belisibiblada | | | | | - 23. Island | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- - 24. Anatho | Island |Bethauna | Anatha | -- | -- - | | | | | - | | | | | - | | | | | - 25. Olabus | Island, | -- | -- | -- | -- - | Parthian | | | | - | treasure- | | | | - | house | | | | - 26. | -- |Idicara | -- | -- | -- - Izannesopolis | | | | | - | | | | | - 27. Aeipolis | Bitumen | -- | -- | Sitha | Is - | wells | | | | - - -Semiramidis Fossa was no doubt a canal; Chesney saw traces of an ancient -canal below Zelebîyeh. The distance from Thillada to Basilia is not -given by Isidorus. Ritter would allow 5 sch. and Herzfeld 7 sch. -(_Memnon_, 1907, p. 92); according to my reckoning both these distances -are too long. I marched from Khmeiḍah to Zelebîyeh in 3 hrs. 40 min., -which implies a distance of not more than 3 sch. For the fourteenth -station, Allan, Umm Rejeibah is the only possible site I saw. It is true -that I reached it in 3 hrs. from Zelebîyeh, whereas Isidorus puts it 4 -sch. from Basilia, but I cut straight across the hills, and if I had -followed the river (_i. e._ from the mouth of the canal, Semiramidis -Fossa) the time needed would have been considerably longer. The -fifteenth station, Biunan, was conjectured by Ritter to lie opposite -Deir. I saw no traces of ruins upon the left bank, though Sachau speaks -of the remains of two bridges (_Reise_, p. 262), and I should be more -inclined to look for Biunan at a nameless site mentioned by Moritz (_op. -cit._, p. 36). The difference is not in any case of importance, for the -site seen by Moritz is immediately below Deir. He would have it to be -Phaliga, which is doubtless Pliny’s Phaliscum, but that suggestion is -difficult to reconcile with Isidorus’s 14 sch. from Basilia to Phaliga, -which brings Phaliga much nearer to Circesium. Moreover, Isidorus states -that Nabagath is near Phaliga--so near that he does not trouble to give -any other indication of the distance between the two stations--and as -Nabagath on the Aburas cannot be other than Buseirah, Phaliga too must -be close to the Khâbûr mouth. I did not see the site mentioned by Moritz -because I neglected to follow the river closely immediately below Deir; -if it be, as I suppose, Biunan, I cannot attempt to identify the site of -Phaliga. The seventeenth station, Nabagath, is, as has been said, -Circesium-Ḳarḳîsîyâ-Buseirah. The eighteenth, Asikha, I would identify -with the Zeitha of Ptolemy and Ammianus Marcellinus, and with the mounds -I saw at Jemmah. For the nineteenth station, Dura, I know no other site -than the very striking tell of Abu’l Ḥassan, the biggest mound upon -this part of the river. Müller has suggested that the mound may -represent Ptolemy’s Thelda (in his edition of _Ptolemy’s Geography_, p. -1003). Ammianus Marcellinus also mentions “a deserted town on the river” -called Dura. The army of Julian reached it in two days’ march from -Zeitha, at which place the emperor had made an oration to his soldiers -after sacrificing at Gordian’s tomb. Now two days’ march from -Zeitha-Jemmah would bring the army to Werdî-Irzî, which is no doubt the -place called by Xenophon Corsote and described by him as “a large -deserted city.” It is perhaps worthy of observation that, in spite of -its being deserted, Cyrus provisioned his army at Corsote and that -Julian’s army found at Dura, though it too was deserted, “quantities of -wild deer, so that the soldiers and sailors had plenty of food.” My own -impression on the spot was that Ammianus Marcellinus’s Dura must be -Irzî. The tower tombs were certainly erected before the middle of the -fourth century, therefore they were in existence when Julian passed; -moreover, they were far more numerous and conspicuous than they are at -present, since almost all of them have now fallen into ruin. It is -difficult to see how Irzî could have failed to attract the attention of -Ammianus Marcellinus, and Dura is the one place mentioned by him between -Zeitha and ’Ânah. But the Dura of Isidorus, the nineteenth station, has -to be placed at Abu’l Ḥassan, not at Irzî, since his twentieth station, -Merrhan, necessarily falls at Irzî, and I can only conjecture that, as -in Julian’s time both places were ruined and deserted, Ammianus -Marcellinus made a confusion between them, or was wrongly informed, and -transferred the name of Dura (Abu’l Ḥassan) to Merrhan (Irzî). For the -twenty-first station, Giddan, I can offer no suggestion. Jabarîyeh will -scarcely fit, as it is but 13 hrs. 15 min. from ’Ânah, and Giddan was 17 -sch. from Anatho, but it must be admitted that all the distances between -the stations from Merrhan to ’Ânah seem to be too long according to my -caravan time. The twenty-second station, Belesibiblada, was placed by -Chesney at Ḳal’at Bulâḳ, and I saw no better site for it, though I took -only 9 hrs. and 25 min. to reach it from Irzî, and the distance given -by Isidorus is 12 sch. Ritter would place at Ḳal’at Bulâḳ Ptolemy’s -Bonakhe. I do not see any way of identifying with certainty the island -station, the twenty-third, which was 4 sch. from ’Ânah. There are many -islands in the stream above ’Ânah. One of them, Ḳarâbileh, is reported -to have ruins upon it; it was about four hours’ journey from ancient -’Ânah, and may therefore be identical with the twenty-third station, -which is placed at a distance of 4 sch. from Anatho. Anatho, the -twenty-fourth station, Isidorus expressly states to be on an island; it -was therefore the successor to the Assyrian fortress which I believe to -have existed on the island of Lubbâd. Xenophon does not mention it; nor -does Ptolemy, unless his Bethanua may be taken for ’Ânah as Ritter -believed (Vol. XI. p. 716). Rawâ may possibly be the Phathusa of -Zosimos, but I would rather place Phathusa on the left bank, opposite -and below the island of Lubbâd, where there are many mounds and ruins. I -did not follow the river below ’Ânah very closely, but the ruins I saw -near Ḥadîthah help to justify the presumption that Olabus was situated -there. Chesney wished to identify Izannesopolis with the ruins of a -castle between Baghdâdî and Hît. I did not go to the spot, and my -caravan time between Ḥadîthah and Hît is therefore rather misleading, -for if I had followed the river so as to visit the ḳaṣr, the journey -would have taken more than the seventeen and a half hours which I have -recorded. Isidorus’s 16 sch. from Izannesopolis to Aeipolis can scarcely -be correct, and Kiepert’s emendation (6 instead of 16) may well be -accepted. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -HÎT TO KERBELÂ - -_March 18-March 30_ - - -History in retrospect suffers an atmospheric distortion. We look upon a -past civilization and see it, not as it was, but charged with the -significance of that through which we gaze, as down the centuries shadow -overlies shadow, some dim, some luminous, and some so strongly coloured -that all the age behind is tinged with a borrowed hue. So it is that the -great revolutions, “predestined unto us and we predestined,” take on a -double power; not only do they turn the current of human action, but to -the later comer they seem to modify that which was irrevocably fixed and -past. We lend to the dwellers of an earlier day something of our own -knowledge; we watch them labouring towards the ineluctable hour, and -credit them with a prescience of change not given to man. At no time -does this sense of inevitable doom hang more darkly than over the years -that preceded the rise of Islâm; yet no generation had less data for -prophecy than the generation of Mohammad. The Greek and the Persian -disputed the possession of western Asia in profitless and exhausting -warfare, both harassed from time to time by the predatory expeditions of -the nomads on their frontiers, both content to enter into alliance with -this tribe or with that, and to set up an Arab satrap over the desert -marshes. Thus it happened that the Benî Ghassân served the emperor of -the Byzantines, and the Benî Lakhm fought in the ranks of the Sassanian -armies. But neither to Justin II nor to Chosroes the Great came the news -that in Mecca a child was born of the Ḳureish who was to found a -military state as formidable as any that the world had seen, and nothing -could have exceeded the fantastic improbability of such intelligence. - -I had determined to journey back behind this great dividing line, to -search through regions now desolate for evidences of a past that has -left little historic record, calling upon the shades to take form again -upon the very ground whereon, substantial, they had played their part. -So on a brilliant morning Fattûḥ and I saw the caravan start out in the -direction of Baghdâd, not without inner heart-searchings as to where and -how we should meet it again, and having loaded three donkeys with all -that was left to us of worldly goods, we turned our faces towards the -wilderness. I looked back upon the ancient mound of Hît, the -palm-groves, and the dense smoke of the pitch fires rising into the -clear air, and as I looked our zaptieh came out to join us--a welcome -sight, for the Mudîr might well have repented at the eleventh hour. Now -no one rides into the desert, however uncertain the adventure, without a -keen sense of exhilaration. The bright morning sun, the wide clean -levels, the knowledge that the problems of existence are reduced on a -sudden to their simplest expression, your own wit and endurance being -the sole determining factors--all these things brace and quicken the -spirit. The spell of the waste seized us as we passed beyond the sulphur -marshes; Ḥussein Onbâshî held his head higher, and we gave each other -the salaam anew, as if we had stepped out into another world that called -for a fresh greeting. - -“At Hît,” said he, and his words went far to explain the lightness of -his heart, “I have left three wives in the house.” - -“Mâshallah!” said Fattûḥ, “you must be deaf with the gir-gir-gir of -them.” - -“Eh billah!” assented Ḥussein, “I shut my ears. Three wives, two sons -and six daughters, of whom but two married. Twenty children I have had, -and seven wives; three of these died and one left me and returned to her -own people. But I shall take another bride this year, please God.” - -“We Christians,” observed Fattûḥ, “find one enough.” - -“You may be right,” answered Ḥussein politely; “yet I would take a new -wife every year if I had the means.” - -“We will find you a bride in Kebeisah,” said I. - -Hussein weighed this suggestion. - -“The maidens of Kebeisah are fair but wilful. There is one among them, -her name is Shemsah--wallah, a picture! a picture she is!--she has had -seven husbands.” - -“And the maidens of Hît?” I asked. “How are they?” - -“Not so fair, but they are the better wives. That is why I choose to -remain in Hît,” explained Ḥussein. “The bimbâshî would have sent me to -Baghdâd, but I said, ‘No, let me stay here; the maidens of Hît do not -expect much.’ Your Excellency may laugh, but a poor man must think of -these things.” - -We rode on through the aromatic scrub until the black masses of the -Kebeisah palm-groves resolved into tall trunks and feathery fronds.[73] -The sun stood high as we passed under the village gate and down the -dusty street that led to the Mudîr’s compound. We tied our mares to some -mangers in his courtyard and were ourselves ushered into his -reception-room, there to drink coffee and set forth our purpose. The -leading citizens of Kebeisah dropped in one by one, and the talk was of -the desert and of the dwellers therein. The men of Kebeisah are not -’Arab, Bedouin; they hold their mud-walled village and their 50,000 -palm-trees against the tribes, but they know the laws of the desert as -well as the nomads themselves, and carry on an uneasy commerce with them -in dates and other commodities, with which even the wilderness cannot -dispense, the accredited methods of the merchant alternating with those -of the raider and the avenger of raids. There was no lack of guides to -take me to Khubbâz, for the ruin is the first stage upon the post-road -to Damascus, and half the male population was acquainted with that -perilous way. - -“It is the road of death,” said Ḥussein Onbâshî, stuffing tobacco into -the cup of his narghileh. - -“Eh billah!” said one who laid the glowing charcoal atop. “Eight days’ -ride, and the government, look you, pays no more than fifteen mejîdehs -from Hît and back again.” - -An old man, wrapped in a brown cloak edged with gold, took up the tale. - -“The government reckons fifteen mejîdehs to be the price of a man’s -life. Wallah! if the water-skins leak between water and water, or if the -camel fall lame, the rider perishes.” - -“By the truth, it is the road of death,” repeated Ḥussein. “Twice last -year the Deleim robbed the mail and killed the bearer of it.” - -I had by this time spread out Kiepert. - -“Inform me,” said I, “concerning the water.” - -“Oh lady,” said the old man, “I rode with the mail for twenty years. An -hour and a half from Kebeisah there is water at ’Ain Za’zu’, and in four -hours more there is water in the tank of Khubbâz after the winter, but -this year there is none, by reason of the lack of rain. Twelve hours -from Khubbâz you shall reach Ḳaṣr ’Amej, which is another fortress like -Khubbâz, but more ruined; and there is no water there. But eighteen -hours farther you find water in the Wâdî Ḥaurân, at Muḥeiwir.” - -“Is there not a castle there?” I asked. Kiepert calls it the castle of -’Aiwir. - -“There is nought but rijm,” said he. (Rijm are the heaps of stones which -the Arabs pile together for landmarks.) “And after nine hours more there -is water at Ga’rah, and then no more till Dumeir, nine hours from -Damascus.” - -If this account is exact, there must be four days of waterless desert on -the road of death. - -The springs in Kebeisah are strongly charged with sulphur, but half-way -between the town and the shrine of Sheikh Khuḍr, that lifts a conical -spire out of the wilderness, there is a well less bitter, to which come -the fair and wilful maidens night and morning, bearing on their heads -jars of plaited willow, pitched without and within (Fig. 62). We did not -fill our water-skins there when we set out next day for Ḳaṣr Khubbâz, -but rode on to ’Ain Za’zu’, where the water is drinkable, though far -from sweet (Fig. 63). There are - -[Illustration: FIG. 64.--ḲAṢR KHUBBÂZ AND RUINS OF THE TANK.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 66.--ḲAṢR KHUBBÂZ, THE GATEWAY.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 67.--ḲAṢR KHUBBÂZ, A VAULTED CHAMBER.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 68.--THEMAIL.]] - -two other sulphurous springs, one a little to the north and one to the -south, round each of which, as at ’Ain Za’zu’, the inhabitants of -Kebeisah sow clover, the sole fodder of the oasis in rainless years like -the spring of 1909; so said Fawwâz, the owner of the two camels on which -we had placed our small packs. Fawwâz rode one of them and his nephew, -Sfâga, the other, and they hung the dripping water-skins under the -loads. We followed the course of a shallow valley westwards, and before -we left it sighted a train of donkeys making to the north with an escort -on foot--Arabs of the Deleim. They looked harmless enough, but I -afterwards found that they had caused Fawwâz great uneasiness; indeed -they kept him watchful all through the night, fearing that they might -raid us while we slept. I was too busy observing the wide landscape to -dwell on such matters. The desolate world stretched before us, lifting -itself by shallow steps into long, bare ridges, on which the Arab rijm -were visible for miles away. The first of these steps--it was not more -than fifty feet high--was called the Jebel Muzâhir, and when we had -gained its summit we saw the castle of Khubbâz lying out upon the plain. -To the north the ground falls away into a wâdî, a shallow depression -like all desert valleys, in which are traces of a large masonry tank -that caught the trickle of the winter springs and held their water -behind a massive dam (Fig. 64). The tank is now half full of soil and -the dam leaks, so that as soon as the rains have ceased the water store -vanishes. It had left behind it a scanty crop of grass and flowers, -which seemed luxuriant to us in that dry season; we turned the mares and -camels loose in what Fattûḥ called enthusiastically the rabî’ah (the -herbage of spring), and pitched my light tent in the valley bottom, -where my men could find shelter among the rocks against the chills of -night. I left all these arrangements to Fattûḥ, and with Ḥussein and -Fawwâz to hold the metre tape, measured and photographed the fort till -the sun touched the western horizon. - -The walls of Khubbâz are built of stones, either unworked or very -roughly squared, set in a thick bed of coarse mortar. - -[Illustration: FIG. 65.--KHUBBÂZ.] - -In form the fort is a hollow square with round bastions at the angles, -and except on the side facing towards Kebeisah, where the centre of the -wall is occupied by a gate, there is also a round bastion midway between -the angle towers (Fig. 65). All these bastions are much ruined and I may -be wrong in representing them as if unequal size. Before the door there -has been a vaulted porch, among the ruins of which lies a large block of -stone which looks as if it had served as lintel to the outer door; I -could see no moulding or inscription upon it (Fig. 66). The existing -inner door is arched, the arch being set forward in a curious fashion. -It opened into a vaulted entrance passage which communicated with an -open court in the centre of the building. The court was surrounded by -barrel-vaulted chambers, some of which showed traces of repair or -reconstruction, though the old and the new work are now alike -ruined.[74] All the vaults are set forward about three centimetres -beyond the face of the wall (Fig. 67). Above the outset the first few -courses of stones are laid horizontally, inclining slightly inwards, but -where the curve of the vault makes it impossible to continue this method -without the aid of centering beams, the stone is cut into narrow slabs -which are set upright so as to form slices of the vault, and each slice -has an inclination backwards, the first resting against the head wall -and every succeeding slice resting against the one behind it. This is -the well-known Mesopotamian system of vaulting without a centering, -which is as old as the Assyrians.[75] It is best adapted to brick, but -it can be carried out in stone when the span of the vault is not large, -provided that the stones be cut thin, so as to resemble as nearly as -possible brick tiles. On the south side, which is the best preserved, -there are traces of an upper storey, or possibly of an upper gallery or -_chemin de ronde_. A doorway led from it into a small chamber hollowed -out of the thickness of the central bastion: I imagine that there was a -similar outlook chamber in the other bastions, but in all these the -upper part is ruined. I could find no inscriptions; the Arab tribe marks -(awâsim) were scratched upon the plaster with which the inner side of -the walls had been coated. I do not doubt that Khubbâz belongs to the -Mohammadan period, nor that it is a relic of the great days of the -khalifate when the shortest road from Baghdâd to Damascus was guarded by -little companies of soldiers stationed at Khubbâz and ’Amej, and perhaps -at other points. The plan is that of many of the Roman and Byzantine -lime fortresses upon the Syrian side of the desert,[76] of the -Mohammadan forts and fortified khâns scattered over Syria and -Mesopotamia,[77] and of the modern Turkish guardhouse; the structural -details are Mesopotamian, dictated by the conditions of the land. - -At the pleasant hour of dusk I sat among the flowering weeds by my tent -door while Fattûḥ cooked our dinner in his kitchen among the rocks, -Sfâga gathered a fuel of desert scrub, Fawwâz stirred the rice-pot, and -the bubbling of Ḥussein’s narghileh gave a note of domesticity to our -bivouac. My table was a big stone, the mares cropping the ragged grass -round the tent were my dinner-party; one by one the stars shone out in a -moonless heaven and our tiny encampment was wrapped in the immense -silences of the desert, the vast and peaceful night. Next morning, as we -rode back to Kebeisah, Fattûḥ and I, between intervals devoted to -chasing gazelle, laid siege on our companions and persuaded them to -accompany us in our further journey. Fawwâz avowed that he was satisfied -with us and would come where we wished (and as for Sfâga he would do as -he was told) as long as Ḥussein would give a semi-official sanction to -the enterprise by his presence. It was more difficult to win over -Ḥussein, who had received from the Mudîr no permission to absent himself -so long from Hît; but Fattûḥ pointed out that, when you have three -wives, with the prospect of a fourth, to say nothing of six daughters of -whom but two are married, you cannot afford to neglect the opportunity -of earning an extra bakhshîsh. This reasoning was conclusive, and before -we reached ’Ain Za’zu’ we had settled everything, down to the quantity -of coffee-beans we would buy at Kebeisah for the trip. But when we got -to Kebeisah we were greeted by news that went near to overturning our -combinations. There had been alarums and excursions in our absence; the -Deleim had attacked a party of fuel-gatherers two hours from the oasis, -in the very plain we were to cross, and had made off with eight donkeys. -One of the donkeys belonged to Fawwâz; he shook his head over the -baleful activity of the tribe and murmured that we were a small party in -the face of such perils. Moreover, in the Mudîr’s courtyard there stood -a half-starved mare which had been recaptured in a counter-raid from the -seventh husband of the famous Shemsah. He too was of the Deleim. We -gave the mare a feed of corn--her gentle, hungry eyes were turned -appealingly on our full mangers; but to Shemsah I was harder hearted, -though her eyes were more beautiful than those of the mare. She came -suppliant as I sat dining on the Mudîr’s roof at nightfall and begged me -to recover her husband’s rifle, which lay below in the hands of the -government. Her straight brows were pencilled together with indigo and a -short blue line marked the roundness of her white chin; a cloak slipping -backwards from her head showed the rows of scarlet beads about her -throat, and as she drew it together with slender fingers, Fattûḥ, -Ḥussein and I gazed on her with unmixed approval, in spite of the -irregular course of her domestic history. But I felt that to return his -rifle to a Deleimî robber was not part of my varied occupations, though -who knows whether Shemsah’s grace, backed by what few mejîdehs she could -scrape together, did not end by softening the purpose of Ḥussein and the -Mudîr, “the Government,” as in veiled terms we spoke of them? - -With the exercise of some diplomacy we induced Fawwâz to hold to his -engagement, but the Mudîr took fright when he heard of our intentions, -and threatened our guides with dire retribution if they led us into the -heart of the desert. I think the threat was only intended to relieve him -of responsibility, for Ḥussein shrugged his shoulders, and said it would -be enough if we rode an hour in the direction of Ramâdî, on the -Euphrates, and then changed our course and made straight for Abu Jîr, an -oasis where we expected to find Arab tents. We set off next morning in -the clear sunlight which makes all projects seem entirely reasonable, -and dropped, after three-quarters of an hour, into a little depression. -When we had crossed the sulphur marsh which lay at the valley bottom, we -altered our direction to the south-west and rode almost parallel to a -long low ridge called the Ga’rat ej Jemâl, which lay about three miles -to the west of us. Four hours from Kebeisah we reached a tiny mound out -of which rose a spring of water, sulphurous but just drinkable. The top -of the mound was lifted only a few feet above the surrounding level, -but that was enough to give us a wide view, and since in all the world -before us there was no shade or shelter from the sun, we sat down and -lunched where we could be sure that a horseman would not approach us -unawares. And as we rested, some one far away opened a bottle into which -Solomon, Prophet of God, had sealed one of the Jinn. Up sprang a -gigantic column of smoke that fanned outwards in the still air and hung -menacingly over the naked, empty plain. I waited spellbound to see the -great shoulders and huge horned head disengage themselves from the -smoke-wreaths that rolled higher and-- - -“’Ain el ’Awâsil burns,” said Fawwâz. “A shepherd has set it alight.” - -There was a small pitch-well an hour away to the south-east, and if -springs that burn when the tinder touches them are more logical than -spirits that issue from a bottle when the seal is broken, then the -explanation of Fawwâz may be accepted. But at that moment I could not -stay to think the problem out, for if it was hot riding, sitting still -was intolerable, and we were not anxious to linger when every -half-hour’s march meant half-an-hour of dangerous country behind us. -From noon to sunset the desert is stripped of beauty. Hour after hour we -journeyed on, while the bare forbidding hills drew away from us on the -right, and the plain ahead rolled out illimitable. We saw no living -creature, man or beast, but an hour from ’Ain el ’As[.]fûrîyeh, where we -had lunched, we came upon a deep still pool in an outcrop of rock, the -water sufficiently sweet to drink. This spot is called Jelîb esh Sheikh; -it contains several such pools, said Fawwâz, and he added that the water -had appeared there of a sudden two years before, but that now it never -diminished, nor rose higher in the rocky clefts. Just beyond the pool we -crossed the Wâdî Muḥammadî, which stretched westwards to the receding -ridges of the Gar’at ej Jemâl, and east to the Euphrates; it was dry and -blotched with an evil-looking crust of sulphur. Fawwâz turned his -camel’s head a little to the east of south and began to look anxiously -for landmarks. We hoped to find at Abu Jîr an encampment of the Deleim, -and, eagerly as we wished to avoid the scattered horsemen of the tribe -by day, it was essential that we should pass the night near their tents. -The desert is governed by old and well-defined laws, and the first of -these is the law of hospitality. If we slept within the circuit of a -sheikh’s encampment he would be “malzûm ’aleinâ” (responsible for us) -and not one of his people would touch us; but if we lay out in the open -we should court the attack of raiders and of thieves. Two hours from the -Wâdî Muḥammadî we reached a little tell, from the top of which we -sighted the ’alâmah (the landmarks) of Abu Jîr, a couple of high-piled -mounds of stones. An hour later they lay to the east of us, and we saw -still farther to the south-east the black line of tamarisk bushes that -indicated the oasis. But it was another hour before we got up to it, and -the sun was very low in the sky when we set foot on the hard black -surface that gives the place its name. There was no time to lose, and we -embarked recklessly on the “Father of Asphalt,” only to be caught in the -fresh pitch that had been spread out upon the wilderness by streams of -sulphurous water. We dismounted and led our animals over the quaking -expanse, coasting round the head-waters of the springs--there are, I -believe, eight of them--and experimenting in our own persons on -half-congealed lakes of pitch before we allowed the camels to venture -across them. The light faded while we were thus engaged, and seeing that -too much caution might well be our undoing, I shouted to Fattûḥ to -follow, and struck out eastwards. Fattûḥ was half inclined to look upon -our case as a result of premeditated treachery on the part of Fawwâz, -but I had noted unmistakable signs of fear and bewilderment in the -bearing of the latter, and at all hazards I was resolved not to sleep in -a pool of tar. We made for a line of tamarisk bushes behind which lay a -thin haze of smoke, and as we broke through the brushwood we beheld a -black tent crouching in the hollow. We rode straight up to the door and -gave the salaam. - -“And upon you peace,” returned the astonished owner. - -“What Arabs are you, and where is your sheikh’s tent?” said I, in an -abrupt European manner. - -He was taken aback at being asked so many questions and answered -reluctantly, “We are the Deleim, and the tent of Muḥammad el ’Abdullah -lies yonder.” - -We turned away, and I whispered to Fattûḥ not to hasten, and above all -to approach the sheikh’s tent from in front, lest we should be mistaken -for such as come upon an evil errand. He fell behind me, and with as -much dignity as a tired and dusty traveller can muster, I drew rein by -the tent ropes and gave the salaam ceremoniously, with a hand lifted to -breast and lip and brow. A group of men sitting by the hearth leapt to -their feet and one came forward. - -“Peace and kinship and welcome,” said he, laying his hand on my bridle. - -I looked into his frank and merry face and knew that all was well. - -“Are you Muḥammad el ’Abdullah, for whom we seek?” - -“Wallah, how is my name known to you?” said he. “Be pleased to enter.” - -Ḥussein Onbâshî, when he appeared with the camels a quarter of an hour -later, found a large company round the coffee-pots, listening in -breathless wonder (I no less amazed than the rest) while the sheikh -related the exploits of--a motor! - -“And then, oh lady, they wound a handle in front of the carriage, and -lo, it moved without horses, eh billah! And it sped across the plain, we -sitting on the cushions. And from behind there went forth semok.” He -brought out the English word triumphantly. - -“Allah, Allah!” we murmured. - -Ḥussein took from his lip the narghileh tube which was already between -them and explained the mystery. - -“It was the automobile of Misterr X. He journeyed from Aleppo to Baghdâd -in four days, and the last day Muḥammad el ’Abdullah went with him, for -the road was through the country of the Deleim.” - -“I saw them start,” said Fattûḥ the Aleppine. “But the automobile lies -now broken in Baghdâd.” - -Muḥammad paid no heed to this slur upon the reputation of the carriage. - -“White!” said he. “It was all painted white. Wallah, the Arabs wondered -as it fled past. And I was seated within upon the cushions.” - -That night Fattûḥ and I held a short council. We had won successfully -through a hazardous day, but it seemed less than wisdom to go farther -without an Arab guide, and I proposed to add Muḥammad el ’Abdullah to -our party, if he would come. - -“He will come,” said Fattûḥ. “This sheikh is a man. And your Excellency -is of the English.” - -Muḥammad neither demurred nor bargained. I think he would have -accompanied me even if I had not belonged to the race that owned the -carriage. Our adventure pleased him; he was one of those whose blood -runs quicker than that of his fellows, whose fancy burns brighter, “whom -thou, Melpomene, at birth” ... upon many an unknown cradle the Muse -sheds her clear beam. - -“But if we were to meet the raiders of the Benî Ḥassan?” I asked, -mindful of the unsuccessful parleyings at Hît. - -“God is great!” replied Muḥammad, “and we are four men with rifles.” - -There was once a town at Abu Jîr, guarded by a little square fort with -bastioned angles like Ḳaṣr Khubbâz. It was, however, much more ruined; -of the interior buildings nothing remained, while the outer walls were -little better than heaps of stones. But below this later work there were -remains of older foundations, more careful masonry of larger materials, -and outside the walls traces of a pavement, composed of big slabs of -stone, accurately fitted together. All round the fort lay the -foundations of houses, stone walls or crumbling mounds of sun-dried -brick, not unlike the ruins of Ma’mûreh. There must have existed here a -mediæval Mohammadan settlement, if there was nothing older, and the -discovery was sufficiently surprising, for Abu Jîr now lies far beyond -the limits of fixed habitation. The Deleim still turn the abundant water -of the oasis to some profit, planting a few patches of corn and clover -in the low ground below the ruins, but the insecurity of the desert -forbids all permanent occupation. We had not gone far on our way next -morning before Muḥammad stopped short in the ode he was singing and bent -down from his saddle to examine some hoof-prints in the sandy ground. -Two horsemen had travelled that way, riding in the same direction that -we were taking. - -“Those are the mares of our enemies,” he observed. - -“How do you know?” I asked. - -“I heard that they had passed Abu Jîr in the night,” he answered and -resumed his song. When he had brought it to an end, he called out-- - -“Oh lady, I will sing the ode that I composed about the carriage.” - -At this the camel-riders and Ḥussein drew near and Muḥammad began the -first ḳaṣîdah that has been written to a motor. - - “I tell a marvel the like of which no man has known, - A glory of artifice born of English wit.” - -“True, true!” ejaculated Fawwâz ecstatically. - -“Eh billah!” exclaimed Ḥussein. - - “Her food and her drink are the breath from a smoke-cloud blown, - If her radiance fade bright fire shall reburnish it.” - -“Allah, Allah!” cried the enraptured Fawwâz. - - “On the desert levels she darts like a bird of prey, - Her race puts to shame a mare of the purest breed; - As a hawk in the dusk that hovers and swoops to slay, - She swoops and turns with wondrous strength and speed.” - -“Wallah, the truth!” Ḥussein’s enthusiasm was uncontrollable. - -“Eh wallah!” echoed Fawwâz and Sfâga. - - “He who mounts and rides her sits on the throne of a king....” - -“A king in very truth!” cried Fawwâz. - - “If the goal be far, to her the remote is near....” - -“Near indeed!” burst from the audience. - - “More stealthy than stallions, more swift than the jinn a-wing, - She turns the gazelle that hides from her blast in fear.” - -“Allah!” Fawwâz punctuated the stanza. - - “Not from idle lips was gathered the wisdom I sing....” - -“God forbid!” exclaimed Fawwâz, leaning forward eagerly. - - “In the whole wide plain she has not met with her peer.” - -“Mâshallah! it is so! it is the truth, oh lady!” said Ḥussein. - -“I did not quite understand it all,” said I humbly, feeling rather like -Alice in Wonderland when Humpty Dumpty recited his verses to her. -“Perhaps you will help me to write it down this evening.” - -So that night, with the assistance of Fawwâz, who had a bowing -acquaintance with letters, we committed it to paper, and I now know how -the masterpieces of the great singers were received at the fair of ’Ukâẓ -in the Days of Ignorance. - -“The truth! it is the truth!” shouted the tribes between each couplet. -“Eh by Al Lât and by Al ’Uzzah!” - -Three hours from Abu Jîr we cantered down to the Wâdî Themail and saw -some black tents pitched by a tell on the farther side. Flocks of goats -were scattered over the plain; the shepherds, when they perceived our -party, drew them together and began to drive them towards the tents. At -this Muḥammad pulled up, rose in his stirrups, and waved a long white -cotton sleeve over his head--a flag of truce. - -“They take us for raiders,” said he, laughing. “Wallah, in a moment we -should have had their rifles upon us.” - -The mound of Themail is crowned by a fort built of mud and unshaped -stones (Fig. 68). It has a single door and round bastions at the angles -of the wall, like Khubbâz, but the figure described by the walls is far -from regular, and there is no trace of construction within. The existing -building looked to me like rough Bedouin work, though I suspect that it -has taken the place of older defences (Fig. 69). A copious sulphur -spring rises below it and flows into the cornfields of the Deleim. With -a supply of water so plentiful Themail must always have been a place -worth holding. We stayed for an hour to lunch, Muḥammad’s kinsmen -supplementing our fare with a bowl of sour curds. Fawwâz was all for -spending the night here, for there would be no tents at ’Asîleh, where -we meant to camp, and the noonday stillness was broken by a loud -altercation between him and the indignant Fattûḥ. I paid no attention -until the case was brought to me for decision--the final court of appeal -should always be silent up to the moment when an opinion is -requested--and then said that we should undoubtedly sleep at ’Asîleh. - -[Illustration: FIG. 69.--THEMAIL.] - -“God guide us, God guard us, God protect us!” muttered Muḥammad as he -settled himself into the saddle. He never took the road without this -pious ejaculation. - -Four hours of weary desert lie between Themail and ’Asîleh, but Muḥammad -diversified the way by pointing out the places where he had attacked and -slain his enemies. These historic sites were numerous. The Deleim have -no friends except the great tribe of the ’Anazeh, represented in these -regions by the Amarât under Ibn Hudhdhâl. To the ’Anazeh he always -alluded as the Bedû, giving me their names for the different varieties -of scanty desert scrub as well as the common titles. Even the -place-names are not the same on the lips of the Bedû; for example El -’Asîleh is known to them as Er Radâf. - -“Are not the Deleim also Bedû?” I asked. - -“Eh wah,” he assented. “The ’Anazeh intermarry with us. But we would not -take a girl of the Afâḍleh; they are ’Agedât” (base born). - -The friendship between the Amarât and the Deleim is intermittent at -best, like all desert alliances. As we neared the Wâdî Burdân, Muḥammad -called our attention to some tamarisk bushes where he and his raiding -party had lain one night in ambush, and at dawn killed four men of the -Amarât and taken their mares. - -“Eh billah!” said he with a sigh of satisfaction. - -The very rifle he carried had been taken in a raid from Ibn er Rashîd’s -people. He showed me with pride that the name of ’Abdu’l ’Azîz ibn er -Rashîd, lately Lord of Nejd, was scratched upon it in large clear -letters. - -“I did not take it from them,” he explained. “I found it in the hands of -one of the Benî Ḥassan.” I fell to wondering how many midnight attacks -it had seen, and how many masters it had served since Ibn er Rashîd’s -agents brought it up from the Persian Gulf. - -The Wâdî Burdân is one of three valleys that are reputed to stretch -across the Syrian desert from the Jebel Ḥaurân to the Euphrates. The -northernmost is the Wâdî Ḥaurân, which joins the river above Hît, and -the southernmost the Wâdî Lebai’ah, on which stands Kheiḍir. When the -snow melts in the Ḥaurân mountains water flows down all three, so I have -heard, but later in the year there is no water in the Wâdî Burdân, -except at ’Asîleh, though Kiepert marks it “quellenreich.” Muḥammad -declared that there was no permanent water west of ’Asîleh save at -Wîzeh, a spring which has often been described to me. It rises -underground, and you approach it by a long passage through the rock, -taking with you a lantern, my informants are careful to add. At the end -of the passage you come to a shallow pool where the mud predominates, -though it is always possible to quench your thirst at it. ’Asîleh is an -autumn camping-ground of the ’Anazeh. The deep fine sand of the valley -is bordered by a fringe of tamarisk bushes, covered, when we were there, -with feathery white flower. Their roots strike down into the water, -which rises into cup-shaped holes scooped out in the sand, and the -deeper you dig the clearer and the colder it is. For four days we had -found no water that was sweet, and the pools under the tamarisk bushes -tasted like nectar. It was a delightful solitary camp. The setting sun -threw a magic cloak of colour and soft shadows over the sandhills of the -Wâdî Burdân, and under the starlight my companions lingered round the -camp fire, smoking a narghileh and telling each other wondrous tales. -When I joined them Fattûḥ was holding forth upon the evil eye, a -favourite topic with him. I knew by heart the tragedy of his three -horses who died in one day because an acquaintance had looked at them in -their stable. - -“And if your Excellency doubts,” said Fattûḥ, “I can tell you that there -is a man well known in Aleppo who has one good eye and one evil. And -this he keeps bound under a kerchief. And one day when he was sitting in -the house of friends they said to him, ‘Why do you bind up the left -eye?’ He said, ‘It is an evil eye.’ Then they said, ‘If you were to take -off the kerchief and look at the lamp hanging from the roof, would it -fall?’ ‘Without doubt,’ said he; and with that he unbound the kerchief -and looked, and the lamp fell to the ground.” - -“Allah!” said Fawwâz. “There is a man at Kebeisah who has never dared to -look at his own son.” - -“At ’Ânah,” observed Ḥussein, letting the narghileh relapse into -silence for a moment, “there is a sheikh who wears a charm against -bullets.” - -But Muḥammad knew as much as most men about the ways of bullets, and he -thought nothing of this expedient. - -“Whether the bullet hits or misses,” he remarked, “it is all from God.” -He poured me out a cup of coffee. “A double health, oh lady,” said he. - -The sun had not risen when we left ’Asîleh, but it fell upon us as we -climbed the sandhills, and gave to every little thorny plant a long -trail of shadow. - -“God guide us, God guard us, God protect us!” murmured Muḥammad. - -The desert was unbearably monotonous that morning. The ground rose -gradually, level above level in an almost imperceptible slope which was -just enough to prevent us from seeing more than a quarter of an hour -ahead. A dozen times I marked a bush on the top of the rise and promised -myself that when we reached it we should have a wider prospect; a dozen -times the summit melted away into another slope as featureless as the -last. We were journeying in a south-easterly direction, straight into -the sun, and as I rode, with eyes downcast to avoid the glare, I noticed -that the ground was strewn with yellow gourds larger than an orange. - -“It is ḥanẓal,” said Muḥammad. “It grows only where the plain is very -dry, and best in rainless years. Wallah, so bitter is the fruit that, if -you hold dates in your hand and crush the ḥanẓal with your foot, they -say you cannot eat the dates for the flavour of the ḥanẓal. God knows.” - -His words set loose a host of memories, for though I had never before -seen the bitter colocynth gourds, the great singers of the desert have -drawn many an image from them, and I drifted back through their world of -heroic loves and wars to where Imru’l Ḳais stood weeping, as though his -eyelids were inflamed with the acrid juice. - -Five hours from ’Asîleh we dipped into the Wâdî el ’Asibîyeh, where the -marshy bottom still bore footprints of horses and camels that had come -down to drink before the pools had vanished. A steep bank on the south -side gave us a rim of shadow in which we stretched ourselves and -lunched, and from the top of the bank we sighted the palm-trees of -Raḥḥâlîyeh, an hour and a half to the south; we had seen them three -hours earlier from the summit of a little mound and then lost them -again. The oasis is surrounded by stagnant pools that lie rotting in the -sun; at the end of the summer the evil vapours marry with the fresh -dates, with which the inhabitants are surfeited, and breed a horrible -fever that will kill a strong man in a few hours. The air was heavy with -the rank smell of the marsh, and I warned my people to drink no water -but that which we had brought with us from the clear pools of ’Asîleh. -There are sixteen thousand palm-trees at Raḥḥâlîyeh and, buried in their -midst, a village governed by a Mudîr, to whom I hastened to pay my -respects. He gave me glasses of tea while my tent was being pitched--may -God reward him! We camped that night in a palm garden, where we were -entertained by a troop of musicians playing on drums and a double flute, -to which music one of them danced between the sun and shade of the palm -fronds. Their faces were those of negroes, though they had the clear -yellow skin of the Arab, and I noticed that most of the population of -Raḥḥâlîyeh was of this type. “They have always been here,” said Ḥussein -contemptuously, “they and the frogs.” In spite of the flickering shade -of the palm-trees it was stifling hot, and I looked with regret over the -broken mud wall of our garden into the clean stretches of the open -desert. But the splendours of the sunset glowed between the palm trunks; -in matchless beauty a crescent moon hung among the dark fronds, and we -lay down to sleep with the contentment of those who have come safely out -of perilous ways. - -The Mudîr had given me useful information concerning some ruins that lie -between Raḥḥâlîyeh and Shetâteh. Next day I sent Fattûḥ and the camels -direct to the second oasis, and, taking with me Ḥussein and Muḥammad, -with a boy for guide, set out to explore the site of an ancient city. -Fawwâz objected loudly to this arrangement, and on reflection I am -inclined to think that we overrated the security - -[Illustration: FIG. 70.--MUḤAMMAD EL ’ABDULLAH.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 71.--KHEIḌIR, MA’ASHÎ AND SHEIKH ’ALÎ.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 73.--BARDAWÎ FROM SOUTH-WEST.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 74.--BARDAWÎ, EAST END OF VAULTED HALL.] - -of the road, though no harm came of it. About an hour to the south of -Raḥḥâlîyeh, on the northern edge of low-lying marshy ground, rich in -springs, stands the shrine of Sayyid Aḥmed ibn Hâshim, and near it to -the north and west are vestiges of what must have been a large town. We -followed for at least a quarter of a mile the foundations of a fine -masonry wall 150 centimetres thick. Between this wall and the low ground -the surface of the plain is broken by innumerable mounds and heaps of -stone; here, said the boy, after rain, the women of the two oases find -gold ornaments and pictured stones. I saw and bought some of the -pictured stones at Shetâteh; they are Assyrian cylindrical seals; but -without knowing in what quantities and with what other objects they -appear, it would be rash to decide that the site is as old. There was -undoubtedly a mediæval Arab city there; all the ground was strewn with -fragments of Arab coloured pottery, and at the western limit of the ruin -field there are remains of the usual four-square fort; Murrât is its -present name.[78] It is built of uncut stone and unburnt brick; the -doorway in the north wall is covered with a flattened pointed arch that -suggests the thirteenth century or thereabouts.[79] My own belief is -that the town to which this castle belonged stood on the site of an -older city, and I place here ’Ain et Tamr, an oasis that was famous in -the days of the Persian kings. Yâḳût describes it as having lain near -Shetâteh, and observes that Khâlid ibn u’l Walîd took and sacked it in -the year 12 A.H., but he says nothing about a later town on the same -spot, to which the evidence of the ruins points. Perhaps it was absorbed -in Shetâteh. - -The interest of these speculations had caused me to forget that we were -still in the desert. Our guide caught us up at Murrât, whither we had -galloped recklessly, and explained that he had had some difficulty in -allaying the suspicions of a small encampment of the Amarât half-hidden -in the valley. The men, seeing us hurrying past, had taken us for -robbers and were preparing to shoot at us. At a soberer pace we turned -back along the valley. It was marshy in places, intersected by little -streams from the springs, and covered with a white crust of -salts--sabkhah, the Arabs call such regions--on which nothing grew but a -malignant-looking thorny shrub, thelleth, useless to man and beast. The -water of the springs was “heavy,” Muḥammad told me, like the water of -Raḥḥâlîyeh. Half-an-hour’s ride down the valley we crossed the -Raḥḥâlîyeh-Shetâteh road at a point where there were traces of good -masonry. Another half-hour ahead stood the mound of Bardawî, our -objective. Being in good spirits we devoted the interval to song. -Muḥammad gave us his ode to the motor, and I obliged with “God save the -King,” translated into indifferent Arabic for the benefit of the -audience. - -[Illustration: FIG. 72.--BARDAWÎ.] - -“The words are good,” said Muḥammad politely, “but I do not care about -the air.” - -So we came to Bardawî, a striking tell with an oval fortress standing -upon it (Fig. 72). There had been at least three storeys of vaulted -rooms lifting the strange tower-like structure high above the level of -the desert (Fig. 73). It suggests a watchtower guarding the eastern -approaches to the city, but I am not prepared to affirm that the present -edifice is earlier than the Mohammadan period. A substructure and the -remains of an upper floor are standing, the ground plan of both being -the same. A small vaulted hall, with three vaulted chambers on either -side, occupied the centre of the building; the door, with traces of a -porch or ante-room, lay to the west; while to the east there were two -much-ruined chambers, which communicated with the hall by means of a -narrow door. The masonry is of undressed stones laid in mortar. The -vaults of the side chambers seem to have been built over a rude -centering; they are much flattened and so irregularly constructed as to -approach in form to a gable roof. These rooms were lighted by a small -round hole in the outer wall, under the apex of the vault. The vault of -the hall springs with a double outset from the wall and terminates at -the eastern end (the west end is ruined) in a semi-dome which was -adjusted to the rectangular corners by means of squinch arches (Fig. -74). The partition walls are carried up above the level of the upper -vaults, apparently for another storey. The lower part of a strong facing -of masonry is still in existence on the south side, and I conjecture -that it was continued originally to the top of the tower. Having -photographed and planned this singular building, we dismissed our guide, -whose services we no longer needed, and set out over broken sabkhah in -the direction of Shetâteh. We were jogging along between hummocks of -thorn and scrub, Muḥammad as usual singing, when suddenly he broke off -at the end of a couplet and said: - -“I see a horseman riding in haste.” - -I looked up and saw a man galloping towards us along the top of a ridge; -he was followed closely by another and yet another, and all three -disappeared as they dipped down from the high ground. In the desert -every newcomer is an enemy till you know him to be a friend. Muḥammad -slipped a cartridge into his rifle, Ḥussein extracted his riding-stick -from the barrel, where it commonly travelled, and I took a revolver out -of my holster. This done, Muḥammad galloped forward to the top of a -mound; I followed, and we watched together the advance of the three who -were rapidly diminishing the space that lay between us. Muḥammad jumped -to the ground and threw me his bridle. - -“Dismount,” said he, “and hold my mare.” - -I took the two mares in one hand and the revolver in the other. Ḥussein -had lined up beside me, and we two stood perfectly still while Muḥammad -advanced, rifle in hand, his body bent forward in an attitude of -strained watchfulness. He walked slowly, alert and cautious, like a -prowling animal. The three were armed and our thoughts ran out to a -possible encounter with the Benî Ḥassan, who were the blood enemies of -our companion. If, when they reached the top of the ridge in front of -us, they lifted their rifles, Ḥussein and I would have time to shoot -first while they steadied their mares. The three riders topped the -ridge, and as soon as we could see their faces Muḥammad gave the salaam; -they returned it, and with one accord we all stood at ease. For if men -give and take the salaam when they are near enough to see each other’s -faces, there cannot, according to the custom of the desert, be any -danger of attack. The authors of this picturesque episode turned out to -be three men from Raḥḥâlîyeh. One of them had lent a rifle to the boy -who had guided us and, repenting of his confidence, had come after him -to make sure that he did not make off with it. We pointed out the -direction in which he had gone and turned our horses’ heads once more in -the direction of Shetâteh. - -“Lady,” said Muḥammad reflectively, “in the day of raids I do not trust -my mare to the son of my uncle and not to my own brother, lest they -should see the foe and fear, and ride away. But to you I gave her -because I know that the heart of the English is strong. They do not -flee.” - -“God forbid!” said I, but my spirit leapt at the compliment paid to my -race, however lightly it had been evoked. - -The incident led to some curious talk concerning the rules that govern -desert wars. You do not invariably raid to kill; on the contrary, you -desire, as far as possible, to avoid bloodshed, with all its tiresome -and dangerous consequences of feud. - -“Many a day,” explained Muḥammad, “we are out only to rob. Then if we -meet a few horsemen who try to escape from us, we pursue, crying, ‘Your -mount, lad!’ And if they surrender and deliver to us their mares, their -lives are safe, even if they should prove to be blood enemies.” - -It is usual to hold in small esteem the courage called forth by Arab -warfare, and I do not think that the mortality is, - -[Illustration: FIG. 75.--SHETÂTEH, SULPHUR SPRING.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 76.--ḲAṢR SHAM’ÛN, OUTER WALL.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 77.--UKHEIḌIR FROM NORTH-WEST.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 78.--UKHEIḌIR, INTERIOR FROM SOUTH-EAST.] - -as a rule, high; but I have on one or two occasions found myself with an -Arab guide under conditions that might have proved awkward, and I have -never yet seen him give signs of fear. It is only to town-dwellers like -Fawwâz that the wilderness is beset with terrors. - -Shetâteh is an oasis of 160,000 palms. The number is rapidly -diminishing, and on every side there are groups of headless trunks from -which the water has been turned off. This is owing to the iniquitous -exactions of the tax-gatherers, who levy three and four times in the -year the moneys due from each tree, so that the profits on the fruit -vanish and even turn to loss. The springs are sulphurous, but very -abundant. The palm-trees rise from a bed of corn and clover; willows and -pomegranates edge the irrigation streams, and birds nest and sing in the -thickets. To us, who had dropped out of the deserts of the Euphrates, it -seemed a paradise. The glimmering weirs, the sheen of up-turned willow -leaves, the crinkled beauty of opening pomegranate buds were so many -marvels, embraced in the recurring miracle of spring, that grows in -wonder year by year. - -Through these enchanted groves we rode from our camp to the castle of -Sham’ûn, the citadel of the oasis. Its great walls, battered and very -ancient, tower above the palm-trees, and within their circuit nestles a -whole village of mud-built houses (Fig. 76). There is an arched gateway -to the north, but the largest fragment of masonry lies to the east, a -massive, shapeless wall of stone and unburnt bricks, seamed from top to -bottom by a deep fissure, which the khalif, ’Alî ibn Abi Tâlib, said my -guide, made with a single sword cut. Among the houses there are many -vestiges of old foundations, and a few vaulted chambers, now -considerably below the level of the soil. It was impossible to plan the -place in its present state; I can only be sure that it was square with -bastioned corners. My impression is that it is pre-Mohammadan, repaired -by the conquerors, and local tradition, to which, however, it would be -unwise to attach much value, bears out this view. Possibly Sham’ûn was -the main fortress of ’Ain et Tamr before the Mohammadan invasion. - -At Shetâteh I parted from Ḥussein, Muḥammad, and the camel riders. -Kheiḍir was reported to be four hours away, a little to the south of the -Kerbelâ road. The Ḳâimmaḳâm could supply me with two zaptiehs, and -Fattûḥ had hired a couple of mules to carry our diminished packs. The -four men intended to travel back together, making a long day from -Raḥḥâlîyeh to Themail so as to avoid a night in the open desert. They -started next morning in good heart, fortified by presents of quinine, a -much-prized gift, and other more substantial rewards. Muḥammad would -gladly have come with us to Kerbelâ, but we remembered the Benî Ḥassan -and decided that it would be wiser for him to turn back, though before -he left we had laid plans for a longer and a more adventurous journey to -be undertaken another year, please God! We had not gone more than an -hour from Shetâteh before we met a company of the Benî Ḥassan coming in -to the oasis for dates, a troop of lean and ragged men driving donkeys. -They asked us anxiously whether we had seen any of the Deleim at -Shetâteh. - -“No, wallah!” said Fattûḥ with perfect assurance, and I laughed, knowing -that Muḥammad was well on his way to Raḥḥâlîyeh. - -We had ridden to the south-east for about three hours, through a most -uncompromising wilderness, when, in the glare ahead, we caught sight of -a great mass which I took for a natural feature in the landscape. But as -we approached, its shape became more and more definite, and I asked one -of the zaptiehs what it was. - -“It is Kheiḍir,” said he. - -“Yallah, Fattûḥ, bring on the mules,” I shouted, and galloped forward. - -Of all the wonderful experiences that have fallen my way, the first -sight of Kheiḍir is the most memorable. It reared its mighty walls out -of the sand, almost untouched by time, breaking the long lines of the -waste with its huge towers, steadfast and massive, as though it were, as -I had at first thought it, the work of nature, not of man. We approached -it from the north, on which side a long low building runs out towards -the sandy depression of the Wâdî Lebai’ah (Fig. 77). A zaptieth caught -me up as I reached the first of the vaulted rooms, and out of the -northern gateway a man in long robes of white and black came trailing -down towards us through the hot silence. - -“Peace be upon you,” said he. - -“And upon you peace, Sheikh ’Alî,” returned the zaptieh. “This lady is -of the English.” - -“Welcome, my lady Khân,” said the sheikh; “be pleased to enter and to -rest.” - -He led me through a short passage and under a tiny dome. I was aware of -immense corridors opening on either hand, but we passed on into a great -vaulted hall where the Arabs sat round the ashes of a fire. - -“My lady Khân,” said Sheikh ’Alî, “this is the castle of Nu’mân ibn -Mundhir.” - -Whether it were a Lakhmid palace or no, it was the palace which I had -set forth to seek. It belongs architecturally to the group of Sassanian -buildings which are already known to us, and historically it is related -to the palaces, famous in pre-Mohammadan tradition, whose splendours had -filled with amazement the invading hordes of the Bedouin, and still -shine with a legendary magnificence, from the pages of the chroniclers -of the conquest. Even for the Mohammadan writers they had become nothing -but a name. Khawarnaḳ, Sadîr, and the rest, fell into ruin with Ḥîrah, -the capital of the small Arab principality that occupied the frontiers -of the desert, and their site was a matter of hearsay or conjecture. -“Think on the lord of Khawarnaḳ,” sang ’Adî ibn Zaid prophetically-- - - “---- eyes guided of God see clear-- - He rejoiced in his might and the strength of his hands, the encompassing - wave and Sadîr; - And his heart stood still and he spake: ‘What joy have the living to - death addressed? - For the open cleft of the grave lies close upon pleasure and power - and rest. - Like a withered leaf they fall, and the wind shall scatter them - east and west.’” - -But for all its total disappearance under the wave of Islâm, the Lakhmid -state had played a notable part in the development of Arab culture. It -was at Ḥîrah that the desert came into contact with the highly organized -civilization of the Persians, with the wealth of cultivated lands and -the long-established order of a settled population; there, too, as among -the Ghassânids on the Syrian side of the wilderness, they made -acquaintance with the precepts of Christianity which exercised so marked -an influence on the latest poets of the Age of Ignorance, some of whom, -like ’Adî ibn Zaid himself, are known to have been Christians, and -prepared the way for the Prophet’s teaching.[80] So little have the -eastern borders of the Syrian desert been explored that except for the -ruin field of Ḥîrah, a town which was destroyed in order to furnish -building materials for the Moslem city of Kûfah, and a cluster of -mouldering vaults, said to represent the castle of Khawarnaḳ,[81] not -one of the famous pre-Mohammadan sites has been identified, and it is -possible that important vestiges of the Lakhmid age may lie unsuspected -within a few days’ journey from regions familiar to travellers and even -to tourists. Meanwhile Kheiḍir (the name is the colloquial abbreviation -of Ukheiḍir = a small green place) is the finest example of Sassanian -architecture which has yet been discovered. Its wonderful state of -preservation is probably due to the fact that it was some distance -removed from the nearest inhabited spot. Shetâteh is separated from it -by three hours of naked desert; the canals that feed Kerbelâ are yet -further away, and the water supply of Ukheiḍir, derived from wells in -the Wâdî Lebai’ah, is too small to have tempted the fellaḥîn to -establish themselves there. Nowhere in the vicinity, so far as I could -learn, are - -[Illustration: FIG. 83.--UKHEIḌIR, NORTH-EAST ANGLE TOWER.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 84.--UKHEIḌIR, STAIR AT SOUTH-EAST ANGLE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 85.--UKHEIḌIR, INTERIOR OF SOUTH GATE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 86.--UKHEIḌIR, CHEMIN DE RONDE OF EAST WALL.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 87.--UKHEIḌIR, NORTH GATE, FROM OUTSIDE.] - -there more abundant springs, and the palace has therefore been allowed -to drop into a slow decay, forgotten in the midst of its wildernesses, -save when a raiding expedition brings the Bedouin into the neighbourhood -of Shetâteh. - -Most of us who have had opportunity to become familiar with some site -that has once been the theatre of a vanished civilization have passed -through hours of vain imaginings during which the thoughts labour to -recapture the aspect of street and market, church or temple enclosure, -of which the evidences lie strewn over the surface of the earth. And -ever, as a thousand unanswerable problems surge up against the -realization of that empty hope, I have found myself longing for an hour -out of a remote century, wherein I might look my fill upon the walls -that have fallen and stamp the image of a dead world indelibly upon my -mind. The dream seemed to have reached fulfilment at Ukheiḍir. There the -architecture of a by-gone age presented itself in unexampled perfection -to the eye. It was not necessary to guess at the structure of vaults or -the decorative scheme of niched façades--the camera and the -measuring-tape could register the methods of the builder and the results -which he had achieved. But it was evident that no satisfactory record of -Ukheiḍir could be made within the limits of the day which I had allowed -myself for the expedition. We had exhausted our small stock of -provisions, and the materials necessary for carrying out so large a -piece of work as the planning of the palace were at Kerbelâ with the -caravan. Fattûḥ disposed of these difficulties at once by declaring that -he intended to ride into Kerbelâ that night and bring out the caravan -next day. The truth was that he yearned for the sight of the baggage -horses, and for my part I longed for a bed and for a table more than I -could have thought it possible. I was weary of sleeping on the stony -face of the desert, of sitting in the dust and eating my meals with a -seasoning of sand--so infirm is feminine endurance. An Arab called -Ghânim, clean-limbed and spare, like all his half-fed tribe, offered -himself as guide, and ’Alî assured us that he knew every inch of the -way. But when the zaptiehs heard that one of them was to accompany the -expedition they turned white with fear. To ride through the desert at -night, they declared, was a venture from which no man was likely to come -out alive. I hesitated--it requires much courage to face risks for -others--but Fattûḥ stood firm, ’Alî laughed, and the thought of the bed -carried the day. They started at eight in the evening, and I watched -them disappear across the sands with some sinking of heart. All next day -I was too well occupied to give them much thought, but when six o’clock -came and ’Alî set watchers upon the castle walls, I began to feel -anxious. Half-an-hour later Ma’ashî, the sheikh’s brother and my -particular friend, came running down to my tent. - -“Praise God! my lady Khân, they are here.” - -The Arabs gathered round to offer their congratulations, and Fattûḥ rode -in, grey with fatigue and dust, with the caravan at his heels. He had -reached Kerbelâ at five in the morning, found the muleteers, bought -provisions, loaded the animals, and set off again about ten. - -“And the oranges are good in Kerbelâ,” he ended triumphantly. “I have -brought your Excellency a whole bag of them.” - -It was a fine performance. - -The Arabs who inhabited Kheiḍir had come there two years before from Jôf -in Nejd: “Because we were vexed with the government of Ibn er Rashîd,” -explained ’Alî, and I readily understood that his could not be a -soothing rule. The wooden howdahs in which the women had travelled -blocked one of the long corridors, and some twenty families lodged upon -the ground in the vaulted chambers of princes. They lived and starved -and died in this most splendid memorial of their own civilization, and -even in decay Kheiḍir offered a shelter more than sufficient for their -needs to the race at whose command it had been reared. Their presence -was an essential part of its proud decline. The sheikh and his brothers -passed like ghosts along the passages, they trailed their white robes -down the stairways that led to the high chambers where they lived with -their women, and at night they gathered round the hearth in the great -hall where their forefathers had beguiled the hours with tale and song -in the same rolling tongue of Nejd. Then they would pile up the desert -scrub till the embers glowed under the coffee-pots, while Ma’ashî handed -round the delicious bitter draught which was the one luxury left to -them. The thorns crackled, a couple of oil wicks placed in holes above -the columns, which had been contrived for them by the men-at-arms of -old, sent a feeble ray into the darkness, and Ghânim took the rebâbah -and drew from its single string a wailing melody to which he chanted the -stories of his race. - -“My lady Khân, this is the song of ’Abdu’l ’Azîz ibn er Rashîd.” - -He sang of a prince great and powerful, patron of poets, leader of -raids, and recently overwhelmed and slain in battle; but old or new, the -songs were all pages out of the same chronicle, the undated chronicle of -the nomad. The thin melancholy music rose up into the blackness of the -vault; across the opening at the end of the hall, where the wall had -fallen in part away, was spread the deep still night and the unchanging -beauty of the stars. - -“My lady Khân,” said Ghânim, “I will sing you the song of Ukheiḍir.” - -But I said, “Listen to the verse of Ukheiḍir”-- - - “We wither away but they wane not, the stars that above us rise; - The mountains remain after us, and the strong towers when we are gone.” - -“Allah!” murmured Ma’ashî, as he swept noiselessly round the circle with -the coffee cups, and once again Labîd’s noble couplet held the company, -as it had held those who sat in the banqueting-hall of the khalif. - -One night I was provided with a different entertainment. I had worked -from sunrise till dark and was too tired to sleep. The desert was as -still as death; infinitely mysterious, it stretched away from my camp -and I lay watching the empty sands as one who watches for a pageant. -Suddenly a bullet whizzed over the tent and the crack of a rifle broke -the silence. All my men jumped up; a couple more shots rang out, and -Fattûḥ hastily disposed the muleteers round the tents and hurried off to -join a band of Arabs who had streamed from the castle gate. I picked up -a revolver and went out to see them go. In a minute or two they had -vanished under the uncertain light of the moon, which seems so clear and -yet discloses so little. A zaptieh joined me and we stood still -listening. Far out in the desert the red flash of rifles cut through the -white moonlight; again the quick flare and then again silence. At last -through the night drifted the sound of a wild song, faint and far away, -rhythmic, elemental as the night and the desert. I waited in complete -uncertainty as to what was approaching, and it was not until they were -close upon us that we recognized our own Arabs and Fattûḥ in their -midst. They came on, still singing, with their rifles over their -shoulders; their white garments gleamed under the moon; they wore no -kerchiefs upon their heads, and their black hair fell in curls about -their faces. - -“Ma’ashî,” I cried, “what happened?” - -Ma’ashî shook his hair out of his eyes. - -“There is nothing, my lady Khân. ’Alî saw some men lurking in the desert -at the ’aṣr” (the hour of afternoon prayer), “and we watched after dark -from the walls.” - -“They were raiders of the Benî Ḍafî’ah,” said Ghânim, mentioning a -particular lawless tribe. - -“Fattûḥ,” said I, “did you shoot?” - -“We shot,” replied Fattûḥ; “did not your Excellency hear?--and one man -is wounded.” - -A wild-looking boy held out his hand, on which I detected a tiny -scratch. - -“There is no harm,” said I. “Praise God!” - -“Praise God!” they repeated, and I left them laughing and talking -eagerly, and went to bed and to sleep. - -Next morning I questioned Fattûḥ as to the events of the night, but he -was exceptionally non-committal. - -“My lady,” said he, “God knows. ’Alî says that they - -[Illustration: FIG. 88.--UKHEIḌIR, FLUTED DOME AT A.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 89.--UKHEIḌIR, FLUTED NICHE, SOUTH-EAST CORNER OF -COURT D.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 90.--UKHEIḌIR, GREAT HALL.] - -were men of the Benî Ḍafî’ah.” Then with a burst of confidence he added, -“But I saw no one.” - -“At whom did you shoot?” said I in bewilderment. - -“At the Benî Ḍafî’ah,” answered Fattûḥ, surprised at the stupidity of -the question. - -I gave it up, neither do I know to this hour whether we were or were not -raided in the night. - -Two days later my plan was finished. I had turned one of the vaulted -rooms of the stable into a workshop, and spreading a couple of -waterproof sheets on the sand for table, had drawn it out to scale lying -on the ground. Sometimes an Arab came in silently and stood watching my -pencil, until the superior attractions of the next chamber, in which sat -the muleteers and the zaptiehs, drew him away. As I added up metres and -centimetres I could hear them spinning long yarns of city and desert. -Occasionally Ma’ashî brought me coffee. - -“God give you the reward,” said I. - -“And your reward,” he answered gravely. - -The day we left Kheiḍir, the desert was wrapped in the stifling dust of -a west wind. I have no notion what the country is like through which we -rode for seven hours to Kerbelâ, and no memory, save that of the castle -walls fading like a dream into the haze, of a bare ridge of hill to our -right hand and the bitter waves of a salt lake to our left, and of deep -sand through which we were driven by a wind that was the very breath of -the Pit. Then out of the mist loomed the golden dome of the shrine of -Ḥussein, upon whom be peace, and few pious pilgrims were gladder than I -when we stopped to drink a glass of tea at the first Persian tea-shop of -the holy city. - - - - -THE PALACE OF UKHEIḌIR - -I do not propose to enter here into a detailed account of the palace of -Ukheiḍir, which must be reserved for a subsequent publication, but it is -well to give a short elucidation of the plan, and to consider briefly -the theories which have been formed with regard to the origin of the -building.