4 * / 7 ') \ > i LIB R -A- R Y OF THE Theological Seminary. PRINCETON, N. J. t'ase Division "3D SA“^ i • P~i * 1 Book . . Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library https://archive.org/details/travelsinmesopot02buck CHAPTER I CARAVAN RUSHING, BY NIGHT, TO A DEEP AND RAPID RIVER. TRAVELS IN MESOPOTAMIA. INCLUDING A JOURNEY FROM ALEPPO TO BAGDAD, BY THE ROUTE OK BEER, ORFAH, DIARBEKR, MARDIN, & MOUSUL ; WITH RESEARCHES ON THE RUINS OF NINEVEH, BABYLON, AND OTHER ANCIENT CITIES. BY J. S. BUCKINGHAM, AUTHOR OF TRAVELS IN PALESTINE AND THE COUNTRIES EAST OF THE JORDAN ■ TRAVELS AMONG THE ARAB TRIBES; MEMBER OF THE LITERARY SOCIETIES OF BOMBAY AND MADRAS, AND OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON : HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 1827. LOXDOK : PRINTED DV D. S. MAURICE, FKNCHI’RCH STREET. CONTENTS OF THE SECOND V O L U M E. Page CHAP. I. From the Plain of Sin jar, bv Romoila, to Mousul . 1 CHAP. II. Description of Mousul ...... 2(1 CHAP. III. Visit to the Ruins of Nineveh, and Journey from Mousul to the River Lycus .... 48 CHAP. IV. From Ain Koura, by the ancient Arbela, to Ker- kook ........ 92 CHAP. V. From Kerkook, by Kiffree, to Kara Tuppe, or the Black Hill . 123 CHAP. VI. From Kara Tuppe, by Delhi Abass, to Bagdad . 147 VI CONTENTS. CHAP. VII. Description of Bagdad . . . . . .175 CHAP. VIII. Excursion to Akkerkoof . . . . 217 CHAP. IX. Journey from Bagdad to the Ruins of Babylon . 240 CHAP. X. Search after the Walls of Babylon . . . 296 CHAP. XI. Visit to the Tower of Babel and Temple of Belus, or the Birs Nimrood ...... 359 CHAP. XII. Observations made at Bagdad .... 400 CHAP. XIII. Excursion to the Ruins of Ctesiphon and Seleucia . 437 CHAP. XIV. Further Stay at Bagdad ..... 478 APPENDIX, Containing a brief statement of the result of certain legal proceedings connected with the literary character of the Author .... 553 TRAVELS IN MESOPOTAMIA. CHAPTER I. FROM THE PLAIN OF SINJAR, BY ROMOILA, TO MOUSUL. July 3d. — We quitted our station on the plain, just as the moon was setting, and al¬ though we had now an additional escort of eighty well-armed and well-mounted men, our whole party did not exceed in number two hundred persons. Soon after commencing our night-march, going in a direction of east-south-east, we passed over a deep ravine, filled with large basaltic masses, forming a vein in the earth, VOL. II. B 2 FROM THE PLAIN OF SIN.JAR, like the deep and winding bed of a torrent. The rest of our way was over desert ground, though the whole tract was capable of being rendered highly fertile, being covered with a good soil, and intersected by several small rivulets of water. It was soon after the rising of the Pleiades, or just before the first gleam of dawn appear¬ ed, that we formed our halt, at a spot called Romoila, for the sake of filling our vessels with water, as our next stage was to be a night one, through which we might not find any supply of this indispensable provision. This march was intended to be prolonged without a halt, until we should arrive on the banks of the Tigris, in order that we might thus pass over this dangerous plain of Sinjar by night, and escape the prying sight of the Y ezeedis under the cover of darkness.* * “ Les Yezidis sont censes d DESCRIPTION OE MOUSUL. with great respect by the servants and slaves in waiting ; but the Hadjee and his nephew were almost worshipped by them ; having their knees embraced, and the hems of their garments kissed by the crowds who pressed around them as they entered the court of their dwelling. The house itself, which was now quite new, was esteemed to be inferior to none in the city, excepting the residence of the Pasha, and, indeed, its interior decorations were as costly as those of any private abode that I had seen in the East, excepting only those of the rich Jews at Damascus. This house had been be¬ gun by the Hadjee just before his setting out on his pilgrimage, and, during the two years of his absence, it had been completed by the confidential slave or chief steward of his household. While the host and his nephew retired to receive the welcome of the females of the family, all the strangers were shewn over the dwelling, and every thing was found to be in the most perfect order for the lord’s reception. The Hadjee and his nephew soon returned to us, both dressed in garments of white, all perfectly new, and prepared during their absence, to clothe them on the day of their return. DESCRIPTION OF MOUSUL. 47 A sumptuous feast was now ready to close the scene, and while the Hadjee Abd-el-Rakh- man was seated on one carpet, surrounded by all the strangers who journeyed in his train, the nephew entertained, on another carpet, all those of the town who came to greet them jointly on their safe return. Even here, how¬ ever, amidst all the parade of wealth and hos¬ pitality, the hoary pilgrim did not disdain to bargain with me in whispers for the purchase of my horse, as he understood that I should be obliged to sell it and go to Bagdad with post-horses in the company of the Tartars, (no single animal being able to keep up with their rapid pace ;) and in this transaction he sufficiently verified the proverb, on the influence of a journey to Mecca,* by per¬ suading me into the sale of this excellent ani¬ mal, for about half the price it would have brought in the public bazar ; though I was in some degree disposed to yield to his terms, from a conviction that the horse, to whom I had now become strongly attached, would be better treated, and more happy under his care, than in the hands of an entire stranger. * See this proverb at the end of chap. vi. vol. i. p. 229- CHAPTER III. VISIT TO THE RUINS OF NINEVEH, AND JOUR¬ NEY FROM MOUSED TO THE RIVER LYCUS. J uly 7 tli. — All things being arranged for my journey with the Turkish Tartars, from Mousul to Bagdad, I received intimation from the Tartar-Aga, or chief of these couriers, that our horses would be ready at nine o’clock this morning, and that, on no consideration, would any delay beyond that hour be per¬ mitted. As I was up, however, before the sun, I procured the use of a horse and a guide from my Christian entertainer, and set out on a visit to the ruins of Nineveh, which are scat¬ tered along the eastern bank of the Tigris. Descending through the tow n to the river, wre crossed it, over a bridge of boats, which was just one hundred and fifty horse-paces in CHAPTER III BRIDGE OF BOATS ACROSS THE TIGRIS, AND VIEW OF THE RIVER’S BANKS. FROM MOUSE L TO THE RIVER LYCUS. 40 length. The boats were badly constructed, and not being fastened together in the most secure manner, the whole bridge was set in motion by the least agitation of the water. They were moored head and stern by iron chains, and were sharp at each end. The rate of the current in mid-channel seemed at pre¬ sent not to exceed two miles an hour ; but it was said by all, that this was the slowest rate at which it ran, and that it sometimes possessed three times its present rapidity. The water was nowhere deeper than from three to four fathoms, and it was of a yellow muddy colour throughout ; though it soon became clear by being suffered to rest, and was at all seasons fine and sweet to the taste. We went from hence towards the north-east, and passing over a stone bridge of Moham¬ medan work, thrown across a small stream, which discharges itself into the Tigris, came in about an hour to the principal mounds which are thought to mark the site of the ancient Nineveh. There are four of these mounds, disposed in the form of ' a square ; and these, as they shew neither bricks, stones, nor other materials of building, but are in many places overgrown von. ii. F. 50 JOURNEY FROM MOUSUL with grass, resemble the mounds left by en¬ trenchments and fortifications of ancient Roman camps. The longest of these mounds runs nearly north and south, and consists of several ridges of unequal height, the whole appearing to extend for four or five miles in length. There are three other distinct mounds, which are all near to the river, and lie in the direction of east and west. The first of these, counting from the southward, is the one called “ Nebbe Yunus,” having a tomb on it, which is thought to contain the ashes of the prophet Jonas, and a small village collected round it ; the next to the northward is called Tal Her- moosli, which is not marked by any striking peculiarity ; and the third is the one we first ascended, and which, by way of distinction, from its regularity and height, is called Tal Ninoa, or the Hill of Nineveh.* * This might probably be the mound spoken of by Diodorus in the following passage ; at least, there was no other in sight, to which his description woidd so well apply : — “ Semiramis,” he says, “ buried her husband Ninus in the royal palace at Nineveh, and raised over him a mound of earth of considerable size, being nine stadia in height, and ten in breadth, as Ctesias says, so that the TO THE RIVER LYCUS. 51 In order to mark the place of this last with the greater precision, I took from its centre a set of bearings, by compass, of the princi¬ pal objects in view.# There are appearances of mounds and ruins extending for several miles to the southward, and still more distinctly seen to the north¬ ward of this, though both are less marked than the mounds of the centre. The space between these is a level plain, over every part of the face of which, broken pottery, and the other city standing in a plain near to the river, the mount looked at a distance like a stately citadel. And it is said, that it continues to this day, though Nineveh was destroyed by the Medes, when they ruined the Assyrian empire.” — Diodorus Siculus , b. ii. c. i. p. 59- * Southern extreme of Mousul, ... S. S. W. 3 miles. Northern ditto ditto, ... W. S. W. 2 miles. Centre of the City, and Minaret of the Great Mosque of Nour- el-deen ... ... ... ... S. W. 2 miles. Village of Catheeah N. W. by W. f W. 2 miles. Deer Kharazey, a village on the ruins of Nineveh ... ... N. W. by W. H miles. Jebel Gara, a high mountain of Koordistan, covered with snow ... N. by E. 50 miles. Range of Jebel Makloube, also in Koordistan from N. N. E. toE. by N. lOmiles. Tomb and Village of Nebbe Yunus ... S. 1 mile. Tal Harmoosh, centre ... ... S. f W. $ mile. 52 JOURNEY" FROM MOUSUL usual debris of ruined cities, are seen scattered about.* If it were true, as asserted by Strabo, and other early writers, that Nineveh was larger than Babylon, it might be considered to have been the largest city that ever existed in the world, and one might even credit the asser¬ tion, that “ Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey, not in circum¬ ference, as it has been assumed, t but in length, since J onah did not begin to proclaim the de¬ nunciations of God against it, until he had entered the city a day’s journey, which would then have been its further extreme, if three days only had been the extent of its circuit. * 44 As it was a very ancient, so was it likewise a very great city In Jonah, it is styled 4 that great city,’ (i. 2. iii. 2.) 4 an exceeding great city.’ (iii. 3.) In the original, it is * 4 a city great to God in the same manner as Moses is called by St. Stephen, in the Acts of the Apostles, (vii. 10.) to! Sea, fair to God, or exceeding fair, as our translators rightly render it ; and so 4 the mountains of God, (Psalm xxxvi. 6.) are exceeding high mountains,’ and 4 the cedars of God, (Psalm lxxx. 10.) are exceeding tall cedars.' ’ — Newton on the Prophecies , pp. 144, 145. •f* Jonah, c. iii. v. 3. j Kinnier's Geographical Memoir on Persia, p. 259- * S'n^sS mi — Deo magna civitas, uoAis /xtyaAii ©ft’. Sept. TO THE RIVER LYCUS. 53 But we are furnished with its actual dimen¬ sions in stadia, which enables us to compare how far its comparative magnitude was greater than that of Babylon, or not. He¬ rodotus assigns to this last a square of four hundred and eighty stadia, or a circumference of sixty miles, counting fifteen miles for each of its sides, reckoning the stadium at its highest standard of eight to a mile. * Diodo¬ rus Siculus gives the dimensions of Nineveh as one hundred and fifty stadia in length, and ninety stadia in breadth, or about nine¬ teen miles in front along the river, and eleven and a quarter in breadth, from the river to the mountains, estimating the stadium at the same standard of value. f * Herodotus. Clio. f “ Ninas having surpassed all his ancestors in the glory and success of his arms, was resolved to build a city of that state and grandeur, as should not only be the greatest then in the world, but such as none that ever should come after him should be able easily to exceed. Accordingly, having himself got a great number of his forces together, and provided money and treasure, and other things neces¬ sary for the purpose, he built a city near the river Eu¬ phrates, (Tigris,) very famous for its walls and fortifica¬ tions, of a long form, for on both sides it ran out in length above an hundred and fifty stadia, (about nineteen miles,) but the two lesser angles were only ninety stadia in each, 54 JOURNEY FROM MOUSUL There was, it is true, a greater length in the city of Nineveh ; but, from its more con¬ fined breadth, the space actually included within the limits given was somewhat less than that of Babylon. It may, however, be admitted to claim for itself a higher antiquity, since the second great capital of the Assyrian empire did not begin to flourish until this, its first metropolis, whose origin mounts up to the period just succeeding the deluge,* was abandoned to decay. The nature of the ground here determines, with sufficient precision, what must have been the local features of its site, and confirms the so that the circumference of the whole was four hundred and eighty stadia, (about sixty miles.) And the founder was not herein deceived, for none ever after built the like, either as to the largeness of its circumference, or the stateli¬ ness of its walls. For the wall was an hundred feet in height, and so broad, as that three chariots might be driven together upon it abreast. There were fifteen hundred turrets upon the walls, each of them two hundred feet high. He appointed the city to be inhabited chiefly by the richest Assyrians, and gave liberty to the people of any other nation, (to as many as would,) to dwell there ; and allowed to the citizens a large territory next adjoining to them, and called the city after his own name, Ninus." — Diodorus Siculus, b. ii. c. 1. p. 55. * Genesis, c. x. v. 11. TO THE JR IYER LYCUS. 55 accuracy of the historian, who describes it as of an oblong form. From the extent of the Plain of Babylon, that city might have spread itself out to any given length, its limits being circumscribed only on the west, by the existence of marshes and lakes there. Nineveh too might have stretched a front along the river of any extent, but its breadth was absolutely fixed within ten or twelve miles, that being the whole ex¬ tent of the plain on the eastern bank of the Tigris, from the river to the range of Jebel Makloube, the mountains which form its eastern boundary. As far as I could perceive, from our elevated point of view, on the highest summit of Tal Ninoa, there were mounds of ruins similar to those near us, but less distinctly marked, as far as the eye could reach to the north¬ ward ; and the plain to the eastward of us, or between the river and the mountains, had a mixture of large brown patches, like heaps of rubbish, seen at intervals, scattered over a cultivated soil. Whatever might have been the exact dimen¬ sions of Nineveh, it was unquestionably very large ; and, like most other great cities of 30 JOURNEY FROM MOUSUL antiquity, was, in the period of its highest glory, a sink of wickedness and abomination. The disastrous history of Jonah, and his sin¬ gular habitation during three days and three nights, when on his way to prevent the destruc¬ tion of this city, are familiarly known. There is an expression, however, worth adverting to, more particularly as conveying some idea of the population of Nineveh at the period in question. It is where the Almighty, in re¬ proving Jonah for his anger at a worm, for destroying the gourd by which he was sheltered from the sun, and his pity for the gourd itself, says, “ Thou hast had pity on the gourd for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night : And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six-score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left, and also much cattle ?”# Considering this number of one hundred and twenty thou¬ sand to mean the children and infants, who, as well as the cattle with whom they are coupled, might be mentioned as being all in a * Jonah, c. iii. and iv. throughout. TO THE RIVER LYCUS. 57 state of innocence, and therefore not deserving to be made partakers with the guilty in the Divine vengeance, some estimate may be made of the whole population, which tvould thus, in the ordinary proportions of the several classes, amount to little short of half a million of people. The denunciations of the prophet Nahum against this devoted city are extremely elo¬ quent, but equally full of the bitterness of wrath with those pronounced by other in¬ spired tongues, against the great empires and kingdoms of the ancient world.* * “Woe to the bloody city ! it is all full of lies and robbery ; the prey departeth not ; the noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the prancing horses, and of the jumping chariots. The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear : and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases, and there is none end of their corpses : they stumble upon their corpses. Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts. Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of Hosts ; and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame. And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazing-stock. And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee, shall o8 JOURNEY FROM MOUSUL That which follows this denunciation in eludes, however, an illustration of ancient geography, too curious to be omitted. The question is asked of Nineveh, “ Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea ? Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite. Put and Lubim were thy helpers. Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity ; her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets ; and they cast lots for her honourable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.”* Bruce, the celebrated Abyssinian traveller, has, I remember, considered this populous “ No,” to be the Egyptian “ Thebes;” and though at the time of my visit to the ruins of that hundred-gated city of the gods, the identity of it with the No of the Scriptures seemed to me objectionable, from the mention of the sea as its rampart ; yet here, on the flee from ' thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her ? whence shall I seek comforters for thee ?" — Nahum , c. iii. v. 1 — 7- * Nahum, c. iii. v. 8 — 10. TO THE RIVER LYCUS 59 ruined mounds of the fallen Nineveh, while reading from the Prophets all the denuncia¬ tions of vengeance which had been uttered against it, the propriety of a comparison of its state with that of the Thebes of Egypt struck me very forcibly, and left on my mind the im¬ pression that there was no other city of anti¬ quity, excepting this, to which the allusions made by the Prophet when speaking of “ No,” could at all apply. P rom the number of the canals and the ser¬ pentine curves of the Nile, even while running through Thebes, it might be said, with great propriety, “ to be seated among the rivers,” and “ to have the waters round about it.” So, also, as the whole of Egypt is inaccessible but from the sea, that sea might well be called its rampart while the celebrated wall, which * I know of no description, either among the ancients or moderns, which is at once so brief, and yet so happy, as that of Josephus, regarding this country. It may he appo¬ sitely given here, in confirmation of what is asserted above. He says, “ Egypt is hard to be entered by land, and hath no good havens by sea. It hath, on the west, the dry deserts of Lybia ; and on the south, Syene, that divides it from Ethiopia, as well as the cataracts of the Nile, that cannot be sailed over ; and on the east, the Red Sea, ex¬ tending as far as Coptus ; and it is fortified on the north, 00 JOURNEY FROM MOUSUL was constructed as a defence, and placed as an eastern barrier to the whole of that land, extending from Pelusium to the cataracts of Philoe, of which the remains are still to be seen in Egypt, was actually, as is expressed, “ from the sea.” Ethiopia and Egypt were, indeed, the strength of “ No and this, too, according to every testimony, was infinite. Yet this Hecatompylon of the poets,* and Diospolis of the historians,')' so pre-eminent for its antiquity, and so renow ned for its co¬ lossal splendour, was literally carried away, and went into captivity, when her temples were violated, her altars overturned, her de¬ fenceless children slain, and the great and the honourable among her leaders bound and made captive by their Eastern conquerors. Nineveh is said to have heen surrounded by avails that were a hundred feet in height,:]: by the band that reaches to Syria, together with that called the Egyptian Sea, having no havens in it for ships. And this is Egypt, walled about on every side.” — Wars of the Jews , book iv. c. 10, sect. 5. * Homer. ■f* Strabo and Diodorus. % To the north of the Lesser Zab, and near the Tigris, the Ten Thousand found in their retreat a city, the walls of which wrere no less lofty than these. “ Marching the TO THE RIVER LYCUS. 61 and of a sufficient breadth for three chariots to pass along it together abreast, as well as to have been defended by fifteen hundred towers along these walls, which were each of rest of the day without disturbance,” says Xenophon, (Anab. iii. p. 212,) “ they came to the river Tigris, where stood a large uninhabited city called Larissa, anciently inhabited by the Medes, the walls of which were twenty-five feet in breadth, one hundred in height, and two parasangas in circuit ; all built of brick, except the plinth, which was of stone, and twenty feet high.” The city here named Larissa , by Xenophon, is conjectured by Bochart to have been the Resen of the Scriptures, Gen. x. 12. He supposes that, when the Greeks asked the people of the country “ what city are these the ruins of?’’ they answered, (< Laresen,” that is, of Resen. It is easy, says Spelman, to imagine how this word might be softened by a Greek termination, and made Larissa. At a very short distance from Resen, the army passed an uninhabited castle of enormous dimensions, standing near the town of Mespila, formerly also belonging to the Medes. “ The plinth of the wall was built with polished stone full of shells, being fifty feet in breadth, and as many in height. Upon this stood a brick wall, fifty feet also in breadth, one hundred in height, and six parasangas in circuit.” As the word r frequently signifies “ a city,” I am surprised that Mr. Spelman should, in this instance, have followed the Latin versions, and translated castle, what would have borne the much better interpretation of “ fortified city."’'' The word i(.o^yykia.ifict, “ a stone full of shells,” which occurs in the description of this fortress, has occasioned the usual quantity of learned trifling among the commentators. Leunclavius imagined, that the historian JOURNEY FROM MOUSUL C,-2 them two hundred feet high. If the walls of Babylon, however, which were comparatively of so much more modern erection, are thought to have left no trace remaining, those of Ni¬ neveh may well have totally disappeared. From the height on which w-e stood, ex¬ tending our view to a considerable distance in every direction, we could not certainly per¬ ceive any marked delineation of one great outline ; but mounds and smaller heaps of ruins were scattered widely over the plain, sufficient to prove that the site of the original city occupied a vast extent, notwithstanding that some of the latest visitors to this place have thought that the remains were confined to the few mounds of the centre only. meant stones on which the figures of shells had been sculptured! But Hutchinson observes, that in this opinion he can by no means concur ; lie thinks, the shells must have been the work of nature; and no doubt, he was right. The stone was probably of the same description as that used in the walls of Orfah.-f- A pyramid of singular structure was observed near Resen : “ Close to the city stood a pyra¬ mid of stone one hundred feet square and two hundred high, in ( upon ) which a great number of barbarians, who fled from the neighbouring villages, had conveyed them¬ selves.” f Sec page 214 of this volume. TO THE RIVER LYCUS. 03 Macdonald Kinneir conceived that the ruins at this place were those of Ninus, the city which succeeded to Nineveh, and not those of Nineveh itself. It is evident, however, that this writer spoke only of the central mounds ; as he expressly states that the circumference of all the remains he saw did not exceed four miles, and very inexplicably observes, that he saw neither stones nor rubbish of any kind , though the mounds are naturally altogether formed of the last.* If the temple of Araske, in which Senna¬ cherib was slain, after returning from his Egyptian war, when all the armour of his sol¬ diers was knawed to pieces by mice, in one night, at Pelusiunvj' and a hundred and eighty- five thousand of his army, with all their cap¬ tains and generals, were carried off by a pesti¬ lence, before the walls of Jerusalem, in ano¬ ther,^: was equal in extent, either to the temple of Priapus at Thebes, or of Belus at Babylon, the mounds here forming an oblong square, nearly in the centre of the city, might per¬ haps mark the site of that building; but I * Geographical Memoir on Persia, 4to. p. 259. ■f* Herodotus. \ Berosus, as quoted by Josephus, Ant. b. x. c. 1. s. 5. JOURNEY FROM MOUSUL f>4 remember no particular details regarding the size or form of that edifice, which could assist in the elucidation of this question. From among the ruins of Nineveh, many antique gems, intaglios, and hieroglyphic de¬ vices on stone, have been dug up ; of some of which, drawings and descriptions are given in the “ Mines de l’Orient,” by Mr. Rich, of Bag¬ dad ; and not long since, a large stone was found here, inscribed all over with sculptures and unknown characters, which, falling into the hands of the Turks, was by them broken to pieces and destroyed. On descending from the mound of Tal Ninoa, we walked across the level space, in¬ cluded between it and the other principal mounds near the river, and found the whole extent of it covered with broken pottery, of a very coarse quality, and in general but slightly ribbed, though evidently of the ancient kind.# * The completeness of the destruction of Nineveh, which Arbaces the Mede is said to have levelled with the ground, makes it matter of wonder that its ruins are still to be seen. “ This point, I think,” says Bishop Newton, “ is generally agreed upon, that Nineveh was taken and destroyed by the Medes and Babylonians ; these two rebelling and uniting together subverted the Assyrian empire : but authors differ much about the time when Nineveh was taken, and about TO THE RIVER LYCUS. <55 In riding across this plain, we passed a small stream, called “ Maee Kosa,” or the water of Kosa, which comes from the eastern the king of Assyria, in whose reign it was taken, and even about the persons who had the command in this expedition. Herodotus* affirms, that it was taken by Cyaxares, king of the Medes ; St. Jerome, after the Hebrew chronicle, -f* asserts that it was taken by Nabuchodonosor, king of the Babylonians : but these accounts may be easily reconciled, for Cyaxares and Nabuchodonosor might take it with their joint forces, as they actually did, according to that which is written in the book of Tobit, (xiv. 15,) if the Assuerus in Tobit be the same (as there is great reason to think him the same) with the Cyaxares of Herodotus: 4 But before Tobias died, lie heard of the destruction of Nineveh, which was taken by Nabuchodonosor and Assuerus; and before his death he rejoiced over Nineveh.’ Josephus, j whosaith, in one place, that the empire of the Assyrians was dissolved by the Medes, saith in another, that the Medes and Baby¬ lonians dissolved the empire of the Assyrians. Herodotus himself§ saith, that the Medes took Nineveh, and subdued * Herod, lib. 1, cap. 106, p. 45. Edit. Gale. t Ilieron. in Naum. ii. 12, p. 1574, vol. 3. Edit. Benedict. Seder, Olam Rabba soli Nabuchodonosoro rem attribuit, et tempus ponif. Anno primo Nabuchodonosor subegit Nineven, id est, non diu post mortem patris. Ebraicum hoc Chronicon secuti sunt, S. Hieronymus, &c. Marshami Ch. Seec. xviii. p. 559. X v, aw€Kop.i7 been made, seemingly with a view to ascer¬ tain of what material it was formed, and pro¬ bably with a hope of being able to extract burnt bricks from thence for building, as is done from mounds of ruins at Babylon ; but there was here no appearance of such brick¬ work ; the whole, from length of time, and the nature of the materials, having become condensed into one solid mass.* As we passed by the mound, called “ Tal- Nebbe-Yunus,” I examined, with more atten¬ tion, an opening recently made on its northern side, and here I saw, most distinctly, a section the ground, transferred many talents of gold and silver to Ecbatana, the royal city of the Medes ; and so, saith he, the empire of the Assyrians was subverted.'” — Newton on the Prophecies, pp. 149 — 151. * “ And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria ; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness. And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations : both the cormo¬ rant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it ; their voice shall sing in the windows ; desolation shall be in the thresholds ; for he shall uncover the cedar work. This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, there is none beside me : how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in ! every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand.” — Zepha- niah, c. ii. v. 13 — 15. 68 JOURNEY FROM MOUSUL of masonry. The bricks were apparently sun- dried, and in dimensions two spans long, and one span deep ; they M ere of a very coarse kind, and Mrere united by layers of common mortar. The supposed tomb of the Prophet Jonah, which stands on the top of the hill, and has collected a tolerably large village about it, is in the hands of Mohammedans. It appeared to me so like the common tombs of saints, seen all over the East, that, pressed as I was for time to return to Mousul, I did not go up to visit it. As we went down from hence, by the eastern bank of the river, towards the bridge of boats, which goes across the Tigris, we passed again by the stone bridge, over a rivulet coming from the eastward, till it empties itself, close by this, into the river, and remarked, that it has fifteen pointed arches, but of very inferior masonry. In approaching Mousul from the eastward on our return, its appearance Mas much more interesting than that offered on entering it from the Mrest. From hence, it appeared to extend itself along the western bank of the river, for at least three miles in length. The houses seemed to be thickly crowded, though TO THE RIVER LYCUS. (i!> the mosques were not proportionately nume¬ rous. The centre of the town, standing on more elevated ground than its northern and southern extremes, shewed the minaret of Nour-el-Deen, which rises from the great mosque, to considerable advantage. The view of the country, to the north of the town, offered nothing of peculiar interest ; but to the south, the Pasha’s gardens, and some little villas seen through the trees, made a highly picturesque appearance. On reaching the opposite bank of the river, we re-entered Mousul, and going up through the “ Sookh el Khiale,” or the 1 1 orse-Bazar, where l noticed the only minaret of stone that I had seen in the city, we came to the “ Konauk Tatar Agasi,” or head-quarters of the couriers, near the palace of the Pasha, where the horses for our journey were just saddling, while the Tartars were cracking their whips, parading about in heavy boots, abusing the grooms and horse-keepers, and in short, giving themselves all the airs which are common among the same class of people, in¬ cluding post-boys, coachmen, & c. in England. We mounted here, and set out on our jour¬ ney from Mousul to Bagdad, soon after nine 70 JOURNEY FROM MOUSUL o’clock, the Tartars being the same, Jonas and Ali, who had come alone from Diarbekr, and with our caravan across the Desert of Sin- jar ; they being charged with packets from the British Ambassador at Constantinople, to Mr. Rich at Bagdad. As our horses were now fresh and good, and our saddles and furniture put in order during our short stay at Mousul, we set out with high spirits, and the prospect of an expeditious journey at least, Ali and my¬ self going on before, and leaving Jonas to overtake us. After crossing the Tigris, over the bridge of boats before described, we travelled in a southern direction, receding gradually from the eastern banks of the river, as the stream made here a course of about south-south- west. For the first two hours, during which the whole distance traversed was about ten miles, we continued among hillocks and mounds, which had all the appearance of be¬ ing formed from the wreck of former build¬ ings. It resembled, in this respect, the in¬ definite remains and rubbish seen on the sites of other mined cities, as Alexandria, Mem¬ phis, Sais, and Tanis, in Egypt ; and left no doubt, in my own mind, of its marking the TO THE RIVER LYCUS. 71 extent of ancient Nineveh, to be fully equal to the dimensions given of it by the early geographers and historians. On leaving these, we came out on a dusty plain, and soon after noon we reached the first stage, or “ Konauk,” as it is called, at a tolerably large village, called Karagoash. W e had passed in the way two streams of water, coming down from the eastern mountains, running through the site of Nineveh, and discharging themselves into the Tigris ; and we had seen, to the eastward of us, or on our left, several small places, the names of which I could not learn. In this village of Karagoash, all the houses were constructed of sun-dried brick, cemented with mud, exactly like the masonry seen in the section of the mound at Tal Hermoosh, and thought to be the remains of some of the old dwellings of the Ninevites. This, indeed, must have always been, and will, no doubt, always continue to be, the style of building used by the poor of this country, from the great expense of procuring stone, and the facility of raising a habitation of earth. Stone, it is true, is to be had, but not from a less distance than ten or twelve miles, which JOURNEY FROM MOUSUL 7 2 is that of the nearest range of mountains on the east ; and as we have seen, at Mousul, the marble or veined gypsum, brought from the hills to the northward of that city, is but sparingly used, even in the houses of the rich, for door-frames, pillars, &c. As these are permanent causes which in¬ fluence the manner of building in the present day, so the same causes prevailed in the earliest periods, and naturally produced the same effects. Thus, besides the visible remains of such brick- work at Nineveh, we find an allu¬ sion to this mode of building in the Prophet’s proclamation of its fall.* Among the houses of Karagoash, which are all of sun-dried bricks, there are some large ones, with a hollow rail- work of plaster carried around the terraces on the flat roof; but the greater part of the dwellings are small huts, with conical roofs of mud, looking like clusters of large bee-hives. The inhabitants are chiefly Christian, and are of the Syrian church ; among themselves, they speak the Syriac language only ; but they * “ Draw thee waters for the siege; fortify thy strong¬ holds, go into clay, and tread the mortar, make strong the brick-kiln.” — Nahum, c. iii. v. 14. TO THE RIVER LYCUS. 73 address themselves to strangers both in Arabic and Turkish. Their occupations are chiefly pastoral and agricultural, but they live in ge¬ neral in a state of great poverty. We were received here by the “Seroodjee Bashi,” or Head of the Saddlers, as a keeper of post-horses for the government is here called, and treated by him and his attendants with an extraordinary degree of respect. A room was appropriated expressly to our accom¬ modation, and this was spread out with car¬ pets and cushions for our repose. Pipes and coffee were also served to us, and a number of dishes were expeditiously prepared ; but as Jonas still delayed to join us, Ali, who was the younger of the two, did not feel himself at liberty to partake of them without waiting yet longer for his companion. We waited here at least two hours for this Jonas, who, it was said, was detained in dal¬ liance with a young wife to whom he had been newly married at Mousul, and who was unwilling to part with him. The hard-riding life that this Tartar led, in constantly re¬ peated journeys from one extremity of the em¬ pire to another, by no means unfitted him, it would seem, for softer pleasures ; for, to fulfil 74 JOURNEY FROM MOUSUL both the law and the prophets, he possessed his full number of four legal wives, who were judiciously distributed along his usual route, the handsomest living at Constantinople, the oldest at Diarbekr, the youngest at Mousul, and the richest at Bagdad : so that he had beauty and wealth to solace him at the ex¬ tremes of his journeys, and staid age and youth to comfort him on his way. Our patience being exhausted in hopeless waiting for his arrival, we partook of our meal without him, and, after another pipe, mounted fresh horses, and set out on our way. We had now two horsemen as drivers, who each led two other horses, lightly laden with the packets, &c., of which Ali had before taken care ; so that the number of our horses was now eight, and of drivers only four. It must have been about three o’clock when we started from this village, from which we went in a south-south-east direction, travelling at the rate of about six miles an hour. At four, we crossed a large clear stream, which was so deep as to be barely fordable ; and at five we went over another similar one. These were both called Kauther, or Kauzir Sou, and were said to be two branches that TO THE RIVER LYCUS. 75 came from the mountains of Koordistan to the north-east of us, when, uniting into one stream a little to the south-west, it discharged its waters into the Tigris. In the latest and largest map accompanying the Geographical Memoir on the Countries between the Euphrates and Indus, by Mac¬ donald Kinneir, the station of Karakawh is omitted, though it is mentioned in the memoir itself as being four farsangs, or about fifteen miles, from Mousul.* The courses of the streams here enumerated, as crossed since leaving that place, are also very inaccurately delineated, and the two branches of the Kauzir * “ D’Altoun-Kopri, en suivant la direction du nord, en arrive a Erbil ( Arbelles ) apres un trajet de dix lieues. Cette ville est situee sur un monticule qui domine une vaste etendu de terrain, dont les productions sont les memes que celles du district de Kerkouk. Erbil, si renommee par la victoire qu1 Alexandre remporta dans ses plaines sur l’armee de Darius, est regardee comme une des plus fortes places du Pachalik de Bagdad ; elle est gouvernee par un bey , ou lieutenant, et elle a un chateau et plusieurs manu¬ factures des etoffes en laine et en coton. Un canal assez large en fertilise le terroir, et ses habitans montrent aux voyageurs curieux qui en parcourent les environs, plu¬ sieurs mines d’anciens chateaux, qui Is supposent avoir ete batis par les monarques Persans de la derniere dynastie.” — Description du Pachalik de Bagdad , pp. 85, 86. JOURNEY FROM MOUSUL 7C Sou, or Hazir Sou, are confounded with the Greater Zab. The Hazir Sou of this map is, no doubt, the ancient Bumadis, or Bumade, or Bumallus, by all of which names it occurs in the ancient geographers and historians but this is cer¬ tain, that the two branches or arms of it, which we crossed, are distinct from the Greater Zab, according to all modern descriptions of that river. It was on these wide plains, on the banks of the Bumadis, that Darius was encamped, just previous to the fatal battle of Gauga- mela. Soon after Alexander, in his expedi¬ tion into the East, had crossed the Tigris without opposition, the capture of a body of cavalry belonging to the Persians furnished him with the intelligence of Darius being so near him. The troops wrere allowed to repose but a few days, and recruit their strength and spirits, both worn and exhausted by their pas¬ sage through the burning plains of Mesopo¬ tamia, when Alexander led them on again in person, and halted within sixty stadia of the Persian army. These are the preliminary particulars, which * Quintus Curtius, lib. iv. c. 9, &c. TO THE RIVER LYCOS. 77 are given by Arrian and it is to be inferred, from Diodorus Siculus, who also mentions the two armies being encamped in the presence of each other, that the battle between them was fought two days after the Macedonians had passed the river ;j~ which, if marching days only were meant, without counting those of rest, would agree pretty accurately with the distance. The learned author of the “ Critical Inquiry into the Historians of the Life of Alexander the Great,” has very justly exposed the con¬ tradictions of Quintus Curtins, who, in his account of this battle, seems to have sacrificed the sober consistency of the historian to a vain display of his powers as a rhetorician. On the plain, as he tells us, where the two armies encountered, neither bush nor tree was to be seen, and the view was as boundless as the horizon.! Yet Alexander had given orders to level every obstacle that interrupted the * Arrian Expect Alex. lib. iii. c. 7 — 9- -f- Diodorus Siculus, lib. xvii. j “ Opportuna explicandis copiis regio erat equitabilis et vasta planities : ne stirpes quidem et brevia virgulta ope- riunt solum : liberque prospectus oculorum etiam quae procul recessere permittitur.” — Quint. Curt. lib. iv. c. 35, tomus ii. p. 233. 78 JOURNEY FROM MOUSUI, motions of the troops,* and according to the testimony of this same writer, one of the de¬ tachments of the Macedonians occupied, just before the action, a height which the Persians had abandoned, f while, as he afterwards says, when speaking of the battle itself, the woods and valleys echoed with the shouts of the armies.j: There is, however, some truth in the midst of these seeming contradictions ; and the errors are, perhaps, rather the effect of too high a colouring than of wilful perversion of facts. The ground here, in the neighbourhood of these streams, is sufficiently destitute of very marked hills to be called, in general, “ a wide plain and it is quite true, that throughout its whole extent, as far as I could myself perceive, not a tree was any where to be seen. The view too, on every side, is “ ex- * “ Itaque si qua campi eminebant, jussit aequari totum- que fastigium extendi.” — lib. 4. c. 35. -f* Mazaeus — cum delectis equitum in edito colle, ex quo Macedonum prospiciebantur castra consederat — Macedones eum ipsum collem, queni deseruerat, occupaverunt, nam et tutior planitie erat.” — lib. 4. c. 48. + Macedones, ingentem pugnantium more, edidere clamo- i-em — Redditus et a Persis, nemora vallesque circumjectas terribili sono impleverat.” — Quint. Curt. lib. 4. cap. 48. TO THE RIVER LYCUS. 7!) tensive,” and, in many places, as “ boundless as the horizon.” Yet, for all this, there are a sufficient number of undulating ridges, to form both “ heights and valleys” in a military sense, where the smallest difference of eleva¬ tion is of importance in the choice of positions, so that the Macedonians might really have oc¬ cupied such an eminence, after it had been abandoned by the Persians. But, for the ex¬ pression of the “woods and valleys echoing with the shouts of the contending armies,” it must be abandoned, as quite inapplicable to the scene of the event, and having an exist¬ ence only in the fervid imagination of the Roman writer. A million of men is the number which the best historians of the times assign to this army of the Persians; and, as the French critic* has observed, though the calculation may appear extravagant, it certainly does not exceed the bounds of probability. All the nations, in fact, from the Euxine Sea to the extremities of the East, had made a common cause with Darius, and sent him numerous and powerful rein¬ forcements. It was the custom then, as well * The Baron de St. Croix, in the Memoires de 1’ Aca¬ demic des Inscriptions et Belles Lcttres. — Paris. 4to. 80 JOURNEY FROM MOUSUL as now, for the Asiatics to carry even their wives and children along with them, in their military expeditions; and Persian luxury could not dispense with the want of a crowd of the useless followers of a camp ; two circumstances which will considerably diminish the number of the real and effective troops. If we consider, also, the living clouds of Barbarians that have spread themselves in dif¬ ferent ages over the western world, and those immense bodies of more regular troops, which, under the command of Tartar princes, pos¬ sessed themselves of almost all the provinces of Asia, we may easily conceive, that such a multitude might have been collected, to com¬ bat, on the plains of Assyria, for the safety of the Persian Empire. The issue of this battle was fatal to the power of Darius ; and the myriads of his de¬ voted followers were dispersed and overcome by the superior discipline, as well as courage, of the Macedonian conquerors. After crossing the second or eastern branch of the river, we continued our way still south¬ easterly, and at sun-set began to descend on a lower level, going throu glihills of pudding- stone, shewing cliffs of considerable depth, TO THE RIVEIl LYCUS. 81 in which the rounded pebbles were imbedded in a matrix of so pure a lime, that it was difficult not to believe it to be the remains of some old masonry, or at least the work of human hands, rather than a natural produc¬ tion. This descent brought us out on a plain, in which was a small village, the dwellings of which had conical roofs of straw thatching, though the usual fashion of the country is to have the roofs hat. It was dark when we reached the north¬ western bank of a large stream flowing from the eastward, which was broader, deeper, and more rapid than any part of the Tigris itself that I had yet seen ; and we had gone, since leaving Karagoash, about twenty-four miles in a south-south-east direction. Our horses were here unsaddled ; and boys riding astride on skins, filled out with wind, swam over to the other side, leading in their hand the animals, who swam also. We our¬ selves were then conveyed across with all the baggage and horse-furniture, on kelleks, or rafts, formed of stripped branches of trees supported by inflated skins, in the way in which these rivers were navigated at the von. ii. a 82 JOURNEY FROM MOUSUL earliest periods of antiquity.* As large trees are scarce here, the blades of the paddles were made of the sections of split yellow cane, tied * See Herodotus, in his description of the commerce and supplies of Babylon. Those kelleks were also used in the time of the younger Cyrus, to navigate the Euphrates. “ In their march through the Desert,” says Xenophon, 44 they discovered a large and populous city, situated on the other (the Arabian) side of the Euphrates, called Carmande, where the soldiers bought provisions, having passed over to it upon rafts, by filling the skins, which they made use of for tents, with dry hay, and sewing them together so close, that the water could not get therein.” Spelman ob¬ serves, in his note on this passage, that, anciently, rafts, of the kind here spoken of, were much used in passing rivers ; and adds, 44 that Alexander passed several rivers in this manner, particularly the Oxus, in his victorious march through Asia.” — Anabasis , b. i. p. 60. In the third book of the same work, we find an account of the very ingenious invention by which a certain Rhodian proposed to convey the Ten Thousand over the Tigris: — “While they (the generals and captains) were in perplexity, a certain Rhodian came to them, and said, 4 Gentlemen, I’ll undertake to carry over four thousand heavy-armed men at a time, if you’ll supply me with what I want, and give me a talent for my pains.’ Being asked what he wanted ? 4 I shall want,’ says he, 4 two thousand leather bags. I see here great numbers of sheep, goats, oxen, and asses ; if these are flayed, and their skins blown, we may easily pass the river with them. I shall also want the girths belonging to the sumpter horses ; with TO THE RIVER LYCUS. 8;j together side by side, and in shape resembling the classic oar of Grecian sculpture. We were conveyed across the river on these rafts, amid the cheering songs of the rowers ; not however without some alarm, from the smallness of the vessel, compared with the weight of its lading and the rapidity of the stream ; the eddies of which some¬ times whirled our little raft round and round, and defied the controlling power of the oar. This stream, the depth of which it is diffi¬ cult, from the rapidity of its current, to ascer¬ tain by sounding, ran at the rate of about five miles an hour when we crossed it. Its sources are said to be in the mountains of Koor- distan, about four or five days’ journey to the eastward of this. It is, consequently, lower in the spring and winter, and higher in the summer and autumn months ; the first, from the melting of the snows, and the second, from these,’ adds he, ‘ I will fasten the bags to one another, and, hanging stones to them, let them down into the water instead of anchors, then tie up the bags at both ends, and when they are upon the water, lay fascines upon them, and cover them with earth. I will make you presently sensi¬ ble (continues he) that you cannot sink, for every bag will bear up two men, and the fascines and the earth will prevent them from slipping.” !J] JOURNEY FROM MOUSUL its augmentation by rains : but, from the na¬ ture of the bed through which it flows, its waters are always clear and sweet. The name of this river here is Therba, or Zerba, as it is pronounced both ways by the people of the country ; and this, which is distinct from the two branches of the Kauzir Sou, which join together and run in one into the Tigris, is unquestionably the Greater Zab of the an¬ cients, the Zabatus of Xenophon, and the Lycus of Ptolemy. D'Anville supposes an error, either in the text or the translation of the Arabian Geogra¬ pher, Edrisi, when he says, that the Greater and Lesser Zab join each other, and their united stream then equals, or even surpasses, the half of the Tigris ; “for,” says the French Geographer, “ it is notorious that they do not join at all.”* This is, however, too rigid a criticism, as nothing is more liable to change than the * “ II y a quelque clefaut clans la traduction de l’Edrisi, ou il le trompe lui-meme, dans la sixieme partie du qua- trieme climat, en disant que les deux Zab, lorsqu’ils se joignent (quando in unum coalescunt) egalent et surpassent meme la moitie du Tigre: car il est notoire qu’ils ne se joignent point.” — D'Anville sur VEuphrate et le Tigre, 4to. Paris, 177^- TO THE RIVER LYCUS. 85 course of rivers, in fiat countries like these, where the points of union and separation, particularly when the branches themselves are near each other, may be subject to many and frequent alterations. Neither is it impossible, that the Arabian geographer might have spoken of the two brandies of the Kauther, or Kauzir Sou, as I understood the people of the country, who spoke very indistinctly, to call the two branches which we passed between Karagoasli and this place. These really do unite, and are but then about equal to half the breadth of the Tigris ; while the Greater Zab, at the point of its discharge into that river, appeared to the Greeks, according to Xenophon, to be as large as the Tigris itself’, and at the point where we crossed it was cer¬ tainly fully so.# * This river, at the time that Xenophon and the Ten Thousand passed it in their retreat, was four hundred feet in breadth. The mode in which they crossed over is not described. — Anabasis , lib. iii. The following is what Otter, a curious but cursory tra¬ veller, observes of the Zab: — “ Le Zab se jette dans le rligre, a deux journees plus bas que Mousul, au-dessous de Hadice, autrefois capitale de ce pays. Ebul-Feda dit que le Zab a ete appelle Medgenoun, ou le furieux, a cause de sa rapiditc. An rapport du Geographe Ture, on a donne ce 80 JOURNEY FROM MOUSUL This river is called the Lycus, by Ptolemy ; and it is apparently its rapidity, says D’An- ville, which, by a comparison with the fury of a wolf, has occasioned it to be called, in Persian, Ab-e-Djenoun , or the Furious Water. In Pliny, it has the name of Zerbis, which is just its present one, with a Greek termination ; and by Xenophon it is called Zabatus ; and by other ancient writers, Zabus, all evidently variations of the same word.* Nicolaus of Damascus relates, that Antio- chusf erected a trophy on the bank of the nom a une riviere appellee Zibar, qui passe par le pays d’Amadia. Les Zibaris ont 6te nommes ainsi a cause qu’ils habitent sur ses bords. C’est peut-etre la meme riviere sous differens 110ms.” — Tome i. pp. 147 — 148. * “ Le Grand Zab est appelle Lycus dans Ptolemee, et c’est apparemment sa rapidite, qui, par un comparaison avec un Loup, le fait appeller en Persan, ‘ Ab-e-djenoun,’ ce qui signifie, ‘ Eau furieuse.’ Le nom de Zerbis, sous lequel le Grand Zab paroit dans Pline, (lib. vi. cap. 26,) est remarquable, en ce qu’il se maintient dans le pays meme, comme Thevenot et Tavernier concourent a nous en in- struire, en ecrivant Zarb.” — D'Anville sur V Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 90. f This was Antiochus the Seventh, or Sidetes, and not Antiochus the Tenth, or Pius, though the latter was called, as Josephus says, Antiochus the Pious, from his great zeal for religion. TO THE RIVER JLYCUS 117 river Lycus, upon his conquest of Indates, the general of the Parthians. Josephus, who has preserved this as a testimony of the good dis¬ position of Antiochus towards his nation, adds, “ It was at the desire of Hyrcanus that this was done, because it was such a festival derived to them from their forefathers, on which the laws of the Jews did not allow them to travel.” These two days of rest were occasioned by the feast of Pentecost falling out on the day fol¬ lowing the Sabbath, as the same writer himself observes.* We were received, on our landing on the opposite bank of this river, by the chief of the village, seated above the cliff' here, and called by the same name as the rafts, on which we had crossed the stream, namely Kellek. The village itself was small, and stood on the brow of a cliff, presenting the same appearance of pudding-stone as those seen on the eastern bank of the river. The roofs of the dwellings were all flat, though, on the other side of the stream, they were conical : we could learn no other reason than long established custom for this difference. The people on the north of the Zab are * Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. xiii. cap. 8. 88 JOURNEY FROM MOUSUI, mostly Christians, of the Greek church ; and there are whole villages in which only the Syriac language is spoken among themselves. The people of the village of Kellek were Ye- zeedis, differing in some points of belief, the particulars of which we could not learn, from the Yezeedis of Sinjar, and considering them¬ selves therefore as a distinct race. The party of the Sheikh, his children, and their depend¬ ants, who entertained us with coffee on the beach, were the handsomest group of men that I had ever seen together, of the same number, in any part of the w orld ; indeed there was, hardly one of them, that, taken individually, could not have been admired in any country for his beauty of person and elegance of form. Few as these villagers are in number, they guard this passage of the river as their own, and boast of their being independent of all the Pashas around them. They treated us with an attention and civility that proved how well they could behave to strangers, who re¬ spected their independence, and paid the mo¬ derate demands which they made for the pas¬ sage of their river ; but it was said, that they were intrepid defenders of those rights when invaded, and were as remarkable for their TO THE RIVER LYCUS. 89 ferocity against their enemies, as for their urbanity to those with whom they were at peace. They considered the place of their origin to be the mountains of Koordistan, and among themselves generally spoke the language of that country, though Turkish was equally fa¬ miliar to them. The Koords have been, in all ages, remarkable for their love of independ¬ ence ; a blessing which the nature of their country enables them easily to retain, since its local features are rugged mountains, narrow passes, confined valleys, inaccessible heights, and easily defended positions. Strabo remarks, that the Parthians, whose territories were upon the banks of the Tigris, were formerly called Carduchi,* and the character of these Parthians is well known. The retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks though their country gave Xenophon an opportunity of bearing testimony to their being then a warlike nation, and not subject to any King ; a state in which the greater part of the country has continued ever since.f While we were regaling on the banks of the * Spelman’s Cyrus, p. 111. -f* Malcolm’s History of Persia, vol. i. p. 245. 90 JOURNEY FROM MOUSUL river, and learning, from our entertainers, that there were many other villages along the Tigris, and the plains to the eastward of it, peopled by Yezeedis of their own sect, the Tartar Jonas was heard to hail for the kelleks to be sent over for him on the other side. He soon after joined us, lavishing his abuse, both on Ali and myself, for having dared to swallow up the meal, prepared chiefly on his account, at Karagoash, and for presuming to leave that village on our way without him. When the rage of this angry Turk had spent itself in imprecations, and the necessary payment was made to the Yezeedi chief of the pass of Kellek, we set forward on our journey together, Jonas having himself the best horse, and now taking the lead, as if to punish us for our offences, by the only means within his power: for all his terms of abuse being ex¬ hausted, he kept us on one continued gallop, at the rate of eight or nine miles an hour, though the ground we went over was a stony and desert tract, and a constant succession of ascent and descent, so as to render it unusually fatiguing. We were favoured, however, by a bright moonlight, so that no accident occurred to any one, though it required not only sure- TO THE RIVER LYCUS. 91 footed beasts, but animals really familiar with the road, not to have fallen with us at the rate we galloped. It was near midnight when we reached a large village, called Ain Koura, having tra¬ velled, since leaving Kellek, on the banks of the Zarba, about twenty-four miles in a south¬ easterly direction. Young Ali, the Tartar, having been sent off at a forced gallop, about a league before we reached the village, to pre¬ pare for our reception, every thing was in order when we arrived ; and when we alighted, car¬ pets, cushions, pipes, and coffee, were all ready prepared, and an excellent supper set before us, after which we lay down on soft and clean beds, on the terrace, to sleep. CHAPTER IV. FROM AIN KOURA, BY THE ANCIENT ARBEEA, TO KERKOOK. Our repose was sweet, but short ; for our slumbers were broken by the hoarse voice of Jonas, bellowing through the court just as the moon was setting, and not more than three hours after we had lain down to rest. While fresh horses were saddling, the Tar¬ tars and myself sat down to a breakfast of roasted fowls, cream, honey, and sweetmeats ; while a man stood at each of our elbows with a bottle of strong arrack, and a cup to supply us at our pleasure. It is difficult to describe how much these villagers, who were all Syrian Christians, seemed to stand in awe of the Turkish letter-carriers, on whom they waited. There stood around us not less than forty persons, some bearing full and others empty CHAPTER IV. INTERIOR OF A PUBLIC CARAVANSERAI, AT AIN KOURA. \ •• FROM AIN KOURA TO KERKOOK »3 dishes ; some having water-pots and basons ready for washing — one holding the soap and another the towel — the humbler ones among them being content to have the boots of the riders ready for them when they rose from the carpet ; and all, indeed, seeming anxious to make themselves in some way or other subser¬ vient to the pleasures of these lordly tyrants. Large doses of arrack were swallowed, both by Jonas and Ali, though the former seemed to pride himself on his pre-eminence in this, as well as in all other respects ; and, even at this early hour of the morning, he emptied two full bottles for his share. I was myself obliged to drink, almost to intoxication, though a much less quantity than that swal¬ lowed by them would have disabled me from proceeding : but the haughty Turk honoured me with his permission to drink in his pre¬ sence, and this was granted as a favour which it would have been an affront of the highest kind to refuse. We had no sooner descended into the court, than the effects of these exhilarating draughts began to manifest themselves pretty unequivo¬ cally. Jonas found fault with the horse that had been saddled for him, and insisted on its 94 FROM AIN KOURA, BY THE being the worst of the stud, though it was an enviably fine creature, and worth any three of the others put together. Ah, not to be be¬ hind his comrade, had all the baggage-horses loaded afresh, and changed his own saddle to two or three different horses in succession, un¬ til he condemned them all as the worst group of animals that God had ever assembled to¬ gether since the brute creation were first named by Adam. The poor Syrians bore these vexations with so much patience, that they might be said lite¬ rally to have fulfilled the injunction, “ If a man smite thee on the one cheek, turn to him the other also.” The very want of some re¬ sistance to this treatment was, however, a cause of fresh vexation to the Tartars ; since they inferred from it, that their tyranny had not been felt as an annoyance ; so that, hand¬ ling their whips, one of them exclaimed, “ What ! you will not be angry, then. By God, but we will make ye so !” and laid about him with the fury of a maniac. Ah contented himself with the use of the whip only, saying, that as they were bullocks, and mules, and asses, and brute beasts, this was the only punishment fit for them ; but Jonas, having ANCIENT ARBELA, TO KERKOOK. 