volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

30
Al-Mawsil, or Mosul. 1
Nineveh, the " exceeding great city of three days'
journey " (Jonah iii, 3), was built on the left bank of the
Tigris, just as Babylon was built on the left bank of the
Euphrates, and as the city of Babylon grew and spread
across to the right bank of the Euphrates, so, when
Nineveh became great, it spread across to the right bank
of the Tigris. Western Babylon developed in the course
of centuries into Hillah, and Western Nineveh developed
in the course of centuries into Al-Mawsil. It may be
assumed that Western Nineveh suffered as severely as
Nineveh itself when the Medes seized the capital and
destroyed it. But its site was in all times most suitable
for a market and trading centre, and on it or near it a
town has always stood. Of the history of Western
Nineveh in the earliest ages nothing seems to be known,
but in Sassanian times the town which occupied part or
all of its site was called " Budh Ardashir," and its masters
were, of course, Sassanians. The name always given to
the town by Muslim writers is " Al-Mawsil, "^ or "the
junction," i.e., the town at the place where several streams
of the Tigris join, and it seems to have been known by
this name for about twelve hundred years.* After the
conquest of Mesopotamia by the Arabs the town soon
became a thriving trading centre, and in the middle of
the eighth century it was the capital of the Province of
Jazirah, and the principal town of the district of Dlar
Rabi'ah.* Muslim writers of the tenth century describe
^ This is the common native pronunciation, and I use it throughout.
J^^l. See Ibn Hawkal, ed. de Goeje, p. 143 fE. ; Mukaddasi,
ed. de Goeje, pp. 138, 139, 146 ; Abu'l Fidi, p. ; 54 Yakut, vol. iv,
684.
' Mu^addast (ed. de Goeje, p. 138, last line) says that Mosul was
called " Khawlin " yV-
* Le Strange, Lands, p. 87.