'The lands of the Eastern Caliphate Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia from the Moslem conquest to the time of Timur' [‎11] (40/586)

INTRODUCTORY.
ii
Kirman were in communication, and thence eastward across the
Great Desert was the way to Zaranj in Sijistan; while south-east
and south from Shiraz two roads branched towards the Persian
Gulf ports, one passing through Darabjird to Surii near Hurmuz,
the other to Siraf, at one time the chief harbour of Fars.
Returning once again to Baghdad, the central point, we find
that the great Pilgrim road to Mecca and Medina left West
Baghdad, going south to Ktifah on the border of the Arabian
desert, which it crossed almost in a direct line to the Hijaz. A
second Pilgrim road started from Basrah, running at first nearly
parallel with the other, which it finally joined two stages north of
Mecca. Then from Baghdad, north-west, a road went to the
Euphrates at Anbar, and thence up that river to Rakkah, a centre
point for roads across the Syrian desert to Damascus, and for
many other highways going north to the Greek frontier towns.
Finally from Baghdad, north, there were high roads up both banks
of the Tigris to Mosul, whence Amid was reached on the one
hand, and Kirkisiya on the Euphrates to the south-west. From
Amid there were roads communicating with most of the frontier
fortresses towards the Greek country.
This in brief was the road system under the Abbasids, which,
centring in Baghdad, connected the capital by a system of post-
stages with the outlying provinces of the empire. The system
is very carefully described by the Arab geographers, and for pur
poses of reference it may be well now to give in chronological
order a short account of our contemporary authorities, on whose
works we rely for the facts set down in the following chapters 1 .
The earlier of our authorities date from the middle of the 3rd
(9th) century, and the first geographical treatises of the Arabs
take the form of Road Books. These set forth in detail the various
itineraries, are interspersed with short accounts of the towns
passed through, and give the revenues and products, in turn, of
each province. Of these Road Books we possess four, in par
ticular, which are of primary importance, and they complement
1 For further particulars of the Arab geographers see Palestine under the
Moslems (London, 1890), the Introductory chapter; also for more detail, the
Introduction to the French translation of Abu-l-Fida, by M. Reinaud (Paris,
1848).