The Nestorians and their Rituals/Volume 1/Chapter 19
CHAPTER XIX.
May 2nd, 1844.—Having made the necessary preparations for the journey, Mrs. Badger, Mr. Fletcher, and I, accompanied by my brother-in-law and sister, Mr. Hormuzd Rassam, Mar Shimoon, and a large number of native Christians, left the Sinjâr gate at 9 a.m. We all rode together for about five miles, when we dismounted to bid one another farewell. It was a painful parting: we were now leaving behind those who were dear to us by ties of blood, a fond parent's dust, and a sphere of labour, which had not indeed been without its cares, (for what labour is?) but which had also afforded us ample scope for fulfilling the important mission confided to us by the Church. I bade adieu to my dearest friends on earth, whilst the venerable Patriarch stood by sad and sorrowful. I approached to take his hand; the old man threw his arms around me, affectionately pressed both cheeks to mine, whilst the tears chased one another down his anxious face. This was more than I could bear … so mounting our animals, we turned to give our departing friends one more look, and then plunged into the desert.
This road to Mardeen is shorter by two days than the more circuitous route by Jezeerah; but it is seldom traversed in summer owing to the scarcity of water. Before Mohammed Pasha's time it was hardly passable at all on account of the plundering Bedooeen and the Yezeedees of Sinjâr; but the vigorous measures which he adopted to subdue these freebooters had rendered it so secure, that, to use an eastern phrase, "a man might travel over it with gold upon his head," and fear no molestation. Since the Pasha's death, however, the Arabs had again returned to their inveterate habits of stealing wherever they could, and on this account we availed ourselves of an escort of forty Albanians who were being sent from Mosul to meet the newly-appointed governor. The country is well cultivated for about ten miles from the city gates, the wheat and barley were just coming into ear, the weather was delightful, and at noon we reached Atmeidât, which we found deserted, the villagers having all gone to pasture their flocks among the Jubeilah hills a few miles to the south. We accordingly pitched our tent upon the grass, and after spending a few hours in chatting over the friends we had left behind, prepared to partake of our evening repast. To our surprise it was now told us that the guards expected us to provide food for them also. Not having dreamt of this, we offered them money to return and buy provisions; but they refused. Each had brought a loaf or two in his saddle-bags, and this they said would suffice them for the desert journey. We invited the captain to dine with us, but he declined, on the ground that he did not wish to be taken more care of than his men, who during the three days that they escorted us had nothing else to eat than the scanty fare already mentioned. I scarcely ever saw soldiers behave better: they never uttered a word of complaint, always threw down their cloaks to rest and picketed their horses at a respectful distance from our tent, and took thankfully the present which we distributed among them when we parted company. All this was the more remarkable because they were Arnaoot, or Albanians, whose very name among the orientals is connected with everything that is low, inhuman, and barbarous; and their general conduct, so far as I am acquainted with it, fully justifies the native horror of these mercenaries.
May 3rd.—We started from Atmeidât at half-past 2 a.m. by the light of a bright moon, and after travelling an hour all signs of cultivation ceased; but the ground was now covered with a carpet of thick grass, and decked with innumerable hyacinths, many-coloured anemones, irises, daisies, and a great variety of other familiar plants, which scattered an exquisite and refreshing fragrance far and wide.
In three hours we passed the ruined village of Dolabiyah, where the Jubeilah range terminates, and at half-past 7 a.m. reached Aboo-Marya. This is a square fortress, lately rebuilt by Mohammed Pasha, and now garrisoned by a single soldier, who bestirred himself to make us comfortable. Under the walls flows a small stream in its course to the Tigris, crossed by a bridge of three arches called Kasé Koopri, by which name the station itself is sometimes known. We remained here till 3 p.m. when we proceeded in a north-westerly direction towards Hegneh, which we reached in four hours. On this part of the road there are several artificial mounds, near which I observed remains of architecture, and an occasional pavement, clearly proving that in by-gone days this district had other inhabitants than the roving Bedooeen. The Sinjâr hills were now on our left, and on our right the snow-capped summits of the Tcah Meteenah rose majestically beyond the line of the desert, recalling to my recollection the rugged but picturesque scenery of the Geli Mezurka, and the message which I carried with me when I first crossed it to enter the peaceful valleys of the mountain Nestorians. What scenes of rapine and bloodshed have since then been witnessed there! How mysterious have been the ways of the Almighty in suffering the infidel Coords to slaughter so many thousands of Christ's followers! We may not doubt, however, but that God has an exalted end in such dispensations; for
"Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-fading skill,
He treasures up His bright designs,
And works His sovereign will.
