volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

2o6 The Bridge of 'Ardbdn.
Khabur/ and there is no doubt that 'Araban^ was a
training ground for warriors for centuries before the
Arabs conquered the country. Several early Arab
geographers mention 'Araban, and speak of its great
cotton industry,^ but as Ibn Juber and Ibn Batutah, who
travelled over all that region, say nothing about it, we
may assume that it had lost all its importance in the
thirteenth century. The most eloquent testimony to
the size of the town and the volume of its traffic eastwards
is the large fragment of the massive stone bridge,
which once spanned the river, but now stands some way
to the west of it, for the Khabur has changed its course
at this point. The general appearance of the Arabic
inscription near one of the remaining pillars suggested
to me that the bridge was either built or repaired in the
tenth century.
It rained heavily the whole time we were at 'Araban,
and the general state of the ground round the mounds
showed that much rain had fallen on it during the last
few days. We left the ruins at 2 p.m., and arrived at
Shaddadiyah when it was dark. With some difficulty the
ferryman was found, and he did not like the task of
taking us over to the eastern bank. But we arrived
there safely and the natives brought us milk and helped
us to dry our clothes and did all they could to assist
us. Those who were weather-wise begged us to stay
there for a few days, because they said there was going
to be much rain in the course of the week; but we all
were anxious to move on, and we decided to leave the
next morning. In the course of the evening a caravan
arrived from Mosul by way of Sinjar, 'Iran, Sihl, Al-
Kasabah, and Al-'Oni, and its leader gave a very
bad account of the route which they had followed,
and said that all the red clay lands were practically
^ See Notitia Dignitatum (ed. O. Seeck), Berlin, 1876, chapters xxxv
and XXXvi.
^ "Equites sagittarii indigenae Arabanenses ..." Ibid., p. 78.
' E.g., Istakhrt, p. 74 ; Ibn Hawkal, pp. 139, 150 ff. ; Mukaddasi,
pp. 54, 138. Yakut says it was " a small town on the Khabur, in
the province of Jazirah " (iii, p. 632), but gives no information about it.