º :-）.- *** ！•¿••• • r §§ （4 º :įžº ¿&#;ěž ¿ §§ :}: §§2）; ȧae -№r=~ ::：:：:：:::：：::： ∞ • ！！！！！！！！！！ ！！！，，， 。 、、、、、、） ŒŒ ● ſ.º. „-ºr, † 3. **** *** 3，3×. ¿ț¢ſ: ſae : **** § Ř $ 3 {{ sº tº ºr ; ¿ſ. §§§ º :*（f ！ ſiſſae; §§§ §§§ ##### ##### §§ #### ¡ ¿§§§ĒĒĒĒĒĖĘae§§§§ſºğaeŠ， *）（===S=№ ×·§ €. Tº №. º.：: ~~--~~~::~~>.*& ***：، 、、。};#####################ffffffffffffffffff;"§¶√∞：<~~ ~~~~|-|-|- ،£ €$£§§§§§§ºff （！！！！！！！!！！！！！！！！№ſſae��■■■**§§§§2≡ſº :*（f（'???！***!#%æşeşti！！！º aeg; &ae： ț¢#::}#########§§§###{{#ſſºſ、、、、、、）########§§§§§:-******§§§ī£§§§ț¢și sae§§§ſae;§§§§§|-·aeºs ſºț， și §§§};:¿; ºſ gº-、。 §. ∞∞∞ §§*$$$$$$$$ ffff; ， ， §§§§ · ¿??¿ e ¡ ¿ №sºs， aegae ！ EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. . BY GENERAL A. HOUTUM-SCHINDLER, F.R.G.S., CORRESP. MEMB. IMP. GEOLOG.. INST. AND GEOG. Soc. VIENNA, AND ANTIIIROP. SOC. BERLIN, MI.R.A.S., NUM. SOC., ETC. WITH MIAP. LONDON : JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. | S$)7. ^- O f • C O N T E N T S. PAR, 1. INTRODUCTORY 2. CoMPILATION OF MAP 3. GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF LOCALITIES 4. ORTHOGRAPHY OF NAMES 5. WoRKS CONSULTED 6. THE NAME IRAK ... 7–10. OROGRAPHY tº e ge 11–18. GEOLOGY 19–24. HYDROGRAPHY 25–29. METEOROLOGICAL 30. FLORA 31–47. FAUNA : 32. Insects ... 33. Myriapods 34. Arachnids 35. Crustaceans ... 36. Molluscs 37. Fishes 38. Amphibians 39. Reptiles 40. Birds 41. Game Birds ... 42. Shore Birds 43. Water Birds ... 44. Mammals 45. Ovina—with Photograph 46. Antelopina 47. Cervina 6–10 T 1–1 4 14–19 19–23 23–26 46 46 vi PAR. CONTENTS. 48. ETHNOLOGY 49–54. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 55–93. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. COMMUNICATIONs: Railways Tramways Roads Telegraphs Posts THE PROVINCE OF KOM : Doundaries and Old Divisions Present Divisions, Taxes Boundaries of Humeh District Position and Population of Kom Water-Supply of Kom Origin of Kom e e º 61, 62. Etymology of Word “Kom * 63. Foundation of Kom I’AGE 47–50 64, 65. First Arab Settlers at Kom 66. 67. Extent of Kom in Tenth Century Kom, a Stronghold of Shi’ahs 68–72. Mosques, Graves, Colleges of Kom 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82. Gates of Town Bazars and Trade of Kom Irrigation, Canals Turbulence of People of Kom Old Revenue System—Coinage Old Assessments Tevenues, how derived • * * * g s Amount of Revenue, Taxes on Various Articles Mint at Kom tº º º Great Jealousy of Men of Kom .. 83–85. Lands near the Town, Kuh i Talism 86. 87. 88. 89. $)(). Sarajeh Villages of Sarajeh Komrud District Wazehkerud District Kinar i Rudkhaneh District 66 CONTIENTS. vii N- O I’Al3. 91. 92. 93. 94–100. !)4. 95. !)6. 97. 98. 99. 100. 101–105. 101. 102. 103. 104. 105. IVollistan District Jasb District Agdahal District ... THE PROVINCE OF MATIALLAT : Doundaries º Mahallat Town—Origin Mahallat Town—Description Old Fortress tº º a e - © Ism’ailis and Tovolt of Aka Khan Villages of Mahallat, Sassanian Ruins Old Localities mot identified THE PROVINCE OF NATANZ : Boundaries, Population, Taxes, Division Natanzrud District Parzrud District ... Tarkrud District Badrud District 106. THE PROVINCE OF JOSIIEKAN PAGIC 81 84 87 89 89 90 91 02 95 Q9 100 101 I 02 104 105 105 107–113. 107. 108. 109. 11 (). 111. 112. 113. THE PROVINCE OF IXASIIAN : Boundaries, Population, Taxes, Division ... Germsir... tº & 4 © tº a Town and IIumeh, Origin of Town Description of Town Villages of Iſumeh Germsir Proper Sardsir 114. ExPLANATORY NOTE 115–127. 115. 116. 117. 118. 119. | 20. THE PROVINCE OF ISIAILAN : Boundaries, Taxes of Province Division of Province e is a Extent and I’opulation of Town Gates of Town Town (Juarters tº g tº Mosques and Colleges of Isfahan I (){} 109 I (){} 11 | | | 2 1 ſ 3 | | 4 | | 8 | | {} | | {} | | {} | 20 | 20 | 22 viii CONTENTS. PAR.' 121. 122. 123. 124. 125. 126. 127. Minarets, Caravanserais, etc. Water-Supply of the Town Earthquakes and Epidemics The Nine Buluk of Isfahan The Eight Mahal of Isfahan The Two Kassabeh of Isfahan ... The Five Nahiyeh of Isfahan 128. THE PROVINCES OF IRAK AND SAVAH 129. THE PROVINCE OF TEHERAN 130. ETYMOLOGY OF NAMES TEHERAN AND SHIMRAN 131. ADDITIONAL NOTES tº ſº tº tº dº ſº tº e tº PAGE 123 123 124 125 I27 128 128 129 130 130 182 EASTERN PERSIAN TRA ES. INTRODUCTORY. 1. EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK, the subject of the present memoir, is practically a blank on all existing maps. The rich and fertile districts of Jasp, Ardahal, Kohistan of Kom, Sardsir of Kashan, are perfect terrae incognitae, and no published map that I have seen shows them. The districts of Mahallat and Joshekan have occasionally been mentioned, and their position has been indicated on maps; but of Joshekan only one place (Meimeh) is shown, and the town Mahallat, until quite recently, still figured as Makatal—a name obtained from Aucher Eloy's almost illegible pencil notes. The Lar district, north-east of Teheran, has been visited every year by many of the European residents of Teheran, but with the exception of Lovett, who surveyed a part of it (see Pro- ceedings R.G.S., 1882), no one seems to have taken any trouble about mapping it. COMPILATION OF MAP. 2. The accompanying map has been compiled from my own Surveys, which were done, a little at a time, during the last eighteen years. The lake between Teheran and Kom is from a survey by Mr. Mansergh D. Robinson, C.E. : and for a part of Veramin and Lar, in the north-eastern R 2 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. corner of the map, and the Elburz, I am indebteº, Mr. Hugo Schubert, civil engineer in Persian service. GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF LOCALITIES. 3. The positions of the stations between Teheran and Isfahan along the telegraph line were fixed astronomically by the late Sir Oliver St. John, correctly as regards latitudes, and almost correctly as regards longitudes. To the latter I have applied the slight corrections which resulted from the observations of the German-Russian expedition for ob- serving the transit of Venus in 1874. St. John's results for the longitudes of Teheran and Isfahan were 51° 24' 54" E. and 51° 39' 0" E. ; those of the Venus expedition were 51° 25' 25'5" and 51° 40' 3-45". At Teheran both St. John and General Stebnitzky (chief of the Russian expedition) observed at the old English telegraph office ; at Isfahan St. John observed at the English telegraph office at Julfa, and Dr. Becker, the German astronomer, observed in the Bagh i Zerishk, a short distance to the east of it (about half a mile). St. John's longitudes are, therefore, about half a minute of arc too far east. All other positions have been fixed by me, and all the altitudes which are marked on the map are mine. Travellers who carry a meat little aneroid barometer in their waistcoat pocket, and fancy that they get correct figures for altitudes by a reading from the scale on the instrument, will no doubt find that many of my figures do not agree with theirs; but experienced travellers will know the absurdity of trusting to the Scale of feet marked on the aneroids, or of depending on observations from a single instrument, even when the greatest care is taken to ensure accuracy. I have always used several aneroids, kept a check on them with boiling-point ther- mometers, taken account of the humidity of the air, and ISA STERN PERSIAN II? A K. 3 '*', sº e - calculated the altitudes by the newest formulae of Ruehl- mann und Bauernfeind. The variation of the compass was in 1890, 3° 20' E. at Savah, 2° 10' at Teheran, 1° 43' - O at Isfahân. ORTHOGRAPHY OF NAMES.* 4. Regarding the Orthography of local names, I have done my best to follow the R.G.S. rules, but in order to enable students of comparative geography to judge whether a name is Persian, Arabic, or Turkish, or a Persian name which has experienced foreign influence, I should have been obliged to use diacritical points for eight letters which are generally considered as non-Persian. These eight letters are ~~ C U-2 Jº \ \º & G, and I should represent them by t, h, s, z, t, z, ', and / ; for the last, the guttural k, I am much in favour of y. For an accurate transliteration of Persian names, it is absolutely necessary to make a difference between long and short vowels. WORKS CONSULTED. 5. For the Zoological part I have much consulted Blan- ford’s ‘Zoology’ (vol. ii., “Eastern Persia: ” London, ISTG). I have also made use of a number of works in Persian and other languages, principally for historical data, but con- sidered it useless to swell the text either with many notes of reference or with a separate list of all the works consulted. I must, however, specially mention the ‘Kon-nameh, which - * The Council regret that they do not see their way to depart from the rules of spelling geographical names which they have adopted, and therefore no diacritical marks have been used for the names in this publication.-- (SEC. I.G.S.] 4 FASTERN PERSIAN IRA K. © © * tº gº ~ : T has been an inexhaustible mine of interesting notes on the Kom district. It was written in Arabic, A. H. 374, by Hasan b. Muhammed b. Hasan al Kommi, and translated into Persian, A.H. 806, by Hasan b. 'Ali, better known as Hajji Hasan Kommi; and I must not omit acknowledging my indebtedness to Victor Hehn’s ‘Kulturpflanzen und Hausthiere' (Berlin, 1883). THE NAME IRAK. 6. Shortly after the Arab conquest, and in the middle of the seventh century, the vast Persian empire, extending in the east to Sind and Transoxiana, was placed for adminis- trative purposes under the Governor-General of Kufah, the capital of Irak. Later on, under the Caliph Muaviyyah (661-679), the southern half of Persia and Khorasan was made subordinate to the government-general of Basrah, and the remainder of the Persian provinces—almost equivalent to the ancient Media—to that of Kufah, and the latter, together with the part of Persia under it, formed the great province of Irak. The sub-provinces east of the Zagros range—the ancient frontier between Media and Assyria– then became known as Irak ul 'ajam, i.e. the barbarian or foreign Irak,” to distinguish it from Irak ul 'arab, the Arabian Irak or Irak proper, which was situated west of the Zagros, and the Governor-General of Kufah had the title. “ (;overnor of the Two Iraks.” At a later period Azerbaijan and the Caspian provinces were separated from Persian lºak, and finally the appellation became restricted to that part of Persia which was bounded by Azerbaijan, Gilan, and Mazandaran on the north, by Khorasan on the east, by Fars * The word 'ajam, originally meaning any country outside of Arabia, since the end of the seventh century generally stands for l'Ursia. EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 5 sº and Khuzistan on the south, and by the Zagros range on the west, and comprised the present provinces and districts of Teheran, Kazvin, Zenjan, Hamadan, Kermanshah, Luris- tan, Isfahan, Kashan, and Kom. The eastern part of this region is described in this memoir. In the thirteenth century, under the Mongol Ilkhanis, Persian Irak comprised the nine provinces—then called tuman—of (1) Isfahan ; (2) Rei ; (3) Sultanieh and Kazvin ; (4) Kom and Kashan ; (5) Lur i buzurg (Great Luristan with Idej); (6) Luri kuchik (Little Luristan with Burujird); (7) Hamadan ; (8) Yezd ; and (9) Deilam, Talish, and Gurgan (the Caspian provinces). Irak 'ajam, as the name of a province, or even region, is now obsolete; while Irak stands for a little district South- west of Kom, with Sultanabad or Shehr i no, i.e. the new town, as its governor's residence.” Before the Arab con- Quest the greater part of the country, later on called Irak ’ajam, was known as Fahlev, or Pahlev, i.e. the “hilly” region, and Muhammedan authors, until the eleventh century, gene- rally speak of it as Jibal, i.e. “mountains,” or, again, the hilly country. The Fahlev or Jibal region was never well defined, and its boundaries frequently changed ; sometimes Azer- baijan and the Caspian provinces were considered to form part of it, sometimes they, as well as Rei and Isfahan, were considered as being outside of it. Under the latter Sassanians Fahlev was a part of Khavaran, which was one * Sultanabad was founded in 1808 by Yusuf Khan Gurji, i.e. the Georgian, who had then been made governor of the Irak province, and commander-in-chief of the 12,000 men, regular infantry, recruited in that province. The regular army was then being formed at the instigation of General Gardane, who had been sent on a mission to Persia by Napoleon I. in 1807; and the infantry of Irak was known as janbaº, while that of Azerbaijan was called Sarbaz, pow the general term for an infantryman. Yusuf Khan died in 1824, and his son Gholam Hussein Khan married a daughter of Fath Ali Shah, named Mah Begum Khanum, who died in 1859. 6 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. © of the four great provinces into which the empire was divided.* OROGRAPHY. O 7. The mountain ranges in Eastern Persian Irak have, with few exceptions, a nearly uniform direction from north- West to South-east. The exceptions are the Elburz and the Small ranges which run parallel to it and form the northern boundary of the great central depression of Persia which is generally known as the Great Salt Desert. As first pointed out by the late Sir Oliver St. John, this great depression lies between the Elburz, or the ridges parallel to it, and the northern ends of the ranges of the central plateau which strike north-west to south-east. 8. The central range of the Elburz, which presents on its southern or inward face a more or less abrupt scarp rising above immense gravel slopes, reaches in some of its summits a height of nearly 13,000 feet, and the cone of Mount Demavend has an elevation of at least 18,000 feet.f * I have heard the word fahlev, or pahlev (pronounced pahlu), used by Lurs and Bakhtiaris for “mountain,” and the word Khavaran, as I heard from several villagers, exists as the local name of the region between Sultanabad and Mahallat. It was Khosro Anushirvan (531-579) who divided Persia into the four great provinces, viz. Khorasan, Apakhtar, Nimruj, and Khavaran, the last standing for “the west.” f In my “ Notes on Demavend’ (Proceedings R.G.S., February, 1888) I compared the various reliable measurements known to me, and obtained about 19,400 feet as the height of Demavend. Dr. Sven Hedin's measurements in July, 1890 (see Verh. d. Gesellschaft f. Erdkunde Berlin, xix. pp. 322–332; and Proceedings R.G.S., xiv. p. 565), made it 5465 metres, or 17,930 feet, but his result is also only approximative ; for— (1) The reading for the boiling-point on the summit is doubtful. In his paper (p. 329) Hedin states that the reading on the summit, 82.5° C., was the mean of the readings from three thermometers, but, according to a letter which he wrote to me on his return from Demavend, the reading on the summit was not taken with his standard thermometers, because they were marked down to only 85°C., but with a faulty EASTER N PERSIA N IRAK. 7 %. Elburz, also Arburz, Arburj, Alburj (Zend Hara- berezaiti, the “High mountain’), the present appellation of the great range of hills between the Caspian and the plateau of Persia, was in the Eranian mythology the name of the mountain which surrounded the Earth (Kamiratha) and reached up to the heavens. On it lived the genii, round it moved the heavenly bodies, and out of it grew all other mountains of the Earth. It was also a place of rest for the souls of the blessed on their long march from the Earth to Paradise. Elburz as the name of the range in Northern Persia was unknown in the middle ages, and probably as late as the sixteenth century. The ‘Bundahish,’ a compilation of the thirteenth century, calls the range “the mountains of the land of Padashkhvargar; ” and Zahir ed din, in his history of Tabaristan, which was completed in 1476, explains Fadashvargar, the modern form of the word, as being com- posed of three words meaning “sea,” “hill,” and “plain,” and standing for the country comprising the provinces of Azer- baijan, Gilan, Rei, Tabaristan, and Kumish.” Ferdusi, when thermometer which, when he compared it with the others later on, was found to be $º C. out. He forgets that when a thermometer differs from a standard thermometer at one temperature it does not follow that it differs the same quantity at another temperature. (2) The figure for the mean temperature of the column of air between the lower and higher stations can hardly be correct. Zergendeh, the lower station, has an abnormally low temperature, being much sheltered from the sun by hills. (3) The figure for the mean humidity of the air is also open to doubt, as it is based on that of Lenkoran, a place on the Caspian, and nearly 280 miles away from Demavend, where the humidity of the air is much greater than on Demavend or the Persian plateau. * Azerbaijan and Gilan have continued to be the names of provinces. Tabaristan was the hilly country between Gilan and Astrabad; Rei the province south of it, with the city of Rei, near the present Teheran; Komish, or Kumish, was the old Comisene, south of Tabaristan and east of Rei, with the cities Semnan and Damghan. The “Ferhangi Rashidi’ explains Tabaristan as being derived from tabar, “an axe,” and meaning 8 - FASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. A mentioning the Elburz, seems to consider it a mountain in India; and the Persian lexicon ‘Burhan i Kata',' compiled in India as late as 1652, explains Elburz as the name of a mountain between Iran and Hindustan. European travellers in Persia up to the end of the eighteenth century do not know the Elburz range under that name, but call it the Taurus, as the ancients did ; and not one of the numerous maps of Persia published during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries has a correct knowledge of where the Elburz was. This is very remarkable, for the ‘Ferhang i Rashidi,' completed in 1660, correctly explains Elburz = a great mountain range of Mazandaran. At the beginning of the eighteenth century some maps show the Elburz for the first time, but place it north or north-east of Yezd, and near Tabbas, and add that it is “mons ignivomus.” Only in the beginning of the present century the name Elburz begins to appear in its right place on maps; but the volcano Elburz continues to appear north-east of Yezd till 1811 (see “Persia,” Pinkerton's Modern Atlas, London, 1811, where “Alburz or Albores mountains,” north of Teheran ; “Elburz mountains,” a range extending from Kom to Yezd ; “Al Bours,” a volcano, north of Yezd); and even later, in 1843, in Troyer's translation of the ‘Dabistan’ (vol. i. p. 22) therefore the “Land of Axes.” The author of the “Ferhang i anjuman ara' considers this nonsense ; “For, there are many more trees than axes in the country, and it would have been more natural to have called the country the Land of Trees. Zahir ed din, in his history of Tabaristan, correctly explains the word as meaning the ‘Land of Hills,’ from tabar or tabr, ‘a hill,’ and during the Abbasside Caliphs the Musulman governors of the country always bore the title ‘Malik ul jibal,’ i.e. ‘Lord of the hills.’” It is very tempting to connect Zahir ed din's tabr with the Aramaic tor or tavr, “a mountain or hill,” from which the word Taurus is derived, but it should be considered that Tabaristan is the modern form of Tapuristan, the “Land of the Tapur,” a tribe mentioned by Strabo (xi.), Pliny (vi. 16), Curtius (vi. 4; viii. 1), and Ptolemy (vi. 2, 10). EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 9 an explanatory note has “Alburz, a mountain in Jebal or Irak ajemi, not far distant from and to the north of the town of Yezd, in Fars.” The Greeks and Romans considered the Elburz as com- prised in the Taurus, and mention parts of it under the names of Koronos, Jasonion, Tapurian mountains, Labos, Caspian mountains, etc. The Koronos (Ptol., vi. 2, 5, 9) was the most eastern part of the Elburz, north of Damghan, perhaps the range which Muhammedan authors knew as the Karen kuh, whence came the noble family of the Karens, who held the government of Tabaristan until the middle ages. The Jasonion is placed by Ptolemy (vi. 2) between the Koronos and the Orontes (the Elvend near Hamadan), and was no doubt the present Mount Demavend. Strabo explains (xi. 13) Jasonion as meaning a memorial of Jason, others have attempted to derive the name from the Persian word yashm, “a sacrifice.” It is very remarkable, and quite inexplicable, that Mount Demavend does not appear in its right place on modern maps until the beginning of the present century, although Arab geographers and historians correctly describe it and give its position as early as the ninth century. The map of Olearius (1640) shows two Mounts Demavend, one south-east, the other north-west of Isfahan ; some maps published during the eighteenth century have the town Demavend, but not the mountain. The Tapurian mountains, which had their name from the tribe of the Tapur, and were the later Tabaristan hills, are placed too far east by Ptolemy (vi. 14), as we see from a remark of Polybius (v. 44). The Labos, which was passed by Antiochus III., B.C. 209 (Polybius, x. 29), is Zahir ed din's Lavud kuh, north of Damghan, the present Savad kuh, The Caspian mountains had their name from the Caspians, a tribe which inhabited the districts along the Caspian Sea from the Caucasus to the Caspian gates east of Rei. 10 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 10. The great range which extends, almost unbroken, from Azerbaijan on the north-west to Beluchistan on the south-east, and runs in its northern part parallel, to and east of the great Zagros range, comprising the hills of Kurdistan, Luristan, and the Bakhtiari country, may fitly be called the central range of Persia, and I shall in this memoir allude to it as the “central range.” It has many peaks over 9000 feet in height, and some of its peaks have an elevation of 11,000 feet. The valleys and plains west of the central range, as for instance those of Isfahan, Joshekan, and Mahallat, have an elevation of 5000 to 6500 feet; those within the range, as So, Ardahal, and Jasp, are about 1000 feet higher ; and those between the central range and the system of the Elburz, and those east of the central range, slope from an elevation of about 5000 feet, down to the depressions of the central plateau, which, east of Kom, are not more than 2600 feet above the level of the sea. This central range formed part of the ancient Para- choatras (Ptol., vi. 2, 4 ; Strabo, xi.), which seems to have comprised all the ranges of Central Persia. Muhammedan writers of the middle ages call the central part of the range Karkes kuh (the “Vulture mountain "),” and one of its eastern chains Siah kuh (the “Black mountain”). Karkes or Kargiz kuh is now the name of the high peak north of Isfahan and south-west of Natanz, and several ridges east of the central range are known as Siah kuh. * Some Persian historians relate that when the waters of the Deluge were subsiding, and had descended one yard below the summit of Karkes kuh, Noah sent various birds out of his ark, but only the Vulture was strong enough to fly to the peak, and the other birds died. EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. - | | GEOLOGY. 11...The part of the Elburz which is shown on the map is composed of a few granitoid and schistose rocks, sedi- mentary rocks of various ages from Devonian to Miocene, and volcanic rocks of various periods. There is no central axis of crystalline rocks, and palaeozoic rocks are very sparsely represented. In the Lar district, north-east of Teheran, are some old red sandstone strata and carboniferous limes with fuselina; and at Hiv, north-west of Teheran, there is a thin layer of carboniferous limestone with productus. Jurassic rocks form most of the southern slopes, and immediately under them, in liassic formations, most of the coal which supplies Teheran is obtained. Between the palaeozoic and liassic strata occur some rocks which have been classed as triadic, although no fossils were found in them to prove it ; and some of the volcanic rocks and tuffs which enter into the composition of the Elburz also seem to belong to the Triadic Period. Cretaceous rocks with hippurites run out from the Elburz and form a ridge south-east of Teheran. Some of the volcanic rocks of the Elburz belong to the Miocene Age, but the trachytic Demavend, raised up at the Southern end of the Caspian depression, is probably post- tertiary. 12. The hills parallel to the Elburz, and between it and the central range, form a Zone of trachytic rocks and tuffs and other volcanic formations associated with cretaceous limes, Sandstones, shales, and newer tertiary formations. 13. The hills south of Hiv, and South-west of Teheran as far as Savah, are composed of volcanic rocks, as dolerites, quartz-porphyries, andesites, and rhyolites, and of cretaceous limes without fossils, eocene limes with corals, miocene sand- stones, and limes with echinides and pecten, and miocene gypsiferous strata and conglomerates, 12 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 14. Most of the ridges between Teheran and Kom are composed of trachytic and gypsiferous formations. Near Hawz i Sultan, north of the new lake, cretaceous limes and sandstones rest on trachytic rocks. The Siah kuh, south- east of Teheran, is composed of trachytes and green trachytic tufts of the Cretaceous Period, underlying limes and sand- stones of the lower miocene and miocene gypsiferous forma- tions of variegated marls, salt, and gypsum. The hills through which the Caspian gates (Sarderreh pass), east of Teheran, lead, also belong to the gypsiferous formation. 15. The great central range possesses a distinct axis of crystalline rocks and granite, and granitoid formations form a great Zone or band extending from Azerbaijan to Kerman. Volcanic formations, mostly of the Cretaceous Period, occupy an extensive area, and are associated with Cretaceous and tertiary beds, which generally rest on old rocks. Between Kom and Isfahan, we see black slates and massive cretaceous limes interstratified with diorites, andesites, trachytes, and other volcanic formations of the same age, resting on granites, syenites, and tonalites, which occasionally pass into gneissose and Schistose rocks. 16. The hills of the Isfahan valley are composed of cretaceous limes resting on black slates and shaly sand- stones. On the outer edges of the central range, particularly towards the east, miocene formations, principally of the gypsi- ferous series, and resting on crystalline Schists and dolerites, andesites and trachytes, abound. South-east of Natanz, and towards Nain, the schists are broken through by basalts, and south of the Isfahan-Nain road, the Gavkhani depression, which takes up the Isfahan river, is in the gypsiferous series, resting on trachytes. The rocks composing the hills parallel to and east of the central range are similar to those of the central range, and comprise cretaceous and miocene formations, resting on gneiss, granite, and volcanic rocks. EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. I 3 17. From the above short sketch it is seen that palaeozoic rocks are rare, but that, from the trias upwards, nearly all the principal formations are represented. The miocene salt formation, the “gypsiferous series” of Loftus, covers vast extents of ground. 18. During the Cretaceous Period, when much volcanic action took place, the central desert of Persia was a sea ; but the miocene salt formation, which is so largely represented in inner Persia, is completely wanting on the Caspian side of the Elburz, proving that the Elburz range must already then have been a dividing wall between the Caspian depres- sion and inner Persia. The greatest changes probably took place at the end of the Miocene, or perhaps during the Pliocene Period, and the volcanic forces acted most at those places which offered the least resistance—as, for instance, all along the precipitous inner sides of the ranges and towards the depressions of Central Persia. During the Post-Tertiary Period, when the hills and valleys were very much as they are now, Demavend was formed ; and then, also, the immense recent, or sub-recent, accumulations of gravel, pebbles, and boulders which form gentle inclines from the base of the hills down to the alluvial flats and fill up with long slopes the broad valleys opening into the plains, were deposited from the detritus of the hills. The lowest portion of these accumulations consist of fine alluvial loam, shifting sands, and sometimes swamp or marsh ; then follows the gravel, first fine, then getting coarser as one ascends. The most remarkable gravel slopes are those south of Kashan and north of Teheran. The former extends from Gebrabad to Kashan, a distance of about 12 miles, and that of Teheran extends from the Elburz to near Shah'abdul'azim, a distance of 16 miles. The depth of these deposits must be great : a well which was recently being bored at Teheran, 10 miles away from the base of the 14 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. hills, had not reached the end of the gravel at a depth of over 500 feet. The gravel deposit of the Isfahan valley is of small extent ; the deposits of the western and eastern sides of the central range vary from 4 to 8 miles in length and almost entirely fill the valleys with gravel, which is frequently cemented into conglomerates. Large boulders often lie on the surface 4 or 5 miles from the base of the hills. HYDROGRAPHY. 19. With the exception of the Herhaz, which flows into the Caspian, all the rivers of the district under consideration flow into various depressions of the central plateau. 20. The Herhaz rises on the eastern slopes of the Kasil kuh (12,000 feet) about 25 miles north of Teheran, flows in an easterly direction through the Lar plateau, where it is known as the Lar river, and takes up several small affluents, turns to the north-east near Ask and Reineh at the foot of Demavend, then leaves that mountain to the left and flows due north past Amol to the Caspian. 