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AI^TIQTLTJS ■IKEM FOlTflD AT BABYLOIT.
In the Authors loisetsion.


TRAVELS
IN
C H A L D M A,
INCLUDING
A JOURNEY FROM BUSSORAH TO BAGDAD,
HILLAH, AND BABYLON,
PERFORMED ON FOOT IN 1827.
WITH
OBSERVATIONS ON THE SITES AND REMAINS OF
BABEL, SELEUCIA, AND CTESIPHON.
BY CAPT. ROBERT MIGNAN,
OF THE HON. EA3T INDIA COMPANY'S SERVICE;
Lately in command of the Escort attached to the Political Resident in Turkish
Arabia, and Member of the Royal Asiatic Society of
Great Britain and Ireland,
LONDON:
HENRY COLBURN AND RICHARD BENTLEY,
NEW BURLINGTON STREET.

1829.


LONDON:
PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,
Dots, t Street, Fleet Street.


Uel.f
c- 23-'f*7
TO
HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF SOMERSET,
THE FOLLOWING WORK
IS, BY PERMISSION,
INSCRIBED,
WITH PROFOUND RESPECT, AND
SINCERE GRATITUDE,
BY
THE AUTHOR.
LONDON,
October, 1829.
a 2





PREFACE.
Notwithstanding much has already been
written regarding the ruins of the once mighty
Babylon, it must be acknowledged that all our
information on this interesting subject, is far
from sufficient to make the curious Investiga-
tor thoroughly acquainted with even the mere
remains of this formerly renowned capital.
Though I natter myself that my narrative
will add considerably to the knowledge which
the public already possess, and though many
abler investigators than myself may hereafter
prosecute their researches on the same ground,
still the tale of Babylon, even in her desolation,


Vi PREFACE.
will probably long remain untold, and the
features that distinguished her days of prospe-
rity never be perfectly traced.
Among those who have recently written of
Chakhea, Rich has confined himself to Babel;
and to the information which he has furnished,
Keppel has added some slight notices of re-
markable vestiges on either bank of the Tigris;
both, at the same time, conceding what was due
to the critical observations and acute inferences
of Major Rennell.
I have endeavoured to extend the researches
of the two former, and to verify their conclu-
sions; and I trust that my labours will throw
additional light upon the descriptions of the an-
cients, as well as confirm the hypothesis adopt-
ed by Buckingham, whose observations on the
ruins appear to me to be more critical, correct,
and comprehensive, and more fully to accord
with the earliest accounts, than those of any
other modern traveller.
Of the ancients, Herodotus and Diodorus
Siculus are the most valuable guides; then


viii PHEFACE.
Bar satisfaction in thus publicly acknowledg-
ing the many acts of kindness which I have
experienced from him.
I am also under obligations for assistance
and counsel to Major Taylor, the Honourable
East India Company's Political Resident at
Bussorah, whose attainments in Oriental lite-
rature are too well known to require men-
tion. To him I am indebted for all the trans-
lations of Arabic inscriptions given in this
Volume, and also for many of the valuable
notes which I have annexed. I sincerely trust
that he will one day present the world with
an account of this most interesting land, as
few have enjoyed better opportunities of doing
justice to the subject.
A map of my route is prefixed, together
with a plan of the ruins, to the distance of
about eight miles on either side of the prin-
cipal mounds. Drawings of some remarkable
buildings, costumes, &c. are given, which it is
hoped will not prove unacceptable.


PREFACE. ix
Whatever merit may be attached to these
illustrations, is, in strict justice, due to the
correct and masterly pencil of Mr. Richard
Craggs, who has produced them from my own
rude sketches.
My aim, throughout this work, has been
rather to delineate the various remarkable ob-
jects that presented themselves to my attention,
than to enter deeply into useless theory and
vain speculation;—in short, to furnish an ac-
curate account of the existing remains of an-
cient grandeur, to describe their present deso-
lation, and to trace something like a correct
outline of the once renowned Metropolis of
Chaldasa.





CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
The Author determines to visit Babylonia.—Departure
from Bussorah. — Hamlet of Nohar Omer—Situation of
Suaeb.—Supposed site of the Garden of Eden.—Village of
Zetchiah. — Controversy with Arabs. — Tomb of Ozair. —
Jewish Pilgrimage.—Character of the Arabs.—Camp of the
Beni Lam.—Appearance of the tribe.—Their occupation, &c.
—The River Al Hud, or Hid.—Curious culinary operations.
—Filthy state of the Arabs, dress, &c The Hamrine
Mountains.—The Tigris.—Inland navigation.—Monotonous
aspect of the country.—Mountains of Lauristan.—Course of
the Tigris—Trade between Bussorah and Bagdad Arab
encampment . . Page 1—23
CHAPTER II.
Village of Koote—Its situation—The Camel and the
Dromedary.—The Canal of Hye.—Singular amusement.—
Ruins of a bridge.—Supposition respecting them. —General
aspect of the Desert—Approach to the cities of Seleucia
and Ctesiphon—No swans to be seen.—Extensive sand-
banks.—Navigation of the Tigris.—Weapons of the Arabs.
—The lion—The Eelauts, a wandering tribe.—Their beha-
viour The Author's progress impeded.—Remarkable ruins.
—Extensive wall.—Mumlihah—Unsuccessful researches.
24—43


xii
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III.
Water-courses.—Remarkable mounds.—Blocks of black
stone. — Fruitless excavation.—Earthen vase. — Party of
horsemen.—Insulated pile, called Shejur.—Curious column.
—Remains of a wall.—Earthen vases.—Ruins, called Hoo-
mania—Discovery of Athenian coins Fleet of boats.—
Their singular construction.—The Kooffah, a wicker-basket.
Ruins of a Fort.—Armed horseman.—Appearance of the
river.—View of Tauk Kesra.—History of the Arabs 44—67
CHAPTER IV.
City of Ctesiphon.—Extensive mound.—High wall.—Sup-
posed canal. — Ancient remains. — Description of Tauk
Kesra.—Search made for coins, &c.—Sack of the Palace
of Tauk Kesra by the Saracens.—Valuable spoils.—Rich
carpet.—Decay of Ctesiphon.—Tomb of Selman Pauk.—
Annual pilgrimage to it.—Mosque, tombs, &c.—Seleucia.
—Ruins of the city.—Fragments of a bridge.—Sites of the
two cities.—Impediments in the way of research.—Cala-
mities of Seleucia.—Bridge of boats over the Diala.—Arri-
val at Bagdad . . . 68—88
CHAPTER V.
Mr. Rich His character.—The Pasha Daoud.—Risafah,
a lofty minaret.—Village of Kauzumeen.—Mosque.—Tomb
of. Zobeide.—The Talism Gate.—Inscription. — Monastery
of Dervishes.—The Madraset.—Caravansary and mosque
founded by Mirjan.—Number of vagrants.—Their extreme
wretchedness The Author assumes the Turkish dress.—
Tull Akerkouf.—Canal.—Bronze figure.—Extensive ruins.—
Robberies of the Arabs.—Circular pillars.—Azad Khaun.—
Sheikh Shoubar.—Iskanderia.—Hadjee Suleiman,—Hillah.
—Entrance to Babylon. . . 89—117


CONTENTS.
xiii
CHAPTER VI.
Extensive mounds.—The Mujellibah.—Town of Hillah.—
Its situation, filthy state, &c.—Mahmoud Beg, the present
governor. — Gardens. — Rapidity of the Euphrates.—Re-
marks on ancient Babylon.—The city built by Semiramis.
—Extent of the walls.—Erection of a bridge.—Palaces.—
Temple to Jupiter.—The city enlarged and beautified by
Nebuchadnezzar. — Hanging gardens. — Canals. — Ancient
splendour of the city.—Taken by Cyrus—Besieged and
captured by Darius.—Height of the walls.—Decay and
desolation of Babylon . . 118—137
CHAPTER VII.
Description of Babylon by Herodotus.—Its great extent.—
Principal structures.—The Castellated Palace.—Temple and
tower of Belus.—Tunnel made by Semiramis under the
Euphrates.—The Belidian and Cissian Gates.—Extraordi-
nary number of gates to the city.—Account of the Tower
of Belus.—Its elevation.—Chapels attached to it.—Sepul-
chre of Belus.—Large statue.—Height of the tower, its
form, &c.—Conjectures respecting it.—Extensive ranges
of walls.—Supposed removal of ruins—Concluding remarks
on Babylon . . . 138—160
CHAPTER VIII.
Departure for Babylon.—El Mujellibah.—Curious Tradi-
tion.—Description of this Ruin.—Mode of Brick-making.—
Excavations.—Superstition of the Natives.—Prophecies of
Jeremiah.—Village of Elugo.—Remarkable Niche.—Disco-
veries of Mr. Rich.—Large earthen Sarcophagus.—Grandeur
of the Ruins.—Extensive Embankment. — Lofty Elliptical
Mound.—Al Kasr, or the Palace.—Numerous Ravines.—
Square piers, or buttresses.—Inscriptions.—Supposed site of
the Pensile Gardens.—Granite Slab.—The Pensile Horti.
161—182


xiv
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
Curious tree, called Athleh.—Sonnini's account of it.—
Statue of a lion.—Remains of buildings.—Square pilaster.—
Babylonian writing on the Bricks. — Fragment of calcareous
sand-stone Art of enamelling.—Bricked platform.—Con-
jecture respecting it.—Discovery of cylinders, gems, coins,
&c.—The Khezail tribe. — Banks of the river. — Brazen
clamps.—Urns.—Extensive mound.—Village of Jumjuma—
Predictions of Scripture. — The Birs Nemroud.—Vitrified
masses of brickwork . . . 183—210
CHAPTER X.
Immense hill.—Koubbe, a Mahometan building.—Exca-
vations made by the Arabs.—Urns, Alabaster Vase, &c.—
Custom of Urn-burial.—Tombs described by Captain Basil
Hall.—Village of Ananah.—Situation of Babylon.—Pyra-
midal Ruin, called El Hamir.—Mode of building.—Cha-
racters on the Bricks Cylindrical Bricks.—Colossal bronze
figures.—Tomb of Ali Ibn Hassan.—Departure from Hillah.
—Predictions of Isaiah.—The Author's arrival at Bagdad
211—236
APPENDIX.—Notes . . . 237—268
History or Modern Bussorah . 269—286
Notes ..... 287—290
Memoir on the Ruins of Ahwaz 291—312
Babylonian Writing . . . 313—320
An Itinerary from Bussorah to the City of Tabreez,
or Taurus .... 821—333
List of Journeys performed by the Author, in the Years
1826, 1827, and 1828 . . .334


PLATES.
PAGE
1. Antique Gem found at Babylon . To face the Title.
2. Map of Babylonia and Chaldaa . . .1
3. Bussorah from the Euphrates . , 2
4. Plan of the Ruins of Babylon . . .138
6. The Mujellibah . . . , 162
7. The North face of the Kasr, or Palace . .176
8. Embankment with Urns, Amran Hill, and Tomb . 198
9. View of Birs Nemroud from the N.N.W. . . 202
WOOD ENGRAVINGS.
1.
Tomb of Ozair, a Jewish Saint
8
2.
Remains of an ancient Bridge
. 30
3.
Ancient Vase found near Hoomania
. 51
4.
A Bagdad baghalah, raft, and grain boat
. 55
5.
The interior floor, and upper margin of the Kooffah
. 56
6.
Remains of a Wall on the site of Seleucia
. 88
7.
Bronze Figure found near Akerltouf
. 103


xvi
VIGNETTES.
PAGE
8. Remarkable Ruin called Tull Akerkouf . . 106
9. South face of the Mujellibah . . .165
10. Brick Columns on the Kasr; and the Athlah . .178
11. Ornamental Fragment found at the Palace . 190
12. Western face of the Birs Nemroud . . . 205
13. Vitrified Mass of Brick-work at the Birs . . 208
14. Babylonian Characters on two bricks found at the Kasr . 226
15. A Babylonian Cylinder in the Author's possession . 228
16. Bronze Figures found at Babylon . . 229





TRAVELS
IN
BABYLONIA, CHALDtEA,
CHAPTER I.
The Author determines to visit Babylonia.—Departure from
Bussorah.—Hamlet of Nohar Omer.—Situation of Suaeb.—
Supposed site of the Garden of Eden.—Village of Zet-
chiah.—Controversy with Arabs.—Tomb of Ozair—Jewish
Pilgrimage.—Character of the Arabs—Camp of the Beni
Lam.—Appearance of the tribe.—Their occupation, &c.—
The River Al Hud, or Hid.— Curious culinary opera-
tions.—Filthy state of the Arabs, dress, &c.—The Ham-
rine Mountains.—The Tigris.—-Inland navigation.—Mono-
tonous aspect of the country.—Mountains of Lauristan.-^-
Coutse of the Tigris.—Trade between Bussorah and Bag-
dad.—Arab encampment.
Having determined on a journey into the
heart of Babylonia, to visit the remains of an-
cient cities hitherto but little explored and
less perfectly described, and fearing lest some
B


2 DEPARTURE FROM BUSSORAH.
revolution in the Turkish government might
suddenly render the country totally impassa-
ble, as is not unfrequently the case, I quit-
ted Bussorah, on the 22nd of October, 1827,
and proceeded along the banks of the Shut-
ul-Arab, or the river of the Arabs, in a north-
erly direction, purposing to note minutely
every thing worthy the investigation of the
antiquary, or interesting to the general ob-
server.
I was accompanied by six Arabs, completely
armed and equipped after the fashion of the
country, having taken with me a small boat,
tracked by eight sturdy natives, in order to facili-
tate my researches on either bank of the stream.
A compact canteen, a few changes of linen, two
blankets, and a carpet about the size of a
hearth-rug, formed an ample and comfortable
travelling apparatus.
At sunset we reached a small hamlet, called
Nohar Omer, on the western bank, where we
found Ajeel, at the head of the powerful tribe
of Montefik Arabs, occupying an extensive











I
!
*
J
1


CURIOTJS MINARET.—SUAEB. 3
encampment of reed huts and tents, some com-
posed of goats' hair, and some of cotton cloth.
A little beyond this, at the village of Dair,
stands a minaret, which, according to many
Mohammedan writers, has some claims to an-
tiquity: I am informed that the natives all
concur in attributing its existence to the Genii,
which circumstance renders it an object of much
veneration among them. Barren women sup-
pose that a visit to the sacred spot will render
them prolific; which, no doubt, tends to in-
crease the number of its votaries. *
At eight o'clock the next morning we cross-
ed the mouth of the Kerkha, or Howizah river,
at Suaeb; f a station so called from a small col-
lection of huts, situated about a mile up the
stream, which is here fifty yards broad, and
extremely tortuous. One hour more brought
* See Appendix, note A.
t It is absolutely necessary here to remark, that Kinneir
has made the mouth of this river twenty miles below Koorna,
whereas it is barely three.—Vide Kinneir's " Geographical
Memoir of the Persian Empire," p. 92.
B 2


4
KOORNA.
us to Koorna, the Apamea of the ancients,
from Apama, the wife of Seleucus Nicator,
in whose honour he founded the town.* It
stands on the most southern extremity of
Mesopotamia, at the conflux of two of the
finest rivers in the East, the Euphrates and
Tigris; and though now an insignificant place,
the existing extensive ruins attest its former
importance.!
Continuing along the banks of the Tigris,
in a direction north, ten degrees west, (the
* Seleucus Nicator founded thirty-five cities in greater
and lesser Asia; sixteen of which he named Antioch, from
Antiochus, his father; nine Seleucia, from his own name; six
Laodicea, from Laodice, his mother; three Apamea, from
Apama, his first wife, (of which this city was the chief;(
and one Stratonicea, from Stratonice, his last wife. Accor-
ding to Dean Prideaux, he was a great protector of the Jews,
and the first that gave them settlements in those pro-
vinces of Asia, which lie on this side of the river Euphrates.
As they had been faithful and serviceable to him in his
wars, and in many other respects, he granted them
great privileges in all the cities which he built
Vide Prideaux's " Connection of the Old and New Testa-
ment."
t See Appendix, B.


GARDEN OF EDEN.
5
Euphrates branching off due W.S.W. by com-
pass,) we almost immediately had on either
bank the untrodden Desert.* This is conjec-
tured to have been the site of the Garden of
Eden; consequently there appeared, as the pro-
phet Joel says, chap. ii. ver. 3, "The land
of Eden before us, and behind us a desolate
wilderness." The absence, alas! of all cultiva-
tion, the noisy rippling of the rapid stream, the
sterile, arid, and wild character of the whole
scene, formed a contrast to the rich and delight-
ful accounts delineated in Scripture, f
In the afternoon we reached Zetchiah. My
Arab guards were afraid to proceed without the
* The natives, in travelling over these pathless deserts, are
compelled to explore their way by the stars, in the same
manner as Diodorus Siculus (lib. l,p. 156, edit. Rhodoman,)
expressly states that travellers in the southern part of Arabia
directed their course by the bears, diro tw "ApKTtiv.
f It should seem that Paradise lay on the confluent
stream of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, but principally on
the eastern bank, which divided into two branches above
the garden, and two more below it. From the description of
these rivers by ancient historians and geographers, Major


6
ZETCHIAH.
permission of the chief, or head of the village.
After waiting a few minutes, three wild-looking
fellows came to us from the opposite bank,
each armed with a brace of pistols, sabre, and a
dagger in the girdle. I produced a letter from
the Montefik Sheikh, to whom they profess al-
legiance; but, without noticing it, they said, if
I did not instantly pay the customary tax,
they would prevent my proceeding on my
journey.
After allowing the guards to tire themselves
with wrangling, without any effect, I paid the
goomruck, or tribute. They then asked if I had
any dates, coffee, tobacco, and powder, adding,
Rennell infers, that in ancient times they preserved distinct
courses to the sea, until the reign of Alexander; although
at no great distance of time afterwards they became united,
and joined the sea in a collective stream. The Cyrus and
Araxes also kept distinct courses in ancient times. This,
however, does not invalidate a primaeval junction of these
rivers, before the Deluge, which certainly produced a pro-
digious alteration in the face of the primitive globe. Be-
sides, the changes in the beds of other great rivers, such as
the Nile, the Ganges, and Barampooter, even in modern
times are known to be very great.—Dr. Hales's "New
Analysis of Chronology."


CONTROVERSY WITH ARABS. 7
at the same time, that, as I was an English-
man, I could procure as much of those arti-
cles as I desired for nothing. Perceiving now
that they wished to detain me, I frankly told
them, that if they would allow me to pursue
my journey, I would give them some dates
and coffee; but on the contrary, if I returned,
they would not only lose these things, but
incur the displeasure, perhaps the punishment,
of the Montefik Sheikh. This had the desired
effect; they immediately accepted some coffee,
made the usual salutation,* and returned to
their homes, f
Half a mile beyond Zetchiah is a ruined
mosque, around which are a few solitary date-
* The Bedoweens retain a great many of the customs and
manners we read of in sacred as well as profane history;
being, except in their religion, the same people they were
two or three thousand years ago. Upon meeting one ano-
ther they still use the primitive salutation, " Peace be unto
you;" though they have made it a religious compliment, as
if they said, "Be in a stale of salvation."—Shaw's " Travels
in Barbary."
t The Sheikh of this village pays 50,000 piastres, (eyne)
or 4500/. yearly to the Montefiks. This sum is collected


8 TOMB OF OZAIR.
trees; and nearly opposite is a canal, which
is navigable as far as the city of Howizah; it
runs E. N. E. and contains a large body of
water.
On the following day, shortly after sun-
rise, we arrived at a tomb, which is called
by the Arabs Ozair: I could collect nothing
concerning its history from my rude atten-
dants. A good burnt-brick wall surrounds it,
on passing which I found a spacious domed
cloister inclosing a square sepulchre, containing

Tomb of Ozair, a Jewish Saint.
from the Bagdad trading boats and the cultivation of an ex-
tensive tract on either side of the Tigris. They also plunder
all those who are so unfortunate as to fall into their power.


JEWISH PILGRIMAGE.
9
the ashes of Ezra, a Jewish saint. The' in-
terior is paved with the same sky-blue tile as
adorns the dome, which affords a very bril-
liant appearance, particularly when the sun
shines upon it. Over the doorway, are two
tablets of black marble, filled up with Hebrew
writing. The appellative Ozair has, I suspect,
been assigned to it by the Jews, who errone-
ously suppose the spot to contain the bones of
the prophet Ezra. Hither they perform a yearly
pilgrimage from Bussorah, when the natives of
the country waylay, rob, and strip them, and
in this state the pilgrims invariably return to
their homes. Were any resistance offered, three
or four Arabs would think no more of depriv-
ing a dozen Jews of their lives, than of eating
so many onions. * In fact, the Arab is here
absolute master—no law (human or divine) re-
strains him; if he has not what he wants, he
takes it, whenever and wherever he can find
* It is a vulgar and common saying in the country, that
when you are in the company of Arabs, much less at their
mercy, your life is not worth an onion.


10
camel's thorn.
it; if refused, he uses force; if resisted, the
opponent is murdered: thus lives the indepen-
dent, restless freebooter of the Desert.*
This day, October 25th, a prickly shrub,
ealled in the country the CamePs thorn, f was so
thick, I could scarcely continue my route along
the banks of the river. In the short space of
eighteen hours we travelled successively to-
wards every point of the compass, proving how
* Ishmael lived by prey and rapine in the wilderness;
and his posterity have all along infested Arabia and the
neighbouring countries with their robberies and incursions.
They live in a state of continual war with the rest of the
world, and are both robbers by land, and pirates by sea.
As they have been such enemies to mankind, it is no wonder
that mankind have been enemies to them again; that several
attempts have been made to extirpate them; and even now,
as well as formerly, travellers are forced to go with arms,
and in caravans or large companies, and to march and keep
watch and guard like a little army, to defend themselves
from the assaults of these freebooters.—Bishop Newton's
"Dissertation on the Prophecies."
t See Appendix, C.—Camels browse upon it in preference
to any other herb. The mastication of it produces a frothy
salivation at the mouth, which appears to give great pleasure
to the animal.—Vide Morier's "Travels," vol. ii. chap. vii.
page 115.


BENI LAM ARABS. 13
ness in the use of the lance and sabre, renders
them fierce and intrepid. Their skill in horse-
manship, and their capacity of bearing the heat
of their burning plains, give them also a supe-
riority over their enemies. Hence every petty
chief in his own district considers himself as a
sovereign prince, and as such exacts customs
from all passengers. When they plunder cara-
vans travelling through their territories, they
consider it as reprisals on the Turks and Per-
sians, who often make inroads into their coun-
try, and carry away their corn and their flocks.
They generally marry within themselves."
The only occupation of this tribe is to stop
the Bagdad boats, to drain the purses of their
owners, and to oppress the poor villages around
them with taxes. Benevolence is as foreign to
them as gratitude ; their hearts are as impenetra-
ble as their distant mountains. All around seems
convulsed and fallen; nature appears to lan-
guish, and to inform the traveller how wretched
is the state of the people. The river meanders
most capriciously, our bearings for the last two


DESCRIPTION OF THE
hours having beenN. JE.; N. E.; E.; E.S.E.; S.;
S.W.; W.; N.W.; and N. At nine, p.m. I
forded a river, called Al Hud, or Hid;* the
Beni Lam inhabit its banks ; it appeared to con-
tain a considerable body of water, capable of
admitting the largest boats, particularly when
full; at this time, however, the water had
fallen fifteen feet. The natives of the country
assert that boats may even reach Howizah by
it; and the direction it takes, appears to justify
their assertion. They call the Tigris Hud,
hence to Koorna.
Having bought a couple of sheep for my
people, I was witness to some curious culinary
operations. The entrails were ripped open;
pieces of which, with the hoofs, dipped once
or twice into the water, were eaten by them
raw; the rest of the animal, unflayed and un-
shorn, was put into a vessel and half boiled,
when they drank the soup, and voraciously
devoured the scarcely-warmed carcase. They
are a very filthy set of people, particularly
* See Appendix, D.


BENI LAM ARABS.
15
in their food: had their Prophet enjoined
impurity, instead of cleanliness, his command-
ment could not have been more vigilantly re-
garded to the letter, for their nature is brutal
and obscene; their morals are in a more vi-
tiated and depraved state than Europeans can
possibly imagine.*
Shortly after daybreak we came up with a
* The fine, honourable, hospitable character generally
attributed to the Desert Arabs is at present a fiction; it once
may have been their just right; but alas! is now'" Hyperion
to a Satyr." For this change many reasons might be given;
one will suffice—the great intercourse they are at present
constantly enjoying with towns and cities. Dr. Shaw, in
his Travels in Barbary, says: "The Arabs are naturally
thievish and treacherous; and it sometimes happens that
those very persons are overtaken and pillaged in the morn-
ing, who were entertained the night before with all the
instances of friendship and hospitality. Neither are they
to be accused for plundering strangers only, and attacking
almost every person whom they find unarmed and defence-
less, but for those many implacable and hereditary animo-
sities which continually subsist among them; literally ful-
filling to this day the prophecy of Hagar, that " Ishmael
should be a wild man; his hand should be against every
man, and every man's hand against him." The Doctor was
himself plundered by a party of Arabs, in his journey from
Ramah to Jerusalem, although he was escorted by a strong
party of Turkish soldiers, and at the same time paid a large


16 BENI LAM ARABS.
small encampment of huts, constructed with
mats, made of the date-leaf. Women covered
with rags, men in old tattered cloaks, and
children in a state of nudity, flying at my
approach, were the objects that attracted my
attention. One poor woman, bolder than her
companions, ventured forward, and exclaimed
to my guards, "Why, why! have you
brought a wild man amongst us?" As far as
the appearance of a beard, not lately trimmed,
justified her inference, the woman's question
was, perhaps, not ill-founded; I was wild as
wandering palmer. On taking leave of these
poor people, we threw dates among them,
which, although it created a temporary con-
fusion, gave them, ultimately, the usual de-
light of a successful scramble.* At noon,
sum to the Arabs, in order to secure a safe passage across
their desert. This is a proof, not only of their indepen-
dence and enjoyment of their liberty, but of their utter
abuse of it.
* The Arabs are not so scrupulous as the Turks and Per-
sians about their women; and though they have the harem,
or women's part of the tent, yet such as they are acquainted
with come into it.


NAVIGATION OF THE TIGRIS. 17
we saw, for the first time, the Hamrine
mountains; the view of them gave me re-
newed fife and energy. Those only who have
resided for years or even months in a flat
country, can appreciate the nature of my sen-
sations.
October 27.—We reached Ali Ghurbee, on
the north, and Ali Shurgee, on the south bank,
points at which the Imam Ali is said to have
encamped, when on a pilgrimage to Persia.
Near this the river has fallen thirty feet, by
actual measurement: as the banks are not once
in fifty miles half this height, it is evident that
in the month of June, when the Tigris is at
its fullest height, the whole country must be
overflowed, and the innumerable canals branch-
ing off in every direction, (at present dry,) be-
come perfectly navigable. It is impossible to
reflect, without admiration, on the inland navi-
gation of which this country is capable, or to
consider without deep sorrow into what barba-
rous hands it has fallen. There is not the most
distant prospect of improvement. If there
c


18 MOUNTAINS OF LAURISTAN.
were any hope of a revolution bringing im-
provement, it would here be virtue to wish for
one.
For. the last three days, there had been
such a provoking sameness in the appearance
of the country, that had my weary limbs
not convinced me I was moving onward,
I could almost have supposed myself within
the influence of the magnetised mountain of
the Arabian Nights. The river still pursued
a winding course, concealing itself behind con-
tinued headlands, covered with fresh brush-
wood. On the right side the mountains of
Lauristan, of a bare and bluish appearance,
form a marked contrast with the freshness of
the river's channel. It is singular, that al-
though these banks are proverbial for being
the resort of lions and other wild animals,
and travellers tell us of having seen them by
day, and their repose at night having been dis-
turbed by their roar, I have as yet been grati-
fied neither by the pleasure of the first, nor agi-
tated by the alarm of the second predicament.


20
TRADE BETWEEN
chiefly from Natolia, Syria, Armenia, Constan-
tinople, Aleppo, Damascus, &c. to carry them
farther into the Indies, Persia, &c. So it hap-
pened, that during the time I was there, on
the 2nd day of December, in 1574, there ar-
rived twenty-five ships, with spice and other
precious drugs, here, which came over sea
from the Indies, by the way of Ormutz, to
Balsora, a town belonging to the Grand Turk,
situated on the frontiers, the farthest that he
hath south-eastwards, within six days' journey
from hence, where they load their goods into
small vessels, and so bring them to Bagdat,
which 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 confines,
which might easily be stopped up by them;
yet, notwithstanding all this, they may keep
good correspondence with one another; they
keep pigeons, chiefly at Balsora, which, in case


BUSSORAH AND BAGDAD. 21
of necessity, might be soon sent back again
with letters to Bagdat. When loaden ships
arrive at Bagdat, the merchants, chiefly those
that bring spice to carry through the deserts into
Turkey, have their peculiar places in the open
fields without the town of Ctesiphon, where
each of them fixeth his tents, to put his spices
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 would
rather believe that soldiers were lodged in
them, than merchants; and rather look for
arms than merchandizes; and I thought my-
self, before I came so near, that I could smell
them." *
Towards the afternoon a southerly wind
sprang up, and rather than my boat should
lose the advantage of it, (the current being
very strong against us,) I embarked for three
hours; when I again pursued my tour on foot.
* Pp. 145, 146.


22. ARAB ENCAMPMENT.
The wild brushwood, in which it was not very
difficult to be lost, was inhabited by great
numbers of the feathered tribe. I observed
small birds of several different kinds, but saw
none with rich plumage. The river here has
fallen so considerably, that one-half of its bed
is quite dry, composed of sand and clay
banks.
At sunset I passed through an extensive camp
of Arabs: they were as civil and as respect-
ful as those I had hitherto met with, and
appeared to be living in the most primitive
state, chiefly employed in making a cloth from
the wool of their sheep. They first spin it into
yarn, winding the threads round small stones;
these they hang on a stick, fixed in a hori-
zontal position, between some shrubs or trees,
to form a woof; then passing other threads
alternately between these, they thus weave
the cloth with which they clothe themselves.
None of these encampments afforded a drop
of milk, or a single egg. Towards night, par-
ties of both sexes were crossing the stream in


ARAB ENCAMPMENT. 23
a state of nudity, upon a stratum of rush,
which is evidently of the same kind as the
"vessels of bulrushes upon the waters," al-
luded to by Isaiah, in chap, xviii. ver. 2.


CHAPTER II.
Village of Koote.—Its situation.—The Camel and the Dro-
medary.—The Canal of Hye. — Singular amusement.—
Ruins of a bridge.—Supposition respecting them.—General
aspect of the Desert.—Approach to the cities of Seleucia
and Ctesiphon.—No swans to be seen.—Extensive sand-
banks.—Navigation of the Tigris.—Weapons of the Arabs.
—The lion.—The Eelauts, a wandering tribe.—Their be-
haviour.—The Author's progress impeded.—Remarkable
ruins.—Extensive wall.—Mumlihah.—Unsuccessful re-
searches.
October 29th.—This day brought me to
Koote, a wretched village composed of a col-
lection of cottages constructed with mud, and
surrounded by a wall of the same material. It
is situated on the eastern bank of the Tigris,
and is erroneously reckoned half-way between
Bussorah and Bagdad, since it is more by a jour-
ney of two days. Its position also is incor-
rectly laid down on the map of Colonel Mac-
donald Kinneir; for during the last eight-and-


THE CAMEL AND THE DROMEDARY. 25
forty hours, our course has varied from E. S. E.
to S. S. W. and W. S. W., making almost no-
thing to the North. Large herds of camels
were grazing in every direction, left without
men or dogs: some allowed the stranger to ap-
proach, and betrayed no alarm; whilst others
appeared much frightened, and were extremely
wild. They were all of a white colour, and
belonged to a powerful Arab chief, who resided
in the neighbourhood.
Mr. Buckingham, whose extensive travels in
the East were attended by circumstances which
gave him every facility of correct observation,
has, in his work on Mesopotamia, rendered a
faithful description of this valuable inhabitant
of the Desert. He remarks, that "the prevail-
ing opinion in Europe is, that of the two kinds
of this animal, the single-humped is the camel,
and the double-humped the dromedary. The
fact, however, is nearer the reverse. The dou-
ble-humped camel is found only in Bactria, and
the countries to the north and east of Persia;
and these, being natives of a colder climate, and
living in more fertile countries than the other


26 THE CAMEL AND THE DROMEDARY.
species, are shorter, thicker, more muscular,
covered with a dark-brown shaggy hair, and
heavier and stronger by far than any other
camels. From this race of the double-humped
animal, 1 am not aware of dromedaries being
ever produced. The only camel seen in Arabia,
Africa, Egypt, Syria, and Mesopotamia, is the
single-humped. This, inhabiting a hot climate,
and having always a scanty supply of food and
water, is taller, more slender, of a paler colour,
and altogether lighter in form and flesh, than
the Bactrian camel. Its hair is as short, and
its skin as sleek, as that of the horses or bul-
locks of England. It is from this race only
that dromedaries are produced; these are mere-
ly single-humped camels of good blood and
breed, which, instead of being used for burthen,
are appropriated only to carrying riders and
performing journeys of speed. They bear in-
deed the same relation to other single-humped
camels, that race-horses do to other horses:
care being taken, by preserving the purity of
their descent, and improving their blood, to
keep them always fit for and appropriated to


CANAL OF HYE.
27
this particular purpose. They are trained, in
Egypt, into dromedary corps for the supply of
lancers and couriers, and perform wonderful
journeys, both as to speed and distance. They
are called, by the Arabs, Hedjeen; while the
camel is called Gemel, or Jemel, according to the
district in which the hard or soft pronunciation
of the g prevails." *
Immediately opposite the village is a canal
called the Hye, which runs into the Euphrates
to the north of Soogishiookh: f its banks are a
noted haunt for lions, and other ferocious ani-
mals. At this time its bed is perfectly dry,
though it is navigable for eight months in the
year. Hence to the mouth of the river Al Hud,
the Arabs call this beautiful stream Amarah.
During the whole of the day it rained so
hard, that my progress was not so great as I
wished and expected; at night, however, the
cold was piercing; and my followers, who were
* See Buckingham's Travels in Mesopotamia, vol. ii. p. 207.
t Literally the Sheikh's bazaar, or mart. This town is
the head-quarters of the Montefik Arabs, who occupy both
banks of the river, north and south, to a great distance.


