Page 65 - Journal of Asian History_Neat

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; 74 SAlill OZnARAN

journey [from Basra], there are great forests, from which comes much
tine timber and, in addition, there is also pine-wood from which they
could build as many ships as they desired, both large and small, by
reason of the abundance of timber to be found there. This town of
Birejik is large and well-populated and has a great traffic with Persia
and with other regions. From this place, two days’ journey away, there ^
is the city of Aleppo, situated between Persia and Turkey.
■
He said that from thi3 town of Birejik there are two routes which go *1
to Basra^-one of them runs through a town which is called Illaa12 and .>
the other goes through Baghdad. And this [latter] route i3 more direct, i
but since, three month of the year, [the channel of] this river [tends j-l
to] dry up, then whoever wants to use sailing ships had better go 3
through Illaa because water is always Sowing there, and there are
many [irrigation] channels cut through the cultivated lands (semem-
tcircs). The lowest level [of water], through the year, remains at two :J
1
and a half to three fathoms (bravos) in depth, so that all ships and
boats, however large they are, can sail therein. And to come from the
town of Birejik to Basra takes twenty-four day3 even when the water
in this river is running at its lowest towards Basra. And the river winds ^
about from one end to the other, yet it is none the less so broad and ii
well-known that it can easily be distinguished from other channels . J
which are made for [the purpose of] irrigation. 3
Hajji Fayat also told me that there came now to Basra a slave-
messenger (escravo) of the Great Turk with a letter to Mehmed Pasha. ^
It took him forty-two days to come to Basra from Constantinople. 3
Hajji Fagat, by a solemn oath that he took on his Koran, [swore that] .3
he would tell me the truth in all these things; and also that he would
send me from there [i.e., from Basra] all the news which he might £
learn. He asked me to give him certain signs by which it would be 5
known what the Turks at Basra intended to do; and that he would 3

send this information by one of his sons. This Hajji Fayat and his son g
are men who, each year, visit Aleppo, Alexandria and many other J
places, so that necessarily they come to know many things about all '1
that the Great Turk decrees. He told me that I should put my trust in 3
these things because he belonged to a sect amongst the Turks-who 1
were themselves of a different belief-and that he was a friend of the Tfl
i Turks, because he was nothing but a merchant, trading always in
l 1
1 i
lt IUaa-i.e., al-Hilla, on the river Euphrates (cf. J. Laaaner, in El* a v aZ- •
HiUa). ’ * *
£
J

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