[82] - -The palace consists of a rectangular fortification wall set with round -bastions, with larger round bastions at the angles, and of an oblong -building surrounded on three sides by a court, together with a small -annex in the eastern part of the court (Fig. 79). That part of the -oblong building which adjoins the northern fortification wall is three -storeys high; the remainder of the palace is one storey high. Outside -the enclosing fortification wall there is a structure composed of -fourteen vaulted parallel chambers, with a small open court at the -southern end. To the west of the small court and of the first five -chambers lies a larger court with round bastions on its western side. -Between each of these bastions there is a door and either one or two -groups of windows, each group consisting of three narrow lights. I -noticed foundations of masonry which ran down from near the northern end -of this - -[Illustration: FIG. 91.--UKHEIḌIR, COURT D AND NICHED FAÇADE OF -THREE-STOREYED BLOCK.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 92.--UKHEIḌIR, VAULT OF ROOM I.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 93.--UKHEIḌIR, ROOM I.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 79.--UKHEIḌIR, GROUND PLAN.] - -out-building towards the valley. To the N.W. of the palace there is -another small detached building called by the Arabs the Bath (Fig. 80). -Near it the surface of the ground is broken by low mounds which may -indicate the presence of ruins. The Arabs assured me that by digging -here brackish water could be obtained; there is also a well of brackish -water in the western part of the palace court, but it is not used for -drinking purposes. The water supply of Ukheiḍir is derived from the Wâdî -Lebai’ah. It is obtained by digging holes in the sandy bed of the -valley. - -[Illustration: FIG. 80.--UKHEIḌIR, THE BATH.] - -The fortification wall is arcaded without and within up to two-thirds of -its height. These blind arcades support the walls of the _chemin de -ronde_. The outer arcade serves the purpose of a machicoulis, a narrow -space between its arches and the outer face of the main wall enabling -the defenders in the _chemin de ronde_ to protect with missiles the foot -of the wall below them (Fig. 83). The _chemin de ronde_ could be reached -from the uppermost floor of the three-storeyed block of the palace, as -well as by means of four staircases, one in each of the angles of the -court (Fig. 84). Two of these staircases have now fallen completely. The -_chemin de ronde_ had been covered by a vault (Fig. 86). Arched doorways -led into outlook chambers hollowed in the thickness of the bastions. -Arched windows open on to the court. In the centre of each side of the -fortification wall there is a gate (Fig. 85), that which stands on the -northern side being the most important, since it communicates directly -with the palace (Fig. 87). It opens into a passage with a guard-room on -either side. The passage leads into a small rectangular chamber, A in -the plan, covered with a fluted dome (Fig. 88). From this chamber an -arched doorway communicates with a vaulted hall, B, which runs up to a -height of two storeys and is the largest room in the palace (Fig. 90). -The vault, borne on projecting engaged piers, spans seven metres. Beyond -the hall vaulted corridors, C C C C, C´ C´ C´ C´, surround an open - -[Illustration: FIG. 94.--UKHEIḌIR, CUSPED DOOR OF COURT S.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 95.--UKHEIḌIR, VAULTED END OF P, SHOWING TUBE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 96.--UKHEIḌIR, CORRIDOR Q.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 97.--UKHEIḌIR, VAULTED CLOISTER O´.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 98.--UKHEIḌIR, GROIN IN CORRIDOR C.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 99.--UKHEIḌIR, SQUINCH ARCH ON SECOND STOREY.] - -court, D, as well as a block of rooms lying to the south of the court. -The court D is set round with engaged columns forming vaulted niches -(Fig. 91). At the S.E. corner the vault of one of these niches is fluted -(Fig. 89). The bracketed setting of these small semi-domes over the -angles is to be noted. The block of chambers south of court D is more -carefully built than any other part of the palace. It consists of an -oblong antechamber, E, leading into a square room, F. On either side of -the antechamber there are a pair of rooms, the walls and vaults of those -lying to the west, G´ and H´, being finished with stucco decorations and -small columned niches. On either side of the square chamber, F, is a -room containing four masonry columns which support three parallel barrel -vaults (Figs. 92 and 93). South of room F stretches a cloister, J, which -was covered with a barrel vault, now fallen. It opens into an unroofed -court, K. The corridor C C´ runs to the south of court K, and still -further to the south is another open court, L, with vaulted rooms round -it. - -To east and west of the corridor C C, C´ C´, lie four courts, M M´ and N -N´. To north and south of each of these courts there are three vaulted -rooms, but in M and M´ small antechambers in the shape of a narthex -separate the rooms from the court, whereas in N and N´ the rooms open -directly on to the court. In every case there are traces of a vaulted -cloister, O O and O´ O´, between the court and the outer wall (Fig. 97). -Behind each block of rooms there is a rectangular space, P P P P and P´ -P´ P´ P´, two-thirds of which are vaulted, while the central part is -left open (Fig. 95). Similar open spaces are left in the corridor C C, -C´ C´, which would otherwise be exceedingly dark. - -To return to the north gate. On either side of the small domed chamber, -A, long vaulted corridors, Q Q´, lead to the outer court (Fig. 96). A -door on the south side of corridor Q communicates with a small court, R, -with chambers to north and south of it and vaulted cloisters to east and -west. A group of vaulted chambers is placed between court R and the -great hall B. West of hall B there is a smaller group of vaulted -chambers. In the south wall of corridor Q´, two doors lead into an open -court surrounded on three sides by a vaulted cloister, the vault of -which has now fallen except for fragments in the south-east and -south-west corners. These fragments are adorned with stucco decorations. -I have suggested (in the _Hellenic Journal_, loc. cit.) that this court -may be a mosque of a primitive type. (See, too, _Der Islâm_, vol. i. -part ii. p. 126, where Dr. Herzfeld points out that a chamber somewhat -similarly placed in the palace of Mshatta may also be a mosque.) - -[Illustration: FIG. 81.--UKHEIḌIR, SECOND STOREY.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 82.--UKHEIḌIR, THIRD STOREY.] - -No difficulty will be found in following on the plan the arrangement of -the upper floors in the northern part of the palace. In the second -storey, the space marked B^{2} is occupied by the vault of the great -hall B (Fig. 81). At A^{2} three windows open into the hall from the -room in the second storey. R^{2} and S^{2} correspond with the two -courts R and S. In the third storey the rectangular space A^{3} is -unroofed, and the space B^{3}, below which lies the vault of the great -hall, is also unroofed (Fig. 82). The eastern part of this storey is -completely ruined, but there would appear to have been rooms - -[Illustration: FIG. 100.--UKHEIḌIR, NORTH SIDE OF COURT M.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 101.--UKHEIḌIR, SOUTH-EAST ANGLE OF COURT S.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 102.--UKHEIḌIR, WEST SIDE OF B^{3}.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 103.--UKHEIḌIR, DOOR LEADING FROM V TO W, SEEN FROM -SOUTH.] - -round R^{3} similar to the rooms round R^{2}. The _chemin de ronde_, T -T´, is on a level with this storey. - -Between the main palace block and the eastern fortification wall there -lies a group of rooms which is clearly an addition to the original -scheme. It is interesting to observe that these rooms are in all -essentials of their plan a repetition of the group of rooms to the south -of court D. Room U corresponds with the antechamber E; room V with the -square room F; W with the cloister J; X, Y, and Z to G, H, and T. But -the columns in I I´ are not repeated in the small rooms, Z Z´; room V is -covered with a groined vault instead of the barrel vault of F, and the -court A is not closed with a wall like the court K. I make no doubt that -both these groups of rooms, which are so strikingly similar in -arrangement, were intended for the same purposes, and I conjecture that -they were ceremonial reception rooms. Herzfeld has compared E and F with -the throne room of Mshatta (_Der Islâm_, loc. cit.). - -All the rooms and corridors of the palace are vaulted. Some of the finer -vaults are built of brick tiles (for example, over the great hall B and -over rooms E, F, I, and I´), but as a rule the vaults are constructed -with stones set in mortar, the stones being cut into thin slabs so as to -resemble bricks as closely as possible. (_Cf._ the Sassanian palace of -Firûzâbâd, Dieulafoy, _L’Art Ancien de la Perse_, vol. iv.) All the -vaults, whether of brick or stone, are built without centering, and all -are set forward slightly from the face of the wall. (The same -construction is found at Ctesiphon, see below, Fig. 109.)[83] The -groined vault occurs seven times in the corridor C C´ (Fig. 98), and it -is also found in room V. (See my article in the _Hellenic Journal_ above -cited.) The fluted dome over room A is bracketed across the corners of -the rectangular substructure (Fig. 88). In several cases where a barrel -vault terminates not against a head wall, but against another section of -barrel vault, it is adjusted to the angles of the substructure by means -of squinch arches (Fig. 99). A noticeable feature of the vault -construction of Ukheiḍir is the presence of masonry tubes running -between the parallel barrel vaults (Fig. 100). The structural purpose of -these tubes is to diminish the mass of masonry between the barrel -vaults. Whenever two barrel vaults lie parallel to one another, a tube -will be found between them, and similar tubes exist between the vault of -the cloister O O and O´ O´ and the outer wall. (See too Fig. 95, which -shows a tube between a barrel vault and a straight wall.) Over the -vaults of the rooms of the annex in the eastern part of the court, and -also over the vaults of the fourteen parallel chambers outside the -enclosing wall to the north, a false roof is laid (Fig. 103). It serves -as a protection against the heat of the sun. Under the eastern annex -there are some much-ruined subterranean chambers. A staircase at the -south-eastern angle of court D leads down into similar cellars -(serâdîb). - -The arches over the doorways are usually of an ovoid shape, sometimes -slightly pointed. When the door-jambs take the form of engaged columns, -the capitals of the columns, roughly blocked out in masonry, carry an -arch slightly narrower in width than the opening of the doorway beneath -it. But when the door-jambs are formed merely by the straight section of -the wall, the span of the arch is wider than the opening of the doorway -(Fig. 102 illustrates both types). This set-back of the arch was -doubtless employed in order to facilitate the placing of centering -beams. Three wide doorways with round arches, b b´ and c, lead from the -main block of the palace building into the surrounding court. The arches -are usually characterized by double rings of voussoirs (_cf._ Ctesiphon -and other buildings of the Sassanian and early Mohammadan period), the -inner ring laid so as to show the broad face of the stones or tiles, -while the narrow end shows in the outer ring. (See the arch in Fig. -102.) The arch construction in the eastern annex is, however, much -rougher in style. The outer ring of voussoirs is omitted there, nor is -it invariable in other parts of the palace. - -The niche plays a large part in the decoration of Ukheiḍir. A row of -narrow niches runs along the top of the outer face of the northern -enclosing wall, but very little of it is now left (Fig. 87). The -southern face of the three-storeyed block bears an elaborate niche -decoration (Fig. 91). Here the lowest row of niches forms part of the -series already mentioned which runs round court D. Above these, on the -second storey, are remains of another row of arched niches, each of -which contains three small niches. So far as I know, this feature of a -large niche enclosing groups of smaller niches has not yet been observed -in Sassanian architecture. It is found, however, in a certain well-known -type of early Christian church (see, for instance, Ala Klisse, published -by me in the _Thousand and One Churches_, p. 403). On the third storey -of the palace the face of the wall has been left blank, but above the -windows there are still traces of a third order of small niches. Pairs -of niches flanked by engaged columns are to be seen in room G´. They are -set high up in the wall between the transverse arches. On these -transverse arches there is a plaster decoration, the same in character -as that which occurs in the semi-domes at the ends of the vault in Court -S (Fig. 101). The motives there used are the flute (in the squinch arch -and in the conical segment of the semi-dome above it), and a pattern -which resembles a tiny battlemented motive. Upon the transverse arches -the battlemented motive is doubled so as to form diamond-shaped -patterns. In the centre of each of these diamonds, and in the centre of -the tiny arched niches at the bottom of the vault, and also between -those niches, there are small funnel-shaped motives formed of concentric -rings. Between the transverse arches there is a boldly worked ribbing. -The arch round the eastern of the two doors that leads into corridor Q´ -is surrounded by cusps (Fig. 94). (_Cf._ Ctesiphon, Dieulafoy, _op. -cit._, vol. v. plate 6.) A blind arcade, borne by pilasters, is to be -seen in courts M M´ and N N´. In the antechamber U there are shallow -niches on either side of the doors. - -With regard to the date of Ukheiḍir there are three possible hypotheses. -It may belong-- - -1. To the Sassanian or Lakhmid period prior to the Mohammadan conquest. - -2. To the 150 years after the Mohammadan conquest. - -3. To the Abbâsid period, _i. e._ after A.D. 750. - -1. In defence of the first theory can be urged the close relationship -between Ukheiḍir and other places of the Sassanian age, not only in plan -(_cf._ Ḳaṣr-i-Shîrîn, de Morgan, _Mission Scientifique en Perse_, vol. -iv., part 2), but also in the technique of brick and stone masonry and -in the principles of vault construction (_cf._ Ctesiphon, Firûzâbâd, and -Sarvistân, Dieulafoy, _op. cit._). But since it is certain that the arts -of the early Moslem era were dominated in Mesopotamia by Sassanian -influence, these affinities do not offer a convincing proof of a -pre-Mohammadan date. Even if Ukheiḍir belonged to the early Moslem age, -it might, and probably would, have been built by Persian workmen. At the -same time certain architectural features, such as the groined vault and -the fluted dome, have not hitherto been observed in any Sassanian -building. The earliest Mesopotamian example of the groined vault known -to me, besides the groins of Ukheiḍir, is that of which fragments can be -seen in the Baghdâd Gate at Raḳḳah. - -There is, further, a passage in Yâḳût’s Dictionary which might help to -support the theory of a pre-Mohammadan origin (vol. ii., p. 626, under -Dûmat ej Jandal). In the accounts given by the Arab historians of the -invasion of Mesopotamia in 12 A.H. (A.D. 633-4), by Khâlid ibn u’l -Walîd, frequent mention is made of ’Ain et Tamr, which Yâḳût expressly -states to be the same as Shefâthâ (Shetâteh is the modern colloquial -form of the name). When Khâlid ibn u’l Walîd had taken the oasis, which -was inhabited by Christian Arabs, and appears to have been the one place -that offered him serious resistance (Teano: _Annali dell’Islam_, vol. -ii., p. 940), he is said to have marched on Dûmat ej Jandal, which he -captured, putting to death its defender, Ukeidir ’Abdu’l Malik el -Kindî.[84] It is generally admitted that the name Dûmat ej Jandal in -this account is an error, and that the fortress which was taken by the -Mohammadans in the year 12 A.H. was Dûmat el Ḥîrah. (For the reasons -for substituting Dûmat el Ḥîrah for Dûmat ej Jandal in Ṭabarî’s text, -see Teano, _op. cit._, vol. ii., p. 991.) Now Yâḳût gives two -conflicting traditions concerning the foundation of Dûmat el Ḥîrah, but -he expresses no uncertainty as to its position. It was near to ’Ain et -Tamr, and its ruins were known in Yâḳût’s day (thirteenth century). -According to the first tradition given by Yâḳût, the Prophet sent Khâlid -ibn u’l Walîd in the year 9 A.H. against Ukeidir, who was lord of Dûmat -ej Jandal. Khâlid captured Dûmat ej Jandal and made a treaty with -Ukeidir, but after the death of Mohammad, Ukeidir broke the treaty, -whereupon the Khalif ’Umar expelled him from Dûmat ej Jandal. He retired -to Ḥîrah and built himself a palace near to ’Ain et Tamr, which he -called Dûmah. This Dûmah, near ’Ain et Tamr, is no doubt Dûmat el Ḥîrah -which Khâlid besieged and took in the year 12 A.H. The second tradition -is substantially the same as the first as far as the Mohammadan invasion -is concerned, but Yâḳût here implies that Ukeidir dwelt in the first -instance at Dûmat el Ḥîrah, and was accustomed to resort to Dûmat ej -Jandal for the purposes of the chase, and he adds that Ukeidir named -Dûmat ej Jandal after Dûmat el Ḥîrah. Prince Teano (_op. cit._, vol. ii. -p. 262) has exposed the improbabilities which attend this explanation, -and he concludes that both traditions are equally untrustworthy, and -doubts the authenticity of any part of the story of Ukeidir. It does, -however, appear to me to be possible that the ruins of Dûmat el Ḥîrah -which were standing in Yâḳût’s day were no other than the abandoned -palace of Ukheiḍir, though it is not necessary to accept either of -Yâḳût’s versions of the story of its foundation. - -2. If the palace is to be ascribed to the period immediately succeeding -the conquest, it would be a Mesopotamian representative of the group of -pleasure palaces which were built upon the Syrian side of the desert by -the Umayyad princes (Lammens: _La Badia et la Ḥîra, Mélanges de la -faculté orientale_, Beyrout, vol. iv., p. 91). But whereas it was -natural that the Umayyad khalifs should have constructed hunting -palaces in that part of the desert which lay on the direct road between -their capital of Damascus and the spiritual capitals of their empire, -Mecca and Medina, it is difficult to see why they should have selected a -site so far from any of their habitual residences as Ukheiḍir. It is -true that the Khalif ’Alî made Kûfah his capital for five years. He was -assassinated there in A.D. 661. But during those years he was -ceaselessly occupied in quelling rebellions, and I dismiss the -possibility that he should have found leisure to build or to use the -palace of Ukheiḍir. - -3. I am not disposed to place Ukheiḍir as late as the Abbâsid period. -The Abbâsid princes had lost the habit of the desert which was so strong -a characteristic of their Umayyad predecessors. When they moved away -from their capital of Baghdâd they built themselves cities like Raḳḳah -and Sâmarrâ. Moreover, the architectural features of Ukheiḍir, both -structural and decorative, present marked differences from those of the -ruins at Raḳḳah and at Sâmarrâ, and on architectural as well as on -historical grounds I am inclined to ascribe Ukheiḍir to an earlier age. - -Whether that age be immediately before the Mohammadan conquest, or -whether it fall shortly after the conquest, during the Umayyad period, I -do not think we are as yet in a position to determine. It is to be borne -in mind that the ruins of the palace bear witness to two different dates -of building. The eastern annex and probably the edifice outside the -enclosing wall to the north are an addition to the original plan and -must be of a slightly later date. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -KERBELÂ TO BAGHDÂD - -_March 30--April 12_ - - -To travel in the desert is in one respect curiously akin to travelling -on the sea: it gives you no premonition of the changed environment to -which the days of journeying are conducting you. When you set sail from -a familiar shore you enter on a course from which the usual landmarks of -daily existence have been swept away. What has become of the march of -time? Dawn leads to noon, noon to sunset, sunset to the night; but night -breaks into a dawn indistinguishable from the last, the same sky above, -the same sea on every side, the same planks beneath your feet. Is it -indeed another day? or is it yesterday lived over again? Then on a -sudden you touch the land and find that that recurring day has carried -you round half the globe. So it is in the desert. You rise and look out -upon the same landscape that greeted you before--the contour of the -hills may have altered ever so slightly, the hollow that holds your camp -has deepened by a few yards since last week, the limitless sweep of the -plain was not hidden a fortnight ago by that little mound; but here are -the same people about you, speaking of the same things, here is the same -path to be followed, yes, even the seasons are the same, and the dusty -face of the desert is too old to flush at the advent of spring or to be -wreathed in autumn garlands of gold and scarlet. Yet at the end of a -long interval composed of periods recurrent and alike, you look round -and see that the whole face of the universe has changed. - -When we reached Kerbelâ we passed into a world of which the aspect and -the associations were entirely new to me. I had set out from an Arab -town in North Syria, and I emerged in a Persian city linked historically -with the Holy Places, with the first struggles and the only great -schism of Islâm. At Kerbelâ was enacted the tragedy of the death of -Ḥussein, son of ’Alî ibn abi Tâlib; the place has grown up round the -mosque that holds his tomb, and to one half of those who profess the -Mohammadan creed it is a goal no less sacred than Mecca. But it was not -the golden dome of Ḥussein, though it covers the richest treasure of -offerings possessed by any known shrine (unless the treasure in ’Alî’s -tomb of Nejef touch a yet higher value), nor yet the presence of the -green-robed Persians, narrow of soul, austere and stern of -countenance--it was not the wealth and fame of the Shî’ah sanctuary that -made the strongest assault upon the imagination. It was the sense of -having reached those regions which saw the founding of imperial Islâm, -regions which remained for many centuries the seat of the paramount -ruler, the Commander of the Faithful. Within the compass of a two-days’ -journey lay the battlefield of Ḳâdisîyah, where Khâlid ibn u’l Walîd -overthrew at once and for ever the Sassanian power. Chosroes with his -hosts, his satraps, his Arab allies--those princes of the house of -Mundhîr whose capital was one of the first cradles of Arab -culture--stepped back at his coming into the shadowy past; their cities -and palaces faded and disappeared, Ḥîrah, Khawarnaḳ, Ctesiphon, and many -another of which the very site is forgotten; all the pomp and valour of -an earlier time fell together like an army of dreams at the first -trumpet-blast of those armies of the Faith which hold the field until -this hour. Then came the day of vigour; the adding of dominion to -dominion; the building of great Mohammadan towns, Kûfah, Wâsiṭ, Baṣrah, -and last of all Baghdâd, last and greatest. And then decline, and -finally the transference of authority. This was the story that was -unfolded before me as I stood upon the roof of a Persian house and gazed -down into the gorgeously tiled courtyard of the mosque of Ḥussein, in -which none but the Faithful may set foot. When I lifted my eyes and -looked westward I saw the desert across which the soldiers of the -Prophet had come to batter down the old civilizations; when I looked -east I saw the road to Baghdâd, where their descendants had cultivated -with no less renown, the arts of peace. The low sun shone upon the -golden dome; the nesting storks held conversation from minaret to -minaret, with much clapping of beaks and shaking out of unruffled wings; -the Spirit of Islâm marched out of the wilderness and seized the -fruitful earth. - -There were other lesser things which aroused a more personal if not a -keener interest. The oranges were good at Kerbelâ, as Fattûḥ had said. -The shops were heaped with them and with pale sweet lemons: I fear I -must have astonished my military escort, for I stopped at every corner -to buy more and yet more, and ate them as I went along the streets, -hoping to satisfy the inextinguishable thirst born of the desert. Side -by side with the oranges lay mountains of pink roses, the flowers cut -off short and piled together; every one in the town carried a handful of -them and sniffed at them as he walked. After night had fallen I was -invited to a bountiful Persian dinner, where we feasted on lamb stuffed -with pistachios, and drank sherbet out of deep wooden spoons. And there -I heard some talk of politics. - -Under the best of circumstances, said one of my informants, -constitutional government was not likely to be popular in the province -of ’Irâḳ. Men of property were all reactionary at heart. They had got -together their wealth by force and oppression; their title-deeds would -not bear critical examination, and they resented the curiosity and the -comments of the newly-fledged local press. Nor were the majority of the -officials better inclined--how was it possible? To forbid corruption, -unless the order were accompanied by a rise in salary corresponding to -the perquisites of which they were deprived (and this was forbidden by -the state of the imperial exchequer) meant for them starvation. A judge, -for example, is appointed for two and a half years and his salary is -£T15 a month, not enough to keep himself and his family in circumstances -which would accord with his position. But over and above the expenses of -living he must see to the provision of a sum sufficient to engage the -sympathies of his superiors when his appointment shall have expired; -otherwise he might abandon the hope of further employment. Most probably -he would have to defray the heavy charges of a journey to -Constantinople, to enable him to push his claim, not to speak of the -fact that he might spend several unsalaried months in the capital before -his request was granted. “And so it is that out of ten men, eleven take -bribes, and, as far as we can see, nothing has come of the constitution -but the black fez” (this because of the boycott on the red fez, made in -Austria), “free speech and two towers, one at Kerbelâ and one at Nejef, -to commemorate the age of liberty.” Under the new régime Kerbelâ had -received a mutesarrif whose story was a good example of the mistakes -which men were apt to commit when first the old restraints were relaxed. -He was of the Aḥrâr, the Liberals, and had begun his career as secretary -to the Vâlî of Baghdâd. The people of Baghdâd raised a complaint against -him, on the ground that in the fast month of Ramaḍân he had been seen to -smoke a cigarette in the bazaar between sunrise and sunset, which showed -clearly that he was an infidel, and he was dismissed from his post; but -since he was one of the Aḥrâr and had friends in Constantinople, he was -presently appointed to Kerbelâ. Now Kerbelâ, being a holy place -inhabited mostly by Persian Shî’ahs, is one of the most fanatical cities -in the Ottoman Empire, and a mutesarrif who brought with him so -unfortunate a reputation could do nothing that was right. Some of his -reforms were in themselves reasonable, but he was not the man to -initiate them, nor was Kerbelâ the best field for experiments. The town, -owing to blind extortion on the part of the government and to neglect of -the irrigation system, is growing rapidly poorer and yields an ever -diminishing revenue. This revenue is burdened by a number of pensions, -and the mutesarrif, looking for a way of retrenchment, found it by -depriving all pensioners of their means of livelihood. The pensioners -were holy men, sayyids, whose duty it was to pray for the welfare of the -Sultan. Some were old and some were deserving, some were neither, but -all were holy, and the feelings that were aroused in Kerbelâ when they -were left destitute baffle description. - -“Yet,” continued my host, “the Turks understand government. There was -once in Baṣrah an excellent governor; his name was Ḥamdî Bey. When he -came to Baṣrah it was the worst city in Turkey; every night there were -murders, and no one dared to leave his house after dark lest when he -returned he should find that he had been robbed of all he possessed.” - -“So it is now in Baṣrah,” said I, for the town is a by-word in -Mesopotamia. - -“Yes, so it is now,” he returned, “but it was different when Ḥamdî Bey -was governor. For a year he sat quiet and collected information -concerning all the villains in the place; but he did nothing. Now there -was at that time a harmless madman in Baṣrah whom the people called -Ḥajjî Beiḍâ, the White Pilgrim; and when they saw Ḥamdî Bey driving -through the streets, they would point at him and laugh, saying: ‘There -goes Ḥajjî Beiḍâ.’ But at the end of a year he assembled all the chief -men and said: ‘Hitherto you have called me Ḥajjî Beiḍâ; now you shall -call me Ḥajjî Ḳara, the Black Pilgrim.’ And then and there he cast most -of them into prison and produced his evidence against them. And after a -year’s time the town was so peaceful that he ordered the citizens to -leave their doors open at night; and as long as Ḥamdî Bey remained at -Baṣrah no man troubled to lock his door. And at another time there was a -Commandant in Baṣrah, and he too brought the place to order. For when he -knew a prisoner to be guilty, yet failed to get the witnesses to speak -against him, he would put the man to death in prison by means of a hot -iron which he drove into his stomach through a tube. Then it was given -out that the man had died of an illness, and every one rejoiced that -there should be a rogue the less.” - -I made no comment, but my expression must have betrayed me, for my -interlocutor added a justification of the commandant’s methods. “In -Persia,” said he, “they bury them alive.” - -“My soldiers have told me,” said I, not to be outdone, “that in Persia -they cut off a thief’s hand, and I think they regard it as the proper -sentence, for they generally add: ‘That is ḥukm, justice.’” - -“It is the sherî’ah,” he replied simply, “the holy law,” and he recited -the passage from the Ḳurân: “If a man or woman steal, cut off their -hands in retribution for that which they have done; this is an exemplary -punishment appointed by God, and God is mighty and wise.” - -I had intended to go straight from Kerbelâ to Babylon, but I was -reckoning without full knowledge of the Hindîyeh swamp. The history of -this swamp is both curious and instructive. A few miles above the -village of Museiyib, north-east of Kerbelâ, the Euphrates divides into -two channels. The eastern channel, the true bed of the river, runs past -Babylon and Ḥilleh and discharges its waters into the great swamp which -has existed in southern ’Iraḳ ever since the last days of the Sassanian -kings. The western channel is known as the Nahr Hindîyeh; it waters -Kûfah, now a miserable hamlet clustered about the great mosque in which -the khalif ’Alî was assassinated, and flowing through the great swamp -re-enters the Euphrates some way above the junction of the latter with -the Tigris.[85] The dam on the Euphrates which regulated the flowing of -its waters into the Hindîyeh canal has been allowed to fall into -disrepair; every year a deeper and a stronger stream flows down the -Hindîyeh, and matters have reached such a pass that during the season of -low water the eastern bed is dry, the palm gardens of Ḥilleh are dying -for lack of irrigation, and all the country along the river-bank below -Ḥilleh has gone out of cultivation. The growth of the Hindîyeh has -proved scarcely less disastrous. The district to the west of the canal, -in which Kerbelâ lies, is lower than the level of the stream, while the -increasing torrents, bringing with them the silt of the spring floods, -yearly raise the bed of the canal and add to the difficulty of keeping -it within bounds. The Hindîyeh has become an ever-present danger to the -town of Kerbelâ, and indeed in one year, when the stream was unusually -high, the water flowed into the streets. It was the duty of the owners -of the land, a duty prescribed by immemorial custom, to keep up the -dykes, in order to save the cultivated country, and incidentally the -town, from inundation. Needless to say they neglected to do so. A large -part of the land--and here the story takes a very Oriental turn--had -been bought up by a rich Mohammadan who proposed to do a good office by -the holy city and to take the charge of the dykes upon himself. But as -the canal silted up the charge became heavier, until at last the pious -benefactor wearied of his task and refused to do another hand’s turn in -the matter. Thereupon the mutesarrif sent for him and ordered him to -perform his lawful duty. But the landowner was an Indian and a British -subject (at this point I realized that I had come once more into the net -of our vast empire) and he refused to be bullied by a Turkish official. -He pointed out that the floods were largely due to the negligence of the -Arab tribes, who draw from the Hindîyeh ten times as much water as they -need and let it go to waste upon the land, where it helps to form the -redoubted swamp; and since, said he, the swamp was caused not by the -will of God, but by the conduct of the Sultan’s subjects, the government -would do well to remedy the evil by applying to the dykes the forced -labour which it has the right to exact from every man during four days -in the year.[86] The mutesarrif replied that the Indian had not -cultivated his land for four years and that it was therefore forfeit to -the State;[87] the Indian countered him with the rejoinder that the land -had been under pasture and had paid a regular tithe. So the matter stood -in the spring of 1909; the town of Kerbelâ might at any time be flooded -if the river rose, the Hindîyeh swamp was growing day by day, and the -road to Babylon was impassable. No one seemed to regard these perils and -inconveniences as otherwise than inevitable, and I with the rest bowed -my head to the inscrutable decrees of God and took my way to Museiyib. - -Museiyib, as I have said, lies on the Euphrates above the point where -the Hindîyeh canal branches off from the river. For the last half of the -day’s journey we skirted the swamp. It was in reality much more than a -swamp: it was a shallow lake extending over a vast area. It had invaded -even the Museiyib road, which is the direct road from Kerbelâ to -Baghdâd, and we, together with all other travellers, had to make a long -détour through the desert. The other travellers were mainly Persian -pilgrims, men, women and children riding on mules in panniers. It is the -ardent wish of every pious Persian to make the pilgrimage to Kerbelâ -once during his lifetime, and still more does he desire to make it once -again after his death, that his body may lie in earth hallowed by the -vicinity of Ḥussein’s grave. Countless caravans of corpses journey -yearly from Persia to Kerbelâ, and the living should bear in mind that -the khâns of the towns are insalubrious, to say the least, owing to the -fact that they are packed with dead bodies awaiting their final burial. -The close connection between Kerbelâ and Persia has been during recent -years of considerable political significance. The large Persian -community, rich, influential and safely placed under the protection of -the Turkish government, has more than once tendered advice to the -struggling factions of its native country, and more than once the advice -has been in the nature of a command. The European is not accustomed to -think of the Ottoman Empire as a haven of refuge for the oppressed, but -the Persian, comparing Turkish administration with his own, regards it -as an unattainable standard of tranquillity and equity. Turkey must be -judged by Asiatic, not by European, possibilities of achievement, and I -tried to keep my thoughts fixed upon the pilgrims jogging sadly home to -their intolerable anarchy; but it was difficult not to notice the bands -of peasants who came wading through the shallow waters of the Hindîyeh -floods, their fields submerged, their crops devastated, their houses -reduced to mud-heaps and their possessions scattered over the swamp. Six -hours from Kerbelâ we reached the Euphrates, a river much smaller than -the one we had left at Hît, since a great part of its waters had been -drawn off into irrigation canals. To my amazement it was provided with a -practicable bridge of boats, by which we crossed, glorifying the works -of man. It was the first, and I may add the only bridge over the -Euphrates that I was privileged to see. We pitched camp on the further -side just beyond the village of Museiyib. - -On the following day we turned southwards to Babylon. For two hours we -continued to do battle with the waters, not, however, with untamed -floods, but with the almost equally obtrusive irrigation canals and -runnels which the industrious fellâḥ conducts in all directions across -his fields, regardless of road and path and of the time and temper of -the wayfarer. At length we reached the high road from Baghdâd to Ḥilleh, -beyond the belt of cultivation, and made the rest of the stage -dry-footed. We crossed the Naṣrîyeh canal by a bridge near a ruined -khân, and five hours from Museiyib we came to the village of Maḥawîl on -a canal of the same name, also bridged. There I lunched under -palm-trees--there are no other trees in these regions--and so rode on, -catching up the caravan and crossing many another canal, now dry, now -bringing water to villages far to the east of us. It was a very barren -world, scarred with the traces of former cultivation, and all the more -poverty-stricken and desolate because it had once been rich and peopled; -flat, too, an interminable, featureless expanse from which the glory had -departed. I was almost immersed in the rather jejune reflections which -must assail every one who approaches Babylon, when, as good-luck would -have it, I turned my eyes to the south and perceived, on the edge of the -arid, sun-drenched plain, a mighty mound. There was no need to ask its -name; as certainly as if temple and fortress wall still crowned its -summit I knew it to be Bâbil, the northern mound that retains on the -lips of the Arabs the echo of its ancient title. I left the road, hoping -to find a direct path across the plain to that great vestige of ancient -splendours, but the deep cutting of a water-course, as dry and dead as -Babylon itself, barred the way. My mare climbed to the top of the high -bank that edged it and we stood gazing over the site of the city. A -furtive jackal crept out along the bank, caught sight of Fattûḥ and fled -back into the dry ditch. - -“The son of retreat,” said Fattûḥ in the speech of the people. - -“Chaḳâl,” said I, searching dimly for some familiar swell of sonorous -phrases which the word seemed to bring with it. And suddenly they rolled -out over the formless thought: “The wolves howl in their palaces and the -jackals in the pleasant places.” - -For the past twelve years a little group of German excavators has lived -and worked among the mounds of Babylon. To them I went, in full -assurance of the hospitality which they extend to all comers. The -traveller who enters their house, sheltered by palm-trees, on the banks -of the Euphrates, will find it stored with the best fruits of -civilization: studious activity, hard-won learning and that open-handed -kindness which abolishes distinctions of race and country. As he watches -the daily task of men who are recovering the long-buried history of the -past, he will not know how to divide his admiration between the almost -incredible labour entailed by their researches and the marvellous -culture which their work has laid bare. “Only to the wise is wisdom -given, and knowledge to them that have understanding.” - -Within the largest of the mounds, the Ḳaṣr, or castle, as the Arabs call -it, lie the remains of Nebuchadnezzar’s palace. Another eight or ten -years’ work will be needed to complete the ground plan of the whole -structure, but enough has been done to show the nature of the house -wherein the king rested. It is built of square tiles, stamped with his -name and bound together with asphalt. The part which has been excavated -consists of an immense irregular area enclosed by thick walls. One of -these (it forms the quay of a canal) is called by the workmen “the -father of twenty-two,” _i. e._ it is twenty-two metres across; another -reaches the respectable width of seventeen metres, but usually the royal -builder was content with five or six metres, or even less. Within the -enclosure lies a bewildering complexity of small courts and passages -with chambers leading out of them--the more bewildering because in many -cases the bricks have disappeared, and the walls must be traced by means -of the spaces left behind. For more than a thousand years after the fall -of Babylon no man building in its neighbourhood was at the pains to -construct brick-kilns, but when he needed material he sought it in -Nebuchadnezzar’s city. Greek, Persian and Arab used it as a quarry, and -as you climb the stairs of the German house you will become aware of the -characters that spell the king’s name upon the steps beneath your feet. -The small courts and chambers, which were no doubt occupied by retinues -of officials and servants of the palace, formed a bulwark of defence for -the king. His apartments lay behind a wide paved court. From the court a -doorway leads into a large oblong chamber, in the back wall of which is -a niche for the throne. This is believed to be the banqueting hall where -Belshazzar made his feast, and on a fragment of wall facing the throne -you may see, if you please, the fingers of a man’s hand writing the -fatal message. How this hall was roofed is an unsolved problem. No -traces of vaulting have been found, yet the width from wall to wall is -so great that it is doubtful whether it could have been covered by a -roof of beams. If there were indeed a vault it would be the earliest -example of such construction on so big a scale. Behind the banqueting -hall are the private chambers, and behind all a narrow passage leading -to an emergency exit, by means of which the king could escape to his -boat on the Euphrates in the last extremity of danger. - -Nebuchadnezzar’s father, Nabopolassar, had built himself a smaller, but -still very considerable, dwelling which occupied the western side of the -mound. This Nebuchadnezzar destroyed; he filled up the walls and -chambers with rubble and masonry and laid out an extension of his own -palace above it. The plan both of the upper and of the lower palace has -now been ascertained. Above the Babylonian walls are the remains of -Greek and Parthian settlements, each of which has to be carefully -planned before it can be swept away and the lower strata studied. I saw -work being carried on in a mound which formed one of the most ancient -parts of the city; the excavation pits had been sunk twelve or fifteen -metres deep to dwelling-houses of the first Babylonian Empire. They -passed through the periods of the Parthian and of the Greek, through the -age of Nebuchadnezzar and that of the Assyrians, and each stratum was -levelled and planned before the next could be revealed. Add to this that -the most ancient walls were constructed of sun-dried brick, scarcely -distinguishable from the closely-packed earth, and some idea can be -obtained of the extreme difficulty of the work. The oldest Babylonian -houses which have been uncovered rest themselves on rubbish-heaps and -ruins, but deeper digging is impossible owing to the fact that -water-level has been reached. The Euphrates channel has silted up -several metres during the last six thousand years and the primæval -dwellings are now below it. While we were standing at the bottom of a -deep pit, a workman struck out with his pick a little heap of ornaments, -a couple of copper bracelets and the beads of a necklace which had been -worn by some Babylonian woman in the third millennium before Christ and -were restored at last to the light of the sun. - -The northern part of the palace mound is as yet almost untouched. Here -can be seen a sculptured block which used to lie among the earth-heaps -until a French engineer built a pedestal for it and set it up above the -ruins (Fig. 104). It is carved in the shape of a colossal lion standing -above the body of a man who lies with arms uplifted. The man’s head is -broken away and the whole group is only half finished, but the huge -beast with the helpless human figure beneath his feet could not have -been given an aspect more sinister. It is as though the workmen of the -Great King had fashioned an image of Destiny, treading relentlessly over -the generations - -[Illustration: FIG. 104.--BABYLON, THE LION.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 105.--BABYLON, ISHTAR GATE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 106.--BABYLON, ISHTAR GATE.] - -of mankind, before they too passed into its clutches. All along the east -side of the palace stretches the Via Sacra, contracting at one point -only its splendid width that it may pass through the gate that stands -midway between the house of Nebuchadnezzar and the temple of the goddess -Ishtar. The Ishtar gate--its name is attested by a cuneiform -inscription--is the most magnificent fragment that remains of all -Nebuchadnezzar’s constructions. Four or five times did he fill up the -Via Sacra and raise its level, and each time he built up the brick -towers of the double gateway to correspond. The various levels of the -pavements can now be seen on the sides of the excavation trench, while -the towers, completely disclosed, rear their unbroken height in -stupendous masses of solid masonry. They are decorated on every side -with alternate rows of bulls and dragons cast in relief on the brick; -the noble strength of the bulls, stepping out firmly with arched neck, -contrasts with the slender ferocious grace of the dragons, and the two -companies form a bodyguard worthy of the gate of kings and of gods -(Figs. 105 and 106). Along the walls of the Via Sacra marched a -procession of lions, fragments of which have been found and pieced -together. They, too, were in relief, but covered with a fine enamel in -which the colours were laid side by side without the intermission of -cloissons. This art of enamelling is lost, and no modern workman has -been able to imitate the lion frieze. - -On the east side of the gate stands the little temple of Ishtar, raised -on a high platform and commanding the city below. The temple is built of -sun-baked brick, probably in accordance with hieratic tradition, which -held to the ancient building material used in an age when the architects -were unacquainted with the finer and more durable burnt brick. Small -courts with side chambers lead into an inner holy of holies, where in a -niche stood the symbol or effigy of the goddess. Behind the sanctuary -there is a narrow blind passage where the priests could lurk behind the -cult image and confound the common folk with mysterious sounds and -hidden voices. The Via Sacra pursues from the gate its stately way, -skirting along the edge of an immense open court that lay between the -palace and the temple of the god Marduk, the patron divinity of Babylon. -The mound in which the temple lies has not as yet been completely -excavated, but a pit sunk in its centre has laid bare the walls of the -entrance court. It will be no easy matter to continue the work here. The -mound was thickly inhabited during the Greek and Parthian periods, and -its upper levels consist chiefly of refuse-heaps. When the workmen cut -down through them to reach the temple gate, the stench of the old -rubbish-heaps, combined with the stifling heat of the pit, was so -intolerable that their labours had to be interrupted for several days -until a breeze arose and made it possible to continue them. - -The excavations are carried on all through the summer heats, but the -director, Professor Koldewey, was at the time of my visit paying a -penalty for his tireless energy. He had been ill for some months owing -to his exertions during the previous summer, and to my permanent loss I -was unable to see him. I retain notwithstanding the most delightful -memory of the days at Babylon, of the peace and the dignified simplicity -of life in the house by the river, of the little garden in the courtyard -where Badrî Bey, the delegate from the Constantinople museum, coaxed his -roses into flower and his radishes into red and succulent root; of long -and pleasant conversations with Mr. Buddensieg and Mr. Wetzel, wherein -they poured out for me their knowledge of the forgotten things of the -past; of quiet hours with books which they brought for me out of their -library--and books were a luxury from which I had been cut off since I -left Aleppo. When I rode out of an afternoon one of the zaptiehs of -Babylon was detailed to accompany me. He knew the ruin-field well, -having been the fortunate occupier of a post at the Expeditionshaus for -several years. I would find him waiting in the palm-grove where my -horses were stabled, alert, respectful and less ragged than his brothers -in arms whose pay does not come to them through the hands of European -excavators. One day I asked him to take me to the Greek theatre, -wondering a little whether he would understand the request. - -“Effendim,” he said, “you mean the place of Alexander.” - -The great name fell strangely among the palm-trees, and from out of the -horde of ghosts that people Babylon strode the Conqueror at the end of -his course. So we rode to the place of Alexander, the theatre near the -city wall, ruined almost beyond recognition, but preserving in the -popular nomenclature the memory of the most brilliant figure in the -history of the world. - -And once the clouds gathered as we were riding through the palm-groves -by the river. “Praise God!” said the zaptieh, “maybe we shall have -rain.” He shouted the good tidings to a peasant who drove the oxen of a -water-wheel: “Oh brother, rain, please God!” But it was dust that was -heralded by the darkness, and as we hastened to the great mound of Bâbil -the wind bore down upon us and the parched earth rose and enveloped us. -We left our horses standing with downcast heads under the lee of the -mound and picked our way up the sides between the trial trenches of the -excavators. In a few moments the dust-storm swept past, and we saw the -wide expanse that was Babylon, embraced by gleaming reaches of river and -the circuit of mound and ditch which marks the line of the city wall. - -“Effendim,” said the zaptieh, “yonder is Birs Nimrûd,” and he pointed to -the south-west, where, in the heart of the desert, rose the huge outline -of a temple pyramid, a zigurrat. Legend has given it a notable place in -the story of our first forefathers: it was believed to be no other than -the impious tower that witnessed the confusion of speech. - -I heard at Babylon some hint of the state of unrest, bordering on -revolution, into which the province of ’Iraḳ had fallen. The German -excavators had been sucked into the outer edges of the whirlpool. Their -workpeople, drawn from different tribes (they had relinquished nomad -life, but the tribal system still held good among them), had caught the -infection of hatred and turned from the excavation pits to the settling -of ancient scores--so effectually that many a score had been settled for -ever, and the debtor came back to his place in the trench no more. Most -of the survivors had been clapped into gaol by a justly incensed civil -authority, and what with death and the serving out of sentences, -Professor Koldewey and his colleagues had suffered from a scarcity of -labour. This was nothing, as I was to learn at Baghdâd, to the confusion -that reigned in other parts of ’Iraḳ, and it was fortunate that I had no -intention of going south from Babylon; at that time it would have been -impossible. - -On the way to Baghdâd I was resolved to visit Ctesiphon, but we were -obliged to follow, during the first day’s journey, the Baghdâd road, -re-traversing for some hours the line of our march from Museiyib. Ever -since we had left Kebeisah the temperature had been exceedingly high, -and from Babylon to Baghdâd we travelled through a heat wave very -unusual at the beginning of April. The early morning was cool and -pleasant, but by about ten o’clock the scorching sun became almost -unbearable, even for people so well inured to heat as my servants and I. -As long as we were moving, it was tempered by the breath of our -progress, but if we stood still it burnt through our clothes like a -flame. There was not a leaf or any green thing upon the plain, and the -only diversion in a monotonous ride was caused by a peasant who caught -us up with lamentations and laid hold of my stirrup. - -“Effendim!” he cried, “you have soldiers with you; bid them do justice -on the man who stole my cow.” - -“Where is the man?” said I in bewilderment. - -“He is here,” he answered, weeping more loudly than before, “but a -quarter of an hour back upon the road. An Arab he is; and while I was -driving my cow to Museiyib, he came out of the waste and took her from -me, threatening me with his rifle.” - -“The effendi has nought to do with your cow,” said one of the zaptiehs -impatiently--and indeed the sun withered us as we stood. “Go tell the -Ḳâḍî at Museiyib.” - -“How shall I get justice from the Ḳâḍî?” wailed the peasant. “I have no -money.” - -The rejoinder struck me as correct, and I sent one of the zaptiehs back -with the lawful owner of the cow, telling him to catch the thief if he -were still upon the road and I would give a reward. The zaptieh -re-joined us while we were lunching at the khân of Ḥasua, but he had -not seen the cow, nor yet the thief, and perhaps it was unreasonable to -expect that the latter should keep to the high road with stolen goods -trotting before him. The khân at Ḥasua is large and built on the Persian -plan for Persian pilgrims. We ate our lunch in the shadow of its -gateway, and when we came out the sun struck us in the face like a -sword. There was nothing to be done but to try and forget it; I summoned -Fattûḥ and drew him into conversation. - -“Oh Fattûḥ,” said I, “is there any justice in the land of the Ottomans?” - -“Effendim,” replied Fattûḥ cautiously, “there is justice and there is -injustice, as in other lands. Have I not told you of Rejef Pasha and the -thief who stole from me £T28?” - -“No,” said I, settling myself expectantly in the saddle. - -“It happened one year that I was in Baghdâd,” Fattûḥ began, “for your -Excellency knows that I drive the gentry back and forth between Aleppo -and Baghdâd in my carriage, and so it is that I am often in Baghdâd.” - -“I know,” said I. “Once you sent me some blue and red belts embroidered -with gold that you had bought in the bazaars.” - -“It is true,” said Fattûḥ. “One I gave to Zekîyeh, and the others I sent -by the post for you and for their Excellencies your sisters. Please God -they rejoiced to have them?” he inquired anxiously. - -“They rejoiced exceedingly,” I assured him for the fiftieth time; a -present that has to be sent by the post is no small thing, and it would -be matter for consternation if it did not please. “But what of Rejef -Pasha?” - -“Rejef Pasha was Mushîr of Baghdâd,” Fattûḥ picked up his tale. “And God -knows he was a just man. Now I had sold my carriage to one who needed it -and gave me £T28 for it, which was a good price, for it was old. And as -I was walking in the bazaars a thief stole the money from me, and when I -put my hand into my pocket, lo, it was empty.” - -“Wah, wah!” commiserated the zaptieh. - -“Eh yes,” said Fattûḥ. “Twenty-eight Ottoman pounds. Now I had heard -men speak of Rejef Pasha that he was famed for justice, and I went to -him where he sat in the serâyah and said: ‘Effendim, I am a man of -Aleppo, a stranger in Baghdâd; and a thief has stolen from me £T28. And -there are many here who can speak for me.’ Then Rejef Pasha sent into -the bazaars and all the thieves he arrested.” - -“Did he know them all?” I asked. - -“Without doubt,” replied Fattûḥ. “He was Mushîr. And some he questioned -and let them go, and others he caused to be beaten upon the soles of -their feet with rods, and them too he released, until only three men -remained, and then only one. And Rejef Pasha said: ‘This is the thief.’ -Then they cast him upon the ground and beat him many times, and every -time when they had beaten him till he could bear no more, he cried out: -‘Cease the beating, and I will give back the money.’ But when they -ceased he said he had not so much as a mejîdeh. Then one of the soldiers -caught him by the leg to throw him to the ground, and the man’s garment -tore in his hand, and out of it fell £T26 and rolled upon the floor. But -two pounds he had eaten,” explained Fattûḥ. “And Rejef Pasha cast him -into prison. And when I was next in Baghdâd he was still in prison, and -I visited him and lent him £T1, for he was very poor. And we ate -together.” - -“Did you see him again?” said I, deeply interested in this simple -history. - -“Eh, wallah!” replied Fattûḥ. “I met him in Deir, and there I feasted -him in the bazaar. And now he lives in Deir, and I go to his house -whenever I pass through the town, for we are like brothers. But he has -not returned me the pound I lent him while he was in prison,” added -Fattûḥ regretfully. - -“Mâshallah!” said the zaptieh. “Rejef Pasha was a good man.” - -“But I will tell you another tale of Rejef Pasha, better than the last,” -pursued Fattûḥ, drawing, with the perfect art of the narrator, upon yet -choicer stores of his memory--or was it of his imagination? “Effendim, I -had a friend, and he hired from me one of my carriages that he might -drive a certain daftardâr from Aleppo to Baghdâd. Now at Ramâdî the -daftardâr spent two nights in the house of the son of his uncle, and -when they reached Baghdâd the daftardâr searched in his box for the gold -ornaments of his wife, and, look you, they were missing. And they cost -£T60. Then the daftardâr said that the carriage driver had stolen them, -and he caused him to be imprisoned for a period of three years. And soon -after, I came to Baghdâd and inquired concerning my carriage; and a man -in the bazaar told me that which had befallen, but I did not believe -that my friend had stolen the gold ornaments of the daftardâr’s wife. -And the man in the bazaar said: ‘You are his friend, and moreover you -are a walad melîḥ, a good lad, and he has a wife and two little children -in Aleppo. You will not let him starve in prison.’ And when I heard him -call me a walad melîḥ and thought upon the children in Aleppo, I went -away and sold my two carriages for £T60, and set my friend free. And -then,” Fattûḥ continued his gratifying reminiscences, “I went to a -scribe in the bazaar and gave him half a mejîdeh. And your Excellency -knows that a scribe charges one piastre. And I said: ‘Take this half -mejîdeh and write a letter to Rejef Pasha that shall be worthy to be -sent to the Sultan and explain to him the whole matter.’ So the scribe -wrote the letter, and I took it to the serâyah. Then Rejef Pasha called -me before him, for he had not forgotten me, nor the £T28 that were -stolen by the thief. And he said: ‘My son, do not fear. I will get back -your money if I have to pay from the treasury of our Lord the Sultan.’ -And he sent for the daftardâr and rebuked him for committing a man to -prison without evidence, for he said that without doubt the gold -ornaments had been stolen at Ramâdî. And the daftardâr paid me back -£T60. Never was there a pasha like Rejef Pasha,” concluded Fattûḥ. “He -feared none but God. God give him peace--he died a year ago.” - -Late in the afternoon we came to Maḥmûdîyeh. The baggage got in -half-an-hour afterwards, and found me established in the upper room of a -khân which Jûsef had noted down as he passed through on his way to -Kerbelâ as “the very place for our effendi.” The room was cooler than a -tent, and to sit in the shade and drink tea seemed to me to be the -consummation of earthly happiness. My lodging opened on to a flat roof -on which I dined, and realized that the more intolerably blasting the -day, the more perfect was the soft and delicate night. The khânjî, when -he heard that we were bound for Ctesiphon, declared that the Tigris was -in flood and the road under water. We stood aghast, seeing a second -enemy flow into the field just as we had circumvented the first, but a -Kurdish zaptieh (his name was ’Abdu’l Ḳâdir) stepped up with a smart -salute and bade us take courage, for he would lead us to Ctesiphon. He -was as good as his word; there was, in fact, no water on the road. We -reached the mounds of Seleucia in three hours, and in another half-hour -camped by the Tigris under the ruined wall of the Greek city. The -Tigris, where we came to it, was a mighty stream and a well-conducted. -It flowed solemnly between its low banks, which it did not attempt to -overstep, in spite of the fact that the snows were beginning to melt in -the Kurdish hills and the river was in flood. A belt of cultivation ran -like a narrow green ribbon beside it, intersected by a network of -irrigation canals which were fed by a regiment of jirds along the bank. -The whole area of Seleucia was covered with corn, but half-a-mile inland -the relentless desert resumed its rule, for the crops that had been sown -beyond the irrigation streams, in expectation of the usual sprinkling of -winter rain, had never sprouted. Out of the cornfields rose the mounds -of Seleucia, the capital of the Seleucid empire, which for two hundred -years after the death of Alexander embraced Mesopotamia, North Syria and -a varying part of Asia Minor. Of all cities in Turkey, Seleucia is -perhaps the one which would yield most to the spade of the excavator. -The Greek civilization of the Diadochi has given up few of its secrets -in any of the regions where the generals of Alexander cut their empires -out of the fruits of his victories, but in Mesopotamia we are completely -ignorant of what the Greek conquest may have meant in the history of -architecture and the lesser arts. We know only that at the end of the -period of Greek rule the arts emerged profoundly modified, and thus -modified governed the late antique and the early Christian world. - -I had no sooner appointed a camping-ground than I embarked on the broad -waters of the Tigris in a basket. The craft that navigate that river are -known in Arabic as guffahs, but I have applied to them the correct -English word (Fig. 110). They are round with an incurving lip, like any -other basket, made of plaited withes and pitched without and within to -keep them water-tight. Their size and the pitch alone differentiate them -from their fellows in the European market, and I readily admit that when -first you are invited to cross a deep and rapid stream in a guffah you -feel a shadow of reluctance. But for all their unpromising appearance -they are stout and trustworthy vessels, and when you have crossed once, -you and your zaptieh and your mares all in the same guffah, and -accustomed yourself to its peculiar mode of progression, you come to -feel a justifiable confidence in it. The guffah cannot make headway -against stream; it must be pulled up the river to a distance -considerably above the point you design to touch on the opposite -bank--the two guffahjîs push off, the basket spins upon its axis, and so -spinning advances, on the principle of the moon’s advance across space, -or, for that matter, of the earth’s; the guffahjîs paddle with a genteel -nonchalance, first on one side and then on the other, and at the end of -all you reach your goal. - -My goal was Ctesiphon (Fig. 107). The huge fragment of the palace, which -is all that remains of the Sassanian capital, successor and heir to -Seleucia, lies about half-a-mile from the river on the edge of a -reed-grown marsh. No more of it is standing than the central vaulted -hall (and here half the vault has fallen) and the east wall of one of -the wings (Fig. 108). The second wing has disappeared, and nothing is -left of the rooms on either side of the hall[88] (Fig. 109). Even in -this condition Ctesiphon is the most remarkable of all known Sassanian -buildings and one of the most imposing ruins in the world. The great -curtain of wall, the face of the right wing, rises stark and gaunt out -of the desert, bearing upon its surface a shallow decoration of niches -and engaged columns which is the final word in the Asiatic treatment of -wall spaces, the end of the long history of artistic endeavour which -began with the Babylonians and was quickened into fresh vigour by the -Greeks. Tradition has it that the whole wall was covered with precious -metals. The gigantic vault, built over empty space without the use of -centering beams, is one of the most stupendous creations of any age. It -spans 25·80 metres: the barrel vaults of the basilica of Maxentius in -the Roman Forum span 23·50 metres; the barrel vault that covered the -aula of Domitian’s palace on the Palatine spanned 30·40 metres, but it -has fallen. The Roman vaults were built over centering beams, not over -space on the Mesopotamian system, and the latter, what with the appeal -which it makes to the imagination and the high ovoid curve which it -involves, gives a result incomparably more impressive. In this hall -Chosroes held his court. It must have lain open to the rising sun, or -perhaps the entrance was sheltered by a curtain which hung from the top -of the vault down to the floor. The Arab historian, Ṭabarî, gives an -account of a carpet seventy cubits long and sixty cubits broad which -formed part of the booty when the Mohammadans sacked the city. It was -woven into the likeness of a garden; the ground was worked in gold and -the paths in silver; the meadows were of emeralds and the streams of -pearls; the trees, flowers and fruits of diamonds and other precious -stones. Such a texture as this may have been drawn aside to reveal the -Great King seated in state in his hall of audience, with the light of a -thousand lamps, suspended from the roof, catching his jewelled tiara, -his sword and girdle, illuminating the hangings on the walls and the -robes and trappings of the army of courtiers who stood round the throne. - -The pages of the historian who relates the Mohammadan conquest of -Ctesiphon ring still with the triumph of that victory. The Sassanian -capital comprised both the old Greek - -[Illustration: FIG. 107.--CTESIPHON, FROM EAST.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 108.--CTESIPHON, FROM WEST.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 109.--CTESIPHON, REMAINS OF VAULT ON WEST SIDE OF -SOUTH WING.] - -foundation on the west bank of the river and the later Persian town with -its palaces on the east bank.[89] Sa’d ibn abi Waḳḳâṣ, the leader of the -army of Islâm, had little to fear from the last of the Sassanian kings, -Yazdegird, a boy of twenty-one, and having entered the western city -(known to the Arabs as Bahurasîr) without striking a blow, he assembled -his troops and, Ḳurân in hand, pointed to the fulfilment of prophecy: -“Did ye not swear aforetime that ye would never pass away? Yet ye -inhabited the dwellings of a people that had dealt unjustly by their own -souls, and ye saw how we dealt with them. We made them a warning and an -example to you.”[90] “And when the Moslems entered Bahurasîr, and that -was in the middle of the night, the White Palace flashed upon them. Then -said Ḍirâr ibn u’l Khaṭṭâb: ‘God is great! the White Palace of Chosroes! -This is what God and his Prophet promised.’”[91] - -But the fording of the Tigris was a serious matter, and some days passed -before Sa’d announced to the army that he had resolved to make the -venture. “And all of them cried: ‘God has resolved on the right path for -us and for thee; act thou.’ And Sa’d urged the people to the ford and -said: ‘Who will lead, and guard for us the head of the ford that the -people may follow him?’ And ’Âṣim ibn ’Amr came forward and after him -six hundred men. And he said: ‘Who will go with me and guard the head of -the passage that the people may ford?’ And there came forward sixty. -And when the Persians saw what they did, they plunged into the Tigris -against them and swam their horses towards them. And ’Âṣim they met in -the forefront, for he had neared the head of the ford. Then said ’Âṣim: -‘The spears! the spears! aim them at their eyes.’ And they joined in -contest and the Moslems aimed at their eyes and they turned back towards -the bank. And the Moslems urged on their horses against them and caught -them on the bank and killed the greater part of them; and he who -escaped, escaped one eyed. And their horses trembled under them until -they broke from the ford. And when Sa’d saw ’Âṣim at the head of the -ford he said: ‘Say: We call upon the Lord and in Him we put our trust -and excellent is the Entrusted; there is no power nor strength but in -God, the Exalted, the Almighty.’ And when Sa’d entered Madâin and saw it -deserted, he came to the hall of Chosroes and began to read: ‘How many -gardens and fountains have they left behind, cornfields and fair -dwellings and delights which were theirs; thus we dispossessed them -thereof and gave their possession for an inheritance unto another -people.’ And he repeated the opening prayer and made eight prostrations. -And he chose the hall for a mosque; and in it were effigies in plaster -of men and horses and they heeded them not but left them as they were, -though the Mohammadans do not so. And we entered Madâin and came to -domed chambers filled with baskets; and we thought them to be food, and -lo, they were overflowing with gold and silver. And they were divided -among the people. And we found much camphor and thought it to be salt, -and kneaded it into the bread, until we perceived the bitterness of it -in the bread. And Zuhrah ibn u’l Ḥawîyeh went out with the vanguard and -pursued the fugitives till he reached the bridge of Nahrwân; and the -fugitives crowded upon it and a mule fell into the water, and they -struggled round it greedily. And Zuhrah said: ‘Verily, I believe, -billah, that the mule bears something precious.’ And that which it bore -was the regalia of Chosroes, his robes and his strings of pearls, his -girdle and his armour covered with jewels, in which he was wont to sit, -vaingloriously attired.” ... - -In the grey dawn I returned to Ctesiphon. The moon was setting in the -west and as we floated down the river the sun rose out of the east and -struck the ruined hall of the palace. - -“Allah, Allah!” murmured ’Abdu’l Ḳâdir, moved to wonder as he watched -the vast walls, in their unmatched desolation, take on the glory of -another day. - -We rode up to Baghdâd along the edge of the Tigris, and as we went, -Fattûḥ, who thought little of ruins except as a divertisement for the -gentry, dilated upon the splendours that we were to witness. Especially -was he anxious that I should not fail to see the famous cannon which -stands near the arsenal, chained to the ground lest it should fly away. -“For,” said Fattûḥ, “the people of Baghdâd relate that in a certain year -there was a great battle at a distance of many days’ journey. Now the -soldiers of Baghdâd were giving way before the enemy when one looked up -and saw the cannon flying through the air to their help. And without the -aid of hands it fired at the army of the foe and drove them back. Then -they brought the cannon back with them and chained it by the arsenal, -for they prized it mightily. So I have heard in Baghdâd.” - -“And what do you think of the story?” I asked. - -“My lady,” said Fattûḥ with a fine show of contempt, “the people of -Baghdâd are very ignorant. They will believe anything. But we in Aleppo -would laugh if we were told that a cannon had flown through the air.” - -Every few hundred yards we came upon the deep cutting of an irrigation -canal and our road passed over it airily, borne on the most fragile of -bridges. At first I could scarcely control my alarm as I saw rider and -baggage animals suspended above the gulf, but the horses made light of -it and no one can keep up a fear that is unshared by his comrades. We -were fortunate in finding all the bridges intact, but our good luck -deserted us in the middle of the day, and when we came to Garârah, where -we hoped to cross the Tigris by a bridge of boats, we found that the -bridge had been swept away and the keeper of the toll-house seemed -surprised to learn that we had expected it to stand firm in time of -flood. So we turned wearily round an immense bend of the Tigris and -entered Baghdâd by the Ḥilleh road (Fig. 111). Here the pontoon bridge -had been mercifully spared; it was crowded with folk, and as we pushed -our way slowly across it I had time to offer up a short thanksgiving for -the first stage of a journey successfully accomplished, new roads -traversed, unvisited sites explored, another web of delightful -experiences woven and laid by. At the end of the bridge we found -ourselves in the bazaars and made our way to the British Residency. It -is a pleasant thing to be English and to see the Sikh guard leap to the -salute at the gateway of that palace by the Tigris which is our -much-envied Consulate General. My thanksgiving must certainly have -broken into a hymn of praise when I found that the hospitable Resident -and his wife were expecting my arrival and had prepared for me a room -almost as spacious as the hall of Chosroes. - -At Baghdâd I learnt that the rumours of a revolt which had reached -Babylon fell far short of the truth. Two of the Tigris tribes were up in -arms and had effectually blocked all communication with Baṣrah and the -Persian Gulf. They were holding up five steamers at Amârah, together -with a couple of gunboats, which had been sent down to clear the -channel, and over two thousand soldiers. Among the passengers was Sir -William Willcocks, who was at that time engaged on the irrigation -survey, and the disturbance had therefore become a matter of grave -concern to the Resident and to all others who had the interests of -Turkey at heart. During the few days which I spent in Baghdâd, I saw -many people and heard much talk concerning the state of affairs that -prevailed in the delta, and I came to the conclusion that the government -were garnering the ripe fruit both of their inaction and of their -action. On the one hand, the Arab tribes had been allowed to reach an -alarming excess of insubordination. For three years the boats of the -Turkish and of the Lynch Company had been exposed to perpetual danger of -attack, and in 1908 one of the steamers of the Lynch - -[Illustration: FIG. 110.--GUFFAHS OPPOSITE THE WALL OF SELEUCIA.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 111.--BAGHDÂD, THE LOWER BRIDGE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 112.--BAGHDÂD, TOMB OF SITT ZOBEIDEH.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 113.--BAGHDÂD, INTERIOR OF SPIRE, SITT ZOBEIDEH.] - -Company had been fired upon and several persons had been killed or -wounded. Nevertheless no attempt has been made to bring the sheikhs to -justice. In remoter districts, even where the land was under -cultivation, the fiction of established government had been for all -practical purposes abandoned. Where the tax-gatherers still ventured to -put in an appearance they were bribed by the Arabs, and little money -flowed through their hands into the imperial treasury, while not -infrequently they did not dare to breathe the name of taxes. “The very -shepherds are armed with rifles,” said one, “and if I were to ask them -to pay the aghnâm, the sheep tax, they would raise their guns to their -shoulders, saying: ‘Take the aghnâm.’” On the other hand, the -authorities had sought to cover their weakness by setting one sheikh -against another and thus fostering disorder. Individual officials had -been guilty of methods of extortion almost unparalleled in the Ottoman -empire, and a well-known sheikh had declared with some reason that to -pay in the arrears which had been scored up against him would be little -better than an act of madness, since the receipt given by one man would -be pronounced invalid by the next and the whole sum would be demanded of -him a second time. While I pondered over these tales, my interlocutor -would generally add: “Wait till you see Môṣul. The vilayet of Môṣul is -worse governed than the vilayet of Baghdâd.” - -The one ray of hope for the future sprang from the labours of the -irrigation survey whose leader was lying imprisoned in midstream at -Amârah. “He who holds the irrigation canals, holds the country,” is a -maxim which can be applied as well to Mesopotamia as it was to Egypt, -and it was generally admitted that an irrigation system, justly -administered, would be a better means of coercion than an army corps. -The Arabs depend for their existence upon the river-side crops; the -control of the water and the possibility of turning it off at any moment -would prove an effective check on revolt. Moreover the man who has -something to lose is never on the side of anarchy; prosperity is the -best incentive to orderliness, and prosperity might in time be brought -back to districts which had been for many ages the richest in the world. -The native of ’Irâḳ, gazing upon the empty desert which now meets his -eye, is accustomed to allude proudly to the days when “a cock could hop -from house to house all the way from Baṣrah to Baghdâd,” and the saying -illustrates the fundamental truth that the present poverty-stricken -condition of the land is due not to the niggardliness of nature, but to -the destructive folly of man. The forerunner of effective reform must -always be honest administration, and how was that to be attained where -corruption was as natural as the drawing in of the breath? Even to this, -perhaps the most critical of all the questions that beset the new -government, there seemed to me to exist the germs of an answer in the -growth and free expression of popular opinion. In Baghdâd the public -mind was on the alert and the public tongue was no longer to be -silenced. One day when I went down into the bazaars I heard on every lip -the rumour that a noted Arab from one of the rebellious tribes had -arrived in the town, his hands filled with gold which he was prepared to -transfer to those of a certain high military authority. The next day the -tale was in the local papers, the official was mentioned by name, and if -it were indeed true that the Arab had been sent on the mission with -which he was credited, his distinguished patron would have found it hard -to accept the money intended for him and impossible to carry out his -part in the proposed bargain. But the press, though it was as yet -inefficient enough, was the best asset of the new order. Not even the -most optimistic could assert that constitutional government had taken -deep root in Baghdâd. The local committee was a negligible quantity, and -men of all creeds were persuaded that the revolution was still to come -and that it would come with bloodshed. But it must be added that when -the news of the counter-revolution in Constantinople reached Baghdâd, -not a finger was lifted nor a voice heard to support anything that would -approach to a return to the old régime, and the military authorities of -Baghdâd were among those who telegraphed to the Committee with offers of -assistance when the fate of the latter hung in the balance. - -Here as elsewhere the chief bar to progress was the political fatalism -of the people themselves. But amid the universal scepticism there was -one section of the community which showed a desire to profit by the -advantages which had been promised. The Jews form a very important part -of the population, rich, intelligent, cultivated and active. One example -of their attitude towards the new order will be enough to show their -quality. It had been given out that all the subjects of the Sultan would -ultimately be called upon to perform military service; the law (which -has since been passed) had not yet assumed a definite shape and many -were of the opinion that it would be found impossible to frame it. Not -so the Jews of Baghdâd. As soon as the idea of universal service had -been conceived, a hundred young men of the Jewish community applied for -leave to enter the military school so that they might lose no time in -qualifying to serve as officers. The permission was granted, and I trust -that they may now be well on the road to promotion. The Christians -showed no similar desire to take up the duties of the soldier. On the -contrary, all those who were in arrears with the payment of their -exemption money hastened to make good the sum due, that they might show -that they had fulfilled their obligations under the old system and claim -acquittal from those imposed by the new. - -I heard these tales by snatches as I explored Baghdâd and tried to -reconstitute the city which had been for five centuries the capital of -the Abbâsid khalifs, a period during which it had witnessed a -magnificence as profuse and destruction as reckless as any others on the -pages of history. Of the original Mohammadan foundation, Manṣûr’s Round -City, built in A.D. 762 on the right bank of the Tigris, no vestige -remains.[92] The site of the great quarters which sprung up to north and -south of the Round City are marked only by the tomb of Sheikh Ma’rûf -and the celebrated Shi’ah sanctuary of Kâẓimein. The west bank is at -present occupied by a small modern quarter, about and below the pontoon -bridge which we crossed when we arrived. As early as Manṣûr’s time a -palace had been built on the east side of the river and the eastern city -gradually eclipsed the western in importance. But it did not occupy the -site of modern Baghdâd; it lay to the north of the present town and the -sole relic of it is the shrine of Abu Ḥanîfah in the village of -Mu’aẓẓam, which is now situated some distance to the north of Baghdâd. -Finally the existing town grew up round the palaces of the later -khalifs, and its walls and gates are the same as those which were seen -and described by Ibn Jubeir in the twelfth century. It no longer fills -the circuit of those walls; between them and the modern houses there are -large empty spaces which were once occupied by streets and gardens. I -drove out one windy morning to the village of Mu’aẓẓam and gazed -respectfully from a house-top at the tiled dome which covers the tomb of -the Imâm Abu Ḥanîfah. He was the founder of the earliest of the four -orthodox sects of the Sunnis and he aided Manṣûr in the building of -Baghdâd. Even in Ibn Jubeir’s time the city had retreated from the -shrine and he describes it as lying far outside the walls, as it does -to-day. We then crossed the Tigris by an upper bridge of boats and -visited the Kâẓimein. Here too a village has sprung up round the -sanctuary which shelters the remains of the seventh and ninth Shî’ah -Imâms.[93] The place is now purely a Shî’ah shrine, though its original -sanctity was due to the fact that somewhere in this region stood the -tomb of Ibn Ḥanbal, the founder of the last of the four orthodox Sunni -sects. His tomb still existed when Ibn Baṭûṭaḥ visited Baghdâd in 1327, -but it fell subsequently into ruin and has now disappeared. No infidel -is permitted to enter a Shî’ah mosque, and it is well not to linger with -too great a show of interest at the gates, so as to avoid the ignominy, -which you are helpless to avert, of being hustled out of the way by a -fanatical crowd. I went therefore to a neighbouring building, the tomb -of Sir Iḳbâl ed Dauleh, brother to the king of Oudh, and begged the -wakîl to allow me to look upon the Kâẓimein from his roof. The wakîl, -the guardian of Sir Iḳbâl’s tomb, was a charming and cheerful mullah, -dressed in long robes and a white turban. He turned a friendly eye upon -me, partly out of the innate sociability of his character, and partly in -view of the fact that I was a fellow subject of his departed master. Not -only did he grant my request, but he presented me with a bunch of -pomegranate flowers and entertained me with coffee and sherbet. - -“Why,” said he, “do you travel so far?” - -I replied that I had a great curiosity to see the world and all that lay -therein. - -“You are right,” he answered. “Man has but a short while to live, and to -see everything is a natural desire. But few have time to accomplish -it--what would you? we are but human.” And he drew his robe round him -and sipped contentedly at the sherbet, repeating as he did so his elegy -on the race: “Insân! we are human.” - -With that he turned his attention to the things of this brief world and -gave me his opinion of a high official of the empire. “He is mad,” he -declared, “majnûn.” - -“He is a man of books rather than of deeds,” said I, for I knew the -official in question and held him in respect. - -“That is what I call majnûn,” replied the mullah sharply. - -When I had finished the sherbet I took my leave and went to the tomb of -Sheikh Ma’rûf, who was a contemporary of Hârûn er Rashîd and by origin a -Christian, but having professed Islâm he became noted as the ascetic of -the age and the imâm of his time. He was one of the four saints who by -their intercessions protected Baghdâd, however inadequately, from the -approach of evil. The existing tomb, though it has frequently been -repaired, probably covers the very site of the earliest shrine. It is -surrounded by a large cemetery in which stands a building known as the -tomb of the Sitt Zobeideh, the wife of Hârûn er Rashîd (Fig. 112). The -attribution does not appear earlier than 1718 and is undoubtedly -erroneous. The Princess Zobeideh was buried in the Kâẓimein, her tomb -has long been destroyed and its exact site forgotten.[94] A very cursory -inspection of the architecture is enough to prove that the building near -the tomb of Ma’rûf cannot date from the ninth century.[95] It has been -in great part reconstructed and contains nothing of architectural -interest except the form of its cone-like roof, narrowing upwards by a -series of superimposed alveolate niches or squinches (Fig. 113). I have -never seen any roof of this kind which could be dated as early as the -ninth century. - -In the city on the east bank, the modern Baghdâd, by far the most -interesting relic of the age of the khalifs is the line of the enclosing -wall with its gates. The wall itself is largely destroyed, but its -position is marked by a mound and a deep ditch; of the gates the two on -the eastern side are the best preserved. One of these, the Bâb eṭ -Ṭilism, is dated by a fine inscription of the Khalif Nâṣir in the year -A.H. 618 (A.D. 1221) (Fig. 114). It is a splendid octagonal tower, but -the door has been walled up ever since the Sultan Murâd IV, the Turkish -conqueror of Baghdâd, rode through it in triumph in the year 1638. Round -the top of this closed gateway runs a remarkable decoration consisting -of a pair of dragons with the wreathed bodies of serpents (Fig. 115). -They confront one another with open jaws above the summit of the pointed -arch and between them sits cross-legged a small figure with a hand -outstretched into each gaping mouth. The serpent motive is not unknown -in the decoration of Islâm; it appears, as has been said, upon the -gateway of the citadel of Aleppo, where the inscription in dated in the -year 1209. I have seen it upon - -[Illustration: FIG. 114.--BAGHDÂD, BÂB EṬ ṬILISM.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 115.--BAGHDÂD, DETAIL OF ORNAMENT, BÂB EṬ ṬILISM.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 116.--BAGHDÂD, MINARET IN SÛḲ EL GHAZL.] - -many a lintel of the churches in and near Môṣul, which are generally to -be dated in the thirteenth century and owe their decorative motives -entirely to the arts of Islâm. There the snakes are sometimes combined -with the cross-legged figure, precisely as at Baghdâd, and frequently -the figure appears seated between a pair of rampant lions. I am inclined -to regard the whole snake-and-figure or lion-and-figure scheme as Inner -Asiatic, possibly it is due to Chinese influence. The seated figure, as -has been noticed by de Beylié,[96] bears a curious resemblance to the -Buddha type, and at Môṣul the affinities with early Buddhist motives are -even more strongly accentuated in the art of the thirteenth century. The -second of the eastern gates, the Bâb el Wusṭânî, consists also of a -domed octagonal chamber outside the wall, connected with the city by a -low bridge, with walls on either hand, that leads across the moat. The -dome, set on eight niches, is a fine piece of construction. - -Within the town the traces of the Baghdâd that existed before the Mongol -invasion are woefully scanty. There is a beautiful minaret in the Sûḳ el -Ghazl (Fig. 116) which is dated by an inscription of the Khalif -Mustanṣir in the year 1236,[97] and at the end of the lower pontoon -bridge stand considerable remains of the Mustanṣirîyeh College, -completed by the Khalif Mustanṣir in the year 1233 and now used as a -custom house. A splendid inscription of Mustanṣir runs along the wall -facing the river to the north of the bridge. Behind the wall there are -parts of a court with ruined chambers round it, and to the south of the -bridge I was conducted through another series of chambers which look as -if they had belonged to a bath. The mastery of structural problems shown -by the architects of Islâm in the thirteenth century is nothing short -of amazing. Every trace of decoration has disappeared from the walls of -these buildings, yet the admirable quality of the brick masonry and the -feats performed in the vaulting make the half-ruined halls as beautiful -as a palace. The octagonal rooms are covered by very shallow brick domes -set over the angle on squinch arches of patterned brick.[98] Square -chambers are invariably roofed with four-sided domes, and over long -rectangular halls the four-sided dome again appears, the two extremities -being parted by a span of absolutely flat brick roof which depends for -its solidity upon the excellence of the mortar.[99] Not far from the -custom house is a twelfth-century khân, Khân Orthma,[100] and in the -Khâṣakî Jâmi’ there is a very beautiful miḥrâb cut out of a single block -of stone.[101] Beyond these there was but one other place which I -desired to see. I had read[102] that there existed in the arsenal some -fragments of one of the palaces of the khalifs, beautifully decorated -with stucco, and accordingly I set out in all innocence to visit them. -The arsenal lies at the extreme north end of the bazaar, not far from -the northern gate, and to reach it I passed by the khân where my -servants and horses had found a lodging. Fattûḥ and Jûsef were standing -at the entrance and they gave me a cordial greeting. - -“Please God,” said Fattûḥ, “your Excellency has seen the cannon which is -chained to the ground?” - -I confessed that I did not know where it was to be found. - -“But it is here in the Maidân, close at hand,” exclaimed Fattûḥ, and -hurried out to conduct me to the spot. There it was, sure enough, a -rusty piece of artillery and an ancient, chained to the ground under a -big tree. Fattûḥ gazed upon it with an interest that was not unmixed -with contempt. - -“In Aleppo,” said he, “we do not chain our cannon.” - -At the arsenal I was received by a polite officer to whom I explained my -errand. He asked me whether I had brought with me a letter from the -English Resident, and I replied that I had not, but that I could easily -obtain one. - -“Good,” said he. “If you will return to-morrow with the letter you shall -see all that you will.” - -On the following day I returned, letter in hand. I gave it to a sentry -and desired him to convey it to the Commandant, to whom it was -addressed. After a due interval an officer descended the stairs below -which I was sitting; he regretted, said he, that I could not be shown -the palace of the khalifs, it must be for another day. Upon this the -hasty European blood, which no amount of sojourning in the East can -bring to subjection, rose in revolt, and brushing aside (I blush to -relate it) the officer and the sentry, I sprang up the stairs, drew back -a heavy leather curtain and burst unannounced into a room filled with -distinguished military men. They were, I suppose, the Mesopotamian -equivalent for an army council, and if I am not mistaken they were -composing themselves to slumber--the hour was the somnolent hour of noon -and the day was hot. But my advent galvanized them into wakefulness. -They listened with the greatest courtesy to my tale, and when I had -finished, one who sat behind a green baize table pronounced judgment. - -“The letter,” said he, “is addressed to the Commandant and may be opened -by none but he.” - -“Effendim,” said I, “could it not be given to the Commandant?” - -“Effendim,” he replied, “the Commandant Pasha is in his house, asleep, -but if you wish I will send the letter.” - -I thanked him and begged him to do so, saying that I would go with it. - -The Commandant’s house was a stone’s throw from the arsenal. I was -greeted by a smiling major-domo who said that the Commandant should be -informed of my arrival, and meantime would I please to look at the lions -upon the roof. I agreed to this suggestion--as who would not?--and -together we climbed up to the housetop, where a pair of Mesopotamian -lions, thin, poor beasts, and ill-conditioned, were confined in an -exiguous cage. And they too were spending the midday hour in the -approved fashion. After we had succeeded in rousing them, I was -conducted into the Commandant’s reception-room, where the Commandant in -full uniform awaited me. We exchanged salutations and sat down. - -“Effendim,” said the Commandant, “I trust you were satisfied with the -lions.” - -I expressed complete satisfaction, mingled with astonishment at finding -them upon his roof. - -“They are now rare,” said the Commandant. “I had them captured in the -swamps near Amârah while they were yet young.” - -“Effendim,” said I, “I have seen them pictured upon the ancient stones -of the Assyrians.” - -“Indeed!” he replied. “They were no doubt more plentiful in the days of -the Assyrians.” At this point coffee was handed to us, and I ventured to -put forward my request. - -“Effendim,” I said, “I would now gaze upon the rooms of the khalifs in -the arsenal, if your Excellency permit.” - -The Commandant took a moment for reflection and then gave me his answer. -It was in three parts. He said, firstly, that those rooms were much -ruined and not worth seeing, secondly, that they were full of military -stores, and thirdly, that they did not exist. I recognized at once that -I had lost the game, and having thanked the Commandant for his kindness, -I bade him farewell. So it came about that I never set eyes on what -remains of the palace of the khalifs, but I did not realize till -afterwards that the clue to the whole situation had been the military -stores, the most jealously guarded of all the treasures of the Turkish -empire. And upon reflection my sympathies are with the Commandant, the -lions and the military council. - -Besides the great shrines at the Kâẓimein and Mu’aẓẓam, there is a -much-frequented place of pilgrimage which lies within the area of the -modern city. It is the mosque and tomb of ’Abdu’l Ḳâdir, the founder of -the Ḳâdirîyeh sect of dervishes, a widespread order which has many -votaries in India. ’Abdu’l Ḳâdir died in Baghdâd in 1253; his tomb was -erected a few years before the Mongol invasion, and is therefore one of -the last of the buildings that fell within the days of the Abbâsid -Khalifate. Connected with the mosque is a large tekîyeh, a house for the -lodging of pilgrims, richly endowed and visited by the pious from all -parts of the world. The ordering of this establishment, the distribution -of its funds and the cares of its maintenance rest upon the descendants -of ’Abdu’l Ḳâdir. The head of the family, who is known by the name of -the Naḳîb, a title of honour applied to the chief of a tribe, is an -important person in Baghdâd, lord of great possessions and still greater -sanctity--important, too, to us, since his tekîyeh is the resort of many -subjects of our empire. As I was strolling through the streets I -happened to pass by the gateway of his house opposite to the tekîyeh. -The Residency ḳawwâs, who was my guide (and very efficient he proved -himself), stopped short and said, “Does not your Excellency wish to -visit the Naḳîb?” Before I could answer he had addressed himself to the -gatekeeper and informed him that a beg who was staying with the Resident -stood at the door, and in another moment I was ushered into the garden -and into the presence of its master. The Naḳîb was taking the air under -his orange-trees. He received me with cordiality and appeared to regard -the introduction of the ḳawwâs as a sufficient basis for acquaintance. -After compliments had passed between us, he gathered his cloak round -him, mounted the stairs and led me into a cool upper chamber furnished -with a divan. “Bismillah!” said he as we sat down upon the cushions, “in -the name of God.” Conversation came easily to the Naḳîb, and the two -hours which I spent with him passed lightly away. Hearing that I was -interested in antiquities he gave me a short sketch of the history of -the world, beginning with the days of Hammurabi and ending with our own -times, during the course of which he proved that all human culture had -originated in Asia. He then turned to a review of the English rule in -Egypt, and I pricked up my ears, for it is not often that a high -dignitary of Islâm will give his impartial opinion on such subjects. He -had nothing but good to say of our administration, and he deplored the -unpopularity into which it had fallen. According to him this -unpopularity dated from the Denshâwî incident. He detailed the events -that had taken place at Denshâwî in the version under which they have -become known to Asia, a version irreconcilable with the facts, though it -was repeated by the Naḳîb in all good faith and with implicit -confidence. He said that the whole Mohammadan world had been outraged by -the story and had learnt from it to distrust the character of the -English. “When you conquered India you won it by love and gentleness” -(oh shade of Clive and Warren Hastings!), “thus showing how excellent -was your civilization; but when we heard that at Denshâwî you had shot -down women and children, we knew that you had fallen from your lofty -place.” I did not attempt to answer these charges; it would have been -useless, for the Naḳîb would not have believed me--and had not some of -my country-people brought similar accusations against their own -officers?--but I would point here a simple moral. It is that Islâm is -like a great sounding board stretched across Asia. Every voice goes up -to it and reverberates back; every judgment pronounced in anger, every -misrepresentation, comes down from it magnified a thousandfold. At the -end of the interview the Naḳîb sent one of his servants with me to show -me the tekîyeh. It is a very remarkable sight. Thousands of pilgrims can -be lodged in the two-storeyed rooms which surround the broad courts, and -men of every nationality were washing at the fountain and strolling -under the arcades. Such foundations as these are the meeting places of -Islâm; here news is circulated from lip to lip, here opinions are -formed, here the Mohammadan faith realizes its unity. - -The day before I left Baghdâd was Easter Sunday, Yaum el Âzirah as it -is popularly called, the Day of the Silk Mantles, on account of the -gorgeous garments worn by the Christian women. They walked through the -streets dressed in cloaks of every soft and brilliant hue, woven in -exquisitely contrasting colours. The Greek Catholic church, where I went -to Mass, looked like a garden of tulips, but one of the priests, an -Austrian by nationality, whom I met as I came away, deplored the scene -and said that his congregation thought of nothing but clothes and -adornments. The Catholic community is increasing, so he told me; when he -came to Baghdâd eleven years ago it numbered but 4,000, and now he -reckoned it at 10,000. He proposed that I should see the school, which -was close at hand, and accompanied me thither to introduce me to one of -his colleagues, a French father. It was an exalted moment at the school; -the black-eyed children were sitting in rows upon the floor and eating -their Sunday breakfast. Usually this breakfast consists of the simplest -fare, but on the Day of the Silk Mantles there are bowls of steaming hot -crushed grain and succulent chunks of meat, a feast to satisfy the -children of kings. - -With this I returned to the roses and green lawns of the Residency -garden, to dream of brightly-robed women and far-travelled pilgrims, of -the clash and contest of creeds, and of truth, which lies somewhere -concealed behind them all. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -BAGHDÂD TO MÔṢUL - -_April 12--April 28_ - - -We left Baghdâd on the wings of a strong south wind. My kind host -mounted and rode with me for the first half-hour, and we parted in a -dust-storm at the upper bridge. When he was gone, I joined my servants, -who welcomed me with solicitous inquiries as to how I had passed my time -in the city of Baghdâd. I replied that I had passed every moment -enjoyably, and that I trusted that they had been equally well pleased. -Fattûḥ hastened to satisfy me on this head. His friends had vied with -one another in providing entertainments, and he and the muleteers had -been plunged into a vortex of luncheon and dinner parties. - -“And last night,” concluded Fattûḥ, “we supped at the Kâẓimein.” - -“You had far to go,” said I. “How did you get back in the darkness?” - -“Effendim,” began Fattûḥ--but I cannot remember his exact words, for -they were at once absorbed into the recollection of a more famous -utterance; the upshot of his explanation was, that the rule laid down by -Mr. Jorrocks is observed in Baghdâd, with one exception. Where you dines -you sleeps, but you do not have breakfast; you rise at 4 a.m. and hurry -home, since it would be an infringement of the social law to appear to -expect that your host should provide the morning meal. - -We were riding by a narrow path along the top of the ṣidd, the steep -embankment of the Tigris, and as we went, the wind grew more and more -violent and the difficulty of preserving a foothold on that knife-edge -of a road greater and greater. The loaded pack animals were ever -struggling away from an imminent brink, towards which the following -wind buffeted them, first on one side and then on the other, according -to the windings of the path. During the course of the day one of the -horses, unwarily presenting a full flank to the blast, was swept off its -feet and rolled into a cornfield, but by good luck this accident -occurred after we had descended from the ṣidd on to level ground. The -dust was so intolerable that we welcomed the heavy raindrops which -presently came driving down upon the storm; but they could not pacify -the unruly earth, and dust and rain together formed an atmospheric mud -ocean, churned by the wind into whirlpools and breakers. Never have I -ridden through such a hurricane. Six hours from the bridge we reached -the khân of Musheidah[103] where we had intended to pitch camp. No tent -ropes would have held for half-an-hour in that wind, if it had been -possible to unfurl the tents, which it was not, and we rode into the -khân to seek a lodging. But the khân provided only for the needs of pack -animals and contained not a single room for their masters. Fattûḥ looked -gloomily down the long vaults of the stables into which the rain was -beginning to penetrate, and still more gloomily he returned to the gate -and eyed the maddened universe. There was one small edifice besides the -khân; the khânjî, being interrogated, informed us that it was the -barracks, whereupon Fattûḥ strode resolutely out into the rain and beat -upon the door. We waited some time for an answer; the howling blast, -which could not keep the soldiers awake, prevented us from rousing them. -At length one stumbled to the door and led us into a muddy courtyard, -unpromising in appearance. The barracks (perhaps it should only be -dignified with the name of guardhouse) consisted of a small stable with -two rooms above it. Without any hesitation, Fattûḥ took possession of -one of these last, piled into a corner the hay with which it was half -filled, swept it out, and garnished it with my camp furniture. Meantime -the soldiers busied themselves with coffee making, and I, being warm and -dry and well fed, mocked at the storm that battered against the mud -walls, and spent the evening with the books which had served as guides -down the Euphrates. - -It was not to those red-bound volumes which we are accustomed to -associate with travel that I turned, but to the best of all guide-books -to Mesopotamia, the Anabasis and Ammianus Marcellinus. In a moment I was -back in the ranks of the Ten Thousand and of the Roman Legions, but what -a change had come over them since we parted from them at ’Ânah! Cyrus -had fallen in the disastrous confusion of Cunaxa, which, but for his -fatal wound, might have crowned his campaign with victory. Julian, -misled by omens, had turned away from Ctesiphon, where Sapor awaited him -in terror; he had thrown his army across the Tigris and had met with his -end on the further side, venerating the everlasting God that he should -die with honour fairly earned in the midst of a career of glory. And by -a “blind decision of fortune,” as Ammianus Marcellinus relates, the -timid Jovian had been elected to his place. The Roman army continued its -retreat along the east bank, and I did not fall into the line of its -march until I crossed the Tigris, but Xenophon and the Ten Thousand -passed close to Musheidah and came down to the river at Sitace, where -they found a bridge of boats. There they crossed and marched four days -up the river to Opis.[104] The topography of this country is difficult -to grasp. The Tigris changed its course during the Middle Ages and now -runs considerably to the east of its former channel. Besides the old bed -of the river, there is also the cutting of a great canal, the Dujeil of -the era of the khalifs, which has long been devoid of water except in -its upper reaches.[105] Each of these dry channels is set thickly with -the ruins of towns and villages belonging to Mohammadan as well as to -earlier times. The northern reaches of the Dujeil still bring water from -the Tigris, and here villages and cultivation continue to exist; but the -canal is much smaller than it was originally, and it no longer rejoins -the Tigris at the lower end of its course. - -The soldiers of Musheidah, though they were unexceptionable as hosts, -were inefficient as guides. When I announced that I wished to ride by -the old Tigris bed they exclaimed in horror that it was unsafe to leave -the high road. At this Fattûḥ laughed outright, and remarking that we -had travelled over many a worse desert, laid hands upon a peasant who -happened to be listening to the discussion, and engaged him to accompany -me for the day. The peasant (his name was Ḳâsim) was an Arab of the Benî -’Amr, and he was full of the recent history of the land. All this -district had been granted by the Sultan Murâd to the Ma’amreh, the Benî -’Amr, to have and to hold in perpetuity, “and we possess his ’Irâdeh -signed by his hand,” said Ḳâsim. But about twenty years ago, ’Abdu’l -Ḥamîd, seeing it to be valuable property, ousted the Arabs, sold half -the land to a man of Baghdâd and turned the other half into Senîyeh -(royal estates).[106] The Benî ’Amr were thus left destitute, “and by -God who created the heavens and the earth,” declared Ḳâsim, “I have -nothing - -[Illustration: FIG. 117.--WÂNEH, IMÂM MUḤAMMAD ’ALÎ.] - -but the mercy of God.” When the constitution was granted and it was made -known that the Senîyeh would be handed over to the State, the men of the -Benî ’Amr, like many others who had suffered in a like manner, began to -speculate as to whether their rights would meet with acknowledgment, but -how the matter has been settled I do not know. We rode from Musheidah to -a number of ruined sites lying somewhat to the west of the present -Tigris channel, and I could see, still further to the west, the line of -mounds which mark the lower course of the Dujeil, now waterless; Ḳâsim -gave me their names as Sagr, Tâṣir, Bisheh and Baghût. In an hour and a -half we came to a series of big mounds called Mdawwî, which lie upon the -banks of the old Tigris bed. In time of flood the river overflows the -land as far west as Mdawwî. From here we crossed a plain, all of which -must have been inhabited, for it was scattered with mounds and covered -with fragments of Mohammadan coloured pottery, blue and green, yellow -and purple, and in three-quarters of an hour we reached Tell Bshairah, -where there were quantities of potsherds and bits of burnt brick. The -land round it is watered in flood time by canals from the Tigris, and at -that time sown with summer crops. The mounds of ’Ukbarâ[107] lie an hour -further to the north. A little to the west of these mounds is a small -ruin known as Kahf ’Alî consisting of two chambers of baked brick, one -of which had been covered by a dome set on squinch arches. I suppose -that it was a shrine or tomb of the late Abbâsid period. Thence we rode -up the dry - -[Illustration: FIG. 118.--WÂNEH, IMÂM MUḤAMMAD ’ALÎ.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 119.--ḲÂDISÎYAH FROM SOUTH-EAST.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 120.--SÂMARRÂ, RUINED MOSQUE FROM SOUTH.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 121.--SÂMARRÂ, FROM MALWÎYEH.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 122.--SÂMARRÂ, RUINED MOSQUE, INTERIOR OF SOUTH -WALL.] - -bed of the old Tigris to the tomb of the Imâm Muḥammad ’Alî lying among -mounds that mark the site of the village of Wâneh (Fig. 117). The tomb -is built of fine burnt bricks measuring 20 × 20 × 6 c., pale in colour, -nearing to yellow, like the bricks I had previously seen scattered over -the mounds. It is a square-domed building, but the dome rests on an -interior octagon and is set at each of the eight angles on a shallow -pointed squinch arch (Fig. 118). Pointed arched niches occupy seven of -the sides; in the eighth is the door. There is a system of niching on -the façade which has been considerably destroyed by the addition of a -rude porch of sun-dried brick. The mazâr is a typical example of the -small Mohammadan memorial shrine, and from the excellence of its -workmanship and the character of the brick I should place it within the -Abbâsid age.[108] From Wâneh we rode in an hour to Sumeikhah, where we -found our tents pitched in a charming palm garden. Sumeikhah is a modern -village lying on the Dujeil at a point where a little water still flows -down the canal from the Tigris, enough to satisfy the inhabitants and -keep their palm gardens in a flourishing condition. Like all Senîyeh -villages it has a prosperous appearance. The peasants are well to do, -having been exempted under the old régime from the greater part of the -ordinary taxes and from military service. With the memory of the -previous night of storm freshly in our minds we felt that we had reached -an agreeable haven. The temperature had fallen by an average of ten -degrees after the rain; the palm garden was a delicious camping-ground, -which we shared in all amity with a family of storks who had built their -nest on the angle of the enclosing wall. And we knew as little as they -of the counter-revolution which had overwhelmed Constantinople that very -day. - -Next morning I left my caravan to follow the straight road and turned -again to the east. In an hour we reached Tell Hir, where there had been -a considerable town on the old Tigris; thirty-five minutes further there -was a similar mound, Tell Ghazab, and in thirty-five minutes more we -came to Tell Manjûr. From Tell Manjûr to Tell edh Dhahab, three-quarters -of an hour to the north, a large area, stretching down to the Tigris, is -completely covered with mounds and strewn with pottery. The pottery is -not coloured or glazed, but ornamented with roughly scratched patterns -and narrow raised bands, a Mohammadan ware with which I was to become -very familiar at Sâmarrâ. The whole site must therefore have been -inhabited in the Mohammadan period, but in all probability it was -occupied by a city of earlier fame. On the east bank of the Tigris, -above the point where it is joined by the river ’Aḍêm, and therefore -exactly opposite the mounds which I saw on the west bank, Ross -discovered a great stretch of ruins and believed them to be the ruins of -Opis.[109] The Tigris, when it changed its course, must have cut through -the area of Opis, so that one half of its mounds now lie to the east of -the river and one half to the west. Opis is mentioned by Xenophon[110] -and by Herodotus.[111] It was the most important city of Babylonia after -Babylon. Alexander’s ships touched there on their voyage up the Tigris, -and Strabo observes that the river was navigable up to that point.[112] -But in Strabo’s time it was no more than a village, and Pliny does not -mention it, unless his Apamea is a later name for Opis.[113] The mounds -and pottery continued uninterruptedly almost up to the Mazâr of Sayyid -Muḥammad, which we reached in an hour from Tell edh Dhahab. The mazâr is -a mosque with a fine great dome decorated with coloured tiles; and near -the mosque is a large khân. I do not know whether there was an older -shrine here; the present mosque is dated by an inscription: A.H. 1310, -_i.e._ A.D. 1893. An hour from the mazâr we came to Balad, a large -village on the Dujeil. It existed in the thirteenth century for it is -mentioned by Yâḳût, but it can scarcely have been more flourishing then -than it is now, with its walled gardens filled with fruit-trees, its -well-laid roads and well-bridged irrigation canals. There was no need to -ask who was landlord here, so clearly did the place bear the stamp of -the Senîyeh estates, nor is it necessary to point out that if the -irrigation system were restored to its old perfection, the country from -Baghdâd to Balad might again be as thickly populated as it was in the -Abbâsid age.[114] - -We rode down to the Tigris ferry in two and a half hours, and the way -was beguiled by the conversation of an Arab of the Mujamma’, who -happened to be going in our direction. He gave us the news of the -desert, telling us of Kurdish raids on the east bank of the river -(commonly called the Khawîjeh) and of jealousies between the ’Anazeh and -the Shammar on the west bank, the Jezîreh. We breathed a familiar air, -even though the Kurds were a new element in desert politics. The Arab -did not hold these episodes to be of great account, in spite of the fact -that the Kurds had completely blocked the post-road from Baghdâd to -Kerkûk; “Ghazû mazû!” he said, using an expressive Turkish locution, -“raids maids.”[115] We found the caravan in the act of crossing at the -ferry. I sat down upon the bank to wait for the return of the ferry-boat -and fell into talk with the owner of a pair of performing monkeys. - -“Where are you going?” I asked, after I had fed the monkeys. - -“Ila’l wilâyah,” he replied vaguely, “to the capital,” and I gathered -that he was making his way to Môṣul. But he thought better of it when he -got to the other side of the river, and for that night he interrupted -his journey that he might enjoy our company. He was wise, since he and -the monkeys were invited to share our supper, but I fear it was not the -man who moved me to hospitality. As we crossed the Tigris the ferrymen -composed and sang a piece at my intent. It was of a purely utilitarian -character and ran thus-- - - Jenâh es Serkâr: Ḥôsh, ḥôsh! - Fi khidmat: Ḥôsh, ḥôsh! - Bakhshîsh: Ḥôsh, ḥôsh! - - Her Excellency the Governor: draw together! - In her service: draw together: - A gratuity: draw together! - -There were many more verses, but the gist of all was the same. From our -camp by the water’s edge we could see the famous spiral minaret of -Sâmarrâ, the Malwîyeh, and watch the keleks going down from Diyârbekr to -Baghdâd. Now a kelek is a raft made of logs or brushwood laid over -inflated skins, and it carries all the merchandise of the Tigris. - -We were lying within the dry cutting of a canal dug by Hârûn er Rashîd, -and now called the Nahr el Ḳâim. It is connected with the Tigris by -several cross-cuttings, over one of which we passed a quarter of an -hour from the camping-ground, and found upon the further side the ruins -of Ḳâdisîyah[116] (Fig. 119). They are nothing but a crumbling wall of -sun-dried brick enclosing an octagonal area, but whether this space was -ever covered with buildings it is difficult to determine[117]; I -noticed, however, that the surface of the ground was piled into low -mounds such as are left by the decay of sun-dried bricks. The octagon is -far from regular. I paced the eight sides of the enclosing walls and -found them to vary considerably from interior angle to interior angle, -the smallest side being 565 paces, the largest 725 paces. Each angle is -provided with an exterior round bastion, and at intervals of from -twenty-eight to twenty-nine paces smaller round bastions project from -the face of the wall. Six of the sides are broken by three gates apiece, -one by four gates and one by two. The double-gated wall is the northern -side of the octagon, and in the middle part of its length, between the -two gates, there is a series of ten small vaulted chambers (3.55 m. wide -by 3.65 m. deep) set against the interior face of the wall. The barrel -vault of some of these chambers is still fairly well preserved. It is -built of sun-dried brick laid in slices against the head wall on the -Mesopotamian system, by which centering was avoided. Round the interior -of the octagon, at a distance of thirteen paces from the wall, runs a -shallow ditch, ten metres wide, having on its inner side a low mound -which occupies a space about seventeen metres wide. The mound is no -doubt the remains of a wall. Opposite each of the doorways in the outer -wall, a causeway has been laid across the ditch. A wall and ditch upon -the inner side of a strong fortification such as the enclosing wall of -Ḳâdisîyah are singular features. They can scarcely have been intended -for defence, indeed I am not certain that they extend round the whole -enclosure. The ditch may have been a canal bringing water to the palace -or fortress. - -We rode out of one of the western gates of Ḳâdisîyah and in a little -over an hour reached the enigmatic tower of Ḳâim. It stands in the angle -formed by the Tigris and the channel of the Nahr el Ḳâim, which has -silted up so that no water runs down it from the river. The tower is a -truncated cone composed of pebbles and concrete; there is no chamber -inside it and no means of climbing to the top of it. It looks as if it -had received some sort of facing, and in that case the existing cone is -only the core of the tower, but whether it was intended merely to mark -the opening of the canal, or whether it is, as Ross supposed, a relic of -remoter antiquity, it would be impossible to determine, though I incline -to the view that it is ancient. Having crossed the Nahr el Ḳâim, we -found ourselves almost immediately among vestiges of the immense city of -Sâmarrâ, of which the bazaars and palaces stretched uninterruptedly -along the east bank of the Tigris for a distance of twenty-one miles. -This city, which was during the brief time of its magnificence the -capital of the Abbâsid empire, sprang into existence at the bidding of -the Khalif Mu’taṣim and was inhabited by seven of his successors, who -added market to market, palace to palace and pleasure-ground to -pleasure-ground. After a period of forty years (836-876 A.D.) the Khalif -Mu’tamid removed the seat of his government back to Baghdâd; with his -departure the walls of Sâmarrâ crumbled back into the desert from which -they had arisen, and like the rose-scented clay of Sa’dî’s apologue when -the fragrance had vanished, became once more the dust they had been. A -glory so dazzling, so abrupt a decline, can scarcely be paralleled on -any other page of history. Encompassed by a league-long expanse where -the surface of the waste is tumbled into confused masses of mounds or -marked off by the vast rectangular enclosures of palace and garden, -stands the modern town of Sâmarrâ, no better than a walled village, -except that above its mean roofs hang the incomparable domes of the -Shî’ah sanctuary, one a-glitter with gold, the other jewelled with -precious tiles. And behind the town the huge Malwîyeh, the spiral tower -of Mutawakkil’s mosque, lifts its head high over the wilderness.[118] - -Mu’taṣim’s choice of Sâmarrâ as the site of his new capital when Baghdâd -had become distasteful to him was, according to the Arab historians, -determined by the purest hazard. Ya’ḳûbî, writing at the close of the -ninth century when Sâmarrâ had recently been abandoned, relates that -Mu’taṣim fixed first upon Ḳâṭûl, a point lower down the river, but that -the site did not prove satisfactory.[119] And upon a certain day he rode -out to the chase; “and he continued upon his way until he came to a -place called Surra man raa” (who sees it rejoices), “which is a desert -of the Tîrhân district; there were no buildings in it, and no -inhabitants, except a Christian monastery. And he stopped at the -monastery and spoke with those who were in it, and said: ‘What is the -name of this place?’ And one of the monks said: ‘We find in our ancient -books that this place is called Surra man raa, and that it was a city of -Shem son of Noah.’” Mu’taṣim accepted the good omen, together with other -prophetic matter related by the monks, and chose the place for his -capital. The etymology was, however, as fortuitous as was the khalif’s -selection; the name Sâmarrâ has in reality nothing to do with the Arabic -phrase. A town had existed on the Tigris bank long before Arabic was -spoken there; it was called in Aramaean Sâmarrâ, and Ammianus -Marcellinus alludes to it as Sumere.[120] - -Half-way between Ḳâim and the modern Sâmarrâ we came to the first of the -palace enclosures, a large oblong space surrounded by a ruined wall of -sun-dried bricks set with round bastions. The remains of a gateway -decorated with niches led into another enclosure similar to the first, -and both stretched down to the river-bank. From this point the surface -of the ground is seamed with ruin mounds, and just before we reached -Sâmarrâ (about an hour from Ḳâim) we passed another clearly-marked -enclosure by the river. My camp had gone on while I was examining -Ḳadsîyeh, and Fattûḥ had pitched the tents on the brink of the high bank -that overhangs the Tigris. When I saw it I rejoiced, like Mu’taṣim, for -the position could not have been bettered; and moreover the modern town -of Sâmarrâ stands somewhat back from the river, so that we did not -molest its Shî’ah inhabitants, neither did they disturb us. - -There is only one way of appreciating the extent of the Abbâsid city, -and that way lies up the spiral path of the Malwîyeh tower (Fig. 121). -It is seldom that the desert offers so wide an expanse to the eye, since -nowhere else is the gazer mounted upon a lofty steeple in its very -midst. Below the minaret lies the enclosure of the great mosque, a -massive brick wall with round bastions; but the colonnades that -protected the worshippers from sun and rain have all vanished and are -indicated only by even trenches, marking the place from which the -columns or piers have been removed. In the central court, surrounded by -the colonnades, lies the shadowy outline of a fountain, and beyond the -walls a long low mound shows that the precincts must have been bounded -by an outer enclosure.[121] South of the mosque, in open hummocky -ground, the little town of Sâmarrâ with its glittering domes is set down -like a child’s toy upon the waste--a toy half broken and thrown away. -All round it the uneasy desert has rolled in over the city of the -khalifs, covering but not obliterating the streets and courts, of which -the walls are dimly apparent, as though they struggled through a veil of -silted sand. To the north are the shattered walls and bastions of a -great rectangular enclosure, Madaḳḳ eṭ Ṭabl the Arabs call it (the Place -of the Beating of Drums), and about it the parallel streets of the city -are drawn upon the surface of the earth, ruled out by the pencil of a -giant artist. Still further north the three halls of the palace of the -khalifs stand amid an immense area of shapeless mounds, and far away a -second spiral tower, the minaret of Abu Dulâf, lifts its head out of the -plain. The waters of the Tigris bring no colour to the vast landscape; -the dead and silent world is like a battlefield, wherein men fought out -the secular contest with the wilderness, and lost, and left it empty of -all but ruins. - -I came down from the tower and set to work upon the mosque. - -To measure a wall would not seem to be a complicated business, yet I do -not care to remember how many hours I spent upon the mosque. Its great -size is no advantage when seen over the edge of a metre tape, and the -action of the wind upon its masonry has been fatal to accuracy. The face -of the brick is destroyed higher than a man can reach by the constant -scrub and wear of the heavier sorts of desert dust, which makes the -exact noting of angles exceedingly difficult. The buildings on the west -bank of the river, among which I spent the two succeeding days, were -even more disfigured, and the palace of the khalifs, except for its -three vaulted halls, a crowning confusion of mounds and rock-cut -subterranean chambers. It was not until I had made acquaintance with all -these that I found time to visit the modern town. I had been spending a -few final hours in the great mosque and was beginning to wonder whether -a metre tape and a camera are advantageous additions to the equipment of -travel, a doubt which was shared by the zaptieh and Jûsef, whose duty -it was to stretch the one and carry the other over weary acres of -crumbling ruin. When at last we turned our horses’ heads to the little -town lying out upon the plain, we felt that there was a great deal to be -said for prejudices which forbid the measuring and photographing of -mosques that cover the bones of saints. The town walls have recently -been rebuilt, for the acquisition of merit, by a pious Persian; he -neglected, however, to turn his attention to that which they enclose, -and the first few hundred yards of sacred Sâmarrâ is a vacant -desolation, the home of dust and dirt. Having crossed this area we -plunged into mean and narrow streets. All the windows facing outwards -had been blocked up, and within or without there was no living soul to -be seen as we rode down the silent ways. But when we drew near the -mosque we became aware that Sâmarrâ was not quite uninhabited. Grave -Persians and ragged Arabs sat at the tea-shops before the gateway; they -gave me the salute as I passed, and I was careful not to gaze too -curiously through the arch where the big chain hangs across the entrance -of the shrine. Inside, under a dome of priceless tiles, are the tombs of -the tenth and eleventh Shî’ah Imâms, while the smaller dome of gold -covers the cleft into which vanished the Mahdî, who will appear again -when the time is ripe. Therefore when you see black ensigns, black -ensigns coming out of the east, then go forth and join them; for the -Imâm of God will be with those standards, and he will fill the world -with equity and justice. - -We left Sâmarrâ early in the morning and rode through almost continuous -ruin-heaps to Shnâs, which we reached in an hour and forty minutes. It -is nothing but a great enclosure, the walls and towers built of -sun-dried brick, and consequently much ruined. The towers are placed -astride the wall instead of upon one side of it only.[122] A few minutes -further north lies an oblong enclosure nearly a third of a mile across, -with a walled triangle to the north of it, in - -[Illustration: FIG. 123.--ABU DULÂF, FROM EAST.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 124.--ABU DULÂF, INTERIOR, LOOKING NORTH.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 125.--NAHRAWÂN CANAL.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 126.--IMÂM DÛR.] - -which is a small square enclosure near the river, with foundations of -burnt brick. Still further north are some ruin-heaps which are said to -represent the tomb of a holy man. This group of ruins is known as Eskî -Baghdâd, but the name is applied loosely to the whole area round Abu -Dulâf. We crossed a dry watercourse and rode on over mounds for another -hour and a half, when we came to the mosque of Abu Dulâf (Fig. 123). Now -Abu Dulâf is brother and complement to the mosque at Sâmarrâ, for -whereas at Sâmarrâ the arcades have fallen and the outer wall stands, at -Abu Dulâf the arcades stand and the outer wall is ruined. I looked in -vain for traces of a water-basin in the centre of the court, but being -no true antiquarian, I was well consoled for its absence by finding a -tall borage plant where the fountain should have been. It lifted its -blue flowers gaily out of the dust, and every time I crossed the court I -made a circuit that I might look into its clear eye. It was the first -flower that we had seen upon the face of the desert for many weeks, and -it heralded the end of the region wherein the drought had wrought such -havoc. Late in the afternoon I got down to my camp by the Tigris. Fattûḥ -had sought a lodging for the night inside the enclosing walls of a -palace, and whatever prince it was who housed us, he gave us a lavish -hospitality as regards sunset and rising stars and gleaming curves of -river. - -Half-an-hour’s ride brought us on the following morning to the northern -limit of Sâmarrâ. In the angle between the Tigris and the Nahrawân canal -lie the remains of Mutawakkil’s tragic palace, built in a year, -inhabited for nine months, destroyed and deserted, together with all the -quarter round it, when Muhammad el Muntaṣir caused the khalif his father -to be murdered within its walls. Immediately beyond it we crossed the -dry channel of the Nahrawân, which was cut by the Sassanian kings in -order to bring water to the fertile regions below Sâmarrâ (Fig. 125). At -the point where our path crossed it are the brick foundations of a -bridge, below a large artificial mound.[123] The dry bed of the canal, -hewn for scores of miles, straight as a Roman road, through the solid -rock, is as impressive as the most magnificent of ruins; for the king -who could bid rivers to flow and crops to spring in the barren -wilderness was indeed lord of the earth. - -As we reached the village of Dûr, an hour further to the north, we met a -number of the inhabitants coming out along the road, and all were armed -with rifles. We stopped and asked them whither they were bound, and they -in turn inquired of us whether we had seen anything of a caravan of -merchandise from Sâmarrâ. It was due to arrive at Dûr that morning and -they felt some anxiety as to its safety, since the desert was much -disturbed. There are no soldiers posted on the left bank of the Tigris, -and every man must protect his own property. But we, having come only -from Abu Dulâf, could not reassure them. On the outskirts of Dûr the -plain is once more tossed into ruin-mounds, probably of the Mohammadan -period. The village stands upon an old site; Dûr is mentioned by -Ammianus Marcellinus in his account of Jovian’s retreat. It is -remarkable only for the shrine of the Imâm Dûr (Fig. 126), Muḥammad ibn -Mûsa ibn Ja’far ibn ’Alî ibn Ḥussein--his genealogy goes back to a -respectable Shî’ah ancestry, and I read it on an inscription cut upon a -marble slab by the door. Moreover, while we waited for the mullah to -appear with the key, one of the villagers busied himself with scraping -away the whitewash which covered the lower part of the inscription, and -we deciphered the date, 871 of the Hijrah, which is 1466 A.D.[124] While -we were thus engaged the - -[Illustration: FIG. 127.--IMÂM DÛR.] - -mullah joined us, a rubicund old man in a spotless turban. The -reluctance which he displayed on being invited to unlock the door was -terminated by the zaptieh, who took him aside and explained that I was -employed by the government as a surveyor; upon which the mullah, with -perhaps a silent reflection on the laxity of the age in the matter of -official appointments, threw open the door and bade me enter (Fig. 127). -The shrine is a high square tower of fine brickwork, laid at the top so -as to form patterns, and, on the north side, inscriptions. Above this -tower rises a conical roof constructed, like the roof of the Sitt -Zobeideh at Baghdâd, by means of a series of alveolate niches or -squinches. In the interior this pointed dome is covered with plasterwork -of a character totally different from the stucco decorations of Raḳḳah -and Sâmarrâ, to which it stands in the same relation as baroque to -cinque cento work. It cannot belong to the same period as the brick -walls of the chamber, for it blocks the windows, and my impression is -that the whole roof is considerably later than the lower part of the -shrine. The mullah, in full assurance of my distinguished position, and -sustained by lively hopes of a sufficient reward, looked on with -benignant interest while Jûsef and I measured the shrine; but his hopes -were to prove as ill-founded as his assurance, for when I opened my -purse, prior to departure, it contained nothing but three piastres. I -had emptied it the night before on behalf of an obliging person who had -accompanied us to Abu Dulâf, and had forgotten to replenish it. To crown -all, the money-bags were with the caravan, and the caravan was a full -two hours ahead on the road to Tekrît. I do not know who was the more -disconcerted by this unlucky accident, but the mullah bore it with the -greater dignity. After I had confounded myself in explanation and -apology, he nodded his head, folded his hands into his sleeves and -dismissed me smilingly. - -“Naṣîb!” he said, “a misfortune. Go in peace.” - -The subsequent events of the day must have been intended as a judgment -upon me. By the time we came down to the river bank opposite Tekrît, -three hours from Imâm Dûr, a strong wind had arisen, and we found the -caravan standing dejectedly at the water’s edge while Fattûḥ called upon -God to hasten the movements of the ferrymen. His prayers were far from -efficacious (moreover, he had forgotten to put up a supplication for a -water-tight boat), and the crossing was longer and more tiresome than -any we had experienced (Fig. 128). It was near sunset before we got into -camp on the high ground behind Tekrît, and the last of the muleteers did -not come in with the riding horses until after dark. - -No sooner were the tents pitched than a messenger waited upon me to ask -whether I would receive Ḥmeidî Beg ibn Farḥân. I returned an answer -couched in respectfully cordial terms, since no one who has travelled in -the desert is ignorant of the name of Farḥân, who was the Sheikh of -Sheikhs of all the northern Shammar. Since the death of Ibrahîm Pasha, -the Shammar and the ’Anazeh share, without amity, the lordship of -Mesopotamia, as they did before the Kurd rose into power. The road from -Tekrît to Môṣul is in Shammar territory, so far as it can be said to be -in the territory of any one. Not a caravan passes up and down but it -pays tribute to Mejwal ibn Farḥân, a beshlik (three piastres) on every -mule, and half a beshlik for a donkey, unless the travellers happen to -be escorted by a zaptieh as I was. Muleteers cannot afford zaptiehs, and -when they see two spearmen of the tribe upon the road, they pay and -lodge no complaint in deaf ears. Sheikh Mejwal, who is the strongest of -Farḥân’s fourteen sons, levies a tax from all the Jebbûr, the tribe that -camps along the river, and I was told that whereas the Jebbûr - -[Illustration: FIG. 128.--TEKRÎT FERRY.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 129.--COFFEE-MAKING, SHEIKH ’ASKAR.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 130.--TEKRÎT, THE ARBAÎN.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 131.--KHÂN KHERNÎNA, MIḤRÂB.] - -had once been breeders of horses, now they breed none, finding it an -unprofitable labour with the Shammar sheikhs alert to seize every likely -mare. Ḥmeidî is said to be the mildest of Farḥân’s brood. He is a -handsome man of middle age, with deepset eyes and a gentle, rather -indolent expression. He had come to Tekrît on some business connected -with sheep stealing, and hearing of my arrival he hastened to bid me -welcome to these deserts and to make me free of the Shammar tents. I -asked him news of his cousins in Nejd, where the Shammar princes of the -Benî Rashîd hold with much bloodshed a hazardous authority, and when he -had spoken of these matters he gave me a piece of news which he thought, -and rightly, might be of no less interest. It was rumoured that the -Sultan had dismissed the deputies, but how or why no one knew, though -the counter-revolution was now more than a week old. - -Tekrît is the birthplace of Saladin. It is seen to the best advantage -from the other side of the Tigris, where the bold bluffs and steeply -falling banks to which its houses cling are imposing to the eye. The -distant promise is not fulfilled; the modern town is devoid of interest -and little remains of the mediæval town but ruin-heaps, the line of a -wall and part of the lower gateway of the citadel. Tekrît was the seat -of a bishopric; Ibn Ḥauḳal, writing in the tenth century, states that -most of the inhabitants were Christians, and Rich speaks of the remains -of ten churches.[125] Beyond the ruins of the old town, which extend far -to the west of modern Tekrît, there lies the Moslem shrine of the -Arba’în, the Forty, much dilapidated, though two small chambers covered -with domes are still intact. These chambers, and the ruined precincts -adjoining them, are decorated with stucco of the same character, and I -should say of the same date, as the ornaments of Imâm Dûr (Fig. 130). - -We set out from Tekrît with a large and unusually nondescript company, -or perhaps it would be truer to say that they set, out with us, a -European and a couple of zaptiehs being valuable assets on the Môṣul -road. Half-a-dozen Kurds from above Mardîn and as many Nestorians from -the mountains south of Lake Vân marched with my pack-animals, and -presently we fell in with the Father of Monkeys, as Fattûḥ called him, -who had not made much haste on his way to the capital. There was also a -young sayyid, white-turbaned and somewhat forbidding of aspect; with him -too I made friends after I had conquered the distaste born of his -over-godly looks. “I love thieves and pigs,” murmured one of the -muleteers, “Yezîd and Druze, but I do not love sayyids or mullahs.” This -particular descendant of the Prophet addressed me systematically as -Queen, and I experienced a not unnatural gratification at being raised -to royal rank, though whether it is higher than that of consul I cannot -be sure. With the Nestorians I was immediately on terms of intimacy. -They were sturdy, bearded mountaineers of a type which it is impossible -not to appreciate, even at first sight, and they marched cheerfully -through dust and heat with no possessions but a water-flask and a crust -of bread. Their pointed felt caps and close-fitting cotton trousers -formed a costume which was new to me, and as they walked beside my mare -I asked them who they were and whence they came. - -“We are the people of Mâr Shim’ûn,” said one, naming the hereditary -patriarch of their faith. “Effendim, we have no friends but the -English--Islâm, Armenians, all are our foes.” - -A struggling sect is the ancient community of Mâr Shim’ûn, harassed by -the Kurds in their mountain fastnesses, but if they may be judged by -their brave and independent looks, they do not turn the other cheek to -the striker. - -We rode for three hours through monotonous country, a barren and stony -wilderness raised high above the river. When we dropped down to the -water’s edge we found the land to be partly cultivated by the men of -Tekrît, but the Tigris is eating away the right bank and in places field -and - -[Illustration: FIG. 132.--KHÂN KHERNÎNA, DETAIL OF FLAT VAULT.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 133.--KHÂN KHERNÎNA, VAULT, SHOWING TUBE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 134.--KHÂN KHERNÎNA, SETTING OF DOME.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 135.--TELL NIMRÛD.] - -path have been destroyed by the depredations of the stream.[126] We -camped that night six and a half hours from Tekrît, near a ḳishlâ which -has recently been built at the expense of a very beautiful khân. The -ḳishlâ represents a spasmodic attempt on the part of the government to -control the tribes; it holds from forty to fifty foot soldiers, who, -since they are unmounted, cannot pursue or punish the marauding Arabs. -The walls of Khân Khernîna, a magnificent Mohammadan building of the -finest period, have therefore been laid low to no purpose, and the -soldiers lead a miserable and useless existence in the ḳishlâ, which has -been erected out of its bricks. The khân is now so much ruined that I -did not attempt to plan it. It is a rectangular enclosure with round -bastions in the walls, and fine gateways covered with pointed arches. -Along the south side stretches a vaulted corridor, interrupted towards -the middle of its length by a chamber which has served as a mosque. This -chamber contains a miḥrâb decorated with exquisite arabesques in stucco; -of the inscription which was placed beneath the pointed arch only a few -letters remain (Fig. 131). The barrel vaults of the corridor, corbelled -slightly forward from the wall and built without centering, are splendid -examples of Mesopotamian brick construction. The roof of a small chamber -at the south-east angle, and the four-sided dome of the mosque, show the -singular arrangement which I had noticed at Baghdâd of a flat piece of -masonry laid over the summit of the vault (Fig. 132). A square chamber -near the mosque had been covered with a dome, and in one corner a -squinch arch, decorated with a tiny ornamental arcade, is still standing -(Fig. 134). On the flanks of the barrel vaults I observed the same -system of tubes which exists at Ukheiḍir (Fig. 133). The masonry and the -plan of the building are closely akin to thirteenth-century work in -Baghdâd, and to that period I should assign it.