28 SINGULAR AMUSEMENT.
in high spirits at having advanced so far, as
well as from the pleasure they felt in breathing
their native air, (many of whom were from
the country near Bagdad,) collected themselves
round a fire, formed a circle, and exhibited
their native dance till midnight. For music,
they were contented with a kettle covered with
a round empty sheep-skin bag, which in general
is used for holding oil, but on the present oc-
casion served to form a drum. The harmony
of the instrument was heightened by the
clapping of hands, and a loud chorus of so
peculiar a strain, that I am incapable of de-
scribing it, and such as I never heard before.
One person at a time came forward and danced,
keeping up a constant wriggling motion with
his feet, hands, breast, and shoulders, until his
gestures became too fatiguing to be con-
tinued.
The deportment of these people in towns
bears a striking contrast to the insolent inde-
pendence they assume in the Desert. They are
a merry race, with a keen relish for drollery,
endued with a power over their features, that is


RUINS OF A BRIDGE.
29
shown off in the richest exhibitions of grimace.
I gave them a sheep, which they roasted whole,
and devoured in a few minutes; they were
shortly afterwards in a profound sleep. *
At sunrise on the following morning, after
making a present to the Sheikh f of the village,
I departed; and four hours' march over a barren
plain brought me near the ruins of a bridge,
which evidently has spanned the river; for, from
the disturbed rippling of the water, I could
distinctly observe where the fragments lay be-
neath. By this time the rain had ceased; the
rising sun, gleaming upon the river, threw a
beautiful radiance over the brushwood in the
direction of the mountains: I embarked as soon
as my boat came up, and had the satisfaction
of examining these remains. The bed of the
river here is considerably enlarged; the bridge
occupies a central position, and consists of three
equal piers, of the finest kiln-burnt bricks, which
exhibit a great resemblance to the Babylonian
* See Appendix, F.
f Presents are considered in Eastern countries essential to
kind and civil intercourse.


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

Remains of an ancient Bridge.


ASPECT OF THE DESERT. 31
Colonel Macdonald Kinneir, on his journey
from Constantinople to Bussorah, in the year
1813, mentions the circumstance of his boat
being stranded on one of the piers of an an-
cient stone bridge, and that it was so old, no
one could tell by whom, or in what age, it was
erected.* As the position of this bridge agrees
within a few miles to the one he alludes to, I
apprehend it must be the same; but Kinneir
is mistaken when he says it is of stone. My
boatmen were at first afraid to approach it, as
the "stones," they said, might materially in-
jure their boat; it was only on extracting the
bricks that they were convinced of its being
of this material. The face of the country was
still open and flat, presenting to the eye one
Vast level plain, where nothing is to be seen
but here and there a herd of half-wild camels,
whose flesh is thought by the Arabs to be su-
perior to venison.
This immense tract is very rarely diversi-
fied with any trees of moderate growth; but
* Vide Kinneir's "Travels in Asia Minor, Armenia, and
Kurdistan," page 501.


32
SUNRISE AND SUNSET.
abounds in brushwood and short-lived herbage,
occupied by numbers of partridges, hares, and
gazelles, which reign supreme lords of an
immeasurable wild, bounded only by the hori-
zon. When the orb of day rises, he appears
emerging from the earth, without rays, until
considerably above the horizon; and on sink-
ing into the golden chambers of the west, his
beams disappear long before the body of the
orb is covered.
The soil of this Desert consists of a hard
clay mixed with sand, which, at noon, be-
comes so heated by the sun's rays, (although
the nights are cold,*) that I find it too hot
* Thus I was; .in the day the drought consumed me, and
the frost by night; and my sleep departed from my eyes.—
(Genesis xxxi. 40.)
"In Europe the days and nights resemble each other, with
respect to the qualities of heat and cold: but it is quite
otherwise in the East. In the lower Asia, in particular, the
day is always hot: on the contrary, in the height of summer
the nights are as cold as at Paris in the month of March.
I have travelled in Arabia and in Mesopotamia, the theatre
of the adventures of Jacob, both in winter and in summer,
and have found the truth of what the Patriarch said, ' That
he was scorched with heat in the day, and stiffened with cold
in the night.' This contrariety in the qualities of the air in
twenty-four hours is extremely great in some places, and not


THE SIMOOM.
33
to walk over it with any degree of com-
fort. It is not, however, my intention to de-
conceivable by those that have not felt it: one would imagine
he had passed in a moment from the violent heats of summer
to the depth of winter. The heat of the sun is tempered by
the coolness of the nights, without which the greatest part
of the East would be barren and a desert: the earth could
not produce any thing."— Sir J. Chardin.
The hot pestilential south wind, which blows from these
deserts, commences from the 20th of June, and continues
for about seven weeks. It is thus described by Mr. Bruce:—
"This hot wind is called by the Arabs Samvm, or Simoom. It
is generally preceded by an extreme redness in the air, and
usually blows from the south-east, or from the south, a little
to the east. It appeared in the form of a haze, in colour
like the purple part of a rainbow, but not so compressed, or
thick: it was a kind of blush upon the air. The guide warned
the company, upon its approach, to fall upon their faces, with
their mouths close to the ground, and to hold their breath as
long as they could, to avoid inhaling the outward air. It
moved very rapidly, about twenty yards in breadth, and about
twelve feet high from the ground; so that," says Bruce," I had
scarcely time to turn about and fall upon the earth, with my
head to the northward, when I felt the heat of its current
plainly upon my face. We all fell upon our faces until the
Simoom passed on, with a gentle ruffling wind. When the
meteor, or purple haze, had passed, it was succeeded by a
light air, which still blew so hot as to threaten suffocation,
which sometimes lasted three hours, and left the company
totally enervated and exhausted, labouring under asthmatic
sensations, weakness of stomach, and violent head-aches,
from imbibing the poisonous vapour."—Bruce s Travels.
D


34 EXTENSIVE SAND-BANK.
tain the reader by an enumeration of my
sufferings from bodily fatigue; those who
have crossed these desert wilds are already ac-
quainted with their dreary tediousness, even
on horseback; what it is on foot they can
easily imagine. The thought, however, that
I was gradually approaching the sites of the
once magnificent and renowned cities of Seleu-
cia and Ctesiphon, with the Tigris still flowing
beneath the solitary remains of ancient splen-
dour, amply compensated me for all my trou-
bles, and animated me with renewed strength
and vigour.
I perceived no swans upon the surface
of the stream: hoping to meet with some of
these birds, I had traced its current for miles,
but was still disappointed. In vain, too, I
looked for the smallest stones; there is not one
in the district; nor are there any fragments of
ruined edifices, to tell of " long forgotten ages."
At four, p. m. I saw a very extensive
sand-bank, that stretched more than half
over the bed of the river: it was studded
throughout with innumerable small cupolas of


NAVIGATION OF THE TIGRIS. 35
clay; and as the eye glanced quickly over the
whole, it reminded one exactly of the domes
which cover the bazaars at Ispahan, Shiraz,
and other Persian cities.
The root, from which is procured what in
England is called liquorice* is so abundant
throughout the country, that it is burnt as
fire-wood.
Some modern travellers have remarked that
this river is totally unnavigable in the dry sea-
son, which is incorrect. The Tigris, during
the whole year, contains a sufficient body
of water for moderate-sized boats, and these
heavily laden. Several, requiring a great
draught of water, quitted Bussorah a few days
before me, and, although the river had been re-
markably low all the season, their progress was
not interrupted by a want" of water. The
great and only difficulty they had to contend
with, was the savage inhabitants of these banks;
not the lion, but a fiercer animal—the Desert
* The Glycyrrhiza, with both smooth and scabrous peri-
carps. The Arabs call it soos. The Glycyrrhiza echinata
is the most abundant.
D 2


36
THE EEEAUTS.
Arab, who never goes in search of his wild
neighbour; but, should he chance to meet the
king of the forest, he slays him in self-defence.
The Arab's chief weapons being the sword and
spear, he is not always certain of conquering
■ his foe. For this reason all the people here-
abouts are much alarmed by the circumstance of
the lion making this part his favourite haunt.
At sunset we saw some fires at a short dis-
tance. On going to the spot, we found a camp
of one of the wandering tribes, known by the
name of Eelauts*,—as usual, poor—but happy,
contented, and civil. A few sheep and goats
appeared to be their only property. The left
nostril of most of the women of this tribe was
perforated, to admit a gold or silver ring, from
which hung a pearl or turquoise.
How widely different is the behaviour of
these poor people from that of the roving Arab,
* Wandering pastors of Persian or Coordish origin. Po-
cocke describes all their riches to consist in goats and sheep,
and says that they live in great poverty, having nothing
except a few dates and goats' milk.


PRIMITIVE MANNERS OF THE ARABS. 37
who accosts the traveller in an overbearing,
insolent tone, and haughty manner; who is
only deterred from attacking and robbing the
stranger through fear—the sole reason which
compels him to restrain his lawless wishes
whenever he may chance to meet an European!
Richards, in his Lectures on Prophecy, re-
marks, that "the region inhabited by the Arabs
is situated in that portion of the globe in which
society originated and the first kingdoms were
formed. The greatest empires of the world
arose and fell around them. They have not
been secluded from correspondence with foreign
nations, and are thus attached through ignor-
ance and prejudice to simple and primitive man-
ners. In the early periods of history they were
united, as allies, to the most powerful monarchs
of the East, under their victorious Prophet.
They once carried their arms over the most
considerable kingdoms of the earth; through
many succeeding ages the caravans of the mer-
chant, and the companies of Mahometan pil-
grims, passed regularly over their deserts: even


38 author's progress impeded.
their religion has undergone a total change. Yet
all these circumstances, which, it might be sup-
posed, would have subdued the most stubborn
prejudices, and altered the most inveterate
habits, have produced no effect upon the Arabs;
and they still preserve, unimpaired, a most
exact resemblance to the first descendants of
Ishmael."
October 31st.—I was detained a great part
of this day, from my boat having grounded.
As my guards were required to assist in floating
her off, they would not allow of my proceeding
until they could rejoin me, the road being (in
their opinion) unsafe for any person to travel
unattended, much less an Englishman. I was
reluctantly obliged to yield to their wishes, and
seating myself on the margin of the stream, re-
mained for some hours contemplating with de-
light the unruffled course of the waters gliding
beneath me.
While reflecting on the various remains
of antiquity connected with the history of this
beautiful river, an Arab tapped me on the


REMARKABLE RUINS. 39
shoulder, and said, if I accompanied him, he
would show me the ruins of a wall at no great
distance, and on the water's edge. I instantly
followed him, and had the company of my
guards likewise, who were determined not to
lose sight of me.
Continuing in a northerly direction for two
hours, we came to a round pillar, filled up with
earth and broken tile, built of furnace-burnt
bricks, placed together alternately in a hori-
zontal and vertical position, situated within
twelve feet of the water's edge. After digging
ten feet perpendicularly, and clearing away the
rubbish from within, I did not arrive at its
foundation; the diameter was five feet and a
half. It is very evident that the river has here
considerably encroached, for its bed is covered
with broken bricks and fragments of building.
The bank is thirty-five feet in height; and
from the pillar I distinctly traced a wall built
into the bank (which extends due north) for
three hundred and seventy-two feet, of the


TRACK OF A LION.
The square masses of brick (mentioned in the
note) must have been washed away, if ever any
existed; for no traces of such buildings remain.
As it is some years since Keppel visited this
spot, and the river is still advancing with great
force and rapidity, I have little doubt that a
few more yearly freshes will sweep away even
the present remains, "and leave not a wreck
behind."
The smell of wild animals was extremely
offensive at this place; and, as a heavy shower
of rain had fallen during the night, render-
ing the soil moist, we traced the footsteps
of a lion to an extensive patch of brushwood,
where, very probably, he was concealed. Not
one of my guards would approach or attempt
to disturb the bushes, pretending not to see the
eye of a traveller, and have, at first sight, the appearance of
sandy hillocks. On a nearer inspection they prove to be square
masses of brick, facing the cardinal points, and though some-
times much worn by the weather, are built with much regu-
larity: the neighbourhood of these large mounds is strewed
with fragments of tile, broken pottery, and manufactured
vitreous substances."


DEFECTIVE EYESIGHT.
43
thicket which was before them; nevertheless
they are very near-sighted. I have seldom met
with a man that can distinguish with accuracy
an object at the distance of half a mile; and
many of them cannot fix their eyes on any given
spot without causing much annoyance to their
organs of vision.


CHAPTER HI.
Water-courses.—Remarkable mounds.—Blocks of black
stone.—Fruitless excavation.—Earthen vase.—Party of
horsemen.—Insulated pile, called Shejur.—Curious co-
lumn Remains of a wall.—Earthen vases Ruins, called
Hoomania.—Discovery of Athenian coins.—Fleet of boats.
—Their singular construction.—The Kooffah, a wicker-
basket.—Ruins of a Fort.—Armed horseman Appear-
ance of the river.—View of Tauk Kesra.—History of the
Arabs.
November 1st.—During the course of to-
day I crossed no less than forty water-courses, all
running in an easterly direction, dug for the
purpose of facilitating the irrigation of the in-
terior part of the country, and carrying off the
exuberant waters. * I occasionally saw the ske-
* " Towards Babylon and Seleucia, where the rivers Tigris
and Euphrates swell over their banks and water the country,
the same kind of husbandry is practised as in Egypt, but to


REMARKABLE MOUNDS.
45
letons of cattle, probably destroyed by the wild
beasts; on this account, the flocks of every en-
campment are always driven at sunset into a
thorny inclosure within the tents. At three in
the afternoon I crossed the stream, and pro-
ceeded four miles from the left bank, in a
westerly direction, to some mounds, which 1
reached at four. They stretched for nearly a
mile north and south, and were composed of soft
clay, externally covered with broken pieces of
pottery, fragments of tile, flint glass, and shells.
The highest mound, which occupied a central
position, I estimated at five and twenty feet,
surrounded by minor ridges of hillock; which
are invariably the proofs of ruined buildings.
On the top of the largest, to my great surprise, I
stumbled upon some blocks of black stone, mea-
suring four or five feet square, and completely
honeycombed from exposure. Hitherto I felt
convinced that no stone was to be found in the
better effect and greater profit. The people here let in the
water by sluices and flood-gates as they require it."—Plin.
Nat. Hist, book 18, c. 18.


46 FRUITLESS EXCAVATION.
country; and the prevailing opinion of all those
who have examined the remains of antiquity in
these parts, has been, that burnt and unburnt
bricks were the chief, I may add, only materials
used for building in past times, as well as at
the present day.
Concluding, then, that these stones must have
been extracted from beneath the tumulus, I
commenced clearing away at the base; and as
far as I dug, I found that the mound rested on
layers of stone, each measuring about five feet
square, so firmly joined together, that my
digging implements broke to pieces, and obliged
me to discontinue any farther attempt at exca-
vation. There was no appearance of erect build-
ing whatever, nor any burnt or unburnt bricks,
except on the summit, where I saw some frag-
ments of brickwork perfectly black, petrified,
and molten. I found a large portion of an
earthen vase, (similar to some I have dug up
near a village called Reschire, five miles to the
south of Bushire in the Persian Gulph,) and
human bones lying by it. This vessel was


PARTY OF HOUSEMEN.
made of baked clay, and appeared painted over:
we had to delve with our hands for two feet
deep, previous to extracting it. That there were
several more I am convinced, as they are never
found singly, but in long rows nearly touching
each other, and fronting east and west. By
this time the sun had gone down, and having
to walk the same distance back to regain the
bank of the river, we reluctantly left the spot.
Returning, I saw a great number of gazelles
and several hares started from the brushwood.
On reaching the river and looking towards the
place we had recently quitted, I descried a party
of horsemen crossing the plain, and felt ex-
tremely happy at having escaped their notice;
otherwise we might have been subjected to
considerable annoyance by the meeting. * I
* "The manner in which the Arabs make war and pillage
the caravans, is by keeping at the side of them, or following
them in the rear, at a greater or smaller distance, according
to their forces, which may be easily done in Arabia, on ac-
count of its being one great plain; and in the night they fall
silently upon the camp, and carry off one part before the rest
are under arms."—.Sir John Chardin.


48 SHEJUR, AN INSULATED PILE.
should not omit to mention here, that the above
noticed mounds are among the few for which'
the Arabs have no name; nor is any ridiculous
tale attached to the spot.
November 2nd.—As the sun rose above
the distant mountains, I pursued my route
in a westerly direction along the right bank,
with four of my escort armed with swords and
matchlocks. Towards noon we arrived at a
solitary insulated pile, to which my Arabs gave
the appellation of Shejur: it was a heap of ar-
gillaceous earth extending one hundred yards
north and south, its elevation varying from ten
to fifteen feet; it was bounded on all sides
by the same barren desert, without a tree or
any sign of cultivation. The surface of this
mound was strewed with tile, kiln-burnt brick,
a few small stones, glass, and several blocks of
grey marble, thickly coated on one side with
bitumen, as hard as the stone to which it was
attached, and requiring our united strength to
break off the smallest portion, so tenaciously
did it adhere to the marble. This heap ap-


CURIOUS COLUMN.
49
peared to have lost all its perfect bricks, being
'particularly soft and unpleasant to walk over.
After digging round its base for two hours, with-
out perceiving any remains of building, we
crossed over to the left bank, and proceeded on
a bearing of west for five-and-twenty minutes,
when we reached a column situated on a gentle
declivity, constructed of the finest kiln-burnt
material, fastened together horizontally and
perpendicularly by thin layers of cement, join-
ing the whole together with great delicacy.
The hand of Time had corroded it to such a
degree, that the periphery of its base, which
is only sixteen feet, supports the upper portion,
the circumference of which is sixty-two feet,
and its height is twenty; its vertex was
terribly shattered, and irregularly torn by the
elements.
Hence extensive ridges of mounds, varying
in height and extent, are seen branching in
every direction. At a hundred yards to the
right of the column, I dug into a heap of
ruins, (evidently the largest on the plain,) and
E


50 REMAINS OF A WALL.
discovered the remains of a wall, (the bricks
of which measured a square of nine inches,)
likewise steps and the subverted portion of
another column, corresponding, in dimensions
and the materials of its composition, with the
standing one already mentioned. This pile
was extremely solid, and would have taken a
considerable number of men to lay it open,
by clearing away the accumulated earth and
rubbish.
On a mound at some distance to the north-
east, I observed the bases of walls that have
been razed to the ground. The bricks of
which they were composed must have been
removed, or thrown down and buried beneath
the shapeless and dilapidated ruin ; for I could
not discover any traces of them. The surface
of all the hillocks was covered with broken
bricks, varnished tile, pottery, shells, and vitri-
fied stones and glass. I computed their circum-
ference at eight miles, as I was two hours and
a half walking round them.
Three hours after the sun went down, by


EARTHEN VASES. 51
the light of the lovely moon and starry sky,
I was hurried from this interesting spot; my
Arahs would remain no longer in the desert,
wondering what there possibly could be in a
heap of confused rubbish to engross so much
of my time and attention.
Proceeding W. N.W. we almost immediately
reached the river's bank, where some elevated
hillocks attracted my curiosity, exhibiting frag-
ments of brickwork and pottery. The river
appears to have encroached; I met with se-
veral earthenware vases,* containing human

Ancient vase found near Hormania.
* See Appendix, G.
E 2


52 RUINS, CALLED HOOMANIA.
bones, which had undergone the action of fire.
These urns measured three feet in length, by
one and a half in depth and width, though some
appeared to be of greater dimensions. They
were terminated at one extremity by a cover
without bottom, and at the other by a pointed
handle. I could only find the smallest pos-
sible fragments of bone with the ashes, and
these became dust on being touched; even sim-
ple exposure to the atmosphere produced near-
ly a similar effect.
The Tigris is here nearly as broad as
the Shut-ul-Arab at Basrah; two thirds of
its bed being completely dry, and composed of
a mixture of sand and clay, which fatigued
us greatly by walking over it. This heavy
soil was nearly the means of my missing the
boat altogether; as the crew had proceeded,
regardless of my orders to remain at anchor
until my return. These remains are called,
by the natives of the country, Hoomania.
At this place, on the 5th of March, 1812,


ATHENIAN COINS.
53
on the bank of the stream, the crew of
a boat, who were cutting wood for sale at
Bagdad, discovered pieces of silver, edging
out of the margin of the bank, which was thus
exposed, from its having been washed down by
the action of the current.
On dividing their newly-acquired treasure,
they quarrelled among themselves; when one
of the party hastened to Bagdad, and informed
the Pasha's officers of the circumstance, who
instantly despatched people to the spot, and on
examination found, and brought away, between
six and seven hundred ingots of silver, each
measuring from one to one and a-half feet in
length; and an earthen jar, containing upwards
of two thousand Athenian coins, all of silver.
Many were purchased at the time by the late
Mr. Rich, formerly the East India Company's
Resident at Bagdad, and are now in his valu-
able collection, since bought by Government,
and deposited in the British Museum. No
coins were found of gold, or copper; and the


54 A FLEET OF BOATS.
whole were lodged in the treasury of Abdalla
'Pasha.
November 3.—I cannot say whether we
missed any antiquities on our road this day or
not, as our path lay through an almost im-
penetrable forest of brushwood, which extend-
ed into the Desert as far as the eye could
reach. We passed a fleet of boats laden with
wood, for use at Bagdad. They load half-mast
high, so that if a fresh breeze were blowing,
they would be obliged to lay-to until it sub-
sided.
These vessels are of a most singular con-
struction, being put together with reeds and
willow, thickly coated with bitumen: the prow
is the broadest part of the boat, being ex-
tremely bluff, and the whole as clumsy and
unwieldy as possible.


BAGDAD WOOD-BOAT.
55

Bagdad Wood-boats.
A round wicker-basket, called in Arabic
Kooffah, is towed astern of each boat for the
purpose of communicating with the shore; these
are also covered with naptha, and are in use on
the Euphrates, and likewise on the Diala. Their
shape and construction belong to the most re-
mote ages, being mentioned by Herodotus ;*
and it is worthy of remark, that they have un-
• See the description of these round wicker-baskets, in the
account given by Herodotus of Babylon.


ARMED HORSEMAN. 57
My Arabs said it was extremely ancient, but
its appearance ill accorded with their opinion.
Hence an unbroken range of mounds are dis-
cernible on the horizon, in a south-westerly
direction. They appeared at a considerable
distance, and were perhaps some of the dark
heaps of fallen Babylon.
Every man we meet in the Desert is looked
upon as an enemy. At noon we discovered
an armed horseman pacing across the plain.
The moment my escort saw him, they were off
like lightning to demand his business, whence
he came, and whither he was going? at the
same time brandishing their swords, and turn-
ing their matchlocks over their heads. The
armed Arab struck his stirrups into his horse's
sides, and was off in a second. Had there been
three or four, my people would have pretend-
ed they could not see them, or probably have
begged me to retreat beneath the bank to es-
cape observation, as they would never hazard
the conflict, without being fully convinced of its


58
TAUK KESRA.
terminating successfully. They are very cow-
ardly, and when in their power, will tyrannize
over a weaker party to the utmost; they
well know, therefore, the consequences of
capture.
The river has suddenly appeared very dis-
coloured, and were it not for the current, I
should scarcely have been able to distinguish
its bed from the sands on its shore; it
is considerably more rapid, owing to the
falls of snow and rain in the upper coun-
try. At Bagdad the stream is proverbial
for its clearness. If this is a specimen,
(as I am told it is,) I had certainly form-
ed a very erroneous idea of its transparent
properties.
Shortly after sunset we had an imperfect
view of Tauk Kesra,* a ruined arch on the site
of Ctesiphon, bearing due North across the
Desert, about fourteen miles distant in a di-
rect line, but nearly forty when following
* The Arch of Kesra. Kesra is a name proper to the two
last races of Persian monarchs.


HISTORY OF THE ARABS. 59
the course of the stream, so great is its si-
nuosity.
Previous to entering upon a description of
the remains of those cities we are approaching,
I shall, on the authority of that learned divine,
Newton, trace the history of the Arabs, from
the time of their ancestor, Ishmael, who, we
learn from sacred history, was born in the year
1910 before Christ, and died in 1773, after
having attained the age of one hundred and
thirty seven years.
"It is said of Ishmael that he dwelt in the
wilderness, and became an archer: such were
the Itureans, whose bows and arrows are fa-
mous in all authors; such were the mighty
men of Kedar, in Isaiah's time; and such the
Arabs have been from the beginning, and are
at this time.
"It was late before they admitted the use
of fire-arms among them; the greater part of
them are still strangers to them, and still conti-
nue skilful archers. In the time of Moses they
dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is, before


HISTORY OF THE ARABS. 61
Herodotus, the historian, who lived nearest to
those times, expressly says,* that the Arabs
were never reduced by the Persians to the
condition of subjects, but were considered by
them as friends, and opened to them a passage
into Egypt, which, without the assistance arid
permission of the Arabs, would have been ut-
terly impracticable: and, in another place, he
says, that while Phoenicia, Palestine, Syria,
and the neighbouring countries were taxed,
the Arabian territories continued free from
paying any tribute. They were then regarded
as friends, but afterwards they assisted with
their forces, Amyrtceus, king of Egypt, against
Darius Nothus, and Euagoras, king of Cyprus,
against Artaxerxes Mnemon; so that they act-
ed as friends or enemies to the Persians, just as
they thought proper, and as it suited their hu-
mour or their interest.
* "Arabes nunquam a Persis in servitutem redacti sunt, sed
hospites extiterunt; quum Cambysi aditum in .fligyptuin
permisissent: quibus invitis haudquaquam fuissent in-:
gressi Persse iEgyptum."—Herod, lib. iii. sec. 88, p. 198,
Edit. Gale.


62 HISTORY OF THE ARABS.
"Alexander the Great then overturned the
Persian empire, and conquered Asia. The
neighbouring princes sent their ambassadors to
make their submissions. The Arabs alone dis-
dained to acknowledge the conqueror, and scorn-
ed to send any embassy, or to take any notice
of him. This slight provoked him to such a
degree, that he meditated an expedition against
them; and the great preparations which he
made for it, showed that he thought them a
very formidable enemy: but death intervened,
and put an end to all that his ambition or re-
sentment had formed against them.
"Thus they happily escaped the fury of his
arms, and were never. subdued by any of his
successors. Antigonus, one of the greatest of
his successors, made two attempts upon them,
one by his general Athenaeus, and the other
by his own son, Demetrius, but both without
success. The former was defeated, and the
latter was glad to make peace with them, and
leave them at their liberty. Neither would
they suffer the people employed by Antigonus,


HISTORY OF THE AEABS. '63
to gather the bitumen on the lake Asphaltites,
whereby he hoped greatly to increase his re-
venue. The Arabs fiercely attacked the work-
men and the guards, and forced them to desist
from their undertaking. So true is the asser-
tion of Diodorus, that 'neither the Assyrians
formerly, nor the kings of the Medes and Per-
sians, nor yet of the Macedonians, were able to
subdue them; nay, though they led many, and
great forces, against them, yet they could not
accomplish their attempts.' We find them
afterwards sometimes at peace, and sometimes
at war with the neighbouring states; some-
times joining the Syrians, and sometimes the
Egyptians; sometimes assisting the Jews, and
sometimes plundering them; and in all respects
acting like a free people, who neither feared
nor courted any foreign power whatever.
"The Romans then invaded the East, and
subdued the countries adjoining, but were never
able to reduce Arabia into the form of a Ro-
man province. It is too common with histo-
rians to say that such or such a country was


HISTORY OP THE ARABS. 65
unfortunate expedition, he was glad to escape
with the small remainder of his forces.
"The Emperor Trajan reduced some parts of
Arabia, but he could never subdue it entirely;
and, when he besieged the city of the Haga-
renes, as Dio says,* his soldiers were repelled
by whirlwinds. About eighty years after, the
Emperor Severus twice besieged the same city
with a numerous army, and a formidable train
of military engines; but he had no better suc-
cess than Trajan. He made some assaults, but
was baffled and defeated, and returned with
precipitation as great as his vexation for his
disappointment. And if such great emperors
and able warriors as Trajan and Severus could
not succeed in their attempts, it is no wonder
that the following emperors could prevail no-
thing. The Arabs continued their incursions
and depredations, in Syria and other Roman
provinces, with equal licence and impunity.
"Such was the state and condition of the
* Dionis Hist. lib. 68. p. 785. Edit. Leunclav. Hanov.
F


66 HISTORY OF THE ARABS.
Arabs, to the time of their famous prophet
Mohammed, who laid the foundations of a
mighty empire: and then, for several centu-
ries, they were better known among the Euro-
pean nations by the name of the Sarraceni, or
Saracens, the Arraceni of Pliny,* and the Ha-
garenes-of Holy Scripture, f Their conquests
were, indeed, amazingly rapid; they can be
compared to nothing more properly than to a
sudden flood, or inundation. In a few years
the Saracens overran more countries, and sub-
dued more people than the Romans did in cen-
turies; and they were then not only free and
independent of the rest of the world, but were
themselves masters of the most considerable
parts of the earth. And so they continued for
above three centuries; and after their empire
was dissolved, and they were reduced within
i the limits of their native country, they still
maintained their liberty against the Tartars,
* Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. cap. 32.
f Hagarenes, the descendants of Ishmael. They are call-
ed also Ishmaelites and Saracens. Calmet's Diet.


HISTORY OF THE ARABS. 67
Mamalukes, Turks, and all foreign enemies
whatever.*
"Whoever were the conquerors of Asia, they
were still unconquered, still continued their
incursions, and preyed upon all alike. The
Turks have now for several centuries been
lords of the adjacent countries; but they have
been so little able to restrain the depredations
of the Arabs, that they have been obliged to
pay them a sort of annual tribute for the safe
passage and security of the pilgrims, who usu-
ally go in great companies to Mecca; so that
the Turks have rather been dependent upon
them, than they upon the Turks. And they
still continue the same practices, and preserve
the same superiority, if we may believe the
concurrent testimony of modern travellers of
all nations."!
* The Saracens began their conquests A.D. 622. Their
empire was broken and divided A.D. 936. See Blair's
Chronol. Tables, 33—39.
t Newton on the Prophecies, vol. i. pp. 46—54.
F 2


CHAPTER IV.
City of Ctesiphon Extensive mound.—High wall.—Sup-
posed canal.—Ancient remains.—Description of Tauk
Kesra.—Search made for coins, &c.—Sack of the palace
of Tauk Kesra by the Saracens. —Valuable spoils.—Rich
carpet.—Decay of Ctesiphon.—Tomb of Selman Pauk.—
Annual pilgrimage to it.—Mosque, tombs, &c.—Seleucia.
—Ruins of the city.—Fragments of a bridge.—Sites of the
two cities.—Impediments in the way of research.—Cala-
mities of Seleucia.—Bridge of boats over the Diala.—
Arrival at Bagdad.
November 5th.—From daylight until noon,
I have passed a succession of broken vases, made
of baked clay; the inner portion of each was
highly polished, of various colours, and some
had human bones sticking to them. They were
all close upon the left bank of the Tigris; and


EXTENSIVE MOUND. 69
it is to be remarked, that whenever a running
stream is in the vicinity of an ancient site,
these earthen coffins are sure to be found on
its bank.
Half an hour after, I crossed over to the
right, or eastern bank, when I was on the
site of Ctesiphon;* and immediately observed
mounds, superficially covered with the same
fragments and materials as I have already
mentioned in describing those hillocks I had
hitherto met with. This spot is called by the
natives the "Garden of Kisra." The first
mound, which was composed of furnace-burnt
bricks as a foundation, and sun-dried, mixed
up with chopped straw, for the superstructure,
one course separated from another by irregular
layers of reeds, extended from the bank of the
river, in a northerly direction, for seven hun-
• "The Parthians, in order to do by Seleucia as the
Greeks, who built that place, had done by Babylon, built
the city of 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."- Plin.
Nat. Hist. b. vi. c. 26.