21. The road between Teheran and Kom crosses four rivers, viz. – (1) The Kend river. This rises on the southern slopes of the Elburz, near the village Kend, some miles north-west of Teheran. It waters the Feshaviyeh district of Teheran, and flows in a south-easterly direction, north of the Kinarigird hills, towards the depression east of those hills, where it joins the Kerej. (2) The Kerej river. This river rises near Gachisar, about 20 miles north-west of Teheran, and, after taking up some affluents which come down from the Shahzad kuh (12,000 feet) and Kasil kuh (12,000 feet) on the east, and from the Azadbur and Kachang kuh (12,500 feet) on the west, enters EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 15 the plain about 24 miles north-west of Teheran. It is then joined by a stream from the west, traverses the Feshaviyeh district in a south-easterly direction, and flows south of the Kinarigird hills towards the depression east of those hills, where it takes up the Kend river. (3) The Salt river, Shurehrud or Rud i shur. This river rises near Sultanieh, on the Kazvin-Teheran road, and down to its entrance into the Kazvin plain it is known as the Abhar rud, from the little town of Abhar, 42 miles west of Kazvin, which it passes. Lower down its waters flow over the salt and gypsum formations of the Kuh i nimek (“Salt hill”) and become very brackish, whence the name Salt river; a little distance above the bridge, on the new Teheran- Kom road, it takes up the drainage from Pik and the Zerend plain, and then flows in a south-easterly direction, north of the Kuh i morreh, towards the eastern depression. The old Teheran-Kom road crosses the river by an old bridge 5 miles below the new bridge. (4) The Karasu. This is the river crossed by the new Teheran-Kom road near Manzarieh, and by the old road at Puli dellak (the “Barber's bridge”). It is formed by many little streams rising in the hills near Hamadan and by the Rudi do-ab, or Zarimrud (“Golden river”), which has its source in the Rasband hills. South of Savah it is dammed up by a magnificent old band, now unfortunately much out of repair. Below Savah it takes up the Mazdakan rud, or Reza chai, which has its name from the village Mazdakan, on the Teheran-Hamadan road, and the Jehrud stream, which rises on the eastern slopes of the Tafresh hills. It then flows due east to the new bridge on the new Teheran-Kom road and the Barber's bridge on the old road. Close to the Barber's bridge it is joined by the Kom river from the south. Three and a half miles below the Barber's bridge stands the bridge which was on the old road from Kom to Rei, vić Kaj and | 6 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. Deir; and 12 miles further down there was a dyke which kept the water from flowing into the Hawzi sultan depres- Sion and flooding the road, but gave way in 1883, and was the cause of the formation of the new lake. (See my notes on the new lake, Proceedings R.G.S., October, 1888.) The greater part of the river still continues, as before, to flow towards the east into the great depression. A history of Kom, written for me in 1891, states that the formation of the lake was not due to the giving way of the dyke, but that it was caused by the river's bringing down in 1883 a large quantity of timber and reeds, which dammed the river up and diverted it to the west into the Hawzi sultan depression, and it adds that the whole of the river now flows into the new lake. Mr. Robinson's survey proves the last statement to be incorrect; and of the breaking of the dyke, either accidentally or otherwise, there is no doubt. The Kom river, which authors indifferently call Ab i Jerbadegan, Ab i Gulpaigan, and Rud i Kom, is formed by two streams, the Ab i Gulpaigan and the Ab i Khomein. The sources of the former are the Kerej or Kereh rud and the Abi Khonsar, both rising in Feridan ; and the sources of the latter are near Deh i no, in Ashnakhur, above Khomein. The Gulpaigan and Khomein streams join below Kaidu, in the Kemereh district, and form the L'albar river, which has its name “ruby bearing” (!'al = a balas ruby) from the red rock-crystals often found in its bed. The L'albar, after passing the villages Charras (? Chehelras) and Arkedeh, forces its way through a narrow gorge and enters the Mahallat district. It then takes up the Mahallat drainage and the streams from Narak and Jasp, and flows in a north- easterly direction to Kom. From Mahallat downwards it is called the Anarbar, or Anar river, from Anar, the old name of the Mahallat district. The river has bridges at Nimvar, Dudehek, Neizar, and Kom. Between Kom and the Barber's EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. I7 bridge, opposite the village Komrud, the waters of the river are raised for irrigation purposes by a dam, known as the Band i 'Omar, and now very much damaged. The Karasu, with its affluents, drains an area of about 18,000 square miles. 22. Of the other rivers shown on the map only two are of any importance; these are the Jajrud and Zayendehrud : all the others, taking their rise in the great central range, are either used up for irrigation or flow with short courses to the depressions in the East. - 23. The Jajrud rises between the Shimran range and the Kasil kuh north of Teheran, flows in a south-easterly direction as far as Ara kuh north-east of Teheran, and then turns south towards the Veramin plain. Its overflow joins the Kend and Kerej rivers south of Veramin, and its principal tributaries are the Shakarab and Velayetrud. 24. The Isfahan river is variously called Zindehrud, Zendehrud, and Zayendehrud, names which have been explained as meaning the “living” and the “life-giving” river. All old authors have the first two forms; Zayendeh- rud is quite modern. I believe the correct form to be Zendehrud, meaning the “great river,” from Pers. 2endeh (Pehlevi, zendek), “great.” In the ‘Bundahish, the Pehlevi cosmography, it is mentioned as Zendek rud. The principal source of this river is the Chashmeh i Janan, on the eastern slope of the Zardeh kuh. After a run of about 11 miles it receives the waters of the Chehel Chashmeh, and is then called Jananeh rud. Further on it receives the Khurseng river from Feridan on the north, and the Zarinrud from Chaharmahal on the south, and is then known as Zendehrud. It then flows south-east towards Isfahan, receives from the left the overflow drainage from Tiran and Kerven, and waters the districts Lenjan, Marbin, Jei, etc. A hundred and five canals are led off from it C 18 * PERSIAN IRAK. i between its º into Lenjan and its end in the t g - * * Gavkhani marsh, and there are fourteen bridges over it. These bridges are — (1) A wooden/ridge a few miles above Lenjan near the little hamlet 9%rsovadjan. Erected only during the Spring S628, SOI). s (2) J%fidge of Zaman Khan, at the western end of the Lenjºſ district, and on the frontier of Chaharmahal, about yº from Isfahan. A stone construction. (3) Bridge of Bagh i Badran. Of wood. (4) Kelleh or Kelli bridge, at the eastern end of the Aidghumish division of Lenjan. (5) Bridge of Bagh i Mahmud, near the village of same name in the Gerken division of Lenjan. (6) Bridge of Verjan or Vergan, near the village of same name in the Lenj-wa-alenj division of Lenjan. The village itself is also known as Puli Varjan (“the bridge of Varjan"), which the people pronounce Felaverjan. Of stone. (7) Marman bridge, pronounced Marnum. This bridge connects Julfa with Isfahan, and has its name from the village Marman in the Barzrud division of Jei, one of the districts of Isfahan, South of the river and at the western end of Julfa. The Armenians call it Pul i Sarafraz. Of stone. (8) The great bridge of Shah Abbas, also called the Pul isi-wa-seh chashmeh (“the bridge of thirty-three arches”) and Pul i Allahverdi (from Allahverdi Khan, the famous general of Shah Abbas I.); it connects Isfahan with the eastern part of Julfa, and has a length of 388 yards. Is of stone and brick. (9) Puli jui, commonly called Puli jubi, and even Puli chubi (“the wooden bridge "); it is built of stone and brick, and has its name from a watercourse (jui or jub) which runs over it. (10) Khaju bridge. This bridge was constructed by EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 19 Shah Abbas II. on the ruins of the old bridge of Hasan Khan Turkoman. This Hasan Khan was the person known in history as Hasan Beg Ak-Koinlu, who flourished before the Sefaviehs. When completed by Abbas II. the bridge was called the Hasanabad bridge, because it connected the Hasanabad parish of Isfahan with the right side of the river. When the Hasanabad parish was destroyed by the Afghans in 1722, the bridge received its present name from the Khaju parish beyond Hasanabad. It is built of stone and brick, has twenty-four arches, and a length of 154 yards. (11) Shehristan bridge, near the Shehristan village. Of stone and brick. Under the Sefaviehs the city of Isfahan extended as far as this bridge. (12) Chum bridge, near the village Rudan in the Kerarej district. (13) Sarvesh Badran bridge. The river now runs some distance south of it. (14) Varzaneh bridge, near the village Varzaneh of the Ruidasht district. Below the Varzaneh bridge there are three dykes for raising the river to the land on both sides of it. The first dyke is the Band i Mervan; the second the Band i jendij, also called Band i Allah Kuli Beg, from one of Nadir Shah's officers; the third is the Band ishanzdah deh (“of the sixteen villages"), also called Band i Shamanlu, where Shamanlu is a contraction of Shah Soleiman-lu. Not far from the last dyke the river flows into the Gavkhani salt marsh. The quantity of water in the Zendehrud has been estimated at 60,000 cubic feet per second during the spring season; in autumn it is reduced to one-third. METEOROLOGICAL. 25. The rainfall is very small in Eastern Persian Irak and probably does not exceed 9 or 10 inches per annum. 20 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. From observations which I made at Teheran, I find that the rainfall from January 1, 1892, to December 31 of the same year, amounted to 9'44 inches. • 26. In consequence of the small rainfall, irrigation is principally artificial, either by open canals, called kei at Isfahan, and mahr, jui, or jub at other places, or by covered or underground canals, called kanat and kahrie. In the construction of the latter the Persians show remarkable skill. At the base of the hills they sink several wells, which they join together to form a reservoir. Then, from the grounds to be irrigated, and in the direction of the reservoir, pits or shafts are sunk, at distances of 50 to 100 yards; and these shafts, which are necessary for ventilation during construction, and later on give access to the canal for cleaning and repairing purposes, are connected by the canal. The shafts are often several hundred feet in depth (there are some over 500 feet in depth near Teheran), and the mukamni (canal-diggers) burrow under the ground for miles and miles without any levelling instruments, and, apparently by instinct, bring the canal to the reservoir at the foot of the hills. Sometimes the diggers encounter a piece of rock ; with a tap or two of a hammer they find out whether it is small enough to be removed or cut through, or whether it is so large as to necessitate their going round it. It is most remarkable that after going Found it the diggers strike again at the other side the true line of direction without compass. The shafts are generally covered up to prevent damage to the canal by wind and weather, and some canals are lined with earthenware rings, which, fitting one over the other, form a kind of primitive piping, and prevent to some extent the leakage of the water into the soil. There are kamats over 16 miles in length ; some north of Teheran, begin near the Shimran hills, run 200 feet below the city, and come to the surface at Shah'abdul'azim. The yield § EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. - 21 of these canals varies much, and depends principally on the snowfall, and on the area drained by the reservoirs at the foot of the hills. After a mild winter some canals frequently dry up as early as June or July. Some canals, whose reservoirs drain large areas, yield much water (I have seen as much as 8 cubic feet per second); others, with a small drainage area, have a yield of only half a cubic foot per second, and many even less. 27. The prevailing winds are north-west and south-east, which is caused by the direction of the principal ranges of hills. In the plains east of the great central range the north-west winds blow during winter, and the south-east winds during summer ; and the traveller will see the highest ridges of the shifting sands on the northern edge of a district when travelling in autumn, and on the southern edge when travelling in spring. 28. The climatic conditions of the district are very variable, and the temperature depends much on altitude and environs. In the hilly regions the cold is intense during winter, and the heat is not very great in summer. In the plains the heat is very great during the summer, but the winters are mild. The air is generally very dry. The extremes of heat and cold occur in July and January. At Teheran (3800 feet) the lowest temperature observed has been 3 Fahr., the highest 111° in the shade, and exposed to the sun the thermometer showed 170°. The mean annual temperature is about 60°.” At Kom (3100 feet) the temperature is higher in summer, and the hot weather (80° * The Teheran winter of 1892–93 was exceptionally mild, and for the year from November 1, 1892, to October 31, 1893, the mean temperature was 61-89° Fahr. The coldest month of the year was December, 1892, with a monthly mean maximum temperature of 45-68° and minimum of 32.81°. The hottest was July, 1893, with 91° and 77°3° as mean maximum and minimum. 22 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. and upwards) lasts longer, beginning at the end of April and continuing to the middle of October ; the lowest temperature does not exceed a few degrees below freezing- point. Kashan (3200 feet) is slightly colder than Kom, and a temperature as low as 9” has been observed (January, 1883). The highest temperature observed at Kashan was 113°, and the mean annual temperature is about 62.5°. Isfahan (5400 feet) is considerably colder than Teheran. The hot weather does not begin till the middle of May, and lasts only four months; the thermometer rarely marks 100°, but is fre- quently below zero in December and January. The mean annual temperature is about 58%. Savah has nearly the same climate as Kom ; in the middle of May I observed 90° in the shade. Mahallat is cooler in summer and rather cold in winter. Joshekan is still colder in winter, but during the summer it is, in spite of its great elevation (Meimeh 6700 feet), hotter than Isfahan, which can be accounted for by the scarcity of water and vegetation in the district. The districts east of the central range have, when in plains, a similar climate to that of Kom or Kashan, and when in the hills, to that of Isfahan. The climate of the districts in the higher valleys of the central range and of the Elburz is very salubrious—never above 80° in summer, but cold in winter. 29. It is to be regretted that there is so great a dearth of meteorological observations in Persia—in fact, series of reliable observations from which correct data could be com- puted are completely wanting. There are, it is true, many observations for temperature, and some for barometrical pressure, which have been taken for many years at the telegraph stations of Teheran, Kom, Kashan, and Isfahan, and which I have looked through, but they are not of much value for practical purposes. The instruments were not uniform, and were neither well kept nor properly placed; EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 23 the times of observing were irregular and insufficient, and the series were not complete. It is satisfactory to note that the Indian Government has during the present year taken a step in the right direction by sending to two stations, Teheran and Isfahan, sets of instruments, composed of one maximum, one minimum, one dry-bulb, and one wet-bulb thermometers, an anemometer, a wind Vane, a rain-gauge, and two aneroid barometers. But, unfortunately, only one observation is taken daily—at 8 a.m. local time—and the instruments are in charge of one of the telegraph officials, who, considering that he is paid only ten rupees, or 12s. 11d., per mensem, for the extra work, can hardly be expected to take a lively interest in it. FLORA. 30. As we approach Inner Persia the northern mountain flora, which is abundant on the northern slopes of the Elburz, rapidly makes place to steppe vegetation in the plains and to the “Mediterranean flora " in the hills. The southern slopes of the Elburz show only a few forms of the northern flora ; the steppe vegetation extends to the south of Persia, where it meets palaeotropic forms, and in the central range the Mediterranean flora predominates. Vegetation is everywhere very scanty; the hills and plains are bare of trees, and, excepting in a few localities in the highlands and places where artificial irrigation is abundant, steppe and desert predominate. Away from some favoured valleys, in which snow accumulates during winter, or where there is an abundant water supply, turf is unknown, and even where vegetation is comparatively luxurious the stony, arid ground is always visible. All the wild plants are stunted, even their leaves are undersized, and their green is dull and dusty. The extraordinary heat of the sun dries up the plants as early as May, and the little green which is 24 EA STER N PERSIAN IRAK. visible in spring soon becomes changed into yellow or brown. Trees are seen only near villages and streams, and a solitary tree on a hillside far away from the habitations of man would seem to be an object of adoration from the coloured rags, bits of brass, glass beads, etc., which travellers hang on to it. Nothing can be more dreary than travelling in the plains of Inner Persia; for 20 or 30 miles, from one station to another, one often sees nothing but stones and a few scrubby plants, while arid hills bound the view ; and at the end of a fatiguing march the eyes are only too glad to rest on a few stunted, dusty willows and poplars standing on the brink of the little streamlet which supplies the Caravanserai. With the exception of a few bushes of Zizyphus and Astragalus, and a few tamarisks and Pistacia in the hills, and some fringes of tamarisk and Haloacylon ammodendron (Pers. taſh; Turk. Saksaul) along the desert edge, nearly all the trees in the district are cultivated, and owe their growth to artificial irrigation. It was the same four centuries ago, as we see from the travels of Josaphat Barbaro, who was in Persia at the end of the fifteenth century.* The fruit trees which thrive in the gardens are apple, siſ, ; pear, gulabi, amrud ; quince, beh; mulberry, white and black, tut; apricot, zardalu; nectarine, Shalil; peach, holu, shefalu ; plum, of various kinds, alu, gojeh; cherry, gilas, * “And for the proofe that there be none other trees, great or small, neither on hill nor plaine, I have sometimes founde a shrubbe of thorne, on the which, as it were for a myracle, I have seene certain peeces of cloth and ragges hanging, in token that the feaver and other infirmities are healed there. In those parties are no woodes nor yet trees, no not so much as one, except it be fruite trees, which they plante, whereas they may water them; for otherwise they wolde not take. The tymber wherewith they buylde are trees which they sett in watrie places, in such nombre as suffiseth for their necessitie” (Wm. Thomas' translation of ‘Josaphat Barbaro's Travels, Hakluyt Society, p. 71). EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 25 alubalu; filbert, fenduk ; walnut, girdu : vine, mo, raz (the grape, angur); fig, anjir ; almond, badam ; pistachio, pisteſ : pomegramate, anar. The last three grow best in the plains; the fig is comparatively scarce, and sometimes is seen growing wild. Willow, bid; poplar, Kebudeh, Safidar, tabrizi ; plane, chinar; elm, marvend; Bohemian olive (Elaeagnus angust- folia), Sanjid, grow along the watercourses of nearly all villages; ash, zaban-gunjishk (i.e. sparrow's tongue); weep- ing willow, bid i majnun ; judas tree, arghavan ; acacia, akakia, dirakht i abrishum ; fir, kaj ; cypress, Sarv, and some other ornamental trees, grow in many gardens. Of shrubs there are jessamine, yasmin ; lilac, yas ; sweetbriar, mastaran, occasionally growing into trees; many kinds of roses, etc. Other cultivated plants are wheat, gamdum ; barley, jo ; maize, zurrat; millet, arzan ; rice, growing or in the husk shaltuk, cleared of the husk berinj; lentil, 'adas ; pea, gram, mash, makhod ; bean, lubiyeh, ; broad bean, bakila ; flax, Áattan ; hemp, Kanab ; cotton, pambeh ; poppy, khashkhash; Sesame, kunjid ; clover, Shabdar ; lucerne, yunjeh; castor-oil plant, kerchek ; melon, Kharbuzeh, germek, talebi ; water- melon, hindehvaneh, hendevaneh; cucumber, khia), balang ; lettuce, kahu ; carrot, cardek, havij; cabbage, kalam ; radish, turb, turbizeh ; turnip, shalgham ; onion, piaz ; egg-plant (Solanum melongena), badlinjan; beetroot, chukundar, labu, etc. The cauliflower, gulkalam ; potato, sib i zamini or alu i camīnī, the former meaning earth-apple, the latter earth- plum ; tomato, badinjan i feringi; the large strawberry, tut i feringi; the artichoke (Cynara Scolymus), kangar i feringi, i.e. the European thistle, have been introduced during the present century. The Jerusalem artichoke, the tuber of the Helian- thus tuberosus, known in Persia as “sweet potato,” is also cultivated ; Cynara cardunculus and asparagus grow wild. Many ornamental garden plants have lately been introduced 26 EASTERN PERSIAN IRA.R. from Europe; of indigenous flowers there are not many varieties. The more important wild plants are Astragalus, geven, exuding the tragacanth gum, ketārah; Z łayphus, berberis, black- berry, Hedysarum 'Alhagi, khari shutur; Peganum harmala, 'spend; and many varieties of Chenopodiaceae, Gramineae, Succulentæ (Salicornia, Salsola), Cruciferae, Umbelliferae, Labiatae, Boraginae, and Compositae (Artemesia very abundant). FAUNA. 31. According to Blanford, the majority of species in Eastern Persian Irak are palaearctic forms, with a prevalence of peculiar types characteristic of Northern Africa and Central Asia, which are generally spoken of as desert forms. 32. Insects.-These are by no means so abundant as is generally believed.* (1) The Coleoptera are well represented, and col- lectors may find many new varieties. Our old friend the black beetle infests kitchens as it does at home. Millions of coprophaga, particularly the ubiquitous Ateuchus sacer, ô katapatos, as Aristophanes calls him, pursue their unsavoury calling on the highways; Agrilus, Cetonia, Coccinella, Oryctes, * Perhaps in consequence of the powdered flowers of the chry- Santhemum, Pyrethrum roseum, being known in trade as “Persian insect-powder’ it is generally supposed that insects, and specially vermin, are more abundant in Persia than in other countries. This is not so, and, in fact, “Persian insect-powder ’’ is practically unknown in Persia. Only in a few places do people know the virtues of the pyreth- rum. The plant is called keik-kusk, flea-killer; and fond mothers put it either fresh or dried, under the bedding of their babies to keep fleas away. In the Caucasus, the paradise of vermin, the pyrethrum is much em- ployed; and after Dr. Karl Koch had observed it therº, it became an article of trade, and many villages in the Alexandropol district are now cultivating it for export. EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 27 Carabus, are very common; the weevil, keik i gandumi, i.e. wheat-flea, infests many villages in the valleys of the central range, where also huge Hydrophili may be seen in ponds and tanks. The cockchafer (Melolontha) is comparatively scarce. (2) Of Hymenoptera there are many bees (the Persian honey is excellent), wasps, and ants. The Polistes wasp seems to have a predilection for building its curious nest in One's room. (3) Lepidoptera are comparatively rare, and not represented by many species. In the gardens near Teheran, and par- ticularly in those of the Shimran district, large moths, Saturnia (?) and Acherontia atropos, are often seen until July, the latter when caught, Squeaking like a mouse. (4) Of Diptera there are many species of gnats, among them the annoying sand-fly, pasheh i khaki, and many species of flies (Musca, Stomoxys, Tabanus, OEstrus). (5) Of Hemiptera, plant-bugs, plant-lice (particularly Aphis cerealis, Sen or sineh, which often destroys wheat crops), and singing Cicadae, jik and jūjirik, are common ; the house-bug is still unknown, but will, I am afraid, not be long in coming, as it already abounds in Resht. (6) The most frequent of the Neuroptera is the Myrme- leon formicarius, whose conical pits may be seen almost everywhere. (7) The Orthoptera are represented by many varieties of crickets and locusts. The cockroach, Susk, abounds in baths and kitchens, and is considered by the ‘Makhzan ul advieh,” a medical encyclopædia, as being an article used in the preparation of Chinese and English jams; the mole-cricket plays havock with the garden vegetables; the Mantis religioso, often 4 inches in length, prays in the corn-fields; the Termes fatalis...murianeh, white ant, infests the plains east of the central range from Teheran to near Kerman, and town- ships of its conical habitations are occasionally seen on the 28 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. edge of the shifting sands near Kashan and Nain. At Kom and Kashan the white ants are very destructive, and timber being therefore as much as possible dispensed with in house building, nearly all the houses have vaulted roofs of brick or adobe. The curious Orthopteron, Bacillus Rossii, Fabr, one of the Phasmidae, sometimes finds its way up from the south. 33. Myriapods are represented by the centipede, hazarpa, which, however, is not often seen north of Shiraz. 34. The Arachnids are abundant. Among them are the dangerous Galeodes, generally, but incorrectly, called a taran- tula, rufeil; the Scorpion, akrab, kajdum ; and the various ticks (Ixodes, Argas), etc., kemeh, maleh, Shalgez, gharibgez. A scorpion which carries its tail over its back is called a shayaleh ; one which draws it along the ground is a jarareh. The maleh is the venomous Argas persicus, or Mianeh bug, from the town Mianeh on the Tabriz road, where it was first observed ; it infests many localities almost as far south as Kom. I have only once during my twenty-five years' residence in Persia seen a book Scorpion, Chelifer cancroides, and fancy that it was brought from India. 35. The Crustaceans have only one notable representa- tive, viz. the freshwater crab, Telphusa, kharchang, kilinjar, haranjal. 36. Molluscs are rare in Persia. I have found some gasteropods, as Helix, Pupa, Limax (a helix on the summit of the Shimran hills, 12,600 feet), and a bivalve, unio. The common garden snail, very much like the escargot eaten in France, is in Persian liseh, ; and all other molluscs, as well as most of the insects, are kerm, i.e. worm. - 37. There are not many species of Fishes. The under- ground canals often abound with small fish, and in Some of the perennial streams kinds of roach and carp are obtained. In the Lar river salmon and salmon-trout abound. Goldfish are kept in some tanks, but are generally considered unlucky. EASTERN PERSIAN IRA K. 29 38. The Amphibians are poorly represented by a few varieties of frogs and toads, guk, ghuk, kurbagheh, kurvagh, vazagh. 39. Of Reptiles there are tortoises, kase/pusht, sangpushf, lakpushi, kashaf; many species of lizards, Susmar, box- dush, boamijeh, chalpaseh, marmaluk, malmali ; and some snakes. Of the last there are some colubrines and a few vipers. I have seen one Cerastes, mar ; Shakhdar, i.e. horned snake, which had been caught in Veramin, south-east of Teheran. Y 40. Birds. There are about four hundred known species of birds in Persia, but many of them do not come as far as Inner Persia. Excepting the game, shore, and water birds, which interest the sportsman and will be enumerated later on, the more common birds are :— Vulture : Vultur monachus, L.; Vultur fulvus, Gm. (Gyps fulvus, Vultur persicus, Pall.); Neophron percnopterus, Gray; the last is rare; lashkhur, kerkas, kargis. Lammergeier : Gypaetus barbatus, Cuv. ; al, aluh, dal, wShak-kapan. Falcon : Falco peregrinus, L., the peregrine, Shahin, shah- baz. Falco lamiarius, Pall., the lanner, Shahin, lachin. Falco sacer, charkh, Sakar. Falco subbuteo, L., Turk. Kilij Kush, Arab, leazak. Tinnunculus alaudarius, Gray, the kestrel, baz. Tinnunculus cenchris, Naum., the lesser kestrel, bas. Milvus govinda, the pariah kite, the Eastern representative of Milvus ater, ghalivaj. Astur palumbarius, Bechst., the gos- hawk, terlan. Accipiter nisus (Nisus communis, Cuv.), the sparrow-hawk, basha, mushgir. Circus aeruginosus, L. (C. rufus, Gray), the marsh harrier. Buteo feroa, the buzzard, baz. - Eagle : Aquila imperialis, Bechst., the imperial eagle, kara-kush, ºkab, mud, al, aluh. Aquila clanga, Pall, the spotted eagle, dal, dalman. 30 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. Owl; Scops giu (Stria, giu, Scops zorca, Ephialtes scops, Gray), the dwarf ear-owl ; Otus vulgaris, Flem., the ear-owl; Athene moctua, Gray, the night owlet. The Persian names for Owl are bum, buf, Shahbum, Sarukush, Kurehbun, bilak, jughd, murgh i hakk. Cuckoo : Cuculus camorus, L., kuku. Kingfisher: Alcedo bengalensis, rare; Alcedo ispida, L., common, mahigir. Bee-eater : Merops apiaster, L., zambur kush. Roller : Coracias garrula, L. Nightjar : Caprimulgus Europaeus, L. Swift : Cypselus apus, Illig., ababil. Hoepoe : Upupa epops, L., hudhud. This bird is also called the murgh i Soleiman, i.e. the bird of Solomon, because it informed and advised Solomon, for instance, of the Queen of Sheba (see Koran, 27. 20). The father of the Queen of Sheba was also called Hudhud, and it was no doubt he who described the queen's beauty to Solomon. - Woodpecker : Picus viridis, L., Picus Syriacus, darkub, darmak. The idea of some gardeners is that a tree which is persistently pecked at by a woodpecker ought to be felled. Shrike : Lamius collurio, L. (Enneoctonus collurio, Gray); Lanius minor. Flycatcher: Muscicapa grisola, L. : M. africapilla, L. Chat : Pratincola rubicola, Bechst. ; Sawicola aenanthe, Bechst. ; Savicola isabellina ; Savicola Stapaeina, Temm. Thrush : Turdus musicus, L., the song-thrush, turgheh. Turdus merula, L., the blackbird, kazalagh. Merula alpes- tris, Brehm., rare. Nightingale : Daulias IIaſizi (Sylvia luscinia); bulbul. Its song is inferior to that of the European mightingale. Warbler: Sylvia. Several kinds; also called bulbul. Swallow : Hirundo rustica, L., common Swallow, parastuk ; EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 31 Chelidon urbica, the house-martin ; Cotyle riparia, Boie, the bank-martin; Cotyle rupestris, Boie., the rock-martin. Wagtail : Motacilla alba, L.; M. sulphurea, Bechst., etc., dumjumbanek, damicheh. Lark: Alauda arvensis, L., and other species, chakat, chakavuk, chughul, kulkulati, kumbareh. Finch : Fringilla coelebs, L., the chaffinch ; Fringilla montifringilla, L., etc. Sparrow : principally Passer indicus, P. montanus, gunjishk. Ortolan : Emberiza hortulana, L., and other species. Raven: Corvus coraa, L., ghurab. Crow: Corvus cornia, L., kalagh. Rook: Corvus frugilegus, L. Very scarce. Jackdaw : Corvus momedula, L., zagh. Chough : Pyrrhocoraw alpinus, Vieill. ; Fregilus graculus, Cuv. Magpie : Pica caudata, Ray. Jay : Garrulus atricapillus. - Starling : Sturmºus vulgaris, say. Pastor roseus, Temm., tutkush, i.e. mulberry-killer, made its appearance at Teheran about ten years ago, coming in the latter part of May and staying a fortnight. Pigeon : Columba aenas, L.; C. palumbus, L.; C. casio- tis, Bp. ; C. intermedia, Strickl. ; C. livia, Briss; kebutar. Dove : Turtur auritus, Gray; T. risorius, L.; kumri. 41. Game birds.” (1) Sandgrouse. Pterocles arenarius, Pall., the common Sandgrouse, Siyahsineh, bakhrikarah (both meaning black- breast), bakirghirreh; P. alchata, L., large pintail, solitary or pin-tailed Sandgrouse, kokar, kaſikar, kilkuiyuk ; P. * In this list” I have included some birds which are not found in Eastern Persian Irak, but can be obtained in adjoining districts. 