'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎41r] (86/862)

DESCRIPTION OF THE LAND
45
Tikrit to Baghdad (direct distance 100 miles; by river 143 miles)
At Tikrit the Tigris is controlled by high conglomerate banks about
3 miles apart, the bed being scooped out of the bare plain on either
side. The river flows close under the western bank, which for about
2 miles has 8o-foot cliffs scored by ravines. It is about 250 yards wide
at low water, but increases to 600 yards in flood. Tikrit was in being
in the seventh century b.c. and became a centre of Christianity before
the Arab period, during which it was counted as the northernmost
town in Iraq proper. It was later famous for its churches and
monastery. It is still a small town crowning the western cliffs.
From here southwards to Baghdad the river is of great interest,
both to the geographer and to the historian, for in this section near
Qadisiya the Tigris enters its delta and its course is known to have
made at least two great changes. Moreover, its waters in the past fed
an intricate system of irrigation, and populous towns stood on its
banks and canals. To-day little remains except a few villages and a
number of ruin mounds littered with broken pottery, some of which
can be identified with ancient towns. .
About 16 miles down-river from Tikrit, on the opposite bank an
4 miles below the small village of Daur, begins the upper reach (Al
Katul al Kisrawi) of the ancient Nahrwan canal, cut by the Sas^ni
kings (photo. 10). Thence south for a distance of 16 miles the high
eastern bank of the river is strewn with the ruins of Abbasid Samarra
(fig. 13). Though a capital for little more than half a century (a.d.
836-802), the seven successive caliphs who lived there mostly as
prisoners’ of their Turkish bodyguard—built palaces and mosques
and laid out pleasure-gardens, the plan of which is clearly revea e
from the air to-day, though on the ground they appear as a jumble of
mounds. The surviving walled town of Samarra is at the southern
end of the complex, north of the smaller ruin-field of Mat.ra which
stood near a second head of the Nahrwan canal (photo. ™ 1 )-
It is below Samarra and beyond the glass-manufacturing Abbasid
town of Qadisiya that is centred the greatest interest. Much digging
and research are still required before the river’s history can be deter
mined with accuracy, for, apart from its larger changes of course, the
river is constantly undergoing minor development and eroding new
channels. An outstanding fact is that along its present course no
pre-Seleucid town has yet been identified south of Samarra, thoug
the names of some that stood on its banks are known. Foremost of
these is Babylonian Upi or Opis, and until this is fixed, the course in