ABSTRACT

The quarters surrounding the Palaces of the Caliph to the eastward, away from the Tigris bank, and to the southward towards the town of Kalwadah down-stream, for the most part are included within the lines of the city wall, though there are suburbs beyond the Bab-az-Zafariyah to the north-east, and beyond the Bab-al-Basaliyah to the south, otherwise called the Kalwadah Gate. The word Karah, which occurs in connexion with the name of many different quarters in the part of the city, is explained by Yakut as signifying a garden in the Baghdad dialect; with the lapse of time, however, the gardens' coming to be built over, the term Karah continued in use as the name of the new suburb. Of the founders of the various suburbs nothing is known, but Yakut adds that the four quarters called after the Karahs, or Gardens, of Ibn Razin, Zafar, Al-Kadi, and Abu-sh-Shahm, are each in his day standing/ apart like so many separate hamlets.