The present-day town has sadly shrunk from its former grandeur, but still
has an impressive look with its great walls and massive gateways. The
houses nearest the walls are in ruins or uninhabited; but in peacetime the
great reputation that the climate of Samarra possesses for salubrity draws
to it many Baghdad families who come to pass the summer months. A good
percentage of the inhabitants are Persians, for the eleventh and twelfth
Shiah Imams are buried on the site of the largest mosque. The two main
sects of Moslems are the Sunnis and the Shiahs; the former regard the
three caliphs who followed Mohammed as his legitimate successors,
whereas the latter hold them to be usurpers, and believe that his
cousin and son-in-law, Ali, husband of Fatimah, together with their sons
Husein and Hasan, are the prophet's true inheritors. Ali was assassinated
near Nejef, which city is sacred to his memory, and his son Husein was
killed at Kerbela; so these two cities are the greatest of the Shiah
shrines. The Turks belong almost without exception to the Sunni sect,
whereas the Persians and a large percentage of the Arabs inhabiting
Mesopotamia are Shiahs.
The country around Samarra is not unlike in character the southern part of
Arizona and northern Sonora. There are the same barren hills and the same
glaring heat. The soil is not sand, but a fine dust which permeates
everything, even the steel uniform-cases which I had always regarded as
proof against all conditions.
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