95 received some indignity from a young lad, who spit in his face and ran off faster than the other could pursue him, drew his yatagan, and chased those near him with this naked dagger in his hand, till they flew in every direction ; and he, at last, in the rage of dis¬ appointment, threw it with all his force amidst a group of three or four who were near him, and shivered its ivory handle by the fall into twenty pieces. The only regret that he ex¬ pressed was, that the blade had not buried itself in some of their hearts, instead of the weapon thus fading uselessly on the ground. After such conduct, none of the people could be prevailed on to approach us, though at least a hundred of the villagers stood aloof gazing at these two enraged Turks, and flying at the least symptom of pursuit. We were, therefore, obliged to finish the saddling of our own horses, and to mount, and leave the leaders of the baggage-horses to follow us when their fears had subsided. It was not yet daylight when we left the village of Ain Koura, and going now in a direction of south-south-east, over a partially cultivated country for about four miles, we came, just as the sun was rising, to the town y(i FROM AIN KOURA, BY THE of Areveel, or Arbeel, for it is pronounced in both these ways by its own inhabitants. This was the largest place that we had yet seen since leaving Mousul, and its population was reported to exceed ten thousand, half of which may be nearer the truth. The peo¬ ple are chiefly Mohammedans. We saw here two tolerable mosques with minarets, exten¬ sive, and, even at this early hour, well-filled bazars, streets shaded by awnings of leaves and branches supported by poles, many good dwelling-houses of sun-dried bricks, and a number of well-dressed people.* The principal feature of this town is a large castle, seated on an eminence in the centre, looking, from a distance, like the castles of Emessa and Aleppo in Syria, and equally as large as either of these. The mound on which it is elevated is of a square form, raised on an inclined slope ; and though of * The following is the brief notice given of this place by Rauwolff : — “ The last day of December we travelled on, and came through well-tilled fields about night into the town Harpel, which is pretty large, but very pitifully built, and miserably surrounded with walls, so that it might easily be taken without any great strength or loss; there we rested again the next day, being the Sabbath, and on the same day fell New-Year’s Day. — p. 1(14. ANCIENT ARBELA, TO KERKOOK. 07 great extent, is, no doubt, the work of human labour, as far at least as the shaping and casing of its exterior with stone, though the interior basis of the structure is perhaps a natural hill. Within the walls of the castle, which are constructed of brick, there are many inhabited dwelling-houses, though the most extensive part of the town is spread around the foot of the citadel. The united testimonies of all modern geo¬ graphers agree in admitting this to be the site of the ancient Arbela, whose name it still retains. It was to this place, that Darius re¬ treated, after the battle of Gaugamela,# flying under the cover of the night , from the troops of Alexander. He made no stay here, but hastened into Media, to recruit his army, while the Macedonian conqueror, following up his * “ This battle happened in the month of October, much about the same time of the year in which was fought the battle of Issus, two years before, and the place where it was fought was Gaugamela, in Assyria ; but that being a small village, and of no note, they would not denominate so famous a battle from so contemptible a place, but called it the battle of Arbela, because that was the next town of any note, though it were at the distance of above twelve miles from the field where the blow was struck.” — PrideauaPs Connection of the O/d and New Testament, pp. 71h 715. VOL. II. II t)B FROM AIN KOURA, BY THE advantages, arrived soon after him at Arbela- The city instantly surrendered to him, and put him in possession of considerable spoils, consisting of the royal furniture and equipage of Darius, four thousand talents in money, and all the riches of the army, which had been left there in his flight. D’Anville observes, that though it is usual to apply the name of Arbela to the battle which lost the Persians the empire of Asia, and gave it to the Greeks, yet it is always spoken of as a very small place by Strabo, Arrian, and Plutarch. Strabo adds, indeed, says this writer, that Darius, the son of Hys- taspes, had destined this place to the mainte¬ nance of the camel which had carried his per¬ sonal baggage in his expedition against the Scythians* * “ Quoique d s°it d' usage d’appliquer le nom d’Ar- belles, (Arbela, qui est au pluriel,) a une fameuse bataille qui lit perdre aux Perses l’empire d’Asie, pour le donner aux Grecs, crest toutefois sousle nom d’un tres petit lieu qu’il en est parle dans Strabon, dans Arrien, et dans Plutarch. Strabon ajoute sur ce sujet, que Darius, fils d’ Hystaspe, avoit destine ce beu a l’entretien d’un chameau qui avait porte le baggage propre a sa personne dans son expedition contre les Scythes.” — D'Anville sur I'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 88. 4to. ANCIENT ARB EL A, TO KEIiKOOK. 9!) By some of the ancient geographers, this town of Arbela is placed on the river Lycus ;# but, as we have seen, it is nearly thirty miles to the south-east of that stream, supposing this to be the same with the Zabatus, or Zarba, as before assumed. D’Anville seems to have had very imperfect materials to guide him through this part of Alexander’s route, though, in his dissertation, he blames Ptolemy, and quotes Arrian, after which he fixes Arbela on the river Caprus, or the lesser Zab, which is equally far from the truth, as there is no stream sufficiently near to Arbeel, for this town to be considered as seated on any river at all. With regard to the observation of this geo¬ grapher, that Arbela is always spoken of as a .small place : it may have been originally a very inconsiderable one ; but Strabo says, that Ar¬ bela was adorned by Alexander, on account of his victory there, and that a mountain or hill in the neighbourhood of it (probably indeed the one on which the castle is now built) was called Nicatorius, to commemorate the same event.f * See the authorities for this position, quoted by Lem- priere. -J- The conflicting testimonies, not only of different writers, 100 FROM AIN KOURA, B\' THE Our stay at Arbela was but just sufficient to water our horses, and take a cup of coffee at one of the houses in the streets, with our bridles in hand ; when we set forward again but of the same historians, in various portions of their nar¬ ratives, on the position and events of the battle of Arbela, require to be analyzed and compared. Arrian, in his history of the Expedition of Alexander, says, that the whole army of Darius consisted of forty thou¬ sand horse, a million of foot, two hundred hooked chariots, and about fifteen elephants, which arrived from the parts beyond the river Indus. With these forces Darius en¬ camped at Gaugamela, upon the banks of the river Buma- dus, about six hundred stadia distant from Arbela, in a country every where open and champaign ; for whatever inequality was in the surface of the earth thereabouts, and whatever it was deemed could be any impediment to the armed chariots, was all levelled by the Persians, and made commodious for them to wheel round upon. For Darius was persuaded by some of his followers, that the defeat at Issus was chiefly occasioned by the narrowness of the place of encampment, and this he easily believed, (book iii. chap, viii.) In a note on this passage, the able translator of Arrian (Rooke) exposes the contradiction of Curtius’s es¬ timate with regard to the number of the Persian troops in this battle, which, in one place, he makes forty-five thou¬ sand horse and two hundred thousand foot, (book iv. chap, xii.) and in another states, that it was more numerous by one half than the army that Darius had in Cilicia, (book iv. chap, iii.) which army he himself makes to consist of sixty- one thousand two hundred horse, and two hundred and twenty thousand foot, besides thirty thousand mercenaries. ANCIENT AJEtBELA, TO KEKKOOK! 101 on our journey. This rapid mode of travelling, which is unavoidable when accompanying the Tartars charged with despatches, is as unfa¬ vourable to observation as it is destructive of Justin (book xi. chap, xii.) reckons them at one hundred thousand horse, and four hundred and four thousand foot ; Diodorus Siculus (book xvii. chap, xxxix.) at two hundred thousand horse, and eight hundred thousand foot ; and Plutarch, in his life of Alexander, says, that the whole number of horse and foot together made up a million. These accounts vary much ; but from them also it may be inferred, that the Persian force was prodigiously numerous. The translator of Arrian again accuses Curtius of contra¬ diction, in saying, that the field of battle was all levelled by the Persians, (book iv. chap, ix.) and then placing Ma- zaeus with a party on a hill to discover the enemy’s move¬ ments. (book iv. chap, xii.) But it is plain there were such hillocks near the ground, as Arrian himself says, that when Alexander marched from Arbela at the second watch of the night, in order that he might be ready to attack the Persians by break of day, he halted within sixty stadia of the Persian camp, and both armies ranged themselves in battle array, from the information given of each other’s positions by their spies, as the armies themselves were not yet come within sight of each other, for some small hil¬ locks lying in the middle hindered them. But, adds the same historian, when Alexander had advanced with his army almost thirty stadia, he arrived at these hillocks, from whence he had a full view of the Barbarian camp, (book iii. chap, ix.) Alexander, in his pursuit of Darius, who was flying towards Ecbatana, in Media, crossed the river T.ycus, and made a halt there ; it being night, and his 102 FROM AIN KOURA, BY THE pleasure ; and the sensations I experienced on catching a glance of interesting objects, which I could not then carefully examine, though I was never likely to behold them again, fre- soldiers and horses needing refreshment. After some rest, they set out again at midnight, and marching forward, ar¬ rived at Arbela the next day, after having pursued the fugitives six hundred stadia, (bookiii. c. 15.) It is evident, from this, that the battle was fought as far on the west side of the Lycus, as Arbela is on the east of it ; and that the battle should, therefore, have been called the battle of Gau- gamela, from the nearest village to the scene of action, or the battle of the Bumadus, from the river on whose banks the armies were encamped. Arrian, himself, in a digression which he makes, to offer a few strictures on historians ge¬ nerally, has some pertinent remarks on this subject. He says, “ in the same manner, the last battle with Darius (from whence he took his flight and continued it from place to place, till he was seized by Bassus and slain upon Alex¬ ander’s approach) is as confidently reported to have been fougbt at Arbela, as tbe preceding one was at Issus, and the first equestrian battle at the river Granicus. The first equestrian battle really happened on the banks of the river Granicus, as did the other at Issus ; but Arbela is distant from the field where this last battle was fought, six hun¬ dred, or at least five hundred stadia. For both Btolemv and Aristobulus assure us, that the scene of this last action with Darius was at Gaugamela, upon the river Bumadus. And whereas Gaugamela was only an obscure village, and the sound of its name not grateful to the ear, the glory of that battle has been conferred on Arbela, as the chief city of these parts.” But, he asks, “ if this battle may be said ANCIENT ARBELA, TO KERKOOK- *99 quently contained as large a mixture of dis¬ appointment and regret as of immediate gra¬ tification. On the present occasion, the first greatly predominated. to have been fought at Arbela, which was really fought at so great a distance from it, why may not the naval action at Salamis be ascribed to the Corinthian Isthmus, or that at Artemisius, in the island Euboea, to Egina, or Sunium ?” (book vi. c. 11.) Curtius, indeed, who must be confessed to have been a most inaccurate geographer, in one place (book iv. chap, ix.) places Arbela on the west of the Tigris, and, consequently, far remote from either the Evens or the Bumadus; though in the same chapter he places it on the east of it, (book iv. chap, ix.) He calls it also an incon¬ siderable village, and memorable for nothing but for this battle between Alexander and Darius ; but, in addition to the opposing testimony of Arrian, Strabo says, expressly, that it was a large city, and the capital of a province, (book xvi.) Curtius states that Darius fled from the field of battle, which was at Gaugamela, according to Arrian, Strabo, and Plutarch, and reached Arbela at midnight, (book v. chap, i.) But, besides that this is making Arbela too near to the scene of action, Arrian says, that Darius, immediately after this battle, fled through the mountainous tract of Armenia into Media, (book iii. chap. 16.) and Diodorus Siculus (book xvii.) confirms this, by saying that he hastened away to Ecbatana, which was the capital of that country, without either of them mentioning his taking Arbela in the way. Curtius, indeed, goes so far as to say, that Alexander was driven from Arbela sooner than he in¬ tended, by the stench of the dead carcases left unburied on the field of battle ; (book v. chap, i.) but as this is so 100 FROM AIN KOURA, BY THE On going out of the town to the southward, we noticed a fine tall minaret, now isolated, and in ruins, though the green tile-facing of its original exterior was still visible in many places, and from its size and style of ornament, it must have been attached to some consider¬ able mosque.* Our course was still directed to the south- south-east, and the country over which we travelled was mostly waste and destitute of villages. The stage was long, the horses jaded, the sun scorching, the air on fire, the soil parched, not a breath of wind from the heavens, and no water on the road. When we had been six hours on the full gallop, having ridden nearly fifty miles, we arrived, exhausted with thirst and fatigue, on the expressly stated to have been six hundred stadia distance, such an extensive corruption of the air, from this cause, is hardly credible. * Pliny speaks of a singular stone called Belus, found at this place: — “ The stone called Belus’ eye is white, and has a peculiar property, which causes it to glitter like gold. This stone, for its singular beauty, is dedicated to Belus, the most sacred god of the Assyrians. There is another stone called Belus, found, according to Democritus, about Arbela, of the size of a walnut, and in the manner and form of glass.” — Plin. Nat. Hist, book xxxvii. chap. 10. ANCIENT ARBELA, TO KERKOOK. *101 banks of the Altoun Sou, or Golden Water, which, to us, at this moment, seemed richly to deserve its name. We entered the town of Altoun Kupree, or the Golden Bridge, so called from its having a fine lofty arch over the Altoun Sou, and never did repose and shelter seem to me more wel¬ come. We had met large troops of Arab horsemen on the way, who seemed bound on some predatory expedition, though they did not molest us ; and we exchanged salutes and inquiries with two Tartars from Bagdad, who were themselves escorted by a troop of Arab horse, from the same tribe as those we had met before, to guard them from expected enemies in the way. We had additional reason, there¬ fore, to congratulate ourselves on a safe arrival, and this consideration gave increased sweetness to our repose. When we were refreshed by a sleep of three or four hours, I procured a guide, and took a ramble on foot through the greater part of the town, for which there was yet time, as the hour of our departure was fixed at sun-set. Altoun Kupree, or the Golden Bridge, con¬ sists of two separate portions or quarters, each “102 FROM AIN KOURA, BY THE of them tolerably large, and each having their own separate bazars and markets of supply. The Altoun Sou, or Golden Water, as the river is called, has two branches, one of which runs through each of the separate portions of this town ; so that, on entering it from the one side, it is necessary to pass over a bridge ; and, on quitting it by the other, to go out over a similar one, each of them being formed of a single arch, and both being steep, lofty, and wide. The united population of these two quarters of the town is estimated, by the inhabitants themselves, to exceed twenty thou¬ sand ; but, from what I observed of the size and buildings of the place, I think the num¬ ber could not be greater than six or seven thou¬ sand at most. These are chiefly Mohamme¬ dans, in equal proportions of Arabs and Turks ; so that both these languages are well under¬ stood among them. The complexions and fea¬ tures of the people already began to wear a southern look, resembling those of the Arabs of Yemen much more than those of the upper parts of Syria. The dresses were like those of Mousul, chiefly light and gay-coloured shal¬ loons and muslins, some of them indeed almost fantastic from their great variety of finery. I ANCIENT ARBELA, TO KERKOOK. 103 observed here, for the first time, the short- trimmed beards, which are usually worn by the Arabs and Persians along the lower parts of the Euphrates, and in the provinces of Shoos- ter and the low countries on the east of the Tigris. The two branches of the Altoun Sou, which run through the town, are neither so wide, so deep, nor so rapid as the stream of Zerba to the northward. Its waters are, however, equally sweet and clear ; and the rate of its current, at the present season, wras somewhat less than four miles an hour, being fully equal to that of the Tigris. These branches were said to unite themselves just belowr the town, and go in one to the Tigris, being navigable all the wray from hence to the point of its discharge into that river near the village of Kellek. This stream is, no doubt, the Zabatus Minor of Xenophon, and the Caprus of Ptolemy * This appears to be the same stream as that crossed by Ran wolff on his way from Bagdad to Mousul, as well as can be gathered from the distances on his route, and named by him in the following passage : — •“ After we had joined him, we went from thence on the fifth of January in a very handsome number, for the merchant alone had about fifty camels and asses, which were only loaden with gauls, with 104 FROM AIM KOURA, BY THE and its latter appellation, as opposed to that of Lycus, given to the former on account of the fury or rapidity of its waters, may, as D’Anville suggests, be appropriately used to signify a stream less rapid in its course* • Taking this for the Lesser Zab, and the Zerba for the greater one, according to the opinion of this writer, the town and fortress of Arbela is then seated just between these two streams, exactly in the position assigned him to carry to Carahemit, (Kara Amid,) where he lived, and to send from thence to Aleppo, where they are bought by our merchants, to be sent into our country. So we tra¬ velled all day long, and also half the night, without eating or drinking, very fast, and began to rest about midnight. After we had for the remaining part of the night hardly refreshed our beasts and ourselves with eating and drinking a little, we broke up again before day-light, to go on in our way. When we were gone a good way through fruit¬ ful and pleasant valleys, we came betimes to another river, by Ptolemy called Caprus, which, although it is not very broad, yet it is very deep, so that we had much to do to get through, which I found not without a great detriment to my plants, which I carried on horseback before me.” — p. 165. * “ Le petit Zab, nomme Caprus dans Ptolomee, ce que peut le faire croire moins precipite dans son cours que le Grand Zab, est appelle en langue Turque, qui est un dia- lecte Tartare, ‘ Altoun Sou,’ signifiant ‘ Riviere d’Or.’ ” — D'Anville sur VEupkrateet le Tigre, pp. 69, 90. ANCIENT AliBELA, TO KERKOOK 105 to it by Ptolemy. The French geographer reproaches him with error in so doing, while he commits himself a greater one in attempt¬ ing to correct the position given to it by this writer. Some of the Greeks, as we have seen, placed the town on the stream of the Lycus, or Greater Zab ; and D’Anville seats it on the Caprus, or Lesser Zab, from both of which it is some distance ;# so that Ptolemy is therefore more correct than either in placing it between them. It is not impossible but that these two branches of the Altoun Sou may represent the two Zabs, of which the Arabian geographer, Edrisi, speaks, and whose separation and sub¬ sequent union, as described by him, is denied by the French critic ; for the description given * “ The Lesser Zab falls into the Tigris at Len or Assen : the Greater Zab, at Haditha, or thirty-six miles higher. They are large rivers, both together equal to half the Tigris. They are written indifferently Zaba, An-Zaba, or Diava, A-diava, both from rQ’T, Chaldaic, and 3KT, Zeeb, (Zab,) Hebrew, a wolf. Hence a vkoc,, and Ptolemy’s misnomer ‘ Leukus.’ — Schulter’s Vita Saladini. Index Geog. ‘ Fluvius Zabus.’ It would have been as well if he had given us a good derivation of Kaprus. A wolf, a wild boar, and a tiger, are proper associates.” — Vincent's Commerce of the Ancients, Uiss. on the site of Opis, vol. i. p. 53L Note. _ 100 FROM AIN KOURA, BY THE of it will apply with equal truth both to this stream and to the Hauzir Sou. On our return to the house of the Aga, with whom the Tartars had put up, and which was in the southern quarter of the town, we found an excellent supper prepared for us, of which we all partook together in an open room, over¬ looking the stream from a height of fifty or sixty feet, and having full in view before us, to the eastward, the lofty mountains of Koordis- tan completely capped with snow. The pros¬ pect open to us, from the window of the room in which we sat, was altogether grand and picturesque, embracing a rich variety of ob¬ jects and great extent of view. Though the rays of the setting sun were now burnishing the sheeted summits of these hills in the East, we had here in the low country a sultry and oppressive atmosphere ; and, notwith¬ standing the plentiful supply of ice, which was served in bowls of sherbet at our table, the noise of running water below, and the sight of snow-clad mountains in the distance, we courted every breath of air, by fans and other artificial means, to cool us in this burn¬ ing day. It was partly in consideration of this op- ANCIENT ARBELA, TO KEllKOOK. 107 pressive weather, and partly on account of tlie roads being reported to be now much infested to the southward and along our path, that some thoughts were entertained by the Aga of the town, who held himself responsible for our safe passage through his territory, to send us down by the river from hence to Bagdad, on kelleks or rafts. This was a proposition em¬ braced with great eagerness by all ; and we began even to prepare for our cool trip by water, so sanguine were we in our hopes of ease and repose after the dislocating rides and scorching exposure that we had lately under¬ gone. Our disappointment was, therefore, proportionately severe, when we learnt that, from some unusual interruption of the naviga¬ tion, by the Yezeedis, along the banks of the Altoun Sou, and the eastern edge of the Tigris, there was now no passing by that way in safety. These Yezeedis, as far as 1 could learn, were similar to those of Kellek, at the pas¬ sage of the Zarba, who trace their descent from the mountains of Koordistan, and con¬ sider themselves as a distinct people from those of Sinjar, though, like them, they are 108 FROM AIN KOUKA, BY THE said to pay divine honours to the evil principle, as well as to the good. It is observed, by the author of the Dis¬ sertation on the Tigris and the Euphrates^ that the Ten Thousand Greeks, in their retreat under Xenophon, found on the eastern bank of the Tigris, between Nineveh and Babylon, and before seeing the city of Coene or Senn, on the other bank, which is directly opposite to the point at which the lesser Zab discharges itself into the Tigris,* several villages belonging * £t Les Dix Milles, dans leur retraites, trouve sur la rive orientale du Tigre, qui borde ce meme pays, (entre Nineve et Babylone,) et avant que d’avoir la vue d’une ville sur Fautre rive, ce qui est Caene ou Caenn, (vis-a-vis de l’en- tree du petit Zab dans le Tigre,) des villages du domaine de la Reine Parysatis, mere de Cyrus le jeune. — Parysatidis pagi, auxquels est ajoute Yezdem domus, c’est-il-dire, 4 Fha- bitation des dieux.’ Car le terme Yezd, propre a la divinite, est employe au pluriel dans Yezdem, comme en plusieurs auti-es idioms de l’Orient. II peut meme avoir lieu a l’egard des divinites infernales comme des celestes, dans une religion qui, comme le Magisme, admet deux principes, Fun du bien, Fautre du mal, sous les noms d’Horomaz et d’Arimane. Les races Kurdes, qui, en conservant l’ancienne religion des Persis, sont en horreur aux Mahometans, font profession de se menager la bienveillance du genie mal- faisant, comme du contraire.” — If Anvil le sur F Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 96 ANCIENT ARBELA, TO KERKOOK. 109 to the domain of the Queen Parysatis, the mother of the younger Cyrus. — Parysatidis pagi, to which is added, Yezdem domus , that is to say, “ the habitation of the gods.” This same writer goes on to observe, that as there are, among the Koordes, some who still pre¬ serve the ancient religion of the Parsis, and admit of honours to the evil principle, as well as to the good, this term of Yezdem, which is applied in the plural, may as well mean the infernal as the celestial divinities, and be ap¬ plied to the habitations of either the one or the other. It is true, that Yezdan, in the singular, means God; but, as it is applied in the plural here, it would scarcely be thought far-fetched, to interpret the expression of Yezdem domus, as the habitations of the Yezeedis, or wor¬ shippers of Yezdan, the peculiar name of God in their language ; more particularly, as it is applied to several villages on the domain of an ancient Persian Queen, Parysatis, the mother of the younger Cyrus. If this be ad¬ mitted, it will correspond with the actual, as w ell as the former, state of the country here ; for we had ourselves seen a village of these Yezeedis, who trace their descent from the 110 FROM AIN KOURA, BY THE Koords and ancient Persians, now guarding the pass of the greater Zah. By them, we were assured of there being other villages, peopled by Yezeedis, similar to themselves, both in their immediate neighbourhood, and between them and the lesser Zah.* Here, too, upon this last stream itself, we learnt that there were still other villages, scattered over the parts through which it passed, before it reached the Tigris ; and that these were the very people who now interrupted the naviga¬ tion of the stream, and prevented our descend¬ ing to Bagdad on rafts by the river.j * Of the Lesser Zab, Otter says: “ Nous passames le 25, (Avril, 1734,) Altoun Soui, (the Golden Water,) qu’’ Ebul-Feda appelle Zab-al-asgar, c’est-a-dire, le petit Zab, quoiqu’il soit fort grand. Le Geograplie Turc dit qu’il vient du pays de Diarbekr, et qu’il se jette dans le Tigre a un endroit nomine Tendge-Bogazi, oil il y a des hauteurs, des arbres et des roseaux, qui servent de retraite aux lions. Le meme pretend que la ville d’Acour etoit situee au con- fluant du petit Zab et du Tigre ; mais il n’en reste aucun vestige aujourd’hui.” — Tomei. p. 149- -f- Rauwolff speaks of the existence of this mode of con¬ veyance in his day. “ The thirtieth we went from thence, and about noon we came to a town called Presta, which is chiefly towards the river whereon it lieth, very well fortified, but what the inhabitants call that river I do not remember, but according to its situation, it must be that which Ptolemy called Gorgus, which runs below into the Tiger. In this ANCIENT AltB EL A, TO KERKOOK. Ill As we smoked our evening pipes with the Aga, and the principal residents of the town, who had collected imperceptibly, to inquire the news from the City of the Faith, or Islam- boul, as Constantinople is called among the Mollahs and Muftis of the Turks, we were all alarmed by the passage through the town of a multitude of Arab horsemen, most of them so muffled up about the face, that their eyes could scarcely be seen, all of them armed with lances and swords, and most of them galloping by, without answering the questions put to them, or even returning the salute of peace. Neither the name, the station, nor the destination of these troops could at first be learned, until one of the sons of the Sheikh, who followed in the rear, alighted at the Aga’s dwelling; by which we learnt, that it was a friendly tribe place they make floats, which, although they are not vei’y big, nor have much wood in them, yet they have abundance of bucks and goat skins blown up, hung, or fixed un¬ derneath the bottom, without doubt, by reason that they may load the more upon them, and also because the river is rapid, that they may have the less fear or danger. On these floats they carry sevei’al sorts of merchandizes, but chiefly fruit, viz. figs, almonds, cibebs, nuts, corn, wine, soap, &c. a great part whereof goetlx farther into the Indies."” — pp. 163, 164. 112 FROM AIN KOURA, BY THE going out to the northward, on an expedition against another tribe, who had encroached on their rights, and were now indeed encamped on the eastern border of their territory. As it was said by all, that advantage had been taken of this tumult, by robbers, who are never wanting here, to infest the roads with impunity, a guard of ten of this friendly tribe was solicited from the Sheikh’s son, by the Aga, to protect us as far as the danger was thought to extend. This, the young lad, though still a boy of little more than fourteen years of age, had the authority to grant, and nothing could more plainly mark the high degree of respect in which the authority of Arab chiefs is held, than the promptitude with which at least a hundred horsemen as¬ sembled at the orders of this child. He him¬ self now mounted a high blood mare ; and his furniture being costly, and his dress and arms of the very best kind in use among the Arabs, nothing could be more interesting than the figure he made, as he galloped through the crowd of his own followers, poising his lance, and giving it the fine tremulous motion of which it is capable when w 'ell balanced, calling out to his tried men by name, and ordering ANCIENT ARBELA, TO KERKOOK. 113 them to follow him as he rode.* All the Arabs are Exceedingly fond of this display of horsemanship, and skilful management of arms ; and it must be confessed, that when the animals are of a high cast, the accoutre¬ ments good, and the riders firmly possessed of their seat, there are few exhibitions which shew either the skill or vigour of the man, or the fire and the beauty of the horse, to greater advantage. When the ten chosen guards were selected out for us, the young leader headed his troop and left us, to hasten towards the rest of the tribe whom we had met on their march in the morning. We prepared also to depart, and about nine o’clock we left the town of Altoun Kupree, going out over the southern bridge, and continuing our way in close order. We went now on a course of south-east, over a generally level country, with detached patches of cultivation, and a few small villages * This will remind the reader of Xenophon, of the de¬ scription given by that beautiful writer of the youthful conduct and accomplishments of the elder Cyrus, who, at an age little exceeding that of the young Arab chief, was distinguished by equal skill in horsemanship, and by a degree of prudence which excited the wonder of the Median monarch. — See the Cyropaedia, book i. VOX.. II. I i 1 4 FROM AIN KOURA, BY THE scattered in different directions near our road. We travelled in so complete a silence, that not a sound, except that of the tramping of our horses, was heard for several miles ; and though we often set out on a gallop as if by one impulse, and drew up again together to ease the horses over bad ground, not a word was exchanged throughout our whole party ; even midnight coming upon us, without a single voice having broken silence since our first setting out. Every one, indeed, seemed too intent on looking around him for an ex¬ pected attack from enemies, to think of any thing beyond preparation for his own defence. July 9th. — Soon after midnight, we came among ridges of stony hills, which, in some places, pointed up the sharp edges of their strata perpendicularly to the horizon, and in other places were of an undulating or wavy form in their outline. We continued among these for about three hours, our rate of travelling being slower here, on account of the badness of the road, and on leaving them, we came out on a wide and level plain. Here our Arab escort quitted us, as we ANCIENT ARBELA, TO KERKOOIC. 115 were considered to be clear of all the reported danger of the road ; they returned to overtake the rest of their tribe to the northward, and we continued our way more southerly over the plain, till we came at day-light to the town of Kerkook, having galloped about thirty-five miles since leaving Altoun Kupree, and in a general direction of south-south-east. After reposing from the fatigues of the night, we all arose before noon, and I went out, as was my usual custom, with some one of the inhabitants as a guide, to see as much as 1 could of the town during our halt here. It is composed of three distinct portions, each of a considerable size* In the principal one of these, is a high and extensive mound, arti¬ ficially shaped on the inclined slope, like that of Arbela, before described. On this, stands a fortified town, rather than a castle, within the walls of which are included a great lium- * Rauwolff speaks of it thus : “ After the Sabbath of the Jews, my companions, was over, we went on again, and came the twenty-sixth of December to Carcuck, a glorious fine city, lying in a plain, in a very fertile country ; at four miles distance is another that lieth on an ascent, whither we also travelled, my companions having business in both of them, and so we spent two days in them before we were ready to go on again.” — p. 162. lie FROM AIN KOURA, BY THE ber of dwellings, and the minarets of three mosques are seen to rise above the rest of the buildings from below. In this, it was said, none but Moslems were privileged to reside, and the number of these was considered to be five or six thousand, but probably overrated. The second portion, though inferior, in consequence, as to the rank of those w ho re¬ side in it, and its importance as a place of de¬ fence, is yet by far the most extensive and the most populous of the three. This is spread out on the plain around the foot of the citadel, as the elevated portion is called, and in it are the principal khans, coffee-houses, bazars, & c. ; though the minarets of only two mosques are seen, as the inhabitants are not all Mo¬ hammedan, but contain a mixture of Arme¬ nians, Nestorians, and Syrian Christians. The population of this portion amounts to about ten thousand souls, and the burying-ground below is as extensive, in the space which it covers, as a moderate-sized village. The third portion is distant half a mile from •the tw o former ones, and it w as at a house in this that we had halted to sleep away the burning heat of the day. This is smaller and more scattered than either of the other parts ANCIENT ARBELA, TO KERKOOE. 171 of the town, and cannot add more than a thousand to the gross number of the popula¬ tion of Kerkook, which may, therefore upon the whole, be nearly fifteen thousand. This was the first place at which we had seen any trees since leaving Mousul, and here the date-tree was more numerous than any other. I heard a great deal, at this place, of the springs of naphtha, which are in the neigh¬ bourhood of Kerkook, and of the earth from which issues flames, which are both looked on by the inhabitants as prodigies, known no¬ where else in the world, and marks of God’s peculiar favour to their soil. They are said to be chiefly among the rocky hills through which we had passed at midnight on our way from Altoun Kupree to this place, so that I had no opportunity of seeing them. I11 the examination of the countries border¬ ing on the Tigris and Euphrates, after passing the Zab, and still speaking of the course of the latter towards the sea, D’Anville says, the country adjoining to the left or eastern bank is called Garni, in which he thinks it is plain to discover that of Garamaei, which is the name of a country placed by Ptolemy in Assyria, near the middle of its whole extent from north to FROM AIN KOURA, 15V THE m south.* In my inquiries after this name, I could gain no satisfactory assurance of its being applied to the country here, though those of whom I made such inquiries could only inform me of what was popularly known, and knew nothing of history or geography. It is probable, however, that the Kark, or Carcha, of Anunianus Marcellinus, and Simo- cattus, was the present Kark, near Samarra, on the banks of the Tigris, to the southward of this ; and that the Carcha nearer to Nineveh, spoken of by Masius and Ortelius, from which the former was distinct, was the present Ker- kook, which is generally thought to be the Demetrias of Strabo, and the Corcura of Pto- * “ Le pays adjacent a la rive gauche, ou orientate, est appelle Garni, et ce 110m conserve eviderament celui dc Garamcei, que Ptolomee place dans l’Assyrie, vers le milieu de son etendue du nord au midi. Dans M. As- semani, Garin est un district dependant de Maphrein, resi- dant a Tekrit, et il est fait mention d’un metropolitain de Garni — cette metropole est appelle Beth so loce (sive Se- leuciag) autrement Kark ; et Carcha, dans lc recit de la marche de Jovien, par Annnien ; Carcha dans Simocatte, dont la leij'on est preferable, et qui se lit de meme a l’egard d’une ville situee egalement en Assyrie, mais voisine de Ninive, comme il en est parle dans Masius, in lihro Mosis de Paradiso, et dont Ortelius fait mention.1 — U'Anville sur V Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 95. ANCIENT ARBELA, TO KERKOOK. 119 lemy. The three divisions of the town as it now stands are, however, large enough to admit a belief that it might have been a metropo¬ litan see in later times, and have given its name to the district in earlier ones, if it be still thought to be the Garni of Assemani, as it is still the largest town throughout the plains to the east of the Tigris ; while, on the other hand, the appearance of its castle, seated on an elevated mound, is sufficient to induce a belief of its having been always a fortified post of some importance, and with equal pro¬ bability a military station of the Romans during the existence of their power here. At all events, little doubt can remain of this Kerkook being the place intended to be iden¬ tified with these ancient stations by the French geographer, on a comparison of the details which he gives of its local features with those which actually exist near this spot.* * 44 Dans le voisinage de cette ville, il sort des rochers, de l’huile de napthe, qui est re^ue dans un espece de pnits; et je trouve dans une relation manuscrite d’un voyage au Levant par le Pere Emanuel de St. Albert, visiteur des Missions de son ordre des Cannes, et depuis Eveque in partibus , qu’en remuant la terre aux environs, il en sort des bluettes. On lit dans la Geographic Turque, qu’en creusant la terre sur un tertre appelle Khor-kour-baba, il 120 FROM AIN KOURA, BY THE Tibullus, in his Elegies,* speaks of the- territory of Erec, one of the cities founded by Nimrod on the hanks of the Tigris, and in the land of Shinar, as producing springs of naphtha, which the poet calls the “com¬ bustible waters of the land of Erec,” alluding, probably, to some known account in his own time of these springs, as the geography of Babylonia and Assyria must have been always popularly known to the learned among the Romans, after the histories of Alexander’s expedition into the East were written. j- On my return to the house at which the Tartars had put up, I found a large party assembled, who seemed to derive great enter- en sort du feu qui fait faire flamme, et que des vases poses dans des trous, qu’on y voie, bouillir l’eau dont eii les a remplis; en ajoutant, qu’on eteint la chaleur de ces trous en les cornblant de terre.” — U Anville sur V Euphrate et le Tigre, p. IO7. * Lib. iv. Memoires de l’Academie des Inscriptions, tome xxvii. p. 30. -)- Naphtha is mentioned as abounding in Babylonia, and was said to run in the manner of liquid bitumen. The affinity between it and fire is insisted on, and it was thus, says Pliny, that Medea burnt her husband’s concubine. Her girdle, being anointed by it, was caught by the fire when she approached the altars to sacrifice. — Plin. Nat. Hist. book ii. c. 105. AXCIENT ARBELA, TO KERKOOK. 121 tainment from the antics of a dancing bear. This was a large white shaggy animal, which had been brought by the Koords, who exhibit¬ ed it, from the snow-clad mountains of their own country, at a distance of four days’ jour¬ ney to the eastward. They said that these animals were very rare among their hills, and the liberality with which the spectators re¬ warded their shewing it, seemed to imply that it was a creature still less frequently seen here.* From the report of my guide, corrected by some confronting testimonies of others w hom I questioned on the same subject, I learnt that there were, in each of the three portions of which Kerkook is composed, ten mosques, twenty-four coffee-houses, ten khans, and two public baths ; and that the number of Christian places of worship, of different sects, was either four or five. The town is sub¬ ject to the Pasha of Bagdad, and its envi¬ rons are sufficiently productive to yield him a respectable tribute. The governor is one * Wild beasts of almost all the larger species were found in this country in the time of the elder Cyrus ; and the hunting of them formed an important part of the education of the princes and nobles of Persia. — Cyropcedia, hook i. 122 FROM AIN KOURA TO KEllKOOK. of his own immediate dependants, and attach¬ ed to him are just a sufficient number of sol¬ diers only to form a body-guard for his per¬ sonal defence. CHAPTER V. WALLED TOWN OF KUFFREE, AT THE FOOT OF A RANGE OF HILLS. VOL. II. Cr*Ai> CHAPTER V. FROM KERKQQK, BY KIFFREE, TO KARA TUPl’E, OR THE BLACK HILL. W hen the Tartars had partaken of a hearty meal, and lounged away an hour over their pipes, we prepared again to depart, though the heat of the day, to avoid which was the alleged cause of our long halt here, instead of having subsided, was now at its greatest height. There was no persuading my companions to this, however, so that we saddled our horses and mounted, and at three o’clock set out from Kerkook. Our course went now to the southward, over a country that was generally waste and un¬ cultivated, and on the south-east of us was an extensive plain, the horizon of which was as boundless as that of the sea, and to the east and north-east the view terminated in the hills of Koordistan. 124 FROM KERKOOK, BY KIFFREE, At sun-set, having gone about eighteen or twenty miles, we came among a number of gardens, with watch-towers dispersed over them, and a small hamlet near ; and before midnight, by which time we had gone about ten miles more, we came to the village of Taook, having passed no stream throughout our way, though one of the branches of the Lesser Zab is there laid down by Major Mac¬ donald Kinneir. This place, from as much as we could ob¬ serve of it at this hour of the night, appeared to be large ; I noticed three mosques, with minarets, and a number of houses, built of ancient bricks. At the entrance of the town, was a Mohammedan tomb of a very singular construction. Its base was a square, on which was raised a dome, not of the usual shape, but pointed like a sugar-loaf, and formed of a chequered open work of bricks, resembling the pyramidal form, in which cakes of soap are sometimes piled up in perfumers’ shops, with their ends only resting on each other, and the interstices hollow. We were entertained at this place with a good supper ; changed horses with less noise and bustle than we had any where yet done ; TO KARA TUPPE, OR THE BLACK HILL. 125 and being furnished with another escort of five Arab horsemen for the way, we departed about midnight, observing, as we went out of the town, a tall isolated minaret, with a square base and circular tower, like the pedestal and shaft of a large column. July 10th. — On leaving Taook, we con¬ tinued our course still southerly, over a desert country, which was often pebbly, and destitute of cultivable soil, but never loose or sandy. We next came to a ground of gravel and clay, and passed in sight of some small vil¬ lages scattered near our route, when, at sun¬ rise, after a ride of about twenty miles, we entered the town of Koohniity. This is a large place, stretching itself along the eastern foot of a range of barren hills ; the whole town, however, lying in the midst of gardens, plantations of date-trees, and cul¬ tivated patches of land. There were three or four mosques, and some good dwelling- houses, a market abundantly supplied with fruit, and springs of excellent wafer. We were entertained at the house of the Aga, or governor of the town, where it is usual, when there is no good caravanserai, for 128 FROM KERKOOK, BY IvIFFREE, between the Tartars and keepers of the post- liorses, at this station ; the latter insisting that they could not furnish us with animals until some should return this way from Bag¬ dad. Under this impression, the youngest of the Tartars, Ali, with Suliman the merchant, and myself, composed ourselves quietly to rest, in the firm assurance and belief, that whatever could be done by bullying, would be securely effected by the hoarse voice, the thick whip, and the lordly air of J onas ; and that, if horses were to be had, we should be furnished with them through his influence, without any exertions of our own. When we awoke in the morning, however, after enjoying an undisturbed sleep, without the din of voices to rouse us as usual, the ex¬ traordinary silence and tranquillity was soon accounted for by our being told, that Jonas had left us alone to our fate. We regarded each other with a mixture of surprise, incre¬ dulity, and vexation ; but it was too true to be any longer doubted ; for the noisy little Tartar having found that only one horse could be procured, had silently secured this for him¬ self before it quitted the stable, and had gone off alone, at midnight, to convey to the British TO KARA, TUPPE, OR THE BLACK HILL. 129 Resident the news of our being on the way, but leaving the public packets and baggage with which he was charged, to be brought after him by Ali, his companion, abandoning Suliman and myself, by each of whom he had been paid a good round sum for taking us under his protection, to find our way to Bag¬ dad in the best manner we could. It may be remarked, with regard to the practice of travelling with government Tar¬ tars, that the only reason of its being resorted to, is the impossibility of otherwise procuring relays of horses on the road. In each of the stages, between the great towns of the Turk¬ ish Empire, but more particularly in those on the direct road, between Constantinople and Bagdad, there are certain persons, who con¬ tract with the government, to supply the couriers with horses from that sta2;e to the next. These, however, keep no greater num¬ ber than is just barely necessary to fulfil their contract, and these mostly of an inferior kind, and in w retched condition ; since the contract is always a losing one to the parties furnish¬ ing the horses, and is generally forced on them by the government, as one among many other modes of exacting tribute. A person travel- VOL. II. K 130 FROM KERKOOK, BY KIFFREE, ling alone could, therefore, procure no horses on hire at any of these stages, none being usually kept for that purpose. To travel on one’s own horse with a caravan, is insupport- ably tedious to any person in haste, and to proceed either safely or expeditiously alone, that is, without the protection either of a caravan or couriers, is quite impracticable. It is, therefore, usual for all travellers who are in haste, to apply to a Tartar going on the road, and to pay him a certain sum of money for the whole journey. The traveller, for this compensation, is provided with a horse at every stage, and both his provisions and pre¬ sents to servants are all furnished by the Tartar. The only thing necessary for him to take on such a journey, is his own saddle and bridle, portmanteau, whip, and leathern bottle for water. Every thing else may be had on the road, if the mode of living common to the country be adopted ; but neither the articles of table-furniture, wine, tea, or other comforts of travelling in Europe, will be found. The best line of conduct to be pursued towards these men is, according to the testimonies of most persons who have travelled with them, a proud and haughty demeanour, and a gene- TO KARA TUPPE, OR THE BLACK HILL. VM ral seriousness and reserve. There are no class of people who domineer more readily, or with more vulgar insolence, over those whom they have in their power, than these Tartars ; but, like most braggadocios, they are soon made to yield to a manly and persevering firmness of resistance to their encroachments. But to return — Ali, Suliman, and myself, were now left here, without an immediate prospect of our being able to procure any animals to proceed. Like good Moslems, we consoled each other with the belief that our detention was written in the Book of Fate, and could not be avoided, although neither of my companions failed to invoke curses on the head of the treacherous Jonas, as the instru¬ ment of this infliction ; but, unwilling to dwell on what could not be remedied, we ordered the best dinner that the place could afford, and sent out our mandate, as persons in au¬ thority, to invite all who would come to par¬ take of our hospitality. We had scarcely sat down, before there arrived a Tartar from Bagdad, bringing under his charge two Europeans, both dressed as Tartars, and bound to Constantinople. They arrived so opportunely, that we made them 132 FROM KERKOOK, BY KIFFREE, joint partakers of our feast ; and the two gen¬ tlemen, who were but yet in the commence¬ ment of their journey, being well provided with cordials and spirits for their own use, we assisted to drain, notwithstanding the heat of the weather and the presence of some of the Faithful, their travelling cases of a portion of the fine French brandy and excellent Ratafia with which they were furnished. The notion of these travellers, that in the dog-days cor¬ dials were necessary to repair the exhaustion of animal heat and strength, justified this course in the eyes of the one party, and the bumpers swallowed by Ali and Suliman, to the curse of Jonas who had deserted us in our utmost need, warranted the otherwise forbidden draught in the eyes of the other. Over our afternoon pipes, and while the Turks beside us were sleeping away the heat of the day, I began to learn more of my companions, who had thus suddenly come upon us, and who now very agreeably relieved the tedium of our detention. Both of them were Italians ; the eldest, named Padre Camilla di J esu, was a friar of the Carmelite order, who had been many years resident at Bagdad, and was now return¬ ing to Rome, by way of Constantinople ; the TO KARA TCTPPE, OR THE BLACK HILL. 133 other was a young man who had gone origi¬ nally from Italy to Constantinople, where he had resided some time with his father, a mer¬ chant of that city. Having heard, from some of the distant traders with whom his father corresponded, of the fame of Damascus, he solicited permission to make a journey to that city, and it was granted to him, under the hope of his being able to transact some useful business there, at the same time that he grati¬ fied his curiosity. The most singular part of the history of this young man’s travels was, however, that he went from Constantinople to Alexandria in Egypt, believing that to be the straightest and shortest road to Damas¬ cus ; and, after landing there, he went up to Cairo by the Nile, under an impression that that city was also in the direct road to the place of his destination. When he had at length reached Damascus, by this circuitous route, having gone from Cairo to Jerusalem by the Desert of Suez, one would have thought that the recollection of this error would have taught him to make more careful inquiries regarding the relative positions of places he might have to visit in future. But it appears he never did discover that he had not come by m FROM KERKOOK, BY KIFFREE, the nearest way, believing always, on the con¬ trary, that his voyage to Alexandria by sea, and his journey from Cairo to Damascus by land, had been in nearly a straight line. It was thus, that when he wras about to leave Damascus, on his return to Constantinople, having heard of great caravans going from the former place to Bagdad every year, and being aware of others coming also from Bag¬ dad to Constantinople in about the same period of time, he conceived that these cara¬ vans must be the same ; and concluding from this that Bagdad lay in his direct road home he had actually journeyed from Damascus to that place over the Syrian Desert, in the hottest season of the year, without ever once asking, during the whole forty days of his route, in which direction Constantinople lay! The whole of this was narrated to me with such an apparent unconsciousness of its ab¬ surdity, that, incredulous as I was at first, as to such ignorance being possible, I was at length compelled to believe it really to have hap¬ pened as described, especially when I heard this young man affirm his conviction, that the distance from Constantinople to Bagdad, by the way of Cairo and Damascus, could not be TO KARA TUPPE, OR THE BLACK HILL. 13« less than fifty thousand miles ; while that be¬ tween Bagdad and Constantinople, by the way he was now returning, could not exceed five hundred ; adding that, for his part, he could not conceive why the longer route was ever taken, since it was as disagreeable as it was distant ; but, at the same time, shrewdly sug¬ gesting that there might be reasons for this course, known only to Him from whom no secrets are hid ! About midnight, the Tartar, who was taking these travellers from Bagdad to Constantino¬ ple, being obliged to proceed with the horses on which they had arrived here, gave orders for departure, and the animals being very promptly saddled, and the water-bottles filled, our companions left us, with mutual saluta¬ tions, benedictions, and regrets. July 12th. — As no hope of a release from our detention at this place yet presented itself, we strolled about the town, and lounged at the coffee-house with as much resignation as was practicable, though without the same sources of entertainment which we possessed on the preceding day to dissipate our cares. The town of Kufree, or Kiffree, is seated 13G FROM KERKOOK, BY KIFFREE, on a plain, at the termination of the line of bare hills, described on our way from Baiaat to this place, and extending throughout the whole distance between them. The town is moderately large, and is enclosed within a wall, which, as well as the buildings within its enclosure, is constructed of mud, hardened by pebbles being imbedded in it. There is a stream of clear water which runs within the wall, on the east ; and this is distributed by small canals through the central parts of the town, contributing to the cleanliness of the place, and the convenience of its inhabitants. The wall of the town, near which this stream begins to run, has a high parapet, or breast¬ work, pierced with loop-holes for musketry; and the platform of this is ascended to by narrow bights of steps, but there were no cannon planted in any part of it. The bazars are very mean in appearance^ though they are furnished with a sufficiency of provisions, and particularly with excellent fruit, among which melons and grapes are the best and most abundant. There is a good cook-shop, at which ka- baubs, or roasted meat and sausages, can be procured ; and though there is only one TO KARA TUPPE, OR THE BLACK IIILL, 137 coffee-house in the place, this is adequate to the supply of all the idlers and passengers through the town. The caravanserai at which we put up, during our detention here, was like the one described at Baiaat, in the general style of its architec¬ ture, which was purely Turkish. It consisted of many apartments, some of them having fire-places in the walls, like European chim¬ neys ; others, with benches and niches, or recesses, for the accommodation of travellers, and all ornamented and vaulted, in the Turk¬ ish rather than the Arabic manner. It is remarkable, that though all the arches in the caravanserai and coffee-house are point¬ ed in the Saracenic form, with concave or hollow parts beneath them, all those seen in the other buildings of this town are of a dif¬ ferent kind : some of these are round arches, of the pure semi-circular Roman shape ; others are the flattened segment of a circle, approaching to the Saxon form ; and others again have a broad indentation in the centre of a flat arch, like those described in the mosque of Ibrahim el Khaleel, at Orfah ; all apparently constructed without regard to any 138 FROM KERKOOK, BY KIFFREE, fixed rule, just as the caprice of the architect directed. The language, features, and complexions of the inhabitants are chiefly Turkish. This cir¬ cumstance, added to the fact of the caravan¬ serai here, and at the last station, being of Turkish architecture, renders it probable, that the first settlement of many of these smaller places, as villages, was the erection of a post- house, or konauk, for the couriers between Constantinople and Bagdad, when this last became the distant frontier town of the Turk¬ ish empire; and that villages of Turks have since grown up progressively around these halting-places. This would sufficiently ac¬ count for their being placed at stated and equal distances from each other, while all the rest of the country between them is desert and unpeopled ; as well as for the great predomi¬ nance of Turkish features, and the preserva¬ tion of the Turkish language, in these places, lying in the great post-route, though they are bordered on the one side by Arabs and on the other by Koords. There are a few gardens, with date and other fruit trees, here ; and in w alking in one TO KARA TUPPE, OR THE BLACK HILL. 130 of them I observed myriads of insects, of the genus Coccinella, all seemingly regaling them¬ selves on the Aphides, or plant-lice, which are said to be their favourite food ; they covered the leaves of all the lower shrubs, in countless multitudes. They were of the species that have red shells with black spots ; though the spots were in many of them not very distinct, and they frequently went in pairs, attached together by their tails. Some pieces of cloud¬ ed marble were brought to me in the course of the day, as stone from the neighbouring range of hills. These were all the natural curiosities, if these could so be called, which the place produced, excepting the large storks, “ Iladjee Lug Lug,” which had their nests on almost every house in the town. On every part of our road from Mousul to this place, we had seen, for the last five days, the beautiful bird, called Syren by the French, and War- War by the Arabs ; but here, proba¬ bly on account of the great heat, we lost sight of them altogether. From the same cause, also, fleas, which had hitherto abounded in our route, had now entirely disappeared ; though more offensive vermin were still seen on every carpet and cushion on which we 140 FROM KERKOOK, RY KIFFREE, could venture to recline. The heat was, in¬ deed, intense, the thermometer being from 120° at noon to 125° at three hours after me¬ ridian, so that even the people of the country were oppressed by it. The wind was south¬ west blowing from the Desert, and in very light airs ; and persons residing here, who had been often at Bussorali and Bagdad, com¬ plained of the sultry air and suffocating blasts of hot mnd, as being equal to those of the worst seasons at these respective cities. As our detention began to be generally known and commiserated, we were invited, after the prayers of El Assr, to the house of a certain Hadjee Habeeb, who wished to learn the particulars of our being abandoned, and expressed an intention of assisting us out of our difficulty. As we proceeded to his abode, Suliman began to entertain an idea that this pilgrim might be a particular friend of his, of the same name, and when they met, this was verified by their embracing each other. We now learnt that the Hadjee had himself come thus far from Bagdad with a small caravan of merchandize, and this being now disposed of, he was homeward-bound with the returns of his speculation, which were to be carried back TO KARA TUPPE, OR THE BLACK HILL. 141 on the same animals, the heasts and their lading all belonging to himself. Our diffi¬ culties, as to further progress, were now at once removed. By increasing the lading of some of his mules, and making his servants dismount from others, to ride and walk by turns, a horse and two mules were set at liberty for the use of Ah, Suliman, and my¬ self. The horse was given to me, as the greatest stranger of the party, it being known to all that I came from Egypt ; and though the Tartar, Ali, had not only the self-regard to ask it for himself, but the effrontery to demand it as a right, he being the Sultan’s messenger, yet no entreaties of mine could prevail on the young Suliman, for whose sake alone we had obtained these animals, to take the horse, and permit me to ride the mule. The laws of hospitality, he said, forbade it, and he was on this point quite immovable. At sun-set, a grave and formal party was assembled at the Hadjee’s place of halt, con¬ sisting of a sleek and full-bearded Moollah, and some of the chief elders of the town. Here, most of the party prayed, Ali and my¬ self being the only ones who did not join ; at which the Moollah was not a little scandalized. 