"His purposes still ripen fast.
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste.
But sweet will be the flower."
The fort of Hegneh is situated on a tell, or mound, beneath which are the remains of a village, and a meagre spring of brackish water. It was formerly farmed by the Gargarè tribe from the Pashas of Baghdad, who permitted Bâj, or toll, to be levied here upon all caravans crossing the desert; but not being able to maintain their ground against the incursions of the Shammar Bedooeen, the Gargarè abandoned it, since which time it has fallen into ruin. An inscription on the walls states that the fort was rebuilt by the then governor of Baghdad in a.h. 1212.
May 4th.—We started from Hegneh at half-past five a.m. and at nine o'clock reached Aiwenât, another tell with a spring of brackish water, where we found about two hundred tents pitched in readiness to receive Shereef Pasha, who was hourly expected. Here our Albanian guards left us to join the military escort which was encamped here, with two pieces of artillery, waiting the arrival of his Excellency; and the road being now deemed safe, we resumed our journey at 6 p.m., and in a couple of hours passed the Tell-ool-Hawa, famous for having been the scene of an engagement between Sufoog, the Sheikh of the Shammar Arabs, and the Mosulean soldiery, in which Sufoog speared the Turkish commander at the outset, took a cannon from him, and entirely routed his followers. At midnight, we had on our right a cluster of small mounds called Tcil Parât, (the "Char Pera" of Ainsworth) or Forty Paras, so called from their diminutive size and circular shape. It was here that Colonel Taylor's brother is supposed to have been murdered by the Arabs about fifteen years ago, and our muleteer, who was generally very much averse to fast travelling, bade us urge our animals to their utmost speed as we passed the dreary-looking spot. We cantered the greater part of the way over a level country, the grass sometimes reaching to our waist, and at 3 a.m., stopped at Roomeilât, where we found another military detachment waiting to receive the Pasha. We pitched our tent close to the stream which runs at the foot of the mound, and tried to get a little rest, after our night's journey; but the noise of the straggling bands which ever and anon arrived foretelling the Pasha's approach put any such attempt out of the question. At 7 o'clock we saw his Excellency's suite escorted by about 800 soldiers who followed him in the usual helterskelter disorder of the irregular Turkish cavalry. A salute was fired from three pieces of ordnance which had been brought hither from Mosul for that purpose, and the desert was quite enlivened with the military parade, and the gaudy coloured dresses of the Coordish chiefs, who had joined the escort at Tcil Agha. From one of these, I learned that a serious outbreak had nearly taken place between Bedr Khan Beg, and Shereef Pasha at that village. It appears that the former had come to meet the new Pasha at Tcil Agha with a force of 8,000 horsemen. All went on smoothly until yesterday, when the soldiers who had been ordered from Mosul having reached Roomeilat, and finding that his Excellency was still at Tcil Agha, went forward to join him. On the appearance of this troop, and the arrival of his spies, who also communicated to him the intelligence that there were three cannon planted at Roomeilât, Bedr Khan Beg left his tent abruptly, and was just about to leave the encampment with all his followers, when Osman Effendi succeeded in persuading him to dismount, and to return. Shereef Pasha, it is said, gave him a severe reproof for his conduct, and in the afternoon inspected the Coordish troops on foot, having previously dismissed all his attendants. I had a long conversation with his Excellency during the afternoon, when he made many inquiries respecting the Nestorian affairs, and took frequent occasion to style Bedr Khan Beg "a brute." Most truly did this monster deserve the title for his barbarous treatment of the unfortunate Tyari, which had lately been followed up by a fresh persecution of the Jacobite Christians of Jebel-Toor. It has already been mentioned how he forced these poor people to work upon his newly-planned fortifications without pay, and under the lash, since which time he had plundered many of their monasteries, and just before we left Mosul, the news arrived of his having compassed the death of the Jacobite Maphrian (Primate) of Midyât. What immediately instigated him to this atrocious crime does not appear; but it is said, that the deceased Bishop was obnoxious to him, because of his zeal in confirming his people in the Christian faith, and in persuading them to suffer any indignity rather than apostatize, which the Coords were attempting to force them into. According to the current account of this murder, Mutran Abd-ool-Ahd was ordered by the Mohammedan Mutsellim of Midyât to go to Jezeerah, under the pretext, that the Emeer who had sent a messenger to escort him, wished to see him on business of importance. When they had reached a lonely part of the road, two Coords sprang from an ambush, ripped open the belly of the Bishop with a dagger, and then tied the corpse to the tail of his horse. The heart was cut out by the messenger who carried it to Bedr Khan Beg, as a proof that he had accomplished his mission.
