Discoveries Among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon

by Austen Henry Layard

CHAPTER XXV.

PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE.—SAHIMAN.—PLUNDER OF HIS CAMELS.—LEAVE BAGHDAD.—JOURNEY THROUGH MESOPOTAMIA.—EARLY ARAB REMAINS.—THE MEDIAN WALL.—TEKRIT.—HORSES STOLEN.—INSTANCES OF BEDOUIN HONESTY.—EXCAVATIONS AT KALAH SHERGHAT.—REACH MOSUL.—DISCOVERIES DURING ABSENCE.—NEW CHAMBERS AT KOUYUNJIK.—DESCRIPTION OF BAS-RELIEFS.—EXTENT OF THE RUINS EXPLORED.—BASES OF PILLARS.—SMALL OBJECTS.—ROMAN COINS STRUCK AT NINEVEH.—HOARD OF DENARII.—GREEK RELICS.—ABSENCE OF ASSYRIAN TOMBS.—FRAGMENT WITH EGYPTIAN CHARACTERS.—ASSYRIAN RELICS.—REMAINS BENEATH THE TOMB OF JONAH.—DISCOVERIES AT SHEREEF-KHAN—AT NIMROUD.—ASSYRIAN WEIGHTS.—ENGRAVED CYLINDERS.

There was no hope of improvement in the state of the country round Baghdad. The Pasha had left the dam of the Hindiyah, which shortly after again gave way, and afforded fresh retreats to the Arabs. Under these circumstances, and for other reasons, I deemed it prudent to give up for the time the excavations in the ruins of Babylonia. When tranquillity had been to some extent restored in the pashalic, an expedition might be undertaken either by myself, or by some other traveller, with better prospects of success.

The Shammar Bedouins were now moving northwards towards their spring and summer pastures. I had been in continual communication with the sons of Rishwan. Suttum, whose wife’s imperious temper still kept him apart from his family, had encamped during the winter with another branch of the tribe in the neighbourhood of Tekrit. It was suspected that he had been privy to more than one successful attack on the Turkish post, and on certain treasure convoys belonging to the government. The roads between Baghdad and Mosul were completely closed by bands of Bedouins, who plundered every caravan that came within their reach. Sahiman and Mijwell had accompanied their father to the plains of southern Babylonia. The latter had been severely wounded in some affray.

As Sahiman was journeying northwards with the rest of his tribe, I thought this a good opportunity of following under his protection the direct track to Mosul through the Desert and along the western bank of the Tigris. He at once consented to escort me, only stipulating that I should obtain permission from the Pasha for his camels and flocks to pass through the suburbs of Baghdad, instead of following the longer and more difficult road through the marshes, like those of the rest of the tribe. The request was granted, and a guarantee was given to me by the governor and the commander in chief of the troops, that my Bedouin friend, with his family and property, should cross the city in safety. They had no sooner, however, entered the gates, than they were fallen upon by the inhabitants of the quarter, aided by a body of irregular troops and Agayls. Abandoning nearly eight hundred camels, Sahiman and his brother Arabs fled into the Desert.

Warmly supported by Capt. Kemball, I remonstrated indignantly against this act of treachery. The Turkish authorities declared that it was an accident beyond their control, and at length adopted means to recover the stolen camels. It was, however, with some difficulty, that I was able to find Sahiman, and then to induce him to return to Baghdad. Eventually the greater part of his property was restored to him. It is thus that the Bedouins are encouraged in continual enmity to the Porte, and that their reliance on the good faith of the Turks and of the inhabitants of towns has been completely destroyed.

This untimely occurrence, as well as repeated attacks of fever, delayed my departure for some days, and it was not until the 27th of February that, bidding adieu to my good friends of Baghdad, I crossed the Tigris by the crazy bridge of boats, and took the crowded road to Kathimain. There I passed the night beneath the hospitable roof of the Nawab of Oude. At daybreak on the following morning, under the guidance of Sahiman, and accompanied by Hormuzd, the Jebours, and my servants, I left the sacred suburb, and followed a beaten track leading to the Desert. In order to avoid the windings of the river, we struck across the barren plain. The low houses of Kathimain soon disappeared from our sight, but for some miles we watched the gilded domes and minarets of the tombs of the Imaums, rising above the dark belt of palms, and glittering in the rays of the morning sun. At last they too vanished, and I had looked for the last time upon Baghdad. We were now in as complete a wilderness as if we had been wandering in the midst of Arabia, and not within a few miles of a great city. Not a living creature broke the solitude. Here and there we saw the sites of former encampments, but the Arabs had long since left them, either to move further into the Desert, or to seek security from an enemy amongst the date groves on the banks of the river.

We travelled with speed over the plain. After a ride of nine hours we found ourselves in the midst of the palm trees of a village called Summaichah, formerly a town of some importance, and still watered by the Dujail, a wide and deep canal of the time of the Caliphs, derived from the Tigris. The inhabitants seeing horsemen in the distance mistook us for enemies; but finding that we were travellers and friends they escorted us to the house of their Sheikh, Hashem, who immediately slew a sheep, and made other hospitable preparations for our entertainment. This chief, although now ruling over a stationary tribe who till the soil, is of Shammar descent, and is married to a Bedouin lady. As his wife, however, will not condescend to live within four walls, he is obliged to compromise matters by passing one half of the year under her tent, and the other in his hovel amongst his own people. As we expected to fall in with her tribe during our journey northwards, he entrusted me with a bundle of embroidered cloaks and colored kerchiefs as presents to her and her kin. His museef was crowded with Bedouins, for amongst the Arabs the hospitality of Hashem had become a proverb. Summaichah, too, being on the edge of the Desert, is convenient for hearing news from the town, and as a place of meeting before or after plundering expeditions, although a Turkish mudir, with a garrison of a dozen half-starved Albanians, resides within the walls of its ruined serai.

The plain on all sides is intersected by the remains of innumerable canals and watercourses, derived from the Tigris and the Dujail. Their lofty banks narrow the view, and it was only as we passed over them, after quitting Summaichah, that we saw the distant palm groves of the large village of Belled. We left the village to the right, and passed through the ruins of an Arab town of the time of the Caliphs. Beyond it we crossed the Dujail, by a falling bridge of four large arches, with a small arch between each. The beauty of the masonry, the ornamental inscriptions, and rich tracery of this ruin, showed that it was of the best period of Arab architecture.