volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

Export of Grain from the Upper Zab gg
Sanadik (i.e., " boxes ") has been aptly applied by the
natives. A few miles lower down we came to Jabal
Mishrak on the west bank, and just below it, on the east
bank, the mouth of the Great or Upper Zab River, about
twenty-eight mUes from Mosul. There was much water
in the Zab, and its strong stream flowed grandly into the
Tigris and forced its way nearly across it to the west
bank. The place of its confluence with the Tigris is
called "Makhlat," or " Mikhlut," i.e., the "place of
mingling," and its bright bluish-green water is in striking
contrast with the muddy stream of the Tigris. Three
or four miles up the Zab on its south bank are two
or three mounds, the larger of which is called Tall
Kushaf.'- These mounds mark the site of Nawkird,^ j^y
" New Town," an old Sassanian town, on which the
Khalifah Marwan II built the city known as " Hadithah
of Mosul," to distinguish it from " Hadithah of Nurah"
on the Euphrates.* Beyond the mouth of the Z§,b we
passed through another rapid which disturbed the raft
considerably, and then we tied up for the night close
to a vUlage inhabited by Jabur Arabs. Here we saw
large numbers of mud huts and huge mud vessels filled
with grain which had come down on rafts from the
country through which the Zab flows. These rafts
were huge square structures and the grain was carried
on them packed in sacks from four to six layers deep.
Sometimes a raft suffered in its journey down the Zab,
and parts of the lowermost layer of sacks became
submerged and the grain was spoiled. In such
cases the raft was unloaded at the village where
we tied up, and the sacks of wet grain taken out,
^ This is the spelling of Yikfit (iv, p. 275).
^ Yakut, ii, p. 223 ; Istakhrt, pp. 72, 75 ; Ibn Hawkal, pp. 137,
147 ; Mukaddasi, pp. 137, 139, 146.
' The platform of the large mound is artificial, and rests upon
rock, and on the platform are many layers of unbaked bricks. On
the top runs a stone wall, and in Layard's day it had an arched gateway
facing the south. These were probably parts of the comparatively
modern fort in which a company of soldiers from Baghdad was
stationed to prevent raiding by the desert Arabs.
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