{{short description|City of medieval Iraq}} thumb|Map by McGuire Gibson showing an-Nil as well as other archaeological sites in the area.
'''an-Nīl''' was a city of medieval Iraq, located at the modern site of Niliyah.<ref>Gibson (1972), p. 53</ref><ref>Le Strange (1905), p. 72</ref> It was founded by Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, the Umayyad governor of Iraq, on the canal known as the Shatt en-Nil, which was named after the Nile river.<ref>Le Strange (1905), pp. 72-73</ref> Both the canal and the city were built as part of a land reclamation project intended to increase the population of the area.<ref>El-Babour (1981), p.68</ref>
In the late 10th century, the Christian bishopric of Nippur, 50 km to the southeast, was relocated to Nīl.<ref>Adams (1981), p. 236</ref>
Nīl survived the Mongol conquest of Iraq in 1258 and continued to flourish for nearly a century thereafter, even while most other settlements in the area declined. It appears to have been abandoned around 1350.<ref>Gibson (1972), pp. 53-55</ref>
The ruins at Niliyah show that medieval Nīl was a large city, with settlement on both sides of the Shatt en-Nil for over 1 km. A bridge made of baked bricks, identified as the Qanṭara al-Māsī, joined the two sides. To the southeast were a brick factory and a small square tomb.<ref>Gibson, pp. 53, 155</ref>
== References == <!-- Inline citations added to your article will automatically display here. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:REFB for instructions on how to add citations. --> {{reflist}}
== Sources == * Adams, Robert M. (1981). ''Heartland of Cities''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. {{ISBN|0-226-00544-5}}. * El-Babour, Mansour M. (1981). ''Urban Networks in Eastern Abbasid Lands: An Historical Geography of Settlement in Mesopotamia and Persia, Ninth- and Tenth-Century A.D.'' University of Arizona * {{cite book |last1=Gibson |first1=McGuire |title=The City and Area of Kish |date=1972 |publisher=Field Research Projects |location=Miami |pages=53–55, 155 |url=http://digital.library.stonybrook.edu/cdm/ref/collection/amar/id/145804 |archive-date=2020-07-14 |access-date=2020-03-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200714095917/http://digital.library.stonybrook.edu/cdm/ref/collection/amar/id/145804 |url-status=dead }} * {{Cite book |last=Le Strange |first=Guy |title=The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate: Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia, from the Moslem Conquest to the Time of Timur |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1905 |oclc=458169031 |url=https://archive.org/details/b2935321x}}
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Category:Medieval history of Iraq Category:Former populated places in Iraq Category:Archaeological sites in Iraq