volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

Istabuldt. 115
We returned to our raft in safety, but did not take with
us the good wishes of the townsfolk, who possessed a
violent hatred for all Christians, especially when accompanied
by a man wearing a tarMsh, and therefore believed
by them to be both a Turk and a Turkish official. This
hatred took the form of a refusal to sell us some melons,
and a good deal of stone throwing at large, mingled with
good comprehensive cursing of ourselves and our forebears.
But fortunately the SS.marrali trader loved the
rupee as much as other folk, and so it fell out that after
we had scrambled down the steep bank to the raft, and
were just pushing off into the stream, a man sprang up,
apparently from nowhere, with a large loose sack containing
several fine melons, which he rolled on to the
raft.
Soon after we left we passed on the east bank the
ruined tower or building called "Al-Ka'im," which was
said to be quite hoUow, though Felix Jones describes it
as a "solid quadrangular tower." It is surrounded with
ruins on all sides, and may be the remains of a large
edifice built by one of the Khalifahs who beautified
Simarra. A little later we saw on the west bank the
ruins of the town of Istabulat, round which parts of the
old girdle wall were still standing. On the west bank,
almost opposite, are masses of ruins, now commonly
called "As-Sanam," i.e., the " Image," probably because
of the stone statue of a god or king, which Rich saw there
and described {Narrative ii, p. 152). Rich says it was
made of grey granite and basalt, and if this be so, it
was probably an ancient Babylonian statue.* A little
further on we passed, on the same bank, the ruins of
115, 120, 125 ; and Yakut, vol. iii, pp. 14, 22, 82, 675, etc. The
detailed account of the founding of the 'Abbasid city is given by
Mas'udi, vii, pp. 120-123. See also le Strange, Baghdad, Oxford, 1900,
pp. 246-9, and Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, Cambridge, pp. 53-56;
and Felix Jones (Bombay Records, vol. xliii), who published a plan of
the town and a drawing of the " MalwJyah."
^ FeUx Jones says the lower half of the statue was of black
stone, " similar to those of Egypt," and that it was in the possession
of Dr. Ross. Bombay Records, vol. xliii, p. 10.
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