File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎262r] (532/834)

at its apex to the south, are the spring of Firzan with the
subterranean aqueduct or Kariz of the ordinary Persian type
[here called Kharaz or Saji (Saqi)] leading from it to the
gardens of Sulaimiya and a series ot three bottomless, presum
ably spring-fed reservoirs, from one of which flows a perennial,
but exiguous, supply of water in a narrow open channel called
Saih, which irrigates the lucerne fields of Ibn Sand’s stud farm
of Qurain, while subterranean aqueducts like that of Firzan, but
now run dry, connect the other two with the same channel.
These reservoirs, known collectively as the Aiyun of Kharj, are
situated close together about six miles south of Sulaimiya under
the cliff of the Biyadh (the central reservoir called Ain al Dhila
lying in a gaping cleft at the foot of the cliff itself), and it is, I
firmly believe, to them that the district owes its name, though
local etymology is not with me and derives the name from the
fact that in days long past this valley was the source (makhraj)
of the corn supply of Mecca ! I base m}^ opinion, which involves
a change of spelling (namely Kharq, meaning a cleft) but none
of pronunciation, on the analogy of the name of Ajiaj derived
from a precisely similar phenomenon, on that of at least three
localities called Khafs, all of which are named from natural
reservoirs in great rock clefts attributed to the falling of stars,
and generally on the fact that Arab geographical nomenclature
is so largely based, for very natural reasons, on phenomena
affecting the water supply. An actual instance of the use of the
word Kharq to signify a cleft of this kind is supplied by the
extraordinary grotto hill called Makhruq which is one of the
sights of the Riyadh oasis.
However, whatever the etymology of the name may be,
there is no doubt whatever that these two sources of perennial
irrigation were the backbone of the district in the. past and the
cause of its great prosperity. Each of them is overlooked by
the debris of a forgotten city ; the one astride of the northern
extremity of the Firzan ridge, and the other ou the summit of
the cliff behind the reservoirs. The very situation of these cities,
raised well above the level of the plain in strange contrast to the
settlements of the present day huddled up in the middle of the
various oases, suggests the sojourn of an alien race. Moreover,
the debris that remains is not of the mud buildings known to
the modern Arab, but of stone and mortar, disposed in countless
circles of various sizes, each outlined by large blocks of stone
round its circumference, the interior space being filled in with
rubble and mortar and generally traversed by a diameter of
stone blocks similar to those of the circumference. The circles
rise to a point at the centre about four or five feet above
ground-level, giving the appearance of a vast number of cairns
set in rows along the slopes of the ridge. Their average diameter
seemed to be about six to ten yards, while the biggest I saw was
no less than forty-five yards across and about six feet high in
the centre, with huge blocks of rock round the circumference,