32 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. Senegalus, L., spotted Sandgrouse, in Southern Persia; P. coronatus, Licht., coroneted Sandgrouse, in Southern Persia. (2) Pheasant, Phasianus colchicus, L. Is not found in Eastern Persian Irak, but abounds in the forests along the Caspian, and on the banks of the Herirud, Tejen, and Murghab, in North-Eastern Persia. It is generally known in Persia by its Turkish name karkavul, also pronounced charchavul. In Gilan and Mazanderan it is turang, torang, and tireng. The real Persian name, now almost obsolete, is tadarv or tadharv, which has been Arabicized into tadarſ and tadharj. Some authors call the bird bur. From its original home in the forests on the Caspian and Black Sea, the pheasant probably came to Europe by way of Colchis on the river Phasis (present Mingrelia on river , Rion), in the south-eastern corner of the Black Sea. Martial, relates the legend according to which the Argonauts brought the pheasant with them from Colchis. Aristophanes mentions the pheasant (bao wavós) in his comedy The Clouds (109), and uses the adjective bao-wavukós in connection with the imaginary bird emukeko66s in The Birds (68). Ptole- maeus Euergetes II., in describing the palace of Alexandria, speaks of “the pheasants kept there for breeding purposes,” and calls them “Térapov which had been introduced from Media, and were very good to eat” (Ath, XIV.). The Greek Térapos for “pheasant,” as well as Tārvpos or Tárvpas (Ath. IX.), is derived from the Indo-Germ. tatara, Sansc. tatala, meaning a “fatherly man : ” and its old Median or Zend form was perhaps tatarva or tataurva, which seems to have originally signified the male of any one of the larger kinds of wild birds, resembling the domestic cock not only in size and plumage, but also in its salacious habits, for the Indo- Germ. root tata, Sansc. tata, from which tatala is derived, stands for “papa" (genitor), and in countries where the pheasant did not exist, the word, or a derivative from it, EASTER N PERSIAN IF? A K. 33 was used to denote a bird resembling the domestic cock. For instance, in Southern Persia tadharv stands for a par- tridge or dove; in India, titur (Sansc. tittiri) stands for a kind of partridge; in Kurdistan, tivirk for a wild pigeon ; and in Eastern and Northern Europe, similar words signify different tetraonidae, as blackgame, snowcock, capercaillie, and also the bustard, and, since the sixteenth century, the turkeycock (Gr. Tétpač, Tétpuš, ; Old Slav. tetrevi, tetrya ; Russ. teterev, teterka, teterya ; Lith. tetervas; Lett. tettere tetteris; Pruss, tatarvis ; Czech. teterw; Finn. tetri ; Pol. cietrzew ; Old Norse, thidur and thidhur ; Swed. tſader ; Dan. tuir). A correspondent, writing to the Times (p. 4, November 2, 1888) from Bechuanaland, curiously enough calls the francolin a pheasant ; and W. F. Ainsworth (‘Per- sonal Narrative,’ vol. i. p. 12 : London, 1888) calls the francolin “the beautiful pheasant of Western Asia.” When Arian races occupied the regions between the Caspian and the Black Sea, the word denoted the “pheasant.” The Romans got the pheasant from the Greeks, and called it phasianus, Phasiana avis and tetrao. The bird then went to the Latin and German races (cf. Old Fr. phaisan ; Prov. fassan ; Fr. faisan ; Ital, fagiano ; Span. faysan ; Port. phaizao ; Old High Germ. fasan ; Mid. High Germ. fasan, vasan, fasant ; Old Engl. fesaunt : Dutch fazant, etc.). It is curious that the Armenians, who were nearest to the original home of the bird, should call it by the name derived from the Greek, viz. fasam ; and this may be another point in favour of the theory that the Armenians did not reach their home in the Caucasus and Taurus from the east, but came there from the rest // way of the Balkan peninsula. From Ptolemy's description of the palace of Alexandria, we see that the pheasant was reared there for the table, and Ptolemy'séems to smack his lips at the mere recollec- tion. In Diocletian's edict, which was discovered at Eski l) t 34 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. Hissar by Colonel Leake, and dates A.D. 301, the prices of In any necessaries and commodities of life in the Roman empire are given, and we find mentioned in it the Plasianus Pastus (the home-fed pheasant), the Phasianus agrestis (the wild pheasant), and the Phasiana gallina (the pheasant hen), from which it appears that pheasants must have been rather common at that time.* > Only in the northern provinces of Persia is the pheasant an article of food. Very few birds find their way to the Teheran market, and then generally somewhat “high,” which makes them unfit for consumption by the Persians, but all the more esteemed by the European residents. In Gilan the pheasant is cooked and prepared to perfection, and I strongly recommend the traveller to get at Resht a ſtsinjan of pheasant, which is a stew of pheasant, butter, pomegranate juice, and walnuts, and is eaten with rice. In Mazanderan, where the birds cost twopence the brace, the ſisinjan is generally spoiled by an admixture of garlic. Persian poets like to compare the walk of their beloved to that of a pheasant—a woman with the form of a cypress and the walk of a pheasant is perfect ; they also often refer to the pheasant's love of the cypress. On account of the golden, fiery plumage, the pheasant is also called atesh khur, the “fire - eater " (cf. phoenix, the Egyptian sun - bird). The sun is often mentioned as the tadharv i zarin pa)", the “gold-winged pheasant,” and tadharv i zarin, the “golden pheasant.” The Persians believe that the pheasant, like the francolin, has an instinctive knowledge of coming earthquakes, and warns man by emitting shrill cries an hour before the shock. (3) Snowcock. Tetraogallus Caspius, Gmel. (Mega- (ope, dia. Caspia, Pall.), the Caspian snowcock or royal * See IIehu's ‘Kulturpflanzen und Iſausthiere, Der Fasan.' JEASTER N PERSIAN II? A K. 35 partridge, kelk i dari (also, but incorrectly, kebk i derreh); Turk. ur keklik. Persian lexica distinctly give dari, not derreh, Dari means literally “of the gate,” and is derived from dar, the “door" or “gate,” here meaning the gate of the king's palace or the court, hence dari became to mean “of the court,” royal and noble. The modern Persian still uses the expression “gate" for the royal court, in the same way as the Turks use bab homayun, “sublime porte.” The dari language was the language spoken at court. The Persian dictionary ‘Burhan i Kat'a" Says that the bird was called dari on account of its beautiful voice : “the dari language having been the most noble language of Persia, the bird with the finest voice was called dari,” but it probably received its name on account of its size and beautiful plumage. Derreh means “valley,” and valley- partridge or glen-partridge, as Blanford has it, is a mis- nomer, for the bird always keeps at considerable elevations —seldom lower than 9000 feet, and generally on the summits of the mountains. The royal partridge is now becoming scarce. It still abounds in the hilly districts of Jasp and Ardahal. * (4) Partridge. Francolinus vulgaris, Steph., the black meadow-partridge or francolin, durraj, caraj, cheresh, serinji. This partridge is not met with in Inner Persia, but some years ago the Shah had his preserves in the Jajrud valley stocked with some brought from the South. It abounds in the warm plains of Southern Persia up to an elevation of 2000 feet, and it has been seen in the plains on the Caspian shore. * Caccabis chukar, Gray, the red-legged partridge or chukor, kebk; Turk. Meklik. ; Kurd. kad, kot, ket: ; Lur. ko/, koi; So, kevgh. This is the common partridge of Persia, and is found •ftom elevations of 10,000 feet down to the lowest plains. * 36 EASTERN PERSIAN IRA. K. Ammoperdia bonhami, Gray (A. griseogularis, Brandt), the sand-partridge, or seesee, tihu, tihuj; Kurd. Susk ; is found everywhere in Persia up to elevations of 7 000 feet. Or//gornis ponticerianus, Gm., the Indian grey partridge; jºufti (from Jiruft, a district south of Kerman). This partridge is confined to the south of Persia, but the royal preserves in the Jajrud valley near Teheran were stocked with it some years ago.” (5) Quail. Coturnia communis, Bonn., the common large grey quail, Samani; Turk. belaerffin (this is the word generally used in Persia), belut ; Gilan. wushum ; Mazand. wardeh; Kurd. wardi, wartij, wartikh (Sancs. vartika), lar (Armen. lor), kurkur, kahra, kurkureh, havardeh, kulafer; Arab. kata, katil urr'ad (i.e. killed by thunder, from the idea that it dies when it hears thunder). This bird is found in all localities of Persia where there are corn-fields, from the lowest plains up to 9000 or 10,000 feet. 42. Shore Birds. (I) Bustard, hubareh. The bustard most commonly met with in Persia is the Otis McQueenii, Gray. The little bustard, Otis tetraa, L., has been observed near Teheran. The Persian word for bustard is not, as many authors wish us to believe, ahuharreh, i.e. antelope lamb ; and their ex- planation that it is called so because it looks in the distance like a young antelope, is nonsense. (2) Of plovers and lapwings there are : Charadrius pluvialis, L., the golden plover ; Squatarola helvetica, L., the grey plover ; several Ægialitis, sand-plovers; Cursorius gallicus, Gm., the courier plover ; Glareoa pratincola, L., the pratincole ; Vanellus cristatus, Meyer, the peewit or lapwing. (3) Crane, Grus communis, Bechst., kulang. r O * The grey partridge, Perdia cinerea, Lath., is found in North- Western Persia, where it is known by the Kurds as kebk chil. EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 37 (4) Woodcock, Scolopaw rusticola, L., murgh i &irek; Turk, yalveſ, kushi. Abounds during the winter months in the gardens and orchards of Teheran, Isfahan, etc. (5) Snipe, nuk daraz, pa i shelleh, murgh i shalak; Gilan. chulik ; Mazand. chelīk; Turk, chulluk. The common snipe, Gallinago caplestis (media, Gray), and the jack-snipe, G. gallinula, are common throughout Persia, and the great or solitary snipe, G. solitaria, visits the neighbourhood of Teheran for about a fortnight in the month of May, when the others have nearly all gone away. - (6) Heron, Ardea cinerea, L. ; but imar. This, the most melancholy of birds, is aptly called in Persian poetry gham- Khurek or ghosehkhurek, i.e. the sorrowing, and malik ul hazin, the king of sorrow. To be as sad and despondent as a but imar is to be next door to suicide. For many long hours at a stretch the bird stands motionless on one leg on the bank of a river and, looking at the water flowing incessantly past it, thinks of the day when there will be no more water to bring it a frog or a fish. The Persian sportsman, like his European brother, persecutes the heron whenever he sees it, always forgetting that the bird has served him well when alive by destroying snakes, frogs, etc., and that it is utterly useless when dead. (7) Bittern, Botaurus stellaris. (8) Stork, Ciconia alba, L., laglag, or, as it is supposed to winter at Mekka, Hajji Laglag. Comes to our district in April and May. 43. Water Birds. (1) Flamingo, Phoenicopterus ruler, L. (roseus, anti- quorum), kaz i Surkh, i.e. red goose. Often seem near Isfahan and on the new lake between Teheran and Kom. (2) Swan, Øygnus olor, L. (forus, Leach), ku. In Gilan and Mazandeſan in winter. (3) Goose, generic name kaz : Anser albifrons, Gm., the 38 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. laughing goose ; Anser cinereus, Meyer (ferus, Naum.), the lag ; Anser Segetum, Gm., the bean goose; Anser erythropus, L., the dwarf goose ; Anser (Bernicla) ruficollis, Pall., the red-necked goose ; Anser hyperboreus, Pall., the snow goose. (4) Duck. The Pers. murghahi and Turk. urdek are employed indiscriminately for duck, teal, shoveller, sheldrake, etc. Other names used in Persia for the duck and similar birds are : Gilan. and Mazand. khudekeh, kekushka, yuri, sika, Massek, Chahartai ; Kurd. Soma, bat, miravi. Anas boschas, L., Turk. kaz-urdek ; Anas strepera, L., Turk. kara-urdek; Anas angustirosta'is, L., Turk. ak-urdek, wild duck; Querquedula crecca, L., Turk, sirgei-urdek, the common teal; Querquedula circia, L., the blue-winged teal; Dafila acuta, L., Turk. Sikdum, the pin-tailed duck; Mareca penelope, L., the widgeon or whew ; Spatula clypeata, L., the shoveller ; Fuligula rujima, Pall., the pochard ; Fuligula cristata, Ray, the tufted pochard ; Fuligula marila, L., the scaup pochard ; Fuligula ferina, L., the canvas-backed pochard ; Clangula glaucion, L., the golden-eyed pochard ; Fu/igula myroca, Guld, the white-eyed pochard ; Mergus albellus, L., the Smee, Smew, or smeath ; Mergus Serrator, L., the goosander ; Mergus mer- yamser, L., the common merganser, Turk. balakcheh, Kurd. resh basheh ; Tadorna vulpanser, Flem., the burrow-duck or sheldrake, Turk. it-kaz ; Casarca rutila, Pall, the ruddy sheldrake or Brahminy duck, the Russian kasarka. { 44. Mammals. Blanford describes eighty-nine species of mammals existing in Persia. Those found in Eastern Persian Irak are the following:— (1) Bat, shabpareh, Shabkur, and shrew (Crocidura fumi- ſata, De F.), mushkur, Shir, angushtbarg, Gilan. kabīsh, Isfa. vazeh, are plentiful. The bat is also known as murgh i Isa, “the bird of Jesus.” We read in the Koran (3.43) that when Jesus was a child he said to the Jews: “Before you I will make of clay the figure of a bird, and when I EASTERN PERSIAN IRA R. 39 breathe upon it it will become a real bird.” Persians say this was the bat. (2) JHedgehog, jujik, jujuk ; Kurd, aheahu, zhuzheh, 2huzhuk, 2huzh, kisal; Mazand, aramdiji, armiji. Is plentiful in gardens throughout Persia at elevations from 2000 to 9000 feet. I have seen it as low as 2500 feet and as high as 7600 feet. (3) Leopard or panther, palang. Is frequently met with in the hills of Persia; many have been shot close to Teheran. With the exception of the domestic cat and the panther, other felidae do not occur in Eastern Persian Irak. (4) Hyaena (H. striata, Zimm.), kaftar; Kurd. Kamtar. Is common on the Persian plateau, and in winter prowls about near villages. Persian authors tell us : “The hyaena is a deceitful beast, for it affects lameness and pretends to be weak and feeble ; but when other beasts come within its reach it pounces upon them and devours them. At night- time it is very strong; in daytime it is weaker. It is a hermaphrodite, in this way—that it is female one year and male the other. It loves the wolf, but hates the dog. Its influence on the dog is such that if a dog be going along the top of a hill when the moon shines, and its shadow by any chance fall upon a hyaena at the foot of the hill, it either immediately dies or throws itself into the jaws of the hyaena.” It breeds with the wolf, and the progeny of a male hyaena and a she-wolf is a sim. It is a most greedy beast (cf. its Indian name, bar peta, the ‘big-bellied'), and is excessively cowardly, being afraid even of locusts.” Jackals, * The belief in the hyaena's possessing both sexes is denied by Aristotle (‘De Gener. Anim., iii. 6; ‘Hist. Anim., vi. 32), but repeated by Pliny (viii. 44); and of the hyaena's baneful influence on the dog, Pliny says that a dog loses its voice when the shadow of a hyaena falls on it. Persians ascribe almost as many medicinal properties to different parts of the hyaena's body as Pliny does (xxviii. 27), and he enumerates seventy-nine. 40 JEA STER N PERSIAN IRA R. shughal, and foxes, rubah, are common ; the wolf, gurg, is rare. (5) Mustelidae. These are comparatively rare in our district, although they abound in the hills of Western Persia. Those obtained in Eastern Persian Irak are := Mustela puforius, L., the polecat or foumard (foul marten), also fitch, fitchew, and fitchet, musureh ; Kurd. Simoreh. Colour : blackish brown below, lighter on sides and above. Persian works describe the musureh as larger than the sable, and possessing a fur which has an unpleasant odour and is not so warm as that of the sable. Its skins are exported to Russia. Mustela martes, L. (Martes abietum, Ray.), the pine- marten, Old Engl. martern, dalah, dalak; Kurd. dullak. Colour : yellowish brown, reddish grey, tawny ; yellowish red spot on breast. This marten is very rare in our district, and I do not think that it comes further east than Mahallat, where I have seen it. It is more frequent in Kurdistan, where it is called dullak and kuzeh; but most of the pine- marten skins in the bazars of Persia come from Russia and Turkistan. The Persians often confound its skin with that of the Arabian desert fox (Canis cerdo, Skjold.); Arab. fanmak. With some native authors the dalak stands for the white fox, with others for the hamster. Mustela vulgaris, Briss., the small weasel, khaz ; Arab. /azz. This also is very rare in our district, and its fur, reddish brown and whitish, is much esteemed by the Persians. Ahaz was formerly the name of a stuff made of raw silk (kej, Arab. kaz) and wool; later it was used for a garment made of kurk, and was finally applied to the fur of the weasel and to the animal itself. Besides the skins of the above-mentioned Mustelidae, those of the sable and ermine are found in the bazars. The sable, or black marten, Mustela zibellina, Lº -samur, Turk. Aarakaz or karakhaz varies in colour from yellowish brown EASTERN PERSIAN IRA K. 41 to deep blackish brown, and the darkest skins are the dearest. Some lighter coloured spots are often noticed on the head. Its skins.are spoken of by Jornandes in the sixth century as Saphilinas pelles, by Marco Polo in the thirteenth century as zombolines and zibellines. The skins obtained in Persia are imported from Siberia by way of Russia, and are much prized. The word samur, by which the sable is known in Persia, is, according to Blau, Turanian. Beckmann (“In- ventions, ii. 314) points out from Hesychius and Phavorinus that simur was the Parthian name of the Pontic mouse, and also that the Tartars call the earless marmot (Spermophilus) symron. With the Kurds, the word simoreh stands for “pole- cat.” The ermine weasel, Mustela erminea, L., is the Pers. Kakum. In summer its colour is a dingy brown, and it is then known in trade as a stoat. The ermine has its name from the fact that its skins were first brought to Europe from Armenia, or by Armenian merchants; and in the middle ages the skins were known as Arminiae pelles, harmellina, hermelinus, and ermelinus. Persian authors remark that its fur is not so warm as that of the sable, but warmer than that of the squirrel, and that it is used for the robes of kings (cf. the law of Edward III. restricting the use of ermine to the royal family). It is not found in Persia, and its very expensive skins are imported from Russia. Persian authors tell us that the right eye of a marten has the property of curing quaternary fevers, but it is to be noted that if the eye, after having driven away the fever, be not removed from the body of the convalescent person the fever will surely return. The odour of the polecat is fatal to dragons (cf. Pliny, viii. 33, “the weasel destroys the basilisk by its odour"). Poets give to the marten the attribute “the fickle one,” dalah i dah dileh, lit. the ten- hearted marten” * Fur, as the short, fine hair of certain animals, growing 42 EASTERN PERSIAN IRA R. thick on the skin, and distinguished from the hair, which is coarser and longer, is in Pers. Kurk or kulk; this word is now only used for the soft underhair of goats. . Fur, as peltry, is both Pers, and Arab, farm, plural fira, and a furrier is fºrra. Another word for peltry is the Arab, farcat, which also means a cloak made of camel hair, generally worn by poor men; hence d/u'lfarvat, “owner of a farwat,” meaning a beggar. (6) Badger, gurken, gurshiken, i.e. grave-digger, grave- breaker, gurvesh; Turk, pursuk, pursukh ; at Isfahan, khuk i deh, i.e. village pig; is not Very common, and seems to be confined to elevations above 5000 feet. The Persian firmly believes that the badger likes being beaten, and adds that the more a badger is beaten the fatter it gets. A few years ago I saved a poor beast from being beaten into a jelly by half a dozen labourers, who thought they were doing it a good turn by acting up to the general belief. In Kurdistan the badger is ſurvizhu and vizhu, and under the vishu dog of the ‘Vendidad ' (Fargard, xiii. 48) this animal is no doubt meant. (7) Bear. I have not seen any bears in our district; but some very fine, pale-coloured specimens of Ursus arctos, L., were shot in the Elburz, two days' march from Teheran. (8) Marmot, mush i Sultanieh. Occurs in the northern parts of Persia, particularly near Sultanieh on the Tabriz road, whence its name. There are two species : one the Spermophilus, the so-called earless marmot, with very short ears, almost hidden by its fur, and well-developed buccal pouches; the other the Arctomys, with larger ears, protrud- ing out of the fur, and without buccal pouches. The latter emits a shrill whistle. (9) Otter, sagabi (Turk. Su Samuri), or water-weasel. Is very scarce in Eastern Persian Irak, orf account of the few perennial streams in it. EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 43 (10) Dormouse (Myoxus), darmush. This name was given to it by a gardener at Kamu, in the Joshekan district. Darmust means “tree-mouse,” and is not the word from which dormouse = dorm-mouse is derived. (11) Muridae. Of these there are mice, hamsters, voles, and jerboas, all known as mush, “mouse.” The jerboa is sometimes called by its Arab name yarbu'. There are no rats in Persia. (12) Porcupine, kharpusht, duldul; Shiraz, chuleh ; Mazand. warmuk, warmufti ; Kurd. Lur. Sikhur, sikhul. Is common in all parts of Persia. (13) Hare, khargush, i.e. ass's ear. The hare commonly met with is the Lepus timidus, L. ; the whistling hare, Lagomys, is found only in the central range at high elevations; there are no rabbits. (14) Onager or wild ass, gurkhar. This is now only seen in the plains towards the east. Formerly it frequently approached Teheran, but it is now rarely seen within 80 miles of it. Persians will have it that it lives a thousand years. (15) Wild hog, guraz, khuk; Kurd. wash, khis, baraz. Abounds in the reedy swamps near Isfahan, Sultanabad, etc. The male is also called yekaneh-that is, “the solitary one,” like the French solitaire and sanglier (from singularis), and kas. (16) Cattle. The ordinary cattle of Persia is the Bos taurus, L. Humped cattle, Bos indicus, L., is met with in Gilan, Mazanderan, Sistan, and Beluchistan ; and the buffalo, Rubalus buffelus, L., is often seen on the highlands, but is more common in the Caspian provinces. Cattle ; gav ; Kurd, and dialects, ga, gao. Cow, heifer : madeh gav; Kurd, and dialects, mango, mayehga, magaw, mengun, gubtºo, guvºo, chil, chilek, nuen, vishtar. Bull: gav i mar, kel ; Kurd. Kelehiſto, mileh. Calf, one year old, 44 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. } male and female : gusaleh; Kurd, gusileh, gur, guar, guelik, golik, gullik, golk, chizik. Bull calf; no-kel. Steer: varzan, "area, careo, versa. Young ox: jungo (juvan gav) . Buffalo : gavnish, gamish, jamus. Young buffalo : balagh (cf. Engl. bullock, Anglo-Sax. bulluca). Buffalo bull: kulek.” 45-(17) Ovina. Ovis aries steatopyga, L., the fat-tailed sheep, is the domestic sheep of Persia; gusfand; dialects, Qushan, pas, pez. Lamb : barreh; Kurd, and dialects, warreh, wark. Lamb, new born : Kurd, givrik. Lamb up to one year old : tukli, tukhli. Lamb up to two years old : shishek, Shishak; Kurd., etc., kahir, Kavir, kour. Ewe ; mish, Khalameh; Kurd., etc., ma, me, meheh, barandir. Aged sheep : Kurd, bacastir. Ram, tup : three year old, ogeſ; four year old, bakhteh; aged, ghuch, kuch ; Kurd., etc., kabsh, barkh, barkhik, wareh, baran, varan. Ovis ſmelini, Blyth, the Persian mouflon, arghali, argali. Is found in many parts of Persia, particularly on the Elburz, but only at high elevations. Capra hircus, L., the domestic goat of Persia, boa, siavum ; * The wild cattle, 300s &yptos, of Arachosia (Southern Afghanistan), on the confines of India, which Aristotle describes (‘Hist. Anim.,” 2. 1), was probably the buffalo. From India the buffalo came to Europe, and we hear of its first appearance in Italy, where it now abounds, about A.D. 600, during the reign of the Longobard king Agilulf. It was then called bubalus, but Boč/3a)\os with the Greeks at first signified a swift African animal, perhaps the antelope or deer, and was applied by the Italians, as we read in Pliny (viii. 15), to the bison and urus of Germany. Hehn (“Kulturpflanzen und Hausthiere, 384) supposes that the buffaloes of Agilulf were a present of the Khan of the Avars to the King of the Longobards; Link fancies buffaloes were introduced into Europe by Attila, and Iſumboldt thinks that they came during the Arab conquest of Southern Italy or during the crusades. The German word biiffel made its first appearance in German literature at the end of the thirteenth century. Persians say that the buffalo sleeps very little, on account of a parasitical worm in the animal's nose continually tickling it. ºgſ. 960. Ilºx， 1811 NyISAITAI GIHUL JO SNAHOH EASTERN PERSIAN IRA K. 45 Kurd., etc., biz, bizin, bisya, Siavuneh. Kid : boz ghaleh, hahreh ; Kurd., etc., kereh, karik, kar. Male kid castrated : one year pla, chapash, tushk; Kurd. Chevush, gisk ; two year old, dobur; Kurd. kur. Goat bearing young : tushdir, tishtur, Buck : bog i nar, tekkeh, tukkeh ; Kurd., etc., neri, niri, tayeh, saurin, Saberin. Buck leading a herd : Shahboz ; Kurd. Sais. Goats-meat is eaten principally by the poorer classes, as it is generally considered unwholesome. In some districts where leprosy is prevalent, the malady is ascribed to the consumption of goats-meat. - Capra aegagrus, Gm., the wild goat, bezoar goat, Persian ibex ; pazan, pazhan (not pasang, as some travellers have it), boz i kuhi ; the female is boz-pazan. The horns of the true ibex, Capra ibea’, L., and of the Caucasian ibex, Capra Caucasica, Guld., are not keeled in front ; but those of the bezoar goat, or Persian ibex, are strongly keeled, and bent in a single curve backward, and at the tips slightly inward. I have in my possession a pair of Persian ibex horns, obtained in the hills south of Kom, which are very much bent outward at the tips, and as they are the only ones of the kind I and sporting friends have seen, I append the measurements, viz, length 43} inches, circumference 8 inches, tip to tip 36 inches, and attach a photograph. In Mr. Rowland Ward's ‘Horn Measurements’ (London, 1892, p. 184), the longest horns of Capra agagrus measure the astounding length of 53 inches; Mr. S. Churchill, Secre- tary of the Legation at Teheran, has a pair measuring 53; inches. The bezoar goat is generally found near the summits of hills, but at all elevations from 1500 to 12,000 feet. Only this one species of wild goat exists in Persia, but “many travellers, probably better linguists than sportsmen or 46 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. naturalists, have recorded the occurrence of a wild goat and a wild ibex as separate species” (St. John, ‘Eastern Persia, ii. 90). The best animal bezoar, the Lapis bezoar wientalis, is obtained from the stomach of this animal. 46.- (18) Antelopina, ahu ; Kurd, asik, ask, mamar; Turk, jeiran ; Arab. ghazal. Gazella subgutturosa, Guld, females hornless. This is the common gazelle of the Persian highlands, and is found in almost all valleys and plains from about 3000 to 7000 feet above the level of the sea. The Gazella Bennetti, Sykes, is found only in Southern Persia ; the Gazella dorcas, L., is the antelope of Mesopo- tamia and Arabia, and is not obtained in Persia; and the Gazella fuscifrons, Blanf, whose female has horns, has been observed in Beluchistan, and there is a probability of its existing in Central Persia. 47.-(19) Cervina. Persian authors give the Arabic i/yal or uſ/yal as the generic term for deer, and describe four Persian species, “three living in the hills and one in the plains, but all four shedding their horns every year ;” the last part of the statement fixes the four species as belonging to the cervina. Of the three species found in the hills “the first lives in the forests on the slopes of the mountains, is called Arab. U'al, is larger than an antelope, and has no tail; its colour is reddish in summer and grey in winter.” This description tallies with that of Capreolus capraba, Gray, the roe, which has no tail to speak of ; it abounds in the forests of the Caspian provinces. The second species described by Persian authors is the one “living in the hills of the hot regions; it has a tail, and is larger than the first-named species, and is called Arab, y'annur.” This is probably the Cervus awis, Erxl., allied to the spotted deer of India. “The third species attains the greatest size of all, Hwes in the hills of the cold regions, and is the Arab, bakar ul jabal, Pers. gav EASTER N PERSIAN NIRA / . 47 i kuhi (i.e. mountain cow), Turk. maral.” This is the Cervus maral, Ogilby, which is found in the Caspian provinces and is the only elaphine deer found in Persia. It must not be confounded with Arab. bakar ul wahsh (the wild cow), Pers. nilgav, which is the white-footed antelope of India, Portal: picta, Wagn. “The fourth species inhabits the wooded parts of the plains of the hot regions, and is the Pers, ſocan.” This is the fallow deer, Cervus dama, common in South-Western Persia on the confines of Mesopotamia. There are no deer in Eastern Persian Irak. The Caspian deer, Cervus Caspius, Brooke, which much resembles the axis, has been observed in Azerbaijan, in North-Western Persia, and the Persians seem to have confounded it with the capreolus. Kurd. and dialectic words for deer are gakuri, sever, ſuboſha (bogha, a Turanian word signifying “bull” or “stag”). From the stomachs of some deer is obtained the concretion called hajr wl bakar, a kind of bezoar. Another concretion is found in the lachrymal glands of the maral and dama, and is known in the bazars as ſardaru, which lean women eat to get fat. Domestic animals not yet mentioned are horse, mule, ass, camel, dog, cat, peacock, turkey, fowl, pigeon. Of horse, dog, fowl, pigeon, there are numerous varieties and cross- breeds which it would take too long to describe. ETHNOLOGY. 