Nil (Iraq)

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an-Nīl was a city of medieval Iraq, located at the modern site of Niliyah.[1][2] It was founded by Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, the Umayyad governor of Iraq, on the canal known as the Shatt en-Nil, which was named after the Nile river.[3] Both the canal and the city were built as part of a land reclamation project intended to increase the population of the area.[4]

Map by McGuire Gibson showing an-Nil as well as other archaeological sites in the area.

In the late 10th century, the Christian bishopric of Nippur, 50 km to the southeast, was relocated to Nīl.[5]

Nīl survived the Mongol conquest of Iraq in 1258 and continued to flourish for nearly a century thereafter, even while most other settlements in the area declined. It appears to have been abandoned around 1350.[6]

The ruins at Niliyah show that medieval Nīl was a large city, with settlement on both sides of the Shatt en-Nil for over 1 km. A bridge made of baked bricks, identified as the Qanṭara al-Māsī, joined the two sides. To the southeast were a brick factory and a small square tomb.[7]

References

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  1. ^ Gibson (1972), p. 53
  2. ^ Le Strange (1905), p. 72
  3. ^ Le Strange (1905), pp. 72-73
  4. ^ El-Babour (1981), p.68
  5. ^ Adams (1981), p. 236
  6. ^ Gibson (1972), pp. 53-55
  7. ^ Gibson, pp. 53, 155

Sources

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  • Adams, Robert M. (1981). Heartland of Cities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-00544-5.
  • El-Babour, Mansour M. (1981). Urban Networks in Eastern Abbasid Lands: An Historical Geography of Settlement in Mesopotamia and Persia, Ninth- and Tenth-Century A.D. University of Arizona
  • Gibson, McGuire (1972). The City and Area of Kish. Miami: Field Research Projects. pp. 53–55, 155.
  • Le Strange, Guy (1905). The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate: Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia, from the Moslem Conquest to the Time of Timur. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 458169031.

33°21′N 44°26′E / 33.350°N 44.433°E / 33.350; 44.433