The Wines of the Ancient Orient. ^g 



bu-ru (IIR44, 13g). The most famous wines, however, came 

 from the Hamrin-mountain, the holy wineland of the goddess 

 Siris 1. In the mountain of Hamrin was situated a city called 

 Ninua- which was noted for its wines. The district about 

 Bakuba north-east of Bagdad produced plenty of wine. The vil- 

 lage Suna>'a, i. e., the al-'Atiqa or Mahalla al-*Atiqa of Bagdad^ 

 was renowned for its black grapes, which ripened sooner at 

 this place than all others elsewhere; Yaqut III, 197,6:^.-^* ^.f 



Jy^ ^ J^l^ ?^-^. ^^'^ >_^^ll v_^-oJ\ U^l c^-.*^. >|J.A^ 



sUsr' v^-vJ-a-JI. The cloister Dair Darmalis (J^^^-^ y^^) ^eems 

 to have contained a hanut, or wineshop, judging from the 

 words of Yaq. II, 660: "It is large and frequently visited by 

 people on account of the revelries, the entertainments, and 

 drink and festivities", Sj-iXJl^ v_a^^Io ^^-^^^ J-aT ^^ ^^ 

 ^l-^l^ (^_*iJ\^. Regarding the Dair az-Zandaward in Bagdad 

 Yaq. II, 665, 17 states that "it has the most excellent grapes 

 of all that are pressed in Bagdad", ^^^\ <^Uft\)l y^^\ ,j^ ^_yft^ 

 ^IjvjLo j-^uo. Abu No was sings {ibid): "Bring me wine of the 

 grapes of,Zandaward the forenoon; I shall sip it in the shade 

 of (grape)-clusters'", 



During the rule of the Sasanides the Nestorian and Jacobite 

 Christians possessed many cloisters in the 'Iraq whose inmates 

 were extensively engaged in viticulture. These cloisters were 

 the meeting-places of poets and cavaliers during the time of 

 the Omayyades and the first 'Abbaside caliphs. Here the}- 

 were more or less safe to enjoy the excellent wines that were 

 stored in the cellars of the cloisters. Even nunneries possessed 

 their wineshops. Thus we read in Yaq. II, 679 regarding the 

 Dair al-'adara ^the cloister of the virgins), which was also 

 called Dair al-'Alt from its location near 'Alt: "Halidi says: 

 I have seen it; virgins live in it; there are also wineshops in it 

 ^.-L OUl.a..a ^^nIJ.* Syt*o d^^ <*oj^aUo^ ^^^lil (JI35. It never 

 became empty of pleasure-seekers (Yaq. II, 681, 3). According 

 to Muqaddasi grapes abounded in the neighborhood of the 



i) See Hommel, Grundriss^ p. 289. 

 2i CT X, pi. 49 (14434), line 10. 



