_ 112 _ There is a good region down the rivers, eight or ten leagues to the sea or four or five across the land. The whole region is peopled by Arabian Moors and Jacobite Christians, fair-skinned and black, called franjes [? Franks]. Some of them are merchants, some live by rearing livestock; and they live from dates. They water [their crops] with water from these rivers and from the high tides of the sea, through channels they have built, and canals. It is now in the possession of the Turk, who took it from the Arabs. Basra, 8 [Corva], and the island of [?Urak], off El Katiff, lands of the Arabs and others. When I made this journey, the Arabs had besieged Basra, but the Turks were defending it very well. Item: Returning to the mountains of [Mingol]: on the other side of these mountains is the source of the River Araks,(A) which flows westward. It is stronger and faster-flowing than the Tigris and Euphrates; it passes along the foot of the Noah’s Ark Mountains and flows on to Nakichevan and Jagra, which are said to be the first cities peopled and built by Noah when he left the Ark. After that it flows on to a city called Arduar, and then flows on through many other cities and towns in Upper (A) Araks, formerly [Araxes].
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