We started from Roomeilât at half-past 4 of the same afternoon, still travelling in a north-westerly direction, and in an hour came up to a large encampment of Cocher, or nomade, Coords, who were pasturing their flocks near the ruins of a large Khan, before which a copious rivulet flows. The course of this stream was towards the south-west, which appears the direction of all the tributaries of this district. At 7 p.m., we reached Tcil Agha (Forty Aghas), but found the village nearly deserted, all the Coords having left to seek pasture for their sheep. We pitched our tent on the mound, and listened to the wild songs of a party of soldiers, who were bivouacked in the plain, and who had escorted Shereef Pasha thus far from the town of Mardeen. It was quite cheering to meet again with human habitations, and to behold fields smiling with abundance of wheat and barley, nay, the very blocks of basaltic rock scattered about in this vicinity, were a relief to the monotonous sameness of the desert, notwithstanding its freedom and the sweet perfume of its many-coloured flowers.
May 6th.—We left Tcil Agha at 5 a.m. and in five hours and a half reached Haznaoor, which has already been described in the narrative of our route to Mosul. We passed several villages during this day's journey, and a large stream called Suplakh which rises in the Toor mountains a little to the east of Haznaoor. These and many other details of our journey, T have endeavoured to lay down in the map as correctly as possible. Haznaoor, together with the district of Midyât to which it belongs, had just been taken from Bedr Khan Beg, by the new Pasha of Diarbekir, and the Coords were evidently very much chagrined at this change of masters. Wherever we travelled, we found that the fame of this chieftain was extolled by the Coords, who regarded him almost in the light of a second Mohammed. From what I gathered from the villagers, it appears that he used to send costly presents to the Moollahs in the different provinces under his jurisdiction, to remit the taxes of such as could not pay them, to distribute largesses to the poor, and to give to any Mussulman who had no means of purchasing arms, a sufficient sum to provide himself with a firelock, sword and shield. The general testimony of the Coords is, that he was a man of inflexible integrity, and had never been known to receive a bribe to pervert the ends of justice. If this is really true, I doubt whether the whole Turkish administration could produce a fellow to him. Let it be observed, however, that all this side of his character was exhibited to his co-religionists, and his bounty was confined to them; towards the Christians his bigotry and intolerance led him to act with fiendish malignity, so that when I passed through Jebel Toor, in 1850, many a Jacobite cursed the memory of the tyrant in execrations long and deep, and blessed the individual and the nation that had taken so large an interest in securing his degradation and exile.
We remained a few hours at Haznaoor, and thence travelling over our old route reached Nisibeen on the day following. To our surprise (such restorations being quite out of date in this empire), we found that the bridge over the Jaghjagha had been repaired, i.e. several arches, which were broken down on our first visit, had been rebuilt, whilst the remainder, which were stopped up with stones and rubbish, had been left in their useless condition, and the river continued to force its way through half the space originally intended for its flow. The village also appeared in a more thriving state, owing to the number of Tai Arabs who were encamped in the vicinity.
According to Ainsworth,[1] it is Colonel Chesney's opinion that the Emperor Trajan obtained the materials for his fleet from the Jebel Toor, and that he descended the Mygdonius, the modern Jaghjagha, into the Khaboor (Chaboras), and thence into the Euphrates. From personal observation, I think there is every reason to believe the wooded mountains of the Toor to be the forest of Nisibis spoken of by Dion Cassius; but I doubt whether the Mygdonius (and I have seen it at its greatest height), was ever deep enough for such navigation, and therefore, for this as well as for other reasons, am inclined to agree with Ainsworth, that after taking Arbela, and descending the Tigris, Trajan conducted his fleet into the Euphrates by one of the canals which connect the two rivers, and thence to Babylon.
