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CAMBRIDGE GEOGRAPHICAL SERIES.
GENERAL EDITOR: F. H. H. GUILLEMARD, M.D.
FORMERLY LECTURER IN GEOGRAPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE,
THE LANDS OF THE
EASTERN CALIPHATE.
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE,
C. F. CLAY, MANAGER.
3|Untott: AVE MARIA LANE, E.C.
(5Iaggog: 50, WELLINGTON STREET.
3ícipzig; F. A. BROCKHAUS.
ſheg Aggrk: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
330m bag amb (Talcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO. LTD.
[All Rights reserved.]

THE LANDS OF THE
EASTERN CALIPHATE
Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia
from the Moslem conquest to the time of Timur
by
sº
G. LE STRANGE
Author of Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate,
Palestine under the Moslems etc.
CAMBRIDGE:
at the University Press
I 905
:
;
:
:
*
*:
(Tambridge:
PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
wf--w.
S.*
PREFACE.
N the following pages an attempt is made to gather
within a convenient compass the information scattered
through the works of the medieval Arab, Persian, and
Turkish geographers, who have described Mesopotamia
and Persia, with the nearer parts of Central Asia. The
authorities quoted begin with the earlier Moslem writers,
and conclude with those who described the settlement of
these lands which followed after the death of Timür, the
last greatſCentral Asian wars of conquest,-for with the
fifteenth century the medieval period in Asia may be said
to come to an end.
The present work is also the complement of Baghdād
under the Abbasid Caliphate published in 1900, and carries
forward the geographical record which I began in Palestine
*nder the Moslems, a work that appeared in 1890.
To keep the volume within moderate compass, the
geography of Arabia, with the description of the two Holy
Cities of Mecca and Medina, though these for the most
part were under the dominion of the Abbasids, has been
omitted. Perhaps some other scholar may take up the
subject, with fuller knowledge than I have, and write the
historical geography of Arabia with Egypt across the Red
Sea under the Fatimid Caliphs ; completing the circuit of
Moslem lands by describing the various provinces of North
Africa, with the Outlying and shortlived, though most
splendid, western Caliphate of Spain.
- . . ~~~~
x *... < ... ...
- *~ *
vi PREFACE.
If Moslem history is ever to be made interesting, and in-
deed to be rightly understood, the historical geography of the
nearer East during the middle-ages must be thoroughly
worked out. I have made a first attempt, but how much
more needs to be done, and better done than in the present
volume, I am the first to recognise. The ground, however,
for future work is now cleared ; the authorities for each
statement are given in the footnotes; some mistakes are
corrected of previous writers, and a beginning made of
a complete survey for this period of the provinces of the
Abbasid Caliphate. But my book is only a summary, and
does not pretend to be exhaustive; also to keep down the
size, I have been obliged to omit translating in full the
Itineraries, which our Moslem authorities give us. In this
matter a new edition, duly corrected from recently published
texts, is indeed much needed of Sprenger's Post und Reise
A'outen des Orients, though the translation of the Itineraries
which Professor De Goeje has appended to his edition of
Ibn Khurdādbih and Kudámah, goes far to supply the
lack.
With each province I have given such information as
our authorities afford of the trade and manufactures; the
record, however, is very fragmentary, and for a general
survey of the products of the Moslem east, during the
middle-ages, the chapter on the subject (Handel und
Gewerbe) in A. von Kremer's Culturgeschichte des Orients
is still the best that I know.
A chronological list of the Moslem geographers referred
to in the notes by initial letters is given at the end of
the Table of Contents. The fuller titles of other works
quoted in the notes are given on the first reference to each
author, and the names of their works will easily be
recovered, for subsequent references, by consulting the
index for the first mention made of the book.
In the introductory chapter a summary description
will be found of the works of the Arab geographers;
PREFACE, vii
but this matter has already been more fully discussed in
Palestime zºnder the Moslems.
The dates are given according to the years of the
Hijrah, with the corresponding year A.D. (in brackets).
The method of transcription adopted needs no comment,
being that commonly in use ; it may be noted that the
Arab w is usually pronounced v in Persian ; and that
besides the emphatic g the Arab dh and d are both
indifferently pronounced 2 in modern Persian, while the th
has the sound of s.
In a work like the present, almost entirely composed
from eastern Sources, many errors will doubtless be found ;
also, with the great number of references, mistakes are
unavoidable, and I shall feel most grateful for any corrections,
or notice of omissions.
My hope is that others may be induced to set to work
in this field of historical geography, and if this essay be
soon superseded by a more complete survey of the ground,
it will have served its purpose in having prepared the way
for better things.
G. L.E STRANGE.
3, VIA SAN FRANCESCO POVERINO,
FLORENCE, ITALY.
Alſay, 1905.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
Mesopotamia and Persia, their provinces under the Abbasid Caliphs. The
outlying provinces to the north-west and the north-east. The high roads
from Baghdād to the Moslem frontiers. The Moslem geographers, and
their works. Other authorities. Place-names in the Arabic, Turkish,
and Persian provinces & ſº g $ e º e & I
CHAPTER II.
‘IRAK.
The division of Mesopotamia, Northern and Southern. “Irāk or Babylonia.
Change in the courses of the Euphrates and Tigris. The great irrigation
canals. Baghdād. Madáin and the cities on the Tigris thence down to
Fam-as-Silh * * * g e * sº e gº g 24
CHAPTER III.
‘IRAK (continued).
Wäsit. The Great Swamps. Madhār and Kurmah. The Blind Tigris.
Basrah and its canals. Ubullah and ‘Abbādām. The Tigris above
Baghdād. Baradán. The Dujayl district. ‘Ukbārā, Harbà, and IKā-
disiyah e * e e e * e tº º * * 39
CHAPTER IV,
‘IRAK (continued).
Sâmarrá. Takrit. The Nahrawān canal. Ba‘kābā and other towns. Nahr-
awān town, and the Khurāsān road. Jālūlā and Khānikin. Bandanijän
and Bayāt. Towns on the Euphrates from Hadithah to Anbār. The
‘īsā canal. Muhawwal, Sarsar and the Nahr-al-Malik. The Kāthā
canal g tº * * * g tº * º s * 53
X CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
‘IRAK (continued).
The bifurcation of the Euphrates. The Sără channel. Kasr Ibn Hubayrah.
Nil and its canal. The Nahr Nars. The Badāt canal, and Pombedita.
The Kāfah channel. Kāfah city. Kādisiyah. Mashhad ‘Alī and
Karbalā. The twelve Astāns of ‘Irāk. Trade. The high roads of
‘Irāk & e e & te g * º º & g 70
CHAPTER VI.
JAZIRAH.
The three districts. The district of Diyar Rabī‘ah. Mosul, Nineveh, and the
neighbouring towns. Great Zāb, Hadithah, and Irbil. Little Zāb, Sinn,
and Dākūk. The Lesser Khābār, Hasaniyah, and ‘Imādiyah. Jazirah
Ibn ‘Omar and Mount Júdi. Nasībīn and Rās-al-‘Ayn. Mārdīn and
Dunaysir. The Hirmás and the Khābār. ‘Arabán and the Tharthár
river. Sinjär and IHadr. Balad and Adhramah * © g 86
CHAPTER VII.
JAZíRAH (continued).
The district of Diyār Mudar. Rakkah and Räfikah. The river Balikh and
IIarrán, Edessa and Hisn-Maslamah. Išarkisiyä. The Nahr Sa‘īd,
Rahbah, and Däliyah. Rusāfah of Syria. ‘Ānah. Bālis, Jisr Manbij,
and Sumaysät, Sarāj. The district of Diyār Bakr. Amid, Häni, and
the source of the Tigris. Mayyāfarikin and Arzan. Hisn Kayfä and Tall
Fāfān. Sãºirt . g & g tº {e tº tº e e IOI
CHAPTER VIII.
THE UPPER EU PHRATES.
The Eastern Euphrates or Arsamās. Milásgird and Mūsh. Shimshāt and
Hisn Ziyād or Kharpät. The Western Euphrates. Arzan-ar-Rûm or
IKālikalā. Arzanjān and Kamkh. The castle of Abrik or Tephrike.
Malatiyah and Tarandah. Zibatrah and Hadath. Hisn-Manşūr, Bahasná,
and the Sanjah bridge. Products of Upper Mesopotamia. The high
roads & * & te e g * e wº & g II5
CONTENTS. xi
CHAPTER IX.
RÚM OR ASIA MINOR.
Bilād-ar-Rûm or the Greek country. The line of fortresses from Malatiyah
to Tarsūs. The two chief passes across the Taurus. The Constantinople
high road by the Cilician Gates. Trebizond. Three sieges of Constantinople.
Moslem raids into Asia Minor. The sack of Amorion by Mu'tasim.
Invasion of Asia Minor by the Saljúks. The kingdom of Little Armenia.
The Crusaders. The chief towns of the Saljåk Sultanate of Rüm 127
CHAPTER X.
RÚM (continued).
The ten Turkoman Amirates. Ibn Batūtah and Mustawfi. Kaysäriyah and
Sivās. The Sultan of Mesopotamia. The Amir of Karamân. Kāniyah.
The Amir of Tekkeh, ‘Alāyā, and Antáliyah. The Amir of Hamid,
Egridár. The Amir of Germiyān, Kutahiyah, and Sivri-Hisâr. The
Amir of Menteshå, Milás. The Amīr of Aydin, Ephesus, and Smyrna.
The Amir of Sārākhān, Magnesia. The Amir of Karási, Pergamos. The
“Othmānli territory, Brusá. The Amīr of Kizil Ahmadli, Sinúb . I44
CHAPTER XI.
ADHARBAYJAN.
The lake of Urmiyah. Tabriz. Sarāv. Marāghah and its rivers. Pasawā
and Ushnuh. Urmiyah city and Salmās; Khoi and Marand. Nakhchivān.
Bridges over the Araxes. Mount Sablán. Ardabil and Āhar. The
Safid Rūd and its affluents. Miyānij. Khalkhāl and Firſizābād. The
Shál river and Shāh Rūd district . * e * & * I59
CHAPTER XII.
GíLÄN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES.
The Gilāns. Daylam and the Tālish districts. Barvān, Dūlāb, and Khashm.
Lāhījān, Rasht, and other towns of Gilān. The district of Mūghān.
Bajarvān and Barzand. Mahmūdābād. Warthán. The province of
Arrán. Bardhā‘ah. Baylakān. Ganjah and Shamkår. The rivers Kur
and Aras. The province of Shirvān. Shamākhi. Bākāyah and Bāb-al-
Abwab. The province of Gurjistán or Georgia. Tiflis and Kars. The
province of Armenia. Dabil or Duwin. The lake of Vân. Akhlāt,
Arjish, Văn, and Bitlis. Products of the northern provinces * I72
xii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIII.
JIBAL.
The province of Jibál, or ‘Irāk ‘Ajam, with its four districts. Kirmasin
or Kirmānshāhān. Bisutān and its sculptures. Kanguvâr. Dinavar.
Shahrazūr. Hulwān. The great Khurāsān road. Kirind. Kurdistän
under the Saljúks. Bahár. Jamjamál. Alâni and Alishtar. Hamadān
and its districts. Darguzin. Kharakānayn and the northern Avah.
Nihāvand. Karaj of Rádrāvar, and Karaj of Abu-Dulaf. Farāhān 185
CHAPTER XIV.
JIBAL (continued).
Little Lur. Burājird. Khurramābād, Shāpārkhwäst. Sirawān and Saymarah.
Isfahān and its districts. Firázān; Färifăn and the river Zandah Rūd.
Ardistân. Kāshān. Kum, Gulpaygān, and the Kum river. Avah and
Sāvah. The river Gāvmāhā . g © º e © g 2CO
CHAPTER XV.
JIBAL (continued).
Ray. Varāmīn and Tihrān. Kazvin and the castle of Alamät, Zanjān.
Sultāniyah. Shiz or Satárik. Khānaj. The districts of Tālikān and
Târum. The castle of Shamīrān. The trade and products of the Jibál
province. The high roads of Jibál, Adharbäyjān and the frontier pro-
vinces of the north-west . o g * ſº e e * 2I4
CHAPTER XVI.
KHÚZISTAN.
The Dujayl or Kārūn river. Khūzistān and Ahwāz. Tustar or Shustar.
The Great Weir. The Masrukān canal. ‘Askar Mukram. Junday
Shāpār. Dizfūl. Sūs and the Karkhah river. Basinná and Mattàth.
Karkāb and Dār-ar-Răsibi. Hawizah and Nahr Tírâ. Dawrak and the
Surrak district. Hisn Mahdi. The Dujayl estuary. Rämhurmuz and
the Zutt district. Territory of Great Lur. idhaj or Māl-Amir. Súsan.
Lurdagān. Trade and products of Khūzistán. The high roads . 232
CONTENTS. xiii
CHAPTER XVII.
FÅRS.
Division of province into five districts or Kārahs. The district of Ardashir
Khurrah. Shirāz. Lake Mähalāyah. The Sakkân river. Juwaym.
Dasht Arzin lake. Kuvár. Khabr and Simkân. Kärzin and the
Kubād Khurrah district. Jahram. Juwaym of Abu Ahmad. Mändistân.
irãhistán. Júr or Firāzābād. The coast districts of Färs. Kays island.
Siráf. Najiram and Tawwaj. Ghundījān. Khārik and other islands
of the Persian Gulf . e & * a º g & e 248
CHAPTER XVIII.
FÅRS (continued).
The district of Shāpār Khurrah. Shāpār city and cave. The Ratin river.
Nawbanjān. The White Castle and Sha‘b Bavvān. The Zamms of the
Kurds. Käzirün and its lake. The rivers Ikhshin and Jarshik. Jirrah
and the Sabük bridge. The Arraján district and Arrajān city. The Tâb
river. Bihbahān. The river Shirin. Gunbadh Mallaghān. Mahrubăn.
Siniz and Jannābah. The river Shādhkān . & e * 262
CHAPTER XIX.
FÅRS (continued).
The Istakhr district, and Istakhr city or Persepolis. Rivers Kur and Pulvăr.
Lake Bakhtigán and the cities round it. The Marvdasht plain. Baydā
and Māyin. Kūshk-i-Zard. Sarmak and Yazdikhwäst. The three roads
from Shīrāz to Isfahân. Abarkūh. Yazd city, district, and towns. The
Rādhān district and its towns. Shahr-i-Bābak and Harāt . * 275
CHAPTER XX.
FÅRS (continued).
The Dārābjird Kūrah or Shabānkārah district. Dārābjird city. Darkān and
fg. Nîrîz and Istahbānāt. Fasā, Rüniz, and Khasſi. Lār and Furg.
Tārum and Sārū. The trade and manufactures of Färs. The high roads
across Fārs . º * & º e & te tº gº 288
xiv CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXI.
KIRMAN.
The five districts of Kirmān. The two capitals. Sirjān, the first capital, its
position and history. Bardasir, the second capital, now Kirmān city.
Māhān and its saint. Khabis. Zarand and Kuhbinán, Cobinan of
Marco Polo * & e & e g gº º * º 299
CHAPTER XXII.
KIRMAN (continued).
The Sirján district. Bam and Narmāsīr districts. Rigán. Jiruft and Kama-
din, Camadi of Marco Polo. Dilſarid. The Báriz and Kafs mountains.
Rādhkān and Manājān. Hurmuz, old and new, and Gombroon. The
trade of the Kirmān province. The high roads e t º 3II
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRAN.
The extent and characteristics of the Great Desert. The three oases at
Jarmak, Näband and Sanij. The chief roads across the desert. The
Makrán province. Fannazbür and the port of Tiz. Other towns.
Sind and India. The port of Daybul. Manşūrah and Multân. The
river Indus. The Târân district and Kusdár. The Budahah district
and Kandābīl & * e º * g e * * 322
CHAPTER XXIV.
SIJISTAN.
Sijistān, or Nimrūz, and Zăbulistán. Zaranj the capital. The Zarah lake.
The Helmund river and its canals. The ancient capital at Râm
Shahristán. Nih. Farah and the Farah river. The Khāsh river and
the Nishak district. I&arnin and other towns. Rūdbār and Bust.
The districts of Zamin Dâwar. Rukhkhaj and Bālis, or Wälishtān.
Randahár, Ghaznah, and Kâbul. The silver mines. The high roads
through Sijistān g º § 334
CONTENTS. • XV
CHAPTER XXV.
KÚHISTAN.
The province called Tunocain by Marco Polo, Kāyin and Tún. Turshiz and the
Pusht district. The Great Cypress of Zoroaster. Závah. Bāzīān and
the Zam district. Bākharz district and Mālin. Khwāf. Zirküh. Dasht-
i-Biyād. Gunābād and Bajistán. Tabas of the dates. Khaw'st or Khäsf.
Birjand and Māminābād. Tabas Masinán and Duruh & & 352
CHAPTER XXVI.
KÜMIS, TABARISTAN AND JURJAN.
Thé province of Kāmis. Dāmghān, Bistám. Biyār, Sammān and Khuvâr.
The Khurāsān road through Kāmis. The province of Tabaristán or
Măzandarān, Āmul. Sāriyah. Mount Damāvand, with the districts of
Fādāsbān, Kârin and Rábanj. Firſizkūh and other castles. Nâtil,
Sâlûs, and the Rāyān district. The fortress of Tāk and the Rustamdār
district. Mamfir and Tamisah. Kabūd Jāmah and the Bay of Nîm
Murdán. The province of Gurgān or Jurjān. The river Jurjān and the
river Atrak. Jurjān city and Astarābād. The port of Åbaskún. The
Dihistán district and Ākhur. The high roads through Tabaristān and
Jurjān 364
CHAPTER XXVII.
KHURASAN.
The four quarters of Khurāsān. The Nishāpār quarter. Nishāpār city and
Shādyākh. The Nishapûr district. Tús and Mashhad, with its
shrine. Bayhak and Sabzivár. Juwayn, Jájarm, and Isſarāyin. Ustuvâ
and Kāchán. Râdkân, Nisã, and Abivard. Kalāt, Khābarān, and
Sarakhs 382
CHAPTER XXVIII.
RHURASAN (continued).
The Marv quarter. The Murghāb river. Great Marv and its villages.
