volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

42 The Gates of MSsul.
needed to enter that courtyard was hunger. The Dominican
Fathers did splendid work Ukewise, !and fed hundreds
daily, but they only relieved the wants of members of their
own communion. It may appear incredible, but at the
moment when the sufferings of the people of Mosul were
well-nigh unbearable, the Turkish Government hi Stambul
sent an Irade throughout Mesopotamia reducing the
value of the coins in currency. Their argument was that
by some oversight the bashlik, or five-piastre piece, and
the mdjUtyah, or twenty-piastre piece, contained less
silver than the Government had ordered to be put in
them, and therefore the bashlik was only worth two
piastres, and the majUtyah eight piastres. The imniediate
effect of this wicked order was to add to the
distress in Mosul, and to ruin hundreds of families. At
the same time another order was promulgated, which
gave the local authorities power to enter houses, and tO'
seize whatever food they found in them, and distribute
it among the people. The municipal authorities of
Mosul carried out this order with alacrity, but the immediate
searchers for food went round each evening tO'
the houses which they intended to search the following
day, and (for a consideration) told their occupants what
was going to happen. The result of this was that the
houses of the well-to-do yielded nothing, and the poor
were robbed of everything they had.
Mosul is protected by a strongly built brick wall, about
three miles in compass, which, when I saw it, was in a comparatively
good state of preservation. It was complete,
with the exception of a large gap at the south-easit corner.
The town had nine gates, viz.. Sulphur Gate, River Gate,
Castle Gate, Bridge Gate, Cannon Gate, Palace Gate,
Narrow Gate, Egg Gate, and Sinjar Gate. The gates of
the early mediaeval town were fewer in number, and the
first Arab town of Mosul probably had only four gates.
The streets are very narrow and ill-paved, and are dirty
even in dry weather ; but after heavy rain or snow their
condition is indescribable. The houses are sometimes
built of a pretty, greyish alabaster, which is brought from
quarries at no great distance from the town. This stone