'The lands of the Eastern Caliphate Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia from the Moslem conquest to the time of Timur' [‎135] (170/586)

IX]
RUM OR ASIA MINOR.
135
Al-Basiliyun (lake of the Forty Martyrs), thence 10 to As-Sind,
thence 18 to Hisn Sinadah (the fortress of Synades), thence 25 to
Maghl, and then 30 miles on to the forest at 'Ammliriyah.
From 'Ammtiriyah (Amorion) it is 15 miles to the villages of
Al-Harrab, and two on to the river Saghari (the Sangarius) of
'Ammuriyah; thence 12 to Al-'Ilj, 'the Barbarian/ and thence
15 to Falami-al-Ghabah, 'Falami of the Forest/ then 12 to
Hisn-al-YahM, 'the Jews' Fortress/ and 18 miles on to Sandabari
(Santabaris), 35 miles beyond which lies the Meadow of the
King's Asses at Darawliyah (Dorylaeum). From Darawliyah it
is 15 miles to the fortress of Ghanibuli, and three on to Kanais-
al-Malik, £ the King's Churches ? (the Basilica of Anna Comnena),
then 25 miles to At-Tultil, 'the Hills/ and 15 to Al-Akwar,
whence in 15 miles you reach Malajinah (Malagina). From here
it is five miles to Istabl-al-Malik, ' the King's Stables/ and 30 on to
Hisn-al-Ghabra^ £ the Dusty Fortress ' (namely Kibotos, whence the
ferry goes over to Aigialos), and thence it is 24 miles on to
Al-Khalij, ' the Strait' (which is the Bosporus of Constantinople).
And over against (namely south of) the fortress of Al-Ghabra is
Nikiyah (Nicaea). This ends the account in Ibn Khurdadbih of
the Constantinople road 1 .
Off the line of the great high road to Constantinople, the
earlier Arab writers had but very incorrect notions of the
geography of Asia Minor;—as is shown, for instance, by the
confusion which Ibn Hawkal makes between the two very distinct
rivers Alis and Saghirah, the Halys and Sangarius. The names
of a number of Greek towns appear, in an Arabicized form, in the
1 I. K. 100—102, no, 113. Some other variants of this route are given
by Ibn Khurdadbih (pp. 102 and 103), for which the distances have been added
by Idrist (Jaubert, ii. 308, 309), and compare especially Ramsay, H. G. A. M,
pp. 236 and 445. Professor Ramsay (see Geographical Journal for Oct. 1903,
p. 383) has identified the famous fortress of the Sclavonians (Hisn-as-Sakalibah)
with the ruins of the Byzantine fortress, built of black marble, and now known
as Anasha-Kal'ahsi, which is perched high on the mountain overlooking, from
the south, the vale of Bozanti (Badhandun, Podandos). The Byzantine castle
of Loulon, which the Arabs called Luluah, * the Pearl/ he has also identified
(loc. cit. pp. 401 and 404, where a photograph of the place is given). It lay to
the north, above As-Safsaf, 4 the Willows/ which marked the settlement in the
valley below, where the Greek town of Faustinopolis had stood.