We started from Nisibeen at 2 p.m., and retraced our old route as far as Kasr Serteka, when we turned to the right with the intention of visiting Dara, which we reached after a journey of four hours. On the following morning we commenced examining the remains of this once famous place, and went first to the cistern, which consists of ten parallel tanks, and is situated at the foot of the hill on which the modern Coordish village stands. The tanks are partly cut in the rock, and raised to the height of 40 ft. by walls of solid masonry; they are each 150 ft. long, and 15 ft. wide. Three out of the ten are destroyed, but the seven remaining reservoirs were partly filled with water, which however is not used by the present villagers, who prefer drinking the water of the stream which runs through the ruins. They are closed in with good arches, which are covered with longstalactites.
We next went to the hill on the south, where several yards of the old wall are still standing, and after careful search, could discover no remains of a second wall, as mentioned by Gibbon in his description of the ancient city. A little beyond, on another eminence, is a large apartment thirty feet square, cut out of the solid rock, and covered with an arched roof, supported by two massive pilasters. This the natives call "Beit el Antari ibn Sheddâd," and is supposed to have served as a granary.
We then bent our steps to the ancient cemeteries, extending along the western side of the town. These are all cut out of the native rock, which appears to have been the principal quarry. I did not count the number, but there are certainly not less than two hundred of these tombs, some sufficiently capacious to form comfortable dwelling-places for several Coordish families, who have encroached upon the tenements of the dead. The entrances are generally arched, and bear long Greek inscriptions in the uncial character, but so defaced that we could hardly decipher a single word. Some of the tombs were evidently intended to receive two or more bodies; and some are cut into sarcophagi, the groove for the lid still remaining entire. Over several of the entrances is a cross enclosed within a circular line.
But the finest specimen of these cemeteries is a subterranean vault, also cut out of the rock, and measuring sixty feet square. The original entry being stopped up, we were obliged to crawl on our hands and knees through a narrow opening to get into the interior. We now found ourselves on the platform of an upper gallery, extending round three sides of the enclosed space, and divided into a number of compartments intended for tombs. Eelow this was another gallery, of smaller dimensions, and similarly excavated, all the entrances to the tombs being arched. In one angle of the roof was a funnel six yards square, which is carried through the superincumbent rock to the height of eightysix feet, gradually tapering to the top, where it measures only four feet square. This was evidently intended to admit air into the subterranean vault. The original entrance was in the surface of the rock, and is decorated with a number of designs emblematical of mortality. In the left compartment is a heap of bones, and a female represented as running away in fear towards an owl perched at some distance from her. Above the arch is another heap of bones, and in the compartment to the right a cypress tree and a cock. There were several Greek epitaphs on the tombs in the interior, but so defaced as to be quite illegible.
There is another vault of smaller dimensions at a short distance from the above, containing niches for eight tombs, and which the natives informed us is connected with the larger cemetery by two underground passages. We essayed to prove the truth of this statement, but finding the passages choked up with rubbish were obliged to abandon the attempt.
Crossing the stream we visited the ruins of a mosque, erected on the site of a more ancient edifice, and chiefly with the materials collected from former buildings. Here we found a number of pillars, which the villagers told us had lately been dug up in the vicinity, but being devoid of chapiters, we could not determine the order to which they belonged. There are several Arabic inscriptions engraved on the walls of the mosque, but on examination I discovered that these had no reference whatever to the present building, and probably existed before it was turned into a place of worship. A clumsy square minaret has been added to one angle of the enclosure; but like the mosque itself, this is fast tumbling into ruin.
The Kasr, or palace, next claimed our attention, but on reaching the spot where it once stood, we were disappointed at finding little more than the original foundations, marked by lines of massive stones, now standing. A narrow opening in the surface led us to an underground apartment, which the natives call "the prison," and which appears to be co-extensive in dimension with the building which once rose above it. Fifty-six stairs brought us to the bottom of this vault, which measures 120 ft. in height, 60 ft. in length, and 40 ft. in width. Four massive pilasters, left standing when the excavation was made, support the arched roof, and eight buttresses cut in the native rock, extend along two sides of the vault. One angle of the enclosure is occupied by the staircase already mentioned, in the angle opposite is the opening to a subterranean passage, said to extend to beneath the village, whilst in the remaining corners are two narrow cells, which if intended for a place of imprisonment, must soon have proved the graves of the unfortunate victims.
There are two villages standing amidst the ruins of ancient Dara, one containing 40 Armenian, and the other 100 Coordish lamilies. The Christians have a small church and a priest, and are reckoned as belonging to the diocese of Diarbekir. In the evening several of the villagers brought us a few old coins, and on finding that we paid a good price for them, we were soon overwhelmed with similar offers, and succeeded in purchasing a large collection, chiefly Sassanian, Roman, and Saracene of the time of the caliphs. Some of these were afterwards secured from me by the authorities of the British Museum, and I am persuaded that a careful search in this district would bring to light some interesting monuments of antiquity.