[127] - -There is another guard-house thirty minutes further up the Tigris, -Sheramîyeh is its name. Here we stopped on the following morning to -water our horses, for our road now led us far from the river. A low line -of rocky hills, the Jebel Ḥamrîn, borders the west bank for several -hours’ journey. It runs crosswise over the desert and the river cuts -through it by the Fetḥah gorge. The hills drop sheer into the stream, -leaving no space for a path, and caravans are obliged to skirt the -western slopes, where there is little water and no settled population, -though we saw a few encampments of the Deleim far out in the desert. The -cups and hollows of the plain were filled with a scanty growth of grass. -We rejoiced over the unwonted sight as if each blade were a separate -benediction, and Fattûḥ began to calculate the sums we might save on -provender when the horses could be pastured every evening on fresh -herbage. - -“God is great,” said the zaptieh, “but it has been a year of ruin for -poor men. We have not known where to look for food for our horses, and -more than that, I have received no pay for six months.” - -“Please God the new government will give you your pay,” said I. - -“Please God,” he answered. “But when it comes the ḍâbiṭs” (officers) -“eat it. Effendim, once I travelled with a ḍâbiṭ who received £T18 a -month, wallah! And my pay was 100 piastres a month. Yet whenever he -drank coffee he left me to defray the expense. Where is eighteen pounds -and where a hundred piastres!” - -“God exists,” said the sayyid. “Oh Queen, He exists.” - -“Wallah, He exists,” said the zaptieh hopefully. - -We camped that night six hours from Sheramîyeh in a sheltered place -among the hills beside a spring of which the waters were bitter with -sulphur and not unmixed with pitch; our companions drank of it, but my -servants and I quaffed royally from the flasks which Jûsef had filled -at the Tigris. While the tents were being pitched I walked to the top of -the hills, and on the banks of watercourses that had but recently run -dry I found flowers, blue larkspurs and purple gentians and a wide -selection of the thistle family. A bowl of larkspurs was set upon my -dinner-table, and Jûsef was very loath to throw them away when we struck -camp, so rare and delicate a possession did they seem to us. But I -assured him that the German professors at Ḳal’at Shergât would have -flowers fairer than these. A more wonderful sight was in store for us on -the next day’s march. We had travelled barely two hours when we splashed -into a pool of rain-water, and then into another; there was grass round -them, green, abundant grass: “More than we have seen all the way from -Aleppo!” exclaimed Jûsef. The region of the drought was over, and when -our path led us to the top of the Jebel Ḥamrîn, here sunk to a low hog’s -back, I was scarcely surprised to see the slopes down to the Tigris red -with poppies. But even the poppies could not withhold the eye from the -great mound of Ḳal’at Shergât by the river’s edge, the mound of Asshur, -crowned with the crumbling mass of a huge zigurrat, the temple pyramid -of the tutelary god of the Assyrians. With the general aspect of the -first capital of Assyria I was already familiar, thanks to the excellent -photographs published by the German Orient-Gesellschaft, but I was not -prepared for so magnificent a prospect. The Tigris in high flood washed -the foot of the temple mound; far away to the north ran the snow-clad -barrier of mountains whence its waters flow--a barrier which Nature -planted in vain against the valour of the Assyrian armies; and across -the river the fertile plain stretched away in long undulations to where -Arbela lies behind low hills. Bountiful gods had showered their gifts -upon the land. - -We rode down into the ruin-field and found one of Dr. Andrae’s -colleagues at work in the trial trenches. He directed us to the house -set round with flowers, as I had predicted, wherein the excavators are -lodged. There Dr. Andrae and Mr. Jordan made me so warmly welcome that I -felt like one returning after absence into a circle of life-long -friends. They had grave news to give me, news which was all the more -disquieting because it was as yet nothing but a rumour. Constitutional -government had foundered suddenly, and it might be for ever. The members -of the Committee had fled from Constantinople, the Liberals were -fugitive upon their heels, and once more ’Abdu’l Ḥamîd had set his foot -upon the neck of Turkey. So we interpreted the report that had reached -Asshur, but since there was no means of allaying or of confirming our -anxieties we turned our minds to more profitable fields, and went out to -see the ruins. - -A site better favoured than Ḳal’at Shergât for excavations such as those -undertaken by Dr. Andrae and his colleagues could scarcely have been -selected. It has not given them the storied slabs and huge stone -guardians of the gates of kings with which Layard enriched the British -Museum; they have disappeared during the many periods of reconstruction -which the town has witnessed; but those very reconstructions add to the -historic interest of the excavations. Asshur was in existence in the -oldest Assyrian period, and down to the latest days of the empire it was -an honoured shrine of the gods; there are traces of Persian occupation; -in Parthian times the city was re-built, walls and gates were set up -anew, and the whole area within the ancient fortifications was -re-inhabited. Valuable as are the contributions which Dr. Andrae has -been able to make to the history of Assyria, the fact that he is -bringing into the region of critical study a culture so shadowy as that -of the Parthians has remained to us, in spite of its four hundred years -of domination, adds greatly to the magnitude of his achievement. His -researches in this direction have been pursued not only at Asshur, but -at the Parthian city of Hatra, a long day’s journey to the west of the -Tigris, where the famous palace is at last receiving the attention it -merits. - -The temple of the god Asshur, of which the zigurrat is the most notable -feature of Ḳal’at Shergât, goes back to the earliest Assyrian times, but -the greater part of it is occupied by a Turkish guard-house, and has not -yet been excavated (Fig. 136). - -[Illustration: FIG. 136.--ḲAL’ÂT SHERGÂT, THE ZIGURRAT AND RUINS OF -NORTH WALL.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 138.--SÂMARRÂ, INTERIOR OF SOUTH GATE, RUINED -MOSQUE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 140.--SÂMARRÂ, RUINED MOSQUE, SMALL DOOR IN WEST -WALL.] - -The court between temple and zigurrat lies open; in a later age the -Parthians adorned it with a splendid colonnade, and it is here that Dr. -Andrae has succeeded in piecing together large fragments of Parthian -architectural decoration which throw a new light both upon the arts of -Parthia and upon the succeeding era of the Sassanians. Fortunately there -exist upon the mound other temples of the Assyrian period which he has -been better able to study. Chief of these is the double shrine of the -gods Anu and Adad, lords of heaven and of the thunderstorm, the -excavation of which cost him many months of difficult work. The temple -was finished by Tiglathpileser at the end of the twelfth century before -Christ, but in the course of some three hundred years it fell into -complete decay; Shalmaneser II, he who received the homage of Jehu, as -is recorded on the Black Obelisk in the British Museum, filled in the -ruins of the earlier shrine and set a new edifice upon them, preserving -almost exactly the plan of the old. No Assyrian temple has hitherto been -studied accurately, save one of Sargon’s at Khorsabâd, later by more -than a century than the second temple of Anu and Adad; it was therefore -necessary to get an exact record of both the periods at Asshur, and in -order to leave Shalmaneser’s work undisturbed, Dr. Andrae was compelled -to trace that of Tiglathpileser by means of a system of underground -tunnels. “I have never,” he observed, as he surveyed his handiwork, -“done anything so mad.” But the results have more than justified the -labour. The scheme of the Assyrian temple has now been established by -examples ranging over a period of four hundred years, and it is -conclusively proved that it differed in a remarkable degree from the -Babylonian temple plan, and was related to the plan adopted by Solomon. -In Babylonia the chambers are all laid broadways in respect of the -entrance; that is to say, the door is placed in the centre of one of the -long sides, so that he who enters has only a narrow area in front of -him, and must look to right and left if he would appreciate the size of -the hall. At Jerusalem and in Assyria the main sanctuary ran lengthways, -an immense artistic advance, inasmuch as the broadways-lying hall was at -best a clumsy contrivance which could never have given the sense of -space and dignity conveyed by the other. To the genius of what builders -are we to attribute this masterly comprehension of spatial effect? The -question cannot as yet be answered, but Dr. Andrae is inclined to seek -outside Syria and Mesopotamia for the prototypes of Asshur and -Jerusalem. In the palaces, be it noted, the lengthways hall was never -adopted, but palace architecture is not well illustrated at Asshur, -those buildings having been the first to suffer at the hands of the -spoiler. - -The walls to the north of the temples are perhaps the most impressive -part of the excavations. The mound on which the city is built reaches -here its greatest elevation, and the gigantic masses of the -fortifications rear themselves up from its very base. Time after time -the kings of Assyria renewed these bulwarks, setting them forward -further and further against the river, which once washed their -foundations--its bed runs now a little more to the east, where the -stream still flows under the eastern quays of Asshur. The upper parts of -the walls are of unburnt brick, but the lower, as Xenophon observed at -Nimrûd, are cased in massive stone. The stonework was not in reality as -durable as the brick, for the Assyrians had no binding mortar, and the -stones, being set together with mud, could not resist a pressure from -behind, such as that which was offered by the mound itself. A mortar of -asphalt is sometimes used in sun-dried brick, but binding mortar seems -to have been a discovery of the age of Nebuchadnezzar, since it is first -found in constructions of his time at Babylon. The fortifications sweep -round southwards to the Gurgurri Gate, well known in inscriptions, and -identified by epigraphic evidence. Between the gate and the temple and -palace area, a great part of the ground is covered with a network of -streets and houses belonging to a late Assyrian period. The larger -houses consist of an outer court with rooms for servants and dependents, -roughly floored with big cobblestones and traversed by a pathway of -smaller cobbles whereon the masters could cross to the inner paved court -round which their chambers lay. Every house, however small, is provided -with a bath-room. The whole complex has the appearance of another -Pompeii, though it is more ancient than the Italian Pompeii by six or -seven hundred years. Down in the plain, outside the city walls, stood a -magnificent building which has been christened by the excavators the -Festhaus. It is a fine open court, surrounded on two sides by a -colonnade, while on the side opposite to the gate there is a raised -platform of solid masonry. The court must have had the aspect of a -formal garden, for at regular intervals there are holes in the hard -conglomerate of the floor which the excavators conjecture to have been -filled with earth and planted with shrubs. In this colonnaded garden was -celebrated the spring sacrifice, the annual festival in honour of the -fruitful earth. The plan of the building is not Assyrian--the column -itself is a non-Mesopotamian feature--but whence it was derived it would -be impossible as yet to say. - -Throughout the area of the city a series of deep trial trenches have -been dug, cutting through the Parthian period, through the late -Assyrian, and down to the earliest times. These trenches afford -materials for the most fascinating studies. One of the earliest cities -that stood upon the mound of Asshur is, curiously enough, the easiest to -trace. The houses are in an unusually perfect state; their walls, -preserved not infrequently to a height of several feet, enclose little -cobbled courtyards with narrow cobbled streets between. These worn and -ancient ways, emerging from under the steep sides of the trench and -disappearing again into the earth at its furthest limit, give the -observer a sense as of visualized history, as though the millenniums had -dropped away that separate him from the busy life of the antique world. -It is probable that the city to which they belong was destroyed by some -overwhelming catastrophe, laid desolate, perhaps by an onslaught of the -Mitanni kings of northern Mesopotamia or of the Babylonians from the -south, and so left in age-long ruin until a later generation completed -the filling up of court and street which had been begun by time, -levelled the whole and built their dwellings upon foundations of the -past. The Assyrians were content to leave their story inscribed on clay -cylinder or on stone; they did not, like the Egyptians, rear for their -dead enduring monuments, but each man in turn was thrust into a clay -sarcophagus or sepulchral jar lying immediately below the floor of his -own dwelling--we counted as many as fifteen burials in one of the -smaller houses--or placed, with a slightly greater regard for the -comfort of the living, in an adjoining subterranean chamber vaulted with -brick. - -As Dr. Andrae led me about the city, drawing forth its long story with -infinite skill from wall and trench and cuneiform inscription, the -lavish cruel past rushed in upon us. The myriad soldiers of the Great -King, transported from the reliefs in the British Museum, marched -through the gates of Asshur; the captives, roped and bound, crowded the -streets; defeated princes bowed themselves before the victor and subject -races piled up their tribute in his courts. We saw the monarch go out to -the chase, and heard the roaring of the lion, half paralyzed by the dart -in its spine, which animates the stone with its wild anguish. Human -victims cried out under nameless tortures; the tide of battle raged -against the walls, and, red with carnage, rose into the palaces. -Splendour and misery, triumph and despair, lifted their head out of the -dust. - -One hot night I sat with my hosts upon the roof of their house. The -Tigris, in unprecedented flood, swirled against the mound, a waste of -angry waters. Above us rose the zigurrat of the god Asshur. It had -witnessed for four thousand years the melting of the Kurdish snows, -flood-time and the harvest that follows; gigantic, ugly, intolerably -mysterious, it dominated us, children of an hour. - -“What did they watch from its summit?” I asked, stung into a sharp -consciousness of the unknown by a scene almost as old as recorded life. - -“They watched the moon,” said Dr. Andrae, “as we do. Who knows? they -watched for the god.” - -I have left few places so unwillingly as I left Ḳal’at Shergât. - -We rode northwards for eight hours and camped at Tell Gayârah, near to -which there are some small pitch springs. The land of Assyria grew ever -more fertile as we journeyed up into it, and that night the horses were -picketed knee-deep in grass, to the boundless satisfaction of the -muleteers. I was anxious on the following day to visit Nimrûd, the -Assyrian city mentioned in Genesis as Calah, but in order to do so it -was necessary to find a ferry across the Tigris, which was a doubtful -undertaking. Even if it were found, the flood might make ferry-boats -unprofitable vessels, therefore I detached Fattûḥ from the caravan and -bade him ride with the zaptieh and me, Fattûḥ being master of a thousand -wiles with which to baffle difficulty, and possessor foreby of a -remarkably strong right arm. We rode in two hours to Mangûb, where there -are a few ruined huts. On the opposite bank of the Tigris a number of -mounds mark the site of ancient villages. The grass grew thick by the -river, and on the higher ground it had also sprouted abundantly, though -it was now withered. Presently we spied upon the path in front of us an -effendi on horseback, who carried a big umbrella to protect himself from -the sun. His state was further enhanced by the presence of a few -zaptiehs. - -“He is coming to Gayârah,” said my soldier. “They have sent him from -Môṣul to judge a dispute about the crops. Four men were murdered last -week at Gayârah, and ten are lying fatally wounded.” - -This was news to me. I had been peacefully unconscious of the dead and -dying as I watched my horses knee-deep in the grass. The effendi, when -he came up to us, addressed me as follows: - -“Bonjour, Madame. Comment aimez vous le désert?” - -“Mais beaucoup,” said I, somewhat astonished to hear the French tongue -spoken in it. And then I added quickly: “What tidings have you from -Constantinople?” - -The effendi drew his brows together. - -“We hear that troops from Salonica have entered the town and captured -two barracks.” - -“Did they take them without difficulty?” I asked. - -“We do not know,” he returned. - -“Please God!” said I. - -“Adieu,” he replied hurriedly, and rode upon his way. In those days of -uncertainty it was not wise to be drawn into a definite expression of -opinion. - -Our road took us up a ridge, and when we came to its crest I drew -bridle, for the history of Asia was spread out before my eyes. Below us -the Great Zâb flowed into the Tigris; here Tissaphernes murdered the -Greek generals, here Xenophon took over the command, and having crossed -the Zâb at a higher point, turned and drove back the archers of -Mithridates. To the north the mound of Nimrûd, where the Greeks saw the -ruins of Calah, stood out among the cornfields; eastward lay the plain -of Arbela, where Alexander overthrew Darius. The whole world shone like -a jewel, green corn, blue waters, and the gleaming snows that bound -Mesopotamia to the north; but to my ears the smiling landscape cried out -a warning: the people of the West can conquer but they can never hold -Asia, no, not when they go out under the banners of Alexander himself. - -We rode up the bank of the Tigris, and when we came opposite to Tell -Nimrûd there, by good fortune, was a ferry-boat, plying across the river -with the men and flocks of the Jebbûr. The cause of their migration to -the left bank was hopping about our feet--locusts, newly issued from the -rocky ground and swarming over every blade of grass and corn. - -“In two days there will be no pasture, and our flocks will die,” -explained an aged shepherd. “Let the consul cross!” he shouted, as the -ferry-boat drew up beside the bank and half the tribe clambered into it. - -We ejected two calves, a mare and a few goats and installed ourselves in -their place. The ferry-boat was as tightly packed as the ark and the -passengers nearly as varied; they all talked, whinnied, baa-ed and -bleated at once as we pushed out into the swift stream. I climbed on to -the back of my mare, which seemed the cleanest and the roomiest spot, -and we busied ourselves in catching locusts and throwing them into the -water, for, alas! they had embarked with us by the hundred. - -The mound of Nimrûd, when I saw it, lay in a waving sea of corn. The -holes and pits of Layard’s diggings were filled to the brim with grass -and flowers, and the zigurrat of the war god Ninib reared its bare head -out of a field of poppies. But except for the flowers, Nimrûd, whence we -obtained many of the treasures of our museum in London, is a pitiful -sight for English eyes. Its neglected state stands in sharp contrast -with the pious care which the German excavators are expending upon the -ruins of Asshur. Carved and inscribed blocks have been left exposed to -the malicious attacks of Arab boys,[128] who hold it a meritorious act -to deface an idol, and to the even slenderer mercy of the winter rains -and frosts. In one place a stone statue projects head and shoulders out -of the ground, the face of the king or god which it represents being -already terribly battered (Fig. 135). The number of Assyrian statues -known to us is exceedingly small--not more than seven or eight have been -brought to light--yet this splendid example is allowed to fall into -decay for want of a handful of earth wherewith to cover it. The city of -Calah is associated with some of Layard’s most memorable triumphs; for -the sake of our own honour it would be well that we should take steps to -preserve the works of art that remain in it, and that, if we cannot find -money to transport them to the museum at Constantinople, we should at -least employ a few men to re-bury them until more enthusiastic -archæologists turn their attention to Nimrûd. - -Sheikh ’Askar of the Jebbûr, who had accompanied me from his tents by -the river, listened sympathetically while I lamented over the statue, -and volunteered to bury it under the earth as soon as his men should -have brought over their flocks from the west bank. I applauded the -suggestion and encouraged it with bakhshîsh, but unless I am much -mistaken, the sheikh’s resolve has not yet reached the point of -execution. We sat in his tent while we waited for the ferry-boat, and -with eager hospitality he set before us coffee, bread, and a mess of -apricots--it was the last Arab coffee fire that was to be lighted in our -honour (Fig. 129). So we ferried back, climbed a bluff alive with -locusts, and cantered through sweet-smelling crops to the sulphur -springs of Ḥammâm ’Alî. A few minutes beyond the village our tents were -pitched in deep luxuriant grass. - -We struck camp next morning with an agreeable sense of excitement. Môṣul -was only four hours away, and the advantages of city life--consulates, -rest from travel, news of the outer world--shone very brightly before -us. The rising sun, the dewy cornfields, the flowering grass, lent their -enchantment to our breakfast, and gaily we stepped out upon the road. -Before us lay a little ridge that separated us from Môṣul; we had -journeyed towards it for half-an-hour when there fell upon our ears a -sound that made our hearts stand still. It was the boom of cannon. - -Said Fattûḥ: “What is that?” But none of us could answer. - -We went on through the smiling sunny landscape and the green corn, where -the peasants stood by the irrigation trenches, their work suspended, -their faces turned towards that ominous sound, and presently we met an -old man. He too listened. - -“Why are they firing cannon in Môṣul?” I asked. - -“God knows!” he answered, and wrung his hands together. “Perhaps it is -news from Stambûl. One man says one thing and one another, and God knows -what is true.” - -A little further a ragged pair came down the road toward us. - -“When did you set out from Môṣul?” said Fattûḥ. - -“At the first dawn,” they answered, and fear was in their eyes. - -“What was happening there?” asked Fattûḥ. - -“Nothing,” they replied. “When we set out, wallah! there was nothing.” - -We left them standing in the road with anxious faces turned towards the -town. And still the cannon boomed over the hill. - -“Môṣul is an evil city,” said Fattûḥ to the zaptieh. - -“It is evil,” he answered. “Blood flows there like the water of the -Tigris.” - -After a few minutes two Arabs galloped up behind us on their mares, and -one carried a great lance. - -“Whither going?” cried Fattûḥ. - -“To Môṣul,” they shouted. - -“What is your business?” he called out. - -“We heard the cannon,” they replied, and galloped up the hill. The -zaptieh went with them. - -“He will be little use if Môṣul is up,” observed Fattûḥ. - -At this moment the cannon ceased, and we saw a party of four or five -soldiers riding over the brow. The Arabs and my zaptieh stopped to speak -to them, and then turned back with them, coming slowly towards us down -the ridge. - -“These know,” said Fattûḥ. - -They stopped when they reached us, and the moment was big with Fate. - -“Peace be upon you,” they said. - -“And upon you peace,” I returned. “What is the news?” - -And one answered: “Reshâd is Sultan.” - -“God prolong his existence!” said I. - -Upon this we parted, and they went down the hill, and we in silence to -the top of the ridge. The silver Tigris and the green plain lay before -us, and in the midst the city of Môṣul, which had published the -accession of another lord. - -“Praise God!” said I, looking down upon that fair land. - -“To Him the praise!” echoed Fattûḥ. - -And then the zaptieh gave voice to his thought. - -“All the days of ’Abdu’l Ḥamîd,” he said, “we never drew our pay.” - - - - -THE RUINS OF SÂMARRÂ[129] - - -The ruined mosque at Sâmarrâ has an interior measurement of 240 × 157·60 -m., the greater length being from - -[Illustration: FIG. 137.--SÂMARRÂ, MOSQUE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 141.--SÂMARRÂ, RUINED MOSQUE, SOUTH-WEST ANGLE -TOWER.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 142.--SÂMARRÂ, RUINED MOSQUE, WINDOW IN SOUTH -WALL.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 143.--SÂMARRÂ, RUINED MOSQUE, BIG DOOR IN NORTH -WALL.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 144.--SÂMARRÂ, EL ’ASHIḲ, WEST END OF NORTH -FAÇADE.] - -[Illustration: FIG 139.--SÂMARRÂ, MOSQUE. DETAIL OF PIER, SOUTH DOOR.] - -north to south (Fig. 135). The four angle towers are larger in diameter -than those which are set along the walls. The intermediate bastions are -perfectly regular in size and shape except the two on either side of the -southern gate, from which a segment is cut off by the door openings, and -the bastion immediately to the west of the same gate which has a small -addition to the western part of its curve, an addition which I do not -believe to be later in date though the brickwork is of a slightly -different character. The southern gate is a triple opening in the middle -of the wall where it would be natural to look for the miḥrâb (Fig. 138). -There are remains of mouldings round the inner face of the central -opening (Fig. 139). The upper part of the south wall is pierced by -twenty-four windows, two of them being placed over the smaller openings -of the central gateway (Fig. 122). These windows, together with the -trenches in the interior of the mosque which mark the line of the -columns, determine the number of the colonnades; there must have been -twenty-four, each one ending against the wall between the windows. The -central aisle which terminated at the main gate and was wider than the -rest, was not provided with a window. The space between the colonnades -was undoubtedly roofed with beams; the holes into which the large -cross-beams were fitted can still be seen on the inner side of the south -wall. The windows, placed with regard to the aisles, bear no relation to -the position of the round bastions on the exterior of the wall. They -break into them at haphazard, frequently impinging upon their sides, -while in one instance a window is cut straight through a tower (Fig. -120). On the inner face the windows are covered by a cusped arch (Fig. -142). The east and west walls are broken by numerous doors. Beginning -from the southern end there is first a small entrance, 1·25 m. wide, -close to the angle bastion (Fig. 141). A wall about a metre in length -projects from the main wall to the south of the door opening and has -been connected with the top of the main wall by a section of vaulting. -Immediately beyond this postern there is a large gateway 4·55 m. wide, -and then another which is still larger, being 4·75 m. wide. The next -door is 3·85 m.; the fifth, which is only 2·62 m., is found in the west -wall alone. Then follows another of the larger doors, about 4 metres -wide, beyond which there is, in the west wall only, a door 2·62 m. wide; -then on both sides a large door 4·05 m. wide and a small door 1·50 m. -wide. The north wall is broken by five gates, the two at the outer ends -averaging 1·50 m. and the other three 4 metres in width. All the smaller -doors exhibit an exceedingly curious piece of construction (Fig. 140). -The brickwork of the wall runs uninterruptedly over the door opening -without the intermission of arch or lintel. It is as if the door had -been cut out of the wall with a knife, and the bricks above it, so far -as they keep their place, do so only by reason of the excellence of the -mortar. The wall above the larger doors has in every case fallen away, -but there is evidence of the former existence of some kind of lintel or -arch strengthened by wooden beams, the round holes for the beams being -visible in the existing masonry (Fig. 143). I incline to the theory of a -lintel; the faced wall above the holes leaves no room for an arch. Above -this lintel there would seem to have been a row of small arched windows -two or three in number (_cf._ the two side openings of the south gate -where there is a single window above the arch). Along the top of the -east, west, and north walls runs a brickwork decoration consisting of a -series of recessed squares, each of which contains the recessed segment -of a sphere. The walls are seamed from top to bottom with narrow -runnels, which were no doubt connected with the drainage system of the -roof. There is no unanimity of opinion among those who have planned the -mosque concerning the number of the colonnades in the interior. As I -have already said, it seems to me evident that there were twenty-four -rows of columns or piers, from east to west, at the northern and -southern ends of the mosque. I made out the colonnades to be ten deep -upon the south side and three deep upon the north, while upon the east -and west sides I counted four rows of columns.[130] The supports of the -arcades must have been either columns or small piers. From the absence -of any structural remains, such as might have been expected if the -supports had taken the form of brick piers, I incline, with Herzfeld, to -the view that the roof must have been carried on columns. Their total -disappearance may possibly be accounted for by the fact that they were -of wood,[131] though Muḳaddasî, writing at the end of the tenth century, -relates that the mosque of Sâmarrâ was built upon marble columns and his -evidence cannot be wholly dismissed. In the centre of the open court was -placed, in all probability, the famous stone basin called the Kâs i -Fir’aun (Pharaoh’s Cup), which is described by Mustaufî.[132] The -minaret, with its singular spiral path, stands to the north of the -mosque. The summit, though somewhat ruined, still retains a decoration -of niches. There can be little doubt that the mosque is that which was -erected by Mutawakkil (A.D. 847-861) to replace Mu’tamid’s Friday -mosque, but Yâḳût asserts that the minaret is a relic of Mu’tamid’s -foundation. Yâḳût, however, wrote in 1225 when Sâmarrâ had long been in -ruins. - -Next in importance to the mosque is the castle or palace on the opposite -bank of the Tigris, known as the ’Ashiḳ (Fig. 145).[133] The first time -I visited it we crossed in a guffah from a point a little below the town -where there is usually a bridge of boats. The bridge had been swept away -by the floods and the guffah landing was very bad. It was a full hour’s - -[Illustration: FIG. 145.--EL ’ASHIḲ.] - -ride up the river to El ’Ashiḳ, but I was rewarded for my trouble by -finding indubitable traces of a masonry bridge in the low ground almost -exactly opposite a curious little building called Ṣlebîyeh. My attention -was called to the bridge by seeing men digging out the brick piers and -arches for building material. The peasants told me that when the river -is low, piers can be seen in the bed of the stream and that the bridge -ran in the direction of the Beit el Khalîfah. I give this information -for what it is worth. Ya’ḳûbî mentions a bridge of boats (ed. de Goeje, -p. 263); it is not impossible that pontoons may have been thrown across -the deepest and swiftest part of the river and connected with the high -ground on the west bank, which is at some distance from the stream, by a -series of masonry arches of which I saw the remains. The piers and -arches would therefore have stood on ground which was under water in -time of high flood. This is exactly the arrangement of the modern bridge -at Môṣul. The castle of the ’Ashiḳ consists of a great enclosure, 123 -metres from north to south and 85 metres from east to west, surrounded -by a wall with round bastions which are set upon a rectangular base -(Fig. 146). All the buildings that may have stood within the wall have -vanished, but adjoining the north wall there are remains of a gatehouse -consisting of five parallel chambers opening on to a corridor or -platform. The chambers and the corridor are built upon a substructure of -vaults. Under the corridor the vaults run from east to west, except in -the central part where the vault running from north to south is a -continuation of the vault under the central chamber. Under the five -chambers all the vaults run from north to south.[134] The vaults are -built of flat tiles laid in slices against the head-wall without -centering. They have the usual small set forward from the wall, but in -one case, perhaps in more than one, there is a slight divergence from -the customary arrangement. From the spring of the vault the tiles are -laid horizontally for the first sixteen or seventeen courses, projecting -forward so as to form a shallow curve; - -[Illustration: FIG. 148.--EL ’ASHIḲ, DETAIL OF NICHING ON NORTH FAÇADE.] - -above these horizontal courses the tiles are laid upright and in slices; -they form an ovoid curve more abrupt than the curve of the lower part of -the vault. The fourth of the upper chambers, reckoning from east to -west, is the best preserved. It shows the remains of a doorway, 1·85 m. -wide, covered on the same principle as the small doors of the mosques, -_i.e._ without lintel or arch. A moat or trench runs all round the -castle and passes to the north of the gatehouse. A bridge, of which -small trace remains, connected the gatehouse with a rectangular outpost. -To the north and east of this outpost there are fragments of a wall and -towers which encompassed a rectangular area.[135] The most interesting -feature in the ruins is the niche decoration between the bastions of the -north wall (Fig. 148). The niches have been in part filled up--no doubt -they were found to be too dangerous a weakness to the wall--but their -scheme is clearly apparent (Fig. 144). Each niche consisted of a high -cusped arch above a rectangular recessed panel which enclosed in turn a -smaller arched niche. High up on the wall, near the western angle tower, -there are traces of an upper order of niches. There is some indication -that the niches were continued in the first north bay of the west wall, -but the remainder of this wall, together with the whole of the east -wall, is completely ruined. The disadvantage of these deep niches is -evident in the south wall where the niche has been broken through at its -weakest point and has now the appearance of a door. In the two central -towers on this side there seemed to have been small flat-roofed chambers -(Fig. 147). The building materials used in the castle are burnt and -sun-dried brick. The foundations of the - -[Illustration: FIG. 146.--SÂMARRÂ, EL ’ASHIḲ FROM NORTH.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 147.--SÂMARRÂ, EL ’ASHIḲ FROM SOUTH.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 150.--SÂMARRÂ, ṢLEBÎYEH.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 151.--SÂMARRÂ, ṢLEBÎYEH, SETTING OF DOME.] - -walls and towers, the vaulted substructures, the niched face of the -north wall and its towers, together with what remains of the south wall -and towers are of burnt brick, but all the rest of the structure, -including the partition walls of the gatehouse, are of sun-dried brick, -and the same material is used to fill up the niches in the north wall. - -[Illustration: FIG. 149.--ṢLEBÎYEH.] - -I rode northwards from the ’Ashiḳ for exactly an hour to the ruins of -Ḥuweiṣilât where there are traces of a wall set with towers. One tower -alone stood to any height; it appeared to mark the north-west corner of -a rectangular enclosure, in the centre of which was a mound covered with -fragments of tiles, but the east side of the enclosing wall was so -completely destroyed that I could not make out the line of it. One -important point is to be noted: the wall and towers were not built of -brick, but of pebbles set in concrete, exactly similar to the masonry of -the Ḳâim tower, and I think it possible that both Ḳâim and Ḥuweiṣilât -may belong to an age prior to the Abbâsid period. It must, however, be -added that the gateway of the castle at Tekrît, which is undoubtedly -Mohammadan, is built of the same materials. South of the ’Ashiḳ is the -ruin known as Ḳubbet es Ṣlebîyeh (Fig. 149). It consists of a small -square central chamber, octagonal upon the exterior, encompassed by an -octagonal corridor (Fig. 150). The central chamber had been covered by a -dome which was set on a simple bracket over the angles of the -substructure (Fig. 151); the corridor had been barrel vaulted. Fragments -of the transverse arches that helped to carry the vault are still in -place. Ṣlebîyeh was built of sun-dried brick covered with plaster. - -When I went to the ’Ashiḳ for the second time I sent a guffah up the -river to above Lekweir and dropped down-stream to the ruins of the -castle, whence we floated down to the camp. On this most pleasant -expedition I took occasion to examine Lekweir. It lies about an hour’s -ride above Sâmarrâ, and unlike all the other ruins, it is in the low -ground by the water’s edge. Its complete destruction is perhaps due to -its having been at the mercy of the flooded river. Great blocks of -fallen brickwork lie upon the bank and in the stream, while a massive -brick wall forms a sort of quay. A large building must have adjoined -this quay, for the ground is tossed into mounds for a considerable -distance and the mounds are strewn with broken brick and with fragments -of thin marble slabs, pink, green and greyish-white in colour. - -[Illustration: FIG. 152.--SÂMARRÂ, BEIT EL KHALÎFAH.] - -The only other edifice which has escaped complete destruction is the -Beit el Khalîfah (the House of the Khalif) (Fig. 152).[136] It is a -triple-vaulted hall standing above the Tigris (Fig. 153.)[137] The -central hall was no doubt the audience chamber of the palace; it -corresponds to the great hall at Ctesiphon. The two wings are divided -into a small ante-chamber, covered with a semi-dome set on squinches -(Fig. 154), and a larger room roofed with a barrel vault. The vaults are -all slightly pointed and all are built on the - -[Illustration: FIG. 153.--SÂMARRÂ, BEIT EL KHALÎFAH.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 154.--SÂMARRÂ, BEIT EL KHALÎFAH, DETAIL OF VAULT OF -SIDE CHAMBER.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 156.--SÂMARRÂ, BEIT EL KHALÎFAH, STUCCO DECORATION.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 157.--SÂMARRÂ, BEIT EL KHALÎFAH, FRAGMENT OF -RINCEAUX WORKED IN MARBLE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 158.--SÂMARRÂ, BEIT EL KHALÎFAH, STUCCO -DECORATION.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 155.--BEIT EL KHALÎFAH, FRAGMENT OF STUCCO -DECORATION ON ARCH.] - -Mesopotamian system, without centering and with a small corbelling -forward from the wall. Under this outset there are a series of square -holes as if for beams, though it is scarcely conceivable that beams can -have been laid across the halls at this point. Round wooden poles were -certainly used in the body of the walls; the wood has perished leaving -the round hole which it occupied. The windows (or doors?) of the -chambers on either side of the triple hall were covered without lintel -or arch in the manner already described. The decoration of the palace -must have been mainly of stucco, worked in relief or frescoed. Lying -upon the ground were small fragments of plaster bearing a frescoed -pattern of a simple kind, a row of circles outlined in red and yellow; a -small piece of moulded stucco is still attached to the inside of the -arch over the opening of the central chamber (Fig. 155) and I picked up -other pieces (Fig. 158). While I was at work a peasant came to me and -inquired whether I would like to see a picture which he had just -unearthed. I went with him to a trench close at hand, where he had been -digging for bricks, and found a beautiful piece of plaster work adhering -to a wall (Fig. 156). It was doomed to instant destruction that the -bricks behind it might be removed. I inquired whether such decorations -were frequently discovered, and promised a reward for any piece that was -brought to me, with the result that before I left I had been provided -with four other examples. Three showed variants of a continuous pattern -(Figs. 159 and 160), while the third was worked with a fret motive (Fig. -161). To the east of the triple hall there are some underground chambers -hollowed out of the rock. They have been explained in various manners -and fully described by Viollet. Here as elsewhere in Sâmarrâ the rock -begins immediately below the surface of the ground. It is a conglomerate -of pebbles in a bed of lime, exceedingly hard to work and covered with -so thin a layer of earth that no cultivation is possible. The -cornfields and vineyards of the Abbâsid Sâmarrâ lay on the opposite bank -of the Tigris in the low alluvial soil beneath the ridge on which stand -Ḥuweiṣilât, the ’Ashiḳ and Ṣlebîyeh. Near the underground chambers of -the Beit el Khalîfah there are considerable mounds, and in some places -fragments of building which appertained to the palace. The walls are of -sun-dried brick and the rooms have been covered with domes and -semi-domes resting on squinch arches. - -[Illustration: FIG. 159.--STUCCO DECORATIONS, SÂMARRÂ.] - -Almost due east of the Beit el Khalîfah there rises out of the middle of -the plain a large artificial mound, Tell ’Alîj.[138] It is surrounded by -a moat, and beyond the moat there are traces of a circular wall. A -little to the east of north a raised causeway leads down from the top of -the tell, crosses the moat by what must once have been a bridge and runs -straight as an arrow over the space between moat and wall - -[Illustration: FIG. 160.--SÂMARRÂ, STUCCO DECORATION.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 161.--SÂMARRÂ, STUCCO DECORATION.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 162.--SÂMARRÂ, FRAGMENT OF POTTERY.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 163.--SÂMARRÂ, FRAGMENT OF POTTERY.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 165.--ABU DULÂF, ARCADE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 166.--ABU DULÂF, NICHED PIER OF NORTHERN ARCADE.] - -(Ross made it 110 paces) and across the plain for about half-a-mile. It -ends at a low mound where Ross found remains of brickwork. On either -side of the point where the causeway reaches the outer edge of the -ditch, a low mound, fanning out from the causeway, stretches from ditch -to rampart. These mounds are the remains of walls that protected the -causeway. Local tradition says that the moat was fed with water by a -canal from the Tigris; Ross adds that the ḳanât, or cut as he calls it, -brought water from a channel (he uses the word tunnel, by which he -probably means ḳanât, underground conduit) which ran from the Jebel -Ḥamrîn to Sâmarrâ. What this singular fortified mound can be I do not -know, but I should be surprised if it did not belong to a period earlier -than the days of the Abbâsids. - -All the area of the city is strewn with Mohammadan potsherds, but the -pottery is markedly different in character from that of Raḳḳah. Coloured -ware, though it is not entirely absent, is rare; by far the greater -number of pieces are unglazed and ornamented only with incised patterns -which are frequently divided into zones by raised notched bands. I saw, -too, a few fragments of a better class of pottery with beautiful -patterns or inscriptions in relief, worked with the utmost care. When -the peasants discovered that the patterned clay excited my interest they -brought basket loads of broken pots to my tents and I drew and -photographed innumerable examples, two of which I here reproduce (Figs. -162 and 163). - -In the mosque of Abu Dulâf (Fig. 164)[139] the arcades are carried on -massive brick piers and the effect of the long, half-ruined aisles is -very imposing (Fig. 165). The area embraced by the outer wall of -sun-dried brick is slightly smaller than at Sâmarrâ (213·20 × 136·50 m.) -and the arcades are more widely spaced, but the type of plan is the -same, even to the spiral minaret to the north. Although the enclosing -wall is no better than a crumbling mound, it is possible to make out -the - -[Illustration: FIG. 164.--ABU DULÂF.] - -gateways, inasmuch as the jambs, which were built of burnt brick, stand -more or less intact. The arcades and their returns against the wall are -also of burnt brick, and so are the remains of the three bastions which -are all that can be seen in the south wall. In the centre of this wall -there is another fragment of burnt brick which might be the curve of a -miḥrâb but is more probably a door leading into a small building or -vestibule,[140] of which the shapeless mounds can be distinguished -immediately to the south of the wall. There is a space of 10·40 m. -between the outer wall and the southernmost row of piers, and the ruins -give no indication of its having been roofed over. But if this transept -were open to the sky it is unlikely that the miḥrâb should have been -placed in it, and I should therefore place a door in the centre of the -south wall as at Sâmarrâ. The space between the arcades at the northern -and southern ends of the mosque averages 6·20 m., but the alley which -conducts to the central door at either end measures 7·33 m. in width. -Similarly the alley conducting to the central doors leading into the -court from east and west is 4·90 m. wide, whereas the average width of -the intercolumniation of the east and west arcades is 4·15 m. The plan -exhibits everywhere noticeable irregularities; the arcades vary in -width, sometimes by as much as ten centimetres. The small piers in the -ḥaram average 2·10 × 1·73 m., the greater length being from north to -south. The piers of the arcades to east and west of the ṣaḥn average -4·03 × 1·57 m.; the small piers of the northern arcades 2·18 × 1·52 m. -All the piers bordering the central court are adorned upon the face -which is turned towards the court with a brick niche covered with a -cusped arch and placed high up on the pier (Fig. 166). There is also a -decoration of small niches upon the north side of the base of the -minaret; the other sides are too much ruined to have retained the trace -of it. The north wall of the mosque is the best preserved, and shows in -places the same drainage runnels that were described at Sâmarrâ. - -The ruins of which I have here given a brief account are of the first -importance for the elucidation of the early history of the arts of -Islâm. They can all be dated within a period of forty years falling in -the middle of the ninth century, and are therefore among the earliest -existing examples of Mohammadan architecture. They bear witness to the -Mesopotamian influences under which it arose. The spiral towers of -Sâmarrâ and Abu Dulâf[141] are an adaptation of the temple pyramids of -Assyria and Babylonia which had a spiral path leading to the summit; the -technique of arch and vault was invented by the ancient East and -transmitted through Sassanian builders to the Arab invaders; the -decoration is Persian or Mesopotamian and almost untouched by the genius -of the West.[142] In the palaces and mosques of Sâmarrâ, we can see the -conquerors themselves conquered by a culture which had been developing -during thousands of years on Mesopotamian soil, a culture which had -received indeed new elements into its composition, which had learnt from -the Greek and from the Persian, but had maintained in spite of all -modifications its distinctive character. Side by side with Sâmarrâ stand -the ruins at Raḳḳah, where the mosque repaired by Nûr ed Dîn probably -preserves a plan which can be dated even earlier than the two mosques on -the Tigris; and finally the scheme and decoration of the Mesopotamian -mosque is reproduced with certain variations in the latter half of the -ninth century by Ibn Ṭûlûn, and the last descendant of the Babylonian -zigurrat is the minaret of his mosque at Cairo.[143] - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -MÔṢUL TO ZÂKHÔ - -_April 28--May 10_ - - -The city of Môṣul has a turbulent record which has lost nothing of its -quality during the past few years. It lies upon the frontier of the Arab -and the Kurdish populations, and the meeting between those two is seldom -accompanied by cordiality or good-will on either side. Upon the unhappy -province of Môṣul hatred and the lust of slaughter weigh like inherited -evils, transmitted (who can say?) through all the varying generations of -conquerors since first the savage might of the Assyrian empire set its -stamp upon the land. The town is distracted by the ambitions of powerful -Arab families who ruled, until less than a century ago, each over his -estate in undisputed sovereignty. These lordlings have witnessed, with -an antagonism which they are scarcely at the pains to hide, the hand of -the Turk tightening slowly over the district; nowhere will the Arab -national movement, if it reaches the blossoming point, find a more -congenial soil, and nowhere will it be watered by fuller streams of -lawless vanity. Cruel and bloody as Ottoman rule has shown itself upon -these remote frontiers, it is better than the untrammelled mastery of -Arab beg or Kurdish âghâ, and if the half-exterminated Christian sects, -the persecuted Yezîdîs, the wretched fellaḥîn of every creed, who sow in -terror crops which they may never reap, are to win protection and -prosperity, it is to the Turk that they must look. He, and he only, can -control the warring races of his empire, and when he has learnt to use -his power impartially and with rectitude, peace will follow. But it is -yet far from Môṣul, and seldom has it seemed further than in the -beginning of the year 1909. - -Except inasmuch as a greater distance from Constantinople and Salonica -meant a thinner trickle of western ideas, I do not believe that there -existed in Môṣul a more definite opposition to the new order than in -other places, though there, as elsewhere in Asiatic Turkey, the forces -of reaction were numerous and strong. But Môṣul has always been against -the government, whatever form it should happen to assume; the begs have -always played with the authorities as you play with a fish on the hook, -and the fact that they were now constitutional authorities gave an even -better zest to the sport and barbed the hook yet more sharply. The -affairs of the Committee had been ill managed. The local committee, -which had formed on the proclamation of the constitution, had received -with open arms the delegates who were sent from Salonica to instruct it -in its duties--indeed the whole town had gone out to meet them, with the -Vâlî and other notables at its head. But the delegates had been -unfortunately chosen. Both were ignorant and tactless; one was a native -of Kerkûk, the bitter rival of Môṣul, and he had, besides, anything but -an unclouded personal reputation. The local committee lost rather than -gained by their coming, and when they left, they rode unescorted across -the bridge, and no one took notice of their departure. With them -vanished the slender hopes of improvement which the proclamation of -liberty, fraternity and equality had excited, and the begs were left -with a clear field. To their ears the words had sounded like a knell. -Universal liberty is not a gift prized by tyrants, and equality stinks -in the nostrils of men who are accustomed to see their Christian fellow -citizens cower into the nearest doorway when they ride through the -streets. They had no difficulty in causing their dissatisfaction to be -felt. The organization of discord is carried to a high pitch of -perfection in Môṣul. The town is full of bravos who live by outrage, and -live well. Whenever the unruly magnates wish to create a disturbance, -they pass a word and a gratuity to these ruffians; the riot takes place, -and who is to be blamed for it? The begs were all in their villages and -could have had no hand in the matter; it was Abu’l - -[Illustration: FIG. 167.--MÔṢUL.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 169.--MÔṢUL, MÂR JIRJIS.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 170.--MÔṢUL, MÂR TÛMÂ.] - -Ḳâsim, the noted bandit, it was Ibn this or Ibn that. As for the -opportunity, it is never far to seek, and upon this occasion it occurred -on the last day of the feast of Bairam, January 1, 1909. The people were -out in the streets, dressed in their best, as is proper to a festival, -when a man of the Kurdish mule corps from Kerkûk insulted (so it is -said) a Moslem woman of Môṣul. In an instant arms were out, the Arab -soldiery attacked the Kerkûkî sowwârs, a fight ensued that lasted many -hours, and in the confusion several Mohammadan women, holiday-makers, -who had not had time to seek refuge in their houses, were killed and -wounded, a most unusual disaster. Meantime, the Vâlî sat trembling in -the serai and lifted not a finger to restore order. Late at night the -Kerkûkîs retired to their own barracks, surrendered at discretion to the -government, and gave up their arms. This episode might be dismissed as a -natural ebullition of racial animosities, but the events of the -following day can scarcely be explained except on the assumption that -they were instigated by the begs. In the morning a rabble assembled -before the serai and cried out for vengeance on the Kerkûkî sowwârs, who -were awaiting judgment at the hands of the government. The Vâlî -hesitated, and the ringleaders called upon the crowd to arm. The people -executed this order with the alacrity of the forewarned, shops and -private houses barred their doors and the town was thrown into a state -of civil war. - -There lived at that time in Môṣul a certain Kurdish holy man, a native -of Suleimânîyeh on the Persian frontier. Some years earlier Sheikh -Sayyid had fallen foul of the Turkish authorities--his own influence -having swelled into too great a force--and had received a summons, which -was regarded as implying the blackest misfortune, to present himself in -Constantinople. It happened, when he arrived in the capital, that a -favourite son of the Sultan was lying sick, and since the sheikh had a -great reputation for sanctity, his punishment was delayed while he put -up an intercession on behalf of the child. It was effectual: the boy -recovered, and the sheikh returned in honour to his native place, with -a chaplet of priceless pearls about his neck and a celebrity immensely -enhanced. He was old and had long been harmless, but his sons traded -upon his position and presently made Suleimânîyeh too hot to hold them. -The whole family was under the direct protection of ’Abdu’l Ḥamîd; it -was considered advisable to remove them to a spot where they would be -equally directly under the eye of his deputy, the Vâlî, and they were -brought to Môṣul. They came in like princes on a triumphal progress. The -streets were choked with the mules that carried their possessions, and a -house opposite the serai was assigned to them as a lodging. - -No sooner had the rioters reassembled with arms on January 2, than they -were directed to the house of the Kurdish family. Sheikh Sayyid was a -man of eighty-five, but he had the courage of his race. When he heard -the mob storming at his doors, he took the Ḳurân in his hand and clothed -in years and sanctity stepped out into the street, intending to take -refuge in the serai. Its door was opposite his own, and the Vâlî from a -window watched the scene. The rabble gave way before the venerable -figure clasping the holy book, but before he could reach the serai, it -closed in upon him, he was cut down and hacked to pieces. His house was -then sacked and seventeen of his descendants were murdered. If the -leaders of the reactionary party had wished to embarrass the government -and to show up its weakness, they were more than commonly successful. -During the six weeks that elapsed before the arrival of troops from -Diyârbekr and elsewhere, Môṣul was in a state of complete anarchy. -Christians were openly insulted in the streets, the civil and military -authorities were helpless, and no less helpless was the local committee -of Union and Progress. When the troops came some degree of order was -restored, but the reactionary movement was not arrested. The formation -of the League of Mohammad, which was designed as a counterblast to the -Committee of Union and Progress, went on apace. It appealed to Moslems -of the old school, who had a genuine dread of the effects of the new -spirit upon the observance of the laws of Islâm; it appealed to the -ignorant, to whom the conception of the equality of Christian and -Moslem is incomprehensible, and it was eagerly welcomed by all who were -opposed to constitutional government on grounds more or less personal to -themselves. One great magnate went through the bazaars collecting the -signatures of adherents to the Muḥammadîyeh, and for a time the -situation was exceedingly critical. It was however significant that the -Naḳîb of Môṣul, the leading doctor of Islâm, steadily refused to sign -the papers or to have anything to do with the League. Meanwhile a new -and capable Vâlî had been appointed to the province, but he had gone -straight to Kerkûk, where matters were in a still more parlous state, -and lawlessness walked abroad unchecked in the streets of Môṣul. At -length the Vâlî realized the dangers that threatened the province -through its capital, and being a man of action he travelled post haste -to Môṣul, and set about the restoration of order. He arrested and -imprisoned a number of persons and administered severe rebukes to the -leading Moslems, together with assurances that the government would -protect the rights of the Christians. These warnings were repeated in -strong language the day after the accession of Muḥammad Reshâd when the -first rumours of a massacre of Armenians at Adana reached the bazaars. - -The fall of ’Abdu’l Hamîd set an immediate term to the agitation. In all -likelihood the counter revolution of April 13 had caused no surprise to -the organizers of the League of Mohammad, but the swift action of the -Salonica committee had not been foreseen. The story ran that after the -flight of the deputies from Constantinople the Vâlî had received a -telegram bidding him obey no orders from the capital of the empire--I -cannot vouch for the truth of the tale, but it is not in itself -improbable. The Vâlî was backed by an unwontedly large body of troops -(those who had been sent in to quell the disturbances which had arisen -out of the murder of Sheikh Sayyid), and all over Turkey the troops -stood loyal to the constitution. The city waited with a growing -apprehension as day by day telegrams arrived reporting the advance of -the Salonica army on Constantinople, nor was it unknown that a message -from Baghdâd, offering instant help to the constitutional party, had -passed through Môṣul. Then on a sudden came word that ’Abdu’l Ḥamîd had -been deposed, and, except to the country folk and to me upon the high -road, it had been half expected. So it was that when I came to Môṣul I -found the town, which is one of the worst conducted in the Ottoman -empire, submissive and quiet. In the week during which I remained there -we had no further intelligence save the vague rumour of an outbreak at -Adana; even the assurance that Muḥammad V was sultan in his brother’s -place we accepted from Turkish official sources, neither had we any -means of ascertaining whether he had been recognized by the Powers of -Europe. Turkish official sources are apt to be tainted, and few regions -can be further removed than Eastern Turkey from the pure fountain of the -truth; nevertheless the British Embassy in Constantinople did not see -fit to acquaint its vice-consuls in Asiatic Turkey with the accession of -a new sovereign. I leave this observation without comment. But if we in -Môṣul were uncertain as to the turn events had taken in Europe, we had -valuable opportunities of gauging local conditions. In Môṣul not a voice -was raised against the second triumph of the new order. With the entire -lack of initiative which characterizes the Asiatic provinces, men -resigned themselves to a decree of Fate which was substantially backed -by the army. Whether this second victory was to prove more decisive and -more permanent than the first was open to question; the doubt kept -people to their houses and affected the attitude of some of the most -powerful of the begs, who, being lords of great possessions which they -desired to enjoy in peace, would have given a whole-hearted support to -the new Sultan, but held back lest his government should not prove -strong enough to defend them against their ill-conditioned brethren. In -vain the Vâlî filled the prisons to overflowing with noted malefactors; -if he brought them to trial he knew that no one would dare to advance -evidence against them, and in the meantime the gaols were growing more -dangerously crowded every day. There was undoubtedly some personal -feeling for ’Abdu’l Ḥamîd, but it was rare. I made the acquaintance of -a citizen of Môṣul, a splendid type of the old school, for whom it was -impossible not to feel sympathy, even though I know him to have been one -of the instigators of the murder of Sheikh Sayyid: this man watched from -a room in the serai the proclamation of Muḥammad V, and when he saw the -soldiery tear down and trample under foot edicts which were signed with -’Abdu’l Ḥamîd’s name, he, being alone but for one other, who was my -informant, threw himself upon the ground and wept. “The dogs!” he cried. -“Yesterday they would have been proud if their name had been mentioned in -the same breath with his.” To me he was more guarded; moreover he had -had time to recover his balance. But he predicted wreck and ruin, -bloodshed, revolution and all other evils for his country. - -“Is there no remedy?” said I. - -“If the source is pure the whole stream is pure,” he answered -enigmatically. - -“Was the source pure?” I asked. - -He hesitated a moment, and then replied: “No, by God and the Prophet! A -king should go about among his subjects, see them and hear them. He -should not sit imprisoned in his house, listening to the talk of spies.” - -I know another, poles asunder from the first, one of the richest men in -the town and one of the most evil: a slave by birth, he might not sit in -the presence of his former master, although the master, great gentleman -as he was, could scarcely outmatch the wealth of the liberated slave. -Him I asked whether there was any strength behind the Arab movement. - -“The Khalîfah should be of the tribe of the Ḳureish,” he answered -significantly. - -“Who would be Khalîfah if he were chosen from out of the Ḳureish?” I -asked. - -“The Sherîf of Mecca is of that blood,” he answered. “The Arabs would -govern themselves.” - -He left me to reflect upon his words, for I was well aware that if he -chose to support them with force, all the rogues with whom the city -abounds were at his command, and all the plots and counterplots of the -vilayet were familiar to him. - -I sat long in the guest chamber of a third acquaintance, the head of the -greatest family in Môṣul. So stainless is his lineage that his sisters -must remain unwed, since Môṣul cannot provide a husband equal to them in -birth. His forebears were Christians who migrated from Diyârbekr two -hundred years ago. The legend runs that his Christian ancestor, soon -after he had come to Môṣul, went out in the morning to be shaved, but -when he reached the barber’s shop it was filled with low-born Moslems -and the barber kept him waiting until the heads of the Faithful had been -trimmed. “Shall a man of my house wait for such as these?” he cried, and -forthwith abjured the creed of slaves. His descendant was one of those -who would gladly have seen the new order triumph and give peace to the -land. He called down vengeance upon the head of Aḥmed ’Izzet Pasha, one -of the worst of the late Sultan’s sycophants, and upon that of his -brother, Muṣṭafâ, sometime Vâlî of Môṣul. “If he had stayed two years -more he would have ruined the town,” said he. But his hatred of ’Izzet -Pasha had not blinded him to the dictates of honour. It happened that by -those methods of persuasion of which ’Izzet was master, he had induced -my friend to present him with a valuable piece of land. Two months later -’Izzet fell and fled in terror of death from Constantinople, but the beg -would not revoke a gift which the disgraced favourite was powerless to -exact from him. _Noblesse oblige._ - -I had also the advantage of conversing with several bishops. Now there -are so many bishops in these parts that it is impossible to retain more -than a composite impression of them. They correspond in number to the -Christian sects, which are as the sands of the sea-shore, but as I was -about to journey through districts inhabited by their congregations, I -made an attempt to grasp at least the names by which their creeds are -distinguished from one another. As for more fundamental distinctions, -they depend upon the wording of a metaphysical proposition which I will -not offer to define, lest I should fall, like most of my predecessors, -into grievous heresy. The most interesting, historically, of these -several denominations are the people of Mâr Shim’ûn, some of whom I had -met upon the road. They are currently known as Nestorians, though, as -Layard has observed, this title is misapplied. The followers of Mâr -Shim’ûn are the representatives of the ancient Chaldæan Church, and -their race is probably as near to the pure Assyrian stock as can be -expected in regions so often conquered, devastated and repeopled. Their -church existed before the birth of Nestorius, and was not dependent upon -him for its tenets;[144] its doctrines are those of primitive -Christianity untouched by the influence of Rome, and its creed, with -unimportant verbal differences, is that of Nicæa. After the Council of -Ephesus, in 431, the members of the Chaldæan Church separated themselves -from those who acknowledged the authority of the Pope. Politically they -were already a separate community, for they lived, not under the -Byzantine, but under the Sassanian empire. Their missionaries carried -Christianity all over Asia, from Mesopotamia to the Pacific. Their -patriarch, whose title was, and still is, Catholicos of the Eastern -Church, was seated first at Ctesiphon; when Baghdâd became the capital -of the khalifate, the patriarchate was removed thither, and upon the -fall of the Arab khalifs it was transferred to Môṣul. During the -sixteenth century a schism took place which led to the existence of two -patriarchs, one living at the monastery of Rabbân Hormuzd near Alḳôsh, -and one at Kochannes in the mountains south of Vân. The first, with his -adherents, submitted, two centuries ago, to the Pope; they are known as -the Chaldæans, and they are said to bear the yoke of Rome very -unwillingly. The second is now the only patriarch of the old independent -church, which has been dubbed Nestorian. The office may be termed -hereditary; it passes from uncle to nephew in a single family, for the -patriarch is not permitted to marry; the holder of it is always known as -Mâr Shim’ûn, the Lord Simeon. It is generally believed that if the new -government were to succeed in establishing order, so that the protection -of a foreign Power should cease to be of vital importance, the Chaldæan -converts would return in a body to their former allegiance to the -Catholicos of the East. - -A similar division exists among the Jacobites, the Syrian monophysites, -who were condemned in 451 by the fourth œcumenical council, held at -Chalcedon. A part of this community has submitted to Rome and is known -as the Syrian Church, while those who have retained their independence -have retained also their old title of Jacobites. To this pious confusion -Protestant missionaries, English and American, have contributed their -share. There are Syrian Protestants and Nestorian Protestants--if the -terms be admissible--though whether the varying shades of belief held by -the instructors are reflected in the instructed, I do not know, and I -refrained from an inquiry which might have resulted in the revelation of -Presbyterian Nestorians, Church of England Jacobites, or even Methodist -Chaldæans. - -None but the theologian would essay a valuation of the relative -orthodoxy of converted and unconverted, but the archæologist must hold -no uncertain opinion as to their merits. The unification, so far as it -has gone, of the two ancient Churches with Rome is an unmitigated -misfortune. The Chaldæans and the Syrians, instigated perhaps by their -pastors, have been so eager to obliterate the memory of their former -heterodoxy that they have effaced with an unsparing hand all, or nearly -all, Syriac inscriptions older than the date of their regeneration, and -in Môṣul it is rare to find any written stone earlier than the end of -the seventeenth century. This is the more provoking as several of the -churches are of great architectural interest, and it is much to be -regretted that the epigraphic record of their history should not have -been preserved. So far as I could judge, the oldest parts of the oldest -churches may probably be dated in the twelfth or thirteenth centuries. -All have been considerably remodelled; some were entirely rebuilt after -the siege of Môṣul by Nâḍir Shah in 1743 and others have been rebuilt in -recent years.[145] Moreover there are several which would seem to have -been first founded as late as the eighteenth century. But whatever may -be their date, they all exhibit the same simple plan, a plan which I -believe to be essentially Mesopotamian and more ancient by many -centuries than the existing churches. It is that of the barn church, the -church with two aisles and a nave, covered by parallel barrel vaults so -equal in height as not to admit of a clerestorey.[146] The nave and -aisles are invariably cut off from the sanctuary by a wall--it is too -substantial to be called an iconostasis--broken by three large doors. -This complete separation is not typical of primitive ecclesiastical -architecture; it results, as a rule, from a development of the ritual; -but it appears to be here a part of the original plan. The sanctuary is -almost invariably divided into three parts, corresponding to the nave -and aisles, and, as a rule, the central altar is covered by a dome set -upon squinch arches. The church of Mâr Ahudânî will serve as a typical -example (Fig 168); it is now in the hands of the Chaldæans. A flight of -steps leads down to it from the street, and the fact that it lies so far -below the modern level is one of the indications of its antiquity. The -stair opens into a small atrium with a cloister to east and west. The -church is to the south of the atrium and there is no means of approach -to it from any other side. The present atrium is comparatively modern -and the church shows many signs of reconstruction and repair. The -doorway from the nave to the sanctuary is richly decorated with Arabic -inscriptions, with - -[Illustration: FIG. 168.