48. From a few cranial measurements which were taken by Duhousset, Khanikoff, Houssay, and others, it has been attempted to divide the inhabitants of Persia into Arians Turks, Mongolo-Arians, Mongolo-Semites, etc., but “the Sephalic indices cannot serve as a starting-point in the •lassification of human races” (De Quatrefages), and all attempts to make racial distinctions of the different tribe s in t’ersia by cephalic indices are, I think, a failure. Taking 48 EASTER N PERSIAN IRA. K. language as a basis of classification, we may say that most of the inhabitants of Eastern Persian Irak are Persians, and that the types in the hilly districts are singularly.pure. In the cities, particularly in Teheran, there is much admixture of Turkish blood. Some families of Kom and Kashan call themselves Arabs, but have now very little Semitic blood in them. Armenians are settled in Teheran and Julfa, near Isfahan ; Jews in Teheran, Kashan, and Isfahan ; a few Zoroastrians, known in Persia as Gabrs or Gebrs, in Teheran. On account of scarcity of water and sparse vegetation the 110 mads are not very numerous. There are the Turkish Khalej, Shahseven, and Beiat tribes, speaking the so-called Azerbaijanlu dialect of Turkish with Jaghatai forms, and residing in winter in the plains about Teheran, Kom, Avah, and Savah ; the Khojavend and some other Leks in the plains north-east of Teheran ; the Lur tribe of the Zends near Kom ; and the Kurdish tribe of the Pazeki in Veramin and Khar, east of Teheran, the three last speaking Persian dialects with Luri and Kurdi forms. The Shahseven is a comparatively new tribe, formed in the first quarter of the seventeenth century by Shah Abbas I. in order to break the power of the thirty-two Kizilbash tribes, whose chiefs had since the year 1500 held command of the army and all the important governments. Many Kizilbashes enrolled themselves in the new tribe, and caused in some instances the extinction of their own. The liew tribe was called Shahseven, i.e. Shah-loving, because it was considered to be the special guard of the throne, and later events have shown that it fully deserved the name. The most important of the Kizilbash tribes, all Turks, were the Ustajallu, Shamlu Kajar, Afshar, Dhulkadr, Inanlu, Takallu, Beiat, and Khalej Of the Ustaſullu and ///ulkadr very few now remain and resid in Azerbaijan. The Shaulus, i.e. Syrians, who were brough in the fourteenth century by Timur from Syria where they EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 49 had settled in the previous century after Jengiz Khan's con- quests, now exist partly as a branch of the great Afshar tribe, partly as a branch of the Shahseven, and partly as a separate tribe called Baharlu. The Baharlu were originally a branch of the Shamlus, but on the latter losing identity, they formed a separate tribe. They now number about twenty-five hundred families, half residing in Fars, half in Azerbaijan. In Fars they are generally known as Arabs, probably on account of their having come from Syria. The Aajars are now represented by the Shah, the members of the royal house and twelve branches, residing in the north of Persia, principally in Mazandaran and Astrabad. The Afshar's form a large tribe of twelve thousand families, re- siding in Azerbaijan, where they have given their name to a district, Kerman and Mazandaran. It is probable that the Afshars came to Persia in the eleventh century. The Inaulus are at present the most important branch of the Shahseven, and their chief is generally considered the chief of the tribe. The Takallu tribe was broken up by Shah Tahmasp in 1531, and merged into other tribes. A few families kept the name, but as a tribe they disappeared from history. In the genealogical tables of Rashid ed din (written at the beginning of the fourteenth century, Rashid died 1318), the Khalej, or, more correctly, Kalej,” are mentioned as one of the Turkish tribes descended from Ughuz Khan. The tribe joined Jengiz Khan about the year 1200, assisted him in conquering the countries west as far as the Mediterranean, and settled afterwards in Asia Minor. A part of them later on settled in Persia, and in 1404 we find them living in * Other forms of this name are Kilij, Khilij. The Khalej of Persia spring from the same stock as the Khilij, Khilji, Ghilji, or Ghilzai, of Afghanistan, but the latter left Central Asia several centuries before their Persian brethren, and a e mentioned by Eastern writons as living in Afghanistan as early as the beginning of the tenth century. E 50 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. the district which they now occupy near Savah, and being ordered by Timur to swell the forces of Amir Shah Malik and Pir Ali Sulduz in Rei (Rozet es Safa). Parts of the tribe reside in Fars, Kerman, and Azerbaijan. The Belafs are mentioned in Rashid ed din's tables among the “so-called Tartar tribes.” They are Turks, and also came with J engiz Khan, some settling in Asia Minor, others in Persia. At the end of the reign of Shuja'ed din Khurshid, Attabeg of Little Luristan (d. 1224), they were occupying a district on the north of Burujird and Khorremabad (“Akrad-nameh,’ by Sheref ed din), and there they are now. Some of the tribe also occupy districts in Fars and Khorasan, others joined the Kajar tribe, and form the subdivision of the Shambeiatlu. The Khojavends and other Leks, as Nanakellis and Kelleh- kuhs in Eastern Persian Irak, are considered aboriginal Persian tribes, but, curious to say, most of them speak Turkish, or perhaps, more correctly, a mixture of Turkish and Persian. Other Leks speak dialects resembling Kurdi. The Zends are Lurs, and were hardly known before Kerim Khan, who was of that tribe, and was king of Persia from 1757 to 1779. With the capture of Lutf Ali Khan in 1795 by Agha Muhammed Khan Kajar, the Zend dynasty ended, and the tribe was broken up ; there are still extant about a hundred and fifty or two hundred families of Zends near Kom, Hamadan, Malayer, and in the Bakhtiari country, all occupying Sub-Ordinate positions. The I’a cekis, or Pazukis, were once a powerful tribe, residing near Erzeroum, and several of their chiefs are mentioned in Sheref ed din's ‘Akrad-nameh." The tribe was broken up in the latter part of the sixteenth century, some families of it migrating to Persia. About a thousand families reside in Veramin and Khar, south-east and east of Teheran. Some of them speak Kurdi, some Turkish. EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 5 | COMMUNICATIONS. 49. Bailways.-There is a single line, 1-metre gauge, from Teheran to Shah'abdul'azim, South of Teheran, with two branch lines to limestone quarries in the hills South-east of the city. The length of the main line is 872 kilometres, or about 5% miles; that of the two branches 1:58 and 2.34 kilometres, or about 2% miles. The main line was opened in 1888, the branches in 1893. There are two stations—one at each end of the main line—large workshops, sheds, etc., sufficient for the requirements of a line hundreds of miles in length. A first-class ticket for the trip on the main line costs fourpence. 50. Tramways.-There are 10.4 kilometres, or 6% miles, of tramway in Teheran. The rails are railway rails on transverse sleepers, and are hardly anywhere flush with the pavement of the streets, in fact, generally overtopping it by a few inches, which, as I know to my cost, causes much damage to carriages by twisting off wheels, breaking axles, etc. The gauge is 1 metre, like that of the railway, and railway trucks full of coal, building stone, lime, etc., run on it from the railway station into the city. The fares vary from 1 to 3 shahis (about 28 to 84 of a penny), and a six months' season ticket, with the right of travelling over the whole line, costs 40 krans (less than £I). 51. Roads.—With two exceptions the roads in Eastern Persian Irak are as Nature made them. The first of the exceptions is the road leading from Teheran to Doshantepeh, a summer residence of H.M. the Shah, 34 miles from the city; it is metalled, and was completed about sixteen years ago. The second is the road which joins Kom with the capital. It was completed in 1892, and has a length of 9 | miles, from the "Shah'abdul'azim gate of Teheran to the Maruf gate of Kom. A great part of it is metalled, all rivers and 52 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. watercourses are crossed by bridges and culverts, and carriages can go over the whole of it with ease and comfort. At each of the five intermediate stations is a comfortable guest-house, with ample accommodation for beast and man ; and diligences, mail-carts, and wagons run daily up and down between Kom and Teheran. The distance is divided into six stages, viz. – × 1. Teheran to Kahrizek ... e is tº tº tº º ... 12.75 miles. 2. 92 Hasanabad ... tº º tº ... 14'00 2 3 3. 3 y Kalah Muhammed Ali Khan ... 17.625 ,, 4. 57 Kushki Nusret ... tº is tº ... 13.75 , 5. 52 Manzarieh tº gº tº vº is tº ... 16'25 ,, 6. 33 Kom tº a tº tº e ºl * & & ... 17:25 ,, Total distance ... 91-625 miles. The fares are as follows:— One person and 32% lbs. of luggage by diligence ... 25 krans. 2 3 53 2 3 mail-cart ... 15 , 55 3 y 9 3 wagon ... 12 , 33 2 3 92 phaeton ... 150 ,, Kakrizek is a village of fifty houses, and belongs to H. E. Amin ed dowleh, President of the Council and Minister of Posts. Near it some jurassic limestone crops out, and is quarried for building stone. & Hasanabad is a village of sixty houses, and belongs to Muhammed Hasan Khan Shoket. Close to it are two large caravanserais, constructed within the last four years, one belonging to the proprietor of the village, the other to Hajji Muhammed Hasan, the former Mint Master. The Kerej river is passed about 2 miles north of the Hasanabad guest- house by a bridge of one arch with a span of 45 feet. About 5 miles from Hasanabad, towards Kom, the Salt river is passed by a fine bridge of seven arches, and having a total length of 610 feet and a width of 20 feet. EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 53 Kalah Muhammed Ali Khan is a small village inhabited during winter by thirty to forty families of the Yengijik branch of Inanlu Turks, who reside near Zenjan during the summer. Supplies are scarce. Five miles before reaching Kushk Nusret the road passes Aliabad, which has an immense caravanserai, built by the late Amin es Sultan in 1884, and named after his son 'Alī Asghar, the present Amin es Sultan and Prime Minister of Persia. A mile or so west and north-west of Aliabad, kaolin of inferior quality—that is, containing much quartz—is found lying on trachytes, and much resembles trachytic tuffs. Close to the new caravanserai, and to the east, stands an old one, built of stone. It was on the old road between Savah and Rei, and some years ago some Mongol coins of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were found in it under a heap of rubbish. Kushk Nusret was built in 1884. There are a guest- house and a small hamlet, a quarter of a mile south of it, with a scanty water-supply. Between Kushk i Nusret and Man carieh the road goes for some miles along the new lake, which was formed in 1884, passes the tea-house and garden Bakerabad, and reaches Manzarieh a couple of miles beyond. Manzarieh has a large caravanserai, completed in 1887, and has its name from the fact that the great mosque of Kom can be seen from it, Manzarieh meaning “the place of the view.” The water-supply here is very small. The trachytes and trachytic tuffs from the hills near Manzarieh make good building stone, and have been used for the construction of the caravanserai and the bridge beyond. A little over 4 miles from Manzarieh the Karasu, or Savah river, is crossed by a seven-arched bridge, 552 feet in length and 2'ſ feet in width. From the bridge to the guest- house at Kom is about 13 miles, 54 EASTERN PERSIAN IRA R. The ancient road from Kom to Teheran left Kom by the Rei gate, and was by way of Komrud, the old bridge below the Barber's bridge, Kaj, Deir (Deir ul jiss of Mukaddasi and Istakhri, Deir girdshir of Yakut), and Veramin. In the Seventeenth century, under the Sefaviehs, a road was opened by way of the Barber's bridge, Haws i Sultan, and Kinarigird; this was closed in 1884 by the formation of the new lake when the present road was made. The road of the Sefaviehs was the shortest, measuring from Kom to Teheran 78 miles, against 96 miles of the ancient road and 91; of the new road. y A description of all the roads in Eastern Persian Irak would extend this paper to an inordinate degree, and I must refer to the map. Excepting the two mentioned in paragraph 51, all the roads are as Nature made them ; but vehicles only seldom have much difficulty in getting over them, unless, of course, they go through very hilly districts. Carriages would have some difficulty in getting from Kom to Isfahan vid Kashan and Kohrud, less vić Kashan, Natanz, and Sardahan, and hardly any vid Rugird (also Rahgird and Rigird), Dude- hek, Dilijan, and Meimeh, in fact, on the latter road any ordinary carriage could do the voyage without any difficulty whatever. The distance by the last road is about 185 miles, while that by the others is 159 and 180, the road vić Kohrud being the shortest. The road from Teheran to Kazvin, 92 miles, is called a carriageable road, but it is not more carriageable than other ordinary natural roads in Persia. It is not metalled, and very little more has been done to it in the way of con- struction than digging a ditch on each side of it and building a bridge or two and five guest-houses. - - 52. Telegraphs.--The English Government line of three wires on iron posts runs from Teheran along the new road to Kom, thence vid Kashan, Kohrud, etc., to Isfahan, with F— e- EASTERN PERSIAN II: A K. O ...) } control or testing stations at Kom, Kashan, and So, the last being generally closed during summer. The Indo-European Telegraph Company's line, also of three wires on iron posts, runs from Teheran to Kazvin, along the so-called carriageable road, and then goes on to Tabriz. Single-wire lines on wooden poles join Shah'abdul'azim, Doshantepeh, and the Shah's palaces in Shimran with the capital, and two other single-wire lines on wooden poles run from Teheran, one east towards Meshhed, the other south-west to Hamadam. The first station on the former is Aivan & Keif, the first on the latter Khanabad. Another single-wire line on wooden poles runs from Kom to Irak. All the lines on wooden poles belong to the Persian Telegraph Department. The tax for inland telegrams by the Persian lines, and in Persian language only, is 2 krans for every ten words, plus an initial charge of kran ; a telegram of thirty words would thus cost 6% krans. A curious feature is that the sender of a telegram, must always pay for the reply to it. The English lines do not take inland telegrams except by special favour and with permission of the Persian Department. 53. Posts.-The post-offices in Eastern Persian Irak are : Teheran, Kom, Kashan, Isfahan, Nafans, Nara/, Math/t///t/, Savah. During the summer months an office is open at Zergendeh, in Shimran, 6 miles from Teheran. The letter postage is + kran for 3 miskals, a little less than oz. (213 grains), between any two post-offices in Persia : the registration fee is kran. Between Teheran and Kom and Kazvin the mails are carried in carts, on other lines the service is done by horses carrying postmen and bags on pack-Saddles, at a speed of about 80 miles a day. 54. The region which I have called Eastern Persian Irak and is shown on the accompanying map, contains the pro- vinces of Konr’Mahallat, Natanz, Joshekan, and Kashan, and parts of the provinces of Teheran, Isfahan, Savah, and Irak. 56 JEA STERN PERSIAN IRA K. THE PROVINCE OF KOM. 55. This province is bounded on the north by Teheran, on the east by the desert, on the south by Kashan and Mahallat, and on the west by Irak and Savah. In the ninth century the Kom province comprised four rustak (districts), viz. (1) Kumidan, with seven tasuj (parishes); (2) Anarbar, with seven tasuj; (3) Warreh, with five tasuj; (4) Savah, with four tasuj. At the end of the tenth century the province comprised the province as it now is, and the provinces and districts of Kashan, Mahallat (then called Anar), Gulpaigan (then called Teimareh), Irak, Savah, Ferahan, Khalejistan, and Tafresh, which were divided into twenty-three rustak for administrative purposes. It extended northwards to Kushk i Daud, 2 farsakhs from Deir ul jiss, on the frontier of Rei; westwards to the Hamadan and Kerej provinces; southwards to the frontier of Isfahan, which was formed by the valley between Daram and Ravend, with the Aasrud or Kasehrud (the present Barzuk river) and the Kohrud hills; and eastwards to the desert. The twenty-three subdivisions were— 1. Komrud. - 13. Kashan. 2. Abrastejan. 14. Ferahan. 3. Sarajeh. . 15. Kuzdar. 4. Rudaban. 16. Durakher. 5. Vazkehrud. 17. Warreh. 6. Langarud. 18. Jehrud. 7. Rudbar. 19. Wadi Ishak. 8. Kuhistan. 20. Inner Tafresh. 9. Jasb. 21. Outer Tafresh. 10. War Ardahar. 22. Vezvah. 11. Anar. 23. Savah-and Avah. 12. Teimareh. EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 57 Only the first ten now belong to Kom, the other thirteen form the provinces and districts of Mahallat, Gulpaigan, Kashan, Ferahan, Irak, Tafresh, Savah, and Khalejistan. 56. The province now comprises seven districts, called buluk, and has a population of about forty-five thousand souls. It is governed by an official who is appointed by the Shah, and has the title of hakim, and pays yearly taxes to the amount of 293,620 krans in cash and 3754 kharvars (about 1070 tons) of grain. Calculating the grain at current rates, the revenue from the Kom province amounts to 370,000 krans altogether, or about £9000. The seven buluk are—Humeh, Komrud, Wazehkerud, Kinar i Rudkhaneh, Kohistan (Kuhistan), Jasb, and Ardahal. 57.-(1) The Humeh district contains the town, its dependencies, and the old district of Sarajeh. It extends in the south to the little range of hills with the do baradaran (i.e. two brothers) peaks, which was formerly called Kuh . Vishviyeh, in the east to the desert, in the north to the Kara Su, and in the west to Khalejistan and Savah. 58. The town Kom is situated on the right bank of the Anarbar river (see par. 21, 4), under lat. 34° 39' 0" N., long. 50° 54' 54"E. (English telegraph station), and at an eleva- tion of 3100 feet. The population is estimated at twenty thousand souls, of which fully one quarter is composed of priests, Sayyids, and their families. Of the population of Kom previous travellers have given various statements. Jos. Barbaro (1474) gives twenty thou- sand houses; Contarini, in the same year, calls it a small town ; Th. Herbert (1627) gives it two thousand families : Chardin (1673) estimates fifteen thousand houses; Olivier (1796) says that the town contained only fifty houses, which were grouped round the principal mosque, and that the total population ditſ not amount to three hundred souls. 59. The city, its fifty-two gardens, and the cultivated 58 JEA STERN PERSIAN IRAK. fields of the humeh close to it, have their water-supply from ten old and some new open canals (nahr), which are led off from the river, and are estimated to discharge during favourable seasons 256,000 cubic feet of water per hour. Some of the old canals were dug before the advent of Islam, and still bear the names of villages or lands of which the city of Kom was formed, as, for instance, the canals of Bara- vistan, Abrastajan, Kumidan, Jamkaran, etc. # 60. Long before the Arab conquest in the seventh century of our era, the Anarbar and Bidhand (also Bitan) rivers, the latter rising in the Kuh i Elvend, south of Kom, formed a lake which filled the depression south-east of Kom, where Langarud and PaSangan now are, and probably joined the Kavir, or salt desert, to the east. The fertile lands on the shores of the lake were rich grazing grounds, which bore the name Kebud-dasht. Under the Sassanians, perhaps earlier, a canal was cut from the point where the Anarbar river entered the plain of Kom, and in the direction of Rei, diverting the water into the present river-bed—Kom to Pul i dellak—and the land covered by the lake was redeemed for cultivation. People then settled on the redeemed land and founded a number of villages (originally communities of ten families) as Baravistan, Jamkaran, Jumar, Jalanbadan, Abrastejan, Mamajan, Veskin, Malun, Kizdan, Kumidan, etc., which were known as the “forty villages.” Abu 'Abdallah Ahmed IIamadani in his ‘Kitab el beldan,' ascribes the origin of Kom to a son of Lohrasp, the successor of Kei Khosro, whom it pleases us to identify with Cyrus, and the Siyyar el muluk i 'ajam states that Bahram Gur, the Sassanian, founded Mamajan. 61. Regarding the etymology of “Kom " there are several theories. Some authors say that before the lake was drained many reed huts stood on its shores, and Seryed the people who guarded the .cattle grazing there as EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 59 habitations. These reed huts were called Kumeh, and the plain in which they stood was called Kumel, meidan, the reed-hut plain, which was later contracted into Kumidan and Kum, the latter being changed by the Arabs into Kom. Others say that the Arabs called the place Kom from its abundant water-supply, kom meaning “an abundance of water,” and komkomeh “a water-pot.” We see, however, from the ‘Komnameh,’ that the name Kom, or Kum, existed as that of a district before the advent of the Arabs; for the author of that work tells us that he had seen a book which contained a list of the provinces and districts of Persia under Kobad I. (died A.D. 531), and in it Kom was mentioned as one of the favourite residences of that king. He also quotes a note from Abu Mundhir to the effect that when the Arabs defeated Yezdijird's grandson Firuz in Khorassan, Shahferend, the daughter of Firuz, was captured and sent to Hajjaj b. Yusuf (died 714). Hajjaj sent her to the Caliph Valid, but confiscated one of her boxes, in which he found the very book which the author of the ‘Komnameh claims to have seen. Shahferend entered Valid's harem, and became the mother of the Caliph Yezid. 62. For another etymology, priests of Kom have invented a hadith (tradition), which they unblushingly ask people to believe. This tradition, manufactured in modern times, informs the pious that the prophet Muhammed, when per- forming his m'iraj (the miraculous ascent to heaven), rested at a pleasant and delightful spot—on earth—and there saw an old man. The prophet asked the angel Gabriel, who was accompanying him, “What place is this, and who is this old man º' Gabriel replied, “This is the residence of thy successor 'Ali's descendants, the Shi'ahs ; and the old man is Satan.” Thereupon the prophet said, “Ya mal'un, komm l’ (“Oh, cursed ort, get up !”) and the place was called Komm, as it is written by Arabic authors. Yet another explanation 60 FASTERN PERSIAN IRA R. 75 is that “once upon a time" the headman of the place— before it was named Kom—was a very lazy Arab, whose wife all day long had to tell him, “Ai rajul, koman l’ that is, “Oh, man, get up !” and as travellers, when passing the place, always heard the woman call out “Komm,” they finally called it the Komm place. 63. When the troops under Ahnaf b. Keis, which had been sent by Musa al Ash'ari in pursuit of Yezdijird, the last Sassanian monarch, reached the Kom plain, A.H. 23 (A.D. 644), the town did not exist ; and all authors agree that the town was founded—that is, ramparts and walls were built— in the middle of the eighth century of our era, by Arabs who had come to Kom in 713, when Hajjaj b. Yusuf was Governor of Irak. Yakut and Zakarieh Kazvini say that the Arabs came to Kom in the year 83, Abulfeda adds that it was the Hijreh year 83 ; but, as we see from the very detailed notices in the ‘Komnameh,' it was in the 82nd year of the Yezdijird era, or the 94th of the Hijreh and the 62nd since Yezdijird's death, that this event took place. We read that in the second hour after sunrise on the day Hormuz of the month Ferverdin, New Year's Day of the year 82 of the Yezdijird era (May 27, A.D. 713 ; Sh'aban 26, A.H. 94), Yezdanfadar, the lord of Abrastajan and headman of the “forty villages,” went to . his garden “buſh i isſid,” situated a short distance from the village and on the Savah road, with the intention of there spending his holiday. 13 hour later—one would think they had timekeepers in those days—some Arab horsemen were seen coming along the Savah road. To fix the day still more precisely, the position of the Sun in Gemini; Moon and Saturn in Leo ; Jupiter, Mercury, and Venus in Taurus, and Mars in Aries; and the Right Ascension of Leo and Aries are given. •e 64. These Arabs were 'Abdallah and Ahvas, sons of S'ad j Qe EASTER N PEIPSIAN IRAK. (, i. b. Malik b. 'Aamar al Ash'ari, and a number of followers, who had fled from Kufa in consequence of the oppression of Hajjaj. Yezdanfadar instructed his son Mukhrahan (?) to see to their comforts, and the Arabs, instead of proceeding to Rei or Isfahan as they had intended to do, Settled on Yezdanfadar's grounds west of Kom, where they soon after built a mosque on the site of a fire temple. After they had settled at Kom, Deilemi robbers came down from the north, plundered the “forty villages,” and captured a number of Persians ; but the Arabs came to the rescue and recovered the booty from the Deilemis, and the grateful Persians gave them the village Kumidan. Friendly relations continued, and on the day Ardibehesht of the month Murdad, in the vear 87 (September 26, A.D. 718), Yezdanfadar gave to the Arabs the village Mamajan, with the farms of Suranabad and Jalanbadan, and again in the month Mihr of the same year (December, 718) he gave them the village Jumar, and Ahvas took up his residence in the house of Kharbendad and 'Abdallah in that of Dadkhurreh. 65. Three years later, during a game of polo which they were playing with Yezdanfadar, the brothers complained that the grazing grounds allotted to them were not sufficient for their cattle, and the Persians gave over to them some meadows and well-watered lands. After this event things did not go on smoothly, and difficulties arose, as one author says, in consequence of difference of religious belief, but more probab y in consequence of the Arab's grasping character. Yezdanſadar died in 733. It is related of him that he instituted a fund for the defence of the “forty villages" against the Deilemi robbers, each man (; community) paying 1000 dirhems (about 4:37). After his death the Arabs frequently quarrelled With the Persians, pretexting that the latter did not act according to agreements”and soon after Ahvas invited the notables of the “forty villages" to a great feast at his own residence ($ 2 - EASTERN PERSIAN IRA R. and treacherously killed them, all with the exception of the lord of Jamkaran, “who was a good man,” the historian adds. The Arabs then surrounded seven of their villages and farms, viz. Kumidan, Mamajan, Jumar, Malun, Kizdan, Jalambadan, and Sakan with a wall, and laid the foundations of the town Kom. Abrastajam had been walled in before this, by Yezdanfadar; and Jamkaran, Kashuyeh, and Asfarabad (Asvarabad) were surrounded by a rampart by Asfarbed, the son of Jalin, lord of Jamkaran, the “good man" of the historian. 66. The old town formed a square with sides of 2500 yards in length, and parts of the old walls were seen by the author of the Komnameh in 984. The Ash'ari Arabs then became rulers of the Kom province, and remained the leading family of Kom until the thirteenth century. The city soon acquired importance, and already, in the year 804, it and its districts paid taxes to the value of 3 million dirhems. 67. As the Ash'aris were followers of 'Ali and his descendants, many members of the family of the Imams took refuge at Kom after their flight from Arabia and Irak, and Kom became a stronghold of the Shi'ahs, four hundred and forty-four Imamzadehs (descendants of Imams) being buried there. 68. The most important Imamzadeh tomb at Kom is that of Fatmeh, the sister of Imam 'Ali ar Reza (died 818), and daughter of Imam Musa al Kazim (died 779). In A.H. 201 (816) she was on her way to Tus, in Khorassan, where her brother then was, when she fell ill at Savah and was brought to Kom, where she died in the house of Musa al Ash'ari. She was buried in Musa's garden on the right bank of the river, at the spot where the golden dome of the great mosque now stands. A simple roof of straw protected the grave from the sun until Zeinal), Fatmell's sister, eu niece, had a brick dome built over it. Zeinab and four other holy ladies tº EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. # 63 were also buried there, and the Ash'aris appointed some lands for the maintenance of the graves, for the entertain- ment of pilgrims, and for affording relief to indigent families of sayyids. Already, A.H. 371 (981), three hundred and thirty of the descendants of the Imams, who were living at Kom, received each 10 dirhems of silver (about 78.) and 30 manns of bread per mensem. In 1673, according to Chardin's statement, the annual revenue from the endow- ments was 144,000 francs (£5760); it is now about £1000. One of Timur Lang's daughters also gave some money and lands, the Sefaviehs erected a great dome and other buildings over the graves, ornamenting the walls with beautiful tiles, which cost 5 tomans per square yard, and carpeting the chambers with costly silk carpets, which, I am told, are still there. Two of the Sefavieh shahs, viz. Abbas II, and Sefi, are buried in Kom. Chardin throws doubts on this, for, says he, when a king dies, half a dozen or a dozen coffins are sent to various holy places, and no one knows in which coffin the body is, or whether the one buried in a certain mausoleum contains the shah's body or not. 69. Many devout Musulmans presented jewels, gold and silver lamps and candlesticks, and magnificent Korans written by the famous calligraphists Aka Ibrahim and Yakut ; Fath 'Ali Shah covered the dome with gold plate beaten out of 200,000 tomans, and endowed the shrime with 500 tomans cash and 500 kharvars grain per annum ; the present Shah added some more ornaments; and the Naib es Saltaneh, the Shah's son, and Amin es Sultan, the present prime minister, built some minarets and otherwise added to the buildings. There is also a clock-tower, with a clock striking the hours on a bell which was taken in the beginning of the century from an Armenian ºnvent in the Caucasus. 70. The next important tomb is that of Muhammed 64 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. © b. Musa, outside of the town, in the ground known as the Rhak i Faraj. This saint died on the 22nd Rabi I. 296 (December 19,908), and the dome over his grave was erected A.H. 366 (976–7). Other notable members of the family of the Imams buried at Kom are 'Ali b. J'afar, Shah Ibrahim, Shah IIamzeh, Sayyid Bakhsh, Ahmed b. Kasem, Shah Zahir, etc. . 71. Corpses are constantly being brought to Kom for burial from all parts of Persia, and the many graves make it extremely difficult to dig anywhere within the precincts of the town without disturbing the last resting-place of a Musulman, and there is always the probability of the dis- turbed grave being that of an Imamzadeh. Some years ago an architect was laying out the garden in front of the guest-house north of the town, but when he commenced digging for the foundations of a small pavilion in the middle of it, the priests of Kom Said that an Imam- zadeh was buried there, and objected to any further digging. The architect was finally permitted to continue his work on his faithfully promising that he would not only duly respect any bones he might find, but would also build a mausoleum over them. Some evening after the discussion he had occasion to visit his work, and took a lamp with him. Next morning some persons who lived on the town side of the river, and had the evening before seen the light of the archi- tect's lamp moving about, reported that the presence of the Imamzadeh's corpse had manifested itself by a miraculous light. The architect had all the difficulty in the world to convince the fanatic priests that the miraculous light had come from his own lamp. 72. The great mosque of Kom, with a dome 80 feet in height, was completed A.H. 265 (878–79) by Abu Sadaim Husein b. 'Ali al Ash'ari ; and the mosque known as the masjed i Imam Hasan was built A.H. 191 (806-7), when Yahya b. Ishak was governor, and the Turk Daka military © EASTERN PERSIA N II? A K. º 65 commander of the province, and repaired by the Turkish general Muſlih A.H. 253 (867). Other mosques are those of Ishk 'Ali. Hajji Mulla Sadik, etc. Of colleges there are the ruined Medresseh i Shah Khorasan, which was destroyed in the thirteenth century by the Mongols, M. i Fath 'Ali Shah, Naseri, Mominiyeh, Muhammed Taki Khan. 73. In the tenth century the town had thirteen gates, now there are only four, viz. Maruf, Rei, Kashan, Kal'ah. The Maruf gate is at the head of the bridge on the northern side of the town where the road to Teheran begins. The Rei gate, on the north-east, leads to Komrud and Sarajeh ; the Kashan gate, on the South, to Kashan ; and the Kalah gate, on the south-west, to Kinari Rudkhaneh and Kuhistan. The bridge over the river at the M'aruf gate stands on the site of the old bridge built in the eighth century by Sahl b. 