'The lands of the Eastern Caliphate Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia from the Moslem conquest to the time of Timur' [‎36] (67/586)

36
'IR A K .
[chap.
at some distance from the market place. Ibn Rustah at the close
of the 3rd (9th) century describes the toll-barrier which was set
across the Tigris here, and kept closed by the officer of the
customs. He writes:—'the toll-bar (Al-Maasir) is the name
given to the places on the Tigris where two boats have been
moored on the one bank of the river, opposite two other boats on
the further bank, which two likewise are firmly moored. Then
across the stream they have carried cables, the ends being fastened
on either bank to these boats, and thus ships are prevented from
passing at night without paying toll.' Mukaddasi in the 4th (10th)
century refers to Dayr-al-'Akfll as one of the finest cities of this
region of the river bank, but afterwards the bed of the Tigris
changed and Yakut in the 7th (13th) century says that the great
convent then lay a mile distant from the Tigris, standing solitary
in the midst of the plain. Mustawfi, however, in the following
century still counts Dayr-al-'Akul as a large town, having, he adds,
a damp climate on account of its surrounding palm-groves.
Also on the east bank, but lying three leagues above Dayr-al-
'Akul, was the small town of As-Sib, for distinction called Sib of
the Bani Kuma, which was noted for its olive-groves, and famous
in history for the battle which took place here in 262 (876), when
Ya'Mb the Saffarid was defeated by the troops of the Caliph
Mu'tamid. A short distance below Dayr-al-'Akul stood the
monastery of Marmari, surnamed the Disciple, otherwise called
Dayr Kunna (or Kunnah), which lay a mile to the east of the
Tigris, and 16 leagues from Baghdad. The historian Shabusti in
martyrdom ' of a saint. The Musalld or ' praying-place' was more especially
{ that used at the services of the great festivals. The J^reat Mosxpie^on the
other hand, was where weekly the Friday prayers were said, and the sermon
(Khutbah) preached; and it was called Masjid-al-Jami', ' the Mosque of the
Congregation'—terms often translated by 'the Cathedral,' or 'Congregational
1 Mosque.' The poss ession of a Jdm or Minibar (pulpit, for the Friday
Sermon) generally is a criterion of the size of a town, or village ; and the fact
v is often mentioned as such by the Arab geographers; Istakhri for instance
gives a long list of places in Fars which had, or had not a Mimbar; and this
comes to much the same as if it were said that in such and such a village,
in a Christian land, stood the parish church. At a later date the term Masjid-
al-Jami' became changed to Masjid-al-Jum'ah, meaning ' the Friday Mosque,
but this is not the classical usage.