"سرد لرحلة إلى موقع مدينة بابل في ١٨١١، طُبعت الآن لأول مرة: مذكرات على الأطلال؛ مع نقوش من الخرائط المدبئية للمؤلف: ملاحظات على طبوغرافية بابل القديمة،بقلم الرائد رينيل؛ في إشارة إلى المذكرات: مذكرات ثانية على الأطلال؛ في إشارة إلى ملاحظات الرائد رينيل: مع سرد لرحلة إلى برسبوليس: طُبعت الآن لأول مرة، مع كتابات مسمارية نسخت في برسبوليس ولم تُنشر من قبل: كتبها الراحل كلوديوس جيمس ريتش، المحترم، المقيم البريطاني السابق لشركة الهند الشرقية في بغداد. حررته أرملته." [‎١‎٥‎٨] (٤٧٤/٢٤٦)

158
second memoir on the
much cultivation and many gardens but he does
not say where it is situated. D'Herbelot mentions
a Christian Arabian poet, surnamed A1 Neele, a.h.
608. D'Anville marks on his map of the Euphrates
and Tigris a place named Nil, or Nilus, on the west
bank of the Euphrates, below Hillah, at the mouth
of the canal of Coufah.f I am ignorant of the
authority on which he has introduced this place into
his Memoir and map ; but as he places Kasr Ibn
Hobeira on the same canal, it is to be inferred that
he is mistaken as to its position. Seif ud Doulah is
said to have succeeded, in a.h . 479, to his father's
possessions^ the districts of Hillah, A1 Neel, &c.^
I am not able to trace A1 Neel further back in
history than 1000 of Christ.
These, it must be confessed, will at first sight ap
pear but very scanty materials to form any decisive
judgment on so important a point. When we con
sider them attentively, however, several particulars
may be inferred from them, of considerable use in
the present question. The obscurity in which it is
involved is in itself a presumptive proof of its little
importance. The name is evidently derived from
the canal. This latter circumstance might lead us
to infer that there was no town at all of this name,
but that it was merely a canal and district contain
ing several villages, as indeed is expressly stated by
* Jehan Numa, p. 462.
t D'Anville, L'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 126.
t Modern Universal History, vol. iv. p. 372.