'Ali b. Sahl b. Yas' al Ash'ari; it has nine arches, a length of about 220 feet, and a width of 18 feet. 74. The bazars of Kom are small and poor, but a brisk trade is generally carried on in them, particularly when the town is full of pilgrims. In the neighbourhood of the great mosque and along the river there are hundreds of houses specially kept for the accommodation of visitors. Kom has a glass factory making uncouth bottles and thick, barely transparent slabs used for windows of baths, and some potteries making fine porous water pitchers and coolers and other cheap pottery, some of the latter glazed. The grain of Kom is abundant and of good quality, and generally 30 to 40 per cent cheaper than at Teheran, only 90 miles away. The cotton is of very superior quality, silky and of long staple, and much of it is exported to Russia. 75. The water-supply is abundant, but the water is brackish, particularly in summer. The Ash'aris, completed the irrigation system of Kom by cutting many canals, building dams to raise the water of the F 66 EASTER N PERSIAN IRAK. º river to the level of the Komrud district, and constructing a dyke to prevent the water from flowing into the Kavir. At the beginning they had much water in winter and hardly any in summer. This was caused by the people of Teimereh (Gulpaigan) and Anar (Mahallat) using all the water for themselves from spring to autumn. The Ash'aris then sent the following message to the people of the upper districts: “Be just ; either give us water when we want it or keep it altogether ; in winter we now get too much and in summer too little, and our lands suffer; you must share good and bad seasons with us.” As the proposal was not accepted, the Arabs of Kom marched up and destroyed the dams and dykes all the way to Teimereh, and thus got all the water. After years of fighting an agreement was made, in virtue of which the dykes and dams were repaired and—experiments having shown that the fields of Kom after being watered took ten days to dry and those of the upper districts only five days— Teimereh and Anar took two-thirds and Kom one-third of the water. A similar arrangement exists at the present day : every sixteen days Kom has six days water of the river, the upper districts ten days. Occasionally, after a heavy rainfall or a sudden melting of the snows on the hills, the river overflows its banks and does much damage to the town. In A.H. 292 (904-5) all the kiosks and villas of the Ash'aris which then lined both banks of the river were swept away. Chardin mentions that great floods took place in 1634 and 1670, destroying several thousand houses; in 1881 there was a big flood, and the English telegraph station outside of the town was carried away in a few minutes; in April, 1893, a heavy flood did much damage, and swamped the lower part of the town, 76. Old authors are very communicative on the subject of the courageous and turbulent character of the people EASTERN PERSIA N IRAK. 67 of Kom and their constant opposition to the payment of taxes. -. . The aaliphs frequently had to send troops to enforce payment of taxes. Once, A.H 184 (800–1), when the people had not paid their taxes for fifty-one years (sic), Harun ur Rashid sent an army under Abu Saleh Yahya b. Abdurrah- man al Katib, and by dint of massacring and torturing, a great part of the money due was collected. The year in which this event took place was long remembered as the “year of the outstanding balances,” but seems to have been a lesson thrown away, for, only four years later, the people again refused to pay, and killed the tax-collector, who was a brother of Abdallah b. Koshid, the Governor of Isfahan. Harun ur Rashid sent another army, under the able Hasan b. Tahtaj al Talikani, punished the people, separated Kom from Isfahan, and raised the taxes to 3,500,000 dirhems. A few years later, A.H. 212 (827), the Caliph Mamun having reduced the taxes of Rei, the people of Kom asked for a similar favour, and their prayer not being granted they revolted. The ‘Komnameh states that Mamun sent Ali b. Issa Talha to Kom, and raised the taxes by 700,000 dirhems. Ibn al Athir and Ibn Khaldun place this event in the year 214 (829), and say that Mamun sent 'Ali b. Hisham, and raised the taxes of Kom and Kashan to 7,000,000 dirhems. According to the ‘Komnameh''Alib. Issa Talha was dismissed A.H. 215 (830), the walls of the town, which had been destroyed in 827 by 'Ali b. Issa, were repaired in 832, and at the end of 833 Muhammed b. Hashim b. Issa was ap- pointed military commander of the Kom province by Mutasim, while Abul Jarud Mundhir b. Mansur was prefect. The latter was dismissed in 834, and Al Yas' b. Hamzeh al Ash'ari was appointed in his stead, and the taxes were raised to 9,000,000 dirhams, etc. Concerning the turbulent character of the people of Kom 68 EA STERN PERSIAN IRAK. cf. “Ambassade de Dom Garcias de Silva Figueroa, p. 219. Paris : 1667. 77. The ‘Komnameh contains some interesting notes on the revenue system in Persia during the first four centuries of the Hijra. When a uniform coinage for the Arab dominions was instituted by the Caliph Abdulmalik (685– 705), the legal unit of weight was the dirhem, weighing 47-5 grains, and the dirhem of silver became the unit of the coinage. The unit of the gold coinage was the dinar, equiva- lent to 1; dirhem, or 67'86 grains. The ratio of the value of gold to silver was then about 1 : 103, and 66 dinars of pure gold were worth 1000 dirhems of pure silver, one dinar being equivalent to 15% dirhems. The coinage was supposed to be based on this legal standard, but very soon fell away from it, either in consequence of a reduction in the weight of the coins, or by alloying the precious metals, and dinars became nominal values for purposes of accounts aud exchange and for the computation of various taxes pre- scribed by religious law. The taxes were at first based on the legal standards, but when the current coin varied from the standards, the constantly fluctuating difference between the value of the coin and that of the standards had to be cal- culated. Regular assessments based on the currency were made from time to time to avoid this, but the taxes were assessed in dirhems and had to be paid in dinars. This created a continual demand for gold, and this demand, together with the gradual debasement of the silver coinage, increased the ratio of silver to gold, and the premium on gold, which followed, upset the accounts of the tax-collectors by showing a loss on exchange which amounted to a con- siderable deficit. Already, in 801 (A.H. 185), the dinar was quoted at 17 dirhems, and 1000 dirhems figured in the accounts as 58-82 dinars, instead of 66 , there was thus a loss of nearly 11 per cent. In spite of increasing the taxes, EASTERN PERSIAN TRAIX. 69 the revenues converted into dinars, or gold, were constantly decreasing, and A.H. 287 (900) the revenues of Kom were . 16,935 dinars less than in the year 185 (801), although they were more when expressed in dirhems. To make up for this loss a clever official in the year 305 (917–8) calculated the dirhems into dinars at the original rate of Abdulmalik's reform, viz. 1000 dirhems = 66 dinars, and forced the people to pay 66 gold dinars for every 1000 silver dirhems of their assessed taxes, although it cost them 1122 dirhems to buy the 66 gold pieces. Four years later, in 921, subjects of Persian origin had to pay 66; dinars for 1000 dirhems (an increase of 1 per cent.), and in 927 their rate was fixed at 67% dinars, which was equivalent to an increase on the original assessed taxes of about 15 per cent. In the following year both Arabs and Persians had to pay 72 dinars for every 1000 dirhems of assessed taxes, equivalent to an increase of 22 per cent. Abu 'Ali Hasan Buyah (received title of Rukn ed dowleh in 945, died 976), when Governor of Kom, A.H. 319 (931), was not satisfied with half-measures, and calculated the assessments at the rate of 1000 dirhems equal to 200 dinars, practically trebling all the taxes. This brought the province to the verge of ruin, and, in consequence of repre- Sentations made to Baghdad, a new assessment was made in the year 335 (946–7), by which 1000 dirhems of taxes were calculated at 109 dinars. The author of the ‘Kom- nameh” considered this quite a simple arrangement. He says, “We paid 66 dinars for every 1000 dirhems of taxes, and added 43.” To all this confusion was added the variable value of the dinars caused by wear and tear and clipping, Already, before Abdulmalik's reform, many light gold pieces were in circulation, popularly known as Tabari pieces, some weighing only 46 grains, and all pieces had to be carefully weighed. Heavy pieces were, of course, hoarded. Revenue collectors ceased to weigh coins, and took them by tale, but 7 () EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. took a premium of 25 to 33 per thousand to make up for loss of weight. One may imagine what confusion these frequent changes and the involved system of computation must have given rise to, and what a harvest the revenue collectors, money-changers, and accountants, generally men of Persian descent, must have made. 78. The first regular assessment of the Kom taxes was made A.H. 189 (804-5), by Hamzeh b. Yas' b. Abdallah al Ash'ari, whose son was Governor of Kom in 834 ; and the last assessment which the ‘Komnameh' mentions, the eighth, was made A.H. 303 (915–16), by Abul Hasan b. Ahmed al Zamiri, who had been appointed tax-collector of Kom two years before, by the Inspector-General of the Finance Depart- ment, Obeid Ullah b. Issa b. Jarrah. Of Hamzeh, who made the first assessment, it is related that he originated the Rashidi measure, which was the longest known. When Hamzeh asked Harun ur Rashid what the length of the yard for measuring the Kom lands was to be, the caliph said that it should be as long as his arm, measured from the armpit to the tip of the middle finger. Hamzeh took up a stick sharpened at one end to a point, and pushed it as deeply as he could into the flesh under the armpit. When asked why he had acted in this extraordinary manner, he said, “For the good of my people,” meaning the Ash'aris of Kom. 79. The revenues were derived from — (1) Kharaj, land-tax, paid— (a) In money, according to measurement of lands. (b) In kind, in proportion to produce. (c) In money and kind, according to agreement. (2) Taxes on unbelievers— (a) Jezieh, capitation or poll-tax on the ahl i dhimmi (unbelievers tolerated by Muhammedan law), dirhem per head per annum (less than twopence). © EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 71 (b) Five per cent on the value of the houses of the dhimmis. (c) Ten per cent on the value of the houses of the ahl i shirk (pagans). - (3) Taxes on salt-quarries and mines, 20 per cent. On the output. (4) Taxes on fisheries and grazing-grounds, 20 per cent. on the rents or assessed annual income. (5) Fees for stamping weights and measures. (6) Fees paid on appointment by high officials, account- ants, writers of title-deeds (lawyers), grain and cotton overseers, headmen of districts, etc. These varied in amount according to the power and rapacity of the governor-general. (7) Ushr, zakat, and sadakah, income-tax, from wealthy persons for the support of the poor and the maintenance of religious establishments, mosques, and colleges; theoreti- cally 10 per cent. For a long time, when property was estimated in camels and sheep, the Zakat was as follows: On every five camels, one sheep; on 40 to 120 sheep, one sheep; on 121 to 200 sheep, two sheep; on 201 to 400 sheep, three sheep; on every 100 sheep above 400, one sheep. Owners of property of less value than 40 sheep paid no Zakat. (8) Taxes on mills, factories, shops. At Kom, a mill turned by the water of the river paid 70 dirhems per annum ; one turned by water from an underground canal paid only 25 dirhems—because the maintenance and repair of the canal were expensive After the end of the third century of the Hijreh, the tax on a mill turned by an under- ground canal was reduced to 12% dirhems. In the Kashan district and in the hilly districts of Kom, all mills paid only 25 dirhems each, and in Tafresh the tax was 12 dirhems. 80. The gevenue from the kharaj alone amounted, in the year 185 (801), for the Kom province, to 3,479,895 dirhems, 72 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. or 204,669% dinars in gold—nearly £116,000 of our money —and the total taxes paid were nearly three times as much. The kharaj was moderate in the beginning; for instance, on a jirib of 3600 Hashimi gez = about 1399 square yards (the Hashimi measure had its name because it was intro- duced by the Abbaside caliphs, who, descending from Hashim, the great-grandfather of Muhammed the Prophet, were known as the Hashimi dynasty) of land producing wheat, barley, cotton, Saffron, vines, it was 16; dirhems. Ten walnut trees paid I dirhem, thirty vessels of grape syrup 1 dirhem. The tax on wheat, barley, peas, etc., was then gradually reduced, the first assessment fixing it at 15% dirhems per jirib, the eighth at only 3% ; but that on cotton-fields was increased by the second assessment to 38 dirhems the jirib, while later assessments reduced it to 30 dirhems, and allowed a reduc- tion for damaged crops. Onions, cucumbers, carrots, etc., according to later assessments, paid 15 dirhems; millet, 14; seeds out of which oil was pressed, 15. Trees and vines were divided into good, middling, and inferior. On walnut trees there was at first a tax of 1 dirhem for every ten trees; then the tax was raised to 2 dirhems for five good trees, 1% dirhem for five middling trees, and 1 dirhem for five inferior trees; and finally it was 1% dirhem on every single good tree, and I dirhem and # dirhem on every middling and inferior tree. A jirib of vines was calculated to contain two hundred and forty trees, and paid 50 dirhems according to early and 32 dirhems according to later assessments. Date-palms and olive trees, now not met with in any of the districts which composed the old province of Kom, were apparently then cultivated in Kom, for the author of the Komnameh informs us that the tax on date-palms was 30 dirhems per jirib at Kom, according to the first assessment, and 15 dirhems according to the second assessment, and that on olive trees was I dirhem for every six. Pistachio trees were EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 73 taxed like olive trees, 1 dirhem for six ; other fruit-trees, as pears, apricots, plums, nectarines, Bohemian olive, etc., paid I dirhem. for every three hundred. On eight pieces of walnut-timber there was a tax of 1 dirhem. The tax on water was very remunerative. A canal discharging about 7700 cubic feet per hour, and valued at 120 to 200 dinars, was taxed 10 dinars per annum ; and the water-tax of Kom alone amounted, at the end of the tenth century, to over 8000 dinars, or £4500. 81. According to the ‘Komnameh,’ the first mint at Kom was established A.H. 352 (963), under Rukn ed dowleh Buyah, when Abul Kasem 'Ali b. Muhammed b. al Hasan al Katib was governor of the province. The author adds that the first coiners were men of Isfahan, whose ancestors had been coiners for many generations, and that all the profits derived from the mint were divided amongst themselves, and not shared by the municipality or the money-changers. He also says that he had heard a report to the effect that a money-changer had seen a gold dinar struck at Kom with the name of the Caliph Motiz Billah (866–69) on it ; but he is quite certain that no money was coined at Kom before A.H. 352 (963). Either the ‘Komnameh's 'statement is not correct or the coins of earlier dates and bearing the Kom mint-mark must have been coined somewhere else. Several coins of Kom of earlier dates are known ; for instance, a dirhem of the year 276 (Tiesenhausen No. 2091), a dinar of 294 (collection E. T. Rogers), and a dinar of 329 (British Museum). 82. Old authors relate that the men of Kom were always extremely jealous of their women, and were always very careful in keeping strangers outside of the town in order that their women should not be seen. One of the governors in the tenth century once told his friends that he had been Several years in Kom but had not seen a single woman, in fact he doubted that there were any. 74 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. In connection with this statement it is amusing to read Figueroa's relation of his entry into and stay at Kom on June 8, 1618 (see ‘Ambassade, pp. 219–222). A great crowd came out of the city to meet him, but contrary to what he had experienced at other places, where the crowd always contained more women than men, he saw not a single woman. The governor, on meeting the ambassador later on, asked him whether he had not been astonished at the total absence of women, and explained that the ladies of Kom never showed themselves to strangers on account of their peculiar veneration of Leila, the granddaughter of the Prophet, who had resided in Kom, and to whose memory the celebrated shrine had been built. This lady, after assisting the poor and leading an austere life, was taken from this earth in a very mysterious way, and no one knew what had become of her. The governor wished to make the ambassador believe that it was out of respect for Leila that the women did not come out ; but the ambassador well knew that the old Komi jealousy was at the bottom of it, and was told that the governor had given strict orders to the women to keep indoors. The governor's explanation highly amused Figueroa, and he laughed at the man’s “maïveté,” particularly when the lady of the house he was occupying, accompanied by many other women “de tous āges et assez jeunes,” visited him and, without hesitation, showed him her daughter “ qui estoit Sans doute la plus belle de toutes les femmes que nous eussions veues en ces quartiers la.” 83. The land north of the city, on the left side of the river, and extending for about a mile along the Teheran road, is called Mamajan or Mumajan, and is no doubt the site of the village of that name which was given to the Ash'aris in 718. The land west of Mamajan is called Abrastajan, and is the site of Yezdanfadar's village, which is said, to have been founded by Ardavan, the son of Balash (Artabanus V., the EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 75 last Arsacide king, son of Vologeses IV. ; killed by Ardashir, the first Sassanian king, A.D. 227). At the western end of Abrastajan, about 4 miles from Kom, towards Savah, is the village or hamlet of Nusretabad, with about fifty houses, winter quarters of a number of families of the Zend tribe ; and some miles beyond it is the Kuh i mimek (“Salt moun- tain "), also called Kuh i talism (the “Talisman mountain "). An old legend says that it was in this mountain, and not on Demavend, that Feridun imprisoned Zohhak, and that Zohhak was turned into salt. The popular idea is that no one can get to the summit of the mountain, and that any one attempting the ascent will surely perish, but many people have made the ascent in safety. The hill is also called the Kuh i getdin gelmas, i.e. the “You-go-and-don't-come mountain,” referring to the idea that any one attempting to go up it will never return ; but Some persons fancy that this appellation originated in a joke perpetrated by a man of Kom for the benefit of a Tabriz Turk: naturally, a man who goes is not coming. 84. East of the town, the site of the old village Jamar or Jumar is identified by the Jamar lands, irrigated by the Kumidan canal ; and south of the town, at a distance of about 35 miles, and on the road to Bidhand, stands the village Jamkaran, with fifty houses, which has preserved its name unaltered since it was one of the “forty villages” under the Sassanians. There is a record which, if authentic, gives Jamkaran the honour o having granted hospitality to the first Arab settlers in Kom. It says that a certain Khattab of the Asadi tribe settled at Jamkaran about A.H. 50, that he was joined by other members of the tribe A.H. 60 (679-80), and by other Arabs (Ash'aris) in 94 (713). Close to Jamkaran is the little hamlet Gurgabi, with the graves of the Imamzadahs Hadi and Mahdi, and a short distance south- West of it, on the Vishviyeh hills, stands a ruin which the 76 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. Komnameh' ascribes to Alexander the Great, but which is now known as the tomb of Khizr i zindeh, the live Khizr, who is a variable quantity in Persian lore, standing sometimes for Alexander's prime minister, at others for the Prophet Elias, and being Occasionally confounded with the English St. George. Jamkaran was an important place in the seventh century, for it then possessed seven fire-temples. The last fire-temples were destroyed A.H. 288 (901), by Barun, the Turkish military commander of Kom. 85. West of Kom, the Humeh extends to about eight miles from the city to the Shamsabad grounds, which are Crown property with an annual income of 2500 tomans, and looked after by a few families of S'advend nomads. 86. To the east, the Sarajeh part of the Humeh extends to the desert, its principal place being the village of the same name. At the end of the tenth century, Sarajeh was a separate district, with thirty villages, and the village Sarajeh bore the proud title of the “mother of villages.” About thirty underground canals supply the district with water, and each village or hamlet generally has its own canal, village and canal having the same name. Most of the villages and canals were destroyed by the Afghans in 1725, and many have remained in ruins ever since. The district, which had a population of over 20,000 before the destruction by the Afghans, now has one of barely 3000. It is generally stated that the destruction of Kom and its environs by the Afghans took place in 1722, but we hear from contemporary historians that in 1722, in December, Kom submitted voluntarily to the Afghans under Aman Ullah Khan, then on his march to Kazvin, and was occupied by a small Afghan garrison, which was driven out by Tahmasp Mirza in 1725, and that it was only in the latter year that Kom was destroyed, by the Afghans, under Ashraf, the successor of Mir Mahmud. Ashraf was marching to FASTERN PERSIAN IRA K. 77 Isfahan after his capture of Tehéran, where great numbers of the inhabitants had been massacred, and took Kom after a siege of eight days, but “on se contenta Seulement de piller les maisons et on conserva la vie aux habitans” (“Relation historique de détrönement du Roy de Perse . . . par un missionaire témoin de la plāpart des événemens contenus dans cette relation,’ p. 15. Paris : 1727). 87. Villages and canals of Sarajeh :— Sarajeh, sixty families. A great part of the village is in ruins; many Scorpions. Shahabad, thirty families. Sefiabad, ten families of S'advend tribe. Zafarani, twenty families. Murvarid, ten families. Murvarid is “a pearl,” and the Persian scribe adds that the muddy, brackish water of this canal has been named the pearl-water, on the principle of “calling a negro kafur " (camphor). Mubarekabad, forty families. Cultivation is here rendered difficult on account of the great abundance of a weed known as gul i 'Omar. Momenabad, one hundred families. Huseinabad, ten families. Hasanabad, twenty families. Produces very superior oplum. Hissar, twenty families of Khorasan Arabs. 'Aliabad, ten families. Property of shrine at Kom. Rustamabad, thirty families. Doletabad, forty families. Ten miles east of Kom. J'afarabad, twenty families of the Lur Kurzehbur tribe. Jennetabad, five families. On the edge of the shifting Sands. Kerimabad, fifteen families. Keremabad, twenty families. On the edge of the shifting sands. 78 EASTERN PERSIAN TRAR. Kasemabad, five families. On the edge of the shifting Sands. Khalejabad, five families. O Farajabad, fifteen families. Fathabat, twenty families. Hashemabad, Saidabad, and Kavirabad, three canals with one settlement of thirty families. Ahvasabad, twenty families. Batlijird, ten families. Nuvaran, fifty families of S'advend nomads. Najmabad, Hajjiabad, Abbasabad, Rezaabad. Totally ruined and uninhabited ; their fields are looked after by people from other villages. The above thirty-one villages are probably the same as the thirty villages and Sarajeh mentioned in the old lists, but only four, viz. Sarajeh, Ahvasabad, Batlijird, and Nuvaran, have preserved their old names. The practice of changing the names of localities is very common in Persia, a new proprietor generally giving to his village his own name, with the word abad (abode, settlement) affixed. Villages which keep their old names are generally those which are owned by a number of persons, and not by one man. 88.-(2) The Komrud district extends to the confines of the marshes, about 20 miles north-east of Kom. It is very poor, having only one village and some insignificant hamlets. The village has the same name as the district, Komrud, and is Crown property. It is situated about 12 miles north- east of Kom, and inhabited by about a hundred and fifty families, owning a large number of mules and asses, and generally supposed to belong to the 'Ali Ullahi sect. In the neighbourhood of the village are the hamlets Doletabad, be- longing to Hajji Sayyid Javad, and Sherifabad, property of the Imam Jum’a of Kom, with some cultivated fields. EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 79 On the left bank of the river the Mirza Mahdi canal waters some fields and the Sultan Baji garden, situated near a caravanserai on the old road from Kom to Teheran. The Pul i dellak (“Barber's bridge”), at the junction of the Kom and Savah rivers, is within the Komrud district, and 3 or 4 miles below it stands the old bridge which formed part of the old road from Kom to Rei, vià Kaj and Deir. The river does not now flow under the bridge, having cut itself a channel on one side of it. Further east, about 20 miles from Kom, are the fields and grounds called Maz'rah kuh i Safid, also Maz'rah pisar i Rustam, where Kellehkuh Arabs, in charge of the Shah's camels, camp in winter and Spring seasons. The heat here in Summer is intense. Of the Kellehkuh Arabs it is said that they consume much camel's milk, and are in consequence very powerful— one man being able to throw down a camel. I have not seen this done. The Kellehkuh number about a hundred families and speak Turkish. The Komrud district is watered principally by open canals which are led off from the river. Opposite the Kom- rud village is an old dyke called Band i 'Omar, which raises the river into the canal supplying Komrud village and Sherifabad. The dyke is much damaged, and the canal has a length of 7 miles. 89.-(3) The Wazehkerud or Vazkerud district, formerly subdivided into Vazkerud and Langerud, is now a small district, with three villages and some hamlets, south and south-east of Kom. The three villages are Sarm (also Salm), Rhurabad, and Langerud. Sarm is a large village, with about a hundred houses, 10% miles south-east of Kom. The fertile plain in which it stands is myntioned in old histories as the Dasht i Salm, and formed in the tenth century a separate sub-district with 80 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. six villages. The people of Salm are said to have possessed a talisman in the shape of a shell or bead, which they carried, fixed to the top of a lance, about the fields during early spring to keep away cold winds. JKhurabad (also Khorrehabad and Khurahabad) is situ- ated a mile north-east of Sarm, and has a population of a hundred families. Like Sarm it has extensive fields and gardens. The ‘Komnameh” states that it owes its origin to Khur,” the son of Arvend, f who built a kiosk on a high hill in the neighbourhood. The kiosk measured 40 yards by 10 at the base, and 30 yards by 7 at the top ; it was constructed of enormous bricks weighing 200 pounds each. On another hill opposite, known as the Kuh i khor, stood another kiosk, or castle, and in the castle stood a pillar to which two beads were suspended, and these beads had the property of keeping off lightning, frost, and wind.] Close to Khurabad stood the castle Salm-var, which already, in the tenth century, was supposed to have been destroyed by Alexander the Great. Near the castle was a thermal spring where Barun, the Turkish military commander of Kom, built a caravanserai in 901. Khurabad had four * Khur = sun. f Arvand. Twelve miles south of Khurabad is a high peak known as Kuh i Alvend, or Arvend, Same name as the mountain near Hamadan, the Greek form being Orontes. f The beads are called muresh in the “Komnameh." A writer in the Iran (the Teheran gazette) of August 10, 1892, wrongly reads this word mudesh, and expresses his astonishment that he cannot find this word in Persian lexica, which only give mud, an eagle; and an eagle could not well have been suspended to a pillar for any length of time. The writer also incorrectly identifies Khurabad with some ruins near Nim- var, in Mahallat, and further expresses his wonder “that the Greeks who lived at Khurabad 2300 years ago should have had full knowledge of the properties of the lightning-conductor, which was invented by Franklin in the eighteenth century of our era.” He does not give his authority for the statement that Greeks resided at Khurabad 400 B.C. EASTERN PERSIAN IRA K. 8 || small dependencies, viz. Jandab (Gandab), Jur, Keran, and Ishakabad, and two canals called Bad and Mihrin. Langarud is a small village on the Kom-Kashan road, 10 miles from Kom. During winter most of its people reside at Khurabad. Pasangun, i.e. Pa i Sangan, is a small hamlet on the Kom-Kashan road, 16 miles from Kom. It has a good caravanserai. The water-supply of the villages of Vazkerud is from the Bidhand river, which rises between the Burzeh and Halil peaks, 30 miles south of Kom, and in old times joined the Kom river south-east of the city, and filled the depression where Langerud now stands. 90.