Ämul and Zamm, on the Oxus. Marv-ar-Rūd, or Little Marv, and Kasr
Ahnaf 397

xvi CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXIX.
KHURASAN (continued).
The Herät quarter. The Herät river, or Hari Rád. The city of Herāt.
Mālin and towns on the upper Hari Răd. Būshanj. The Asfuzăr district.
The Bädghis district and its towns. Kanj Rustäk. Districts of Gharjistán
and Ghūr. Bāmiyān
CHAPTER XXX.
RHURASAN (continued).
The Balkh quarter of Khurāsān. Balkh city and Naw Bahár. The district
of Jāzján. Tâlikān and Jurzuwän. Maymanah or Yahūdīyah. Făryåb.
Shuburkān, Anbār and Andakhād. The Tukhāristán district. Khulm,
Siminjān, and Andarābah. Warwālīz and Tāyīkān. The product
Khurāsān. The high roads through Khurāsān and Kūhistān
CHAPTER XXXI.
THE OXUS.
Transoxiana in general. The names Oxus and Jaxartes. The upper affluen's
of the Oxus. Badakhshān and Wakhkhân. Khuttal and Wakhsh.
Kubădhiyān and Saghāniyān, with their towns. The Stone º
Tirmidh. The Iron Gate. Kālif, Akhsisak, and Firabr. The Aral Sea
or Lake of Khwārizm. Freezing of the Oxus in winter * g 43
CHAPTER XXXII.
KHWARIZM. y
The province of Khwārizm. The two capitals: Käth and Jurjāniyah. Old
and new Urganj. Khivah and Hazārasp. The canals of Khwārizm: towns.
to right and left of Oxus. Lower course of the Oxus to the Caspian,
Trade and products of Khwārizm . © o g & g 446
CHAPTER XXXIII.
SUGHD.
Bukhārā, and the five cities within the Great Wall. Baykand. Samarkand.
The Buttam mountains and the Zarafshān or Sughd river. Karminiyah,
Dabásiyah and Rabinjan. Kish and Nasaf, with neighbouring towns.
The products of Sughd. Routes beyond the Oxus as far as Samar-
kand tº e tº e g Q e te ſº o Q 460


CONTENTS. xvii
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTEs.
The Ushrāsanah province. Bünjikath the capital. Zámin and other towns.
The Farghānāh province. The Jaxartes or Sayhän. Akhsikath and
Andiján. Ush, Uzkand, and other cities. The province of Shāsh.
Shāsh city or Binkath. Banākath or Shāhrukhīyah, and other towns.
The Îlák district. Tănkath city and the silver mines of Khasht. The
Isbijāb district. Isbijāb city or Sayram. Chimkand and Fārāb or Utrăr.
Yassi and Sabrán. Jand and Yanghikant. Tarāz and Mirki. Outlying
towns of the Turks. Products of the Jaxartes countries. Routes to the
north of Samarkand . t º e º - - • º 474
INDEX - e e e e e º e e - º e 49I
LIST OF MAPS.
I. The Provinces of South-western Asia during the Caliphate
to face p. I
II. The Provinces of ‘Irāk and Khūzistán with part of Jazirah
- to face p. 25
III. The Provinces of Jazirah and Adharbäyjān with the North-west
Frontier. * . . . º o e to face p. 87
IV. The Province of Rûm. e º - º º , , p. I27
V. The Provinces of Jibál and Jilán with Măzandarān, Kāmis, and
Jurjān . & e º • º © to face p. 185
VI. The Provinces of Fārs and Kirmān . - e 3, p. 249
VII. The Province of Makrān with part of Sijistán . ; , P. 323
VIII. The Provinces of Khurāsān, Kūhistān with part of Sijistān
to face p. 335
IX. The Provinces of the Oxus and Jaxartes . º , , P. 433
X. The Province of Khwārizm & © º º , , p. 447
ABBREVIATIONS AND CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF
MOSLEM GEOGRAPHERS, a
- s W
3.
A. H.” A. D
I. K. tº 9 º' Ibn Khurdādbih ... 250 (864).
I&ud. - - - Kudāmah * ... 266 (880)
Ykb. ... Ya‘kábí ... 278 (891)
I. S. - - - Ibn Serapion * * * 290 (993)
I. R. - - - Ibn Rustah - - - 290 (903)
I. F. - - - Ibn Fakih * * * 290 (903)
, Mas. tº º tº Mas‘ūdī • * * . 332 (943)
Ist. ... Istakhri - - - 34o (951)
I. H. tº º - Ibn Hawkal - - - 367 (978) :
Muk. ... Mukaddasi ... 375 (985)
N. K. * - - Nāsir-i-Khusraw ... 438 (Ioa'7)
F. N. * - - A67's AVámzah - - - 5oo (1 ro7)
Idr. - - - Idrisi - * * 548 (1154)
I. J. * - - Ibn Jubayr 4 * * 58o (I 184)
Yak. - - - Yākāt . • * * 623 (1225)
Kaz. * - - Kazvíní - - - 674 (1275)
Mar. ºw - - Marásád tº a tº 7oo (1300) *
A. F. - - - Abu-l-Fidá - - - 72 I (I 32 I)
Mst. tº e q Mustawfi ... 740 (1340)
I. B. - - - Ibn Batátah - - - 756 (1355)
Hfz. - - - Hāfiz Abrú ºr tº º 820 (1417)
A. Y ‘Alī of Yazd - - - 828 (1425)
J. N. - - - Jahán Mumá ... I O IO (1600)
A. G.
Abu-l-Ghāzī ... I or 4 (1604)
ºrials
Guº's
---
Scale of English Miles
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
40

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
Mesopotamia and Persia, their provinces under the Abbasid Caliphs. The
outlying provinces to the north-west and the north-east. The high roads
from Baghdād to the Moslem frontier. The Moslem geographers, and
their works. Other authorities. Place-names in the Arabic, Turkish,
and Persian provinces.
Mesopotamia and Persia had formed the kingdom of the
Sassanian Chosroes, which the Arabs utterly overthrew when, .
after the death of Muhammad, they set forth to convert the world
to Islam. Against the Byzantines, the other great power which
the Moslems attacked, they achieved only a partial victory, taking
possession, here and there, of rich provinces, notably of the coast
lands to the south and east of the Mediterranean ; but elsewhere
the Emperors, successfully withstood the Caliphs, and for many
centuries continued to do so, the Roman empire in the end
surviving the Caliphate by over two hundred years.
The kingdom of the Sassanians, on the other hand, the Arabs
completely overran and conquered; Yazdajird, the last of the
Chosroes, was hunted down and slain, and the whole land of
från passed under the rule of Islam. Then further, and to no
inconsiderable extent, the empire of the Caliphs, which had taken
over bodily the administration of the older Persian kingdom,
came itself to be modelled on the pattern in government which
the Chosroes had established; this more especially under the
Abbasids, who, rather more than a century after the death of
the Prophet, overthrew their rivals the Omayyads, and changing
the seat of the Caliphate from Syria to Mesopotamia, founded
Baghdād on the Tigris, a few miles above Ctesiphon, the older
winter capital of the Sassanians.
LE S. I
2 INTRODUCTORY. [CHAP.
Baghdād forthwith became, for the East, the centre of the
Moslem empire, but from the time of the first Abbasid Caliph
this empire no longer remained, even nominally, undivided.
Spain fell off, and before long an Omayyad Caliph at Cordova
, was the rival of the Abbasid Caliph at Baghdād. In rather
more than a century after their establishment in power, the Abba-
sids also lost Egypt, which, at about the date when the Omayyad
prince at Cordova had recently proclaimed himself Commander
of the Faithful, passed into the power of the Fatimids, who
likewise took the style of Caliph, and renounced allegiance to
Baghdād. Syria had for the most part followed the fortunes of
Egypt; Arabia was the debateable land between the two ; in the
Further East many provinces became independent of the Abbasid
Caliph, but there no permanent rival Caliphate was established;
so that in general terms all those broad provinces, which had
formed the Sassanian kingdom before the days of Islam, remained
to the last nominally, if not really, subject to the Abbasids. This
vast stretch of country, bounded to the eastward by the deserts of
Central Asia, with the mountains of Afghanistān, and westward
by the Byzantine empire, was divided among the many provinces
which will be described in detail in the succeeding chapters of the
present work. The names of the provinces, and their boundaries,
for the most part (and as far as is known), were under the Arabs
identical with those that had existed under the Chosroes; indeed
the East alters so little that in the majority of cases both names
and boundaries have remained almost unchanged to the present
day, though, as was to be foreseen, the political state, and especially
the economical or material conditions of the country, have varied
considerably during the last thirteen hundred years.
It will be convenient, before proceeding further, to give a brief
summary of these various provinces, taking them in the order in
which they are described in the succeeding chapters.
The great lowland province, which the Greeks called Mesopo-
tamia, is the gift of its two rivers the Euphrates and the Tigris;
and the latter in its lower course (as will be more fully explained
in Chapter II) did not, in Abbasid times, run in the channel
which its waters follow at the present day. A glance at the map
shows that the sterile Arabian desert comes close up to the
I] INTRODUCTORY. 3
western border of the Euphrates, and this river, therefore, has no
right bank affluents. With the Tigris, on the other hand, it is
different; the highlands of Persia follow a line standing back at
a considerable distance from the eastern side of this river, and
many streams flow down from the Persian mountains, these
forming numerous left bank affluents of the Tigris. The Moslems
inherited from the Sassanians a system of irrigation for Meso-
potamia which made this province one of the richest in the
known world. The system will be more fully explained later; but
briefly it may be said that the Arabs effectually watered the
Country lying between the two rivers by draining the surplus of
the Euphrates through a number of transverse canals flowing to
the Tigris; while the districts to the eastward of the Tigris,
extending up to the foot-hills of the Persian highlands, were
watered in part by the streams which flowed down from these
mountains, in part by a series of loop canals, taken from the left
bank of the Tigris, and returning to it again, which in turn
absorbed the flood-waters of the many small rivers rising in the
eastern hills.
The Arabs divided Mesopotamia into two provinces, Lower
and Upper, of which the Lower comprised the rich alluvial lands
known anciently as Babylonia. Lower Mesopotamia was called
Al-‘Iråk, and its northern limit (which, however, varied at different
times) was a line going east and west, from points on the Eu-
phrates and Tigris, respectively, where these two rivers first began
to flow near each other through the Mesopotamian plain. The
largest city of ‘Irák, under the Abbasids, was of Course Baghdād;
but already a century before that dynasty had come to power, the
first Moslems, on conquering this part of Mesopotamia, had
founded three great towns, Wäsit, Kūfah, and Basrah, which
continued to flourish for many centuries; and these, with Anbār
(already a city in Sassanian days) lying on the Euphrates in the
latitude of Baghdād, were the great centres of population in the
‘Irāk province under the Abbasid Caliphs.
North of the limit of the alluvial lands stretched the hard and
somewhat stony plains of Upper Mesopotamia, where had been
the kingdom of Nineveh in ancient times. Upper Mesopotamia
the Arabs called Al-Jazirah, “the island,' or rather ‘the peninsula,’
I—2
4 INTRODUCTORY. [CHAP.
or partial island, for these great plains were almost enclosed by
a ring of waters, formed by the upper courses of the Euphrates
and Tigris, and by streams or canals joining the two to the
southward of the stony plains. The province of Jazirah extended
north to the mountains in which the two great rivers had their
sources; it was divided into three districts, named after the Arab
tribes which had settled here in the times of the Chosroes, and its
chief towns were Mosul near the ruins of Nineveh, Āmid on the
Upper Tigris, and Rakkah at the great bend of the Euphrates,
near the desert border on the further side of which is Damascus.
The chapter following deals with the mountainous countries
in which the twin rivers, which are the head streams of the
Euphrates, take their rise. This country formed the debateable
land between the Caliphate and the empire. Time and again its
towns and fortresses were taken and retaken, by Moslems and
Christians, as the tide of war ebbed and flowed. The country was
never permanently settled by the Arabs, and detailed descrip-
tion of it is for the most part lacking in our earlier authorities.
The same remark, and in a higher degree, applies to the province
called Rûm (the Roman Territory) which, till the latter part
of the 5th (IIth) century, remained an integral part of the
Byzantine empire; for between this province and the Caliphate
the great rampart of the Taurus chain formed the line of
demarcation. Almost yearly the Moslems made incursions
through the Taurus passes into Anatolia; more than once they
laid ineffectual siege to Constantinople; and at times they
garrisoned and occupied divers fortress towns up on the great
plateau of Asia Minor. But beyond such temporary occupation
the Abbasid Caliphs did not succeed in conquering the upland
country; they made many raids through Asia Minor, but they
held no land, and Moslem rule was not established there, until
in the decline of the Caliphate, the Saljúk Turks settled in these
highlands which they wrested from the Byzantines, and then finally
Asia Minor, or Rùm, came to be counted as Moslem land, in
which condition it still remains.
To the east of Jazirah, or Upper Mesopotamia, came the pro-
vince of Adharbäyjān, the ancient Atropatene, bounded above and
below, respectively, by the Araxes and the White River, the Safīd-
I] INTRODUCTORY. 5
Rūd, both of which streams flowed into the Caspian. The most
notable natural feature of this province was the great salt lake,
now known as the lake of Urmiyah, near which stood Tabriz
and Marāghah, the provincial capitals, while Ardabil, another
great town, lay to the eastward nearer the shore of the Caspian.
The chapter following describes a number of smaller provinces of
the north-western border. First Gilān, or Jīlān, on the Caspian,
where the Safīd-Rüd, breaking through the Alburz range, the
mountain barrier of the Persian highlands, flows through an
alluvial plain of its own making, pushing out a small delta into
the Caspian. Next, the province of Mūghān at the mouth of the
combined Araxes and Cyrus rivers; then Arrán lying to the
westward between the courses of these two rivers; with Shirvân
to the north of the Cyrus, and Gurjistán (Georgia) at its head
waters. Lastly we have Moslem Armenia lying at the head
waters of the Araxes, which is the mountainous province sur-
rounding the lake of Vân.
South-east of Adharbäyjān spreads the rich province of Media,
which the Arabs very appropriately called Al-Jibál, ‘the moun-
tains,’ for its mountains overhang the lowlands of Lower
Mesopotamia, and, range behind range, stretch across eastward to
the border of the Great Desert of Central Persia. The western
part of the Jibál province, in later times, when the Kurds
attained fame and power, came to be known as Kurdistān; and
in the later middle-ages, but by a misnomer, as will be explained
in due course, the province of Al-Jibál was often called “Iråk
‘Ajami, or Persian ‘Irák, in contrast to Arabian ‘Irák, which was
Lower Mesopotamia. The Jibál province included many great
cities; in the west Kirmānshāh and Hamadān (the latter the
ancient Ecbatana); in the north-east Ray (Rhages), and to the
south-east Ispahān. At a later period the Mongols of Persia
founded Sultāniyah in its northern plains, which for a time taking
the place of Baghdād, became the capital of this portion of their
empire, which included both Mesopotamia and Persia under the
rule of the Îl-Khán. In the mountains of the Jibal province
many rivers take their rise, among the rest the Kārūn, which the
Arabs called Dujayl or Little Tigris, and which after a long and
tortuous course flows out at the head of the Persian Gulf, a little
6 INTRODUCTORY. [CHAP.
to the east of the combined mouth of the Euphrates and
Tigris.
The province of Khūzistān, lying south of Media and east of
Lower Mesopotamia, occupies the lower course of the Kārūn
river, or Dujayl, with its numerous affluents. This country was
extremely rich ; Tustar and Ahwäz were its chief towns; and its
lands being plentifully irrigated were most productive. East of
Khūzistān, and bordering the Gulf, lay the great province of Fārs,
the ancient Persis and the cradle of the Persian monarchy. Under
the Abbasids it still kept the division into the five Kārahs, or
districts, which had been organized under the Sassanians, and
Fārs was closely studded with towns, great and small, the most
important of which were Shirāz the capital, Istakhr (Persepolis),
Yazd, Arrajān, and Dārābjird. The islands of the Gulf were
counted as of Fārs, and Kays island was an important commercial
centre before the rise of Hurmuz. The chief physical feature of
Fārs was the great salt lake of Bakhtigán, which with other smaller
sheets of water stood in the broad highland valleys, whose
mountains were offsets of the ranges in the Jibál province,
already referred to. In Fārs, the Dārābjird district under the
Mongols came to be Counted as a separate province, and was
in the 7th (13th) century called Shabānkārah ; the Yazd district
also, in the later middle-ages, was given to the Jibál province.
To the east of Fārs lay the province of Kirmān, far less fertile,
almost lacking in rivers, and bordering on the Great Desert. Of
this province there were two capitals in Abbasid times, Sirjān and
Kirmān city; and the two other most important towns of the
province were Hurmuz, on the coast ; and Jiruft, inland, a centre
of much commerce. The Great Desert of Central Persia is the
most remarkable physical feature of the high tableland of irán.
This immense salt waste stretches south-east diagonally across
Persia, from Ray, at the base of the mountains which on their
northern side overlook the Caspian, spreading in a broad band
—or rather, in a dumb-bell-shaped depression—the lower end of
which merges into the hills of Makrān, the province bordering on
the Indian Ocean. In the Great Desert there are few oases;
a salt efflorescence covers much of the barren levels, but the
desert in winter time is not difficult to pass, and many well
I] INTRODUCTORY. 7
marked tracks connect the towns on either side. But on the
other hand the Great Desert is a real barrier to any continuous
intercourse between the provinces of Fārs and Kirmān, which lie
On its South-western side, and the eastern provinces which are
beyond its other limit, namely Khurāsān with Sistán to the south-
east, and this desert barrier has played an important part all
through the history of Persia. After describing what the Moslem
geographers have to say of the Great Desert, the same chapter
deals with the Makrān province, which on the east touched India,
running up to the highlands overlooking the Indus valley, part of
which is now known as Balūchistän. On these regions, however,
our authorities are not very fully informed.