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


TAUK KESRA^ 71
The high wall, already followed, embraces an
extensive area, where no vestiges of former
buildings exist, and runs to the verge of the
river. Its summit and sides are covered with
the remains of ancient building; and it is asto-
nishing, that, after the lapse of so many cen-
turies, these walls appear to have lost nothing
of their regular construction.
From the bed of the canal, and a quarter of
a mile to the North-west, over a space marked
by memorials of the past, interspersed with
patches of the camel thorn, stands the Tauk
Kesra, a magnificent monument of antiquity,*
surprising the spectator with the perfect state
of its preservation, after having braved the
warring elements for so many ages; without an
emblem to throw any light upon its history;
without proof, or character to be traced on
any brick or wall.
This stupendous, stately fragment of ages
* See Appendix, H.
.-


72 TAUK KESRA.
long since forgot, is built of fine furnace-
burnt bricks, each measuring twelve inches
square by two and three quarters thick, and
coated with cement. The full extent of the
front, or eastern face, is three hundred feet.
It is divided by a high semicircular arch, sup-
ported by walls sixteen feet thick; the arch
itself making a span of eighty-six feet, and
rising to the height of one hundred and three
feet. The front of the building is ornamented
and surmounted by four rows of small arched
recesses, resembling in form the large one.
The style and execution of these are most
delicate, evincing a fertile invention and great
experience in the architectural art.
From the vestibule a hall extends to the
depth of one hundred and fifty-six feet East
and West, where a wall forms the back of the
building, a great portion of which, together
with part of the roof, is broken down. In
the centre of the wall, or western face of the
structure, a doorway, measuring twenty-four


ANCIENT REMAINS.
73
feet high by twelve wide, leads to a contiguous
heap of mounds, extending to the bank of the
river, about a quarter of a mile distant. The
general shape of these hillocks is elliptical, and
their circumference two miles.
To the right are fragments of walls, and
broken masses of brickwork; to the left, and
therefore to the south of the arch, are the re-
mains of vast structures, which, though encum-
bered with heaps of earth, are yet sufficiently
visible to fill the mind of the spectator with
astonishment, at the thought that the destroy-
ing hand of Time could have failed in entirely
concealing, from the inquiring eye, these
wrecks of remote antiquity.*
• The natives of this country assert, that the ruins are of
the age of Nimrod, of whom, in Scripture, it is said, " And
the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and
Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar."—Gen. chap. x.
ver. 10.
A celebrated antiquary, M. de Broses, one of the Presi-
dents of the Royal Academy in Paris, supposes that Calneh
stood on the site of Ctesiphon.—Memoires de VAcademie
Royalc, tome xxvii. p. 31.


74 SEARCH FOR COINS, &C.
I dug into the sides and bases of many of
these mounds. Their foundations were inva-
riably composed of the fire-burnt brick, while
the sun-burnt formed the exterior or higher
mass of each heap. I had the satisfaction of dis-
covering a silver coin of one of the Parthian
kings, a brass coin of Seleucus Nicator, and
three talismanic perforated cylinders, which
differ in no respect from the Babylonian. All
are in an equally perfect state. There is no
doubt that the natives often pick up coins of
gold, silver, and copper; for which they always
find a ready sale in Bagdad. Indeed, some of
the wealthy Turks and Armenians, who are
collecting for several French and German
Consuls, hire people to go in search of coins,
medals, and antique gems: and I am assured
they never return to their employers empty-
handed.
The riches contained within the venerable
pile I have just described appear to have
been immense. The sack of the palace by the
Saracens, as related by Gibbon, took place in


VALUABLE SPOILS. 75
the A. D. 637. "The capital was taken by
assault, and the tumultuous resistance of the
people gave a keener edge to the sabres of the
Moslems, who shouted with religious transport,
'This is the white Palace of Chosroes! this
is the promise of the Apostle of God!' The
poor robbers of the Desert were suddenly en-
riched beyond the measure of their hope or
knowledge. Each chamber revealed a new
treasure, secreted with art, or ostentatiously
displayed. The gold and silver, the various
wardrobes and costly furniture, surpassed (says
Abulfeda,) the estimate of fancy or numbers.
One of the apartments of the palace was deco-
rated with a carpet of silk, sixty cubits in
length, and as many in breadth; a paradise,
or garden, was depictured on the ground; the
flowers, fruits, and shrubs, were imitated by
the figures of the gold embroidery, and the
colours of the precious stones; and the ample
square was encircled by a variegated and ver-
dant border.


VALUABLE SPOILS.
"The Arabian General persuaded his soldiers
to relinquish their claim, in the reasonable hope
that the eyes of the Caliph would be delighted
with the splendour of the workmanship. Re-
gardless of the merit of art and the pomp of
royalty, the rigid Omar divided the prize
among his brethren of Medina: the picture
was destroyed; but such was the intrinsic
value of the materials, that the share of
Ali alone was sold for twenty thousand
drams.
"A mule that carried away the tiara and
cuirass, the belt and bracelets of Chosroes, was
overtaken by the pursuers. The gorgeous
trophy was presented to the commander of the
faithful, and the gravest of the companions
condescended to smile when they beheld the
white beard, the hairy arms, and uncouth figure
of the veteran, who was invested with the
spoils of the great king. The sack of Ctesi-
phon was followed by its desertion and gradual
decay. The Saracens disliked the air and


TOMB OF SELMAN PAUK. 77
situation of the place; and Omar was advised
by his General to remove the seat of govern-
ment to the western side of the Euphrates.*
At a distance of five hundred yards North,
ten degrees West of Tauk Kesra, is the tomb
of Selman Pauk, otherwise Selman the Pure,
or Pious,f who, the Turks affirm, was once a
Christian, but eventually became a follower of
the prophet Mohammed, who appointed him
his barber; which situation he filled for many
years. Hence, all the professors and operators
of chirurgery, phlebotomy, chiropody, " et hoc
genus omne" perform a yearly pilgrimage from
Bagdad to his tomb; which is surrounded by
a brick wall, encompassing a good court, and
having commodious accommodation, answering
every purpose of a caravansary.
To the South-west, and consequently in an
oblique direction between the Tauk and the
river, stand the ruins of a mosque, and two
* Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. ix.
cap. 51.
+ See Appendix, I.


78 MOSQUE, TOMBS, &C.
mouldering tombs, forming an affecting con-
trast to its contemporary. These relics contain
the ashes of Hadhaifah, the secretary of the
prophet, and the Caliph Moostasem Billah, who
was killed by Hulakoo,* the Mogul conqueror
of Persia, and grandson of the famous Zengis,
or Ghengis Khan.
Among the scattered fragments of brick-
work and loose pieces of tile and stones within
the ruined quadrangular wall, enclosing the
tombs, I found the exuviae of snakes in
abundance; and from its vicinity to the Tigris,
it must, severely suffer by the regular over-
flowings of its waters.
Having examined the remains of Ctesiphon,
I crossed over to the site of the once magnifi-
cent and populous Greek city, f and at every
* This Prince established the Mogul dynasty.
f " 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 thousand
citizens here at one time, and all the commerce and wealth
of Babylon had flowed into it. The territory on which it
stood was called Babylonia; but it was itself a free state,


SELEUCIA. 79
step had new occasion to muse upon the scene
of desolation which presented itself, as far
as the eye could reach. Time, violence, and
repeated inundations have levelled every thing.
I looked in vain for monuments, pillars, aque-
ducts, and buildings. Bricks of every kind,
mixed up with layers of straw; varnished
tiles, and pottery of every colour, (the pre-
dominant one being blue); stones calcareous,
sandy, and granite; flint-glass, shells, and a
variety of vitreous and nitrous substances;
these, and these alone, compose what remains
of the once magnificent Seleucia.
There is not a single entire building; no-
thing but a small remnant of a wall and a
few portions of decayed brickwork, is left to
mark the foot of the spoiler, and bid us
mourn in silence and solitude over fallen and
departed grandeur. The traveller ought to
and the people lived after the laws and manners of the Ma-
cedonians. The form of the walls was said to resemble an
eagle spreading her wings, and the soil around it was thought
the most fertile in the East."—Plin. Nat. Hist. b. vi. c. 26.


80 SITES OF THE TWO CITIES.
visit Seleucia, previous to passing over to
Ctesiphon; by so doing, he will not expect
to meet with any thing half so grand as the
arch which rivets him to the spot, which, in
this part of the world, in point of architectu-
ral beauty, is perfectly unique.
This structure I surveyed first, so ardent was
my solicitude to reach the porch of the build-
ing, after having caught a glimpse of it the
evening before. With a mind full of its beau-
ties, I passed on to Seleucia; and there being no
building, not even the fragment of one visible,
I experienced, I must confess, great grief and
disappointment. It is, however, surprising, that
so much is still left to mark the sites of these
once great cities, situated as they are in a
country that is inundated for so many months
in the season. Even at this moment, which is
the driest time of the whole year, there are
pools of water inhabited by large flocks of
bitterns ;* and herbage is scattered over the
• The Ardea stellaris of Linnaeus.


FRAGMENTS OF A BRIDGE. 81
plain; but on the site of Ctesiphon, the smallest
insect under heaven would not find a single
blade of grass wherein to hide itself, nor one
drop of water to allay its thirst.
Although former travellers who have visited
this spot, do not speak of any remains on the
river, I have no hesitation in pointing to the
fragments of a bridge, which appears once to
have connected the two cities, from the vast
quantity of ruined materials lying in heaps on
either bank, composed of fire-burnt bricks
made of argillaceous earth, and a great quan-
tity of detached brickwork beneath the water.
The shallowness of the river afforded me an
opportunity of observing this very particu-
larly, and induced me to procure the aid of
divers, who invariably brought up bricks broken
and unbroken, remarkable for their hardness
and solidity. Hence I would infer, that these
fragments now resting on the river's bed, could
only have been appropriated to the purpose al-
ready mentioned.
The reader will be better able to judge of
G


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


CALAMITIES OF SELEUCIA. 83
The prevailing report and opinion among
the Turks at the time I am writing is, that
the combined powers of Europe have accom-
plished this much-wished-for event. I have
now only to add, that the greater part of the
remains of Ctesiphon extend in a northerly di-
rection; whilst the masses of ruin on the site
of Seleucia stretch away to the southward, and
are altogether at a greater distance from the
bank of the river than Ctesiphon. The Greek
city appears to occupy a more considerable
tract of country, although its remains are, to
all appearance, of lesser magnitude than its Par-
thian neighbour.*
I shall briefly notice, in this part of my
journal, on the authority of Gibbon, the re-
peated calamities and ultimate ruin of the
chief of the Macedonian conquests in Upper
Asia. For many ages, Seleucia retained the
* The site of Seleucia is in the neighbourhood of a very
ancient place, called Coche, " in confluente Euphratis,
fossa perducta atque Tigris," says Pliny: this canal bears
the appellative, Nahar Malka, "quod significat fluvius
regum."
G 2


84
RISE AND FALL OF
genuine character of a Grecian colony, re-
nowned for arts, military virtue, and the love
of freedom. The independent republic was go-
verned by a senate of three hundred nobles;
the people consisted of six hundred thousand
citizens. The walls of the city were strong,
and as long as concord prevailed among the
several orders of the state, the inhabitants
viewed with contempt the power of the Par-
thian: but the madness of faction was some-
times provoked to implore the dangerous aid
of the common enemy, who was posted almost
at the gates of the colony.
The Parthian monarchs, like the Mogul so-
vereigns of Hindostan, delighted in the pas-
toral life of their Scythian ancestors; and the
Imperial camp was pitched in the plain of
Ctesiphon, on the eastern bank of the Tigris,
at the distance of only three miles from Se-
leucia. The innumerable attendants on luxury
and despotism resorted to the court, and the
little village of Ctesiphon insensibly grew into
a great city.


SELEUCIA AND CTESIPHON. 85
Under the reign of Marcus, the Roman ge-
nerals penetrated as far as Ctesiphon and Se-
leucia, A. D. 165. They were received as
friends by the Greek colony; they attacked as
enemies the seat of the Parthian kings; yet
both cities experienced the same treatment.
The sack and conflagration of Seleucia, with
the massacre of three hundred thousand of the
inhabitants, tarnished the glory of the Roman
triumph. Both cities lie about nineteen miles
to the South of Bagdad.
November 7th.—It was past midnight be-
fore I persuaded myself to quit the moulder-
ing walls of this ancient city. The cloudless
sky was studded with stars, and the air so
beautifully soft and pure, that I could not be
unmindful of being in the land of Chaldea,
where the shepherds lay gazing on the same
constellations, and from them derived the first
lessons of astronomy.
For two hours I had been seated beneath a
ruined rampart of the city, which appeared to
be the most perfect mass on the desert plain.


86 BRIDGE OF BOATS.
It extended five hundred yards North, and
rose from beneath the mounds for twenty-five
feet. From this spot, by the light of the
moon, I beheld, for the last time, the crumbling
and solitary ruins. The deep repose of the
scene was scarcely disturbed; for the breeze
that wafted the sound of the browsing camel's
tinkling bell, was all that broke the calm
silence that prevailed around me, and
"Mid Heaven's blue arch serene,
Th' unclouded moon smiled down upon the scene."
While contemplating these scattered frag-
ments by the light of the moon, the solemnity
and stillness of the scene, and the memorials of
departed grandeur on all sides, powerfully af-
fected my imagination!
Leaving Seleucia, I proceeded North-west
till noon, when I crossed the Diala, over a
bridge of boats. Its mouth is sixty yards
broad, and at this time the stream was run-
ning with rapidity, a proof that the rains had
already fallen on the mountains. When this


ARRIVAL AT BAGDAD.
87
river is low, the natives are unable to drink of
its waters, their qualities being so very saline.
The people of the country only know this
classical river by the appellation of Diala; its
apparent course from this place is N. N. W.*
At five in the afternoon, I reached the sub-
urbs of the celebrated residence of the Caliphs;
when, to escape observation, I embarked on
the Tigris, and had a fine view of Bagdad.
The lofty pointed minarets, and swelling
domes of the beautifully-shaped mosques re-
flecting the rays of the sun, gave them a white
appearance, and exhibited a very striking effect,
which disappeared on my entering the walls
of the city; where 1 was met by two Nou-
bechi's t> who conducted me to Aga Minas,
the British Agent, who kindly received and
hospitably entertained me. This Armenian is
an intelligent and active servant of the Indian
• Hence to Koote, the Tigris is called Diglah, from a
town of that name about fifty miles to the North of
Bagdad.
t Armed footmen of the British residency in the Pa-
shalic.


88 HOSPITABLE RECEPTION.
government; having held the situation of
Dragoman to the East India Company's late
residents in this city for thirty years. His
father was also an effective servant in the time
of Sir Harford Jones.

Keitiaius pf a WhII on the Site of Seleucia.


CHAPTER V.
Mr. Rich—His character.—The Pasha Daoud Risafah, a
lofty minaret.—Village of Kauzumeen. —Mosque.—Tomb
of Zobeide.—The Talism Gate.—Inscription.—Monastery
of Dervishes.—The Madraset.—Caravansary and mosque
founded by Mirjan.—Number of vagrants.—Their extreme
wretchedness.—The Author assumes the Turkish dress.
—Tull Akerkouf.—Canal.—Bronze , figure. —Extensive
ruins.—Robberies of the Arabs.—Circular pillars.—Azad
Khaun.—Sheikh Shoubar.—Iskanderia.— Hadjee Sulei-
man.—Hillah.—Entrance to Babylon.
The English traveller arriving in this city,
will not fail to meet with the greatest attention
from all classes of people, on account of the
high veneration and respect they bear to the
memory of the lamented Mr. Rich, the late
British Resident; who upheld the honour of
the nation he represented, and at the same
time gained the greatest reputation himself,


90 MR. 11ICH—HIS CHARACTER.
during an administration of fourteen years.*
The Turks and Christians fondly cherish the
recollection of his many amiable qualities, and
his name is imprinted on their hearts—too
deeply, ever to be forgotten. I need hardly
add, what heart-felt satisfaction this gave me;
and, on walking through the streets, I could
not but contrast the deportment of the Mos-
lems with their Persian neighbours, particularly
at the city of Shirauz, where the English tra-
veller cannot with any degree of personal safe-
ty traverse the town without an attendant of
the British Agent, and even then he is often
stoned, and always abused and ridiculed.
Bagdadf is well known, from having been
* Mr. Rich was appointed the East India Company's
resident at Bagdad, in 1806. In the year 1821, he quitted
that city on a visit to Shirauz, (via Basra, and Bushire,)
whence he was destined never to return, being carried off by
an attack of Cholera Morbus, after an illness of eight hours.
His remains were interred without the city walls; but the
heartless Persians could not allow them to repose undisturb-
ed, to the eternal disgrace of the Prince Houssain Ali Mirza;
and in 1826, the Envoy to the Persian court removed his
remains to the Armenian burying-ground at Ispahan.
t See Appendix, K. This city is called by Marco Polo,
Baldachi.


BAGDAD.
91
the residence of the Caliphs; and, according to
the observations made by several British officers,
is in latitude 33° 19' 40" N. Colonel Macdonald
Kinneir makes its longitude 44° 24" E. That
accomplished writer, in his admirable Memoir of
the Persian Empire, has given such a correct ac-
count of this city, (as also of the town of Hillah,
on the Euphrates,) that it would be presump-
tion in me, and only engrossing the time and
exhausting the patience of the reader, were I
to offer any detailed description; though I trust
for forgiveness in submitting a few notices
here, on the principal buildings and monu-
ments still standing to perpetuate the memo-
ry of many of the earlier commanders of the
faithful.
According to the best-informed Mahome-
dan writers, the city was commenced by the
Caliph Mansooril Dewaniky, in the year 139,
and completed in 146.* This Caliph erected
a mosque without the walls, called Imaum
Athum, and a college, both which buildings
* It is to be remarked that all these dates are of the
Hegira.


92 THE PASHA DAOUD.
are still to be seen; though on a part of the
site of the latter, Daoud Pasha has erected a
superb mosque, and two stately minarets.
This man arrrived at Bagdad at the begin-
ning of Suleiman Pasha's government, and was
brought up like the other slaves in the palace.
From the post of Mohrdar, or keeper of the
seals, he was elevated to that of Dufterdar, or
keeper of the records, when Suleiman Pasha
gave him one of his daughters in marriage.
Being on bad terms with his brother-in-law, he
was neglected and slighted.
During this period he gave himself up to the
study of divinity and Turkish law, until Ab-
dalla's elevation to the Musnud. This Pasha
appointed Daoud likewise to the situation of
Dufterdar, in which capacity he displayed both
wisdom and courage. He also held a similar office
under Saaeed Pasha, who wished to make him
his Kehyah, or lieutenant; but, being suspect-
ed of intrigue, he was superseded, and fearing
lest he might lose his head, fled to Sulimaniah,
where, with the assistance of Mahommed Ali


RISAFAH. 93
Mirza, he in a short time succeeded to the
Pashalick; in which elevated situation he has
ever since remained *
Mansoor's eldest son, Mahommed il Mahdee,
built a lofty minaret, in the year 168, called
Risafah, and situated in a bazaar now termed
the Thread-market. It is the highest and old-
est in the city, and stands near the centre; it is
encircled with a Cufic inscription, beautifully
executed in brickwork, but nearly defaced.
Its spire, whence you may obtain a beautiful
view of the river and its environs, still adds
grace and dignity to the city. On a clear day
the Tauk Kesra at Ctesiphon is plainly dis-
cernible.
The celebrated Haroun al Raschid erected a
tomb to the memory of his lamented judge,
Abu Yusuf, at Kauzumeen, a village about
one hour's ride from the walls of Bagdad.
That place is much visited by the Moslems,
* Keppel is decidedly wrong, when he asserts that this
Pasha was a beggar at the palace gate. I have heard that
Daoud was for some time in the -service of Sir John
Malcolm.


94
TOMB OF ZOBEIDE.
from the circumstance of two descendants of
the Prophet being interred there.
The largest mosque in Kauzumeen was
built by Shah Ismael, in the year 914; it has
since been beautifully adorned by Aga Maho-
med Khan, uncle to the present Shah, and the
first Persian sovereign that made Tehraun a
royal residence.
In the year 198, Haroun's eldest son, Maho-
med Ameen, built a mosque, situated within
the walls; near which stand the tomb and
shrine of the beautiful Zobeide,* the wife and
favourite of Al Raschid. This was erected by
his second son, Abdalla al Mamoon, in 212.
It is, however, a mean and inferior memorial
for so celebrated a woman, and, consequently,
cannot fail to create disappointment. The
building is octangular, capped with a cone, ex-
actly resembling a pine-apple, a form never
* " Nom d'une fille de Giafer Ben Mansour, que le Khalife
Haroun al Raschid epousa solennellement, et qui fut mere
du Khalife Amin. Le Pelerinage qu'elle fit a, la Mecque
s'est rendu celebre, a cause des grandes aumones qu'elle fit
sur sa route."—D'Herbelot.


96 INSCRIPTION.
"In the name of the merciful and benefi-
cent.—'And if Abraham and Ismdael take the
laws from the temple, our Lord will accept at our
hands that thou art the hearer, the wise.'*—This
is what he commanded should be built; our
Prince and Lord, the Imaum (obedience to
whom is binding on all mankind); Abu'l abbas
Ahmed Al nasir li din lllah, chief of the true
believers; the successor appointed by the Lord
of all worlds; the evidence of God, (on whom
be glory and exaltation,) to all his creatures:
—the peace and mercy of God be upon his
spotless ancestors; may his true call on man-
kind to submission, aid, and guidance, con-
tinue to be the bounden duty of the faithful,
in listening and attention. The completion was
vouchsafed in the year 618. The mercy of
God be on our master Mohammed, and his
pious and immaculate house." f
In 590, the Caliph built a banquetting-house,
on the left bank of the Tigris, within the city
* A verse of the Koran, usually introduced in such dedi-
catory lines. t See Appendix, L.


THE MADRASET. 97
walls, which, since the time of Sultan Murad,
has been a monastery of dervishes, of the Bek-
tash order, so named from their founder, Had-
jee Bektash; and, in 625, Moostanser Billah
founded a school, which is now a khaun; and
the old kitchen is the present Custom-house.
The annexed inscription is to be traced on
the walls of the Madraset, ul Mustansariah, si-
tuated at the head of the bridge in Bagdad:
"In the name of the merciful and beneficent
God.—' And there is a sect amongst you who in-
vite to holiness, command piety, and forbid vice;
and these are the saved.' * The servant of God,
and his Khalif, Abu Jaafer al Mansoor al
Mustanser Billah, chief of the faithful, with
whose dominion may God exalt the Moslems,
commanded the commencement of this pro-
pitious college; looking to the favour of that
being who destroyeth not the reward of the
pious, and desiring the acceptance of the
Lord of worlds, and the chief of prophets;
» A verse of the Koran, as above.
H


98 INSCRIPTION.
whose excellent commands and dominion may
God assist, by the power of whose resplendent
kingdom may he exalt the cause of Islam, and
by its comeliness bless mankind with the re-
splendent truth.
"This glorious college was completed with
the aid of the all-powerful, and of the uncon-
taminate scripture, and with supplications to
the strong pillar of support, and this in the
year 630. Peace to our master Mohammed the
prophet, and to his house." *
In the year 758, Mirjan, minister to the
Sultan, came from Persia, whence he solicited
permission to proceed on a pilgrimage to
Mecca; but his subsequent conduct in seizing
on the government of Bagdad, proved that
this holy project was but a mere pretence. He
founded a khaun, or caravansary, which is in
good repair to this day; and a mosque, called
after him, Merjaniah, upon the walls of which
this inscription is to be seen:
* See Appendix, M.


THE MERJANIAH. 99
"In the name of God, the merciful and the
beneficent.—' As to temples, God hath permitted
that they should be raised, and that, in them,
men should remember his name and should glorify
him therein, in the morning and in the evening;
men whom neither traffic nor sale beguileth from
the remembrance of God! * The dependent on
the compassion of the most merciful king, Mir-
jan, son of Abdallah, son of Abdurrahman, the
Sultani, the Oolkhani, commenced this: may
his devotion find acceptance with God in both
worlds ; and the peace of God be on our master
Mohammed and his family, and his companions,
pious and uncontaminate, A. H. 758." f
The pleasure I derived from making these
short excursions in and around the city, was
greatly diminished at beholding the numbers of
vagrants who were seen lying about the streets;
victims of poverty, sickness, and famine. The
women and children were truly piteous objects,
and in a state of nudity. I never saw such mi-
* From the Koran. f See Appendix, N.
H 2


100 NUMBER OF VAGRANTS.
serable examples of human wretchedness. These
poor creatures, I was informed, had migrated
from Mosul in hopes of finding employment,
and escaping that fatal scourge the cholera
morbus, which raged to such a degree this
summer, that there were not people to gather
in the harvest. Those who found purchasers,
sold their children to the highest bidder: while
the remaining inhabitants who were less fortu-
nate, were said to have been seen sacrificing
their offspring to their own uncontrollable hunger.
For the sake of human nature, I sincerely trust
this is an exaggeration; I received it from
scarcely dubitable authority, as a true, and
faithful picture of the suffering people of
Mosul.
Those children who were old enough fled
from their parents, and one poor boy is now
with me, (an only son,) who left his aged and
forlorn mother, from the horrible apprehension
of sharing a similar fate. In fact, two months
ago, young and beautiful girls were publicly


TURKISH DRESS.
101
sold in this city for a sum equivalent to ten
pounds sterling! and many of these hapless
creatures were Christians!! Let us hasten from
the contemplation of this mournful picture!
November 20th.—I proposed visiting an old
ruin, about nine miles from the city; but as
the Arabs had been committing some depre-
dations in the neighbourhood, it was deemed
advisable by my kind host, Aga Minas, that
I should assume the dress of the country,
which I strongly recommend to every tra-
veller whose object is a laudable curiosity, and
a wish to gain some insight into the manners,
habits, and customs of the inhabitants. After
equipping myself in a new Turkish dress, I
issued from the Agent's house, and crossed
the Tigris by a floating bridge of thirty-two
boats.* On clearing the walls I was joined
by a guard, consisting of five Arabs armed with
swords and spears.
• The river opposite the Babil-Jisser is two hundred yards
in breadth.


102
TULL AKERKOUF.
After a walk of three hours, on a bearing
due W. N. W., we gained the summit of an
elevated mound, supporting a ponderous mass
of ruin, which is called by the Arabs Tull
Akerkouf, vulgarly Agergoaf, and by the Turks
Nemroud Tepessy, both which appellations sig-
nify the Mound of Nemroud, or Nimrod, not
the Tower of Nemroud, as it has been translated.
Our path was partially strewed with loose
pieces of burnt and unburnt brick and tile.
At times we saw a dead camel, from which we
scared several hungry hawks, that were feast-
ing on the offensive carcase.
At the seventh mile we crossed the dry bed
of a canal of great magnitude, supposed by
some to be the river Narraga of Pliny, near
which, he says, was a city called Hipparenum.*
This canal is said to be the remains of the ca-
nal of Isa, and is supposed to connect the Tigris
* "Sunt etiamnum in Mesopotamia oppida: Hipparenum,
Chaldoeorum doctrina clarum, et hoc, sicut Babylonia, juxta
fluvium Narragam, qui dedit civitati nomen. Muros Hip--
parenorum Persre diruere."—Plin. lib. vi. cap. 26.


CANAL. 103
with the river Euphrates, at a point where these
rivers approach each other; but in following its
course I found that it discharges itself into the
Tigris four miles below Bagdad: a circum-
stance that refutes its identity with the canal
of Isa. This channel ran North and South.
Hence, until we arrived in the vicinity of the
ruins, we passed small parties of Arabs, who
were employed in tending their flocks and
herds. Not far from one of these encampments
I found a bronze figure, apparently of an Eu-
ropean, in the costume of the middle ages.

Bronze figure found near Akerkouf.


104
EXTENSIVE RUINS.
The ruins of a city are here very apparent,
extensive undulating mounds stretching to-
wards the South and East; while to the North
and West they are comparatively small, and
extend only a short distance from their giant-
like neighbours. This ruin sweeps irregularly
upwards, and its form appears to have been
originally square, for the bricks are placed so
as to favour this opinion; it does not, however,
exactly face the cardinal points, as some former
travellers assert. It is entirely composed of
sun-dried bricks, made of clay mixed with
chopped straw, each measuring a square of
nine inches by four in thickness. At every
seventh* course of bricks, a layer of reeds is
placed between the horizontal courses of the
brickwork, without any apparent cement. These
layers are very regular from top .to bottom; but
* Mr. Rich is mistaken, when he says that the layers
of reed are between every fifth or sixth layer of bricks,
and that the number is not regulated. He has likewise
made the circumference of the ruin one hundred feet less
than it really is.—Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon, p. 41.


TULL AKERKOUF.
105
the bricks composing this colossal mass are of
uncommon beauty, when we consider the ma-
terial of which they are composed. This struc-
ture certainly has been the habitation of some
important personage; nay, I almost fancy I
beheld the residence of a rich and powerful
sovereign.*
The ruin is, without doubt, solid, and is
pierced with small holes, which appear to have
been designed for the purpose of admitting a
free current of air; but some imagine they held
the scaffolding when the workmen were em-
ployed in its erection. Large wooden beams
are passed through, apparently to strengthen
the huge fabric of brickwork. On the North-
eastern face, nearly in the centre, is an aperture,
somewhat resembling a Gothic window; for
what purpose it was intended, it is now impos-
* " Cependant on ne peut pas bien decider aujourd'hui a quel
dessein cet edifice a ete eleve. Peut-^tre 6toit-ce le terrein
sur lequel un des premieres Califes de Bagdad, ou meme un des
Rois de Perse qui residoit & al Modaien, avoit une maison
de campagne, pour prendre un air fraix et froid, sur la hau-
teur."—M. Niebuhr, Voyage en Arable, ii.tome p. 248. 4to.


106
EXTENSIVE RUINS.

Remarkable rain, called Tull Akerkouf.
sible to determine. Tavernier relates, that " a
little way from Bagdad, there is the foundation
of a city, which may seem to have been a large
league in compass. There are some of the
walls yet standing, made of burnt brick, ten
feet square, and three thick."* Tavernier, no
doubt, alludes to these ruins; he conceived it
to be the remains of some tower, built by one
* Tavernier, vol. ii, c. v.


TULL AKERKOUF. 107
of the Arab princes, for a beacon to assemble
his subjects in time of war: this, in all pro-
bability, was near the truth. From the sum-
mit to the base of the brickwork, it is one hun-
dred and twenty-five feet,* the circumference
is four hundred feet, and from the brickwork
to the foundation of the rubbish, which now
forms its pedestal, it is twenty feet. A vast
number of dried bats are to be seen in the
small cavities of the structure. I do not think
this ruin ever exhibited the written character,
or the bitumen which is used throughout the
Babylonian remains; nor in searching among
the surrounding mounds, could I trace vestiges
of building in any mass resembling the rem-
nants of a regular architectural structure;
though the surface of these mounds was
strewed with broken bricks, earthenware ves-
sels, vitrified pieces of clay, many perfectly
black; and small stones, once forming a por-
tion of, but now surviving the clay that formed
* Niebuhr states the height of this ruined monument at
seventy Danish feet.