142 FROM KERKOOK, BY KIFFREE, From hence we retired to the bank of the stream, which ran through the town, and par¬ took of an excellent supper given by the Had- jee to all his dependants, including two der¬ vishes, who had become permanent hangers- on in his train. We were then summoned to mount, and about two hours after sun-set proceeded on our way ; the whole party con¬ sisting of six horses, and about fifty mules and asses, besides two Tartars from Mousul, who had just joined us as we were setting out, and who rode the same horses w hich they had brought from their last stage. July 13th. — Our course, during the night, had been nearly south, and the whole of our road lay over a level and desert plain ; when, after six hours of easy travelling, at the rate of about three miles an hour, we entered the town of Kara Tuppe, or the Black Hill, which that name, in Turkish, implies. While the Tartars, and those who had charge of the laden animals, went to alight at the public khan, a new7 mosque, which stood just at the entrance of the village, was selected for our place of halt ; it being suggested, by the Moollali, who had come with us from TO KARA TUPPE, OR THE BLACK HILL. 143 Kiffree, that within the building there would be good accommodation for ourselves, and in the court an excellent place for our horses. We accordingly alighted, and after formal prayers, led by the Moollah himself, as Imaum, at the head of the party, we took care of our animals, and all lay down to sleep. On awaking, which was long after the sun had risen, I found near me an old white- bearded Sheikh, the priest and schoolmaster of the village, who was surrounded by about twenty pupils, all reading loudly the different portions of the Koran assigned to them as their tasks. The book, from which they were reading, was in Arabic; but the language of their conversation with each other, as well as the features and complexions of all, was still Turkish, and sufficiently bespoke their origin. The old Sheikh was very communi¬ cative ; and as he pressed his inquiries on me with great earnestness, I answered them with readiness and freedom. The sun growing in- supportably powerful, even soon after the day dawned, some of the young scholars were des¬ patched by their master to procure the cooling breakfast of raw sliced cucumbers steeped in sour milk, which, however little known among 144 FROM KERKOOK, BY KIFFBEE, the epicures of Europe, is here a choice and favourite dish. This was set before me by the Sheikh himself ; and, little as it was to my taste, we finished it between us. This same old man, who was priest of the mosque, spread out my carpet within the sacred precincts without a scruple, although, by this time, he knew, from my frank communications with him, that I was not a Moslem ; and I retired into the most shady part of the building to enjoy a second nap, the whole of my tired companions being still soundly asleep. When the grave elders of our travelling party awoke, and began to arrange themselves in a line, with the sleek Moollah at their head, for noon-day prayers, this holy and well-fed expounder of the law, on seeing me reposing on the ground near him, started back, as a Pharisee would have shrunk from a Publican, a Jew from a Samaritan, or a Brahmin from the polluting touch of a Pariah. Strong ob¬ jections were now raised by the Moollah, the Hadjee llabeeb, and two others of the party, to my remaining within the temple, and their prayers were consequently interrupted. The priest of the mosque, the young Suliman, and another of our companions, whom I had made TO KARA TUPPE, OR THE BLACK HILL. 145 my friend, by telling him long and entertain¬ ing stories on the road, all contended, how¬ ever, for my not being disturbed from the spot where I lay. I was awake during the whole of this strife between fanaticism and hospitality ; but I continued to remain quiet, and apparently still asleep, from a conviction, that any thing which I could do or say would rather inflame and irritate than calm the con¬ tention. My friends ultimately prevailed ; and the others, after a great deal of murmuring, at length went on with their devotions, though they all removed from near me, where they had just ranged themselves, to the other ex¬ tremity of the mosque, in order to avoid the contamination of an infidel. Our afternoon was lounged away, without my seeing much of the town of Kara Tuppe. It appeared to me, to be hardly more than half the size of Kiffree, and the population still less in proportion ; that of Kiffree being esti¬ mated at three thousand, while the inhabit¬ ants of this are thought not to exceed one thousand. The appearance and language of the people are as decidedly Turkish as the VOL. II. L 140 FROM KERKOOK TO KARA TUPPE. name of the place itself, and all seemed to con¬ firm the opinion already expressed as to the common origin and progress of these halting- stations on the road. CHAPTER VI ROCKY DEFILE BETWEEN KARA TUPPEE AND DELHI ABASS. vm ii CHAPTER VI. FROM KARA TUFPE, BY DELHI ABASS, TO BAGDAD. In the evening, when we prepared to mount, we began to feel the effects of the Hadjee- Habeeb’s displeasure, though his revenge was, as we all believed, rather at the suggestion of the offended Moollah, than from the dictates of his own more benevolent heart. My long- story-loving friend was “ sent to Coventry,” for his open espousal of my cause. The horse I had originally mounted was now given to one of the Hadjee’s servants, and I was set on a heavily-laden mule ; while the unladen animal, on which Suliman had ridden thus far, was transferred to another individual, and he was set on one carrying melons in panniers. It was in this order that we set out soon 148 FROM KARA TUPPE, after sun-set, kept at a distance by the heads of the party, and held in derision by the rest. Our course was south-west, over a barren plain : two hours after our setting out, we passed a square enclosure on our left, appa¬ rently a deserted khan ; and at midnight, we came to a deep ditch, filled with bitter and brackish water. July 14th. — Just beyond this, we began to ascend over a high and rugged range of sand¬ stone hills, which crossed the road at right angles, and extended widely over the plain. We were full two hours before we got clear of this pass, in which gutters or paths have been formed by the constant passage of ani¬ mals, and these are now worn to a depth that renders them dangerous, except to the surer- footed beasts. We continued still on the same course of south-west until an hour after sun-rise, when, having travelled on the whole about thirty miles, we reached the station of Delhi Abass. We passed no stream, nor even the bed of one, in our way .from Kara Tuppe thus far ; for the ditch, to which we came at midnight, having bitter and brackish water in it, was BY DELHI ABASS, TO BAGDAD. f 149 crossed by a bridge of a few planks, and was not ten yards wide. In the map of Macdonald Kinneir, the Odorneh, or the Phuskus, is made to pass from the north-eastward into the Ti¬ gris, and to intercept the road, just midway between these two stations ; but, in this, there must be some error, as the river he speaks of was a very considerable one. In the memoir, accompanying the map, this writer says, “ The Odorneh, (supposed, by some authors, to be the Phuskus of Xenophon,) is formed by the junction of many streams, which arise in hills between Kerkook and Solymania. It pursues a south-west course, and falls into the Tigris, twenty fursungs above Bagdad. I crossed the Odorneh,” he continues, “at the village of Tooz Khoorma, forty-five leagues from Bag¬ dad, on the road to Mousul. The bed of the river was about sixty yards in breadth, and in the spring it contains a great body of water.”* On referring to the map, it is seen that the Touz Kourma, mentioned as the place of crossing, is at the very head of the stream, . and a long way to the eastward of the direct road from Bagdad to Mousul ; whereas, Tour Khoorma, which I suspect to be the same * Geographical Memoir on the Persian Empire, p. 297- 4to. 150 FROM KARA TUPPE, place, and that at which the traveller supposed he crossed this river on the road to Mousul, is laid down on the branch of another stream be¬ tween Kufree and Taook, which, from its in¬ considerable size, has no name given to it. I cannot omit to mention, however, that be- ween Taook and Kufree I neither observed any such stream, nor did we pass through any place called “ Touz Kourina,” which is seated, by Major Macdonald Kinneir, on a river sixty yards wide, and made by him the boundary of division between the fertile, populous, and picturesque country to the north, and the barren, deserted, and naked country to the south of it. It must, therefore, be to the east¬ ward of the track by which we came, and not in the direct road, if such be its features ; or if it be the Tour Khoorma in the straight route, then these features of it cannot be accurate. At Delhi Abass, we found a river running close to the south of the village, and going towards the south-west. It was not fordable in any part, even at this advanced period of the dry season, but was so broad as to be crossed by a brick-built bridge of four pointed arches. The source of this stream was said BY DELHI ABASS, TO BAGDAD. lul to be several days’ journey to the eastward, among the mountains of Koordistan, and it here bent its way towards the Tigris in a west- south- west direction. Though this stream is broader, deeper, and of a longer course, than the Jordan of Palestine above the Lake of Tiberias, yet it did not, according to the re¬ port of persons living here, reach the banks of the Tigris at all, being entirely exhausted by canals, which drained off its waters for the cultivation of the land around it. I did not readily credit this statement, though I could find no one who positively knew of its junc¬ tion with the Tigris, while all contended that it did not reach that stream ; but the size of the river, and the large body of water it even now contained, justified, as I thought, some incredulity on this point. As this was the most considerable stream, next to the Greater and Lesser Zab, that we had met with since crossing the Tigris at Mousul, it may, perhaps, be assumed to be that of the Physcus, or Odorneh, of the an¬ cients. In a Memoir on the Expedition of Heraclius into Persia, and the flight of Chos- roes from his palace at Dastagherd, by which this expedition was terminated, the author 152 FROM KARA TUP PE, says, “ When Heraclius had crossed the Tigris at Mousul, he passed, in succession, the rivers of the Greater and the Lesser Zab, and a third river named Torneh.”* This is con¬ ceived, from the resemblance of names, to have been the same as the Tornadotum of Pliny, who, when speaking of an Antiochia, thought to be the Opis of Xenophon and Stra¬ bo, says, it is seated between two rivers, “ inter duo flumina , Tig-rim et Tornadotum.” A river, called by Tavernier “ Odorne,” by D’Anville, “ Odorneh,” by Xenophon, “ Physcus,”-j- and by Ptolemy, “ Gorgus,” and thought to be but one stream under these many names, is assumed to be this Tornadotum of Pliny, and the Torneh crossed by Heraclius after his pas¬ sage of the Tigris and the Greater and Lesser Zab. For myself, I inquired of the few passengers and stationary people here, what was the name by which this stream was known * Memoires de l’Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres. -f- According to the map constructed from the details of the Anabasis, the Physcus fell into the Tigris considerably below the site of Bagdad. It was sixty miles to the north¬ ward of the place where the Greeks crossed the Tigris, and was a hundred feet broad. Opis stood on its northern bank. — Anabasis, book ii. BY DELHI ABASS, TO BAGDAD. 153 among the people of the country ; but I could obtain no other answer from either Turks or Arabs, than that by some it was called “ the river,” by others, “ the brook,” and by others, “ the water ” of Delhi Abass. My informers were, however, in general so ignorant and in¬ different to every thing about them, that I was not likely to obtain any more accurate in¬ formation regarding the name, than I was respecting the course and ultimate disappear¬ ance of the stream. Its position, as the third in order after passing the Tigris, in a march directed this way, is probably a more accurate guide than a resemblance of name only, un¬ supported by other points of coincidence. It is true, that in the description given by Aristagoras of the royal road from Sardis to Susa, as preserved to us by Herodotus, after enumerating the Tigris and the Greater and Lesser Zab as three of the rivers to be passed in the way, the fourth is called by him the Gyndes. This is the celebrated stream which was divided by Cyrus into three hundred and sixty channels, to revenge himself on it, as it was said, for the death of one of the sacred horses, which was carried away by its waters. But the able Illustrator of the Geography of 154 FROM KARA TUPPE, Herodotus has proved that either Aristagoras himself, or the historian who preserves his details of the road, have confounded this stream with the Mendeli, farther to the east¬ ward, and in the province of Susiana, the fact of Cyrus’s division of which was popularly known and accredited * The city of Opis is generally admitted to have been near the confluence of the Physcus with the Tigris. It is so placed by both Xenophon and Pliny, and by the latter of these it is also spoken of under the name of Antiochia, which, as we have seen, was given to numerous cities of the East. Herodotus, however, places it below the confluence of the Gyndes with the Tigris, which is the same thing ; considering this to have been the name given to the third river after passing the Tigris, by Aristagoras, whose description of that part of the country he had before been quoting. After all, it may be said, that though this, the third river from the crossing of the Tigris, would answer to the Physcus of Xenophon, the Gyndes of Aristagoras, and the Tornado- * See Rennell’s Illustrations of the Geography of Hero¬ dotus, 4to. BY DELHI ABASS, TO BAGDAD. 155 turn of Pliny, or the Torneh passed by Hera- clius in his approach to the Persian palace, if the route of march lay close along the eastern banks of the Tigris ; yet, that it might not have been crossed at all, either on Aristago- ras’s road to Susa, or that of Heraclius to Das- tagherd, supposing the line of march to have led further east, and the source of this stream to have been left a little on the right. The Diala would then have been the stream meant, as botli D'Anville and Rennell agree, though their opinions were evidently formed without any knowledge of the existence of this stream at Delhi Abass. The country all around us appeared to be one wide desert of sandy and barren soil, thinly scattered over with brushwood and tufts of reedy grass. The bare and stony ridge of hills, through the’ pass of which we had come on the pre¬ ceding night, intercepted the horizon in the north-east, and a lofty range of very distant mountains bounded the view in the south¬ east ; but in every other quarter of the com - pass, the prospect was like that of a level and unbroken sea. We had seen no settlement of pure Arabs 15G FROM KARA TUPPE, throughout our way, since leaving Mousul, until now ; the tribe of Arab horsemen, whom we met at Altoun Kupree, being on an ex- dition, and the people resident in the towns being mostly Turks, or Koords. Here, how¬ ever, at this small village of Delhi Abass, the features, the complexion, the language, and the habits and manners of the people, were all purely Arabian, and that too of the Be¬ douin, or Desert, rather than the Fellah, or cultivating class. By some of these, who wrere now encamped in brown hair tents, and fed their flocks on the thorny shrubs near the stream, I was assured that the nearest part of the Tigris was three days’ journey, for a man on foot, from KaraTuppe, and two days’ journey from this place. By this estimate it could not be less than forty miles from hence, though this is a much greater space than is marked in the map ; and the circuit made by the couriers to the eastward, instead of coming in a straight line from Mousul to Bag¬ dad, is no doubt for the sake of passing through the towns in the way, and halting at the stations, fixed at convenient distances, and furnished with water and provisions. The whole number of families permanently BY DELHI ABASS, TO BAGDAD. 157 resident at this small station of Delhi Abass, does not usually exceed twenty ; so that our supplies, except of milk from the goats of the Bedouins near, were very scanty, and no horses could, of course, be procured. W e were, there¬ fore, obliged to proceed on the same laden animals which had borne us thus far ; and each of us who were in disfavour, namely, Suliman, Ali, and myself, were obliged to load our own beasts before we mounted them. The very hottest part of the day was now chosen for setting out, just after the prayers of El Assr, or between three and four o’clock ; and the scorching power of the sun was even a smaller evil than the parching and suffo¬ cating heat of a Simoom wind, which came in furnace-like blasts from the western Desert. Even when reposing in the shade, without garments, catching every breath of air by sitting in its current, and furnished with a fan in one hand and a jug of water in the other, it was still insupportably hot, and every part of the body, even in this state of rest, stream¬ ed with the effects of the heat. But to load a refractory animal with a very heavy burden, and without the assistance of any one even to hold his head by a halter, was, as may be lr.s FROM KARA TUPPE, imagined, not a very cool or agreeable occu¬ pation. I exerted myself, however, with a strength increased by vexation at the indig¬ nity thus put upon us all ; and, fortunately, a proud determination not to sink under it, bore me through all my labour. I was, how¬ ever, in such a burning state of fever, and so completely exhausted by the time I had buckled the last girth of my mule, that I was much more ready to stretch myself along upon the earth, than either to mount and ride, or continue the journey on foot beside the beast I had laden. The faithful Suliman, who con¬ tinued to adhere to me to the last, cheered me, as he passed on a higher and better ani¬ mal, with the prospect that Bagdad was not now far off, and I regained my spirits and my strength. But, before we finally started, I went down to the edge of the river, and stripping off all my garments, dipped my shirt in the water, and put it on, unwrung, and in a streaming state. I did the same by all my other garments, even to the skull-cap, my head being close shaved ; and, beneath the folds of my turban, I wound a long cotton towel, wetted in the same manner, my whole dress thus containing several quarts of water. BY DELHI ABASS, TO BAGDAD. 159 In this state I quitted Delhi Abass, in com¬ pany with the same party, going out over a bridge of four arches, an old Mohammedan work fast falling to decay, and pursuing a south-westerly direction across the plain. The country was mostly desert, though intersected by canals, some full and others dry. It con¬ tinued all the way to be intensely hot, so that the richest of our party carried large and thick parasols, and the poorest defended them¬ selves from the sun in the best way they could, by doubling the folds of their cloaks and other thick garments over their heads. The skin of my face and bps was cracked and split by the dry and parching heat, and my eyes were so swollen, reddened, and inflamed, that it was painful even to keep them open. Notwithstanding the precaution I had taken before setting out, of saturating the whole of my garments with water, the evaporation was so great, that the innermost of them was com¬ pletely dry at sun-set. After this, the air be¬ came less oppressive, though it still continued to be hot, even until midnight. July 15th. — We continued our even course over the plain, without once varying the direc- 160 FROM KARA TUPPE, tion, passing a square enclosure, and a small village about midnight, and at day-break, opening a view of a country exactly like Lower Egypt. On the level plain, which now spread itself on all sides, were seen, in different quar¬ ters of the horizon, groves of palm-trees, each forming a separate cluster apart from the others, and each marking the place of a sepa¬ rate village. The soil was highly fertile, hav¬ ing already yielded its harvest of the present year, and the plain was intersected by one large canal, with several smaller ones branch¬ ing off from it, ail of which strengthened its resemblance to the lands on the banks of the Nile. It was just as we had crossed one of the canals, and while suffering intensely from thirst, that I asked a Dervish, who was drink¬ ing from the hollow shell of a cocoa-nut at the stream, to give me a draught of water from his vessel ; but this man, though de¬ voted by his order to the exercise of hospi¬ tality and charitable offices to all mankind, and though he had but the moment before returned me the salutation of the faithful, added insolence to his refusal, and pricking my mule with a sharp instrument, caused the poor BY DELHI ABASS, TO BAGDAD. 101 beast, already sinking under his double bur¬ then of a lading and a rider, to rear and kick, and ultimately to throw me off, with a part of the lading upon me. The agility of this Dervish, who was young and active, enabled him to escape the punishment I should other¬ wise have indicted on him, for this breach of his own precepts to others ; but, as I was now dismounted, I began to reload the articles that had fallen off, after which, I repaired to the stream, to allay both my thirst and my anger at the same time. On endeavouring to remount, which was a task of no small diffi¬ culty, as the lading of the beast was wide and high, and there were neither stirrups, nor a stone, or the smallest eminence of any kind near us, the whole of the poor creature’s bur¬ then came tumbling on the ground. It had at first perhaps been but badly secured, though I had used all my strength and skill in load¬ ing it : but the effect of the rearing, kicking, and rolling of the animal on the earth, when the Dervish provoked it to throw me, had made the whole so loose that it rolled entirely under the animal as it stood. To increase the evil, as I let go my hold of the halter, in order to use both hands in securing the packages, VOL. II. M 1C2 FROM KARA TUPPE, the mule made off at a full gallop, frisking and flinging its head in the air, pawing with its fore-legs* and kicking with its hind ones’ as if in derision at my dilemma, and triumph for its own happy riddance and escape. As the rest of the party had by this time got far a-head, I waited in this miserable plight for two full hours, by the way-side, literally guard¬ ing the merchandize with one eye, and keep¬ ing a look-out with the other on the movements of my truant mule, who regaled himself on the shrubs near ; besides being in continual apprehension of having the whole property (which was not my own) taken possession of by robbers, who are never wanting to follow up the stragglers of a caravan, and plunder all they can lay their hands on. . At length, some peasants of the country coming by, very chari¬ tably assisted me to catch my mule, and even helped me to reload it, when, with their assist¬ ance, for it could not otherwise have been done, I remounted, and continued my vray ; they themselves soon branching off to their own villages near the road. Though I was now perfectly alone, and liable therefore to insult and pillage from any handful of men who might cross my path, I BY DELHI ABASS, TO BAGDAD. 163 went on with a light heart at the prospect of my troubles being soon to be at an end, and had filled my pipe on the mule’s back, to smoke away my cares, and to make its enjoy¬ ment compensate for the want of a companion. As I abandoned the halter of the beast, by throwing it for a moment across his neck, while I struck a light, which requires the use of both hands, and while I was in the act of drawing my first whiff, the refractory brute, probably from imagining the pricking of the Dervish to be near him again, first cocked his ears forward, then stood fixed and immovable, and at length, after three or four repeated flingings of his hind legs in the air, again un¬ seated me, and now, in the confusion of this totally unexpected result, the baggage and the animal itself came tumbling after and upon me, and nearly crushed me to death by their fall. I was a long while before I could extri¬ cate myself from this state, for even the beast was in some way entangled by its own girths and bandages, and could not rise from the ground. When I had with difficulty regained my legs, I found the burthen, from the firm¬ ness with which it was last braced on, to be all secure ; and by my assistance, and a vigor- 1C4 FROM KARA TUPPE, ous effort of its own, the mule rose again, with all its lading fast as before. All my efforts to mount were, however, quite ineffec¬ tual ; the packages, being large and compa¬ ratively light, making an elevation of three or four feet above the animal’s back. My poor mule had had his share of disasters, as well as myself ; and he seemed determined, by all the freaks and tricks within his power to perform, to shew that he would not hazard any more. I was obliged therefore, bruised and tired and irritated as I was, to trudge the rest of my way on foot, holding the halter of my charge firmly in my hand, to prevent his escape, and much more disposed to give him the stripes of the Parisian ass-driver, as related by Sterne, than to feed him on the macaroons of the sen¬ timental traveller. It was not until four hours after sun-rise that I entered, alone, the village of Hebheb, leading my nude after me, and attracting the inquiries of the idle and curious, as well as of the humane and charitable, as to what accident had befallen me ; these inquiries being sug¬ gested by the dust with which I w as covered, the ragged state of my rent garments, and the fashion of my turban, which vras unlike the BY DELHI ABASS, TO BAGDAD. 165 shape of any class, and my whole costume dis¬ ordered and awry. I succeeded, at length, in finding out the coffee-house or shed at which my young friend Suliman had put up ; and after anointing my bruises, washing myself from head to foot, and giving my torn gar¬ ments to be repaired, I lay gladly down, to recruit my exhausted strength. It was long past noon when I awoke, and the pain which I suffered from the bruises sustained in my fall was now much greater than before, and almost disabled me from walking. Suliman expressed the most earnest solicitude for my comfort, and did a hundred kind offices, to which nothing but a humane heart could have prompted him. We were both in the same coffee-shed, or khan, for these were here united, as the Hadjee Habeeb and his friend, the fat Moollah of Kiffree ; but these u ould neither of them now speak to any one of our party : and when they were told of my disasters they exultingly exclaimed, “ Thus does God punish those who violate the sanc¬ tuaries of his Prophet.” W e cared but little for a resentment so perfectly harmless in its effects, in spite of which Suliman and myself made an excellent dinner together, desiring 1C<» FROM KARA TUPPE, nothing better than that it might fall to our lot to be fellow-travellers on some future oc¬ casion. I saw no more of the town of Hebheb than the portions passed through on our entry into and exit from it. The most remarkable fea¬ tures of it were a fine stream of clear water running through the town, many enclosed groves of tall palm-trees intermingled with the dwellings, and in these an abundance of wild pigeons and turtle-doves. The population of the place is thought to be about three thou¬ sand, but two would, perhaps, be nearer the truth. I was particularly struck with the resemblance of the people in general to Egyptians, both in complexion, stature, fea¬ ture, and dress ; and even the Arabic spoken here seemed to my ear to approach as nearly to that of Egypt, as the features of the coun¬ try along the Tigris resemble those of the lands that border on the Nile. This was the first place at which, during all my travels in Mohammedan countries, which had now been considerable, I had ever seen boys publicly exhibited and set apart for purposes of depravity not to be named. 1 had, indeed, heard of public establishments for BY DELHI ABASS, TO BAGDAD. 167 such infamous practices at Constantinople, but I had always doubted the fact. I saw here, however, with my own eyes one of these youths avowedly devoted to purposes not to he described, and from the very thought of which the mind revolts with horror. This youth was by no means remarkable for beauty of person, and was even dirtily and meanly dressed. His costume was that of an Arab, with a peculiar kind of silk handkerchief, called keffeeah, hanging down about the neck, and thrown over the head. He wore, how¬ ever, all the silver ornaments peculiar to females ; and from his travelling khoordj he exhibited to the persons in the coffee-house a much richer dress of muslin and gold stuffs, in which he arrayed himself on certain occa¬ sions. The boy was about ten years of age, impudent, forward, and revoltingly fond and fawning in his demeanour. He hung about the persons of those who were seated in the coffee-house, sitting on their knees, and sing¬ ing indescribable songs ; but no one, as far as I could learn, avowed any nearer approach. There were many of the party, indeed, who insisted that the practice had no existence in Turkey ; but that the object for which boys FROM KARA TUPPE, lWi of this description was exhibited was merely to sing, to dance, and to excite pleasurable ideas ; and that for this purpose they were taught alluring ways, and furnished with splen¬ did dresses. Others, however, more frankly admitted that the vice was not merely ima¬ ginary, and common notoriety would seem to confirm this view of the case. This youth was under the care of an elder and a younger man, who travelled with him, and shared the profits of his exhibition and his use. As neither the state of morals nor of manners in any country can be accurately judged of with¬ out facts of this nature being stated, as well as those of a more honourable kind, 1 have felt it my duty, as an observer of human nature? to record, in the least objectionable manner in which I can convey the description so as to be intelligible, this mark of profligacy, to which the classical scholar will readily remember parallels in ancient manners, but which among the moderns has been thought by many to be nowhere openly tolerated. We prepared to set out as on former occa¬ sions, after the prayers of El Assr, and about the hottest time of the day. Some causes of detention however happening, it was four BY DELHI ABASS, TO BAGDAD. 1 Of) o’clock before we were all mounted and on our way. Going still in a direction of south-west, we passed several small villages, embosomed in groves of palm-trees, and went over several canals of water, across wooden planks used as bridges. One of these was so loosely held together, that a laden mule and his rider fell through two of the boards as they separated, and were with great difficulty rescued from suffocation. It was not more than two hours after quit¬ ting the town of Hebheb, that we came on the eastern bank of the Tigris, which seemed here to be about the same size as at Mousul, or scarcely at all augmented. We halted on its banks for sun-set prayers, and suffered our animals to drink and graze for the short period of our stay. On remounting, we continued our way in a southern direction, with slight occasional deviations, as we now followed the winding of the river, and kept always close upon its edge. J uly 16th. — Though thus upon the borders of a large and fertilizing stream, nothing could be more dreamy and monotonous than the scenery which, during the whole of our long 170 FROM KARA TUPPE, night’s ride, presented itself on every side. We quitted the banks of the Tigris soon after midnight, as it bent a little to the south-east ; but though now thus near to the great metro¬ polis of the surrounding country, the tract over which we passed appeared to have in it a much greater portion of desert and unpro¬ ductive space than of fertile or cultivated soil ; and we neither saw villages nor people for many hours in succession. It was with the earliest blush of dawn that we first gained sight of Bagdad, at a distance from us of about four or five miles. As it seemed to stand on a perfectly level plain, it presented no other prominent objects than its domes and minarets, and these were neither so large nor so numerous as I had expected to have seen rising from the centre of this proud capital of the Khalifs, whose empire once extended from the Pillars of Hercules to the Chinese Wall, and from the Indian Ocean to the Frozen Sea. At sun-rise, we reached the gate of en¬ trance, on the outside of which Turkish horse¬ men were now assembling to exercise the throwing of the jereed, and foot-soldiers were collecting in still greater numbers, to form an BY DELHI ABASS, TO BAGDAD. 171 escort for the Pasha, who was every moment expected on his return from his morning ride. Being arrested at the gate by the public officers stationed there to guard against the entrance or exit of contraband commodities, I was made to dismount, for the purpose of their examining the lading of my mule ; but having said that neither the animal nor the goods be¬ longed to me, I was detained until the owner of the beast should come to answer for him¬ self. This was the Hadjee Habeeb, who I had reason to believe had pushed in among the earliest of the crowd, probably himself carry¬ ing contraband articles, and thus forcing their entrance. My belief that he had preceded me was not admitted, however, as a sufficient reason for my being suffered to proceed ; neither would the officers at the gate examine the lading in my presence, as I had admitted it was not my own, nor would they suffer me to abandon the animal to the care of another, and go my way. I continued to wait, therefore, very humbly at the gate of this great city, sitting cross- legged on the dusty ground, and holding the halter of my mule, who continued to be too refractory and ungovernable to the last to be 172 FROM KARA TUP PE, left quietly to himself; and had lighted my pipe, to lessen the tedium of this detention ; when a Turkish soldier impudently snatched it from me, and extinguished it, asking me, at the same time, how I dared be guilty of such a breach of decorum just as the Pasha was about to pass. Presently, this distinguished personage en¬ tered, preceded by a troop of his Georgian Mamlouk guards, all gaily dressed, and mount¬ ed on fine and well-furnished horses. A troop of foot soldiers followed, all of them having English muskets, and many of them English military coats, which they purchase with the other worn-out garments of the British Resi¬ dent’s guards ; but their head-dress was a huge fur cap, of a semi-globular form and savage appearance, anti their whole deportment ex¬ hibited the total absence of discipline or uni¬ formity. A few drums and reed-pipes were the only instruments of music, and the sounds of these were far from dignified or agreeable. Nothing, however, could surpass the awe which the passing-by of the Pasha seemed to inspire in all who witnessed it, though this is no doubt a frequent occurrence. There were two large coffee-houses near the gate, the BY DELHI ABASS, TO BAGDAD. 17" benches of which were filled with hundreds of spectators ; yet not a pipe was lighted, not a cup of coffee served, and not a v oid spoken, during this awful moment. Every one rose, and either made an inclination of the body, or lifted his hand to his lips, his forehead, and his heart, in token of respect. The Pasha, though he seemed scarcely to turn his head or his eyes from a straight-forward view, never¬ theless returned these salutations with great grace, and every thing was conducted with the utmost gravity and decorum. At the close of this procession, Dr. Hine and Mr. Bellino, the physician and secretary of the British resident at Bagdad, passed close by me, on horseback, as I sat smothered in the very dust of their horses’ hoofs ; but though I knew them at the moment to be the persons they were, from their dresses, and from hear¬ ing them converse in English as they passed, and though I felt the humiliation to which I was reduced as extremely galling, yet I for¬ bore to make myself known to them under such circumstances and in such a crowd. When the cavalcade had entirely passed by, and every one returned again to the care of his own concerns, I pressed hard to be released 174 FROM KARA TUPPE, from the unreasonable and hopeless bondage in which I was thus held ; but entreaty pro¬ cured me only abuse, and the satisfaction of being thought an idle vagabond who wished to abandon the property of the man on whose beast I rode, with a view, no doubt, to escape from paying him for its hire. Altercations, hard words, and, at last, on my part also, threats and abuse, succeeded, however, in effecting what I believe gentler terms would never have done ; till, at length, being able to bear with it no longer, I drew my pistol from my girdle, and daring any one at the peril of his life to molest me, I led off my mule in triumph, amid the execrations of the guards, for my insolence, but cheered by the shouts and applause of the rabble, for my defiance of a class on whom they look with the hatred of an oppressed race towards their tyrants. I took the animal to the Konauk Tatar Agasi, or head-quarters of the couriers, where, on representing myself to be an Englishman, (of which the guards at the gate knew nothing,) I was treated with great respect, and suffered to leave the beast, to be delivered to its owner, without any further care of mine. As I waited here until the Tartar Jonas, who had BY DELHI ABASS, TO BAGDAD. 175 deserted us on the road, was sent for — coffee, pipes, and sherbet were served to me, and I was entertained with the most extravagant praises, which these men bestowed on the character of the English generally, and of their illustrious representative at Bagdad in particular. When Jonas at length arrived, I took him with me to the house of Mr. Rich, to whom I explained the whole of his behaviour to us on the road, and all the consequent incon¬ veniences that I had suffered ; and by this gentleman I was assured that proper notice should be taken of the Tartar’s treacherous conduct. The reception I met with at the hands of Mr. Rich, was warm and cordial in the highest degree. I found an apartment ready for me, servants placed at my disposal, and, indeed, all the comforts of a paternal home, with the most hearty and oft-repeated welcome. After passing a short time in con¬ versation with Mr. Rich, I was conducted by one of his servants to the bath ; and after much enjoyment there, returned to pass a day of unusual happiness in the intelligent and amiable society of Mr. and Mrs. Rich, and the other members of their family. CHAPTER VII. DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. July 20th. — The change from all that could be disagreeable, in the way of living, to so much comfort, and, indeed luxury, as I found in the house of Mr. and Mrs, Rich, added to the still higher charm of the intelligent so¬ ciety with which I had become surrounded there, was sufficient to repay me for all the vexations I had suffered on my way. I con¬ tinued to enjoy these pleasures uninterrupt¬ edly for several days, before I felt even a desire to gratify that curiosity which is so generally impatient on entering a large and celebrated city. I profited however this morning, by the gentlemen of the establishment riding out, to accompany them on horseback, going down through the whole length of the town, passing CHAPTER VII. PERSPECTIVE VIEW OF A STREET AND MOSQUE AT BAGDAD. I I ! ' ■ * - ' - - DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. 177 out through the south eastern gate, and mak¬ ing the circuit of the walls, so as to return by the north-western gate of entrance, which leads from the Mousul road. The remainder of the day was devoted to an examination of the interior of the city, in the company of native resident guides ; and from this, with the information acquired from other sources, during the few days I had already been in Bagdad, the following account, which if not as full is at least as faithful as I could make it, was carefully compiled. The city of Bagdad stands on a level plain, on the north-east bank of the Tigris, having one of its sides close to the water’s edge The plan which Niebuhr has given of it ap¬ peared to me generally accurate, both as to the form and extent of the city and its suburbs ; to the outline delineation of which, description alone can supply the more minute details. The wall by whicli Bagdad is surrounded bears marks of having been constructed and repaired at many different periods ; and, as in most other Mohammedan works, the oldest portion is the best, and the latest the worst part of the fabric. The wall is built entirely v< L. II. x 178 DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. of brick, of different qualities, according to the age in which the work was done ; it has large round towers at the principal angles, with smaller towers, at short distances from each other, in the intervals between the larger ones. On the large towers are batteries plant¬ ed with brass cannon of different calibre, badly mounted, and not more than fifty in number, including all the fortifications towards the land-side of the city. There are three gates of entrance and out¬ let ; one on the south-east, a second on the north-east, and a third on the north-west of the city. The last of these is the principal one, leading from the most frequented road, to the most populous and busy part of the town, having the exercise-ground for playing the Turkish game of the Jereed just without it, with the Great Market and the Pasha’s Palace not far distant within. The whole wall has a dry ditch of considerable depth around it, but this is merely an excavation, without masonry or lining of any kind. The best portions of the old work remain¬ ing in the walls, are in two of the angular towers, not far from the central gate : these are indeed excellent. The quality of the DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. 1 7<» bricks, which are of a yellowish colour, and the closeness and symmetry of their union, are both equal to any ancient masonry that I had ever seen ; and a long inscription, which occupies a broad band of the northernmost of these towers, is executed in the best manner of the old Arabic sculpture. From the form of this inscription, it did not appear to me to be the same that Niebuhr had copied from one of the towers; by which it appears that the Khalif Nasr had constructed it in the year 618 of the Hejira, or 1221 of the Christian era. The whole of the country to the north and east of Bagdad, as far as can be seen in riding around its walls, is one flat waste, with scarce¬ ly a tree or a village to be perceived through¬ out its whole extent; but, as the roads from the interior traverse this level plain, it is oc¬ casionally enlivened by the appearance of troops and parties of horsemen, passing to and fro from the city at all hours of the day. The interior of the town offers fewer objects of interest than one would expect, from the celebrity which the name of Bagdad has ob¬ tained as an Oriental emporium of wealth and magnificence. A large portion of the 160 DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. ground included within the walls is unoccu¬ pied by buildings, particularly on the north¬ eastern side ; and even where edifices abound, particularly in the more populous quarter of the city, near the river, a profusion of trees are seen ; so that, on viewing the whole from the terrace of any of the houses within the walls, it appears like a city arising from amid a grove of palms, or, like what Babylon is sup¬ posed to have been, a walled province rather than a single town. All the buildings, both public and private, are constructed of furnace-burnt bricks, of a yellowish red colour, a small size, and with such rounded angles as prove most of them to have been used repeatedly before, being taken, perhaps, from the ruins of one edifice to construct a second, and again, from the fallen fragments of that to compose a third. In the few instances where the bricks are new, they have an appearance of cleanliness and neatness never presented by the old, though even these are still much inferior in those particulars to stone. The streets of Bagdad, as in all other eastern towns, are narrow and unpaved, and their sides present generally two blank walls, windows DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. 181 being rarely seen opening on the public tho¬ roughfare, while the doors of entrance leading to the dwellings from thence are small and mean. These streets are more intricate and winding than in many of the great towns of Turkey, and, with the exception of some tole¬ rably regular lines of bazars, and a few open squares, the interior of Bagdad is a labyrinth of alleys and passages. The Serai, or Palace of the Pasha, is an ex¬ tensive rather than a grand building. It stands in the north-west quarter of the town, and not far from the banks of the Tigris. It contains, within its walls, most of the public offices, with spacious accommodations for the Pasha’s suite, his stud, and attendants ; but being a comparatively modern building, with ad¬ ditions made at different periods, it forms a large pile of the most confused plan, offering nothing of architectural beauty, strength, or interest. The Mosques, which are always the pro¬ minent objects in Mohammedan cities, are here built in a different style from those seen in most other parts of Turkey. The most ancient of these is thought to be the “ Jamah el Sookh el Gazel,” so called from its 182 DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. standing in the market where cotton thread is sold.* The body of the original building appears to have been destroyed by violence. No more remains of it at present than the minaret and a small portion of the outer walls. The former of these is a short, thick, heavy column, of the most graceless proportions, built of bricks, diagonally crossed, and varied in colours, as in the minaret of the Great Mosque at Mousul. The spring of the projection for the gallery, from whence the invitation to prayer is repeat¬ ed, commences even below the centre of the column, and goes up in a series of pointed arched niches, dropping ornaments like sta¬ lactites, & c. till it reaches about two-thirds the height of the shaft, gradually swelling outward, and terminating in the gallery before men¬ tioned. The piece of the column above this is short, and terminated by a roundish sum- * Jamah is the Arabic for a mosque; Sookh , the name of a public market or bazar. Gazel, is the name of cotton thread, and is a different word from Ghazelle, the name of the Desert antelope. This market-place, at the time of my passing through it, was crowded to excess by country women, the venders of this commodity ; and the scene was one of great confusion, so that my view of the mosque was imperfect. DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. Ifi3 mit ; the whole is much inferior to the Turkish minarets of Syria, and still more so to the light and elegant ones seen in many parts of Egypt. The exterior surface of this minaret bears also marks of violence ; but sufficient of it remains to shew that some parts of it were highly or¬ namented with the fanciful sculptures of Ara¬ besque work ; and an inscription, copied for Niebuhr by an Arab Moollah, states it to have been erected by the Khalif Mostanser, in the year of the Hejira 633, or 1235 of the Chris¬ tian era, about fourteen years after the date of the tower seen in the outer wall of the city, and already described. The Jamah el Merjameeah, a mosque not far distant from this, has some remains of equally old and very rich Arabesque work, on its surface. The body of the mosque it¬ self is modern, and its interior presents no¬ thing remarkable, but its door of entrance is very fine. This is formed by a lofty arch of the pointed form, bordered on each side by a succession of rich bands, exquisitely sculp¬ tured, going up the sides, and meeting at the top, nearly in the form of the arch itself. The outermost of these is followed by a large moulding, of sufficient diameter to be called a 134 DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. column, did it not arch over at the top to crown the lesser bands there described. This moulding is spirally fluted all the way up, and on the projecting parts of the flutings are minute and laboured sculptures, in the style of the age in which it was executed. There are a profusion of inscriptions, which might be copied by any one having time to devote to such a task ; but it would require weeks at least to complete the labour. The Sookli el Bafta, or Market of Muslins, which is continued in a street leading from this mosque, is apparently of the same age. I observed in this market, or bazar, a pecu¬ liarity which I had never seen elsewhere : namely, a band of old Arabic inscriptions over each shop-bench, sculptured in large charac¬ ters, and with as much care as any of the in¬ scriptions on the mosques. These were exe¬ cuted with so much regularity and uniformity, as to induce a belief of their being coeval with the bazar itself, which was very old ; but, whether they designated the names of the oc¬ cupiers at its first opening, promulgated some holy sentence, or marked the date of the foundation, we could not, in the hurry of our excursion, ascertain. DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. 1S5 The Jamah el Khassfikey, like the two former mosques, has but a small portion of the original edifice remaining. In this is seen a niche of prayer, peculiarly remarkable. These niches are generally simple and unadorn¬ ed recesses, directing the worshipper towards the Kaaba at Mecca ; and they have been held to denote, at the same time, the invisibility of God, which is supposed to be expressed, by having them perfectly plain and empty, in con¬ tradistinction to similar recesses in the temples of the infidels, which were invariably occu¬ pied by idols, or figures of human beings. The niche of this mosque, which is of the usual concave form, is crowned by a Roman arch, supported on two small columns. These last have square pedestals, spirally-fluted shafts, and a rich capital of flowers, like a profuse and florid composite. Around the arch, from pillar to pillar, is a sculptured frieze, resembling those seen on the Roman monument called the Tombs of the Kings at Jerusalem, on the door of the Roman Palace at Konnawaught in the plains of the Hauran, and on other Roman temples and early Chris¬ tian Churches seen and described in the jour- IfiC DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. ney through the eastern parts of Syria. A still more striking feature of this niche is a fine fan or shell-top, more nearly resembling those seen at Palmyra and Baalbeck, than those found at Jerash and Adjeloon in the Decapolis ; but evidently in the Roman, and not in the Arabic taste. I remembered, how¬ ever, on this occasion, the fan-topped niche, standing on the outside of the entrance gate to the Great Castle of Bosra in the Hauran, now used by the Mohammedans residing in that ruined city, for prayer, as it points direct¬ ly to the Kaaba. I had at first conceived that to have been a Roman military guard-house, converted, from its local convenience, to its present purpose ; but, as there are strong rea¬ sons to believe that castle to be a Saracenic work, grafted on the ruins of a noble Roman theatre, this supposed guard-house might well have been a chapel, with its fan-topped niche of prayer, just as the same is seen here, in the less doubtful court of the Jamah el Klias- sakey, at Bagdad. Down the centre of the back of this niche ran a broad band, richly sculptured with vases, flowers, &c. in the very best style of workmanship, and the whole DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. 187 was executed on a white and fine-grained marble* The work seen in the interior of this mosque seemed to be of much later date than the ori¬ ginal building. It was not merely simple, but mean, though it had several Arabic in¬ scriptions, in a good upright character, and one in the loose and flowing character of the Persians. The minaret is apparently a work of the present century, and offers nothing remarkable in its structure, its form being like the other towers in the town, and its sur¬ face one tawdry glare of green, black, and other coloured tiles, mixed with the brick of which it is built. The Jamah el Vizier, which is seated near the Tigris, and only a few yards from the Bab el Jissr, or gate of the bridge, has a fine dome and lofty minaret. The great mosque, seated in the square of El Maidan, in the way from the north-west gate to the palace and the British residence, is also a noble building ; but most of the others, not here * The mixture of Roman and Saracenic architecture and sculpture in the same edifices has been already frequently adverted to in this and preceding volumes, in which the subject of the different orders has been discussed. 188 DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. particularly named, are of comparatively in¬ ferior importance. The domes of Bagdad are said to be in the Persian taste; and the difference of their form and style of decoration, from those of T urkey and Arabia, was one of the first peculiarities which struck me on entering the city. There are two or three insignificant domes, of a flat¬ tened form and plain surface ; but the prin¬ cipal ones are all high, and disproportionately narrow, their height exceeding their diameter by about one half. They are richly orna¬ mented with glazed tiles and painting, the colours used being chiefly green and white. Some of the inscriptions are also executed in this fanciful manner, in bands running round the foot of the dome. The glitter of these colours, reflected from a polished surface, gives a gaiety and liveliness, rather than majesty or magnificence, to the buildings ; but, although unexpected novelty is generally agreeable, yet, both at first sight, and after repeated obser¬ vation, these Persian domes appeared to me much inferior to the rich and stately domes of Egypt, and especially those of the Mamlouk sepulchres at Cairo. The minarets, ornamented in the same man- DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. 189 ner, and offering the same bright assemblage of colours, are not to be compared to the plain and grave dignity of some of the Turk¬ ish towers at Diarbekr, Aleppo, and Damas¬ cus, nor to the lighter elegance of many of those in the larger towns on the banks of the Nile. Both on the domes and minarets of Bag¬ dad, the high green rod, with a globe sur¬ mounted by the crescent, as represented in most of the Eastern scenery exhibited on the English stage, is however frequently seen, though this is not common in other parts of Turkey. The number of the mosques in this city is thought to exceed a hundred ; but, of these, not more than thirty can be distinguish¬ ed by their particular minarets or steeples ; the rest are probably mere chapels, oratories tombs, and venerated places, resorted to by the populace for prayer. The public khans, or caravanserais, amount to about thirty, but they are all inferior in their construction to those of Diarbekr and Orfah. One of these, called Khan el Oorthweh, is re¬ markable, as having both its larger and smaller arches pointed, with an intermediate range of a flattened form and central indentation, 100 DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. after the manner of those before described at Mousul. This edifice bears the marks of con¬ siderable antiquity ; it is well built, of a very dark-coloured brick, with white cement, and has all the usual ornaments of Arabic and Turkish architecture, in stalactite drops, over¬ hanging niches, &c. The bazars are numerous, and mostly form¬ ed of long, straight, and tolerably wide ave¬ nues. The best of these are vaulted over with brick- work ; but the greater number are merely covered by flat beams, laid across from side to side, to support a roof of straw, dried leaves, or branches of trees and grass. The shops in these bazars are well furnished with Indian commodities : but this, which I had expected to have found the best part of Bagdad, is perhaps the most inferior of all. Throughout the city, there is not a bazar that can be compared with the one adjoining the Khan el Goomrook, at Orfah. The one most recently built is the largest and the best ; this is long, wide, lofty, and well filled with dealers and wares, but there is still an air of mean¬ ness about it, which I had never before ob¬ served in any large Turkish city. The baths are also inferior to those of all DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. 