'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎71] (204/458)

MEMOIR ON THE “ TIGRIS.”
with the briet information, “ these towns are nearly equal in greatness
all d in littleness.’'* It is named, too, in a manuscript work entitled the
Kltab-al-Ak&lim, by an anonymous writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. , who is supposed to have
compiled his description of the Euphrates and Tigris about five cen
turies back.| Beyond the name Akbara, amid a catalogue of other
towns, standing on the banks of the Tigris, we have however nothing
recorded, and Mas’ Udi, though he notices Tekrit, Sdmara, and Bagh
dad, on this portion of the Tigris, in the only book of his that I
have access to, is provokingly silent with regard to other places
which, from their size, must have been almost equally distinguished.
From this I conclude they had dwindled into mere villages in his
day, § (A* H. 332,) not worthy of even a passing glance.
The neighbourhoods of Akbara and WAneh are much visited by
parties of the Bedoin Arabs, who remain concealed among the ruins,
in hopes of meeting with caravans of pilgrims that sometimes venture
to use this road on a devotional tour to Samara. The tomb of Kef
Ali affords a hiding-place, and a well, excavated in the old bed of the
stream as a pious work for the use of these religious way-farers, renders
it a fithostelrie , for the nomade robber. Some fifteen years ago Ali,
then Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. of Baghdad, placed a garrison at Wfineh, in hopes that its
presence would deter these banditti from infesting the Dijeil districts,
the garrison being supplied with water by a cut from that canal re
excavated at the expense of the Grovernment. The precariousness of the
* See translations of Ibu Hokal by Sir W. Ouseley D’Herbelot, who, in a notice of this geo-
erapher styles him “fortprolixe” His descriptions of the towns on the Tigris are certainly
otherwise.
We have enumerated in succession in this work, below Samara, the towns of OAdesiyet,*
Al-Ajmeti, Al-Alth,* Al-Khatireti. Al-Suwama, Akbara,* Awaneh,* Busrey,* YezdghS,
Berdan, Mezrakah, Katirbal, Shemasiyeh, then Baghdad, which is named the “ city of
peace,” divided by the Tigris. Of this extensive list I have found five only those marked
with the asterisk—retaining their ancient names in the country, independent of Baghdad, but
hope to assign a locality to the rest before long. These doubtless were in ruins long before
the Kitab-al-Akalim was compiled, or perhaps were then merely ekeing out a bare ex
istence, (many of them, under another name,—) af er the excavation of the Dijeib Canal had
in some measure restored the supply of water so much needed subsequent to the irruption
the Tigris made to the Eastward. The author doubtless collected his names from existing
works, when describing (in general terms only) the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris. I
indeed, led to think that their mo^e prosperous days had passed prior to the Islam period^
from the words of Masudi, in Chap. xi. page 254 of Springer’s translation, which I shzdl
subsequently refer to at large, when considering the site of Opis, and the great damage the
country sustained by the destruction of the Katul-al-Kesrawi Canal.
$ “ Maruj-al D’hahab wa m’aa den aljahir this however is a general history, and hut
casually treats of geographical subjects. I have tried in vain to procure the Akhbarez-zaman*
a pure geographical work by the same author, in detail, where doubtless he is more explicit »
I believe it does not exist at present in Baghdad. _ . _
§ Waneh, or Awaneh as it is written in the books, is an old city about a mile to the yE. or
the Akbara ruins on the old course of the Tigris. I have not yet visited the spot, but shall
take an early opportunity of fixing its position.