ROBBERIES OF THE ARABS. 109
with a small cavalcade consisting of a Chocadar*
from the Pasha, who acted as Tissaphernes,
one Chaoosh, (a herald, or running footman,) in
the service of Aga Minas, and an armed Desert
Arab, who considered that his presence would
be of more utility in case of any attack on
the road, than the united force of a whole
caravan.
The Arabs are certainly retrogressive, in
point of improvement and civilization. Seven
years ago, a robbery on the Hillah road was
unheard of; now, it occurs weekly: large cara-
vans are stopped and plundered, and no inquiry
or search is made after the audacious perpe-
trators. In fact, the other day, a rich caravan
had scarcely quitted the gates of this city, on
its route to Aleppo, before the people of the
Desert attacked it, and carried off property to
a very considerable amount.
But to return :—Clearing the walls, I dis-
mounted, and proceeded on foot, over an excel-
* Chokhadar, or Ich Agasi of the Pashalic of Bagdad;
one of the pages of the Pasha's presence.


110
KEYAH KHAUN.
lent road running S. 10° W., while my horse-
men went before, and amused themselves by
throwing the jereed, an amusement too often
described to need any description from me.
The first objects that attract the eye on leav-
ing the city, are two low circular pillars on each
side of the road, built chiefly of brick, inlaid
with the heads of two hundred of the Khezail
Arabs, taken by the Pasha's army in their last
engagement with this tribe. * A little before
nine we passed a khaun, or caravansary, which
must once have been a handsome building; but
is now forsaken, and falling fast into ruins. It
is called Keyah Khaun, from its founder Ah-
med, the Kehyah, lieutenant or minister, of
Suleiman Pasha; t it is about seven miles and
a half from Bagdad.
• The Zobeide Arabs inhabit the whole of this district.
f Rather more than fifty years ago, this three-tailed Ba-
shaw was the Mutessellim (governor) of Bussorah. On the
surrender of that city to. the Persians, he was taken prisoner,
and conveyed to Shirauz, where he remained until the death
of Kerim Khan in 1779, at which period he effected his
escape, and successfully sued the Porte for the pashalic of
Bagdad.


AZAD KHAUN. Ill
At a distance of five miles from it, is Azad
Khaun, a miserable dirty halting-place, built by
Omar Pasha in the year of the Hegira 1092.
Continuing, as usual, S. 10° W. we passed
another caravansary, called by the Arabs
Bir-en-neuss, or el-Neuss, its true appellative
being Bur-il-nusf, meaning a well half dug out,
or the half-way well. There is a Turkish tomb
here, but whether of saint or of sinner I could
not learn.
From Azad Khaun to this last station, we
crossed the remains of several dry water-chan-
nels and canals, of great depth and width, some
of which are attributed to Nebuchadnezzar,
King of Babylon.* Of these the famed Jluvius
regum of that monarch is not the least im-
portant, though at present dry and neg-
lected.
On an elevated and conspicuous mound,
within six hundred yards of the road, is a
quadrangular ruin, composed of reeds and sun-
See Appendix, O.


112
SHEIKH SHOUBAlt.
dried bricks, thirty feet high, and two hundred
and fifty in circumference. The ground about
it was covered with the usual vestiges of former
buildings. The spot is called by the natives
Sheikh Shoubar, and is visible at a considerable
distance. About half-way between the two last
stages, and over a small canal, is an old ruinous
bridge, of one arch, of the best fire-burnt ma-
terial.
Next to Mushhed Ali,* the finest hawks in
the country for hunting the antelope are taken
here. Antelopes are found in the neighbour-
hood in great numbers; for during the whole
of the day, we saw these beautiful quadrupeds
feeding among the thistles and short herbage,
occasionally bounding before us as we disturbed
them by our presence. They are frequently
shot by the Arabs, who are too lazy to take
them in the chase. From Khaun Azad to this
* This city, according to Kinneir, was founded by Alex-
ander the Great, and was, for a considerable time, called
Alexandria. It is thirty miles from Hillah, and four from
Kufa, a town founded by Omar.


ISKANDERIA. 113
■place I made the distance seven miles and a
half.
One hour before sunset brought us to a
very spacious caravansary, the customary halt-
ing place. It is called Iskanderia, from the
ruins of a village, and the bed of a canal
in the neighbourhood. A ruinous khaun of
the same name is still standing, though now
deserted. The present inhabited building was
erected during the last century, at the expense
of the late Mohammed Hussein Khan, formerly
Nizam-ad-Dowlah, or Home Minister of Futteh
Ali Shah, for the convenience of Persian pilgrims,
when on their road to Messhed Ali, the most dis-
tinguished place of pilgrimage which they pos-
sess. From several ridges of earth covered with
vestiges of building, lying in every direction, I
should imagine this spot to be the site of some
considerable town; and the bricks are so plenti-
ful, that the material of which the menzil is
constructed, was gathered upon the spot. Is-
kanderia is two hours journey from Bir-el-Nusf,
and lies in latitude 32° 56' 18", longitude 4°
i


114
HADJEE SULEIMAN.
west of Bagdad. The water is very noxious
here, as well as at all the caravanserais between
Bagdad and Hillah.
November 29th.—We advanced at daylight,
in the usual direction south, varying at in-
tervals a little to the eastward, when two hours
and three-quarters brought us to a mean build-
ing, called Hadjee Suleiman. It was founded
by an Arab, upon whose family the Sultan
Murad conferred the title of Beg, answering
to our Baronet, as it is hereditary—with this
difference, that on the father's death, should
there be one or more sons, they all enjoy the
title at the same time.
At this caravansary a deep canal crosses the
road, cut from the Euphrates, near the village
of Naseriat, which bears north twenty-five
degrees west. Journeying for two hours more
we reached Muhawwil, where there is a village
of Fellahs, and consequently some cultivation
is visible, for the first time since we quitted
Bagdad. In fact, the whole country is an unin-


MUHAWWIL. 115
teresting, dull, and flat plain, without an ob-
ject to please the eye, or relieve the monoto-
nous irksome scene, except the abrupt embank-
ments of canal beds. The dreariness of this
tract forcibly elucidates the words of the pro-
phet Jeremiah :—" I was truly led through the
wilderness, through a land of deserts and of
pits, through a land of drought, and where
no man dwelt." *
The distance is fourteen miles from the fine
khaun at Iskanderia, to Muhawwil; which
place I consider to be only separated from the
commencement of the site of ancient Babylon,
by the high embankments of three canals, (one
of which, I am inclined to think, may have
been the ditch of the venerable city ;) over the
first of which is a bridge of one arch, (decidedly
modern) f and a large body of running water,
(introduced from the Euphrates by a Pasha,
* Jeremiah, chap. ii. v. 6.
t This bridge has since fallen in.
I 2


116 DREARY APPROACHES
for the purposes of irrigation,) taking a direc-
tion east and west. Hence vestiges of former
ancient edifices are discovered, ramifications of
which extend for an immense distance over the
desert.
Half an hour before sunset I entered
the suburbs of Hillah, and crossed a bridge
of thirty-four boats, constructed of pon-
toons, like that of Bagdad, but in worse
repair. I ascertained the breadth of the Eu-
phrates, at this point, to be 150 yards. From
the last caravansary at Muhawwil, the road
was covered, on every side, with irregular
hillocks and mounds, formed over masses of
ruin, presenting, at every step, memorials of
the past. In fact, our path lay through the great
mass of ruined heaps on the site of "shrunken
Babylon;"—and I am perfectly incapable of
conveying an adequate idea of the dreary,
lonely nakedness that appeared around me, on
entering the gates of the once mighty metro-
polis, where "the queen of nations" sat en-


TO BABYLON. 117
throned; nor can I portray the overpowering
sensation of reverential awe that possessed my
mind, while contemplating the extent and
magnitude of ruin and devastation on every
side.


CHAPTER VI.
Extensive mounds.—The Mujellibah.—Town of Hillah.—
, Its situation, filthy state, &c—Mahmoud Beg, the present
governor.—Gardens.—Rapidity of the Euphrates.—Re-
marks on ancient Babylon.—The city built by Semiramis.
—Extent of the walls.—Erection of a bridge.—Palaces—
Temple to Jupiter.—The city enlarged and beautified by
Nebuchadnezzar.—Hanging gardens.— Canals.—Ancient
splendour of the city.—Taken by Cyrus.—Besieged and
captured by Darius.—Height of the walls.—Decay and
desolation of Babylon.
After passing the second canal embank-
ment, a circular mound of great elevation ap-
peared on the right of the road. The superficies
of its summit and sides was covered with frag-
ments of buildings, composed of furnace-burnt
brick, bitumen, reeds, and pieces of stone en-
graved with the arrow-headed writing upon
them; while portions of the ground in the
immediate vicinity were white with nitre.


THE MUJELLIBAH. 119
Three hundred yards further, there is another
of much greater altitude, its vertex being
thickly covered with broken painted tile, glass,
and bricks. Hence dependent mounds branch
off in every direction, all of equal antiquity with
Babylon itself.
Two miles beyond this is a massive em-
bankment, extending towards the east and
west, and seeming to enclose the ruins at
either extremity. Its superficies exhibits frag-
ments of decayed brick, stones, pottery, and
tile. To the south, at about a quarter of a
mile to the right of the road, is a vast moun-
tain of ruin, (the Mujellibah,) towering above
a series of intervening mounds in inexpressible
grandeur. Although no very distinct traces of
a ditch can be found, nor can any decided cha-
racteristic mark of the exterior walls of the vene-
rable city be discovered by the superficial investi-
gator; yet, from its present appearance and situ-
ation, I cannot entertain the shadow of a doubt
of its being a remnant of those ruined masses;
and could the antiquary prosecute an unin-


120 SITUATION OF HILLAH.
terrupted, comprehensive, and close examina-
tion, he would, in all probability, discover the
line of these long-sought mural demarcations.
Can we ever sufficiently lament the circum-
stance of the country being in the hands of
barbarians?
The distance of the before mentioned embank-
ment from Hillah is full five miles, and the
circular mounds eight.* Hillah f itself is dis-
tant from Bagdad forty-nine miles; it is si-
tuated in latitude 32° 31' 18", longitude 44° 20'
east of Greenwich. The accurate Niebuhr has
placed it in latitude 32° 28', and Beauchamp
32° 25'. The latter performed the journey
twice from Bagdad to Hillah, in sixteen hours
and thirty minutes. The town was built in
the year of the Hegira 495, from the ruins of
Babylon, which, on the eastern side of the
river, lie about two miles distant.
Hillah is an insignificant place, and nearly
* The limits of the celebrated city, by Strabo's computa-
tion, is 885 furlongs, by Diodorus 360, by Curtius 368, and
Herodotus (the oldest author of them all) 480; or a little
more than sixty miles in circuit,
t See Appendix P.


RAPIDITY OF THE EUPHRATES. 121
rivals the city of Bussorah in filth and offensive
effluvia. Its population has been decreasing,
particularly since it became the scene of con-
tention and bloodshed about two years and a
half ago: I could not learn the amount of it
with any degree of precision, but I think it
may be estimated at six thousand souls. The
present governor, Mahmoud Beg, or rather
Bey, is an officer in the service of the Pasha
of Bagdad: he farms it for four lacs of raej
piastres yearly, a sum equivalent to £7000
sterling.
The gardens in the vicinity are extremely
productive, although agriculture is greatly neg-
lected; in fact, a few words will forcibly de-
scribe its present state, and exhibit the poverty,
indolence, oppression, and desolation that reign
over it.
I was much struck with the force and ra-
pidity of the Euphrates at Hillah, from having
always heard it asserted that the Tigris flowed
more swiftly. At this point the attribute is
inapplicable; for, at the time I am writing,
the stream is pursuing its course at the rate


122 OBSERVATIONS ON BABYLON.
of three knots and a half an hour, while the
Tigris flows at scarcely three. * From the house
in which I lodged, (about two furlongs from
the bridge,) I could at night distinctly hear
the rushing of the water beneath the bridge;
whereas it is never audible at Bagdad, not
even to those who live on the brink, and op-
posite the floating bridge. Hence, 1 conceive
that the epithet "sluggish," when applied to
the majestic Euphrates, is improper.
Diodorus Siculus, who wrote about fifty
years before the birth of Christ, observes, that
the city was in ruins long before his time,
and that the spot was an object of interest
and inquiry. The following observations on
ancient Babylon are so minute and elaborate,
that they may not prove unacceptable.
"Semiramis, who was naturally of an as-
piring spirit, and ambitious to excel all her
predecessors in glorious actions, employed all
* In May 1828, I again crossed these rivers, and ascer-
tained their respective velocity. The Euphrates flowed past
Hillah at seven knots an hour, and the Tigris at five knots
and a half.


EXTENT OF THE WALLS. 123
her thoughts about the building of Babylon;
and having provided architects, artificers, and
all other necessaries for the undertaking, she em-
ployed two millions of men in building of the
city. It was so erected, as that the river Eu-
phrates ran through the middle of it, and sur-
rounded with a wall of three hundred and sixty
furlongs in circuit, and adorned with many
stately turrets; and such was the state and
grandeur 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 relates).
"But Clitarchus, and those who afterwards
went over with Alexander into Asia, have
written that the walls were three hundred 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 brick, cemented with
bitumen; in height, as Ctesias says, fifty or-
gyas, (each six feet,) but, as some of the later
authors report, but fifty cubits only, and that


124 ERECTION OF A BRIDGE.
the breadth was but a little more than what
would allow two chariots to be driven in front.
There were two hundred and fifty turrets; in
height and thickness, proportionable to the
largeness of the wall. It is not to be wonder-
ed at, that there were so few towers upon a
wall of so great a circuit, being that in many
places round the city, there were deep morasses,
so that it was judged to no purpose to raise tur-
rets there, where they were so naturally fortified.
Between the wall and the houses, there was a
space left round the city of two hundred feet.
"That the work might be the more speedily
despatched, to each of her friends was allotted a
furlong, with an allowance of all expenses neces-
sary for their several parts, and commanded all
should be finished in a year's time, which being
diligently perfected with the queen's approba-
tion, she then made a bridge over the narrowest
part of the river, five furlongs in length; on ei-
ther side of the river she raised a bank as broad
as the wall, and with great cost drew it out in
length an hundred furlongs. She built like-


PALACES. 125
"wise 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 the Euphrates runs through
the midst of Babylon, making its course to the
south, the palaces lie the one on the east, and
the other on the west side of the river, both
built at exceeding costs and expense. For that
on the west had a high and stately 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 were
burnt, all sorts of living creatures, as if it were
to the life, laid with great art in curious co-
lours. This wall was in circuit forty furlongs,
three hundred bricks thick, and in height (as
Ctesias says,) fifty orgyas, or one hundred yards,
upon which were turrets one hundred and forty
yards high.
"The third and most inward wall immedi-


126 PALACES.
ately surrounded the palace, thirty furlongs in
compass, and far surmounted the middle wall
both in height and thickness, and on this wall
and towers were represented the shapes of all
sorts of living creatures, artificially represented
in the most lively colours. To this palace like-
wise she built three gates, under which were
apartments of brass for entertainments, into
which passages were opened by a certain en-
gine.
"This palace far excelled that on the other
side of the river, both in greatness and adorn-
ments. For the outmost wall of that, (name-
ly on the west,) made of well-burnt brick,
was but thirty furlongs in compass. When the
river was turned aside into a reservoir, and a
vault built across its old bed, the stream was
suffered to flow over the work in its old chan-
nel, so that Semiramis could go from one pa-
lace to the other by this vault, without passing
over the river. She made, likewise, two brazen
gates, at either end of the vaults, which conti-
nued to the time of the Persian empire.
"In the middle of the city, she built a


TEMPLE TO JUPITER. 127
temple to Jupiter, whom the Babylonians call
Belus, of which, since writers differ among
themselves, and the work is now wholly decay-
ed through length of time, there is nothing
that can with certainty be related concerning
it; yet it is apparent that it was of exceed-
ing great height; and that, by the advantage
of it, the Chaldean astrologers exactly observed
the setting and rising of the stars. The whole
was built of brick cemented with bitumen,
with great art and cost. Upon the top were
placed three statues of beaten gold, of Jupiter,
Juno, and Rhea, with other splendid vessels,
tables, and ornaments of gold and precious
stones, weighing altogether about six thousand
Babylonish talents. But all these the Persian
kings sacrilegiously carried away, and length of
time has either altogether consumed or much de-
faced the palaces, and the other structures, so
that at this day but a small part of this Baby-
lon is inhabited, and the greatest part which
lay within the wall is turned into pasture and
tillage."*
* Diodorus Siculus, book ii. chapter 3.


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


CANALS. 129
the new, built by Nebuchadnezzar, was four
times as large. Two canals were made by Ne-
buchadnezzar a hundred miles above the city:
one on the eastern side of the Euphrates, called
Naharmalcha, or the royal river, by which the
Euphrates was let into the Tigris; the other
on the western side, called Pallacopas, by
which the redundant waters of the Euphrates
were carried into a vast lake forty miles square,
contrived not only to lessen the inundation,
but for a reservoir, with sluices, to water the
barren country on the Arabian side. There
were also prodigious banks of brick and bitu-
men carried a long way on each side of the
river, to keep it within its channel."—Dean
Prideaux's Connection of the Old and New Testa-
ment.
Babylon was a very great and a very an-
cient city, as well as Nineveh. It is indeed
generally reckoned less than Nineveh; for ac-
cording to Strabo, it was only 385 furlongs in
compass: but Herodotus, who was an older
author than any of them, represents it of the
K


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


OF THE CITY. 131
particularly repaired, enlarged, and beautified
it to such a degree, that he may in a manner
be said to have built it; as he boasted him-
self, (Daniel, chap. iv. v. 30.) "Is not this
great Babylon that I have built for the
house of the kingdom, by the might of my
power, and for the honour of my majesty ?"—
Nor is this asserted only in Scripture, but is
likewise attested by heathen authors—Megas-
thenes, Berosus, and Abydenus,—whose words
are quoted by Josephus and Eusebius. By
one means or other, Babylon became so great
and so famous a city, as to give name to a
very large empire; and it is called in Scripture
"great Babylon;" "the glory of kingdoms;"
"the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency;" the
"golden city ;" the "lady of kingdoms;" the
"praise of the whole earth:" and its beauty,
strength, and grandeur; its walls, temples, pa-
laces, and hanging gardens; the banks of the
river, and the artificial canals and lake, made
for the draining of that river in the seasons of
K 2


132 TAKEN BY CYRUS.
its overflowings, are described with such pomp
and magnificence by heathen authors, that it
might deservedly be reputed one of the won-
ders of the world. Its gates of brass, and its
broad walls, are particularly mentioned in Scrip-
ture: the city had a hundred gates, twenty-
five on each side, all made of solid brass: its
walls, according to Herodotus, were three hun-
dred and fifty feet in height, and eighty-seven
in thickness, and six chariots could go abreast
upon them, as Diodorus affirms after Ctesias.
The city was taken in the night of a great
annual festival, while the inhabitants were
dancing, drinking, and revelling; and, as Aris-
totle reports, it had been taken three days, be-
fore some parts of the city perceived it: but
Herodotus's account is more modest and pro-
bable; that the extreme parts of the city were
in the hands of the enemy, before they who
dwelt in the middle of it suspected any thing
of their danger. After this it never recovered
its ancient splendour; from an imperial, it be-
came a tributary city; from being governed


BESIEGED BY DARIUS. 133
by its own kings, and governing strangers, it
was in its turn governed by strangers; and
the seat of empire being transferred to Shu-
shan, it decayed by degrees, till it was reduced
at last to utter desolation.
Xenophon 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 up-
on them, appointed a strong garrison, and com-
pelled the Babylonians to defray the charge,
being desirous to keep them poor, as the best
means of keeping them obedient.
But, notwithstanding these precautions, they
rebelled against Darius, and, in order to hold
out to the last extremity, took all their wo-
men, and each man choosing one of them,
out of those of his own family whom he liked
best, they strangled the rest, that unnecessary
mouths might not consume their provisions.
They sustained the siege and all the efforts of
Darius for twenty months; and at length the
city was taken by stratagem.


134 HEIGHT OF THE WALLS.
As soon as Darius had made himself master
of the place, he ordered three thousand of the
principal men to be crucified, and thereby ful-
filled the prophecies of the cruelty which the
Medes and Persians would use towards the
Babylonians; he likewise demolished the wall,
and took away the gates, neither of which,
saith Herodotus, had Cyrus done before.* But
either Herodotus or Berosus must have been
mistaken; or we must suppose that the orders
of Cyrus were never carried into execution;
or we must understand Herodotus to speak of
the inner wall, as Berosus spoke of the outer:
and yet it does not seem very credible, when
the walls were of that prodigious height and
thickness, that there should be an inner and an
outer wall too, much less that there should
be three inner and three outer walls, as Berosus
affirms.
Herodotus computes the height of the wall
* Muros circumcidit, et portas omncs amolitus est; quo-
rum neutrum Cyrus jecerat prius eidem a se captae.—He-
rod, lib. 3. cap. p. 223.—Edit. Gale.


CIRCUIT OF THE CITY. 135
to be two hundred cubits, but later authors
reckon it much lower; Quintus Curtius at one
hundred; Strabo, who is a more exact writer, at
fifty cubits. Herodotus describes it as it was
originally; and we may conclude, therefore, that
Darius reduced it from two hundred to fifty
cubits.
Xerxes, after his return from his unfortunate
expedition into Greece, partly out of religious
zeal, being a professed enemy to image wor-
ship, and partly to reimburse himself after his
immense expenses, seized the sacred treasures,
and plundered or destroyed the temples and
idols of Babylon.—Such was the state of Baby-
lon under the Persians.
When Alexander came thither, though
Quintus Curtius says that the whole circuit of
the city was three hundred and sixty-eight fur-
longs, yet he affirms that only for the space of
ninety furlongs it was inhabited. The Eu-
phrates having been turned out of its course
by Cyrus, and never afterwards restored to
its former channel, all that side of the country


136 DECAY AND DESOLATION
was flooded by it. Alexander indeed purposed
to have made Babylon the seat of his empire, *
and actually set men at work to rebuild the
temple of Belus, and to repair the banks of the
river; but he met with some difficulties in the
work, and death soon after put an end to this
and all his other projects, and none of his suc-
cessors ever attempted it; and Seleucia being
built a few years afterwards in the neighbour-
hood, Babylon in a little time became wholly
desolate.
Seleucia not only robbed it of its inhabi-
tants, but even of its name, being called
also Babylon by several authors; qua? tamen
Babylonia cognominatur. (Plinii Nat. Hist.)
We learn further from a fragment of Diodorus
Siculus, which is produced by Valesius, and
quoted from him by Vitringa, that a king of
Parthia, or one of his peers, surpassing all the
famous tyrants in cruelty, omitted no sort of
* Arrian de Exped. Alex. lib. vii. cap. 17. Strabo, lib.
xvi. p. 738. Edit. Paris, p. 1073. Edit. Amstel. 1707.


CHAPTER VII.
Description of Babylon by Herodotus.—Its great extent.—
Principal structures.—The castellated palace.—Temple
and tower of Belus.—Tunnel made by Semiramis under
the Euphrates.—The Belidian and Cissian Gates.—Extra-
ordinary number of gates to the city.—Account of the
Tower of Belus.—Its elevation.—Chapels attached to it.—
Sepulchre of Belus.—Large statue.—Height of the tower,
its form, &c.—Conjectures respecting it.—Extensive ranges
of walls.—Supposed removal of ruins.—Concluding re-
marks on Babylon.
According to the description of this city
by Herodotus, it stood in a large plain: the
exterior of it was a square, surrounded by a
lofty wall; and it was divided into two equal
parts by the Euphrates, which passed through
it. In the centre of one of these divisions,
stood the temple and tower of Belus; in the





EXTENT OF THE CITY. 139
other, the spacious palace of the king. We
have already spoken of the extraordinary di-
mensions of the wall that surrounded Bahylon;
which are variously estimated at from 360 to
480 stades. The last of these numbers is (as
we have seen) from Herodotus, whose measures,
both of the enceinte and every other part, are
enormous and improbable, occasioned, as we
are ready to believe, by corruptions of the text.
As an instance of the latter, he is made to say,
that reeds were placed at every thirtieth course,
of brick work, in the Babylonian buildings;
but modern travellers find them at every sixth,
seventh, or eighth course, in Aggarkuf, appa-
rently a Babylonish building; and M. Beau-
champ discovered them at every course, in some
of the buildings in Babylon. We have therefore
disregarded his calculations on the present oc-
casion.
Even the dimensions given by Strabo are
beyond probability, as far as respects the height
of the walls, which he reckons at fifty cubits,
or seventy-five feet. The thickness, thirty-two


142
TEMPT.F. AND TOWER
first, is given by Diodorus; of the latter, by
Herodotus. They are both wonderful in their
kind: the first, for the extent of the ground
which it covered, and which is represented to
have been a square of near a mile and a half;
the other for its bulk and height, its base alone
being said to be a cubic stade, surmounted by
seven towers, which successively diminished
as they rose. More will be said concerning
this tower in the sequel; when it will ap-
pear, that there must either be an error in
the text of Herodotus in this place, or that
he had been grossly deceived in his infor-
mation.
Herodotus has not said in which of the divi-
sions of the city the temple and palace were re-
spectively situated; but it may be pretty clearly
collected from Diodorus, that the temple stood
on the east side, and the palace on the west;
and the remains found at the present day accord
with this idea. For, Diodorus describes the
great palace to be on the west side, the lesser
palace on the east; and there also was the


OF BELUS. 143
brazen statue of Belus. Now, he makes such
a distinction between the two palaces, as plainly
shows, that the one on the west was to be
regarded as the palace; and, consequently,
was the palace intended by those, who represent
a palace to answer on the one side, to the tem-
ple of Belus on the other. It is also to be
inferred from Herodotus, Clio, 181, that the
palace and the citadel were the same: he says,
"the royal palace fills a large and strongly
defended space," in the centre of one of the
divisions. Diodorus says, that the temple stood
in the centre of the city; Herodotus, in the
centre of that division of the city in which
it stood, as the palace in the centre of its
division.
The description of Diodorus is pointed, with
respect to the fact that the palace was near to
the bridge, and consequently to the river bank:
and he is borne out by the accounts of
Strabo and Curtius, both of whom represent
the hanging gardens to be very near the
river; and all agree that they were within,


144
TUNNEL UNDER
or adjacent to, the square of the fortified
palace*
They were supplied with water, drawn up
by engines from the Euphrates. Consequently,
the palace should have stood nearer to the
centre of the city itself, than to that of the
division in which it stood, since the division
was more than four miles broad; and it appears
natural enough that the princess should avail
herself of the prospect of a noble river, a sta-
dium in breadth, flowing near the palace, in-
stead of withdrawing two miles from it.f And
• Strabo, p. 738, says, that " the Euphrates flows through
the middle of the city; and the pensile gardens are adjacent
to the river, from whence they were watered."
f Diodorus has described a vaulted passage under the bed
of the Euphrates, by which the queen (Semiramis) could
pass from one palace to the other, on different sides of the
river, (which was a stadium in breadth, according to Strabo,
p. 738,) without crossing it. This serves at least to show,
that the palaces were very near to the river banks.
At a time when a tunnel, of more than half a mile in
length, under the Thames, is projected, it may not be amiss
to mention the reported dimensions of the tunnel made by
Semiramis. under the Euphrates; which, however, was no
more than 500 feet in length, or less than one-fifth of the


THE EUPHRATES.
145
it appears probable, that the temple was also
at no great distance from the opposite bank of
the river; that is, the eastern bank.*
A presumptive proof of the supposed posi-
tion of the temple, should the words of Diodo-
projected tunnel under the Thames. That of Semiramis is
said to have been fifteen feet in breadth and twelve in
height, to the springing of the arch; perhaps twenty in all.
The ends of the vault were shut up with brazen gates. Dio-
dorus had an idea that the Euphrates was five stadia in
breadth.—See lib. ii. c. i.
The Euphrates was turned out of its channel, in order to
effect this purpose. Herodotus, who is silent concerning the
tunnel, says, that the river was turned aside, in order to build
a bridge. Diodorus describes a bridge also. There is an
absurd story told by both these historians, respecting the
disposal of the water of the river, during the time of building
the bridge, &c. According to them, the water was received
into a vast reservoir, instead of the obvious and usual mode
of making a new channel, to conduct the river clear of the
work constructing in its bed into the old channel, at a point
lower down.
* Here it is proper to remark, that there is this specific
difference between the descriptions of Herodotus and Diodo-
rus: the first says, that the centres of the two divisions were
occupied, respectively, by the palace and temple; but Diodo-
rus, by two palaces; and although he speaks of the temple
also, yet he does not point out its situation. The square of
the temple itself was two stadia.
L


146
THE BELIDIAN AND
rus be regarded as ambiguous, is, that the gate
of the city, named Belidian, and which we must
conclude to be denominated from the temple,
appears pretty clearly to have been situated
on the east side. When Darius Hystaspes
besieged Babylon, (Thalia, 155, et seq.) the
Belidian and Cissian gates were opened to him
by Zopyrus; and the Babylonians fled for
refuge to the temple of Belus, as, we may
suppose, the nearest place of security. The
Cissian or Susian gate must surely have been
in the eastern front of the city, as Susa lay to
the east; and, by circumstances, the Belidian
gate was near it, as the plan was laid that
Persian troops were to be stationed opposite
to these gates; and it is probable that matters
would be so contrived, as to facilitate, as much
as possible, the junction of the two bodies of
Persian troops that were first to enter the city,
as a kind of forlorn hope.
It may also be remarked, that the gates at
which the feints were made, previous to the
opening of the Belidian and Cissian, were those


CISSIAN GATES.
147
of Ninus, Chaldea, and Semiramis. The first,
towards Ninus or Nineveh, must have been,
of course, to the north, and the Chaldean to the
south; and perhaps that of Semiramis to the
north-east, between the Belidian and Ninian, as
that of Cissia to the south-east, between the
Belidian and Chaldean. As it is unquestion-
able that the Ninian and Cissian gates were
in the eastern division of Babylon, since the
countries whence they are respectively deno-
minated lie to the east of the Euphrates, it
may be collected that the attack was confined
to that division alone, (and what army could
invest a fortress thirty-four miles in circuit?)
If this be admitted, the Belidian gate, and
temple of Belus, must have stood on the east
side of the Euphrates.*
* Herodotus says, that there were a hundred gates in the
circuit of the city, which being a space of thirty-four miles,
allows three gates to each mile. It is certain that in modern
fortresses, the communications with the country are not so
numerous, in proportion to their extent; nor, on the other
hand, are they so far asunder as to have only three in a front
of eight and a half miles. Probably the rest might have
been smaller portals, which were shut up during a siege.
L 2 It


148
ACCOUNT OF THE
Taking for granted, then, that the tower of
Belus stood in the eastern division of the city,
let us examine the accounts of it.
It appears that none of the Greeks who de-
scribe it, had seen it till after it had been either
ruined by Xerxes, or gone so far to decay, that
its original design was not apparent. Herodo-
tus himself, therefore, admitting that he view-
ed it, might not be a perfect judge of the de-
sign, or of the original height of the superstruc-
ture. This may account for his exaggerated
description; perhaps imposed on him, by some
of the citizens of Babylon, long after the upper
stories had fallen to ruin. The mass of rub-
It may indeed be concluded, that there were fewer gates
and communications with the country on the west, than
elsewhere; for it may be recollected, that Alexander wished
to enter the city by the west, (after his return from India,) in
order to avoid the evil foretold by the soothsayers; but was
compelled to give up the attempt, by reason of the marshes
and morasses on that side.—(See Arrian, lib. vii.)—We are
told also by Diodorus, lib. ii. chap. 1., that the number and
depth of the morasses round about Babylon, made a smaller
number of towers, in the nature of bastions, necessary for the
defence of the wall. There were only two hundred and fifty
of these, in the whole circuit of thirty-four miles.