101 the large towns of Mesopotamia, through which I had yet passed. There are said to be more than fifty of these establishments at Bagdad, and, on the day of my arrival, I was taken to one of the best of them. This was large, and well supplied with water ; but its bare brick walls only here and there patched with tiles of birds and flowers, its poor pave¬ ment, and general gloom and nakedness, was of the most forbidding kind. The attendants were inferior in adroitness to the Egyptians and Damascenes : of this difference I had the best opportunity of judging : for, being taken to the bath by one of Mr. Rich’s servants, I was, on that account, treated with extraordi¬ nary respect and attention by the master and his assistants ; and if, under these circum¬ stances, the inferiority was very marked, it was likely to be still more so upon a general comparison between them by casual visitors and strangers. Of the private houses of Bagdad I saw but little, excepting only their exterior walls and terraces. It struck me as singular, that, throughout the whole of this large city, I had not seen even one pointed arch in the door of entrance to any private dwelling : 102 DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. they were all either round or flat, having a fancy-work of small bricks above them ; and even in those parts of the old bazars and ruined mosques, in which the pointed arch is seen, its form is nearer to the Gothic than to the common Saracenic shape, which I had also observed to be the case at Mousul ; so that Bagdad could not have been the original seat of Saracenic architecture, which probably took its rise much farther in the west * The houses consist of ranges of apartments opening into a square interior court ; and while subterranean rooms, called serdaubs, are occupied during the day for the sake of shelter from the intense heat, the open terraces are used for the evening meal, and for sleeping on at night. From the terrace of Mr. Rich’s residence, which was divided into many com¬ partments, each having its separate passage of ascent and descent, and forming, indeed, so many unroofed chambers, we could command, at the first opening of the morning, just such a view of Bagdad as is given in the “ Diable Boiteux” of Madrid, shewing us all the families * This subject still remains in great obscurity, though it would be well worth the careful investigation of some eminent architect and man of taste. DESCRIPTION OP BAGDAD. 1U3 of Bagdad, with their sleeping apartments unroofed, and those near our own abode often in sufficiently interesting situations. The population of Bagdad is variously esti¬ mated at from fifty to a hundred thousand. It is less than that of Aleppo, but greater than that of Damascus, so that about eighty thousand may be near the truth. The chief officers of the civil and military government are from the families of Osmanlies, or Constan¬ tinople Turks, though they are themselves mostly natives of this city. The merchants and traders are almost all of Arab descent ; and the lower orders of the people are a mix¬ ture of Turkish, Arabic, Persian, and Indian blood, in all their different varieties. There are some Jews, and Christians also, who pre¬ serve their distinct classes ; while the strangers in the town are composed of Koords, Persians, and Desert Arabs, of each of which there are generally a considerable number. The dress of the Bagdad Turks differs from that of their more northern countrymen, in being less gay and splendid ; and their horses, arms, and accoutrements, are all inferior to those used in the other great cities of the empire. The Mamlouk dress of Egypt, so von. ii. o 194 DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. common among the Turkish cavalry, is never seen here: nor did I observe the large shel- war of Constantinople, but in a very few in¬ stances. Turbans are rarely or never worn by the Osmanli Turks of Bagdad, the head being covered among them by the cloth cap or Kaook, of a higher and more narrow form than that used at Constantinople, and bound round in a peculiar way by gold-flowered muslin at the foot. Angora shalloons are worn, for the trowsers, jubbe, and benish, or outer robes, during the summer; and cloths for the two last, in winter only ; but the dress of the Bagdad residents is, upon the whole, unusually plain, in comparison with that of other Asiatics. The costume of the merchants is purely Arab, though generally of a better kind than that of the Desert, being made up almost wholly of Indian cotton manufactures for the caftan, fine shalloons for the upper garments, and worked muslins for the waist and head. Nowhere are plain white turbans so general as at Bagdad ; the very lowest order of Mo¬ hammedans wear them, as a distinction of their faith ; and their way of putting them on is at once characteristic and graceful. DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. 195 The Jews and Christians dress, as elsewhere throughout Turkey, in dark robes, with Casli- meer shawls, or blue muslin, for turbans. The Persians retain the dress of their own country, by which they may be instantly distinguished from the other classes ; and the Desert Arabs are known by their keffeah, or silk and cotton head-dress, their abba, or large woollen cloak, and their curved yambeah, or dagger of the Yemen shape. The dress of the females of Bagdad is as mean as that used in the poorest villages of Mesopotamia ; women of all classes being en¬ veloped in a blue checked cloth, similar to that worn by the lowest orders in Egypt, and having the face covered by a piece of stiff black gauze. The women of the surrounding country, w ho are seen here in crow ds in the markets, which are chiefly supplied by their industry, w^ear no such veils ; over their head is often thrown a checkered cotton cloth of red and yellow, and their faces are openly exposed to view, with the exception of the mouth being sometimes covered. As among the Bedouins of the Desert, these women have their lips stained blue, with lines and other marks on different parts of their faces ; heavy 19G DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. bracelets and anklets are also worn by them ; and the nose is either adorned by a large ring, or a solid, flat, circular piece of gold, stuck in one nostril, of the size, shape, and appearance of the fancy gilt buttons worn by the English peasantry on their Sunday coats. The government of Bagdad is in the hands of a Pasha, assisted by a council. The Pasha himself, though receiving his appointment from the Sultan at Constantinople, is generally de¬ pendent, for his admission into the city and his retention of power, on the public voice? not ascertained by votes as in Europe, but popularly expressed in the clamorous manner in which parties in despotic governments give vent to their preferences. His council is com¬ posed of several great officers of state, and the chiefs of the several departments of govern¬ ment : these meet on Fridays, at the public divan, for the consideration of important ques¬ tions, and their opinions are heard and weighed in all affairs of consequence, though the com¬ mon routine of ordinary business proceeds without their check or interference. The government of Bagdad has been, for some centuries past, completely a Mamlouk one, the Pasha being chosen from among DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. l!>7 Georgian Mamlouks here, and approved by them, as well as by the largest and strongest party in the city, before he can be established in his place, even though supported by the firman of the Grand Signor, who is nominally the head of the empire. The present Go¬ vernor, whose name is Assad Pasha, was born in Bagdad, and this is said to be the first ex¬ ception that has happened to the general rule, of their being purely of Georgian birth : the father of the present ruler, Suliman Pasha* was, however, a native of Georgia, and as he was also high in power here, this was deemed sufficient. A regular body of Georgian Mam¬ louks is still kept up by the present Pasha, by means of fresh importations from Georgia, which are said to increase every year : this is likely to continue, as the most lucrative offices, as well as the whole of the military com¬ mands, are exclusively reserved for this race. The most beautiful women of the Harems in Bagdad are also from the same country. It is permitted only to the Faithful, however, to possess white slaves, black ones being deemed a sufficient indulgence for unbelievers ; so that the Georgians and Circassians fall exclusively to the enjoyment of the orthodox, while seep- 19(3 DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD, tics and heretics must content themselves with the sable beauties of Nigritia, Soudan, and Madagascar. The dominion of Assad Pasha extends from Bussorah on the south, to Mardin on the north, and from the confines of Persia and Koordistan on the east, to the frontiers of Syria and Palestine on the west. These are the nominal boundaries of his territory, though his actual influence does not extend so far, particularly on the east and west, where inde¬ pendant Koord Chiefs and Arab Sheikhs set his power at defiance. Bagdad is always considered as the great frontier town of the Turkish empire towards Persia ; and, poorly as it is fortified, when compared with European cities holding a si¬ milar position, it has, nevertheless, hitherto opposed a successful resistance to the attempts of the Persians against it, and is equally se¬ cure against the most powerful of the Arabs, the Wahabees. The force of the Pasha for defence is raised entirely within the town ; and in this, as in every other department of his government, he receives no assistance from the great capital of Constantinople, so that, except in name, he DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. 1!)9 may be considered as quite independant of the Sultan. His force consists of about two thousand horsemen, variously mounted and equipped ; a small park of field artillery, com¬ posed of ten pieces ; and a body of infantry, who generally accompany him as personal guards, and do not exceed a thousand men. The service of a foot-soldier is always held to be disreputable in Turkey, and the infantry of Bagdad are in every sense worthy of being so considered. The corps is made up of the refuse of every class of society, and no man is of too bad a character to be admitted into it. The pay is only three piastres (less than a Spanish dollar) per month for each man, out of which he is expected to provide himself' with most of the necessary articles of life. The distinguishing feature of their dress is a large fur cap, of a semiglobular shape, the head being thrust into what might be called the flattened pole, and the top of the cap pre¬ senting the appearance of a globe cut through at the equator. The diameter of some of these caps is fully three feet; the sides are covered with a brown fur, and the top has a covering of red silk or calico. This seems to be the only part of the uniform furnished by 200 DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. the government. The rest of the dress is according to the fancy, or the means, of the wearer ; and among them, I saw every pos¬ sible variety, from the long brown goat’s-hair shirt of the Bedouin Arab, to the cast-off jacket of an Indian sepoy, sold by the privates of Mr. Rich’s Indian body-guard, on their receiving the annual supply of new clothing. The arms of this motley troop are a sabre and a musket ; among these, no uniformity of size or shape prevails, though, for the most part, the muskets and swords are of English ma¬ nufacture, and had probably found their way up by the Tigris to Bagdad, from the ships touching at Bussorah, in their voyages from India. There are some of the great tribes of Arabs in the vicinity of Bagdad, who, by long-esta¬ blished usage, consider themselves bound, for their provisions only, to do military service on any great emergencies that may require their aid ; and other Arab troops are generally to be procured for a very small pay. The Pa¬ shas of Koordistan are, also, generally on such terms with the Pasha of Bagdad, as to be ready to supply him with five or six thousand horse, in case of need ; so that, at a short DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. 201 notice, twenty or thirty thousand troops of this mixed and undisciplined kind can be col¬ lected together, either to march out on the offensive, or to defend the city. The trade of Bagdad consists chiefly in In¬ dian manufactures and produce, received by way of Bussorah from Bengal, and distributed into the Nedjed country through Syria, and over Koordistan, Armenia, and Asia Minor.* It is said to have increased, within the last ten years, from two annual vessels to six, under the English flag, besides those under sailing Arab colours. This is considered to be an effect of the great moderation of the present government in its demands. It is thought, indeed, by those best informed on the subject, that there is no part of the Turkish Empire where the people are so little oppressed as here, and where trade is consequently under fewer burthens or restraints. The communication between Bagdad and Bussorah is now chiefly carried on by boats on the Tigris, though it was formerly carried * Bagdad, which is called by Marco Polo, Baldachi, was highly extolled by him for its wealth, manufactures, and trade ; which were, in his day however, far greater than at present. 202 DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. on by w ay of Hillah, on the Euphrates. The latter track is now rendered unsafe, from there being a large tribe in possession of both banks of the river, who give refuge to all the des¬ perate characters of the surrounding country, and who live chiefly by plunder.* The boats * The trade between Bussorah and Bagdad was very considerable when Rauwolff wrote, as the following passage will shew : — a In this town there is a great deposition of merchandizes, by reason of its commodious situation, which are brought thither by sea as well as by land from several parts, chiefly from Natolia, Syria, Armenia, Constantinople, Aleppo, Damascus, & c. to carry them farther into the Indies, Persia, &c. So it happened that during the time I was there, on the second day of December, in 1574, there arrived twenty-five shipswith spice and other precious drugs here, which came over sea from the Indies, by the way of Ormutz to Balsara, a town belonging to the Grand Turk, situated on the frontiers, the farthest that he hath south- eastwards, within six days’ journey from hence, where they load their goods into small vessels, and so bring them to Bagdat, which journey, as some say, taketh them up forty days. Seeing that the passage, both by water and land, belongeth both to the King of Arabia and the Sophi of Persia, which also have their towns and forts on their con¬ fines, which might easily be stopped up by them, yet that notwithstanding all this they may keep good correspond¬ ence with one another, they keep pigeons chiefly at Balsara, which, in case of necessity, might be soon sent back again with letters to Bagdat. When loaden ships arrive at Bag¬ dat, the merchants, chiefly those that bring spice, to carry DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. 203 used for conveying merchandize on the river are from twenty to fifty tons burthen, and are fitted with masts and sails, for using when the wind serves. In favourable seasons, when the northerly wind prevails, the passage from Bag¬ dad down to Bussorah is made in seven or eight days ; but in calms, the boats are from ten to fifteen days in accomplishing the same distance, though they have the current always in their favour. In coming up the stream, however, they are obliged to track or tow along the shore for the greatest part of the way, and then, thirty and even forty days have been consumed in making the voyage from Bussorah to Bagdad. The smaller vessels, used for bringing sup¬ plies of provisions and fruit to the city, are circular boats of basket-work, covered with skins, of the same description as those used on through the desarts into T urkey, have their peculiar places in the open fields without the town Ctesiphon, where each of them fixeth his tents, to put his spices underneath in sacks, to keep them there safe, until they have a mind to break up in whole caravans ; so that at a distance one woidd rather believe that soldiers were lodged in them, than mer¬ chants ; and rather look for arms than merchandizes : and so I thought myself before I came so near that I could smell them.” — pp. 145, 146. 204 DESCRIPTION OF 1UGDAD. these rivers, in the days of the most remote antiquity.* The city is supplied with its drinking water from the Tigris, being brought to the houses in goats’ skins, which are con¬ veyed on the backs of animals to every man’s door, in the same manner as Cairo is supplied from the Nile of Egypt ; the convenience of water-works, cisterns, reservoirs, and pipes, being here unknown. The Pasha was, at this period, said to be so poor, that he had been obliged to borrow twenty-five thousand piastres from the mer¬ chants of Bagdad, in small portions from each, in order to give the Georgians of his army their stated allowances, for the festivities of the month of Ramadan. Avaneeahs, or arbi¬ trary contributions, extorted as gifts, which are common in all other parts of Turkey, are said, however, to take place but rarely here ; and when they do, they are invariably levied on the officers of government, and never on the trading part of the community. An instance was related to me of the recent incapacity of the government to answer a demand on it of * See the description of these circular basket-boats, in the account given by Herodotus of Babylon, its commerce, and supplies. DESCRIPTION OF BAGDAD. 205 so small a sum as five thousand piastres, when the money was raised by loans from five sepa¬ rate merchants, who had each an order given to him on the revenue of the Customs, to the amount supplied. This enabled them soon to repay themselves, by the exemption, which such an order afforded them, from the regular duties on their goods, until the amount of it should be paid off The effect of this modera¬ tion and justice, on the part of the govern¬ ment, is every where felt, giving great activity to commerce, and general satisfaction to all those engaged in it, so unusual is even this ordinary honesty in the rulers of Turkish cities generally. At the same time that the trade in Indian commodities is said to have been lately ex¬ tended at Bagdad beyond its former bounds, the trade from Persia is considered to have greatly declined. Not many years since, Bag¬ dad was a central depot for the productions and manufactures of Persia, intended for the Syrian, Armenian, and T urkisli markets ; but the Persians having found the route of Ar- zeroum and Tocat to be a safe and easy way to Constantinople, the goods formerly depo¬ sited here, as in a central mart, are now car- 20 1820, nearly four years after my passing through the city on my way to India, he says, “ So extraordinarily bad was our last summer, so fearfully exceeding any thing you expe¬ rienced here, (though you had a tolerable spe¬ cimen of our climate,) that I had, at one time, intended to send you an account of it for pub¬ lication.” CHAPTER VIII AKKERKOOF, OR THE CASTLE OF NIMROD, “THE MIGHTY HUNTER.” VOL. II, CHAPTER VIII. EXCURSION TO AKKERKOOF. J uly 22nd. — Accompanied by Mr. Bellino, the Italian secretary of the Resident, and one of the Indian sepoys of the body-guard as a guide, we set out at day-light on an excursion to the ruins called Akkerkoof. On going out at the Rab el Jisser, we cross¬ ed the bridge of boats, which was two hundred and seventy-five horse-paces, or little more than six hundred feet in length. It is of the most wretched construction ; and, considering the crowds that go over it constantly, the weakness of the boats, and the strength of the wind and current at some particular sea¬ sons, it seems surprising that it holds so well together. We passed from hence, through a long con- 218 EXCURSION TO AKKERKOOF. tinued line of streets and bazars, on the west of the Tigris, of the same kind as those on the east, and came to one of the principal hospitals of the Dervishes. The architecture of the front of this edifice presented nothing re¬ markable ; the masonry was of the best kind, of burnt brick-work, and, like every part of the old edifices at Bagdad constructed of that material, was quite equal to the best works of this kind executed in the present day, and of the same materials, in Europe. The great arch of the front was of the Gothic form, and very lofty; and a broad band on each side of it contained a long and finely cut inscription, in Kufic characters, executed in high relief, on an ornamented ground. From hence, we soon got on the skirts of the Western Desert, and continuing our way across it in a westerly direction, came in sight of the distant ruin, of which we were in search. From the level nature of the ground over which wre went, this tall mass of building ap¬ peared, when we first observed it, to be within half an hour’s ride, though it was two long hours before we reached the spot, and about three from the time of our leaving the city- gate. It may be considered, therefore, as at EXCURSION TO AKKERKOOF. 219 least twelve miles distant from Bagdad; and it lies from thence, in the bearing, by compass, of west by north half north. The ruined monument called Akkerkoof, and more generally Kasr Nimrood, or Nim¬ rod’s Palace, is a shapeless mass of brick- work rising from a broad base, now so worn away, as to be a mere heap of rubbish. The height of the whole is estimated, with apparent accu¬ racy, by Mr. Rich, to be one hundred and twenty-six English feet ; though, by Niebuhr, it is stated at seventy Danish ones. The dia¬ meter of the largest part is given, by the for¬ mer authority, as one hundred feet ; the cir¬ cumference of the lower part of the brick-work still distinct, which is much above the real base, as three hundred feet ; and the remains of the tower still perfect, above what appears as a heap of rubbish, though evidently part of the edifice, as containing one hundred thou¬ sand cubic feet of masonry. The part that remains is composed of un¬ burnt bricks, of a large size, cemented together by thin layers of mud, and between every five or six rows of brick, or at intervals of about three feet, are layers of reeds. These last were placed across each other in four separate 220 EXCURSION TO AKKEIIKOOF. layers, that is, the first and third shewing their ends outwards, and the second and fourth their sides, as in the w eaving of a straw mat. The softer substance of the brick having gradually crumbled away by the operation of the elements, these layers now project beyond the surface, and form distinct ridges, which are seen at a considerable distance in regular lines. The use of these layers of reed at inter¬ vals was, perhaps, to absorb whatever moisture might have been imbibed by the earthy mate¬ rial, and give it out more freely along its con¬ tinued tubes tow ards the surface ; and it per¬ haps underwent some chemical preparation, either to fit it for that purpose, or to preserve it against decay, for these reeds were still as brittle and as fresh as if they had been placed there within the present year. From their size and texture, they seemed more like the stems of rushes from the river, than the stalks of common straw. In some places, besides the layers of reeds, were thick strata of mud and pebbles mixed, of the depth of more than a foot, while the layers of reeds seldom exceed¬ ed an inch or tw o in thickness ; but there did not appear to be any invariable rule observed EXCURSION TO AKKERKOOF. 2-21 in the succession of the intervals between either. The composition of the bricks, their size, and their manner of union — all indeed, except these layers of reed — resembled the work in the walls of the ancient Tanis, the capital of the Pharaohs in Lower Egypt, and those of Eliethas, one of the ancient cities of Upper Egypt. The whole mass, as it stood, resem¬ bled the remains of a brick pyramid, more than the fragment of any other kind of building. Its base occupied an extent of nearly three hundred feet square. From thence, a slope went up, as on a heap of rubbish, which, how¬ ever, was evidently part of the original work ; for beneath the surface, now worn into mud by the w ind and weather, the layers of bricks and reeds could be plainly traced. This slope was sufficiently gentle, in most places, to be ascended on foot without difficulty, and, after a perpendicular height of about fifty feet, it led to the more perfect mass, where the brick¬ work is still firm and distinct. This rises in a tall heap, nearer to a pyramidal than any other form, though it may, with the strictest propriety, be called shapeless, as it is destitute of regularity in every part of its outline. 222 EXCURSION TO AKKERKOOF. Some portions of it, indeed, rise perpendicu¬ larly, and there are appearances of holes and channels on the present outer surface ; but these, from being still seen in this worn and decayed state of the monument, must have originally extended considerably beneath the original surface, and, perhaps, to the very cen¬ tre of the building. On the north-east side, and about half way up the height of the more perfect portion that remains, is a passage like an arched window, still open, its termination not being visible from any part of the heap on which I stood. By some, this is thought to have belonged originally to the building ; by others, to have been made since, for the purpose of examin¬ ing its interior. It appeared to me rather to resemble a work coeval with the edifice, than one of subsequent execution ; and I should have been more decidedly of that opinion, were it not that there was an appearance of a constructed arch at the top of this passage ; and that it is still matter of doubt, whether the constructed arch was known to the Assy¬ rians or their contemporaries. Every one who has seen this ruin, and the similar ones at Babylon, scruples not to pronounce them all EXCURSION TO AKKERKOOF. 223 of the same age and construction. No arch has yet been seen there, nor would it be ex¬ pected to be found in this place, either as an original part of the structure, or as a portion of the passage subsequently forced into the pile for purposes of examination ; but whether the slight appearance which it presented, of being a constructed arch, was deceptive, we had no means of judging, without an ascent to the aperture itself, which was impracti¬ cable. Though the interior of this solid mass of building was composed of unbaked bricks, its exterior surface seems to have been coated with furnace-burnt ones, many of which, both whole and broken, are scattered about the foot of the pile, and are said to resemble in size and shape those at Babylon, though they are never written on as at that place. Around this detached min, in different directions, but more particularly on the south and west, are long mounds and smaller heaps evidently amassed from the wreck of former buildings, strewed over with burnt and un¬ burnt bricks, and plain and glazed pottery. Stone is nowhere seen, as the country pro¬ duces none ; a local feature which occasioned 224 EXCURSION TO AKKERKOOF. all the edifices erected around here, from those of the ancient Babylon to those of the modern Bagdad, to be constructed of bricks. Sufficient vestiges of these remain, to prove that this Tower of Nimrod, as it is called, did not stand alone, but had near it either a city, or a considerable number of smaller buildings of some kind or other. There are still traces of a large canal to be seen, running through the principal part of the remains, which no doubt supplied the settlement with water from the Tigris, and contributed to fertilize the surrounding plain. The neglect of that canal is certainly the only obstacle to the pre¬ sent cultivation of the land here, as the sur¬ face is covered with a good light soil, that needs only to be watered to become produc¬ tive ; and the whole of the country is under the same circumstances as those parts of Egypt to which the inundations of the Nile do not reach, but which are irrigated entirely by canals. The indefinite nature of this mass of brick¬ work in the Tower, has rendered it difficult even to imagine what was the precise kind of edifice of which it is a part. Some of the early travellers in this country conceived it to EXCURSION TO AKKERKOOF. 225 be the remains of the Tower of Babel ; but as Niebuhr well observes, that was, no doubt, in the neighbourhood of the Euphrates, whereas this is not far from the banks of the Tigris.* That traveller himself seems disposed to think it was an elevation on which one of the early Khalifs of Bagdad, or even one of the Persian sovereigns who resided at El Madeien, might have had a country-house built, to enjoy from such a height the luxury of cool and fresh air.-f- It is difficult to account for so improbable a conjecture as this, from a man of so much accuracy of observation as Niebuhr. In the first place, the materials and style of the building have induced every one else who has seen it, to pronounce it of the Babylonian age, and Niebuhr himself describes it as having a * Voyage en Arabie, tome ii. p. 249- 4to. t “ Plusieurs voyageurs ont pris Agerkuf pour la tour de Babylone. Mais celle-ci etoit sans contredit dans le voi- sinage de l’Euphrate, et Agerkuf n’est pas loin du Tigre. Cependant on ne peut pas bien decider aujourd’hui a quelle dessein cet edifice a ete dleve. Peut-etre etoit-ce le terrein sur lequel un des premiers Califes de Bagdad, ou meme un des B,ois de Perse qui residoit a El Madeien, avoit une maison de campagne, pour prendre un air fraix et froid, sur la hauteur.” — Voyage en Arabie , tome ii. p. 248. VOL. II. Q 2211 EXCURSION TO AKKERKOOF. great resemblance to the Babylonian tower seen by him at Hillah. In the next place, the situation of El Madden is, according to all report, so much more favorable than this for freshness and coolness, from its vicinity to the river, its wood, &c. that nothing would be more improbable than a removal from such a spot to this at Akkerkoof, at all times seem¬ ingly destitute of these local advantages. The suggestion that the surrounding ruins may be a part of the ancient Bagdad, does not seem more happy, since, independent of the dissi¬ milarity of the principal ruin to any of the earliest works of the Khalifs, it would give to Bagdad a breadth of ten miles at least on one side of the river only, supposing this to be at its furthest western extreme.* * In the enumeration of the generations of Noah, when speaking of Nimrod, it is said, “ And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Ashur, and builded Nineveh and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, andResen, between Nineveh and Calah ; the same is a great city.” — Genesis, chap. x. v. 10 — 12. Among those enume¬ rated in the land of Shinar, the only name that bears the slightest resemblance to Akkerkoof, is that of Accad, and this is too slight to draw any safe conclusions from it. The remaining part of the quotation serves to prove that the limits of the land of Shinar were somewhere south of EXCURSION TO AKKERKOOF. 227 The canal seen here is, doubtless, the re¬ mains of the canal of Isa, which is represented by Major Rennel as connecting the Tigris with the Euphrates, at a part where these rivers approach each other, going from the old Bagdad on the east, over to Felugia on the west, where the battle of Cunaxa was fought between Cyrus the Younger and Ar- taxerxes, in the year 401 before the Christian era. Of the wall of Media, leading off from the same point on the north-east, and termi¬ nating at Macepracta and Neapolis, on the south-west, no vestige now remains.* Nineveh ; for, after the cities of Shinar are enumerated, Ashur is said to have gone out of that land, to build those whose names follow. * There is not in history a more intelligible or animated account of a battle than that given by Xenophon, in the Anabasis, of the one fought between the royal brothers of Persia, upon this spot. Plutarch most justly observes, that the Attic historian does not so much describe, as exhibit, it ; by the force and precision of his language, he makes the reader feel present at every incident, and partake of every danger, as if the action was not past, but actually passing before him. The fierce aversion of Artaxerxes and Cyrus, no less striking than the poetical hatred of Eteocles and Polynices, and which could not be appeased even by blood, is, perhaps, the most extraordinary circumstance connected with this celebrated battle ; unless, indeed, there be some¬ thing still more extraordinary in the position of the handful EXCURSION TO AKKKRKOOF. 221! From the extent and nature of the mounds at Akkerkoof, there is no reason to believe that the city there was very large. Indeed, the principal ruin is so unlike a place of resi¬ dence of any kind, that the conclusion to which we came on the spot was, that it must be the remains of some isolated monument, either of a sepulchral or religious nature ; few motives, excepting those of devotion and respect for the dead, being sufficiently pow- of Greeks that followed Cyrus, suddenly deprived of their commander-in-chief, and deserted by their allies in the heart of Asia, surrounded by impassable rivers, deserts, and mountains, and hemmed-in by more than a million of men in arms. At every turn of fortune during the engagement, the reader is on the tip-toe of expectation as to what is to become of these bi’ave men ; and when, in a little while, he sees the barbarian host broken, dispersed, and impressed with terror bv the valour of these Greeks, his heart ex¬ pands with exultation, as if a part of the glory he witnesses were reflected upon himself. Such is the power of genius in giving eternity to the transitory virtues of men ! The English reader may fully enjoy the whole of this relation in Mr. Spelman’s most faithful and beautiful version of the Anabasis, book the first. It may be added, that in the neighbourhood of the field of battle, the Greeks found groves of palm-trees, some of which they felled to con¬ struct bridges for crossing the canals and deep ditches. Wine and vinegar, from the fruit of the same tree, were likewise found in the villages. — Id. book ii. EXCURSION TO AKKERKOOF. 22!) erful to induce the erection of such masses, when purely of a monumental kind, as this seemed to be. Its present shapeless form, having so large a base, and being proportion¬ ately so small at the top, seemed nearer to that of a much worn pyramid than any other. We walked up on the slope of the base, and concluded that, if it had been a square tower, the fallen fragments of the top would have been more visible about this base than they really are. In Egypt we know of a large pyramid of the same material being erected, as Herodo¬ tus mentions the pompous inscription which it bore, on contrasting itself with those of stone and remains of such a monument — probably, indeed, the identical one described by him — are still found near the western bank of the Nile, at Saccara, of the same material, in a similar state of decay, and presenting as shapeless a mass as the existing ruin at Ak- kerkoof. * “ Do not disparage my worth by comparing me to those pyramids composed of stones ; I am as much supe¬ rior to them, as Jove is to the rest of the deities : I am formed of bricks, whicli were made of mud adhering to poles, drawn from the bottom of the lake.” — Herodotus , Euterpe, 137- 230 EXCURSION TO AKKERKOOF. The appearance of a passage about midway up on the north-east side, may be thought by some to be another feature of resemblance to the Egyptian pyramids, worthy of being noticed, as well as its being cased on the out¬ side with burnt bricks, in the manner that the pyramids were done with harder and finer stone. It seems probable, therefore, that, like these, it might have been an ancient royal tomb, and that the scattered wreck of similar materials around it might be those of inferior sepulchres, such as those which surround the pyramids of Egypt ; while the fragments of pottery would be either of vessels broken in the funeral sacrifices and honours paid to the dead, or of those simply used for domestic purposes. The canal served the purpose, no doubt, of uniting the two celebrated rivers, the Eu¬ phrates and the Tigris ; and nothing could be more appropriate than the spot chosen for its passage across from stream to stream, while the country through which it flowed would be improved by its waters.* We found near this * “ Towards Babylon and Seleucia, where the rivers Ti¬ gris and Euphrates swell over their hanks and water the country, the same kind of husbandry is practised as in EXCURSION TO AKKERKOOF. 331 canal the fragment of an unburnt brick, the surface of which was covered with a hard sub¬ stance, of a dull light-green colour, like a vi¬ trification by fire ; but none Avere observed with the arrow-headed or Babylonian inscrip¬ tions on them. It was about ten o’clock when we quitted the ruin at Akkerkoof, and, coming back by the same route, we drank of some brackish water at a well, lately dug about midway be¬ tween the ruin and the river. This Avell was not more than twenty feet deep, yet it yielded a water quite drinkable by camels and cattle ; and no doubt, the whole of the Desert would yield the same supplies at this depth. Its taste Avas slightly bitter, as Avell as brackish, partaking of this flavour from the quality of the soil. As the sun was now high, avc saw, to the north-west of us, the strong appearance of the Mirage, which, from the nature of the ground here, is conformable to the opinion that salt soils are favourable to this optical deception. A little beyond this, avc turned Egypt, but to better effect and greater profit. The people here let in the water by sluices and flood-gates as they require it.” — Plin. Nat. Hist, book xviii. c. 18. 232 EXCURSION TO AKKERKOOE. up on our left, to visit the mosque of the Imam Moosa el Kadem, whose gilded domes and gay minarets attracted our notice at a great distance off. We found this seated in the centre of a large village bordered all round with date groves, and called El Kadem, from the affix to Moosa, or Moses, signifying “ the patient.” The mosque itself is a large building, oc¬ cupying the centre of a spacious court, sur¬ rounded by a high and well-built wall. Its most striking features, are the two domes which crown it, and which are covered over with one complete surface of gold,* uninter¬ rupted, as far as we could perceive from with¬ out, either by fancy devices or inscriptions. Around these rose four lofty minarets, only one of which had its tower and cupola above the gallery, the other three terminating at the gallery itself, but all highly ornamented by coloured tiles inlaid on their surfaces, and forming altogether a group of imposing splendour. * Resembling, in this particular, the splendid domes of Meshed, a celebrated city, and place of pilgrimage for Per¬ sians in Khorassan, which, from their glittering and gilded surfaces, are visible to the traveller at a considerable distance. EXCURSION TO AKKERKOOF. 23.1 As Mr. Bellino was of our party, and wore the Frank dress, we made no attempt to go on the inside, as it might have been dangerous. This being the tomb of one of the early mar¬ tyrs of the Schiahs, (the Persian sect of Mo¬ hammedans,) who was executed in the year 185 of the Hejira, by the reigning Khalif of Bagdad, for entertaining in his house the persecuted partisans of Ah, it is a place of pilgrimage among the Persians, and inferior in note only to the tombs of their great leaders themselves at Mesjed Hossein,* and Mesjed Ah, in the Desert south-west of Hillah and the ancient Babylon. We found here a number of Persian de¬ votees, going in and out of the courts of the temple ; and before the outer gate was a sort of fair, exactly like that held in the square before the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and furnished with nearly the same kind of com¬ modities, among which chaplets, beads, and trinkets, formed a prominent part. As we continued our way down through the bazar of this village, at least three-fourths of the people we saw were Persians, the remaining * Mesjed, as well as Jamah, is the common Arabic name for a mosque. 234 EXCUKSIOJS TO AKKERKOOE. fourth being fixed residents and strangers of other races. On quitting the village, which was at least half a mile long, we went in a south-easterly direction along the river’s bank, and passed over M^hat has been considered the site of the ancient Bagdad, the city built by the Khalif Mansoor. It is true that there are slight vestiges of former buildings to be seen here in scattered heaps near the road, but these are too inconsiderable to be taken for the wreck of so comparatively modern a city. In our way, we halted at one of the little coffee-houses, of which there are many here, formed in vaults or grottoes under ground, where a nargeel, cold water, a cup of coffee, shade, and repose, are cheap and welcome re¬ freshments offered to the passenger during the heat of the day. The Tigris, on the very edge of which we now were, was much narrower than the nar¬ rowest part of the Nile that I remembered, excepting, perhaps, that narrow arm of it, (for it can be hardly called the main stream,) which flows between Fostat, or Old Cairo, and the Isle of Rlioda on the east. The rate of the current appeared to be about two miles per EXCURSION TO AKKERKOOE. 235 hour : the banks were steep, and the water dark and turbid. It was about noon when we reached the Tomb of Zobeida, to which we had directed our course, out of respect to the memory of her spouse and her ; the names of the Khalif Haroun el Raschid and his consort Zobeida, recalling many delightful associations when they reminded us of the pleasure with which we had each devoured the Tales of the Thou¬ sand and One Nights, in our earlier years. This tomb, which lies in the midst of an ex¬ tensive cemetery, consists of an octagonal base, with a porch before it, the whole being about thirty feet in diameter ; on this base is elevated a high and pointed dome, of very singular construction, rising to a height of sixty or seventy feet. The entrance from the outer porch into the tomb itself, or the octagonal space, is through a flattened arched door- way, and over this is seen a modern inscription, dated 1131 of the Hejira, It was copied by Niebuhr, and is given by him as recording that, in the year named, Hussan Pasha had buried there, by the side of the celebrated Zobeida, his deceased wife Ayesha, the daughter of one Mustapha Pasha ; and that he had, on this 236 EXCURSION TO AKKERKOOF- occasion, repaired the edifice, and built near it some accommodations for dervishes or poor travellers of the true faith. This was, there¬ fore, many years subsequent to the deposit of the original corpse, for which this sepulchre is said to have been constructed ; as Zobeida is considered to have died in the year of the Hejira 216, or the year 831 of our era. On entering within this building, there are seen three distinct tombs erected by the side of each other, and constructed simply of brick¬ work, in an oblong enclosure above the ground ; but whose remains are encased in the third of these is not generally known. These sepul¬ chres occupy nearly the whole of the interior space, and are now in a state of decay. The walls of the octagonal base, which extend to about half the height of the whole building, are plain, and were once coated with stucco. Opposite to the door of entrance is the frag¬ ment of an old Arabic inscription, executed in a coarse enamel on tile-work, though now very imperfect, many of the tiles having dis¬ appeared. On looking upward from within, the specta¬ tor sees a sharp-pointed dome, of the sugar- loaf shape, the inner surface of which is cover- EXCURSION TO AlvKERKOOF. 237 etl by the pointed-arched and slightly-concave niches, which form the Arabic frieze, and are so common in the corners of their doors and buildings. A considerable number of holes are also seen at apparently regular intervals, with two small windows facing each other near the commencement of the dome. These win¬ dows, as well as a false door-way under the enamelled inscription in the tomb, are con¬ structed with pointed arches ; though the en¬ trance from the porch itself, which may, it is true, be a modern repair, has a flattened arch above it. We ascended from the porch by a narrow and winding staircase of about twenty-five steps, of very steep acclivity, till we came on the top of the octagonal base, which we judged to be at least thirty feet high. There was here a broad walk all around the pointed dome, which rose from the centre of this lofty pedes¬ tal to a height of thirty or forty feet more. The exterior of this presented a number of slightly convex divisions, corresponding to the concave niches within, and had a very singular though characteristic appearance. We enjoy¬ ed from hence a fresh air and extensive view, and it was from this elevation that we noted 238 EXCURSION TO AKKERKOOF. the bearings of the principal objects which we had come out to visit. # On recrossing the bridge of boats, and re¬ turning to the gate of Bagdad, we now ob¬ served the whole front of the celebrated aca¬ demic building, called Medrassee el Mostan- seree, frequently mentioned by the Arabian authors as a sort of college, and place of re¬ treat for the learned. It is at present in a state of great decay, though part of it is still used as a khan or caravanserai. On its front, towards the river, is seen a broad band, going the whole length of the building, perhaps two hundred feet, and containing a long inscrip¬ tion in Cufic characters, well wrought in high relief, on an ornamented ground, and all in brick-work. Some parts of the wall, along which this inscription ran, having been in¬ jured, the subsequent repairs have been made without regard to the restoration of the de¬ faced letters, so that patches of dead masonry interrupt the line in several places. This is still the greatest thoroughfare in Bagdad, be- * Kasr Nimrood, or the Ruin at Akkerkoof, W. by N. 4 N. 10 miles. — Gilded Domes of Imam Moosa, N. N. W. 4 miles. — Jamah el Vizier, the Great Mosque near the bridge of Bagdad, E. N. E. 1 mile. EXCURSION TO AKKERKOOF. 23'* ing close to the bridge, on the right hand in crossing it from the west, and immediately on the river’s brink. Niebuhr, during his stay here, caused the inscription to be copied by a Moollah, by which it appeared that the edifice was built by the Khalif Mostanser, in the year of the Hejira 630, or of the Christian era 1232. It was about an hour past noon, when we returned from our excursion, just as the heat of the day began to be most oppressive. In our inquiries during the afternoon, we learnt, from a Moollah who visited the house, that the word Akkerkoof might be traced to Arabic etymology, and would signify “ The place of him who rebelled against God.” This, as ap¬ plied to the popular tradition of Nimrod’s being a rebellious being, and of the ruin at Akkerkoof being his “place ” after death, would sufficiently accord with the notion of its being a royal sepulchre ; but the subject, from its mere antiquity alone, is necessarily involved in great obscurity. CHAPTER IX. JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD TO THE RUINS OF BABYLON. July 24th. — We had fixed on to-day for an excursion to the ruins of Babylon, and were occupied during the whole of the morn¬ ing in the necessary preparations for our jour¬ ney. Mr. Bellino, the secretary to the Resi¬ dency, had expressed a desire to accompany me, although the season, from its excessive heat, w as unfavourable for such a journey ; but opportunities of going in the company of individuals prepared for researches are rare, and this was thought by him to be a favourable one. We were to be attended by Mr Rich’s chief groom, a Koord horseman, who had been before at the spot, with the addition of a negro servant, and a mule for our provisions and baggage. We were fur- CHAPTER IX. TOMB OF ZOBEIDA, WIFE OF HAROUN-EL-RASHID, THE CALIPH OF BAGDAD. VOL. 11. Mis#, JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD TO BABYLON. 241 nished with a letter from Mr. Rich, for the governor of Hillah, and one from the Pasha of Bagdad, for the military commander in the neighbourhood of that place, of whose assist¬ ance and protection we were assured. My companion retained his European dress, but I adopted the Bedouin habit, and being now well acquainted with the people as well as the language of Arabia, it was thought likely to make our journey more agreeable if we went without any further escort, or suite ; being myself quite competent to pass as the guide of Mr. Bellino, who was considered as an Eu¬ ropean traveller, and therefore the principal person of the party. We quitted Bagdad about six o’clock in the evening, and crossing the bridge of boats over the Tigris, went through the crowded streets of the western town. The number of people collected here on the benches of the coffee-houses facing the river, to enjoy the moving scenery of the stream, and breathe the cool air of the evening, was surprisingly great ; while the variety of persons and dresses in such a mixed multitude, formed an interest¬ ing picture of costume and manners. On leaving the gate of the western wall, VOL. II. R 242 JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD we had before us the prospect of a bare de¬ sert. The tomb of Zobeida was far on our right, or to the north of us, and was the only prominent object in view. The first half-hour of our course from the gate of Bagdad was nearly south-west, which brought us, at sun¬ set, to the elbow of the Tigris, flowing rapidly along, through arid banks, with several dry patches of sand in the centre of its stream. From hence, our road went southerly ; and riding over a bare and hard soil, we passed about eight o’clock a large building, called Kiahya Khan, into which we did not enter. The same course of about south-south-west, and over a similarly barren track, brought us at ten to Assad Khan, with a small village of Arabs attached to it. As we found a number of people in motion here, we alighted to make a short halt, and on entering the khan, found it so crowded with animals and their riders, that we could scarcely press our way through, notwithstanding that it seemed a large and well-built edifice, capable of accom¬ modating at least five hundred persons within its walls. We reposed, therefore, on the out ¬ side, and were served with some of the best coffee that I ever remember to have drank TO THE RUINS OF BABYLON. 243 any where on the road. We had heard that this khan was famous for the excellent coffee prepared in it, and, as far as our experience went, it fully deserved its reputation. We were struck also with the extreme civility of the attendants, and were pleased with every thing belonging to the establishment. It was about eleven o’clock at night when we remounted, and going southerly, with now and then a point of westing, we crossed over a canal, by a ruined bridge of a single arch, which was so narrow as just to afford a pas¬ sage to one individual at a time. This canal is said to have been but very recently in use, and the country on its banks was then ferti¬ lized by its waters ; but it is at present neg¬ lected, the industry of those whose labours alone kept it in use being too severely taxed by the government. It was here too that a large lion from the Euphrates was seen to come regularly every evening, most probably in search of prey, until he was shot by one of the Arabs of Zobeide, the tribe that occu¬ pies all the district between the Euphrates and the Tigris. July 25th. — Soon after midnight we passed 244 JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD over the dry bed of a deep and wide canal, corresponding in situation with the Nahr Malka,# the supposed work of the Babylonian monarchs, which continued the course of the Euphrates from Macepracta, at the south¬ western extremity of the Median wall, to the spot on which the cities of Ctesiphon and Seleucia were built on the Tigris. This too was used as late as the age of the Caliphs, not only for the purpose of irrigating the land in its neighbourhood, but as a navigable pas¬ sage for boats from one river to another. ^ * The Euphrates is called Nahar, or -Nahr, from the Hebrew, (see the original in Genesis, chap. xv. v. 18 ; and Joshua, chap. i. v. 4.) In Syria, the term Nahr still means a river, but in Babylonia it is applied chiefly to signify a creek or canal. -f- There can be no doubt but that this is the place through which Rauwolff passed on his way from Babylon to Bagdad, and which he then erroneously thought to be the old Babylonian wall. “ After we had travelled for twelve hours through desolate places, very hard, so that our camels and asses began to be tired under their heavy burdens, we rested and lodged ourselves near to an ascent, we and our beasts, to refresh ourselves, and so to stay there till night, and to break up again in the middle thereof, that we might come to Bagdat before sun-rising. The mean while, when we lodged there, I considered and viewed this ascent, and found that there were two behind one another, distinguished by a ditch, and extending themselves like TO THE RUINS OF BABYLON. 245 About two o’clock we passed a third khan, called by the Turks Orta Khan, and by the Arabs, Khan Bir Yunus. Its first name is given it from the computation of its being half-way between Hillah and Bagdad ; its last, from a well, at which the Prophet Jonah is said to have drank, during his journeys to and from Nineveh. We passed this place without entering it; and about an hour beyond it, we saw a path branching off more to the westward, while the straight road still continued. Our negro attendant, who acted as pilot, took us by the first, so that at day-break we found ourselves at the Khan of Mizrakjee Oghlou, on the road to Mesjed Hussein, and within sight of Mus- seib, where there is a bridge across the Eu¬ phrates. We turned off from this khan, there¬ unto two parallel walls a great way about, and that they were open in some places, where one might go through like gates ; wherefore I believe that they were the walls of the old town, whereof Pliny says that they were two hun¬ dred feet high, and fifty broad, that went about there, and that the places where they were open, have been anciently the gates of that town, whereof there were a hundred iron ones ; and this the rather, because I saw in some places under the sand, wherewith the two ascents were almost covered, the old wall plainly appear.” — p. 140. 24C JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD fore, without entering it, though it seemed a spacious and well-built edifice ; and looking to the eastward, we saw, in that direction, the Khan of Scanderia, distant about three miles. We alighted here soon after sun- rise, and finding excellent accommodation for ourselves and horses, we proposed to remain here for the day to avoid the heat, which had now be¬ come intense. This khan was erected within the last century, at the expense of Moham¬ med Hussein Khan, Emir el Dowla to the King of Persia, with a view, no doubt, to the accommodation of the Persian pilgrims to Mesjid Ali and Mesjid Hussein. These are two of their most celebrated places of pilgrim¬ age, and at these there were two of the richest temples perhaps in the world, till they were recently stripped of their treasures by the reforming Wahabees.* The plan of this khan differs essentially from those found on the road from Mousul to Bagdad, and corresponds more accurately than these with the idea which we have in Europe of an eastern caravanserai. These * See the description of this spoliation, in the account given of the incursions of the Wahabees, vol. i. p. 241. TO THE RUINS OF BABYLON. 247 last consisted of many vaulted rooms, of dif¬ ferent sizes, and apart from each other, fitted with recesses in the Turkish style. This, on the contrary, as well as all the others between it and Bagdad, was composed of a large square pile enclosing an open court. On the inside of this square was a covered way, run¬ ning round each of the four sides, and con¬ taining excellent stalls for cattle, with raised benches in deep arched recesses, like so many separate chambers for the accommodation of travellers in the winter or rainy season. On the outside of this covered passage, and front¬ ing the interior court, were similar recesses or chambers, open to the air, yet sufficiently sheltered from the sun, in all his points of bearing at different hours of the day. The centre of the court itself was occupied by two oblong raised platforms, of such length and breadth as to leave convenient passages around and between them. At the foot of these, extending all along the outside, were niches and bars for fastening horses, when required to be kept in the open air ; and the platforms were for travellers to sleep on, during the warm and dewless nights of sum¬ mer. Attached to these were other conve- 248 JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD niences : and a niche for prayer rose in its proper place from the side of the southern elevation. Besides these, there were excellent places for cooking ; and an abundant supply of water, though not of the best quality, could always be had from a well attached to the khan. It appeared capable, on the whole, of containing a thousand persons at once, and accommodating them all conveniently. The striking difference in the style of the khans here, and those seen on the road from Mousul to Bagdad, confirmed me in the opi¬ nion which I had originally entertained of these last being Turkish works, erected by the government as stations for Tartars and military couriers, between the capital of the empire and its great frontier town towards Arabia, Persia, and India ;# while the same reasons led me to consider those between Bagdad and Hillah, as either of Arabic origin, or still more recently constructed by Persian monarchs, for the ac¬ commodation of the pilgrims of their country passing this way to the places of their peculiar devotion. The people in the small villages * See the reasons ali'eady assigned for this opinion, at p. 138 of the present volume. TO THE RUINS OF BABYLON. 219 collected about these khans, being all of Arab descent, speak Arabic only, except some one or two among the servants, who speak sufficient of Turkish and Persian to make themselves understood. The Khan of Scandereeah is almost wholly constructed of ancient bricks dug up from ruins on the spot. All around this edifice, in¬ deed, are scattered vestiges, sufficient to in¬ duce a belief of there having been once some ancient settlement here. These remains con¬ sist of large fragments of furnace-baked bricks, fine red pottery, both ribbed and plain, and some glazed in colours, with heaps of rubbish like those which are invariably found collected on the sites of ancient places. I could not learn, however, any name that tradition gave to such remains, nor could we find that any opinion prevailed why its present one was affixed to it. The name of Scandereeah, fre¬ quently as it is given by the Turks to places within their dominion, is never applied with¬ out a reference to some event of Alexander’s life ; and it is more than probable, that this also has a similar relation to something: con- nected with the history of that hero, the memory of which may now be lost : more 250 JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD particularly, as the evident remains of anti¬ quity here would lead one to expect some an¬ cient name. It may be remarked, that, in our way from Bagdad thus far, we had passed several indefi¬ nite mounds and heaps, to which our com¬ panions knew of no name ; and that neither on the road, nor here, where we inquired most particularly, was the modern town of Nahr Malka, marked in Major Rennel’s map, known to the resident people of the country. After a day of intolerable heat, the thermo¬ meter at noon standing at 117° in the inner division of the khan, and in the deepest shade, we prepared at sun-set to depart. On re¬ mounting, we continued our course about south-south-west, passing over a flat and bar¬ ren country, intersected by many small canals, in which water from the Euphrates still re¬ mained, when, in about two hours, we came to the Khan of Hadjee Suliman. This building, said to have been erected by an Arab whose name it bears, is much inferior in size and exterior appearance to those we had passed. We intended to alight here, and take a cup of coffee ; but we were told that the khan had lately been deserted. We procured some good TO THE RUINS OF BABYLON. 251 river water, however, from the villagers there, and proceeded on our way. It was about ten o’clock when we reached the Khan of Mohawil, when we alighted to repose for the night, having been led to un¬ derstand that the ruins of Babylon begin to be visible soon after passing this spot, and wishing, therefore, to pass over it by day¬ light. We found this khan to resemble that of Scandereeah, in its general design, and to be nearly as large. Like it, too, this was chiefly constructed of ancient bricks procured from the neighbourhood ; and repairs of the platforms were now going on, with large square furnace-baked bricks of a reddish co¬ lour, brought up from the Kassr, at Babel, as the Sheikh told us, and bought with money. I had thus far been constantly regarded as the Arab guide of Mr. Bellino, and had been always received as such ; but here, as we sat together in the caravanserai, the joke went still further. I was asked, who was the stranger I had taken under my protection ? and on replying that he was an English¬ man, it was asked how much I was to be paid for my journey, when I had carried him out and brought him again to his home in 252 JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD safety ? I named a certain sum ; and it was then told me that there was a fine young colt, of a high bred Zobeide race, to be sold in the village, and that if I was disposed to buy it, I might make a profitable bargain ; the parties adding, that if I had not imme¬ diately the requisite sum in my own purse, my protege w ould no doubt advance me suffi¬ cient money on account. A long conversation followed, relating to this proposal, at which, when it was translated to him, Mr. Bellino was as much amused as myself ; but it was not without considerable difficulty that I was able to escape their pressing importunities to pur¬ chase the young colt, for which they thought my European charge could so readily pay. These people behaved, however, with the greatest possible respect to us both, after it was made known to them that the stranger wras one of the household of the Balios Bek', (this being the title by w hich the English Re¬ sident is know n at Bagdad,) and to this they added the gratuitous supposition that i w as of some noble family of Shereefs in Nedjed, and had been chosen for his guide on account of my high descent. TO THE RUINS OF BABYLON. 