Sykes' History of Persia - Heritage Institute

540
HISTORY OF PERSIA
the almost incredible number of 100,000 horses drawn
from the pastures of Media, descendants without doubt
of the celebrated Nisaean horses of the Achaemenians.
The Annexation of Mesopotamia and the Capture of
Oholla^ A.H. 16 (637). — Omar, whose ambitions were
certainly not world-wide, in reply to a letter asking
for permission to pursue the Persians on to the Iranian
plateau, replied
as
"
follows : I desire that betweei
Mesopotamia and countries beyond the hills shall b<
a barrier, so that the Persians shall not be able to gej
at us, nor we at them. The plain of Irak ^
sufficeth fc
our wants." Sad consequently turned his energies tc
subjugating Mesopotamia, and so successful was he thaj
before very long Islam held sway over that fertile regioi
Southwards, too, towards the Persian Gulf a separatl
force under Otba captured the port of Obolla, tW
emporium of the trade with India,
situated not far froi
Basra, which afterwards superseded it.
The Foundation of Basra and of Kufa^ a.h. 17 (638). —
After the capture of Obolla the Arabs constructed a
cantonment on its ruins, and this had gradually grown
into a town ; but so damp was the climate and so
intolerable were the insect pests that a new site was
sought and Basra was chosen. No city of the Moslems,
except perhaps Baghdad, recalls more of the glamour of
the East than the " Balsara's haven " of Milton, whence
Sindbad the Sailor started on his memorable voyages.
To-day its creeks are lovely and its commerce thriving ;
but its climate is both hot and unwholesome, and I never
look back on the summer months which I spent at this,
the chief and only port on the Shatt-ul-Arab, with any
pleasure. Kufa was also founded under instructions
from Omar, who was struck by the sallow faces of the
Arabs who had settled at Madain. It was chosen a^
in touch with the desert to which the Arabs owe<
being
so much of their
virility, thus superseding Hira, froi
^ The Arabs called the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates up to Mesopotamia
the name of Irak-i-Arabi. North-east of it the adjacent provinces of upland Persij
were, and still are, termed Irak-i-Ajami or "Irak of the Persians," the word aja
literally signifying " barbarous." Later on Kufa and Basra were known as the t\
Iraks.