-(4) The Kinar i Rudkhaneh district—that is, “the district on the banks of the river "-comprises the old district of Rudbar, and extends along the Anarbar river up to Mahallat. The principal village is Taikan (vulgo Daghanek), in- habited by seventy families of the Khalej tribe, and situated on the right bank of the river, 12 miles from Kom. I have not visited this district. The river near Taikan runs over a rock which is scooped out like a trough, and the water rushes over it with great force and velocity. The author of a description of Kom written in 1890 says that a man cannot possibly pull a stone, tied to a string, up this trough ; yet the fish of the river, when travelling to the upper waters in the month of May, easily pass through it. The place is known as the balmeh (step) of Taikan. Other villages of this district are Chashmeh 'Ali, 22 miles from Kom, with twenty houses; Gerijan, on the river, 8 miles before reaching the Mahallat province, with thirty houses, and gardens producing the Ramali plum • Muhammedabad, etc. 91,-(5) Kohistan (Arab, form of Kuhistan) is the hilly G 82 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. district extending in the south to Ardahal and the frontiers of Kashan. In the tenth century it had three hundred and three villages, now it has only about thirty. The...principal OI) eS are— Varjan (also Vargun and Varjaneh), 14 miles south of Kom, with about a hundred houses and five fruit gardens. Its water is from underground canals. Siru, or Siruyeh, 1% mile south-east of Varjan, with twenty houses; on the Bidhand river. Kahak, 2% miles south of Varjan, with a population of over a thousand souls. Its water is from the Bidhand river and some canals. It has a mosque, two baths, a small bazar, thirty-five gardens, and pays 1000 tomans taxes per annum. Kobadbezan, Meiam, and Dastjird, are three villages 20 miles south of Kom, each with forty to fifty houses. Their water is from the Furdu river, which rises 8 miles south-east, near Furdu, and joins the Bidhand river at Kahak. Furdu is a large village, with more than a hundred houses and extensive gardens, on the headwaters of the Furdu river, 26 miles from Kom. It is beautifully situated in a deep glen between the Hasan Aka and Furdu peaks. Its sheep are in great request on account of the great quantity of milk which they give. Jazeh and Tireh are two villages, each with about fifty houses, close to Furdu, and high up in the hills. They are held in fief by an Indian gentleman, a pensioner of the Persian Government. Veshnaveh is a small village situated between the Furdu and Khanzadeh peaks, about halfway between Kom and Kashan, on the Kuhistan road, 29 miles South-by-east of the former. It has only about twenty-five houses, but immense gardens, with an abundant water-supply from a EAST ERN PERSIAN IRAK. S3 little stream which flows down to Pasangun on the Kom- Kashan lower road, and was formerly known as the Ab-i- Sarkan. The village is the property of H. H. Fakhr el Muluk, daughter of the present Shah and mother of the present Governor of Kom, Itezad ed dowleh. The watershed south of Weshnaveh is the boundary between Kom and Kashan. Abrjish (Averjish and Abrgush) is a village of fifty houses, on the Bidhand river, and 20 miles from Kom. It has large gardens, and pays annual taxes to the amount of 400 tomans. The author whom I quoted above says: “The people of Abrjish are never contented; the men are always complaining of hard times, and by dint of constant petitions obtain a remission of part of their taxes; the women are always fighting.” Bidhand (vulgo Bitan, old form Vidhand, i.e. “willow- possessing”), a fine village, 1} mile above Abrjish, with a hundred and fifty houses, paying only 225 tomans taxes per annum. Its gardens produce a fine plum, locally called harharicheh, that is, “mountain-plum,” from Old Pers. and Pehlevi har = mountain, and Pers. alucheh, diminutive of alu = plum. The village possesses a mosque, a bath, and the tomb of Imamzadeh ‘Ali, a grandson of Imam J'afar. Kermejeffan, or Kermezejan, a large village of a hundred and twenty houses, 2 miles above Bidhand, with very extensive gardens. The taxes of the village, 714 tomans per annum, go towards the maintenance of the tomb of Muhammed Shah (the father of the present Shah) at Kom. The village has seven Small mosques, a public bath, and the graves of four saints. It is the last village in the Bidhand valley, which continues, 6 miles further south, to the boundary of the Jash district. Yazej, 12 miles from Kom, with fifty Turkish-speaking families, whose principal occupation is the manufacture of 84 * EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. cheese and butter for the Kom market. The receptacles in which the cheese and butter are stored during the summer are called basruk. O With the exception of Siru and Yazej, all the above- mentioned villages of the Kuhistan district appear in the ‘Komnameh.” - 92–(6) Jasb, or Jasp. This small and rarely visited district is situated about 32 miles south-by-west of Kom. The valley in which all its villages are situated runs north-east to south-west, and is not quite 6 miles long. The valley is 1% mile broad in its north-eastern or upper part, and narrows to a gorge a few feet broad, called the “hole of Jasb,” at its other end, where the Jasb stream flows down to the Mahallat plain to join the Anarbar river near Delijan. The valley is entirely closed in by high hills—the Kuh i Bunakho, with precipitous scarps, and Kuh i Zagheh, 8500 feet, on the north ; Kuh i Salalet and Kuh i Burzeh (cf. Arburz), 9500 feet, on the south. The upper part of the valley has an elevation of 7200 feet, and the lower part one of 6800 feet, which gives a fall of 400 feet for 6 miles run of river. On account of the sheltered position, the climate of Jasb is not so cold as one would suppose from the great elevation. The summers are delightfully cool, and the villages have hardly any flies or mosquitoes to speak of. The stony soil of Jasb makes cultivation difficult, but suffi- cient wheat and barley are produced for the consumption of the population. All the villages have fine gardens, with walnuts, filberts, almonds, apples, plums, pears, etc.; there are also some vines. The principal water-supply is from the stream which forms the thalweg of the valley; but every village has one or two underground canals, which are kept in proper repair in case the river-supply should fail, as has happened several times. On account of the little breadth of the valley, averaging mile, these underground canals are of small EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. : 85 extent, tapping the water at the foot of the hill-scarps and coming to the surface in the villages a few hundred yards away. • . The inhabitants of Jasb are of Bakhtiari origin, but are arrant cowards, and, like their brother cowards, the men of Kashan, exempted from military service. As a proof of their cowardly nature, it is mentioned that the seven villages of Jasb have never been able to hold their own against the one village of Ravinj, of the Mahallat province, close to Jasb. The men of Jasb cannot fight, but they can make capital halva and good givehs.” - A tradition states that seven of the three hundred and thirteen companions of the twelfth Imam (the A Shab Hazrat i Sahib ul amr) were men from Jasb. It is curious that so many of the inhabitants of Jasb are afflicted with baldness; they ascribe it to their eating too much halva. The popular etymologist has been at work with the word “Jasb,” which he explains as ja i asp, i.e. “place of horses,” and adds that Jasb was the grazing-ground of the horses of the Queen Homai, the daughter of Bahman.f The name was originally Kasp, and, I think, is connected with that of the tribe which gave its name to the Caspian Sea. The district has at present seven villages, and is therefore * Halva is a kind of sweetmeats, made of sugar and flour or starch, and resembling the Stambuli rahat. Giveh is a shoe, upper part knitted of cotton, soles made of rags, beaten together with glue and stitched; heels and toes are strengthened with a slice of horse-hoof. Many men of Jasb ply their trade of halva-makers in Teheran, Isfahan, Kom, and Kashan, during winter, and repose in their villages during summer. f Bahman was one of the Kaianian kings of Persia, and is generally considered to be the Artaxerxes Longimanus of Western writers, on account of his surname Darazdast (“long hand”), which Persians give him. His daughter Homai was, according to Persian authors, the grandmother of Darius Kodomannus, whose reign was put an end to by Alexander M. 86 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. also called Sabah i Jasb, i.e. “the seven (villages) of Jasb,” but in the tenth century it had twelve villages. Game, particu- larly snowcock or royal partridge, is very plentiful; and on the hills towards the east panthers are often seen. The seven villages of Jasb, from east to west, are— Kurdegan (also Girdekan and Kurogan) has a mosque and a public bath, and a population of about eighty families, mostly Sayyids, many of them bald. It also possesses the tomb of Imamzadeh Shahzadeh Hamzeh b. 'Aun.* .* Varun, or Varan, has two hundred houses; its gardens have vines which produce very sweet grapes which the villagers make into syrup. Some years ago Varun possessed four or five young sportsmen who were fairly good shots, and showed strangers the spots where game was plentiful. Zur is the wealthiest village of Jasb ; it has a mosque, a bath, and a hundred and fifty houses. In the ‘Kom- nameh' it is Sureh. Heragjan (Arazjan, Harazehgan) has a population of fifty families, mostly Sayyids, and a small mosque. Vishtegan has sixty houses and some pretty gardens. Vishkunegan (Vaskunegan, Wiskinigan) has fifty houses. Twenty-eight years ago Mir Abdul Baki, an old gentleman a hundred and fourteen years of age, who had travelled much, lived here. Bijegan is the lowest village of Jasb, and has a hundred and fifty houses. A short distance below Bijegan is the “hole of Jasb.” Mirza Yusuf, Mustofi el Mamalik, the late prime minister, thought of having a dyke constructed across the narrow part of the valley, with the view of damming the Jasb water up for use in the Delijan plain in summer, but * 'Aun was a son of Abdullah b. J'afar b. 'Ali Abu Talib, the son- in-law of Muhammed through his marriage with Fatmeh, the prophet's daughter. 'Aun’s mother was Zeinab, a daughter of 'Ali. EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 87 abandoned the scheme when it was pointed out to him that the result of damming the water in the valley would be the flooding-of Bijegan. The total population of the Jasb valley now amounts to about three thousand five hundred souls, more than double what it was twenty-eight years ago, as the following census then taken will show — Average per house. 1865. Kurdegan had 30 houses with 120 persons ... 4:00 ,, Varan ,, 150 3 y 500 } % ... 3-33 ,, Zur ,, 30 33 150 } } ... 5:00 ,, Herazjan ,, 40 3 y 208 } } ... 5°02 ,, Wishtegan ,, 20 3 * 115 3 y ... 5.75 ,, Vishkunegan , 20 } % 130 } % ... 6'50 ,, Bijegan ,, 120 2 3 500 25 ... 4:16 Total ... 410 1723 4-20 Besides the seven above-mentioned villages, the ‘Kom- nameh' gives Kebudeh, Varsharnian, Abaluyeh, Wiskundar, and Tashrehkeb; of these no trace now exists. 93.−(7) District Ardahal, or Ardahar (also War Ardahar), is the most southern district of the Kom province, 42 miles due south of Kom. It comprises eight villages and some hamlets, situated in a fertile valley which is surrounded by high hills and has a mean elevation of 6200 feet. The valley has a length of about 10 miles and a width of 2 to 2% miles, and as its direction is north-west to south-east it is much exposed to the prevailing cold north-west winds, and has a severe winter in consequence. The Ardahal water- supply is from a stream which forms the thalweg and receives several smaller streams from both sides and joins the Barzuk river a few miles below Ardahal. In the hills, north of Ardahal, which rise in the Burzeh peak to 9500 feet, the snowcock, or royal partridge, abounds, and smaller game is plentiful at lower elevations. 88 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. , The principal village of Ardahal is Meshhed Kali, with about two hundred and fifty houses. It has a large mosque, with a blue-tiled dome and minaret, over the grave sof Imam- Zadeh Sultan 'Ali, a descendant of Imam Muhammed Baker, who was killed here “a long time ago,” probably in the tenth century.” The mosque and a college, the latter now in ruins, were built by Shah Tahmasp (1523–1576), and the same monarch endowed the shrine with the villages Khaveh of Ardahal, and 'Aliabad of Kashan. Two magnificent Korans, one presented by Shah Tahmasp, the other a gift of Shah Sultan Husein (1694–1722), are still kept here. Other villages of Ardahal are— Khaveh (old name Khayeh), with forty houses Armak, with two hundred houses º º º Joshak (old name Kushk), with fifty houses º i. nº Shanek, with fifty houses Stream Sinegan, with fifty houses J º Kulijar (old name Kerejar), forty ) on small affluents of houses - | the Ardahal stream Kermeheh, or Chermeheh (old name and joining it from Germehand, or Kermehand), fifty houses j the right. * Imamzadeh Sultan 'Ali was killed near the village, and his body was carried to the spot where the dome now stands in a carpet (kali), which was afterwards kept as a relic. Every year, on the seventeenth day of autumn (beginning of October), a fair is held at Meshhed i kali, and many people from Kashan and neighbouring villages attend it and bring goods for sale. On the opening day of the fair the carpet is taken out of the shrine and carried with much ceremony to the river, about + mile away; it is then dipped into the water and carried back to the shrine; a procession follows it both ways. The day on which this cere- mony takes place is called the ruz i kali shuri, i.e. “the day of the washing of the carpet.” I was told that the fair was instituted “over a thousand years ago.” When the Afghans plundered Ardahal in 1723, they carried off the carpet, and the fair ceased to be held for some years after ; but the people of Fin, one of the Kashan villages, in order not to lose the bargains which they made at the fair, presented the shrine with another EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 89 THE PROVINCE OF MAHALLAT. 94. This province is bounded on the north by Irak and Kom, on the east by Kashan, on the south by Joshekan and Gulpaigan, and on the west by Kemereh and Irak. It is traversed in a south to north direction by the Anar or Anarbar river, and has an abundant water-supply from the river and many little streams flowing into it on both sides. Its mean elevation is about 5000 feet, and its climate is very Salubrious, although hot in the plains in summer. 95. Until March, 1890, it was one of the five “central provinces” (the other four were Irak, Kezzaz, Ferahan, and Savah), which were under one governor, but since then it is a separate province under the government-general of Isfahan. It pays a yearly revenue of about 10,000 tomans cash and 200 kharvars of grain, and its population is under twenty thousand. The principal place of the province, and seat of the governor, who is appointed by the Governor-General of Isfahan, is the town Mahallat, which is divided into two parts, respectively Upper and Lower Mahallat. In the official registers the upper town appears as Rivkan, the lower as Zanjirvan ; the western part of the upper town is mentioned as Filpayan. Rivkan, also Revkan, figures in the ‘Komnameh” as the chief place of the Amar district, and as the Mahallat river is still called the Anar and Anarbar river, there is no doubt of the modern Mahallat being the old Amar district, and probably the Anarus of Peutinger's tables. - Persian legend ascribes the origin of Amar to a prince of that name, who was a son of Siaran, son of Sohreh, son of carpet, blood-stained like the first one, and the fair was held again, and has continued to be held ever since then regularly every year. The endowments of the shrine suffice for keeping twenty-five guard- ians and maintafning the buildings in repair. The village pays 700 tomans taxes per annum. * 90 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. Afrasiab, the Turanian. The ‘Komnameh” adds that the original name of the town was Rudekan, and that it was given to it by Ardashir, the son of Papak, the first Sassanian. The province received its present name, Mahallat, i.e. “the parishes,” which is the plural of Mahallat, or Mahalleh, as the Persians pronounce it, in modern times; but the word has not escaped the Persian etymologist, who gaily explains it as Mahal i Lat, the “abode of Lat,” the goddess of the old Arabs of Tayif, mentioned in the Koran (53, 19). 96. The town is beautifully situated on the southern slopes of a range of limestone hills, at an elevation of 5850 feet, and overlooks a fertile plain intersected by the Anar river. Magnificent gardens, orchards, and meadows, with numerous streams of water, clean houses, and hospitable people, make it one of the most pleasant localities in Persia. The upper town has a population of about eight thousand souls, the lower has one of about a tenth of that number. Each town is again subdivided into upper and lower mahalleh (parish). The upper town has one large and four small mosques, and a bazar with two hundred shops. Two hamlets, Hajjiabad and 'Aliabad, also bedng to it. It also possesses the tombs of two Saints, Abul Fazl and Yahya, both descendants of Iman Musa Kazem. In the lower town stands the castle of Aka Kham Mahallati, called the Ark, and now the residence of the governor ; it is a rectangular fort, measuring 250 by 150 paces, with mud walls 30 feet high and 7 feet thick, and flanked by fourteen towers. There are also an old mosque, which people say was a temple of idolaters before the advent of Islam, and the tombs of three descendants of Imam Musa Kazem, viz. 'Abdallah, Musa, and the latter's sister. An open space between the upper and lower town is known as the Kal'ah i ghayyab, the “castle of the concealed ones,” but no one could tell me why. Q The principal water-supply of the town is from a spring EASTERN PERSIAN IRA.K. 9 | which flows out of the rock about a mile north of the upper town, and at an elevation of 6100 feet. This spring supplies about 50,000 cubic feet of water per hour in April and May, and 40,000 cubic feet during the remainder of the year. The spring is supposed to be connected with a lake at the bottom of the great Azadi cave, which is situated about 8 miles west of Mahallat, and is reached by a difficult climb up a narrow gorge. At the mouth of the cave, which there measures about 8 feet by 10, are two tablets of modern Persian inscriptions, one in praise of Aka Khan Mahallati, the other extolling the virtues of H.I.H. Zill es Sultan, the actual Governor-General of Isfahan. A few yards beyond the entrance, the cave opens out into a hall, quite 30 feet in height, with numerous stalactites and fancifully shaped stalagmites. From this hall many ramifications lead to further caves lower down, and quite at the bottom water is reached. The popular idea is that this water at the bottom of the cave forms a lake, which extends far away below the hills and is connected with the spring north of Mahallat. I am not in possession of any observations for the elevation of the cave or the height of the level of its water. In some of the orchards of Mahallat are found the famous Sibri pears, and the grapes and apples of the district are excellent. 97. The ‘Komnameh” tells a story of a fortress which stood on a high hill near Rivkan, and was one of the founda- tions of Bahman, the son of Rustam. Some say that this fortress stood on the hill now known as the Kuh i Khosro Shah, south-east of the town. This fortress was held by robber-chiefs, and withstood for many years all the attacks of the authorities. At last it was taken by a stratagem which, for its biblical simplicity, ought to recommend itself to modern strategists. The Persian king, who was besieging it, sent a man up the hill with a donkeyload of nuts, and 92 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. the man offered the nuts for sale to some soldiers who had come out of the castle for an airing, but he asked an ex- orbitant price. When the man would not reduce.his price the soldiers threatened him, and he then, in an assumed rage, and saying, “Take them for nothing,” upset the bags, and the nuts rolled down the hillside in all directions. The soldiers immediately scrambled for the nuts, and the whole garrison came out of the castle in order to get a share, but the man scrambled into the castle, closed the gate, and signalled for the king to come up and take possession. 98. Many of the Mahallatis are Ism’aili Shi'ahs, which is due to Sayyid Abul Hasan Khan and his grandson Aka Khan, two chiefs of that sect, having lived a long time amongst them. The building in the lower town, which is now the residence of the governor, is one of Aka Khan's foundations. The Ismailis have their name from Ism'ail, the eldest son of Imam J'afar Sadik, and they hold that this Ismail, or, as he died before his father, his son Muhammed should have succeeded to the Imamate instead of Musa Kazem, who was a younger son. The descendants of Ism'ail and their followers formed a powerful religious sect during the Middle Ages, but with the introduction of various tenets they split into different branches. The Fatimites of Egypt belonged to this sect. One of the branches was that of the Batinites, who taught that all exercises of external religious service were useless and in vain, and that the teachings of Islam were based on some hidden (batin) meaning which had to be discovered and was the only true one. This branch joined the Ismailis when its chief was the celebrated Hasan b. Sabbah, who succeeded Abdulmalik b. Attash as grand- master of the order, and founded the dynasty, whose mem- bers were known as the Sheikh ul jebel (the, “old man of the mountain”), and whose emissaries and followers, under the EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 93 name of Assassins, spread terror in the regions between Transoxania and Morocco for over a hundred and fifty years, until put an end to by Hulaku Khan the M ongol, in 1255. The sect of the Ism'ailis, however, lived on, and its chief—called Imam in Persia, Pishwa in India—continued to reside in Persia. Sayyid Abul Hasan Khan, Aka Khan's grandfather, was the acknowledged chief of the Ism’ailis when he was Governor of Kerman under the Zends about a hundred and twenty years ago. Shortly after the assumption of sovereignty by the Kajars, at the end of the eighteenth century, he settled in Mahallat, where he died. His son, Sheikh Khalil Ullah, migrated to Yezd, and was killed there in 1817, by order of Mulla Husein Yezdi, an influential priest of that town, because some of his retainers had ill-treated some shopkeepers in the bazar. This event caused much consternation at court, and Fath 'Ali Shah, in Order to appease the Ism’ailis, appointed Sheikh Khalil Ullah's son, Aka Khan, Governor of Kom, and gave him his daughter, Sarv Jehan Khanum, in marriage, with the district of Mahallat as dowry, to be held in fief till her death. In 1839 Muhammed Shah appointed him Governor of Kerman, but dissatisfied with some arrange- ments made at court by the crotchety Hajji Mirza Akassi, the prime minister, Aka Khan raised the standard of inde- pendence and revolt, and Occupied Bam, in Beluchistan. He was soon after brought to reason by Firuz Mirza, the Shah's brother, and came to Teheran, where he was treated with kindness by the good-hearted Shah, and permitted to retire to Mahallat. In 1840 leave was given him to proceed to Mekka on a pilgrimage, and he was able to make vast pre- parations for a fresh revolt without exciting suspicions. He bought many horses, collected men and arms, but whenever news was brought to court to the effect that Mahallat had been turned into an armed camp, it was explained that Aka 94 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. Khan was making preparations for his pilgrimage, and the explanation was accepted. During the summer he had already sent his family to Baghdad, and in September he left Mahallat with a large body of men and took the road to Kerman. The court now took alarm, and sent messengers to Yezd with orders to the governor there to intercept Aka Khan, but the latter had taken his precautions and had already effectually bamboozled Bahman Mirza, the Governor of Yezd, by showing him spurious royal firmans which appointed him Governor of Kerman. Bahman Mirza had seen Aka Khan on his way to Kerman with all honours a day or two before the messengers from Teheran reached Yezd, but on hearing the true version of events he hastened in pursuit, and came up with the rebel halfway between Yezd and Shehr i Babek. Aka Khan repulsed him with great loss, and soon after reached Shehr i Babek, where four thou- Sand men joined him. Fazl Ali Khan, the Governor of Kerman, then attacked him, drove him out of Shehr i Babek, and forced him to retreat, first to Lar and then to Bender Abbas, where he wintered. In the early spring of 1841 he again approached Kerman, and after defeating Fazl Ali Khan's troops, intrenched himself at Mashiz, in Sirjan, hoping that the inhabitants of Kerman, of whom many were Ism’ailis, would revolt in his favour. But Habbib Ullah Khan, the commander-in-chief of the Persian artillery, arrived from Teheran with reinforcements and kept the Kermanis in check, and Aka Khan, fearing that he would be cut off, marched towards Bampur. At Rigan, a couple of marches beyond Bam, the Shah's troops totally dispersed his men, and he fled with all speed to Kandahar, whence he later on reached India. Since then Aka Khan's family has resided under British protection in India, and its members are well known to all visitors to Bombay and Poona, where, I frequently met them in 1886. The successor of Aka Khan was his son EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 95 'Ali Shah, and the present chief of the family is Sultan Muhammed Shah, a son of 'Ali Shah, but generally known as Aka Khan, in order to perpetuate the belief, which the illiterate Ism’ailis have, that the chief of the family is the rejuvenated Aka Khan, his grandfather. The principal seats of Ism’ailis in Persia are Mahallat, Yezd, Shehr i Babek, Kerman. 99. The important villages of Mahallat are— Nimevar, or Namivar and Nimehvar, is a village with sixty houses, on the right bank of the Amar river and 7 miles east of Mahallat. It is Government property, and held in fief by Itezad el Mulk, to whom it pays an annual revenue of 1443 tomans. It has a mosque, a public bath, and the graves of three saints—Muhammed, Ism’ail, Hadi—all three descendants of Imam Zein el 'Abedin. South of the village are extensive burial grounds with a multitude of old tomb- stones, and north of the village are the ruins of an old fortress. Not far from the village is the dyke called Band i Jamshid ; the ruins of an old bridge are close by. A little above the village, and on the high-road to Isfahan, is a bridge with four arches. The ‘Komnameh” relates that Namivar was founded by the three brothers Darveneh, Yez- danfust, and Satistad, and that it had a great fire-temple, erected by Boshtasp. The old dyke and bridge near the village may probably be identified with the Isfan band and Dahtireh bridge, which are mentioned in the ‘Komnameh.” A couple of miles east of Nimevar, in a secluded dale to the right of the high-road to Isfahan, is the small village Ateshkuh, with, I was told, the ruins of a fire-temple, erected by Queen Homai, with blocks of hewn stone measur- ing 10’ x 5' x 25". Delijan, or Delinjan, is a large village, with a population of about fifteen hundred to two thousand souls, 16 miles north- east of Mahallat. It has its water from the Jasb river and from 96 EASTERN PERSIAN IRA K. two underground canals, one called Kamat i ’Alai, the other Ramat i Bahriar. It has three mosques, two public baths, and a small bazar. Both south and north of the willage are extensive ruins, among the former may be distinguished a mosque and a bath, among the latter a citadel, with a moat. The village is divided into about twenty separate blocks of buildings, each containing ten to twenty houses, and enclosed by walls with gates, which are closed by night, on the system of Hamadan and Julfa. The place is a station on the high- road between Isfahan and Kazvin and other cities in the north. J. H. Stocqueler visited it on his march from Isfahan to Tabriz in 1831, and calls it Dilijoon. It was partly destroyed by the Afghans in 1723, and has immense tobacco fields. Opposite Delijan, on the left bank of the river, about 10 miles from Mahallat, is a thermal spring, which is visited by persons suffering from cutaneous diseases. It has a tempera- ture of 125° F., and two tanks are built for the convenience of bathers. g Narak, on the high-road between Mahallat and Kashan via Ardahal, 26 miles from the former and a few miles from Jasb. It has a population of five thousand, and its water- supply from a stream rising in the Kuhi Burzeh, the overflow running into the Jasb river near Delijan. To Narak belong the Rakka ground, with an old stone caravanserai, some ruins, and cultivated fields at the upper end of the Ardahal valley. Ravinj, or Raveh and Ravend, is a populous village, north- west of Narak, close to Jasb. It is Government property, and held in fief by Wakaya Nigar. This Ravinj, or Ravend, is to be distinguished from its namesake a few miles north- west of Kashan, which in old times had the name Khuzak. According to the ‘Komnameh, the village owes its origin to Riduyeh, a famous robber chief when Afrasiab, the Turanian, was king, © EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 97 On a hill near Ravinj stood a castle, which Riduyeh occupied. Afrasiab besieged the castle for a long time in vain, and finally had to raise the siege in consequence of a sad accident which befell him. Riduyeh drove a restive mule, on which he had slung a couple of leather bags containing pebbles, into Afrasiab's camp at the weird hour of midnight. The noise of the stones in the bags frightened the horses in the camp, the soldiers thought Riduyeh was upon them, and rushing out of their tents blindly struck at every one they encountered ; at daybreak Afrasiab found that his soldiers had killed each other to a man, and retired. Dudehek, or Dudahek, is a small village of forty houses, on the left bank of the river, which is here crossed by a brick and stone bridge of four arches, 16 miles north-east of Mahallat. Close to the bridge is a fine caravanserai, erected in the seventeenth century, and repaired in 1815. The popular etymology of the name is dud ahak = smoke of lime, with the explanation that large lime kilns existed here formerly, but the name probably signifies the two communities or villages, do dehek. Doletabad is a small walled-in village of twenty houses, a few miles north-west of Dudehek. It pays yearly taxes to the amount of 120 tomans in cash and 220 kharvars of grain. Close to it, and on the road from Dudehek, is the hamlet called Sara Khatun, which has its name from the lady Sara, a descendant of Imam Musa Kazem, who lies buried there. The hamlet is situated well within the Mahallat territory, but belongs to Irak. A hurheh, or Khurhedeh. This village, of a hundred and fifty houses, is beautifully situated in a lovely glen, watered by a fine stream, the Al i cherend wa parend. It is Government property, and held in fief by Mirza Ibrahim Khan, Sadik i Khelvet. It has a mosque, two public baths, and the graves of three saints—Abul Kazem, Ishak, and Halimeh Khatun. The Iſ 98 FASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. © water-supplyis from two underground canals, called Vezvan and Vendan, and from the above-mentioned stream, which rises a few miles south-west of Khurheh, near War, and flows into the Anar river near Dudedek. The Vezvan canaſ deposits much lime, and as it is also very brackish, the Khurheh people, who are very economical, use it for making bread and save salt. A little above the village, the Cherend wa parend stream forces its way through a narrow gorge, which is called Band i Rustam, and the pass which the road crosses near by is called Gudar i Baba Rustam. On the top of a hill west of Khurheh is a platform of rough stone, which is popularly known as the throne of Khorremshah, and the old man of Khurheh who gave me information, said that that king used to sit on the platform during summer nights with his wine and women. About a quarter of a mile south of Khurheh, on a little hill, are the ruins of a Sassanian temple. The villagers call them the palace of Khorremshah, who was king a thousand years ago, and add that, after his death, the palace became a burial place. Two unfluted columns, each composed of six pieces of polished limestone, are still standing, two others fell down “seven, or seventy, or perhaps seven hundred years ago.” The capitals of the columns consist of a thin abacus over two volutes, which resemble dice-boxes or, better, spiral scrolls, like rolls of paper fastencil in the middle by crossed bands. There is no neck. The shafts have a diameter of 26 inches at the base, and taper to about 18 inches at the top. The bases of the columns are covered with soil, and the height of the whole column above the ground is about 17 feet. The two columns which are standing are in a line north to south, the other two, now fallen, stood east of them. From a distance these columns much resemble Ionian ones, but with the exception, perhaps, of the proportion of height to diameter, they have not much in common with the Ionian O EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 99 order, and the absence of necks and the curiously shaped volutes prove them, I think, to be a Persian adaptation of the Ionian. The columns stand on a rectangular platform of large slabs of limestone; the platform is about 16 yards in length. A spur of the hill, or mound, extends eastwards from the platform, and covers a great quantity of human bones, in good preservation, perfectly dry and hard. The ‘’Komnameh” says that Khurheh was a foundation of Amil, son of Iskander (Alexander), and adds: “Near this village stand four columns, constructed of cylindrical blocks of stone of equal lengths, which are so well jointed that the columns appear as if made of one piece. It is said that these columns once supported a dome, which has now fallen. Close to the columns were some long tanks constructed of large slabs of stone, also so well jointed that they appeared to have been cut in one piece of rock. The people of Khurheh used to milk their sheep on the hill, and collected the milk in the tanks in order to divide it among the inhabitants.” The Komnameh' also tells us that near the village was a spring which supplied water only at the request of travellers who were thirsty, ceasing to flow when the traveller's thirst was quenched. A little further was a warm spring, which was dug by 'Avaz, the Dehkan. Other villages of Mahallat are War, upper and lower, Taghun or Takan, Neimei, Arkedeh, Algun, 1ssaabad, Malik- Aſaran, Gezinbar, Jerujan, Suskendar, Sinjehvaseſ, Hajjiabad. 