Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎700r] (1416/1814)

THE KAKUN RIVER
351
s
the see of a Christian bishop, and a favoured resort of wealth and
luxury. Gibbon has preserved in characteristic garb the tale of
the ‘ gay Barbarian,’ Harmozan, prince or satrap of Ahwaz and
Susa, and his interview with the conquering Khalif, Omar . 1 It
was in the time of his Abbaside successors at Baghdad that Ahwaz
reached the height of its fame. Then the Arab historian Abulfeda
described the banks of the river at this spot as 4 adorned with
gardens and pleasure-houses, and enriched by extensive plantations
of the sugar-cane and other valuable products of the vegetable
kino’dom.’ There is moderation as well, no doubt, as truth in this
statement; but the most liberal exaggeration could hardly justify
a native writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. of the present century in describing the dimensions
of the mediaeval Ahwaz as forty parasangs (150 miles) ; or excuse
the travelled Captain Mignan for confounding the sandstone ridge
behind the town with the ruins of the ancient city, which he said
extended for ten or twelve miles, and, in the opinion of the in
habitants, for a journey of two months . 2 The halcyon days of the
500 stadia from Susa. This la.ke, which has since disappeared, filled the depression
west of the Karan as far as Hawizeh (i.e. Small Ahwaz). The Tigris left it some
where near the present Snwaib, and then flowed into the Shat-el-Arab. The
lake or swamp is called in Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions ‘Agamme/ or ‘ Aghme,’
and Nearchus’ ’’Ayiviv (accus.) probably stands for ’'Aywv. Nearchus did not
enter the lake or go to Aginis, but ascended the Pasitigris to a bridge of boats on
the road between Persis and Susa, 600 stadia from the latter. This bridge was
probably near, or at, the present Ahwaz, which may also be the site of Ptolemy’s
T apt lav a (an old Persian word meaning ‘ passage,’ or ‘ ford ’). Later on it was
called Wajar Khuzistan, or market of Khuzistan. Its inhabitants were Elamites,
named Huz or Huj; and the Arabs (vide Abulfeda) called the place Suk-el-Ahwaz,
i.e. Market of the Huz (Ahwaz being plural of Huz). It was at the meeting-point
of several roads—north to Asker Mukrem or Lashker, and Shush!er 5 east to Persis
(Ears) ; west, to Wasit on the Tigris ; and south, to Busrah.
1 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, cap. li.
2 ‘ Memoir on the Ruins of Ahwaz,’ contained in Travels in Chaldea, p. 302.
There cannot be a doubt that Captain Mignan, who visited Ahwaz in September
1826, did commit this extraordinary error, for he speaks of ‘ the immense mass of
ruins that rears its rugged head behind the town ’ (p. 29 1 ), and argues that they must
have been erected long after the days of Alexander the Great, otherwise they would
have been noticed by ‘that illustrious warrior in his ascent of the Karun(p. 307).
It is still more amazing that the usually intelligent Stocqueler, visiting Ahwaz five
years later, in May 1831, compliments Captain Mignan on the accuracy and
research of his sketch of Ahwaz,’ and adds that he himself followed the same ruins
for thirty miles and upwards without arriving at their termination, which, how
ever, he subsequently encountered on the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. at 1>under Mashur ! (Fifteen
Months’ Pilgrimage, vol. i. pp. 62, 84). Where was ancient Babylon, or Thebes
the mother of cities, compared with tin s astounding Ahwaz ?