'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOL. III. PART I: A to K' [‎518v] (1041/1278)

512
KAR—KAR
bear the name of Pa-i-Pul. Immediately below Pa-i-Pul the river is ford
able in summer, but not without difficulty, the fords both here and a Aivan-
i-Karkheh and Susa being shifting and dangerous ; on the left bank name
less mounds marking the site of a town, and remains of large canals, adjoin
this ford. About 4 miles south-west of Pa-i-Pul to the right of the river
and half a mile from it, are the Sassanian ruins of Aivan-i-Kasra or Asiran-
i-Karkheh. At Aivan-i-Karkheh the river flows in several arms divided by
low islands. Being little below the level of the adjacent country, it is
immediately available for irrigation, and a number of canals diverge from
its left bank and water the lands of the Sagwand Lurs, and of the tribe
of Karim Khan, west of Dizful.
Below Aivan-i-Kasra, 60 years ago, the banks were thickly wooded, and
the river then appeared to be navigable for vessels of light draught. Leave-
ing Shush, the ruins of Susa, at 56 miles and some distance from its left
bank, and in some places approaching, it is said, within a short distance
of the Diz river, the Karkheh pursues its course with numberless windings
in a general south-south-east or south by east direction to a place at 120
miles and about 25 miles west of Band-i-Qir, where it swings suddenly to
the south-west and so runs for about 20 miles, passing in this stage between
the hills which form the north-eastern boundary of the Hawizeh district
and the low range which form their prolongation and crosses the Karun
river at Ahwaz. This bend of the Karkheh to the south-westwards appears
to be a recent feature ; there is reason to think that the river fell into the
Karun a few miles below Ahwaz, and it is believed that at the present day
this condition of affairs could be restored by artificial means. At the enc
of this reach, or at say 150 miles, the Karkheh reaches Nahr Hashim in the
Hawizeh district, the site formerly of a massive dam by which the whole
irrigation of the district was regulated. When his dam was in existence the
farther courses of the river lay first southwards and then through Hawizeh
town ; but since the dam gave w T ay in 1837, the main stream of the river
has taken a north-westerly course from Nahr Hashim, and its waters,
dissipated in streams and marshes, have submerged and ruined the district.
At the western extremity of the district the river gradually re-assembles
its waters, and finally under the name of the Shwaib and augmented by
the overflow of some of the Tigris marches, it enters the Shatt-al-’Arab
about 4 miles below Qurneh. A small steam-vessel ascended the Shwaib
to 10 miles from its mouth in the autumn of 1841, when the stream was at
its lowest.
The waters of the upper Karkheh are celebrated for their purity, but lower
down the stream is contaminated by the stagnant fluid of the marshes.
Some of the villages of the Dizful district are irrigated from the Karkheh.
The river is the western boundary of effective Persian jurisdiction
exercised from Dizful. The country to the west of the Karkheh above
Pa-i-Pul is Pusht-i-Khuh ; below on the same side are the locations of the
Bani Turuf and other virtually independent tribes.— (Burton—Persian Gulf
Gazetteer, 1908 — Arbuthnot, 1905.)
Character of banks .—The banks are wooded with tamarisk jungle and
small trees. A belts of scrub, known as Jangal-i-Gharabi, extends for a