volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

Eski Baghddd. iii
on the east bank, we caught a glimpse of the large high
mound called " Tall al-Banat," or " Hill of the Maidens."
Between it and us was much smoke or mist, but whether
this was due to limekilns^ or the cool of the evening it
was impossible to say. We tied up for the night on the
west bank, opposite the mouth of the Nahrawan Canal,
and near Tall al-Muhejir.
We set out next morning, March 2nd, soon after
daylight and did not attempt to cross to the east bank
to see the ruins of the " Leaded Bridge " or " Leaded
Dam " (Kantarat ar-Rasasah), so called because the
stones are clamped together with lead. We passed
Abu Dalif, on the east bank, where some columns of an
old mosque were still standing, and then the ruins of
the famous palaces and buildings which are grouped
under the name of " Kasr al-Mutawakkil," and were
known by the Arab geographers as the "Mutawakkiliyah,"
or "Ja'fariyah." It is quite clear that from
this point southward the whole of the east bank was the
northern suburb of Samarra ;* a large part of this section
of the bank is commonly called " Eski Baghdad," or
" Old Baghdad." Soon after this we passed on the east
bank a group of ruins called " Shinas," and then came to
TaU 'AHj, the "Nose-bag mound'" of Felix Jones,
who thought that it marked the spot where the body of
Juhan the Apostate was burnt before its removal to
Tarsus. It lies some distance from the river, probably
two or three mUes. On the same side of the river were
the ruins of the famous " Kasr al-Ma'shuk,"* or the
" Castle of the Beloved," which was built by Mu'tamid,
the son of Mutawakkil, about 890. A little lower down,
on the west bank, we saw the ruined walls of Kasr al-
'Ashik, which must have been a large and strong fortress,
^ There were many limekilns here in Felix Jones' time, and the people
of Dur supplied Baghdad with lime, sending it down the river on rafts.
^ See Guy le Strange, Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, pp. 53-57.
' An old Arab tradition says that the earth which formed this
' nose-bags, '
' or, in other words, that
mound was brought there in horses' '
sacks were used for carrying the earth there instead of wicker baskets.
' The " Aaschouk " and " Maaschouk " of Thevenot (ii, p. 115),
who says, " Les gens du pays disent que ces lieux sont ainsi nommez