The following is Ainsworth's account of this ancient city:
"According to Procopius, Dara was built by Anastasius to resist the encroachment of the Persians; but, according to Persian historians, Arsaces Tiridates, the second of that name, after the expulsion of Andragoras, the Syrian lieutenant of Seleucus Callinicus, built the city Kara Dara on the mountain Zapaortenon. Justin also asserts the Persian origin of these ruins, which is further attested by the general character of the sculptures; but the pages of history have recorded, that it often changed hands, and was governed by various princes, and Byzantine sarcophagi are as frequent as Persian sepulchral grots."[2] It appears to me that the Greeks, (or Romans,) availed themselves of the tombs which existed previous to their occupation of the place, and carved their epitaphs over the entrances to the caves in which the Persians had before buried their dead. This opinion goes to ascribe the foundation of the city to the latter people, and to establish the view taken by Ainsworth.
Gibbon, after Procopius, gives the following description of the ancient city after it had been fortified by Justinian in the fifth century: "The city was surrounded with two walls, and the interval between them, of fifty paces, afforded a retreat to the cattle of the besieged. The inner wall was a monument of strength and beauty: it measured sixty feet from the ground, and the height of the towers was one hundred feet; the loopholes, from whence an enemy might be annoyed with missile weapons, were small, but numerous: the soldiers were planted along the rampart, under the shelter of double galleries, and a third platform, spacious and secure, was raised on the summit of the towers. The exterior wall appears to have been less lofty, but more solid; and each tower was protected by a quadrangular bulwark. A hard rocky soil resisted the tools of the miners, and on the south-east, where the ground was more tractable, their approach was retarded by a new work, which advanced in the shape of a half-moon. The double and treble ditches were filled with a stream of water; and in the management of the river, the most skilful labour was employed to supply the inhabitants, to distress the besiegers, and to resist the mischiefs of a natural or artificial inundation. Dara continued more than sixty years to fulfil the wishes of its founders, and to provoke the jealousy of the Persians, who incessantly complained, that this impregnable fortress had been constructed in manifest violation of the treaty of peace between the two empires."[3]
In the year 529 Dara was defended by Belisarius, who was accompanied at the time by Procopius his historian, against a force of 40,000 Persians. The protecting garrison amounted to no more than 25,000 Romans, but guided by the superior skill of their commander the victory was complete; "the standard of Persia fell, the immortals fled, the infantry threw away their bucklers, and 8,000 of the vanquished were left upon the field of battle." The triumphs of Chosroes a few years after obliged the Romans to consent to the demolition of this important fortress; but the sacrifice was commuted into the payment of eleven thousand pounds of gold, wherewith they purchased an inglorious peace with the Persians, with the additional stipulation that it should never again be made the residence of the general of the east. War having again broken out between the rival empires, Chosroes laid siege to Dara, which he at length reduced after it had obstinately resisted the flower of his army for five months. From the Persians Dara fell into the hands of the Saracens, and has since shared the common fate of the old Roman possessions in Mesopotamia.
We left Dara at 2 p.m., the route conducting us over the rugged sides of the western prolongation of the Toor range, which in this part is quite destitute of wood, and in two hours got into the caravan road. A further ride of ten miles brought us to Mardeen, where we were again hospitably received and entertained by Agha Moorad the Armenian banker. Having already given a description of this town, I shall not weary the reader with any fresh details, except to add, what a semi-eastern medico, dressed in an old Frank coat and Turkish red cap, was anxious that I should communicate to the English faculty, viz. that the neighbourhood of Mardeen is very rich in medicinal herbs, and rare botanical plants. Among the most common, according to my friend's testimony, are the Cicuta, Belladonna, Serpentaria, and Valeriana.
Three days' easy travelling brought us to Diarbekir, where we were welcomed by Khawaja Bedosh, the most respectable Chaldean merchant in the place, to whom we had received letters of recommendation from Mr. Rassam. We remained several days under his hospitable roof, holding constant intercourse with the Christian clergy, for an account of which, as well as for a description of the road between Mardeen and Diarbekir, I must refer my readers to the narrative of our outward journey.
- ↑ Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, &c., vol. ii. p. 118.
- ↑ Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, &c. vol. ii. p. 117.
- ↑ Decline and Fall, c. 40.