'Memoir on Part of Mesopotamia contained between Sheriat-el-Beytha on the Tigris to Tel Ibrahim, by Lieutenant J B Bewsher, Surveyor in Mesopotamia' [‎113v] (4/16)

Ain Hadawiyeh.
Ain Serakha.
Kathemain.
Tomb of Zobeyda.
Baghdad.
Medresseh or Col
lege.
Suk el Ghuzl.
Saklawiyeh.
Masaoodi.
Akr Kuf.
rountrv about is still covered with bricks and debris
'3£ ot.nl thai ■!«« « .1 lir.. «gbl S ..d ground for tin.
•"C™; .wo holloo-e along riS 0 '' Sy TSfl S
made by the rush of water ^ Aineh Hadawiyeh, and the northern,
, o foA ,i and so deep that water remains in it all through the
hot"Lason'^On the Tastem bank is a' rnin completely below the level of the
i Tf i« mrrmo^ed of bricks imbedded in bitumen. These aie 13 inches
square, arid 2| to 4 inches thick ; they are cut out of the bitumen in which they
^T^^town'o^^Smahi^is d^Sered^roumi^ and derives its name from the tomb
of two Imams bnried there. These arc Imam Musa el Kathcm the seventh in
direct descent from Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet and his grandson
Mahomed bin Ali Keza, surnamed et Taki, or the pure. 1 he tomb consists of
two domes, covered with gilt tiles, and four minarets, very prettily built with
enamelled tiles. The whole is enclosed within four high walls, which partially
hide the sacred precincts from the eye of the unbeliever. Prom a distance the
domes present a very beautiful appearance, and scivc as land-marks foi many
miles
Kathemain contains about 15,000 settled inhabitants, whose numbers are swelled
by influx of pilgrims. These are all of the sect of Shiahs. Four miles to the
south-east of this shrine stands the tomb of Zobeyda, the favourite wife of Haroun
er Rasheed, a name familiar to all readers of the Arabian Nights. This has been
piously kept in tolerable repair up to the present time, and was accessible not
many years ago, but the entrance is now bricked up.
A survey of Baghdad and its environs on a largfe scale was made by Commander
Jones and Mr. Coilingwood, of the Indian Navy, and forwarded to Government,
with a memoir on the province. These were published in the Bombay Govern
ment Records, No. XLIII. It will be sufficient to note here that Baghdad was
built in the year 145 of the Hegira (A.D. 762), by Munsoor, the second Khalif.
The accounts given by the Arab historians are both interesting and amusing.
Many of these stories concerning the building of the town and the events that
occurred during the reigns of the Abbasside Khalifs, have found their way into
Crichton's Arabia and other works.
In A.H. 656, Mustassem Billah, the last Khaljf, was put to death by Hulaka
Khan when he captured the city. Most of the public buildings were then destroyed,
and it is probably due in a great measure to this prince that Baghdad of the
present day shows but few traces of its former magnificence.
After being taken and retaken by the Turks and Persians, Baghdad was finally
conquered by Sultan MUrad IVth., in A,D. 1638. " Since that period," to quote
Crichton, " the once illustrious city of the Abbassides has been degraded to
" the seat of a Turkish Pashalic." Among the few remaining ruins that mark the
Abbasside dynasty in Baghdad may be seen the Medresseh or College built by
Mustanser, in the year 630 of the Hegira (A.D. 1232). The inscription on it is
being now restored. One of the oldest buildings in the town is the minaret of a
mosque called Jama es Suk el Ghuzl, after the thread market near which it is.
Commander Jones determined the position of this minaret, which he gives in his
map of Baghdad, as in latitud3 33-20 north, longitude 44.25 east. Close to the
westward of Baghdad are several deep openings of the Saklawiyeh canal, or, more
properly speaking, of the marsh formed by the Saklawiyeh.
Through one of these, Masaoodi, Captain Lynch brought the " Euphrates
steamer in 1838. The Saklawiyeh is now closed, both on the Euphrates and
Tigris. 1
The large and conspicuous ruin now called Akr Kuf is I(U miles, a little north
of west, from the bridge of boats at Baghdad. This ruin is composed of sun-dried
bricks, 14 inches square and nearly 4 inches thick.
Between the layers of bricks is one of reeds or mats, and between every seventh
and eighth an extra thickness of these reeds can be noticed. This mass of sun^
dried bricks is solid to all appearances, is nearly square in shape, and stands on a
rum of apparently kiln-hurnt bricks and lime. on a
Mr' Loftus! r0Un ^ ed by eXtensive ruins ' wllich have be e n partially opened by
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