_ 127 _ region from here onward, which is still part of ancient Mesopotamia. Salim the Turk, father of Suleiman captured it from him, and he was still reigning there when I passed this way, also taking from him Damascus, Aleppo, Malatya, all Syria, Egypt and Arabia. The city does not have a Pasha, but a sanjak, a captain subject to the Pasha of Kara Amid. In this city is the furnace(A) where the three youths, Shadrak, Meshak and Abednego were placed. On one side is a fine castle, well walled, and outside the city in the direction of the mountains there is a well, walled in not long ago by an Armenian; it is said that Our Lord performed a miracle here, but I was not told which one. The well has a basin, which cures lepers, and many of them gather here from many places, because no other city will let them in. After they are healed, they stay in the city in a place set aside for them at a distance from the city, because, even when they are healed, they do not return to their own lands. They are killed, especially throughout Persia. There are therefore many of them who live by breeding asses, and they produce fine, large ones. They sell them according to their breed. (A) The furnace which Nebuchadnezzar put there.
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