'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎111] (244/458)

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MEMOIR ON THE “ TIGRIS.’'
there is little doubt, but that the K&tul-al-Kesi £wi really existed
in a highly florishing condition, in the very early history of those
kipo-s under the name of Duras* —the Dura of scripture perhaps,f
certainly the DuraJ of Zosimus, and the Dural Harith of Y^ikut,§
now abreviated to Dur, the name of the modern village situate
a little north of the spot where the canal emanates from the
Tigris.|| The historians of Julian’s compaign^f enumerate besides
many towns on the line of retreat subsequent to the Roman army
crossing the Tigris at Ctesiphon, of which Sumere, Duras, and Sym-
bri are yet recognizable—the first and last in Samara and Zimbur**
of the present day, and Duras is another title of the Katul owing to its
source being at Dur, the ruined position occupied by the modern village
of the name alluded to above. So far we have positive evidence of
idemity and in the term Duras, we cannot fail to trace the Terna of
Theopanes and the Tornadotus of Pliny in connection with Major
Rawlinson’s expositionlf of the appellation Katul and Kfitur, the
names by which the conduit is imperfectly known to the ignorant
people of the present day, but mentioned fully as the Katul-al-Keshr&wi
in the works of all Arab geographers.
* Zosimus, ilook III.
f Rich’s Kurdistan and Nineveh, vol. III. chap XVIII. Daniel III., Kitto, however, deems
the place without the province or Babylon and merely an idle supposition—Bib. Cyclop.
$ Zosimus III. 89. The treaty of Jovian which wrested the Eastern province as far west
as Nisibis was ignominiously concluded here after the death ot the Emperor Julian. Dura
is meat oned by Poly bins also a fortihed place during the wars of Antiochus against the
rebels of Media and Persia.
§ M'ajm-al-Bui-dan-art• Katul.
|| Des< ribed in Journal Asiatic Society, Bengal, April, 1847* Its position has been well
determined.
*[[ Zosimus and Marcell Armenian. The ill fated Julian I have no doubt met his death on
the banks of the Katul-ahKesrawi, in the vicinity ot Samara.
** At the place mentioned the Katul has been cut through by the irruption of the Tigris
Simbori or Zembar was overwhelmed in the catrastrophe that involved the whole country m
one common ruin by the destruction of the great conduit. It was situated on the Kam ,
between ti e now ruined cities < f Nai and Akbara, and to the N. W. ot the modern vil age o
Siudiyeh on the East bank of the Tigris as it at present flows.
tf Roy : Geo : Journ : vol: X. part 1 93 and note* D’ Herbelot notices the Katul when the
kh.dif Matawakkel contemplated the buihdng, or, as it should be, the res ora ion on y, o
Samara under the happy Mahomedan title of Serr-menfai, a facetious Araoicised. form ot itb
inure ancient name, it would appear indeed that the titles ot all the ci xes it .
under whatever dynasty, had reference in some way to the pleasantness of the locality, tor
Qadesiyeh Sumere —Karkh-Garm Kirm, Kirman or Serrmenrai have, perhaps, an alhnity in
meaning. Th se were used when new works of any sort were projected* to the destiuctiou,
hi most cases of the older names.