25‘i July 26th. — We departed from Mohawil with the rising of the sun, having, though thus early, been furnished before we mounted with a good breakfast of bread and lebben. Soon after quitting this khan, we passed over a canal, filled with water from the Euphrates, and having a small bridge thrown across its stream. We now began to perceive some small mounds, particularly one on the right, and another on the left of the road, of a size and form resembling the smallest of those seen at Nineveh, and like these preserving but few definite marks, by which to characterize the ruins of which they were the wreck. That these were heaps formed by the de¬ cay of buildings, was evident from the pre¬ sence of brick and broken pottery scattered near them ; but we saw neither writing, reeds, nor bitumen, the great characteristics of the Babylonian buildings. Our examination was, however, too cursorily made for us to decide that such characteristics did not exist, or that the heaps we now saw were not of equal an¬ tiquity with those which are decidedly known to have formed part of Babylon itself. The distance of them from Hillah, about eight miles, would not exclude them from the site of 254 JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD that celebrated city, even according to the re¬ duced computation of its area ; and we there¬ fore conceived, that they might be the remains of some portion of the famous walls, towards the northern extremity of their limit* * “ Babylon was a very great and a very ancient city, as well as Nineveh. It is indeed generally reckoned less than Nineveh ; for, according to Strabo, it was only three hun¬ dred and eighty-five furlongs in compass, or three hundred and sixty according to -j-Diodorus Siculus, or three hundred and sixty-eight according to Quintus Curtius; but + Hero¬ dotus, who was an older author than any of them, represents it of the same dimensions as Nineveh, that is four hundred and eighty furlongs, or above sixty miles in compass; but the difference was, that Nineveh was constructed in the form of a parallelogram, and Babylon was an exact square, each side being one hundred and twenty furlongs in length. So that, according to this account, Babylon contained more ground in it than Nineveh did ; for, multiplying the sides the one by the other, it will be found that Nineveh contained within its walls only thirteen thousand five hundred furlongs, and that Babylon contained fourteen thousand four hundred. f vrepiSaAero reixos ry ■aroAei irTaSioiv Tpiaxofftcov (_^7}K0UT a. CCCLX stadiorum muro urbem circumdedit. Diod. Sic. lib. ii.p. 68. Edit. Steph. p. 95. Edit. Rhod. Totius operis ambitus CCCLXVIII stadia complec- titur. Quint. Curt. lib. v. cap. 1. J K66 rai tv xzrehiip peyaAu, pey ados eovcra, pelairov kxaarov, eixoarb ojr Vhe. Tft A aTIRTTW TFoBsTS -from th.e. Opposite tank of lhe~$k 1V3E.31 -PrinJtel ahJte/j ’j JjrpelM^jraftkit Pn/s •/ J/oorarH Sir* Strand ThelCIlfSofBABTLOH ontheBASI JBAWK ofthe EUMIraTES, (From F-cchS Memoir itv ’ToiMin-c^rdc ( '0ru.n // Vd ‘l p,. £50. ■ TO THE RUINS OF BABYLON 259 of the ruins around us, which seemed to corre¬ spond so perfectly with the Plan accompany¬ ing Mr. Rich’s Memoir as to leave nothing to be added to that interesting document.* * Mr. Rich, who had devoted his attention to this subject very soon after his taking up his abode at Bagdad, and had made several visits to the ruins of Babylon, under circum¬ stances which gave him every facility of accurate observa¬ tion, embodied his researches in a Memoir, which he address¬ ed to the Baron von Hammer, the learned editor of a folio periodical, published at Vienna, in which the Memoir in question was originally inserted. It was this copy that I had the pleasure to read, with the opportunity of consult¬ ing its accomplished author, at Bagdad : and to this alone, the references here made refer. The Memoir was afterwards printed in a separate form, by some of Mr. Rich’s friends in England : but this soon became so scarce, as not to be attainable by purchase ; and after considerable pains to procure a copy in England, I have not yet been successful. This is, perhaps, the less to be wondered at, as the author himself, in a “ Second Memoir on Babylon,” written about a year after my leaving Bagdad, in answer to some remarks of Major Rennel on the “ First Memoir,” originally com¬ municated to the Society of Antiquaries, and afterwards published in the Archaeologia, states, that he himself, up to the date of his writing the “ Second Memoir,” w hich was in July, 1817? had not yet seen an English copy of the tc First,” though it must then have been printed a considerable time. — The extreme scarcity of the Memoir, in either form, added to the accuracy of the Plan and Views which accompany it, induce me to believe that I shall perform an acceptable ser- 2fi() JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD After examining this mound in all its details, we were confirmed in the opinion that it had been enclosed with walls and ditches encom¬ passing it all around. The marks of these were visible on the eastern and southern sides, where we entered on and departed from the pile ; and Mr. Rich supplies its continuation, when he says, (p. 145,) “ At the foot of the Mujellibe, about seventy yards from it, on the northern and western sides, are traces of a very low mound of earth, which may have formed an enclosure round the whole.” It was also evident that it was a pile, composed of many different edifices, of various forms, appro¬ priated to various uses, and constructed of different materials : not in any respect corre¬ sponding, therefore, with the ancient descrip¬ tions of the Tower of Belus, for the remains of which it has been generally taken. On this subject, Mr. Rich has well observed, (p. 153,) — “All travellers, since the time of Benjamin of Tudela, who first revived the remembrance of these ruins, whenever they fancied themselves near the site of Babylon, universally fixed vice to the reader, and do service to the reputation of its lamented author, by the addition of both to the Illustrations of the present volume. TO THE RUINS OE BABYLON. 201 upon the most conspicuous eminence to re¬ present the Tower of Belus.” This was na¬ tural enough, even when he and his early followers thought they had recognised it among the ruins of Felugiah, higher up the Euphrates ; and was still more excusable, when Pietro della Valle selected this mound, certainly the most probable one of all those on the east side of the river, as the remains of that tower “ whose top was to reach unto heaven.”* On the exterior surface of this mound of the Mujellibe, are sufficient remains of walls and buildings to prove that its base is still a solid building, and scarcely at all enlarged by rubbish. This is also the case on its summit, where walls and portions of buildings are still open in many places ; and even where loose rubbish is found to cover the surface, it is in very small quantities, formed by the gradual decomposition of the outer parts exposed to the action of the elements, and strewed over with fragments of brick and pottery .-f * Genesis, chap. xi. v. 4. -f- The most minute and laboured description of the an¬ cient Babylon is, perhaps, that of Diodorus Siculus, who, however, writing not more than half a century before the 2(i2 JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD There is every reason to believe, from the appearance of its summit, and the absence of any great quantity of rubbish there and around birth of Christ, speaks of a city which had been laid in ruins long before his day, and was even then an object of antiquarian research and uncertainty. As his desci'iption contains a reference to each of the several quarters and edi¬ fices, which will be mentioned in the succeeding pages of the text, it may be agreeable to such readers as may be de¬ sirous of minutely investigating the subject, to have this description before them ; under this impression it is here inserted : — “ Semiramis was naturally of an high and aspiring spirit, ambitious to excel all her predecessors in glorious actions, and therefore employed all her thoughts about the buildng of a city in the province of Babylon ; and to this end, having provided architects, artists, and all other necessaries for the work, she got together two millions of men out of all parts of the empire, to be employed in building of the city. It was so built, as that the river Euphrates ran through the middle of it, and she compassed it round with a wall of three hundred and sixty furlongs in circuit, and adorned with many stately turrets, and such was the state and gran¬ deur of the work, that the walls were of that breadth, as that six chariots abreast might be driven together upon them. The height was such, as exceeded all men’s belief that heard of it, (as Ctesias the Cnidian relates.) But Cli- tarchus, and those who afterwards went over with Alexan¬ der into Asia, have written that the walls were three hun¬ dred and sixty-five furlongs, the queen making them of that compass, to the end that the furlongs should be as many in number as the days of the year. They were of TO THE RUINS OF BABYLON. 263 its base, that it was never built on to a much greater height than that at which its highest part now stands, or one hundred and forty brick, cemented with brimstone — in height, as Ctesias says, fifty orgyas, (each six feet,) but as some of the later writers report, but fifty cubits only, and that the breadth was but a little more than what would allow two chariots to be driven in front. There were two hundred and fifty turrets, in height and thickness, proportionable to the largeness of the wall. It is not to be wondered at, that there were so few towers upon a wall of so great a circuit, being that, in many places round the city, there were deep morasses, so that it was judged to no purpose to raise turrets there, where they were so naturally fortified. Between the wall and the houses, there was a space left round the city of two hun¬ dred feet. “ That the work might be the more speedily despatched, to each of her friends was allotted a furlong, with an allow¬ ance of all expences necessary for their several parts, and commanded all should be finished in a year’s time, which being diligently perfected with the queen’s approbation, she then made a bridge over the narrowest part of the river, five furlongs in length. On either side of the river, she raised a bank as broad as the wall, and witli great cost drew it out in length an hundred furlongs. She built likewise two palaces at each end of the bridge on the banks of the river, where she might have a prospect over the whole city, and make her passage, as by keys, to the most convenient places in it, as she had occasion. And whereas Euphrates runs through the midst of Babylon, making its course to the south, the palaces lie the one on the east and the other on the west side of the river, both built at exceeding costs 2«4 JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD feet from the level of the soil ; whereas the Tower of Belus, according to the lowest com¬ putation, is stated at five hundred feet in per- and expense. For that on the west had a high and stately wall, made of well-burnt bricks, sixty furlongs in compass, (seven miles and a half ;) within this was drawn another of a round circumference, upon which were portrayed on the bricks, before they wei’e burnt, all sorts of living creatures, as if it were to the life, laid with great art in curious colours. This w'all was in circuit forty furlongs, three hundred bricks thick, and in height, (as Ctesias says,) fifty orgyas, or one hundred yards, upon which were turrets one hundred and forty yards high. The third and most in¬ ward wall immediately surrounded the palace, thirty fur¬ longs in compass, and far surmounted the middle Avail both in height and thickness, and on this wall and towers Avere represented the shapes of all sorts of living creatures, arti¬ ficially represented in most lively colours. Especially Avas represented a general hunt of all sorts of wild beasts, each four cubits high, and upwards ; amongst these Avas to be seen Semiramis on horseback, striking a leopard through with a dart ; and next to her, her husband Ninus in close fight with a lion, piercing him Avith his lance. To this palace, likeAvise, she built three gates, under which were apartments of brass for entertainments, into Avhich passages were opened by a certain engine. This palace far excelled that on the other side of the river, both in greatness and adornments. For the outmost Avail of that, (namely on the Avest,) made of well-burnt brick, Avas but thirty fur¬ longs in compass. When the river Avas turned aside into a reservoir, and a vault built across its old bed, the stream Avas suffered to flow over the work in its old channel, so that TO THE RUINS OF BABYLON. 205 pendicular height, and was formed of eight ‘stages, retiring one within another in a py¬ ramidal form. The pile now remaining is Semiramis could go from one palace to the other by this vault, without passing over the river. She made likewise two brazen gates, at either end of the vaults, which con¬ tinued to the time of the Persian Empire. “ In the middle of the city, she built a Temple to Ju¬ piter, whom the Babylonians call Belus, of which, since writers differ among themselves, and the work is now wholly decayed through length of time, there is nothing that can with certainty be related concerning it, yet it is apparent, that it was of exceeding great height, and that by the advantage of it, the Chaldean astrologers exactly observed the setting and rising of the stars. The whole was built of brick, cemented with brimstone, with great art and cost. Upon the top were placed three statues of beaten gold, of Jupiter, Juno, and Rhea, with other splendid ves¬ sels, tables, and ornaments of gold and precious stones, weighing altogether about six thousand Babylonish talents ; but all these the Persian kings sacrilegiously carried away, and length of time has either altogether consumed or much defaced the palaces, and the other structures, so that at this day, but a small part of this Babylon is inhabited, and the greatest part which lay within the walls is turned into pasture and tillage. “ There was also a hanging garden, (as it is called,) near the citadel, not built by Semiramis, but by a later prince, called Cyrus, for the sake of a courtezan, who, being a Persian (as they say) by birth, and coveting mea¬ dows on mountain tops, desired the king, by an artificial plantation, to imitate the land in Persia. This garden was 266 JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD nearly equal in height to two of such stages, yet no appearance of any division is any where to be seen in the outer surface of the sides ; four hundred feet square, and the ascent up to it was as to the top of a mountain, and had buildings and apartments out of one into another, like a theatre. Under the steps to the ascent, were built arches one above another, rising- gen tly by degrees, which supported the whole plantation. The highest arch upon which the platform of the garden was laid, was fifty cubits high, and the garden itself was surrounded with battlements and bulwarks. The walls were made very strong, built at no small charge and ex¬ pense, being two and twenty feet thick, and every sally port ten feet wide. Over the several stories of this fabric were laid beams, and summers of huge massy stones, each sixteen feet long, and four broad. The roof over all these was first covered with reeds, daubed with abundance of brimstone, (or bitumen;) then, upon them, was laid double tiles, par¬ geted together with a hard and durable mortar, and over them all, was a covering, with sheets of lead, that the wet which drenched through the earth might not rot the foundation. Upon all these, was laid earth of a conve¬ nient depth, sufficient for the growth of the greatest trees. When the soil was laid even and smooth, it was planted with all sorts of trees, which both for beauty and greatness might delight the spectators. The arches (which stood one above another, and by that means darted light suffi¬ cient one into another,) had in them many stately rooms of all kinds, and for all purposes. But there was one that had in it certain engines, whereby it drew plenty of water out of the river, through certain conduits and convey¬ ances from the platform of the garden, and nobody with- TO THE RUINS OE BABYLON. 2«7 though, as before remarked, walls and ma¬ sonry of brick-work are visible there in many parts, and these prove, beyond a doubt, that there has been no great accumulation of rub¬ bish in those directions. The six uppermost stages wanting to com¬ plete the whole height, (supposing this to have been the Tower of Belus, as has been inaccurately assumed,) could not have dis¬ appeared without leaving an immense mass of rubbish, occasioned by their fall or removal ; and, indeed, it is said, both by Strabo and Ar¬ rian, that when Alexander was desirous of re¬ pairing the sepulchre of Belus, it was found to be too great a labour, for it was thought that ten thousand men would not be able to remove the rubbish in two months. This is a feature which does not at all apply to the present state of the Mujellibe, where but little loose rubbish is found beyond the limits of the building itself. The area of this pile already exceeds, by about two hundred feet, a square stadium, which is the extent given to the base of the out was the wiser, or knew what was done. The garden (as we said before) was built in later ages.11 — Diodorus Si¬ culus, book ii. c. 1. 2C8 JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD Tower of Belus ; so that if any works remain perfect on the outer surface of the present heap, they must, to preserve the measure within its present limits, be considered as the original outworks of the pile. Strabo says, that the sides of the tower were built of burnt bricks ; and Diodorus states, that it was of an exceeding great height, built of bricky and cemented with bitumen * The exterior parts of the building here present only un¬ burnt bricks, cemented by a thick mortar of clay ; and between every course is a layer of reeds, or large rushes, laid cross-ways, like the weavings of a mat, as at Akkerkoof. The interior opens to view the remains of small buildings, some of burnt brick cemented with lime, others of unburnt brick cemented by clay, and these evidently of various forms and sizes, and apparently constructed at dif- * See also Genesis, chap. i. v. 4. “ And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.” RauwolfF men¬ tions the bitumen or pitch, for which Babylonia has always been celebrated, as existing in abundance in his day. “ Near the bridge are several heaps of Babylonian pitch, to pitch ships withal, which is in some places grown so hard, that you may walk over it, but in others, that which hath been lately brought thither is so soft, that you may see every step you make in it.” — p. 138. TO THE RUINS OF BABYLON. 209 ferent periods, though all doubtless of the Babylonian age. If this had been the Tower of Belus, and its six upper stages had fallen to ruin, the summit would necessarily have been covered with its vestiges ; for it cannot be supposed, that the Arabs would have taken away, in any length of time, what the labourers of Alexander thought . it too great a work to undertake. Yet no such extensive vestiges are found, and the buildings which compose this pile are still so open, as to admit of being dug into with very little trouble by the peo¬ ple of the country, who search there for burnt bricks, or by travellers and visitors wrho ex¬ cavate for discovery. Major Rennel, whose authority is deservedly so high with regard to ancient geography and local positions, has fol¬ lowed Della Valle in considering this as the remains of the Towner of Belus ; but, as Mr. Rich very accurately observes, “ that great geographer does not establish its position from that of the other ruins, but assumes it as a datum to ascertain the situation and extent of the rest of Babylon,”* so that Major Rennel’s authority is in this instance no * Memoir, in “ Les Mines de FOrient,” p. 154. 270 JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD other than that of* Della Valle’s, which he has followed as the best then known to him.* The arguments which Major Rennel has drawn together, in favour of the supposition of the Tower of Belus being on the east side of the river, are so fully answered by Mr. Rich, as to leave it still a matter of as great uncertainty as before, whether it was on the east or on the west. All that seems to be perfectly clear with regard to their relative positions, is, that the Temple of Jupiter Be¬ lus was on one side of the river, or occupied nearly the centre of one of the divisions of the city, while the royal palace occupied the other.f It is this palace which I conceive the Mujellibe to have been, as corresponding equally in situation, and much more in the appearance of its remains, w ith the building alluded to, than with the Tower of Belus, as far as that has been described. There appear to have been tvro palaces in Babylon, one of * Illustrations of the Geography of Herodotus, by Ma¬ jor Rennel, in 4to. -f- “In the centre of each division of the city there is a circular space, surrounded by a wall. In one of these, stands the royal palace, which fills a large and strongly defended space. The temple of Jupiter Belus occupies the other.” — Herodotus. Clio. 181. TO THE RUINS OF BABYLON. 27 1 which is said, by Diodorus, to be seated on the east, the other on the west of the Eu¬ phrates ; and these, with the Temple of Belus, were always regarded as the most wonderful of the public structures. Herodotus, as we have seen, places the temple and the palace each in its respective division of the city, as occupying a circular space there, surrounded by a wall ; and he adds, that the latter was strongly defended. “ The enclosure of one of the palaces,” says Rennel, “ which appears to be what is called by others the citadel, was a square of fifteen stadia, or near a mile and a half.” Again, “ Diodorus is pointed with respect to the palace being near to the bridge, and consequently to the river's bank ; and he is borne out by the descriptions of Strabo and Curtius, both of whom represent the hanging gardens to be very near the river, and all agree that they were within or adjacent to the square of the fortified palace.” The pile of the Mujellibe presents four sides, each of steep ascent, and in this respect, it resembles in general form the artificial mounds on which the ancient castles of Hhoms, El Hhearim, and Aleppo, in Syria? and that of Arbela, or Arweel, on the east of 272 JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD the Tigris, are erected. “ The western face of this mound,” says Mr. Rich, “ which is the least elevated, is the most interesting, on ac¬ count of the appearance of building which it presents. Near the summit of it appears a low wall, with interruptions, built of unburnt bricks, mixed up with chopped straw or reeds, and cemented with clay mortar of great thick¬ ness, having between every course a layer of reeds ; and on the north side are also some vestiges of a similar construction. The south¬ west angle is crowned by something like a turret or lanthorn ; the other angles are in a less perfect state, but may originally have been ornamented in a similar manner.* These features, added to the circumstance of its being evidently surrounded by ditches, and perhaps walls, with its situation within a quarter of a mile of the river, are strong ar¬ guments in favour of its being considered the castellated palace described. The only argu¬ ment yet suggested against this, is the inte¬ rior appearance and solidity of the ruin. No¬ thing is more evident, however, than that the interior was composed of many different buildings, of various forms, magnitudes, and * Memoir, in “ Les Mines de 1’Orient.” TO THE RUINS OF BABYLON. 273 materials ; which may be best seen, it is true, from an inspection of the pile itself, but which may also be gathered from the written reports of those who have recorded their observations on the spot. Della Valle calls it a vast heap of ruins, of so heterogeneous a kind, that he could find nothing whereon to fix his judgment, as to what it might have been in its original condi¬ tion. On the top he saw what might be taken for caverns or cells, but they were in so ruin¬ ous a state, that he could not judge whether they made a part of the original design, or were excavated ; since, in fact, it only ap¬ peared a mass of confusion, none of its mem¬ bers being distinguishable. He observed, also, the different materials of which the whole was composed, there being, in some places, furnace-baked bricks, with lime and bitumen as cement ; in others, unburnt bricks, with a " mortar of clay and broken reeds. The foun¬ dations going around the great mass were also noted by him, at a distance of fifty or sixty paces from its foot. Mr. Rich’s description, which is still more full and detailed, proves also the existence of chambers, passages, and VOL. 11. T •274 JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD cellars, of different sizes and forms, and built of different materials. The apparent solidity of this ruin, as urged against its being a castle, is caused, therefore, by the spaces between these separate edifices being now filled up by the rubbish of such part of the buildings as are fallen into ruins. Besides, it is known that temples are in ge¬ neral very open buildings, in all parts of the world ; while palaces and castles, and parti¬ cularly those of the East, are mere fortified enclosures, crowded with the habitations of all those who occupy them in the service of their chiefs. Even in this particular, also, the pile in question would therefore seem to be rather the elevated mound, on which a forti¬ fied palace, with all its offices, stood, than a tower or temple, rising to a height of five hundred feet. The circumstance of some natives having found in this pile a coffin- of mulberry wood, containing a human body enclosed in a light wrapper, and partially covered with bitumen, as well as of Mr. Rich having made a similar discovery of a coffin containing a skeleton in high preservation, with its appropriate amu- TO THE RUINS OF BABYLON. 275 lets of Babylonian days, and, indeed, all the interesting results of liis excavations there, are such as might, with the strictest propriety, belong to a castle or a palace, but could not well have been found in a temple, within the sacred precincts of which the dead were never interred. After examining the ruined heap of the Mujellibe, and bringing away with us some fragments of hard, though apparently not fur¬ nace-burnt, bricks, with inscriptions on them, in the arrow-headed or Babylonian character, we left the pile, to extend our observations, and soon came to the river’s bank. We thought the stream of the Euphrates to be much wider here than any part of the Tigris that we had seen ; and its general resemblance to the Nile, above Cairo, struck me very for¬ cibly. Its banks were lined with date-groves, on both sides of the stream. Its current flowed tranquilly along, at a rate of less than two miles per hour ; and in the centre were seen some of those rounded sand-banks, co¬ vered with rushes, so common in the river of Egypt. The gardens on this, the eastern side, are watered artificially from the river, after the JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD 276 following manner. A canal, of narrow dimen¬ sions, is let in from the main stream, to a dis¬ tance of twenty or thirty feet ; a frame-work is then erected over it, made of the trunks of date-trees, two sections of a trunk being used as posts, one as a transverse bar, and two others sloping inwards, resting upon this bar. In the ends of these last are pulleys, over which traverses a cord. To the one end of the cord is affixed a large leather bucket, which descends to the river by its own weight, and fills. The other end is fastened to a bul¬ lock, which is made to descend over a steep artificial slope, at an angle of forty-five de¬ grees, and thus, uniting its weight with its strength, it easily raises the water. This is then discharged from the leather bucket by a long pipe of the same material, into a channel somewhat above the level of the garden itself, so that it readily finds its way into the general reservoir there. Each of these bullocks has a driver to attend it ; but, notwithstanding this, the method is as cheap and effective as any that could be contrived to be executed by mere animal labour. The distance between the Mujellibe and the next great mound to the southward of it, TO THE RUINS OF BABYLON. 277 sometimes called by the same name, at others exclusively “ Babel,” and still more generally “ El Kassr,” or the Palace, certainly exceeds a mile. The low intermediate space is co¬ vered with grass and verdure, and has a small enclosed garden with date-trees near its centre. We crossed this valley, and ascended the mound of the Kassr, or Palace, which is more irregular in its form, and seemingly more extensive in size, than the one we had just quitted. We traversed this in every direction, as we had done the other, before any conclu¬ sions were ventured on ; and then the first which presented itself, was that this was also the site of an extensive palace, with perhaps the hanging gardens attached to it. W ere it not that the palaces are said to have been seated on opposite sides of the river, 1 should have said, when looking towards the Mu- jellibe, “ There was certainly the old palace, and here is the site of the new;” but this would be at variance with the accounts of their relative position, and more particularly with the tunnel under the Euphrates, by which Semiramis is said to have gone from one palace to the other, without crossing over 278 JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD the river above. It is true, that the river, which here bends easterly, might have once made a sharper turn in that direction, so as to fill the lowand fertile ground, now seen like the bed of a stream between these palaces, and thus these buildings might then have stood on opposite sides of the stream , with regard to each other, but on the same side or quarter of the city, with regard to the ge¬ neral direction of the stream itself, which was nearly north and south. This, however, is cer¬ tain, that if either, of the three great masses here be taken for the palace, the garden, or the tower of Belus, the principal structures of ancient Babylon, there is nothing on the other side remaining to correspond with the edifices, which were always supposed to be im¬ mediately opposite to these on the other bank of the river. The ground there, as marked in Mr. Rich’s plan, is low and marshy,* and presents no such appearance of mounds, or * “ I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name and remnant, and son and nephew, saith the Lord : I will also make it a pos¬ session for the bittern, and pools of water : and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction.” — Isaiah, chap. xiv. v. 22, 23. TO THE RUINS OF BABYLON. 270 the slightest vestige of former buildings, of any description whatever. It is possible, indeed, that from its being subject to inundation, the same operations of the water, which have swept away every ap¬ pearance of the embankment along its edge,* may, in a succession of so many ages, have carried away the remains of a palace, standing on the western side, and completely filled up the tunnel of communication to it from the east.f I should even then, however, consider * Pliny says, that the Euphrates passed through the centre of Babylon, between two moles or embankments, which were faced with brick, cemented by bitumen. To connect the two divisions of the city, there was a fine stone bridge, in the construction of which arches are spoken of, and it was reckoned one of the wonders of the East. — Nat. Hist. b. v. c. 1. *f* Rauwolff, who came down the Euphrates all the way from Beer, and approached the ruins of Babylon by water, describes the remains of the arches in his day, near the stream, which might either have been the vestiges of an ancient bridge, as he supposes, or the remains of the place of entrance into the tunnel here adverted to. This traveller says : — “ This country is so dry and barren, that it cannot be tilled, and so bare, that I should have doubted very much, whether this potent and powerful city (which once was the most stately and famous one of the world, situ¬ ated in the pleasant and fruitful country of Sinar) did stand there, if I should not have known it by its situation, 280 JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD the mound of the Mujellibe, as that of the new palace, supposing the old one to have been immediately opposite on the other side ; while the temple of Belus would be still to discover on the same side, or west of the Eu¬ phrates, in some part not yet defined. The citadel or palace, (for it served both these purposes, and was the only one within the walls,) was surrounded by an exterior wall of sixty stadia in circumference ; inside this was another of forty stadia, the interior face of which was ornamented with painting, as is the custom of the Persians of the present day ; and again within this last was a third, with designs of hunting. On the opposite side of the river, and on the same side with and several ancient and delicate antiquities that still are standing hereabouts in great desolation. First, bv the old bridge, which was laid over the Euphrates, (which also is called Sud by the prophet Baruch in his first chapter,) whereof there are some pieces and arches still remaining, and to be seen at this very day a little above where we land¬ ed. These arches are built of burnt brick, and so strong, that it is admirable ; and that so much the more, because all along the river as we came from Bir, where the river is a great deal smaller, we saw never a bridge, wherefore I say it is admirable which way they could build a bridge here, where the river is at least half a league broad, and very deep besides. " — pp. 137, 138. TO THE RUINS OF BABYLON. 281 the temple of Belus, was situated the old palace, the outer wall of which was no larger than the inner wall of the new. Above the new palace or citadel, were the hanging gar¬ dens, which, according to Strabo, formed a square of four plethora for each face, and were fifty cubits in height.* Diodorus, as we have seen, expressly says, that the palace was near to the river ; and Strabo and Curtius represent the hanging gar¬ dens to be on its banks, all agreeing that they were within, or adjacent to, the square of the fortified palace. Strabo says, “ the Euphrates flows through the middle of the city, and the hanging gardens are adjacent to the river, from whence they are watered and it appears natural enough, says Rennel, that the princess should avail herself of the prospect of a noble river, a stadium in breadth, flowing near the palace. There is little doubt, says the same writer, but that the hanging gardens contained at least three and half acres. Diodorus says, they formed a square of four hundred feet. Curtius, that they were supported by twenty walls, eleven feet distant from each other, which spaces, together with the thickness of * Mr. Rich’s Memoir, p. 157- 2f!2 JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD the walls, will make up at least four hundred feet. They had a view over the city walls, and were said to be upwards of a hundred feet in height* The gardens then had evidently buildings in them, besides the masonry of the lofty mounds on which they stood, and as they were in themselves the most wonderful of the public structures of Babylon, whether for enormity of labour or expense bestowed on them, nothing is more probable, than that they should have been embellished with ap¬ propriate edifices, such as summer-houses, bowers, alcoves, &c. in all the luxury of the East. Diodorus expressly says, that there * Pliny says, that the castle had twenty stadia circuit, and the towers of it thirty feet in the earth, and eighty in height. The hanging gardens were here constructed on columns, arches, and walls, and contained terraces of earth, watered by machines from the river, producing forests of large trees. Its height was equal to that of the castle walls, and from the fine air enjoyed there, fruits of all kinds were produced, and the shade and refreshing coolness of the place were delicious in such a climate. It was said that a king of Syria, who reigned in Babylon, constructed these gardens to gratify a wife whom he violently loved, and who, having a passion for woods and forests, thus enjoyed, in the midst of a great metropolis, the sylvan pleasures of a country life. — X( it. Hist. b. v. c. 1. TO THE RUINS OF BABYLON. 283 were drawn, in colours, on the bricks used in building the wall of the great palace, various animals, as well as a representation of a ge¬ neral bunting of wild beasts. The gardens, as forming a part of the palace, from their comparative proximity to it, and certainly within the same grand enclosure of sixty stadia and forty stadia which surrounded the whole, would admit of as high embellishments in its more interior retreats, as those which were used in the inner court or palace wall. It may be interesting to examine how far the features of this second mound correspond with those ascribed to the palace and gardens by the authorities already quoted. Its local situation near the river’s brink, so as to have been watered by machines from the stream, and its distance of about a mile from the sup¬ posed palace, with no other similar mound nearer to it, gives it a strong claim to simi¬ larity of position. The size of this mound, as given by Mr. Rich, is seven hundred yards in length and breadth, its form being nearly a square; but then its south-west angle is con¬ nected with the north-west angle of a larger mass of the same descript ion, called Am ran, by a ridge of considerable height, and nearly JOUKNEY FROM BAGDAD 284 one hundred yards in breadth. The larger mass or mound of Amran presents the figure of a quadrant, and is eleven hundred yards in length, and eight hundred in breadth. The height of both these mounds is irregular, but that of the first may be from sixty to seventy, and that of the last from fifty to sixty feet above the level of the plain. There are here, then, two large elevated masses, connected by a causeway of proportionate height, and one hundred yards in breadth, going across a valley of five hundred and fifty yards in length ; and these masses each nearly of the same breadth, the space occupied by the whole being two thousand three hundred and fifty yards in length, eight hundred in breadth, and about twenty in height. Between these mounds and the river is an¬ other running along its very edge, and called, by Mr. Rich, its “ embankment,” of which he gives this description. “ The river’s hank is skirted by a ruin, (B) which I shall, for per¬ spicuity’s sake, call its embankment. It com¬ mences on a line with the lov er extremity of the southernmost grand mound, (or Amran,) and is there nearly three hundred yards broad at ils base, from the east angle of which a TO THE RUINS OF BABYJ.ON. 285 mound proceeds, taking a sweep to the south¬ east, so as to he nearly parallel with, and forty yards more to the south, than that boundary ; and losing itself in the plain, being, in fact, the most southerly of all the ruins. The embank¬ ment is continued in a right line to the north? and diminishes in breadth, but increases in ele¬ vation, till at the distance of seven hundred and fifty yards from its commencement, where it is forty feet in perpendicular height, and is interrupted by a break (C) of nearly the same breadth with the river. To this succeeds a piece of flat ground, apparently gained from the river by a slight change in its course, it being one hundred and ten yards in length, and two hundred and fifty in greatest breadth ; and along its base are traces of a continuation of the embankment, which is there a narrow line that soon loses itself.'’ In another place, when speaking of the Mujellibe, or Pietro della Valle’s ruin, which is here assumed as the castellated palace, this same writer says, “ The northern termination of the plan is Pietro della Valle’s ruin, from the south-east angle of which, (to which it evidently once joined, being only obliterated there by two canals,) proceeds a narrow ridge 280 JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD or mound, of earth, wearing the appearance of having been a boundary wall. (A) This ridge forms a kind of circular enclosure, and joins the south-east point of the most souther¬ ly of the two grand masses.” Again : “ The whole of the area enclosed by the boundary on the east and south, and the river on the west, is two miles and six hundred yards in breadth from east to west ; and from Pietro della Valle's ruin to the most southerly mound of all, which has been already mentioned as branching off from the embankment, two miles and one thousand yards in length from north to south.” I have collected together these authorities, rather than set down any original descriptions of my own; first, because more weight is gene¬ rally attached to reasonings on facts resting on the testimony of others ; and next, because having gone over all the ground with Mr. Rich's plan and observations in my hand, and confirmed the accuracy of these by ocular in¬ spection, the leading facts became my own by adoption, and formed the best foundation for subsequent reasonings and inferences. From all these enumerated details, we collect then, that near the supposed palace, and close upon TO THE RUINS OF BABYLON. 287 the river’s brink, are two grand masses, of the elevation of sixty feet, connected together by a broad and lofty causeway, and faced by an embankment on the edge of the stream : the whole occupying, in its present state, a space of two thousand three hundred and fifty yards in length, by eleven hundred yards in breadth. The hanging gardens are described to be precisely in this situation, near the palace, close to the river, and watered by engines from its stream. They are said, by one authority, to have been fifty cubits, and by another to have exceeded a hundred feet, in height, and to have occupied three and half acres in ex¬ tent. The height is as near the truth as could be expected at this distant period ; and it re¬ mains to be seen how nearly the extent of the ground it now occupies agrees with that assigned to it when perfect. The palace and the gardens were said to be surrounded by an outer wall of sixty stadia, an inner one of forty, and a third, the dimen¬ sions of which are not given. The southern extreme of this outer wall is to be found in the ridge which goes off south-east from the eastern angle of the embankment (B) near the 28« JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD. river, which is the southernmost ruin of all, and four hundred yards to the south of the more perfect boundary wall (A.) The northern extreme of this same outer enclosure may be traced in the appearances of a boundary which were observed by Mr. Rich, to the north westward of the Mujellibe, at the distance of seventy yards, and were noticed also by my¬ self. The inner boundary of forty stadia is still more distinctly to be traced in the circu¬ lar mound marked (A) in Mr. Rich’s plan ; which, as he says, evidently once joined to the Mujellibe, or palace, from which it is now only separated by two canals, and which still preserves its connexion with the south-east angle of the great southern mound of Amran, supposed to be that of the hanging garden. The third wall may be found in the long straight mounds (E.F.) the fine materials of which it was formed having, no doubt, facili¬ tated its destruction. We may now compare more minutely the detailed description of these ruined heaps, in their present condition, m ith the ancient testi¬ monies regarding them. We have seen that Diodorus describes the inner wall of the palace, which must have passed close by this, as being TO THE RUINS OF BABYLON. 2!W highly ornamented with painted tiles, bearing devices of animals, hunting scenes, &c. ; and it has been suggested that the buildings in these gardens would be likely to be of the most ornamented and highly-finished kind of those known in that age. The traveller, Beauchamp, when speaking of this second heap from the northward, after having seen the Mujellibe, which he calls the “ Mount of Ba¬ bel,” says, “ Above this mount, on the side of the river, are those immense ruins which have served and still serve for the building of Hillah, an Arabian city, containing ten or twelve thousand souls. Here are found those large and thick bricks, imprinted with un¬ known characters, specimens of which I have presented to the Abbe Barthelemy. This place, and the Mount of Babel, are commonly called, by the Arabs, 4 Makloube,’ that is to say, turned topsyturvy. I was informed by the master mason employed to dig for bricks, that the places from which he procured them were large thick walls, and sometimes cham¬ bers. He has frequently found earthen vessels, engraved marbles, and, about eight years ago, a statue as large as life, which he threw among the rubbish. On one wall of a chamber, he VOL. II. u 290 JOURNEY FROM BAGDAD found the figures of a cow, and of the sun and moon, formed of varnished bricks. Some¬ times, idols of clay are found, representing human figures. I found one brick, on which was a lion, and on others a half moon in relief.” After describing the finding a large sculptured block of black stone, and a piece of beautiful white and red granite, on these eastern ruins, he says, “ On the same side of the city, as I was told by the master mason, there were walls of varnished bricks, which he supposed to have been a temple.”* Mr. Rich, in speaking of this same mound, which he calls the second grand heap of ruins, (in coming from the southward,) says, “ This is the place where Beauchamp made his obser¬ vations, and it is certainly the most interesting part of the ruins of Babylon ; every vestige discoverable in it declares it to have been com¬ posed of buildings far superior to all the rest of which any traces are left on the eastern quarter ; the bricks are of the finest descrip¬ tion, and, notwithstanding this is the grand storehouse of them, and that the greatest sup- * See Beauchamp’s authority, as quoted by Major Ken¬ nel, in his Chapter on Babylon, in the Illustrations of the Geography of Herodotus. \'->r/hcm , 'hr,- r ' '{/>,: >1/ ujc.£ t ic IVcstern face of' thic STifelzhe- Hirs . \c7nrcuJ V'crWifcue f'thieJCasr. 2a., t. Ska cf lJuXasr. -■tsr.r . 20 1. Views oI'lA&J^riruiipcU' fitiiri,*? still cjcisTiri'gf on, The Site of The Ain E.W T B AEYL O^T E astern. fk-ce, of the Jfujehic. 1 Southern, face of the, firs fernrotciL. Sfcrtfiern. face, gf the iBvrs jVtrrurotcS. T.Sfk Lith: CHAPTER X. SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. It was a quarter before nine o’clock, when we departed from hence, to extend our ex¬ cursion more easterly, to which we had been tempted by the sight of the high mounds in that direction, as well as by the report of there being one of particular interest there, called A1 Hheimar, and by the persuasion that ves¬ tiges of ruins must exist beyond the boun¬ dary line, (A) which we conceived to mark only the enclosure of sixty stadia, that en¬ compassed the castellated palace and its gar¬ dens. We pursued our way to the eastward, over a ground of excellent soil, sometimes covered with pools of water in its hollows, and at others with the drifting sand of the Desert, As we proceeded, we observed patches of soil CHAPTER X. RETURN FROM A DESERT EXCURSION IN SEARCH OF THE WALLS OF BABYLON. SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON- 297 strewed over with fragments of bricks and broken pottery, as if originally covered with detached masses of buildings, leaving only these vestiges to mark their site ; while in the space around them, for some distance, no such fragments were seen, the ground in these intervals having been apparently used for no other purpose than cultivation.* We passed, occasionally, long mounds, run¬ ning from north to south, and saw others crossing them at right angles from east to west. Our first impression was, that these were the beds of canals, by which the ground had been irrigated subsequent to the destruc¬ tion of Babylon, but which had since fallen into neglect. This opinion was, however, soon shaken by our observing the number and cross direction of these mounds to be such as could never have been the case, had they been canals. Some of them, it is true, might have been remains of channels by which * The houses of the city did not touch the walls, but were at some distance from it. All the space within the city was not built, nor more than ninety stadia of it : and even the houses did not join each other. The remainder of the ground served as fields and gardens, sufficient to furnish provisions to the city in the event of a siege. — Quint. Curt. b. v. c. 1. 298 SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. the parts of the city most remote from the Euphrates were watered during its splendour, and these might have been since used as ca¬ nals ; but the greater part of the mounds were certainly the remains of buildings ori¬ ginally disposed in streets, and crossing each other at right angles, with immense spaces of open and level ground on each side of them. The more distinct and prominent of these presented many proofs of their having been such ; because the heaps, which were always double, or in parallel lines, were much higher and wider on each side than they could have been if formed only by the earth thrown up from the excavated hollow, each being wider than the intervening space between them, which varied from fifteen to thirty feet, and each exceeding twenty feet in height, while the level of the central space (which would have been the bed of the canal, had this been a channel for water) was itself higher than that of the surrounding soil, and the mounds were intersected by cross passages, in such a manner, as to place beyond a doubt the fact of their being rows of houses or streets fallen to decay. There were also, in some places, two hoi- SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. 299 low channels, and three mounds, running pa¬ rallel to each other for a considerable dis¬ tance, the central mound being, in such cases, a broader and flatter mass than the other two, as if there had been two streets going pa¬ rallel to each other, the central range of houses which divided them being twice the size of the others, from their being double residences, with a front and door of entrance to face each avenue. The same peculiarities of level, size, and direction, were observed here as in other parts of the ruins nearer the river ; and all these could be easily reconciled to the supposition of being remains of streets and houses, but could not have belonged to canals ; independently of their number and direction rendering it highly improbable that they were ever used as such. The fact of these mounds being so much lower than the enormous heaps left by the re¬ mains of the palace and the hanging gardens, might occasion them to be regarded as com¬ paratively insignificant, in relation to other Babylonian ruins ; but though, for very evi¬ dent reasons, the castle stood on an elevated site, and the gardens of Semiramis were exhi¬ bited aloft, “ a monument,” as Rennel ex- 309 SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. presses it, “ of the husband’s folly, to all the surrounding country,” there would be no rea¬ son to expect that any of the other edifices, and more especially the private dwellings of the people, should have their foundations at all above the common level of the soil. This is, indeed, precisely the case : the mounds left by their crumbled ruins being, in many places, as high as those of Nineveh, and in others equal to those of Memphis, Bubas- tis, Tanis, and Sais in Egypt, all of them cities of nearly equal antiquity, and nearly contem¬ porary in the dates of their destruction. If an excavation could be made, so as to cut through and obtain a fresh section of some of the principal of these mounds, it would at once decide the question satisfactorily ; but we had not the means of doing this, or even of penetrating sufficiently deep beneath the indistinct mass, to ascertain the nature of its interior, the surface being, by the action of wind and rain through a long series of ages, such as to afford no clue to the judgment in this particular.* * “ Because of the wrath of the Lord, it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate ; every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. :ioi As long as we continued to find such re¬ mains of extensive mounds, detached squares, and circular patches covered with burnt brick and pottery, we continued to proceed onward, and about half-past ten reached a walled en¬ closure, within which were a number of date- trees. We turned in here, under the expec¬ tation of finding the place inhabited ; but, from the state of ruin in which we found it, it must have been long since deserted, and its brick- lined well, from which the garden had no doubt originally been watered, was now perfectly dry. The heat of the day had already become intense ; only one of our water-bottles had any water remaining in it, and of this there was but a very small portion; for, on setting out, we had not calculated on coming half this plagues. How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asun¬ der and broken ? How is Babylon become a desolation among the nations ? Therefore the wild beasts of the de¬ sert, with the wild beasts of the islands, shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein ; and it shall be no more inhabited for ever ; neither shall it be dwelt in from gene-- ration to generation : As God overthrew Sodom and Go¬ morrah, and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the Lord ; so no man shall abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein.” — Jeremiah , chap. 50, v. 13. 23. 39, 40. 302 SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. distance to the eastward from the river. My companion, too, began to complain of suf¬ fering extremely from heat and thirst ; but, although I felt for his condition, and would willingly have relieved it, yet I could not give up the idea of following the traces of the ruins in this untraversed quarter, as long as any vestiges of former buildings appeared, particularly as the extent of Babylon, in this direction, had been so long a matter of dis¬ pute ; and we now possessed an opportunity of acquiring information on this point, which might never occur again. I accordingly proceeded, going still east¬ ward, passing many detached spots covered with burnt bricks and pottery, and seeing some few mounds on either side of our way, till about eleven o'clock, we reached a small sheikh’s tomb, with a few date-trees near it, standing in the middle of a dry and burning waste. There were large mounds and a high py¬ ramidal hill in sight beyond this, which still tempted me to go on. My companion, how¬ ever, being now quite exhausted with the heat, determined to alight here and go no further : more particularly as we had origi- SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. 303 nally come out on this excursion in search of a mound, called A1 Hheimar, which is said to be only five miles to the east of Hillah, and which, though we were now more than ten miles from that town, in the direction named, we had not yet discovered. I accordingly left Mr. Bellino and the Koord horseman at the tomb, to repose in the shade, and pushed on alone, being soon after followed, however, by the horseman whom Mr. Rich had sent with us, and who was unwilling, probably, to have it thought that he could not brave the heat and thirst of the way as well as a stranger. We still went eastward, passing in the way, as before, several detached heaps covered with burnt brick and fine pottery, and crossing two or three large and wide ranges of double mounds, going north and south, which, from their appearance, might either have been ca¬ nals or streets ; but, from the line of their direction, most probably the latter ; or, if the former, the remains of such ancient channels as were used to water this remote part of Ba¬ bylon. Beyond the last of these double mounds, scattered fragments of burnt brick began to be more abundant than we had before seen ( 304 SEARCH AFTER THE WALES OF BABYLON. them, and marked the former existence of some great work all along this eastern extre¬ mity of the city : these continued to be seen, not in large heaps or connected masses, as is usually the case, but lying loosely on the ground, as if they were merely the refuse of better materials taken away from hence, until, in lialf-an-hour after quitting the tomb of the saint, we reached the foot of the hill A1 Hheimar, which I had come thus far to exa¬ mine. We found this to be a high mound of loose rubbish, so steep at the base as not to be as¬ cended on horseback ; and extremely difficult to get up over even on foot. W e went up on the western side, where the ascent was easiest; though there it was still steep, and on the eastern it was apparently much more so. The hill presented, at a short distance, the appear¬ ance of a pyramidal cone, the outline of which nearly formed an equilateral triangle, and its summit seemed to be crowned by a long and low piece of thick wall, rather like the battle¬ ments of a small fortress, than a tower. The rubbish below consisted of burnt brick, with scarcely a fragment of pottery ; and this cir¬ cumstance, added to its steep ascent on every SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. 305 side, where all that it varied from a perpendi¬ cular seemed to have been caused by some originally slight slope in the building itself, and the fall of fragments from above, with the comparatively perfect and solid appearance of its summit, induced me, at first sight, to con¬ clude that it was the remains of a solid and extensive wall, and formed no part of any open building. The heat of the atmosphere was now in¬ tense ; we were exposed to the most power¬ ful influence of the sun in a parched and „ burning plain ; the small quantity of water which remained in the leathern bottle, brought from the river, had been left with our compa¬ nions at the sheikh’s tomb ; and we had a strong westerly wind, which, though the ther¬ mometer stood at 135° in the sun, instead of tempering that heat, augmented it by a suffo¬ cating and almost insufferable air, at once hot, dry, and noxious to the smell ; and bringing with it, at every blast, clouds of dust and sand, which rendered it difficult to look around us without having the eyes, mouth, ears, and nostrils, filled with it. These ob¬ stacles, added to the fretful impatience of my companion, with an assurance that similar VOL. II. x 306 SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. feelings were entertained by those who awaited our return to the tomb, and who had yet a journey of four hours in the heat of the day before they could reach Hillah, all contri¬ buted to hasten our departure from hence, after a stay only of a few minutes, just to catch a hasty glance of what we had come so far to see. But though I did not make the same copious notes upon the spot, as I had done on every other part of the ruins of Babylon, I was enabled on the following day, at Hillah, in a quiet apartment of the khan at which we lodged, to reduce to writing what was then fresh in my recollection. The base of the mound or hill of A1 Illiei- mar, at this eastern extremity of our excur¬ sion through the ruins of Babylon, appeared to me to be from three to four hundred feet in circumference ; its form was rather oval than circular, its greatest length being appa¬ rently from north to south, and its lesser from east to west, so that its breadth or thickness through, at the bottom, might have been from eighty to a hundred feet. Its height ap¬ peared to be equal to that of the lowest part of the Mujellibe, or from seventy to eighty feet, and nearly equal to the breadth of its SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. 