North of Makrān, and across the narrow part of the desert.
opposite Kirmān, lay the province of Sijistān or Sistān, to the
east of the extensive, but very shallow lake of Zarah. Into this
lake drained the waters of the Helmund, and numerous other
rivers flowing south-west from the high mountains of Afghanistān
lying above Kābul and Ghaznah. Here Kandahār stood in a
plain between two of the affluents of the Helmund, and where
this great river flowed into the Zarah lake lay Zaranj, the capital
of Sijistán. North-west of the Zarah lake, and on the border of
the Great Desert, was the very hilly province aptly called Kūhistān
(Land of Mountains), the chief towns of which were Tún and
Kāyin, well known as the Tunocain of Marco Polo ; Sijistān and
Kūhistān thus forming the southern border of Khurāsān, the great
eastern province of Persia.
Before describing this last, however, the three small provinces
of Kûmis, Tabaristān and Jurjān, which form the subject of the
succeeding chapter, require notice. Kümis, of which the capital
was Dāmghān, lay in length along the north border of the Great
Desert eastward of Ray, comprising the southern foot-hills of the
mountain chain of Alburz which shuts off the high plateau of
Persia from the Caspian Sea. These mountains, and more
particularly their northern flank descending to the Caspian,
formed the province of Tabaristān, otherwise called Măzandarān,
which extended from Gilān and the delta of the White River
(Safīd-Rūd), on the west, to the south-eastern corner of the
Caspian. Here Tabaristán joined Jurjān, or Gurgān, the ancient
8 INTRODUCTORY. [CHAP.
Hircania, which included the valleys watered by the rivers Atrak
and Jurjān, on which last stood Jurjān city. The Jurjān
province extended eastward from the Caspian Sea to the desert
which separated Khurāsān from the cultivated lands of the Oxus
delta, namely the province of Khwārizm.
The modern province of Khurāsān is but a moiety of the
great tract of country which, from Abbasid times down to the
later middle-ages, was known under this name; for Khurāsān of
those days included what is now become the north-western part
of Afghanistän. On the east, medieval Khurāsān bordered on
Badakhshān, its northern frontier was the Oxus and the desert
of Khwārizm. The Moslem geographers divided Khurāsān into
four quarters, named after its four capital cities; viz. Nīshāpār,
Marv, Herat, and Balkh. From a physical point of view the
remarkable feature of Khurāsān consisted in the two great rivers
of Herat and of Marv, which rising in the mountains of what is
now Afghanistān, turned north and flowed out to waste in the
sands of the desert towards Khwārizm, reaching no sea or lake.
The chapter following deals with the upper waters of the Oxus,
and a number of small provinces, stretching from Badakhshān
westwards, which lie to the north, on the right bank affluents of
the great river. Its delta, forming the province of Khwārizm to
the south of the Aral Sea, is next described, of which Urganj was
the older capital, and in this chapter some pages are devoted to
clearing up the much debated subject of the older course of the
Oxus to the Caspian. Beyond the great river, and between the
Oxus and the Jaxartes, lay the province of Sughd, the ancient
Sogdiana, with its two noble cities, Samarkand and Bukhārā, both
on the Sughd river. This is the penultimate chapter of the
present work; and the last chapter deals with the provinces along
the Jaxartes, from Farghānah near the borders of the Chinese
deserts, of which the capital was Akhsikath, to Shāsh, modern
Tāshkand, with the Isbijāb province to the north-west, beyond
which the Jaxartes flowed out, through the bleak wilderness, into
the upper part of the Aral Sea. Of these northern countries of
the Further East, however, lying beyond Central Asia, the earlier
Arab geographers give but a succinct account. They were the
Turk lands, and it was only after the Mongol invasion that they
I] INTRODUCTORY. 9
rose to importance; of this period unfortunately there is a lack
of precise information, the Arab geographers failing us for the
most part, and their place being but ill-supplied by the later
Persian and Turkish authorities. -
The Moslems, by the injunction of their Prophet, were bound
each, once in a lifetime, to make the pilgrimage to Mecca.
Under the Abbasids, when the Moslem empire reached its fullest
extent, the pilgrimage was facilitated by the elaborate system of
high roads, all made to radiate from Baghdād, where the Tigris
was crossed by those Coming from the further east and bound
for the Hijāz. Of this road system (which the Arabs had in-
herited from the earlier Persian kingdom) we possess detailed
Contemporary descriptions; and the chief lines, running through
the provinces named in the foregoing paragraphs, may here be
summarily described.
The most famous of the trunk roads was the great Khurāsān
road, which, going east, united the capital with the frontier towns
of the Jaxartes on the borders of China. This, too, is perhaps that
which of all the roads is best described. Leaving East Baghdād by
the Khurāsān gate, it went across the plain, passing over numerous
streams by well-built bridges, to Hulwān at the foot of the pass
leading up to the highlands of Persia. Here it entered the Jibal
province and after a steep ascent reached Kirmānshāh, the capital
of Kurdistän. Crossing the Jibál province diagonally, north-
east, the road passed through Hamadān to Ray. From Ray
Onwards it went almost due east through Kümis, having the
Tabaristān mountains on the left, and the Great Desert on the
south, till it entered the province of Khurāsān near the town of
Biståm. Continuing onwards it came to Nishāpār, then to Tüs,
and on to Marv, beyond which it crossed the desert to the
Oxus bank at Åmul, thence reaching successively Bukhārā and
Samarkand in the province of Sughd. At Zāmin a short
distance east of Samarkand, the road bifurcated : on the left
hand one road proceeded to Shāsh (Tāshkand) and ultimately to
the ford at Utrâr on the lower course of the Jaxartes; the other
road, leaving Zāmīn, turned off to the right, towards Farghānah
and the Upper Jaxartes, coming to Akhsikath the Capital, and
finally to Üzkand on the borders of the Chinese desert.
IO INTRODUCTORY. [CHAP.
This in its full extent was the great Khurāsān road; and to
the present day the post-roads crossing Persia, but centring in
Tihrān, near the older Ray, follow the same long track which the
earlier Arab geographers have described. After the fall of the
Abbasid Caliphate, the road system was in part altered by the
building of Sultāniyah, which became the capital of the Mongols.
But all that this entailed was a branch road north from Hamadān
direct to Sultāniyah, which, for a time, took the place of Ray as
the centre point of the roads in this quarter. -
In earlier days, under the Abbasids, cross-roads had branched
off, right and left, to various parts of Persia from the chief towns
along the Khurāsān high road. Thus from near Kirmānshāh
a road went north to Tabriz and other towns on the Urmiyah
lake, with prolongations to Ardabil and to places on the Araxes.
From Hamadān, going south-east, there was a high road to
Isfahân ; and from Ray, going north-west, the distances to
Zanjān are given, whence a highway led up to Ardabil. Nīshāpār
in Khurāsān was a centre for many branch roads; southwards one
went to Tabas on the borders of the Great Desert in Kūhistān;
another road went to Kāyin; while south-east was the highway to
Herat, whence Zaranj in Sijistān was reached. From Marv a
high road followed up the Marv river to Lesser Marv (Marv-
ar-Rüd), where, joining a road coming from Herat, it went
on to Balkh and the eastern frontier lands beyond the Oxus.
Finally from Bukhārā there was direct communication, north-west,
with Urganj in Khwārizm ; and, south-west, with Tirmid on the
Oxus opposite Balkh.
This completes the system of the Khurāsān road; and now
returning to Baghdād, the central point, the highways going in
other directions must be sketched. Down the Tigris, the
distances and stations being given both by land and by water, was
the highway through Wäsit to Basrah, the great port for the trade
of the Persian Gulf. From both Wäsit and Basrah, Ahwäz in
Khūzistán was reached, and thence the high road went due east to
Shirāz in Fårs. This was a centre of many roads. North was the
road to Isfahān and on to Ray ; north-east, through Yazd and
across the Great Desert Tabas was reached, which communicated
with Nishāpār; eastward by more than one route Sirjān and
I] INTRODUCTORY. I I
Kirmān were in communication, and thence eastward across the
Great Desert was the way to Zaranj in Sijistān; while south-east
and South from Shīrāz two roads branched towards the Persian
Gulf ports, one passing through Dārābjird to Sürú near Hurmuz,
the other to Siräf, at one time the chief harbour of Fārs.
Returning once again to Baghdād, the central point, we find
that the great Pilgrim road to Mecca and Medina left West
Baghdād, going south to Kāfah on the border of the Arabian
desert, which it crossed almost in a direct line to the Hijāz. A
second Pilgrim road started from Basrah, running at first nearly
parallel with the other, which it finally joined two stages north of
Mecca. Then from Baghdād, north-west, a road went to the
Euphrates at Anbār, and thence up that river to Rakkah, a centre
point for roads across the Syrian desert to Damascus, and for
many other highways going north to the Greek frontier towns.
Finally from Baghdād, north, there were high roads up both banks
of the Tigris to Mosul, whence Amid was reached on the one
hand, and Kirkisiyā on the Euphrates to the south-west. From
Amid there were roads communicating with most of the frontier
fortresses towards the Greek country.
This in brief was the road system under the Abbasids, which,
centring in Baghdād, connected the capital by a system of post-
stages with the outlying provinces of the empire. The system
is very carefully described by the Arab geographers, and for pur-
poses of reference it may be well now to give in chronological
order a short account of our contemporary authorities, on whose
works we rely for the facts set down in the following chapters".
The earlier of our authorities date from the middle of the 3rd
(9th) century, and the first geographical treatises of the Arabs
take the form of Road Books. These set forth in detail the various
itineraries, are interspersed with short accounts of the towns
passed through, and give the revenues and products, in turn, of
each province. Of these Road Books we possess four, in par-
ticular, which are of primary importance, and they complement
* For further particulars of the Arab geographers see Palestine under the
Mosdemes (London, 1890), the Introductory chapter; also for more detail, the
Introduction to the French translation of Abu-l-Fidá, by M. Reinaud (Paris,
1848). -
I 2 INTRODUCTORY. [CHAP.
each other, for their texts have in many passages come down to
us in a mutilated condition. The authors of these Road Books of
the 3rd (9th) century are Ibn Khurdādbih, Kudāmah, Ya‘kūbi
and Ibn Rustah.
The first two are almost identical in substance. Ibn Khur-
dādbih was post-master of the Jibál province, Kudāmah was
a revenue accountant; their itineraries give stage by stage the
distances along the great Khurāsān road and the other trunk
roads, as sketched in the preceding paragraphs, which radiated
from Baghdād. The work of Ya‘kūbi has unfortunately not
reached us in its entirety; to it we owe the account of Baghdād
which, with the description written by Ibn Serapion, has made it
possible to work out in detail the topography of the Abbasid
Capital. Ya‘kübi gives further a number of valuable notes on
many other cities, and the details of the high roads traversing the
‘Irāk province are found fully set forth only in his work. Of Ibn
Serapion, his contemporary, only a fragment has reached us; but
this, in addition to the account given of Baghdād, is of capital
importance for the river and canal system of Mesopotamia; he
gives also shorter descriptions of the rivers in other provinces.
Ibn Rustah has written a similar work to Ya‘kübi, adding many
notices of towns; but above all he has given us a most minute
account of the great Khurāsān road as far as Tüs, near Mashhad,
with some of its branch roads, notably those going to Isfahân, and
to Herat; also the road from Baghdād south to Kūfah, and to
Basrah, with the continuation eastward to Shirāz. On all these
trunk lines, not only are the distances and stages given, but an
exact description is added of the nature of the country passed
through ; whether the way be hilly, ascending or descending, or
whether the road lies in the plain ; and this description of Ibn
Rustah is naturally of first-rate importance for the exact identifica-
tion of the line traversed, and for fixing the position of many lost
sites. Another authority is Ibn-al-Fakih, a contemporary of Ibn
Rustah, who wrote a very curious geographical miscellany, of which
unfortunately only an abridgment has come down to us. Some
of his notices of places, however, are of use in completing or
correcting the earlier accounts".
* The texts of Ibn Khurdādbih, Kudāmah, Ya‘kâbi, Ibn Rustah and
I] INTRODUCTORY. I 3
The Systematic geographers begin with the 4th (Ioth) century.
They describe fully and in turn each province of the Moslem
empire, only incidentally giving the high roads, and generally
piecemeal for each province. Their works are of course a great
advance on the Road Books; to them we owe such fulness of
geographical detail as will be found in the following chapters, and
the three first names on the list, Istakhri, Ibn Hawkal, and
Mukaddasi, are those to whose labours we are most materially
indebted. The work of Ibn Hawkal is but a new edition, partly
enlarged and emended, of Istakhri ; on the other hand Istakhri,
a native of Persepolis, gives the description of his native province,
Fārs, in far greater detail than is to be found in Ibn Hawkal, who
reduced his chapter on Fårs to the due proportion of the remainder
of the book. Mukaddasi, their contemporary, wrote his geography
entirely on independent lines, and chiefly from his personal
observations of the divers provinces. His work is probably the
greatest, it is certainly the most original, of all those which the
Arab geographers composed; his descriptions of places, of manners
and customs, of products and manufactures, and his careful
summaries of the characteristics of each province in turn, are
indeed some of the best written pages to be found in all the
range of medieval Arab literature.
It is further to be remarked that to these last three Systematic
geographers we owe the exact identification of most of the names
displayed on the accompanying maps. At the close of each
chapter they give a table of ‘the distances,’ namely the stages or
sections of the great high roads, already described, which Crossed
the province in question, and in addition to the high roads an
immense number of cross-distances are added, going between
Ibn-al-Fakih are edited by Professor De Goeje in volumes V, VI, and VII of
his series Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum (Leyden, 1885–1892);
further in vol. VI he has added a French translation, with many important
notes, of the first two authorities. Of Ibn Serapion the text, describing Meso-
potamia, will be found in the jour. K. Asiat. Soc. for 1895, p. 9; and the MS.
referred to is that in the British Museum, numbered Add. 23,379. Ya‘kübi, in
addition to his work on geography, also wrote a history, the text of which
has been edited by Professor M. T. Houtsma (Zön-Wādhāh, qui dicitur Al-
Ja'qubi, Historiae, Leyden, 1883), and this often contains valuable informa-
tion in matters of geography.
I4. INTRODUCTORY. [CHAP.
neighbouring towns. These distances, plotted out and starting
from known points, enable us to cover the map with a system of
triangulation, by means of which the positions of some towns,
long ruined, and the very vestiges of which have in many cases
disappeared, can be approximately laid down; as, for instance, in
the case of Tawwaj in Fārs, the ruins of which have not yet been
identified, though their situation can now be fixed within narrow
limits. Another writer of the 4th (Ioth) century is Mas‘ūdī, who
has left two works; the first for the most part historical, and well
known under the title of Zhe Golden Meadozws; the second, a sort
of commonplace book, full of curious details and notes, which is
called Az-Zanóżh, “ The Admonishment'.’
Coming to the 5th and 6th (11th and 12th) centuries, we have
the works of two famous travellers, pilgrims, whose descriptions
of the places they passed through are of considerable importance.
Nāsir, son of Khusraw, the Persian, in the middle of the 5th (11th)
century went from Khurāsān to Mecca and back, visiting Egypt
and Syria on his way out, and crossing Arabia on the homeward
journey, and his diary, written in Persian, is one of the earliest
works we possess in that language. Ibn Jubayr, the Spanish
Arab, a century later made the pilgrimage starting from Granada;
and his account of Mesopotamia, particularly of Baghdād, is one
of the most interesting that has come down to us. Dating from
the beginning of the 6th (12th) century is another Persian work,
called the Fārs Māmah (Book of Fārs), describing most minutely
that province, and invaluable as far as it goes. Also dating from
the middle of this century we have the systematic geography of
Idrisi, who lived at the court of the Norman king, Roger II of
Sicily. He wrote in Arabic, and very inconveniently has composed
* The texts of Istakhri, Ibn Hawkal, and Mukaddasi form volumes I, II,
and III, respectively, of the already-mentioned series of the Bibl. Geogr. Arab.
(Leyden, 1870—1877). Of Mas‘ūdī the text of the Zambáh has been edited by
Professor De Goeje in vol. VIII of the same series (Leyden, 1894); and a .
translation in French of this has been published (Paris, 1896) by Baron Carra
de Vaux under the title of Ze Zizre de l’Azertissement. The history, called
The Golden Meadows (Murūj-adh-Dhahab), was published (Paris, 1861),
the Arabic text being given with a French translation, by Messrs Barbier de
Meynard and Pavet de Courteille; the two last works under the auspices of
the French Société Asiatique.
I] INTRODUCTORY. I5
his description of the known world in ‘Climates,’ that is according
to zones of latitude, whereby the various provinces are often
divided up arbitrarily, Mesopotamia, for instance, being partly
described in the 3rd Climate, partly in the 4th. He had, unfortu-
nately for our purpose, no personal knowledge of Persia or the
regions east of the Mediterranean, but had visited Asia Minor,
then still a province of the Roman empire, and his description
of this region would be invaluable, but for the fact that the place-
names (by reason of incorrect MSS.) are in many cases illegible,
or so corrupt as to be at present mostly beyond recognition".
Coming to the 7th (13th) century, the period of the Mongol
invasion and the fall of the Abbasid Caliphate, we have the
voluminous Geographical Zictionary of Yākūt, a compilation it is
true from earlier writers, but illustrated by the author’s own far
extended travels, which, when it is used with due criticism, is per-
fectly invaluable. The articles are arranged in alphabetical order,
and Yākūt quotes freely from almost all his predecessors in Arab
geographical literature, some of whose works, as for instance those
of the traveller Ibn-al-Muhalhal, who wrote in 330 (942), are only
known to us by his excerpts. This great dictionary was epitomised,
three-quarters of a century after its appearance, in a work called
A/-Marášid, ‘the Observatories,’ and the author of this epitome,
a native of Mesopotamia, often gives valuable corrections, of first-
hand authority, for places in the regions round Baghdād. Of
about the same date is Kazvini, who wrote a work in two parts
on cosmography, which gives interesting notes on the products
and the commerce of divers towns and provinces; and in the
earlier part of the 8th (14th) century we have the systematic
geography of Abu-l-Fidá, a Syrian prince, who, though he com-
piled largely from the works of his predecessors, in addition gives
* The Persian text of Nāsir-i-Khusraw, with an annotated French trans-
lation, has been brought out by C. Schéfer, in the series of the École des
Langues Orientales Vivantes (Paris, 1881). The Arabic text of Ibn Jubayr
was well edited by W. Wright (Leyden, 1852). The Aérs AVāmah exists only
in manuscript: that quoted is in the British Museum, numbered Or. 5983.
