Note 117 — Chapter VI · BAGHDÂD TO MÔṢUL April 12—April 28

Sarre thinks it was empty, and holds that the town was never finished or inhabited. He would therefore place here Ḳâṭûl, the site first fixed upon for his capital by the Khalif Mu’taṣim when he left Baghdâd. Finding Sâmarrâ to be better placed, he abandoned Ḳâṭûl before the work there was completed: Ya’ḳûbî, ed. de Goeje, p. 256. Sarre: Reise in Mesop. Zeitsch. der Gesell. fûr Erdkunde zu Berlin, 1909, No. 7, p. 437. Schwartz, however, suggests that Ḳâṭûl may have lain to the north of Sâmarrâ: Die Abbâsiden-Residenz Sâmarrâ, p. 5. Ross thought that Ḳâdisîyah was Sassanian, but I am persuaded that he was in error. (A Journey from Baghdâd to Opis, Journal of the Geog. Soc., Vol. XI. p. 127.) Jones gives a plan: Memoirs, p. 8.