-four
miles SSE. of Edessa on the Balikh. Mustawfi tells us of
Abraham's Shrine.]

[Footnote 114: Ras-el-Ain, probably Rhesaina. The river
Khabur--the Araxes of Xenophon--flows from the Kurdistan
mountains southwards, and runs into the Euphrates.]

[Footnote 115: The Gozan river cannot be, as tacitly assumed
by Asher, the Kizil Uzun (also known as the Araxes). The
Kizil Uzun is on the right of the watershed of the mountains
of Kurdistan, and falls into the Caspian Sea. The Khabur
above referred to flows through Mesopotamia, not through
Media. The misconception arises probably from the author
being too mindful of the passage occurring repeatedly in
Scripture, e. g. 2 Kings xvii. 6: "... and placed them in
Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities
of the Medes."]

[Footnote 116: All the MSS. except BM. have here: "Thence it
is two days to the city of Nisibis (Nasibin). This is a
great city with rivulets of water, and contains about 1,000
Jews."]

[Footnote 117: Josephus (_Antiquities_, I, 3) mentions that
Noah's Ark still existed in his day. Rabbi Pethachia, who
travelled through Armenia within twenty years after
Benjamin, speaks of four mountain peaks, between which the
Ark became fixed and from which it could not get free. Arab
writers tell us that Jabal Judi (Koran, ch. xi, ver. 46)
with the Mosque of Noah on the summit, could be seen from
Geziret. See also _Marco Polo_, Bk. I. ch. 3.]

[Footnote 118: See Lebrecht's Essay "On the State of the
Caliphate at Bagdad." Sin-ed-din, otherwise known as
Seif-ed-din, died 1149, some twenty years before Benjamin's
visit, and Graetz (vol. VI, note 10) suggests that the
appointment of Astronomer Royal must have been made by
Nur-ed-din's nephew. None of the MSS. have this reading, nor
is such a correction needed. R. Joseph may have been
appointed by Nur-ed-din's brother, and would naturally
retain the office during the reign of his successor.]

[Footnote 119: Irbil, or Arbela, is two days' journey from
Mosul. See Saadyana, _J. Q.R._, vol. XIV, p. 503, and W.
Bacher's note, p. 741.]

[Footnote 120: For a full account of Mosul and other places
here referred to, see Mr. Guy Le Strange's _The Lands of the
Eastern Caliphate_, 1905, also Layard's _Ninev