100. The Komnameh' mentions some other villages of Amar, which I have not been able to identify ; for instance, Khanshah, Sakan, and Humbered or Hunburd. They appeat to have been situated on or near the Amar river, between Nimevar and Dudellek. Regarding them, we read that when Ardashir, the first Sassanian, returned from Isfahan—where he had killed. Shehrfemnah, its king, who was one of the | 00 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. Q successors of Alexander the Great—he passed Niastar, in the Kashan province, and then reached Khanshah on the Anar river, where he camped. From Khanshah he went to Dudehek, and there encountered the armies of the kings of Hamadan and Rei. The army of Rei was drawn up between Rivkan (Mahallat) and Dudehek; that of Hamadan, near Humbered. Ardashir made a vow that he would erect a fire- temple if he defeated both armies. He defeated them, and then returned to Khanshah. There he shot off an arrow in the direction of Humbered, on the other side of the river, and on the spot where the arrow fell he built a fire-temple, and appointed forty families of Jews, which had been converted to Zoroastrianism, as guardians. The place was then called Sakan. Afterwards, Ardashir went to Hamadan, then to Holvan and Ahvaz, and lastly to Madain, where he killed the great King Ardavan, son of Balash, the last of the Arsacides or Parthians.” * THE PROVINCE OF NATANZ. 101. This small province occupies the hilly region between Kashan and Isfahan, and a part of the plain between Kashan and Ardistan. It was for a long time held in fief by the late Hissam es Saltaneh (Sultan Murad Mirza, grand-uncle of the present Shah, born 1817, died 1882), and is now in the hands of his son, Abul Nasir Mirza, the present Hissam es Saltaneh, who attended Her Majesty's Jubilee in 1887. When the revenues of the province were collected by the Government they were assessed at 211,589 krans, out of which sum 4340 krans were allowed for charges for collection * Ardashir defeated Ardavan (Artabanus W.) at Hormuzjan in Susia, April, 227; Madain, Ctesiphon, was taken later. The King of Isfahan, whom Ardashir defeated, is in other histories called Shad- * Q shapur. - EASTERN PERSIAN IAPA K. 101. and repairs to Crown buildings. The last Government lists which I have seen show a reduction of 4106 krams, on account of the ruinous condition of some canals. The assessed revenues now amount to 162,795 krans, or about f3790; in 1879 they were a little more than 18,000 tomans, or at the then exchange (25 krans equal to £1), about £7,200. The exchange is now £1 = 43 krans. The province contains eighty-two villages and hamlets, and has a population of about twenty-three thousand; it is divided into four districts, named after the four principal streams in it, viz. Barcrud, Natanzrud, Tarkrud, and Badrud. The first-mentioned is the largest, and contains nearly the western half of the province ; Badrud is the smallest, and consists of the most easterly part of the province ; Natanzrud is in the centre : and Tarkrud contains the southern part of the province. Badrud is in the plains; the other districts are mostly hilly, Barzrud altogether so. The governor of the province is appointed by Hissam es Saltaneh, and resides at Natanz, in the Natanzrud district. 102.-(1) Natanerud, the central district of the province ; famous for its pears, which are considered the finest which Persia produces. Natana is a little town with a population of about three thousand, and situated at an elevation of 5670 feet in a fertile and secluded valley, open to the south-east. Its distance by road from Isfahan, vić Sardahan, is 69 miles; from Kasham, vid Buzabad, 53 miles, and við Henjen, 45 miles. It has a small bazar, a caravanserai, and some mosques and baths; one of the mosques has a minaret, 123 feet in height, and dating from A.H. 715 (1315), time when the Mongols reigned over Persia. On a hill north-west of the town is the grave of Ruknieh Khatun, a female relative of Imam Reza. The town is divided into upper and lower, the latter comprising the greater part. - I ()2 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. Villages of Natanzrud, with their taxes as assessed in 1891 – Apushteh ... . tº gº tº * * * tº ºf tº c is ... 1860 krans. Chaheh tº º & tº a $ tº gº tº tº º ſº * & © tº dº ſº 23 , Dastjird tº º is tº º ſº. & ſº q tº e is {º is tº ... 1588 , Fazlabad ... ſº ſº º tº a tº * * * tº e is tº ſº tº 167 . ,, Ibrahimabad tº $ tº ſº tº tº tº tº dº tº gº tº ... 454 , Jarian tº s tº tº º 'º tº tº º e tº dº * tº a ... 2339 Jezen, or Jezan tº a tº © tº it tº º º ... 1557 , Khafr (also called Kharv and Khaur—cf. Marv, Maur) ... to tº tº tº gº º tº sº tº * g e ... 3090 , Kendez * @ ºl tº e tº º & tº ſº ſº tº e º ... 1663 , Mazidabad ... * * * tº gº º tº ºn tº tº e G ... 706 , Nanei tº dº & tº º º tº ſe tº tº e & tº e ∈ tº tº tº 97 , , Natanz, Upper tº gº tº tº ſº tº * * * ... 4210 , Lower ſº is a tº ºn * * * ... 6868 — 11,078 , , Rahan tº e ºl tº tº ſº tº a º tº º º ſº tº tº ... 2041 , Riseh tº ſº tº tº tº gº iº º ſº. tº ſº º tº e C ... 1828 ,, Sian Khafr ... tº º º tº gº º tº gº º tº $ tº tº e is 19 ,, Sereshk tº a º tº e º tº e Lº is tº dº tº e ... 6580 ,, Tameh tº £ tº tº $ tº tº & C tº º º tº gº is ... 1560 ,, Ureh tº £ ſº tº gº tº e e tº tº gº tº tº e & ... 2999 ,, Weshveshad tº º is tº º tº tº £ tº tº e º ... 2565 , Vishteh * tº de tº gº tº tº dº º tº gº tº * tº tº ... 872 , Varkuran ... tº tº a tº gº º tº is tº tº ſº º tº dº tº 64 , Total taxes of Natanzrud © & © 43,150 krans. 103.—(2) The Barzrud district is hilly throughout, and in it are the well-known villages of Kohrud and So, on the Kashan-Isfahan high-road. In the centre of the district is the Kuh i Kergiz, with peaks rising to an altitude of 11,000 feet, and snow-capped during a great part of the year. So is a large village of about three hundred houses, situated in a fertile valley at an elevation of 7500 feet, and divided into Upper and Lower So, each possessing a walled-in kal'ah flanked by towers. It has a public bath, one large and two small mosques, and a large caravanserai, which was erected at the expense of Mirza Abul Kasem Isfahani, the Persian EASTERN PERSIAN IRA R. 103 prime minister who was strangled, 1835, at Teheran. Belong- ing to the upper village, and some little distance to the north-east of it, under a blue-tiled dome near a fine spring of water, are the graves of Yusuf, Shahzadeh Ibrahim, and Shahzadeh Abul Kasem, the first a son of 'Ali Naki, the two last sons of Musar b. J'afar ; and between the upper and lower villages is the grave of Marzieh Khatun, a lady of Imam J'afar's family. The water-supply of the village is plentiful, and is from a little stream which rises some miles to the north of it, and flows down to the Murchehkhur plain. There are some gardens with good pears, and large fields of barley and wheat. Kohrud, or Kuhrud (also Kuru), is a village with over two hundred houses, joined together with Jawinan, called by the illiterate Ja i nan, a village of about a quarter the size of Kohrud. It is picturesquely situated on the slope of the hill west of the high-road, and has many gardens and orchards with fine fruit. The water-supply of the villages is from a stream which rises in the hills close by, and flows northwards to the Kashan plain. A few miles below Kohrud, and just above the old caravanserai of Gebrabad, which belongs to Kashan, the stream is dammed up by the celebrated Band Kohyud, which was constructed in the first half of the seventeenth century for regulating the flow of the water towards the plain, according to the requirements of irrigation. Opposite the village stands the tomb of a saint, with a blue-tiled steeple, or tower with extinguisher roof; and there is a large burial-ground, with tombstones of porphyry rudely carved in the shape of a lion. Villages of Barzrud, with their taxes as assessed in 1891– Abyaneh ... tº is tº tº º 0. tº º tº * * * ... 5910 krans. Ahmedabad tº tº º º, º º * * * tº º a tº dº tº 43 ,, Barz tº º is tº e - p is º tº e & tº e is ... 6928 ,, Bidhand (Bidesht) '• * * tº º q tº e º ... 1879 ,, Chimeh tº gº tº e - ºn • * * tº gº tº ... 6134 , 104 JEASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. Deh Lur is a wº tº gº tº & ſº tº vº º e tº gº tº tº gº tº 92 krans. Farizhand ... * = & tº ſº tº tº º ſº tº tº e ... 2125 , Hasanabad ... tº tº wº g º ºs tº gº º tº g tº tº º ſº 52 , Henjen with Sanjedeh tº is tº tº e & tº gº & ... 4189 * , Ishkevileh ... gº tº e tº º º tº tº gº tº º º º, º is 14 , Javiman tº g tº tº tº ſº ſº tº º tº º º tº gº º ... 1414 , Jehek, with Kulukh and Kellehsurkheh ... ... 1140 , Kohrud, with Urin ... tº dº ſº tº g e e e ſº ... 1929 ,, Komejan ë & 4 tº e ºs tº g tº e g tº p e e ... 4616 , Sarparendeh ... tº tº g § tº e tº dº º is tº º ... 413 , So ... tº e tº tº s tº & © º is e tº tº gº º ... 4001 , , Tarreh e g tº tº º º & gº tº tº e ºs tº gº º ... 2634 , Wash ... tº gº tº tº dº y ſº tº e tº e > tº e º ... 270 , Wian ... tº 3 * g e tº gº tº tº ſº tº # tº ſº tº ſe tº 956 ,, Vulujird, with Wardeh tº º º tº e & te e ºs ... 2156 , Yarend tº gº ºf ſº tº & # º º tº gº tº tº ſº º ... 4547 ,, Zenjan Bar ... tº tº e , º is a tº gº º º º º ... 1033 , Zirpul ... tº tº º 171 , , Five hamlets—I)arreh, Dar, Nikleh, Sur, Saratastan 23 , Total taxes of Barzrud tº ſº tº ... 52,669 krans. 104.—(3) The Tarkrud district is the most southern of Natanz, and joins the Isfahan province. Its principal place is the village Tark, which has about three hundred houses and is situated in an open valley on the Tark river and about 18 miles by road from Natanz. Zakerieh Kazvini mentions this village as a town in the neighbourhood of Isfahan, and adds, as Uylenbroek translates it, that its “incolae utensilium elegantissimorum ea ebore et ebeno peritissimi sunt opifices,” but of these utensils I have not been able to obtain any information. Villages of Tarkrud, with their taxes as assessed in 1891 — Abyazin tº dº tº ſº tº tº tº e ſº tº ſº º tº º º ... 4370 krans. Isfidan tº gº tº tº ſº e ſº a º º gº º tº ſº tº ... 1344. , Resheh, with the hamlets Livan, Liasan, Kurseh 3092 , Kulahrud ... tº ſº º * * * tº gº & tº tº º ... 1219 , Mirzajird, with Lareng ... e is tº tº e ſº ... 4215 , Muzdabad ... ſº tº g tº e tº tº gº tº tº gº tº tº º º •13 , Muzdeh jº º ſº ſº º º e tº º ... ... ... 467 , O EASTERN PERSIAN IRA. K. 105 Nasran & ſº tº tº g tº tº tº e tº gº ºn tº ſº tº ... 1512 krans. Niyeh * g tº tº º º tº p & tº tº º * * * ... 1425 , Tar, with Balakucheh and Ibrahimabad ... ... 6063 , , Tark, "with Gudarzan, Fakhrabad, Kuram, and Varzan ... tº o º tº ś , tº tº º tº tº º ... 14,001 , , Tajabad tº º & e e C tº º º & © tº e tº a tº gº tº 102 , Warkuran ... tº tº £ & ſº º tº tº º tº tº is # tº Q 373 , Total taxes of Tarkrud e q tº ... 38,196 krams. 105.-(4) The Badrud district is the smallest district of Natanz, and occupies the most eastern part of the province, bounded in the east by the desert, and joining Ardistan on the south, and Kashan on the north. Its principal place is Bad, the Bawt of seventeenth-century travellers, which has a population of about fifteen hundred souls and is situated 42 miles south-east of Kashan. Deh i'Ibad (vulgo Dehabad, in official lists Kariet ul’Ibad) is a large village with a hundred and eighty houses, about 36 miles from Kashan on the high-road to Yezd. Khaledabad (vulgo Kheltabad). A village with two hundred houses about 38 miles from Kashan on the high- road to Yezd, and 15 miles from Natanz. Villages of Badrud, with their taxes as assessed in 1891 — Bad tº º tº e & ſº tº tº e tº tº º tº dº ſº ... 12,414 krans. Irseman, hamlet of Bad tº º º tº dº ſº # tº gº 107 , , Khaledabad ... gº º º © tº tº tº e ſº ... 8819 ,, Deh i Ibad * * * tº º º tº & tº © tº º ... 7347 , , Yezdelan, hamlet of Deh i Ibad ... tº º º 93 , Total taxes of Badrud tº ºr & ... 28,780 krams. The average amount of assessed taxes per family in the Natanz province is about 35 krans per annum. THE PROVINCE OF JOSHEKAN. 106. This, little province, which covers about 1000 square miles, is situated north-west of Isfahan, between the Isfahan 1 ()6 EASTERN PERSIAN TRAK. territory on the south and west, Mahallat on the north, Kashan and Natanz on the east. Its length is about 48 miles, from the southern frontier of Mahallat to the Kuh i Kolung, 18 miles from Murchehkhor; its breadth is about 20 miles, from the high central range to the hills running parallel to it on the west. Only a very small part of the ground, probably not more than 10 square miles altogether, is under cultivation or covered by the sparse villages, the remainder is composed of steppe, patches of desert, and barren hills. The water-supply is very scanty; the few little streams which flow westwards from the central range are used up for irrigation before they reach the plain, and the villages in the plain have a few underground canals and wells. The drainage of the southern part of the province is towards Murchehkhor and the Zayendehrud valley; that of the northern part, beyond the watershed at Kurukchi, is towards Mahallat and the Kom river. The average elevation of the plain is about 6400 feet, while some of the villages in the hills are at an elevation of 8000 feet and more. The heat is very great in the plain during summer, in consequence of the scarcity of water and vegetation. Gazelles are very abundant. The population is estimated at a little over five thousand souls, and the assessed taxes amount to 73,302 krans and 96 kharvars of wheat per annum, but only about 60,000 krans altogether can be collected. The old name of the province or district was Mimah, or Meimeh, which is now the name of the little town where the tax-collector resides. Under the Seſavichs the village Joshekan, a few miles north-east of Meimeh, was the principal place of the district, and from it the district has its present name. It was formerly part of the Kashan province, but was formed by the present dynasty into a separate dependency and given in fief to Bahram Mirza Muizzed dowleh, who was a son of 'Abbas Mirza, the present Shah's grandfather ; since EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 107 his death, in 1882, it is held by his son Ism’ail Mirza, Muizz ed dowleh. Meineeh (Mee Meeah of Stocqueler, who visited it in 1831) is a pleasant little town of about four hundred houses, situated in the plain at an elevation of 6670 feet. It has extensive gardens, and its water-supply is from two under- ground canals and some wells, which have an average depth of 20 to 25 feet. It has ample accommodation for travellers, and its inhabitants are very hospitable. There are two mosques; one is a very old one, with a fine cupola of blue tiles, repaired in 1865, and a marble mihrab, beautifully carved and surrounded with Cufic inscriptions. The part of the inscription which had the date is, unfortunately, broken off. On the western side of the mosque is a minaret 50 feet in height. The assessed taxes of Meimeh amount to about 12,000 krans, and the customs of the place, levied in caravans passing it on their way to and from Isfahan and Tabriz and carrying principally tobacco, are farmed for a similar sum. Joshekan Kali, the next place in importance, is a village situated 13 miles north-east of Meimeh, on the western slopes of the central range. It has about two hundred and fifty houses and large gardens, and its water-supply is from a stream which rises in the hills above Kamu. This place was formerly famous for its wool and carpets, and is still called Joshekan Kali (kali = carpet) from the carpets which it manufactured. The wool is still good, but the carpet manufacture is a thing of the past. Kamu (also Kamun and Kamu) is situated 3 miles north- west of Joshekan Kali, has a hundred and twenty houses, and pays yearly taxes to the amount of 7000 krans. It has a public bath, three water-mills supplying flour to the villages in the plains, three small mosques, and beautiful gardens with very pleasant summer-houses. Its elevation is 7920 feet, and its climate is very rigorous. | 08 EASTERN PERSIAN IRA R. When I visited Kamu in the latter part of August, 1890, unripe plums and cherries were still on the trees. Spotted typhus had just been raging there, killing six to seven per cent. of the population, and nearly all the houses of the village were full of weevils. A number of houses are always kept ready for the accommodation of visitors from Kashan and Isfahan, who spend part of the summer there. The urbane gentleman who placed his house at my disposal informed me that some Gebres from Kashan had left him only a few days ago, after a stay of a month, and added that “after having entertained Gebres and Feringis [Europeans] he expected he would soon have the good fortune to put up some butparasts [idolaters].” - Robat Turk, at the northern end of the province, is a village of forty homesteads, within strong walls built of stone and brick in the Seventeenth century. It pays yearly taxes to the amount of 3000 krans, has a small mosque, a bath, and some guest-houses. Its water-supply is from a little stream rising in the neighbouring hills. The interior of the village is extremely filthy and the inhabitants seem to suffer much from fever and ague caused by the malaria and miasma of some swampy ground close by. Half a mile north-west is the hamlet Takhtu, with some poor gardens. Rurukchi is a ruined village 13 miles south-east of Robat Turk, inhabited by three or four families, who look after the Meimeh flocks sent up for grazing during the Summer, and possess magnificent shepherd dogs. It has its water-supply from a little stream rising in the hills on the west and filling two large tanks just above the village. Other villages and hamlets of Joshekan are–Azan ; Azaran ; Chaghadeh, fifteen houses ; Choghum, two houses; Koluſh, five houses; Robat, five houses; Tajireh, ten houses; Vandadeſ, Varkan or Varganeh, Vazvan, and Ziadabad, each with thirty to fifty houses. EASTERN PERSIAN IRA. K. 109 THE PROVINCE OF KASHAN. 107. This province extends in the east to the desert, in the north it is bounded by Kom, in the west by Kom, Mahallat, and Joshekan, and in the South by Joshekan and Natanz. Until about the twelfth century it formed part of the province of Kom, and in the thirteenth century, under the Mongols, it paid taxes to the amount of 117,000 dinars, or about £66,000 of our money. It is now a separate government under a hakim appointed by the Shah, and its assessed taxes amount to 687,356 krans in cash, 939 kharvars of grain, and 714 kharvars of straw, or about £17,000 altogether. It is divided into two districts, Germsir and Sardsir (i.e. hot and cold districts), the former comprising the part situated in the plains, the latter that in the hills, and has a population of about seventy-five thousand. The Germsir is again subdivided into the town Kashan and the villages in its immediate neighbourhood—the Humeh-and the Germsir proper. 108.-(1) Germsir. This extends in the north to the boundary of Kom formed by the ravine of Shurab, in the east to the shifting sands of the desert, and in the west and south to the hills ; in the south-east it touches the boundary of Natanz. Its water-supply is from the three rivers of Kohrud, Kamsar, and Barzuk, and from several underground canals, but is not abundant. * 109.-(a) Town and humeh. The town, situated at an elevation of 3190 feet, has its water from three underground canals and from a number of excellent cisterns, partly filled in winter by the water of the Kohrud and Kamsar streams. Some of these cisterns are over 200 feet below the surface. The population is estimated at thirty thousand, comprising some hundreds of Jews, mostly occupied as silk winders, and a few Zoroastrians. The bulk of the Muhammedan population | || 0 EASTERN PERSIAN IRA R. O is Persian, and the so-called Arabs—of the old Ghafari and Sheibani tribes, who live in Kashan—have very little Semitic blood left. On account of the dry climate, it is said, the voice of the Kashan people is particularly sweet, and all the noted singers of Persia, even the one on whose hat the nightingales settled whenever he sang, come from Kashan. On the authority of some Eastern authors it is génerally stated that Kashan was founded by Zobeideh, the famous wife of Harun ur Rashid ; but this statement refers probably to some villages having been surrounded with a wall during her time, or at her expense, and the name Kashan having been given to the new town, for the name Kashan as that of a district existed long before Zobeideh. The Komnameh, quoting Ibu Mukaff’a, who died A.D. 760, states that some authors ascribed the origin of Kashan to Kasan, who was a son either of Zohhak Biverasp, the Arab conqueror of Persia, or of Feridun, the deliverer of Persia from the Arab yoke, and adds that this statement is open to doubt, as he was no doubt aware that both Zohhak and Feridun were mythical personages. He then relates that where Kashan now stands there was a lake or swamp, formed by the Kasehrud or Kasrud. The waters then gradually subsided or receded, and on the land which first became dry, the highest spot in the plain, some villages were founded, and the first of these villages was J3atrialeh () and the next Daram, which was originally Dar-ram. As the Kasehrud mentioned in old Persian histories is the Aeshºfrud near Tus, or Meshhed, in Khorasan, we would here have another Kasehrud. But the river in Khorasan is, more correctly, known as the Kasprud, i.e. “ tortoise river,” which is equivalent to the modern Keshefrud, and I am inclined to think that the Kasehrud, or Kasrud, of Kashan, has its name from Aas, “a wild hog,” because the legend of Kasan having founded Kashan adds that the son of Kasan Q JEASTERN PERSIAN IRA K. I 11 was named Varaz, i.e. “pig,” and that he built the village Varazabad in the neighbourhood of the town. The old form of Kashan is Kasan, Arabicized into Kasan, the plural of Kas, and it is quite probable that the Swamp or lake, which later dried up, was once called the lake or swamp of the pigs, while the river forming it was the river of the pig, or the pig I'l WeI’. 110. On account of the great quantities of white ants which infest the district very little wood is used in the construction of its houses, similarly to Kom. Kashan has seven great mosques: (1) Masjed i Meidan, also called Masjed i 'Amadi ; (2) Masjed i Aka buzurg ; (3) Masjed i Kelhur ; (4) Masjed i Meidan i Kohneh; (5) Masjed i Mianeh i Chal; (6) Masjed i Kursi; (7) Masjed i Hajji Sayyid Husein. The first two are old buildings and in good repair, and the Masjed i 'Amadi has a mihrab (altar) with beautiful old tiles. To the Masjed i Miameh i Chal, which has its name from its position in a chal, or hollow, is attached the college of the same name. In the Meidan i Sang, an Open Space, are the ruined Masjed and Medresseh Dar ush Shafa, the latter known as the old great college for studying medicine. The best college of Kashan is now the Medresseh i Shah, one of Fath Ali Shah's foundations, with about forty rooms for students. Of public baths there are many, the best being the Hamman i Khan, in the bazar, and the one attached to the Masjed i 'Amadi. Kashan possesses a very fine old minaret, over 100 feet in height, with a staircase of two hundred steps. In 1844 an earthquake upset its foundations, and it now leans to such an extent that a plumb-line from the top falls about 7 feet from the base. There are some Very good bazars and many caravanserais. Of the former, the Copper- Smith's bazar, with a hundred shops, is worth Seeing—and hearing; and of the latter, the “New Caravanserai" a | 12 EASTER N PERSIA N IRA. K. O very old building indeed—and the Caravanserai of Ferrukh Khan, Amin ed dowleh, are the best. The copper utensils of Kashan have been famous from times immemorial and are sent to all parts of Persia. There are a great many weavers at Kashan, who manufacture silk stuffs called khara, tafieh, atlas, khatai, £atani (the last silk and cotton mixed), dastmal, makhmal (velvet), etc.; cotton stuffs called kadak, kerbas (Sansc. karpaşa, cotton), chadershab, etc.; and wool stuffs 'aba, zilu (carpets without pile), etc., but complain much of the importation of European goods, which decreases their trade. The winding of the silk is generally done by Jews, and they have a big wheel turning two or three hundred weaver's reeds. Other trades of Kashan are silk, cotton, and wool dying, pressing oil from Sesame, ricinus, and cotton seed, the wheels of the presses generally being turned by camels; paper and brocades were formerly manufactured, but not now. The northern suburb of the town, near the Dolet gate, is called Chaharbagh, and was, like its namesake at Isfahan, one of the foundations of the Sefaviehs. It formerly had a fine avenue of plane trees 800 paces long, but now hardly a tree remains. One of the buildings in it is Occupied by the telegraph. Outside the town and near the Lathur gate, on the south-west, is the grave of Mulla Fath Ullah ; near the Fin gate, on the west, is the grave of Feiz, to which people flock on Fridays. Inside of the town are the graves of Imam- zadeh Habbib b. Musa, and of Muhtashim, the author of the celebrated marthieh (funeral oration or eulogium) on Iman Husein, which is known as the “Davazdah Bandan,” and is read at all the prayer-meetings in Persia during the Muharram. - 111. Villages of the humeh are Sejiabad, watered by the Kohrud stream ; Lathur, watered by the Kamsar stream ; and Salehabad, Zeidi, and Ghiathabad, watered by (ºnals, Q EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. | 13 112.--(b) The Germsir. North of the town are– Bidgºl, a large village, with a population of about a thousand souls; situated 9 miles from the city, close to the moving sands. It is said to have formerly possessed eighteen hundred weaving stools, but now manufactures only a small quantity of katani, stuff of silk and cotton mixed. Aran, formerly Aram, 4 miles from Bidgul, and Wushabad 2 miles from Bidgul, east of the high-road to Kom, are two flourishing villages producing some silk. - The people of Bidgul, Aran, and Nushabad speak a peculiar dialect. 'Aliabad, 8 miles from Kashan, and Nasrabad, 25 miles further north, are two villages celebrated for the excellence of their melons, which surpass even those of Isfahan. Simsin, 20 miles from Kashan, on the high-road to Kom, has a population of fifty families, a caravanserai, and a post-house ; to it belong the hamlets Dehlur and Bagh i Shah. Shurab is a small village with a caravanserai, 31 miles from Kashan, on the high-road to Kom, and on the boundary between the two provinces. North-west of Kashan, and a few miles from the town, are the three villages, Taherabad, Ravend, Khuzak, known for their fine pomegranates. & West of Kashan, and at a distance of about 3 miles, is the village Fin, with a plentiful water-supply and a fine garden and palace dating from the Sefaviehs. The village has large gardens producing the famous Zagheh pomegranate. South of the town the Germsir district extends to Gahrabad, formerly a populous, now a ruined village, with an old caravanserai, 18 miles from Kashan on the high-road to |Isfahan vid Kohrud. About a mile south of Gabrabad the road passes the celebrated Band i Kohrud which dams up the I 114 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. O waters of the Kohrud stream in spring-time for irrigation of the Kashan plain during summer. It was built in the early part of the seventeenth century and has been fully described by many travellers. South-east of Kashan are the villages Khorremdasht, 13 miles from the city, and Buzabad (i.e. Abu Zeid Abad), 20 miles, on the high-road to Yezd. The former has a hundred houses, the latter three hundred. Buzabad also has two Caravanserais and a post-house. Most of the Germsir villages have a scanty water-supply and very few trees. They grow little wheat on account of the ravages of the sin (Aphis cerealis), but much tobacco and cotton. Some of them have small plantations of mulberry trees and produce a little silk. 113.