KURMSAQ. PERS. As an expression of con tempt, the word Sag, signifying a clog, is generally applied to Christians by the Persians ; and among themselves, as equally contemptuous, Kurmsaq is in very frequent use. Ouseley suspects that Sag and Kurmsaq are the Sacm and Khor-Sa-kao mentioned by Solinus, those barbarous words being probably Latinized from an imperfect appre hension of their sounds. The Persians in their language, according to this author, call the Scythians Sam, and in return the Scythians call them Chor-saci. Scythas, Persm lingua sun Sacas dicunt, et invicem Scythm Persas Chorsacos nominant.—Solin Polyhist. xlix. in Ouseley's Travels, ii. p. 542.
KURNAll. Apamea, daughter of Artabazus, the Persian, was married to Seleucus, who gave her name to three towns. Kurnah, one of these three Apamea, is situated at the confluence of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, and although now dwindled into a petty town, it was formerly a place of consequence. It is on a low flat, with apparently a rich soil, and along the river are low banks to prevent the country being flooded. At this spot some oriental traditions have fixed the Garden of Eden. It commands the mouths of
both the Tigris and Euphrates, and looks directly down the Shat-ul-Arab river. Suaib, a station with a fort of the same name, is opposite to Kurnah, on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, and near Sahel. After the junction of the two streams, which for some distance Are clearly discernible from each other (the waters of the Euphrates being much the clearer), a striking change takes place in the character of the scenery. On enter ing the Tigris from the south, the belt of date trees almost immediately terminates, patches of cultivation show themselves more frequently, and the country (though still a dead level) has a fertile and less desert look. About 100 miles above Kurnah, on the right bank of the river, stands the tomb of the prophet-scribe Ezra, a pretty mosque of tesselated brickwork, sur mounted by a green cupola.—Townsend's Outran and Havelock, p. 308; Malcolm's Persia,ii. p. 141; Skinner's Overland Journey, ii. p. 266 ; Mignon's Travels, p. 290.