Idrisi has been translated into French (indifferently well) by A. Jaubert (Paris,
1836); passages quoted I have verified with the Arabic text, preserved in the
Bibliothèque Nationale, Manuscriţs Arabes, Nos. 222 I and 2222.
I6 INTRODUCTORY. [CHAP.
facts from his own observation of the countries which he had
visited'.
Of the same date, namely the first half of the 8th (14th)
century, are the travels of Ibn Batūtah the Berber, who rivalled
the Venetian Marco Polo in the extent of his voyages. His book
is written in Arabic; his contemporary, Mustawfi, wrote in
Persian a description of the Mongol kingdom of från (Mesopo-
tamia with Persia), which shows the condition of the country after
the Mongol settlement, when this region was governed by the
Íl-Khāns. Mustawfi also wrote an historical work called the
Tārīkh-i-Guzādah, “the Select History,’ which, besides being of
considerable value for Mongol times, often contains geographical
notes of great importance”.
For the time of Timár we have primarily the notices in the
historical work of ‘Ali of Yazd, then the Geography written by
Hāfiz Abrū; both are in Persian, and date from the first half of the
9th (15th) century. Lastly for the settlement after the conquests
of Timür, the works of two Turkish authors, one writing in Eastern
Turkish, the other in ‘Othmanli, have to be mentioned, both being
of the earlier half of the IIth (17th) century. These are the
Aſistory of the Zurks and Mongols by the Khwārizm prince Abu-l-
Ghāzī, and the Universal Geography called the Jahám Mumá
* The Mu'jam-al-Buldazz, the great dictionary of Yākūt, has been edited
in Arabic by F. Wüstenfeld (Leipzig, 1866–1873); the articles relating to
places in Persia will be found translated into French, with additions from
Mustawfi and later authorities, in the Dictionnaire de la Perse (Paris, 1861)
of M. Barbier de Meynard. The Marášid-al-Ittilä, which is the epitome
of Yākūt, has been edited by Juynboll (Leyden, 1852). The two volumes of
the Cosmography of Kazvini have been edited by Wüstenfeld (Göttingen, 1848).
The text of the Geography of Abu-l-Fidá was edited by Reinaud and De Slane
(Paris, 1840), and Reinaud also began (Paris, 1848) a translation of this work
in French, prefixing to it a valuable Introduction on the Arab Geographers,
which translation S. Guyard afterwards (Paris, 1883) completed.
* The Travels of Ibn Batūtah, the Arabic text with a French translation,
have been published (Paris, 1874–1879) by Defrémery and Sanguinetti. The
Persian Geography of Hamd Allah Mustawfi (the text of the AWuzhat-al-Áulº)
was lithographed at Bombay in 13 II (1894), and the Guzādah is quoted from
the British Museum MS. numbered Add. 22,693, MSS. Add. 7630 and Egerton
690 having been collated. Part of the Guzłdah has now been printed, with a
French translation, by M. J. Gantin (Paris, 1903).
I] INTRODUCTORY. 17
(World Displayer) by the celebrated bibliographer Hājj
Khalfah'.
For elucidating points of detail the works of many of the
Arab historians are of primary importance. By earlier writers
history and geography were often treated of in one and the same
work. An instance of this is the Book of the Conquests, written by
Balādhuri, and dating from the middle of the 3rd (9th) century.
It describes in turn, east and west, all the conquests of the
Moslems, and is of great interest as showing the state of the
country when Islam first became the dominant creed. Of the
chronicles, besides the History written by Ya‘kübi, already
mentioned, there is, dating from the 3rd (9th) century, the work
of Ibn Mashkuwayh, of which the Sixth Section only has been
printed. The annals of Hamzah of Isfahân, written in the middle
of the 4th (Ioth) century, likewise give useful information, and
though of course composed in Arabic, the work was evidently
based on many Persian books, now lost, and it relates facts of
which we should otherwise be ignorant.
The most complete, however, of the Arabic chronicles, down
to the beginning of the 4th (Ioth) century, at which date he
flourished, is that of Tabari, and his work is for geography a primary
authority. For later Abbasid history Ibn-al-Athir has to be relied
upon ; also the entertaining summary of Moslem history generally
known by the name of Fakhri. The Oniversa/ History of Ibn
Khaldūn is often of use to supplement the meagre chronicle of
Ibn-al-Athir; and the great Biographica/ ZXictionary of Ibn
Khallikån occasionally adds details. These authors all wrote in
Arabic. In Persian the two histories called the A’azudat-as-Safā and
the Habíð-as-Siyār, respectively by Mirkhwänd and by Khwāndamir
1 The Persian text of the history of Timür by ‘Ali of Yazd, known as the
Zafar Mámah, is published in the Bibliotheca Indica (Calcutta, 1887).
A French translation called Histoire de Témour Bec was published (Paris,
1722), by Petis de la Croix. Hāfiz Abrū exists only in manuscript; the one
quoted is that of the British Museum, numbered Or. 1577. The Turkish text
of the Jahán Mumá was printed in Constantinople in I 145 (1732) by Ibrāhīm
Efendi, and a Latin translation of part of this work was published by
M. Norberg (Lund, 1818). The Turki text, with a French translation, of the
History of the Mongols, by Abu-l-Ghāzī, has been published by Baron
Desmaisons (St Petersburg, 1871).
LE S. 2
I8 INTRODUCTORY. [CHAP.
his grandson, must be mentioned, for especially in the Persian
provinces both these works give valuable geographical information.
Two other Persian chronicles, relating to the Saljúk dynasties in
Asia Minor and in Kirmān, are likewise of importance, and are
more than once quoted in the following pages, being referred to
under the names of the chroniclers Ibn Bibi, and Ibn Ibrāhīm'.
To complete our survey, a few pages in conclusion of this
preliminary chapter may be devoted to some general remarks
on the place-names which occur in the following chapters, and are
set down on the maps. In the two provinces of Mesopotamia
the great majority of the place-names are notably either Arabic or
Aramaic, this last having been the common language of the
people here, prior to the Moslem conquest. The Arabic names
of towns generally have, or had, a meaning, as for instance
Al-Kúfah, Al-Basrah, and Wäsit. The Aramaic names, as a rule,
are easily recognisable by their form, and by the termination in
long a, for example Jabultâ; and the meaning of these too is
generally not far to seek: e.g. ‘Abartă, ‘the passage, or crossing
place,’ marking a bridge of boats; and Bājisrā, which is equivalent
* The text of Baládhuri has been edited by Professor De Goeje (Leyden,
1866). He has also given us Ibn Mashkuwayh, forming the latter part of his
Fragmenta Historicorum Arabicorum (Leyden, 1871). The History by
Hamzah of Isfahân has been edited (with a Latin translation) by I. M. E.
Gottwaldt (Leipzig, 1844). The numerous volumes of the great Chronicle of
Tabari have been published, in three series, under the editorship of Professor
De Goeje (Leyden, 1879–1901). The Chronicle of Ibn-al-Athir is edited by
Tornberg (Leyden, 1867–1876). Fakhri, more correctly named Ibn-at-
Tiktakā, has been edited by Ahlwardt (Gotha, 1860). Of Ibn Khaldūn,
the text quoted is that printed at Bulák in 1284 (1867): the text of Ibn
Khallikån has been edited by Wüstenfeld (Göttingen, 1837), and an English
translation was made by De Slane, for the Oriental Translation Fund (London,
1843). The references to the Persian texts of the histories by Mirkhwänd (or
Amirkhwänd) and by Khwāndamir are to the lithographed editions, published
in Bombay, of the Æawdad-as-Safé in 1266 (1850), and of the Habíð-as-Sāyār
in 1273 (1857). The two Saljåk chronicles are edited by Professor Houtsma
in vols. I and IV of his Aecueil de Z extes relatifs à l’Aistoire des Se/joucides
(Leyden, 1886–1902). The first of these is by Ibn Ibrāhīm (otherwise called
Muhammad Ibrāhīm, or Muhammad ibn Ibrāhīm), who flourished about the
year 1025 (1616); and the second chronicle is by Ibn Bibi, who wrote about
68o (1281). See also an article by Professor Houtsma in the Zeit. ZXeutsch.
Morg. Gesell, 1885, p. 362.
I] INTRODUCTORY. I9
to the Arabic Bayt-al-Jisr, meaning ‘bridge-house.’ Older Persian
names like Baghdād, ‘the god-given place,’ are rare; and here
and there a Greek name survives, as for instance Al-Ubullah,
representing Apologos. -
The Greek province of Asia Minor, as already said, only
became Moslem land after the Saljúk conquest, in the latter half
of the 5th (11th) century; and hence the Greek names are often
known to us in two forms, an earlier (Arabic) and a later
(Turkish); as, for example, Seleucia given first as Salākiyah,
later as Selefkeh ; and Heraclia which we find at first as Hiraklah,
and in more modern times as Arākliyah. After the Saljúk
Occupation of the Country and the Subsequent Ottoman supremacy,
Turkish names naturally come to supplant the earlier Greek
nomenclature; but in the matter of Orthography it must be
remembered that the Arabic alphabet is quite as foreign to
Turkish as it is to Greek, hence Turkish words (as every Turkish
dictionary shows) often have alternative spellings, and the place-
names are in like case. Thus we find both Kará. Hisār and
Karah Hisār; Karah-sí and Karāsī; Karamān and Karāmān,
with many other examples.
Looking over the maps of the Persian provinces, it is striking
how few names there are of Arabic origin. With the exception
of Marāghah in Adharbäyjān, and the hamlet of Bayzā (Al-Baydä,
‘the white town’) in Fārs, there is hardly an Arabic town name
to be met with. The Moslems indeed changed little or nothing
when they took over the Sassanian kingdom". Very often villages
and post-stations had names taken from some natural and notable
object; as for example Myrtle village, Camel village, and Salt
village; which in Persian were called Dih Murd, Dih Ushturán,
and Dih Namak. These names the Arab geographers constantly
* It has been remarked that in all Moslem Spain, where rich cities
abounded, there is only one that bears an Arabic name, to wit the port of
Almeria, for Al-Mariyah, “the Watch Tower.’ A place-name like Calatayud,
which might be taken for another instance, is not primarily the name given
to the town, but was only the fortress—Kal‘at Ayyūb, Job’s Castle—below
which a town afterwards sprang up. In many cases the original Iberian,
Roman, or Visigothic name is for lack of documents unknown ; as for instance
in the case of Granada. Mutatis mutandis, the same remarks apply to Persia.
2 — 2
2O - INTRODUCTORY. [CHAP.
translate, and in their pages we find the above, for instance, given
as Karyat-al-As, Karyat-al-Jamāl, and Karyat-al-Milh, but there is
every reason to believe that in Persia, at all times, the Persian
name was in use; in other words it is here, as with us, when we
speak of the Black Forest (Schwarz-Wald) or the Cape of Good
Hope, such names likewise commonly varying on the maps, and
in books, according to the language of the speaker.
It will be observed that we have sometimes in the Arabic lists
the name of a post-stage, in Arabic, of which the Persian equivalent
has not come down to us; e.g. in the case of Rås-al-Kalb,
‘Dog's Head,” possibly the place later called Samnân. Also
occasionally the Arabs gave a nickname to a Persian town, and
both names continued simultaneously in use ; as for instance
Kanguvár, which from the stealing of their mules here the early
Moslems had called Kasr-al-Lusſis, “Robber Castle’; but Persian
Kanguvâr has in the end survived the Arab nickname. Even
when the Moslem conquerors founded a new provincial capital, as
was the case with Shīrāz, which soon came to eclipse the older
Istakhr (Persepolis), they seem to have taken and perpetuated in
the new town the name of the original Persian village. The
origin and etymology of the name Shirāz, like many others,
appears to be unattainable, for unfortunately the geography of the
old Sassanian kingdom is almost entirely unknown to us.
The pronunciation of names, as is natural, varied with the
lapse of time; Turaythith becomes Turshiz: Hamadhán is in
later books spelt Hamadān"; further there was evidently an
Arabic and a Persian pronunciation (or spelling) of the same
name Contemporaneously current, thus Arabic Kāshān is written
Kāshān in Persian, Sâhik appears later as Chāhik, and
Saghāniyān is Chaghāniyän. Then again, as the Arabic grammar
demanded tri-consonantal roots, the Persian Bam had to be
written in Arabic Bamm, and Kum Kumm; but this was merely
to suit the rules of Arabic Orthography, and the doubled final
* It is to be remarked that the dh, which the modern Persians pronounce 2
(e.g. Azarbäyjān, written Adharbäyjān), was apparently sometimes not given
the z sound; thus Hamadhán is now called Hamadän, and never pronounced
Hamazán. In Persian the Arabic w is generally, but not always, pronounced
zy, e.g. Kazwin or Kazvin.
I] INTRODUCTORY. 2 I
consonant was never in use in the Persian. In some cases a
name would fall into disuse for some unknown reason, to be
replaced by another name, but Persian like the first ; an instance
Occurs in Kirmāsīn or Kirmisin, later known as Kirmānshāhān,
shortened to Kirmānshāh at the present day. But we are alike
ignorant of the true import of these names, and the cause of the
change.
In the matter of the prefixing of the Arabic article AZ to
place-names, the usage appears to be extremely arbitrary. The
strict grammatical rule appears to be that the article is only
prefixed to Arabic, not to foreign names. ' This rule, however,
never was kept ; for instance in Mesopotamia, where most of the
names were of course of Semitic origin, the Tigris is always named
Dijlah (without the article), but the Euphrates is Al-Furät, though
this last is like the first a foreign word". In the Persian provinces,
the tendency was, with the lapse of time, to drop the Arabic
article, e.g. (Arabic) As-Siraján becomes (Persian) Sirján. The
usage however is quite arbitrary, for no explanation can be given
why the ancient Rhages should be invariably called by the Arabs
Ar-Ray, while Jay, the old name for one part of Isfahān, is always
given without the article”.
The Arabs were somewhat poverty-stricken in the matter of
their nomenclature, and the lack is cause of much confusion.
With them the capital of a province, as a rule, may be called
by the name of the province, even when it has a name of
its own ; thus Damascus still is commonly known as Ash-Shām,
‘(the capital of) Syria’; and Zaranj, the chief town of Sijistān, was
* Thus we have Al-Ubullah (an original Greek name) with the article, and
a number of other instances occur. Purely Arab towns sometimes took the
article, sometimes not ; e.g. Al-Kāfah, said to mean ‘the (city of the) Reed-
huts”; but on the other hand, Wäsit, “the Middle-town,” is always written
without the article, though here too it would have seemed equally appropriate.
* How little any rule holds is shown by the case of Jiddah, the port of
Mecca, given both as Juddah, and as Al-Juddah by all the earlier writers.
In the following pages where a place-name commonly occurs in the Arabic
authors preceded by the article, this is, on first mention, so given. Sub-
sequently, however, when the name is repeated, for the sake of brevity, and
in the maps for distinctness, the article as a general rule is omitted. The use
or disuse of the article varies with the different Arab geographers, and like
their spelling of foreign names is the reverse of consistent.
22 INTRODUCTORY. [CHAP.
more often known simply as Sijistān, for Madinat-Sijistān, ‘the
City’ of that province. From this usage much confusion
naturally arises when the province had two capitals. This for
example is the case with the Kirmān province, where the name
Kirmān (sci/iceſ city) in the earlier books stands for the first
capital Sirjān, and in later times for the present city of Kirmān, a
totally different town, which only became the capital when Sirjān
had gone to ruin. Also, on comparing together the maps, as
deduced from the statements of the medieval geographers, with
the map of the present day, it will often be found that the name
of a lost city has been preserved in the modern district; thus of
the lost Sirjān city, for example, the name is still met with in the
modern Sirján district; the same is the case with both Bardasir
and Jiruft, formerly each the name of an important town, now
only preserved in the district. In short the district and its chief
city being always, possibly, known by the same name, either one
or the other with the lapse of time might become obsolete.
Hence, and conversely to the foregoing examples, the name
of the older Aradūn district is now given to the little town
known as Aradūn, which of old was called Khuvár (of Ray).
In physical geography the Arab nomenclature was not rich.
Single and notable mountain peaks generally had proper names
(e.g. Damāvand, Alvand), but as a rule no chain of mountains
had any particular designation. The great Taurus range shutting
off the Byzantine lands was often (and incorrectly) referred to
as the Jabal Lukkâm, but this is properly only one moun-
tain group of the Anti-Taurus; and the very notable range of
the Alburz, dividing off the high Persian plateau from the
Caspian, has, with the Arab geographers, no common term for its
long chain of peaks. The great lakes generally had each its
special name (e.g. Māhālū, Zarah, and Chichast), but more
commonly the lake was known by the name of the principal
town on its shores; as for example the Urmiyah lake, and the lake
of Vān also called after Arjish. Seas were even less distinctively
named, being referred to by a variety of appellations, taken from
the provinces or chief towns on their coasts. Thus the Caspian
was indifferently termed the Sea of Tabaristān, or of Gilān, or of
Jurjān, also of Bākū, and it was latterly known as the Khazar
I] INTRODUCTORY. 23
Sea, from the kingdom of the Khazars which in the earlier
middle-ages lay to the northward of it. In a similar way the Aral
was known as the Sea of Khwārizm, and the Persian Gulf as the
Sea Of Fārs.
In conclusion it is to be understood that only a selection from
our authorities is given in the following chapters; the number of
towns and villages, the names of which are reported as being
situated in this or that province, is very great, certainly more
than double the sum catalogued in the index of the present work.
But where the site could not even approximately be fixed, the
mere name, one in a list, has been omitted. In regard to the
maps, these, it will be noted, are simply diagrams to illustrate the
text, and they do not show the country as it was at any one
particular epoch. Thus towns, which in fact succeeded one another,
are often marked as though existing at one and the same time, but
the text will duly explain whether this was, or was not the Case'.
