Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1916-01-21

yards long. loo yards wide. made en-
tlrelN by hand. and il pictured gar
den.
Wonderful Carpet.
The birds woven in the carpet had
been fashioned OF precious stones, as
We're also the flowers Sand decided
to present the carpet to the caliph.
But Omar was an ascetic of the most
extreme type. When he saw the
splendid example of the silk-knitters'
art, he merely said.
What shall | do with this handi-
work of these devil worshippers. Di-
vide il among the leaders of the
troops.
The splendid carpet was hacked to
pieces.
During the recent battle between
the Ottoman troops and the British.
the remains of the white Palace"
splendid even in their ruined state,
as a number of large photographs in
the Stamboul museum show, were
further devastated by the Turkish and
British artillery fire The extent OF
the damage Is still unknown, but II
brings to mind a verse of an epic
poem which the Persian poet FirduIi
(Firdus) composed on the fall OF
Steslphon:
I'm the imperial palace at the gate,
The spider. chamberlain by fate,
Draws the curtain,
While in Efrasiab's royal halls,
Sounds weird war music of the owls Z"
Seleucia and Ctesiphon were built
to take the place of Babylon. which
latter city fell rapidly into decay at
ter the death of Alexander the Great.
Seleucia itself was founded by Seleu-
kus, son of Alexander's favorite gen
eral, Antiochus. The building mate
rial was furnished by the ruins of the
wonder city, Babylon. For many
years the left bank of the Tigris, OPP
posite the Partian dynasty of the Sas-
sanides had again made Persia a
powerful state. Seleucia lay on and
commanded the main road from Syria
TO Persia and India. and the Sassa-
hides therefore decided to countcract
the existence of its very important
strategic base by taking the left bank
of the Tigris and founding there the
city and fortress of Ctesiphon
The new city grew rapidly. II is
said that when Saud took the city
il had over q million inhabitants,
while the population of the territory
north, east and south of il, numbered
no less than $4,000 Plenty of wa
ter from the Tigris and most fertile
SOIL two essentials which in the hot
climate Of central southwest Asia, pro-
1uced great agricultural wealth. made
this aggregation possible. German
capital and engineering are employed
today to drive the encroaching desert
back and re-establish once more the
the district enjoyed before
Saud came with his fantastic swarms
IF Arabs.
The present population of the Basra
region, of which Cteslphon is the CEN
.er, is no more than 100000. Bag
lad included. 1t is said to have once
been 10000, 900, but the decrease has
n no way affected the strategic inn
Dortance of the district. Though the
political effect of the taking of Bag
lad by the British would have been
'ar-rcaching in results detrimental to
he Turks, capture of the city would
ave effectively blocked the road to
Persia and India.
Bagdad is the one city which is
lnown to every Moslem throughout
he world: Mecca. in fact, occupies
10 greater place in Islamitic thought
md literature. Had the British been
lble to announce that Bagdad was
heirs, they would have had weighty
argument to show that caliph or the
3osphorus was no longer the head OF
siam