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, the ancient Saros, the western twin river of the D̲j̲ayḥān [ q.v.] in the Çukurova (Cilician plain) in eastern Turkey; both were identified with two of the Ḳurʾānic rivers from Paradise (Ḳurʾān XLVII, 15, etc.) by the early Muslim border warriors. Its total length is 560 km/348 miles with the two spring rivers, the western Zamanti Irmaği (325 km/200 miles), originating in the Uzun Yayla, and the eastern Göksu (200 km/125 miles) coming from Binboğa and the Tahtali mountains. The Zamanti flows through the m…

, D̲j̲abal , a steep mountain range to the west of Mawṣil, rising to 1,463 m/4,798 feet in height, in the desert zone between the Tigris and K̲h̲ābūr rivers. At the present time, it lies mainly in ʿIrāḳ, but has its western slopes in Syria. There are only a few valleys with vegetation and timber; some wādīs of the southern slopes are affluents of the Nahr al-T̲h̲art̲h̲ār, and irrigated agriculture (in mediaeval Islamic times, with figs, date palms and mulberry trees for a flo…

, a mediaeval Islamic town of upper al-D̲j̲azīra, classical Samosata, Ottoman Samsāṭ, modern Turkish Samsat in the il or province of Achyaman (lat. 37° 30′ N., long. 38° 32′ E.). Not to be confused with S̲h̲ims̲h̲āṭ [ q.v.] (Arsamosata) further up the river to the north-east, it lies on the right bank of the Euphrates’ northwards bend at an important crossing of the north-south route to Edessa or Urfa, 50 km/30 miles to the south of Sumaysāṭ, and the east-west one from Mārdīn. It may have had a bridge over the river in Antiquity, a…

, the name of several places in the Islamic world, from Cordova in the west to Nīs̲h̲āpūr in the east (see Yāḳūt, Buldān , ed. Beirut, iii, 46-50). Amongst the Ruṣāfa settlements of ʿIrāḳ were: 1. Ruṣāfat Abi ’l-ʿAbbās (ʿAbd Allāh al-Saffāḥ), begun by the first ʿAbbāsid caliph in lower ʿIrāḳ on the banks of the Euphrates, near al-Anbār [ q.v.], and probably identical with that town called al-Hās̲h̲imiyya. Bibliography Yaʿḳūbī, Buldān, 237, tr. Wiet, 9 Yāḳūt, Buldān, iii, 46. 2. al-Ruṣāfa, the name of a quarter of the city of Bag̲h̲dād [ q.v.] founded soon after the caliph al-Manṣūr [ q.v.] buil…