The
road from Dibeneh to Heyni runs part of the way through the beautiful
valley of Pelishka and close to the low range of hills that bound the
valley of Nerib at this side. The name of Nerib is curious as occurring
in the great monolith inscription alluded to further back, in connexion
with the march of the Assyrian King from that place to Tooskan or Kurkh,
14 hours (35 miles) distant.
The great
King reduced its unruly inhabitants to obedience, and destroyed their
cities and strongholds. Now, as then, it is This inhabited by a set of
Kurds (always in rebellion), living in their secluded and inaccessible
valley, which still contains several ruins of very ancient date. Nerib
is also the first point where the Zaza Kurdish is used, the Kermanji
dialect being the one spoken in all Eastern and Southern Kurdistan.
Heyni, or Hani, is a pretty little town situated on the slope of a hill
crowned by the ruins of an ancient castle. Some old Mahomedan buildings
and an ancient square watch-tower, in the middle of the luxuriant
gardens at the foot of the town, boast of great architectural beauty.
One of the former, dedicated to a certain Zeineb (not the famous one),
is built in the form of a cross, and has the Ayet el Kursee carved in
beautiful letters all round the interior of the building. In the centre
of the town a large spring, 200 feet in circumference, enclosed by
masonry, supplies the town gardens and splendid clover-fields with
beautiful clear cold water; it then emerges into the plain and forms the
river called Ambar Su, which falls into the Tigris opposite Kurkh, as
already noticed further back. (…)
J. G. Taylor (1865), Travels in Kurdistan, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Vol. 35, p. 38-39