--MÂR AHUDÂNÎ.] - -mouldings and entrelac, Mohammadan in character, and I should say not -far removed from the early thirteenth century in date. There are also -motives which are repeated with variations upon all the churches of a -like epoch, grotesque lions and the cross-legged figure which has been -described upon one of the gates of Baghdâd. The building was so dark -that my photographs were not successful, but an outer doorway of Mâr -Girjis gives an adequate idea of the scheme of decoration (Fig. 169). -The straight arch, which serves here as lintel, is a universal -characteristic; so, too, are the ornaments pendant from the voussoirs. -The doorways in the cloister that lies to the west of Mâr Tûmâ, the -episcopal church of the Syrians, exhibit beautiful variants of the same -theme (Fig. 170).[147] In this church the door leading from the nave to -the sanctuary is framed by an entrelac enclosing in its windings the -figures of Christ and the Twelve Apostles. - -[Illustration: FIG. 171.--MÔṢUL, MÂR TÛMÂ.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 172.--MÔṢUL, MÂR SHIM’UN.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 173.--MÔṢUL, PLASTER WORK IN ḲAL’AT LÛLÛ.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 174.--MÔṢUL, TOMB OF THE IMÂM YAḤYÂ.] - -Three extra aisles have recently been added to the original building, -and I understood the church to be shared between the Syrians and the -Chaldæans. If the Christian architects continued to make use of a -primitive Oriental plan, it is even more certain that they continued to -be dependent upon Eastern artists for their decorative schemes, and were -in no way linked with the West. Their decoration is the same as that -which is to be found in contemporary Mohammadan buildings. For instance, -a lintel which now lies in the atrium of Mâr Shim’ûn, a church which has -been almost entirely rebuilt, is carved with an entrelac unmistakably -Mohammadan (Fig. 172). Over one of the doors of Mâr Tûmâ there is a band -of ornament which may perhaps have been taken from a Mohammadan -building, though it is more probable that it formed part of the original -Christian work (Fig. 171).[148] The style of this deeply undercut relief -is so marked that it imprints itself upon the memory. I saw other -examples of it in the beautiful tomb of the Imam Yaḥyâ which, according -to an inscription, was built by the Sultan Lûlû (Fig. 174).[149] A -mosque for the Friday prayers existed in the time of Ibn Baṭûṭah close -to the Tigris, and this is in all probability the building which is -praised by Mustaufî, who says that “the stone sculptured ornament is so -intricate that it might stand for wood carving.”[150] This particular -kind of stone relief, which is to be found both in Moslem and in -Christian buildings, does in fact closely resemble wood carving, and the -Christian examples cannot be of a different date from the Moslem. The -first recorded mosque in Môṣul was built by Marwân II, the last of the -Omayyad khalifs (744-750), not far from the Tigris, according to Ibn -Ḥauḳal; so far as I know, no trace of it has survived. Nûr ed Dîn, the -Atabeg (1146-1172), built a second Friday mosque in the bazaar, and -this must be the great mosque with the leaning minaret which stands in -the centre of the town, but how much of the original work remains I -could not determine, for Mohammadan feeling was running high when I was -in Môṣul, and at such times it is wiser not to ask for admittance into -mosques.[151] Finally a third Friday mosque was erected near the Tigris -(represented, as I conjecture, by the tomb of the Imâm Yaḥyâ), and to -Lûlû’s day belongs also the ziyârah of ’Abdullah ibn Ḥassan in the heart -of the town. The entrelac round the door of this ziyârah is very similar -to the decoration of the sanctuary door in Mâr Tûmâ, except that the -figures are absent. In the interior there is a band of deeply-cut stone -relief of the wood-work type. The fluted cone-like roof with which the -ziyârah is covered is found in all the Moslem tombs of Môṣul. There is -another fragment of Lûlû’s handiwork which, ruined though it be, is of -great architectural importance, the Ḳal’at Lûlû on the Tigris bank, not -far from the tomb of the Imâm Yaḥyâ.[152] Only the eastern end of two -vaulted halls is standing, but in one of these remains of stucco -ornament still cling to the walls (Fig. 173). The ornament consists of a -band of inscription and a band of tiny arcades, each arch containing the -representation of a nude human figure, depicted from head to waist.[153] -Below this band there has been another design of larger arches covered -with rinceaux which are adorned with flowers and birds. The town walls -are comparatively modern, but the Sinjâr Gate, on the west side, is -worthy of note. It resembles the gates of Aleppo, and like them it bears -a blazonry of lions. - -One other memory of the days at Môṣul stands very freshly in my mind. -There exists in the town a small and indigent Jewish community--neither -too small nor too poverty-stricken to have attracted the watchful care -of the Alliance Juive.[154] Under their auspices, M. Maurice Sidi, a -courageous and highly cultivated Tunisian, has opened a school for the -children, and by precept and example he imparts the elements of -civilization, letters and cleanliness, to young and old. The English -vice-consul, who had witnessed his efforts with great sympathy and -admiration, invited him to bring a deputation of his co-religionists to -the consulate while I was there, and a dignified body of bearded and -white-robed elders filed one morning into the courtyard. We returned -their visit at the school, where we were received by a smiling crowd, -dressed in their best, who pressed bunches of flowers upon us. The -class-rooms were filled with children proudly conscious that their -achievements in the French, Arabic and Hebrew tongues had called down -honour upon their race. The scholars in the Hebrew class, who were of -very tender years, were engaged in learning lists of Hebrew words with -their Arabic equivalents, Hebrew being an almost forgotten language -among the Jews of Môṣul. M. Sidi drew forward a tiny urchin who stood -unembarrassed before us, and gazed at him expectantly with solemn black -eyes. - -“What do you know?” said the master. - -The black-eyed morsel answered without a shadow of hesitation: “I know -Elohim.” And while I was wondering how much of the eternal secret had -been revealed to that small brain, he began to recite the first list in -the lesson-book, which opened with the name of God: “Elohim, Allah”--I -do not remember how it went on, neither did he remember, without M. -Sidi’s prompting. Elohim was what he knew. - -Over against Môṣul lies Nineveh. The pontoon bridge that spans the -Tigris had been swept away by the floods; the masonry arches on the -further side stood out into the river, but where the causeway dips down -to meet the bridge of boats it met nothing but the swiftly-flowing -stream. We crossed therefore by a ferry, and so rode up to the mound of -Ḳûyûnjik, where Xenophon saw the ruins of Nineveh and thought them to -be a city of the Medes. His description of the immense area they covered -scarcely seemed incredible as we stood upon the mound. The line of the -walls ran out far to the north, far, too, to the south, embracing the -neighbouring mound of Nebî Yûnus, which is the site of one of Jonah’s -many tombs. The corn grew deep on Ḳûyûnjik, and the blue bee-eaters flew -in and out of Layard’s excavation pits; across the fertile plain rose -the towers of Môṣul; the broad Tigris ran between, which Saladin sought -to turn from its bed when he laid siege to Nûr ed Dîn. His imperious -folly is as forgotten as the splendours of Sennacherib-- - - “And such plenty and perfection, see, of grass - Never was! - Such a carpet as this summer time o’erspreads - And embeds - Every vestige of the city....” - -Had the poet been dreaming of Nineveh when he wrote _Love Among the -Ruins_? - - “Shut them in - With their triumphs and their glories and the rest....” - -We rode from Nineveh through blazing heat for four hours across a plain -where the peasants were harvesting the barley while the locusts -harvested the green wheat, which was not ripe enough to save. The sun -beat so fiercely upon us that I sought refuge in the house of the -village sheikh at ’Amrḳân, and ate in his guest-chamber a lunch which -was made more palatable by the sour curds which he set before us. An -hour and a half further we came to Mâr Behnâm, and found the tents -pitched upon the slopes of a mound above a deep round pool. On the one -side of our camp lay the monastery of Mâr Behnâm, on the other the -shrine that covers his grave.[155] The monastery has the appearance of -a small fort. Its outer walls have been many times ruined and repaired, -and the interior buildings, all except the beautiful church, are modern. -The doorways leading from the porch into the church and from the nave -and aisles into the sanctuaries are covered with lacework patterns, -interspersed with small figures of angels, lions and snakes, together -with Arabic and Syriac inscriptions. In the porch, between the two -doors, there is a small niche worked with arabesques, the very -counterpart of a Moslem miḥrâb. There are square chambers leading out of -the aisles, roofed with pointed domes which are elaborately worked with -stucco ornaments. Upon the east wall and on one of the piers of the nave -are two stucco plaques, one representing St. George on horseback, the -other a full-length figure of a saint. On both there are traces of -colour.[156] I paid my respects to the saint’s tomb in company with a -number of pilgrims from Môṣul who were spending the night in the -monastery. At dusk the villagers assembled under the mound, which marks -the spot as some small suburb of Nineveh, and watered their flocks at -the pool; I watched them from my tent door and thought that the scene -must have changed but little in the past three thousand years.[157] - -[Illustration: FIG. 175.--ḲARAḲÔSH, DECORATION ON LINTEL OF MÂR -SHIM’ÛN.] - -We rode next day in two and a half hours to Ḳaraḳôsh, where there are no -less than seven churches. Three of them stand outside the village, each -surrounded by its fortress wall, which usually encloses one or two small -living-rooms besides the church. They reminded me forcibly of the walled -Coptic monasteries of Egypt, but the monastic buildings were smaller. -Between them stretched fields of barley wherein the villagers, standing -in line, were pulling up the crops to the strains of the bagpipes. The -churches were oriented almost at haphazard, and provided with the -smallest doors, and windows to correspond. The interiors were so dark -that I abandoned all hope of photographing the ornaments upon the inner -doors,[158] though I made a rapid sketch of the lintel over the -sanctuary door of Mâr Shim’ûn (Fig. 175). Above it was a slab bearing a -floral Persian pattern incised upon the stone. Inside the town several -of the churches had recently been repaired, or were in process of -reparation. A young priest, Kas Yûsef, showed me the work, and gloried -in the replacing of old and ruined churches by new and brand-new -edifices. New lamps for old, but it was the old lamp that could summon -the genius, and I realized the sound moral of the fairy story as I -watched the refurbishing of ancient walls at Ḳaraḳôsh; but I did not -impart my impression to the Syrian priest, whose ardour it would have -been unkind to damp. The Syrians have annexed most of the larger -churches, so said the worthy Jacobite father who brought me the key of -Mâr Shim’ûn, and he told his tale not without a touch of bitterness. Yet -it would have been folly to blink the fact that he was no match for Kas -Yûsef, who was young and eager, and had been trained in a French school -at Môṣul. Twenty minutes beyond Ḳaraḳôsh we came to the ruined church of -Mâr Yuhanna Deleimoyya (St. John the Deleimî), which no one has troubled -to repair, though it had beautiful carved lintels and domes adorned with -plasterwork. Thence we rode for an hour through cornlands to Bârtallâ, -and saw Bâ’ashikâ at the foot of the hills. They were real hills which -lay before us, not the bare desert ridges which were all the heights we -had seen since we crossed over Lebanon on the way to Aleppo. Here were -the buttresses of mightier ranges than Lebanon, the alps of Kurdistân -which end the land of the two rivers. As we climbed upwards, the corn -grew greener, the grass deeper, the flowers more brilliant along the -edge of trickling streams. But my companions paid no heed to these -marvels. Jûsef’s thoughts were busy with the great cities he had seen -since he set forth on his travels, and especially with Môṣul, last and -therefore fairest in his memory. He rehearsed its advantages to the -Môṣul zaptieh, and ’Abdullah was well pleased to listen to such talk. - -“Not even in Aleppo,” said Jûsef magnanimously, “do you find better -bread.” - -“However many places there may be in the world,” pronounced ’Abdullah, -“there is none where the bread is so good.” - -“It is sweet,” assented Jûsef. - -“And if you take tobacco from Môṣul to Baghdâd,” ’Abdullah pursued, “it -rots there. The air of Baghdâd is not like the air of Môṣul.” - -“Wallah, no!” said Jûsef the much-travelled, weighing city against city -in the finest judicial manner. - -We rode through exquisite meadows, and in about five hours and a half -from Ḳaraḳôsh crossed a mountain stream that rippled between banks rosy -with oleander--Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed in robes so -softly flushed. Beyond it my camp was pitched upon a swelling slope -below the steep rocks of Jebel Maḳlûb, wherein, placed high among the -hills, stood the monastery of Mâr Mattai, a grey wall hanging over a -precipice. I left my horse at the camp, and taking ’Abdullah with me, -set out on a half-hour’s climb up a narrow gorge, full of the western -sun, which was golden now, and clement. Every crevice between the stones -was gay with a small starry campanula, gentian-blue, mountain-blue, the -full clear colour of an upland flower; and thrusting their strong roots -under the rocks, the terebinths hung glossy foliage over the path--I -found myself, as I looked once more upon the divine curves of leafy twig -and bough, heaping contempt upon the recollection of that leggy -vegetable, the palm. A ragged boy opened the monastery gate and -conducted us by a long stair to a terrace from which the bishop had -watched our progress up the gorge. He bade me go quickly, while the sun -still shone, to see the church and the tombs of Mâr Mattai and of Bar -Hebræus, but the church had been rebuilt, the inscriptions on the tombs -were already known, and my desire turned towards the bishop, and the -coffee which he was preparing for us, and the room on the terrace where -the cushioned windows opened on to the Assyrian plain. The bishop was -old and very garrulous; the monastery, high set above the world, was -beyond the reach of mundane intelligence, the only monk had gone down to -Môṣul, and in the Jebel Maḳlûb men were still uncertain under which lord -they served. Was it indeed true, asked the bishop, that Muḥammad Reshâd -was Sultan of Turkey? and he rejoiced greatly when we confirmed the -rumour. But his thoughts wandered back to older histories, and hearing -that we had come from Mâr Behnâm, he began to instruct us in matters -pertaining to that shrine. - -“My daughter, listen,” said he, and I lay back upon the cushions and -watched the light redden and fade over the plains of Assyria, while the -sweet mountain silence fell more closely in the gorge, and the bishop’s -rambling tale filled the idle hour like some voice out of the past. -’Abdullah sat cross-legged upon a pile of carpets at the end of the -room, rolling cigarettes and nodding his head in approval as the -venerable weaver of romance unfolded his chronicle. “Senherib, king of -Assyria, king of kings,” he began, “to him a son was born whose name was -Behnâm. And it happened upon a day that the Amîr Behnâm was hunting, and -he lost his gazelle and night came upon him while he pursued her. And -being weary with the chase he fell asleep beside a fountain. Then in his -sleep an angel appeared unto him and bade him hearken to one whom he -should meet next day upon the road. And when he had journeyed but a -little way he met Mâr Mattai. And Mâr Mattai stopped him and said: ‘Oh -prince, why do you worship idols that have eyes that see not, ears that -hear not, lips that speak not, instead of worshipping the living God, -who made heaven and earth, al ins w’al jins w’al jami?’--mankind and -different kinds and all kinds. And Behnâm answered: ‘Give me a sign.’ -Then said Mâr Mattai: ‘What sign shall I give you?’ And he said: ‘Heal -my sister who is sick.’ And they went on their way towards Nineveh, and -as they went, Behnâm was full of fear, for he dared not take the saint -into his father’s city. But when they reached Bârtallâ, Mâr Mattai was -weary and could walk no further. And he said: ‘If I make water to gush -out of the rock, will you believe?’ And Behnâm answered: ‘I will -believe.’ And the water gushed forth. Then Behnâm returned to Nineveh, -and he refused to worship idols that have eyes that cannot see and ears -that cannot hear and lips that cannot speak.” - -“It is true,” said ’Abdullah. - -“Neither would he worship the sun,” pursued the bishop, “nor the moon, -nor the stars, nor anything but the living God, who created heaven and -earth, mankind and different kinds and all kinds.” - -“It is written in the book,” said ’Abdullah. - -“My son,” said the bishop, “it is written.” And Christian and Moslem met -on the common ground of scripture. “Then Senherib put him and his sister -to death. But the king was old and sick unto death, and he repented of -what he had done, for he had no heir to inherit the kingdom. Therefore -he sent for Mâr Mattai and entreated him to bring his son to life. And -Mâr Mattai answered: ‘Oh king, I will raise him from the dead if you -will build me a monastery in the Jebel Maḳlûb.’ And Senherib built the -house wherein we sit,” concluded the bishop. - -“And who built Mâr Behnâm?” said I, anxious to prolong the recital. - -“My daughter,” he replied, “the house of Mâr Behnâm was built by Isḥâk -the merchant. For Isḥâk was journeying to Baghdâd, and upon the road he -fell ill, and Mâr Behnâm appeared to him and healed him. Verily the -Assyrians were idolaters, but they came to know the true God. So the -world changes.” The bishop broke off abruptly at this confusing point in -the narrative, for even he felt that it would be an anachronism to -assert that the Assyrian empire was Christian. But the historical -sequence of events was nothing to ’Abdullah. - -“God is great,” he assented. “The world changes.” And he rolled another -cigarette.[159] - -We ran down the path in the dusk and found my dinner-table spread under -the moon. Round the camp-fire sat ’al ins w’al jins w’al jami’ and -watched the boiling of Ḥâjj ’Amr’s rice-pot. - -However many countries there may be in the world there are none so rich -in faiths as the mountain frontiers of eastern Turkey. Beliefs which -have been driven out with obloquy by a new-found truth, the -half-apprehended mysticism of the East, echoes of Western metaphysics -and philosophy, illusive memories of paganism--all have been swept -together into these hills, where creeds that were outlined in the -childhood of the world are formulated still in terms as old as -themselves. Islâm, with the lash of its simple, clear-cut doctrine, has -herded them into remote places. Cowering there under centuries of -persecution they have hidden their sacred things from the eyes of the -spoiler, in silence they endure the reproach which dogs the most -innocent practices of a secret cult, and each sect awaits, through ages -of misery, the reward and the redeemer which its peculiar revelation has -promised. These outcast communities make a potent appeal to the -imagination and to the sympathy. I have no desire to pry into that which -they choose to conceal, neither have they any wish to take me into their -special confidence; but their hospitality is unfailing, and whenever I -find myself among them I find myself among friends. - -We were now entering the country which is the head-quarters of the -Yezîdîs, who, from their desire to conciliate or to propitiate the -Spirit of Evil, are known to Moslem and Christian as Devil Worshippers. -By Moslem and by Christian they have been placed beyond the bounds of -human kindness, and while the Mohammadan has been unremitting in his -efforts to bring them, by methods familiar to dominant creeds, to a -sense of their short-comings, the Christian has regarded the wholesale -butchery which has overtaken them from time to time as a punishment -justified by their tenets. I had journeyed before among Yezîdî villages, -in the mountains of north Syria, and had been struck by the clean and -well-ordered look of the houses, and by the open-handed friendliness of -the people, as well as by their courage and industry. The Mesopotamian -Yezîdîs I knew only through the descriptions contained in Layard’s -enchanting books, but I carried a letter to ’Alî Beg, the head of the -sect, and proposed to visit him in his village of Bâ’adrî and to see, if -he would permit, the most sacred of all Yezîdî shrines, Sheikh ’Adi. -’Abdullah, when he learnt my intention, expressed his entire approval of -’Alî Beg as a man, but he would hear nothing of his religious -convictions because they were not founded upon a book. - -“Effendim,” he said, “Moslems and Jews and Christians have a book; it is -only the infidels which have none, and the Yezîdîs are infidels. They -worship the Sheitân.” - -“You must not speak of him while we are at Bâ’adrî,” said I, for the -Yezîdîs never take the name of the Devil upon their lips and to mention -him in their presence is a shameful insult. - -“God forbid!” replied ’Abdullah. - -We rode over flowery foot-hills that were bright with hollyhock and -gladiolus, borage and mullein, and in an hour and a half from our -camping-ground we reached the village of Jezarân. - -“These are Shabbak,” observed ’Abdullah. - -“What are Shabbak?” I asked. - -“They are not true Moslems,” he replied. “God knows what they believe. -They resemble the Shî’ahs. Effendim, they came with the armies of the -’Ajam, and after the ’Ajam departed, they remained.” The ’Ajam are the -Persians, or, roughly speaking, any barbarians.[160] - -We went down into a lovely valley where the storks waded wing-deep -through grass and buttercups--Chem Resh is its Kurdish name, Wâdî Aswad -in Arabic, and both mean the Black Valley. Everywhere I was now given a -Kurdish as well as an Arabic name for the villages, and the -mother-tongue of the inhabitants was Kurdish, though, as a rule, they -spoke Arabic also. Three hours from the camp we crossed a stream in the -Wâdî ’Ain Sifneh, and half-an-hour beyond it we rode through the first -Yezîdî village, Mukbil. The Yezîdîs, being of Kurdish race, do not -differ in appearance from the rest of the population, except in one -particular of their attire: they abhor the colour blue and eschew it in -their dress, but red they regard as a beneficent hue, and their women -are mostly clothed in dark-red cotton garments. The valley in which -Mukbil lies is of uncommon fertility. Rice is cultivated here, and -cotton; the emerald green of the grass indicated the presence of swampy -ground, and the heavy air was full of the perfume of growing things. I -lunched under a fig-tree near a Yezîdî hamlet; the village elders -brought me curds and bread unasked, and refused to take payment. Having -climbed a green ridge, we dropped into the valley of Baviân, crossed a -deep river and rode up its bank till we came, four hours from Mukbil, to -the famous rocks which are carved with Assyrian reliefs and -inscriptions. Under them we pitched out tents, and a more exquisite -camping-ground you might go far to seek. Fattûḥ knew the place. He had -been here with one of whom he spoke as Meesterr Keen. This legendary -personage appears frequently in Fattûḥ’s reminiscences, and I suspect -him to be no other than Mr. King, of the British Museum. “He gazed long -upon the men and animals,” observed Fattûḥ, with indulgent recollection, -“and many times he photographed them. And then, wallah! he climbed up -the rocks, and all the writing he took down in his book. Not many of the -gentry are like Meesterr Keen, and your Excellency need not trouble to -copy the writing once more.” - -I troubled not at all, but looked in amazement at the great figures of -gods mounted on lions, and kings standing in adoration which Shalmaneser -II had carved upon the cliff (Fig. 176). Behind some of the groups -rock-cut chambers have been hollowed out in a later age, their doorways -breaking through the figures of the reliefs, and the stream eddies round -the feet of winged beasts and bearded men, walking in procession, cut -upon huge boulders which have been dislodged from the face of the -hill.[161] When I had seen these wonders I wandered up the valley to a -point where the cliff bends round and holds the river in the curve of -its arm. Here lay a deep still pool, the banks of which were starred -with daisies and poppies and the rocks with campanulas and orchids. The -water, dyed to a ruddy brown by recent rains, was like a disk of -polished bronze in a setting of green and white and scarlet enamel. I -sat for a little and listened to the birds singing about their nests in -the cliffs, and the river breaking over the stones below the pool, and -then I swam in the warm brown water and went upon my way rejoicing. - -A fortunate chance sent other travellers to visit the reliefs that day, -Dominican fathers from the monastery of Mâr Ya’ḳûb, two days’ journey to -the west of Baviân. They gave me much valuable information before they -rode away on their mules, and I only hope that they enjoyed my tea half -as much as I enjoyed their conversation. They were bound for Sheikh -’Adî, and hearing that I also was on my way thither, they told me of the -underground chambers of the shrine, now seldom shown to strangers, and -of the spring that runs through them from basin to basin; of the Yezîdî -adoration of fountains, and of the baptismal rites which they practise, -ceremonies which they borrowed from another Mesopotamian sect, the -Mandæans, who are called the Christians of St. John. So sacred is the -element of water that a Yezîdî will not enter a Moslem bath, nor will he -eat of fish, which is born of water. They spoke too of the religions of -dualism, of which the Yezîdî faith is one, though it is probably -derived, through Manichæanism, from an ancient Babylonian source, rather -than directly from Zoroaster, since it preserves the reverence for the -sun which sprang from Mani’s identification of light with the Principle -of Good; and out of their wide experience of local customs they drew -parallels - -[Illustration: FIG. 176.--ASSYRIAN RELIEFS AT BAVIÂN.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 177.--’ALÎ BEG.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 178.--THE KHÂTÛN AT THE DOOR OF SHEIKH ’ADÎ.] - -from the Christian sects, whose observances reflect those of primitive -cults, and told me of Christians who, like the Yezîdîs, turn to the sun -to pray. Then they left me with the birds and the river and the Assyrian -gods, to reflect upon the unchanging persistence of human beliefs. - -It is a five-hours’ ride from Baviân to Bâ’adrî, and during the course -of it I began to learn something of the terrible lawlessness which turns -the beautiful Kurdish mountains into a hell upon earth. We passed upon -our way a small Kurdish settlement, of which the houses burrowed into -the hill-side like the lairs of wild animals. It is the winter quarters -of one Ḥassan Jângîr, a robber chief of the Kochars, the nomad Kurds. -Two days before it had been raided by the government, in retribution for -innumerable outrages, and such of the population as yet lived had fled -into the hills. The feudal lord of Ḥassan Jângîr is Sheikh Ḥajjî, who -was at that time, to the satisfaction of the whole country-side, -imprisoned in Môṣul, but his liegeman had joined forces with another -redoubted malefactor, Sheikh Nûrî, and it was rumoured that the pair -with their followers had been encamped the previous night on the heights -above Baviân. It was not without reason, as I now perceived, that the -Vâlî of Môṣul had insisted on providing me with four zaptiehs instead of -the customary two. - -The village of Bâ’adrî clings to the green slopes of the foot-hills, and -’Alî Beg’s whitewashed house stands over it like a miniature fortress. -The beg, who is the descendant of the other ’Alî to whom Layard stood -godfather (with some misgivings as to what might be the duties of the -sponsor of a devil-worshipping baby), received me in his divan with the -utmost cordiality. He is a man of middle age with a commanding figure -and a long beard, light brown in colour, that curls almost to his waist. -He was dressed from head to foot in white, and as we sat together in the -divan, I thought that I had seldom drunk coffee in more remarkable -company. I told him that I knew his people in the Jebel Sim’ûn and that -they had spoken of him as the ruler of all. - -“The ruler of us all,” he replied gravely, “is God.” - -In the courtyard were a pair of peacocks, in honour, no doubt, of the -Angel Peacock, who rules the age of 10,000 years in which we live, and -is the symbol of him who must not be named. His bronze effigy is carried -by the Ḳawwâls, the higher priesthood of the Yezîdîs, when they journey -among the scattered communities of the sect, and to whatever dangers -they may be exposed, it is said that the image has never been allowed to -fall into the hands of infidels.[162] The Yezîdî women are neither -secluded nor veiled, and when ’Alî Beg took me to see his wife we found -her in the midst of her household, male and female, giving orders for my -entertainment. She was a handsome woman dressed in a robe of purple -cotton, with a black velvet cap placed over the muslin veil which was -wrapped about her head and under her chin, but did not conceal her face. -On her wrists she wore heavy gold bracelets set with turquoises. She -talked nothing but Kurdish, so that my greetings and my gratitude were -conveyed to her through the beg’s secretary, a Chaldæan from Alḳôsh. Few -Yezîdîs can either read or write, such knowledge being forbidden to -them, and I doubt whether the beg himself had any acquaintance with -letters. In the women’s quarters I knitted an instant friendship with -’Alî Beg’s small son, Sa’îd Beg, and though we had no common language in -which to express our feelings, our intimacy advanced silently by leaps -and bounds while he sat upon the largest of my camp-chairs and watched -me eat the sumptuous meal with which his father had provided me. When I -had finished there was enough and to spare of rice and mutton, bread and -semolina pudding and sour curds to satisfy all my servants and soldiers. -Meantime the beg had made preparations for my visit to Sheikh ’Adî, -whither two Yezîdî horsemen and all my four zaptiehs were ordered to -accompany me, lest we should meet with Kurdish robbers in the hills. -’Alî Beg with a dignified retinue of elders, one of whom was a ḳawwâl -who had that day returned from - -[Illustration: FIG. 179.--SHEIKH ’ADÎ.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 180.--ZÂKHÔ.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 181.--BRIDGE OVER THE KHÂBÛR.] - -the Jebel Sinjâr, watched our departure (Fig. 177). Their fine grave -heads and flowing beards gave them a singular resemblance to the kings -and gods upon the rocks of Baviân, and perhaps the likeness was not -merely fanciful, for the higher dignitaries of the Yezîdîs intermarry -with none save those of their own rank, and who knows what ancient blood -may flow from generation to generation through their veins?[163] We rode -into the folds of the hills by a path so stony that we were forced at -times to dismount and lead our horses. Bushes of flowering hawthorn grew -among the rocks, oak-trees, in newly opened leaf, were scattered over -the steep slopes, and the grass was full of poppies and the last of the -scarlet ranunculus. The Yezîdîs hold the ranunculus in high esteem, its -bright-red colour being of good omen in their eyes, and I regard it with -no less favour, though perhaps for more superficial reasons. After a -climb of close upon two hours, we reached the summit of the hill and the -path dipped down, through sturdier oak woods, into a secluded valley, -out of the heart of which rose the fluted spires of Sheikh ’Adî, a -sanctuary and a tiny village embosomed in planes and mulberries and -ancient fig-trees (Fig. 179). We sat down by the edge of a clear -fountain while one of my Yezîdî guides went forward to announce our -arrival to the khâtûn, the sister of ’Alî Beg. She came to meet me in -the outer court of the shrine, a tall and slender woman wrapped in white -robes, with a black cap upon her head and a heavy linen veil thrown over -it and drawn tightly under her chin. She took me by the hand, and -bidding me welcome in the few words of Arabic which she had at her -command, led me past the booths where the hucksters spread out their -wares during the days of the great yearly festival--they stood empty now -under the mulberry branches. We passed through a doorway into a small -paved court, still and peaceful and half-shaded by mulberries. The -further side was bounded by the wall of the shrine, which opens into the -court by a single door. Upon the wall near the door a snake is carved -in relief upon the stones and painted black (Fig. 178). With a singular -magnetic attraction it catches and holds the eye, and the little court -owes to its presence much of the indefinable sense of mystery which -hangs over it as surely as hang the spreading branches of the -mulberry-trees. I took off my shoes and followed the khâtûn as she -stepped softly over the grass-grown pavement. At the door she paused, -touched with her lips the stone, and murmured a Kurdish prayer in which -I heard the frequent repetition of Sheikh ’Adî’s name. In her white -robes and heavy veil she looked like some strange priestess: the sibyl -of the Delphic shrine might have stood so, robed in white, and kissed -the marble gateway of the sun-god’s house. A cool darkness and the -murmur of water greeted us as we entered. We found ourselves in a large -oblong chamber lying, as near as I can guess, from east to west, and -divided into two vaulted aisles, of about the same width, by a row of -seven piers. From under the wall on our left hand flowed a streamlet of -clear water that ran into a square tank, and out of it down the length -of the southern aisle. In the north aisle there was a tomb covered over -with coloured cloths: “Holy man’s grave,” whispered the khâtûn as we -passed it. But we had not yet reached the sanctuary which holds Sheikh -’Adî’s bones. The eastern end of the north wall is broken by a door -which leads into a dark chamber containing a second tomb. This chamber -is covered by the smaller of the two spires. To the west of it is a -second square room, bigger than the first, and here Sheikh ’Adî’s tomb -stands under the larger spire. It was totally dark: the wick floating in -a saucer of oil carried by the khâtûn did little to illuminate it, and I -lighted a coil of magnesium wire, to the delight of my guide, who -interrupted her prayers to Sheikh ’Adî to utter ejaculations of pleasure -each time that the white flash leapt up into the dome. For my part I -would as soon study by the flame of a will-o’-the-wisp as by the -uncertain brilliance of magnesium wire, coupled as it is with the -assurance that the burning tendril will ultimately expend itself upon my -skirt, and I got no more profit from the display than the gratification -of the khâtûn and the knowledge that the high cone was set over the -angles of the chamber on squinch arches--a construction which I could -have predicted while it was still wrapped in darkness. Beyond the tomb -chamber, and parallel with the north aisle, lies a long vaulted room, -pitch dark like the other, and filled with oil jars. “For Sheikh ’Adî,” -said the khâtûn, and kissed the well-oiled door as we entered.[164] -Still further west we came to a vaulted gallery, running along the north -side of the court; it, too, was dark except where the light shone -through a few cracks in the wall. We went back through the two domed -rooms, and when we reached the smaller tomb-chamber the khâtûn turned to -me, saying, “Come.” Up to this point we had been accompanied by the -zaptiehs and by the Yezîdîs from Bâ’adrî; to these she pointed the way -into the aisled hall, and taking my hand she led me to a low door in the -eastern wall of the tomb-chamber. She bent her slender figure and passed -through it, holding up her lamp to light my path. I followed her down -half-a-dozen steps into a small chamber, dimly illumined by faint rays -that struggled through chinks in the masonry of the south wall. The -north wall was, so far as I could see, cut out of the solid rock; from -under it gushed a spring which is said to take its source in the well -Zemzem at Mecca. As in the upper building, the water flowed into a small -square basin and through a hole in the wall at the eastern end of the -room, but it flowed at its own pleasure, or perhaps the well Zemzem had -been overfilled by the rains and the stream was greater than is usual, -for it covered the floor to the depth of several centimetres. I stood -doubtfully upon the lowest step and then decided that the wisest course -would be to pull off my stockings--bare feet take no harm from a watery -floor, though feet accustomed to be shod will tread unsteadily upon the -sharp pebbles with which the spring has plentifully bestrewn the -pavement. The khâtûn was much distressed to see me reduced to this -plight: “Bîchâreh!” she said, “poor one.” We splashed across the chamber -and into a low passage which turned at right angles and conducted us -into a second room. The stream came with us and was caught in yet -another basin. In the dim twilight my companion turned quickly towards -me and laid her hand upon my arm. - -“Are you not afraid?” she whispered. - -I looked up into the white and gentle face, wrapped round with the -whiter veil, on which the burning wick cast a ghostly light, and because -of my deep ignorance I was much perplexed. - -“No,” I answered. - -“I am afraid,” said she. And then I understood that if I had known how -holy was the ground whereon we trod, not even the sharp pebbles would -have prevailed over my mind against its awe-inspiring shades. - -The stream gushed out under the east wall, the khâtûn opened a small -door beside its mouth, and we passed out, blinking, into a sunny -courtyard, half filled with piles of firewood, which I believe to be the -wood used in the annual sacrifice of the white bull to Sheikh Shems, who -is the sun.[165] We returned round the south of the building, past the -house which is occupied by the khâtûn and by ’Alî Beg when he comes to -the festival, and rejoined the zaptiehs in the inner court. There we sat -long under the trees, eating freshly-baked bread and drinking bowls of -milk with which the khâtûn provided us. It was with difficulty that I -persuaded her not to kill a lamb and add it to the meal, which she -considered far too modest for our merits or for her reputation as a -hostess. - -Little is known of the saint whose tomb is the central shrine of the -Yezîdî faith. He is variously reported to have sprung either from the -regions near Aleppo, or from the Ḥaurân, and he died in the year A.D. -1162. He was one of a number of illuminators of whom the Sûfî mystic, -Manṣûr el Ḥallâj, was another--he who suffered martyrdom for asserting -the permeation of all created things by the Deity with the phrase: “I am -God.”[166] The Angel Jesus is a third--not the phantom Jesus whose death -is recorded in the New Testament, but the spirit whose place that other -had usurped;[167] and many of the Jewish prophets are revered in the -same manner. There is a tradition that the building which is now Sheikh -’Adî’s tomb was once a Christian church, but though I looked sharply for -evidences that might confirm this report, I could not be sure that they -existed. It is certain that there were earlier edifices upon the present -site, and the building has been so often destroyed and restored that its -original form must have been almost obliterated.[168] Round the doorway -there are re-used stones covered with the net-like patterns which are to -be found in the churches at Ḳaraḳôsh. An Arabic inscription, built into -the same wall, bears the date 1115, but this date undoubtedly refers to -the Mohammadan era, and the inscription is therefore barely two -centuries old. Below it a second representation of a serpent is carved -upon the wall, not painted like the one near the doorway, and lying -parallel with the ground instead of standing upright. What the black -snake signifies I do not know, neither did I ask for an explanation -which would not have been accorded. Layard says that the Yezîdîs -repeatedly assured him that it was without significance, and I should -have been given no other answer.[169] ’Abdullah, who knew as little as -I, volunteered the information that a Yezîdî will never kill a black -snake, but when I asked whether there were many such reptiles in the -hills, he replied that so far as he knew there were none, and his -testimony as to the practices of the Yezîdîs when confronted with them -did not seem to me to be of much value. Before I left Bâ’adrî I received -an invitation to be present at the summer festival. Of the ceremonies -performed at this time Layard has left two wonderful descriptions,[170] -and if ever I find myself at Môṣul in the height of the summer, I shall -not forget ’Alî Beg’s proffer of hospitality. - -It was near sunset when we reached Bâ’adrî. After night had fallen Sa’îd -Beg came to fetch me to his mother’s quarters. We held converse through -the Christian secretary, and our talk was mostly of the child who sat -beside me smoking one cigarette after another. - -“In my country children may not smoke,” said I. “Oh Sa’îd Beg, little -children like you should be asleep at this hour.” - -The khâtûn smiled at him tenderly. “We can deny him nothing,” said she. - -And the secretary added: “The ’araḳ they give him is worse for him than -the cigarettes.” Sobriety is not, I fear, to be numbered among the -Yezîdî virtues. - -I left next morning at an early hour, and the secretary saw to the -comfort of my departure and received my thanks for the kindness which -had been shown to us, but neither he nor any other of ’Alî Beg’s people -would accept a reward. As I was about to mount, he said that the beg -would ask a favour of me. - -“Upon my head and eyes,” said I. - -“Will you leave with us some of your fire ribbon. He would light the -tomb with it at the next festival.” I broke off half the roll, and by -this time the fame of magnesium wire must have spread to the Jebel -Sinjâr, or even to the Jebel Sim’ûn, and in the skirts of many a pious -person a hole has doubtless been burnt. - -Having breakfasted with Devil Worshippers, I lunched with the prior of -Rabbân Hormuzd. The monastery, which is a very ancient and famous -Nestorian house, once the seat of a patriarch, now belongs to the -Chaldæans, that is, to the Catholic Nestorians. It lies high up in the -hills above Alḳôsh, a village four hours to the west of Bâ’adrî. When we -reached Alḳôsh I sent my caravan forward, and with Jûsef and ’Abdullah -climbed for half-an-hour up a narrow rocky valley by a winding path -which led us to a postern in the wall. In the flourishing Nestorian days -innumerable hordes of monks lodged in caves among the rocks; many of -these caves are still extant (though many have crumbled away with the -crumbling of the stone) but few are tenanted. Rich, who has left an -interesting account of Rabbân Hormuzd,[171] was of opinion that the -amphitheatre of cliffs, honeycombed with caves, was an ancient Persian -burial-place converted into a Christian monastery. Traditions differ as -to the history of the tutelary saint; some say that he was martyred in -the persecution of Yazdegird, king of Persia, and some in that of the -emperor Diocletian. The date of the foundation of the monastery is -generally given as falling within the fourth century, though the prior, -Kas Elyâs, told me that it was founded in the seventh century. -Exceedingly little of the original monastery remains, and Rich relates -that at the time of his visit it had recently undergone a comprehensive -restoration. The present buildings (and no doubt the ancient buildings -were much the same) climb in tier above tier up the precipitous -hill-side. The house of Kas Elyâs stands highest of all, and there I sat -in the window-seat and gossiped with the jolly prior. We brought him -news of the accession of Muḥammad V, on the hearing of which he bubbled -over with satisfaction, and declared that Salonica was the saviour of -the empire and that all his allegiance was given to the Young Turks, and -all his hopes depended upon them. Even in the last six months order had -been foreshadowed in the Kurdish hills, and with Muḥammad V upon the -throne and Sheikh Hajjî in prison, who could predict how far it might -not be carried? It was encouraging to listen to views so optimistic, -even though I knew that the prophecies of Kas Elyâs must be slow of -fulfilment. I began to forget the weariness caused by the heavy steaming -heat of the plain, and half-an-hour in the prior’s lofty house, together -with a lunch of omelettes and honey and sour curds, completed the cure. -Thus restored, I followed him into the church. The main part of it, -according to him, is about four hundred years old, but a chapel (which -is obviously later in date) was, said he, erected about a hundred years -ago. For English eyes it has an interest out of all proportion to its -age, for upon the doorway are carved the names of James and Mary Rich, -with the date 1820, and of Henry Layard, with the date 1846. An age of -splendid achievement in travel was that which saw Rich and Layard, -Chesney and Ainsworth and Rawlinson; for much of our knowledge of the -remoter parts of Asia we depend still upon the bountiful information -with which their learning and their courage supplied us. To the south of -the church a passage is hollowed out of the cliff. It leads into a tiny -rock-cut chamber, to the ceiling of which two iron rings are fastened. -“From these,” observed the prior, “Rabbân Hormuzd suspended himself when -he fell into meditation, and here it is the custom for pilgrims to make -their offerings.” The hint, I need hardly say, was effectual. The -baptistery lies south-west of the church; it is built of masonry and -covered by a dome on squinches. To it, and to the vaulted chamber -adjoining it, I should give an earlier date than to the rest of the -edifice. - -Much cheered in mind and body, and laden with roses from the monastery -garden, we rode down into the insufferable heat of the low ground. -Shortly after leaving Alḳôsh our path turned into the hills to the -right, climbed by a charming valley with a rushing stream in its depth, -crossed a low pass and led us out into the broad green plain which lies -between the Jebel Alḳôsh and the Jebel Dehûk. Flowering grasses brushed -our stirrups as we rode, but, in spite of its fertility, the plain is -almost uncultivated. The few villages, Moslem and Christian, are -harried by the robber bands of Sheikh Nûrî, and whenever the miserable -peasants have gathered together such modest wealth as their resources -permit, the nomad Kurds fall upon them with rifle and with firebrand. -Thus it is that long tracts of land are unpeopled and the hamlets that -exist are more than half in ruin. One we passed that had been looted and -left a smouldering heap of ashes two years earlier, but the newly -aroused hopes of firmer government had induced the peasants to return to -it, and the houses were springing up again. The deep grass through which -we journeyed, both on this day and on the next, is looked upon as a sore -peril, since it tempts the Kurds down into the lowland pastures. To -avoid this annual reign of terror, the peasants are wont to set it on -fire as soon as it ripens, leaving but a small patch round each village. -For a week the plain is wrapped in flame and smoke, and the stifling -heat of the burning rises up to the hill-top monastery of Mâr Ya’ḳûb, -where the Catholic priests are witnesses to the appalling destruction of -what might have been a rich harvest, and to the bitter oppression which -turns the bounty of nature into a recurring threat. Jûsef, whose -imagination is not to be roused except by considerations of a soundly -practical character, cast his eye over the fields and observed -thoughtfully: “The muleteers of Baghdâd must starve this year to buy -fodder for their cattle, yet here is enough to feed all the Jezîreh.” -Heaven send peace to this fair country. - -We camped near the small village of Grê Pahn (Arabic: Tell’ Arîḍ = the -Broad Mound), where we found our tents pitched. It had taken us three -and a half hours to reach it from Alḳôsh, but the caravan time had been -somewhat longer. Upon the following day we had a hard march; the caravan -was ten hours upon the way and I, with ’Abdullah and Jûsef, considerably -more, for we began the day with an excursion from the road to the -Assyrian reliefs above Malthai. We turned to the right, up the valley -that leads to Dehûk, and leaving our horses at the foot of the hill -under the care of Jûsef, ’Abdullah and I climbed up and sought for the -sculptures. It was rough going and we had been insufficiently directed, -so that for long we sought in vain. At last in despair I sent ’Abdullah -back to fetch a guide and sat down to wait for him under a rock. Clumps -of flowering saxifrage covered the stones; campanula pyramidalis lifted -its tall spires out of the crevices, the wide green valley lay below, -its sparsely scattered villages each clustering about an ancient mound, -and beyond it rose the mountain chains of Kurdistân. The air was full of -the fragrance and the freshness of the hills and alive with the sound of -their waters. To all the high places of the world I have given -allegiance--all exercise a like authority and confer like privileges, -and in these distant solitudes I claimed and was accorded an -old-established right of mountain citizenship. - -’Abdullah’s mission came abruptly to a successful termination. We had -climbed high above the reliefs, and his keen eye espied them as he made -his way down. They are four in number, and on each precisely the same -scene is depicted. A king stands in adoration before a procession of -seven gods, six of whom are mounted upon the backs of beasts, while one -is seated upon a throne borne by a lion. Another, or perhaps the same, -king follows the company of gods on foot. A tomb or cell has been broken -through one of the reliefs, as at Baviân. In subject and in style the -reliefs in both places are closely alike, and though there are no -inscriptions at Malthai, the learned have concluded that the work there -must be of the same epoch as that at Baviân, and have dated it in the -reign of Shalmaneser II (860-825 B.C.).[172] They have yet to solve the -difficult problems connected with the interchange of religions and -artistic conceptions between the Assyrians and the Hittites, whose -sculptures show, at a far earlier date, the same strange motive of a -divinity standing upon the back of a wild animal. - -For the rest of the day we journeyed along the foot of the hills by the -Môṣul high road. In the middle of the afternoon ’Abdullah observed -conversationally: - -“That is the house of a bandit,” and he nodded his head towards a small -white fort under the hills. The bandit was at that period imprisoned at -Môṣul, but his empty dwelling served ’Abdullah as a peg whereon to hang -a denunciation of the Kurds, root and branch. - -“As God is almighty,” said he, “they fear not God nor the Sultan. They -take the load and the camel with it. Allah al wakîl! they fire at the -soldiers of the government; they seize the load and the mule.” - -“Where do they buy arms?” I asked. - -“From Ibn Sabbâḥ of Kuweit,” he replied. “They travel down the Tigris to -the Gulf in keleks, and there they buy a rifle for three Ottoman pounds, -and sell it here for ten pounds--with a rich merchandise, wallah! they -return from the Gulf of Persia. And how can we prevail against them when -’Abdu’l Ḥamîd showed them favour? Sheikh Ḥajjî was a shepherd in the -hills--a shepherd with a shepherd’s staff guarding the sheep--till -’Abdu’l Ḥamîd made him a beg. Praise God he is now in the Môṣul -prison--may God curse him!” - -“God strengthen the new government,” said I. - -“Please God,” he answered. - -After five hours’ quick riding from Malthai the post-road turned to the -right, over the hills. We did not follow it, but rode straight on for -another forty minutes to our camp at the Kurdish village of Koleh. I had -heard of a fortress which lay upon the western slopes of the Jebel el -Abyaḍ, half-an-hour beyond Koleh, and thither I went next morning. It -proved to be the ruins of a fortified town of which nothing but the -outer wall was standing. The spurs of the Kurdish mountains are covered -with fortress ruins, outlying strongholds of the highland races against -the inhabitants of the plains, or else defences serving to protect the -fruitful lowlands from the inroads of the tribes. They date, so far as I -can judge, from every period, from the Assyrian to the Ottoman, but the -majority are undoubtedly Kurdish, robber fastnesses of the marauding -chiefs who have spread terror over the countryside for many a century. -In this last category I should not, however, place Za’ferân. The wall -is built of fine masonry; it is about 1·70 metres thick, the outer and -the inner faces being of dressed stones, the core of rubble and mortar. -It runs up to the top of a rocky bluff which has been divided from the -area of the town by a cross wall. The rock forms a natural citadel, but -I could see no signs of masonry, other than the wall, upon its -summit--indeed the ground falls so sharply that there is little room for -building. From this elevated position the town wall can be seen -stretching out in an irregular, elongated semicircle, and the plain -slopes down from it towards the Tigris, which lies two or three miles to -the south. In the centre of the town there is a large mass of ruin near -which are some rock-hewn sarcophagi. Two clearly marked streets cross -the enclosed area at right angles to one another, the one passing by the -central ruin and running down to a gate in the south wall, the other -running from east to west and probably from gate to gate--the eastern -gate is visible, but the western part of the wall is so much ruined that -the position of its gateway is not to be determined. The lintel and door -jambs of the south gate are standing, the width of the opening is only -two metres, and the lintel here and in the east gate (where it has -fallen to the ground) is unadorned and uninscribed. The character of the -masonry and the existence (as is proved by the lines of street and ruin -heap) of a town carefully planned upon an ordered system, point to a -date prior to the Mohammadan conquest, and I am inclined to seek for a -Byzantine origin for Za’ferân. Perhaps it may be a relic of the -triumphant, though brief, re-occupation by Heraclius of the provinces -ceded to the Persians by Jovian. - -I followed my caravan back to the Môṣul highway and so across the hills -to Zâkhô. We climbed up the pass by as good a road as any in Turkey, but -while we were rejoicing over its excellence, it broke off short and left -us to find our way down the opposite side of the pass as best we might -along a bridle-path strewn with boulders. So we came down into the -valley of the Khâbûr and saw before us the snowy wall of the Kurdish -Alps (Fig. 180). At the gate of the pass stands Zâkhô, “old and -isolated,” as Ainsworth says, and it would be difficult to better the -phrase.[173] The more ancient part of the village is built upon an -island in the Khâbûr. The right arm of the river is spanned by a masonry -bridge, the left arm washes round the castle, a fortress which must have -had a long and checkered history, though I can find no record of -it.[174] The masonry is of many different periods. The finest and -probably the oldest part is an octagonal tower which juts out into the -stream on the south-east side. The outer walls are all fairly well -preserved and make an imposing appearance, but the interior is terribly -ruinous. In the upper part of the building there is a large hall with -windows opening on to the river. The engaged columns which support the -interior pointed arches of these windows are covered with a delicate -tracery of carving very like Seljuk work of the thirteenth and -fourteenth centuries. This part of the castle cannot be dated later than -the fourteenth century, but the foundations and the octagonal tower must -be considerably older. Last of all the Turkish garrison has supplemented -the ancient work with wretched structures of rubble and mortar, and -these, too, have fallen into ruin and have been given over to the -storks, who nest contentedly among them. In Zâkhô lies buried the first -missionary to Kurdistân, the Dominican Soldini, who died here in 1779. -The quarter that stands upon the right bank of the Khâbûr is mainly -Christian and contains, I believe, two small churches of no very great -age, but my curiosity was quenched before I reached them, by a violent -thunderstorm which drove me back to my tents. It swept down the valley -from Amadîyeh, and rolling away, left the mountains so magically -beautiful that I could give no further thought to any architecture but -that of their white pinnacles and spires. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -ZÂKHÔ TO DIYÂRBEKR - -_May 10--June 4_ - - -The Babylonians, and after them the Nestorians and the Moslems, held -that the Ark of Noah, when the waters subsided, grounded not upon the -mountain of Ararat, but upon Jûdî Dâgh. To that school of thought I also -belong, for I have made the pilgrimage and seen what I have seen. The -snows that gleamed upon us from under the skirts of the thunderstorm -when we camped at Zâkhô were the springtime wreaths of Jebel Jûdî, and -resisting all other claims, we turned our faces towards them on the -following day. Selîm, the muleteer, gloried in this decision. He was a -native of the hills above Killiz, and like all mountain people his -spirits rose with the rising ground. Above Zâkhô the Khâbûr is spanned -by a masonry bridge of four arches (Fig. 181), but when we came to -Durnakh, we found the Ḥeizil Sû innocent of bridge or ferry-boat. The -river, which is the principal affluent of the Khâbûr, ran deep and swift -by reason of the melting snows. In midstream its waters touched the top -of my riding-boots and buffeted my mare, so that I thought she would -certainly fall; indeed she would have fallen but for two of the -inhabitants of Durnakh who, with garments rolled round their waists, -held bravely up her chin. Another pair was attached to each of the -baggage animals, the muleteers joined in the sport, and we reached the -further side without loss. Four hours and a half from Zâkhô we passed by -Tell Kobbîn, an ancient mound with a village of the same name a little -further to the north,[175] and in two hours more we entered the -foothills and lunched in an oak grove near the village of Gerik. Our -path led us over rising meadows to Geurmuk and Dadar, and so into the -mouth of a gorge where Ḥasanah nestles under rocky peaks. The clouds -gathered over the mountains and thunder came booming through the gorge -as we pitched our tents by the edge of the stream, nine hours from -Zâkhô. Ḥasanah is a Christian village inhabited partly by Nestorians and -partly by the converts of American missionaries. The pastor of the -Protestant Nestorians, if I may so call him (when I asked him what was -his persuasion, he replied that he was Prôt), came at once to offer his -respects, coupled with a bunch of pink roses from his garden, and I, -being much attracted by his sturdy figure and simple open countenance, -asked him to guide me next day through the hills. Over and above his -personal charms, Kas Mattai had the advantage of a knowledge of Arabic. -He spoke besides Kurdish and Syriac, but his native tongue was Fellâḥî -(the Peasant Language), which is no other than Assyrian. His brother -Shim’ûn, who accompanied us on all our expeditions (he climbed the rocks -like a cat or a Grindelwalder), had nothing but Fellâḥî and Kurdish and -a cheerful face, but with one or the other, or all three, he made his -way deep into my affections before we parted. We walked up the narrow -valley, where flowers and flowering shrubs nodded over the path in an -almost incredible luxuriance, and climbed the steep wooded hill-side to -a point where the rock had been smoothed to receive the image of an -Assyrian king, though none had been carved upon it. Above it rose a -precipitous crag clothed on one side with hanging woods through which -zigzagged a very ancient path, lost at times among fallen rocks and -trees, while at times its embankment of stones was still clearly to be -traced. On the summit of the crag were vestiges of a small fortress. The -walls were indicated by heaps of unsquared stones, many of which had -fallen down the hill, where they lay thickly strewn; the evidence -afforded by them, and by the carefully constructed path, made it certain -that we were standing upon the site of some watch-tower that had guarded -the Ḥasanah gorge. On the opposite side rises a second crag whereon, -said - -[Illustration: FIG. 182.--ḤASANAH, ASSYRIAN RELIEF.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 183.--SHAKH, ASSYRIAN RELIEF.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 184.--NOAH’S ARK.] - -Kas Mattai, are ruins of the same description. That the valley was held -by the Assyrians there can be no doubt, for it is signed with their -name. Below and to the west of the crag to which we had climbed there is -another smoothed niche in the rock (Fig. 182), and here the work has -been completed and the niche is carved with the figure of an Assyrian -king, wearing a long fringed robe and carrying a sceptre.[176] At a -later age, the mountains had been occupied by Christians. Kas Mattai -showed me at the foot of the crag a few vaulted chambers which he -declared to be the ruins of a Nestorian monastery, and walking westward -for an hour or more along the wooded ridges, we came to a second and -larger monastic ruin, with a garden of fruit-trees about it, and groves -of tall blue irises which had escaped from the cemetery of the monks and -wandered over the hill-side. - -In the high oak woods I forgot for a few hours the stifling heat which -had weighed upon us ever since we had left Môṣul. Each morning we had -promised one another a cooler air as we neared the mountains; each -evening the thermometer placed in the shade of my tent registered from -88° to 93° Fahrenheit. The heavy air was like an enveloping garment -which it was impossible to cast off, and as I walked through the woods I -was overmastered by a desire for the snow patches that lay upon the -peaks--for one day of sharp mountain air and of freedom from the lowland -plague of flies. Sefînet Nebî Nûh, the ship of the Prophet Noah, was -there to serve as an excuse. - -Accordingly we set out from camp at four o’clock on the following -morning. Kas Mattai and Shim’ûn in their felt sandals, raishîkî, a -proper footgear for the mountaineer, Selîm, whom Providence had marked -out for the expedition, ’Abdu’l Mejîd, a zaptieh from Zâkhô, who had -been ordained as pointedly to walk upon flat ground, and the donkey. “As -for that donkey,” said Fattûḥ, “if he stays two days in the camp eating -grass, Selîm will not be able to remain upon his back.” He was Selîm’s -mount, and Selîm, who knew his mind better than any other among us, was -persuaded that he would enjoy the trip. The donkey therefore carried -the lunch. We climbed for two hours and a half through oak woods and -along the upper slopes of the hills under a precipitous crest. But this -was not what I had come out to see, and as soon as I perceived a couloir -in the rocks, I made straight for it and in a few moments stepped out -upon an alp. There lay the snow wreaths; globularia nudicaulis carpeted -the ground with blue, yellow ranunculus gilded the damp hollows, and -pale-blue squills pushed up their heads between the stones and shivered -in the keen wind. Selîm had followed me up the couloir. - -“The hills are good,” said he, gathering up a handful of snow, “but I do -not think that the donkey will come up here, nor yet ’Abdu’l Mejîd.” - -We returned reluctantly to the path and walked on for another half-hour -till Kas Mattai announced that the Ark of Noah was immediately above us. -Among asphodel and forget-me-nots we left the zaptieh and the donkey; -Selîm shouldered the lunch-bags, and we climbed the steep slopes for -another half-hour. And so we came to Noah’s Ark, which had run aground -in a bed of scarlet tulips (Fig. 184). - -There was once a famous Nestorian monastery, the Cloister of the Ark, -upon the summit of Mount Jûdî, but it was destroyed by lightning in the -year of Christ 766.[177] Upon its ruins, said Kas Mattai, the Moslems -had erected a shrine, and this too has fallen; but Christian, Moslem and -Jew still visit the mount upon a certain day in the summer and offer -their oblations to the Prophet Noah. That which they actually see is a -number of roofless chambers upon the extreme summit of the hill. They -are roughly built of unsquared stones, piled together without mortar, -and from wall to wall are laid tree-trunks and boughs, so disposed that -they may support a roofing of cloths, which is thrown over them at the -time of the annual festival. To the east of these buildings there is an -open court enclosed by a low stone wall. The walls both of the chambers -and of the court are all, as I should judge, constructions of a recent -date, and they are certainly Mohammadan, since one of the chambers -contains a miḥrâb niche to the south, and in the enclosing wall of the -court there is a similar rough niche. Further to the west lie the ruins -of a detached chamber built of very large stones, and perhaps of an -earlier date. Beneath the upper rocks upon which these edifices stand, -there is a tank fed by the winter snows which had not entirely -disappeared from the mountain-top. Still further down, upon a small -plateau, are scattered fragments of a different architecture, carefully -built walls, stone doorposts, and lintels showing above the level of the -soil. Here, I make little doubt, was the site of the Nestorian -monastery. - -The prospect from the ziyârah was as wild, as rugged and as splendid as -the heart could desire, and desolate beyond measure. The ridge of Jûdî -Dâgh sinks down to the north on to a rolling upland which for many miles -offers ideal dwelling-places for a hardy mountain folk. There were but -four villages to be seen upon it. The largest of these was Shandokh, the -home of a family of Kurdish âghâs whose predatory habits account for the -scantiness of the population. To the east of it lay Heshtân, which is in -Arabic Thamânîn (the Eighty), so called because the eighty persons who -were saved from the Deluge founded there the first village of the -regenerated world when they descended from Jebel Jûdî.[178] Further to -the north an endless welter of mountains stretched between us and Lake -Vân. They rose, towards the east, into snowy ranges, and very far to the -south-east we could see the highest snow-peaks of Tiyârî, where the -Nestorians, grouped under a tribal system, defend their faith with their -lives against the Kurdish tribes--a hereditary warfare, marked with -prodigies of valour on the part of the Christians, and with such success -as the matchlock may attain over the Martini rifle. - -Because the light air breathed sharply off the snows, and because the -vista of mountains was a feast to the eye, we lay for several hours in -the sanctuary of the Prophet Noah. There can be no manner of doubt that -I ought to have completed the pilgrimage by visiting his grave, but it -lay far down upon the southern slopes of Jûdî Dâgh, and I was making -holiday upon the hill-tops; therefore when we turned homewards, we bade -Shim’ûn conduct the donkey and ’Abdu’l Mejîd to Ḥasanah and ourselves -kept to the crest of the ridge. Half-an-hour from the summit we met some -Kurdish shepherds near a small heap of ruins, concerning which they -related the following history: Once upon a time there was a holy man who -took a vow of pilgrimage to the ship of Noah, and for a month he -journeyed over hill and vale until he reached the spot on which we -stood. And there he met the Evil One, who asked him whence he came and -whither he was going. The holy man explained that he was bent on a -pilgrimage to the ship of Noah. “You have still,” said the Devil, “a -month’s journey before you.” Thereat the pilgrim, being old and weary, -lost heart, and since he could not return with his vow unfulfilled, he -built himself a hut and ended his days within sight of the goal, if his -eyes had not been too worn to see. The presence of the shepherds upon -Mount Jûdî was not to be attributed to any pious purpose. They had come -up from the villages below to escape from the sheep tax which was about -to be levied for the second time within a twelvemonth, once for last -year’s arrears, and once for this year’s dues. Their lawless flocks -skipped among the boulders and the snow-wreaths as light-heartedly as -the wild goat, which no government can assess, but the owners lived in -anxiety, and when, half-an-hour further, we encountered a second -company, they took us for soldiers and greeted us with rifle shots. Kas -Mattai grasped the situation and shouted a justification of our -existence, which was not received without hesitation. I was standing, -when the shots began, in the middle of a _névé_, and thinking that I -must offer a fine mark, I stepped off the snow and sat down upon a grey -rock to await developments. But as soon as we had made it clear that we -were simple people with no official position, we were allowed to pass. -“It was well,” observed Kas Mattai, as we clambered down the crags, -“that ’Abdu’l Mejîd was not with us. They would have killed him.” - -At the foot of the rocks we sat down to rest beside a bubbling spring. - -“Have you suffered at the hand of the government?” I asked my guide. - -“We suffer from the Kurds,” he replied, “and there is no one to protect -us but God. Effendim, the âghâwât from Shandokh come over the pass and -claim hospitality from us. We are poor men--in all Ḥasanah there is not -one who is ignorant of hunger; how shall we feed the âghâwât, and their -mares, and the followers they bring with them? And how shall we refuse -when they are armed with rifles?” - -“Have you no arms?” said I. - -“We have no money to buy rifles,” he answered; “and if we bought them, -the Kurds would take them from us. And when we have killed our last -sheep that we may entertain them, they seize upon all we possess before -they leave us.” - -“Oh Merciful!” ejaculated Selîm. - -“Sir,” said Kas Mattai, “last year they took my bed, and that which was -too worthless to carry away they broke and threw upon the fire. But if -we resisted they would burn the village.” - -We ran down through the oak woods and got into camp at four in the -afternoon. - -“God prolong your existence!” cried Fattûḥ. “Have you seen the ship of -the Prophet Noah?” - -“Oh Fattûḥ,” I replied, “prepare the tea. I have seen the ship of the -Prophet Noah.” So it is that I subscribe in this matter to the wisdom of -the Kurân: “And immediately the water abated and the decree was -fulfilled and the Ark rested upon the mountain of Jûdî.” - -Next morning the camp was sent straight to Jezîreh, which it reached -after a six-hours’ march, but I, with Shim’ûn as guide, followed the -line of the hills. We rode for two hours through the oak woods, and then -crossed a gorge wherein lies the Moslem village of Evler. The -incomparable beauty of these valleys passes belief. Evler was buried in -a profusion of pomegranate and walnut, fig, almond and mulberry trees; -the vines were wreathed from tree to tree, the ground beneath was deep -in corn, and the banks of the stream aglow with oleander. An hour -further we reached the Nestorian village of Shakh, where a ruined castle -protects the entrance of the gorge. The walls climb up the hillside -towards a citadel placed upon a high peak; above the village two deep -valleys run up into the mountains, and each has been walled across, so -that Shakh was guarded from attack on every side. I should judge these -fortifications to be Kurdish, but there are traces of an older -civilization on the rocks above them (Fig. 183). Of the four Assyrian -reliefs that are reported to exist, I saw only three, the fourth being -cut upon the face of the cliff and unapproachable except with ropes. -Each of the three niches which I was shown (after an hour’s climb in the -hottest part of the day) contained a single figure, like that of -Ḥasanah; each had been covered with cuneiform inscriptions, but in two -cases both the figure and the inscriptions had all but weathered away. -We left Shakh at midday, stopped for half-an-hour to lunch by the -stream, and reached Jezîret ibn ’Umar at four o’clock. The camp was -pitched upon a high bank overhanging the Tigris, but the bridge of boats -which should have connected us with the town was broken, and I crossed -by a ferry on the following day. - -Jezîret ibn ’Umar is built upon an island formed by the Tigris and a -small loop canal. It is called after a certain Ḥassan ibn ’Umar of the -tribe of Taghlib, who lived in the ninth century.