[123] Mutawakkil began a new canal from the Tigris to the Nahrawân, the latter having silted up by the ninth century, but the labour of cutting through the hard conglomerate was found to be too great and the work was abandoned. I do not know whether the canal I crossed was of his making, but I fancy it was the Nahrawân itself, perhaps cleared and deepened by him. Ross (op. cit., p. 129) speaks of bridge foundations formed of large “artificial stones” (concrete?) “joined together by iron clamps and melted lead.” I saw nothing but brick, but Ross’s bridge may well be, as he conjectured, earlier than the Mohammadan period, since it probably spanned the Sassanian canal. I thought the artificial mound to be pre-Mohammadan.
[124] There is some doubt about this inscription. Professor Sarre copied it without noticing the date, which was covered with whitewash; he gave it to Professor van Berchem, who decided that the shape of the letters pointed indubitably to the ninth century. Professor van Berchem’s authority in such matters is not to be questioned, but the date must be accounted for. Perhaps it was a later addition, put in when the shrine was repaired.
[125] A Residence in Koordistan, Vol. II. p. 147. The book was published in 1836.
[126] Kal’at Abu Rayâsh, which is marked in Kiepert’s map, has almost disappeared, the high ground on which it stands having fallen away and carried the walls and towers with it.
[127] Khân Khernîna is not mentioned by Ibn Jubeir nor by Ibn Baṭûṭah, who both travelled by this side of the Tigris from Tekrît to Môṣul, the one at the end of the twelfth century, and the other in the middle of the fourteenth century.
[128] Not, I believe, by Layard, who was always careful to cover what he did not remove.
[129] Dr. Herzfeld has been so good as to send me the chapter of his forthcoming work (written in conjunction with Professor Sarre), in which he gives a further account of Sâmarrâ. When it reached me my description of the ruins was already printed, and I can do no more than acknowledge, with gratitude, his kindness.
[130] Viollet puts them ten deep to the south, four deep to the north and five deep to east and west.
[131] In Manṣûr’s mosque at Baghdâd, the roof was borne by wooden columns. See Le Strange, Baghdâd, p. 34.
[132] Lands of the Eastern Califate, p. 56.