volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

gS The Munayyarah Rapid.
they assured me was " near " {karih). But I knew from
experience that " near " in the mouth of an Arab in the
desert was usually a vague expression, so I said, " If
the monastery be near, show it to me." They at once
took me to some rising ground near the north-east
corner of Nimrud and pointed to a block of buildings
afar off, which they declared to be the monastery.
But these seemed to me to be quite six or eight miles
distant, and knowing that the journey there and back
and the examination of the church and the other buildings
would occupy a whole day, I reluctantly gave up the
idea of going there and returned to the raft. I should
have gone on to Mar Behnam when I was at Kara Kush
and Kar§, Teppah^ some ten days before.
When I returned to the raft I found that the damage
done to it in its passage over the dam had been repaired,
and that it once more floated levelly on the water. We
started again in the early afternoon and quickly reached
another rapid caused by another barrier in the river
which the natives call "Away Sakhar Munayyarah,"
because it is close to the village of Munayyarah on the
west bank. The word " Away " means the " roarer,"
and is added to many names of rapids because of the
noise made by their waters. The water here was
decidedly tumultuous, but none of the skins touched
the obstruction, whatever it was, and all was well. We
passed two small islands and then saw on the east bank
the group of box-shaped mounds to which the name of
ii, p. 78 ; by Badger, who also published a plan of the church,
Nestorians, i, p. 94 f. ; by Felix Jones, Topography, p. ; 471 and by
Preusser {op. cit., p. 4 f£.), who supplies a careful plan of the church
and nineteen plates of reproductions of photographs. The B6th
Gubba, which is associated with Mir Behnim, is the Ddr al-Jubbi
mentioned by Yakiit (ii, p. 651), who says that it lay between M6sul
and Arbil, and that many sick folk flocked there and were healed
by the power of the saint. The Abyssinian Church commemorates
Behnim (fl^''^^: Ba'min) on the 27th of the month Nahasse
(August 20).
1 .uL^yi, or "Black Hill," better known as Tall "Balawat, i.e.,
"Hill of Troubles."