y increased by their religious
differences, the Arabs being as a rule Shi'ites, the Turks Sunnites.
Besides the court of superior officers, which assists the pasha in the
general administration of the province, there is also a _mejlis_ or mixed
tribunal for the settlement of municipal and commercial affairs, to which
both Christian and Jewish merchants are admitted. Besides these, there are
the religious heads of the community, especially the _nakib_ and Jewish
high priest, who possess an undefined and extensive authority in their own
communities. The Jewish chief priest may be said to be the successor of the
_exilarch_ or _resh galutha_ of the earlier period.

_History._--There are in or near Bagdad a few remains of a period
antedating Islam, the most conspicuous of which are the ruins of the palace
of Chosroes at Ctesiphon or Madain, about 15 m. below Bagdad on the east
side of the river. Almost equally conspicuous, and a landmark through the
whole region, is the ruin called Akerkuf, in the desert, about 9 m.
westward of Bagdad. This consists of a huge tower of unburned brick resting
on a small hill of debris, the whole rising to a height of 100 ft. or more
above the plain, in the centre of a network of ancient canals. Inscribed
bricks found in the neighbourhood seem to connect this ruin with Kurigalzu,
king of Babylon about 1300 B.C. Under substantially its present name,
Akukafa, it is mentioned as a place of importance in connexion with the
canals as late as the Abbasid caliphate. Within the limits of the city
itself, on the west bank of the Tigris, are the remains of a quay, first
observed by Sir Henry Rawlinson, at a period of low water, in 1849, built
of bricks laid in bitumen, and bearing an inscription of Nebuchadrezzar,
king of Babylon. _Baghdadu_ was an ancient Babylonian city, dating back
perhaps as far as 2000 B.C., the name occurring in lists in the library of
Assur-bani-pal. It is also mentioned on the Michaux stone, found on the
Tigris near the site of the present city, and dating from the time of
Tiglath-Pileser I. (1100 B.C.) The quay of Nebuchadrezzar, mentioned above,
establishes the fact that this ancient city of Baghdadu was located on the
site of western or old Bagdad (see further under CALIPHATE: _Abbasids_,
sections 2 foll.). References in the Jewish _Talmud_ show that this city
still continued to exist at and after the commencement of our era; but
according to Arabian writers, at the time when th