TOWER OF BELUS. 149
bish, mentioned by Strabo, seems to prove
this.
All the descriptions are very brief; and
Strabo is the only one who pretends to give
the positive measure of the elevation of the
tower; though all agree in stating it to be very
great. The square of the temple, says Herodo-
tus, was two stadia (one thousand feet;) and the
the tower itself one stadium; in which Strabo
agrees. The former adds, "In the midst, a
tower rises, of the solid depth and height of
one stadium; upon which, resting as a base,
seven other turrets are built in regular succes-
sion. The ascent is on the outside, which,
winding from the ground, is continued to the
highest tower; and in the middle of the whole
structure, there is a convenient resting-place.
In the last tower is a large chapel, in which is
placed a couch, magnificently adorned; and
near it a table of solid gold, but there is no sta-
tue in the place." Clio, 181.—He afterwards
describes another chapel, lower down in the
structure, with golden statues, tables, and altars:


150 SEPULCHRE OF BELUS.
all of which appear to have been forcibly taken
away by Xerxes, who also put the priest to
death.
Strabo says, that the sepulchre of Belus was a
pyramid of one stadium in height, whose base
was a square of like dimensions; and that it
was ruined by Xerxes. Arrian agrees in this
particular; and both of them say, that Alexan-
der wished to restore it, that is, we may sup-
pose, both the tower and temple, but that he
found it too great a labour: for it is said that
ten thousand men were not able to remove the
rubbish, in the course of two months. Arrian
calls it a stupendous and magnificent fabric;
and says, that it was situated in the heart of
the city. Diodorus, lib. ii. chap. 1. says, that
it was entirely gone to ruin, in his time; so
that nothing certain could be made out, con-
cerning its design, but that it was of an ex-
ceeding great height, built of brick, and ce-
mented with bitumen; in which the others ge-
nerally agree.
Diodorus adds, that on the top was a statue


HEIGHT OF THE TOWEK. 151
of Belus, forty feet in height, in an upright
posture. It has been the practice to make the
statues placed on the tops of buildings, of such
a height as to appear of the natural size, when
viewed from below: and if this rule was fol-
lowed in Babylon, the tower must have been
of about the height of five hundred feet; for
the statue itself, in order to be viewed from a
convenient station, clear of the base, and ad-
mitting the retreats of the stories to be regular,
must have been from six hundred to six hun-
dred and fifty feet: and at that distance, a
statue of forty feet high would have appeared
nearly of the size of a man.
That it was exceeding lofty, may be conceiv-
ed by the mode of expression of those who de-
scribe it; and if it be admitted that the whole
fabric was a stadium in height, as Strabo says,
and as appears probable, even this measure,
which is about five hundred feet, must be al-
lowed to be a vast height for so bulky a struc-
ture raised by the hands of man; for it is about
twenty feet higher than the great pyramid of


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


154 REMOVAL OF KUINS.
There can be but little doubt, that the
base has been increased by the falling ruins;
although it may be supposed, that such parts
of them as consisted of burnt bricks have been
removed, as most of the other ruins of the
same kind have been, and as even the founda-
tions of the city walls, and of other structures
in Babylon, continue to be to this day; and
that for the purpose of building houses in other
places. At all events, the base of the ruin
must far exceed that of the original fabric:
and by the way, we may conclude, that, if
the Greeks found the tower of Belus, when in
such a state, as that the dimensions of its base
could be ascertained—a stadium in length and
breadth—the standard of the stadium must have
been nearer 500 than 600 feet.
Indeed it can hardly be supposed, even
when the furnace-baked bricks of the ruin
were removed, that the remaining matter
would form a mass of less than 600 feet on
each side; supposing it to have been 500 ori-
ginally. It may be inferred, that the upper-


LAHGJE TREES. 155
most stories consisted more of masonry than
earth; but the lower, chiefly of earth, which
was retained in its place, by a vast wall of sun-
dried bricks; the outer part, or facing of
which, was composed of such as had under-
gone the operation of fire. Strabo says, that
the sides of the tower were of burnt bricks.
The hanging gardens, (as they are called,)
which occupied an area of about three acres and
a half, had trees of a considerable size growing
in them: and it is not improbable that they
were of a species different from those of the
natural growth of the alluvial soil of Baby-
lonia. Curtius says, that some of them were
eight cubits in girth; and Strabo, that there
was a contrivance to prevent the large roots
from destroying the superstructure, by build-
ing vast hollow piers, which were filled with
earth to receive them.
It may reasonably be concluded, that very
great changes have taken place in the course
of the river, since the date of the descriptions
of Babylon, by the early Greek authors.


156 EXTENSIVE WALLS.
No doubt the temple of Belus was farther
from the river at that time, than accord with
the descriptions of the moderns (taking the
mount of ruins, Mujellibah, for the tower); so
that the river ran more to the west.
M. D'Anville informs us, in his Euphrates
and Tigris, pages 116, 117, that he had seen a
MS. relation of the travels of the missionary,
Pere Emanuel de St. Albert, which the author
had communicated to M. Bellet, at Constan-
tinople; and which the latter had sent to
D'Anville's great patron, the Duke of Orleans.
In it, the author says, "that he had seen in
the western quarter of Babylon (the other
quarter he did not visit,) extensive ranges of
walls, partly standing, partly fallen, and of so
solid a construction, that it was scarcely pos-
sible to detach the bricks from them. The
Jews, settled in those parts, call these remains
the prison of Nebuchadnezzar." M. Niebuhr
visited a ruin on the west side of the Eu-
phrates; but from the brevity of Pere Ema-
nuel's description, we cannot determine, abso-


MATERIALS OF THE WALLS. 157
lutely, whether the ruins seen by these two
gentlemen were one and the same, but we
should certainly conclude the contrary: for what
Niebuhr saw, was, in his idea, rather a vast
heap of bricks than a structure; having above,
or rising out of it, a tower of furnace-baked
brick of great thickness. Nothing is said con-
cerning the nature of the cement; nor any
reeds mentioned, either by Pere Emanuel, or
M. Niebuhr.
As we do not hear of any remains of the
superstructure of the walls of Babylon, at this
time, it may be concluded that the materials of
them have been generally removed, to build
other places. But this was not done in very
early times; for although the city declined
soon after the foundation of Seleucia, and was
deserted in the time of Pliny, yet it appears
that the city walls, as well as the tower of
Belus, remained, although not entire. We
learn both from Niebuhr and Beauchamp, that
the foundations of buildings, and apparently of
the walls of the city, also, continue to be dug


158 CONCLUDING REMARKS
up, and transported to other places, for the
purposes of building. The bricks are to be
traced amongst the buildings of Bagdad and
other cities; as we find Roman bricks in and
about those towns that were formerly Roman
stations in this Island.
Those who have made it their business to ex-
amine and inquire into such matters, have al-
ways found that the materials of ancient cities
have been employed in the building of new
ones, in cases where new foundations have
been established in the same neighbourhood;
and when such materials could conveniently
be transported by inland navigation, they are
found at very great distances from their ancient
situation: much farther, indeed, than Eagdad
or Seleucia are from Babylon. In effect, the
remains of ancient cities throughout the world,
are those only, which are either too firmly
cemented to be worth the labour of separating;
too far distant from a convenient situation, to
be worth the expense of transportation; or
which, from their nature, are not applicable to


160 CONCLUDING REMARKS.
Belus, (which was said to stand in the centre of
one of the divisions,) at three and a half British
miles to the N.N.W. of Hillah *
* See RennelPs Geography of Herodotus, section xiv.—
A learned and invaluable work, to whose pages all will be
delighted to recur.


CHAPTER VIII.
Departure for Babylon.—El Mujellibah.—Curious tradition.
—Description of this Ruin.—Mode of Brick-making.—Ex-
cavations.—Superstition of the Natives.—Prophecies of
Jeremiah.—Village of Elugo.—Remarkable Niche.—Dis-
coveries of Mr. Rich.—Large earthen Sarcophagus.—Gran-
deur of the Ruins.—Extensive embankment.—Lofty ellip-
tical Mound Al Kasr, or the Palace.—Numerous Ravines.
—Square piers, or buttresses.—Inscriptions.—Supposed
site of the Pensile Gardens.—Granite Slab.—The Pensiles
Horti.
November 30th.—At daylight I departed
for the ruins, with a mind absorbed by the
objects which I had seen' yesterday.* An
hour's walk, indulged in intense reflection,
brought me to the grandest and most gigantic
Northern mass, on the eastern bank of the Eu-
* See Appendix, Q
M


162 EL MUJELLIBAH.
plirates, and distant about four miles and a
half from the eastern suburb of Hillah. It is
called by the natives, El Mujellibah, "the
overturned:" also Haroot and Maroot, from
a tradition handed down, with little deviation,
from time immemorial, that near the foot of
the ruin there is a well invisible to mortals, in
which those rebellious angels were condemned
by God to be hung with their heels upwards,
until the day of judgment, as a punishment
for their wickedness.*
This solid mound, which I consider from its
situation and magnitude to be the remains
of the Tower of Babel, an opinion likewise
adopted by that venerable and highly distin-
guished geographer Major Rennell, is a vast
oblong square, composed of kiln-burnt and
sun-dried bricks, rising irregularly to the
height of one hundred and thirty-nine feet, at
the south-west; whence it slopes towards the
north-east to a depth of a hundred and ten
* See D'Herbelot, and Appendix, page 257.





■








CURIOUS TRADITION.
163
feet. Its sides face the four cardinal points:
I measured them carefully; and the following
is the full extent of each face. That to the
north, along the visible face, is 274 yards; to
the south, 256 yards ; to the east, 226 yards;
and to the west, 240 yards* The summit is
an uneven flat strewed with broken and un-
broken bricks, the perfect ones measuring
thirteen inches square, by three thick. Many
• Pliny, in describing Mesopotamia, says," Babylon Chal-
daiarum gentium caput diu summam claritatem obtinuit in
toto orbe, propter quam reliqua pars Mesopotamia Assy-
riaeque Babylonia appellata est, sexaginta millia passuum
amplexa, muris ducenos pedes altis, quinquagenos latis, in
singulos pedes ternis digitis mensura ampliore quam nostra,
interfluo Euphrate, mirabili opere utroque. Durat adhuc
ibi Jovis Beli templum. Inventor hie fuit sideralis scientiae.
Cetero ad solitudinem rediit, exhausta vicinitate Seleucise,
ob id conditse a Nicatore intra nonagesimum lapidem, in
confluente Euphratis fossa perducti, atque Tigris; quae tamen
Babylonia cognominatur, libera hodie ac sui juris, Macedo.
numque moris. Ferunt ei plebis urbanse DC. M. esse: situm
vero moenium, aquilae pandentis alas; agrum totius Orientis
fertilissimum. Invicem ad hanc exhauriendam, Ctesiphon-
tem juxta tertium ab ea lapidem in Chalonitide condidere
Parthi, quod nunc caput est regnorum. Et postquam nihil
proficiebatur, nuper Vologesus rex aliud oppidum Vologeso
—certain in vicino condidit."
M 2


164 MODE OF BRICK-MAKING.
exhibited the arrow-headed character, which
appeared remarkably fresh. Pottery, bitumen,
vitrified and petrified brick, shells and glass,
were all equally abundant. The principal ma-
terials composing this ruin are doubtless mud
bricks baked in the sun, and mixed up with
straw. Many of the ancient ruined cities of
Persia are likewise described as being built of
unburnt . bricks beaten up with straw or rush,
perhaps to make the ingredient adhere, and
then baked in the sun * This mode of making
bricks is of the greatest antiquity; for even in
the days of the Egyptian bondage, I apprehend
it to be alluded to, when Pharaoh commanded
the taskmasters of the people and their officers,
saying, "Ye shall no more give the people
straw to make brick, as heretofore; let them
go and gather straw for themselves."—Exodus,
chap. v. ver. 7.
It is not difficult to trace brickwork along
each front, particularly at the south-west angle,
* Vide Morier's Second Journey through Persia, cap. xiii.
page 207.


EXCAVATIONS. 165
which is faced by a wall, composed partly of
kiln-burnt brick, that in shape exactly re-
sembles a watch tower or small turret.* On
its summit there are still considerable traces of
erect building: at the western end is a circular

South face of the Mnjtllibah. , .
* Pietro Delia Valle, a Roman traveller, visited Babylon
in 1616. He says, when speaking of this ruin, " Its situa-
tion and form correspond with that pyramid which Strabo
calls the Tower of Belus."—" It is built with large and thick
bricks, as I carefully observed, having caused excavations to
be made in several places for that purpose; but they do not
appear to have been burned, but dried in the sun, which is
extremely hot in those parts. These sun-baked bricks, in


166
RUINS DESCRIBED.
mass of solid brickwork, sloping towards the
top and rising from a confused heap of rubbish.
The chief material forming this fabric appeared
similar to that composing the ruin called Aker-
kouff— a mixture of chopped straw, with slime
used as cement ;* and regular layers of un-
broken reeds between the horizontal courses
of the bricks. The base is greatly injured by
time, and the elements; particularly to the
south-east, where it is cloven into a deep fur-
row from top to bottom.
whose substance were mixed bruised reeds and straw, and
which were laid in clay mortar, compose the great mass
of the building; but other bricks were also perceived at
certain intervals, especially where the strongest buttresses
stood, of the same size, but burned in a kiln, and set in good
lime and bitumen."—Vide Pietro Delia Valle's Travels,
vol. ii. let 17.
* " And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for
mortar." Genesis, chap. i. v. 4.—The cement, here men-
tioned by the name of slime, was probably what the ancients
called asphaltus, or bitumen; Assyria abounds with it. He-
rodotus, and many ancient authors affirm, that the walls of
Babylon were cemented with it. Arrian says, "The temple
of Belus, in the midst of the city of Babylon, was made of
brick, cemented with asphaltus."


PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH. 167
The sides of the ruin exhibit hollows worn
partly by the weather, but more generally
formed by the Arabs, who are incessantly
digging for bricks, and hunting for antiqui-
ties. Several of these excavations I entered,
and have no reason to suppose that they are
inhabited by such ferocious animals as the
generality of travellers assert. There certainly
was an offensive smell, and the caves were
strewed with bones of sheep and goats, de-
voured most probably by the jackals that re-
sort thither in great numbers; and thousands
of bats and owls have filled many of these
cavities *.
The natives are very reluctant to follow the
visitor into these dens, and dislike remaining
* "Because of the wrath of the Lord, it shall not be in-
habited, but it shall be wholly desolate; every one that
goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her
plagues. How is Babylon become a desolation among the
nations! The wild beasts of the desert, with the wild beasts
of the islands, shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell
therein; and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither
shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. As God


168 PROPHECIES OF JEBEMIAH.
near the ruins after sunset, rather from the
fear of demons and evil spirits, than from any
attack of lions or other wild beasts. Indeed,
by their account, there are not half a dozen
lions within thirty miles round Babel; though,
about sixty miles below Hillah, on the banks
of the river, in a considerable patch of brush-
wood, those animals are very numerous. It
appears, that the only risk attendant on enter-
ing the recesses in all the mounds, is the lia-
bility of being stung by venomous reptiles,
which are very numerous throughout the ruins.
This circumstance is an apt illustration of the
prophecies of Jeremiah. "And Babylon shall
become heaps, a dwelling-place for dragons,
an astonishment, and an hissing, without an
inhabitant."—Jeremiah, chap. li. ver. 37.
Rauwolff, a German traveller, passed these
ruins in 1574. He speaks of a village which
overthrew. Sodom and Gomorrah, and the neighbour cities
thereof,. saith the Lord; so shall no man abide there, nei-
ther shall any son of man dwell therein."—Jeremiah, chap. 1.
ver. 13. 23. 39, 40.


VILLAGE OF ELUGO. 169
he named Elugo, occupying a part of Babylon.
This village, I imagine, may have been the town
of Nil, marked down in my plan of the ruins.
I shall here quote a part of his description; it
is as follows:—" The village of Elugo now
lieth on the place where formerly old Babylon,
the metropolis of Chaldaea, was situated. The
harbour is a quarter of a league's distance from
it, where people go ashore in order to proceed
by land to the celebrated city of Bagdad, which
is a day and a half's journey from thence east-
ward on the Tigris.
"Just below the village of Elugo is the hill
whereon the castle stood, and the ruins of its
fortifications are still visible, though demolished
and uninhabited. Behind it, and pretty near
to it, did stand the Tower of Babylon. It is
still to be seen, and is half a league in dia-
meter; but so ruinous, so low, and so full of
venomous creatures, which lodge in holes made
by them in the rubbish, that no one durstj
approach nearer to it than within half a
league, except during two months in the


170 MR. rich's discoveries.
winter, when these animals never stir out of
their holes."
In the north-west face of this huge mound
is a niche six feet high, by three deep; it is
particularly noticed by Mr. Rich, in his me-
moir on Babylon; this recess is very clearly
discernible to the distance of full two miles on
approaching the ruin from the north; and it
being near the summit renders it a conspi-
cuous spot. The natives call this the ser-
daub, signifying a cellar, or vaulted cham-
ber: this aperture is well worthy the most
minute examination, from its being a place
of sepulture.
Rich here discovered a wooden coffin, con-
taining a skeleton in high preservation. Under
the head of this coffin was a round pebble, at-
tached to the coffin; on the outside was a
brass bird, and inside an ornament of the same
material, which had been suspended to some
part of the skeleton. This places the antiquity
of these remains beyond all dispute; and Rich
adds, that the skeleton of a child was also found.


LARGE EARTHEN SARCOPHAGUS. 171
These circumstances caused me to exert my ut-
most attention; and as far as my means went,
I set men to work at a distance of twenty yards
eastward of the niche.
After four hours' digging perpendicularly
from the summit, they discovered six beams
of date-tree wood running apparently into the
centre of the mound. In half an hour after, I
pulled out a large earthen sarcophagus nearly
perfect, lined with bitumen, and filled with
human bones; but on attempting to remove it,
the vessel broke in pieces. This sarcophagus
was larger and broader than any I had ever
seen, being upwards of five feet in length, by
three and a half in diameter. On the slightest
possible touch the bones became a white pow-
der, and the pieces of date-wood could scarcely
withstand the same gentle handling without
being converted into dust. From digging in
an easterly direction, every five or six yards,
I verified Mr. Rich's conjecture, that the
passage filled with earthen urns extends all
along the northern front of the pile; though I


EXTENSIVE EMBANKMENTS. 173
tion of Heaven.* It stands alone: the solitary
habitation of the goat-herd marks not the for-
saken site; a projecting embankment sur-
rounds it on the north-eastern and north-
western sides; two small canals enclose the
western line, whence the Euphrates is distant
a little more than half a mile.
* Babylon never recovered its ancient splendour after it
was taken by Cyrus, but, upon the removal of the seat of
empire from thence by the Persians, it by degrees decayed,
till it was at last reduced to an utter solitude. Berosus, in
Josephus, says, that Cyrus ordered the outer walls to be
pulled down; the Persian kings ever regarded Babylon with
ajealous eye.
Darius Hystaspes, upon a revolt, greatly depopulated the
place, lowered the walls, and demolished the gates; Xerxes
destroyed the temples: the building of Seleucia on the
Tigris exhausted Babylon by its neighbourhood, as well as
by the immediate loss of inhabitants taken away by Seleucus
to people his new city; a king of the Parthians soon after
carried away into slavery a great number, and destroyed the
most beautiful parts of the city.
In more modern times, St. Jerome (who lived in the fourth
century) mentions Babylon as nothing more than a chase
for wild beasts to feed and breed there, for the King of
Persia's hunting. The place thereabouts is represented as
being overrun with serpents, scorpions, and all sorts of veno-
mous and unclean creatures.—Bishop Newton on the Prophecies.


174 SITUATION OF A LOFTY
The embankment, which is of great height
and breadth, is strewed with vestiges of old
building, and embraces a most extensive area;
commencing from the north-west of the Mu-
jellibah, passing before its northern and eastern
faces; and running due south for a quarter of
a mile, where it is crossed by the Nil canal.*
It then takes a direction S. 45° E. for two
miles, when there is a gap of 305 feet, which
forms an angle towards the east: on its
southern side the ruined rampart begins again,
and runs south-west for a mile and a half, join-
ing a group of low mounds to the south of
Amran hill, till it is concealed from view by
a date grove extending to the river's bank.
The whole forms two sides of a triangle,
with its apex opened to the space already
mentioned.
Not far from the centre of this great area,
formed by the rampart or embankment now
traced, stands a lofty elliptical mound, which I
suppose to be the remains of the lesser palace.
* See Appendix, R.


ELLIPTICAL MOUND.
175
It extends 325 yards in length, 125 in breadth,
and 60 feet in height, and is composed of frag-
ments of bright and red burnt brick; and the
Babylonian writing, instead of being on the
smooth surface of the brick, appears along its
edge from three to eight lines; consequently the
characters are smaller than the more abundant
writing, and are altogether executed with great
taste and delicacy. These bricks are very rare,
and of great value; which will appear evident
when I state that it is almost impossible to pro-
cure a perfect specimen from the exhausted
state of the ruin.
From this red coloured mass, the Mujellibah
bears N. 20° W. Hillah, S. 10° W. and the
Birs Nemroud, S. 30° W. This mound rises
to the west of an unequal and inferior range of
hillocks, and joins another ridge branching off
to the southward for the distance of a mile,
and something less than half that breadth*
* As all ancient authors agree in placing the Tower or
Temple of Belus " in the midst of the city," I leave the reader
to judge, whether even this conical mound has not greater
claims to an identity with the Tower of Babel, than the one


176 AL KASU.
This cluster of hills is of the same height as
another range extending along the eastern front
of the Kasr, and running due north for one
mile; at the same time occupying nearly the
whole of the ground from the north face of
the Kasr to the river's bank.
Adjoining these heaps, a little to the south-
ward, stands an enormous pile, which the natives
have distinguished by the name of Al Kasr, or
"The Palace," and which, next to the Mujel-
libah, is the most attractive and conspicuous
object on this side of the river, rearing its rugged
head seventy feet above the level of the plain;
I feel confident that here lie the debris of the
great Western palace, for the ground on the
eastern face of this ruin is low, soft, and indent-
ed, as if the river had wandered from its origi-
nal course. Its form is very irregular; its length
is 820 yards, and its breadth 610. It is deeply
furrowed throughout by ravines of great length,
depth, and width; and crossing each other in
designated Birs Nemroud, which I shall presently describe,
and which is almost universally considered to be the ruins of
that once magnificent structure.



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NUMEROUS RAVINES. 177
every direction. Some are full sixty feet deep,
which may be principally attributed to the
Arabs, who were constantly at work to obtain
the valuable bricks, which, from the vicinity of
the river, are with little trouble and expense
conveyed to Hillah, or any towns north or
south.
In some of these artificial ravines, fragments
of detached wall are still standing, composed of
burnt bricks cemented together with bitumen,
with their faces, or inscribed parts, placed
downwards.
The freshness of the inscriptions, on extract-
ing many of these bricks, was amazing. In
the fragments of building on the summit of
the mound, neither bitumen nor reeds can be
traced, there being but a simple layer of mortar
to bind the materials together.
The very heart of this pile appears to be en-
tirely of the finest furnace-baked brick; a fact
which strikingly distinguishes it from the Mu-
jellibah, where the sun-dried material is pre-
dominant. On the top of this ruin, which is
N


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

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


INSCRIPTIONS. 179
yellow, and several of these masses appear to
lean from their centre, perhaps from some con-
vulsion of nature.
The cuneiform, or Babylonian inscriptions,
are very plainly discernible, after minute exa-
mination, on those bricks that project beyond
the line of their original position. The ob-
server must kneel down and look upwards;
for it is to be remembered, that the inscribed
part of every single brick is placed downwards;
evidently showing that the writing thereon was
never intended to be seen or read; which is an
extraordinary circumstance, and not easily ac-
counted for.
It is astonishing that the thinnest layer of
cement imaginable should hold the courses of
brickwork so firmly and securely together.
The natives appear to have entirely discon-
tinued their work of havoc here, from the total
impossibility of extracting a perfect brick.
There are very conspicuous fragments of de-
tached Wall along the western, and a part of the
northern face of the Kasr, which (as this part
N 2


184
CURIOUS TEEE
the greatest antiquity, and has been a superb
tree ; perhaps a scion of the monarch of the hang-
ing gardens. Its present height is only twenty-
it; and if it is described in the thirteenth edition of his
Systema Natures, in which the author had no hand, it is be-
cause Gmelin, the editor, has availed himself of the indica-
tion given of it by Forskal.
This atle, which is different from the common tamarisk
(Tamarix Gallica, L.) by its size, as well as its specific cha-
racters, upon which I shall quote a traveller perfectly versed
in the science of botany, (Differt a Tamar. Gallica, cujus rami
squamati, squamis alternis, sessilibvs lanceolatis; ramuli breves,
imbricati: foliis lanceolatis confectis. Forskal,) attains the
height and thickness of the oak. Its leaves are alternate,
long, very narrow, and of a pale green. I will not dwell up-
on its description, having had a drawing made of the trunk
and a branch of one of these trees. I regret, that at the
time this drawing was made, there were neither flowers nor
fruit upon the specimen which the artist had to pourtray.
These trees are, in general, covered with galnuts, adher-
ing to the branches. I have observed that, before they were
dried, these galls were filled with a liquor of a very beautiful
deep scarlet, from which the arts may perhaps be able to
derive considerable benefit; for the galls are exceedingly
numerous, and the trees that bear them grow all over both
Upper and Lower Egypt. I dwell the more upon this re-
mark, because I have read in a manuscript catalogue of
plants, which was in the possession of a companion of M.
Tott, that the atle is a species of the tamarisk which grows in
Upper Egypt, towards Sahil. Now, there is scarcely a single


CALLED ATHLEH.
185
three feet; its trunk has heen of great circum-
ference: though now rugged and rifled, it still
stands proudly up; and, although nearly worn
away, has still sufficient strength to hear the
burthen of its evergreen branches, which stretch
out their arms in the stern grandeur of decaying
greatness. The fluttering and rustling sound
produced by the wind sweeping through its
delicate branches, has an indescribably melan-
choly effect; and seems as if it were entreating
the traveller to remain, and unite in mourning
over fallen grandeur.
I scarcely dared ask, why, when standing
beneath this precious relic of the past, and
prophet of the future, I had nearly lost the
power of forcing myself from the spot?
"I turned from all it brought, to those it could not bring."
village in Lower Egypt, which, among the trees that sur-
round it, has not several atles. The wood of this tree serves
for various purposes; amongst others, for charcoal. It is
the only wood that is common in Egypt, either for fuel or
for manufacturing; indeed, it is a common proverb among
the inhabitants, that "were the atU to fail, the world would
go ill."—Vide Sonnini's Travels in Egyyt, pp. 247, 248. 4to.


186 STATUE OF A LION.
Proceeding two hundred and four feet east
of the old tree, and on an uneven spot of
ground, surrounded by vestiges of buildings,
is to be seen, lying on its right side, a lion; be-
neath him is a prostrate man, extended on a
pedestal, which measures nine feet in length,-
by three in width. The whole is from a block
of stone of the ingredient and texture of granite,
the scale colossal, and the sculpture in a very
barbarous style; much inferior to the Persepo-
litan specimens of this art* The head of the
lion has been knocked off by the violence of
some modern Vandal. When Mr. Rich visited
Babylon, this statue was in a perfect state.
In his interesting investigations, he remarks
of the lion, that "in the mouth was a circu-
lar aperture, into which a man might introduce
his fist."
From its vicinity to the river, (within five
» The Hon. Major Keppel has inaccurately stated this
colossal piece of sculpture to be in black marble.—See his
Travels in Assyria.


IMMENSE RUINS. 187
hundred yards,) little toil and expense would
enable the antiquary to remove it from the
mutilation of barbarians; and boats are pro-
curable at Hillah, which would convey it to
Bussorah. I trust I shall be believed when I
state, that the want of funds was the only rea-
son that prevented my transporting this valu-
able relic of antiquity to India; where no
great expense would attend its embarkation
for England.
Beauchamp, in speaking of this ruin, says,
"On this side of the river are those im-
mense ruins which have served, and still serve,
for the building of Hillah, an Arabian city,
containing ten or twelve thousands souls.
Here are found those large and thick bricks,
imprinted with unknown characters, specimens
of which I have presented to the Abbe Bar-
thelemy. This heap, and the Mount of Babel,
are commonly called by the Arabs, Maklou-
bah, that is to say, turned topsy-turvy. I was
informed by the master-mason employed to


188 SQUARE PILASTER.
dig for bricks, that the places from which he
procured them were large thick walls, and
sometimes chambers. He has frequently found
earthen vessels, engraved marbles, and, about
eight years ago, a statue as large as life, which
he threw among the rubbish. On one wall of
a chamber he found the figures of a cow, and
of the sun and moon, formed of varnished
bricks. Sometimes idols of clay are found, re-
presenting human figures." Vide Beauchamp's
authority, quoted by Major Rennell in his invalua-
ble Illustrations of the Geography of Herodotus.
Eighty yards to the west of the fallen statue,
a vast quantity of perfect building is observable
in detached fragments of architectural labour;
and some pieces of square pillars or columns
cover the surface of this elevated terrace. The
whole is of the finest furnace brick. On a high
spot, about fifty-five feet above the level of the
plain, I distinctly traced a large square pilaster
rising out of a conical mound. The bricks
which composed it measured thirteen inches


BABYLONIAN WRITING. 189
square, by three thick, and were joined toge-
ther with an almost imperceptible layer of
cement. .
I employed thirty men to clear away the
rubbish, and we dug down along its western
face to a depth of twenty feet, when we ar-
rived at the bricks, where bitumen alone was
found to be the binding material. Here I had
no trouble of extracting them with an iron in-
strument something like a pick-axe. The ar-
row-headed or cuneiform writing was stamped
on all, but differed as to the number of lines.
They varied from three to ten lines; the first
number was the commonest, or most abundant,
and the latter the most rare.
The writing was more deeply engraven on
these bricks than on any others I had met with.
I found one with the Babylonian writing both
on its face and edge, but unfortunately it was
broken. I regard it as a unique specimen;
never having seen or heard of another like it.
I discovered also an ornamental flat fragment


190 ART OF ENAMELLING.
of calcareous sand-stone, glazed with brown
enamel on the superior surface, and bearing the
raised figure in good relief represented in the
accompanying woodcut.

Fragment found at Babylon.
This proves that the Babylonians had per-
fectly acquired the art of enamelling. Diodorus
Siculus informs us, that among the great va-
riety of painting represented upon the walls of
the palace, Semiramis was seen on horseback,
piercing with her dart a panther; and her hus-
band Ninus, in the act of fixing to the earth


BRICKED PLATFORM.
191
with his spear a savage lion* M. Beauchamp
found several varnished bricks, on one of which
was the figure of a lion, and on another the
sun and moon. He likewise saw imperfectly
the colossal lion already noticed.
Upon clearing away a space of twelve feet
square at the base of the pilaster, I laid open a
bricked platform beautifully fastened together
with bitumen, each brick measuring nineteen
inches and three quarters square, by three and a
half thick, with the written characters along
the edge, instead of being in an upright column
on the face. I will venture to assert, that
these bricks are the largest hitherto found;
as all former visitors and writers on this ve-
nerable place agree in saying, that the largest
bricks measure only fourteen inches square. I
• Diod. Sic. lib. ii. p. 97. The prophet Ezekiel, in de-
nouncing the vengeance of Heaven upon Judah, says, " She
saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans
pourtrayed with vermilion, girded with girdles upon their
loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them
princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of
Chaldea."—Ezekiel xxiii. ver. 14, 15.