* Perhaps some apology is due for the inordinate number of references
which crowd the footnotes of the following pages; though doubtless by the
student, wishing to verify a fact, this will not be counted as a fault. All, or
none, seemed the only course. The Moslem writers, Arabs, Persians and
Turks, as is well known, are the greatest plagiarists in all literature, and seldom
acknowledge their indebtedness. On the other hand, each geographer or
historian generally adds something of his own to what he copies (unacknow-
ledged) from a predecessor, and often by combining many authorities sufficient
scraps of information are obtained definitely to substantiate a fact or fix
a position. As an instance I may quote the case of the not very important
town of Khurkān, in the Kāmis province. Nothing much is known of it, but
it seemed not unimportant to mark that this Khurkän of Kümis, though now
disappeared from the map, was to be kept separate from the like-written name
(in Arabic) of Kharrakān in the Jibál province. All that is known of the
Kāmis town is its position; but to fix this, (I) Kazvini has to be cited, who
says the town stood four leagues from Bistām; to which information (2) Yākūt
adds the fact that it stood on the road going to Astarābād; while (3) Mustawfi
further tells us that in his day Khurkán was an important village with a saint's
tomb, and plentiful water supply, hence it was not a mere post-station. Yet to
record all this, which amounts to so little, three authors have to be quoted,
with references to their works, in the footnote.
CHAPTER II.
‘IRAK.
The division of Mesopotamia, Northern and Southern. “Irāk or Babylonia.
Change in the courses of the Euphrates and Tigris. The great irrigation
canals. Baghdād. Madáin and the cities on the Tigris thence down to
Fam-as-Silh.
The great plain of Mesopotamia, through which the Euphrates
and the Tigris take their course, is divided by nature into two
parts. The northern half (the ancient kingdom of Assyria) con-
sists mostly of pasture lands covering a stony plain; the southern
half (the ancient Babylonia) is a rich alluvial country, where the
date palm flourishes and the land is watered artificially by irri-
gation channels, and this for its exceeding fertility was accounted,
throughout the East, as one of the four earthly paradises. The
Arabs called the northern half of Mesopotamia Al-Jazirah, “the
Island,’ the southern half was known as Al-‘Irāk, meaning ‘the
Cliff’ or ‘Shore,’ but it is doubtful how this term came originally
to be applied; possibly it represents an older name, now lost, or it
was used originally in a different sense. The alluvial plain was also
commonly known to the Arabs under the name of As-Sawād, ‘the
Black Ground,’ and by extension As-Sawād is frequently used as
synonymous with Al-‘Iråk, thus coming to mean the whole province
of Babylonia'.
The frontier between ‘Irāk and Jazirah varied at different
epochs. By the earlier Arab geographers the limit generally
* In its secondary sense Sazvād means ‘the District’ round a city, hence we
have the Sawād of Baghdād, of Kāfah, and of Basrah ſrequently employed to
designate respectively the environs of these cities.
CHAP. II] ‘IRAK. 25
coincided with a line going north from Anbār on the Euphrates to
Takrit on the Tigris, both cities being reckoned as of ‘Iråk.
Later authorities make the line go almost due west from Takrit,
so as to include in ‘Irák many of the towns on the Euphrates to
the north of Anbār; this, physically, is the more natural division
between the two provinces, and it crosses the Euphrates below
‘Ānah, where the river makes a great bend to the southward. The
Euphrates was known to the Arabs as Al-Furāt; the Tigris they
Called Dijlah (without the article), a name which occurs in the
Targums as Dig/ath, corresponding to the latter part of Hiddekel,
the form under which the Tigris is mentioned in the book of
Genesis. When the Moslems conquered “Irāk in the middle of
the 1st (7th) century Ctesiphon, which they called Madāin, on the
Tigris, was the chief city of the province, and the winter capital
of the Sassanian kings. The Arabs, however, required cities for
their own people, also to serve as standing camps, and three were
before long founded, namely, Küfah, Basrah, and Wäsit, which
rapidly grew to be the chief towns of the new Moslem province,
Küfah and Basrah more particularly being the twin capitals of
‘Irăk during the Omayyad Caliphate".
With the change of dynasty from the Omayyads to the
Abbasids a new capital of the empire was required, and the
second Abbasid Caliph founded Baghdād on the Tigris some
miles above Ctesiphon (Madáin). Baghdād soon eclipsed all the
recent glories of Damascus under the Omayyads, becoming the
metropolis of the Abbasid Caliphate, and naturally also the
capital city of ‘Irák, which province now rose to be the heart
and centre of the Moslem empire in the east.
During the middle-ages the physical conditions in ‘Irāk were
entirely different from what they are now, by reason of the
great changes which have come to pass in the courses of the
* As such Kāfah and Basrah were known as Al-‘Irākān (vulgarly Al-
‘Iråkayn), meaning ‘the two capitals of Al-‘Irāk.’ At a later date, however,
when Kāfah and Basrah had lost their pre-eminence, the name Al-‘Iråkayn
or ‘the two ‘Iräks’ came to be used incorrectly, as though meaning the two
provinces of ‘Iråk, namely Arabian and Persian ‘Iråk, the latter standing for
the province of Al-Jibál, but this will be more particularly explained in
Chapter XIII.
26 ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
Euphrates and Tigris, and the consequent ruin of the numerous
irrigation canals which, under the earlier Caliphs, made ‘Irāk a
very Garden of Eden for fertility. At the present day, the Tigris,
following a winding course in a direction mainly south-east, is
joined at a point about 250 miles (as the crow flies) below Baghdād
by the waters of the Euphrates at Kurnah. The combined rivers,
now known as the Shatt-al-‘Arab (the Arab Stream), thence flow
out to the Persian Gulf by a broad channel or tidal estuary
measuring in length about a hundred miles in a direct line. This
is what the modern map shows; but in early Moslem times, and,
as will be demonstrated, in all probability as late as the middle
of the Ioth (16th) century, the Tigris, when it came about a hundred
miles below Baghdād, turned off south, from what is its present bed,
flowing down by the channel now known as the Shatt-al-Hayy (the
Snake Stream) to Wäsit. This city occupied both banks of the
river, and the Tigris some 60 miles below Wäsit, after expending
most of its waters by irrigation channels, finally spread out and
became lost in the Great Swamp.
Throughout the middle-ages the Great Swamp, which covered
an area 50 miles across, and very nearly 200 miles in length,
came down to the immediate neighbourhood of Basrah. At
its north-western end the swamp received the waters of the
Euphrates a few miles to the south of Kaſah; for the main channel
of the Euphrates was in those days the Kāfah arm of the river, that
which flows by Hillah (now the main stream) being then only a
great irrigation canal, called the Nahr Sūrā. Along the northern
edge of the lower part of the Great Swamp a line of lagoons,
connected by open channels, made navigation possible; boats
passing where the Tigris entered the swamp at Al-Katr, to where
(near"modern Kurnah) the swamp surcharged by the waters of
both Euphrates and Tigris drained out by the Abu-l-Asad canal
into the head of the estuary of the Shatt-al-‘Arab. By this water-
way cargo-boats went down without difficulty from Baghdād to
Basrah, which last, the seaport of Baghdād, lay at the end of
a short canal, leading west out of the tidal estuary—the Blind
Tigris as the Shatt-al-‘Arab was then more commonly called.
The present course of the Tigris, as shown on the modern
map, keeps to the eastward of the Shatt-al-Hayy channel, turning
II] ‘IRAK. 27
off at the village now known as Kūt-al-‘Amārah, which stands for
the medieval Mādharāyā; and this, the present channel down
to Kurnah, was also apparently that occupied by the river
during the period of the Sassanian monarchy, when the Great
Swamp, described by the Arab geographers, did not as yet
exist. The historian Balādhuri dates the origin of the swamp as
far back as the reign of Kubădh I, the Sassanian king who reigned
near the end of the 5th century A.D. In his day the dykes
existing along the Tigris channel, as it then ran, having been
for many years neglected, the waters suddenly rose, and pouring
through a number of breaches, flooded all the low-lying lands to
the south and south-west. During the reign of Anāshirwān the
Just, son and successor of Kubădh, the dykes were partially
repaired and the lands brought back under cultivation ; but
under Khusraw Parwiz, the contemporary of the prophet
Muhammad, and in about the year 7 or 8 after the Flight
(A.D. 629) the Euphrates and the Tigris again rose, and in
such flood as had never before been seen. Both rivers burst
their dykes in innumerable places, and finally laid all the Sur-
rounding country under water. According to Balādhuri King
Parwiz himself, when too late, superintended the re-setting of
the dykes, sparing neither treasure nor men's lives, ‘indeed he
crucified in one day forty dyke-men, at a certain breach (Baládhuri
reports), and yet was unable to master the flood.’ The waters.
could in no wise be got back, and the swamps thus formed
became permanent; for during the succeeding years of anarchy
and when the Moslem armies began to overrun Mesopotamia
and the Sassanian monarchy perished, the dykes, such as still
existed, naturally remained uncared for, ‘and breaches came
in all the embankments, for none gave heed, and the Dihkāns
(namely the Persian nobles, who were the landlords) were power-
less to repair the dykes, so that the swamps every way lengthened
and widened.’
The above well accounts for the formation of the Great
Swamp, and Ibn Rustah refers to this epoch, under the last
Sassanians, the first great shifting of the Tigris from the
eastern channel, beyond Mādharāyā, to the western channel
(the Shatt-al-Hayy) which passed down through the site sub-
28 ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
sequently occupied by the Moslem city of Wäsit. This change,
says Ibn Rustah, had turned all the country bordering the older
eastern course into a desert, and so it remained in the 3rd (9th)
century when he wrote. He then describes the back-water, six
leagues long (above Kurnah), which ran up north to ‘Abdasi and
Madhár, where the channel was stopped by a dam ; this being
evidently the last reach of the former, and present, eastern course
of the Tigris. Ibn Rustah states that the dam, which in his time
stopped all navigation above this point, had not existed in
Sassanian days, when the channel was still open north of ‘Abdasi
and Madhār right up to where this rejoined the Tigris course (of
his day) in the district north of Wäsit (at Mādharāyā), whence up
stream the river was clear to Madáin. He continues:—‘and of
old, Sea-going ships Sailing in from India came up the Tigris
(estuary, of the later) Basrah, and thence could attain to Madáin
(Ctesiphon), for sailing on they came out above (the present)
Fam-as-Silh into the Tigris reach of (the river below where, in
later times, was) Baghdād.’
The lower Tigris at the present day, therefore, flows in the
bed which, in the main, it had followed during Sassanian times.
But during all the centuries of the Abbasid Caliphate it poured
into the swamps down the western channel past Wäsit, and the
question arises—when did the change back to the present eastern
channel take place? The answer is that doubtless the change
was brought about gradually, and from the silting up of the
western arm ; in any case, all Our Moslem authorities, down to
the age of Timür and the beginning of the 9th (15th) century,
describe the lower Tigris as still passing through Wäsit, this fact
being confirmed by Hāfiz Abrū writing in 820 (1417). One of the
first travellers to speak of the eastern arm as the navigable channel,
was John Newberie, who in 1581, after visiting Baghdād, went down
by boat in six days to Basrah, passing on the fifth day Kurnah, “a
castle which standeth upon the point where the river Furro
(Euphrates) and the river of Bagdet (the Tigris) doe meet.” In
the following century the Frenchman Tavernier made the same
journey down the Tigris. He left Baghdād in February 1652,
and he states that at some considerable distance below this city
the Tigris divided into two branches. The western channel (that
II] ‘IRAK. 29
by Wäsit) was in his time no more navigable, but it ran—as he
expresses it—‘vers la pointe de la Mésopotamie.’ The French
traveller followed in his boat the present eastern channel, which
took its course ‘le long de l’ancienne Chaldée,’ after leaving
(Kūt-al-)“Amārah; and just before coming to Basrah he passed
Kurnah where, he says, the Tigris and Euphrates joined their
streams".
_ The existence of the Great Swamp, and the consequent change
in the courses of both Euphrates and Tigris, is the chief matter
of note in the physical condition of Lower Mesopotamia during the
Caliphate; but of almost equal importance was the system of Canalisa-
tion inherited by the Arabs when, after the conquest, they took over
the country from the Persians. Briefly, as already stated, we find
that all “Irāk north of the swamp, and between the two rivers, was
then traversed, like the bars of a gridiron, by a succession of canals
which drained eastward into the Tigris; while east of the Tigris a
canal, 200 miles in length, Called the Nahrawān, starting from below
Takrit and re-entering the river fifty miles north of Wäsit, effected
the irrigation of the lands on the further or Persian side of the Tigris.
The details of this great system of waterways will be explained more
fully in due course, but a glance at the accompanying map, drawn
* Baladhuri, 292. I. R. 94. Yak. i. 669. In 1583 John Eldred went down
from Baghdād to Basrah, and also describes how one day's journey before
the latter place ‘the two rivers of Tigris and Euphrates meet, and there
standeth a castle called Curna’: see his voyage in Hakluyt, Principa/
Mavigations (Glasgow, 1904), vi. 6; also v. 371, for in 1563 Caesar Frederick
had made the same journey and speaks of ‘the castle of Corna' in similar
terms. For the voyage of John Newberie, see Purchas, His Ai/grimes (folio,
U625–26), v. 1411, 1412; Six Voyages en Złºrguie de /. B. Zazernier (Utrecht,
1712), i. 249. Other travellers do not afford any detailed information. The
earliest mention of the (western)(present) Tigris arm as navigable appears to be
the anonymous Portuguese traveller, a copy of whose manuscript is in the
possession of Major M. Hume (see The Athenæum for March 23rd, 1901,
p. 373), who speaks of the castle (of Kurmah) six leagues above Basrah where
the Euphrates and Tigris flowed together. His voyage from internal evidence
must have been made in about the year 1555. The conclusion therefore
appears to be that, from the time of Muhammad, and during the nine follow-
ing centuries, the Tigris took the western arm down to the swamps; afterwards,
in the early part of the 16th century A.D., changing back into the eastern
channel, which it had followed in Sassanian times before the rise of Islam, and
which its main stream now follows at the present day.
3O ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
up from the accounts of contemporary authorities, shows how the
marvellous fertility of ‘Irăk during Abbasid times was due to a
strict economy of the water supply; and that while nearly all the land
between the Euphrates and the Tigris was irrigated by the waters of
the Euphrates led off through canals flowing eastward, the lands
along the left bank of the Tigris, and towards the foot-hills of
the Persian highlands, were made fertile by the canals of the
Nahrawān, which economically distributed the surplus waters of
the Tigris to the eastward, and caught the flood of the numerous
streams flowing down from the mountains of Kurdistân.
The topography of Baghdād has been dealt with in a previous
volume", and all that is necessary in this place is to summarise the
most important facts, in order to make clear the position of the
Abbasid capital among the other cities of ‘Iråk, and explain the
details of the road system (already referred to in Chapter I) of
which Baghdād was the central point.
The first of the great canals which ran from the Euphrates to
the Tigris was the Nahr ‘īsā’, and just above where its waters
flowed out into the latter river, the Caliph Manşūr about the year
145 (762) built the Round city, which became the nucleus of
Baghdād. The Round city had four equidistant gates lying one
Arab mile apart each from the other, and from every gate went
a high road. Great suburbs were in time built on these four roads,
and these before long came to be incorporated in the circuit of
the great metropolis. The four gates of the Round city were
(1) the Basrah Gate to the S.E. opening on the suburbs along the
Tigris bank where the various branches of the ‘īsā canal flowed
out; (2) the Kāfah Gate to the S.W. opening on the high road
1 Baghdād during the Abbasid Caliphate (Oxford, 1900). It is to be noted
that the number of districts, towns, and villages in ‘Irāk of which information
has come down is very great, and a volume would be needed to report all that
is known of this, the capital province of the Abbasids. The map constructed
for the paper on Ibn Serapion (Jour. Aoy. Asiat. Soc. 1895, p. 32) gives
all the places lying on the rivers and canals, but this does not exhaust the list,
and the reader may be referred to the work of Professor M. Streck, Die aſte
Alandschaft Babylonien (Leyden, 1901), for fuller details, which it is impossible
to find place for in the present chapter.
* AWahr means both ‘canal’ and “river’ in Arabic; ‘īsā was the name of
the Abbasid prince who dug the canal. 4.
II] ‘IRAK. 3 I
going south, which was the Pilgrim road to Mecca; (3) the Syrian
Gate to the N.W. where the high road branched left to Anbār on
the Euphrates, and right to the towns on the western Tigris bank
north of Baghdād; and (4) the Khurāsān Gate leading to the
main bridge of boats for crossing the river. By this bridge East
Baghdād was reached, at first known as the Camp of Mahdi, son
and successor of the Caliph Manşūr, and Mahdi built his palace
here, also founding the great Friday Mosque of East Baghdād.
The settlement on the east side was divided into three quarters,
that near the bridge head was known as the Rusāfah quarter, the
Shammāsīyah quarter lay above it along the river bank, and the
Mukharrim quarter below it. These three quarters of East
Baghdād were surrounded by a semicircular wall, going from the
river bank above the Shammāsīyah to the river again below the
Mukharrim ; and across the middle and narrow part of East
Baghdād went the beginning of the great Khurāsān road, starting
from the Khurāsān Gate of the Round city, and crossing the
main bridge to the (second) Khurāsān Gate of East Baghdād,
whence, as explained in the previous chapter, the trunk road went
east to the limits of the Moslem empire.
From the Kāfah Gate of the Round city, as already stated, led
the Kāfah or Pilgrim road, going South, and the great suburb
which here stretched to a point nearly a league distant from the
walls of the Round city was known as Karkh. The suburb of
the Muhawwal Gate lay to the westward of the Round city, being
reached from both the Kāfah Gate and the Syrian Gate, where
the roads converging fell into the great western high road going
through the town of Muhawwal to Anbār. North of the Syrian
Gate was the Harbiyah quarter (balancing Karkh on the South of
the Round city), and beyond the Harbiyah and surrounded on
two sides by a bend in the river were the northern cemeteries of
West Baghdād, at a later time famous as the Kázimayn, and so
named from the tombs of two of the Shi‘ah Imāms.