[179] Upon the river’s -edge stands a much-ruined - -[Illustration: FIG. 185.--JEZÎRET IBN ’UMAR, GATE OF FORTRESS.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 186.--JEZÎRET IBN ’UMAR, BRIDGE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 187.--JEZÎRET IBN ’UMAR, FOUNTAIN OF MOSQUE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 188.--JEZÎRET IBN ’UMAR, RELIEFS ON BRIDGE.] - -castle of which the masonry is mostly of alternate bands of black basalt -and white limestone. Over one of the doors are carved a couple of rudely -executed lions (Fig. 185). The town walls still exist in part and belong -to the same date as the castle; so too does the fragment of a masonry -bridge which spanned the Tigris about half-an-hour’s ride below the town -(Fig. 186). On our way to it we forded the moat which was at that time -quite shallow. One of the bridge piers is decorated with a key pattern -of black and white stone, and with some curious reliefs representing the -signs of the zodiac, of which the work is similar in character to that -of the lions upon the castle gate (Fig. 188). Each relief bears an -inscription in Arabic naming the zodiacal sign which it depicts.[180] As -we came back through the town we stopped at the principal mosque, which -has a pair of fine bronze doors, with bronze knockers worked in a design -of intertwined dragons. A small dome, set upon columns that may have -been taken from an earlier building, covers the fountain in the -courtyard (Fig. 187).[181] Jezîret ibn ’Umar has a bad reputation for -the fever which is bred in its marshy moat; moreover it was stifling -hot. I hurried through a cursory sight-seeing and ferried back to the -opposite bank, where I found the baggage animals loaded and ready to -start. Having followed the Tigris bank for half-an-hour, I left the -caravan to pursue its way to Finik and turned up the valley of the Risür -Chai. In less than two hours from Jezîreh we came to a ruined Kurdish -fort, standing on either side of the stream and blocking effectually the -passage of the gorge; and carved upon the rocks of the left bank there -is a more ancient guardian of the pass, a warrior armed, and mounted -upon a bounding horse (Fig. 189). His companion, who went on foot, has -fallen into the stream, and I know no other record of him than Layard’s -woodcut.[182] The figure of the horseman is much defaced by time. The -winter rains have worn thin his armour, the spring floods have -undermined the rock on which he stands, but shadowy though his image may -be, it marks the triumph of a European civilization, and its prototypes -are to be sought not among the bearded divinities and winged monsters of -Assyria, but in the work of Western sculptors. The Parthian, who was the -bitter enemy of the Roman empire, carved it upon the rocks of Ḳaṣr -Ghellî, and bore witness with his own hand to the overmastery of Roman -culture. - -We cut across the hills back to the Tigris, and rode by a memorably -inadequate path--equally memorable for the profusion of oleanders -through which it ran--up the bank to Finik. The high ground on either -side of the valley falls sharply to the water, and the river bursts here -through the last barrier of mountain which divides it from the -Mesopotamian plain. Finik has been from all time the key of the ravine. -Before we reached the side-gorge in which the village lies, we passed a -great enclosure of ruined walls and towers, and below it, among the -ricefields that occupy a cape jutting into the stream, there are remains -of similar fortifications. Beyond the gorge of Finik we rode under a -crag which is crowned by the most commanding of the many castles, and -less imposing fortress ruins are clustered about its foot. We made our -way through groves of pomegranate down to the camp, pitched in clover -pastures by the river. A ferry-boat was drawn up upon the bank, and with -its help we designed to convey ourselves next morning to the further -side, but the boat was ancient and the stream swift, and I suspected -that the passage would be a long business. Therefore I left Fattûḥ to -cope with the ferrymen and went up, while he did - -[Illustration: FIG. 189.--PARTHIAN RELIEF, ḲAṢR GHELLÎ.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 190.--PARTHIAN RELIEF, FINIK.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 191.--THE HILLS OF FINIK.] - -so, to the village. A tumbling stream and masses of oleander fill the -gorge; the greater part of the inhabitants of Finik are lodged in caves, -preserving, no doubt, the customs of their remotest ancestors whose -rock-cut dwellings they have inherited.[183] We climbed up to the castle -by a winding path and entered it on the side furthest from the Tigris, -the face of the hill turned towards the river being a precipitous rock. -The castle wall is partly of masonry and partly of the natural rock, and -the gate is tunnelled through the cliff and flanked by small rock-cut -chambers. Within the enclosure there are a number of underground -chambers, and on the highest peak the rooms are rock-hewn and vaulted -with masonry. How old the rock cutting may be I cannot tell; the masonry -is not very ancient, some of it may be modern, while none could safely -be dated earlier than the Middle Ages. But the position overhanging the -Tigris is superb, and it is difficult to think that the Phœnice which -Sapor overthrew stood on any other crag. The rolling plateau of the Ṭûr -’Abdîn stretched away to the south-west, and since I observed that the -ferrying of my caravan was taking as long a time as I had anticipated, I -sat down and made a comfortable survey of the country we were about to -traverse. We returned to the village by the way we had come (there is no -other) and climbed the rocks on the opposite side of the valley, where -Layard found a much-effaced Parthian relief. It depicts the figures of a -man and a woman, clad in short tunics which hang in heavy folds over -loosely-fitting trousers (Fig. 190). Above the man’s head are traces of -an inscription which even in Layard’s day was indecipherable. Our guide -hurried back to the village while I was examining the tablet, and when -we came down we found him spreading a meal of omelets and bread and -bowls of irân (a most delectable drink made of sour curds beaten up in -water) under the shade of some mulberry-trees--a welcome sight to those -who have breakfasted early and climbed over many rocks. A less pleasing -surprise awaited us when we reached the Tigris; not half the horses had -crossed, and the ferry-boat was engaged in intricate and lengthy -manœuvres on the opposite side. There was nothing to be done but to wait -for its return, and I lay down among the clover under a hawthorn-bush. - -It was here that we were to bid a final farewell to the Greeks who had -accompanied us from the outset of the journey (Fig. 191). “When they had -arrived at a spot where the Tigris was quite impassable from its depth -and width, and where there was no passage along its banks, as the -Carduchian mountains hung steep over the stream, it appeared to the -generals that they must march over those mountains, for they had heard -from the prisoners that if they could cross the Carduchian heights they -would be able to ford the sources of the Tigris in Armenia.”[184] They -turned north, therefore, and fought their way through the land of the -Carduchi, which are the Kurds, until they reached the sea, while we, -having a ferry-boat at our disposal and a smaller force to handle, -passed over the Tigris into the Ṭûr ’Abdîn. So at length we parted, and -Cheirosophus in advance with the light-armed troops scaled the hills of -Finik and led slowly forward, leaving Xenophon to bring up the rear with -the heavy-armed men. Their shields and corselets glittered upon the -steep, they climbed, and reached the summit of the ridge, and -disappeared.... - -“Effendim!” Fattûḥ broke into my meditations. “Effendim, the boat is -ready.” - -“Oh Fattûḥ,” said I, “the Greeks are gone.” - -Fattûḥ looked vaguely disturbed. - -“The Greeks of old days, who marched with us down the Euphrates,” I -explained. - -The history of the Ten Thousand is not included in the Aleppine -curriculum, and since Fattûḥ can neither read nor write, he is debarred -from supplementing the acquirements of his brief school-days, but he -searched his memory for fragments of my meaningless talk. - -“Those?” he said. “God be with them!” - -We had more reason to invoke the protection of the Almighty on our own -behalf. The ferry-boat was packed with our baggage animals, standing -head to tail; the current was very swift. We shot down it, heading -aslant, until we neared the further shore; the ferrymen thrust their -long poles sharply into the water, and the boat heeled round until the -gunwale touched the level of the stream. Thereat the horses tumbled over -like ninepins, one upon the other, and I, sitting high in the stern, was -saved by the timely clutch of a zaptieh from plunging headlong into the -stream. “Allah, Allah!” cried the ferrymen, and we ran aground upon the -bank. - -The Ṭûr ’Abdîn, which we now entered, is a lofty plateau that stretches -from Finik on the east to Mardîn and Diyârbekr on the west, and south to -Nisîbîn. The Tigris embraces it to north and east; on the south side the -heights of the plateau fall abruptly into the Mesopotamian deserts -which, interrupted only by the long hog’s back of the Jebel Sinjâr, -extend to the Persian Gulf. The Mount of the Servants of God--such is -the meaning of its beautiful name--was known to the ancients as Masius -Mons and Izala Mons, Mount Izala occupying the eastern end of the -plateau.[185] This country lay upon the confines of the Roman and the -Persian empires, and in the confused accounts of the campaigns of -Constantius, Justinian and Heraclius the frontier fortresses of Izala -and Masius play a conspicuous part. While war raged round Amida, Marde, -Dara and Nisibis, the secluded valleys of the Ṭûr ’Abdîn were falling -peacefully into the hands of the Servants of God. The Mount was a -stronghold of the Christian faith; monastery after monastery rose among -the oak woods, the rolling uplands were cleared and planted with -vineyards, and the ancient communities of the Eastern Church multiplied -and grew rich in their almost inaccessible retreat.[186] Very little has -been published concerning the architectural remains of the district, but -I had happened to see in Môṣul some photographs which had awakened my -curiosity, and the Dominican fathers whom I met at Baviân had raised it -still higher.[187] - -The morning was half spent before we landed on the west bank of the -Tigris. Our path climbed up on to the plateau and led us over downs -sweet scented with clover and very thinly populated: during the five -hours’ journey from the Tigris to Azakh we saw only three villages.[188] -Azakh, where we camped, is inhabited mainly by Jacobites, some of whom -have modified their creed under the influence of American missionaries. -The Protestant pastor paid me a visit and brought disquieting news. -While we were still at Môṣul we had heard rumours of a massacre of the -Christians which had taken place at Adana. The Ṭûr ’Abdîn was full of -these reports. It was impossible to make out whether the events which -were related to us were past or present, how serious the massacre had -been or whether it were now at an end, and it was not until I reached -Cæsarea that I learnt the truth with regard to the double outbreak in -Cilicia. For a month we were greeted wherever we went with details of -fresh calamities that were in part the reverberation of those of which -we had already heard, and everywhere these histories were accompanied by -the assurance that a deliberate attempt had been made from without to -stir up massacres in the districts through which we passed. No direct -proof of this statement was offered; I never met the man who had set -eyes on the reported telegram, nor any one who could tell me what -signature it bore. But in the East, conviction does not wait upon -evidence. I learnt to realize the evil power of rumour, and experience -taught me how hard it is to keep the mind steadily fixed upon the -proposition that two unsupported statements (or the same often repeated) -will not make a certainty. The atmosphere of panic which surrounded us -is the true precursor of disaster, and I found good reason to respect -the statecraft of the Turkish officials whose firmness saved the -population from the consequences of their own loudly expressed -suspicions. I bear testimony to the fact that all that I saw or heard of -the agitation which attended the events of April 1909 led me to the -conviction that the local authorities had set their face against -bloodshed, and by so doing had averted it. - -Next morning we rode for six hours to Bâ Sebrîna, over wide uplands -almost entirely uncultivated and covered with small oak-trees. The -country was so like the swelling, thinly wooded hills that lead out of -the Belḳâ towards the Syrian Desert that at times I could have sworn -that we were riding from Gilead into Moab.[189] The characteristic -feature of the Ṭûr ’Abdîn is the absence of streams; even when we -crossed a deep valley, as we did twice during the course of the morning, -there was no running water in it. The water supply of the villages is -derived from pools which are fed by the winter rains and snows. In the -second valley we found the ruined monastery of Mâr Shim’ûn, placed among -thickets and deep herbage, but, to my disappointment, it was of little -architectural interest. The village of Bâ Sebrîna is wholly Christian. -It has been an important place, and though it has now fallen to the -estate of a small hamlet, it contains innumerable monasteries. Several -of these are beyond the limits of the town. They lie, each in its own -enclosing wall, like small forts upon the hills, and each is garrisoned -by a single monk. The monastic buildings are exiguous, and I doubt -whether they can have been intended for more than one or two persons; -perhaps they should be regarded as clerical rather than as monastic -foundations,[190] and the living-rooms were intended for the lodging of -those who served the shrine. The first monastery which we reached upon -the outskirts of Bâ Sebrîna was of this character. Its high and rather -tapering rectangular tower, and strong walls, gave it from afar a -striking appearance, but the vaulted chapel and the rooms set round a -tiny court were rudely built of undressed stones, almost totally dark, -and devoid of decorative features. I looked at several of the monastic -houses within the village, and always with the same results: they had no -pretension to architectural interest and were without ornament or -inscriptions by which to determine their date. But at the monastery of -Mâr Dodo I found a clue to the history of Bâ Sebrîna. The church, which -is the largest in the place, stands upon the north side of a walled -court round which are placed insignificant living-rooms, store-rooms and -stables. The church consists of a closed narthex running along the south -side of a vaulted aisleless nave, with a single apse to the east. On the -east side of the court, south of the church, there is an exedra covered -by a semi-dome and provided with a stone reading-desk on which to set -the holy books. All the masonry is rude and unskilful, and the carved -capitals and moulded arch of the exedra bear no sign of great antiquity, -while the engaged capitals in the church are merely blocked out. Now -this scheme of a single-chambered church, with a narthex to the south -and an external exedra, filled me with amazement, for it was unlike any -that I had seen, but I was subsequently to learn that it is one of the -oldest ecclesiastical plans of the Ṭûr ’Abdîn, and its combination at Bâ -Sebrîna with rough masonry and late decorative details is explained by a -Syriac inscription above the porch which states that the church was -built in the year 1510 of the Seleucid era, _i.e._ A.D. 1200. Whether -this be the date of the first foundation or of a fundamental -reconstruction upon an older site I cannot be certain, though from the -absence of all trace of early work I incline to the former alternative, -and I conclude that the old architectural scheme of the Ṭûr ’Abdîn was -adhered to closely at a later date, when a second period of building -activity saw the foundation of the churches and monasteries of Bâ -Sebrîna. But since I did not then know that these edifices were exact -copies of more ancient work, their recent date was a rude shock, and I -began to wonder whether the Mount would prove to be as fruitful a field -as I had hoped. Bâ Sebrîna, at any rate, had been drawn blank, and we -rode down for three-quarters of an hour through vineyards to the village -of Sâreh. As soon as we had settled upon a camping-ground--no easy -matter on account of the interminable vineyards--I walked down to the -village to examine the church. The âghâ of Sâreh belongs to one of the -leading Kurdish families of these parts. I found him in an open space -near the church, entertaining friends who had ridden over from a -neighbouring village. They too were âghâs of a noble house, and they -were tricked out in all the finery which their birth warranted. Their -short jackets were covered with embroidery, silver-mounted daggers were -stuck into their girdles, and upon their heads they wore immense -erections of white felt, wrapped round with a silken handkerchief of -which the ends stuck out like wings over their foreheads. They pressed -me to accept several tame partridges which they kept to lure the wild -birds, and while we waited for the priest to bring the key of the -church, they exhibited the very curious stela (Fig. 192) which stands -upside down in the courtyard.[191] Meantime the village priest had -arrived, and I followed him unsuspiciously into the church. But I had -not stood for more than a minute inside the building than I happened to -look down on to the floor and perceived it to be black with fleas. I -made a hasty exit, tore off my stockings and plunged them into a tank of -water, which offered the safest remedy in this emergency. - -“There are,” said the priest apologetically, “a great many, but they are -all swept out on Sunday morning. On Sunday there are none.” - -I confess to a deep scepticism on this head. - -The incompleteness of the maps and the absence of trustworthy -information led us far astray upon the following day. I had heard of a -very ancient monastery that lay upon the outer edge of the Ṭûr ’Abdîn: -upon the way thither I proposed to visit the castle of Ḥâtim Ṭâi. -Accordingly I spread out Kiepert, and drawing a bee-line across the -blank paper, told Fattûḥ to take the camp to Useh Dereh (Kiepert calls -it Useden), and provided him with a zaptieh and a guide. Another -villager accompanied Jûsef and me and the second zaptieh, and undertook -to guide us via the castle to Useh Dereh. We set forth from Sâreh at -5.30 and rode through uninhabited oak woods till 8.10, when we reached a -ruined village from which we could see the castle of Ḥâtim Ṭâi standing -up boldly on the opposite side of a deep valley. There was no road by -which to reach it--not so much as a bridle path. We struggled down -through the woods, dragging our horses over rocks and fallen trees, and -by the special mercy of Providence reached at 9.15, and without -accident, the foot of the castle hill. A path led round it to the Yezîdî -village of Gelîyeh, and thither I sent Jûsef and the zaptieh with the -horses, while the man of Sâreh climbed the hill with me. Ḥâtim Ṭâi was a -renowned sheikh of the Arab tribe of the Ṭâi, but the castle which is -called after him has a far longer history. The summit of the hill is -enclosed in a - -[Illustration: FIG. 192.--STELA AT SÂREH.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 193.--ḲAL’AT ḤÂTIM ṬÂI, CHAPEL.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 194.--MÂR AUGEN.] - -double line of fortification following the contours of the slopes. The -lower ring is provided with towers at the angles of the wall, and with -round bastions of very slight projection. Within the inner enclosure -stands the citadel, now completely ruined and bearing evidences of -frequent reconstruction. The oldest parts are unmistakably of Byzantine -masonry, and contain a chapel of which the apse is well preserved (Fig. -193). The castle must have been rebuilt during the Mohammadan period, -and then again rebuilt, for in one of the walls of the citadel there is -a fragment of an Arabic inscription, which is not in its original -position, neither is the inscription complete.[192] The Yezîdîs declare -that the castle was one of their strongholds until it passed into the -hands of the Ṭâi, and this might account for a reconstruction of the -citadel at a late period. The only other inscription which I could find -is also Arabic. It is apparently a name, with no date or further -qualification, cut upon the main gate of the outer wall.[193] In the -space between the two walls there are a number of small rock-hewn -cisterns, some of which were probably intended to hold corn and other -provisions. The main water supply was drawn from a large cistern in the -citadel. So far as I could judge, the ruins, therefore, exhibit Yezîdî -or Arab work (or both) upon Byzantine foundations, and I think it -exceedingly likely that the castle of Ḥâtim Ṭâi is that Rhabdium which, -according to Procopius, was fortified by Justinian. It lay, says he, on -a steep rock upon the frontiers of the Roman and the Persian empires, -two days from Dara. Below it was the Ager Romanorum, which has been -identified with the plain between Môṣul and the Ṭûr ’Abdîn. Since there -was no water near it (there is none, as I have said, in the Ṭûr ’Abdîn), -Justinian was obliged to cut a number of cisterns.[194] The whole of -this description exactly fits the castle of Ḥâtim Ṭâi, and the presence -of Byzantine masonry among the ruins is strongly in favour of the -identification. The position of the fortress is exceedingly fine. The -hills drop down sharply from its very walls into the Mesopotamian plain, -where the long line of the Jebel Sinjâr, a mountain occupied almost -exclusively by the Yezîdîs, alone breaks the desolate expanse. - -A cruel disillusion awaited us when we reached the valley. The Yezîdîs, -who were feasting Jûsef and the zaptieh on bread and bowls of milk, -declared that there was no getting to Useh Dereh except by taking the -path down into the plain and climbing up into the hills again by a pass -at Ḳal’at ej Jedîd. Even the direction from which we had come was -blocked to us, for we refused to contemplate a return through the woods -down which we had pushed our way with so much difficulty. The Yezîdîs, -who had heard from Jûsef that we had recently visited ’Alî Beg, begged -us to stay the night in their caves (the village of Gelîyeh is all -underground), and offered to kill a sheep for us, and when I was obliged -to decline this eagerly proffered hospitality, one of their number -accompanied us for some distance to show us the way. Riding through oak -woods where the bees had hived in every hollow trunk we came to a small -and dilapidated Yezîdî shrine, where my guide paused to kiss the largest -of the trees. “It belongs to the ziyârah,” he said in answer to my -question. “We do not collect the honey out of any of these trees; all -the wood here belongs to the ziyârah.” We left Gelîyeh at 10.30 and in -two hours found ourselves in the familiar Mesopotamian landscape, an -interminable flat strewn with big mounds, each with its village near it. -The climate, too, was familiar, and we rode wearily through a burning -heat to which we had not thought to return. At 11.30 we passed near -Kalka; at 12.30 we came to Kinik, where we spent half-an-hour trying to -re-shoe one of our horses. But the farrier was dead, so we were -informed, and though we had the shoe with us the whole village could not -produce a single nail. When once the Yezîdî was gone none of our party -had any special knowledge of the way, but Kiepert (upon whom be praise!) -served us well, and with his help we hit off the valley which led up to -Ḳal’at ej Jedîd, and at five o’clock we found ourselves, tired and -hungry, under its towers. It soared above us, no less splendidly placed -than Ḳal’at Ḥâtim Ṭâi, and guarded this second pass just as Ḥâtim Ṭâi -had guarded the other. If we had been certain that we should reach our -camp before nightfall I should have climbed up to it, but in the -mountains no one can make a sure calculation of distances, and we dared -not stay. I know nothing, therefore, of Ḳal’at ej Jedîd but its -magnificent outer aspect, and it remains in my memory as a vision of -wall and tower and precipitous rock rising into the ruddy sunset light -above a shadowy gorge, a citadel as bold and menacing as any that I have -seen.[195] We led our horses up the rugged gorge, and at 6.40 regained -the plateau of the Ṭûr ’Abdîn. A little village, Bâ Dibbeh, stood at the -head of the pass, and before us stretched a rolling, thickly wooded -country. We stopped at the village pool to inquire our way, and were -given the general direction of Useh Dereh, coupled with a vague -assurance that it was not far. The paths were too stony for riding, and -to walk was a relief after so many hours of the saddle; I left my -companions to bring on the horses and turned into the darkening oak -woods. For close upon an hour I followed the course of a shallow winding -valley; the trees, standing close about the path, obscured all view; a -brooding silence, unbroken by man or beast, hung over the forest, the -dark deepened into cool, sweet-smelling night, and still the narrow -rocky path wound on between wooded banks. And just as I was wondering -whether it had any end, the trees fell back round an open patch of corn -and vine, and the lights of my camp shone out upon the further side. - -If we had travelled far in the body upon that day, we travelled further -in the spirit upon the next. There lies upon the lip of the hills, -overlooking the wide desolation of Mesopotamia, a monastery which is -said to be the mother house of all the Ṭûr ’Abdîn. Into these solitudes, -according to the tradition of the mountain, wandered at the beginning of -the fourth century a pupil of St. Antony, whose name was St. Eugenius. -He had learnt from his master the rule of solitude and had overcome with -him the devils that people the Egyptian sands; among the rocks of Mount -Izala he laid down his pilgrim’s staff, gathered disciples about him and -founded the monastery that still bears his name. It was at first no more -than a group of cells hollowed out of the cliff, but as its fame -increased, the monks built themselves a church upon a narrow shelf -between precipice and precipice, and helped out the natural defences of -the mountain by a strong wall of masonry. The cave cells increased in -number until the rocks were honeycombed on every side, and disciples of -the first founder led forth companies of monks to raise fresh -monasteries over the Ṭûr ’Abdîn.[196] The Jacobite priest of Useh Dereh, -when he heard that we proposed to visit Mâr Augen, offered to accompany -us, saying that he wished to pay his respects to the bishop who lived -there (this was a figure of speech, for the bishop is not to be seen of -any man), and he guided us for an hour through the woods to the southern -edge of the hills.[197] The path to the monastery was a rock-cut -staircase, but we succeeded in dragging the horses down it and left them -by the gate (Fig. 194). Under the crag stands the church with its tiny -cloister and walled court, and it did not take long to discover that, in -spite of many rebuildings, the tradition as to its age could not be far -wrong. A church must have stood here in the sixth century, if not in the -fifth; some of the old capitals have been re-used at a later time, and -the ancient plan is preserved in church and cloister. Ten monks are -lodged in the rock-cut cells of their remote forerunners--I met with one -of them in the cloister and he carried intelligence of my arrival to the -prior, who came in haste to do the honours of his church. He was a man -of some thirty years of age, with melancholy eyes. We sat together in -the shadow of the cloister, while he explained to me the rule under -which he and his brethren lived, and as he spoke I felt the centuries -drop away and disclose the ascetic life of the early Christian world. -They spend their days in meditation; their diet is bread and oil and -lentils; no meat, and neither milk nor eggs may pass their lips; they -may see no woman-- - -“But may you see me?” I asked. - -“We have made an exception for you,” explained the prior. “Travellers -come here so seldom. But some of the monks have shut themselves into -their cells until you go.” - -The cell of St. Eugenius stands apart from the others, hollowed out of -the cliff to the west of the church. The prior had spent a lonely winter -there, seeing no one but the brother who brought him his daily meal of -bread and lentils. As we stood in the narrow cave, which was more like a -tomb than a dwelling-place, I looked into the young face, marked with -the lines drawn by solitude and hunger. - -“Where is your home?” I asked. - -“In Mardîn,” he answered. “My father and my mother live there yet.” - -“Will you see them again?” said I. - -“Perhaps not,” he replied, but there was no regret in his voice. - -“And all your days you will live here?” - -He looked out calmly over rock and plain. “Please God,” he said. “It -seems to be a good place for prayer.” - -It is the habit of the monks to let no traveller depart without food, a -habit well known to the neighbouring Kurds who claim more hospitality -than the monastery can well afford. While I worked at the church, the -prior betook himself to the cave kitchen and prepared an ample meal of -eggs and bread, raisins and sour curds for me and for my men. When we -had eaten I asked whether it would not be seemly to thank the bishop for -the entertainment which had been offered to us. - -“You cannot see him,” said the prior. “He has left the world.” - -“The kas from Useh Dereh came to-day to visit him,” I objected. - -“He came to gaze upon his cell,” answered the prior, and with that he -led me out of the church and pointed to a cave some fifty feet above us -in the cliff. Three-quarters of the opening had been filled with -masonry, and I could see that it was approached by a stair of which the -lower part was cut out behind a gallery and the upper on the face of the -rock. An active novice might have thought twice before attempting the -path to the bishop’s cell. - -“Is he old?” said I. - -“He is the father of eighty years,” replied the prior, “and it is now a -year since he took a vow of silence and renounced the world. Once a day, -at sunset, he lets down a basket on a rope and we place therein a small -portion of bread.” - -“And when he dies?” I asked. - -“When he is sick to death he will send down a written word telling us to -come up on the next day and fetch his body. Then we shall see his face -again.” - -“And you will take his place?” said I. - -“If God wills,” he answered. - -We walked across the hills for half-an-hour to Mâr Yuhannâ, a monastery -founded by a disciple of St. Eugenius. It is neither so finely placed -nor so interesting architecturally as Mâr Augen, though the rough walls -of church and monastic building, which cling to the rocky slopes, are -not without a certain wild beauty. The bishop who rules over the house -of Mâr Yuhannâ is less exclusive than the prelate at Mâr Augen, for he -shares a tower with his four monks, but he was still too exclusive to -receive my visit. The aged prior was all for serving us with a meal, but -I could not undertake to dispose of another omelet, nor did I realize -that my refusal would be regarded as a shocking breach of the social -code. The prior was so deeply hurt that he would not bid us farewell, -and we left under the cloud of his displeasure. We climbed back to the -summit of the hills and rode home to Useh Dereh, and if any one should -wonder why a recluse from Egypt should have sought so distant a -dwelling-place as Mount Izala, I can give a sufficient answer. It was -because he found Iris Susiana growing among the rocks. The great grey -flowers lift their heads in every open space between the oak-trees, -gleaming silver in the strong sun, and so perfect are they in form, so -exquisite in texture, that I stood amazed at the sight of them, as one -who gazes on a celestial vision. - -It is just an hour’s ride from Useh Dereh to Mâr Melko,[198] which -stands fortress-like upon the top of a hill. The bishop (for there was a -bishop here also--the number of prelates in the Ṭûr ’Abdîn is scarcely -to be reckoned) was singularly unlike his colleagues of the other -monasteries. He carried sociability to so high a point that I doubted -whether I should be allowed to proceed that day upon my journey, but -with the regrettable incident at Mâr Yuhannâ fresh in my memory, I put -force upon my appetite and ate the second breakfast upon which his -hospitality insisted, while the zaptieh and Jûsef, who were not in the -habit of counting breakfasts, did fuller justice to the remains of it. -The monastery is a rambling building with a chapel upon an upper floor -and a crypt containing the tombs of priors. The tomb of the patron saint -is in the church itself. Over it hangs a rude picture of Mâr Melko with -the devil beside him: upon inquiry the bishop explained that the saint -had been renowned for his power of casting out devils, and he pointed to -a collar and chain attached to the wall and observed that men who were -afflicted with fits or madness came here to be cured, and all went away -sound, no matter what their creed.[199] The buildings bore evidences of -frequent reconstruction, and parts of the church were still in the state -of ruin in which a recent Kurdish raid had left them. It is almost -impossible to date architecture of this kind, for the new work and the -old have much the same character, but the plan of the church is the -ancient monastic scheme, as I learnt at Mâr Gabriel and at Ṣalâḥ, and in -all probability Mâr Melko is to be counted among the oldest foundations -of the Ṭûr ’Abdîn. Like Mâr Gabriel it is some distance removed from the -nearest village, and depends for its security upon its own strong walls. -After we had passed through Kharabah ’Aleh, which contains the ruins of -a church, we wandered among the rolling, wooded hills, and had gone -needlessly far to the north before we caught sight of the monastery of -Mâr Gabriel standing upon an eminence, with my tents pitched beside it. -The inevitable bishop was away and I could not regret his absence, since -it implied a relaxation of the social duties which I should otherwise -have been obliged to fulfil, and permitted me to give my whole attention -to the building. - -The house of St. Gabriel of Kartmîn was, during the Middle Ages, the -most famous and the richest of Jacobite establishments. It is said to -have been founded in the reign of Arcadius (395-408) and rebuilt under -Anastasius (491-518), and I see no reason to doubt that the great church -of Mâr Gabriel is, as it now stands, a work of the early sixth century. -There are two other churches within the existing monastic precincts, one -dedicated to the Virgin, the other to the Forty Martyrs, but neither of -these is as old as that which is dedicated to the tutelary saint (Fig. -197). A large area of ruins beyond the walls gives some indication of -the former magnificence of the monastery which gained, as early as the -days of Justinian, a reputation for holiness second only - -[Illustration: FIG. 195.--THE BISHOP OF MÂR MELKO.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 196.--KHÂKH, THE NUN.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 197.--NARTHEX OF MÂR GABRIEL.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 200.--KHÂKH, CHURCH OF THE VIRGIN.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 198.--KEFR ZEH, MÂR ’AZÎZÎYEH; PARISH CHURCH.] - -to Jerusalem. It bore at that period the name of St. Stephen; St. -Gabriel was bishop of the monastery during the reign of Heraclius. When -the Arab invaders drove out the forces of the Byzantine empire, he -obtained from the Khalif ’Umar ibn u’l Khaṭṭâb rights of jurisdiction -over all Christians in the Ṭûr ’Abdîn, for which reason the monastery is -sometimes called after him, Deir Mâr Gabriel, and sometimes after the -khalif, Deir ’Umar. It was despoiled by Tîmûr towards the close of the -fourteenth century, and many a harrying it must have endured from the -Kurds before it sank into its present state of poverty and decay. One -monk and a single nun, well stricken in years, were its sole occupants -at the time of my visit. The church of Mâr Gabriel is built upon a plan -which I conjecture to be monastic as distinguished from parochial. The -two types, which are quite unlike each other, are also unlike all -churches known to me outside the Ṭûr ’Abdîn. The parish church (Fig. -198), which has no domestic buildings attached to it, or nothing but a -few chambers for the lodging of clerks, follows invariably the plan that -I have described at Bâ Sebrîna; at Mâr Gabriel, and in the other -monastic churches (Fig. 199), the atrium and narthex lie to the west, -the vaulted nave is placed with its greater length running from north to -south, and three doors in the east wall communicate with a triple -sanctuary. From what prototypes did the Christian architects of the Ṭûr -’Abdîn derive the singular feature of the nave lying with its greater -length at right angles to the main axis of the building? I can only -suggest that they may have preserved the ancient scheme of the -Babylonian temple and palace hall, which was retained by the Assyrians -in their palaces, but not in their temples; and if this be so, the -monastic churches of the Ṭûr ’Abdîn are the last representatives of the -oldest Oriental architecture. The walls and vault of the nave of Mâr -Gabriel are devoid of ornament, but the vault of the central sanctuary -is adorned with mosaics. The accumulated soot of centuries of -candle-smoke has not entirely obscured the glory of its golden ground, -of the great jewelled cross laid over the centre of the vault, and the -twisted vine scrolls with which it is encircled. It is said that similar -mosaics once covered the whole church and were destroyed by the soldiers -of Tîmûr. - -[Illustration: FIG. 199.--ṢALÂḤ, MÂR YA’ḲÛB; MONASTIC TYPE.] - -We rode next morning into Midyâd,[200] and camped beside the ruined -church of Mâr Philoxenos which, since it has not been recently repaired, -is of greater interest than any other in the town.[201] The task of -planning it was a labour of hatred. The population of Midyâd, men, women -and children, stationed themselves upon the ruined walls, and for them -it was no doubt the most entertaining afternoon which they had spent for -many a long week, but for me, and for the patient bearers of the -measuring tape, the hours were charged with exasperation. The Ḳâimmaḳâm, -when he appeared upon this agitated scene (Midyâd is the seat of -government in the Ṭûr ’Abdîn), succeeded in clearing the ruins for a few -moments, but as soon as he had turned his back, the hordes reassembled -with a greater zest than before. - -My Christian servants returned in the evening from the bazaar gravely -disquieted by the gossip which was current there. It was rumoured that -the wave of massacre had spread to Aleppo and they trembled for the fate -of their wives and families. The news which was causing us so much -anxiety was in fact nearly a month old, but we did not learn until we -reached Diyârbekr that Aleppo had escaped with a week of panic. - -The next day was devoted to three churches which I visited and planned -on the way to Khâkh, Mâr Yâ’ḳûb at Ṣalâḥ, Mâr Kyriakos at Arnâs and Mâr -’Azîzîyeh at Kefr Zeh. I doubt whether there exists anywhere a group of -buildings - -[Illustration: FIG. 201.--KHÂKH, CHURCH OF THE VIRGIN.] - -more precious to the archæologist than these three churches and the -little domed shrine of the Virgin which stands almost perfect among the -ruins of Khâkh (Fig. 201). It is close upon a miracle that in this -forgotten region, long subjected to the tyranny of the Kurds, such -masterpieces of architecture should have escaped destruction; the -explanation is probably to be found in the rugged mountain frontiers of -the Ṭûr ’Abdîn. Even though it lay upon the edge of country which was -for over a hundred years the battle-ground of the Persian and the -Byzantine, war seems to have penetrated but little into its heart. The -Christian communities, from their rock-cut cells in the crags of Mount -Izala, must have listened to the rumours of advance and flight and -siege; they could almost witness the encounter of armies in the plain -below. But “the lofty mountain, precipitous and almost inaccessible,” as -Procopius describes it, was a sure refuge, and Procopius himself can -scarcely have been acquainted with the wooded uplands and fertile -valleys where already in his time stood the churches and monasteries of -Ṣalâḥ and Arnâs, Kefr Zeh and Khâkh. The Arab conquerors left the -Christians undisturbed; they bowed the head and suffered under the -fierce blast of Tîmûr’s invasion and under the secular persecution of -the Kurds; but decimated and stripped of their wealth, they held firmly -to the bare walls of their religious houses, and the meagre, ragged -choirs still chant their litanies under vaults which have withstood the -assault of fourteen centuries. Into this country I came, entirely -ignorant of its architectural wealth, because it was entirely -unrecorded. None of the inscriptions collected by Pognon go back earlier -than the ninth century; the plans which had - -[Illustration: FIG. 202.--KHÂKH, CHURCH OF THE VIRGIN, CAPITALS.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 203.--KHÂKH, CHURCH OF THE VIRGIN, DOME ON SQUINCH -ARCHES.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 204.--THE CHELABÎ.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 205.--FORDING THE TIGRIS BELOW DIYÂRBEKR.] - -been published were lamentably insufficient and were unaccompanied by -any photographs. When I entered Mâr Yâ’ḳûb at Ṣalâḥ and saw upon its -walls mouldings and carved string courses which bore the sign manual of -the Græco-Asiatic civilization I scarcely dared to trust to the -conclusions to which they pointed. But church after church confirmed and -strengthened them. The chancel arches, covered with an exquisite -lacework of ornament, the delicate grace of the acanthus capitals, hung -with garlands and enriched with woven entrelac (Fig. 200), the -repetition of ancient plans and the mastery of constructive problems -which revealed an old architectural tradition, all these assure to the -churches of the Ṭûr ’Abdîn the recognition of their honourable place in -the history of the arts. - -It was evening when we rode over the last of the wooded hills and saw -the village of Khâkh lying upon a green knoll in the midst of a fertile -plain. The rays of the setting sun touched the dome of the church of the -Virgin, the tower of Mâr Sobo and the terraced houses; they flashed upon -the pool below the village, by the edge of which my camp was pitched, -and were mercifully unrevealing of poverty and ruin. It seemed to me -that I had ended the most wonderful day since that which had brought me -to Ukheiḍir by dropping into a village of the fifth century, complete -and prosperous in every part. The searching light of morning disclosed a -different picture. The houses were mere hovels, and except for the -church of the Virgin, not one of the ancient buildings but had fallen -into the extremity of decay. That church is, however, the jewel of the -Ṭûr ’Abdîn (Figs. 200, 202, 203). It has suffered scarcely any change -since the builders completed it, and it points a way to the solution of -many a problem of Byzantine architecture. Its plan suggests a memorial -rather than a monastic type; the domestic buildings near it are small -and modern and I saw no trace of an ancient monastic house. A nun and -the village priest occupied the rooms that now stand to the north of the -courtyard. The nun was young and personable, and she found the religious -life very much to her taste. Her sacred calling gave her the right to -come and go as she pleased, to mix in male society and even to put forth -her opinion in male councils. Moreover it provided her with an excuse -for claiming audience of me on the evening of my arrival. - -“I have come to see my sister,” I heard her announce. “Does she speak -Arabic?” And before Fattûḥ could answer, she had presented herself at -the tent door. The object of her visit was to ask me for a revolver. - -“What do you want with a revolver?” I said. - -“We are afraid,” she replied. “We are all afraid of massacre.” - -The little community of Jacobites snatch their daily bread from field -and vineyard which lie at the mercy of marauding Kurds, whose practices -were not, unfortunately, to remain for us a matter of hearsay. The -second night at Khâkh was marked by the only misadventure that has -befallen me in Turkey. We had intended to leave the village early on the -following morning and everything was prepared for our departure; even my -saddle-bags, duly packed with note-books and camera, were lying ready in -my tent. In the middle of the night I was awakened by a rustling noise, -and starting up I saw the figure of a man crouched in the doorway. We -had grown careless with months of safe journeying in dangerous places, -and neither Fattûḥ nor I had taken the trouble to set a guard over the -camp. The thieves had found us an easy prey; before the servants and -zaptiehs were roused, they had made off into the night and we were left -to reckon up our loss. What money I had with me had been taken out of my -tent, the servants had been robbed of all their spare clothing, and -various other small objects were missing, but the real disaster was the -disappearance of the saddle-bags which contained my note-books. We stood -helpless, gazing into the darkness into which had vanished the results -of four months’ work. A rifle shot fired by Selîm had awakened the -priest, who came hurrying down to inquire into our case. Deeply -distressed was he, poor man, to hear of our misfortune, for we were the -guests of the village, and he feared that ill might fall upon him and -his flock for suffering us to come to harm. I listened to a great deal -of divergent advice, and finally decided to send for the Chelabî, who is -the feudal chief of the Kurdish tribes in the Ṭûr ’Abdîn. Accordingly at -the first dawn Fattûḥ and a zaptieh were dispatched across the hills to -bear him the news. A certain village lay under suspicion, a little -robbers’ nest situated in the depths of a wild and rocky valley a few -miles to the east. The people of Khâkh were well used to the -depredations of the men of Zâ’khurân, and during the course of the day -we were provided with more positive evidence against them. It chanced -that the thieves had carried off a parcel of my gloves, and these they -shed along the path as they ran. Gloves lying upon the rocky ways of the -Ṭûr ’Abdîn are exceptional objects, and the path by which they were -found was that which led to Zâ’khurân. Evening brought the Chelabî, -pacing sedately upon his mare with twenty men behind him, all dressed in -white garments and armed with rifles (Fig. 204). I went out to welcome -them and brought their leader to my tents, where he listened to my tale -over a cup of coffee and gave me many assurances of redress. This done, -he repaired with great dignity to the roof of the priest’s house, -converted for the time into a court of justice, and received, until late -into the night, deputations from the neighbouring villages. Next day the -judgment seat was removed to Zâ’khurân, and Fattûḥ went with it as -witness to the crime and representative of the plaintiff; at dusk he -returned and reported that the Chelabî had arrested four men, selected, -so far as could be ascertained, by empirical methods from among the -inhabitants of the district, but that no clue had been found to the -missing note-books. It was now time to invoke a higher power, and I -entrusted a zaptieh with a letter to the Ḳâimmaḳâm of Midyâd and with a -telegram which was to be sent from Midyâd to the Vâlî at Diyârbekr. The -Ḳâimmaḳâm entered into the business like a man. On the following evening -ten zaptiehs arrived from Midyâd, and next morning fifty foot soldiers -marched into our camp. The nature of evidence is not clearly grasped in -the East, and by the third day after the robbery there was no person in -the country-side, except, I believe, myself, against whom a charge of -complicity had not been raised, but there continued to be no further -proof than that which we had had from the beginning, and it pointed to -Zâ’khurân. To Zâ’khurân, therefore, the miniature army took its way, -leaving me divided between regret for the disturbance which my own -carelessness had brought about, and gratitude for the good-will -displayed on every side. So difficult, however, had it become to protect -the innocent, that but for the notebooks I should have left the guilty -in peace. My servants were plunged in grief; their honour was -gone--indeed whose honour was left intact?--and in sackcloth and ashes -we passed the day. And then ... in the grey dawn we were wakened by a -voice shouting from the hills: “Your goods are here! your goods are -here!” Every man in the camp leapt up and ran in the direction of the -sound, and there, lying upon a rock among the oak scrub, was all that we -had lost. Nothing had been injured, nothing was missing, except some -money, which was subsequently refunded to me by the Ottoman government, -at the instance of the British Vice-Consul in Diyârbekr--and it may well -be questioned whether any other government would have recognized a like -liability. The villagers of Khâkh assembled round the tents and shed -tears of thankfulness over the recovered objects, and I mounted in haste -and rode off to Zâ’khurân to set a term to the pursuit of criminals. The -cause of the restitution was there apparent. The village was deserted; -men, women and children had fled into the hills taking with them all -that they possessed, and it was reported by a picket that the Chelabî -and the soldiers were engaged in capturing the flocks of the community. -I sent a messenger after them and rode myself to Midyâd to ask for a -universal amnesty. Revenge is not so sweet as it is said to be, nor is -it so easy when wrong is afoot to determine who is the more wronged. - -Two days and a half of journeying brought us to Diyârbekr. The way was -without interest, except for that which was supplied by the dragoman of -the British Consulate, who had - -[Illustration: FIG. 206.--DIYÂRBEKR, MARDÎN GATE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 207.--DIYÂRBEKR, YENI KAPU.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 208.--DIYÂRBEKR, CHEMIN DE RONDE, NORTH WALL.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 209.--DIYÂRBEKR, COURT OF ULU JÂMI’.] - -come to Midyâd to help me out of difficulties. A cheerful travelling -companion he proved, and a well-informed. We camped on the second -evening under the mound of Karkh, not far from the Tigris, and shortened -our way next day by fording the river, which was now a shallow stream, -and cutting across a wide bend (Fig. 205). This route had the advantage -of giving us a first view of Diyârbekr under its finest aspect. It -stands upon the high crest of the Tigris bank, a great fenced city built -of basalt--“black are the dogs and black the walls and black the hearts -of black Amid,” says the proverb. Since the days when Ammianus -Marcellinus look part in the desperate resistance to Sapor, and watched -from the towers of Amida the Persian hosts “collected for the -conflagration of the Roman world,” the din of battle has never been far -from Diyârbekr. The town passed to and fro between the Byzantine and the -Sassanian. Constantius fortified it and lost it to Sapor; Anastasius -recaptured it and lost it to Kobâd and won it back; Justinian rebuilt -the fortifications, but it fell with Mesopotamia to the Moslem invaders. -The Kurdish Marwânds made it their capital, and after them the Turkmân -Ortuḳids; Tîmûr burst through the famous walls and put the inhabitants -to the sword, and finally the Turk conquered it in A.D. 1515 and holds -it still. But there is no peace for the lawless capital of Kurdistân. -Warring faiths struggle together as fiercely as rival empires, and the -conflict is embittered by race hatreds. The heavy air, lying stagnant -between the high walls, is charged with memories of the massacres of -1895, and when I was in Diyârbekr the news from Cilicia had rekindled -animosity and fear. Moslem and Christian were equally persuaded that the -other was watching for an opportunity to spring at his throat. Tales of -fresh outbreaks in different parts of the empire were constantly -circulated in the bazaars, and the men who listened went home and -fingered at their rifles. If there had been any sign of further -disturbance at Constantinople, Diyârbekr would have run with blood. - -With the population in this temper it would have been futile to inquire -into the prospects of constitutional government. I spent a day among -ancient churches;[202] and a day upon the walls, which are as fine an -example of mediæval fortification as any that exists. They hang, upon -the south and south-east sides, high over the Tigris--it was from this -direction that Sapor’s troops effected an entry through a hollow passage -that led down to the water’s edge. On the south-west they crown a slope -set thick with gardens of mulberry and vine, and towards the north the -wall bends round to join the curve of the river. Four great gateways -break this circuit. The Mardîn Gate commands the terraced gardens, and -the road that passes through it runs down to an ancient bridge over the -Tigris (Fig. 206). To the north-west and north the Aleppo or Mountain -Gate and the Kharpût Gate open on to a fertile plain, and the Yeni Kapu, -the New Gate, stands above the precipitous southern bank (Fig. -207).[203] The lie of the ground makes it certain that the oldest -fortifications of the city must have occupied much the same position as -those which still surround it, and though the latter are proved by -numerous inscriptions to be Mohammadan work of different periods, I -should judge them to be built mainly upon ancient foundations. The north -wall with its round towers is perfectly preserved; even the domed -chambers inside the towers, together with the stairs that gave access to -the _chemin de ronde_, are intact. All the arches and domes in the -interior of the towers are of brick. Between the Kharpût and the Aleppo -Gates a small aqueduct brings water to the town, the few springs within -the walls being unpleasantly brackish. The citadel commands the -north-east angle above the river; most of the space surrounded by its -enclosing wall is occupied by modern buildings and by a mound whereon -stood the castle of the first Mohammadan princes. The domed arsenal is -said to have been a Christian church, but remembering my unsuccessful -attempts to visit the arsenal at Baghdâd, I did not ask permission to -enter it.[204] From a postern gate in the north wall a road leads down -to the river, passing under a cliff out of which gushes a sulphurous -spring. As I watched the soldiers of the garrison washing their clothes -in its waters, I tried to reconcile it with “the rich spring, drinkable, -indeed, but often tainted with hot vapours,” which Ammianus Marcellinus -describes as rising under the citadel, and to see the men of the 5th -Parthian Legion in the ragged groups standing about it.[205] From the -citadel we walked to the Mardîn Gate along the _chemin de ronde_, a fine -course, lifted high above the close air of the city and swept by the -breezes that come down from Taurus (Fig. 208). Between the Aleppo Gate -and the Mardîn Gate stand two huge round towers, larger than any others -and later in date.[206] Near the Mardîn Gate the _chemin de ronde_ is -for some distance vaulted over and lighted only by small loop-hole -windows on the inner side. To the south of the Mardîn Gate the wall runs -out abruptly, and the salient angle thus formed holds a great hall of -which the vault is borne on columns. The two main streets lie from gate -to gate, intersecting each other at right angles, and since this is in -accordance with an ancient scheme of city planning, the line of the -streets may be as old as the first foundation of the town. Not far from -the point of intersection stands the Ulu Jami’ with its famous -courtyard, enclosed to east and west by a two-storeyed portico, which -has been conjectured to be either the remains of a church built by -Heraclius or a Byzantine palace (Fig. 209). The buildings need a more -exhaustive study than the fanaticism of the Mohammadan population will -at present admit, and the correct plan of mosque and court has yet to be -made. The older part of the work is closely related to the ancient -architecture of the Ṭûr ’Abdîn. - -Even this hasty survey of Diyârbekr was sufficient to convince me that -the treasures which it contains are still unexplored. Of its many -mosques only the Ulu Jami’ has been so much as photographed, though the -square minarets scattered over the town are probably an indication of an -early date. Once or twice as I walked in the bazaars I looked through -gateways into the courts of splendid khâns, where the walls were -decorated with contrasted patterns in limestone and basalt, and stripes -of black and white masonry are used in many of the houses and mosques. -The final history of Amida must wait upon a much more careful -investigation of the town than any which has yet been undertaken. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -DIYÂRBEKR TO KONIA - -_June 4--July 1_ - - -The frontier between the Arabic and the Turkish-speaking peoples is not -sharply defined. Through the southern parts of the Kurdish hills it is -common to find men acquainted with one or both languages in addition to -their native Kurdish; among the Christians of the Ṭûr ’Abdîn a knowledge -of Syriac is not rare; in Diyârbekr, where there is a considerable Arab -population, Arabic, Turkish and Kurdish are spoken about equally, but -north of Diyârbekr Arabic ceases to be heard, and as we journeyed along -the road from Kharpût to Malaṭiyah, Kurdish died out also. Fattûḥ, in -addition to many other qualifications for travel, speaks Turkish -fluently, though in a manner peculiar to himself; the muleteers who were -with me had some knowledge of the language, and I have enough to wish -that I had more of that singularly beautiful and flexible tongue. Thus -equipped we set out to make our way across Taurus and Anti-Taurus on to -the Anatolian plateau. - -As far as Malaṭiyah we followed the high road which led us at first -across a fertile plain celebrated for its gardens ever since the days of -Ammianus Marcellinus. Outside the village of Tarmûr[207] we spent the -night somewhat uneasily by reason of certain wedding festivities which -were there in progress. Not only did the merry-makers keep up their -rejoicings until close upon dawn, but the inhabitants of a neighbouring -village judged the occasion to be propitious for mule-lifting, and were -driven off with rifle shots. Peace was restored by daybreak, and the -marriage procession conveying the bride to her husband’s house set off -to the strains of fife and drum. We passed it upon the road, a motley -crowd, mounted and afoot. The bride was enveloped in a silken cloak of -vivid magenta, which will not, I fear, be needed again for many a long -day, if her opportunities for the wearing of finery may be measured by -the aspect of her future home, for a more poverty-stricken collection of -hovels than the bridegroom’s village it would be difficult to picture. -We left her in her brief glory to take up her daily task of preventing -her husband’s roof from falling about her ears, and rode on to the hill -of Arghana, a bold spur of the Taurus mountains, with a village perched -among its crags. I sent the baggage animals along the carriage road and -climbed with a zaptieh to the village, and thence by a steep path to the -Armenian monastery of the Virgin, which stands on the summit of the -rocks.[208] We were rewarded by a magnificent view and by a pleasant -talk with the prior who informed me, as I drank his excellent coffee, -that the monastery was founded in the first century of the Christian -era, a tradition which calls for weightier confirmation than any which -he advanced. Be that as it may, the existing house must have been -largely rebuilt in the Middle Ages, perhaps towards the fourteenth -century--I hazard this date on the evidence supplied by the decoration -of the church which had the character of Mohammadan work of about that -period. We led our horses down the north side of the hill, by a stony - -[Illustration: FIG. 210.--ARGHANA MA’DEN.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 211.--GÖLJIK.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 212.--KHARPÛT, THE CASTLE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 213.--IZ OGLU FERRY.] - -path that ran between bramble hedges enclosing fruit gardens, rejoined -the carriage road and crossed the Ma’den Chai, which is the local name -for the main arm of the Tigris, by a bridge near Kalender Khân. We had -now fairly entered into the mountains, and our road took us over high -bare ridges and down again to the Ma’den Chai at the village of Arghana -Ma’den, the mines of Arghana. On a shelf of the opposite hill-side the -smoke drifted perpetually from the smelting furnaces of the richest -copper mines in Turkey (Fig. 210). The metal, smelted on the site, is -cast into disks, two of which go to a camel load, and sent across the -hills to Diyârbekr and Cæsarea, Sivâs and Tokat. The valley of the -Ma’dan Chai, where the village lies, is so narrow that it offers no -camping-ground; we lodged, therefore, in a charming khân above the -village by the water’s edge--but for the fact that it was innocent of -furniture I could have fancied myself in an English country inn by the -side of a rushing trout stream. The rain fell heavily in the night, and -we rode for the greater part of the next day through an alternate -drizzle and downpour, and were unable to determine which we enjoyed the -most. The river cuts here through a deep rocky gorge, and the road -climbs up by the side of the stream. The mists, clinging to the -precipitous slopes, added to the sombre grandeur of a pass which opened -at its upper end on to an exquisite little fertile plain, set like a -jewel among the hills. Through its cornfields the infant Tigris, a -rippling brook, wandered from willow clump to willow clump; we parted -from it two hours from its source, and set our faces towards the hills -which divide it from its mightier brother, the Euphrates. At their foot -lies the Little Lake, Göljik, encircled by peaks, of which the northern -slopes were white with snow patches (Fig. 211). It is slightly brackish, -and its waters have no outlet. We turned aside from the carriage road -and took a bridle path along the northern side of the lake, and up the -hills beyond it. Before we reached the crest of the slopes we struck the -road again and by it crossed the water parting, and saw below us the -rich and smiling plain of Kharpût bounded by mountains, through which -wound the silver streak of the Euphrates. We camped that night at the -foot of the pass in the Armenian village of Keghvank, our tents being -advantageously placed in a grove of mulberry-trees, loaded with ripe -fruit.[209] Kharpût, or rather the lower town, Mezreh,[210] which is the -seat of government of the vilayet of Ma’mûret el ’Azîz, lies three hours -from Keghvank. The plain between is exceedingly fertile; it is scattered -over with villages about half of which are inhabited by Armenians, who -suffered cruelly in the massacres of 1895. At Kezerik, half-an-hour to -the south-east of Mezreh, two finely-cut inscriptions, commemorating the -expedition of Domitius Corbulo in A.D. 65, are built into the walls of a -ruined church. They are well known, but I, coming from far beyond the -limits of the Roman empire, turned aside with pious enthusiasm and read -the high-sounding titles of Nero, as one who glories in their -achievements of his own people: Nero Claudius Cæsar Augustus Germanicus -Imperator Pontifex Maximus, the words rang out with greater splendour -from those remote stones than from any lying within the walls of Rome. - -Kharpût is set upon the summit of the hills beyond Mezreh. The castle, -standing upon the highest crag, guards a shallow ravine wherein is -stretched the greater part of the town, but the houses climb up on to -the rocky headlands overhanging the plain and, from below, the mountain -seems to be crowned with a series of fortresses (Fig. 212). The streets -are so narrow that a cart can hardly pass along the cobbled ways; very -silent and peaceful they seemed, the shops heaped with cherries, the -cool breezes stirring the vine tendrils that wreathed together overhead. -The castle, for all its frowning walls and bastions, is nothing but a -heap of ruins within. I looked in vain for the dungeons in which Sukmân, -the son of the Turkman officer Ortuḳ, founder of the Ortuḳid dynasties, -imprisoned Baldwin of Edessa and Jocelyn of Courtney in the early years -of the twelfth century. The Crusaders, gathering together their forces, -seized the fortress in 1123 and held it until Balak, Ortuḳ’s grandson, -recaptured it and threw the garrison over the battlemented rock into the -plain below.[211] On an inner wall, not far from the gate, there are -traces of an Arabic inscription, together with two stones carved in -relief, the one bearing a lion and the other a ram, memorials, I make no -doubt, of the Ortuḳid rule. The walls are of many periods of building. -The masonry of one of the eastern towers is laid in alternate stripes of -red and white stone. The eastern side of the hill drops steeply into a -deep valley filled with houses which are terraced one above the other. -Here there is a Jacobite church of ancient origin, its plan repeating -the old scheme of the parochial church of the Ṭûr ’Abdîn. The priest -assured me that it dated from the first century, and in proof of his -assertion showed me a couple of curious oil paintings, a Crucifixion and -a Virgin and Child, Byzantine in type, so far as I could make out -through the dust of ages.[212] - -My tents were pitched on the plain near Mezreh. There in the evening I -received the Vâlî, a cheerful Cretan, and the Mu’âvin Vâlî,[213] and -after they had departed, several other visitors. Their conversation left -me groping my way through the intricate labyrinths of the Oriental mind, -and even more bewildered than usual. Kharpût and Mezreh and the villages -of the plain had felt yet more sharply than Diyârbekr and the Ṭûr ’Abdîn -the wave of panic that had emanated from Cilicia. Three days after the -first outbreak at Adana, the Kurdish peasants had trooped into the -Christian villages and announced their intention to kill, while in -Mezreh the Vâlî was besieged by demands that he should give the signal -for massacre. To his credit be it recorded that he held out against -these appeals, though the abject terror of the Armenians did much to -increase the danger of the situation. When the news of ’Abdu’l Ḥamîd’s -deposition reached the vilayet, the agitation went out like a candle in -the wind; the Kurds returned peaceably to their houses, and the fears of -the Christians were allayed. This was strange enough, but that which -followed was stranger still. The district had suffered during the spring -from lack of rain and the drought became at length so serious that the -whole harvest was threatened. The leading mullah of Mezreh called upon -the people to assemble in a neighbouring village, where there was a -much-respected Mohammadan shrine, that they might raise a common -supplication for rain. The population answered his call to a man; -Christian and Moslem, who but five weeks before had with difficulty been -restrained from leaping at each other’s throats, stood side by side and -listened to the sermon which the mullah delivered to them. All, said he, -were brothers, all were children of one God, all alike were in danger of -perishing from the drought, and it behoved all to pray together for the -beneficent rain which would save them from famine. His eloquence reduced -the assembled audience to tears, and for three days their united orisons -rose to heaven. And then the miracle came to pass. The rain fell -abundantly, that same rain over which we had rejoiced in the Tigris -gorge, without knowing that we owed it to the prayers of the Moslems and -Christians of Kharpût, nor yet how many fevers it was assuaging, more -fatal than the sun-fever in our veins; for it was admitted that this -most fortunate coincidence would do more to bring about amity than the -fall of many sultans. - -I sat long into the night and gazed upon the shattered crags of Kharpût -and the hollow plain, clothed in abundance of fruits, and sheltered by -its ring of noble hills. What is it that leads to massacre? whence does -that sudden frenzy spring, whither vanish? Like a tornado it bursts over -the peaceful earth, blots out the daily life of town and village, -destroys, uproots and slays--and passes. My thoughts were still busy -with these unanswerable problems when we rode upon our way next morning. -One of my muleteers was a Moslem, a ḥajjî, a Mecca pilgrim. I had known -him for many years and he had served me well during months of hard -travel. When the road was long he had not wearied; when the sun was hot -he had not complained; when the wind blew cold he drew more closely -about him the duffle coat which I had given him in Aleppo, and every -evening after the tents were pitched and the horses picketed, I had seen -him building up the fire under the big rice-pot and stirring the savoury -mess on which my camp was to sup. To-day as I looked into his simple -honest face, I wondered what unexpected ferocity lay behind its familiar -wrinkles. - -“Ḥâjj ’Amr,” I said, “in the day of slaughter, would you kill me?” - -“My lady, no,” he replied, “not you. I have eaten your bread.” - -“Would you kill Fattûḥ and Selîm and Jûsef?” I asked. - -“No, no,” said he, “not them. We are brothers.” - -“But other Christians you would slay?” - -“Eh wallah!” he answered; “in the day of slaughter.” - -I ceased my questionings and rode on, but the subject was to come up -again. It happened in this manner. - -We had journeyed over the plain to Khân Keui and climbed on to a low -spur of the hills. Having crossed it, we rode down a long valley with -high hills on either hand.