307 own base. On ascending to its summit, we found there a mass of solid wall, about thirty feet in length, by twelve or fifteen in thick¬ ness, yet evidently once of much greater di¬ mensions each way, the work being, in its present state, broken and incomplete on every side. The height of the mass was also pro¬ bably diminished from its original standard, but of this it was not so easy to judge ; as, whatever number of layers of bricks might have been removed, a smooth surface re¬ mained where the cement was worn away by time, which is not the case with any dilapida¬ tion of the sides or facings of walls, though it necessarily would be with their summits. Nothing was more evident, however, than that this was a solid mass of wall, and no part of it a chambered or inhabited edifice ; its appearance indicated that it had been built on an inclined slope from the westward or in¬ terior face, at least, that being the side on which our ascent was made : its dimensions being from eighty to a hundred feet thick at the base, twelve to fifteen feet thick at the top, and seventy to eighty feet in perpendicu¬ lar height. The bricks were of the usual square form and size, of a reddish-yellow co- 308 SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. lour, with slight appearances of chopped straw having been used in their composition, but not very decidedly marked : they had not, in any instance that I could perceive, inscriptions, figures, or writing on their surface. The ce¬ ment used to connect the layers was extremely thin, and of the same colour with the bricks themselves ; but not of the extraordinary te¬ nacity of that at the Kassr, nor was the mason¬ ry so neat and highly finished, being perhaps of an earlier date. The greatest peculiarity observed at this pile, and one which, hitherto at least, is unique in, the known ruins of Babylon, was, that at intervening spaces rather wider than those of the reeds at Akkerkoof, and recurring at every fifteenth or twentieth course of bricks, ap¬ peared a layer of an extremely white sub¬ stance, which was seen in small filaments on the bricks, like the crossing of fine pieces of straw ; or, as it struck me forcibly on the spot, like the texture of the Egyptian papy¬ rus. Between two of the bricks that I sepa¬ rated, with much ease, from the pile, the layer of this substance seemed about a quarter of an inch thick ; the filaments were clearly dis¬ cernible, and when fresh, the whole substance SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. 309 was of a snowy whiteness, and had a shining appearance, like the finest mineral salts, or like the fibres of the glass feathers made in England. On merely touching it lightly with the finger, it came off in a white powder on the flesh, like the substance left on the fingers after touching a butterfly’s wing ; and on at¬ tempting, with a knife, to take off the layer itself, as a whole, it fell to pieces like the white ashes of a thoroughly-burnt piece of wood, and, from the extreme lightness of the parti¬ cles, was instantly dispersed in the air. I never remember to have seen any powder so fine as this, nor ever to have observed a sub¬ stance apparently so solid, as it lay between the bricks, which dissipated so suddenly, at the slightest touch.* In the extensive viewafforded us from hence, we could still perceive detached mounds, near¬ ly in a line with the mass on which we stood, both to the north and south of this. To the west, the whole extent of Babylon, as far as the eye could reach, was spread out before us, * A small quantity of this powder, which was taken from the spot, has been preserved ever since, and is now in the possession of a lady in England, to whose Museum of Curiosities it was but recently presented. 310 SEARCH AFTER THE WALES OF BABYLON. intersected by streets and canals, and studded with isolated masses, the remains no doubt of detached piles of dwellings ; while the level spaces, unmarked by any such vestiges, and evidently used only for cultivation, seemed to exceed the occupied part by an immense pro¬ portion of difference, perhaps of ten to one.* * “ Diodorus Siculus*f* describes the buildings as ruined or decayed in his time, and asserts, that now only a small part of the city is inhabited, the greatest part within the walls is tilled. Strabo, j who wrote not long after Diodo¬ rus, saith, that part of the city the Persians demolished, and t raiv Se fiacrikeiuv Kai rwv akkaiv KaraeKevaeparcov 6 xpovos Ta lx(V oXotrxtpiDS rfipavicre, ra S' ekrfpTfvaro. Kai yap avres rrfs Bagukwvos vvv 0paxv n pepos oiKeirai, ro 8e wkeicrrov evros reixos yewpyeirai. Regiasque et alias structuras partim tempus omnino abolevit, partim corrupit. Nam et ipsius Babylonis exigua quaedam portio nunc habitatur, maximaque intra muros pars agrorum cultui est exposila. Diod. Sic. lib. ii. p. 70. Edit. Steph. p. 98. Edit. Rhod. | - Kai Karrfpa\iav rifs raokews, r a p ev ol Viepeai, ra S’ 6 xPoyos Kat V rwv M aKtSovwv okiywpia nrepi ra roiavra ‘ Kai flakier a eneiSrf r rjv SekevKeiav eiri rw Tiyp7)ri wkrfiriov rifs Bagvkwvos ev rpiaKoctois nrov araSiois erei x«re SeJuvKOS o NiKarwp. Kai yap tKeivos Kai oi per" avrov awavrrfs nrepi ravrrfv co-irovSaaav rt]V wokiv Kai ro (iaaikeiov evravda perrfveyKaV Kai By Kai vvv if p.ev yeyove Bagvkwvos peigwv. if S eprfpos tf vrokkri' war' en amrfs pi] av OKVTfcrai riva enreiv Smfp erprf ris rwv KwpiKwv em rwv Nleyakoirokirwv rwv ev ApKaSia. E prf/ita peyakrj ear iv if Meyakorokis, - et urbis partem Persae diru- erunt, partem tempus consumpsit et Macedonum negligentia: praesertim postquam Seleucus Nicator Seleuciam ad Tigrim condidit stadiis tantum CCC a Babylone dissitam. Nam et ille et posteri omoes liuic urbi maximoperfe studuerunt, et regiam eo transtulerunt, et nunc Babylone haec major est, ilia magna ex parte deserta, ut intrepide de ea usurpari possit, quod de Megalopoli Arcadia; magna urbe quidam dixit Co- SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. 311 The mound of the Mujellibe, or royal palace, was high in sight from hence, and we found its bearing by compass to be west by north half part time and the neglect of the Macedonians, and espe¬ cially after Seleucus Nicator had built Seleucia on the Tigris, in the neighbourhood of Babylon, and he and his successors removed their court thither : and now (saith he) Seleucia is greater than Babylon, and Babylon is much deserted, so that one may apply to this what the comic poet said of Megalopolis in Arcadia, ‘ The great city is now become a great desert.’ Pliny, in like manner,* affirms, that it was reduced to solitude, being exhausted by the neighbourhood of Seleucia, built for the purpose by Seleu¬ cus Nicator. As Strabo compared Babylon to Megalopolis, so -(-Pan sanias (who flourished about the middle of the second century after Christ) compares Megalopolis to Ba¬ bylon, and says, in his Arcadics, that of Babylon, the greatest city that the sun ever saw, there is nothing now re¬ maining but the walls. Maximus Tyrius J mentions it as lying neglected and forsaken ; and § Lucian intimates, that micus: Est magna solitudo nunc Megalopolis. Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 738. Edit Paris, p. 1073. Amstel. 1707. * Cetero ad solitudinem rediit exhausta vicinitate Seleucioe, ob id con- ditse a Nicatore. Plin. Nat. Ilist. lib. vi. cap. 30. Edit Harduin. Ba§u\oivos Se ravT rjs 7)V Tiva ei5€ ;.-BroAeai v tow Tore fieyicrTriv y]\ios, ovtie v 6ti i)v ei pe rei \os. Babylon omnium, quas unquam sol aspexit urbium maxima, jam nihil praUer muros reliqui habet. Pausan. lib. iii. cap. 33. 1 Ba§v\avos K^y-evris. Max. Tyr. Dissert. 6. prope finem. § Ov ,uera iroXu ica i aim; %T]TT)()n 32« SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. of burnt brick ; and the city- wall is, indeed, the only part of the ancient works in which such materials are said to be used together, where the brick is distinctly stated to have been “ baked in a furnace,” and the compo¬ sition of “ heated bitumen, mixed with the tops of reeds,” used as a cement. The ap¬ pearance of these reeds are fresh and perfect, when examined on the spot, and have been unequivocal to all who have first seen them there ; but the cement cannot, without great difficulty, be brought away undisturbed, as the least touch reduces the whole mass to powder. While the reeds at Akkerkoof and the Mujellibe are long, thick, and of a large size, being the produce of the neighbouring marshes, these at A1 Hheimar appear to be short, thin, and of the smallest size, just in¬ deed as “ the tops of reeds” would be, and from the distinct way in which they are cha¬ racterized, these tops were no doubt cut off, and their smallest and finest parts only mixed with the composition mentioned. Of what precise nature this composition was, it would be useless to hazard a conjec¬ ture, before analysing the substance itself. We have this prominent fact, however, that SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. 327 it was “ a composition of heated bitumen,” which was “ mixed with the tops of reeds.” The order, in which these separate materials are mentioned, would seem to imply that the tops of reeds was the principal, and the heated composition the subordinate, part, as this last is said merely to have been mixed with the former. This might account for the substance bearing no closer resemblance to common bi¬ tumen than it now does, and would also make it more easy to comprehend, how a heated composition of it, mixed with the reeds, per¬ haps chiefly to form them into a sort of paste for use, without destroying the form of the filaments, might, united with pressure and the effects of time through a long series of ages, become reduced to its present state of a white substance, appearing in filaments, like fine pieces of straw, yet pulverizing at the least touch, as the white ashes of any highly-burnt grass would do, if pressed ever so firmly be¬ tween solid substances. In anticipating the objections which might be made to the conclusion, that this mass of A1 Hlieimar was a part of the ancient city-wall, notwithstanding the striking coinci- 328 SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. dences in form, dimensions, situation, and mode of construction already enumerated, the absence of the ditch, as far as our examination goes, may be first considered. As the earth, which was taken out from it, when it was first excavated, is positively stated to have been consumed, for making the bricks of which its lining and the wall were built, no mound of rubbish could have been accumu¬ lated by it, and therefore no traces of such mound could be now expected to be found. The ditch itself would however become liable, from the first moment of the walls being neglected, to be gradually filled up. At the period of the walls being reduced, by Da¬ rius Hystaspes, from their original height, the ditch would offer itself as the nearest, the most capacious, and in every sense the most effectual receptacle for the portion of them that had been levelled ; and nothing is more probable, than that it became so. Every sub¬ sequent dilapidation of the remaining portion would add to the mass below ; and, as it stood immediately on the edge of a sandy Desert, every storm from that quarter would help to complete its filling-up, as such winds SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. 329 have continually done to the half-buried mo¬ numents of Egypt, when near the outer line of the cultivated land. The disappearance of every trace of the ancient ditch can scarcely be regarded there¬ fore as a powerful objection ; when almost every trace of the wall itself is gone. After a lapse of so many ages, as have passed away even since Babylon has been deserted and in ruins, it is rather to be wondered at, that so many vestiges of its former greatness can be traced, than that any fragment of its walls should have hitherto eluded the most diligent search. In all the operations against the city by hostile forces, this would be the part most likely to suffer the destroying vengeance of the enemy ; and when, from the general de¬ cline of wealth, population, and importance of the city, it ceased to become an object of public care to keep these walls in repair, their gradual dilapidation, by the mere effects of time, would be likely to be hastened by the depredations of the very inhabitants who still remained within their enclosure. From the great scarcity of fuel, and its consequent dearth, as well as from the appear¬ ance of many of the mounds of ruins which 330 SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. exist, there is reason to believe, that the great mass of the common dwellings were built of unburnt bricks, which, except in such enor¬ mous piles as the palace and the hanging gar¬ dens, would be always more liable to decay than the burnt kind, independently of their being of inferior cost in the formation. On such dwellings falling into ruins, or on the occasion of any of the people wishing, from other motives, to erect new ones, the ruined walls would be, as Major Rennel says of a deserted city, “a quarry above ground, in which the materials are shaped to every one’s hands and as long as any buildings continued to be erected within the area of Babylon, after its original v ails were found to be too extensive to be kept in repair, there can be little doubt but that such a quarry would be resorted to. The ease with which the burnt bricks could here be separated, would be one powerful reason for preferring such a storehouse to any other ; as, whether this mound of A1 Hheimar, where the bricks are more easily taken aw ay whole than at any other place, be admitted to be part of the wall or not, bitumen and reeds are the only com¬ ponent parts of its cement that are named SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. 331 by the historian, and wherever these are found, the bricks are separated almost without an effort. The prodigious extent of these walls would be another reason for their affording more convenient supplies than any separate edifice ; since, by their circuit round the city, a portion of them was near to every quarter of it ; and for the same reason that the great wall of China was more speedily built, because every district through which it passed constructed its own portion, so the walls of Babylon would be the more rapidly destroyed, and their ma¬ terials consumed, because a part of them was open to the depredations of builders and re¬ pairers in every quarter of the city. The same causes would continue to operate, after its being finally abandoned, when applied to other cities constructed out of its ruins; and when it is considered that tlie present city of Bagdad, the large town of Hillah, and pro¬ bably those of Mesjid Ali and Mesjid Hus¬ sein, with innumerable khans and villages scattered around in every direction, have been almost wholly built out of these walls alone, the wonder at their total disappearance at this distant period will be perhaps lessened. 332 SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. I have said “ these walls alone,” because the burnt bricks, (the only ones sought after,) which are found in the Mujellibe, the Kassr, and the Birs Nimrood, the only three great monuments in which there are any traces of their having been used, are so difficult, in the two last indeed so impossible, to be extracted whole, from the tenacity of the cement in which they are laid, that they could never have been resorted to, while any considerable portion of the walls existed to furnish an easier supply : even now, though some por¬ tions of the great mounds on the eastern bank of the river are occasionally dug into for bricks, they are not extracted without a comparatively great expense, and very few of them whole, in proportion to the great num¬ ber of fragments that come up with them. The total absence of stone for building, and the scarcity of fuel to burn the new bricks that might still be made in the country, are per¬ haps the only reasons why the heaps of Ba¬ bylon are any longer resorted to for materials, not easy to be had from any other quarter. It is not improbable, but that the walls which are stated by Saint Jerome to have served, in his time, as an enclosure for a park, SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. 333 and which, as being only on one side of the river, might then have been thought, without due consideration, to be the ancient walls of Babylon, were merely the boundary of en¬ closure to the hanging gardens and the pa¬ lace, whose remaining semicircular debris is given in the mound (A) of Mr. Rich’s plan. This, which comprises an area of two miles or more in length and breadth, would be at all times more fitted for a park than a square of fifteen miles on each face, the extent of the ancient city, according to the testimony of Herodotus ; besides which, it could hardly have happened, that after the final ruin of the town, in which the walls could not but have suffered, they should have remained, to the time of that writer, in so perfect a state as to serve the purpose he describes. This wall of enclosure to the palace and the hanging gardens was originally of the same height with the reduced standard of the city-walls themselves ; so that, from the sum¬ mit of the gardens, the queen could overlook them. The distance of these gardens from the city- walls would render any view over them useless, and even if nearer, a bare De¬ sert would be an uninteresting prospect ; and 334 SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. if the gardens themselves were but fifty cubits high, and the walls the same, there would be an equality of level. It is probably meant, that the elevated parts of these hanging gar¬ dens commanded a view over their own walls ; and that either these, or the level of the gar¬ dens themselves, were fifty cubits high ; the command of such a prospect over the inte¬ rior of the whole city on both sides, and across the river in the centre, was an object worth attaining. Another reason why the enclosing wall of the palace and hanging gardens continued longer than those of the city itself, might be, that the latter, being intended merely as a security from intrusion, and not as a wall of military defence, was probably constructed of unburnt brick, more particularly as that is the kind found in the very exterior facing of the supposed castellated palace. This therefore being a material unsought after for building, and more easily made on the spot than tran¬ sported from afar, a wall composed of it would be left undisturbed, until some sufficient mo¬ tive urged its demolition, while the great outer wall of the city would be as constantly di¬ minishing, for the reasons before enumerated. SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. 335 The difference in the materials of which these boundaries were constructed, would ac¬ count satisfactorily for the disappearance of every vestige of the one, while the other, though of later destruction, would leave a very considerable mound behind it. The burnt bricks, as soon as discovered, would be fit for use; and there is no authority for be¬ lieving that any thing but such bricks, and their cement, was used in the city-wall ; so that, as their separation was easy, the frag¬ ments occasioned by their disjointing, and the dust of the cement left behind, might easily be dispersed with the winds, and mingled with the Desert sands.# The unburnt bricks, * “ Berosus in Josephus*]* saith, that when Cyrus had taken Babylon, he ordered the outer walls to be pulled down, because the city appealed to him very factious and difficult to he taken. And Xenophon j informs us, that Cyrus obliged the Babylonians to deliver up all their arms upon pain of death, distributed their best houses among his officers, imposed a tribute upon them, appointed a strong garrison, and compelled the Babylonians to defray the -f- K vpos Se B aSvXaiva KaraXa§ofj.evos, ko.l owTegas ra Ti)s woAeais reixv KaTatTKcopcu, dia to Xiav avTui vjpa.yfjLaTLKr)V kcu SvoaXanov (pavrivai tt)v woXiv. - Cyrus autem Babylone capta, constitutoque exteriora ejus munimenta diruere, quod civitatem videret ad res novas mobilem, urbem vero expugnatu difficilem. Contra Apion. lib. i. Sect. 22. p. 1344. Edit. Hudson. I Xenoph. Cyropaed. lib. vii. p. 114 et 117. Edit. Steph. 336 SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. on the contrary, would constantly crumble in their fall ; so that a wall of them, beginning to loosen at the top, would, by the falling down of the rubbish on each side, soon be¬ come a mound of apparently pure earth, strewed with fragments of such materials as might have been near, and be afterwards sprinkled over with scanty weeds growing out of the surface, which is the case with many of the mounds at Nineveh, at Memphis, and other Egyptian cities, and even at Babylon itself. , To return from this digression to a consi¬ deration of the arguments used against the enormous circuit of the walls. Their prodi¬ gious extent appears to have been doubted only from the disproportionate size which they bore to the enclosures of more modern cities : since London and Paris are cited in the comparison, and an estimate is made of Babylon being, by the highest standard, eight times as large as the former in the area of its walls ; and, by the lowest standard, in the pro¬ portion of five to two larger than the latter. charge, being desirous to keep them poor, as the best means of keeping them obedient.” — Newton on the Prophecies pp. 168, 169. SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABA'LON. 337 When it is said, however, that Nineveh was “ an exceeding great city of three days’ jour¬ ney in length,” and that Jonah did not begin to preach its destruction “until he had en¬ tered into it one day’s journey,” its extent is not objected to, because it is on the authority of a Prophet.* This city is, indeed, said by Strabo to have been larger than Babylon ;■ f and Diodorus describes it to be an oblong figure of ninety stadia in breadth, and one hundred and fifty stadia in length, j: extending a front of nearly nineteen miles along the eastern bank of the Tigris, and a breadth of about eleven miles from the river to the mountains on one side only, which was, in¬ deed, nearly as large as the largest dimensions assumed for Babylon. “ Taking the extent of Gour, the ancient capital of Bengal, at the most reasonable cal¬ culation,” says Major Rennel, “ it was not less than fifteen miles in length, extending along the old bank of the Ganges, and from two to three in breadth.” The Ayeen Akbaree states, according to the same author, that the wall of Mahmoodabad, in Guzerat, was a square of seven cosses, which are equal to about thirteen * Jonah, chap. iii. v. 3, 4. -f* p. 737- + lib- ii- c. 11, VOL. II. Z 338 SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. miles ; and the distance between the most re¬ mote of the ruined edifices of the Egyptian Thebes, both of which are temples, and there¬ fore not likely to have been situated in the very opposite extremities of the town, is up¬ wards of nine miles, as a diameter only. While the extent of such cities is admitted in some, and known by actual measurement in other, instances ; there seems to be no suffi¬ cient reason for rejecting the testimony of Herodotus, when he gives to Babylon an ex¬ tent of a square of fifteen miles on each side, taking his four hundred and eighty stadia at their highest standard of eight to a mile. In reasoning on this point, by which, as Major Rennel says, the public belief has been led, the principal objection is resolved at last into the improbability of so vast a contiguous space having ever been built on. But, says the same writer, “ that the wall might have been continued to the extent given, does not appear so improbable ; for we cannot suppose that so many of the eminent writers could have been misled concerning this point. The Macedonians and others had viewed it, and both Strabo and Diodorus appear to have written from documents furnished by them, SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. 330 and might also have conversed with persons who had seen Babylon, and they all speak of it as of a city whose circuit was of wonderful extent ; therefore, we ought to be prepared for something very much out of the common way.” The writers who, after Herodotus and Pliny, give about the number of three hundred and sixty-five stadia for the extent, seem, from the reason assigned by Clitarchus and others, to have shaped this as a favourite number, from its corresponding to the days of the year, as is still done in estimating the number of win¬ dows in large cathedrals, the number of doors in the Palace of Alhambra in Spain, the mina¬ rets in some of the large Oriental cities, and the ruined towns in the deserted districts of the Hauran. It is true that in some cases, as Rennel has observed, the very act of connect¬ ing the number with that of the days contain¬ ed in the year, seems to prove that it ap¬ proached nearly to it. But in these countries, sufficient instances could be cited, to shew that this number is used indiscriminately to express an amount as frequently above as be¬ neath the truth, and often, indeed, very far from it in either case. It would be under- 340 SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. rating the general veracity of the authorities cited, however, to suppose that some slight regard was not had to an approximation at least of the reported and the real number. When Pliny and Solinus give their state¬ ment at sixty Roman miles, which, at eight stadia to a mile, agrees with Herodotus, it is said that they merely follow him. But though Strabo, (whose number of three hundred and eighty-five is thought, by Rennel, to have been corrupted from three hundred and sixty-five,) Diodorus from Ctesias, Clitarchus who accom¬ panied Alexander, and, lastly, Quintus Curtius, all hang round the number of the days in the year, with a tale affixed as a reason for that choice which itself would awake suspicion, it is nowhere suggested that this tale becoming current after the standard was first fixed by it, the others merely followed its authority, without correcting it by actual measurement. The remark of Mr. Rich on this subject in¬ cludes all that need be said on the compara¬ tive value of these testimonies at such dif- fferent periods of time. “ Of all the ancient writers who have described Babylon,” says, that gentleman, “ Herodotus and Diodorus are the most detailed, and much weight ought SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. 341 certainly to be placed on the accounts of the former of these historians, who was an eye¬ witness of what he himself relates, notwith¬ standing the exaggeration and credulity which may, in many instances, he laid to his charge, when he reports from the information of others. The accounts of late writers (he con¬ tinues) are of comparatively small value ; for though Strabo’s general accuracy and personal experience render his description of great in¬ terest, as far as it goes, yet he could have seen Babylon only at a period when its public build¬ ings had already become heaps of rubbish ; and, consequently, must have depended upon more ancient authorities for particular ac¬ counts of most of them.” In short, the city, of which so extensive a traveller as Herodotus, who had seen all the great monuments of the age in which he lived, had said, “ Its extent, its beauty, and its magni¬ ficence, surpass all that has come within my knowledge the city, which is characterized in a hundred places throughout the Scrip¬ tures, from the denunciations of judgment by the Prophets, to the dreamer of dreams in the Revelations, as emphatically and peculiarly “ the Great” the city, which is expressly called 342 SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. “ The Glory of Kingdoms, and the Beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency,” must be thought to have been at least as great as most of the large cities coeval with it in the East, whose enor¬ mous dominions are undisputed, admitting even that a considerable portion of its celebri¬ ty arose out of the conspicuous part which it bore in the wars and revolutions of the Eastern world* * In a Memoir on some points of Ancient Geography, and a Dissertation on the Ancient Stadium, by M. de la Nauze, the author says, “ On objecte qu’ Herodote donne a Bablyone quatre cents quatre vingts stades de circuit (Herodote, chap. i. p. 178,) ce qui seroit, ajoute-t-on, pro- digieux et incroyable, si Ton ne reduisoit le stade a une courte mesure: — comme si Babylone avoit ete une ville or¬ dinaire ; comme si Aristote n’assuroit pas que le titre de ville ne lui convenoit pas plus qu’il conviendroit au Pelo- ponesse, en cas qu’on l’entourat de murailles ; comme si Diodore n’avertissoit pas que Babylone renfermait de terres labourables, et d’autres lieux inhabites; comme si l’enceinte de Nanquin a la Chine n’egaloit pas, a peu pres, aujourd’hui, non compris meme Fimmensite des fauxbourgs, ce que les stades d’Herodote, pris pour des stades de dix au mille, donnent a l’enceinte de Babylone. — Quant a la hauteur et a la largeur de mur de la ville, qui faisoit alors toute la surete d’un empire, en mettant l’ennemi dans l’impossibilite de le franchir ; ces murs de Babylone auroient-ils ete une des sept merveilles, s’ils n’eussent pas offert le spectacle le plus ex¬ traordinaire et le plus frappant ? Ainsi les dimensions d’une telle ville, etant donnees comme etonnantes par SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. 343 “ It is a question,” says Rennel, “ which no one can positively answer, what proportion of the space within the walls of Babylon were occupied by buildings ?” Nor would the ap¬ pearance of the ruins, at this now distant period, justify any hasty conclusion thereon; first, because many of the heaps appearing as mounds formed by ruined buildings may have been caused in some other way; and next, because places not now having a vestige for building material apparent on them, may once have borne edifices which have totally disap¬ peared ; either of which data would give false results. If one were to judge from such pre¬ sent appearances of the ground, the conclu¬ sion, I think, would be, that not more than one- third of the space at the most had been built on, and that two-thirds thus remained open for cultivated land. Quintus Curtius positively says, that the buildings were not contiguous to the walls, but that some considerable space was left all around, nor was the enclosed space entirely ceux-la meme qui en dtoient les temoins oculaires, s’accor- clent beaucoup mieux avec un stade de soixante seize toises qu’avec un stade beaucoup plus court.” — Memoires de r Academie Roy ale des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, tome xxvi. p. 369- 344 SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. occupied by buildings, nor more than eighty stadia of it ; neither do the houses join, (con¬ tinues he,) perhaps from motives of safety. The remainder of the space is cultivated, so that, in the event of a siege, the inhabitants might not be compelled to depend on supplies from without.* Major Rennel was in doubt whether a square of eighty stadia, or eighty square stadia, was meant by the expression of Curtius, though he adopts the former as more conformable to the idea of the space requisite for the supposed population. This is between a third and a half of a square of four hundred and twenty stadia, assigned by Herodotus to the whole, and gives us some positive data of proportion ; and when it is considered, that the inhabitants really did subsist, through a long siege, on the produce of their own lands within the walls, as affirmed by Herodotus ; and that, when the city was taken by Cyrus at night, the inhabi¬ tants of the opposite quarter of it did not know the fact, until three hours after sun-rise on the following morning, as reported by Xenophon ;f * Hook v. p. 4. •f* “ The § city was taken in the night of a great annual § Herod, lib. i. cap. 191. p. 79. Edit. Gale. Xen'opli. Cyropred, lib. vii. p. 113. Edit. Stepli. SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. 345 the proportion of open space may be thought by no means exaggerated, and consequently the extent of the circuit of the walls, however enormous it may appear when given at its highest standard, ought not to be considered as at all beyond the truth. The conclusion then would be, as Mr. Rich suggests, that, great as the actual size of Babylon was, the number of its inhabitants bore no proportion to this, compared with the relative size and population of the capitals of our own times ; and that its streets, which are said to have led from gate to gate across the area, through cultivated land, over which buildings were distributed in groups and festival, while the inhabitants were dancing, drinking, and revelling ; and as * Aristotle reports, it had been taken three days, before some part of the city perceived it ; but ^Herodotus’s account is more modest and probable, that the extreme parts of the city were in the hands of the enemy, before they who dwelt in the middle of it knew any thing of their danger.” — Newton on the Prophecies, p. 166. * Arist. Polit. lib. iii. cap. 3. rfs ye cpaoiv eaAaievtas TpiT-pv rjfjepav ovk aurOecrOai ti fiepos rips iroAeas. qua tertium jam diem capta, partem quan- tlam urbis non sensisse dicunt. p. 341. vol. ii. Edit. Du Val. f Herod, ibid, vno 5e fj.eya.8eos t rjs itoAlos, as AeyeTai vno rav t avry omrffievav , Tav n epi ra eo’xaTa ttj s noAtos eaAaKorwv , tovs to \jeaov ouceovras Tav Ba§uAaviao, ou fiavSaveiv eaAuxoTas. Tantaque urbis erat magnitudo, tu (quemadmodum narrant accolae) quum capti essent qui extremas urbis partes incolebant, ii qui mediam urbem incolerent id nescirent. 346 SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. patches, would convey, to a modern, the idea of roads through an enclosed district, rather than the division and avenues of a regular city. If the reasonings on these numerous facts and authorities be thought to have any weight in removing the few objections which might have been urged against the extent of the walls of Babylon, and the original standard of Herodotus be admitted, then this ruined wall at A1 Hheimar, which is assumed to be a portion of the enclosure of the city, will be found to be in the exact place where such fragment, if any existed, might be expected to be found. Had the city been a perfect square, facing the cardinal points, at right angles with the river, and had that river divided it exactly in the centre, the distance of A1 Hheimar, from the mound of the Mujellibe or Makloobe, would then, indeed, be greater than half the extent assumed for its area ; as it is at least ten miles, and this on one side of the river only. But, as Rennel observes, we are not told, in positive terms, whether the four sides of Ba¬ bylon fronted the four cardinal points of the heavens, or not. The only notice concerning SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. 347 it is, where Diodorus says, “ The Euphrates runs to the south , through the midst of Ba¬ bylon,” which may be meant only in a general sense. Some of the early fanciful plans of that city, where it is not only made to face the cardinal points, but the river is led through it in so straight a line as to divide it into two equal parts, may therefore be justly disregard¬ ed. Herodotus merely says, “ The great river Euphrates divides Babylon in two parts, and the walls meet and form an angle with the river at each extremity of the town without specifying either equal parts or right angles in either case. Judging from the general course of the stream, which is now about north-east and south-west, and supposing the judicious ar¬ rangement of giving the principal streets an oblique direction to the sun, for the sake of greater shade, it is probable, that the form and direction of the city-walls were nearly those which Rennel has assumed for them, in the ex¬ cellent map of the positions and environs of ancient Babylon, which accompanies his Me¬ moir. If the stream then entered the citv %/ nearer to its north-west than its north-east angle, as there delineated, the distance of ten 348 SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. miles on a course of west by north half north, between the wall at A1 Hheimar, would not be greater than could be admitted within the square of fifteen miles, though both these ob¬ jects are on the same side of the river ; sup¬ posing the former of these to have been near the Cissian or Susian gate, in the south-east extremity of the town, and the latter to have been near the centre of the eastern division, with regard to its length, and close upon the river’s bank, as it is both described and found to be. Before we descended from the ruined wall, which had given rise to all this train of argu¬ ment and speculation, we dug away some of the accumulated rubbish, to extract some fresh bricks with their white cement, in the hope that we might be able to carry with us a more perfect specimen as far as Bagdad, for the satisfaction of Mr. Rich, whose previous va¬ luable labours, and constant interest in all that regarded the ruins of Babylon, gave him a claim to the gratitude of every one who might visit this interesting site, the ruins of which lay so many ages in darkness, and which he was the first to render at all intelligible. It was about one o’clock when we remount- SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. 340 ed our horses at the foot of A1 Hheimar, to return to our companions, whom we had left in the Sheikh's tomb. The heat was now in¬ tense, at least five degrees above that shewn by the thermometer on our coming out, when it stood at 135° in the sun ; but I was too im¬ patient, to lose even a moment in the exami¬ nation of it. We had the sun now beating on our fore¬ heads, and the wind blowing directly in our teeth, with a glare reflected from the yellow soil, that made the eyes ache to look upon it. My Koord guide, who was one of the bravest of men on all other occasions, was dismayed and terrified at this, for he talked of nothing but the Simoom wind, and its sudden and fatal effects. We muffled up our faces with the ends of the keffeeah and turban which we each wore, poised our lances across the saddle to admit of our stooping forward sufficiently to avoid the sun beating on our brows, and rode slowly on, without uttering a syllable ; and even when a hotter and a stronger blast than usual of the north-west wind came upon us, we turned together to receive it on our backs, without exchanging a word, while our 350 SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. horses sidled together for safety, as if par¬ taking of our own sensations. We reached the Sheikh's tomb in about half an hour, our clothes filled w ith sand ; our nos¬ trils, ears, and mouth with finer dust ; our skin dried up to cracking ; and both of us parched and fainting with thirst. Our com¬ panions, whom we had left behind, had nei¬ ther of them slept, on account of the extreme heat, as they expressed it, though they were reposing under the shelter of a thick walled building. As there remained only about a pint of water in the dregs of the leathern bottle, and our companions declared that none had been drank by them in our absence, this small portion was in justice divided among us all. It served, indeed, but barely to wash out the dust from our mouths, without swallow- ing a drop, which having done, we mounted again, and set out together on our way to Hillah. The nature of our situation having made us all equal, our guide and servant gave their opinions on the steps best to be taken, with as much freedom as ourselves. It was thus that both of them insisted on our having SEARCH AFTER TIIE WALLS OF BABYLON. 351 taken a track too much to the southward, and pointed out a course, of about north-north- west, as leading direct to Hillah. The fact is, that as neither of them had ever been at this spot before, they recollected none of the few leading objects which were to be seen ; and, therefore, had the most confused idea of the relative points of bearing. They seemed like ships adrift in a boundless ocean, without a compass to steer by ; and, had they been alone, would probably neither have reached Hillah, nor even the banks of the Euphrates, for the night. Mr. Bellino was half inclined to follow their suggestions, and give the cast¬ ing vote in the case ; urging, that their local experience, and knowledge of the country generally, gave them a decided claim to be heard. On this, as on a thousand similar occasions perseverance was the only virtue to oppose to wavering opinions. I had taken bearings of the great heaps near the river, previous to our quitting A1 Hheimar ; and having again looked at my compass, when those heaps were less distinctly visible from the plain, silently pur¬ sued a steady course. The two advisers of a more northern route actually drew off, so that 852 SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. we gradually receded from each other ; while Mr. Bellino, being at first undecided which to follow, kept a middle course : so that, in an hour after setting out, we were all as widely separated, as if we had belonged to different parties or tribes. At length a point of union offered itself: after going over long mounds, lying in pa¬ rallel ranges of two and three beside each other, and passing heaps of brick and pottery, such as was described on coming out, we dis¬ covered an enclosed spot of verdure, with date and other trees, to which Ave all, as if by common consent, hastened in search of water and shade. On reaching this garden, we found an old Dervish, who called himself the Imaum of a sanctuary here, sacred to Suliman ibn Daoud el Nebbe, or Solomon the son of David the Prophet. We alighted and threw our¬ selves along the ground, beneath the shade of some overspreading trees ; and having sa¬ tisfied our first want, by drinking immode¬ rately of some brackish water, with which \ve filled our leathern bottle from an earthen jar, we all fell insensibly asleep, without even fastening our horses ; these, being seemingly as much oppressed by the heat as ourselves, SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. 353 crept under the branches of the trees to seek a cooler air, and, lying down on the grass, re¬ mained perfectly still, while we lay on and near them, as if we were all members of the same weary family. It was nearly five o’clock when we awoke, by which time the old Imaum, or Sheikh of the garden, had procured for us a melon, which we devoured greedily, with some dried and hard bread that still remained in our sack. This done, we set out again on our way, and, about an hour before sun-set, came into the great public road from Bagdad to Hillah, a mile or two to the south of the ruined heaps of Babylon, by which we had latterly directed our course. Our approach to the bank of the Euphrates was through a broad road, lined on each side by a high wall of mud, built, like those of the gardens of Damascus, of large masses of earth, of an oblong form, placed on their edges instead of their flat parts, and enclosing thick and extensive forests of tall and full-leaved date-trees, now laden with clusters of fruit. At sun-set we entered the eastern division of Hillah, or that part of it which lies on the eastern side of the Euphrates. It appeared 2 a VOL. II. 354 SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. to consist chiefly of one good street, leading directly to the river, and used as a bazar, with a number of smaller ones branching off from it on each side. It is closed at its western end by a large door, through which we now passed, and came immediately on the bridge of boats, which here forms the passage of communication across the river. The boats composing this bridge, as well as the road formed over them, are both inferior to those of the bridge across the Tigris at Bagdad, and render it dangerous to pass on horse¬ back among a crowd. We happened to be here at an hour when this bridge was particularly thronged, and as every person’s attention was arrested by the sight of Mr. Bellino in an European dress, the crowd pressed closer and closer together, by the successive halting of the curious to stare with open mouths of inquiry on the stranger. Our Koord guide, who forced his way before us, rode a very fiery horse, which every now and then reared back on his heels, and made the boat over which he happened to be, roll from side to side, which, giving a correspond¬ ing motion to the planks of the bridge, never failed to be followed by a shriek from that SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. 355 part of the crowd who were near. My com¬ panion, who rode next in order, necessarily partook of the general alarm ; and being na¬ turally impatient, gave vent to the feelings of the moment, in language, which, though no one understood, every one interpreted to be expressive of anger ; while I, who rode be¬ hind, in quality of his attendant or escort, had enough to do to keep off with my lance the train of insolent hoys, who had gathered round to cry out “ Frinjee ! Gaiour ! Kafr!” (Frank! Unbeliever! Infidel!) and purposely to jump on the elastic planks of the bridge, in order to increase the general confusion and alarm. It was in the midst of this scene of mirth to some, of fear to others, and of vexation and annoyance to myself, that two Bedouins pass¬ ing by, halted to address me, calling out very gravely, “ Ya Arab, ibn Arab,” (You Arab, the son of an Arab,) as a man of pure descent among the Israelites was usually called “ a Hebrew of the Hebrews.” I thought their inquiry frivolous, when they asked me if the horseman before the stranger whom I escorted was a Koord. I replied in the affirmative, as the shortest answer I could give, and which I 35 C SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. thought would prevent any farther questions. But I was mistaken. They first asked what business I could have to be travelling with a Koord ; and, before I could answer, abused me for associating with a people whom the Arabs of these parts seem to hate most cordially. This was neither a moment nor a place for explanation, so that I left them undisturbed in their impression of my being an Arab, who had not a proper regard to the honour of his race ; for though the being an escort to a Frank and a Christian seemed by no means objectionable to them, yet partaking that of¬ fice with a Koord was talked of as if it were an indelible stain upon the Arab character. “ El humd ul Illah !” — “ Praise be to God !” — was heard from twenty tongues at once, as we made our last step from the bridge, upon a firmer footing, and “ Mash Allah !” and “ Suit Saliimee !” (cries of wonder and self-congratu¬ lation on arriving at the other side of the stream in safety,) followed, as if we had escaped from the horrors of a storm at sea, rather than from the dangers of a floating bridge in a calm and not a rapid river. As well as the confusion of our passage across it would admit, I observed the length SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. 357 of the bridge to measure a hundred and ninety-five horse-paces, which would not be far short of the stadium assigned by Strabo to the breadth of the Euphrates at Babylon, par¬ ticularly as the bridge is in the narrowest part. Mr. Niebuhr makes the stream here four hundred Danish feet ; Mr. Rich, by a graduated line, seventy-five fathoms, or four hundred and fifty English feet ; and its ave¬ rage breadth, through the site of the whole ruins, may be taken as from four hundred and fifty to five hundred and fifty, the greatest breadth being thus one-fifth less than the sta¬ dium assigned. This is narrower than the Ti¬ gris at the bridge of Bagdad, by ninety-two horse-paces, or nearly one-third, according to my measurement of it in going across. Its depth here was found by Mr. Rich, in the month of May, to be two and a half fathoms, erroneously printed “ twenty-one fathoms” in the Memoir in “ Les Mines de l’Orient.” Not¬ withstanding, however, that the stream is thus narrow, its current appeared to run at a rate of less than two miles per hour ; while the Ti¬ gris at Bagdad, at the moment of our crossing it, ran certainly at the full rate of three, and 358 SEARCH AFTER THE WALLS OF BABYLON. sometimes rushes at the rate of six or seven miles an hour. We forced our way with considerable diffi¬ culty through the crowds collected at the door by which the western quarter of Hillah is guarded, like its eastern one, towards the bridge ; and getting soon afterwards to the khan, the discharge of artillery from the go¬ vernor’s residence in the town announced the appearance of the moon of Ramazan. As all without seemed noise and bustle and riotous exultation, we confined ourselves within the caravanserai, sufficiently happy, after our fa¬ tiguing and burning excursion, to find a place of shelter, refreshment, and repose. ■ • CHAPTER XI. TOWER OF BABEL AND PLAIN OF SHINAR, NEAR THE BANKS OF THE EUPHRATES. CHAPTER XI. VISIT TO THE TOWER OF BABEL AND TEMPLE OF BELUS, OR THE BlRS NIMROOD. July 27th. — Our first duty was to send the letters, with which Mr. Rich had kindly fur¬ nished us, to the governor of Hillah, and to a powerful Arab of the same town, named Esau Bek. The former was inaccessible, being with his Harem ; but the latter had no sooner received our letter, than he sent to announce his intention of visiting us. It was about noon when he arrived at the caravanserai, accompanied by a younger brother, and a large train of servants. During the interview, after he had assured us that he was the slave of our wishes, and that the exe¬ cution of our orders and the safety of our persons were on his head, both for the high respect he bore towards our nation, and his 300 VISIT TO THE TOWER OF BABEL personal esteem for its able representative at Bagdad, we repeated to him what had been already stated in the letter, that the object of our coming thus far was to visit the ruin called the Birs Nimrood, in the western Desert, and we fixed on an early hour on the following morning for commencing our journey : he then quitted us, with a promise that all should be ready for our setting out at the hour and in the manner we desired. In the course of the day, we had received information of a riot having taken place before the house of the governor on the preceding evening, in which one man was killed and two wounded. This circumstance, added to the notoriously bad character of the people of Hillah, who murder their governors and assas¬ sinate each other with impunity, with the in¬ solence and contempt which they manifested towards my European companion as we en¬ tered the town, induced us to remain quietly within the khan for the remainder of the day. July 28th — We were on horseback before daylight, and repaired to the house of Esau Bek, to receive our escort for the visit to the temple of Belus, or Birs Nimrood. We were AND TEMPLE OF BELUS. 361 here joined by the younger brother of this chief, and six horsemen, all well mounted and armed, under whose protection we left the town. The dawn had just began to break as we went out of the miserable mud-walls which encompass Hillah on the west. These are built on an inclined slope, turretted along the top, and barely serve the purpose of a check against the intrusion of the Desert Arabs. Within these walls is a large and high mound of rubbish, the surface of which is covered with fragments of broken pottery, burnt bricks, and other remains of antiquity, which I at first conceived to be the ruin of some large mass of Babylonian building; but on a closer inspection, it appeared to have been gradually accumulated from the rejected ma¬ terials of which the town itself is built, and which were apparently all brought from the ruins of Babylon. We went out from the town in nearly a westerly direction, keeping close to the south¬ ern edge of long and high mounds, which ap¬ pear to have formed the banks of the canal leading from the Euphrates into this western plain. In less than an hour we left this, and 3G2 VISIT TO THE TOWER OF BABER going off* more southerly, directed our course straight towards the mined monument of which we had come in search, and whose towering height began to shew itself from the moment of the day-light being broadly opened. Its appearance, as we approached it, was that of a fallen and decayed pyramid, with the portion of a tower remaining on its summit ; and every step that we drew nearer to it, impressed us more and more with a conviction, that this was by far the most con¬ spicuous of all the monuments of Babylon, of which any remains are now to be traced, and gradually strengthened the opinion that it was the celebrated Tower or Temple of Jupiter Belus, which had been sought for, and as the explorers considered even recog¬ nised, among the ruined heaps on the other side of the Euphrates. We had no sooner reached the spot, than we ascended hastily on its western side, over a very steep hill, formed of the broken frag¬ ments accumulated round its base, and all evidently fallen from the top. When we had gained its summit, and recovered breath by resting for a few minutes among the rock-like masses of the ruin there, our first duty was AND TEMPLE OF BELUS. 3G3 to note the bearings of surrounding objects, for the purpose of fixing more accurately the relative position of this monument ;* since, from the loose description of Pere Emanuel, it had been admitted, by Rennel, to be within the site of Babylon, and from the hasty ac¬ count of Niebuhr, it had been thrown with¬ out that site, for at least two or three miles beyond the walls, though both of these tra¬ vellers described the same identical ruin. The direction of Kerbela, or Mesjid Hus¬ sein, was pointed out to us in a north-west direction, and of Mesjid Ali in a southern one ; but though the morning was beautifully clear, and the hour favourable for seeing to a great distance, neither the one nor the other were at this moment visible. It was called a day’s journey from hence to each, without any one being able to specify the number * Bearings, taken by compass from the summit of the Birs Nimrood : — Mound of Mujellibe, or Makloube, N. E. by N. 10 miles. — Mesjid el Shems, at Hellah, N. E. by E. 5 miles. — Kiff el Yahooda, the Tomb of Ezekiel, S. 7 miles. — Khan Dubbey, S. W. by S, 8 miles. — Khan Gha- neiza, W. by S. g S. 3 miles. — First Lake, or Marsh, S. W. to W. S. W. 2 miles. — Second Lake, or Marsh, from W. 2 j miles, to N. N. W. 8 miles. — Third Lake, or Marsh, N.W. to N. E. by N. 2 to 3 miles. .'5C4 VISIT TO THE TOWER OF BABEL of hours ; and the khans mentioned in the bearings were said to be on the direct road from Mesjid Ali to Mesjid Hussein, a road so notoriously infested by the Desert Arabs to the westward of it, that not a year passed without a number of Persian pilgrims being stripped and plundered, whether in strong parties or alone. I inquired particularly after the ruined site called Brousa, or Boursa, by the natives, and supposed to mark the place of the ancient Borasippa of Strabo, the Barsita of Ptolemy, and the Byrsia of Justin,* the place to which Alexander retired when he was warned by the Chaldeans not to enter Babylon by the east. Near as this place was to us, however, and commonly as it was thought to be known among the people of the country, there was but one of all our party who did not abso¬ lutely deny its existence, contending that Boursa, or Birs, were but different ways of * Alexander, being influenced by the advice of the sooth¬ sayers not to enter this city, turned aside to Byrsia, a city heretofore unpeopled, on the other side of the Euphrates ; but, being importuned by Anaxarchus, the philosopher, to despise the presages of magicians as false and uncertain, he afterwards returned to the city. — Justin , chap. xii. AND TEMPLE OF BELUS. 365 pronouncing the same word, which was no other than the name of the place on which we stood. The Arab, who admitted the existence of this disputed spot, under the name given, pointed it out in a south-east direction, but said it was not visible from hence. He knew not the accurate distance from this spot, but supposed it to be four hours’ brisk journey. This also he said was about its distance from Hillah, adding, that it was fully an hour’s ride from the west of the bank of the Eu¬ phrates, and therefore could not be visited without a large escort, on account of the character of the Arabs who encamp near the spot. The view from hence, in every direction, was most dreary: a few distant lines of date- groves was all that relieved the eastern waste, marking the course of the river through the plain ; and to the westward all was one yel¬ low Desert, seemingly as destitute of animal as of vegetable life. Between us and the edge of these sandy wilds was a line of marshes, lakes, and morasses — for at different periods of the year they deserved the name of either — so that the state of the country here at least had seemingly undergone very little al- VISIT TO THE TOWER OF BABEE 300 teration since the time of Babylon’s founda¬ tion or decay* We could trace no vestige of a wall in this direction, either in the shape of mounds, or otherwise, throughout all the range of our view. It is true, that the situation of a wall near marshes and loose sands would be un¬ favourable to its remaining visible for any length of time after it had been once broken down ; and it is not, perhaps, improbable, but that it might have been more neglected in this quarter than elsewhere from the first decline of Babylon, as the local features of the situa¬ tion in its marshes, morasses, and loose sand, * “ It is somewhat remarkable, that one of Isaiah’s pro¬ phecies concerning Babylonis entitled (xxi. 1.) ‘ The burden of the desert of the sea,’ or rather, ‘ of the plain of the sea,’ for Babylon was seated in a plain, and surrounded by water. The propriety of the expression consists in this, not only that any large collection of waters in the oriental style is called ‘ a sea,’ but also that the places about Babylon, as *J*Abydenus informs us out of Megasthenes, are said from the beginning to have been overwhelmed with waters, and to have been called ‘ the sea.’ ” — Neivton on the Prophe¬ cies, p. 161. "t A £ 7 c r a: 8e navra u c- v a.p\i]s vSwp eivcu, &aAacrv n apOav f}a VOL. II. 402 OBSERVATIONS MADE AT BAGDAD. raneous cells for shelter during the day ; in both cases, going nearly without garments, and finding it a sufficient penance to dress even in the lightest robes for an hour at breakfast, which was never later than seven o’clock in the morning, and again for dinner, which was always an hour after sun-set. By a Tartar who had recently arrived from Constantinople, we heard the most distressing accounts of the state of the country, which was parched and burnt up, in the immediate neighbourhood of Bagdad and Mousul, by the excessive heat ; and accidents of death from the same cause were daily reported to us. We learnt, at the same time, the fact of a kellek or raft, coming from Mousul to Bag¬ dad by the Tigris, having been attacked by Arabs in a narrow part of the river, and every creature on board it murdered. The continuance of the Fast of Ramazan, added to my yet weak state of health, and the oppressive heat of the weather, were suffi¬ cient reasons for my postponing the further prosecution of my journey towards India, until more favourable combinations might allow me to do so without great risk. During this period of my recent illness, two OBSERVATIONS MADE AT BAGDAD. 403 vessels had arrived at Bussorah from India, one of them the East-India Company’s cruiser Aurora, which brought despatches, and then sailed again directly, in order to take round the Bishop of Calcutta from Bombay to Ben¬ gal ; the other, his Majesty’s ship Favourite, the Honourable Captain Maude, who had taken an English vessel from Muskat, laden with slaves, and departed from Bussorah again so soon, that there was no hope of my reach¬ ing her in time. The tedium of my confinement was con¬ siderably relieved by the number and variety of excellent books which Mr. Rich’s library contained, and which were accompanied also by the most unreserved communication from that gentleman himself, of every thing cal¬ culated to increase the interest of my future journey eastward. In his extensive and valua¬ ble collection of antiques, I found also a source of amusement and information. These were chiefly Babylonian, and consisted of cylinders, amulets, idols, and intaglios, of the most curious kind. Among these I was more parti¬ cularly struck with some cylinders, drilled through with holes, as if to be worn round the neck, the ornaments on which were purely 404 OBSERVATIONS MADE AT BAGDAD. Egyptian ; the winged globe, wavy lines of water, the lotus, the moon, a globe in a boat, sacrifices of gazelles, rams’ heads ; a lunated female divinity, like Isis ; priests in the same attitudes, and divinities on similar thrones to those of Egypt, with a mixture of Persepo- litan figures and symbols on the same objects, and most of them accompanied by inscriptions in the arrow-headed character, such as has been found at the ruins of Persepolis, Baby¬ lon, and Nineveh. Besides these, were a fine ram’s head in agate, as of Jupiter Ammon ; a cow, or bull, in copper, as of Apis or Mnevis ; a male figure in a sitting attitude, but unsup¬ ported by a seat, bearing an open scroll on his knees, the whole of copper, and in the most decidedly Egyptian style ; a porcelain or opaque . stone scarabeus, bored through with a longitudinal hole covered with small in¬ scriptions ; and many other smaller articles, which, if presented to me as Egyptian, I should have received as such, where the Ba¬ bylonian writing did not prove them to have had a more eastern origin. Among the coins were a number of silver ones that had been dug up in an urn on the banks of the Tigris, which were obtained with OBSERVATIONS MADE AT BAGDAD. 