'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎353v] (709/862)

55 ° PORTS AND INLAND TOWNS
Tabriz. A track leads east, following the south bank of the Rubar-i-
Ruwandiz, and using its tributary valleys, to Dergala and Walash. Another
follows the Rubar-i-Handren valley south-east across the watershed to
the Rania plain and Rania.
Air: Landing-ground at Diana, 4 miles north of Ruwandiz.
Samarra. 34 0 iT N., 43 0 52' E.; alt. c. 213 feet. Pop. 4,700. Qadha cap.,
Baghdad Liwa. Rainfall station (Rlys.).
Samarra lies close to the left bank of the Tigris 66 miles north of Baghdad
and 30 miles south-south-east of Tikrit in the rolling plain which extends
to the foot of the Jabal Hamrin. It is one of the holy cities of the Shias.
A large number of the inhabitants are apparently Sunnis; there are some
Jews and a Persian community.
Samarra was a small town from Assyrian to Sassanid times. The army
of the Emperor Julian halted there on its retreat from Ctesiphon in a.d. 363
and the emperor died near the town. At the beginning of the ninth century
there was little left save a Christian monastery. In a.d. 836 the Caliph
Mutasim moved his capital from Baghdad to Samarra (p. 244), and in the
next thirty-seven years a great city was built stretching along the Tigris
for 16 miles, mostly on the left bank, and including palaces, mosques, and
extensive quarters for the troublesome Turkish guards. Additional canals
were drawn off the Tigris to render possible the cultivation of the desert
on both banks, where magnificent gardens were established. But after
892, when the Caliph Mutamid restored the court to Baghdad, Samarra
quickly fell into decay.
General Description (photo. 210)
The present town is about 400 yards from the river bank in an arid plain,
only scantily cultivated for wheat and barley although its soil is rich.
The deep river is crossed by a ferry and the banks are steep and high. The
plain and.the banks of the Tigris are strewn with ruins of the older Samarra,
the city of the Abbasids. The modern Samarra is surrounded by a high
crenellated polygonal wall with fifteen sides and a semicircular bastion at
each salient angle and pierced by four gates, north, south, east, and west.
The city is clean and open, and there is much empty space within the walls.
But the streets are narrow alleys except for a thoroughfare bisecting the
town from north-east to south-west. The houses are mostly of brick. It is
built round the principal mosque, containing the tombs of the Imams.
The tenth and the eleventh lie under a fine tiled dome of Persian design,
while a smaller gilded dome covers the cleft into which the twelfth Imam
(Imam Mohammed) is supposed to have vanished and from which he is
expected to reappear to establish the true faith on earth. There are a hos
pital (20 beds), police barracks, and law courts. Melons and vegetables
are the chief exports. A municipal pumping station supplies unchlorinated