[214] It chanced that Fattûḥ and I and a -zaptieh were on ahead, and as we went we fell into talk. Now Fattûḥ is a -Catholic Armenian, and in the old days we have experienced many a -difficulty over his teskereh, owing to the ominous word Armenian which -is inscribed upon it. At the end of the last journey he had vowed that -he would change his faith, which does not sit very heavy upon -him--Fattûḥ being a philosopher touching the finer distinctions of -creed--and I now asked him whether he had carried out this -determination. - -“Effendim,” he replied, “two years ago, when I returned to Aleppo, I -told the bishop that I would become Brotestant or Latîn (Protestant or -Roman Catholic). And he argued with me and said he would send a priest -to pray with me. But I said No, for I and my family are Brotestant.” - -“And are you a Protestant?” said I. - -“God knows,” replied Fattûḥ. “On my teskereh I am still written down a -Catholic Armenian, but that I cannot be, for I refused to let the priest -come into my house to pray. Therefore I belong to no religion but the -religion of God.” - -“We all belong to that religion,” said I. - -“True, wallah,” said the zaptieh. - -Presently there came up the road towards us a train of loaded camels. - -“These are men of Ḳaisarîyeh,” said Fattûḥ. “I know them by their -dress.” And as the first string of camels drew near, he shouted to the -man sitting half-asleep upon the leading animal: “Are you from the port, -the port of Beilân?” - -“Evvet, evvet,” he answered drowsily, and his body rocked with the long -rocking of the camel’s stride as they plodded past. - -“Nasl Kirk Khân?” cried Fattûḥ. “How does Kirk Khân?” - -Kirk Khân is a Christian village at the foot of the Beilân Pass, between -Aleppo and Alexandretta. - -The next cameleer had come up with his string and he answered the -question. - -“The giaour are all killed,” he answered, taking Fattûḥ for a Moslem. - -“And how are the houses, the houses of the giaour?” Fattûḥ called out. -The leader of the next string answered-- - -“They are all burnt.” - -“Praise God,” said Fattûḥ, and the zaptieh laughed. - -When the camel-train had passed I said: - -“Why did you call the people of Kirk Khân infidels?” - -“Because the camel-driver called them so,” Fattûḥ replied. - -“And why did you praise God?” - -“Effendim, they praised God when they saw Kirk Khân in ashes, and they -rejoiced to tell the tale--what else should I say?” He rode on silently -for a few minutes, and then he added: “All the men of Kirk Khân were my -friends. Every time I drove my carriage from Aleppo to Alexandretta, I -stopped to eat with them, and they, when they were in Aleppo, came to my -house. Now they are dead--God have mercy on them.” - -His sorrowful acceptance of an outrage which the Western mind, -accustomed to regard the protecting of human life as the first -obligation of society, refused to contemplate, revealed to me the -magnitude of the gulf which I had been attempting to bridge, and as I -followed the channel of Fattûḥ’s thought, I saw Fate, in the likeness of -a camel-train, moving, slow and heavy-footed, towards the inevitable -goal. - -Our road climbed over a bluff and dropped again into a ravine at the -lower end of which stands Kömür Khân, an old, red-roofed caravanserai, -stately in decay. Near to it flows the Murad Su, which is the Euphrates, -and though we were now far from its Mesopotamian reaches, it was already -a great river whose waters had received the tribute of many snows. Below -Kömür Khân it enters a narrow gorge where the hills fall sheer into the -water, and above the khân, carved upon a slab of rock, a Vannic -inscription bears witness to the high antiquity of the road.[215] The -ferry is a couple of hours further up stream, but we reached it late in -the afternoon and were too weary to cross that night. We pitched our -tents on the bank--it was our last Euphrates camp--opposite the village -and great mound of Iz Oglu. - -The next day’s ride took us over hill and dale to Malaṭiyah.[216] The -road was planted with mulberry-trees that dropped their ripe fruit at -our feet; the swelling slopes were deep in corn, and water-loving -poplars stood in the meadows at the valley bottoms--I do not think that -we broke the record of travel upon this stage: there were too many -temptations urging us to loiter. Modern Malaṭiyah occupies the site of -Azbuzu, a village which was once the summer quarters of the parent city. -In 1838, during the war between Turkey and Egypt, Azbuzu became the -head-quarters of the Turkish general, Ḥâfiẓ Pasha. Old Malaṭiyah, which -is situated about two hours to the north-west, was at that time in great -part destroyed for the enlarging of Azbuzu, and has since lain deserted -and almost uninhabited. Moltke, who joined the Turkish army in 1838 and -remained with it for a year, describes the wonderful luxuriance of the -gardens of Azbuzu in his enchanting volume of letters, the most -delightful book that has ever been written about Turkey, with the sole -exception of _Eothen_. The gardens are no less exquisite now than they -were in his time, and as we rode down the hill-side the houses were -scarcely to be seen through their screen of fruit-trees. Even upon a -nearer view the walnuts and mulberries are far more striking than the -buildings of Malaṭiyah, which are constructed, as Moltke says, out of -exactly the same material as that with which the swallows make their -nests. We camped in the midst of poppy-fields by one of the many streams -for which Malaṭiyah is famous, and I spent the afternoon exploring the -town, but could find nothing of interest in it, except some Hittite -reliefs which had been brought from Arslân Tepeh.[217] I had already -determined to visit old Malaṭiyah, and the sight of these stones sent me -round by the mound from which they had come. We rode for half-an-hour -through gardens to Ordasu, itself buried in gardens, and thence to a -ruined monastery, a quarter of an hour up the hill-side. A small chapel -has been patched together in the north aisle of the original church. -Slabs carved with Latin crosses, or - -[Illustration: FIG. 214.--MALAṬIYAH ESKISHEHR.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 215.--VALLEY OF THE TOKHMA SU.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 216.--TOMB AT OZAN.] - -with the Greek cross encircled by a victor’s wreath, lay about among the -ruins or were built into the walls, and upon the piers of the old nave -the capitals were roughly carved with acanthus. None of this work seemed -to me to be earlier than the eighth or ninth centuries, but I saw in the -grass-grown court finely-moulded column bases which were of earlier -date. They may have been brought from the city of Melitene, which was -the forerunner of old Malaṭiyah.[218] An hour’s ride from the monastery -stands the big mound of Arslân Tepeh surrounded by gardens and -poppy-fields. Without the evidence of the reliefs it might have been -conjectured to represent a Hittite city. The wide fertile valley in -which it is placed, the backing of hills, the open plain stretched out -beyond it, combine to make Arslân Tepeh one of the typical sites chosen -by the old people, and excavation might prove it to be the mother-city -of the townships, represented by mounds, which were scattered over the -lower ground. From Arslân Tepeh we rode for fifty minutes to Old -Malaṭiyah, which has moved rapidly towards complete decay since it was -deserted seventy years ago (Fig. 214). The walls and bastions are -dropping piecemeal into the poppy-fields that fill the moat; of the -streets little or nothing remains: the ruined mosques and tall minarets -rise out of a sea of silvery poppy flowers. The Ulu Jâmi’ is still used -for prayer, but its door was locked and the key was not to be procured. -I climbed by its carved and half-ruined gateway on to the roof, and -peering through the windows of the dome, saw that the interior was -beautifully decorated with tiles and inscriptions. A rich store of fine -Mohammadan work remains to be studied there. - -It was a five hours’ ride across the plain to Elemenjik, where our camp -was pitched.[219] Elemenjik is a great breeding farm, the property of -the late Sultan, who owned most of the pasture lands about Malaṭiyah. -The population were in some distress at the prospect of a change of -masters and the abolition of the privileges attached to a royal estate, -and the government was confronted with a difficult problem with regard -to the disposition of these domains. Few private persons could afford to -pay the full price for the large breeding stables on the Sultan’s farms, -and the properties will lose much of their value when they lose the -military guard that watched over the security of the royal mares. The -solitude that will be a drawback when Elemenjik comes into the market, -was a delightful advantage to our camping-ground, and the people of -Kharpût must have been at their prayers again, for the rain fell in -refreshing torrents and, clearing away, left the broad plain and the -unexplored peaks of the Dersîm mountains shining in the sunset. - -Next morning we passed by another of the Sultan’s farms, nestled among -poplar-trees in the midst of carefully hedged fields, and in three hours -we came to Arga, where we called a halt while we changed zaptiehs. I was -well pleased at the delay, for it gave me opportunity to examine some -elementary excavations which had been carried out by the Turkish -government. They had uncovered the foundations of a church with a -tesselated marble pavement, fragments of round columns and moulded bases -of excellent workmanship; that it was indeed a church I took on trust -from the zaptieh, who acted as showman, for the aims of the excavators -had not included the revelation of a plan; but the slabs carved with -crosses bore out the official view.[220] When he had exhibited all that -was to be seen, he handed me over to one of his colleagues, who was to -accompany us to Derendeh, with the parting injunction that he was to -guide me to every ruin in the hills. “This khânum,” he observed, “likes -ruins.” - -“Effendim, olour,” replied his interlocutor, “it shall be.” - -But it was not. Perhaps there are no ruins where we crossed the Akcheh -Dâgh, or perhaps in the excitement of the road the zaptieh forgot them -as completely as I did. Our path would have done credit to the most -sensational of journeys. It led us over wild and rocky hills and down -into gorges incredibly deep and narrow, and when we stopped to draw -breath at the bottom of one of these breakneck descents, we saw the -track in front of us climbing mercilessly up the opposite precipice. We -came to the bottom of the first valley at 11.45, about an hour from -Arga; Deveh Deresi is its name. At the top of the next ridge the -splendid gorge of the Levandi Chai opened at our feet. With many warning -cries to the baggage animals and much tugging at the taut bridles of our -own mounts (for these passages had to be performed on foot) we reached -the stream at 1.20 near to the Kurdish village of Levandiler. A steep -climb brought us in another hour to the high village of Chatagh; a -quarter of an hour beyond it we topped the pass and rode down by easy -gradients to Levent. Here, surrounded by magnificent rocky hills, we -pitched camp. Our hosts were men of the Kizil Bâsh, a sect whose -head-quarters are in the Dersîm. Their creed, which is much contemned by -the Moslems--and not in words alone--is said to waver between Paganism, -Christianity, Manichæanism and Shî’ism, touched with some memories of -ancient Anatolian cults. I did not attempt to unravel these mysteries -during the evening I spent at Levent, but contented myself with inviting -the headmen of the village to a coffee-party, on which simple human -basis relations of the most cordial nature were established. The night -was sharply cold, and we set out next morning, with numb fingers, to -scramble down into the valley below Levent and up to the opposite ridge, -which we reached in one hour. Above us towered the rocky plateau of the -Ḳal’ah Dâgh, flanked on every side by cliffs, and below lay the wide and -fertile valley of the Tokhma Su (Fig. 215). The caravan pursued its way -westward, but I turned east, by Kurd Keui and Saman, and touched the -river at Ozan, four hours from Levent, where my zaptieh had promised me -a ruin. “Ishté bu,” said the headman of the village, pointing across the -poppy-fields, “here it is;” and he turned away to gather us a dish of -ripe mulberries, while I stood in amazement before the Ionic columns and -carved garlands of a little tomb that might have graced the Appian Way -(Figs. 216 and 217). There are no inscriptions upon it, nor anything to -tell whose bones were laid within the vaulted chamber; I sent a greeting -across the ages to the shade of him who had brought - -[Illustration: FIG. 218.--THE GORGE AT DERENDEH.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 219.--TOMB NEAR YAZI KEUI.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 220.--TOMARZA, CHURCH OF THE PANAGIA FROM -SOUTH-EAST.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 221.--TOMARZA, CHURCH OF THE PANAGIA, SETTING OF -DOME.] - -into this remote and inaccessible valley the arts of the West, and -journeyed on. - -[Illustration: FIG. 217--OZAN, TOMB.] - -In four hours’ ride, by an easy path up the right bank of the Tokhma Su, -we reached our camp, pitched near the village of Kötü Ḳal’ah, which -takes its name from a small ruined fort on the rock above it,[221] and -another four hours brought us next morning to Derendeh.[222] The town is -scattered among gardens for close upon an hour’s ride along the valley. -Towards the upper end a ruined castle stands upon a bold promontory of -rock overhanging the stream.[223] A staircase, hewn in the precipice, -gave the defenders access to the water; on the further side the hill -slopes down more gently, and the ruins of a former Derendeh lie about -its foot. We marched three hours further and camped at Yazi Keui, upon -the grassy margin of the stream. The bare valley, with its ribbon of -cultivation along the water’s edge, gave us delightful travelling, but -of archæological interest there was nothing to be found, and when a -native of Yazi Keui brought us information of ruins at some distance -from our path, I engaged him joyfully to conduct us thither on the -following morning. He led us into the hills to the north of the river by -a fairly good road (it is the direct caravan road from Sivâs to -Albistân, and much frequented) and on to a wide pasturage, an hour and a -half from Yazi Keui. The snows of Nurshak Dagh, south-east of Albistân, -were visible from the huts of this alpine yaila. At its northern end we -found a considerable quantity of shapeless ruins, mere heaps of -unsquared stones, and among them three small tombs, half-buried in the -earth (Fig. 219). They varied from 2 to 2·50 m. in length, by 1·20 to -2·20 m. in width, and were built of carefully dressed stones. Each had a -door in one of the short sides, and each had been covered by a stone -vault. In another hour and a half we came down to the Tokhma valley -opposite the village of Tikmin; we passed through Telin and reached the -khân of Görün in two hours more. There we halted to pick up fresh -zaptiehs, and were greeted by the news that the zaptiehs were not ready -and that the caravan had gone on unescorted. I had no mind to be parted -from my tents upon an unknown road, and, abandoning my intention of -visiting a Hittite inscription in the gorge above Görün, I posted after -the muleteers with Jûsef at my heels. The path leaves the valley here -and crosses some high ground, upon which, after an hour’s hard riding, -we caught up the caravan and were ourselves caught up, while we paused -to lunch, by the zaptiehs. After we had passed a large chiflik belonging -to the Sultan, we descended once more into the valley of the Tokhma Su -at Osmândedelî.[224] We pitched camp above the village in a flowery -meadow, through which hurried the Tokhma Su, a tiny flashing brook. On a -rocky point above us were the ruins of a fort with a Greek cross in a -wreath cut upon the fallen lintel of its door. - -We had now before us the roughest stage of our journey, for we had -reached the hills that part the waters tributary to the Euphrates, from -those that are tributary to the Saiḥûnthe Persian Gulf from the -Mediterranean. I cannot recommend the way we took across them, except -for the beauty of the high and desolate pass.[225] As soon as we had -climbed out of the valley of Osmândedelî we found ourselves on a wide -upland, swept by cold airs and ringed about with mountains. The wheat -was scarcely up, the grass sodden with newly melted snow, the peaks all -white. In the midst of these fields lay Küpek Euren, a small hamlet near -a mound which was covered with the building stones of an earlier time, -while upon the slopes that closed the western end of the plateau was the -village of Bey Punar. Having passed the latter, we climbed into the -hills by a shallow gorge down which flowed the head-waters of the Tokhma -Su. Our way was decked with flowers. Daphne and androsace, veronica and -dianthus grew among the rocks, and purple primulas edged the channel of -the stream. The gullies were still full of snow. So we came to the water -parting, 2,040 to 2,070 metres above sea-level, according to Kiepert, -and bidding farewell to the last source of the Mesopotamian rivers, rode -down into the basin of the Mediterranean. The long gently-sloping -meadows were rich in grass, but no flocks grazed there, and no summer -villages were to be seen among the juniper-bushes. The lonely beauty of -these alpine pastures, where nature spreads out her fairest bounty, _e -beata si gode_, fell upon us like a benison, and once again I offered up -praise to all mountains. The water-runnels gathered together into a -small clear stream which rippled away from its birthplace in the green -hollows and plunged, we following it, into a pine-clad valley. The path -grew steeper and more rocky as we descended, the valley narrower, until -there was no place left free from pine and berberis and juniper but the -boulder-strewn bed of the river. At length we were able to pull our -horses up an exceedingly steep track through the pine-woods, by which we -emerged on to a grassy hill-side. Here by good fortune we found a party -of Circassians, who were hauling their bullock wagons, heavily loaded -with timber, over ways which we reckoned to be hard going even for our -baggage animals. They directed us to Boran Dereh Keui. Before we had -gone far we rounded a spur and the snowy peaks of Mount Argæus swam into -our ken, set in the midst of the Anatolian plateau. - -Boran Dereh Keui is a Muhâjir village, that is to say, it is peopled by -Circassian immigrants from the Caucasus. They have filled the valley of -the Zamantî Su, and though they are not liked by the indigenous -population, their coming has raised very sensibly the level of -civilization. Forty years ago the Zamantî valley was innocent of any -settled habitation; the nomad Avshars drove their flocks up to it in the -summer, sowed scanty crops, and left before the first winter snows. Now -it is all under the plough, and the Circassian villages, with their -osier beds and neat vegetable gardens, are scattered thickly along it. -Nomad life dies out in a cultivated country, and the Avshars are -settling into villages, though their houses are not so well built, nor -their gardens so well kept as those of the Circassians. The chief town -of the district is ’Azîzîyeh. There we changed zaptiehs, and I sat in -the konak while the necessary arrangements were being made and drank -coffee with the officials. Presently there appeared one who was half a -negro and told me his tale in the strong, guttural Arabic of the desert. -He was a native of the Ḥejâz; he had wandered up into this country -before there were any villages in it and had remained as a merchant. - -“It is very beautiful here,” said I. - -“Yes,” said he, “but the desert is different. I have not seen it for -forty years.” And I understood what was in his heart. - -Behind the konak a plentiful spring bursts out from under the cliffs. I -walked up to it and saw men digging up old walls in quest of cut stones. -Fragments of columns and rude mouldings pointed to the former presence -of a church, and perhaps an earlier shrine hallowed, in true Anatolian -fashion, the abundant source.[226] From ’Azîzîyeh we turned our faces -to Mount Argæus and travelled along a well-laid road to Ekrek.[227] -Among the hills at some distance to the right of the road stands the -castle of Maḥmûd Ghâzî, magnificently placed upon a peak. My zaptieh -told me that in spite of its name it was a Christian fortress, for he -had seen crosses carved upon the lintels, and only the distaste for -further excursions that follows upon long stages of mountain travel, -prevented me from going up to it. I have a shrewd suspicion that it must -be the Tsamandos of the Byzantine historians.[228] Ekrek, where we -pitched camp, is built in the bottom of one of the deep valleys which -are typical of the district about Argæus. The lava with which the plain -is covered forms a sharp cliff on either lip of these gorges, and in -places the formation of the volcanic beds is so distinct that the lava -can be seen lying like a solid pavement upon the soil, broken off at the -edges of the valley and scattered down the slopes in huge slabs. Before -I got into camp I turned off to see a small ruined church of no very -great interest, and within the town there are several larger churches, -all remodelled by the Armenian inhabitants.[229] The early Christian -architecture of the eastern side of Cappadocia was unknown to me except -from books, and finding myself in St. Basil’s own country, I seized the -opportunity of visiting some of the buildings which sprang up with the -monastic impulse which he implanted. Instead of making straight for -Cæsarea I rode next day under the slopes of the Köleteh Dâgh to the -ruins of the Panagia above the village of Köpekli,[230] and so to -Tomarza, where there is one of the finest of the Cappadocian ruins -(Fig. 220). Both these buildings exhibit the Anatolian type of the domed -cruciform, which was already familiar to me, but the decorative details, -the engaged pilasters upon the outer walls, the elaborate mouldings, the -string-courses carved over doors and windows, are not to be found in the -churches that lie further to the west. I sat that night in the Armenian -monastery where I was lodged, and pondered over the artistic tradition -which these things revealed, and the mingling of occidental with -oriental themes which they implied. Not far to the south-east of Tomarza -stands among the hills the famous shrine of Comana, sacred to the -goddess Ma. With its ancient Asiatic cult and its temples constructed or -reconstructed in the Imperial period, Comana was one of the great -meeting-places of the culture of East and West; its buildings must have -exercised a strong influence over the architecture of eastern -Cappadocia, and I determined to seek among its ruins evidences of the -age that had preceded the early Christian. - -The Armenian priest, whose guest I was, was eager to relate to me the -anxieties through which he and his congregation had passed during the -last two months. Tomarza lay just beyond the zone of the recent -outbreak, but at Shahr, the village which occupies the site of Comana, -there had been a “masaleh” (an incident), though he did not enter into -particulars as to its character. It was evident that he regarded my -interest in antiquities as a mere cloak wherewith to cover a political -purpose, and since I was not at the pains to undeceive him--if indeed it -had been possible to make my aims clear to him--the announcement of my -intention to visit Comana gave him yet stronger grounds for his -conviction. By all Tomarza I was regarded as an itinerant missionary -collecting evidence with regard to the massacre. The proximity of -missionary schools was attested in varying degrees by the acquirements -of the population. As I walked through - -[Illustration: FIG. 222.--TOMARZA, WEST DOOR OF NAVE, CHURCH OF THE -PANAGIA.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 223.--SHAHR, DOORWAY OF SMALL TEMPLE.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 224.--FATTÛḤ.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 225.--ON THE ROAD TO SHAHR.] - -the streets I was met by a young man who accosted me in French. - -“Vous parlez français?” said he. - -“Mais oui,” said I. - -“Vous parlez bien?” he continued. - -“Très bien,” I answered unblushingly, and he was obliged to take my word -for it, for when I inquired whether he were a native of Tomarza, he -could not understand until I repeated the question in Turkish. - -My next interlocutor was a boy who spoke English, which he had learnt, -and learnt well, in an American college where he had taken his degree. -He asked if he might know my name, and when I had obliged him in this -particular, he begged that he might be told my object in coming to -Tomarza. But I, being at the moment too busy with the ruins of the -church to answer so many questions, replied that I had no object, and -reduced him to a discomfited silence. The springs of action are -different in American colleges. - -We left Tomarza at ten o’clock and journeyed into the hills by way of -Suvagen, which we reached at 12.40. Almost immediately after we had left -the village, we entered a gorge, and our path climbed up through the -pine-woods to Kokur Ḳayâ, a small yaila near the top of the pass known -as Ḳara Bel. Here we pitched camp at five in the afternoon, close under -the snow-wreaths that clung to the northern side of a rocky chain of -peaks. Until sunset the clear fresh notes of a cuckoo filled the alp, -and all that he had to say was worth hearing; but I wondered whether he -enjoyed the society of his brother the kite, whose thin rippling cry -dropped down from the rocks above him. I did not take my camp over the -pass to Comana, but set out next day with Fattûḥ and a zaptieh and such -simple provisions as might enable us to spend a night away from our -tents if we found it necessary. Before we started I covenanted with the -zaptieh, who was unusually pious, that prayers should be suspended for -the day, the previous day’s journey having been seriously upset by the -occurrence of the ’aṣr (the hour of afternoon prayer), though every one -knows that there is a special dispensation with regard to travellers. - -[Illustration: FIG. 226.--SHAHR, TEMPLE-MAUSOLEUM, UPPER AND LOWER -STOREYS.] - -The long grassy pass opens on to a confused prospect of desolate -mountains and hardly less deserted valleys; the gnarled and twisted -pine-woods clinging to the rocks, the flowering hawthorn and regiments -of yellow mullein that lined the lower course of the stream, gave to our -road a memorable beauty, and if the going was not so good as might have -been desired, why, we had seen worse. In the midst of these wild -solitudes, five hours from Kokur Ḳayâ, we came upon a ruined shrine. It -was a temple-mausoleum, and in this respect the true forerunner of the -memorial churches of the Anatolian plateau (Fig. 226); nor did the -connection between the Christian and the Pagan work cease here. The -shallow engaged pilasters, broken by a moulding into two storeys, which -are found in the churches, were present in the temple; if the -string-courses did not yet form a continuous band over the window -arches, it was easy to see how obvious the transition to the later type -would be, and the character of the profiles was the same here as in the -churches (Fig. 227). The lower part of the temple contained a vault -filled with loculi; the eastern end of the upper floor was ruined and -overgrown with thick brushwood, but I have no doubt that it could be -disengaged and planned without difficulty. Some clearing away of earth -and shrubs would be required before it would be possible to make out the -nature of a building, indicated by masses of dressed stones and broken -columns, which was placed immediately to the south of the temple, but -the ruins standing above ground were an exceedingly instructive link in -the chain of Cappadocian architecture, and I rode down to Shahr full of -hope. The village lies in the heart of a valley cut out by the Gök Su, a -tributary of the Saiḥûn. Its sheltered fields were covered with corn, -its - -[Illustration: FIG. 227.--SHAHR, TEMPLE-MAUSOLEUM.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 228.--SHAHR, THE CHURCH ON THE BLUFF.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 229.--AVSHAR ENCAMPMENT.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 230.--ḲAIṢARÎYEH, THE CITADEL.] - -gardens planted with fruit-trees, but the streets and houses were no -less ruined than the temples of the Great Goddess. The hot breath of -massacre had passed down the smiling vale and left Shahr a heap of -ashes. I found the inhabitants huddled together on a bluff where -half-a-dozen of their dwellings had escaped destruction. A young -school-master from the American college of Tarsus told me the story in -my own tongue. He was himself a native of Shahr, and chance had brought -him back to his home shortly before the outbreak at Adana and Tarsus. Of -this disaster, which began upon April 14, the people of Shahr had -received no information until, on April 20, the Kurds, Turks and -Circassians from the neighbouring Moslem villages appeared in arms and -announced that they did not intend to leave a single Christian alive. -The villagers of Shahr had eighty rifles among them. Thus armed they -defended the bluff, on which stand the ruins of the chief shrine of Ma, -for nine days, at the end of which time tardy help arrived from -’Azîzîyeh. They had not lost a life, but they had been powerless to -prevent the destruction of the village in the valley. Every house was -looted and burnt; of the bazaars nothing remained but blackened -foundations; the charred beams of the bridge had fallen into the stream, -and the only wall that yet stood in the low ground was a splendid -fragment of ancient masonry facing the river. - -“Why,” said I, gazing upon the ruin heaps that had once been the -school-master’s house, “did they spare the fruit-trees and the corn?” - -“They thought that we should be dead before the corn was ripe,” he -answered, “and they meant to reap it for themselves. Also the -fruit-trees they looked on as their own. Besides these we have nothing -left, and we are so much troubled by hunger.” - -They were as much troubled by the thought that they could not offer me a -fitting hospitality. The oda (the village guest-chamber) was in ashes, -and the few houses on the bluff were crowded with women and children. -But there was nothing to detain me. The ancient buildings had suffered -with the modern; the inscribed stones and acanthus capitals, relics of -a golden past, which had decked the streets of the bazaar, lay -blackened and half buried among the ruins, and after I had made a brief -survey of the site, I handed over to the school-master the little money -that was in my purse, and turned back across the hills.[231] The dusk -gathered about us as we climbed up to the pass, but the road that we had -followed so gaily in the morning was full of darker shadows than those -of night. “Nature, red in tooth and claw with ravine,” cried out from -riven crag and blasted pine; mountain and valley joined in her chorus, -strophe to antistrophe. Mercilessly she creates and destroys; the fury -of the storm, the sharp blade of the frost, the senseless passions of -mankind, are alike of her ordering. - -The ruins of Shahr were the sole evidence which I saw with my own eyes -of the far-reaching havoc wrought by the outbreak at Adana, but before I -reached Konia I had opportunity to judge of its lasting effect. In -Cæsarea trade was paralyzed by the economic annihilation of the rich -province of Cilicia, as well as by the fear of further disturbances. The -massacres had struck terror into the heart of Moslem and of Christian; -they extinguished for a time the new-born hopes of peace, and roused -once more the hatred between creed and creed which the authors of the -constitution had undertaken to allay. Every section of the community -suffered from a destruction of confidence which is even more disastrous -than the destruction of wealth, though the Armenians suffered -incomparably the most. But the fact that they bore a penalty out of -proportion to their fault does not acquit them of blame. They had helped -to bring upon themselves the calamity that overwhelmed them; by wild -oratory they had laid themselves open to the accusations of conspiracy -which were brought against them; they had kindled the flames of discord -by preaching in their churches the obligation of revenge. The criminal -folly of their utterances stirred up vague alarms in the breasts of an -ignorant and fanatical population, and from whatever side came the -incitement to outrage, it came to ears sharpened by anxiety. But it must -be remembered that in several instances catastrophe was averted by the -prompt action of the officials who controlled the threatened districts. -In Cæsarea the Mutesarrif, rather than allow a repetition of the Adana -tragedy, ordered his soldiers to fire upon the Moslem crowd, who -clamoured about the serai for arms on the plea that their lives were in -danger from the Christians, and his uncompromising attitude brought the -town to order; the Ḳâimmaḳâm of Eregli patrolled the streets night after -night during a week of panic; the Mutesarrif of Kozan drove back the -armed bands of Circassians who had marched down from the mountains bent -on slaughter. Wherever it became evident that the government was not on -the side of disorder, disorder was nipped in the bud, and I heard of one -example where a handful of Turkish soldiers held in check many hundreds -of Kurds, and the Christian village which they had assembled to destroy -escaped untouched. I believe that no great massacre has taken place in -Turkey without the encouragement of the central authority, or a -passivity which amounts to connivance on the part of the local -officials; a strong Vâlî backed by an enlightened government would keep -peace in the most fanatical province of the empire. - -On our way back to Tomarza we passed a large encampment of Avshars. The -tents of these Turkish nomads are of a pattern which is common to nearly -all the tribes of central Asia, but entirely different from that of the -Arabs (Fig. 229). They are round, with a domed roof of felt supported on -bent withes, and the sides are of plaited rushes over which a woollen -curtain is hung when the nights are cold.[232] We did not sleep a second -night at Tomarza, but marched a couple of hours further upon the road to -Cæsarea, and camped at the village of Mardîn, which lies in a cleft of -the lava beds under the twin peaks of Mount Argæus. Next day we skirted -the flanks of the great volcano, passing by the ruined Sarî Khân and -under the small peak of ’Alî Dâgh, which is (so I was credibly informed -by my zaptieh) nothing but a stray boulder dropped by ’Alî ibn abi Tâlib -when he was engaged in helping the Prophet to pile up the huge mass of -Argæus.[233] Not only the geographical features of the land, but also -the physical and moral qualities of the inhabitants of Cæsarea came -under our consideration as we rode. - -“If a serpent bites a man of Ḳaiṣarîyeh,” observed Fattûḥ, “the serpent -dies.” - -“Jânum!” exclaimed the zaptieh (who was not a Cæsarean). “My soul! they -can outwit the devil himself. Have you not heard the tale?” - -“I have not heard,” said Fattûḥ. - -“This it is,” said the zaptieh. “Upon a day the devil came to -Ḳaiṣarîyeh. ‘Khush geldi,’ said the people, ‘a fair welcome,’ and they -showed him the streets and the bazaars of the city, the mosques and the -khâns, all of them. When he was hungry they set food before him till he -was well satisfied, but when he rose to depart, he looked for his cloak -and belt and they were gone. The devil is not safe from the thieves of -Ḳaiṣarîyeh.” - -“God made them rogues,” said Fattûḥ. - -“What can we do?” observed the zaptieh philosophically. “Dunya bîr, -jânum--the world is all one.” - -“Great travelling they make,” continued Fattûḥ. “In every city you meet -them.” - -The zaptieh was ready with historic evidence on this head also. - -“There was a man,” said he, “who lived some time in Cæsarea, and having -had experience of the people, he found them to be all pigs. Therefore he -resolved to journey to the furthest end of the earth, that he might -escape from them. And he went to Baghdâd, which is a long road.” - -“It is long,” admitted Fattûḥ. - -“And then he entered the bath and demanded a good ḥammâmjî to knead the -weariness out of his bones. And the owner of the bath called out: ‘Bring -the lame Cæsarean!’ Then said the traveller: ’A Cæsarean here and he -lame!’ and he fled from Baghdâd.” - -Fattûḥ is innocent of any sense of humour. “Oh Merciful,” said he -gravely. - -I do not know whether it was the effect produced by these - -[Illustration: FIG. 231.--MOUNT ARGAEUS FROM NORTH-WEST.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 233.--NIGDEH, TOMB OF HAVANDA.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 234.--NIGDEH, TOMB OF HAVANDA, DETAIL OF WINDOW.] - -tales which prevented me from lodging in Ḳaiṣarîyeh, or whether the -prospect of two days spent in the society of people of my own speech and -civilization would not have proved too strong a temptation, even if the -Cæsareans had shone with every virtue; at any rate I went no further -than Talas, and there remained as a guest in the hospital of the -American missionaries. And if I saw little of the famous city of -Cæsarea, I passed many hours in the hospital garden at the feet of men -and women whose words were instinct with a wise tolerance and weighted -by a profound experience of every aspect of Oriental life. - -Ḳaiṣarîyeh was the end of the caravan journey. In two days we had sold -our horses (“One for us to sell and one for them to buy,” said Fattûḥ), -and packed our belongings into the carts which were to take us to the -railway at Ereglî. I rode down from Talas to conclude these arrangements -and to visit the citadel which stands on Justinian’s foundations. The -interior is now packed with narrow streets, the houses being built -partly of ancient materials (Fig. 230). The fragments of columns and the -weather-worn capitals which are imbedded in the walls of the houses were -derived either from the early Christian town which occupied the site of -modern Ḳaiṣarîyeh, or from ancient Cæsarea, which lay upon the lower -slopes of Mount Argæus. A few foundations outside the limits of the -present town are all that remain of the churches that adorned the -greatest ecclesiastical centre of the Anatolian plateau, the birthplace -of St. Basil, but the memory of the Seljuk conquerors, who gave it a -fresh glory during the Middle Ages, is still preserved in many a -decaying mosque and school. - -We set out from Ḳaiṣarîyeh a diminished party, Ḥâjj ’Amr and Selîm -having found work with a caravan of muleteers and returned with them -across the mountains to Aleppo. The first day’s drive took us round the -foot of Argæus to Yeni Khân, a solitary inn, not marked in Kiepert, -which lies two hours to the north of Ḳaraḥiṣâr. The mighty buttresses of -Argæus, rising out of the immense flats of the Anatolian plateau, are as -imposing as the flanks of Etna rising from the - -[Illustration: FIG. 232.--TOMB OF HAVANDA.] - -sea, and its height, over 13,000 feet, is scarcely less from base to -summit than that of the Sicilian volcano.[234] The second day brought us -to a khân by the roadside, half-an-hour from the village of Andaval; -upon the following morning we reached, after three-quarters of an hour’s -drive, the church of Constantine, of which the foundation is attributed -by legend to the Empress Helena,[235] and in two hours more we came to -Nigdeh, where I halted for a few hours to see the Seljuk mosques and -tombs for which the town is famed. Of these the most beautiful is the -so-called mausoleum of Havanda, the wife of ’Ala ed Din.[236] It is in -ground plan an octagon, but above the windows the number of faces is -doubled, the additional angles being built over projecting brackets, -finely worked with stalactite ornaments (Figs. 232 and 233). The -spandrils above the windows are decorated with pairs of sphinxes (Fig. -234), and the door is framed in a delicate tracery of lace-like -patterns. Beyond Bor we came into a well-known country dominated by the -twin peaks of Ḥassan Dâgh, the Lesser Argæus, which I greeted with a -respect mingled with the familiarity born of an intimate acquaintance -with its rocks. Three hours from Nigdeh we reached Emîr Chiflik, where -there is a khân unnamed by Kiepert, and next morning we drove into -Bulgurlû, the present terminus of the Baghdâd railway. But the art of -modern travel accords ill with the habits of the East; the baggage -wagon missed the daily train and we were obliged to wait for it at -Ereglî. - -“Your Excellency does not wish to see the pictures of the Benî Hît?” -said Fattûḥ suspiciously as we stepped out upon the platform. We had -never before passed through Ereglî without visiting the great Hittite -relief in the gorge of Ivrîz. But I reassured him: we had seen enough. - -One more expedition lay, however, between us and Konia. It was to be -accomplished in light order; indeed, we might have ridden up to the Ḳara -Dâgh without possessions, for there was no man in all the mountain who -would not have been proud to offer us a lodging. Fattûḥ and I shone -there with a reflected glory that radiated from the Chelabî, whose fame -is not confined to the Ḳara Dâgh, though few perhaps of his colleagues -in the Scottish Academe which he adorns would recognize him under his -Anatolian title. Had we not spent weeks under his direction in grubbing -among old stones, to the delight and profit of all beholders? Had we not -consumed innumerable hares and partridges at twopence a head, and -offered a sure market for yaourt and eggs? And when the regretted hour -of departure arrived, what store of empty tins and battered cooking pots -was left behind to keep our memory green! Our renown extended even to -Ḳaramân, where we alighted from the train on the following evening. The -khânjî was a trusted friend, the shopkeepers pressed gifts of rose jam -upon us, and when the hiring of horses presented a difficulty, I had -only to step out into the streets and explain our needs to the first -acquaintance whom I met. He happened to be a ḥammâl (a porter) who had -done a couple of days’ work for us in the Ḳara Dâgh, and he was intimate -with an arabajî (a carriage driver), who would without doubt place his -horses at our disposal; and if I would come in and drink a cup of coffee -the matter should be settled. I accepted the invitation and was -introduced triumphantly to the ḥammâl’s wife: “This is the maid I told -you about--she who worked with the Chelabî.” On our way back to the khân -we chanced to pass by the exquisite Khâtûnyeh Medresseh,[237] and since -the mullah was standing under the carved gateway, I stopped to bid him a -good-evening. In the tomb chamber that opens out of the cloistered -courtyard I remembered to have seen fragments of a fine inscription of -blue tiles: scarcely a tile was left upon the walls and I knew how they -had vanished, for I had found one of them in the hands of a Konia dealer -and bought it from him. This incident I related to the mullah. - -“You did very wrong,” said he. “You have stolen one of our tiles and -carried it away.” - -“I did not steal it,” I pleaded weakly. “I found it at Konia.” - -“It is all one,” he replied. “You should give it back.” - -But as we went out through the cloister I noticed that the columns which -supported it were double columns of a type peculiar to Christian -architecture. They had in all probability been removed from a church. - -“Mullah Effendi,” said I, “we are equal. I have taken a tile out of your -Moslem tomb, and you the columns from our Christian church.” - -The mullah’s indignation vanished in a flash. “Âferîn!” he cried, with a -jolly laugh. “Bravo!” and he clapped me on the back. - -The ḥammâl’s confidence in the arabajî had not been misplaced; we set -out next morning for the Ḳara Dâgh, and every mile was full of -delightful reminiscence. The yellow roses dropped their petals in -familiar fashion over the mountain path, mullein and borage spread their -annual carpet of blue and gold between the ruins, and the peak of -Mahalech, on which I had found a Hittite inscription and a Christian -monastery, stood guardian, as of old, over the green cup wherein had -lain an ancient city. The sturdy Yuruks came striding down from their -high yailas to bid us a joyful coming and a slow departure; many were -the greetings that passed round the camp fire, and it was well that -Fattûḥ had laid in a good provision of coffee at Ḳaramân. - -So on a hot morning we struck our last camp and rode down the northern -slopes of the mountain to rejoin the railway by which we were to travel -to Konia. And as we crossed the level plain Fattûḥ observed with -satisfaction: - -“The cornland has increased since two years ago. Effendim, there is -twice as much sown ground.” - -“Praise God!” said I. “It is the doing of the railway.” - -“Wherever it passes the corn springs up,” said Fattûḥ. “Mâshallah! Konia -will become a great city.” - -“It has grown in our knowledge,” said I. “But this year we shall find it -much changed, for all our friends have left.” - -“Where have they gone?” inquired Fattûḥ. - -“Riza Beg is in Salonica,” said I, mentioning one who had eaten out his -heart in exile for ten weary years. “He has gone back to his wife and -child.” - -“He would make haste to join them,” assented Fattûḥ. - -“And Meḥmet Pasha is in Constantinople. I saw his name among those who -helped to depose the Sultan.” - -“He has risen to high honour,” said Fattûḥ. Meḥmet Pasha was another of -the proscribed. - -“And Suleimân Effendi is deputy for Konia, where he was so long in -exile. Oh Fattûḥ, we shall be strangers there now that our friends have -gone.” - -“Your Excellency will meet them in other cities,” said Fattûḥ. “And they -will be free men.” - - - - -INDEX - - -Abbâsid Sâmarrâ, 242 - -Abu ’Atiḳ, ruins of, 66, 68, 110 - -Abu Bekr, tekîyeh of, 10, 15 - -Abu Dulâf, minaret of, 211, 213, 214; - mosque of, 243 _and note_^{1-46}, 246 _note_^{1} - -Abu Ḥanîfah, shrine of, 188 - -Abu Jîr, ruins of, 123, 124, 125, 127 - -Abu Kemâl, village of, 77, 81-82, 84, 85 - -Abu’l Ḥassan, tell of, 81, 111, 112-13 - -Abu Sa’îd, 63, 65, 101, 110, 111 - -Abu Tuṭah, 61 - -Aburas (Khâbûr), the, 109 - -Adana, massacre of Christians at, 251, 252, 302-3, 331-32, 349 - -’Aḍêm, the, 204 _and note_^{5} - -Aeipolis (Hît), 110, 111, 114 - -Afâḍleh, the, 53 - -Ager Romanorum, the, 307 - -’Ain el ’Aṣfûrîyeh, 124 - -’Ain el ’Awâsil, 124 - -’Ain et Tamr, oasis of, 135, 139; - history, 156, 157 - -’Ain Nakhîleh, village of, 26 - -’Ain Tâb, 32 - -’Ain Tell, Spring of, 9 - -’Ain Za’zu’, spring at, 118-19, 122 - -’Aiwir, ruin of, 118 - -Ajmîyeh, 89, 90 - -Akcheh Dâgh, the, 339 _and note_^{1} - -Akhaya Kala, island of, 99 - -Ala Klisse, decoration in, 155 - -Albistân, 342 - -Aleppo, saddlers of, 1-3; - politics and religion, 3-8; - municipal income, 8-9; - works of Seif ed Dauleh, 9, 11-12; - Christians of, 9-10; - antiquity of, 10-11; - the Jâmi’ el Ḥelâwîyeh, 11; - mosque of Firdaus, 12; - the Jâmi’ esh Shaibîyeh, 12; - shrine of Ḥussein, 12-13; - architecture, 13-14; - the Bîmâristân El Malik eẓ Ẓâhir, 14; - the citadel, 15-16; - the road to Baghdâd, 126; - gateway of the citadel, the serpent motive, 15, 190; - news of massacre, 317; - distances from, 334, 335 - -Alexandretta, port of, 334, 335 - -’Alî Dâgh, 353 - -’Alḳâmî, the, 164 _note_^{1} - -Alḳôsh, 274, 281, 282 - -Allan, 111, 112 - -Alûs, 101 - -Al’ Uzz (Kiepert), 101 - -Amadîyeh, 288 - -Amârah, 184, 194 - -’Amej, castle of, 86, 121 - -’Amr, mosque of, Cairo, 56 _note_^{2} - -’Amrḳan, 262 - -’Anâb, 44, 47 - -’Ânah, 85, 87, 88, 89, 113; - the road to, 92-93; - the castle and minaret, 94-96; - history, 96-98 - -Anatho (’Anah), 92, 109, 111, 114 - -Andaval, village of, 356 - -Anderîn, barracks at, 121 _note_^{2} - -Annouca, castle of, 68 - -Anthemusia, 22 - -Anti Taurus, 327 - -Antioch Gate, Aleppo, 11, 15 - -Antioch on the Orontes, 10 - -Anu and Adad, temple of, 223 - -Apamea (Strabo), 204 - -Arabissus, 339 _note_^{1} - -Ararat, mountain of, 289 - -Araxes, the (the Khâbûr), 73 - -Arba’, village of, 303 _note_^{1} - -Arba’în, shrine of the, Tekrît, 217 - -Arbela, 221, 228 - -Arca, _see_ Arga - -Arga, 338, 339 _note_^{1-40} - -Argæus, Mount, 344, 345, 353-54, 355 - -Argæus the Lesser, 356 - -Arghana, the monastery of the Virgin, 328 _and note_^{1} - -Arghana Ma’den, Khân of, 328 _note_^{1}, 329, 330 _note_^{1} - -Ariarathia, 344 _note_^{1} - -Arîmeh, village of, 20 - -Ark of Noah, 291-95 - -Arnâs, 317-18 - -Arslân Tepeh, mound of, 336, 337 - -Artemis, Temple of (Darius), 111 - -’Ashiḳ, the, Sâmarrâ, 235 _and note_^{4-39}, 242 - -Asia Minor, tower tombs, 37 - -Asikha, 111, 112 - -’Asîleh, 130, 132 - -Asshur, mound of, 221, 222; - temple of, 222-24, 229 - -Assyrian temples, construction, 223 - -Atargatis, pool of, 21-22 - -’Atâ’ut, pitch well at, 106 - -Atesh Gah of Jur, 246 _note_^{2} - -Awânâ, _see_ Wâneh - -Aywân Kisrâ, the, 181 _note_^{3} - -Azakh, 302-3 - -Azbuzu, 336 - -’Azîzîyeh, 339 _note_^{1}, 344 _and note_^{1}, 345 _note_^{2} - - -Bâ’adrî, village of, 269-70, 273; - ’Alî Beg, 273-74; - Sa’îd Beg, 274, 280; - the summer festival, 280; - underground village near, 299 _note_^{1} - -Bâ’ashikâ, 265 - -Bâ Dibbeh, 309 - -Bâ Sebrîna, village of, 303 _and note_^{1-4}; - monasteries of, 304-5; - construction in, 315 - -Bâb, 17, 18 _and note_^{3} - -Bâb el Ḥadîd, Aleppo, 15 - -Bâb el Maḳâm, Aleppo, 14 - -Bâb el Wuṣṭânî, 191 - -Bâb eṭ Ṭilism, Baghdâd, 190 - -Bâb Kinnesrîn, the, Aleppo, 11 - -Bâbil, mound of, 168, 173 - -Babylon, 22, 164; - Palace of Nebuchadnezzar, work of excavation, 168-71; - temple of Ishtar and the Ishtar Gate, 171; - the Via Sacra, 171-72; - temple of Marduk, 172; - the theatre, 172-73; - mound of Bâbil, 173; - construction in, 223 - -Baghdâd, 3, 32, 46, 54; - the railway, 34, 356; - the road to, 94, 160, 167; - tomb of the Sitt Zobeideh, 100; - justice in, stories of Rejef Pasha, 175-77; - story of the cannon, 183, 192-93; - entry by the Ḥilleh road, 184; - the British Residency, 184; - the irrigation system, 185; - the new régime in, 185-87; - the Jews and military service, 187; - Manṣûr’s Round City, 187 _and note_^{1-88}; - the Kâẓimein, 188-90, 198; - tomb of Sheikh Ma’rûf, 189-90; - Bâb eṭ Ṭilism, 190-91; - traces of the ancient city, 191; - the Bâb el Wuṣṭânî, 191; - Mustanṣirîyeh College, 191-92; - the Khâṣakî Jâmi’, 192; - Khân Orthma, 192; - the arsenal, 193-94; - mosque and tomb of ’Abdu’l Ḳâdir, 195; - a visit to the Naḳîb, 195-96; - the tekîyeh for pilgrims, 195-96; - Catholics in, 197; - road to Kerkûk, 206; - mosque of Manṣûr, 235 _note_^{2}; - stories, 354 - -Baghdâdî, 102, 114 - -Baghût, 202 - -Bahurasîr, 181 _and note_^{2} - -Baisampse, 38 _note_^{4} - -Balad, village of, 205 - -Balîjah, mound of, 88 - -Bâlis, 18, 24 _note_^{2} - -Bambyce, 22 - -Bar Hebræus, tomb of, 266 - -Barâd, tower tombs of, 38 _note_^{2} - -Barbalissos, 24 _note_^{2} - -Bardawî, mound of, the fortress, 136-37 - -Bârtallâ, 265, 267 - -Basilia, 110, 111, 112 - -Baṣrah, 95, 160, 163 - -Bathnæ, 18 - -Bathnæ in Osrhœne, 23 - -Baviân, valley of, 271-72; - rock carvings and rock cut chambers, 272 _note_^{1}, 275 - -Bazaar Euren, 345 _note_^{1} - -Beilân Pass, 334 - -Beit el Khalîfah, Sâmarrâ, 237, 240 _and note_^{1-42} - -Belesys, palace of, 18 - -Belias River, the, 54 - -Belîkh, the, 54, 61 - -Belisibiblada, 111, 113 - -Belḳâ, the, 303 - -Bergland Tulaba (Kiepert), 61 _and note_^{1} - -Berœa, 10; acropolis of, 11 - -Bersiba (Munbayah), 44, 47 - -Berwân, island of, 101 - -Bethauna, 111, 114 - -Bêtmanîn, 293 _note_^{1} - -Bey Punar, 343 _and note_^{1} - -Beyrout, 4; vilayet of, 7 - -Bezabde, 296 _note_^{1} - -Billânî, graves of, 52 - -Bîmâristân of El Malik eẓ Ẓâher, Aleppo, 14 - -Birejik, bridge at, 22-23; - tower tombs, 37; - distances from, 109 - -Birs Nimrûd, 173 - -Bisheh, 202 - -Biunan, 111, 112 - -Bombay, justice in, 95 - -Bonakhe, 111, 114 - -Bor, 356 - -Boran Dereh Keui, 343 _note_^{1}, 344 - -British Museum, Assyrian reliefs, 71; - the Black Obelisk, 223 - -Bulgurlû, 356 - -Buseirah, 111, 112; - excavations at, 73-75; - the ruined church, 75-76, 78 - -Buseyiḥ, Tell of, 79 - -Bustân, 79, 81 - -Buzâ’â, 18 - - -Cadesh on the Orontes, 10 - -Cæciliana, 23, 24 - -Cæsarea, 302, 329; - caravan road, 335 _note_^{1}; - effect of the massacre in, 352-53; - stories of, 354 - -Cairo, examples of leaf motives, 12 _note_^{2}; - mosque of Ibn Ṭûlûn, 58, 246 _and note_^{3} - -Calah (Nimrûd), 227, 228; - city of Calah, 229 - -Callinicum, 54, 111 - -Cappadocia, 345 - -Carchemish on the Euphrates, 10, 26, 31; - the northern mound, 33-34 - -Carduchian Mountains, 300 - -Chaghullah, 333 _note_ - -Chalcedon, œcumenical council of, 256 - -Chalcis, 10 - -Chaleb (Aleppo), 11 - -Charcha (Ammianus Marcellinus), 212 _note_^{1} - -Chat, 27 - -Chatagh, 340 - -Chem Resh, valley of, 270 - -Cholak Ushagî, 333 _note_^{1} - -Cilicia, the outbreak in, 302-3, 323, 331, 352 - -Circesium, 68, 74, 75, 109, 111, 112 - -Cloister of the Ark, 292 - -Comana, shrine of, 346; - inscriptions, 350 _note_^{1} - -Constantine, Church of, 356 - -Constantinople, situation in, 73, 96, 186, 204, 217, 222, 227; - justice in, 162; - the museum, 229; - accession of Muḥammad V, 251-54, 359 - -Corsote, 82, 84, 111, 113 - -Ctesiphon, 200, 255; - (construction at), 153 _and note_^{1}, 154, 155, 156, 160, 180; - the road to, 174-75; - foundations, 179 _and note_^{1}; - Mohammadan conquest, 180; - the White Palace of Chosroes, 181; - the hall, 240 - -Cunaxa, battle of, 200 _and note_^{1} - -Cyrrhus, the ziareh of Khoros, 37 _note_^{3} - - -Dadar, 290 - -Dalanda, 341 _note_^{2} - -Damascus, 16, 101; - the post road to, 117, 121 - -Dandaxina, 339 _note_^{1} - -Daphne, 18 - -Dâr el ’Ammeh, the, 240 _note_^{1} - -Dara, 301, 307 - -Dardes, the, 18 - -Daurîn, _see_ Dawwarîn - -Dauser, Castle of, 50-51 - -Dawwarîn, the, 78, 79, 80; - junction with the Euphrates, 82 - -Deheb, valley of the, 17 - -Dehûk, 283 - -Deir, mutesarriflik of, 8; - boundary, 65; - the ferry, 70-71; - bazaars, 71; - the Ḳâḍî, 71-72; - passing events, 72-73; - the road to Buseirah, 108 - -Deir Bar Sauma, 303 _note_^{1} - -Deir el ’Amr, 313 _note_^{1} - -Deir el Kahf, 121 _note_^{2} - -Deir el Khiḍr, 263 _note_^{1} - -Deir Mâr Gabriel, 315 - -Deir Mâr Shim’ûn, 303 _note_^{1} - -Deir ’Umar, 315, 316 _note_^{1} - -Denshâwî, the incident at, 196 - -Dereh Gechid Chai, 327 _note_^{1} - -Derendeh (Dalanda), 339 _and note_^{1}, 341 _and note_^{2} - -Dersîm, the, 338, 340 - -Deveh Deresi, 340 - -Devil Worshippers, 269 - -Diacira, Castle of, 102 _note_^{1} - -Dibseh, 18; - the ford at, 47 - -Diyârbekr, 32, 206, 250, 301, 317, 327 _note_^{1}, 329; - gates of, 13, 324 _and note_^{2}; - the Vâlî at, 321; - the situation in, 321-24, 331; - arsenal, 324-25; - the Ulu Jâmi’, 325-26; - language in, 327 - -Domitian, palace of, on the Palatine, 180 - -Dujeil, the, 201 _and note_^{1}, 203; - lower course, 202 - -Dûmat ej Jandal, 156-57 - -Dûmat el Ḥîrah, 156-57 - -Dumeir, 118 - -Dûr, village of, 190 _note_^{2}, 214; - shrine of the Imâm Dûr, 214-16 - -Dûr ’Arabâyâ, 212 _note_^{1} - -Dura, 111, 112, 113 - -Dura (Isidoris), 113 - -Dura Nicanoris, 111 - -Durnakh, 289 - - -Edessa [now Urfah], 23, 24 - -Egypt, English rule in, 196 - -Ekrek, 339 _note_^{1}, 345 - -El ’Awâṣim, province of, 25 - -El Khiḍr, 263 _note_^{1} - -El Malik eẓ Ẓâher, Medresseh of, 12 - -Elemenjik, the situation in, 338 - -Emergal, 345 _note_ - -Emîr Chiflik, 356 - -Ephesus, council of, 255 _note_^{1} - -Ephesus, caravan road to, 335 _note_^{1} - -Er Radâf (El ’Asîleh), 131 - -Ereglî, 353, 355, 357 - -Eṣ Ṣâliḥîn, mosque of, 13 - -Eskî Baghdâd, 212 _note_^{4}, 213 - -Eskî Serûj, 22 _note_^{2} - -Eskishehr, 338 _note_^{1} - -Eugenius, St., monastery of, 310-12 - -Euphrates, passages of the, 22-23, 24 _note_^{2}, 27-28, 31-32, 47; - waters of the, 35; - the Jezîreh and the Shâmîyeh, 60-61, 66, 77; - Julian’s march, 62; - the river at Wâdî Mâliḥ, 67; - below Deir, 73-74; - inundations, 79-82; - tribes on the, 81; - islands, 85-86; - the piers of the bridge at ’Ânah, 97; - ’Ânah to Hît, 98; - landscape at ’Ânah, 101; - the road from Buseirah to ’Ânah, 108-9; - the division above Museiyib, 164 _and note_^{1}; - bridge of boats near Kerbela, 167; - the Murad Su, 335; - tributaries, 342-43 - -Europus, 24 _note_^{2}, 33, 111 - -Evler, village of, 296 - - -“Father of Asphalt,” the, 125 - -Festhaus, the, at Ḳal’at Shergat, 225 - -Fetḥah gorge, the, 220 - -Fḥemeh, village of, 99, 100 - -Finik, 296 _note_^{1}, 301; - castles, 297-98; - rock dwellings, 298-99 - -Firdaus, mosque of, Aleppo, 12-13 - -Firûzâbâd, Sassanian Palace of, 153, 156 - - -Galabatha, 110, 111 - -Ga’rah, 118 - -Garârah, 183 - -Ga’rat ej Jemâl, 123, 124 - -Gelîyeh, village of, 306, 308 - -Gerik, village of, 290 - -Geurmuk, 290 - -Ghazil, the, 293 _note_^{1} - -Ghirân (Kiepert), 52 - -Giddan, 111, 113 - -Gilead, the road to Moab, 303 - -Gök Su, the, 348 - -Göljik, 329, 330 _note_^{1} - -Gordian, tomb of, 113 - -Görün, 339 _note_^{1}, 342 _note_^{1}; - khân of, 342 - -Grê Pahn (Tell ’Arîḍ), 283 - -Great Zâb, the, 204 _note_^{3}, 228 - -Günesh, 343 - -Gurgurri Gate, Ḳal’at Shergat, 224 - - -Ḥadîthah, ruins of, 99, 100 _and note_^{1}, 111, 114, 190 - -Ḥaleb (Aleppo), 10-11 - -Ḥalebîyeh, Castle of, 67 - -Ḥallâweh, ruins at, 47 - -Ḥammâm ’Alî, sulphur springs of, 230 - -Ḥandak, 302 _note_^{3} - -Ḥaraglah, ruin of, 53-54, 54 _note_^{1} - -Ḥarnik, 333 _note_^{1} - -Ḥarrân (Carrhæ), 24 _note_^{2} - -Ḥasanah, village of, carved relief, 287 _note_^{2}, 290-91, 294 - -Ḥasanîyeh, _see also_ Zâkhô, 287 _notes_^{1-2}, 293 _note_^{1} - -Ḥassan Dâgh, 356 - -Ḥasua, the khân of, 175 - -Ḥâtim Ṭâi, Castle of, 306-8 - -Hatra, Parthian Palace at, 31; - work of Dr. Andrae, 222 - -Ḥaurân, the, tower tombs, 37 - -Havanda, mausoleum, 356 - -Ḥeizil Sû, the, 289, 293 _note_^{1} - -Ḥejâz, 344 - -Heshtân, 293 - -Hierapolis, _see also_ Manbij, 10, 16, 20, 24; - the pool of Atargatis, 21; - mosque of ’Abdu’l Ḥamîd, 21-22; - history, 23, 24; - shrine of Sheikh ’Aḳil, 25-26 - -Ḥilleh, 164, 167 - -Hindîyeh swamp, the, 164-65; - canal, 164 _note_^{1}; - the Nahr Hindîyeh, 164 _and note_^{1} - -Ḥîrah castle, 141, 142 _and note_^{1}, 160 - -Ḥiṣn Keif, rock-hewn chambers, 299 _note_^{1} - -Hît, the town of, 102, 104, 111, 114, 201 _note_^{1}; - pitch wells, 104-6; - the minaret, 108; - distances from, 110; - women of, 116-17 - -Ḥöjneh, village of, 78 - -Ḥussein, mosque of, Aleppo, 12-13; - tomb of, Kerbela, 160 - -Ḥuweiṣilât, ruins of, 239, 242 - - -Ibn Ḥanbal, tomb of, 188 - -Ibn Ṭûlûn, mosque of, Cairo, 58 - -Idicara (Ptolemy), 102 _note_^{1}, 111 - -Imâm Dûr, shrine of, 214-16 - -Imâm Yaḥyâ, tomb of, 259, 260 - -Irmez, 303 _note_^{1} - -Irzî, 111, 113, 114; - ruins of, 49 _note_^{2}, 83-84; - bluff of, 82, 85 - -Is, 104 _note_^{1}, 111 - -Ishtar Gate, Babylon, 171 - -Island, 111, 114 - -Ispileh, 353 _note_^{2} - -Ivrîz, gorge of, 357 - -Iz Oglu, mound of, 333 _note_^{1}, 335 _and note_^{2} - -Izala, Mount, 301 _and note_^{1}; - monastery of Mâr Augen, 310-17 - -Izannesopolis, 102 _note_^{1}, 110, 111, 114 - - -Jabarîyeh, ruins of, 88, 111, 113 - -Ja’deh, hamlet of, 30 - -Jâmi’el Ḥelâwîyeh, the, Aleppo, 11 - -Jâmi’el Ḳaṣr, Baghdâd, 191 _note_^{2} - -Jâmi’el Maḳâmât, Aleppo, 14 - -Jâmi’ esh Shaibîyeh, the, Aleppo, 12 - -Jebel ’Abdu’l ’Aziz, 62 - -Jebel Alḳôsh, 282-83 - -Jebel Beiḍâ, 62 - -Jebel Dehûk, 282-83 - -Jebel el Abyaḍ, ruined fortress, 285 - -Jebel el Ḥamrîn, the, 220-21, 243 - -Jebel el Ḥaṣṣ, 17-18 - -Jebel Ḥaurân, 131 - -Jebel Jûdî, 289 - -Jebel Maḳlûb, 266, 268 - -Jebel Munâkhir, 61, 62 - -Jebel Munkhar esh Sharḳî, 61 - -Jebel Muzâhir, the, 119 - -Jebel Sim’un, 273, 280 - -Jebel Sinjâr, the, 87, 275, 280, 301, 308 - -Jebel ’Uḳala, 61 - -Jedeideh, 63 - -Jelîb esh Sheikh, 124 - -Jemmah, mounds of, 79, 111, 112 - -Jerâblus, 24 _note_^{2}, 32, 33 _and note_^{1} - -Jernîyeh, hill of, 43 - -Jerusalem, tomb of Absalom, 37 _note_^{5}; - construction in, 223 - -Jezarân, village of, 270 - -Jezîreh, the, 295, 296 _note_^{1}, 297 - -Jezîret ibn ’Umar, 287 _note_^{2}, 296-97 - -Jibbeh, island of, 101 - -Jisr Manbij, 24 _note_^{2} - -Jôf in Nejd, 144 - -Jonah, tombs of, 262 - -Jûdî Dâgh, ridge of, 289, 291 _note_^{1}, 293 - -Jûdî, Mount, the Cloister of the Ark, 291-95 - - -Ḳâ’at ed Deleim, 85 - -Kadi Keui, 328 _note_^{1} - -Ḳâdisîyah, battlefield of, 160, 201 _note_^{1}, 204 _note_^{5}, - 207 _note_^{1}; - ruins of, 207-8, 210 - -Kahf ’Alî, 202 - -Kahf ez Zaḳḳ [Sheikh Ḥamri], 51-52 - -Ḳâim, town of, 208, 210; - tower of, 239 - -Ḳaindîjeh, 343 _note_^{1} - -Ḳaiṣarîyeh, 334, 354, 355 - -Ḳal’ah Dâgh, plateau of the, 340 - -Ḳal’at Abu Rayâsh, 219 _note_^{1} - -Ḳal’at Bulâk (Retâjah), 88, 111, 113-14 - -Ḳal’at ej Jedîd, pass at, 308-309, 309 _note_^{1} - -Ḳal’at en Nejm, 23, 24 _note_^{2}, 39 - -Ḳal’at Ḥâtim Ṭâi, 309 _and note_^{1} - -Ḳal’at Ja’bar, 44, 48, 51; - towers of, 49 _and notes_-50 - -Ḳal’at Khubbâz, 107 - -Ḳal’at Lûlû, Môṣul, 260 - -Ḳal’at Râfiḍah, 88 - -Ḳal’at Shergât, work of Dr. Andrae, 221, 222; - temple of Asshur, 222-23; - the fortifications, 224-26 - -Kalender Khân, 329 - -Kalender Koprüsi, 328 _note_^{1} - -Kalka, 308 - -Ḳara Bel, the, 347, 350 _note_^{1} - -Ḳara Dâgh, 357-58 - -Ḳara Kazâk, mound of, at Tell Aḥmar, 30 - -Ḳara Khân Chai, 327 _note_^{1} - -Ḳarâbileh, island of, 92, 111, 114 - -Ḳaraḥiṣâr, 355 - -Ḳaramân, 357, 358 - -Ḳarkh, mound of, 212 _note_^{1}, 323 - -Ḳaraḳôsh, inscriptions, 264 _note_^{1}; - the seven churches, 264; - Mâr Shim’ûn, 264-65; - churches of, 279 - -Ḳarḳîsîyâ (Circesium), 68, 74 - -Karnak, inscriptions at, 104 _note_^{1} - -Kars, 63 - -Kâs i Fir’aun at Sâmarrâ, 235 - -Ḳâsim Khân, 330 _note_^{1} - -Ḳaṣr ’Amej, 100, 118 - -Ḳaṣr el Abyaḍ, 121 _note_^{2} - -Ḳaṣr et Tâj, Baghdâd, 191 _note_^{2} - -Ḳaṣr Ghellî, rock carvings, 298 - -Ḳaṣr-i-Shîrîn, 156 - -Ḳaṣr Khubbâz, 118 - -Ḳasṭal, 121 _note_^{2} - -Ḳâṭûl, 207 _and note_^{2}, 209 - -Ḳâṭûl-Nahrawân, the, 205 _note_^{5} - -Kavak, _see_ Köpekli - -Kayden Keui, 328 _note_^{1} - -Ḳâyim, 85 - -Kayyik Debû, hamlet of, 35 - -Kâzimein, Shi’ah sanctuary, Baghdâd, 188-90, 194 - -Ḳdirân, 52 - -Kebeisah, 106, 107, 116-17, 117 _note_^{1}, 122; - sulphur springs, 118 - -Kefr Zeh, 315, 317-18 - -Keghvank, 330 _and note_^{1} - -Kerbelâ, 100; - the road, 140, 206; - distances from, 142; - the caravan at, 143-44; - impressions, 159-60; - tomb of Ḥussein, 160; - shops, 161; - appointment of officials, 161-62; - the mutesarrif, 162; - the tower, 162; - the Hindîyeh swamp, 164-66; - pilgrims to, 166-67 - -Kerkûk, 251 - -Kernaz, 313 _note_^{1} - -Kevak Euren, 342 _note_^{1} - -Kezerik, inscriptions, 330 - -Khâbûr, the, 73, 74, 76, 112; - the ferry, 77, 78 _note_^{1}; - tribes of the, 81; - valley of, 286, 287 _and note_^{2}, 288; - the bridge above Zâkhô, 289 - -Khabura, 111 - -Khâkh, ruins of, 317-19; - the Church of the Virgin, 319-20; - the robbery at, 320-22 - -Khân, 328 _note_^{1} - -Khân, the (Kiepert), 65 - -Khân Keui, 333 _and note_^{1} - -Khân el Wazîr, Aleppo, 13 - -Khân es Sabûn, Aleppo, 13 - -Khân eṭ Ṭarniyeh (Kiepert), 199 _note_^{1} - -Khân ez Zebîb, 121 _note_^{3} - -Khân Khernîna, 192 _note_^{2}, 219 _and note_^{2} - -Khân Orthma, Baghdâd, 192 - -Khânûḥah, town of, 68 - -Kharabah ’Aleh, 313 _note_^{1}, 314 - -Khâranî, 121 _note_^{3} - -Kharpût, 327; - plain of, 329-30; - the Castle, 330-31; - the panic in, 331-33 - -Khâṣakî Jâmi, Baghdâd, 192 - -Khâtûnyeh, 338 _note_^{1} - -Khâtûnyeh Medresseh, the, 357-58 - -Khawarnaḳ, 141; - Castle of, 142, 160 - -Khawîjeh, the, 85, 205 - -Kheiḍir, _see_ Ukheiḍir - -Kherâb, 135 - -Khirbet ed Dukhîyeh, 63 - -Khirbet Hadâwî, 63 - -Khmeiḍah, ruins of, 65, 66, 110, 111, 112 - -Khorsabâd, temple of Sargon, 223 - -Khubana, 110, 111 - -Khubbâz, Castle of, 86, 117-21, 127, 129 - -Ḳiḳân, mosque of, Aleppo, 11 - -Killîz, 32, 289 - -Kinik, 308 - -Kinnesrîn, _see_ Chalcis - -Kirk Khân, massacre of, 334-35 - -Ḳizil Khân, 345 _note_^{1} - -Kloster Ruine (Kiepert), 32 - -Kochannes, 255 - -Kôdakh, village of, 302 _note_^{3} - -Kokur Ḳayâ, 347, 348 - -Koleh, 285 - -Kôleteh Dâgh, the, 345 - -Kolosina (Ptolemy), 99 _note_^{1} - -Kömür Khân, 333 _note_^{1}, 335 - -Konia, 3, 352, 359 - -Köpekli, ruins of the Panagia, 345 _and note_^{4-46} - -Kötü Ḳal’ah, village of, 341 _and note_^{1} - -Kozan, massacre, 353 - -Ḳubbeh, village of, 30, 35 - -Ḳubbet es Ṣlebîyeh, 239 - -Ḳubrâ, 68 - -Ḳubûr ej Jebel, 62 - -Kûfah, Mohammadan town, 142, 160; - mosque of, 164 - -Ḳuleib, 41 - -Küpek Euren, 343 _and note_^{1} - -Kurd Keui, 340 - -Kurdistân, mountain chains of, 265, 284, 285, 286 - -Kuro, island of, 99 - -Ḳuṣeir el Ḥallâbât, 121 _note_^{2} - -Ḳusheir, the, 50 - -Ḳûyûnjik, mound of, 261-62 - - -Lekweir, 240 - -Levandi Chai, 340 - -Levandiler, village of, 340 - -Levent, 340 - -Lubbâd, island of, 94, 96, 111, 114 - - -Madaḳḳ eṭ Ṭabl, Sâmarrâ, 211 - -Madâin, 182 - -Ma’den Chai, the, 328 _note_^{1}, 329 - -Madlûbeh, ruin of, 106-107 - -Mahalech, peak of, 358 - -Maḥall es Ṣafṣâf, 48 - -Maḥârîz, 52 - -Maḥawîl, village and canal, 167 - -Maḥmûd Ghâzî, Castle of, 345 _and note_^{2} - -Maḥmûdîyeh, 177 - -Ma’lathâyâ (Malthai), 287 _note_^{2} - -Malaṭiyeh, 327; - the modern city, 335 _and note_^{1-36}; - Old Malaṭiyeh, 337-38 - -Malthai, the Assyrian reliefs, 283-84 - -Malwîyeh, the, Sâmarrâ, 209 _and note_^{1}, 210 - -Ma’mûreh, asphalt beds and minaret, 106; - ruins, 127 - -Ma’mûret el ’Azîz, vilayet of, 330 - -Manbij [Hierapolis], 18, 19; - ancient churches, 21, 22 _note_^{1}; - history, 24-25 - -Mangâbeh, 26 - -Mangûb, 227 - -Manṣûr, founder of Kafiḳah, 54; - Round City of, 187 _and note_^{1-88}; - mosque of, Baghdâd, 235 _note_^{2} - -Mâr Ahudânî, Church of, 257 - -Mâr Augen, monastery of, 302 _note_^{1}, 310-12 - -Mâr ’Azîzîyeh at Kefr Zeh, 315, 317-18 - -Mâr Barsauma, 316 _note_^{2} - -Mâr Behnâm, 262 _and note_^{1-63}, 263 _note_^{2}, 268 _and note_^{1} - -Mâr Cosmo, 324 _note_^{1} - -Mâr Dodo, 304-5 - -Mâr Gabriel of Kartmîn, 262 _note_^{1}, 314-16 - -Mâr Girjis, 258 - -Mâr Hôbel, 316 _note_^{2} - -Mâr Ibrahîm, 316 _note_^{2} - -Mâr Kyriakos at Arnâs, 317-18 - -Mâr Mattai, monastery of, 266; - story of Mâr Mattai, 267-68 - -Mâr Melko, 313 _and note_^{1-14} - -Mâr Musa el Habashi, 316 _note_^{2} - -Mâr Philoxenos, 316-17 - -Mâr Shim’ûn, Bâ Sebrîna, 303-4 - -Mâr Shim’ûn, 218, 259; - Ḳaraḳôsh, 264-65 - -Mâr Shim’ûn, Midyâd, 316 _note_^{2} - -Mâr Sobo, 319 - -Mâr Tûmâ, 258 _and note_^{1-59}, 259 _note_^{1}, 260, 263 _note_^{2} - -Mâr Yâ’ḳûb, Church of, Ṣalâḥ, 316-19 - -Mâr Yâ’ḳûb, monastery of, 272, 283 - -Marde, 301 - -Mardîn, 218, 301, 311, 353 _and note_^{2} - -Mascas, the, 82 - -Ma’shûk, the, _see_ ’Ashiḳ, the - -Masius Mount, 301 - -Masnik, 335 _note_^{2} - -Mas’ûdîyeh, 41 - -Maxentius, basilica of, 180 - -Mazâr of Sultan ’Abdullah, 49 _note_^{1} - -Mazâr of Sultan Selîm, 49 _note_^{1} - -Mdawwî, mounds, 202 - -Mecca, 158; - the well Zemzem, 277 - -Medâin, 181 _note_^{2} - -Medina, 158 - -Meiḍa, 62 - -Melekjân, 333 _note_^{1} - -Melitene, 337 _and note_^{1} - -Merrhan, 111, 113 - -Meskeneh, 24 _note_^{2}; - the ferry, 47 - -Mesopotamia, antiquities of, 11; - fortified khâns, 121 _and note_^{2-22}; - history, 156 - -Mespila-Nineveh, 287 _note_^{2} - -Mezîzakh, 316 _note_^{1} - -Mezreh, 330 _and note_^{2}, 331, _note_^{1} - -Middo, 303 _note_^{1} - -Midyâd, Mâr Philoxenos, 316-17 - -Midyâd, Ḳâimmaḳâm of the, 321 - -Môṣul, 70, 185, 206, 230-31, 265, 302; - the modern bridge, 237; - the situation in, 247-49; - the affair of 1st January 1909, 249-50; - murder of Sheikh Sayyid, 249-50; - the League of Mohammad formed, 250-51; - fall of ’Abdu’l Hamîd, 251-54; - the Church in, 254-57; - Church of Mâr Ahudânî, 257; - first recorded mosque, 259; - tomb of the Imâm Yaḥyâ, 259, 260; - the Ḳal’at Lûlû, 260; - the Sinjâr Gate, 260; - the Jews of, 260-61, 261 _note_^{1}; - the high road, 284, 286, 287 _note_^{1} - -Mshatta, Palace of, 152, 153 - -Mu’aẓẓam, village of, 188 - -Mudawwarah, ruin of, 48 - -Mügdeh, 341 _note_^{2} - -Mughârah, 30, 35 - -Muḥammad ’Alî, tomb of, at Wâneh, 203 - -Mukbil, village of, 271 - -Mullah ’Alî Shehr, 341 _note_^{1} - -Munbayah, mound of, 43-44; - basalt mills, 63 - -Munga’rah, Ḳishlâ el, 69 - -Murad Su, the, 335 - -Murrât, ruin of, 135 - -Museiyib, village of, 164, 166-67 - -Musheidah, 200; - the khân of, 199; - the Senîyeh, 201-2 - -Mustanṣirîyeh College, Baghdâd, 191-92 - -Mutawakkil, mosque of, Sâmarrâ, 209; - Palace of, 213 - - -Nabagath on the Aburas, 109, 111, 112 - -Nahr el Ḳâim, the, 206-8 - -Nahrawân canal, 213 _and note_^{1} - -Nahrwân, bridge of, 182 - -Naṣrîyeh canal, the, 167 - -Natârîyeh, 90-92 - -Nebî Ḥâshil, ziyârah of, 17 - -Nebî Yûnus, mound of, 262 - -Nebuchadnezzar, Palace of, work of excavation, 168-71 - -Nejd, 86, 217 - -Nejef, ruins, 160, 162 - -Neshabah tower, the, 49 _and note_^{1} - -Nicephorium, 54, 62, 109, 110, 111 - -Nigdeh, Seljuk mosques, 356 - -Nimrûd, 224, 227; - mound of, 228-29 - -Nineveh, ruins of, 261-66; - story of Mâr Mattai, 267 - -Ninmala, island of, 85 - -Nisîbîn, 301 - -Nisibis, 301 - -Nu’mân ibn Mundhir, the castle of, 141, 142 - -Nûr ed Din, 262 - -Nurshak Dâgh, 342 - - -Obbanes, 24 _note_^{2} - -Olabus, 100 _note_^{1}, 111, 114 - -Old Meskeneh, 47 - -Opis, 200 _and note_^{1}, 204 _and note_^{5} - -Ordasu, 336 - -Osdara, 339 _note_^{1} - -Osherîyeh, 27 - -Osmândedelî, 339 _note_^{1}, 342 _and note_^{1}, 343 _and note_^{1} - -Osrhœne, 23 - -Ozan, 339 _note_^{1}; - tomb at, 340-41, 341 _note_^{1} - - -Palanga, 341 _note_^{1} - -Palmyra, tower tombs of, 37 - -Parenk, 343 _note_^{1} - -Parux Malkha, 102 _note_^{1} - -Pehlevî, 305 _note_^{1} - -Persia, justice in, 163-64 - -Persian Gulf, gun-running, 285 - -Phaliga, 109, 110, 111, 112 - -Phaliscum, 111, 112 - -Phathusa, 114 - -Phœnice-Finik, 296 _note_^{1}, 299 - -Physcus, the (Xenophon), 204 _note_^{5} - -Polat Ushagha, 341 _note_^{1} - -Pünoz, Khân of, 330 _note_^{1} - - -Rabâṭ, village of, 85 - -Rabbân Hormuzd, monastery of, 255, 281-82 - -Râfiḳah, history of, 54-55, 57 - -Raḥbah, 74 - -Raḥḥâlîyeh, oasis of, 134, 138; - water of, 136 - -Raḥḥâlîyeh-Shetâteh road, the, 136 - -Raḳḳah, 41, 46, 53, 65, 68, 111; - the ferry, 47; - history, 54-55, 158; - the modern Raḳḳah, 55; - shrines, 56 _and note_^{2}; - Raḳḳah ware, 59-60, 75-76; - distances, 108-10; - the Baghdâd Gate, 135 _note_^{2}, 156 - -Ramâdî, 123, 176, 177 - -Rawâ, 86-87, 90-92, 94, 114 - -Retâjah (Ḳal’at Bulâḳ), 88 - -Rhabdium, 307, 309 _note_^{1} - -Risür Chai, 297 - -Round City, Baghdâd, 187 _and note_^{1-88} - -Rumeileh, 41 - - -Sadîr, 141 - -Sagr, ruin, 202 - -Saiḥûn, the, 342, 348 - -St. Simeon Stylites, Church of, 11 - -Sajûr river, the, 23, 31; - the valley, 27 - -Ṣalâḥ, 314, 316-19 - -Salakûn, 303 _note_^{1} - -Ṣâliḥîyeh, 78, 80, 82 - -Salonica, 4, 6, 227, 359; - the committee, 251; - the accession of Muḥammad V, 281 - -Saman, 340 - -Saman Keui, 338 _note_^{1} - -Sâmarrâ, the mosque of, 58, 231-35, 243 _and note_^{1-46}, 246 _note_^{1}; - ruins, 158, 188 _note_^{1}; - Mohammadan ware, 204; - the Malwîyeh, 206, 209 _and note_^{1}, 210; - the choice of Mu’taṣim, 207 _note_^{2}, 209-10; - the bazaars, 208; - decline of, 208-9; - the minaret, 211, 235; - Madaḳḳ eṭ Ṭabl, 211; - the Kâs i Fir’aun, 235; - the palace of the ’Ashiḳ, 235 _and note_^{4-39}, 242; - Ṣlebîyeh, 237, 239, 242; - ruins of Ḥuweiṣilât, 239, 242; - Beit el Khalîfah, 240 _and note_^{1-42}; - the Tell ’Alîj, 242-43; - Sâmarrâ ware, 243 - -Samosata, 33 - -Sapha, 296 _note_^{1} - -Saphe, 296 _note_^{1} - -Sapolar, 333 _note_^{1} - -Sargon temple, Khorsabâd, 223 - -Sâreh, village of, 305; - the Church, 305-6 - -Sarî Khân, 353 _and note_^{2} - -Sarifah (Chesney), 99 _note_^{1} - -Sarvistân, 156 - -Sayyid Aḥmed ibn Hâshim, shrine of, 135 - -Sayyid Muḥammad, Mazâr of, 205 - -Scaphe (Ptolemy), 200 _note_^{1} - -Scenæ, 22 - -Scenitæ, country of the, 22 - -Sefînet Nebî Nûh, 291-95 - -Seleucia on the Tigris, 10, 22, 109, 110, 179, 181 _note_^{1}; - mounds of, 178 - -Semiramidis Fossa, 110, 111, 112 - -Serbes, 17 - -Serrîn, tower tombs of, 36-39 - -Shabyan, 330 _note_^{1} - -Shahr, 346; - the temple-mausoleum, 348; - story of the massacre, 349-50 - -Shakh, village of, 296 - -Shammar, village of, 17 - -Sham’ûn, castle of, 139 - -Shandokh, 293, 295 - -Shawa Keui, 328 _note_^{1} - -Shefâthâ (’Ain et Tamr), 156 - -Shehna Khân, 338 _note_^{1} - -Sheikh ’Adî, shrine of, 269, 272; - description, 274-78; - account of the Saint, 278-79; - Yezîdî practices, 279-80 - -Sheikh Khuḍr, shrine of, 118 - -Sheikh Najar, 17 - -Sheikh Sîn, hill of, 43 - -Sheikh Ziyâd, 17 - -Shems ed Dîn, 43 - -Sheramîyeh, 220 - -Shetâteh, 86, 140; - Assyrian remains, 134, 135; - palms of, 139; - distances from, 142; - Bedouin of, 143 - -Shilbeh, 327 _note_^{1} - -Shnâs, 212 - -Ṣiffîn, battlefield of, 50 - -Sinjâr Gate, Môṣul, 260 - -Sisara, _see_ Sisaurana - -Sisaurana (Procopius), 309 _note_^{1} - -Sitace, 200 _and note_^{1}; - position, 204 _note_^{5} - -Sitha, 111 - -Sitt Zobeideh, tomb of, 100, 190 _and note_^{2}, 215 - -Sivâs, 329, 342 - -Ṣlebîyeh, 237, 239, 242 - -Sophene, 331 _note_^{2} - -Stambûl, 96, 230 - -Suleimânîyeh, 249, 250 - -Sumeikhah, village of, 203 _and note_^{1} - -Sûs, ruins at, 99 - -Suvagen, 347 - -Syria, fortified khâns, 121 _and note_^{2} - - -Takhtalî, 345 _note_^{1} - -Talas, 353 _note_^{2}, 355 - -Tarandah, 341 _note_^{3} - -Tarmûr, village of, 327 _and note_^{1} - -Tarsus, American College, 349 - -Tâṣir, 202 - -Taurus Mountains, 325, 327, 328 - -Tekrît, Ḥmeidî Beg ibn Farḥân, 216-17; - the road to Môṣul, 216-17; - the castle, 239 - -Telin, 342 - -Tell ’Abd ’Alî, 53 - -Tell Abu Thor, 98 - -Tell Aḥmar, 23, 24 _note_^{1}, 26-28, 34, 44; - the Hittite stela, 29-30 - -Tell ’Alîj, 242-43 - -Tell ’Arîḍ, 283 - -Tell Bada’ah, 28 _note_^{1} - -Tell Batnân, 17 - -Tell Bshairah, 202 - -Tell ech Cha’bî, 80 - -Tell edh Dhahab, 204, 205 - -Tell el ’Abr, 31 - -Tell el Afrai, 48-49 - -Tell el Banât, 41 - -Tell el Ghânah, 28 _note_^{1} - -Tell el Ga’rah, 43 - -Tell el Hajîn, 81 - -Tell el Ḥâl, 17 - -Tell el Kraḥ, 78 - -Tell el Kumluk, 31 - -Tell esh Sha’ir, 65, 79 - -Tell eẓ Ẓahir, 43 - -Tell Gayârah, 226, 227 - -Tell Ghazab, 204 - -Tell Hir, 204 - -Tell Jifneh, 47 - -Tell Kobbîn, mound and village, 289 - -Tell Maḥmûd, 333 _note_^{1} - -Tell Manjûr, 204 - -Tell Meraish, 54 - -Tell Murraibet, 47, 63 - -Tell Sheikh ’Arûd, 44 - -Tell Sheikh Ḥassan, 44 - -Tell Simbal, 81 - -Thamânîn (Heshtan), 293 _and note_^{1} - -Thapsacus on the Euphrates, 18, 22, 24, 33, 47 - -Thelailah, 302 _note_^{3} - -Thelda, 111, 113 - -Themail, castle of, 86; - mound of, 129-30 - -Thilaticomum, 23 - -Thillada Mirrhada, 110, 111, 112 - -Thilutha, island Castle of, 98 - -Tigris, the, junction with the Euphrates, 164; - in flood, 178, 226; - the guffahs, 179; - bridges on, 183-84; - the ṣidd, 198-99; - the old bed, 201, 204; - the Dujeil, 201; - the Khawîjeh, 205; - the Jezîreh, 205; - the ferry, 205-6, 302 _note_^{3}; - the keleks, 206; - the Nahr el Ḳâim, 206-7; - the bazaars of Sâmarrâ, 208; - bridge piers near Jezîret ibn ’Umar, 297; - castles of Finik, 297-99; - crossing at the Ṭûr ’Abdîn, 300-301; - source, 329 - -Tikmin, 342 - -Tilbês, island of, 98 - -Tîmûr, 316 - -Tîrhân district, the, 209 - -Tiyâna, village of, 79 - -Tiyârî, peaks of, 293 - -Tokat, 329 - -Tokhma Su, the, 339 _note_^{1}, 340, 341 _note_^{2}, 342-43 - -Tolek village, 327 _note_^{1} - -Tomarza, 345 - -Tomisa-Iz Oglu, 339 _note_^{1} - -Tozeli, 341 _note_^{1} - -Tripoli (African) tower tombs, 37 - -Tsamandos, 345 _and note_^{2} - -Tuba, 121 _note_^{3} - -Tulkhum, 328 _note_^{1} - -Ṭûr ’Abdîn, 262 _note_^{1}, 299, 300-302; - absence of streams, 303; - Mar Shim’ûn, 303-4; - construction in, 304-5; - monasteries of the, 310-17 - -Turkey, use of the vote in, 19-20 - -Tutli Keui, 333 _note_^{1} - - -Uch Keui, 327 _note_^{1} - -’Uglet Ḥaurân, 101-2 - -’Ukâẓ, 129 - -’Ukbarâ, 201 _note_^{1}; - mounds of, 202 _and note_^{1}; - position, 203 _note_^{1} - -Ukheiḍir, the journey to, 86, 88, 100, 131, 140, 141, 142; - the Benî Ḥassan, 107; - a first sight of, 140-41; - water supply, 142, 150; - architecture, 143-44, 219; - inhabitants of, 144-45; - Palace of ---- plans, 146-47; - architecture, 147-54; - decoration, 154-55; - date of the building, 155-58 - -Ulu Jâmi’, Diyârbekr, 325-26 - -Ulu Jâmi’, Malaṭiyah, 338 - -Umm Rejeibah, 67, 70, 111, 112 - -Urfah, 23, 32; - caves at, 40 - -Useden (Kiepert), 306 - -Useh Dereh, 306, 308, 309, 310, 313 - - -Vân, 3, 255 - -Vân, Lake, 218, 293 - - -Wâdî ’Ain Sifneh, the, 271 - -Wâdî Aswad (Chem Resh), valley of, 270 - -Wâdî Burdân, 131-32 - -Wâdî el ’Asibîyeh, 133 - -Wâdî Fâḍîyeh, 101 - -Wâdî Ḥajlân, the, 101 - -Wâdî Ḥaurân, 118, 131 - -Wâdî Lebai’ah, 131, 141, 142, 150 - -Wâdî Mâliḥ, 66, 67 - -Wâdî Muḥammadî, 124, 125 - -Wâdî Themail, 129 - -Wâneh, village of, tomb of Muḥammad ’Alî, 203 _and note_^{1} - -Wardâna, village of, 26 - -Wâsiṭ, 159 - -Weldeh Country, the, 43, 47, 51 - -Werdî, 78, 81-83, 85 - -Werdî-Irzî, 113 - -Werdîyeh, the, 82 - -White Palace of Chosroes, 181 _and note_^{3} - -Wîzeh, 132 - - -Yaḥyâ el Barmakî, tomb of, 56 - -Yamachlî, 353 _note_^{2} - -Yazi Keui, 341, 342 - -Yeni Khân, 355 - -Yezîdî villages, 269 - - -Za’ferân, 286 - -Zâkhô, position, 286-87, 287 _note_^{2}; - grave of the Dominican Soldini, 287-88 - -Za’khurân, 321-22 - -Zamantî Su, the, 344 - -Zeitha, 79, 111-13 - -Zeitha-Jemma, 113 - -Zelebîyeh, fortress of, 67-68, 110, 111, 112 - -Zemzem, the well, at Mecca, 277 - -Zenobia, fortress of, 68 - -Zeugma (Birejik), the, 109, 110 - -Ziyârah of Uweis el Ḳaranî, 56 - - -_Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London and Bungay._ - - * * * * * - -FOOTNOTES: - - [1] It is dated in the year 545 A.H., _i. e._ A.D. 1150. - - [2] The Persian influence had probably filtered through Egypt, for - similar leaf motives are to be found in Cairo, for example in a fine - bit of woodwork in the Museum: Herz Bey, _Catalogue Raisonné_, fig. - 24. The prototype must be looked for in the plaster decorations of Ibn - Ṭûlûn. - - [3] M. Saladin believes this entrelac to be of Damascene origin. - _Manuel d’Art Musulman_, i. p. 115. - - [4] Ed. Reinaud, p. 267. He wrote in A.D. 1321. - - [5] Anabasis, Bk. I. ch. iv, 10. - - [6] _Zur antiken Topographie der Palmyrene_, p. 31. - - [7] Mr. Hogarth also noticed that Bâb is marked out of its true place: - _Annual of the British School at Athens_, XIV. p. 185. - - [8] Plutarch: _In Crass_. - - [9] Sachau saw it: _Reise in Syrien und Mesopotamien_, p. 148. - - [10] Ed. de Goeje, p. 162. He wrote in A.D. 864. - - [11] Manbij is the name used in literary Arabic, but it is noticeable - that in the colloquial the word approaches more nearly to the earliest - form, being pronounced Bumbuj. - - [12] Eskî Serûj according to Chapot: _La frontière de l’Euphrate_, p. - 306. - - [13] _Geography_, Bk. XVI. ch. i. 27. - - [14] Ritter: _Erdkunde_, Vol. VII. p. 961. - - [15] Procopius makes the same observation: _De Bell. Per._, II. 20. - - [16] It is so given in the Antonine Itinerary: - Hierapoli--Thilaticomum--Bathnas--Edissa. - - [17] Ammianus Marcellinus, Bk. XXIII. ch. ii. 7. - - [18] Chapot, _op. cit._ p. 281. - - [19] Chapot believes that the passage was effected at a point north of - Cæciliana, which would fit in with Tell Aḥmar: _op. cit._ p. 254, note - 5. - - [20] Mr. Hogarth suggests that the Abbess Ætheria crossed at Tell - Aḥmar on her way to Edessa: _loc. cit._ p. 183. - - [21] Birejik and the Tell Aḥmar passage (whatever may have been its - ancient name) and Thapsacus do not exhaust the number of recorded - routes, for Chosroes, in his first expedition against Justinian, - crossed at Obbanes, somewhere about the modern Meskeneh, and on his - third expedition he built a bridge of boats near Europus, which - is perhaps the modern Jerâblus. (Mr. Hogarth doubts the accepted - identification of Jerâblus with Europus: _Annals of Arch. and - Anthrop._, Vol. II. p. 169.) During the Mohammedan period other - points are mentioned. Ibn Khurdâdhbeh, writing in the ninth century, - makes the road from Aleppo to Babylon cross at Bâlis, the ancient - Barbalissos (ed. de Goeje, p. 74), but Iṣṭakhrî, a hundred years - later, says that Bâlis, though it was once the Syrian port on the - Euphrates, had fallen into decay since the days of Seif ed Dauleh, and - was little used by merchants (ed. de Goeje, p. 62). In the twelfth - century, and perhaps earlier, its place had been taken by Ḳal’at en - Nejm, where Nûr ed Dîn, who died in 1145, built a great fortress, - famous during the wars against the Crusaders. The bridge there was - called Jisr Manbij (“the bridge of Manbij”), but it cannot have been - constructed by Nûr ed Dîn, for Ibn Jubeir, writing about the year - 1185 a description of his journey from Ḥarrân (Carrhae) to Manbij, - says that he “crossed the river in small boats, lying ready, to a - new castle called Ḳal’at en Nejm” (Gibb Memorial edition, p. 248). - In Yâḳût’s day (circa 1225) the caravans from Ḥarrân to Syria always - crossed here. - - [22] Ammianus Marcellinus, Bk. XXIII. ch. ii. 6. - - [23] _The Buildings of Justinian_ (Palest. Pilgrims’ Text Society), p. - 66. - - [24] A few of these may have preserved a certain importance in a - later age: Tell el Ghânah, directly to the east of Tell Aḥmar, has - been conjectured to be Thilaticomum (possibly incorrectly: Regling, - _Beiträge zur alten Geschichte_, 1902, Vol. I. p. 474) and Tell - Bada’ah to be Aniana, the first being mentioned in the Antonine - Itinerary and the second by Ptolemy. - - [25] Mr. Hogarth (at whose request I visited Tell Aḥmar) has published - the carved slabs and the stela in the _Annals of Archæology and - Anthropology_, Vol. II. No. 4. He saw them when he was at Tell Aḥmar - in 1908. - - [26] Jerâblus or Jerâbîs, the names are used indiscriminately. - The former is thought by Nöldeke to be an Arabic plural of Jirbâs - (mentioned by Yâḳût as opposite Ḳinnesrin, Dictionary, Vol. II. p. - 688) and the latter as Arabicized from Europus. - - [27] The inscription is given by Pognon: _Inscriptions de la - Mésopotamie_, p. 17. The tomb was visited by Oppenheim, and is - mentioned by him in _Tell Halaf_ (1st number, 10th year of Der alte - Orient), and in his _Griechische und lateinische Inschriften_. - (_Byzantinische Zeitschrift_, 1905, p. 7.) - - [28] Oppenheim thought it was the end of a sarcophagus, but Pognon’s - guide climbed into the upper chamber and found it to be nothing but a - block of stone closing the entrance. - - [29] For the cyborium tomb, see Heisenburg: _Grabeskirche und - Apostelkirche_, Vol. I. ch. xvi. - - [30] A photograph of the fourth, the Ziareh of Khoros at Cyrrhus, was - published by Chapot in _Le Tour du Monde_, April 8, 1905, p. 162. - - [31] Mylasa: published by the Dilettanti Society; Tripoli: _Nouvelles - Archives des Missions_, Tome XII. fas. 1; Dana: De Vogüé, _La Syrie - Centrale_, plate 78. - - [32] Tomb of Absalom, Jerusalem. - - [33] Gereme: Rott, _Kleinasiatische Denkmäler_, p. 171; El Bârah: De - Vogüé, _op. cit._ pl. 75. - - [34] M. Cumont’s monuments are of this type and I have seen a fine - example at Barâd in N. Syria, also as yet unpublished except for a - photograph given by me in _The Desert and the Sown_, p. 287. - - [35] Maden Sheher: published by Sir W. Ramsay and myself in _The - Thousand and One Churches_, p. 230. - - [36] The name which has been suggested for the site is Baisampse, a - place mentioned by Ptolemy. There are a considerable number of cut - stones on the mound near the village. - - [37] It was re-copied by Pognon and published by him in _Inscrip. de - la Mésopotamie_, p. 82. The similarity between some of the characters - in the two inscriptions is striking. - - [38] It appears in the extreme right-hand top corner of his Fig. 22, - _Inschrif. aus Syrien und Mesopot_. - - [39] I could not reconcile the topography here with Kiepert’s map. He - marks a northern tower, which he calls Nesheib (doubtless my Neshabah) - and places there the Mazâr of Sultan ’Abdullah. He has a second - tower further to the south-east, and finally the castle itself. The - second tower is non-existent, or else it represents the minaret in - the castle. The only mazâr which I saw or heard mentioned is that of - Sultan Selîm, a small modern building between Neshabah and the castle. - - [40] It resembles the tower tombs at Irzî, which will be described - later. - - [41] This is Abu’l Fidâ’s account, ed. Reinaud, p. 277. He wrote in - A.D. 1321. Yâḳût, a century earlier, gives the same story. - - [42] Quoted by Ritter, _Erdkunde_, Vol. X. p. 241. - - [43] Ainsworth believed this to be the site of Benjamin of Tudela’s - Jewish settlement (_Euphrates Expedition_, Vol. I. p. 269), and he - speaks of a monastic ruin here. - - [44] It is so described in his map. - - [45] Sachau thought that Ḥaraglah was of Hellenistic origin (_Reise - in Syrien und Mesopotamien_, p. 245); Sarre believes that it may be - Parthian, and the circular outer fortification gives colour to the - suggestion (_Zeitschr. der Gesell. für Erdkunde zu Berlin_, 1909, No. - 7). - - [46] Sachau (_op. cit._ p. 243) gives the inscription, and my copy - tallied with his. - - [47] Just as the first mosque in Cairo, that of ’Amr, was built - entirely on columns taken from earlier buildings, Muḳaddasî describes - one of the Raḳḳah mosques as [Illustration: Arabic script]; it would - be satisfactory to imagine that he referred to the columned arcades of - the mosque round the square minaret, but the phrase cannot reasonably - be twisted into that or any other meaning. The square minaret is - the ancient Syrian tower type; Thiersch has recently published an - exhaustive study of it in his _Pharos_. - - [48] I saw traces of two such arcades on the E., N. and W. sides of - the court, and, judging from the vestiges that remain, the arcades - must have been three deep to the south. The bricks of the vanished - arcades have been dug out and carried away for building purposes. The - outer walls are so much ruined that I could not determine the position - of the gates with certainty. - - [49] Professor van Berchem has published the inscription in his - _Arabische Inschriften_, a chapter appended to the work of Professor - Sarre and Dr. Herzfeld entitled _Reise in Euphrat-und Tigris-Gebiet_. - But the publication has appeared too late for me to do more than refer - to it. - - [50] M. Viollet has published a short description of these ruins - (_Publications de l’Académie des Inscrip. et Belles-Lettres_, 1909, - Vol. XII. part 2). He believes the palace to have been erected by - Hârûn er Rashîd. - - [51] I expect that this is Sachau’s Bergland Tulaba--see Kiepert’s map. - - [52] Bk. XXIII. ch. iii. 8. - - [53] It was visited and planned by Sarre and Herzfeld in 1907; Sarre, - _Reise in Mesopotamien_, in the _Zeitschrift der Gesch. für Erdkunde - zu Berlin_, 1909, No. 7, p. 429. Sarre pronounces the greater part of - the ruins to date from the time of Justinian. - - [54] Ibn Ḥauḳal is, I think, the first to speak of it. Idrîsî says - that it had busy markets and that much traffic went through it. They - wrote respectively in the tenth and twelfth centuries. - - [55] _Zur antiken Topographie der Palmyrene_, p. 39. - - [56] The reference is not, however, certain: Moritz, _op. cit._ p. 35. - - [57] Sachau travelled up the left bank of the Khâbûr, and should - therefore have crossed the course of the canal, but he makes no - mention of it. - - [58] I should conjecture that on the Euphrates as on the Tigris the - disappearance of the settled population dates from the terrible - disaster of the Mongol invasion. - - [59] I looked carefully for any trace of a big canal opposite - Ṣâliḥîyeh and saw none. - - [60] _Anabasis_, Bk. I. ch. 5, 9. - - [61] With the doubtful contribution made by Ammianus Marcellinus to - the question, I have dealt in the Appendix to this chapter. - - [62] _Amm. Mar._, Bk. XXIV. ch. i. 6. - - [63] Ed. de Goeje, p. 233. - - [64] Ed. Reinaud, p. 286. - - [65] Quoted by Ritter, Vol. XI. p. 717. - - [66] De Beylié: _Prome et Samarra_, p. 68. See, too, Viollet’s memoir - presented to the Acad. des Inscrip. et B.-Lettres, quoted above. - He, too, was shown the fragment of Assyrian relief and gives an - illustration of it, for which reason I do not trouble to publish my - photograph. - - [67] Pognon: _Inscriptions mandaïtes des coupes de Khouabir_. - - [68] Chesney notices that the ruins of the old town lie on the left - bank below the present ’Ânah. Quoted by Ritter, Vol. XI. p. 724. - - [69] It is, I suppose, Chesney’s Sarifah, which has been conjectured - to be the Kolosina of Ptolemy: Ritter, Vol. XI. p. 730. - - [70] These ruins give additional weight to Ritter’s suggestion that - Ḥadîthah was the Parthian station of Olabus: Vol. XI. p. 731. The Arab - town of Ḥadîthah is first mentioned by Ibn Khurdâdhbeh, ed. de Goeje, - p. 74. - - [71] Julian crossed the Euphrates at Parux Malkha, which cannot be far - from Baghdâdî, and captured the castle of Diacira. This castle must - have stood at the southern end of the great bend made by the Euphrates - below Baghdâdî. Chesney saw the ruins of a fortress there. It is - perhaps Ptolemy’s Idicara and the Izannesopolis of Isidorus: Ritter, - Vol. XI. p. 737. - - [72] Herodotus mentions the bitumen wells and calls the town Is. It - has been identified with the Ihi of the Babylonian inscriptions, the - Ahava of Ezra, and with the Ist from which a tribute of bitumen was - brought to Thothmes III, according to an inscription at Karnak. - - [73] Yâḳût mentions Kebeisah as the oasis four miles from Hît upon - the desert road. There are, he says, a number of villages there, the - inhabitants of which live in the extreme of poverty and misery, by - reason of the aridity of the surrounding waste. - - [74] The central division wall in the long south chamber is a later - addition. - - [75] Described by Choisy: _L’Art de bâtir chez les Byzantins_, p. 31. - - [76] For example Ḳasṭal (Brünnow and Domaszewski: _Provincia Arabia_, - Vol. II. pl. xliv.); Ḳaṣr el Abyaḍ (de Vogüé: _La Syrie Centrale_, - Vol. I. p. 69); Deir el Kahf, founded in A.D. 306 (Butler: _Ancient - Architecture in Syria_, Section A, Part II. p. 146); Ḳuṣeir el - Ḥallâbât, dated A.D. 213 (ditto, p. 72); barracks at Anderîn, dated - A.D. 558 (ditto, Section B, Part II. pl. viii.). - - [77] Ṭuba with a triple court (Musil: _Ḳuṣeir ’Amra_, Vol. I. p. 13); - Kharânî (ditto, p. 97); Khân ez Zebîb (_Provincia Arabia_, Vol. II. p. - 78). - - [78] The whole area of ruins is known as Kherâb = ruin. - - [79] It is not necessarily so late, for the Baghdâd Gate at Raḳḳah has - the same arch, and it is certainly earlier. - - [80] See Rothstein: _Die Dynastie der Lakhmiden in al Ḥîra_, p. 25. He - gives reasons for believing that the art of writing Arabic was first - practised at Ḥîrah. The population was largely Christian (the ’Ibâd of - the Arab historians); Ḥîrah was the seat of a bishopric, and frequent - allusion is made to churches and monasteries in and near the town. - - [81] Meissner: “Ḥîra und Khawarnaḳ”, _Sendschriften der D. Orient - Gesell._, No. 2. - - [82] I have already published the plan in the _Hellenic Journal_ for - 1910, Part I., p. 69, in an article on the vaulting system of the - palace. Ukheiḍir was visited in the year 1907 by M. Massignon, though - this fact was unknown to me until I returned to England in July 1909. - He has published an account of it, together with a sketch plan made - under circumstances of great difficulty, in the _Bulletin de l’Acad. - des Inscr. et Belles-Lettres_ of March 1909, in the _Gazette des Beaux - Arts_ of April 1909, and in the _Mémoires de l’Institut français - du Caire_, vol. xxviii. (The last named has not yet appeared, but - he has been so kind as to let me see an advance copy.) Neither to - M. Massignon nor to me belongs the honour of discovery; an unknown - Englishman had visited the palace in the eighteenth century, and his - brief report is given by Niebuhr (_Reisebeschreibung_, vol. ii., p. - 225, note): “Ich habe in dem Tagebuch eines Engländers, der von Haleb - nach Basra gereist war, gefunden, dass er 44 Stunden Südfost nach - Osten von Hit, eine ganz verlassene Stadt in der Wüste angetroffen - habe, wovon die Mauer 50 Fuss hoch und 40 Fuss dick war. Jede der - vier Seiten hatte 700 Fuss, und in der Mauer waren Thürme. In dieser - Stadt oder grossem Castell, findet man noch ein kleines Castell. Von - eben dieser verlassenen Stadt hörte ich nachher, dass sie von den - Arabern El Khader genannt werde, und nur 10 bis 12 Stunden von Meshed - Ali entfernt sei.” I cannot feel any doubt that the “forsaken town” - referred to in the diary, the existence of which was confirmed by - the Arabs, who spoke of it to Niebuhr under the name of Khader, is - our Ukheiḍir. So far as I have been able to discover, the nameless - Englishman was the first modern traveller to visit the site. - - [83] I wish to call special attention to the presence of this - construction at Ctesiphon because Dr. Herzfeld has stated erroneously - that it does not exist in Sassanian buildings. (_Der Islâm_, vol. i. - part ii. p. 111.) - - [84] The name Ukeidir can have no connection with the name Ukheiḍir. - The two words are differently spelt in Arabic. - - [85] The history of Mesopotamian rivers is exceedingly complicated - owing to the frequency with which they change their beds. Mr. Le - Strange (_Lands of the Eastern Caliphate_, p. 70 _et seq._) believes - that the Nahr Hindîyeh, which is probably identical with the ’Alḳâmî - of Ḳudâmah and Mas’ûdî, was considered in the tenth century to be the - main stream of the Euphrates, though even at that time it was not so - broad as the Ḥilleh branch. Writing in 1905 Mr. Le Strange speaks - of the Ḥilleh branch as being undoubtedly the main stream in modern - times, but in 1909 nearly all the water, as I shall describe, flowed - down the Kûfah branch (the Hindîyeh canal) and the Ḥilleh branch - lay dry all the winter. This, however, will, it is to be hoped, be - rectified by the new irrigation schemes on which Sir William Willcocks - is at present engaged. - - [86] It is known as the ’Amalîyeh Mukallifeh. - - [87] This applies, I believe, only to lands leased from the State, - arḍîyeh amîrîyeh. - - [88] The foundations were, however, traced by Dieulafoy, who has - indicated them in his plan: _L’Art ancien de la Perse_, Vol. V. When - he first visited Ctesiphon, the east wall of both wings and all the - vault of the hall were perfect. - - [89] It was founded by Anushirwân the Just after he had taken Antioch - of Syria in 540. He transported the inhabitants of Antioch to the - Tigris and settled them opposite Seleucia in a new city which is said - to have been built on the plan of Antioch. Le Strange: _Lands of the - Eastern Caliphate_, p. 33. - - [90] _Sûrah_, XIV. vs. 46. The Arabs called the double town Medâin, - the cities, but Ṭabarî uses the name for the eastern city and - describes the western as Bahurasîr. I have abridged Ṭabarî’s account - of the siege from the text of de Goeje’s edition, Vol. V., Prima - Series, under the years 15 and 16 A.H. - - [91] The White Palace is not represented by the existing ruin on the - east bank, which was known to the Arabs as Aywân Kisrâ, the hall of - Chosroes. The White Palace was also on the left bank, but about a mile - higher up. It had disappeared by the beginning of the tenth century. - Le Strange, _op. cit._, p. 34. - - [92] Bricks stamped with Nebuchadnezzar’s name have been found along - the quays, and there was a flourishing Persian Baghdâd on the west - bank of the Tigris towards the end of the Sassanian period. The chief - authority for the history of Baghdâd is Mr. Le Strange’s admirable - book, _Baghdâd during the Abbâsid Caliphate_, which has made it - possible to understand the very complicated topography of the town. - - [93] It is perhaps unnecessary to explain that the Shî’ahs regard ’Alî - ibn abî Tâlib, who lies buried at Nejef, as the only lawful khalif. - He and his eleven immediate heirs are known as the Twelve Imâms, the - twelfth being Muḥammad III al Mahdî, who is credited with having been - concealed in a cave at Sâmarrâ whence he will emerge at the end of - days and re-establish the true faith. - - [94] The whole argument is given by Le Strange, _Baghdâd_, p. 160 _et - seq._, and pp. 351-2. - - [95] From its relation to similar buildings (for instance at Ḥadîthah - on the Euphrates and at Dûr on the Tigris) in places which probably - flourished until the time of the Mongol invasion, _i.e._ towards the - end of the thirteenth century, I should, however, place the tomb of - Sitt Zobeideh earlier than 1200. - - [96] See de Beylié: _Prome et Samara_, p. 34. - - [97] Mr. Le Strange gives good reasons for believing that Mustanṣir - did not found the mosque to which this minaret belongs, but that it is - no other than the Jâmi’ el Ḳaṣr, built by the Khalif el Muktafî (A.D. - 902) as a Friday Mosque adjoining the palace of his father Mu’taḍid. - The palace was known as the Ḳaṣr et Tâj, the Palace of the Crown: - _Baghdâd_, p. 269. - - [98] These are exactly copied in the domes over the carrefours in the - bazaars, which are certainly much later in date. - - [99] I have been able to give an illustration of this system from Khân - Khernîna; the chambers at Baghdâd were so dark that photography was - almost impossible. - - [100] Some admirable photographs of it are given by De Beylié, _op. - cit._, p. 33 _et seq._ - - [101] A good photograph has been given by Viollet: _Le Palais - de Al-Moutasim, Mémoires présentés à l’Acad. des Inscrip. et - Belles-Lettres_, Vol. XII. Part II. Viollet believes it to have come - from a church. See too Herzfeld: “Die Genesis der islamischen Kunst,” - in _Der Islâm_, Vol. I. Part I. - - [102] De Beylié, _op. cit._, p. 30. He gives several illustrations. - - [103] Kiepert calls it Khân eṭ Ṭarniyeh. - - [104] Sitace cannot be placed with certainty. Ritter (Vol. X. p. 21) - conjectures that the bridge must have lain about four hours above - Baghdâd. After the battle of Cunaxa, a field of which the site is not - determined, the Greeks pursued the Persians to a village on a mound - where they passed the night. Here they learnt that Cyrus was dead. - Next day they joined Ariæus and marched in one day to some unnamed - Babylonian villages. They then marched through fertile country for - a space of time not specified, probably a day, to well-supplied - villages, where they stayed twenty-three days. In three days from - these villages they reached the Median Wall, under the guidance of - Tissaphernes, who must have led them by a tortuous course across - Mesopotamia, and in two days more they came to Sitace, which was a - populous city lying on an island formed by the Tigris and a canal. - Sitace is perhaps Pliny’s Sittace (Bk. VI. ch. xxxi.), though his - confused statement would seem to place it on the left bank of the - Tigris. Ptolemy mentions a place called Scaphe, which Müller is - inclined to connect with the Sablis of the Tab. Peut., but it appears - to have been some distance to the east of the Tigris (_Ptolemy_, ed. - Müller, p. 1006). The placing of Sitace depends upon the position of - Opis, which is not satisfactorily determined. - - [105] There was an earlier Dujeil which started from the Euphrates - a little below Hît, crossed Mesopotamia and joined the Tigris above - Baghdâd, but by the tenth century its eastern end had silted up. The - later Dujeil was a loop canal from the Tigris; it left the river - opposite Ḳâdisîyah and rejoined it at ’Ukbarâ. These complicated - questions may easily be understood by referring to the first map in - Mr. Le Strange’s _Baghdâd_. - - [106] The term is the equivalent of the northern Chiflik. The latter - is a Turkish word signifying merely farm, but it designates especially - a farm belonging to the Sultan. - - [107] ’Ukbarâ was a well-known place in the days of the Khalifate. - Muḳaddasî (ed. de Goeje, p. 122.) It lay on the east bank of the - Tigris, _i.e._ on the east bank of the old channel. Le Strange, _Lands - of the Eastern Caliphate_, p. 50. - - [108] Kiepert marks Wâneh to the south of ’Ukbarâ, whereas I should - place it a little to the north. We rode to Sumeikhah in about an hour - from the Imâm Muḥammad ’Alî, which would have been impossible from - Kiepert’s Wâneh, or for that matter from his ’Ukbarâ. I am relying, - however, for the names upon the not too certain testimony of Ḳâsim. - Both ’Ukbarâ and Wâneh are mentioned by Muḳaddasî, but he gives no - indication of their relative position. He provides us with no more - information about Wâneh than its name (ed. de Goeje, pp. 54 and 115), - which he spells Aiwanâ. The customary mediæval spelling is Awânâ, and - other authorities place the town on the west bank of the old Tigris - bed, while ’Ukbarâ lay opposite to it on the east bank (Streck: _Die - alte Landschaft Babylonien_, p. 227). This would correspond fairly - well with my itinerary. I rode from ’Ukbarâ in a north-westerly - direction and reached Wâneh in forty-five minutes. - - [109] _Journal of the Geog. Soc._, Vol. XI. p. 124. - - [110] _Anabasis_, Bk. II. ch. iv. 25. - - [111] Bk. I. 189. - - [112] Bk. XVI. ch. i. 9. - - [113] Bk. VI. ch. xxxi. Though I believe that the ruins on the east - bank seen by Ross and the extensive ruin field on what is now the west - bank of the Tigris must represent Opis, the locating of the city is - complicated by the fact that Xenophon took four days to reach Opis - from Sitace. Now if Sitace is anywhere near Baghdâd it is strange - that the Greeks should have marched four days and got no further - than a town situated immediately to the north of the ’Aḍêm. The - Physcus, which Xenophon crossed by a bridge of boats before coming - to Opis, may be the ’Aḍêm, but some have supposed it to be the great - Ḳâṭûl-Nahrawân, a loop canal on the east bank of the Tigris. I do - not know, however, that there is any record of a canal here before - the Sassanian period (Le Strange: _Lands of the Eastern Caliphate_, - p. 57). Chesney tried to solve the difficulty of Xenophon’s march by - placing Opis higher up the river at Ḳadsîyeh, but that would leave - the great ruin field lower down unidentified, and would, besides, - leave too long a time for the march from Opis to the Great Zâb, which - occupied the Greeks eleven days. For the site of the Babylonian Opis, - see King: _Sumer and Akkad_, p. 11. - - [114] It is probably one of the districts which were ruined by the - Mongol invasion. - - [115] _i.e._ “raids and so forth”; the second word is merely a - repetition of the first with the initial letter _r_ changed to _m_. - This convenient form is very common in Turkish. - - [116] This Ḳâdisîyah must not be confounded with the battlefield near - Ḥirah where Khâlid ibn u’l Walîd overthrew the Sassanians. - - [117] Sarre thinks it was empty, and holds that the town was never - finished or inhabited. He would therefore place here Ḳâṭûl, the site - first fixed upon for his capital by the Khalif Mu’taṣim when he left - Baghdâd. Finding Sâmarrâ to be better placed, he abandoned Ḳâṭûl - before the work there was completed: _Ya’ḳûbî_, ed. de Goeje, p. 256. - Sarre: _Reise in Mesop. Zeitsch. der Gesell. fûr Erdkunde zu Berlin_, - 1909, No. 7, p. 437. Schwartz, however, suggests that Ḳâṭûl may have - lain to the north of Sâmarrâ: _Die Abbâsiden-Residenz Sâmarrâ_, p. 5. - Ross thought that Ḳâdisîyah was Sassanian, but I am persuaded that he - was in error. (A Journey from Baghdâd to Opis, _Journal of the Geog. - Soc._, Vol. XI. p. 127.) Jones gives a plan: _Memoirs_, p. 8. - - [118] The Malwîyeh can scarcely be any other than the minaret - described by Balâdhurî among Mutawakkil’s buildings: _Futûḥ ul - Buldân_, p. 306, Cairo edition of 1901. The ruins of Sâmarrâ have not - yet received the detailed study which they deserve, but Professor - Sarre and Dr. Herzfeld are about to begin an exhaustive examination - of the site. Sketch plans have been published by De Beylié (_Prome et - Samarra_), and at about the same time Herzfeld brought out a small - monograph entitled Sâmarrâ. I had this monograph with me, and finding - the plans to be incorrect and the drawings inexact (for example, - the ornament drawn in fig. 5 gives little idea of the original), I - measured and photographed all the ruins over again. Meantime Viollet - has published a short account of his journey in Mesopotamia, in which - he has given plans of the ruins of Sâmarrâ: _Le Palais de Al Moutasim, - etc., Mémoires of the Acad. des Inscrip. et Belles-Lettres_, Vol. XII. - Part II. His attempt to reconstruct the ground plan of the palace of - which the Beit el Khalîfah forms part, is of great interest. - - [119] Ed. de Goeje, p. 256. - - [120] _Lands of the Eastern Califate_, p. 53. Am. Mar., Bk. XXV. ch. - vi. 4. - - [121] This is marked in Viollet’s plan. - - [122] Herzfeld, _Sâmarra_, p. 61, places the old quarter of Karkh - at Shnâs and Dûr ’Arabâyâ at Eskî Baghdâd. Karkh is the Charcha of - Ammianus Marcellinus. - - [123] Mutawakkil began a new canal from the Tigris to the Nahrawân, - the latter having silted up by the ninth century, but the labour of - cutting through the hard conglomerate was found to be too great and - the work was abandoned. I do not know whether the canal I crossed was - of his making, but I fancy it was the Nahrawân itself, perhaps cleared - and deepened by him. Ross (_op. cit._, p. 129) speaks of bridge - foundations formed of large “artificial stones” (concrete?) “joined - together by iron clamps and melted lead.” I saw nothing but brick, - but Ross’s bridge may well be, as he conjectured, earlier than the - Mohammadan period, since it probably spanned the Sassanian canal. I - thought the artificial mound to be pre-Mohammadan. - - [124] There is some doubt about this inscription. Professor Sarre - copied it without noticing the date, which was covered with whitewash; - he gave it to Professor van Berchem, who decided that the shape of - the letters pointed indubitably to the ninth century. Professor van - Berchem’s authority in such matters is not to be questioned, but the - date must be accounted for. Perhaps it was a later addition, put in - when the shrine was repaired. - - [125] _A Residence in Koordistan_, Vol. II. p. 147. The book was - published in 1836. - - [126] Kal’at Abu Rayâsh, which is marked in Kiepert’s map, has almost - disappeared, the high ground on which it stands having fallen away and - carried the walls and towers with it. - - [127] Khân Khernîna is not mentioned by Ibn Jubeir nor by Ibn Baṭûṭah, - who both travelled by this side of the Tigris from Tekrît to Môṣul, - the one at the end of the twelfth century, and the other in the middle - of the fourteenth century. - - [128] Not, I believe, by Layard, who was always careful to cover what - he did not remove. - - [129] Dr. Herzfeld has been so good as to send me the chapter of his - forthcoming work (written in conjunction with Professor Sarre), in - which he gives a further account of Sâmarrâ. When it reached me my - description of the ruins was already printed, and I can do no more - than acknowledge, with gratitude, his kindness. - - [130] Viollet puts them ten deep to the south, four deep to the north - and five deep to east and west. - - [131] In Manṣûr’s mosque at Baghdâd, the roof was borne by wooden - columns. See Le Strange, _Baghdâd_, p. 34. - - [132] _Lands of the Eastern Califate_, p. 56. - - [133] Its original name is doubtful. In the twelfth century it was - called the Ma’shûk, for Ibn Jubeir alludes to it under that name in - the twelfth century, and so does Ibn Baṭûṭah in the fourteenth century. - - [134] Viollet has given a section of them, pl. xviii. - - [135] Viollet’s plan, pl. xvii, is here more complete than mine. - - [136] I give a plan of the three vaulted halls, but Viollet has made - a sketch plan of the ground behind which furnishes indications of the - whole scheme of the palace. The Beit el Khalîfah is perhaps the Dâr - el ’Ammeh, the first palace built by Mu’taṣim upon the site of the - monastery: Herzfeld, _Sâmarrâ_, p. 63. - - [137] Ross distinguished in 1834 a substructure of “arches” (_op. - cit._, p. 129) by which he must mean vaults like those at the ’Ashiḳ. - - [138] An account of it, together with a sketch plan, was given by - Ross, _op. cit._, p. 130. - - [139] Viollet has given a plan of Abu Dulâf. Herzfeld did not publish - it in his _Sâmarrâ_, for he had not at that time visited it, but he - has since published a plan: _Zeitschr. für Gesch. der Erdkunde zu - Berlin_, 1909, No. 7, pl. viii. My plan differs considerably from his, - but only a re-examination of the mosque can prove which of us is right. - - [140] This vestibule is present opposite the south gate of the Sâmarrâ - mosque. Herzfeld has made an attempt to reconstruct the vestibule of - Abu Dulâf. Viollet has given a bare indication of it, and this is all - that exists. Viollet has also marked the line of an outer wall, which, - as at Sâmarrâ, enclosed the precincts of the mosque. - - [141] Abu Dulâf was probably built by Mutawakkil when he erected a - whole new quarter three farsakhs north of Shnâs: Ya’ḳûbî, ed. de - Goeje, p. 266. - - [142] The spiral tower occurs also in Sassanian architecture, witness - the Atesh Gah of Jur, Dieulafoy: _L’Art ancien de la Perse_, Vol. IV. - p. 79. - - [143] Thiersch has indicated the true relation of Ibn Ṭûlûn’s minaret - both to the zigurrat of Mesopotamia and to the pharos of Alexandria. - His objections to Herzfeld’s theory that the Cairo minaret is purely - Hellenistic in origin are conclusive. Thiersch: _Pharos_, p. 112. - - [144] I believe it is generally admitted by the learned in these - matters that Nestorius was not guilty of the heresies for which he was - condemned in 431, at the second œcumenical council held at Ephesus. - I remember to have heard a distinguished English Catholic, who was - also an acute historian, express his definite opinion that Nestorius - was in the right, for all his expulsion beyond the pale of western - Christianity. An excellent account of the rise of the Eastern Churches - is contained in Wigram’s recently published book, _The Assyrian - Church_. - - [145] I am relying upon local tradition, upon comparison with churches - in the country districts, and upon the character of the ornament - compared with Moslem ornament in Môṣul which can be dated with - tolerable accuracy. - - [146] The barn church is more fully defined in _The Thousand and One - Churches_, published by Sir W. Ramsay and myself, p. 309. - - [147] There is a description of Mâr Tûmâ in Rich: _Residence in - Koordistan_, Vol. II. p. 118. - - [148] All the doors in the atrium of Mâr Tûmâ look as if they had been - patched together out of older materials, but I suspect that these - materials came from the church itself and that the patching is due to - repair. - - [149] Badr ed Dîn Lûlû, 1233-1259, according to Lane Poole: - _Mohammadan Dynasties_, p. 163; Ritter, following Desguignes, makes - him regent from 1213-1222, and an independent sovereign from 1222-1259. - - [150] Le Strange: _Lands of the Eastern Caliphate_, p. 89. - - [151] Oppenheim, _Vom Mittelmeere zum persischen Golf_, Vol. II. p. - 176, gives a short description of it. - - [152] De Beylié has given a good photograph of the general view: - _Prome et Samarra_, p. 49. - - [153] This decoration is curiously akin to some of the Buddhist - Græco-Bactrian work. - - [154] In the middle ages it was more numerous. Benjamin of Tudela - found a colony of 7,000 Jews at Môṣul: Ritter, Vol. X. p. 254. - - [155] An account of Mâr Behnâm has been published by Pognon: - _Inscriptions de la Mésopotamie_, p. 132. He believes that the - existing church is due to a reconstruction that took place in the - twelfth century, but its original form seems to him to be the same - as that of Mâr Gabriel of Kartmîn in the Ṭûr ’Abdîn, a church which - I should date not later than the sixth century. The history of Mâr - Behnâm would therefore offer an exact analogy to that of the churches - of Môṣul, according to my theory; it is a mediæval building following - the lines of a very early structure. Pognon gives a good illustration - of the altar niche in the tomb (Pl. VIII), which is dated the year - of the Seleucid era corresponding to 1306 A.D. The superstructure he - takes to have been a baptistery. - - [156] They must be dated before 1550, according to Pognon’s - reasoning. He speaks of them with great contempt, and they are not - very remarkable works of art, though they seemed to me to be of - considerable interest. The Moslems call the monastery Deir el Khiḍr, - Khiḍr being the Mohammadan counterpart of St. George. The village - close at hand is known as El Khiḍr. - - [157] The following notes on the decorations of the church are perhaps - worth recording. S.W. door in porch: on lintel, a pair of birds on - either side of a cross; over lintel, two snakes, tail to tail, with - open jaws turned to what looks like a piled-up cup; in the corners, - lions with tails ending in the head of a snake; band of entrelac and - round it a band of Syriac inscriptions surrounding the door. N.W. door - in porch: on lintel, an angel on either side of a cross; over lintel, - small crosses with a boss between, two circles with a star in each; - at either corner the figure of a saint; entrelac and inscriptions. - Door from nave into apse; on lintel, a lion’s head forming a central - boss, on either side St. George and the Dragon. Door into S.E. chapel: - on lintel a cross; round door, small niches formed by an interlacing - rope (_cf._ the sanctuary door of Mâr Tûmâ at Môṣul), the niches - alternately filled with a saint and a decorated cross; above the door - two of the niches are filled with representations of: (1) the baptism - in Jordan; (2) the entry into Jerusalem, with an ass and palms in the - background. The spandrils between the upper niches are filled in with - dragons’ heads with open jaws. - - [158] Pognon found inscriptions of the thirteenth, fifteenth, and - sixteenth centuries at Ḳaraḳôsh (_op. cit._, p. 129), but the - inscriptions inside the churches have not, so far as I know, been - recorded. - - [159] The bishop had not perhaps retained a clear memory of his - facts--if facts they can be called; but Rich seems to have found the - history of Mâr Mattai and Mâr Behnâm scarcely less involved than I - did: _Residence in Koordistan_, Vol. II. p. 75. See, too, Pognon, _op. - cit._, p. 132, note 1. - - [160] I fancy that ’Abdullah’s explanation was not far from the truth. - Layard, who is the best of all authorities on this country, makes the - following remarks about the Shabbak: “Though strange and mysterious - rites are as usual attributed to them” (_i.e._ as is usual with regard - to a secret creed), “I suspect they are simply the descendants of - Kurds who emigrated at some distant period from the Persian slopes - of the mountains, and who still profess Sheeite doctrines. They may, - however, be tainted with Ali-Illahism, which consists mainly in the - belief that there have been successive incarnations of the Deity, the - principal having been in the person of Ali, the celebrated son-in-law - of the prophet Mohammad. The name usually given, Ali-Illahi, means - ‘believers that Ali is God.’ Various abominable rites have been - attributed to them, as to the Yezidis, Ansyris, and all sects whose - doctrines are not known to the surrounding Mussulman and Christian - population.” _Nineveh and Babylon_, p. 216. - - [161] A full description of the reliefs is contained in Layard’s - _Nineveh and Babylon_, p. 207. Mr. King is so kind as to inform - me that the smaller panels at Baviân were carved in the reign of - Sennacherib, between the dates 689 B.C. and 681 B.C. The larger - sculptures are to be assigned to Shalmaneser II (860-825 B.C.). - - [162] It has been described and drawn by Layard: _Nineveh and - Babylon_, p. 48. - - [163] In the photograph ’Alî Beg is seated and the ḳawwâl stands to - the right of him. The figure on the left is the Christian secretary, - and the close-shaven man behind the beg is Fattûḥ. - - [164] Layard mentions that the oil for the lamps is provided out of - the funds of the shrine: _Nineveh and its Remains_, Vol. I. p. 291. - - [165] Layard pointed out the connection between the white bull offered - annually to the Yezîdî solar saint and a similar sacrifice in the - Assyrian ritual: _Nineveh and its Remains_, Vol. I. p. 290. - - [166] This doctrine is, however, older than the Sûfîs; it was held by - the Mandæans and is a part of the Asiatic heritage of religious ideas - out of which the Yezîdî creed has been formed. The transmigration of - souls, another Mandæan tenet, is also professed by the Yezîdîs. - - [167] This, too, is an article of the Mandæan faith. - - [168] The late Lord Percy, who visited Sheikh ’Adî in 1897, found - nothing but the outer shell and the roof intact. It had been wrecked - by a Turkish general who had made a resolute attempt to convert or - exterminate (the two expressions are practically synonymous) the - Yezîdîs: _Notes from a Diary_, p. 184. - - [169] _Nineveh and Babylon_, p. 83. - - [170] _Nineveh and its Remains_, Vol. I. p. 280, and _Nineveh and - Babylon_, p. 81. - - [171] _Residence in Koordistan_, Vol. II. p. 91. - - [172] Layard: _Nineveh and its Remains_, Vol. I. p. 230. See, too, - Perrot and Chipiez: _Histoire de l’Art_, Vol. II. p. 642. - - [173] _Travels in the Track_, p. 144. - - [174] Zâkhô must be the place known to the Arab geographers as - Ḥasanîyeh (I see that Hartmann comes to the same conclusion: _Bohtân, - Mitt. der Vorderas. Gesell._, 1896, II. p. 39), but their information - is, as usual, exceedingly meagre and the castle is mentioned by none. - Muḳaddasî, in the tenth century, says that it is a day’s journey from - Ma’lathâyâ (Malthai) to Ḥasanîyeh (ed. de Goeje, p. 149), and notes - the bridge over the Khâbûr above the town (p. 139). Yâḳût, in the - thirteenth century, observes that it is two days from Môṣul on the - road to Jezîret ibn ’Umar. Ainsworth conjectures it to be the spot - described by Xenophon as “a kind of palace with several villages - round it,” which was reached by the Greeks in five days’ march from - Mespila-Nineveh, but it must be admitted that Xenophon’s description - is not exactly suited to Zâkhô. Ritter thinks that a memory of the - people called by Strabo Saccopodes may be retained in the name Zâkhô - (Vol. IX. p. 705). With regard to the name Ḥasanîyeh it is perhaps - preserved in Ḥasanah, a small village on the opposite side of the - Khâbûr valley. - - [175] Ainsworth thinks that it may mark the site of the village at - which the Greeks camped on the second day from Zâkhô: _Travels in the - Track_, p. 146. Xenophon mentions neither the Khâbûr nor the Ḥeizil. - - [176] Mr. King, who has visited Jûdî Dâgh, tells me that all the - reliefs are of Sennacherib and were carved in the year 699 B.C. - - [177] Ritter, Vol. XI. p. 154. - - [178] So said Kas Mattai, but the Arab geographers would seem to place - it to the south of Jûdî Dâgh, not to the north. For example, Muḳaddasî - says that Thamânîn, the village of the eighty who were saved from the - flood, stand on the river Ghazil (the Ḥeizil Sû), a day’s march from - Ḥasanîyeh (Zâkhô), ed. de Goeje, pp. 139 and 149. Sachau, however, - speaks of Bêtmanîn as being behind Jûdî Dâgh, _i.e._ he bears out my - information: _Reise_, p. 376. - - [179] It has been identified with the Bezabde of Ammianus Marcellinus, - the Saphe of Ptolemy (ed. Müller, p. 1005), and the Sapha of the - Peutinger Tables. Ammianus Marcellinus is generally supposed to have - confused Bezabde-Jezîreh with Phœnice-Finik, saying that the two - names are applied to the same place. In his account of the capture of - Bezabde by Sapor II, in A.D. 360, his description applies better to - Finik than to Jezîreh (Bk. XX. ch. vii. 1. See, however, Hartmann: - _Bohtân_, Part II. p. 98). He relates further that Constantius - attempted in vain to re-capture Bezabde (Bk. XX. ch. xi.), but in this - passage he must mean Jezîreh. I can find little in the history of - Jezîreh except the mention of sieges: by Tîmûr for example (Ritter, - Vol. IX. p. 709), and by the emirs of Bohtân (Rich: _op. cit._, Vol. - I. p. 106). When Moltke visited it in 1838 it was a heap of ruins - (_Briefe aus der Turkei_, Berlin, 1893, p. 251), and it was not much - more when I saw it. - - [180] Sachau notices these reliefs. In his opinion the inscriptions - are of no great age: _Reise_, p. 379. - - [181] Ibn Baṭûṭah, in the fourteenth century, mentions an old mosque - in the market place, which is probably the same as the one I saw, - though it has undergone many alterations and reparations since his day. - - [182] _Nineveh and Babylon_, p. 55. - - [183] The caves are carefully excavated and I should say that they - are ancient. Layard (_Nineveh and Babylon_, p. 54) speaks of them as - tombs and some may have been intended as burial-places, but I do not - doubt that many were from all time used by the living. The troglodyte - habits of the dwellers in these mountains are still strongly marked. - Above Bâ’adrî I saw an underground village; at Ḥiṣn Keif, higher up - the Tigris, the people live in rock-hewn chambers. - - [184] _Anabasis_, Bk. IV. ch. i. - - [185] Ammianus Marcellinus, when he speaks of Izala, evidently intends - the name to cover the whole Ṭûr ’Abdîn: Bk. XVIII. ch. vi. 11, and Bk. - XIX. ch. ix. 4. - - [186] The Jacobites and the Syrians (_i.e._ Jacobites who have - submitted to Rome) have now ousted the Nestorians, who must have been - the first to occupy the Ṭûr ’Abdîn. When this change took place I do - not know, but the Nestorians were in possession of the monastery of - Mâr Augen as late as 1505: Pognon, _op. cit._, p. 109. - - [187] Pognon’s account of the churches, and his publication of the - inscriptions, is the best work on the subject (_Inscriptions de la - Mésopotamie_); Parry (_Six Months in a Syrian Monastery_) gives a - short description of the churches and some sketch plans. - - [188] Tigris ferry 9.25; Handak (Christian) 9.45; Thelailah (Moslem) - 10.40; Kôdakh--marked in Kiepert--we saw at 12.15, a little to the - south of our route. - - [189] Our itinerary was as follows: 5.30 Azakh; 6.30 a ruined site - (marked in Kiepert); 7.5 Salakûn (Kiepert: Salekon Kharabe), a small - Moslem village; 8 Middo (marked in Kiepert), a Christian village on - the further side of a deep gorge (here we got into the oak woods); 9 - Irmez, about a mile to the south of our road; 9.25 Arba’, a Christian - village also about a mile south; 9.45-10.45 Deir Mâr Shim’ûn, a ruined - monastery; 11.30 Deir Bar Sauma, the first monastery of Bâ Sebrîna. - - [190] Monasteria clericorum. See _The Thousand and One Churches_, p. - 461. - - [191] Pognon: _op. cit._, p. 108. The stela has not, as Pognon - feared, been destroyed. The script is in an unknown alphabet, which - Pognon believes to be the prototype of Pehlevî. He gives excellent - photographs of the two inscriptions; my photograph shows the relief on - the third side. The fourth side is much weather-worn. - - [192] I sent the photograph to Professor van Berchem. The inscription - is merely a date: 630 (= A.D. 1232-3), or possibly 639. - - [193] The name itself is unintelligible. - - [194] _The Buildings of Justinian_ (Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society), - p. 51. - - [195] I would suggest that Ḳal’at ej Jedîd may occupy the site of the - Sisaurana of Procopius, which was destroyed by Belisarius. Sisaurana, - however, lay three miles from Rhabdium, and even as the crow flies the - distance between Ḳ. Ḥâtim Ṭâi and Ḳ. ej Jedîd must be greater. But the - important position of Ḳ. ej Jedîd on one of the few passes up from - the plain suggests that the spot must have been fortified in ancient - times. Sisaurana is no doubt the Sisara of Ammianus Marcellinus: see - Ritter, Vol. XI. p. 150 and pp. 400-401. - - [196] Though tradition links these foundations with Egypt, it is quite - possible that they may have had a yet closer connection with Syria, - where in the fourth century monasticism and the solitary life had - already taken a strong hold. Duchesne: _Histoire de l’Eglise_, Vol. - II. p. 516. - - [197] Kiepert marks a “Gr. Cœnobium von Izala,” which is, I imagine, - intended for Mâr Augen, but its position relatively to Ḳ. ej Jedîd - and Useh Dereh, as marked in the map, cannot be correct. Mâr Yuhannâ, - which lies to the east of Mâr Augen, approaches more nearly to - Kiepert’s site. I have published a short account of these and other - monasteries and churches of the Ṭûr ’Abdîn in _Amida_ (Strzygowski and - Van Berchem). - - [198] Kiepert places Mâr Melko too far from Useh Dereh. My itinerary - was as follows: Useh Dereh to Mâr Melko, 1 hr.; Mâr Melko to Kharabah - ’Aleh, 30 min.; Kharabah ’Aleh to Kernaz, 2 hrs. 15 min.; Kernaz to - Deir el ’Amr, 1 hr. 15 min. All these places are marked in the map. - - [199] Niebuhr heard that Mâr Melko was famed for the curing of - epilepsy: _Reisebericht_, Vol. II. p. 388. Not having penetrated into - the Ṭûr ’Abdîn, he thought that the report that there were seventy - monasteries in the hills must be an exaggeration, but I expect that it - was not far from the truth. - - [200] Deir ’Umar, 5.30; Mezîzakh, 8.15; Midyâd, 9.15. - - [201] I visited inside the town Mâr Shim’ûn, which is in process of - being rebuilt, and Mâr Barsauma, which has been completely rebuilt. - Outside the town is the monastery of Mâr Ibrahîm and Mâr Hôbel. It - has recently been repaired, but much of the masonry is ancient. The - two churches, dedicated to the two patron saints, belong to the - monastic type of Mâr Gabriel; the mouldings round the doors, and the - cyma cornice are old. There is also a small chapel, dedicated to the - Virgin; it is square in plan and covered by a dome on squinches, but - it appeared to me to be of later date. I was shown in this monastery - a very remarkable silken vestment. The ground is of green satin - covered with a repeated pattern in gold, silver and coloured silks, - representing a woman in a red robe seated in a howdah upon the back - of a camel. A man naked to the waist is seated upon the ground with - his head bowed upon his hands. A variety of animals and floral motives - are scattered round the principal figures. The subject is no doubt - taken from the story of Leila and Majnûn. The date of this brocade is - probably somewhere between 1560 and 1660. A fragment showing a like - pattern is in the possession of Dr. Sarre. The monastery possesses - besides a small bronze thurible, of which I succeeded in procuring a - counterpart. A similar thurible exists in the British Museum (No. 540 - in the catalogue of Early Christian and Byzantine Antiquities); it - is said to have come from Mâr Musa el Habashi, between Damascus and - Palmyra. The Kaiser Friedrich Museum has obtained several in Cairo and - Trebizond (Wulff: _Altchristliche Bildwerke_, Teil I, nos. 967-970). - These are ascribed to the sixth and seventh centuries. Mr. Dalton, to - whom I owe this information, gives me references to two others, one in - the Bargello collection at Florence (No. 241 in the catalogue of the - Carraud Collection, published in 1898) and one published in the _Echos - d’Orient_, VII., 1904, p. 148. - - [202] I have published photographs and plans of the Jacobite church of - the Virgin and the Greek Orthodox church of Mâr Cosmo in _Amida_: Van - Berchem and Strzygowski. - - [203] The Yeni Kapu differs in plan from the other three. It has - square bastions, whereas they are protected on either side by massive - round towers. The round towers extend all along the northern parts of - the wall; on the other sides the towers are rectangular. - - [204] A sketch plan, made by De Beylié, is published in _Amida_. - - [205] His phrase “under the citadel but in the very heart of Amida” is - difficult to understand. It does not seem to imply a spring outside - the walls, yet there is no place “under the citadel” and within the - walls. - - [206] One is known by inscriptions to have been erected by the Ortoḳid - Sultan Malek Shah in the year A.D. 1208-1209, and the other must - belong to the same period. The inscriptions have been published by - Van Berchem, see Lehmann-Haupt: _Materialen zur älteren Geschichte - Armeniens und Mesopotamiens_, p. 140. They are more fully published - in _Amida_, but that work has not appeared in time for me to make any - accurate reference to it. - - [207] Our itinerary was as follows: Diyârbekr, 7; Shilbeh, 8; Uch - Keui, 9.5; Dereh Gechid Chai, a deep valley once noted for brigands, - 10.45; Tolek, a village on the opposite side of this valley, 11. Here - followed 35 minutes’ halt during which the caravan caught us up and - passed us, but we came up with it again before we reached Ḳara Khân - Chai, a small river, at 1 o’clock. We got to Tarmûr at 2.45. I give - these hours since Kiepert’s map is frequently mistaken as to relative - distances. - - [208] The day’s march was Tarmûr, 6; Kayden Keui, 6.30; Shawa Keui, - 6.50 (both these villages lay about three-quarters of an hour to the - right of the road); Tulkhum, a mile to the left of the road by a big - mound, 7.10; we climbed a low ridge and dropped into a little plain in - which we crossed a stream at 8.15; Kadi Keui to the right, 8.30; road - up to Arghana, 9; monastery, 10.10-10.55; crossed the Ma’den Chai by - Kalender Koprüsi at 1; Khan above Arghana Ma’den, 3; the caravan had - arrived a few minutes before us. - - [209] The day’s march was as follows: Khân of Arghana Ma’den, 6.20; - Khân of Pünoz, at upper end of gorge, 9.40 (the village of Pünoz lies - up a rocky valley to the right); Ḳâsim Khân, at further side of plain, - 10.55-11.30--there is no village here; Göljik, 11.55; Shabyan, a small - village near the water parting, 1.40; Keghvank, 4. - - [210] Mezreh is perhaps Ptolemy’s Mazara (ed. Müller, p. 945), and it - bears the same name in the Peutinger Tables. - - [211] The garrison consisted of 65 men and 80 beautiful ladies, a - proportion of the sexes which may have contributed to Balak’s victory. - - [212] Kharpût has been identified with Carcathicerta, which was the - royal city of Sophene, according to Strabo. - - [213] Since the outbreak of 1895 a Christian governor has been - appointed in all vilayets which contain a large proportion of - Armenians. The Mu’âvin Vâlîs are nominally co-rulers with their Moslem - colleagues, but report, I know not with how much justice, credits them - with little influence and less initiative. - - [214] Mezreh, 6.5; Khân Keui, 9.25; Tell Maḥmûd, left of road, 9.45; - Chaghullah, left of road, 9.55; Sapolar (left), 10.5; Harnik (right), - 10.20; Melekjân (about a mile to the right), 10.35; Cholak Ushagî, - where there is a khân, 11-11.45. Here we crossed a ridge into a valley - which runs down to the Euphrates. Tutli Keui (left), 2.5; over another - ridge and down to Kömür Khân at 3.35; Iz Oglu, 5.45. - - [215] It is probably the ancient caravan road from Cæsarea and Ephesus - to Babylon. - - [216] Iz Oglu (on the west bank of the Murad Su), 8; Masnik, 10.15; a - big chiflik of which I do not know the name, 12-12.30; we climbed a - long hill, reaching the summit at 2.15, and got to Malaṭiyah at 2.45. - - [217] They had been published, but not very satisfactorily. I gave - my photographs to Mr. Hogarth, who published them in the _Annals of - Archæology and Anthropology_, Vol. II. No. 4. - - [218] Melitene does not appear to have been in existence in Strabo’s - time, for he says that there were no towns in the fruitful plain, - but only strongholds upon the mountains (Bk. XII. ii. 6). Procopius - states that it was raised by Trajan to the dignity of a city, whereas - before it had been nothing but a square fortification on low ground - (Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society Edition, p. 82). Diocletian made it - the capital of Armenia Secunda (Ramsay: _Historical Geography_, p. - 313); it was the centre of the military roads guarding the frontiers - of the Roman empire towards the Euphrates, and the standing camp - of the XII Legion, Fulminata (_id._ p. 55). With this increase of - importance it outgrew, according to Procopius, its former limits, so - that the people built over the plain “their churches, the dwellings - of their magistrates, the market-place and the shops of their - merchants, the streets, porticoes, baths and theatres, and all the - other ornaments of a large city.” Melitene was thus composed mostly - of suburbs until Justinian surrounded it with a wall. There must, - however, have been cities in the plain, of which Strabo knew nothing, - long before Trajan’s time, as is proved by existing mounds, and Pliny - seems to have preserved a dim memory of these when he speaks of - Melitene as having been founded by Semiramis (Bk. VI. ch. iii.). - - [219] Malaṭiyah Eskishehr, 9.45; Khâtûnyeh (a quarter of a mile to - the left), 10.20; a chiflik (name unknown), 11.45-12.15; Saman Keui, - a village near a big mound, 12.55. In a graveyard near here I noticed - two fragments of round columns. At 1.25 we crossed a deep valley - and saw the village of Shehna Khân about half-a-mile to the right; - Elemenjik, 3.10. Not all these villages are marked in Kiepert and some - are wrongly placed. There is cultivation round each village, but the - plain between is usually untilled. - - [220] Arga has been identified with Arca, where there was a Roman - station (Arca was also the seat of a bishopric: Ramsay, _Hist. Geog._, - p. 314), and with Ptolemy’s Arcala (ed. Müller, p. 888). The great - road mentioned by Strabo which led from Babylon to Ephesus, crossing - the Euphrates at Tomisa-Iz Oglu, passed through Arca (according to - Sir W. Ramsay’s suggestion, _op. cit._, p. 273) and ran through - Dandaxina and Osdara to Arabissus and thence through the mountains - to Cæsarea. Kiepert places Dandaxina immediately to the south of the - Tokhma Su and Osdara in the same latitude; Ramsay puts both places - further south, and Sterritt’s evidence supports Ramsay’s conclusions. - Between Arga and Ekrek my route did not touch the Roman road as laid - down by Ramsay, but ran further to the north, and where I crossed - the mountains, between Osmandedeli and ’Azîzîyeh, I saw no trace of - an ancient road, nor can I think that wheeled traffic can ever have - followed that line. Ainsworth travelled down the Tokhma Su from Görün - to Derendeh, but he came over the Akcheh Dâgh between Derendeh and - Arga, whereas I crossed it further east from Arga to Ozan. Ainsworth - observes that there were never more than two roads from Derendeh to - Malaṭiyah, one following the line he took, and one the valley of the - Tokhma Su down to the plain (_Travels and Researches_, Vol. I. p. - 247). I do not feel inclined to dispute that opinion, for though I - found a third way from Malaṭiyah to Derendeh, it cannot be called a - road. The mouldings and capitals which I saw at Arga pointed to a date - not later than the sixth century. - - [221] Ozan, 10.30; Mullah ’Alî Shehr, 11.5-40; Polat Ushagha, 12.35; - Tozeli, some distance to the left, 12.55; a ruined khân marked by - Kiepert, 1.20. Here we saw up a valley to the north the village of - Palanga, marked by Kiepert. Above the khân the river flows through a - gorge, and on the rocks above it are the ruins of a small fort, which - we reached at 2.20; Kötü Ḳal’ah village, 2.45. - - [222] We passed upon the way only one village, Mügdeh, where we - crossed the Tokhma Su. Kiepert has suggested that Derendeh may - represent the site of ancient Dalanda; for objections to this view, - see Ramsay, _op. cit._, p. 309. - - [223] The existing ruins are probably mediæval. Ainsworth (_Travels - and Researches_, Vol. I. p. 246) reports an illegible inscription, - presumably Arabic or Turkish, over the gate. I do not remember to have - seen it. The fortress of Ṭarandah is mentioned as early as the year - A.D. 702, when it was in the hands of a Moslem garrison. In the ninth - century it was held by the Paulicians, a sect of Eastern Christians - whose beliefs were mingled with Manichæanism. (Le Strange: _Lands of - the Eastern Caliphate_, p. 120.) - - [224] Görün, 12; summit of hill, 1.15 (but we had ridden considerably - faster than our usual pace); Kevak Euren, to the left, 3.10; chiflik, - 4.30; Osmândedelî, 5. - - [225] Osmândedelî, 6.25; Kaindîjeh, 7.10; there is a better road from - here, but it makes a long circuit by Günesh and Parenk, and I declined - to take it. Küpek Euren, 8.20; Bey Punar, 9.45; water parting, 11.10; - Boran Dereh Keui, 5.10. - - [226] ’Azîzîyeh is the ancient Ariarathia and its foundation dates - from the second or third century B.C.: Ramsay, _op. cit._, p. 310. - - [227] ’Azîzîyeh, 10; Emergal, an Avshar village on the left, 12; - Takhtalî, on the right across the river, 12.20; Ḳizil Khân, 1.35. (See - Ramsay, _op. cit._, p. 298. It is perhaps Strabo’s Erpa “on the road - to Melitene.”) Bazaar Euren, 2.25. Between Ḳizil Khân and Bazaar Euren - there is a small khân with ruins near to it, among them a carved door - jamb. Ekrek, 5. - - [228] Ramsay, _op. cit._, p. 289, places Tsamandos at ’Azîzîyeh, but - he had not seen Maḥmûd Ghâzî when he wrote. - - [229] The Armenians of this district are Muhâjir, immigrants, no - less than the Circassians, though their coming dates from an earlier - time. They were forced out of northern Armenia in the tenth century - by the Seljuks, who drove them southward into what was then still the - Byzantine empire. - - [230] Kavak was the name I heard given to the site of the church; - Rott has published it under the name of the Panagia of Busluk Ferek - (_Keinasiatische Denkmäler_, p. 188). He has also published Tomarza, - p. 183. - - [231] In the low ground there are remains of a theatre, a fine bit of - stone wall decorated with good mouldings, and part of a vaulted brick - building, possibly a gymnasium. All these are upon the left bank of - the stream. The temple upon the bluff was converted at an early date - into a church, which has long since fallen into decay, though it has - been patched up in recent times by the Armenians (Fig. 228). Along - the edge of the bluff there are remains of a columned portico. In the - ruined bazaar I saw a couple of beautiful funnel capitals, cracked - and broken by fire. They should probably be dated in the early sixth - century. At the entrance of the valley that leads up to the Kara Bel - are the ruins of a small temple with a finely carved doorway (Fig. - 223). - - Mr. Hogarth sends me the following note:-- - - Miss Bell has submitted to me five inscriptions found on a temple site - at Comana Capp. They are, she thinks, unpublished, and certainly were - not seen by me on either of my visits to Comana in 1890 or 1891. Miss - Bell sent me good photographs of nos. 1 and 2; but for the others, I - have only her hand-copies to go upon. - - No. 1 is a commonplace epitaph, intended to be hexametrical; but the - necessary proper names would not accommodate themselves to the metre, - and the versifier has had to leave ll. 1 and 3 partly prose. In l. 2 - he or the lapicide has made the mistake of leaving the ε before ἡδ - unelided. The most interesting point in the inscription, the second - name of the dedicator, is, unfortunately, obscured by a breakage of - the surface. The lettering is very clear on the photograph except on - the right edge. - - No. 2 is broken top and right, and the names of the son and mother - cannot be restored. - - No. 3, the epitaph of a slave set up by his master, offers an instance - of the distinction of slaves by the name of the master with a Roman - gentile prefix. Either Αὐρ. or Αἰλι. is concealed in Miss Bell’s copy - of l. 2. Another slave seems to have appropriated the grave afterwards - for his wife, and added a note to that effect. - - No. 4 is without points of interest. No. 5 adds to other Oriental - names found at Comana _Pharnaces_ and the name of his father, which, - in Miss Bell’s copy, reads _Giris_. - - 1. Altar-stela with wreaths in relief on the front and sides. The - inscription is in careful lettering of about the 4th cent. A.D. Words - are in some cases divided by points. Square and round forms are used - indifferently, and ligature is frequent. Worn badly on right edge:-- - - [Illustration: Greek] - - 2. Altar-stela with wreath in relief below the inscription. Broken top - and right top. Finely-cut lettering of 3rd cent. A.D.:-- - - [Illustration: Greek] - - Ἀσύνκριτος: for the use of this epithet at Comana see _J. H. S._ - xviii. p. 318, no. 29, and also no. 4 below. - - 3. Altar-stela:-- - - [Illustration] The lines 6-8 may conceal the name Βαιβία borne by - the wife of Aur. Heliodorus in an epitaph of Comana published by - Waddington from copies by Clayton and Ramsay, _Bull. Corr. Hell._, - vii. p. 137, no. 19. - - 4. On the rock inside tomb:-- - - [Illustration: Greek] - - 5. On a small stone with rude pediment:-- - - [Illustration: Greek] - - [232] “Their houses are circular,” says Marco Polo of the Tartars - of inner Asia, “and are made of wands covered with felts”: Yule’s - edition, Vol. I. p. 252. - - [233] Mârdin, 6.30; Yamachlî, to right, 7.30; Sarî Khân, 8.45; - Ispileh, to right, 10.30; Talas, 11.30. - - [234] The plateau is here about 3,500 feet above sea level. - - [235] It has been well published by Rott: _Kleinasiatische Denkmäler_, - p. 103. - - [236] ’Ala ed Din reigned from 1219 to 1236, but the tomb is dated by - an inscription in the year 1344. - - [237] It was built in 1381-2 by the wife of ’Ala ed Dîn, Prince of - Ḳaramân. 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