405 difficulty by Mr. Rich, as the Pasha wished to conceal the fact of treasure having been found in his dominions, from a fear that its amount would be exaggerated by the time the news reached Constantinople, and a demand of resti¬ tution from the Sultan might follow, as all treasure found in this way is his legal right. These coins included Athenian, Samian, and Corinthian, with several of Alexander and Antiochus. There were also others of silver, bearing on one side a turretted fortress, with two lions underneath it, and on the reverse, a figure about to stab the unicorn, so frequent¬ ly represented in the Persepolitan sculptures; so that these coins were most probably of that place. Besides these, were gold and silver medals of the Sassanides, of Sapor, and Ar- deschir, collected at different periods, and many Cufic rings, seals, and talismans, with holy sentences engraven on them. It may be noted as a singular fact regard¬ ing these Babylonian cylinders, which appear to have been worn around the neck, as the amulets of Egypt, that one of them was found by Baron Haller, a German traveller, well known in Greece, on the Plain of Marathon, no doubt left there by one of the Persian 4o<; OBSERVATIONS MADE AT BAGDAD. army, on that memorable clay, and perhaps worn by one of the Babylonian legion, the destruction of whose corpse it had so long survived. The larger antiques comprehended a figure in brass, embracing a large lingam between its knees, precisely in the style of the Hin¬ doo representation of that emblem ; a block of black basalt, much injured, but on which was still seen, well sculptured, a fine ram, fronting a monolithic temple, like that before which the cat is seen sitting in the temple of Hermonthis, in Egypt, the shape of the mono¬ lith, as well as the attitude of the animals, being, in both cases, exactly the same ; this stone was covered with inscriptions, in the arrow-headed character, very neatly cut. On another large block of stone was seen the figure of a priest, leaning on a. staff, well preserved, and terminating in a flower on the top. This was no doubt a Babylonian relic, as Diodorus Siculus says, that the Babylo¬ nians all bore in their hands a well-fashioned stick, at the extremity of which was a rose, or some other ornament ; for, he adds, it was not permitted for them to carry these sticks without their having some distinctive sign. OBSERVATIONS MADE AT BAGDAD, 407 Such staffs are often seen in the hands of Egyptian priests, and other figures, on their temples, and when borne by Isis, it is gene¬ rally terminated by a lotus* Among the smaller intaglios, was a singular figure, altogether composed of globes of large diameter for the body, and smaller ones for the head, the legs, and the arms, — probably having some astronomical allusions. One of the agate cylinders was found at Nineveh, and seemed to have some of the constellations de¬ signed on it, with spirited figures of animals and men, in action, well cut. The cylinders were in general, however, of a composition not unlike plumbago, but finer and harder. The silver coins, found buried on the banks of the Tigris, included some which had, on one side, a sea-horse in the water, and over it, as if on the surface of the sea, an old Greek galley, filled with armed men, with helmets and shields ; the design of the reverse was quite unintelligible. On others were, on one side, an owl, with hawk's legs ; and, on the other, a bearded figure, driving a pair of horses in the sea, as if emblematic of Minerva and Neptune. Others, again, had on one side * See Memoires de l’Acad. Itoyale, tome xxix. p. 1 46. 408 OBSERVATIONS MADE AT BAGDAD. a castle ; and, on the other, a beautiful chariot and pair of horses, with two figures, a warrior and charioteer, as in the sculptures at the cave of Beit el Waali, above the cataracts of the Nile, in Nubia. Among these curiosities, there was also a supposed seal of one of the Khalifs, dug up at Old Bagdad, and containing the words “Ya Allah !” (O God !) in large Kufic characters, deeply cut, on a substance resembling that of the ancient cylinders. A crystal seal, with Hebrew characters on it, easy to be deci¬ phered, but making nothing intelligible in its combinations, was pretended, by those who found it, to have been the seal of Solomon ; but it was most probably a cabalistic impress, used by some of the old Jews of Babylonia, among whom that science was in high re¬ pute.* * Among the Talismans of the East, the most power¬ ful were Mohur Solimani, the seal or ring of Soliman Jared, fifth monarch of the world, after Adam. These, i1 was held, had the power to control even the arms and magic of the Dives, or giants : and their possessors enjoyed the entire command over the elements, the Demons, and all created beings. See D’Herbelot, “ Bibliothcque Orien¬ tate, 11 and Richardson’s “ Dissertation.” Much curious learning might be thrown together on the subject of talis- OBSERVATIONS MADE AT BAGDAD. 40!) Added to the Indian figure of a man with a pointed bonnet and beard, embracing the 1 ingam, I saw also, in the possession of an Ar¬ mans, amulets, &c. ; but a note is not, of course, the proper place to enter into such researches : the reader may not, however, be displeased to find the following particulars. The ancient Pagans of Greece and Rome, no less than those of the East, were strongly addicted to repose confidence in gems, with talismanic characters engraven on them, or steeped in astrological influences. From a passage of Tre- bellius Pollio, one of the Augustine historians, we learn, (at least, according to the interpretation of the erudite M. Baudelot,) that the Roman generals of Gallienus’s time were accustomed to wear, both in peace and war, certain magical bauldricks, — “ constellatos baltheos,” — which were supposed to ensure them from danger or envy. The use of these charms may be traced to the remotest antiquity, for it was encouraged by the genius of polytheism. Their inventor, according to obscure tradition, was a certain man, named Jacchis whom Suidas supposes to have lived under the reign of Sennyes, King of Egypt. He must have carried on a large business, for, besides the common talis¬ mans, 7r for prayer. They were much astonished at my not joining them, and when their devotions were over, a conversation on this subject en¬ sued. My having sliewrn as great a veneration as themselves for the sepulchre of the sainted favourite of the Prophet was a proof, in their minds, that I was not a Wahabee, because, a contempt for the tombs of departed mortals is one of the leading features of their re¬ forming creed. But w hen I expressed my be- 452 EXCURSION TO THE RUINS OF lief, that prayer offered up to the great Crea¬ tor of the Universe could not be more ac¬ ceptable from one spot than from another, provided the heart was equally pure, they were inclined to think me half a convert to Wahabeeism. Strictly in unison as this doc¬ trine is with that of the Koran, and indeed with the practice of its believers in general, they still contended that there was a peculiar merit in pilgrimages to holy tombs, and in prayers offered up from them; though they did not presume to deny the omnipresence of the Deity, and the fitness of every part of the great Temple of Nature, for the duty of pouring out the heart to its almighty Au¬ thor. The edifice erected over the tomb of Selman the Pure, or Suliman, as he is sometimes in¬ accurately Called, consists of one domed sanc¬ tuary, with a vaulted piazza, and other apart¬ ments attached to it. The sanctuary itself is about fifteen paces square at the base, and has its interior walls faced with coloured tiles. Over this, at the height of about twenty feet, is an octagonal stage, receding within the square, and having its inner surface laid out in Arabic work of small pointed niches, as at CTESIPHON AND SELEUCIA 45.5 the tomb of Zobeida in the old Bagdad of the Caliphs, and highly ornamented by paint¬ ing and devices in the Persian style. The whole is crowned by a plain but well-propor¬ tioned dome, forming altogether a height of from sixty to seventy feet, and is well lighted by open windows at the base of the dome, and coloured glass ones near the octagonal stage of the centre. The tomb itself rose in the centre of this sanctuary, and was nearly an oblong square, railed-in by a neat palisade. On the head of it stood a singular tripod, the upper part of which was formed of a solid piece of wood, in shape nearly like a human head, and exactly resembling an European barber’s block, placed on a stand of three legs. It was half hidden from profane view, by an ample veil of green gauze, worked with stars of gold; and I should have thought it had some allusion to the occu¬ pation of the saint during his life-time, and was an offering from the pilgrims of the same profession, who make their yearly visit to his shrine ; but, as far as I have seen, the Orien¬ tal barbers never use such blocks, nor is it probable that they ever did so, unless when the monstrous wigs of the Sassanian monarchs, 454 EXCURSION TO THE RUINS OF such as they are seen on the coins and medals of that dynasty, were in general fashion in this part of Persia, and especially in their own capital of Ctesiplion, of which the saint thus honoured was himself a native.# When we had come out from the tomb to repose in the shade and free air of the vaulted passage that leads to it, I made inquiries of these Shooster pilgrims regarding the ruins of the ancient Susiana of the Persian monarchs, and the “ Shushan the palace” of the Scrip¬ tures, which are reported still to exist at Shooster, the place of their residence. Their replies, however, led to no satisfactory results. They were neither aware that this had been the seat of the ancient Persian sovereigns, nor the scene of many portions of sacred as well as profane history, though they spoke of the tomb of Daniel as being still at Shooster, and visited equally by Moslems, Christians, and Jews. Josephus, in his eulogies on the pro- * It is remarkable that wigs and other ponderous arti¬ ficial coverings for the head should have grown so early into fashion. They are seen on all the ancient sculptures of Persepolis, in most of the temples of Egypt, and on the heads of the two colossal statues of Memnon and Osyman- dyas at Thebes. CTESIPHON AND SELEUCIA. 455 phet Daniel, attributes to him, among other branches of knowledge, a superior skill in architecture, and names, as an example, a famous edifice of his construction at Susa. This building, says he, was constructed in the form of a castle, and the execution of it was excellent. He says, also, that the tombs of the Parthian and Persian kings were in this castle.* The roads from Shooster to Bagdad were described as being highly dangerous, and the distance to be twenty caravan days’ jour¬ ney, the country between these cities being traversed by the Arabs of Lauristan. By the violence of a north-west gale, which blew with such fury, as to threaten the rooting- up of the few date- trees that were here,f the heat of the day was much tempered, and the thermometer at three p. m. stood only at 113° in the shade. We still remained within the enclosure, however, until this degree of heat had subsided ; and about two hours before * Memoires de l’Academie Royale, tome xxix. p. 143. f Cypress-trees were said formerly to have abounded in Babylonia, but Alexander ordered them to be cut down and used in building the fleet with which he intended to ex¬ plore and conquer the coasts of Arabia, in the Persian Gulf. — Arrian, book vii. chap. 19. 150 EXCURSION TO THE RUINS OF sun-set, we went out to see the large ruin, which forms the principal object of attention at the place. This is situated about seven hundred paces to the south of the Tomb of Selman Pauk, and presents the remains of a large edifice, called, by the people, Tauk Kesra, or the Arch of Kesra. It is composed of two wings, and one large central hall, ex¬ tending all the depth of the building. Its front is nearly perfect, being about two hun¬ dred and sixty feet in length, and upwards of a hundred feet in height. Of this front, the great arched hall occupies the centre, its en¬ trance being of an equal height and breadth with the hall itself. The arch is thus about ninety feet in breadth, and, rising above the general line of the front, is at least a hundred and twenty feet high, while its depth is at least equal to its height. The wings leading out on each side of the central arch to extend the front of the build¬ ing, are now merely thick walls, but these had originally apartments behind them, as may be seen from undoubted marks that remain, as well as from two side-doors leading from thence into the great central hall. A similar door led out of the back of this hall also, but CTESIPHON AND SELEUCIA. 457 the large arched entrance of the front must have been always open, and it is therefore probable that the hall was only used as a re¬ ceiving-room of state on ceremonial occasions. The walls, which form these wings in the line of the front, were built on the inclined slope, being about twenty feet thick at the base, and only ten at the summit. The walls of the great hall seem also much thicker below than above ; and, in the vaulted roof, hollow tubes, perhaps of earthenware or pottery, have been observed in the masonry, bending with the arched form of the work, as well as large beams of wood, still shewing their ends in the wall near the arch of entrance in front. The masonry is altogether of burnt bricks, of the size, form, and composition of those seen in the ruins of Babylon ; and among them I noticed several with a green vitrifica¬ tion on their outer surface, like those found at Babylon and Akkerkoof, but I observed none with writing or impressions of any kind upon them. The cement is white lime, and the layers much thicker than is seen in any of the burnt brick edifices at Babylon, approaching nearer to the style of the Greek and Roman masonry found among the ruins of Alexandria, 458 EXCURSION TO THE RUINS OF where the layers of lime are almost as thick as the bricks themselves ; while at Babylon, either at the Birs, the Kassr, or A1 Hheimar, the cement is scarcely perceptible. The sym¬ metry of the work here is inferior, however* both to these and to the fine fragments of brick-masonry of the age of the Caliphs, still remaining at Bagdad. The wings have their front divided into two stories, the lower one of which has large arched recesses, and an arched door-way, each separated from the other by double convex pilasters, or semicolumns, going up nearly half the height of the building, and including, be¬ tween their divisions, separate compartments of three small recesses each, standing respec¬ tively over the larger arched recesses, and arched door-way below. In the second story are double arched recesses, or two in one com¬ partment, divided from each other by short pilasters, and every pair separated by a longer pilaster reaching to the summit of the build¬ ing. Next follow, in the third story, compart¬ ments of three small concave niches, as if designed for shell or fan tops, each divided from the other by the long pilasters going to the top. And last of all, in the fifth story, is CTESIPHION AND SELF.UCIA. 45U a continued line of still smaller arched niches, divided from each other by small double pilas¬ ters, the tops of which are now broken. Both these wings are similar in their gene¬ ral design, though not perfectly uniform; but the great extent of the whole front, with the broad and lofty arch of its centre, and the profusion of recesses and pilasters on each side, must have produced an imposing appear¬ ance, when the edifice was perfect ; more par¬ ticularly, if the front was once coated, as tra¬ dition states it to have been, with white mar¬ ble, a material of too much value to remain long in its place, after the desertion of the city. The arches of the building are all of the Roman form, and the architecture of the same style, though far from chaste. The pointed arch is nowhere seen throughout the whole of the pile, but a pyramidal termination is given to some long narrow niches of the front, and the pilasters are without pedestals or capitals. The front of the building, though facing immediately towards the Tigris, lies due east by compass, the stream winding here so ex¬ ceedingly, that this edifice, though standing 460 EXCURSION TO THE RUINS OF on the west of that portion of the river flow¬ ing before it, and facing the east , is yet on the eastern bank of the Tigris in its general course. We ascended some mounds, about a hun¬ dred yards to the south of the palace, which, like those we had before seen, were formed of a light earth, strewed over with pottery, and appeared to mark the site of some range of buildings now destroyed. From its summit, we could see the continuation of the semi¬ circular mounds which mark the line of the city-walls, and I was confirmed in my former opinion, regarding their extent. We could perceive from hence too the still higher mounds which occupied the site of Seleucia on the opposite side of the river,* while the stream itself was here so serpentine, that the * Seleucus, who was a great protector of the Jews, and after whom this city was called, founded many others of the same name; though this Babylonian Seleucia on the Tigris was the chief of them all. “ Seleucus built many other cities both in the Greater and Lesser Asia :*f* sixteen of which he called Antioch, from the name of Antioch us his father; nine Seleucia, from his own name ; six Laodicea, from the name of Laodice his mother ; three Apamea, from Apama his first wife ; and one Stratonicea, from Stratonice f Appianus in Syriacis, p. 201. Editionis Tollian®. CTESIPHON AND SELEUCIA. 461 boats which were going up by it to Bagdad were steering south-south-west through one reach, and north-west through another above it. his last Wife ; in all which he* planted the Jews, giving them equal privileges and immunities with the Greeks and Mace¬ donians, especially at Antioch in Syria; where they settled in great numbers, and became almost as considerable a part of that city, as they were at Alexandria. And from hence it was that the Jews became dispersed all over Syria, and the Lesser Asia. In the eastern countries beyond the Eu¬ phrates, they had been settled before, ever since the Assy¬ rian and Babylon captivities, and there multiplied in great numbers. But it was Seleucus Nicator that first gave them settlements in those provinces of Asia, which are on this side the Euphrates. For they having been very faithful and serviceable to him in his wars, and other trusts and interests, he for this reason gave them these privileges through all the cities which he built. But it seems most likely, that they were the Babylonish J ews that first engaged him to be thus favourable to this people. For the Jews of Palestine, being under Ptolemy, were not in capacity to be serviceable to him. But Babylon being the place where he laid the first foundations of his power, and the Jews in those parts being as numerous as the Jews of Palestine, if not more, it is most likely that they unanimously adhered to his interest* and were the prime strength that he had for the advance¬ ment of it, and that for this reason he ever after shewed so much favour to them ; and it is scarce probable, that any thing less than this could be a sufficient cause to pro¬ cure such great privileges from him, as he afterwards gave * Josephus Antiq. lib. 12. cap. 3. et contra Apionem, lib. 2. Eusebius in Chronico. 4G2 EXCURSION TO THE RUINS OF I should have gone across from hence by one of these boats, to the site of Seleucia, had I not been previously assured by Mr. Rich that there was nothing there to reward the search. A Babylonian statue was seen by him far in the Desert, on that side ; but it re¬ quired a person to know the exact spot on which it lay, to give any hope of finding it again. Boats were said to be sometimes five days in ascending against the stream, from this place to Bagdad, owing to the tortuous course of the river between them. Before we quitted this spot, I noted the bearings of some of the principal objects in sight, # and observed that every part of the river’s banks, as far as we could see them, was destitute of wood. The most remote antiquity assigned to this to all of that nation.” — Prideaux's Connection of the Old and New Testament , pp. 814, 815. * Mounds of Seleucia, extending from S. E. by E. i E. to S. E. ^ S. about a mile. Direction of the Tigris going toward Bagdad, S. S. W- for nearly five miles. Direction of another upper reach of the river, E. but bearing from us, N. W. only one mile distant, the interval forming a wide curve. Some tall date-trees on the Diala, N. N. W. distant about six miles. CTESIPHON AND SELEUC1A- 403 place is that of the age of Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord, of whom it is said, “ And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.*” It is conceived by some antiquaries, and particularly by M. de Brasses, one of the Presidents of the Royal Academy of France, already quoted, that the Calneh here spoken of stood on the site of Ctesiphon. In a paper of this writer, presented to that Academy, he says, “ The name of Chalne, (which is construed habitaculum perfectum ,) the fourth city founded by Nimrod, seems to be found in that of Chalonite, a district of Babylonia on the east of the Tigris. This induces a very general opinion that Chalne is Ctesiphon, originally the capital of that pro¬ vince, and since the metropolis of all the Parthian empire, and the winter residence of their kings.” He adds, that according to the opinion of Abulpharage, these cities of Erec, Acchad, and Chalne, which he names Chalya, were Roha, Nisibis, and Madyen, or Orfah, Nisibeen, and Modain.f Sir Walter Raleigh, treats also of the position of these cities, but * Genesis, c. x. v. 10. -f* Memoires de l’Academie Roy ale, tome xxvii. p. 31. 4G4 EXCURSION TO THE RUINS OF without throwing much light on the subject.* Authorities, however, are more certain, for the position of Seleucia which stood near the same spot, along the western bank of the Tigris, and was constructed chiefly out of the ruins of the ancient Babylon. The founda¬ tion of this city is thought indeed to have been undertaken for the express purpose of completing the ruin and desertion of this enormous capital of the East, after its rebel¬ lion against Darius Hystaspes, and the reduc¬ tion of its walls by that sovereign.! * History of the World. — c. i. 10 — 2. f “ About this time,*f* (Anno 293, Ptolemy Soter 12,) Seleucus built Seleucia on the Tigris, at the distance of forty miles from Babylon. It was placed on the western side of that river, over against the place where now Bagdad stands, on the eastern side, which soon grew to be a very great city. For Pliny J tells us, it had in it six hundred thousand inhabitants, and there are not much above an hun¬ dred thousand more in London, which is now (waving the fabulous account which is given of Nankin in China) beyond all dispute the biggest city in the world. For by reason of the breaking down of the banks of the Euphrates, the country near Babylon being drowned, and the branch of that river, Avhich passed through the middle of the city, being shallowed and rendered unnavigable, this made the situation of Babylon by this time so very inconvenient, that f Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 738 et 743. Plin. lib. vi. cap. 26. } Ibidem. CTESIPHON AND SELEUCTA. 465 M. D’Anville, in his Memoir on the Eu¬ phrates and the Tigris, says, the intention of the first of the Seleucida was to oppose to when this new city was built, it soon drained the other of all its inhabitants. For it being situated much more com- modiously, and by the founder made the metropolis of all the provinces of his empire beyond the Euphrates, and the place of his residence, whenever he came into those parts, in the same manner as Antioch was for the other provinces which were on this side that river : for the sake of these advantages, the Babylonians in great numbers left their old habitations, and flocked to Seleucia. And besides Seleucus having called this city by his own name, and designed it for an eminent monument thereof in after ages, gave it many privileges above the other cities of the East, the better to make it answer this purpose ; and these were a farther in¬ vitation to the Babylonians to transplant themselves to it. And by these means, in a short time after the building of Seleucia, Babylon became wholly desolated, so that nothing was left remaining of it but its walls. And therefore *Pliny tells us, ‘ That it was exhausted of its inhabitants, and brought to desolation by the neighbourhood of Seleucia on the Tigris, which Seleucus Nicator built there on pur¬ pose for this end.1 And j- Sti'abo saith the same, as doth also Pausanias, in his Arcadics, where he tells us, ‘ That Babylon, once the greatest city that the sun ever saw, had, in his time, (i. e. J about the middle of the second century,) nothing left but its walls.” — Prideaux s Connection of the Old and New Testament , pp. 808, 809. * Lib. vi. cap. 26. f Lib. xvi. p. 738. J For he lived in the time of Adrian and Antoninus Pius. See Vos- sius de Ilistoricis Graecis, lib. ii. cap. 14. VOL. II. 2 H ■ICC EXCURSION TO THE RUINS OF Babylon, a city that should he purely Greek, “ Macedonum moris,” in the words of Pliny, with the privilege of being free, “sui juris.” The same author reports its population to have been considerable ; and there is no doubt, hut that its situation in the most fertile part of the east, “ solum orientis fertilissimum,” as Pliny expresses it, contributed much to its prosperity. It sustained its consequence for five hundred years after its termination, or till the time of that author himself* The site of this city was on the west hank of the Tigris, in the neighbourhood of a place still more ancient, called Coxe, or Coche, at the mouth of a canal leading from the Eu¬ phrates to the Tigris, M in confiuente Eu¬ phrates, fossa perducte atque Tigris,” says * Seleucia was built by Seleucus Nicator, forty miles from Babylon, at a point of the confluence of the Euphrates with the Tigris, by a canal. There were six hundred thou¬ sand citizens here at one time, and all the commerce and wealth of Babylon had flown into it. The territory in which it stood was called Babylonia ; but it was itself a free state, and the people lived after the laws and manners of the Macedonians. The form of the walls was said to resemble an eagle spreading her wings, and the soil around it was thought the most fertile in the East.” — Plin. Nat. Hist. b. vi. c. 2G. CTESIPHON AND SELEUCIA. 467 Pliny ; and in another place, “ circa Seleu- ciam praefluenti infusus Tigri.” This canal is known by the name of Nahar Malka, “ quod significat fluvius regium.” We have this pre¬ cise indication of the site of Seleucia, that the discharge of the Nahar Malka into the Tigris ought to be above that city ; because, in fol¬ lowing the route which led into the provinces of the Parthian empire, as traced out by Isi¬ dore, of Charac, in Stathmis Parthicis, it is necessary to cross the canal before entering into Seleucia.* After an examination of the distance as¬ signed by the ancient writers, between Se¬ leucia and Babylon, the reported positions of which correspond nearly with that of their actual remains, he continues to say, Ctesiplion was the second of two cities, of which the grandeur contributed to the progressive an¬ nihilation of Babylon, f placed opposite to * D’Anville sur l’Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 11 7 et seq. Paris, 1775. 4to. ■j* “ The Parthians, in order to do by Seleucia as the Greeks who built that place, had done by Babylon, built the city Ctesiphon, within three miles of it, in the track called Chalonitis, in order to dispeople and impoverish it, though it is now the head city of the kingdom.” — IV in . Nat. Hist. b. vi. c. 26. EXCURSION TO THE RUINS OF •Ifiif each other on the banks of the Tigris ; the power which Seleucia seems to have preserved for several centuries after the establishment of the Parthians, was a sufficient reason for these last to seek to degrade that which hurt their pride, with the same feeling as Seleucia her¬ self had strove to lessen the importance of Babylon.* The manner in which Pliny ex- * “ It must be acknowledged,” says Dr. Prideaux, “ that there is mention made of Babylon as of a city stand¬ ing long after the time, where I have placed its desolation, as f in Lucan, j Philostratus, and others. But in all those authors, and wherever else we find Babylon spoken of asa city in being after the time of Seleucus Nicator, it must be understood, § not of old Babylon on the Euphrates, but of Seleucia on the Tigris. For as that succeeded in the dig¬ nity and grandeur of old Babylon, so also did it in its name. At first it was called Seleucia Babylonia, that is, the Ba- bylonic Seleucia, or Seleucia of the province of Babylon, to •f- Lib. i. v. 10. } Lib. i. c. 17, 18, 19. § Plutarch indeed, in the life of Crassus, speaks of Babylon and Se¬ leucia, as of two distinct cities then in being. For, in a political remark, he reckons it as a great error in Crassus, that in his first irruption into Mesopotamia, he had not directly marched on to Babylon and Seleucia, and seized those two cities. And Appian, in his Parthics, says the same thing. But Plutarch was mistaken herein, taking for two cities then in being, what were no more than two names then given one and the same place, that is Seleucia. For as to Old Babylon, it appears, from the au¬ thors I have mentioned, that it was desolated long before the time of Crassus. And as to Appian, he doth no more than recite the opinion of Plutarch ; for he writes word for word a ter him as to this matter. CTESIPHON AND SELEUCIA. 461) plains himself is perfectly consistent with this, “ Invicem ad hanc exhauriendam Ctesiphon- tem in Chalonitide condidere Partlii and one can hardly suppose that they had esta- distinguish it from the other Seleucias which were else¬ where, and after that * Babylonia simply, and at -f* length Babylon. That Lucan, by his Babylon, in the first book of his Pharsalia, means none other than Seleucia, or the New Babylon, is plain. For he there speaks of it as the metropolis of the Parthian kingdom, where the trophies of Crassus were hung up after the vanquishing of the Ro¬ mans at Carrhae, which can be understood only of the Se- leucian or New Babylon, and not of the Old. For that new Babylon only was the seat of the Parthian kings, but the old Babylon never. And in another place, where he makes mention of this Babylon, (i. e. book vi. v. 50.) he describes it as surrounded by the Tigris, in the same manner as Antioch was by the Orontes: but it was the Seleucian or the New Babylon, and not the Old, that stood upon the Tigris. And as to Philostratus, when he brings his Apol¬ lonius (the Don Quixote of his romance) to the royal seat of the Parthian king, which was at that time at Seleucia, then called Babylon, he was led by that name into this gross blunder, as to mistake it for the Old Babylon, and there¬ fore \ in the describing of it he gives us the same descrip¬ tion which he found given of Old Babylon in Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and other writers.” — Prideauac's Connection of the Old and New Testament, pp. 811 — 813. * Plin. lib. vi. cap. 26. t Stephanus Byzantinus in BaSvftiy. + Lib. i. cap. 13. 470 EXCURSION TO THE RUINS OF blished their residence at Ctesiphon before the decline of Seleucia.* In the expedition of Trajan, who quitted Rome in the year 112 of the Christian era, and Antioch in 114, after subduing Edessa, Osrhoene, Batnes, Nisibis, and Singara, tra¬ versing the Tigris, on a bridge constructed under his own eye, and taking possession of Adiabene, and Gaugamela or Arbela, he laid siege to Ctesiphon and Seleucia. Chosroes was then, it was said, occupied in quelling a revolt of his eastern provinces, so that these cities soon surrendered to Trajan, with all the neighbouring country. The Roman emperor then went down to the island of Mesene, situated between two branches of the Tigris and Euphrates, where he passed the winters of the years 116 and 117- After this, he re¬ turned again to Ctesiphon, to quell a revolt of the provinces which he had so recently sub¬ dued. The termination of this expedition, by his unsuccessful wars against the Arabs, his return to Italy, and his death, of a disease brought on by the campaign in the end of the same year, are well known. Nothing can be more accurate than the ac- * D’Anville sur l’Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 120. CTESIPIION AND SELEUCIA. 471 tual and relative positions of these celebrated cities of Ctesiphon and Seleucia, as well as the delineation of the winding course of the Ti¬ gris between them, given in Major Rennel’s map of the environs of Babylon, accompanying his Memoir on the ruins of that city, in the illustrations of the Geography of Herodotus. D’Anville says, there is no longer any doubt regarding Ctesiphon and Seleucia, which are both nearly annihilated, though reunited at one period under the name of Madain, which, in grammatical language, is “ plurale factum,” being derived from Medineh, a word signifying simply a city, in the Arabic language.* Of the succession of Madain to the two cities, on whose ruins it was built, we have this notice in the History of the Sassanides, trans¬ lated from the Persian of Mirkhond, by M. Silvester de Sacy. After the wars of Shapour against the Arabs and the Greeks combined under one of the Constantines, and his re¬ covery of Nisibeen, where he placed a colony of twelve thousand Persians, it is said, that he returned to his country, and being arrived safe in Irak, he laid the foundations of the city of Madain, which was completed in the space * D’Anville sur l’Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 119- 472 EXCURSION TO THE RUINS OF of a year. This prince fixed his court here, and drew around him all the grandees of Per¬ sia ; and after passing seven ty-t wo years on the throne, ended his days there.* After the death of Yezderdja, the third sovereign from Shapour, one of the descendants of Ardeschir was chosen to succeed him. He was named Khosrou, which name the Arabs have written Kesra, and being conducted to Madain, was crowned there.f In the reign of this Kesra, or Nousehirvan the Just, as he was sometimes called, there arose one Mazda, the head of a sect, who preached community of women, and made it a great merit to epcourage the sexual union of the nearest relations. It was one of the first acts of this sovereign’s reign to de¬ stroy the leader of this sect, with all his ad¬ herents ; and a remembrance of this fact, with the general fame of his actions during life, oc¬ casioned one of the Eastern poets to exclaim, on seeing his palace yet undemolished, “ Be¬ hold the recompense of an irreproachable conduct, since time has not been able to de¬ stroy the palace of Kesra !”J This same Nousehirvan had his fame ex- * Dc Sacy’s Memoires, p. 316. -f- Ibid. p. 329. £ Ibid. p. 360. CTES1PHON AND SELEUC1A- 473 tended so far, according to the Persian histo¬ rian, that the kings of the East came to do him reverence. Among the enumeration of presents sent to him from distant lands, are some romantic stories, in the true Oriental style, of palaces of gold, paved with pearls — harems of a thousand virgins, all daughters of royalty, and some supremely beautiful, which decked the bed of the Chinese mo¬ narch — castles of gold, whose gates were of precious stones — and lovely girls, whose silken eyelashes were so long as to repose upon their cheeks, devoted to the pleasures of the kings of Indoustan. The conclusion of this pompous display may, however, be more ac¬ curate, when it is said, it was during the reign of Nouschirvan, that the book entitled Colaila and Dinna was brought from India into Per¬ sia, as well as the game of chess ; and a certain black dye, named Hindi, which, being applied to white hairs, stains them of a black colour even to the roots, and this so perfectly, that it is impossible to distinguish them from being originally of that colour.* That Chosroes, to whom the erection of * Memoires et Histoires de Sassanides, par M. Silvestre de Sacy, p. 371. 474 EXCURSION TO THE RUINS OF this palace at Madain is attributed, was master of great wealth, there can be little doubt ; and it would appear that a commercial intercourse with India on the east, and Europe on the west, for which the central situation of his ca¬ pital was admirably adapted, had contributed as powerfully to the augmentation of his trea¬ sures, as the regular tribute of his empire. Gibbon enumerates the riches deposited in the palace of Dastagherd, the favourite re¬ treat of the Persian king ; and we learn from Cedrenus,# that when Heraclius sacked this imperial residence, he found in it aloes, aloes- wood, mataxa, silk, thread, pepper, muslins, or muslin garments, without number ; sugar, gin¬ ger, silk robes woven and embroidered car¬ pets, and bullion. The manufactured articles are also specified among the plunder of Cte- siphon, or Madain, -f when Sad, the general of Omar, took this place ; and both these in¬ stances are quoted to shew, that on the de¬ cline of the Roman power, the revived Per¬ sian dynasty had the trade of India, through this channel, entirely in their own hands. J * Abulfeda, Reiske, p. 70. *f* p. 418. I Perrplus of the Erythrean Sea, vol. ii. Arabia, p. 322, in a note, by Dr. Vincent. CTE SIPHON AND SELEUCIA. 475 It was sun-set when we returned to our quarters in the enclosure of Selman Pauk’s Tomb, where we partook of a supper, the pro¬ visions for which we had brought with us from Bagdad, and at which the old Sheikh or Guar¬ dian of the Tomb very readily joined us, the continuance of the fast of Ramazan rendering the evening meal a welcome feast to all. In conversation with the people here, I made many inquiries about a place called “Sebat al Madain,” which M. de Sacy says is near to Madain Kesra, and the name of which he conceives to be corrupted from Balashabad, or “ the habitation of Balash,”§ but we could learn nothing of such a place or name. The violence of the gale, which had blown through the day, having now subsided, we slept with much pleasure in the open air, and had a sky of more than usual brilliance, even in this climate, above us, the storm having no doubt purified the atmosphere. August 21st. — The splendid train which follows the Pleiades was already high above the eastern horizon when we began to prepare for our departure, and the moon had risen § Memoires, p. 351. EXCURSION TO THE RUINS OF 476 when we quitted the gate of Ctesiphon on our return to Bagdad. As we cpiickened out¬ pace during the cool of the morning, we reached the Diala just at sun-rise, where I profited by the opportunity of its emerging from a plain as level as the sea, to take its amplitude by compass, finding it to be at ri¬ sing, E. I, N. or N. 84° 23' E. which gives 8° 44 westerly variation.* We were detained on the southern bank of the Diala nearly an hour, by the passage of asses laden with heath and fire-wood for Bag¬ dad, before we could get a place in the boat? and joined here a party of fifteen Shooster Arabs, who had a mixture of the Persian cha¬ racter in their dress and appearance. The early hour of the day enabling us to distin¬ guish the minarets of Bagdad and the Palace of Chosroes at Ctesiphon at the same time, I took their bearings from the passage of the Diala.f * True amplitude for Latitude 33° 12 N. I and Sun’s Declination of 12° 4' N. j ^ Complement of Sun’s observed Amplitude ... 5 37 Magnetic Variation westerly ... 8 44 -f* Bagdad N. W. | N. ... ... 9 miles. Tank Kesra, S. by E. ... ... 7 miles. CTESIPHON AND SELEUCIA. 477 After crossing the river, we increased our speed, and entered the gates of Bagdad about seven o’clock, not having been more than two hours actually in motion from Ctesiphon to this place. The whole distance appeared, by the calculation of time and rate of travelling, on going and coming, to be about sixteen miles, which agrees nearly with the position assigned to the site of Madain by the Arabian geographer Edrisi, who places it at fifteen miles below Bagdad. The mouth of the Diala, or the point of its discharge into the Tigris, appeared to be nearer to Bagdad than to Ctesiphon, in the proportion observed in the bearings of these respective objects from the passage of that stream. We reached the British Residency in time to join Mr. Rich and family at breakfast, and met from them the same kind reception and warm interest in the events of the excursion, which had been so cordially evinced before. CHAPTER XIV. FURTHER STAY AT BAGDAD. The short journey of trial which I had just performed, trifling as it was, proved to me that my strength was not yet perfectly re¬ established. I was, however, impatient to prosecute the remainder of my way, and be¬ gan to make such preparations and inquiries as were necessary. The evening of the 23d of August ushered in the Turkish feast of the Eairam, by a dis¬ charge of cannon and fire-works, from all parts of the city, though it was absolutely impossible that any one could have yet seen the new moon, which is the necessary prelude to the commencement of this feast, and until which, indeed, the fast of Ramazan is not at an end. Two witnesses had solemnly deposed, however, at the seat of justice, before the Cadi, CHAPTER XIV. PROCESSION OF THE PASHA, FROM THE MOSQUE TO THE PALACE. VOL. II. . . • FURTHER STAY AT BAGDAD. 47 > that they had seen the new crescent, and this was enough to absolve the faithful at large from their fast on the following day, the sun¬ set being sufficient authority for their breaking it at evening. Many of the more scrupulous Mohammedans require, however, the sight of the new orb with their own eyes, before they feel justified in ending their fast ; but these, like the “over-righteous” in most countries, are generally in a minority. On the morning of the 24th, the Pasha, at¬ tended by all his officers, went in public state, going part of the way under canopies, and attended with a large retinue of horse and foot guards, music, and a crowd of dependants, to and from the mosque. The whole proces¬ sion resembled very nearly that described by Benjamin of Tudela, (quoted in a former page,) when he gives an account of the Calipli going publicly to the mosque, on the feast of Bairam, nearly seven hundred years ago, so little do the manners of these people change in the course of many centuries. The 25th of August was the fete of St. Louis, on which occasion Mr. Rich and Dr. Hine paid their formal visit of ceremony to the Pasha, on the return of the Turkish feast 480 FURTHER STAY AT BAGDAD. of Bairam, going to the palace at an early hour in the morning ; and I accompanied the secretary, Mr. Bellino, to the Catholic church here, where a mass was to be said for the re¬ pose of the soul of Louis the Sixteenth, and “ Te Deum” sung for the restoration of the Bourbon family to the French throne. The room was small and crowded ; and the service as noisy, as ceremonious, and as irreverently performed, as any thing I had ever witnessed among the Christians of the East, calculated indeed to excite far different feelings than those of devotion. On our return to the Residency, we heard of a rebellion at Kerkook, in which the Pasha’s representative at that place, the Janissary Aga, and sixty of his adherents, were killed, and a large body of mules forcibly seized by the insurgents. The information was brought to the Pasha while Mr. Rich sat with him in his divan, and he received it with apparent in¬ difference, not following it up even by a single question ; it being the fashion of the Turks to affect great apathy, as they think it un¬ dignified to permit their tranquillity to be disturbed by any human event. The Paslialic of Bagdad has never been so FURTHER STAY AT BAGDAD. 4H1 unproductive in revenue, or so unprotected against internal commotion, or external attack, as since it has been under the government of its present Pasha. Scarcely any thing is sent from the treasury of the city to Constan¬ tinople ; so that this frontier town is of little value to the Turks; and the Pasha himself is so poor that he borrows even now the smallest sums. It is thought, therefore, that the Shah Zade, the eldest son of the King of Persia, who resides at Kermanshah, commands an ex¬ tensive territory, and is an ambitious young man, may be one day tempted to add Bagdad to his dominions, or perhaps make it his capi¬ tal ; and it is believed, by most persons residing here, that it would fall an easy prey to his arms. We saw to-day a very singular and curious intaglio, on a dull agate, which was brought for our inspection, and said to have been found at Samara,* on the Tigris, where Jovian arrived after the death of Julian, a little way only up the river, and erroneously called Old Bagdad. On one side was a military trophy, represented in the Roman style, by a body of armour, two shields, a helmet, &c. On the * See a note on Samara, vol. i. p. 431. VOL. II. 482 FURTHER STAY AT BAGDAD. reverse was a figure with a human body and a hawk’s, or eagle’s, head. In his right hand he held a scourge, or whip ; on his left arm was a shield ; his body was clothed with armour ; beneath his feet, as if forming a continuation of them, were two wavy ser¬ pents, with their heads turned outward, to the right and left ; and beneath the whole was an upright tortoise. Around each of these were some Greek letters, badly cut, which were unintelligible to us, and the whole, though singularly curious in its device, was of bad execution. A Persian ambassador, who had recently arrived here from the king at Tabriz, to treat on some affairs with the Pasha of Bagdad, had just gone off' on pilgrimage to the celebrated Tomb of Ali, to the south-west of Hillali, and as he was shortly expected back to set out on his return to his sovereign, it wras thought that it would be a favourable occasion for me to go under the protection of the same party through Persia to Tehraun, and from thence down to Bushire. These pilgrimages of the Persians are performed with great risk to themselves, and scarcely ever fail to draw forth the hostility of the Arabs on the road, when FURTHER STAY AT BAGDAD. RJli the parties are not sufficiently protected for self-defence. Small bodies are constantly in¬ terrupted and plundered by the Bedouins west of the Euphrates ; and it is not long since that the town of Kerbela was entered by the Wahabees, all its male population that could be seized put to the sword, only women and children spared, and the mosque of the Imam Hossein, so highly reverenced by the Shiahs, stripped of all its treasures.* When the Persians go from hence through the country of Nedjed, on their pilgrimage to Mecca, the protection or permission of the Wahabees is necessary to be purchased before they set out. As this is always an affair of personal treaty, skilful and influential indivi¬ duals are generally employed for that pur¬ pose. It happened, during the last year, that on an application being made to the chief, from the pilgrims waiting here, for a free passage, the answer returned to them by the hands of the Wahabee messenger was, that they would be suffered to go through the country in safety on the usual terms, on the condition that they were to come through Derya, where the chief * See an account of this massacre and plunder, vol. i, p. 243. 484 FURTHER STAY AT BAGDAD. of the Wahabees then resided. Either from conceiving this demand to be too humiliating to be complied with, or from some other motive, the Wahabee messenger who brought it was beaten and sent back by the Persians to his tent. They soon afterwards set out with the determination to go straight through the country, without turning to the right or left. They were met, however, by a large body of the Wahabees, whose messenger they had so ill-treated ; many were killed, still more wounded, and the rest obliged to go down to Derya, where some in despair gave up their pilgrimage together, and came back again to Bagdad, while others remained at Derya subject to daily persecution, in order to join the first caravan from thence to Mecca for the next Hadj. Derya is said to be a large town, seated on a mountain, like Mardin, which it resembles in form, size, population, and manner of build¬ ing; it lies to the south of the direct road from hence to Mecca. The surrounding coun¬ try is generally desert, though there are some fertile spots and many date-trees, and there is no want of caravanserais or water in the way. In his Dissertation on the Commerce FURTHER STAY AT BAGDAD. 485 of Arabia, Dr. Vincent says, “ After the con quest of Persia by the Mohammedans, a road was made across the whole of the peninsula from Mecca to Kufa, the old city at which the Kufic character was completed, and whose ruins, among which are some very old Arabic buildings, still exist, between Mesjed Ali and the Euphrates. This road was reported to have been seven hundred miles long, marked out by distances, and provided with caravan¬ serais and other accommodations for travellers. Into this road fell the route from Basra and from El Khatif or Gerrha.”# Abulfeda speaks of a road from Mecca to Bagdad, seven hun¬ dred miles in length, which road was made by El-Madi, Caliph, in the year of the Hejira, 169. The opportunity of going through Persia with the suite of this Persian ambassador, pro¬ mised to be a favourable one ; but the period of his return from the pilgrimage to Imam Ali seemed uncertain. By Bussorah there was no hope of finding an occasion until the latter end of October, by which time a cruiser was expected up from Bombay; but native Indian ships, if not English trading ones, were almost certain to be met with at Bushire : so * Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, vol. ii. p. 327- m; FURTHER STAY AT RAGDAD. that it was strongly recommended to me, both on the score of speed and certainty, as well as health, not to descend the Euphrates to Bussorah, but to go to some Persian port by land, the banks of the river being infested with robbers at every league, and the climate most unhealthy, from the heat and moisture of the autumnal season. The route from Bagdad to Bushire, by way of Shooster, seemed the nearest in point of distance, and I should have preferred it, from the circumstance of its being an unfrequent¬ ed one and including the interesting province of Susiana, with the old capital of the Persian monarchs, in which interesting ruins might be found, and disputed positions established ; but the road was deemed too unsafe to ven¬ ture on, without a very strong guard, or a large caravan, and there was neither of these just now on the point of departure. During the mission of Sir J ohn Malcolm to the King of Persia, two English gentlemen, Mr. Grant and Mr. Fotheringham, set out by this route from Bagdad to Ispahan, on their return to India, being attached to the military service of Madras. In the way, they were both mur¬ dered by one of the predatory chiefs, of which FURTHER STAY AT BAGDAD. 487 there are several, occupying this tract of coun¬ try, in the mountains and plains ; and since that period, these hostile marauders had grown progressively more powerful, more insolent, and more cruel. The only way that remained open, therefore, was by the regular caravan road of Kermanshah, Hamadiin, and Ispahan; and finding, on inquiry, that there would be a caravan starting for that route in the early part of the ensuing month, I determined to accompany it. On the 26th of August we were visited by a Dervish, from the northernmost part of the ancient Bactria. He described the present town of Balkh, which is thought to occupy the site of the city of Bactria, as being small, but having several colleges, and many learned men, with an extensive library of the most rare and valuable Eastern books ; the date of the foundation of this library was unknown to him, but the collection of books in it, he said, was large, perfect, and undisturbed. The inhabitants he described as mostly Moham¬ medans, and of the Soonnee sect. Bokhara he described to be as large as Bagdad, well built, peopled by Mohammedans, and de¬ scendants of Moghul tribes, having also many 488 FURTHER STAY AT BAGDAD. colleges and learned men, but no extensive library, like that of Balkh. Samareand, which he knew by its original name, he said was now only a small town, not half the size of Bokhara, and having fewer Mussulmans among its po¬ pulation than either it or Balkh. The Turk¬ ish language was understood in each of these, but the Arabic, as a language of communica¬ tion, in neither ; the Toorki, or Turcoman, tongue, being spoken in all these towns and their surrounding neighbourhood. We had brought to us in the Divan, on the morning of the 27th, an ancient mace, about two feet long, with a slender handle of wood, pointed and enamelled in green, and its head composed of a piece of coarse alabaster, about the size and shape of a turkey’s egg, turning round on a rod of iron, and ending in a nail- head at the top. The history of this mace wras more curious than the weapon itself, as nearly similar ones are even now in use ; but this was dug up, with a number of others, en¬ closed in a vase, which had been found on the banks of the river Mendeli, near a place called Belled Drooze, about six days’ journey to the eastward of Bagdad. The modern Mendeli is thought to be the ancient Gyndes, which FURTHER STAY AT BAGDAD. 48'i Cyrus is said to have divided into three hun¬ dred and sixty channels, in order to render it insignificant, according to Herodotus,* in revenge for its current having carried away and drowned one of the sacred horses ; but probably only with a view to render it more fordable, .by diverting its waters into as many channels as possible. During the remainder of my stay at Bag¬ dad, my time was divided between looking out for occasions of departure, and seeing as much as I could of the state of society in this city, my Asiatic dress, beard, and language, easily procuring me admission to the company of all classes. From my first entry into Bagdad, I was surprised to find the Turkish language much more generally spoken and understood than the Arabic, notwithstanding that this city is more surrounded by Arabs on all sides, than either Damascus, Aleppo, or Mousul, in each of which Arabic is the prevailing tongue. The Turkish spoken here is said, however, to be so corrupt, both in idiom and pronunciation, that a native of Constantinople is always shocked at its utterance, and on his first * Clio, 189. 4U0 FURTHER STAY AT BAGDAD. arrival finds it almost unintelligible. I had sufficient evidence myself of the Arabic being very bad, taking that of Cairo, of Mecca, and of the Yemen, as standards of purity in pro¬ nunciation ; for scarcely any thing more harsh in sound, or more barbarous in construction, and the use of foreign words, can be con¬ ceived, than the dialect of Bagdad. Turkish, Persian, Koord, and even Indian expressions, disfigure their sentences ; and such Arabic words as are used are scarcely to be recog¬ nised on a first hearing, from the corrupted manner in which they are spoken. Literature is at so low an ebb here, that there is no one known collection of good books or manuscripts in the whole city, nor any individual Moollah distinguished above his contemporaries by his proficiency in the learning of his country. I had hoped to pro¬ cure at Bagdad a copy of the “ Thousand and One Nights,” particularly as this capital of the Abassides had been so much the scene of its story, and the Tomb of Zobeida was still popularly known, and pointed out by its in¬ habitants. But I learnt, with regret, that not a perfect copy of this work was thought to exist throughout all Bagdad, as inquiries had FURTHER STAY AT BAGDAD. 4!ll been frequently made after one, without suc¬ cess, though sufficiently large sums had been offered for the work to tempt its being brought out from any private collection, if it had existed in any such. In this, as in all other respects as an Orien¬ tal city, Bagdad is infinitely inferior to Cairo, and the interior of its streets and bazars pre¬ sents nothing like the faithful pictures which are constantly met with in Egypt, to remind the traveller of the scenes and manners de¬ scribed in the Arabian Tales. From this cir¬ cumstance, added to the detection of many phrases in the language of the “ Thousand and One Nights,” which are purely Egyptian, the best judges on this subject are of opinion that the work was originally composed, and first brought into circulation, at Cairo, though its deserved popularity soon extended its fame over all the Eastern world. In the course of my peregrinations about Bagdad, I saw no females unveiled in the streets, though I had occasion to observe, more than once, youths of the other sex, corre¬ sponding in appearance, manner, and charac¬ ter, with the one I had seen at the khan of the village where we halted on the night be- 492 FURTHER STAY AT BAGDAD. fore arriving at this city. Such publicity has not been always allowed, however, to this species of libertinism; for, during the reign of a certain Ali Pasha, not many years ago, a man was thrown headlong from the highest minaret of the city, on being detected in the commission' of this abominable vice. The police of Bagdad is extremely defective. That quarrels should arise, and disputes be terminated in blood, among the Arabs who occupy the skirts of the city within the walls, and this without any cognizance of such affairs by the government, was not so sur¬ prising, as that murders should take place at the very gates of the palace, and of the great mosque, without the criminals being so much as even sought after to be brought to jus¬ tice. Since the period of Mr. Rich’s return from Europe to Bagdad, which was hardly six months since, no less than twelve murders had been committed within the city, one of which was close to the Pasha's residence, and another in the very porch of the mosque of Abd-ul-Khadder. The latest instance of these atrocities was only a few days before my de¬ parture ; and though committed in the pub¬ lic streets, and before the face of a hundred FURTHER STAY AT BAGDAD. 493 witnesses at mid-clay, no one thought either of punishing the murderer on the spot, or of apprehending him for the common safety. “ It is an affair of blood,” said they, “ which the relatives of the dead may revenge, and which the Pasha may investigate, but it is no business for us to meddle with.” Robberies too had been of late committed with impunity, in various parts of the town. They were generally effected during the night, by private gangs, who escaped without detec¬ tion. But in one instance, a combination of a more extensive nature than usual was disco¬ vered to exist, for the carrying these daring outrages into execution ; and one of the lead¬ ing merchants of the city was found to be concerned in the encouragement of its depre¬ dations, by purchasing their acknowledged plunder. This man, however, stood too high, by his wealth only, to be called to account ; and the rest, though mostly known, were, by his influence alone, suffered to escape. The Pasha, it was said, had formed the determina¬ tion of going about the city at night in dis¬ guise ; but by some, this was thought to be a mere report, given out to alarm the offenders ; while others laughed at such a weak alter- 494 FURTHER STAY AT BAGDAD. native, intended to be substituted for what alone could quell the evil, an active and vigo¬ rous police. The women of Bagdad invariably wear the checquered blue covering, used by the lower orders of females in Egypt ; nor among those of the highest rank here are ever seen the black and pink silk scarfs of Cairo, or the white muslin envelopes of Smyrna and Da¬ mascus. This, added to the stiff black horse¬ hair veil which covers the face, gives an air of great gloom and poverty to the females occa¬ sionally seen in the streets. When at home, however, their dress is as gay in colours, and as costly in materials, as in any of the great towns of Turkey ; and their style of living, and the performance of their relative duties in their families, are precisely the same. As the view from our lofty terrace at an early hour in the morning laid open at least eight or ten bed-rooms in different quarters around us, where all the families slept in the open air, domestic scenes were exposed to view, without our being once perceived, or even suspected to be witnesses of them Among the more wealthy, the husband slept on a raised bedstead, with a mattress and FURTHER STAY AT BAGDAD. 