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


VILLAGE OF JERBOUEYAH. 193
and Kufic dynasties, in the best state of pre-
servation.
The cylinders are of haematite, cornelian,
opal, jasper, agate, chalcedony, sardonyx, cry-
stal, and bone, and are generally found by the
Khezail Arabs among a considerable group
of mounds, called Boursa,* about ten miles
to the south of Hillah, close to a village termed
by them Jerboueyah.
My friend John Robert Steuart, Esq. pos-
sesses a very extensive and valuable collection
of these antiquities, and has devoted much
time to the study of these hieroglyphics. He
imagines that the figures carved upon the lon-
gitudinally-perforated cylinders, denote imita-
tions of groups which were represented upon
the walls of the Temple of Belus, or of the
various deities worshipped by the Babylonians;
and likewise sacrifices to them. Mr. Landseer
has published an interesting work, entitled
"Sabasan Researches," in which he discusses
* See Note on Babylon, page 255.
O


194 THE KHEZAIL TRIBE.
the objects of these representations at great
length, referring them to planetary and astro-
nomical combinations, or calculations of na-
tivities, &c.
The powerful and warlike Khezail tribe in-
habit the banks as far as the large village of
Semavah, on the Euphrates, where the women
are proverbial throughout the country for
beauty of feature, and perfect symmetry of
form. The highly interesting spot where I
laid open the platform, is one thousand two
hundred and fifty feet from the bank of the
river; a little to the north, and upon the bank,
is an enclosure of date-trees, and among them
some attempts at cultivation, of a parched
and sickly appearance.
The stream continues in view meandering
for a considerable distance, surrounded by ob-
jects well calculated to heighten the solemn
impression of the scene of the principal ruins.
Here, along the banks, are several osiers, per-
haps the very willows upon which the daugh-


BANKS OF THE RIVER. 195
ters of Israel hung their harps and wept: "By
the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea,
we wept, when we remembered Zion: we
hanged our harps upon the willows in the
midst thereof." Psalm cxxxvii. ver. 1,2. This
is the woful lamentation of one of the Jewish
captives of Babylon, either at the time of their
captivity, or at their return from it. It con-
tains a mournful reflection on their banishment
from their native country, combined with the
insolent behaviour of their enemies; and fore-
tels the future destruction which awaited the
city of Babylon and its devoted inhabitants.
As I strolled along the banks of the river,
the exquisitely beautiful and sweetly-pathetic
stanzas of Lord Byron, in his Hebrew Melo-
dies, on this very subject, forced themselves
on my attention—
"We sat down and wept by the waters
Of Babel."
Before I quitted these ruins, I continued
along the bank for half a mile, when I came to
o 2


M. RAUWOLFF. 197
alluded to. He says:—" This country is so dry
and barren, that it cannot be tilled; and so
bare, that I should have much doubted whe-
ther this potent and powerful city (which once
was the most stately and famous one of the
world, situated in the pleasant and fruitful
country of Sinar,) did stand there, if I should
not have known it by its situation, and several
ancient and delicate antiquities that still are
standing hereabouts in great desolation. First,
by the old bridge, which was laid over the
Euphrates, (which also is called Sud by the
prophet Baruch in his first chapter,) whereof
there are some pieces and arches still remain-
ing, and to be seen at this very day, a little
above where we landed. These arches are built
of burnt brick, and so strong, that it is admi-
rable, and that so much the more, because all
along the river as we came from Bir, where
the river is a great deal smaller, we saw never
a bridge; wherefore I say it is admirable which
way they could build a bridge here, where the
river is at least half a league broad, and very


198
POLISHED VASES.
deep besides."—pp. 137, 138. A correct idea
of the bank filled with urns, and of Amran
hill behind it, may be formed on reference to
the accompanying engraving.
Vast quantities of various-coloured tile and
brick were here lying upon the bed of the
river, which appears to be gradually encroach-
ing, the bank being perpendicular, and greatly
injured by the action of the water. I extracted
large portions of highly-polished vases from
this bank, to all of which adhered human
bones, which on attempting to separate from
the urn, became immediately pulverised.
From the south-western face of the palace,
or Kasr, a long mound ninety yards in breadth
by half that height runs north and south; to
the north-west angle of Amran hill, so called
by Mr. Rich. The superficies of the interven-
ing ground is covered with long reeds,* and the
* The reeds we now see growing in many parts of the
ruins, are particularly noticed in Scripture; indeed, they are
said to have been so high, together with the mud on which
they stood, as to have formed, as it were, another wall round
the city.











"V


EXTENSIVE MOUND. 199
soil is peculiarly damp, as if it had been over-
flowed, here and there exhibiting a very swampy
and nitrous appearance. In fact, here are very evi-
dent traces of the Euphrates having altered its
course; and if we admit this, the breadth of the
river (from the appearance of its ancient bed) was
160 yards. Major Rennell is unquestionably
correct in pronouncing this "the deserted bed
of the river Euphrates." It is indeed surprising
that the idea did not immediately occur to Mr.
Rich. The great mass of this latter heap oc-
cupies more ground than the Kasr, and has
evidently formed an immense range of build-
ing; it would be rather more elevated, were
the standing pilasters on the palace removed.
It forms a triangle: its northern front extends
860 yards ; its southern, 1420.
The whole is deeply furrowed in the same
manner as the generality of the mounds. The
ground is extremely soft and tiresome to walk
over, and appears completely exhausted of all its
building materials; nothing now is left save one
towering hill, the earth of which is mixed with


200 TOMB OF AMRAN.
fragments of broken brick, red varnished pot-
tery, tile, bitumen, mortar, glass, shells, and
pieces of mother-of-pearl.
To the south-west of the mound, a tomb in
good repair contains the bones of Amran, who,
the natives say, was a son of Ali. The keeper
of this tomb may be likened to Job's forsaken
man, dwelling in desolate cities, and in houses
which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to
become heaps (chap. xv. ver. 28.): and a hun-
dred yards to the E. S. E. of this building there
is a solid block of white marble, measuring six
feet long, three wide, and three and a half
inches thick; but no writing, device, or bitu-
men, is to be traced upon it.
To the westward of this, the ground is flat,
without any marks of building, and is bounded
by the river's embankment (already noticed)
on its opposite side, where Rich found a num-
ber of urns filled with human bones which had
undergone the action of fire.*
* Note on Urns from Desatir, page 248.


PREDICTIONS OF SCRIPTURE. 201
A little below this there is a ridge of mounds
extending from a date-grove on the verge of the
stream, to the south-west of a village called Jum-
juma, which appellative means a skull, and like-
wise according to Castell and Golius, "Puteus
in loco salsuginoso fossus." The mounds then
stretch towards the remains of a tomb of the
same name, form a right angle behind it, taking
an easterly course, where they are traversed by
the Bagdad road.
I had been walking a full hour by the light
of the rising moon, and could not persuade
my guides to remain longer, from the appre-
hension of evil spirits. It is impossible to era-
dicate this idea from the minds of these peo-
ple, who are very deeply imbued with super-
stition.
I have now concluded my description of the
ruins on the east side of the Euphrates, within
the probable bounds of Babylon. It will be
seen how exactly the divine predictions have
been fulfilled. In the language of Scripture,
she is truly " wasted with misery, her habita-


202
THE BIRS NEMROUD,
tions are not to be found; and for herself, the
worm is spread over her."
December 3d.—Attended by three horse-
men from the commander of the Pasha of Bag-
dad's army encamped near Hillah, in addition
to my own people, I set out for the western
shore of the river, and for the purpose of ex-
amining the most remarkable of all the Baby-
lonian remains, which the Turks, Arabs, and
Jews name Birs* Nemroud, meaning the Tower
or Akron of Nimrod.
The indefatigable Niebuhr conceived it to be
the Tower of Babel, or Temple of Belus; a
supposition which has been supported by Rich,
and nearly all succeeding travellers: some of
whom, in describing this ruin, assert that it is
called by the Jews Nebuchadnezzar's Prison.^
I can only say, that at the present moment it is
• See Appendix, T. p. 258.
t In an Itinerary written nearly 700 years ago by Benja-
min of Tudela, a Jew who lived in the twelfth century, it is
said, that "Ancient Babylon is now laid waste, but some
ruins are still to be seen of Nebuchadnezzar's Palace; and
men fear to enter there, on account of the serpents and











I


A REMARKABLE RUIN. 203
known by one name alone—Birs Nemroud, or
Nimrod.*
We proceeded over a plain covered with nitre,
at intervals crossing some dry canal beds, and
small pools of water, and starting large flocks of
bitterns. This put me in mind of the follow-
ing passage in Isaiah.—" I will also make it
a possession for the bittern, and pools of
Scorpions which are in the midst of it." Many writers ima-
gine the Birs is the ruin spoken of by the Jew; but as it is
So far from the river, and some danger to be apprehended by
visiting it, I think it more probable the Mujellibah is here
alltfded to.
Mr. Rich, and, I may add, all those travellers who have
more recently visited and described the Birs Nemroud, ap-
pear to identify it with the Tower, because it more nearly
resembles the state of decay into which we might suppose
that edifice to have fallen, after the lapse of ages, than any
other remain within the circumference of Babylon. This mode
of judging from appearances cannot be admitted, nor that
slender hypothesis of Sir Robert Ker Porter, when describ-
ing the Mujellibah. It runs thus :—" From the general ap-
pearance of this piece of ruin, I scarcely think that its solid
elevation has ever been much higher than it stands at pre-
sent." The reader will bear in mind, that the base of
this mound extends 822 feet in length, while its height
is only 189. He will, I think, see the futility of Sir Ro-
bert's remark.
* Appendix, V. p. 250.


204
SITUATION OF THE
water, and I will sweep it with the besom of
destruction."*
A walk of two hours and a quarter in a S.W.
direction brought me to the base of its eastern
front. It lies five miles distant from the west-
em suburb of Hillah. On my first beholding
this "mountainous" massf it bore a little to the
westward of south, appearing like an oblong
• Isaiah, chap. xiv. ver. 23.—" Cyrus took the city of Baby-
lon in the year 539 before Christ, by diverting the waters of
the Euphrates, which ran through the midst of it, and enter-
ing the place at night by the channel. It was two furlongs
wide; but he had made it fordable by means of the lake
and trenches which he had prepared. The river being thus
turned, by the breaking down of dams and banks, and no
care taken afterwards to repair the breach, all the country
was overflowed and drowned, and ultimately a whole pro-
vince lost. Alexander, who intended to have made Babylon
the seat of his empire, set about remedying the mischief;
but difficulties arising, he soon after dying, and the work
being never more thought of, that country has remained
bog and marsh ever since."—Dean Prideaux.
i "Though Babylon was seated in a low watery plain, yet
it is in Jeremiah (chap. li. ver. 25.) called a "mountain,"
on account of its power and greatness, as well as of the vast
height of its walls and towers, its palaces and temples; and
Berosus, % speaking of some of its buildings, says, that they
appealed most like mountains."—Newton on the Prophecies.
% rtjv o\ptv avolttp dfiotoTaT-qv rott opetri—quibus speciem
dedit montibus persimilem—Joseph- Antiq. lib. x.


BIRS NEMROUD, 205
hill, surmounted by a tower. The total cir-
cumference of its base is exactly seven hundred
and twenty-two yards. Its eastern face extends
one hundred and sixty-eight yards in width,
and only two stages of a hill are distinct-
ly observable. The first measures in height
seventy feet, whence the second sweeps irregu-
larly upwards, to the height of one hundred
and twenty feet, crowned by the ruin of a tur-
ret. This is a solid mass of the finest kiln-
burnt masonry, the circumference of which

Western face of the Birs Nemroud.


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


208 HUGE FRAGMENTS.

Vitrified Mass of Biick-work at the Birs.
Previous to examination, I took them for
masses of black rock: some of these huge frag-
ments measured twelve feet in height, by
twenty-four in circumference, and from the
circumstance of the standing brickwork hav-
ing remained in a perfect state, the change ex-
hibited in these is only accountable from their
having been exposed to the fiercest fire, or ra-
ther scathed by lightning*
* " The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken,
and her high gates shall be burnt with fire."—Jer. ch. li. v. 58.


LARGE BRICKS. 209
A little below these vitrified masses, on the
north-west face of the ruin, fine brickwork
is distinctly visible, each brick measuring one
foot square, by four inches thick. There are
also small square holes running deep into the
pile, and in some places the bricks are greatly
injured by exposure.
Still descending, there is a larger ruin of
this kind of wall, which assumes an angular
form. The bricks here are thirteen inches
long, by four and one quarter thick, and are
cemented together with a coarse layer of lime
upwards of an inch deep, with an impression
only of matting or straw. They are not level,
but slope gently from the north face towards
the east, and from the east face towards the
south—a curious circumstance. Below this
is a large square deep hole, through which the
materials of the structure are very discernible,
consisting principally of sun-dried bricks of
similar dimensions as the kiln-baked.
These appear cemented together by mor-
tar and bruised reeds, or chopped straw, an
p


210 APPEARANCE OF THE RUIN.
inch in thickness, and through this mass holes
measuring two feet in height, by one in width,
appear to penetrate to the heart of the building.
Bitumen, which is found at the base of most of
the ruined structures, is likewise discernible in
this pile. None is to be found in the upper por-
tion. This, it must be remarked, confirms the
following passage of Herodotus,—" ha rgwxovra
^oyjuv vXivdov," &C.
The whole summit and sides of this moun-
tainous ruin are furrowed, by the weather and
by human violence, into deep hollows and
channels, completely strewed with broken
bricks stamped with three, four, six, and seven
lines of writing, stones, glass, tile, large cakes
of bitumen, and petrified and vitrified sub-
stances.


CHAPTER X.
Immense hill.—Koubbe, a Mahometan building.—Excava-
tions made by the Arabs.—Urns, Alabaster Vase, &c.—
Custom of Urn-burial.—Tombs described by Captain Basil
Hall,—Village of Ananah.—Situation of Babylon.—Py-
ramidal Ruin, called El Hamir.—Mode of Building.—
Characters on the Bricks.—Cylindrical Bricks.—Colossal
bronze Figures.—Tomb of Ali Ibn Hassan.—Departure
from Hillah.—Predictions of Isaiah.—The Author's ar-
rival at Bagdad.
An open quadrangular area extends for a
considerable distance around the Birs, though
its base is encircled by small ridges of mounded
earth. I must not, however, pass unnoticed
one immense hill scarcely a hundred yards dis-
tant from the eastern front of this stupendous
fabric- It stretches away north and south to a
breadth of 450 yards, when its extreme points
p 2


212
THE KOUBBE.
curve and meet to the eastward, after having
occupied a space of 650 yards. Its height is
fifty-five feet. This mound is also very deeply
furrowed into countless channels, covered with
nearly the usual debris of former building, ex-
cept that the fragments of vases and glazed
potter)" are inconceivably fresh and abundant.
On its summit is a Mohammedan building,
called Koubbe", generally pronounced Goubbah,
meaning, in Arabic, a cupola, or dome. It goes
by the name of Makam Ibrahim Khalil :* the
Arabs say, that Nimrod ordered a fire to be
kindled near it, and commanded the pro-
phet Abraham to be cast into it; while that
"mighty hunter before the Lord" viewed the
frightful exhibition from the summit of his
tower f.
The ruined portion of another Koubbe stands
a little to the south, called Makam Saheb Ze-
* " Ibrahim al Nabi et Ibrahim Khalil Allah; c'est a
dire, Abraham le Prophet ou l'ami de Dieu, est le meme
qu'Abraham le Patriarche, qui est reconnu pour pere par les
Arabs, aussi bien que par les Juifs."—Vide D'Herbelot.
t See Appendix. Note V. page 259.


EXCAVATIONS.
man, to which also several curious traditions
are attached. It being a clear day, I was in-
duced to remain till near sunset to see if I
could observe the gilt domes of Meshhed Ali,
which bears south, and Messhed Hussein
north-west, but I was unsuccessful.
At a distance of two hundred and seventy
feet from the northern and western faces of the
Birs, and on an eminence, there are several
deep cavities formed by the Arabs, when dig-
ging for hidden treasure. The intervening
space has no elevated traces of building
(though there are vestiges of pavement and
old foundations); but close to these excava-
tions are portions of masonry, composed of
fumace-brick, stamped with three lines of cu-
neiform writing. I directed my attention to
the largest excavated spot, and found it ten
feet deep by six square. In its sides were
bricks irregularly and, apparently, hastily
placed; and, on digging along each face, I
discovered them to be filled with urns contain-
ing ashes alone.


CUSTOMS IN THE LOO-CHOO ISLANDS. 215
cient Persians. A similar custom obtains among
the idolaters of the Loo-choo Islands, as is evi-
dent by the following extract from the inte-
resting volume of Captain Basil Hall.
"They have large tombs or cemeteries for
their dead, being mostly of the Chinese form,
viz. that of a horse-shoe. They are formed
of stones and mortar, and are covered with a
coat of cheenam, (shell lime,) which is al-
ways kept nicely whitewashed and clean
swept: some are more highly finished than
others; their size varies from twenty to thirty
feet in length, by twelve to fourteen feet
broad. The coffin, when closed, is placed in
the vault under the tomb, and is not touch-
ed for six or seven years, by which time the
flesh is found to have separated and wasted
away; the bones are then collected, and put
into jars ranged in rows on the inside of the
vault. Burning is never used at any stage
of the proceedings, nor under any circum-
stances. In the course of time, when these
become crowded, the vases are removed to


216 TOMBS.
houses appropriated to their reception above-
ground: such must have been the building
described by Mr. Clifford, in the village near
Port Melville.
"The lower orders, who cannot afford these
expensive tombs, take advantage of hollow
places in the rocks, which, by a little assistance,
are made secure vaults. In the cliffs behind
the village of Oonting, the galleries cut for
the reception of the vases must have been the
work of men possessed of power and au-
thority. Not being fully aware what the
Chinese customs are with respect to the dead,
in ordinary cases, it is impossible for us to say
how nearly they resemble those of Loo-choo,
but there are certainly some points of re-
semblance." *
The whole tract between Hillah and these
ruins, appears very marshy, sterile, and sandy.
Three lakes, or marshes, are very conspicuous
* See " Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the west coast
of Corea, and the great Loo-choo Island." Cap. iii. page
204. 4to.


VILLAGE OF ANANAH. 217
hence, the first bearing S. W. the second
W.N.W. and the third, N.N.E.—One of Isai-
ah's prophecies concerning Babylon, is named
"The burden of the desert of the sea," (ch. xxi.
v. 1.) for Babylon was seated in a plain, and
surrounded by water. The propriety of the
expression consists in this, not only that any
large collection of waters, in the Oriental style,
is called a sea, but also that the places about
Babylon are said from the beginning to have
been called the sea. It was a great barren
morassy desert originally: such it became after
the taking of the city by Cyrus, and such it
continues to this day.—Bishop Newton on the
Prophecies.
Eight or nine miles to the N.N. W. of Birs
Nemroud, parallel with the embankment on
the eastern bank of the Euphrates, and nearly
opposite the Kasr, is a village called Ananah,
upon the river's bank; to the north-west a
long, low, dark hillock runs apparently north
for three hundred and twenty yards, when it
turns to the east, and continues in that direc-


218 SITUATION OF
tion to the bank of the river, where portions of
sun-dried and furnace-baked bricks are plainly
discernible.
Near the village of Thamasia, (which name
would indicate its foundation by Shah Thamas
of the Sefl house,) four miles to the westward
of Hillah, and situated within a grove of date-
trees, there are several elevated mounds, com-
posed of the kiln-burnt fabric, with the arrow-
headed writing upon them, extending nearly
to the eastern ridge of low hillocks which sur-
rounds the Birs, and strewed over with pot-
tery, broken bricks and coloured tile, but
having no actual remains of ancient edifices.
In following these heaps of ruin, I could not
at every step help feeling convinced, that an-
cient Babylon occupied a very great portion of
the western as well as the eastern bank of the
Euphrates; and admitting this, the Birs Nem-
roud, by many (in my opinion most inaccurate-
ly) supposed to be the Tower of BabeL or
Temple of Belus, will not be so far removed
from a division of the city as I had at first sup-


MODE OF BUILDING.
221
quity, conceptions as grand as those suggested
by the view of Birs Nemroud. Its circumfe-
rence I found to be two hundred and eighty
yards, or eight hundred and forty feet. Its
height is seventy-five feet.
The foundation is composed of sun-dried
brick, which extends half-way up the pile, the
remainder being furnace-burnt, of a coarse
fabrication. This pyramidal ruin is crowned by
a solid mass of masonry, the bricks of which
were so soft, that pieces might easily be broken
off; but those composing the interior were as
firm and hard as at the Kasr, and rather larger.
The brickwork on the summit faces the cardinal
points, and is much dilapidated. The face
fronting the north measures thirty-six feet,
the south thirty-seven, the east forty-seven,
and the west fifty.
The bricks are cemented together with a
thick layer of clay, and between the courses of
brickwork, at irregular distances, a layer of
white substance is perceptible, varying from


222 USE OF REEDS IN BUILDING.
one quarter to an inch in thickness, not unlike
burnt gypsum, or the sulphate of lime. From
the peculiarly mollified state of the bricks, I
apprehend this white powder is nothing more
than common earth, which has undergone this
change by the influence of the air on the clay
composing the bricks.
I have heard it more than once advanced,
that the white layers interposed between the
bricks in this ruin are merely what remain of
the courses of reeds. It however appears to me,
that, granting the atmospheric action had re-
duced their exposed surface to the colour of
plaster, yet the peculiar structure of the vege-
table substance would have been discernible as
long as its component particles held together.
In no case did I see this; I conclude, there-
fore, that these white layers are not the rem-
nants of reeds.
Throughout the ruin, small square apertures,
similar to those at Birs Nemroud, are observ-
able; but neither lime nor bitumen can be seen


INSCRIPTIONS.
223
adhering to the bricks, though large pieces of
the latter substance are very abundant at the
base of the mound.*
The Babylonian writing on these bricks,
which measure fourteen inches long, twelve
and a half broad, and two thick, contained ten
lines in an upright column, and many stamped
across to the angles of the brick; whereas at
the Mujellibah, Birs, and Kasr, I only met with
three, four, six, seven, and nine lines. It was
only at the platform that I found specimens with
ten lines, which must certainly be considered
rare. These inscriptions appear to have been
stamped on the brick while in a soft state, by a
block of wood, and in a very great degree re-
semble the nail-headed writing of Persepolis,
though their form and arrangement differ.
In speaking of these most curious antiques,
Mr. Rich says, "No idea of the purpose these
inscriptions were intended to answer, can be
* See Appendix, X. Note on Babylonian bricks, p. 267.


INSCRIPTIONS.
established, the importance of which those
skilled in the art of deciphering will readily
acknowledge.
"The language may safely be pronounced to
be Chaldee; the system of letters an alphabeti-
cal and not a symbolical one; and each figure
we see on the bricks, a simple letter, and not a
word or a compound character; the number of
different characters, with their variations, may
be therefore easily ascertained. Any one,
however, who ventures on this task, should
have a thorough knowledge of the Chaldean
language, as well as indefatigable application:
aided by these qualifications, and furnished
with a sufficient quantity of specimens, he
might undertake the labour with some pro-
spect of success."
I shall here take the opportunity of remark-
ing, that it appears the Babylonians had three
different styles of written characters, answer- -
ing to our large hand, small text, and round
hand. The two first are found on the bricks
Q


226 INSCRIPTIONS.
which measure from twelve to thirteen inches
square, by three and a half thick.

SQL


228 CYLINDRICAL BRICK.
Museum, belonging to Mr. Rich's collection;
the third and fourth are in the possession of
private individuals. With the greatest difficulty,
in my examination amongst the fallen edifices
of Babel, and laborious search after every
fragment and vestige of antiquity that might
remain of a people of the primitive ages
of the world, I had the good fortune to find
one of these beautiful specimens of Babylonian
brick-writing, in one of the innumerable unex-
plored winding passages, at the eastern side of
that remarkable ruin the Kasr, or great castel-
lated palace. It was deposited within a small
square recess, near a fine perfect wall, the kiln-
burnt materials of which were all laid in bitu-
men, and the ground was strewed with frag-
ments of alabaster sarcophagi, and enamelled
brick, still retaining a brilliant lustre.
Many fractured masses of granite of incon-
ceivable magnitude, (some chiselled in a py-
ramidal form,) prevented my penetrating far
into this intricate labyrinth; the way to which


CYLINDRICAL BRICK. 229
is by a souterrain, and must be entered in a
creeping posture. The annexed engraving
exhibits an exact representation of the shape
of this cylindrical brick, which is very similar
to those possessed by Mr. Rich; but its pro-
portions are much greater, as it measures
nine inches in length, by sixteen in circum-
ference.

Babylonian cylinder in the Author's possession.
Bronze antiquities, generally much corroded
with rust, but exhibiting small figures of men
and animals, are often found amongst the


CANAL BEDS. 231
known from the earliest days, as we find in
Genesis, chap. iv. ver. 22., that Zillah bore Tu-
bal Cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass
and iron; and the innumerable golden statues
that ornamented the temple and palace, are
sufficient proofs of the knowledge of this
art. I was unsuccessful in tracing any samples
of those mill-stones mentioned by Xenophon,
in his Anabasis, lib. i. cap. 2. as having been
dug up by the inhabitants of the Euphrates;
which, after being formed, were conveyed to
Babylon for sale.
At a considerable distance to the northward
and eastward of El Hamir, a very large as-
semblage of mounds, the remains of some ex-
tensive buildings, are divided by a canal run-
ning south. The ground surrounding this spot
is covered with nitre, and cut by countless ca-
nal beds of great antiquity; while very visible
vestiges of ancient edifices exist: but the place
being so far removed from the site of the ve-
nerable city, and seeing no end to my re-


282 TOMB OF ALI IBN HASSAN.
searches if attempting to prosecute them far-
ther to the eastward, which I well knew would
have ended in disappointment, from the un-
settled and unsafe state of the country; I was
induced, however reluctantly, to retrace my
steps to Hillah.
The direction from El Hamir to the town,
was S. 60" W. for an hour, the whole of
which time was occupied in crossing the dry
beds of innumerable canals; some of great
depth, and varying from ninety to one hun-
dred and fifty feet in width. Their course was
S.E. Other minor channels run north and
south, extending as far as the eye can reach.
Three miles and a half from El Hamir, on
the direct road to Hillah, in the centre of a
small date grove, is situated the tomb of Ali
Ibn Hassan. From this sequestered, shady, and
beautiful spot, the Mujellibah bore N. 70° W.,
El Hamir, N. 45° W., and Hillah Minaret,
S. 10° W. An hour and a half brought me to
the bridge a little after sunset. It is not im-


SUPPOSED SUBURBAN REMAINS. 233
probable that the above-noticed mounds may-
have formed some exterior building to the
great metropolis; and the circumstance of the
arrow-headed writing being engraved on the
lower face of every brick, bears ample testi-
mony to the great antiquity of the spot, were
any doubt entertained, from its being so far
removed from the generally received position
of the walls of the city.
Desirous as I may be, of not hazarding an
unfounded hypothesis, as to the portions of the
ancient capital, which the remains now seen to
the north-east and south-west of the river might
have suggested; yet El Hamir and the Birs are
so conveniently placed in those relative lateral
bearings with the Kasr, as the central pile, at
two extreme points of the quadrangular area
of the city, that the probability of these two
masses forming parts of its two farther quarters,
often forced itself on my attention. As I
have already observed, the mounds beyond
El Hamir to the -north-east, might too, if not


234 DEPARTURE FROM HILLAH.
parts of the wall, have been suburban remains
of this side of the metropolis. Speculation
alone is left to us: until the ruins about this
celebrated spot are more correctly observed and
clearly delineated, little more can be said with
truth as the basis of the assertion.
On the 6th of December, I bade adieu to
Hillah and the majestic Euphrates. I could
not but reflect, that the masses of the most
ancient capitals in Europe bore no comparison
with the mighty ruins which still exist on its
banks. From an elevated spot near the vil-
lage of Mohawwil, I turned to take a parting
glance at the tenantless and desolate metro-
polis. It was impossible not to be reminded of
the fulfilment of the predictions of Isaiah;
and I involuntarily ejaculated, in the words of
that sublime and poetical book:—" Babylon,
the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the
Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God
overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall
never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt


PREDICTIONS OF ISAIAH. 235
in from generation to generation; neither shall
the Arabian pitch his tent there; neither shall
the shepherds make their fold there.* But
wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and
their houses shall be full of doleful creatures;
and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall
dance there. And the wild beasts of the
islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and
dragons in their pleasant palaces." (Isaiah, chap,
xiii. ver. 19, 20, 21, and part of 22.) How
wonderful is the fulfilment of these predictions,
and what a convincing argument of the truth
and divinity of the Holy Scriptures!
It was after sunset: I saw the sun sink be-
hind the Mujellibah: and, again taking a long
last look at the decaying remains of Babylon
and her deserted shrines, obeyed, with infinite
regret, the summons of my guides.
* What a faithful] picture of complete desolation is
this!—for it is common in these parts for shepherds to make
use of ruined edifices to shelter their flocks in; and it implies
a great degree of solitude, when it is said, that the ruins of
Babylon shall be fit for wild beasts only to resort to.


236 ARRIVAL AT BAGDAD.
After traversing the vast wastes of Babylonia
for three days, I reached Bagdad in safety;
inexpressibly delighted with the scenes I had
contemplated during the ten days of absence
from that city, the recollection of which, no
time can ever efface from my memory.


APPENDIX.


APPENDIX.
NOTES.
Note A, page 3.
[The Tower at Dair.]—Fath Ull&h ebn Alwan il Kaabi, in
his history of the modern Basrah, entitled Zdd ul Musafir,
written a century and a half ago, speaks of "Dair, a town
north-west of Basrah, remarkable for a tower of such co-
lossal dimensions and beautiful structure, as to appear to be
the work of Genii."—Ibn ul Wardi, in the Khaucilat ul
AjMb, in addition to a similar account, says, that " strange
sounds are occasionally heard to proceed from the interior
of the tower.*'
Great antiquity is attributed to this minaret by all. the
natives of the country. References to this spot, and to its
old canal, which formed one of a number anciently exca-
vated, to irrigate this dry though rich soil, might easily be
multiplied, if necessary; but the two authorities above ad-
duced appear sufficient to justify the remark in the text.


240
NOTES.
Note B, page 4.
QKoorna, or Apamea.]—Koorna was thus named by Se-
leucus, in honour of Apama, the daughter of Artabazus, the
Persian.—See Universal History, Ancient, vol. ix. page
179, edit. 1747.
Note C, page 10.
[The Camel's thorn.]—This lowly plant affords a beauti-
ful exemplification of the merciful care of Providence. It
abounds in the deserts of Arabia, India, Africa, Tartary,
and Persia. In most of these wilds it is the only food of
the • camel, that valuable inhabitant of such unfriendly
wastes. Its lasting verdure refreshes the eye of the travel-
ler; and, from the property possessed by its deeprsearching
tough roots, of collecting the scanty moisture of these arid
plains, well known to the Arab, it is converted to the essen-
tial purposes of aiding in the production of a grateful and
healthy nourishment for man.
The stem of the plant is in spring divided near the root;
a single seed of the water-melon is then inserted in the
fissure, and the earth replaced about the stem of the thorn.
The seed becomes a parasite, and the nutritive matter
which the brittle succulent roots of the melon are ill-adapted
to collect, is abundantly supplied by the deeper searching,


NOTES.
241
and tougher fibres of the root of the camel's thorn. An abun-
dance of good water-melons is thus periodically forced by the
Arab from a soil incapable of other culture. This valuable
native of the desert is the hedysarum alkagi. It bears its
small oval leaves but a few days early in spring. The beau-
tiful crimson flowers appear later in the same season, and
are succeeded by the short moniliform pod peculiar to this
genus.
Note D, page 14.
[Al Hid.]--This is a canal flowing into the Kerkha, near
Hawizah, through groves of a species of calamus, growing
luxuriantly in a low tract of country, between the Tigris and
the Kerkha, inundated by the overflow of the former. On
the subject of the canals and marshes of this region, an ap-
posite quotation may be gleaned from a Persian biographical
work, entitled Megalis al Moumemn. The author of the
Moajum (the celebrated Yacuti of Harna, the geographer,)
remarks of Howaizah, that it is the diminutive of Houzah,
which signifies collected or brought together. This district
was peopled and organized by Amir Dabis ebn Ghadhb the
Asadi, in the Khalifat of Tayaa lillah, who here formed
colonies of his tribe and dependants. This Dabis is of the
same tribe and name, though not the same individual, as the
one who founded the,town of Hillah on the Euphrates.
Hawaizah is placed between Wasit, Basrah, and Khuzistan,


242 NOTES.
in the midst of lakes and marshes which were formed by the
inundations of the Tigris, in the time of Kesra Parwiz.
The same author also remarks, that the islands of Susiana
are considered to form a part of this district. He enumerates
three hundred and sixty distinct villages, the capital of
which was named Madinah. They produced rice, dates,
silk, oranges, limes, grapes, fish, and game in abundance.
The inhabitants, who are Shiahs, are very numerous, war-
like, highly superstitious, and notoriously predatory and
revengeful.
Note E, page 19.
QThe Kelek, or leathern raft of Assyria.]—The mode of
navigation on the Euphrates, with vessels so peculiarly con-
structed, as the it^oia. vxvrivct, or Navigia conacia of the
ancient, and the Kelek of the modern Babylonians, remains
unaltered; and it is but justice to the father of history to
clear his text of the unintentional misinterpretation of his
translators, and their followers, in this essential passage,
and to prove more fully and clearly that he had seen
what he so exactly depicts. It appears that the force of
his description, and the error of his translators, are to be
found here; vojotsaj itejis TetfLOfitrM noirjtrtavTcti, ■ntpirstvovai
toutoici 8ia ftipetf areyaoTg/Saj e£coflev i$a<peo; rpfarov, whereby
the historian seems to describe most correctly what is done at
the present day. It may be thus rendered: "having felled wil-


NOTES.
243
low-spars, they put them in order, and extended around
them outwardly leathern bags (involucra vel segestria coria-
cia,) as a substratum or pavement."
This giving a pavement or substratum of skins to a raft
of willow-spars tied tight together, has been misinterpreted
willow-ribs covered with a coating of skins. At pre-
sent, the trunk of the wild poplar is made use of, which
is supported upon inflated bags of sheepskin flayed with
peculiar art. The boat is managed as described by
Herodotus; the spars are separated and sold at Bag-
dad; and the emptied skins carried back on camels,
horses, mules, or asses, as best may suit the proprietor
of them, to serve in supporting another load of spars
and merchandise-
Besides the Kellek, or raft, there is a round ribbed boat,
or corricle, used on the Tigris and Euphrates, covered, not
with skins, but bitumen. But of this, the only valuable
article is the bitumen; the rius aie of hin willow rods, or
the midrib of the frond of the date-tree, and are useless, if
the boat be broken up.
Two other kinds of boats used on both rivers, one long,
sharp, and narrow, and another high and crescent-shaped,
both rudely formed with wooden ribs and planks, and coated
with bitumen, deserve to be noticed here; they however
have nothing to do with the description of the air-sup-
ported raft of the venerable and veracious Historian.—See
Herodotus, Clio. chap. 194.
Differing as the explanation of this passage of Herodotus,
as here given, does from the descriptions of two modern
r 2


NOTES.
SONG,
in.
Nor spare thy noble blood,
Thou chieftain Arab free!
Thy boy but marks the flood,
That he may bleed like thee.
Chorus.
If war be thy feast,
If sloth be thy fast,
Then not thou the least
Nor honour'd the last.
SONG.
IV.
Welcome the cry of the foeman to war!
My brand shall gleam o'er him his fatal star.
Chorus.
Whose the desert couch
Ne'er to foe may crouch;
Thick, though, as the sands,
Charge the rival bands.


