'The lands of the Eastern Caliphate Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia from the Moslem conquest to the time of Timur' [‎95] (128/586)

VI]
JAZlRAH.
95
fortress built of mortared stone protected the town. Nasibin was
visited by Ibn Jubayr in 580 (1184), who praises its gardens; in
its Friday Mosque were two tanks, and a bridge crossed the river
Hirmas where it flowed by the town ; also there was the hospital
(Maristan) and several colleges among other notable buildings.
Ibn Batfltah who was here in the 8th (14th) century describes
Nasibin as then for the most part in ruins, but its Friday Mosque
was still standing with the two great tanks, and the gardens
round the city produced the rose-water for which it was so
celebrated. Mustawfi, who gives the circuit of the walls as 6500
paces, praises the grapes and other fruits grown here, and its wine,
but the dampness of the climate, he says, made Nasibin an
unhealthy place. He, too, speaks of the excellence of its roses,
also the abomination of the scorpions, which were equalled in
virulence by the plague of gnats 1 .
Ras-al-'Ayn, 'the Spring-head,' near the sources of the Khabur
(the Roman Resaina, on the river Chaboras), was famous for its
numerous springs, said to number 360 in all, and their waters
made the surrounding country a great garden. Of these springs
the 'Ayn-az-Zahiriyah was supposed to be fathomless, and the
stream flowing from this ran into the Khabur, by which pleasure-
boats are described as travelling down from garden to garden
from Ras-al-'Ayn to Karkisiya on the Euphrates. Ras-al-'Ayn is
described by Ibn Hawkal as a walled town, having gardens and
many mills within its circuit; and the arable fields stretched for
20 leagues beyond the houses. Mukaddasi describes a small lake
at the chief spring, two fathoms deep, but the water so clear that
a silver piece could clearly be seen at the bottom. The buildings
of Ras-al-'Ayn were of stone, well mortared, and Ibn Jubayr who
passed through the town in 580 (1184) mentions its two Friday
Mosques and the fine colleges and bath houses which stood along
the banks of the Khabur. In his time the city apparently had no
wall, though in the 8th (14th) century this must have been
rebuilt, for Mustawfi describes it as 5000 paces in circuit. He
adds that co^on, corn, and grapes were grown here abundantly.
1 I. H. 140, 142, 143. I. S. 12. Muk. 140. I.J. 240. Yak. iii. 559;
iv. 787. I. B. ii. 140. Mst. 167.