The city of Baghdād occupied the central point of four
districts, two being on either bank of the Tigris. On the western
side the Katrabbul district was north of the ‘īsā canal, and
Bădărayå lay to the south of the same; while on the eastern bank
the Nahr Băk district was to the north of the line of the Khurāsān
32 ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
road, and Kalwādhā district to the southward; the town of
Kalwādhā Standing on the river bank a short distance below the
southernmost gate of East Baghdād. From Baghdād, as the central
point of the road system of the empire, two roads (as already Said),
going south and west, bifurcated at the Kāfah Gate of the Round
city; and two, going north and east, passed through East Baghdād,
having their starting-point at the further end of the main bridge
of boats. The southern road, to Kāfah (and Mecca), after leaving
the suburb of Karkh, came before long to the town of Sarsar, on the
Nahr Sarsar, the second of the great canals from the Euphrates
to the Tigris, which flowed parallel with the Nahr ‘īsā on the
south. The western or Anbār road turning off at the Kāfah
Gate, and passing through the suburb of Baráthá, came after
about a league to the town of Muhawwal which stood on the
‘īsā canal. The eastern or Khurāsān road left East Baghdād
(as already said) at the Khurāsān Gate, north of the Mukharrim
quarter, and the first town reached was Nahrawān Bridge at the
crossing of the great Canal of this name. Finally, the northern
road passed through the Shammāsīyah quarter to the Baradán Gate
of East Baghdād, and shortly came to the town of Baradán lying
on the east bank of the Tigris; whence, keeping along the left
bank of the river, the high road reached Sâmarrà and the towns
of northern Mesopotamia.
During the five centuries of the Abbasid Caliphate the plan
of Baghdād with its suburbs changed considerably as the city grew
and in parts fell to ruin. What has been sketched in the fore-
going paragraphs was the city as it existed in the time of
Hârün-ar-Rashid. The civil war which broke out after his death
brought about the ruin of the Round city. In 221 (836) the seat
of the Caliphate was removed to Sāmarrà, and during the reigns
of seven Caliphs Baghdād was reduced to the condition of
a provincial town. When finally in 279 (892) Sâmarrà was
abandoned and the Caliph re-established his court in the old
capital, it was East Baghdād, where many new palaces came to be
built, which succeeded to the glories of the Round city, now
falling more and more to ruin; and for the next four centuries,
down to the invasion of the Mongols, the Caliphs permanently
established their residence on the east bank.
II] ‘IRAK. 33
These palaces of the later Caliphs were built on the land to
the south of Mukharrim, the lowest of the three quarters included
within the wall of East Baghdād as it had existed in the time of
Hārūn-ar-Rashid. These three quarters, at the date in question,
had fallen to ruin, but the new palaces quickly came to be
surrounded by new suburbs, which in their turn were before longen-
closed by a great semicircular wall. The new wall of East Baghdād,
including in its circuit a part of the older Mukharrim, went from
the river bank above the palaces to the river bank below (adjacent
to Kalwādhā), and it was built by the Caliph Mustazhir in 488
(Io95). This was the wall, more than once repaired, which finally
in 656 (1258) proved impotent to withstand the Mongol attack,
and the Abbasid Caliphate fell. At the present day this ruined
wall remains, enclosing within its wide circuit the few relics that
time has left of the city of the Caliphs, and still protecting modern
Baghdād, which is as heretofore the capital of ‘Iråk, and the
residence of its Turkish Governor. -
Seven leagues below Baghdād, and Occupying both banks of
the Tigris, lay Al-Madáin, ‘the Cities,’ as the Arabs called the
ruins of the twin capitals, Ctesiphon and Seleucia, which had been
founded under the earlier Seleucids three centuries before Christ.
Seleucia of the west bank had received its name from Seleucus
Nicator. The name of Ctesiphon, which the Arabs give under
the shortened form of Taysafún, is of uncertain etymology; though
in appearance it is Greek, it probably is a corruption of the
old Persian name of the city, for it is not known to us how
the Sassanians called this capital of their empire". In 540 A.D.
Anſshirwān the Just had taken Antioch of Syria, with Seleucia
on the Orontes, and after the fashion of Persian monarchs had
transported the inhabitants of this Seleucia to his capital at
Ctesiphon. Here he settled them in a new suburb on the east
side of the Tigris, opposite therefore to the site of Seleucia of
1. It has been plausibly suggested that Ctesiphon is to be identified with
Casiphia of the book of Ezra (viii. 17), which lay between Babylon and
Jerusalem, and which in the Septuagint version is named ‘the Silver City.”
Madáin is merely the Arabic plural of Madžnah, “a city’; and Casiphia
would be the Chaldee form of the Persian name, now lost, of the capital of
the Chosroes.
LE S. - 3
34 ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
Mesopotamia; and this suburb existed when the Arabs conquered
the country in the following century, being still known as Rūmīyah,
the Roman (or Greek) town, which some report to have been built
on the plan of Antioch. -
Al-Madāin, according to the Moslem authors, consisted of
seven cities, whose names, with divers readings, are duly chronicled;
but five cities only appear to have been in existence and
inhabited when Ya‘kūbi wrote in the 3rd (9th) century. These
were, on the east bank, Al-Madinah-al-‘Atikah, “the Old Town,'
corresponding with Ctesiphon, and one mile south of it. Asbänbur,
adjacent to which lay Rúmiyah. On the opposite bank of the
Tigris was Bahurasir, a corruption of Bih-Ardashir—‘the good
town of King Ardashir’—and one league below it was Sābāt, which
according to Yākūt was called by the Persians Balāsābād.
The great Sassanian palace, of which the ruins still exist, on the
eastern bank of the Tigris, was known to the Arabs under the name
of the Aywan-Kisrā, ‘the Hall of the Chosroes,’ and this, accord-
ing to Ya‘kâbi, stood in Asbänbur; while another great building
known as Al-Kasr-al-Abyad, ‘the White Palace,’ was to be seen
in the Old Town a mile distant to the north. This last, however,
must have disappeared by the beginning of the 4th (Ioth) century,
for all later authorities give the names of ‘the White Palace,’ and
‘the Hall of the Chosroes’ indifferently to the great arched
building which to the present day exists here as the sole relic of
the Sassanian kings. This building had a narrow escape from
complete destruction in the middle of the 2nd (8th) century, when
Manşūr was founding Baghdād; for the Caliph expressed his
intention of demolishing the Sassanian palace, and using the
materials for his new city. His Persian Wazir, Khālid the
Barmecide, in vain attempted to dissuade him from this act of
barbarity, but the Caliph was obstinate; the Wazir, however,
gained his point for, when the order came to be carried into effect,
the demolition was found to be more costly than the materials
were worth for the new buildings, and the Arch of the Chosroes,
as Yākūt calls it, was left to stand. At a later period much of its
stone work was carried off for the battlements of the new palace
of the Tājin East Baghdad, which the Caliph ‘Ali Muktafi finished
building in the year 290 (903).
II] ‘IRAK. 35
In the 4th (1 oth) century Madāin, which is at the present day
a complete ruin, was a small and populous town, with a fine
Friday Mosque dating from the days of the Moslem conquest;
near which stood the tomb of Salmān the Persian, one of the best
known Companions of the prophet Muhammad. The markets of
Madáin were built of burnt brick and were well provided. In
the neighbouring Rūmīyah, the Caliph Manşūr had for a time
held his court, while at Sābāt on the opposite bank Mamūn
had also resided. The grandeur of the ancient palace of the
Chosroes is a theme on which the Arab geographers relate many
details. Ya‘kūbi says that the summit of the great arch is 80 ells
in height; Yākūt refers to the magnificent kiln-burnt bricks, each
near an ell in length by somewhat less than a span in width.
Mustawfi, who gives the legendary account of Madáin and its
palace, reports that in the 8th (14th) century both Madáin and
Rúmiyah had come to be uninhabited ruins, though the villages
opposite, on the western bank, still retained their inhabitants. Of
these, he adds, the most important was Bahurasir, already men-
tioned, which Yākūt, who had been there, calls Ar-Rûmakän. To
the south of it lay Zarīrān, a stage on the Pilgrim road, and to the
west Sarsar, already mentioned, on the Sarsar Canal, which last
fell into the Tigris a short distance above Madáin. The district
round Madāin, which stretched eastward from the Tigris to the
Nahrawān canal, was known as Rādhān (Upper and Lower), of
which Yākūt names numerous villages, and Mustawfi praises the
magnificent crops harvested here'.
Dayr-al-‘Ākúl, ‘the Convent of the (river) Loop,' is still marked
on the map, situate on the east bank Io leagues below Madāin,
and the name is descriptive of the Tigris Course at this point. It
was a Christian monastery, Surrounded by a town of considerable
size, the latter being counted as the chief city of the district of
Middle Nahrawān. In the town was a Friday Mosque”, standing
* Ykb. 320, 32 I. I. S. 9. I. H. 167. Muk. I22. Yak. i. 425, 426,
768, 809 ; ii. 729, 929 ; iii. 3. Mst. I 39, I40.
* This convenient, but of course incorrect term translates the Arabic
Masjid-a/-/3mi', otherwise rendered a Great Mosque. The Moslems have two
categories of mosques. Small mosques (Masjid) where any one could pray at
any time, often equivalent to a Mačám or Mas/had, the ‘shrine’ or ‘place of
3–2
36 ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
at some distance from the market place. Ibn Rustah at the close
of the 3rd (9th) century describes the toll-barrier which was set
across the Tigris here, and kept closed by the officer of the
customs. He writes:—‘the toll-bar (A/-Maasir) is the name
given to the places on the Tigris where two boats have been
moored on the one bank of the river, opposite two other boats on
the further bank, which two likewise are firmly moored. Then
across the stream they have carried cables, the ends being fastened
on either bank to these boats, and thus ships are prevented from
passing at night without paying toll.’ Mukaddasi in the 4th (10th)
century refers to Dayr-al-‘Ākål as one of the finest cities of this
region of the river bank, but afterwards the bed of the Tigris
changed and Yākūt in the 7th (13th) century says that the great
convent then lay a mile distant from the Tigris, standing solitary
in the midst of the plain. Mustawfi, however, in the following
century still counts Dayr-al-‘Ākūl as a large town, having, he adds,
a damp climate on account of its surrounding palm-groves.
Also on the east bank, but lying three leagues above Dayr-al-
‘Ākål, was the small town of As-Sib, for distinction called Sib of
the Banī Kūmā, which was noted for its olive-groves, and famous
in history for the battle which took place here in 262 (876), when
Ya‘kūb the Saffarid was defeated by the troops of the Caliph
Mu'tamid. A short distance below Dayr-al-‘Ākúl stood the
monastery of Marmārī, surnamed the Disciple, otherwise called
Dayr Kunna (or Kunnah), which lay a mile to the east of the
Tigris, and 16 leagues from Baghdād. The historian Shābusti in
martyrdom ' of a saint. The Musal/6 or ‘praying-place' was more especially
that used at the services of the great festivals. The Great Mosque, on the
other hand, was where weekly the Friday prayers were said, and the sermon
(Khutbah) preached; and it was called Masjid-al-Jāmi', “the Mosque of the
Congregation’—-terms often translated by “the Cathedral,' or ‘Congregational
Mosque.” The possession of a /ázmá' or Mºmbar (pulpit, for the Friday
Sermon) generally is a criterion of the size of a town, or village; and the fact
is often mentioned as such by the Arab geographers; Istakhri for instance
gives a long list of places in Fārs which had, or had not a Mimbar; and this
comes to much the same as if it were said that in such and such a village,
in a Christian land, stood the parish church. At a later date the term Masjid-
al-Jāmi' became changed to Masjid-al-Jum’ah, meaning ‘the Friday Mosque,”
but this is not the classical usage.
II] ‘IRAK. 37
the 4th (Ioth) century (quoted by Yākūt) describes it as a great
monastery surrounded by so high and strong a wall as to be like
a fortress and impregnable. Within the wall were a hundred cells
for the monks, and the right to a cell was only to be bought for a
price ranging from two hundred to a thousand dinārs (A, Ioo to
24.5oo). Each cell stood in its own garden, watered by a small
canal and planted with fruit trees which produced a crop that
yearly might be sold for from 50 to 200 dinārs (24, 25 to 24, Ioo).
Over against Dayr Kunná, but on the Tigris bank, was the
small town of As-Sāfīyah, which Yākūt writes was in his day
already a ruin ; and opposite this on the western side lay
Humāniyah (or Humayniyah) which is still found on the map,
two leagues S.E. of Dayr-al-‘Ākūl. In the beginning of the 3rd
(9th) century Humániyah was a place of some importance, for
after the death of the Caliph Amin, his two sons and his mother,
Zubaydah, widow of Hârün-ar-Rashid, were for a time sent to be
kept in prison here by Mamūn; and Yākūt in the 7th (13th)
century describes Humániyah as a large village surrounded by
well cultivated lands".
Jarjarāyā, or Jarjarāy, which still exists, lay four leagues S.E.
of Dayr-al-‘Ākúl. It is described by Mukaddasi in the 4th (Ioth)
century as having been a large town, and its Friday Mosque stood
close to the Tigris, which surrounded the town on two sides.
Ya‘kūbi writing in the previous century states that its population
chiefly consisted of Persian nobles, and it was the capital of the
district of Lower Nahrawān. In the 7th (13th) century, according
to Yākūt, it was, like most of the towns of the Nahrawān districts,
in a state of complete ruin. On the western bank of the Tigris,
four leagues below Jarjarāyā, at the ruins now called Tall-Nu‘mān
stood the town of An-Nu‘māniyah, which Yākūt counts as the
half-way stage between Baghdād and Wäsit. An-Nu‘māniyah was
the capital of the Upper Zāb district, its Friday Mosque standing
in the market place, and Ya‘kübi adds that near by stood the
monastery called Dayr Hizkil, where mad people were looked
after by the monks. Nu‘māniyah was celebrated according to
Ibn Rustah for its looms, where carpets like those of Hirah were
* I. R. 185, 186. Ykb. 32 I. Kud. I 93. Muk. 122. Mas. Zambi/, 149.
Yak. ii. 676, 687; iii. 362; iv. 980. Mst. 139. Ibn-al-Athir, vi. 207. -
38 ‘IRAK. [CHAP. II
manufactured. In the 8th (14th) century Mustawfi still speaks
of Nu‘māniyah as a flourishing town surrounded by date-groves.
The small town of Jabbul lay on the eastern bank, nine leagues
below Jarjarāyā, where Ibn Rustah in the 3rd (9th) century says
that there were government bake-houses. It was then a large
hamlet, having a Friday Mosque standing in the market place,
and Mukaddasi describes it as of the size of Dayr-al-‘Ākāl; but
when Yākūt wrote, Jabbul had sunk to the size of a big village'. .
The town of Mādharāyā occupied the position where at the
present day Kūt-al-‘Amârah stands, namely at the bifurcation of
the Shatt-al-Hayy from the eastern, and modern bed of the Tigris,
which now goes thence south-eastward down to Kurnah. Mādh-
arāyā was on the east bank, and in the 3rd (9th) century it was
inhabited by Persian nobles. Here the great Nahrawān canal flowed
back into the Tigris; and immediately below Mādharāyā came Al-
Mubărak, a town which lay opposite Nahr Sābus on the western
bank of the Tigris. The town of Nahr Sābus was at the mouth
of the canal of this name, which will be spoken of later, and this
was the chief town of the Lower Zāb district; it was counted as
five leagues distant from Jabbul. On the opposite bank, and
five leagues down stream, was the Silh canal with the town called
Fam-as-Silh at its “mouth’ (Fam), or point of origin, which latter
lay seven leagues above Wäsit. Fam-as-Silh town stood on the
Tigris bank, it had fine markets and a Friday Mosque, according
to Ibn Rustah. This place was famous in Moslem history for the
magnificent palace built here by Hasan ibn Sahl, the Wazir of
Mamûn, in which he celebrated the marriage of his daughter
Būrān with the Caliph, spending fabulous sums in banquets and
gifts, as will be found chronicled in the pages of Mas‘ūdī.
Fam-as-Silh afterwards fell to ruin, and Yākūt who visited it in
the 7th (13th) century, found the town and neighbouring villages
along the canal for the most part uninhabited”. From the town
of Fam-as-Silh the buildings of the Great Mosque in Wäsit were
visible on the southern horizon.
* Kud. 193. Ykb. 32 I. I. R. 186, 187. Muk. I22. Yak. ii. 23, 54;
iv. 796. A. F. 305. Mst. 141.
* Ykb. 32 1. Kud. 194. I. R. 187. Yak. ii. 903; iii. 917; iv. 381. Mas.
vii. 65. - -
CHA PTER III.
‘IRAK (cozzzzzzzzed).
Wäsit. The Great Swamps. Madhār and Kurmah. The Blind Tigris.
Basrah and its canals. Ubullah and ‘Abbādān. The Tigris above
Baghdād. Baradān. The Dujayl district. ‘Ukbārā, Harbà, and Kā-
disiyah.
Wäsit, the ‘middle city,’ was so called because it lay equi-
distant (about 50 leagues) from Kūfah, Basrah, and Ahwāz.
It was the chief town of the Kaskar district, and before the
foundation of Baghdād, as already said, was one of the three
chief Moslem cities of ‘Iråk.
Wäsit was founded about the year 84 (703) by Hajjāj, the
famous viceroy of Mesopotamia in the reign of the Omayyad
Caliph ‘Abd-al-Malik. The city occupied both banks of the
Tigris, the two halves being connected by a bridge of boats, and
there were two Friday Mosques, one for each half of the city.
Ya‘kūbi states that eastern Wäsit had been a town before the
days of Hajjāj, and here in the 3rd (9th) century the population
was still for the most part Persian. In the western half of the
city stood the Green Palace, built by Hajjāj, and called Al-Kubbat
Al-Khadrā, celebrated for its great dome, from the summit of
which Fam-as-Silh seven leagues distant to the north could be
seen. The lands round Wasit were extremely fertile, and their
crops provisioned Baghdād in time of scarcity; also paying yearly
into the treasury a million of dirhams (4,40,000) from taxes, as
reported by Ibn Hawkal, who was at Wäsit in 358 (969).