NOTES.
247
SONG,
v.
Strive nobly, martyr, and be free;
Heaven opes, and Houris strive for thee.
Chorus.
None shall wed the flying slave;
E'en dogs shall bay the dastard knave.
A few remarks are here necessary, from the attempt which
has been made to render the Arabic as closely as possible
into English verse. Each song and chorus form a separate
cry sung by the bravest of the tribe who advance to battle;
the song, by three or four of the most expert, and the
chorus in replication by the remainder. The women often
accompany the men, and encourage them by songs and
musical instruments; and revive their drooping powers by
administering water during the battle.
This encouragement is alluded to in the second specimen.
In the third, allusion is made to the fast of the month
Ramdhan, and the festival at its conclusion; comparing
war to the pleasures of the second, and peaceful sloth to
the bitterness of the other. The figure in the last chorus
points at the dishonour of an Arab flying from battle to his
tents; where not only the tribe itself, but the very dogs
shun the coward.


NOTES. 249
they then put it into a vase of aquafortis, and when the
body was dissolvedj carried the liquid to a place far from
the city, and poured it out; or else they burned it in fire,
after attiring it as has been said; or they made a dome, and
formed a deep pit within it, which they built and whitened
with stone, brick, and mortar; and, on its edges, niches
were constructed and platforms erected, on which the dead
were deposited; or they buried a vase in the earth, and en-
closed the corpse in it; or buried it in a coffin in the ground;
and, in the estimation of the Fersendajians, the most eligible
of all these was the vase of aquafortis."
Note H, page 71-
[Taq i Kesra.]—Hamdallah Mustouf i, in the geographical
treatise entitled Nozhat ul Qulub, says, that Madayen is the
work of Tahmurath Divband, of the Pishdudi dynasty of
Persian kings, who named it Gardabad; Jumshid com-
pleted it, and called it Teisebun. It is the largest of the
seven chief cities of Iraq, and was thence called Madayen.
Its six rivals are Kadesiah, Rumiah, Hirah, Babil, Halwan,
and Nahrawan; all of which are now in ruins. Jumshid
built a stone bridge over the Diglah, which excited the ad-
miration of Alexander; but the succeeding Persian race of
kings destroyed this noble specimen of art.
Ardashir Babegan, who improved the city and made it
his capital, was desirous of restoring the bridge, but without


250
NOTES.
effect; he consequently formed one of chains. The suc-
ceeding Kesras retained this city as their capital, which
Shapour Dhu '1 Aktaf embellished, and wherein Nushirwan
erected the Aiwan i Kesra. This is a palace built of burnt
bricks and lime; and to this time not a brick has been
removed.
.The area of the building was a square of one hundred and
fifty ,gaz; its principal hall was forty-two gaz in extent,
eighty-two long, and sixty-five high. Encircling it were
smaller buildings and apartments worthy of the principal
structure.
Abu Dawaniq, the Khalifah, was desirous of removing
the materials of this city for the use of his projected capital
at Bagdad; Sooleiman ebu Khalid, his Wazir, dissuaded
him from this, saying, that he would be reproached by man-
kind, for the destruction of one city to aid in the foundation
of another, as betraying a want of resources.
The monarch reprobated his minister's lurking tenderness
for the fame of the Kesra; and, commencing the work of
destruction, soon found that the expense attendant on the
disjunction and removal of the materials of the city would
far exceed the cost of new preparations. He was now anxious
to desist; but was reminded by the Wazir, that, having
commenced, he should persevere, or he would be ex-
posed to the imputation of being less powerful than the
founders of the city. Sooleiman advised however, at the
same time, that the taq, or arch, should remain untouched,
as a lasting evidence to mankind of the prophetic character


252 NOTES.
alïahem alginnat—et il est un de ceux que le.Paradis désire,
c'est à dire, du nombre des predestinez.
"L'Auteur du Raoudhat alakhiar rapporte, que Selman
mourut dans la ville de Madaïn, capitale de la Perse, de
laquelle Omar l'avoit fait Gouverneur l'an 35 de l'Hegire, à
l'âge de deux cent cinquante ans.
"Le même auteur ajoute, qu'il vivoit du travail de ses
mains, et qu'il donnoit le surplus de ce qu'il gagnoit aux
pauvres. Abon Horaïrah et Ans Ben Malek, deux per-
sonnages de grande autorité sur les traditions, avoient reçu
les leurs de Selman, et Selman immédiatement de Ma-
homet."
Note K, page 90.
[Bagdad.]—The following account of this celebrated city is
extracted from the Noshat ûl Qûlûb of Hamdallah Mustoufî.
"Baghdad is the metropolis of the Arabian Iràq, and a city
of Islam, situated on the Diglah. In the age of the Kesras,
there was on this site, on the western side, a village named
Kerkh, founded by Shâpûr Dhu '1 Aktàf; and on the eastern
bank the small town of Sàbât, a dependency of Nahrawân.
"The Kesrâ Anûshirwân laid out ten parks and gardens in
the open country in the vicinity, and called them Bàghdâd.
By the Arabs it is named Qûbbet ûl Islam. Almansûr Bil-
lah, the second Abbasside Khalif, surnamed Abu Dawâniq,
founded the city A. H. 145, building chiefly on the western


254
NOTES.
and the Ricinus Communis usually attain in the genial soil
of this country. Shrines, and tombs of holy men, are abun-
dant, both in the city and in its immediate and more remote
vicinity; too numerous to be noticed in this place.
[L. M. N.]
These refer to some Arabic notes in the author's possession,
which, it was first intended to give in the Appendix, but which
it was afterwards thought desirable to omit.
Note O, page 111.
[Nabocadnassar.]—" Les Arabes appellent ainsi celui que
nous appelions vulgairement Nabuchodonosor. Ce mot
Arabe est assez conforme au nom que les Hebreux lui don-
nent. Les mêmes Arabes appellent plus ordinairement ce
Prince, qui étoitRoi des Assyriens et des Babyloniens, Bakht,
ou Bokht al Nassar, nom qui est aussi le plus en usage chez les
Persans et chez les Turcs. Les Historiens Orientaux, et prin-
cipalement les Persiens, donnent aussi à ce Prince les noms
de Raham et de Gudarz."—D'Herbelôt, tome 3, page 1.
Note P, page 120.
[Hillah.]—The author of the Majalis ûl Moumenîn, under
the article of Hillah, states, that it is a large city between


256
NOTES.
tine monarchs of the world who first settled and civilized
mankind, and that the first race of Persian potentates were
their successors by conquest, as the empire of Rome increas-
ed on the subjection of the Greeks.
They maintained, that the first of these Princes of Babil
was Nemroud the Mighty, whom they suppose to have reign-
ed during-sixty years, and to whom they attribute the exca-
vation of the canals, in the province of Iraq, derived from
the stream of the Farat. One of these is the celebrated
canal of Kutha, on the road to Kufah, between Kasr ebn
Habairah and Baghdad.—See Mas. chapter of the Kings of
Babel.
[III.]—The capital of the kingdom of Aferaidun was
Babil; which is one of the climates of the earth, so desig-
nated from the name proper to one of its towns. This town
is situated on both banks of one of the canals derived
from the Farat, in the province of Iraq, distant an hour's
journey from the city named Jisr. i. Babil and the canal
of Albirs; from which last-named town, the produce of
the Birssean looms, the cloths of Birs, derive their appel-
lation.
Near the town of Babil is an excavation usually known as
the well of the prophet Daniel, which is much frequent-
ed, both by Jews and Christians, on certain anniversary
festivals peculiar to each sect. Any individual visiting this
town cannot but be struck by the amazing mass of ruined
structures thrown together in scarcely distinguishable heaps.


NOTES.
257
The opinion is very prevalent that these are Harut and Ma-
rut, the angels mentioned in the Koran, in the passage
which marks the fate and designation of Babil.—See Mas.
Chap. Of the Kings of Babil.
[IV.]—Muhammad ebn Histram al Kalbi relates, on the
authority of his father, and other Arabian authors of note,
that they believed that the first king of the world was Ash-
kedan; and that thus also were named the earliest monarchs
of the first race of the Persian kings^ down to Dkrk ebn
Dar:L. The next were called Ardawan, who were princes of
the Nabataean race, and of the number of the Muluk 'fil
Tawayif. They were of the province of Mk from the vi-
cinity of Kasr ebur Hobairah and the river Farat, and Ja-
miain and Sura and Ahmedabad, and Albirs to the districts
bordering on the sea and its shores.— See Mas. Chap. Of
the Persian Kings intermediate between the first and second
dynasty.
Note R, page 174.
[Nil Canal.]--This canal is so named from a town on the
Euphrates, between Baghdad and Kufah, according to Abul-
feda in his table of Iraq; and Semaant, in voce, in his Kitdb
ul Ansab, says that indigo was there made and sold.
s


NOTES.
259
change of the radical letters of the word, the great and
overwhelming sin of most etymologists. The Qamus gives
Birs as the name of a town or district between Hillah and
Kufah, which is still known; and is conjoined with Babel,
in the Chaldaic Sidra Rabba of the Sabaeans, under the
name of Barsif; whence the Borosippa of Strabo, and other
ancient authors, directly proceeds.
Note V, page 203.
[Nemrod.]—In the first chapter of Mastidi's General His-
tory, near its close, the author remarks, that, of the sons of
Shem, son of Noah, Mash, son of Aram, son of Shem, occu-
pied the land of Babel; where was born Nimrod, son of
Mash, who erected the vast Tower or Palace at Babel, and
a bridge on the Euphrates. He was king of Nabat, and in
his reign the separation of tongues took place.
Masudi places the birth of this mighty monarch, to whom
he attributes a reign of five hundred years' duration, in the
age of Reu, son of Peleg. In this age, too, appeared the
first dawnings of idolatry; which mode of adoration was
adopted to avert public evils of various kinds that threatened
the existing race of mankind.
The author farther states, that in the life of Terah, also
named Azar, the worship of the heavenly bodies was intro-
duced by Nimrod, and their respective gradations of rank
ascertained. Great public calamities, and changes of domi-
s 2


NOTES.
nion in the East and in the West, occurred at this time,
a period equally remarkable for the introduction of astro-
logy, and the influence of its predictions on the minds of
men. Nimrod was also informed that a child would be
born, who would dissipate these idle dreams, and destroy
their idolatry; which inducing the monarch to command the
presence of the child, Abraham was placed in concealment.
When he had advanced a little in age, he came forth from
his cave, and, attracted by the beauty of the heavenly host,
admired each in succession, and pronounced it to be his Lord.
Gabriel however turned his heart, and instructed him in
the love and adoration of the One Eternal God. Abraham
increased in holiness and piety, and derided and exposed the
gods of his tribe and people. Their complaint was carried
to Nimrod, who exposed him to the action of fire; but the
Lord kept him cool and unhurt: and in that day, the planets,
and their temples, in all parts of the earth, were humbled.
Hamdallah MustoufJ, in his chapter on mountains, rivers,
&c. and in his first division, treating of the direction
and extent of the routes and roads of Persia towards the
neighbouring countries, remarks as follows:—" From
Baghdad to Najaf, beyond the limit of Iran, are, first to
the village of Sarsar, two farsangs; thence to the village of
Qarajeh, seven farsangs; thence to the river of Nil, seven
farsangs; within half a farsang of which station, on the
banks of the Farat, is the city of Babil. From the river of
Nil to the town of Hillah, are two farsangs; thence to the
city of Kufah, seven farsangs; and one farsang on the left


NOTES.
261
of this road is Birs, which was a residence of Nemroud, at
which he exposed Ibrahim Khalil, on whom be peace, to the
action of fire."
To these notices it may be as well to subjoin a few par-
ticulars collected from other sources, confirmative of the ac-
count of the Arabian Historian above quoted. Terah, the
father of Abraham, it is said, (Suidas, in voce, ASgaajx, and
Lex. torn. i. and ii.) made statues and images for
the purposes of that idolatrous worship, which had been
transmitted to him from his ancestor Serug, and which he
encouraged by example and exhortation.
Some Jewish authors relate (apud Genebrand, in Chron.)
that Abraham pursued the same occupation; and Maimonides
(More Nevochim, c. 29.) says, that he was educated in the
religion of the Sabaeans, who acknowledged no deity but the
stars, and that he was led by his own reflection, to the be-
lief of an intelligent Creator and Governor of the universe;
but that he did not renounce paganism till the fiftieth year
of his age. That he was brought up in the religion of the
Sabaeans, is an opinion adopted by Spencer, (De Leg. Heb.
Ritual, lib. ii. c. i. § 2. vol. i. 279.—See Sabaism.)
Suidas ("ubi supra,J informs us, that at sixteen years of
age he cautioned his father against seducing men to idolatry
for the sake of pernicious gain, and taught him that there
is no other God besides'[Him who dwells in Heaven, and
created the whole world. It is added, that he destroyed the
statues and images of his father, and departed with him
from Chaldeea.


262
NOTES.
Others relate, (Heidegger Hist. Patriarch, torn. iii. p. 36.)
that his father deputed Abraham to sell his statues in his
absence, and that a man, who pretended to be a purchaser,
having ascertained that he was fifty years of age. remon-
strated with him for adoring, at such an age, a being which
is but a day old. Abraham, impressed and confounded by
this remonstrance, destroyed them all, excepting the largest,
before his father's return; and he told him, that having pre-
sented an oblation of flour to the idols, the stoutest of them,
in whose hands he had placed a hatchet, hewed the others to
pieces with that weapon.
Terah replied, that this was bantering, because the idols
had not sense to act in this manner ; upon which Abraham
retorted these words upon his father against the worship of
such gods. But he was delivered up by Terah to Nimrod,
the sovereign of the country; and because he refused to wor-
ship the fire, according to his order, he was thrown into the
midst of the flames, from which he escaped uninjured.
Mr. David Levi, in his Lingua Sacra, has given an account
of this tradition extracted from Medrash Bereschith ; and it is
related by Jerome, (Trad. Hebraic, in Genesin,) who seems
to admit its general credibility. However, if we allow that
Abraham, being born and educated in an idolatrous country
and family, might have been addicted in very early life to that
superstition, it is certain that he renounced it, and that he was
providentially removed from a scene of danger, and that he
contributed to propagate just sentiments concerning the Deity


264
NOTES.
dynastie de Perse, nommée des Caïanides. Ce même au-
teur donne au mot de Nemrod, ou Nemroud, une étymologie
Persienne, à sçavoir, Nemurd, qui signifie celuy qui ne
mourt point; et il dit, que ce surnom d'Immortel fut donné
à Caïcaous,1 à cause des longues anneés qu'il regna. Car
tous les Historiens de Perse le font regner plus de cent
cinquante ans.
"Mirkhoud, dans son Raoudhat Alsafa, écrit conformément
ati sentiment de cet auteur que nous venons d'alléguer, que
l'on a imputé à Caïcaous la folie de vouloir escalader le Ciel,
ce qui convient assez bien avec le dessein extravagant de
Nemrod et des autres constructeurs de la Tour de Babel, de
la manière qu'il est couché dans les livres saints.
"Mais ce même auteur ajoûte, qu'il n'y a guères d'ap-
parence, que Caïcaous, qui a passé pour un Prince fort sage
entre les Persan3, ait eu une telle pensée. Car pour monter
au Ciel, poursuit Mirkhoud, parlant en bon Musulman, il
faudroit Être monté sur un Al Borac, et conduit par
Gabriel, ce qui étôit reservé par un privilege singulier
à Mahomet.
"L'auteur du Lebtarikh dit, que Nemrod étoit Ben Kenâan,
Ben Kham ; c'est à dire, fils de Chanaan et petit fils de Cham,
fils de Noé, et qu'il étoit frère de Cous, surnommé en Persien
Fil Dendan; c'est à dire, Dent d'Elephant. Ce Cous, ou
Caous, pourroit être Chus, fils de Chanaan, dont parle l'Ecri-
ture, et duquel- sont descendus les Abissins ou Ethiopiens,
que les Juifs appellent encore aujourd'hui Conschum.
"L'auteur du livre intitulé Mâlern fait le récit fabuleux


266 NOTES.
rudement en terre que la montagne ou ces oiseaux le jet-
terent, en fut ebranlée, suivant ce qui est porté dans l'Al-
coran au chapître intitulé Ibrahim, v. en kair mekrhom
letezoul menho algebab; c'est à dire, les machines et les strata-
gèmes des impies, vont jusqu'à faire trembler les montagnes.
"Nembrod, après avoir vû echoiier une entreprise téméraire,
et ne pouvant faire la guerre à Dieu même en personne,
comme il avoit projetté, au lieu de reconnoitre la puissance
de ce souverain Maître et d'adorer son unité, persista tou-
jours dans le sentiment impie qu'il avoit de luy même, et con-
tinua à maltraiter tous ceux qui adoroient une autre divinité
que luy dans ses états. C'est ce qui fit que Dieu luy ôta,
par la division et par la confusion des langues, la plus grande
partie de ses sujets, et punit ceux qui demeurèrent attachez
à luy, par une nuée de moucherons qui les fit presque tous
perir, selon le rapport de Demiathi.
"L'auteur du Lebab ajoûte, qu'un de ces moucherons étant
entré par- les narines de Nembrod, pepetra jusqu'à une des
membranes de son cerveau, où grossissant de jour en jour, il
luy causa une si grande douleur, qu'il êtoit obligé de se faire
battre la tête avec un maillet, pour pouvoir prendre quelque
repos, et qu'il souffrit ce supplice pendant l'espace de quatre
cent ans, Dieu voulant punir par la plus petite de ses créa-
tures, celuy qui se vantoit insolemment d'être le Maître de
tout. Ebn Batrik dit que Nembrod étoit Mage et Sabien de
religion, et que ce fut luy qui établit le premier le culte et
l'adoration du feu.
"Il y a des historiens qui appellent les plus anciens rois des


NOTES.
267
Babyloniens, qui ont succede a Nembrod, Nemared; c'est a
dire, les Nembrodiens. Car ce mot de Nemared est plurier
Arabique que Nembrod, et signifie aussi dans la meme langue
des rebelles et des tyrans."—D'Herbelot, tome troisieme,
page 32.
Note W, page 220.
[Al Hamir.]—This word appears to be derived from the
Arabic root hamara, which signifies to be, or become red.
It is the form of the present participle, and has been ap-
plied to this mound, to denote the red mass or edifice. The
colour and its attributive name are favourites with the people
of the East generally, as " purple" and "porphyrian" seem
to have been in the ancient West. Alhambra also, one
of the four wards of the ancient city of Granada, is deducible
from the same root. It was so called by the Moors, from
the red colour of its materials, Alhambra signifying a red
house. Sir Robert Porter asserts that Al Hymer (as he
calls it) is not to be traced from the Arabic, whereas it is one
of the commonest words in the language.
Note X, page 223.
[Babylonian Bricks.]—Beloe, in his Translation of Hero-
dotus, Clio. cap. 179, says—" They used as cement a com-
position of heated bitumen, which, mixed with the tops of


HISTORY OF
MODERN BUSSORAH,
BETWEEN THE YEARS OF THE MOHAMMEDAN .ERA,
953 AND 1076:
EQUIVALENT TO THOSE OF THE CHRISTIAN
PERIOD, 1546 AND 1665.
N.B. The notes to this Account of Bussorah immediately succeed the text.
The following is a short, though correct,
sketch of the history of modern Bussorah, be-
tween the years of the Mohammedan aera, 953
and 1076, equivalent to those of the Christian
period, 1545 and 1665. It is taken from the
work of a learned Arab of the tribe KMb, that
at present occupy a large portion of Susiana,
the modern Kuzistan, on the left bank of the
Euphrates. He was an eye-witness, and even
a sufferer in some of the scenes described in the
latter portion of the narrative. The history


270 HISTORY OF MODERN BUSSORAH.
was composed in the year of the Hejrah, 1078.
A. D. 1667.
The geographical matter contained in the
notes subsequent to, and illustrative of, the
historical portion of this narrative, will tend to
explain the positions laid down in the map
prefixed to this work; it is completely new,
and from a source not usually accessible to
Englishmen.
Bosairah is the diminutive of Basrah, a well-
known city and district on the banks of the
Shat ul Arab, the modern Busrah. The united
streams of the Digleh and Farat, from their
confluence at the fort of Koornah, flow past its
site. The ancient Basrah, built in the age of
•Omar ebn ul Khattab, is now in ruins. Shobi
says, that in it was the mosque of Ali, son of
Abu Talib, now also in ruins. * Two hundred
ratls of dates were there sold for a dinar. One
of its canals, in the days of its prosperity, was
that of Obillah, perhaps the Ashar of the pre-
* See Note, page 287.


HISTORY OF MODERN BUSSORAH. 271
sent day; and Obillah itself probably the mo-
dern Basrah.
A canal, called Ashar, intersects the modern
Basrah in a south-westerly direction. The di-
vision on its right, or north-western bank, is
called Nadhran. Many lesser canals are derived
from the principal stream of the Ashar, towards
the south-east; on which are placed other
flourishing divisions of the district which, in
their aggregate, constitute what is now called
Basrah.
The first of these is Boraiha; * next Toof hat
ul Abbas; then Saimar; Mahallat ahl id Dair;
Al Houz; Almin Kisar; in which are the re-
sidence of the Governor and the custom-house,
where duties on the various imports from India,
Arabia, and Turkey, are levied. Others of its
well-peopled quarters are Mishraq; Sug ul
Ghazl; Muhommad ul Jawad; Adhaibah;
Nabbat ul Jabal, &c.; as well as many more,
which, with their bazaars, well supplied with
* See Note A.


HISTORY OF MODERN BUSSORAH. 273
ried a lady of Dair, from whom issued the sub-
ject of this memoir. The cause of his elevation
to the government of Basrah, as far as can be
discovered, was as follows. He was writer in
the office of military account at Basrah, at a
period when the inhabitants united to expel
their Turkish Pasha, named Ali, who finding
his revenues daily decreasing, and with them
the resource for maintaining his garrison, sold
the government to Afrasiab for eight hundred
purses, of 3000 muhammadis each: under the
sole condition, that the Khotbah should continue
to be delivered in the name of the Sultan Afra-
siab, who agreed to the terms of contract, and
the Turkish Pasha departed for Constantinople.
The government of Afrasiab was just and
vigorous. He reduced the territory of Goban,
then held by a Turk named Bektash Agha, the
scourge of his neighbours; the governor of
Duraq, and Seyyed Mubarek Khan, Prince
of Hawizah.* The first he besieged and
* See Note B.
T


276 HISTORY OF MODERN BUSSORAH.
and their own elevation in his stead. They
were accompanied by a large army, under the
command of Murteza Pasha of Bagdad.
When Hussein heard of their approach, he
assembled his chief men in consultation; but
soon discovered that they were averse to him,
and inclined to the interests of his uncles. He
upon this fled with his family and dependants
to Duraq, where leaving his consort and her
followers, he proceeded to Behbehan, and re-
mained there.
In the mean time Murteza Pasha, with
Ahmed Agha, and Fathhi Beg, entered Bas-
rah without opposition; and the Pasha was
so pleased with the place, that he put the
two sons of Afrasiab to death, and seized on
the government for himself. This treacherous
murder so disgusted the citizens and subjects,
that they combined with the people of Jeza-
yir, and rose in rebellion against Murteza,
whose agents and servants they put to death
wherever they were found; and thus obliged


HISTORY OF MODERN BUSSORAH. 277
the Pasha to fly with the remainder of his
suite and garrison.
The people of Basrah repented of their con-
duct to Hussein, who was still residing at
Behbehan; they sent him offers of submission,
and he gladly returned to his government
A. H. 1064.
Hussein increased his former oppression of
the people; but patronised literature with un-
bounded munificence; and exhibited the most
vigilant submission to the power of the Sultan,
from whom, by force of princely offerings,
he bought the Wezarat.
A. H. 1073, Hussein advanced with an
army against Lahsa, and having reduced it,
plundered the inhabitants, and put many of
them to death. This unprovoked aggression,
however, drew upon him the anger of the
Sultan. Muhammed Pasha, son of Ali Pasha,
fled to Constantinople, and complained of the
outrage committed by Hussein; which was
punished by the despatch of an Imperial army


278 HISTORY OF MODERN BUSSORAH.
against Basrah, under Ibrahim Pasha. Hus-
sein continued to govern, till this army came
in the year first mentioned, from first to last,
twenty-one years up to the period of his flight,
as will be detailed hereafter.
In this year the Turks came in great force
to Bosairah. Hussein Pasha, at this time
governor of the country, heard of their ap-
proach, and adopted every means of resistance.
He strengthened and added to the fortifica-
tions, and directed all useless members of the
population to leave the city in successive
bands, which movement commenced on the
first of the month Jamadi th. Thani.
A portion of the citizens of most considera-
tion having complied with the commands of
the governor, the remainder evinced a dispo-
sition to resist his mandate. He however,
suspecting their intentions, proclaimed that the
life and property of any individual directed to
depart, who should be found in the town on
the third day subsequent, should be forfeited.
The proclamation above related, caused the


HISTORY OF MODERN BUSSORAH. 279
greatest confusion and misery to the inhabi-
tants, who poured forth in such multitudes,
as to impede the common passage; the suffer-
ings of women, who, now for the first time,
appeared unveiled, thinking only of their chil-
dren, were indescribable. Some were so heavily
laden, that both mother and infant perished on
the road.
The ties of nature appeared dissolved: father,
son, brother, and husband, deserted those dear-
est to them, and fled for individual safety.
The author witnessed the heart-rending scene,
which was aggravated by a deluge of ram,
that destroyed the bridges at Boraiha and
Minawi.*
During the flight, many endeavoured to save
themselves on frail rafts of reed, and the canal
and rivers were filled with them. At length,
on the fourth morning, the city of Basra, its
bazaars, coffee-house, mosques, and squares,
colleges, and places of public assembly, were
wholly deserted.
* See Note E.


HISTORY OF MODERN BUSSORAH. 281
during his administration the events above
narrated occurred.
The same system of depopulation was next
extended to the district of the Shimal * and to
the Jezayer; and was attended with similar
scenes of misery, and the like disastrous results.
In this case the exiles fled to Sahab, Suaib, and
Hawizah.
On the eighth of Shawwal, A. H. 1076., an
imperial army, headed by Ibrahim Pasha of
Bagdad, advanced against Basrah, for the pur-
pose of deposing its Governor, who had in-
curred the displeasure of his Sovereign for his
wanton attack on the Pashalick of Lahsa, be-
fore mentioned; which was undertaken in con-
sequence of the perfidious advice of Yahya
Agha, the minister of Hussein Pasha. Ibrahim
is said to have been attended by seven other
Pashas, at the head of fifty thousand Imperial
troops. On hearing this, Hussein raised the
new fort of Qumat, and prepared to sustain a
siege.
* See Note H.


282 HISTORY OF MODERN BUSSORAH.
When Ibrahim had reached the town of
Arja, on the Tigris, he called upon the allegi-
ance of the people of Basrah, and particularly
addressed himself to the powerful family of the
Kawawizah,* at whose head now was Sheikh
Dhu '1 Kafal. They threw off the authority
of Hussein, expelled the females of his family
from the town, and put to death the deputy,
Muhammed ben Budagh.
Hussein Pasha, on learning this, surprised
the Kawawizah in the night, and decapitated
Sheikh Dhu Kafal, whose death remained un-
discovered till morning; and with whom some
of his chief companions were also put to death.
This secret and decisive retribution put the re-
mainder of the Sheikh's adherents to flight.
Ibrahim Pasha, however, continued his advance
against Koomah, which he besieged closely,
though without ultimate success, for three
months.
At the end of this time, pacific arrangements
* See Note I.


HISTORY OF MODERN BUSSORAH. 283
were entered into; Yahya Agha, the minister, *
was deputed to accompany Ibrahim Pasha, who
promised to procure an imperial rescript in
favour of Hussein, which should be brought to
him by Yahya.
On the departure of Ibrahim, four of the
Kawawizah, viz. Ahmed ibn Mahmud, and
Ibrahim ben Ali, and two other more obscure
individuals, impelled by fear and the desire of
revenge, accompanied the perfidious Yahya to
the foot of the Imperial throne, ostensibly to
procure the confirmation of Hussein, but, in
reality, to forward their individual views. In
this they succeeded so well by their insidious
complaints, as to procure the nomination of
Yahya to the government of his master, aid-
ed by a large Turkish force to compel his
submission.
The Imperial army advanced to the number,
some have said, of eighty thousand Turkish
troops, and reached their destination, near
Basrah, on the 14th Rajab, A. H. 1078.
A. D. 1657.


284 HISTORY OF MODERN BUSSORAH.
The opposing parties soon came to a general
engagement, and the result was the complete
overthrow of the Arabs, the dispersion of the
survivors, and the flight of the Pasha from the
field of battle. The action took place in the
neighbourhood of Koorna, to which Hussein
Pasha trusted in his peril; but his females were
lodged in tents, on the opposite bank of the
Euphrates, at Sahab and Suaib.*
After the Turks had driven the Arabs from
the field, they were under the necessity of be-
sieging Hussein in the fort of Aliyah, so called
from Ali Pasha his father, who raised this forti-
fication for his future security, and the protec-
tion of his power, after his memorable subju-
gation of the district of Jezayir.
There was previously, however, a small
fortified post, called Koornah, the name of
which, as appears, is preserved to this day.
Hussein Pasha, after being freed from the
attacks of Ibrahim Pasha, added considerably
* See Note K.


HISTORY OF MODERN BUSSORAH. 285
to its capabilities of defence. It is formed of
three concentric fortifications, built of mud,
with a considerable clear space intervening be-
tween the successive cinctures; the river washes
it on two sides, and on the third a deep ditch
filled from the united streams. Though it was
deemed impregnable, and Hussein attempted
all that the crisis demanded, and his acknow-
ledged military talents supplied, yet, after a
long and rigorous siege, he was compelled to
fly. The Pasha crossed over to his family at
Sahab, followed by the disorganized remnant
of his forces.
The natives of Sahab and Suaib, alarmed at
their having sheltered their chief in the vicinity
of the conquering force, and knowing the sure
consequence of this severe reverse of fortune,
at once abandoned their dwellings and pro-
perty, and fled with the utmost precipitation
to Hawaizah.
On the eleventh of Ramadhan the conquer,
ors took possession of the town of Basra; and,
from the morning till the noon of Friday, put


288
NOTES.
and his suite are lodged without the bounds of this citadel;
the town is, however, surrounded by a fortified wall.
C.
Jezayir, the name of an extensive district, composing many
stations of importance. The first is the village of the Beni-
Mansur, Bir Homaid, and Nahr Antar, which are the prin-
cipal positions. It is said to be pierced by three hundred
canals, among which are Nahr Saleh, Deyar Beni Asad, Deyar
Beni Muhammed, Fathiyah, Kalaa, Nahr Sebaa, Batinah,
Maussuriyah, Iskanderiah, Igarah, and others which we can-
not enumerate. The northern boundary of this district is
Kut. e. Mua,
It is inhabited by various tribes, who have successfully
assisted the Imperial arms; and, having revolted from the
government of Basrah, had succeeded in establishing an
independent power against the united forces of Basrah and
Hawaizah. This independence was preserved, not less from
the bravery of the inhabitants, than from the great difficulty
of approaching their insular positions, in the broad expanse
of the Euphrates, over the district in which they are situated,
until the age of Ali Pasha, who reduced the country, and
so broke the spirit of its population, that, from that hour,
the tameness of the people of Jezayer has become a trite
proverb.
D.
Hussein Pasha was the son of Ali Pasha, son of Afrasiab,
of Dair, a town north-west of Basrah, remarkable for a tower


290
NOTES.
I.
The family of Kawawizah are so named from Sheikh Mu-
hammed Al Kawwaz, the head of a religious sect of Moham-
medans in great repute in Basrah, whose mausoleum still
exists in the suburbs. Sheikh Abdul-sallam, the founder of
this family, and the favourite pupil of the Sofi sage, was sur-
named, from his preceptor, Kawwaz; and transmitted a name
to his posterity, which distinguishes its members at the pre-
sent day. Sheikh Abdul-sallam had a numerous posterity,
among whom are the following: Muhammed, Mahmedd,
Taha, Ali, Dhu-l-Kafal, Saleh, Musleh, Junard, &c.
K.
Sahab, a place on the eastern bank of the Euphrates,
near Koorna, whence caravans load and depart for Ha-
waizah.
Suaib, a station with a fort of the same name, opposite to
Koorna, on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, and near
Sahab.