−(2) Sardsir. Ramsar, 19 miles south of Kashan, is a large and flourish- ing village of about three hundred houses and extensive gardens with fine roses used for the manufacture of rosewater. Like the Kohrud river that of Kamsar is dammed up by a band, but the Kamsar band is much smaller than that of Kohrud. About half a mile below the village is a thermal spring depositing chlorate of soda and lime, and having a temperature of 93° Fahr. Two miles below Kamsar some thin lodes of copper ore crop out in shales which dip 80° west, and strike north 22° west to south 22° east. A mile or less north of the copper lodes are the celebrated cobalt mines which have been worked in ancient times, and belong to some Sayyids of Kamsar and Kashan. The rocks there are dolomites broken through by serpentines with an immense lode of iron ore, copper pyrites, sulphuret of nickel, cobalt bloom, and earthy cobalt (peroxide). The lode strikes north 7° west to south 7° east, and dips 80° west. Only the earthy cobalt is at present of any practical value; it contains about 5 per cent of metal. *t is collected © EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. J 15 by the proprietors and washed with water, and the heavy sediment is made into cakes. The Washing process is called Saravabuna, i.e. Sari ab va bun i ab (top-water and bottom- water). The cakes, under the name of laſverd i Kashi, are exported, principally to Kashan, Kom, and Isfahan, where they are sold at the rate of about one shilling and sixpence per pound. All the proprietors receive equal shares of the proceeds, and they have an agent (bonek-dar) who looks after the sale and keeps account for them for a commission. In order not to lower the price, only a certain quantity, sufficient for the actual demand, about 1300 lbs. per annum, is put on the market, and should there not be a demand for this quantity, the mine is closed and carefully guarded. The ore is reduced in the following way. Ten parts by weight of the earth or ore (in cakes), five of potash (kaliab), and five of borax (bureh), are pounded together to a fine powder, and then made into a paste with grape treacle (Shireh), and formed into small balls or cakes. The balls are then put with pounded quartz into a Sufar (earthen pot with wide opening) and exposed to heat in a furnace for sixteen hours. The metal gained in this way amounts to about one-twentieth of the weight of the cobalt cakes employed. To use the cobalt for colouring pottery it is ground into a fine powder together with an equal quantity of quartz. This powder is applied with gum under the glaze, and is therefore called air rang, i.e. “under-colour.” For painting over the glace the metal is ground together with forty times its weight of rock-crystal or old glass (that contain- ing manganese is the best) and twice its weight of borax, and the mixture, in an earthen pot, is exposed to heat in a furnace until the whole of it is deposited on the inside of the pot as a crust of blue glaze like glass. The blue crust is then separated from the pot, and is applied, ground into 1 || 6 FASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. e ‘ powder, to pottery with gum. Both these processes are very costly, and, calculating the cost of the cobalt cakes, of the borax, potash, quartz, fuel, furnace, etc., the cost of the powder, ready for being used as colouring matter, amounts to 28 shillings per pound, by the first process, and to 38 shillings per pound by the second process. A cheaper way of preparing a blue colour is to pound one part of cobalt (metallic), with four parts of the cobalt cakes, into a fine powder, and applying this powder under the glaze; but the colour obtained in this way is not good, and is employed only for very cheap pottery. Barzuk is a large village 24 miles from Kashan, situated in a lovely valley, which is well watered by the Barzuk river. It has five hundred houses, and pays yearly taxes to the amount of 15,000 krans. It is divided in seven mahallehs, viz. Baghistan, Kargah, Sardar, Musala, Sar- goval (Sargodal), Sarkal'ah, Dar i masjed Jamah, and has four mosques, three baths, and six water-mills. In one of its gardens, called Ahmedabad, at the lower end of the valley, where the river rushes through a narrow gorge, is a warm spring, with a temperature of 70°. Nearly all the houses of this village are in good condition, and show that the proprietors are in easy circumstances; and the streets and lanes are remarkably clean, there being—what no city in Persia can boast of numerous public water-closets, with a plentiful water-supply. Many of the houses have vines growing over them, and a great part of the principal street is covered over with vines and creepers. About halfway between Barzuk and Kamu, and 6 or 7 miles South of the former, at an elevation of 8000 feet, is the small fertile plateau of Visheng, literally crowded with partridges. Sehdeh (the “three villages”), a complex of three vil- lages, Uzvar, Bidjah, and J3iduk, situated in a valley joining Barzuk on the west, and watered by several" little streams EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. | | 7 which flow into the Barzuk river. Each of the three villages has eighty to a hundred houses, and extensive fields. The hills closing the valley on the west and north are the Kuh i Ash and Kuh i Killeh. Marak is a village of about two hundred houses, divided into three mahallehs, viz. Pain, Darraceh, and Bala, and situated in a fertile valley, 20 miles South-west from Kashan. It has extensive gardens, and the hamlet Sadian, with three houses, at the entrance of the valley, belongs to it. Niasar (also Neiastar) is a village of five hundred to six hundred houses, 23 miles west of Kashan. It is situated in a plain at the foot of high hills, and has a plentiful water- supply. With its thirty-three hamlets it pays yearly taxes to the amount of 20,000 krans, which, considering the extent of its fields and its great Water-supply, seems a very small sum. Like Barzuk, it is divided into seven mahallehs, viz. Bab ul Kasr, Bab ul Abdavieh, Rudab, Sargojeh, Dar Kushk, Sar Kush, Bidkhab, has eight mosques, four public baths, and the graves of six Saints. The ‘Komnameh” mentions that “Niasar was also called Niansar, and was one of the Sassanian Ardishir Papekan's foundations, and had a fire-temple.” Traces of this fire- temple (or castle) may still be seen, on a hill at the south- western end of the village. A rich merchant of Kashan has a summer house on the hill, and some of the walls of the fire-temple have been utilized. The house stands on the edge of a precipice formed by a perpendicular wall of rock facing the east, and some yards under the house there is a square hole which gives access to a chamber from which four doors (or holes) lead into a second chamber behind it. It is said that the chambers formerly communicated with the ruin on the hill. Here and there, on projecting pieces of rock, are seen bits of the old wall and masonry. To reach the Square hole under the house is connected with difficulties. I 18 FASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. The rock-chambers are very much like other Sassanian chambers in Persia, for instance, those near Maragha (in the Observatory hill), near Saujbulagh, Kurdistan, near Shushter, etc. I regret that I was unable to explore the hill and environs properly. The slopes of the hill are covered with vines, and a strong spring of water comes out of the rock at the top, and rushes down with great force. Other important villages of the Sardsir of Kashan are Sirk and Joshekan. Of small villages and hamlets there are a great number. In the hills of this district game abounds, particularly Snowcock; ibex is scarce. The people are hospitable and civil, and, as regards payments exacted for services rendered, not of the bloodsucker type so common on the more- frequented roads in Persia. 114. I have now mentioned in detail all the provinces which are wholly in Eastern Persian Irak, and I had the intention of describing in as full a manner the provinces which are only partly in that region, but I find that I cannot spare the necessary time for the work. A descrip- tion, as I should have liked to have given, of the provinces of Isfahan, Teheran, Savah, and Irak, with the mass of historical data which I have collected, and the enumeration of the two or three thousand villages comprised in those provinces, with many statistics, would take me all my spare time for many months, and still further delay, perhaps indefinitely, this memoir, which I promised two years ago. I must, therefore, restrict myself to some short notes on Isfahan, and still shorter notes on the other provinces. EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. | | 9 THE PROVINCE OF ISFAHAN. 115. This province, which confines Eastern Persian Irak on the south, extends in the north-east and east to the desert, in the south-east to Yezd and Fars, in the south and south-west to Fars, in the west to the Bakhtiari country, in the north-west to Luristan, Kezzaz, Kemereh, and Mahallat, in the north to Joshekan and Natanz. Its assessed taxes amount to 3,791,202 krans in cash, 8855 kharvars of grain, 6000 kharvars of straw per annum, equivalent to about £100,000 altogether. 116. The province is divided into twenty-five districts, or sub-provinces, variously called shehr, buluk, mahal, kassa- beh, and nahiyeh, the town Isfahan itself forming one of them as a shehr. There are nine buluk, eight mahal, two kassabeh, and five nahiyeh. This division has existed for many centuries. 117. –(1) Shehr i Isfahan comprises the town on the left side of the Zayendehrud and the gardens in its immediate neighbourhood. The town covers about 18 or 20 square miles, but many parts of it are in ruins. Its length is from west to east, from the Marbanan (vulgo Marman) gate and bridge (pars. 24, 26), to the Zileh gate; its breadth from south to north, from the Khaju gate to the Tughchi gate. The southern boundary of the town is formed by the Neiasaram canal, which is led off from the river at the Marbanan bridge, and, running parallel to it, rejoins it near the Zileh gate. The population of the town is about eighty thousand, rather more than less.” * His Imperial Highness Zill es Sultan graciously supplied me with a volume of statistics referring to the Isfahan province. From these statistics it appears that a census was taken of the population of the town and all the villages of the province in 1882. The people were counted “twice, once by some officials specially appointed for the purpose, and again, independently but simultaneously, by the chief of I 2 () EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 118. There are fourteen gates:— 1. Marbanan - 9. Juibareh - 2. Seh peleh | 10. Sayyid Ahmedian”! on the 3. Alyaran on the 11. Karran eaSt. 4. Juzdan West. 12. Zileh - 5. Bidabad 13. Khaju } on the 6. Chahar ru 14. Chaharbagh 5 south. 7. Dardasht | * the s. Tugnon; ) north. - 119. Up to the tenth century the town consisted of six parishes—Lumban, in the South-west ; Bagh i Karan, now the various mahallehs, parishes, and villages. The two series of figures arrived at were practically the same, viz. for Isfahan only, excluding the Armenian colony of Julfa on the right bank of the river: Census I. 9616 houses, with 37,597 males and 36,188 females, or 73,785 inhabi- tants altogether ; Census II. 9572 houses, with 37,462 males and 36,064 females, or 73,526 inhabitants altogether. Of these there were, according to Census I., 68,479 (34,953 m. 33,526 f.) Musulmans and 5306 (2644 m. 2662 f.) Jews; and according to Census II., 67,064 (34,245 m. 32,819 f.) Musulmans and 6462 (3217 m. 3245 f.) Jews. Taking the means of these we get for 1882– Houses tº G & e tº º • * * tº º º tº º & º º º 9594 Musulmans (males) tº gº tº tº dº tº ... 34599 9 3 (females) tº º º Q @ 6 ... 33172 —— 67771 Jews (males) tº º º e sº º tº º º ... 29.30 ,, (females) ... is tº e tº ſº tº ... 2953 5883 Total population ... ... 73654 Assuming that the population increases # per cent. per annum, which I have found elsewhere to be the usual ratio, the present popu- lation, eleven years after the census, would be 79,726, but as many people have immigrated from the surrounding districts during the last ten years, the population may be put down as close on 82,000. Knowing, as I do, the energy and thoroughness with which H.I.H. Zill es Sultan always pursues the objects he has in view, I place entire confidence in the figures obtained. The figures show that there were 7.67 inhabitants per house, 9587 Musulman females to 10,000 males, and 1008 Jew females to 1000 males. EASTERN PERSIAN IRA K. | 2 || represented by the Mahalleh i Khaju, in the south-east : Aarran i was it, in the east; Chumbulan, in the west ; Juibareh 7 shumah (also Jubar); and Dardasht. The Buyehs added the Mahalleh Tabarek, with the castle of the same name ; the Seljuks, in the eleventh century, the Mahalleh i Gulbar, with their palaces (see “Muhasin ul Isfahan,' by Mufazzel b. S’ad b. al Husein Mafarrukhi, written latter part of eleventh century); then, as the town extended, Dar i Kushk, Bidabad, and the other mahallehs were added. The city was greatest during the Sefaviehs, in the seventeenth century. In 1722 the Afghans destroyed most of it, and many quarters are as they left them. Now there are thirty-seven mahallehs:— * 1. Dolet. 19. Huseinabad Tughchi. 2. Bagh i jannat. 20. Dardasht. 3. Abbasabad. 21. Shahinshahan. 4. Lunban. 22. Asinjan. 5. Chahar suk i Shira- 23. Filfilchi. Ziha. 24. Chunbalan. 6. Shamsabad. 25. Jennalkelleh. 7. Charkhab. 26. Nimaverd (Nimvar). 8. Hasanabad. 27. Masjed i Hakim. 9. Khaju. 28. Darvazeh No. 10. Tarvasgan. 29. Bidabad. 11. Zileh. 30. Shayish. 12. Pai Kal'ah. 31. No. 13. Kasr i Munshi. 32. Dar i Kushk. 14. Karran. 33. Darvazeh Dolet. 15. Ahmedabad. 34. Khiaban. 16. Yezdabad. 35. Mustahlik. 17. Gulbar. 36. Marnan. 18. Juibareh. 37. Khavjan. . Most of. the mahallehs are separated from each other by gates, which are generally closed at night. The system of closing the gates at night is called kucheh munsaddeh or shibeh, the latter term being Turkish. 122 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. The Dolet Mahalleh contains all the Government build- ings, the great mosque, and some of the principal bazars; the Juibareh Mahalleh (18) is subdivided in Lºtur and God i Maksud Beg ; the Shayish Mahalleh (30) is also called Shayish Bidabad; the Kasr-Munshi (13) is also known as Baghat; and the Gulbar (17) as Meidan i Kohneh. The Mahallehs Abbasabad (3), Charkhab (7), Tilfilchi (23), and Mustahlik (35) are totally ruined. The Kal'ah i Tabarek, in the Pai Kal'ah Mahalleh, was built by Rukn ed doleh Abu Ali Hasan b. Buyah (died 976), and his son Fakhr ed doleh died in it in 997. It is now a complete ruin. The Seljuks built the Gulbar quarter, with a square, now the Meidan Kohneh, in front of their palace. A part of their palace, now known as the old Nekkareh Khaneh, is still standing in the Meidan i Kohneh, where the Isfahan market for grain, hay, straw, firewood, and charcoal is held three times weekly. 120. Isfahan has two hundred and ten mosques and colleges, the most important being— Mosques: Jam’ah 'atik, built by Malik Shah Seljuk (died 1092), after plans made by the celebrated Vizir Nizam el Mulk (died 1092). Was several times repaired under the Sefaviehs. Jama'ſ Abbasi, or Masjed Shah, on the great meidan in the Dolet quarter, built by Shah Abbas I. It has a length of 511 feet, and a breadth of 294 feet. Masjed i Hakim, in the quarter of the same name, was built by Hakim Daud, medical adviser to Shah Abbas II. M. : Sheikh Luff Ullah, with the grave of the sheikh ; built under Shah Abbas I. ; in the big meidan. M. : Hajji Sayyid Muhammed Baker Reshti, in Bidabad. M. : Mir Sayyid Hasan, in Mahalleh i No, completed a couple of years ago by Muhammed Rahim Khan, Beglerbeggi of Isfahan, and his brothers. - EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. - 123 M. i Haft Muhammed Jafar Abadehi, in Jemaleh Kelleh. M. : Sheikh Ali Khan Zengeneh, in Tarvaskan. M. * Aka Nur, in Dardasht. M. : Misri, in Juibareh. M. : Ali Kuli Aka, built under Sefaviehs. M. : Sheikh Muhammed Taki, in Nimaverd. M. i Ilchi, in Ahmedabad. M. : Lumban, in Lunban. M. i Khayyat and M. : Shire/pae, in the great bazar. M. i Sarutaki, in the Dolet quarter, built by Sarutaki, Itemaded doleh, Vizir of Shah Sefi, partly ruined. Colleges (Madresseh): Sultanî, in the old Chaharbagh, built by Shah Sultan Hussein about 1700. Sadr, built by Muhammed Husein Khan, Sadr Azam. Nimaverd. . Kasehgeran, in Meridan i Kohneh. Mariam Begum, in Khaju quarter; this was originally a caravanserai, but Mariam Begum, a daughter of Shah Sefī, turned it into a college. Shahzadeha, Baba Kasem, Mirza Husein, Mirza Mehdi. There are many more colleges, but most are in ruins. 121. There are five large and some small minarets, the highest being the Minar i Saraban, in the Juibareh quarter. Of only one of these minarets is the date of construction known, viz. of the Minar i Ali in Gulbar, which was built by Malik Shah Seljuk. g Isfahan has eighty-four caravanserais, one hundred and fifty public baths, and sixty-eight flour-mills. 122. The water-supply of the town is principally from open canals, which are led off from the Zayendehrud, and from streams from the hills in the north-west. The principal canals are—. Neiasaram. Leaves the river at the Marman bridge, forms 124 JEASTERN PERSIAN IRA R. the southern boundary of the town, waters Mahalleh Bagh i jannat and Lumban Divides into three branches near the Zileh gate, one branch joining river, the others watering the Jei district east of the city. r Farshadi. Leaves the river at Najavan in Marbin, passes through Lumban and Shamsabad, and leaves the town by the Dolet quarter north of Khaju. A branch is led from it to the Charkhab, Hasanabad, and Tarvaskan quarters. Jui Shah. Enters the town at Lumban, and waters the Government gardens in the Dolet quarter. Fadein, or Feda. Was given to the town by the Sefaviehs; enters by way of Lumban ; divides near the Dolet quarter in two branches—one flowing to Dar i Kushk, Bidabad, Chahar suk, and Darvazeh No, where it is called Ab i bakhshan, and leaving the town near the village Sovari ; the other flowing through the great meidan, where it divides in three branches, watering Kasr Munshi, Yezdabad, Ahmedabad, Gulbar, Juibareh, etc. Tiran. Comes from the north-west, and waters Mahalleh No, Bidabad. Komish. Comes from the north-west, flows through Marbin, enters the town by way of Lumban, waters Shamsabad. There are also numerous wells fed by ground water, which is reached at a depth of 10 to 16 feet below the surface. There are no underground canals. 123. It is said that Isfahan has only once suffered from an earthquake, and that was in August, A.D. 853, when many people were killed. This earthquake was felt from Isfahan to Nishapur, and Damghan and Bostam suffered most, at the former place alone forty thousand people losing their lives. The plague has visited Isfahan twice, once in the sixth century, during the wars of Anushirvan against the Emperor Justianus, the second time in the Seventeenth century. Persian EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. I 25 authors consider Isfahan one of the most Salubrious towns in the world, and often refer to its apparent immunity from epidemies. In modern times cholera has several times appeared at Isfahan, and the people say that this is due to the Mºutamed ed dowleh's having carried off the talisman, which protected the city, about fifty years ago. 124.—(2) Jel, Subdivided into Jei north of the river, and Barza'ud Jei South of the river. Extends to 6 or 7 miles east of Isfahan. (a) Jel. Principal villages: Khuraskan, Shamsabad, Tiran-Ahangaran, Shehristan, Girdabad, Abhar, Buzan, Tameh, Laftan, Haftan, Sanjevansur (vulgo Samsur). (b) Barzudi Jel. Principal villages: Julfa (official name Julahiyeh), Dastgird, Siyan, Kinan, Marbanan (Marman). The area of Jei is about 45 square miles. (3) Barkhar, the second of the nine buluk, north of Isfahan, covering an area of 1200 square miles; has a hundred and twelve underground canals. Its chief place is Ges, close to Isfahan ; other important villages are Doletabad, Habbibabad, Dastgird, Adermanabad, Khurzuk, Shapurabad, Durmian. Sin (with an old minaret), Gurgab, Murchakhar, Komishejeh. Close to Gurgab was J'afarabad, which had a college under the Sefaviyehs, and was destroyed by the Afghans in 1722. (4) Kahab, third buluk (the name is said to be derived from Kei, “an open canal”), is situated east of Jei and Barkhar. Its area is about 260 square miles, and its principal place is Kahadaristan, commonly called Kujuristan, which is close to Habbibabad of Barkhar. Its principal villages are Arzanan, Gavareh, Kelunabad (vulgo Chelunabad). This buluk has very few gardens. (5) Kararéj, the fourth buluk, 40 square miles, east of Barzrud i Jei, beginning at the Shehristaneh bridge. Its principal villages are Dashti, Pudan, Rudan, Ishkavend. (6) Ba'aan, fifth buluk, 240 square miles, on both 126 EASTER N PERSIAN IRA R. sides of the river, east of Jei and Kararej. Principal villages: Kabutarabad, Ziar, Barsian, Jozdan. (7) Rudasht, sixth buluk, 800 square miles, on both sides of the river, extending to the Gavkhani marsh. Its principal place is Varzeneh, 4 miles above Gavkhani; other places are Marchi, Farfahan. The Gavkhani marsh receives the Zayendehrud. In summer it has very little water, a few inches in depth, covering about 15 square miles; in the spring seasons it forms a lake 35 miles in length and 8 to 10 in breadth, and the water is in parts 15 to 18 feet in depth. (8) Marlin, the seventh buluk, 250 square miles, west of Isfahan, and north of the river. It is subdivided into Northern and Southern Marbin. : (a) Northern Marbin : Principal villages: Barzan, Apa- ran, Kujan, Veldan, Ranan, Jirvegan, Harustan, Andavan, Sehdeh (the “three villages,” Khuzan, Warnisfadaran, Feri- shan; the last commonly called Parivishan, and its foundation ascribed to the fairy (Pari) Vishan). Sehdeh is also called Ben Isfahan. (b) Southern Marbin : Principal villages: Kushk, Kuk- man, Kuretan, Jozdan, Najavan, Zarran, Ladan, Alyaran, with the shaking minarets. (9) Lenjan, the eighth buluk, extends on both sides of the river to the frontier of Chaharmahal, about 50 miles west of Isfahan. It is subdivided into five parishes. (a) Lenjalenj, eastern part of buluk, and on both sides of the river : Kadrijan, Felaverjan, Kahrizsang (Karsang), Bagh i Kumah, Sahlavan, Gulishad, Darchehpiaz, Ab inil, Gavman, Karmaseh. (b) (ſergen, south of river : Bitukun, Khan Sark, Mihrgan, Kilisan, Firezan, Samsan, Siahafshad, Dehsurkh. (c) Ushte.jun, on both sides of the river : Ushterjan, Sarshir, Fudan, Darjan, Baght i wahsh, Chamgusaleh, Isfina, Kuhcheh, Jifrch, IIumeh, Khulenjan, Gergun, Aderjan. º EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 127 (d) Ashian, both sides of river : Riz, Chamgirdan, Bisejan, Nukehran (Nokran), Chamasman, Niadjan, Var- namkhas, Sehdeh, Kellehmasihi, Kellehmusulman, Pelleh- kelleh, and also called Hujatabad. (e) Aidſ/humish, both sides of river : Berinjgan, Margan, Aidghumish, Zardkhushu, Chammari, Chamgav, Champarkis- tan, Bagh Badran, Kechevan, Khushu, Veshnendejan, Latari, Chamzein, Chamtak, Chamkaka, Sovadejan, Germderreh. Villages situated on the river are called Cham. (10) Kerven, the ninth buluk, 780 square miles, north of Lenjan, subdivided into Upper and Lower, watered by Murghab. (a) Upper Kerven : Dehak, 'Alavi, Hasani. (b) Lower Kerven : Tiran, 'Askaran. 125.-(11) Rar, eastern part of Chaharmahal, is the first of the eight mahals of Isfahan. Rar is subdivided into Upper and Lower. Principal villages: Saman, Dehgird, Zanian, Ben, Germin, Dastana, Shalamzar, Kuhrud, Mafishejan, Mahfarrukh, Hulenjan, Khoi, Sudehjan. (12) Kiar, the second mahal, South-west of Rar : Kelatek, Surek, Kheirabad. (13) Mizdej, the third mahal, north-west of Rar: Baba Heidar, Kujan, Farsan, Junekan. (14) Ganduman, the fourth mahal, west of Rar : Gandu- man, Berujen, Safiddasht, Baldaji, Rivasjan. The Ganduman district ends near Chika Khur, in the Bakhtiari country, and extends to the south to the Kuh i Sabz, a part of the Dinaran hills, on the frontiers of Fars. Rar, Kiar, Mizdej, and Ganduman form the district known as Chaharmahal. (15) Someiram, the fifth mahal of Isfahan, 1300 Square miles, south of Lenjan, west of Komisheh, subdivided into Upper and Lower, and Haft Mazr'ah. (a) Upper Someiran . Dehakan, Someiram. 128 EASTER N PERSIAN IRA R. © (b) Lower Someiram : Pudeh, Kenbehan, Kerruyeh, Talkhuni. (c) Haft Mazrah : Khanu, Dehno, Mubarekeh, Behjir. (16) Jarkuyeh, or Karkuyeh, about 45 miles south from Isfahan, 1600 square miles, extends in east to Yezd, in west to Komisheh; known for its excellent cotton; subdivided into Upper and Lower. . (a) Upper Jarkuyeh . Hasanabad, Malaverjird, Ramsheh, Isfandaran, Dastjird. (b) Lower Jarkuyeh : Nikabad, Azerkharan, Siam, Peikan. (17) Ardistan, the seventh mahal, 5400 square miles; greater part desert ; South-east of Natanz, north-east of Isfahan, north-west of Nain ; subdivided into four districts. (a) Germsir, with Ardistan (town of 10,000 inhabitants) and Zavareh, with a population of 6000. Both very old towns. Other places: Mahabad, Moghar, Kechu. - (b) Upper Kuhistan, with Keju (or Kajun), 300 population. (c) Lower Kuhistan, with Muzdabad. (d) Barzavend, with Neyistaneh and Joghend. (18) Kuhpayeh, the eighth mahal, 1600 square miles, south of Ardistan, east of Isfahan, on both sides of the river. Chief place Vir, generally called Kuhpa. Other villages: Zefreh, Feshark, Mishkinan, Herend. 126.—(19) Nejefabad, the first kassabeh, or “little town,” 16 to 17 miles west of Isfahan ; 1000 inhabitants. (20) Komisheh, the second kassabeh, on the high-road to Shiraz, south of Isfahan ; is watered by the Rudi Kerruyeh . to it belong the villages Injan, Isfarjan, Maksud beggi. The following five are the nahiyeh of Isfahan, and form the Feridan district :— 127.-(21) Chadegan, with fifty villages; chief place Chadegan. Other villages: Meshhed Ahangeran (formerly called Kudeliyeh), Harchegan, Jammalu. O © EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. & | 29 (22) Varzek, with thirty villages: Daran, Genjeh, Dumbeneh, etc. (23). Tokhmaklu (also called Gerchambut), thirty villages: Tokhmaklu, Hindukush, Shah'anayet, Zarneh, Sangbaran, Nimagird, etc. (24) Gurji, with twenty villages: Buyin, Afus, Akhureh, Miandasht, etc. (25) Chinarud, northernmost part of Feridan. Only village standing Kaj; all others ruined. Beyond Chinarud is the Barbarud (Bardbarut) district, and then follows the province of Burujird. The Feridan district has an area of about 1000 square miles. THE PROVINCES OF IRAK AND SAVAH. 128. The latest statistics which I possess give these two provinces, together with Kezzaz and Mahallat, as one govern- ment, although they formed separate governments for the last three or four years. Their assessed taxes are put down at 727,357 krans cash, 17,405 kharvars grain, and 2228 kharvars straw-equivalent to about £29,000 altogether. The chief place of Irak is Sultanabad, or Shehr i no (see note, par. 6), with a population of 6000. The Kuh i Tafresh, which has its name from the Tafresh district, is situated between Irak and Savah, almost in the midst of the Khale- jistan district, a part of Savah, and having its name from the Khalej tribe residing in it (see par. 48). Khalejistan is subdivided into five buluk: (1) Sardab, with Tajkhatun, (2) Jehrud, with Jehrud and twenty-nine other villages; (3) Kerab, or Tafresh, with Ashtian ; (4) Vezvah; and (5) Rahgird, with Rahgird, or Rugird and Rijird, on the high-road between : Kom and Sultanabad. The governor's residence is at Savah, a small town with a population of 7000. The water-supply of the town is from open canals fed by the Mazdakan river K I 30 r EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. (par. 21, 4), and from one underground canal. There are two old mosques, one inside and the other outside of the town, the former built in 1518, the other in 1516; both are ruined. The one outside of the town has a beautiful minaret, 36 feet in height, and probably dating from the twelfth century. There are nine public baths, four graves of Saints, and a bazar with a hundred and twenty shops. The town Avah, which is generally mentioned together with Savah, is situated South-south-east of Savah, and is now an insignificant place with a hundred houses, paying yearly taxes amounting to 2350 krans in cash and 235 khavars of grain. It is Government property, and held in fief by Seif es Sultaneh, chief of the Khalej tribe. Close to it are the ruins of the old town, with a building known as the grave of Sham'un, and many mounds. The districts of Zerend and Karaghan, to the north, also belong to Savah. THE PROVINCE OF TEHERAN. 129. This province comprises the districts of Saujbulagh Shahriar, Feshaviyeh (Pishapuyeh), Shimran, Kasran, Vera- min, with assessed taxes amounting to about £100,000 per annum. Veramin is subdivided into four districts, viz. : (1) 'Arab, with seventeen villages; (2) Bahmansukhteh, with forty-six villages; (3) Pazuki, with twenty-four villages; and (4) Karakaj, with thirty-six villages. Shimran, com- prising the district north of Teheran on the slopes of the Elburz, has sixty-three villages. ETYMOLOGY OF NAMES TEHERAN AND SHIMRAN. 130. Teheran, as it is now written, with Arabic t and h, is a modern Arabicized form of Tiran. Tiran was still in use in the seventeenth century, as we see from the spelling of the EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. 131. name by travellers. Tiran in Kerven, and Tiran Ahangaran near Isfahan, are frequently mentioned in histories, and always written “Tiran,” but both, like the capital of Persia, figure in Government registers as “Teheran.” As one of the instances where the capital is mentioned in history under its old form, I may mention the ‘Jehangushai Joveini,' by 'Ala ed din Atamalik (died 1283), where, in the chapter “Lashker avurdan i 'Ala ed din Takash ber Sar i Irak,” the town is mentioned as “Tiran.” As for the etymology, the word may mean “the plains” (as plural of tir, “a plain"), in contra- distinction to Shimran, more correctly Shamran, plural of Shamr, “a mountain in which water is stored up for the supply of the plains.” Every drop of the Teheran water comes from the Shimran hills, and thus it was in former times, and to the people in the Tiran, the plains, the hills to the north from which they got their water were the Shamran. Government scribes, particularly those of the Revenue Office, are often the cause of old local names being lost. They have a way of “Arabicizing,” as they call it, old Persian names, to a degree that they cannot be recognized. We see this here with the names Teheran and Shimran ; the latter word they some- times write Shamiran, which gives rise to the childish etymology sham' Iran, “the candle of Iran,” and not con- tent with this, they often form an Arabic plural of the word “Shamran,” which is already a plural, and make it Shamiranat. The above etymology of Teheran and Shimran is by no means certain. Only the ‘Burhan i Kata'' gives the suitable meaning of the word “shamr,” and vocalizes it shamar ; other dictionaries explain shamar as “a hollow place in which water stagnates,” an algir. Tir as “a plain,” “Sahra wa biaban,” only occurs in the Burhan i Kata'' and ‘Burham i Jama'.' | 32 EASTERN PERSIAN IRAK. © 131. ADDITIONAL NoTEs— To par. 25. The rainfall for 1892 amounted to 9:44 inches; the heaviest falls were in the month of Nowember, which showed a total of 3:23 inches. For the next years it was as follows— 1893 ... 9.29 inches; greatest monthly amount in April, 2.67 1894 ... 10.66 , 29 } } March, 2.78 1895 ... 11:01 3 2 $ 2 25 April, 3:19 22 (to 1st September) To par. 29. Colonel Wells, R.E., the Director of the Telegraph Department, informs me that the telegraph official in charge of the meteorological observations may earn, out- side of the 10 rupees per mensem, a bonus not exceeding 60 rupees per annum for extra storm observations. To par. 42. Colonel Wells points out that he has identi- fied the snipe which visits the neighbourhood of Teheran for a fortnight in May as the wood-snipe, Gallinago memoricola. 1896 ... 971 To par. 51. The regular passenger service between Teheran and Kom was stopped in 1894. Travellers must now hire private carriages and pay high rates. 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