495 cushions of silk, covered by a thick stuffed quilt of cotton, the bed being without cur¬ tains or mosquito net. The wife slept on a similar bed, but always on the ground, that is, without a bedstead, and at a respectful dis¬ tance from her husband, while the children, sometimes to the number of three or four, occupied only one mattress, and the slaves or servants each a separate mat on the earth, but all lying down and rising up within sight of each other. Every one rose at an early hour, so that no one continued in bed after the sun was up ; and each, on rising, folded up his own bed, his coverlid, and pillows, to be taken into the house below, excepting only the children, for whom this office was per¬ formed by the slave or the mother. None of all these persons were as much un¬ dressed as Europeans generally are when in bed. The men retained their shirt, drawers, and often their caftan, a kind of inner cloak. The children and servants lay down with nearly the same quantity of clothes as they had worn in the day ; and the mothers and their grown daughters wore the full silken trowsers of the Turks, with an open gown ; and if rich, their turbans, or if poor, an ample 406 FURTHER STAY AT BAGDAD. red chemise and a simpler covering for the head. In most of the instances which we saw, the waves assisted, with all due respect and humility, to dress and undress their husbands, and to perform all the duties of valets. After dressing, the husband generally per¬ formed his devotions, while the slave wras pre¬ paring a pipe and coffee; and, on his seating himself on his carpet, when this was done, his wife served him with her own hands, retiring at a proper distance to wTait for the cup, and always standing before him, sometimes, in¬ deed, with the hands crossed, in an attitude of great humility, and even kissing his hand on receiving the cup from it, as is done by the lowest attendants of the household. While the husband lounged on his cushions, or sat on his carpet in an attitude of ease and indolence, to enjoy his morning pipe, the women of the family generally prayed. In the greater number of instances, they did so separately, and exactly after the manner of the men ; but on one or tw o occasions, the mis¬ tress and some other females, perhaps a sister or a relative, prayed together, following each other’s motions, side by side, as is done when a party of men are headed in their devotions FURTHER STAY AT BAGDAD. 4!>7 by an Imaum. None of the females, whether wife, servant, or slave, omitted this morning duty; but among the children under twelve or fourteen years of age, I did not observe any instance of their joining in it. Notwithstanding the apparent seclusion in which women live here, as they do indeed throughout all the Turkish empire, there are, perhaps, as many accessible dwellings as in any of the large towns under the same domi¬ nion. They are, however, much less apparent here than at Cairo, though they are all under such concealment from public notice, as not to offend the scrupulous, or present allurements to the inexperienced by their external marks. It is said, that women of the highest condi¬ tion sometimes grant assignations at these houses ; and this, indeed, cannot be denied, that the facility of clandestine meetings is mudi greater in Turkish cities, between peo¬ ple of the country, than in any metropolis of Europe. The disguise of a Turkish or Arab female, in her walking dress, is so complete, that her husband himself could not recognise her beneath it ; and these places of appoint¬ ment are so little known hut to those who visit them, and so unmarked by any distinc- 2 K VOL. II. 498 FURTHER STAY AT BAGDAD. tion between them and others, that they might he entered or quitted hy any person at any hour of the day, without exciting the slightest suspicion of the passers-by. Among the women to be occasionally seen in Bagdad, the Georgians and Circassians are decidedly the handsomest hy nature, and the least disfigured hy art. The high-born natives of the place are of less beautiful forms and features, and of less fresh and clear com¬ plexions ; while the middling and inferior or¬ ders, having brown skins, and nothing agree¬ able in their countenances, except a dark and expressive eye, are sometimes so barbarously tattooed as to have the most forbidding ap¬ pearance. With all ranks and classes, the hair is stained a red colour by henna, and the palms of the hands are so deeply dyed with it, as to resemble the hands of a sailor when covered with tar. Those only who, by blood, or habits of long intercourse, are allied to the Arab race, use the blue stains so common among the Bedouins of the Desert. The passion for this method of adorning the body is carried, in some instances, as far as it could have been among the ancient Britons ; for, besides the FURTHER STAY AT BAGDAD. 4!HI staining of the lips with that deadly hue, anklets are marked around the legs, with lines extending upwards from the ankle, at equal distances, to the calf of the legs ; a wreath of blue flowers is made to encircle each breast, with a chain of the same pattern hanging perpendicularly between them ; and, among some of the most determined belles, a zone, or girdle, of the same singular composition, is made to encircle the smallest part of the waist, imprinted on the skin in such a man¬ ner as to be for ever after indelible. There are artists in Bagdad, whose profession it is to decorate the forms of ladies with the newest patterns of wreaths, zones, and girdles, for the bosom or the waist ; and as this operation must occupy a considerable time, and many “ sittings,” as an English portrait-pain ter would express it, they must possess abundant oppor¬ tunities of studying, in perfection, the beau¬ ties of the female form, in a manner not less satisfactory, perhaps, than that which is pur¬ sued in the Royal Academies of Sculpture and Painting in Europe. A P P E N D I X. CONTAINING A BRIEF STATEMENT OF THE RESULT OF CERTAIN LEGAL PROCEEDINGS, CONNECTED WITH THE LITE¬ RARY CHARACTER OF THE AUTHOR. At the close of the last volume of Travels, which I had the honour to lay before the world, was an Appendix, which contained a number of documents, illustrative of the measures pursued by the late Mr. John Lewis Burck- hardt, — Mr. William John Bankes, late member for Cam¬ bridge, — Mr. Henry Bankes, his father, late member for Corfe Castle, — Mr. Gifford, late editor of the Quarterly Review, — and Mr. John Murray, publisher, — who had united their misrepresentations and their influence, to destroy my reputation, both as a man and an author, for the purpose of preventing the publication of my “ Travels in Palestine,” and other countries of the East, in order that Mr. W. J. Bankes, who had some intention to publish his observations on the same countries, should come into the APPENDIX. 502 field before me, and reap whatever fame was to be acquired by priority and novelty, in the details of researches and ob¬ servations made by each at the same period and on the same spot. As soon as my return from India to England rendered it practicable, certain proceedings at law wrere instituted by me against three of these parties, for the purpose of proving to the world the utter falsehood of their calumnies, and the gross injustice of their conduct. Although two years had elapsed between the institution of these proceedings and the publication of the volume of Travels alluded to, yet, when it was issued from the press, not one of the three had been brought to a close. Since that period, two other years have passed away, and even these have been but just sufficient to terminate proceedings which, had not delays been studiously interposed by the parties interested, might have been closed in four months, and at a cost of one hun¬ dred pounds, instead of occupying four years, and involving an expense of upwards of five thousand pounds. The reader, who desires to acquaint himself with the de¬ tails of these proceedings, (the history of which is consider¬ ed, by legal men, to be among the most curious and extra¬ ordinary of any to be found on record in the whole range of disputed questions affecting literary property and charac¬ ter,) is referred to the Appendix to “Travels among the Arab Tribes,” in which all the documents are given at length,* and to the verbatim Reports of the Trials, in “ The Oriental Herald,” where the whole of the proceed¬ ings in the Court of King’s Bench are faithfully recorded. •!* As, however, there may be many readers of the present volume, to whom the facts of the case are but imperfectly * In 1 vol. 4to. published by Messrs. Longman and Co. 1825. f See Oriental Herald, vol. vi. p. 380 ; vol. viii. p. 157; vol. x. p.360; and vol. xi. p. 375. APPENDIX. 503 known, and who may desire to be acquainted with them in outline, I shall, for their information, briefly recapitulate them ; being now happily enabled to follow them from their origin to their close ; and to put on record, in a per¬ manent form, the final issue of the whole. In the year 1816, Mr. Bankes and myself met at Jeru¬ salem ; and, by mutual consent, performed together a journey of seven days, among the ruined cities of the Decapolis, east of the Jordan, each paying his half of the expenses, the whole of which did not, however, exceed five pounds sterling. So great was Mr. Bankes’ s satisfaction at the pleasure and advantage of travelling in my company, that subsequent to this period, and during our joint stay in Syria, he gave me, in writing, pressing invitations to meet him at Baalbeck, solicited me to join him in an ex¬ cursion to Palmyra, and actually made an attempt to come after me. for the purpose of joining me in the deserts be¬ yond the Dead Sea, but was driven back by the dangers of the road. Having subsequently met again at Damascus, where we lived together in a Catholic Convent, he read my notes on the journey I had made, and was so much impress¬ ed with their value, that he proposed adding his drawings to these notes, for the purpose of forming out of them a joint work on Palestine and Syria. After we had parted at Damascus, he wrote me several letters, full of compli¬ ments to my industry and understanding, in which he ac¬ knowledged having read these notes, and evinced so much deference to my supposed superior judgment in matters of ancient architecture, that, on adverting to a difference of opinion between us on the age of a particular edifice, he asserted, that he should not venture, on such a subject, to put his opinion in competition with mine ; admitting, at the same time, his own indolence in writing, and expressing a hope that I should not be ashamed to see my name asso- APPENDIX. 504 dated with his, in wdiat we might be able to contribute jointly to the work proposed. We finally met in Aleppo, where. Air. Bankes, after a knowledge of me for nearly six months, in frequent personal intercourse and correspondence, retained and expressed the same unaltered high opinion of my character and acquire¬ ments ; on which ground, he obtained for me the attention of the British Resident there, to whom he was himself strongly introduced ; and on my leaving that city for an overland journey to India, he gave me a letter of high commendation to his friend, the late Sir Evan Nepean, then Governor of Bombay. At the moment of our parting at Aleppo, Mr. Bankes expressed a strong desire to receive back all the letters he had written to me, during our separate journeys in Syria, on the plea that, as he kept few or no notes of his own, these letters, which contained fuller details than any he possessed, would be useful to him, while, from the com¬ pleteness of my own notes, which he had seen, they would be of little value to mysslf. Having no reason whatever to decline complying with his wish, these letters were readily delivered up, excepting one only, which, being sought for in vain, was supposed, by both parties, to be lost, and was no more thought of, until it was subsequently found, on my arrival in India, stuck fast by the sealing wax, which the heat of the climate of Mesopotamia had melted, to the top lining of an old portmanteau, in which linen and loose papers had been kept ; and this letter, with a shorter one found inclosed in it, fortunately contained all the evi¬ dence necessary to refute the charges of its author. I proceeded to India ; when, circumstances having led to my settling in that country instead of returning to Eng¬ land, as we had both thought probable when we parted, my notes were shewn to and approved by the late Dr. Mid- APPENDIX. 505 dleton, then Lord Bishop of Calcutta, Colonel Mackenzie, the Surveyor General of India, Dr. Lumsden, the Arabic Professor at Fort William, and other distinguished literary characters in Bengal, at whose suggestion, and with whose admitted approbation, they were announced for publica¬ tion, and the manuscript sent home to England, and ac¬ cepted by Mr. Murray, of Albemarle-Street, for that purpose. Mr. Bankes, being then at Thebes, in Upper Egypt, and seeing this announcement in a copy of the “ Calcutta Journal,” which had reached him amid the ruins of that deserted city by way of the Red Sea, appears to have been inspired with the most ungovernable rage, or jea¬ lousy, at my appearing in print before him, (though all idea of the proposed joint work had been mutually aban¬ doned before we separated ;) and, imagining, perhaps, that as all his letters to me had been returned, I should have no evidence to refute any charges lie might advance, he ad¬ dressed a letter to his father in London, directing him to go at once to Mr. Murray, to induce him to desist from publishing my work, on the ground that I had palmed myself upon his company, on a condition that I should keep his journal while he paid my travelling expenses ! — that I had treacherously taken away these notes, and formed out of them the volume announced for publication ; — that I was so ignorant as not to know a Turkish building from a Roman one, or a Greek inscription from a Latin one ! — that I kept no notes whatever, not having even paper for so doing; — and that I was altogether a worthless and abandoned character. Mr. Bankes, senior, having then no reason to suspect his son of falsehood, as soon as he received this letter, wrote to Mr. Murray on the subject, recited the contents of his son’s communication; and, without even asking to see the oO(i APPDNDIX. materials alleged to be stolen, so as to identify them as those of another, urged Mr. Murray not to publish this worthless and imperfect work, (though pretended to be wholly made up of his son's materials,) but to wait until Mr. Bankes, junior, should himself return, when he would give to the world a much better account of the same countries than this now sent him, which he ventured unequivocally to denounce, though neither he nor his son had seen a line of its contents. Ten years have now elapsed, however, without the promised work, which was to supersede this volume of mine, having yet made its appearance ! Mr. Murray, having then also no reason to suspect the arrogant pretensions of the son, or the perhaps pardonable weakness of the father, yielded ta this representation: and although he had actually made a purchase of the manuscript, and fixed both the price and the period of publication, retracted his engagement, and declined to have any thing further to do with the supposed stolen pro¬ duction. The same representation operated equally with other booksellers ; so that, until twelve months had elapsed, during which reference was made to me in India, the work lay under such odious imputations that no pub¬ lisher would touch it. At the same time that Mr. Bankes addressed this letter to his father in London, he wrote a similar one to Sir Evan Nepean, at Bombay, calling on him to discountenance me, and to use his influence to proscribe me in India ; which letter fell into the hands of Mr. Elphinstone, Sir Evan Nepean’s successor, and was generally seen in Bombay. He addressed another letter to myself, at Calcutta, calling on me to desist from my intended publication, and to give up all my manuscripts and papers to Sir Evan Nepean, for his use ; or, in the event of my refusing to do so, threaten¬ in'! me with the exertion of all his influence to make mv o J APPENDIX. o(»7 character as infamous in England, as he pretended it al¬ ready was (and he himself had laboured hard to make it sc) in the East. It is needless to say, that I despised his threats, and did not give up a single sheet to purchase his silence or forbearance. The original of the letter to myself was sent by way of Arabia, and was twelve months before it reached its destination ; but, for the more effectually securing the in¬ famy which Mr. Bankes threatened to bring on my name, he gave an open copy of this letter, written with his own hand, to Mr. Henry William Hobhouse, whom he met at Trieste on his way to India, with instructions to make it public wherever lie went. This gentleman, having known Mr. Bankes1 s family in England, and having then no rea¬ son to doubt the entire truth of the statements it contained, received the open letter in question. But learning, on his first landing at Bombay, that its accusations were likely to be disproved, he made no further use of it till his arrival at Calcutta ; where, at the request of Mr. John Palmer, a mutual friend of Mr. Hobhouse and myself, the letter was given up to me, as the person to whom (though open) it was originally addressed. Mr. Bankes in the mean time returned from Egypt to England ; and, in this interval, the proofs that I had been able to send from India, of the entire falsehood of his im¬ putations, appeared so satisfactory to Messrs. Longman and Co., that they undertook the publication of the hitherto suppressed volume. When the work appeared, however, instead of Mr. Bankes coming openly forward, and claim¬ ing any portion of the volume as his own, or producing the original notes from which it was alleged to have been stolen, he made interest with Mr. Murray, or with Mr. Gifford, then Editor of the Quarterly Review, to admit into that Periodical one of the most ungentlemanly bitter, APPENDIX. 008 and slanderous articles, that ever disgraced the critical lite¬ rature of the country. In this article, which, on the testi¬ mony of Mr. Murray, was written with Mr. Bankes’s own hand, he not only repeats all the calumnies contained in his letter before adverted to, but adds others equally unfound¬ ed ; at the same time that he very modestly praises the labours of himself, and speaks of the impatience with which the literary world were anxiously awaiting the appearance of his own valuable materials! now, as he asserted, ren¬ dered the more necessary by the intrusion of the worthless trash then under review ! The world has waited, and will still have to wait in vain, however, for the promised treasure. This article reached India, where I was then residing; and, although I was there able to repel it, by an exhibition of proofs which established my innocence in the minds of all reflecting persons ; yet, it was made a pretext, by my political enemies, for their calling on the Government of India to expel from the country a man denounced by such high authorities as Mr. Bankes and the writer of the article in the Quarterly Review, (then supposed to be two distinct persons, but since proved to be one and the same.) The Indian Government, wanting nothing but such a pretext as would lessen the odium of so harsh a measure, encou¬ raged the cry thus raised ; and, under this encouragement, the flood-gates of calumny were opened, and every species of atrocity attempted towards me by the favoured minions of power. I sought my remedy, where an Englishman shoidd be always proud to meet his opponents, and where I have never yet shrunk from mine, in a British court of justice. I called those libellers (not before an impartial and inde¬ pendent jury, for in India, in cases of civil prosecution, there are no juries whatever, but I called them) before a APPENDIX. 509 single English judge, being willing to abide the issue of his decision, though he sat alone upon the bench, and was, of necessity, in continual and familiar intercourse with the very members of the ruling body to whom I was an object of so much dread and hatred. The proceeding was by a civil action, in order to give my slanderers the utmost opportunity of producing proofs. Will it be believed, that this was the moment chosen by the Indian Government, when I stood before the supreme court of justice, seeking merely to defend my character against un¬ just imputations, for banishing me from the country alto¬ gether? Yet such was the fact: I was not permitted to remain in India to bring my calumniators to justice; but was banished, without a trial or a hearing, in the midst of those proceedings, and thus cut off from the power of en¬ joying the triumph which my innocence afterwards re¬ ceived. Much, however, as every cause, and especially a personal one, must suffer by the forcible removal of the plaintiff' from the court and country in which it is tried, my own was so strong as to outlive all this ; for, while I was absent on the ocean, in the ship that bore me as an exile from India for ever, a verdict was given against my calum¬ niators, on which occasion, the judge who pronounced it declared that “ the malice of the libels was only equalled by their falsehood,” and that they were “ too atrocious to be even thought of without horror.” On my arrival in England, and before I had received in¬ telligence of the issue of the trial in India, I commenced three several actions against my slanderers here ; 1st, against Mr. Murray, the publisher of the Quarterly Re¬ view, for the libellous article contained in that work ; 2nd, against Mr. Henry Bankes, senior, the present Member for Dorsetshire, for the letter addressed by him to Mr. Mur¬ ray, and which led to the suspension of my publication ; APPENDIX. 510 and 3rd, against Mr. William John Bankes, then Mem¬ ber for the University of Cambridge, for the false and scandalous imputations contained in the open letter sent out to India by the hands of Mr. Hobhouse. All these actions have now happily been brought to a close. In the first, Mr. Murray voluntarily expressed, in open court, his sincere regret that his publication, the Quar¬ terly Review, should have been made the vehicle of un¬ founded slander against a respectable individual, and con¬ sented to a verdict being recorded against him, including damages and costs, without attempting a justification, though Mr. William John Bankes, the writer of these un¬ founded slanders, wras then himself in court, and every wit¬ ness ever professed to be required by him was in attend¬ ance ; so that the not even calling them was additional proof, if any more were necessary, of the utter absence of all grounds for the acknowledged falsehoods contained in the article in question. In the second, Mr. Henry Bankes, the father, though he needed no other witness than his son, who was the only source of his information, to prove his allegations, declined placing that son in the witness- box to support his own assertions ; and consented to a ver¬ dict being recorded against himself, paying all costs as be¬ tween attorney and client ; thus confessing to the whole world, that his son had made him the medium of commu¬ nicating to others slanderous imputations which he dared not venture to support by his oath, and abandoning them as scandalous and false. A very short detail of the pro¬ gress and termination of the third cause will complete the history of this extraordinary combination of events and proceedings. On commencing the action against Mr. William John Bankes, the open letter sent to India by Mr. Hobhouse was produced, and its publication morally proved, by the APPENDIX. .jll fact of Mr. Hobhouse’s hand-writing being at the top of the first page, where he had obliterated a motto in Italian, apparently because of its extravagant language, and written underneath it these words, “ I desire this motto not to be noticed. H. W. Hobhouse;” — a proof, not merely that the letter was read by him before it came into my possession, (which of itself is legal publication,) but also of his feeling himself authorised, by the writer of it, to shew that he had so read and understood its contents. This letter was set out at full length in what is technically called “ the declaration,” where it must have been seen and read by Mr. Bankes and his legal advisers; and in what are called “ the pleadings,” he justified his having published it, on the ground that it was true, that he could prove its truth, and that, there¬ fore, I ought to have no remedy for any injury it might have done me. In the mean time, he solicited the indul¬ gence of the Court to allow him to send to Syria or Egypt (where the Court has no jurisdiction) for a man named Mo¬ hammed, (without any other specification,) who, with ano¬ ther person named Antonio, (the one an Albanian soldier, the other a Portuguese groom,) were the respectable wit¬ nesses necessary to establish his case. This indulgence was granted, on condition that Mr. Bankes should admit the identical letter produced to have been really written by him, reserving only the question of its publication ; and several months passed away in the supposed finding and bringing over these witnesses from abroad, though it is believed that they were both nearer London than Jerusalem, at the time they were pretended to be sent for. The period arrived for going to trial, but it was discovered that the moral evidence of publication, though enough to satisfy any im¬ partial mind, did not amount to the legal proof required, and proceedings were at a stand. I then expressed my belief, that, as Mr. Bankes had already admitted to the 512 APPENDIX. Court that the letter was really written by him, and as he had in his pleadings justified (not merely his having written it, for that, not being a ground of civil action, needed no justification in this case, but) his having pub¬ lished the letter, on the ground that it was true, and there¬ fore he had a right to publish it, — lie could not fail, as a man, to wave the technical difficulty, and re-admit, at this stage of the proceeding, as he had already admitted in a former one, that he did publish it, so that we might go at once to the merits of the question : he well knowing that, if his imputations could be supported by evidence, my de¬ feat and his triumph would be certain. Mr. Bankes refused, however, to admit any such thing, and shrunk from coming to the proof, though all his witnesses were at hand, decli¬ ning, in short, to repeat what he had before admitted, and what he had even justified his having done.* As Mr. Hobhouse, the bearer of the letter in question, and the only person who could prove its publication, was in India, it was necessary for me to obtain permission of the Court, to send out a Commission to that country, in order to * The unprofessional reader should know, that if a man merely writes a libellous letter to another, without its passing through a third person, it can only be made the ground of a criminal proceeding, in which its truth cannot be stated in justification, as such proceeding is only on the plea of the letter having a tendency to break the king’s peace ; and the more true it is, the more angry it is likely to make the person to whom it relates, so that, in this sense, the greater the truth the greater the libel, i. e. the greater its tendency to provoke the parties to break the peace. But no civil proceeding for damages can be instituted against the writer of such letter, since it can only produce damage by being known to others, and it can only be known to others but through the agency of the person to whom it is exclusively addressed. In actions of this kind, therefore, it is not enough to prove that a certain person wrote a libellous letter- It must be proved or admitted that he shewed it to others besides the party libelled. It is this which is technically called “ publication,” with_ out proof of which, no action for damages can be sustained. APPENDIX. 513 get his evidence to this fact. An application was made for such permission ; but it seems the Court could not grant it to the plaintiff, without the leave of Mr. Bankes, the defen¬ dant; and when he was applied to for his consent, although he had been, himself, permitted to send to Syria, or Egypt, for a certain individual named Mohammed, without stating where he was to be found, or what he was to prove, (which was as vague an errand as if any person in Turkey were to send to England or America, for a man named John, of which he might find nearly as many as there are Moham- meds in T urkey,) he declined granting it ; so that he would neither admit nor deny that he published the letter, nor would he give his consent to the sending for the only evi¬ dence by which this point could be settled. If he did publish the letter, he ought at once to have admitted it. If he did not publish it, then there could be no possible reason for his refusing to send for the evidence, which must have been in his favour. On the hardship of this case being explained, the J udges, at length, compelled Mr. Bankes to consent ; but he had still the power to exact a condition, which was, that, be¬ sides my paying all the costs of the action up to that period, I should pay into Court about two hundred pounds more, as a fund for defraying the expenses of the Albanian sol¬ dier, and Portuguese groom, who were to be detained here, at my expense, (for twelve months at least,) to give evidence against myself , until an answer could be returned from India to the application sent out for Mr. Hobhouse’s testimony ! Hard as these conditions seemed, I was so intent upon the establishment of my own innocence, that I would have stripped off my last garment for sale, ra¬ ther than abandon my pursuit of justice. I accordingly, though plundered of all I possessed by the Indian Govern¬ ment, and trampled to the earth by those to whom I had 2 VOL. II. L 514 APPENDIX. since appealed for redress, did contrive to raise the sum required, and deposited it in Court accordingly, for the subsistence of those who were to have twelve months more to reflect on and arrange their evidence against me. The next step was to send the letter of Mr. Bankes to India, to be identified by Mr. Hobhouse, and to have his deposition on oath, as to whether he published it with Mr. Bankes’ s authority or not. I had hoped that an attested copy of this would have answered the purpose, particularly as Mr. Bankes could not retract the admission he had made to the Court of having actually written the original of the letter set out in the declaration. But the nicety of the law required that the identical letter itself, on which Mr. Hob- house had, with his own hand, written the words before quoted, should be sent out, though attested copies might be kept here to produce, in case of its loss, which would, however, again be required to be proved by affidavit. The original letter was accordingly transmitted to India, by the steam-ship Enterprise , with a view to the greatest despatch. She was longer on the passage than had been expected, and when she reached India, Mr. Hobhouse had left it some time for England ; so that, while lie was in one hemisphere, the letter wras in another, and the object of sending it to India was thus entirely defeated. Mr. Hobhouse, however, soon reached this country ; but, as his stay in it was uncertain, and as the only obsta¬ cle to our proceeding to trial was the question of publica¬ tion, it appeared to me impossible that Mr. Bankes should now decline coming into Court, to meet the question fairly. He had already indirectly admitted that lie published the letter, when he pleaded its truth as his jus¬ tification for having so done. He had since directly ad¬ mitted that lie wrote the letter, when this was exacted as a condition of his sending for witnesses into Syria. And appendix. 515 although, when he discovered that our moral evidence did not amount to legal proof of publication, he declined to repeat his former admission, and thus put off the evil day for another year ; yet, as the gentleman himself, Mr. Hob- house, who alone could settle this doubtful point of publi¬ cation, had arrived in England, was soon about to leave it, and could be summoned to the Court immediately, to say “ aye” or “ no” to this simple question, I considered it certain that Mr. Bankes would consent to our putting the matter at once to the test, by going before a jury with¬ out delay. He was applied to, for this purpose, through the usual channels of our respective solicitors. He not only declined to come into Court, and have the issue tried, but set up, through his attorneys, an absurd and incredible pre¬ tence of “ knowing nothing of the letter in question,” of not having seen this “ pretended” production ; though he had before deliberately admitted that he wrote it, had deliberately justified his having published it, and had ob¬ tained, from beyond the limits of Christendom, witnesses to prove that every word of it was true ! ! I was accordingly obliged to wait the return of the original letter from India, under the continual apprehen¬ sion, — first, that the accidents which attend voyages by sea might occasion this document to be either lost, or delayed indefinitely on its way, — and, secondly, that Mr. Hobhouse, the only witness who could prove its publication when it came, might be gone from England before the period of its return ; either of which would have thrown fresh dif¬ ficulties in my path, and each of which were no doubt encouraging sources of hope to my calumniator. In the mean time, the period to which the trial had been postponed by order of the Court, to admit of the return of the Commission from India, (about ten months,) expired, without the document arriving ; when Mr. Bankes APPENDIX. 5l(> — well knowing that, if a trial could be forced on before the original letter had returned from India, he would gain a verdict, as this letter was the only evidence of the libels it contained, which the Court would admit or receive — resisted my application for a short postponement till the Commission should arrive, and pressed the Court to have the trial brought on at once, on the ground that the expense of retaining his foreign witnesses in England was considerable, (though all the charges of their maintenance here were to be defrayed by myself,) and that he could not answer for their willingness to stay any longer. This application was, however, unsuccessful. The Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, on hearing the statement of my counsel, respecting the daily-expected arrival of the original letter, and also of my willingness to go immedi¬ ately to trial, if Mr. Bankes would admit an attested copy of it to be produced in its stead, granted a further post¬ ponement ; but only on condition of my paying a further sum of money into Court, for the maintenance of Mr. Bankes’s foreign witnesses during the period of their future detention ; to which I readily consented. At length, in October, 1826, (being more than three years after the first institution of the action,) the Com¬ mission returned from India, and the cause was set down for trial on the 19th of the same month. Up to the even¬ ing preceding that day, though all the documents and witnesses for my case had been then procured, and vast expense had been incurred in completing the arrangements for the trial, I continued to give proofs of my being as much disposed to shew clemency to my more obstinate ene¬ my, as I had already done towards his repentant col¬ leagues. Having no feelings of personal vengeance to gratify, and demanding only justice, I should have been perfectly satisfied, provided Mr. Bankes would have paid a APPENDIX. 517 sum sufficient to reimburse all the expenses already in¬ curred, and made the same public avowal which Mr. Mur¬ ray, and Mr. Henry Bankes, his father, had already done, that the accusations contained in his libellous letter were altogether unfounded. I did not, at any time, wish to touch a shilling of his money, and should have been, at any period of the proceedings, quite content with his making the public reparation of my character, which strict justice required, without exacting the smallest pecu¬ niary compensation from his purse for the enormous evils I had suffered. Whether, however, the sum necessary to cover the amount of expenses actually incurred, was too great to be parted with, by one who loved it so well; — or whether the only sort of reparation, which the party from whom it was due would be prepared to make, was a private hushing-up of the matter, — to which, if even my exis¬ tence hung upon the issue, I would never have yielded my consent ; — or, indeed, whether both of these considerations might not have had an equal influence in strengthening the unrelenting purpose of my accuser, — it is not easy to deter¬ mine ; but, in point of fact, no measures were actually taken by him to evince either regret for the injuries he had done, or a desire to repair them. We accordingly went, on the morning of the next day, (October 19, 1826,) to trial. The Court was crowded, es¬ pecially with literary and political characters, and the inte¬ rest was intense. The trial lasted from nine o’clock in the morning till nearly seven at night ; and throughout the whole of that time the Court continued as full as at the beginning. Mr. Hill and Mr. Pattison opened the case ; and Mr. Brougham, in a masterly speech of analysis and narrative, stated the libels, and commented on their atrocity and incredibility ; after which, evidence was called to prove the allegations set forth in the pleadings on my behalf : — in- 518 APPENDIX. eluding Mr. Hobhouse, to prove the publication of the letter ; — Mr. Arrowsmith, to prove that the engravings con¬ tained in my printed volume of “Travels in Palestine” were from original materials of my own, contained in ma¬ nuscript books carefully examined by him, and compared with the published work, so that they could not have been copied, as pretended, from the plans exhibited as those of Mr. Bankes ; — and Dr. Babington, as to knowledge of my character and capacity as a Traveller, obtained from a per¬ sonal acquaintance of many years, and daily intercourse du¬ ring a joint voyage made by us together from India to Egypt, by Avay of Arabia, in the year 1815, before I had ever seen Mr. Bankes, or even heard of his pursuits. Mr. Gurney followed, on the part of the defendant ; and, after a speech, in which he solemnly declared his being able to prove that every word and tittle of Mr. Bankes’ s accu¬ sations were true, he called Giovanni Benatti, the Albanian soldier, who had acted as interpreter to Mr. Bankes in Syria, speaking Italian and Arabic only, and Antonio Da Costa, the Portuguese groom, who spoke only Portuguese and Italian ; with Col. Leake, Capts. Irby and Mangles, and Mr. Parry ; the two former to speak to facts oc¬ curring during the seven days which Mr. Bankes and my¬ self had travelled together from Jerusalem to Jerash and Nazareth ; and the four latter to speak to the accuracy of certain Greek inscriptions, copied from the ruins of Ge- raza, as well as the resemblances and differences between certain plans of the ruins of that city, drawn by different hands, with a view to determine whether one had been co¬ pied from the other, or whether each had the appearance of being original. Upon the evidence adduced on both sides, Mr. Broug¬ ham made an eloquent and powerful reply, in which — after denouncing, in terms which will be long remembered APPENDIX. 510 for their force, the conduct of Mr. John Murray, the publisher, in a transaction connected with the detention of certain property intrusted to his care by me, and secretly supplied by him to my accusers to strengthen their evidence, — thus assisting to make others the instrument of new wrongs to an individual who had already forgiven him his own offences, — to procure which forgiveness, he had publicly expressed his regret at having been made, by others, the unwilling instrument of wrong to the very same person whom he was now helping others to overwhelm with fresh injuries; — after setting the evidence of the fo¬ reign witnesses in a light which closely approached to wilful perjury; — and proving, from undisputed letters written with Mr. Bankes’ s own hand, that he too had been guilty of uttering false, scandalous, and malicious libels, well knowing them at the time of their utterance to be untrue ; — he appealed to the justice of the Jury, and left the case entirely in their hands. The Chief Justice delivered, after this, an elaborate charge, in which, though evincing every disposition to extend mercy to the defendant, he was constrained to admit that Mr. Bankes had failed altogether in his jus¬ tification, and that therefore the plaintiff was entitled to the verdict of the Jury; which, however, in conformity with the evident disposition before adverted to, lie used all his influence to persuade them to reduce to as moderate a standard as possible. The Jury retired, and after a consultation, — in which it was understood that large damages were contended for by some, who were overruled, however, by others over whom the persuasive powers of the Judge had greater influ¬ ence, — they came into Court, and pronounced their ver¬ dict, declaring Mr. Bankes to be guilty of the false, scan¬ dalous, and malicious libels laid to his charge, and ad- APPENDIX. 020 judging him to pay, as damages, to the Plaintiff', the sum of Four Hundred Pounds. This, then, has been the issue of the three several ac¬ tions instituted against the three separate parties named. Mr. John Murray, the publisher of the Quarterly Re¬ view, has publicly expressed his regret that his work should have been made the vehicle of unfounded slanders (which he has since openly avowed to have been written by Mr. W. J. Bankes himself) against a respectable and innocent individual ; and, as a proof of the sincerity of this admission, he consented to abandon all justification, to submit to a ver¬ dict being recorded against him, and to pay all the costs in¬ curred. Mr. Henry Bankes, senior, though he expressed no regret, consented to admit the accusations to be false, by abandoning all justification of their truth, by submitting to a verdict being recorded against him, and by consent¬ ing also to pay all costs. Mr. William John Bankes, feeling no regret, and abandoning no justification, is at length compelled to adduce his evidence before a Jury of his countrymen, whose verdict, after the most patient hear¬ ing of all that could be said in his defence, stamps his character in terms, of which the record will remain as long as the Court of King’s Bench shall exist, or the memory of this signal triumph of integrity over injustice shall en¬ dure. It remains only to add, that — notwithstanding the amount of the verdict given in my favour, and the nominal payment of all the ordinary costs of the proceedings by the convicted parties, yet, from the shamefully defective state of the law, the appalling power given to interested parties to delay proceedings and accumulate expense, with the advantage taken, by the parties accused, of various technical obstacles, which from time to time presented themselves, and the ex¬ traordinary charges thus resulting, which fall entirely on APPENDIX. 521 myself, — the costs of this complete victory, obtained by an individual over a powerful conspiracy, by which, all that wealth, rank, and influence, could accomplish, was essayed in vain, will belittle short to me of One Thousand Pounds sterling, independantly of the suffering and loss inflicted on me by the effect of these widely-spread slanders in India. There, indeed, the injury occasioned to me by their influ¬ ence was immense ; for they undoubtedly led, in their re¬ sults, not merely to my being banished from that country, without a trial or a hearing, at the very moment of my bringing the abettors of these calumnies before a British Court of Justice; but also to a total annihilation of all my future prospects in life, and to the wanton and utter de¬ struction of all the property I had lawfully and honour¬ ably acquired, by the labours of my pen, and left behind me in India, while I came to England to seek redress. This property, amounting in saleable value to Forty Thou¬ sand Pounds, and yielding, at the moment of my being torn from it, a clear and improveable income of Eight Thousand Pounds sterling per annum, was, as soon as I had quitted the shores of India, forcibly transferred, with all its advantages, to other hands, in consequence of a pre¬ meditated design (since discovei'ed by secret papers pro¬ duced before a Committee of Parliament) first to get me to leave the country, in the confidence of its being safe from violation, and then, as soon as I was absent, to de¬ stroy it altogether ; the Government of Bengal making a local regulation for this express purpose, which regula¬ tion has since been declared, by the King’s Judges in the Supreme Court of Justice at Bombay, to be utterly re¬ pugnant to British law, and in violation of the rights of the subject; which no Court of Justice could therefore legally sanction. J o crown the whole of this career of treachery and ini- 522 APPENDIX. quity, the Indian authorities in England, — including the Directors of the East India Company, and the Members of the Board of Controul, to each of whom all these facts are as well known as to myself, — have not only denied me all redress for this illegal plunder of their servants abroad, but have refused me even permission to return, for a few brief weeks only, to my ruined concerns in the East, in order to gather up, if possible, some fragments from the scattered wreck, which is now, therefore, entirely and irretrievably swept away for ever ! J. S. BUCKINGHAM. Tavistock-Square, February 5, 1827* INDEX. A. ABASSIDES, empire of this dynasty of the Eastern Caliphate, vol. ii. 415. Abdullah, a Christian pilgrim met with at Orfah, vol. i. 99, 100. Abduction of a beautiful Arab woman gives rise to a war, i. 2. Abgurus, king of Edessa, i. 125, 126. 133. 151. Abraham, feasting his angelic visitants, i. 33; his birth-place, Ur of the Chaldees, i. 109. 121. 163. Abu Aioobe Ibn Temar, sheikh of the tribe of Beni-Melan, i. 173. Presents exacted by him and his followers, 206. Nature of the supper given in his tents, 273. His father’s tomb, 284. Visit to him, 293. Academic building, called Medrassee el Mostanseree, ii. 238. Accommodations and rest, agreeable, i.-120. 197. Adventurers, military, i. 86, 87. Agriculture, particulars relating to, i. 30. 305. 308. 355. 418. — ii. 125. Ahmed, the Caliph Abbassidas, his history and learning, ii. 415. Akh Tuppe, i. 359. 403. Akkerkoof, or Nimrod’s palace, supposed by early travellers to have been the Tower of Babel, ii. 219. lluins and masonry at, 219. 221. 457. Akkerkoof, its rain is coeval with the extant vestiges of Babylon, ii. 223. 326. Assumption that this is the site of an ancient city, 224. Con¬ jectures respecting the origin and identity of the tower at Akkerkoof, 229. 239. Ain Koura, village of, ii. 91. 95. Alexander the Great, cities built by him, i. 49. IBs expedition against Darius, ii. 76. 82. 100. 249. 267. 364. 367. 376. Aleppo, the author’s stay in this city ; he takes his departure, i. 1. Aleppo, river of, i 8. Al/ipoor, village of, i. 348. Al Hhcimar, mound of, (near Ilillah and Babylon,) ii. 296. 304. 306. 31 7. 321. 325. 624 INDEX. Al-Mamoun, this Caliph has two degrees measured, i. 467. AltounKupree, or the Golden Bridge, town so called, ii. *101. Altoun Sou, river so named, ii. *101, *102, 103. Amida, city of, (now Diarbekr,) i. 376. Its history,' 384, 385. Amooda, Koord village of, i. 416. Amusement, places of public, at Bagdad, ii. 429. 431. Ancient authors cited, with respect to Babylon, i. 26. — ii. 254. 261. 279. 282. 293. 297. 310. 318. 345. 374. 384. Antioch, city of, ii. 465.470. Antiques, valuable collection of, ii. 64. 403, 404, 405, 406. 411. 488. Antiquities, at Beer, i. 59; at Orfah, 179; at Nisibeen, 443, 444. At Babylon, ii. 289. Anali, (the ancient Anatho ,) i. 55. Anazie Arabs, strength of this tribe, i. 2. 195. Ants, an inch in length, i. 247. Arabesques, ii. 33. Arabian horses, i. 447. — ii. 206. 252. Arab-el-Belled, encampments, i. 232. Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, not a copy to be procured in Bagdad, ii. 490. Arabic, the language, i. 28. 116. 280. 349. Not so generally spoken at Bagdad as the Turkish, ii. 166. 489. Arabic letter, dictated. Its nature, i. 286. Arabic pointed niches in various architectural remains, i. 73. — ii. 33. 137. 192. ii. 452. Araske, temple of, at Nineveh, ii. 63. Architecture, remarks on, i. 31. Ancient edifices, 54. At Orfah, 155, 156. Remains of Roman architecture in the East, 317, 318. At Nisibeen, 443, 444. Temple at Nineveh, 443. Gothic and Sa¬ racenic architecture, ii. 34. The arch called Tauk Kesra, 456, 457. Ark of Noah, tradition respecting it, i. 474. Arevecl, or Arbeel, town of, ii. 96, 97. ( Arbela .) Arrack, i. 398. — ii. 93. Arrest of a Koord for debt, i. 393, 394. Artillery, dismounted in the town of Diarbekr, i. 376. Ashur, founder of Nineveh, Rehoboth, Resen, and the Assyrian and Syrian cities, i. 446. — ii. 227. Assad, Pasha of Bagdad, ii. 172. 197. 204. 479, 480. Asses, white, of Bagdad, ii. 208. Astronomical observations made at Bagdad, ii. 433. 435, 436. Attack by Arab horsemen, i. 10. Azrower, village, i. 457, 458. B. Babylon, extent of, ii. 254. 314. 331. 390. Approach to the first mounds, 253. Writing, reeds, inscribed bricks, and bitumen, are characteris¬ tics of the Babylonian remains, 253. Descriptions, 254. 31 1. The Mujellib^, 257. 260. 271. El Kassr, 277. 291, 292. The walls and city, 284. 288. 297. The ditch, 304.318.321. Relative position of Babylon, Nineveh, and Ctesiphon, and their comparative grandeur and magnificence, 337. 467. Map of the environs of Babylon, by Major Rennel, 347. INDEX. r>2f» Bagdad, the author arrives at, ii. 171. His reception there, 175, 176. Its walls, 177, 178. Description of the city, 180. The serai of the Pasha, 181. The mosques, 181 . 430. The bazars, 184. Its trade and manufactures, 193. 198. 200. Bridge of boats, 433. Site of the ancient Bagdad, 453. Return to Bagdad, 398. 471. The Pa¬ sha’s state procession, 172. General description of the manners and customs of this city, 489. 494. Its police, 492. The Bagdad women, 491. 494. Their practice of staining their body with blue dye, 498. Bairam, feast of the, ii. 478. 480. Baldwin , of Jerusalem, i. 130. Bulk/i, city of, in the ancient Bactria, ii. 487, 488. Barak, plain of, i. 29, 30. Barker, Mr., British Consul at Aleppo, i. 4. 7. 214. 223. 332. Basalt, tops of columnar basaltic stones, i. 17. Porous basalt of the Hauran plains, 277. 298. 361. Basaltic columns at Diarbekr, i. 384. Baths, i. 144. 195. 197. 339. 378. Battle in the Desert, betwixt tribes jealous of the plunder of the caravan, i. 274. Bear, dancing, ii. 121. Beards, unshaven, i. 186. Beauty, female, i. 16. 417. — ii. 197. 473. Betbmins, the, i. 163. Blue stains employed for the skin by these Arabs, ii. 498. Beer, passage of the Euphrates at, i. 46. 62. 64. The ancient Birtha, 49. History of this city, 49. Description, 57. 60. Language spoken, 65. The governor obtains money from the author, for per¬ mission to proceed, 71. Belled Chittea, district so named, i. 460. Bdlino, Mr., secretary, ii. 173. 217. 233. 240. 251. 303. 351. 397. Belus, temple of, ii. 270. Description of it, 362. 376. 379. Its dimen¬ sions, 378. Disquisition respecting it, 380. 384. 387. 383. Belus, tower of, ii. 260. 264. 278. 377. Beni-Meilun, tribeof Arabs of the Desert, tribute exacted by them, i. 255. 258. Their encampments, 272. 278. Their cemetery, 283. Their force, 294. Benjamin, of Tudela, travels of the Rabbi, i. 132. 465. — ii. 6. 39. 260. His account of Bagdad compared with the present time, ii. 413, 414. 479. Berman, village of, i. 351. Birs Nimrood, a great ruin on the western shore of the Euphrates, ii. 332. 362. 364. 373, 374. 377. 381. 384. Biz, an enormous fresh-water fish of the river Diala, ii. 440. Boats of the Euphrates, remarkable, i. 46, 47. 63. — ii. 439. Bokhara, town of, ii. 487. Bricks, masonry of burnt, similar to those of Babylon ii. 251. 275. 332. 369, 457. Bricks, unburnt, in various great ruins of antiquity, ii. 268. Their composition, and the style of masonry, 272. 335. 411. Bridges of boats, passage across them, ii. 70. 241. 354. That over the Tigris at Bagdad described, 357. 433. Brosses, President de, his Memoir on the monarchy of Nineveh, ii. 445. 463. 52C INDEX. Bruce, the traveller, anecdote respecting a statement of his, ii. 58. Buckingham, Mr., agreement respecting his journey from Aleppo, with a merchant of Mousul, i. 5. 70. He is seized upon as a fugitive ja¬ nissary, by the soldiers at Beer, 69. Though falsely charged, he confesses he is a janissary, and escapes by paying a sum of mo¬ ney, 70. Kind treatment of him by his Mohammedan travelling friend, 70. 107. He takes interest in the cotton manufactures of Or- fah, 146. He fails in due respect to the Bedouin warriors, 259. In¬ quiries with regard to him resulting therefrom, 260. Ridiculous test proposed to him, 263. Sum paid by him to save his property from pillage by the Arabs, 266. His anxious care of his Damas¬ cus sword, 271. It is discovered, and how ransomed, 275, 276. He engages in action, 275. A Koord vows to escort him with fidelity, 347. Adventure which befals his guide, 393. Disagreeable con¬ sequences to the author, 395. He sets out alone for Mardin, 402. Constant demands on him for tribute to the sheikhs, 428. His serious trouble in loading a mule, ii. 157. 160. 162. His ill plight at the gate of Bagdad, 171. 174. His determination to enter the city, 174. Kind reception and rest after fatigues, 175. Equipped as a Bedouin, 241. He assumes the character of a guide, 241. 251. Visits Babylon, 254.261. 291. 296. He seeks for the an¬ cient walls of Babylon, 297. 303. 324. He is seized with fever at Bagdad, 400. The author visits Ctesiphon and Seleucia, 214. 270. 311. 462. He resolves to proceed to India through Persia, by the route of Kermanshah, Hamadan, Ispahan, to Bussorah, 486. 487. Burnisht, hospitable reception of the author at, i. 409, 410. Berreuh, El, the Desert, i. 194. 306. 459. Bushire, road from Bagdad to, ii. 486, 487. Butter, mode of making, i. 16. C. Cabalistic devices and gems, ii. 404. 408. Calcutta, Bishop of, sails in the Aurora, ii. 403. Calneh of the Scriptures, attempt to identify its position with that of the ancient Ctesiphon, i. 132. — ii. 463. Calpac, the Armenian, i. 392. Camels eaten, i. 206. Description of them, ii. 207. Camilla di Jesu, Padre, an Italian traveller to Damascus, ii. 132. His mistakes in geography are fatiguing to him, 133, 134. Canal from the Euphrates to the Tigris, ii. 244. The Nahr Malka, 244. 467. Caravan, that which the author joins, commences its journey, i. 3. 11. Attacked by a horde of Turcomans, ii. 23. Its passage across the Euphrates, 46. Adventure on quitting Beet', 68. Charitable hospitality of the merchants towards the poor, 82. The caravan quits Orfah, 231. It is detained by the Arabs, 254. 256. The author rejoins it at Nisibeen, excessive exactions, 427. Caravan from Aleppo to Bagdad, i. 3. Caravanserais, Khan Charmelleek, i. 73. Khan Koolah Oglee at Or¬ fah, 93. 140. Khan-el-Goomrook at Orfah, 94. 141. 146. At Di- arbekr, 379. Of Baiaat, ii. 126. Of Bagdad, 189. Khans on the route to Babylon, 242. 245. 256. 251. Description of, 251. INDEX 527 Carp, in excessive quantity in the Lake of Orfah, i. 111. 143. Cashmere Shawls, i. 381. Castle of Orfah, i. 159, 160. 216. Of Mardin, 336. Castles and fortified camps of antiquity, i. 13. 215. Cathedral of the Crusaders, at the ancient Orthosia, on the coast of Sy¬ ria, ii. 441. Caves, remarkable, i. 58. 63. Cawasses, or silver-sticks, attendants of the Pasha at Mousul, i. 115. — ii. 22, 23. Cemeteries. At Beer, i. 46. At Orfah, 91, 92. 113. In the Desert, 283. Chamoorly , its mosque in ruin, i. 18. Chastity of the Turcoman females, i. 77. They have no veil, — scriptural parallel, Judah and Tamar, 77. Chekel Aga, a village of reed huts and tents, i. 475. — ii. 5. Chief, young Arab, of Altoun Kupree, ii. 112. Christians of Bagdad, few in number, ii. 413. Cisterns, circular and bottle-shaped, cut down into the rock, or other¬ wise constructed, i. 79. 252. Circassian women at Bagdad, ii. 197. Climates, various, i. 85. 203. Babylon, ii. 305. 349. Climate of Bagdad, ii. 214. 250. Cochineal, i. 171. The insects, ii. 139. Coffee, how partaken of, i. 33. Coffee-Houses, i. 148. 339. — ii. 30. 167. Coffee-House, near the Medrassee el Mostanser at Bagdad, 434. Coffins and skeletons found in the Mujellibe, at Babylon, ii. 274. Coins found on the banks of the Tigris, why claimed by the Tasha, ii. 404, 405. College of the mosque at Orfah, i. 190. Colt, Arabian, offered for sale to the author, ii. 252. Columns, Corinthian, i. 143. 156. 219. Convent, Christian, at Bagdad, ii. 412. Copper ore, smelting of, i. 383. Corpses, caravan of, Persian, ii. 398. Costume, Arab, i. 6. 14. 37. Of the Turcomans, 14. 22. 76. Of certain pilgrims, 100. At Orfah, 91. 151. Of the Arabs of the Desert, 255. 452. At Mardin, 343. At Diarbekr, 392. At Altoun Ku¬ pree, ii. *102. At Bagdad, 1 93. Cottons, printed, i. 146. Cottoneah, lake and town of, i. 468. 469. Courtenay, Count, of Edessa, i. 1 30. Crassus, his defeat by Surena, and death, i. 163. 235. Ctesiphon, walls and mounds of this ancient city, ii. 244. 470. Cufic rings, seals, and talismans, ii. 408. Cunaxa, battle fought at, between Cyrus the younger and Artaxerxes ii 297. ’ Cup, anecdote of a lost, i. 281. Custom-house at Beer, i. 48. Cylinders, intaglios, amulets, and idols, found at Babylon, ii. 403, 404. Cypress trees, formerly abounded in Babylonia, i. 1 78. 191. — ii. 455. Cyrus i. 219. lie divided the Gyndes into many channels, ii. 114. 153. D. Dagon, the sea-idol, i. 112. INDEX. 5 2lt D’Anville, Memoir on the Euphrates and the Tigris by, i. 431. — ii. 315. 465. 467. 471. Dances, eastern, i. 101, 102. St. Cyprian and Volney quoted in illustra¬ tion of them, notes, 102. Similar to the Fandango, 103, 104. 363. Dangers of the author’s route from commotions and robbers, i. 2. 22. 166. 199. 239. 408. 479. Daniel, the son of Khasdai, “Conductor of the Captivity,” ii. 424. His state, 425. Dura, or Kara Dura, i. 420. Its history, 422. 424. Its geographical position, 425, 426. Darius, disquisition respecting his defeat, ii. 97. Darius, his flight after his defeat at Arbela, ii. 76. 79. *99. Dastagherd, palace of ii. 474. Duracardin, mentioned by Tavernier, i. 426. Date-trees, ii. 125. 139. 353. 462. Deer Zafferany, convent at Mardin, i. 319. 324. 327. Delhi Abass, village of, ii. 148. 150. 155. 156. Della Valle, Pietro, his observations on Babylon, ii. 261. 269.273. Derb Sultani, or the King’s highway, i. 253. Dervishes, amount of, i. 201. Their tenets, 221. — ii. 160. 352. Account given by a Dervish, of some interesting places, and a valu¬ able library of ancient books, 487, 488. Dervish, Indian, i. 349. Moroseness of a Dervish, ii. 160. Derya, town of, ii. 483, 484. Desert, the western, ii. 218. Desert, Arabs of the Great, i. 237. 291. Desert, description of the, i. 82. 232. 235. 297. — ii. 218. 313, 314. Dew, fall of, i. 86. Diala, bridge of boats over this river, broken, ii. 155. Description of this stream, 441. Its identity, discussed, 443. Its amplitude, 476. Diarbekr, City of, i. 366. Description of, 371. Its citadel, 373, 374. A nciently Amida, 385. Columns of black basalt, 384. Its History, 387. 389. Dissertation respecting Nineveh and the ancient city of “ No,” ii. 58. 60. Diodorus Siculus, describes Nineveh and Babylon, ii. 53. 77. 261. 265. 271. 310. 347. Dogs, species of, i. 1 0. Domestic economy in private families at Bagdad, ii. 494. 493. Doogher, village of, i. 449. Drought, distressing near Bagdad, ii. 402. E. Edessa, its site occupied by the town of Orfah, i. 109. Its history, 121. 124. 126. Eesa, a Christian pilgrim, i. 99. 100. El-Assr, the hour of afternoon prayers, i. 108. 164. 198. 270. 325. — ii. 127. 157. El Madeien, residence of the Kings of Persia, ii. 225. El Mazur, a camp of Bedouins, i. 257. 271. Eliezer Ben lsamah, claimed a descent from the Prophet Samuel, ii. 423, 424. Emblems sculptured on silver coins; a Greek galley, — a bearded warrior in a chariot, — a castle, ii. 407, 408. INDEX. 529 Entertainments and feasts, Eastern, i. 87. 96. 185. 200. 353. 398. 406. Environs of Babylon, particulars relative to the neighbouring towns, ii. 444. Map of them, by Major Rennel, 446. 471. Eruptions, cutical, i. 152, 153. Etymologies, curious and interesting, i. 51, 52. — ii. 105. Euphrates, river, i. 45. Comparison of its width at Beer, with that of some other rivers, 49. The river