MEMOIR
ON
THE RUINS OF AHWAZ;
READ BEFORE THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY OF GREAT
BRITAIN AND IRELAND, JUNE 14, 1828; AND PRINTED
IN THE SECOND VOLUME OF THEIR TRANSACTIONS.
It having been my intention, for some time,
to visit a few of the ruined cities whose decay
has converted realms to deserts, strewing them
with fragments of arches and pillars, that once
arose in majesty over heroic warriors, hut now
impede the path of the shepherd and his flocks;
I set out from the shores of the Euphrates, in
September 1826, for the purpose of examin-
D 2


292 MEMOIR ON
ing the remains of the once celebrated city of
Ahwaz, situated ninety-two miles (horizontal
distance) north-east of Bussorah, on the banks
of the noble river Karoon, in the province of
Khuzistan, the ancient Susiana.
As there are only a few ruined villages, un-
worthy the traveller's and reader's notice, until
you arrive in its immediate vicinity, I shall
pass over the time that elapsed during my
journey; it is sufficient to state, that the whole
country is a flat, bare, monotonous, and uncul-
tivated waste, abandoned by its former inha-
bitants to rapacious animals, and to still fiercer
hordes of wild and ferocious Arabs, who occa-
sionally pitch their flying camps when in search
of pasturage or plunder.
Previous to my quitting Bussorah, I pro-
cured Kinneir's Geographical Memoir of the
Persian Empire, as a guide and for reference;
it being the only book I have seen, in our
language, that attempts any description of
Ahwaz.
Of the foundation of this city, I have it not


THE RUINS OF AHWAZ. 293
in my power to assign the date. Its name oc-
curs very early in the annals of Islam. The
specimens too of its architectural decorations,
which I brought from the ruins, are decidedly
Moslim, bearing inscriptions in no character
but the early Kufic, or Arabic language; a
remark equally applicable to the coins and
gems usually found there; with the excep-
tion of a few small intaglios on cornelian,
or Oriental onyx; the only evidences of an an-
tiquity more remote than the era of Mohammed
All these circumstances would appear to lead
to one of two conclusions; either that the
remains now seen are those of a city founded
by the first Khalifs of the Ommiad dynasty,
or that additions had been made to the edifices
already erected by the Persians, on a site antece-
dent to the epoch of the advance and victories
of the adherents of Islam. The zenith, how-
ever, of its prosperity was attained under the
earlier Khalifs of the house of Abbas; nor did
it long survive their fall.
Etymology also favours the view above


THE RUINS OF AHWAZ. 295
The river of Ahwaz waters the shores of the
city, in longitude 75°, latitude 31°, and passes
westward to Asker Makrain, in longitude 76°,
latitude 31° 15'. It nearly equals the Tigris
in breadth; and its banks are adorned with
gardens and pleasure-houses, and enriched
by extensive plantations of sugar-cane, and
other valuable productions of the vegetable
kingdom."*
According to Samaani, as stated in his Bio-
graphical and Genealogical Dictionary, its
pristine fame and prosperity no longer existed,
any more than its proud palaces, and learned,
luxurious and wealthy citizens, in the middle
of the twelfth century of our era.f
The notice of the earliest date is extracted
from the Tohfat ul Alem; a modern work, com-
posed for the information, and at the desire,
of the celebrated Mir Alem of Hyderabad, by
Mir Abdul Latif, a learned relative, and na-
tive of Shuster, the present capital of Susiana;
* Abulfeda Taqwen vl Bildan; cap. de Fluviis.
t Kitab ul Ansdb in voce Ahwaz.


296 MEMOIR ON
which commences with such an excellent gene-
ral description of the province, that I shall
submit it to my readers without farther pre-
face or apology. - . .
"The city of Ahwaz is one of the largest
cities of the earth, and in Khuzistan; or in-
deed,, in the other kingdoms of the world, few
are to be seen equal to it in size and extent.
What are now thick and impervious woods,
were once extensive plantations of sugar-cane.
Large vats and manufactories of sugar were
also in existence; and mill-stones, and other
implements of the art of the sugar-baker,
are, even now, so profusely scattered over
the ancient site, that it is impossible to
number them.
"During the dynasty of the Abbassides, the
city was at the height of its prosperity. Its
extent in breadth is supposed to be forty para-
sangs, throughout which ruins and remains of
magnificent edifices, baths, caravanseras, and
mosques, are strewed. Extensive as they may
appear, the inhabitants were always in litiga-


THE RUINS OF AHWAZ. 297
tion regarding houses and ground, as spaces
sufficiently open and ample could not be had
for their accommodation. These Khalifs, with-
in whose dominions was comprehended most
of the habitable world, named this city 'the
source of food and of wealth;' the inhabitants
of which, in their riches and luxury, excelled
the rest of the world.
"The river of Dizful, a stream nearly equal
in size to that of the Kuran, enters the latter
below Bandikir; and here the united waters
are termed the river of Ahw&z. The Bund
of Ahw&z restrained their course, so that the
waters completely overflowed the land, and not
a drop was lost to the aid of cultivation. The
intermediate country was covered with planta-
tions of sugar-cane; and the sugar was convey-
ed to every part of the world, as none of foreign
manufacture was then imported into the terri-
tories of Persia or Rum.
"Thus the inhabitants became rich and lux-
urious, and renowned throughout the earth.
As wealth, however, is the parent of pride and


298 MEMOIR ON
insubordination, these wealthy citizens revolted
from the Khalifs; until Ali ebn Muhammad,
the Astrologer, surnamed 'Prince of the Zan-
gis,' from having recruited his army among
the Zangis or Nubian slaves of Khuzistan and
Basrah, took the field with a powerful force,
and contended for years against the monarchs
of the House of Abbas.
"In the course of these hostilities, the people
served in the ranks of one or other of the rival
armies, and were swept away in numbers by
the chances of war, until, in the end, the Kha-
lifs triumphed. The rebellious spirit of the
people, however, had so disgusted these princes,
that they ceased to favour or embellish the
city; and the remaining population, left to
itself, fell into private feuds and bickerings.
Anarchy and oppression ensued; the weaker
fled, industry ceased, and, with it, the usual
resort of commercial adventurers, and the pro-
duction of wealth. The last poor remnant
of this numerous, wealthy, and luxurious
people abandoned, in despair, their plantations,


THE RUINS OF AHWAZ. 299
and the other sources of their riches and de-
structive pride, and sunk into desolation.
"The ruins are covered with heaps of stone
and fallen masonry; and the inhabitants of
the small modern town are repaid for their
labour, in searching among the ruins, after
the periodical falls of rain, by the discovery
of gold and silver coins, medals, and sculptures.
Several gold coins of the Abbassides were
shown to me, while residing in Basrah, by
an old inhabitant of Ahwaz. They bore on
one side an impression, in the Kufic character,
of the usual creed; on the margin of the
other, the names of the four first Khalifs; and
in the central field, the titles of Alkddir billah,
A. H. 381. Skeletons are not unfrequently
disinterred. The heat of summer, and of the
Sammhm, is here excessive."*
With the exception, perhaps, of Seistdn, no
province of Persia is less known, or more
worthy of investigation, than Khuzistan. To
the antiquary, particularly, it presents many
* Tohfat ul Alim in voce Ahwaz.


300 MEMOIR ON
objects of interest, in the ancient remains at
Ahwdz, Shuster, Susa, and Dizfid. It may
also put forth the additional claim of pos-
sessing the last remnant of the Chaldees and
Sabaeans, the oldest people upon earth, — the
last depositaries, not improbably, of the ear-
liest philosophical and theological systems of
the human race; though, less fortunately, the
originators also of its most complicated my-
thology, and most degrading superstitions; the
professors at once of the purest notions of
an undivided Godhead, and the source of the
impurest heretical leaven which has deformed
Judaism, Christianity, or Mohammedanism.
A considerable portion of their earliest lite-
rature is preserved; and it is not improbable
that, with competent aid, their hitherto mys-
terious doctrines may be satisfactorily eluci-
dated. Major Taylor is fortunately in pos-
session of their most important works, and
of the valuable services of their Chief Priest;
and has made such progress in the language,
as to have already translated some of the most


THE BUINS OF AHWAZ. 301
interesting chapters of their Sidrd Rabbd, or
book Of Scripture, entitled by the erudite and
indefatigable Norbery, 'Liber AdamV
So far the general description of Arabian
authors.—I shall now proceed to give the result
of my own investigations on this interesting
spot. The modern town of Ahwaz occupies
but a small portion of the site of the old city on
the eastern bank of the Karoon; and exhibits
a mean and solitary appearance, contrasted with
the immense mass of ruin that rears its rugged
head behind. Its houses are built entirely of
stone brought from the ruins; and it can only
boast of one decent building,—a mosque appa-
rently modern.
The population at present does not exceed
sixteen hundred souls. Considerable traces
are discernible of the bund that was thrown
across the river; chiefly, if not entirely, for
the purposes of irrigation. A part of the
wall is still standing, remarkable for its high
state of preservation; it is in many places ten
feet high, and nearly as much in breadth;
!
}


302
MEMOIR ON
while it extends upwards of one hundred feet
in length, without any intermediate breach.
Indeed, on examination, I found many single
blocks of stone measuring eight and ten feet.
The river dashes over the bund with great
violence, washing with its surges the stony
base, and, accelerated by a strong current al-
ways running to the southward with rapidity,
is projected into a fall; the sound of which
is to be heard from a very great distance.
Boats of every description are obliged to dis-
charge their goods previous to an attempt at
passing over; and, even then, the passage is
attended with much danger. I understood
that they are frequently swamped.
The Karoon is one hundred and sixty yards
in breadth at each side of the dyke, and of
great depth; therefore the shallowness oppo-
site the town is caused by the great mass of
masonry below the surface. The remains of
this bund are the portions which Kinneir ap-
pears to assign to the remnants of the palace
of Artabanes, the last of the Parthian kings.
Upon what authority he asserts that any palace


THE RUINS OF AHWAZ. 303
was erected across the river, or that it was the
winter residence of Artabanes, I am at a loss
to discover. Kinneir also mentions that many
of the excavations in the rocks bore the exact
form and dimensions of a coffin: for these
sepulchral recesses I looked in vain; although,
towards the south end of the town, there are
several singular cavities, and a few water-mills
erected between the rocks; the latter pro-
bably constructed since his visit.
The remains of a bridge I found where he
places it, namely, behind the town; and here
too commences the whole mass of ruins, extend-
ing, at least, ten or twelve miles in a south-
easterly direction; while its greatest breadth
covers about half that distance. I could not
find any person who had been to the end of
these ruins. According to the inhabitants, their
extent would occupy a journey of two months.
Although this is doubtless an exaggeration, it
may be as well to mention, as an hypothesis,
that they extend to the neighbourhood of
Ram Hormis.
All the mounds are covered with hewn stone,


MEMOIR ON
burnt brick, tiles, and pottery. The first which I
ascended I found nearly two hundred feet high.
In many parts flights of steps are plainly dis-
cernible, in good preservation; and at the base of
this mass of ruins I dug into some graves, and
found stones measuring five and six feet in
length. Hence it was I brought away several
stones with inscriptions upon them in the Kufic
character, and others with fret-work,—all indi-
cative of an era subsequent to the Moham-
medan. I likewise found some Kufic coins
in gold and silver; one was nearly a thousand
years old, and is as fresh in appearance as if it
had been only just from the mint.
In every direction I found vast heaps of cir-
cular flat stones, perforated in the centre, appa-
rently used for the purpose of grinding grain;
though rather colossal, indeed, for such a pur-
pose, as they generally measured four, five,
and six feet in diameter; and some exhibited
characters upon them. The above-mentioned
mound varies in height and breadth, and ex-
tends so far, that my eye could not comprehend
its limits: it is the first of magnitude upon the


THE RUINS OF AHWAZ. 305
plain. Five hundred yards to the west of this
is a ruined edifice, entirely of stone, measuring
fifty feet in height by twenty in breadth.
Here are several flights of steps, which may,
without difficulty, be traced to its summit,
although they are much mutilated, and injured
by exposure to the atmosphere.
About a mile to the east, separated by a deep
ravine, stands an immense pile of materials,
consisting of huge blocks of stone, brick, and
tile of various colours. The Arabs who accom-
panied me, said it was the remains of a palace.
Its ascent is gradual, but fatiguing from the
numerous furrows which have been, apparently,
worn by water in its passage. The height is,
at the lowest estimate, one hundred feet from
the plain below. On its summit there are many
stone foundations and pavements, as fresh as if
only recently laid down, together with several
rounded troughs, some of which were of Perse-
politan marble in its rough state.
From numerous caverns we started large
troops of jackals; and I picked up a number
of porcupine quills. I found it impossible to
x


30$ « MEMOIR ON
descend on the opposite side, the face being
nearly perpendicular, and exhibiting many
frightful chasms. At the base of this pile, the
camel's-thorn sprang up luxuriantly, and con-
siderably relieved the landscape, the general
dreariness and sterility of which were gloomy
beyond all conception.
This ruin is about three miles from the east-
ern bank of the river. Proceeding onwards for
eight hundred yards, in a northerly direction,
a conical mound is very conspicuous : its circum-
ference is six hundred feet: the sides exhibit the
remains of walls nine feet in thickness. At its
foundation, I traced a beautiful wall of mason-
ry for twenty-one feet, which, without doubt,
formed the front of some building, finely exe-
cuted, and very little injured by time: it joins
another ruined heap, covered with vestiges
and fragments of glazed tile, a coarse kind of
crystal, pieces of alabaster, and bits of glass.
Fifty yards in a direct line east, seven square
stone cisterns, sixteen feet long, and propor-
tionably deep, are still to be seen, highly po-
lished internally, and in a perfect state. These


THE RUINS OF AHWAZ. 307
remains of ancient splendour throw a mournful
shade over the desolate scene. Six or seven
aqueducts are to be traced from a ravine, which
probably conducted the water to these cisterns.
Several mounds of masonry form one con-
nected chain of rude, unshapen, flaked rock,
lying in such naturally-formed strata, that the
very idea that any part of the materials had
been accumulated by human labour, from a
distant site, is scarcely admissible. The soil on
which these ruins rest is peculiarly soft and
sandy: the country does not become rocky
until the immediate vicinity of Shushter; and
even water-carriage thence is attended with
considerable toil and expense. Yet the height
of these mountainous ruins and misshapen
masses induces me to think, that the site
must have been by nature elevated at the
time the city was built; although, from the
flatness of the surrounding country, I should
be inclined to oppose such a conjecture; more
particularly as there are no mountains between
the Shut-ul-Arab and the Bucktiari chain,
which is seen hence running N.W. and S.E.
x 2


308
MEMOIR ON
Let me not be supposed to exaggerate, when I
assert that these piles of ruin, irregular, craggy,
and in many places inaccessible, rival in appear-
ance those of the Bucktiari, and are discernible
from them, and for nearly as many miles in an
opposite direction.
It is a singular fact, that almost every mound
I passed over was strewed with shells of diffe-
rent sorts and sizes. I observed them also on
the water's edge, along the banks of the Karoon:
we may therefore suppose, that at some former
period, the river, or more probably canals from
it, flowed through the city. Glass, of all co-
lours, is equally abundant; and fragments of
alabaster and pottery are remarkably fresh.
Many of the kiln-burnt bricks that lie on
the surface of the mounds, appear once to have
borne some written character; but exposure to
the weather, and probably occasional inunda-
tions caused by the melting snows of the adja-
cent mountains, have nearly effaced all traces of
it; though, as I have. already mentioned, the
character on the hewn stone is as clear and plain,
as if only just from the sculptor's hands.


THE RUINS OF AHWAZ. 309
No bitumen was observable on the bricks; a
circumstance I much regretted, as it would have
afforded a strong proof in favour of the anti-
quity of the spot. I however met with seve-
ral small intaglios, generally denominated seals,
and probably used as such; similar to those
found at Hamadan, Nineveh, and Babylon *
The round perforated stones that I have alluded
to, must, from the Arabian accounts already
quoted, have belonged to sugar manufactories.
Their numbers are countless. I followed them
for a great distance in successive rows, in small
dry rivulets; resting so firmly together, that it
would have occupied the labour of several days
to have removed any of them.
The Arabs are always digging up and re-
moving stones, for the purposes of building;
yet their expenditure has been nothing when
compared to the vast quantities of stone and
brick that are scattered about. Perhaps they
have excavated a space of three hundred yards,
* The villagers assured me they had procured many
engraved gems when digging for bricks; and that the Jews
purchased them at good prices, to sell to the Faringheez.


310 MEMOIR ON
but certainly to no greater extent, which is a
proof how abundant the hewn stone is, for
there is not a house in the town built of any
other material. I am convinced, that as large
a city as any now existing, might be erected
from the ruins that I saw. I was prevented
examining many mounds of great magnitude,
that extend to the verge of the horizon, from
not being able to prevail upon any one to ac-
company me. The Sheikh, it appears, did not
deem it safe to permit me to penetrate far into
the desert.
The ruins of Ahwaz extend likewise, for
a considerable distance, on the western bank of
the river, in a northerly direction, and exhibit
the same appearance as the mounds on the
eastern side; though the former are not to be
compared with these in point of magnitude.
The bund that was thrown across, seems to
have nearly connected the city together; but,
as there is abundant room for conjecture, and
much ground for idle supposition, it is better,
and wiser, merely to state what is visible: this
I have attempted to do; though, perhaps, with


THE RUINS OF AHWAZ. 311
a feeble pen. Nevertheless, whatever opinions
may be entertained regarding this once famous
capital of a flourishing province, we must con-
cur in ranking it lower, in point of antiquity,
than either Persepolis or Susa—to say nothing
of the "mighty Babylon"—or, how could we
persuade ourselves, that Alexander the Great,
strict and attentive in observation, as enterpris-
ing and successful in war, should have navi-
gated the Karoon, and have made no mention
of the city, when comparatively insignificant
towns attracted his notice? I repeat, it is my
firm conviction, that this city, now one vast
heap of ruins, was erected long since the days
of that illustrious warrior.
I cannot refrain here from observing how
much we have to regret, that the able and
ingenious author of the Geographical Memoir
on Persia should not more minutely have in-
vestigated and described the ruins of this city;
particularly as he informs us, that he was en-
camped six months on the banks of the Karoon.
From the above description, though inade-
quate to convey a just and accurate idea of


312 RUINS OF AHWAZ.
the extent and magnitude of these ruins, it
will be seen how worthy they are of a diligent
investigation, and what a favourable opportunity
was lost by Kinneir, who was travelling under
the immediate auspices of the Ambassador,—a
circumstance, in itself, peculiarly calculated to
secure a due degree of attention and protection
from the natives of the district.
To conclude, it must ever be a subject of
deep regret, that the difficulty of exploring
the remains of any spot of antiquity should be
heightened by the passions of a people disposed
to turbulence and riot. The desolation which,
under the influence of a barbarous Government,
has for years been advancing over Susiana, one
of the finest provinces of the East, whether as
regards soil and climate, or the facilities of
commercial intercourse, irresistibly impresses
on the mind the mutability of earthly dignity.


BABYLONIAN WRITING.
In a preceding page of this work, I have cursorily adverted
to the characters stamped upon the Babylonian bricks. I
may be permitted to say a few words upon this undeciphered
writing. This character is known by the names of cunei-
form, nail-headed, arrow-headed, as descriptive of its shape;
and Babylonian, or Persepolitan, according to the sites
where it has been discovered. Inscriptions in this character
have been found upon the sides of mountains and monuments,
at the greatest and oldest cities of the East—Hamadan,
the ancient Ecbatana, Susa, Van, Persepolis, Nakshi-
Roustam, Murgaub, the ancient Pasagardee, Babylon, and
Nineveh: and as this style of writing is found in all these
places, we cannot but be fully convinced, that it is the
primeval character of the most ancient people in the
world.


316
BABYLONIAN WRITING.
of time the primitive forms changed, and little of the Sabean
remained in them. Notwithstanding the Sabean alphabet
was nearly abandoned by the Persians, the greater part of
its letters have continued in use among other nations, by
being adopted in their alphabets. There seems to have
been a very early intercourse between the Hebrews, the
Syrians, the Persians, and the Tartars, if one may judge by
analogy of words and signs in common to their primitive
languages, and by some of their alphabets."
There are various opinions with respect to the origin of
writing; but I believe no one has ever succeeded in producing
sufficient proof as to what age it was discovered in, nor who
was the inventor of this useful art. It is not unlikely that
writing was known to the inhabitants before the Flood, be-
cause the arts must have attained to perfection among such
an immense population as had spread itself over the face of
the earth, during an interval of more than two thousand years
. from the creation.
The Antediluvians may not only have excelled in most of
the arts known to us, but in many that sank with the people
to rise no more. After the Deluge, those arts most connected
with personal comfort and convenience, would be the first
used and improved. Building, one of the first, must have
been brought to considerable perfection when the Tower of
Babel was commenced; but the folly of the people, in their
vain attempt to carry it up to Heaven, proves that philo-
sophy and astronomy had made no great figure among them
at that time, though the inferior arts may have attained to


BABYLONIAN WRITING. 317
perfection. Their method of burning bricks has perhaps
never since been equalled.
Some foundations have been discovered at Babylon, which,
from their thickness and depth in the earth, are allowed, by
men of judgment, to be part of the foundations of the Tower
of Babel. The bricks are square, and not unlike floor-bricks:
some of them have come under my inspection; each has
a stamp upon it, containing characters which have some re-
semblance to those of the Persepolitan. This circumstance
might lead us to suppose the Antediluvians may have used the
same sort of characters. These bricks, being in the founda-
tions, must have been moulded previous to the confusion of
tongues; therefore if the words they contain were deciphered,
they would elucidate the question, as to which among the
number that came from Babel, was the Antediluvian lan-
guage; or, in the general confusion, whether no entire re-
mains of it were left.
Some may consider the Hebrew to have been the primitive
tongue, because it was used by the chosen people; some
may plead for the Sanscrit, on the ground that Sanscrit
words are found in every language on earth; while others
may support the Chinese, for its paucity of sounds and its
simplicity of construction. But, after all arguments that can
be adduced on the subject, the conclusion rests entirely on
conjecture and uncertainty.
The order of the Sabean alphabet agrees nearly with that
of the Hebrew; but whether the Hebrew borrowed its order
of the Sabean, or the Sabean of the Hebrew, is a point I am


BABYLONIAN WRITING.
319
presumed author of the book of Job, we are utterly at a loss
to know to whom to ascribe the wonderful discovery.
Note.—" The ordinary buildings were constructed of
bricks, baked in the sun only; these were in their nature loose
and friable, and easily reduced to their original elements.
The walls and public edifices in general consisted of
bricks burned in the furnace; these, being hard and durable,
were carried away for the purpose of constructing Seleucia,
Ctesiphon, Bagdad, Bussora, and all the other great cities
that rose to eminence upon the decline of Babylon. When,
in addition to all this, it is considered that this same system
of depredation has been going on for above 2000 years,
in a country which, from its situation, has ever been the
favourite region for the erection of great cities by the
successive tyrants of Asia, and yet that such immense
masses of them, as described by recent travellers, should
still remain in the neighbourhood of Hillah, it must excite
his wonder, that, instead of the enormous heaps of ruins
described in their pages, any remains at all of the Babylo-
nian capital should at this day exist."—Appendix to Observa-
tions on the Ruins of Babylon: by the Rev. Thomas Maurice,
pp. 200, 201 4to.
Note.—" We may be permitted to conjecture, that the
Euphrates once pursued a course different from that which
jt now follows, and that it flowed between the pyramid of
Haroot and Maroot, and the mound and ruins already
mentioned as half a mile farther to the west. The present
course of the river would appear to justify this conclusion;


AN ITINERARY,
FROM BUSSORAH TO THE CITY OF TABREEZ,
OR TAURIS,
By SEMAVAH, MESHED ALI, KUFA, HILLAH, BAGDAD,
AND SULIMANIAH,
PERFORMED BY THE AUTHOR IN THE SUMMER OF 1828.


ITINERARY.
FROM BUSSORAH TO BAGDAD.
Quit the modern city of Bussorah, or Basrah, by the
„ Zobeir Gate.
30. Over a barren desert, pass some watch-towers on the
left, and also a pretty tomb.
15. See the ruins of Old Basrah.
5. On an eminence to the left, a very ancient lofty pillar,
and projecting wall, being the remains of the Musjed
of Ali, the nephew of Mohammed. Keppel has
erroneously stated this ruin to be the mosque of Ali
the Barmecide. Right, a tamarisk and well.
5. Observe the remains of old Mohammedan foundations
and pavements, and cross the dry bed of a canal.
5. The clean town of Zobeir.


ITINERARY.
Cross an aqueduct in good preservation.
Vestiges of wall, and a bastion of the old city.
The town of Sooksheeook, standing on the western
bank of the Euphrates, over a dreary, bladeless, flat
desert, without a single undulation of surface,
and no water. The plain being elevated only
fifteen feet above the level of the river, it is in
autumn overflowed, and impassable for horsemen.
Sooksheeook is inhabited by the Montetik Arabs.
Until lately it was the Northern limit of the pow-
erful Sheikh of Montefidge, whose control now
extends to Semavah. The inhabitants of Sook-
sheeook breed and export some of the finest
horses in Irak.
The large village of Semavah, on the river's bank-
Country still uncultivated. The male inhabitants of
this town are extremely tall and hideous; the fe-
males, beautiful, and much secluded.
Cross from Irak into Mesopotamia, by the Euphrates,
which is here nearly fordable, and only fifty yards
broad. Its bed is drained to irrigate this part of
Mesopotamia, which is covered with the richest pas-
turage, on a soil producing all the necessaries of life.
Its innumerable canals communicate with a river so
happily situated, as to command a ready commerce
with all the towns on the Euphrates and Tigris; and
its countless villages, surrounded by water, and luxu-
riantly shaded by thick shrubberies, are very thickly


ITINERARY.
325
peopled by the Khezail Arabs, who are civil and
hospitable to strangers.
The deserted town of Romaheyyeh, cut by the Eu-
phrates, which is near this one hundred yards wide.
The dead bodies from Lemloon are here conveyed
over in Kooffahs, on their way to Messhed Ali.
The village of Sorah, on the western side of the river.
Plantations of tobacco. Country, flat, dreary, and
uninteresting.
The old, decayed city of Kufa, founded by Omar.
Four miles to the westward, Messhed Ali stands con-
spicuous. It is governed by a Zabit, who is subject
to the Pasha of Bagdad; and yields a great annual
revenue, exacted of those who journey hither,
as well as by the dead who are brought from every
part of Asia.—The usage of disposing of the corpses
deserves notice. Those relatives who can only
afford a limited donation for the supposed salva-
tion of the departed, are looked upon disrepu-
tably; and the defunct is, in consequence, thrown
headlong into a deep well dug for the purpose; but
those whose offerings are liberal, can get their dead
easily interred ; until others, equally rich, and ambi-
tious for a sacred spot, arrive; then the remains of
the first are removed from its grave, and cast into
the well, to make room for those of the second.
—The natives here are very jealous and uncivil to
strangers. The author has reason to remember the


ITINERARY.
place, as he was unceremoniously attacked, and
nearly shot; it was only upon his invoking the pro-
tection of Ali, that he was permitted to continue his
journey.
Over an ugly desert extends a succession of mounds
composed of the usual vestiges of brick, tile, &c.
some of which are of considerable elevation. These
ruins stretch to within two miles of the western
boundary of the site of Babylon.
The town of Hillah, situated upon the banks of the
Euphrates, and occupying a part of the site of an-
cient Babylon.
The city of Bagdad. Already described, and governed
by a Pashaw of three tails. The rate of travelling
this journey may be averaged at four miles an hour.
BAGDAD TO SULIMANIAH.
The population of Bagdad is at present estimated at
sixty thousand souls.
"Quit Bagdad by a gate at the North, and proceed in
that direction, through much cultivation, with the
Tigris, and many rich productive gardens on the
left.
Pass the remains of the lines thrown up by Nader
Shah, in the year A. D. 1735, on the Persians be-
sieging the seat of the Caliphs.


ITINERARY.
329
Sulimaniah, the capital of Koordistan, standing in the
centre of an amphitheatre of mountains, called the
Sharizool (the ancient Siozuros) chain, was built
by Suliman Pasha, of Bagd ad. Mahmoud Pasha, its
present governor, is nominally under the authority
of the Bagdad government, although the revenue
is reaped by the Persian. The city contains eight
thousand inhabitants; but the Pasha's officers pre-
tend that they amount to fifteen thousand, nearly
all of whom are Koords. The traveller will find
a good lodging in the house of M. Morandi,
an Italian doctor, who is much attached to the
English. The time occupied from Dolan to this
city, cannot convey an idea of the distance, the
greater part of the road being very rugged and diffi-
cult to pass. The usual rate of travelling through
Koordistan is about four miles an hour.
SULIMANIAH TO TABREEZ.
Proceed, on quitting the capital of southern Koordistan,
in an easterly direction, over a stony road and stu-
pendous mountains, crossing at intervals small tor-
rents, which form pretty cascades, and give the
rocks a fine polish by their action. In the ravines,
between the mountains, are shady shrubberies of
apple, pear, cherry, walnut, mulberry, oak, and


332 ITINERARY.
B. M.
3. — Observe the remains of a stone dyke erected across a
river which runs into the Lake Ouroomia. Quit
the bank of the river, and proceed over a large bar-
ren plain.
2. The town of Miundow in the plain. Here are three
mosques, two caravanserais, and a well-supplied
bazaar. According to the estimated distance of the
natives, Lake Ouroomia is about ten hours' journey
to the left, or north. The course of the road N. 30°
E. by compass.
4. — A straggling village at the extremity of the plain.
— -10. Ascend some hills.
— 20. A distant view of Lake Ouroomia, over an uninterest-
ing plain.
2. — Descend into a valley, and cross a bridge over a rapid
stream.
— 30. Enter the large town of Bonow, or Binaub, standing
in the midst of verdant meadows, rich orchards,
and smiling gardens, affording abundance of fruit
of every kind. On the east, a lofty range of moun-
tains bounds the view, which is extremely beau-
tiful.
— 15. Ascend from the town, by a steep road running along
the foot of the mountains on the right. Nine miles
distant on the left, the north-eastern shore of the
lake interrupts the view of cloud capped heights.
7. _ After a very long and tedious defile, a gradual descent
into a plain. The lake about two miles distant.


LIST OF JOURNEYS
PERFORMED BY THE AUTHOR IN THE YEARS 1826, 1827, 1828.
1. From Bussorah to the ruins of Ahw&z, in Khuzistan,
the ancient Susiana.
2. From Bussorah to the ruins of Shapour, by Bushire,
Kauzeroon and Shiraz.
3. From Bussorah to Babylon, by Bagdad and Hillah.
4. From Bussorah to Seleucia, and Ctesiphon, by the Tigris.
5. From Bussorah to Bagdad, by Irak Arabia, Ul Jezira,
and Mesapotamia.
6. From Bagdad to Erbill, the ancient Arbella.
7. From Bagdad to the ruins of Nineveh, by Kerkouk, the
ancient Corcura, vel Demetrius.
8. From Bagdad to Tauris, the capital of Azerbijan, by
Sulimaniah and Lake Ouroomia.
9. From Tauris to Tiflis, the capital of Georgia.
10. From Tiflis to St. Petersburgh, by Caucasus, Novo-
Tcherkask, Tula, and Moscow.
11. From St. Petersburgh to Lubec, Hamburg,and London.
THE END.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,
Dorset Street, Fleet Street.











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