'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎64] (197/458)

64
COMMANDER F. JONES.
building, known by either name of Khan Tarmiyeh * or Suadiyeh, being
erected on the border of both districts. Tarmiyeh, immediately adjoining
that of Suadiyeh to the North, like all other works of the kind, is of a
square form, but larger than most Kh&ns in this country, constructed
entirely of kiln-baked bricks, and boasting of a fine entrance and other
ornamental work : it must have cost a considerable sum to erect. It
has a double range of vaulted apartments, one each side, and a capacious
area, both capable of holding I should say a thousand men, with their
merchandize and cattle. The high road to Mosul, as late as fifty years
back, led along the West bank of the Tigris through the Dijeit dis
tricts, past Tekrit and Khan Kharneineh, a similar building just to
the South of the Jebel Mak’hul,—thus shortening the time occupied
at present, on the road East of the Tigris, by three days. Since
the vigorous days of Baud Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. the line has been abandoned ; the
encroachments of the Arabs, and the power the Shammar Bedoins
had attained to under the celebrated Sufuk, rendering it impassable,
even as a pilgrim route to Samara,—unless, indeed, a large body of
armed men were retained, at the private expense of the parties, as
an escort on the journey. A dried-up well, facing the doorway, for
merly afforded a supply of water sufficient for the purposes of the
establishment ; so long as it yielded moisture the Bedoin hordes
resorted to the spot after the commercial path had been abandoned,
and by way of pastime amused themselves, while on the look-out for
prey, in demolishing the interior. One pulpit, and the platform where
on the inmates congregated for prayer within the building, is still per
fect, but the other has been wilfully thrown down, a few years back it
is said, by a lawless band of Shammar. The ruins of an old Kh&n are
seen about a mile South of the present structure, and a deep indenta
tion in the soil shows that the old course of the Tigris either led this
way, or later inundations of the 1 armiyeh Bake have found a vent in
this direction on thei r way to join the marshes around Akr-Kuf. The
* Appendix I Khan or “caravanserai’; buildings, at fixed halting-places, on the great
plam» leading from city to city ; their erection is recommended in the Koran as a pious work,
and the great roads of commerce m former ages were well furnished with them The irrup-
tion of the Arabs, and the general insecurity’consequent on the weataess of ^Government,
have served to rum many of these useful edifices ; nor for the same reason are charitable
works of this nature at the present time persevered in. Herodotus mentions them in his day
under the name Karakevcreis and the y doubtless existed from the earliest periods of com
munication between countries in the East. See Heeren's Asiat. Hist., vol. I. page 31, and
of ^coommodation. 1 ' 815 aU excelll!nt P ara K r aph on the construction and use of these places