TIGRIS (ti'gris), (Hcb. kel).
One of the four rivers of Paradise, twice men tioned in•Scripture, under the name of HIDDEKEI. (Gen. ii:t4; Dan. x :4)• In Aramaean it is called Pigla, in Arabic Diglat, in Zend Teger, in Pehlvi Tegera, 'stream whence have arisen both the Aramnan and Arabic forms, to which also we trace the Hebrew Dekel divested of the prefix Hid. This prefix denotes activity, rapidity, vehemence, so that Hid-dekel sig nifies 'the rapid Tigris.' From the introduction of the prefix, it would appear that the Hebrews were not entirely aware that Teger, by itself signified velocity ; so in the language of Media, Tigris meant an arrow (Strabo, ii. 527; Plin. Hist. Nat. vi. 27; comp. Pers, leer, 'arrow;' Sanskrit tigra, `sharp,' swife) hence arose such pleonasms as 'king Pharaoh' and `Al-coran.' The Tigris rises in the mountains of Ar menia about fifteen miles south of the sources of the Euphrates,and pursues nearly a regular course southeast till its junction with that river at Korna, fifty miles above Basrah (Bassorah). The Tigris is navigable for boats of twenty or thirty tons' burden as far as the mouth of the Odorneh, but no further ; and the commerce of Mosul is con sequently carried on by rafts supported on inflated sheep or goats' skins.
The Tigris, between Bagdad and Korna, is, on an average, about two hundred yards wide; at Mosul its breadth does not exceed three hun dred feet. The banks are steep, and overgrown
for the most part with brushwood, the resort of lions and other wild animals. The middle part of the river's course, from Mosul to Korna, once the seat of high culture and the residence of mighty kings, is now desolate, covered with the relics of ancient greatness in the shape of fortresses, mounds, and dams, which had been erected for the defense and irrigation of the coun try. At the ruins of Nimrod, eight leagues below Mosul, is a stone dam quite across the river, which, when the stream is low, stands consid erably above the surface, and forms a small cata ract ; but when the stream is swollen, no part of it is visible, the water rushing over it like a rapid, and boiling up with great impetuosity. It is a work of great skill and labor, and now vener able for its antiquity. At some short distance be low there is another Zikr (dyke), but not so high, and more ruined than the former. The river rises twice in the year : the first and great rise is in April, and is caused by the melting of the snows in the mountains of Armenia ; the other is in November, and is produced by the periodical rains. (See Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 448; Sayce, Higher Crit., p. 96; Price, The Monuments and the Old Test., pp. 87, 223, 229.)