Mukaddasi states that the mosque in the eastern half of Wäsit
likewise was built by Hajjāj. The town markets were magnificent
4O ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
and well stocked, also at either end of the bridge of boats were
two small harbours where boats moored for convenience of
discharging cargo. -
During the whole period of the Caliphate Wäsit continued to
be one of the most important cities of ‘Iråk, and apparently the
eastern quarter was the first to fall to ruin, for Kazwini, who was
Judge at Wäsit in the latter half of the 7th (13th) century, speaks
of the town as lying solely on the western Tigris bank. Ibn
Batūtah, who was here in the early part of the following century,
praises the fine buildings of the city, especially a great Madrasah,
or college, with 300 rooms for students, and Mustawfi his
contemporary speaks of the immense palm-groves lying round the
town which made its climate very damp. At the close of the 8th
(14th) century Wäsit is frequently mentioned as a place of
importance during the various campaigns of Timür, who kept a
strong garrison here; but about a century after this, as already
described in the beginning of the last chapter, the Tigris ceased
to flow past Wäsit, taking the eastern course down by Kurnah,
and the city fell to complete ruin. Hājjī Khalſah, writing in the
beginning of the 11th (17th) century, speaks of it as then standing
in the desert, but the canal was famous for its reeds from which
pens were made".
* Below Wäsit, according to Yākūt, the Tigris flowed out into
the Great Swamp by five navigable waterways, the names of which
he gives, and this statement is corroborated by the accounts of
earlier writers. Ibn Serapion mentions a number of towns lying on
the main arm of the river below Wäsit, and above Al-Katr, where
in the 4th (1 oth) century the swamp began. The first of these
towns was Ar-Ruşāfah, “the Causeway,” lying on the left bank, ten
leagues from Wäsit, and near it flowing eastward into the swamp
was the canal called Nahr Bán, with the town of the same name,
* Ykb. 322. I. R. 187. Ist. 82. I. H. 162. Muk. I 18. Kaz. ii. 320.
I. B. ii. 2. Mst. I4 I. A. Y. i. 640, 657; ii. 517. J. N. 463. The ruins of
Wäsit do not appear to have been examined by any recent explorer. Their
position on the Shatt-al-Hayy is fixed within narrow limits by the Arab
itineraries. Chesney (Report of the AEuphrates and 7 gris Axpedition, i. 37)
states that these ruins were visited by Ormsby and Elliott in 1831–2, but he
does not mark their position. -
III] ‘IRAK. 4. I
also spelt Nahr Abān, at its exit. Below this came Al-Fārūth and
then Dayr-al-‘Ummal, ‘the Convent of the Governors.’ These
were on the eastern bank, opposite to which and flowing west
into the Swamp were three canals, first the Nahr Kuraysh with a
great village on it of the same name; then Nahr-as-Sib, on which
stood the towns of Al-Jawāmid, ‘the Dried-lands,’ and Al-‘Ukr;
finally, the Nahr Bardādā on which lay the town of Ash-Shadidiyah.
All these were important towns lying in the Swamp, round and
about Al-Jāmidah, otherwise called (in the plural) Al-Jawāmid;
further, Mukaddasi describes a large town in this region called
Aş-Salik, standing on an Open lagoon which was surrounded by
farmsteads and well cultivated lands. Over against these places
and on the eastern bank of the main arm of the Tigris was
Al-Hawānīt, ‘the Taverns,' where there was a toll-bar moored
across the river, like the one already described at Dayr-al-‘Ākúl
(p. 36), and this was close to Al-Katr, 12 leagues below Rusăfah,
where, according to Ibn Rustah, the Tigris in the 3rd (9th) century
dividing into three arms finally entered the Swamp".
The Swamps were called Al-Batáih (the plural form of A/.
Batihah, signifying a ‘lagoon’) and their history has been already
described (p. 26). The whole area covered by them was dotted
with towns and villages, each standing on its canal, and though
the climate was very feverish the soil, when drained, was most
fertile. Ibn Rustah writing at the close of the 3rd (9th) century
describes the Great Swamp as everywhere covered by reed-beds,
intersected by water channels, where immense quantities of fish
were caught, which, after being salted, were despatched to all the
neighbouring provinces. In regard to the Tigris waters, it appears
that from Katr eastward—and probably following, approximately,
the line of the present channel of the Euphrates—the waterway
led through a succession of Open lagoons to the Abu-l-Asad Canal,
by which the waters of the swamp drained out to the Basrah
estuary. These lagoons of open water, clear of reeds, were called
Aſazºr or Æazø/ by the Arabs, and the lagoons were connected
by channels navigable for small boats. The great river barges,
* I. S. 9, 20. Kud. 194. I. R. 184, 185. Muk. I 19. Yak. ii. Io, 553;
iii. 209, 415, 84o ; iv. 217, 758.
42 ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
according to Ibn Rustah, did not pass below Katr, but here
transferred their cargoes to wherries, so light of draught as to pass
through the channels threading the lagoons. All along these
channels, stations on platforms had been made, where in huts
built of reeds, and thus raised above the plague of gnats, guards
were posted to keep the course clear and to protect wayfarers, for
the recesses of the Great Swamp were the natural hiding-place of
Outlaws.
Ibn Serapion gives the names of four of the great lagoons
(Hawr, or Hawl) through which the waterway went towards Basrah.
The first was called Bahassā, the second was the Bakamsi lagoon,
then the Başrayāthā, and the fourth was the Hawr-al-Muham-
madiyah, the largest of all, on which stood the tower called
Minärah Hassān, after Hassān the Nabathaean who had been
employed by the Omayyad viceroy Hajjāj to drain and reclaim
lands in the Great Swamp. Beyond this last lagoon came—the
channel passing the villages of Al-Hālah and Al-Kawānīn, and
ending in the canal of Abu-l-Asad, which finally carried the waters
of the Swamp to the head of the Tigris estuary. This Abu-l-Asad,
whose canal roughly corresponds with the last reach of the present
Course of the Euphrates above Kurnah, had been a freedman of
the Caliph Manşūr, and when in command of troops at Basrah
he dug, or more probably widened, the boat channel which,
as Yākūt remarks, had doubtless existed here from Sassanian
times. Kurnah, at the present point of junction of the Euphrates
and Tigris, is not mentioned by any of the Arab geographers, and
the first notice of this castle appears in the Turkish /a/ún AWumá
at the beginning of the 11th (17th) century.
The last reach of the eastern course of the Tigris—-that of
Sassanian times, as also of the present day—existed, as already
said, in the middle-ages as a back-water, stopped at its northern
end by a dam. This back-water, called the Nahr-al-Madhár, was
six leagues in length, and led to the two cities of ‘Abdasi (or
‘Abdāsi) and Al-Madhār; the exact sites of which are unknown.
The surrounding district—along the then desiccated eastern bed
of the Tigris—was called Jūkhā, and it stretched north-westward
to Kaskar, the district of Wäsit. Madhär had been a city of much
importance at the time of the Moslem conquest, and was then
III] ‘IRAK. - 43
the capital of the district of Maysān, otherwise called Dasti-
Maysän. Madhár is described as lying four days’ journey from
Basrah, and was celebrated for its beautiful mosque and the much
venerated tomb of ‘Abd-Allah, son of the Caliph ‘Ali. The
neighbouring town of ‘Abdasi, according to Yākūt, was of Persian
origin, that name being the Arabic form of the older Afdasahi,
which had been a hamlet of the Kaskar district before the
conquest. Kaskar and Maysän were the two districts of the
eastern part of the Great Swamp, and Kaskar, according to
Kazwini, produced much excellent rice which was exported. On
its pastures buffaloes, oxen, and goats were fattened ; the reed-
beds sheltered ducks and water-fowl that were snared and sent
in to the markets of the surrounding towns, while in its canals
the shad-fish (called Shabbitt) was caught in great numbers, Salted
and exported. Further, in Maysān might be seen the tomb of the
prophet ‘Uzayr, otherwise Ezra, which Kazwini says was at a
place settled entirely by Jews, who served the shrine. This was
renowned throughout the countryside as a spot where prayers
were answered, and in consequence the shrine was made rich by
votive offerings'.
The broad estuary formed by the combined Tigris and
Euphrates waters, nearly a hundred miles in length, began at the
exit of the Abu-l-Asad canal, and flowed out to the Persian Gulf
at ‘Abbādān. This estuary was variously known as the Blind
Tigris (Dijlah-al-‘Awrá), or the Fayd (the estuary) of Basrah, and
the Persians named it Bahmanshir; at the present day it is
generally known as the Shatt-al-‘Arab, “the Arab River.’ The tide
from the Persian Gulf came up it, reaching as far north as the
head of the channel at Madhár and ‘Abdasi, also filling and
emptying the numerous canals of Basrah, and those irrigating the
lands east and west of the estuary. Basrah, the great commercial
port of ‘Irák, lay close to the border of the desert, at some distance
to the west of the estuary, with which it was in water communica-
tion by means of two canals. Both north and south of Basrah
numerous canals drained the lower waters of the Great Swamp
* I. R. 94, 185. I. S. 28. Kud. 240. Baladhuri, 293, 342. Kaz. ii.
297, 3 Io. Yak. i. 669; iii. 603; iv. 468, 830. J. N. 455.
44 ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
into the Blind Tigris, and on the east side of the estuary several
Other Canals came in, while a broad artificial channel called the
Nahr Bayān, at a point about 30 miles above ‘Abbādān, joined the
estuary of the Tigris with that of the Dujayl (the Kārūn river),
which flows down from the Khūzistán province into the Persian
Gulf at Sulaymānān".
Al-Basrah—the name is said to mean ‘the Black Pebbles’—
was founded in the reign of “Omar in the year 17 (638), and its
lands were divided among the Arab tribes who were then in
garrison here after the conquest of the Sassanian empire. The city
grew quickly to be, with Kūfah, one of the new capitals of ‘Irāk;
and in the year 36 (656) near Basrah ‘Alī gained the barren
victory, the famous Battle of the Camel, over those who were
responsible for the death of the Caliph “Othmān; in which battle
Talhah and Zubayr, two well-known Companions of the Prophet,
were slain. Basrah lay about 12 miles in a direct line from the
Tigris estuary, being reached by two great canals, the Nahr
Ma‘kil from the N.E. down which ships came from Baghdād,
and the Nahr-al-Ubullah by which the traffic passed from
Basrah going S.E. to the Persian Gulf at ‘Abbādān. These two
canals, with the waters of the estuary to the east for the third side,
formed the Great Island as it was called ; and the city of Ubullah
stood at its S.E. angle, above where the Ubullah canal joined the
estuary.
Basrah city had its greatest length along the junction Canal, of
the two arms just named, and its houses extending westward in
a semicircle reached the border of the desert, where a single gate
called Bāb-al-Bādiyah (the Desert Gate) gave egress. The width
of the city, from the canal bank to this gate, was in the 4th (Ioth)
century three miles, but its length greatly exceeded this measure-
ment. The houses of the town were for the most part of kiln-
burnt bricks, the walls were surrounded by rich pasture lands,
1 I. S. 28. The word ‘Awrá, meaning ‘blind of an eye,’ is applied to
rivers that have silted up, and to roads along which there is no thoroughfare.
At first the name of the Blind Tigris appears to have been given to the ‘Abdasi
channel; and only at a later date to the lower estuary. Mas. Zanbih 52.
Yak. i. 770. J. N. 454. This last gives the Tigris estuary under the name
of the Shatt-al-‘Arab.
III] . ‘IRAK. 45
watered by numerous minor canals, and beyond these lay
extensive palm-groves. Mukaddasi states that Basrah had three
Friday Mosques, one at the western gate, close on the desert,
and this was the oldest; a second mosque, the finest, built with
beautiful columns, stood in the chief market place, and it was
“unequalled among the mosques of all ‘Irāk’; the third was
situated among the houses of the town. There were also three
great market streets, full of shops and warehouses, and these
equalled the Baghdād markets in extent. The Mirbad (the
Kneeling-place for Camels) was the famous quarter at the western
gate, where the desert Caravans halted, and this was one of the
busiest parts of the city. Near here were the shrines at the tombs
of Talhah and Zubayr, but even when Mukaddasi wrote many
quarters of the city had already gone to ruin". Among other
institutions, Mukaddasi mentioned a public library, which existed
in Basrah during the 4th (Ioth) century, having been founded and
endowed by a certain Ibn Sawwar, who had also provided the town
of Râmburmuz in Khūzistān with a similar institution. In both
a stipend provided for the entertainment of students, and for the
copying of books; and the number of these stored in the Basrah
library was considerable.
During the many wars and insurrections recorded in the history
of the Abbasids Basrah suffered much. In 257 (871) when the
great rebellion of the Zanj was at its height, their leader—who
gave himself out as a descendant of the Caliph ‘Alī—stormed
Basrah, burnt the greater part of the town including the Great
Mosque, and for three days his troops plundered the city. Then
in 311 (923) Basrah was again sacked, and this time during
17 days, by the chief of the Carmathians. But the place in time
partly regained its former Opulence. In 443 (IoS2) it was visited
by the Persian traveller Nāsir-i-Khusraw, who describes it as most
populous, the city wall being in good repair though many
quarters of the town were still in ruin. The palace of the Caliph
‘Alī near the Great Mosque still existed, and there were thirteen
shrines recalling divers events of the days when ‘Ali was in
* The tomb of Zubayr is still marked by the ruins of that name which stand
on the site of medieval Basrah. Modern Basrah, lying on the Tigris estuary,
occupies the position of Ubullah at the exit of the canal.
\
46 ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
residence here. Nāsir also carefully enumerates the twenty
districts surrounding the city.
In 517 (II 23) the city wall, running half a league within the
old line, was rebuilt by the Kādī ‘Abd-as-Salam, and in the 8th
(14th) century, after the Mongol invasion, when Ibn Batūtah was
here, Basrah was still a very populous city. He speaks of the
mosque of ‘Ali, a fine tall edifice with seven minarets, which
however was only opened for the Friday prayers and already stood
two miles distant from the inhabited quarters of the town, being
Surrounded by ruins. The older city wall, lying two miles
beyond this mosque, could still be traced, near which were the
shrines of Talhah and Zubayr ; but the town proper then con-
sisted of only three inhabited quarters. Mustawfi, writing in the
same century, gives a long account of Basrah. Its mosque, which
he reports had only been rebuilt by the Caliph ‘Ali, was the
largest in Islam—and any mosque planned larger it was
impossible ever to complete—and of this mosque ‘Alī had set the
Kiblah (or Mecca point) quite exactly in its right direction.
Here, too, there was a minaret which shook or remained still
according as an oath Sworn to before it was true or false: a
perpetual miracle established by the Caliph ‘Ali who had built it.
Mustawfi gives some further account of the Basrah shrines, and
then speaks in high praise of the beautiful gardens and palm-
groves surrounding the city, ‘So thickly planted that you cannot
See a hundred paces distant,’ and the dates of so fine a quality
that they were profitably exported to India and to China.
Basrah had at all times been famous for its canals, which
according to Ibn Hawkal, in the 4th (Ioth) century, exceeded
Ioo, ooo in number, and of these 20,000 were navigable for boats.
The Nahr Ma‘kil, already mentioned as the main channel from
the direction of Baghdād, had been dug during the reign of
‘Omar by Ma‘kil ibn Yasar, a Companion of the Prophet. This
and the Ubullah canal, going from Basrah towards the south-east,
were each four leagues in length, and the gardens of the Ubullah
canal along the south side of the Great Island were held to be
one of the four earthly paradises'.
* As generally reported (but different authorities give different lists) the
other three were, the Ghawtah, or Garden Lands, of Damascus; the Sha‘b
III] ‘IRAK. 47
{

Al-Ubullah, the Arab form of the Greek Apologos, dated from
Sassanian or even earlier times, but it lay on the estuary and
was feverish, and the Moslems when they founded their new city,
Basrah, built this further inland near the desert border. Ubullah,
as already said, was to the north at the mouth of its canal, and on
the Great Island. Opposite, on the South side of the canal, was
the town called Shikk ‘Othmān, ‘ Othman's breach in the dyke
(he is said to have been a grandson of his namesake the third
Caliph); and over against the canal mouth, but on the east side
of the estuary, was the Station whence those who had crossed
the Tigris took the road for Khūzistán. This was called ‘Askar
Abu Ja‘far—‘the Camp of Abu Ja‘far,’ in other words, of the
Caliph Manşūr. Ubullah was in the 4th (Ioth) century a town of
considerable size, having its own Friday Mosque, and the like was
the case with Shikk ‘Othmān, both according to Mukaddasi being
fine buildings. Nāsir-i-Khusraw, who was here half a century later,
speaks of the palaces, markets, and mosques of both towns as then
in excellent state, but the Mongol inroad a couple of centuries
later affected all this countryside, and Kazwini writing in the 7th
(13th) century describes these places as gone to ruin, though
Shikk ‘Othmān was held famous for its great Sidr or lotus trees.
In the next century Ibn Batūtah describes Ubullah as a mere
village, from which condition it has arisen in modern times by the
building, on the older site, of New Basrah.
Where the Nahr-al-Ubullah flowed into the Tigris estuary
there had been a dangerous whirlpool, ships being often wrecked
here in earlier times. According to Ibn Hawkal this peril to all
mariners was done away with by a certain Abbasid princess—
some say Zubaydah—who, loading many ships with stones, sunk
them at this spot, and thus blocked the whirlpool. Ibn Serapion
carefully enumerates the nine canals which came into the Tigris
estuary on the western side; namely, three above the Nahr Ma‘kil,
and four south of Basrah, between the Ubullah canal and the
Bavvān, or Vale of Bavvān, in Färs, which will be described in Chapter XVIII;
and lastly the Wādī-as-Sughd, or Valley of Soghdiana, lying between Samar-
kand and Bukhārā, which will be mentioned in Chapter XXXIII. Ist. 80.
I. H. 159, 160, note c. Muk. I 17, 130, 413. N. K. 85–89. Yak, i. 636;
iv. 845. I. B. ii. 8, 13, 14. Mst. I 37.
