'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎324r] (650/862)

PORTS AND INLAND TOWNS
5°3
the Shorja and Suq al Ghazil quarters, their focal point being the
Merjaniya mosque on Rashid St. The bazaar of the booksellers off
Bank St. is the most interesting.
Karkh is mainly a residential area, though it also contains the
central offices of the Railway Administration, the British Embassy,
and the Houses of Parliament on the river bank above Ghazi bridge,
housed in the buildings intended for the Ahl al Bait University.
Its local bazaar is in the Suq al Jadid quarter. The new Royal Palace
is south-west of Karkh near the airport (photos. 134, 135).
Other residential districts are the northern and southern suburbs
on the east bank, Alwiya with its garden bungalows being favoured
by effendis (p. 349). Jews live mostly in Shorja, which has schools
and synagogues, and Christians in Suq al Ghazil with its uninteresting
churches and convents of French orders.
Factories and workshops are generally very small and are scattered
throughout the area, except for a few larger establishments grouped
north-west of Karkh. The main railway area is west of Karkh,
between the West Station and the repair shops in Shalchiya suburb.
Another railway area is on the east bank round the North Station
outside the old town. North and West Stations are connected by
railway ferry.
Shrines and Monuments. The few Abbasid buildings include the
tall minaret of the Suq al Ghazil, built by Caliph Mustansir in 1236,
the Customs House, originally a madrasa or college built by the same
Caliph, the twelfth-century Khan al Ortma in the bazaars near Bank
St., and the shapeless remains of Caliph Mamun’s palace within the
Turkish Citadel. The principal Sunni shrines of Abdul Qadir
Gailani on Bab ash Shaikh road (photo. 188), and of Abu Hanifa in
Adhamiya, have been much rebuilt, but the latter is small and charm
ing, with a madrasa attached. The Merjaniya or Coral Mosque on
Rashid St., with its fine and recently restored khan, dates from the
fourteenth century.. The small unpretentious mosque and tomb of
Shaikh Omar near the restored Bab al Wastani is one of several minor
local shrines (photo. 189), such as the reputed tomb of Zubaida, a
wife of Harun ar Rashid, and the tomb of the Sufi mystic Hallaj
(p. 252), which are both outside Karkh. The city wall can be traced,
but even its gates are now names like the North and South Gate or
ruins such as the Bab al Talism. The Bab al Wastani, however,
houses a collection of weapons. The principal museums are the new
Iraqi Museum, with a fine collection of pre-Moslem antiquities, and
the museum of Islamic art in the Khan Merjaniya.