"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." [‎١‎٥‎٩] (٤٧٤/٢٤٧)

RUINS OF BABYLON.
159
the Turkish geographer. Such are the modern dis
tricts of this country, which take their names from
the canal which waters it; but none contain any
town which would leave the slightest traces a few
years after its destruction. As instances, I may
mention Dujjeil and Khalis, neither of which dis
tricts contains any place with these names. The ex
pression of Abulfeda is one of those equivocal words
which occur too often in the Oriental languages.
sjJb may mean either a district or town; and a per
son now commonly says he is going to Khalis, or he
has lived at Dujjeil; by which he may mean any of
the villages contained within that district; and its
having been a bishopric, is in the East no proof of
its size—either a whole district or a very insignifi
cant village may have enjoyed this honour ; and we
see that at one period the bishopric of A1 Neel was
united with two others. I have myself no doubt
that A1 Neel was always, as it is now, the name of a
district, and that it contained no remarkable place ;
in which belief I am further justified by the informa
tion obligingly communicated to me by H. H., the
Pasha, from the register-office of Bagdad. But as
some people may possibly differ with me, I shall
consider it also under a different point of view, and
endeavour to anticipate every objection.
I think it will readily be conceded that A1 Neel
—supposing it to have been a town named after
the canal—could not have been a place of any mag
nitude ; or, to speak more precisely, there is not the