MESOPOTAMIA, BAGHDAD, AND BABYLON.
BAGHDAD - PRINCIPAL BUILDINGS - CLIMATE - ENTERTAINMENT AT THE ENGLISH
RESIDENT'S - HAREM OF THE PASCHA OF BAGHDAD - EXCURSION TO THE RUINS
OF CTESIPHON - THE PERSIAN PRINCE, IL-HANY-ALA-CULY-MIRZA - EXCURSION
TO THE RUINS OF BABYLON - DEPARTURR FROM BAGHDAD.
Baghdad, the capital of Assyria, was founded during the reign of the
Caliph Abu-Jasar-Almansor. A century later, in the reign of Haroun-
al-Raschid, the best and most enlightened of all the caliphs, the
town was at its highest pitch of prosperity; but at the end of
another century, it was destroyed by the Turks. In the sixteenth
century it was conquered by the Persians, and continued to be a
perpetual source of discord between them and the Turks, although it
at length became annexed to the Ottoman Empire. Nadir Schah again
endeavoured to wrest it from the Turks in the eighteenth century.
The present population, of about 60,000 souls, consists of about
three-fourths Turks, and the remainder of Jews, Persians, Armenians,
and Arabs. There are only fifty or sixty Europeans living there.
The town is partly situated on both sides of the Tigris, but chiefly
on the east. It is surrounded by fortified walls of brick, with
numerous towers at regular intervals; both walls and towers,
however, are weak, and even somewhat dangerous, and the cannons upon
them are not in good condition.
