'Through Persia on a side-saddle' [‎277] (318/360)

THE KARUN RIVER AND AHWAZ
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quickly, as later on it might be impossible to procure it.
About a mile further up the river lay Ahwaz, a consider
able mud village, boasting a big fort, a white-domed
mosque, and the only two palms in the neighbourhood.
The town was rich in sugar-cane plantations in the days of
the Abbasside dynasty, at which period it reached the
climax of its prosperity; but, unluckily for itself, it
revolted from the Khalifs and engaged in a long war with
them in which it was finally defeated, and gradually
descended to its present state of decay. It once belonged
to the widely spread Nestorian Church, and to go back
to far earlier ages, it formed part of the kingdom of Elam
often mentioned in the Bible, A long sandstone ridge
rises abruptly from the flat, sandy desert, stretching for
miles behind Bunder Nasseri, and its continuation makes
the reefs in the Karun River below Ahwaz. In the time of
the Sassanians a great dam had been built across the river,
making it possible to ascend nearly to Shuster ; but as this
was broken away, only traces of the old masonry being left,
it was impossible for the Malamir to ascend higher than
Bunder Nasseri. Therefore all goods intended for Shuster
had to be carried along a tramway up to Ahwaz, where
they were reloaded on board the Shushan, a steamer
bought from Messrs. Cook & Sons, who had had it made
for the Nile expedition, and which ran to within seven
miles of Shuster.
Sharks come up the cool water of the Karun from the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. during the summer, and are often to be seen
playing about this dam, attacking every now and again
some unlucky inhabitant of the place, constant casualties
occurring near Shuster from this cause.
There was more life on the broad expanse of desert