48 ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
mouth of the estuary. The only one of these canals which is of
importance is the Nahr Abu-l-Khasib-so called after a certain
freedman of the Caliph Manşūr—on which in the middle years
of the 3rd (9th) century the great stronghold of the Zanj rebels
was built. This city, which they named Al-Mukhtārah, was so
strongly fortified as to resist for a considerable time the armies
sent against it by the Abbasid Caliph, and it was only after fifteen
years of continuous warfare that the rebellion of the Zanj was
finally crushed".
The chief canals on the eastern side of the Tigris estuary,
according to Ibn Serapion, were the following. First the Rayyān,
on or near which lay the two towns of Al-Maftah and Ad-Daskarah
(the Flat-land); the exact position of these is unknown, though
the first-named town was of sufficient importance for the estuary
to be often named the Tigris of Al-Maftah. Below this was the
Nahr Bayān, with the town of Bayān lying at its mouth five leagues
distant from Ubullah on the opposite side of the estuary. The
port of Muhammarah on the Haffär channel occupies its site at
the present day, this channel connecting the upper reach of the
Tigris estuary with that of the Dujayl (Kārūn). Mukaddasi,
writing three-quarters of a century later than Ibn Serapion, says
that this channel, four leagues in length, was widened and dug out
by the order of “Adud-ad-Dawlah the Buyid. Already in the
previous century it is spoken of by Kudāmah under the name of
the New Canal (An-Nahr-al-Jadid), and it was navigable for cargo-
boats coming to Basrah from Ahwāz, which before the widening
of the 'Adudi channel (as Mukaddasi calls it) had had to pass
down the Dujayl estuary, out to sea, and then up the Tigris
estuary past Bayān to Ubullah”.
The great island between the two estuaries which Yākūt names
(in Persian) Miyān Rūdān (Betwixt the Rivers) is described by
Mukaddasi as a Saô/3/a/, or salt-marsh, with the town of ‘Abbādān
on the seaboard at one angle, and Sulaymānān at the other angle
on the Dujayl estuary, ‘Abbādán still exists, but now lies up the
* Ist. 81. Baladhuri, 362. I. H. 160, 161. Muk. 18, 135. I. S. 29,
30. N. K. 89. Kaz. ii. 190. Yak. ii. 675. I. B. ii. 17. Tabari, iii. 1982.
* I. S. 30. I. K. 12. Kud. 194. Ist. 95. I. H. 171. Muk. 419.
Mas. Zambi/, 52. Yak. iv. 586.
III] ‘IRAK. 49
estuary more than twenty miles from the present coast-line of the
Persian Gulf, for the sea has been pushed back thus far by the
delta of the great river. Mukaddasi in the 4th (Ioth) century,
however, describes ‘Abbādān as having only the open sea beyond
it. It was inhabited by mat-weavers, who used the Halfä grass
of the island for their trade; and there were great guard-houses
round the town for the protection of the mouth of the estuary.
Nāsir-i-Khusraw, who was here in 438 (IO47), says that in his
day the low tide left a couple of leagues dry between ‘Abbādān
and the sea, and to serve as a lighthouse to warn mariners
they had built a scaffolding with great beams of teak-wood, very
broad below and narrowing above, 40 yards in height, which was
known as the Khashāb (Wood-works). On its summit was the
watchman's cabin, and the platform being stone-flagged and
supported on arches was used at night for a brasier where a
beacon-fire was lighted. ‘Abbādān was still a flourishing town in
the 7th (13th) century with many mosques and Rubåts (guard-
houses), but in the next century when Ibn Batūtah passed through,
it had sunk to the size of a village and already was three miles
distant from the coast-line. Mustawfi, however, the contem-
porary of Ibn Batūtah, speaks of ‘Abbādān as a considerable port,
and states that its revenues, which amounted to 441, ooo dinārs
in the currency of his day, were paid in to the Basrah treasury.
The harbour of Sulaymānān, a few leagues east of ‘Abbādān,
was often counted as of the Khūzistán province, and all that is
recorded of it appears to be the fact that it was founded by a
certain, Sulaymān ibn Jābir, surnamed ‘the Ascetic".’
Returning to the latitude of Baghdād the towns lying along
the Tigris to the north of the capital as far as the limits of ‘Iråk
have now to be described, with those which stood near the bank
of the great Nahrawān canal. As already said (see p. 32) the
* Baladhuri, 364. Ist. 9o. I. H. 173. Muk. I 18. Kaz. ii. 280. N. K.
89, 90. Yak, iv. 708. I. B. ii. 18. Mst. 137. Mas. i. 230. Yākāt (i. 645)
notes that the people of Basrah had the habit of turning proper-names into
place-names by the terminal syllable &n : e.g. 7a/hatán, ‘the Talhah canal.”
This explaims the forms Sulaymānān and ‘Abbādām, the latter being called
after a certain ‘Abbād. The shore line at the mouth of the Tigris estuary
advances at the rate of about 72 feet in the year, or a mile and a half in the
century; hence the present inland position of ‘Abbādām.
LE S. 4.
5O ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
chief high road from Baghdād to Mosul and the northern towns
went along the left or eastern bank of the Tigris. It left East
Baghdād by the Baradán Gate of the Shammāsīyah quarter, and
in about four leagues reached the small town of Al-Baradán,
which still exists under the slightly altered form of Badrān.
Close to Baradán were two other important villages, Bazūghā
and Al-Mazrafah, the latter lying three leagues above Baghdād.
At Ar-Răshidiyah near Baradán the Khâlis canal joined the
Tigris, as will be explained presently ; and immediately above
this, at the present day, ends a great bend of the Tigris to the
eastward, which bend begins at Kādisiyah 60 miles north of
Baghdād. The river bed, however, during the middle-ages took
an almost straight line from Kādisiyah to Baradán, and the ruins
still exist on the eastern side of the dry channel, the names being
marked on the map, of towns mentioned by Ibn Serapion and
other early authorities. -
The bed of the Tigris would indeed appear to have changed
here more than once. What is the present (eastern) channel
of the river the author of the Marāšid, writing about the year 7 oo
(1300), speaks of as the Shutaytah or ‘Lesser Stream’; and one
of the great alterations must have taken place during the reign of
the Caliph Mustansir, namely between the years 623 and 640
(1226 to 1242), for it is chronicled that he dug many canals to
irrigate the lands left dry by the shifting of the main stream. As
early as the 4th (Ioth) century also, Mas‘ūdī speaks of law-suits,
to which this changing of the Tigris bed had given rise, between
the landowners on the eastern and western banks above Baghdād.
Of these towns then lying on the east bank of the Tigris (their ruins
being now found on the dry channel far to the westward of the
present river) one of the best known was “Ukbarā, close to which
lay Awānā, and then Buşrā further down stream, the three places
standing some Io leagues from Baghdād. They lay surrounded by
gardens, to which pleasure-seekers from the capital resorted, and
Mukaddasi especially praises the grapes of ‘Ukbarā, which he says
was a large and populous town. A short distance above “Ukbarā
was ‘Alth or Al-‘Alth, which is still marked on our maps, but now
of the western bank, and Mukaddasi describes this as a large
and very populous city, lying on a branch canal from the Tigris.
III] ‘IRAK. 5 I
North-west of ‘Alth, where the river at the present day turns off
eastward for the great bend, stands Kādisiyah of the Tigris—not
to be confused with the place of the same name to the west
of the Euphrates. It was famous for its glass-works, and opposite
to it the Dujayl canal branched from the Tigris going south'.
The Dujayl canal (this also not to be confounded with the
Dujayl river, the Kārūn), as will be explained in the next chapter,
had originally been a channel from the Euphrates to the Tigris,
but by the beginning of the 4th (Ioth) century its western part
had become silted up, and its eastern and lower course was then
kept clear by a new channel, taken from the Tigris immediately
below Kādisiyah. The Dujayl—meaning ‘the Little Tigris —
watered all the rich district of Maskin lying to the north of West
Baghdād beyond Katrabbul. The later Dujayl was therefore
a loop-canal of the Tigris, which it rejoined opposite ‘Ukbarā
after throwing off a number of branches, some of which ran so far
south as to bring water to the Harbiyah, the great northern
suburb of West Baghdād (see above, p. 31). The district of
the Dujayl, otherwise called Maskin, included a great number of
villages and towns, lying westward of ‘Ukbarā and the Tigris
channel, the chief of which was Harbà, which was visited by
Ibn Jubayr in 580 (1184) and still exists. Here may be seen
at the present day the ruins of a great stone bridge across
the canal which, as the historian Fakhri records and the extant
inscription still testifies, was built by the Caliph Mustansir in 629
(1232). Near Harbà was Al-Hazirah (the Enclosure), where the
cotton stuffs called Kirbās were manufactured, being largely
exported. Yākút further names a considerable number of villages
—there were over a hundred in all—which were of this district,
and many of these, as for example Al-Balad (the Hamlet) near
Hazirah, are still to be found on the map. As late as the
8th (14th) century the Dujayl district, with Harbă for its chief
town, is described by Mustawfi as of amazing fertility, and its
pomegranates were the best to be found in the markets of
Baghdād.
* Kud. 214. Muk. 122, 123. Mas. i. 223. Yak. i. 395, 552, 606, 654;
iii. 705; iv. 9, 520. Mar. ii. 270, 429.
4–2
52 ‘IRAK. [CHAP. III
Many other towns were of this district. About ten miles
above Kādisiyah is Sāmarrà, which will be described in the next
chapter, and Matirah lay half-way between the two, immediately
above where three small canals branched from the left (east)
bank of the Tigris. Midway between Matirah and Kādisiyah,
below the exit of these canals, stood Barkuwärä, otherwise
Balkuwärā, or Bazkuwär. The village of Al-Matirah, according
to Yākūt, had derived its name from a certain Matar of the
Shaybán tribe, who was a notable man of the Khārijite sect, and
it had been originally called Al-Matariyah, this in time becoming
corrupted to Al-Matirah". Ten miles north again of Sãmarrá
was Karkh Firtiz, also called Karkh of Sãmarrà, to distinguish
it from Karkh the southern quarter of West Baghdād, and further
to the north lay Dúr, where the great Nahrawān canal branched
from the left bank of the Tigris. At this point, but from the right
or western bank of the Tigris, began the Ishākī canal which
making a short loop rejoined the river again opposite Matirah.
The positions of all these places are fixed by the canals, some of
them, in ruin, also still exist, but nothing is known of them
beyond their names.
* Ykb. 265. I. S. I.4. I. J. 233. Yak. i. 178, 605; ii. 235, 292, 555;
iv. 529, 568. Mst. 138. Fakhri, 380. Commander J. F. Jones in the A’ecords
of the Bombay Government (new series, number XLIII, 1857, p. 252) gives
a drawing of the Harbä bridge. He gives (p. 47) Barkuwärä under the form
Bez-guara.
CHAPTER IV.
‘IRAK (continued).
Sâmarrá. Takrit. The Nahrawān canal. Ba‘kābā and other towns. Nahr-
awān town, and the Khurāsān road. Jālūlā and Khánikin. Bandanijän
and Bayāt. Towns on the Euphrates from Hadithah to Anbār. The
‘īsā canal. Muhawwal, Sarsar and the Nahr-al-Malik. The Kāthā
canal.
Sâmarrà, which for more than half a century and during the reigns
of seven Caliphs, from 22 I to 279 (836 to 892), became the
Abbasid capital, had existed as a town before the Arab conquest,
and long after it had fallen from its temporary pre-eminence
Continued to be an important city. The name in Aramaean is
written Sâmarrà, which the Caliph Mu'tasim when he took up his
residence here changed, officially, to Surra-man-raa, ‘for good
augury,’ these words in Arabic signifying ‘Who sees it, rejoices.’
Under this form it is a mint city on Abbasid coins; but the name
was pronounced in many different ways, six forms are cited by
Ibn Khallikán, Sâmarrá being that most commonly used, and
the one selected by Yâkút as the heading to his article on
this city.
Ya‘kūbi writing at the close of the 3rd (9th) century has left
us a long and detailed account of Sãmarrà and its palaces, for the
seven Caliphs who lived here, mostly as the prisoners of their
lodyguard, occupied their enforced leisure in building, and
in laying out pleasure-grounds. The city proper stood on the
eaSt .. of the Tigris and extended with its palaces for a
distânce of seven leagues along the river. On the western bank
alsº many palaces were built, each Caliph in succession spending
fabulous sums on new pleasure-grounds. The land where the

54 - ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
Caliph Mu'tasim (a younger son of Hârân-ar-Rashid) built his first
palace when he came to settle at Sāmarrá in 221 (836) belonged
to a Christian monastery (Dayr) which was bought for 4ooo
dinārs (4.2 ooo) and it was known as At-Tirhān. His Turk body-
guard were granted fiefs at Karkh, and further up stream to Dúr,
some also lay south of Sãmarrà towards Matirah ; and the Caliph
proceeded to build the first Friday Mosque near the east bank of
the Tigris, and lay the foundations of his palace. Artificers were
brought together from all parts of the empire, and immense
quantities of teak-wood (Sáj) were imported, also palm beams
from Basrah and divers marbles from Antioch and Laodicea.
A thoroughfare called the Great Road (Ash-Sháriº-al-A’zam) was
laid out along the Tigris bank, being bordered by the new palaces.
and the fiefs, and this road went from Matirah right up to Karkh,
many by-roads and market streets branching from it. The new
Treasury and Government Offices also were built, and the Great
Hall called Dār-al-‘Āmmah (the Public Audience Chamber) where
the Caliph sat in state on Mondays and Thursdays.
Besides his palace in Sâmarrà, Mu'tasim laid out a pleasance
on the west side of the Tigris opposite the new capital, with which
it was connected by a bridge of boats, and the gardens were
planted with palms brought up from Basrah, and with exotics
sent for from provinces as far distant as Syria and Khurāsān.
These lands on the western side were irrigated by branch canals
from the Nahr-al-Ishāki, already mentioned, which was dug by
Ishāk ibn Ibrāhim, Chief of Police to Mu'tasim, and this was
more especially the district called Tirhān, which Ya‘kábí speaks
of as ‘the plain' of Sãmarrà. When the Caliph Mu'tasim died in
227 (842) Sâmarrà was in a fair way to rival Baghdād in the
grandeur of its palaces and public buildings. His two sons
Wäthik and Mutawakkil, who became Caliphs in turn, completed
the work of their father. Hârân-al-Wāthik built the palace, called-
after his name the Kasr-al-Häräni, on the Tigris bank, and at
either end of this, east and west, was a great platform. Wäthik
also dug a harbour from the river, where cargo-boats coming up
from Baghdād might conveniently unload. He was succeeded by
his brother Ja‘far-al-Mutawakkil in 232 (847) who at first lived in
the Hărăni palace, but in 245 (859) he began to build himself 3.

Iv) - ‘IRAK. 55
new palace three leagues north of Karkh, to which he extended
the Great Road, and this with the new town which sprang up
round it was called Al-Mutawakkiliyah or the Kasr-al-Ja‘fari. The
ruins of the Ja‘fari palace still exist in the angle formed by the
branching of the Nahrawān canal, and the older town of Al-
Māhūzah came to be incorporated with it.
Mutawakkil also built a new and more magnificent Friday
Mosque to replace that of his father, which had become too
small for the population of the new capital, for the houses now
extended in a continuous line with palaces and gardens from
Matirah to Dür. In his palace of the Mutawakkiliyah, otherwise
called the Ja‘farīyah, Mutawakkil was murdered by his son
Muntasir in 247 (861), and, during the troublous times that
followed, the four next Caliphs had their abode at the Kasr-al-
Jawsak (the Palace of the Kiosque) on the western side of the
Tigris opposite Sämarrá, this being one of those built by Mu'tasim.
Mu'tamid, son of Mutawakkil, and the last of the Caliphs to reside
at Sāmarrà, lived first at the Jawsak, but afterwards built himself
a new palace on the eastern bank, known as Kasr-al-Ma'shūk
(the Palace of the Beloved), from whence he finally removed the
seat of Government to Baghdād a short time before his death in
279 (892). The names of many other palaces are given by our
authorities. Ibn Serapion for instance mentions the celebrated
Kasr-al-Jiss (the Gypsum Palace) built by Mu'tasim on the Ishākī
canal; and Yākūt, who names a great number of palaces, adds
a long account of the almost fabulous prices which each had cost
its builder, and the total he makes to be 204 million dirhams,
equivalent to about eight million Sterling.
The glory of Sãmarrà, however, naturally came to an end with
the return of the Caliphs to Baghdād, and its many palaces
rapidly fell to ruin. In the 4th (Ioth) century Ibn Hawkal
praises its magnificent gardens, especially those on the western
side of the Tigris, but Mukaddasi says that Karkh on the north
was, in his day, become the more populous quarter of the town.
The great Friday Mosque of Sãmarrà, however, still remained,
which Mukaddasi says was the equal of that of Damascus in
magnificence. Its walls were covered with enamelled tiles
(mīnā), it was paved with marble, and its roof was supported on
56 ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
marble columns. The minaret was remarkable for its great
height, and, Yākūt asserts, it had been the minaret of the
first mosque, having been built by Mu'tasim, who wished
the Call to Prayer to be audible over all the city. It was
visible from a league distance all round. It is apparently this
ancient minaret which still exists as the well-known Malwiyah
tower, having a spiral outside stairway going to the top, which
stands about half a mile to the north of modern Sâmarrā; such
was in any case the belief of Mustawfi who, in the early part of
the 8th (14th) century, says that the minaret then existing of the
Friday Mosque was 17O ells (Gez) in height, ‘with the gangway
going up outside, the like of which was to be seen nowhere else,’
and he adds that the Caliph Mu'tasim had been its builder.
Later authorities add little to our knowledge of Sãmarrà, and
in after years it came chiefly to be inhabited by Shi‘ahs; for here
were the tombs of the tenth and eleventh Imāms, ‘Alī-al-‘Askari
and his son Al-Hasan, and here above all, said they, was the
mosque with the underground chamber where the twelfth Imām
had disappeared in 264 (878), he being Al-Kāim, the promised
Mahdi, who was to reappear in the fulness of time. The
shrines where these Alids were buried stood in that part of
Sâmarrà called ‘Askar Mu'tasim, ‘the Camp of Mu'tasim,’ and it
is from this that the tenth Imām had his title of Al-‘Askari.
Writing in the early part of the 8th (14th) century Mustawfi, the
Shi‘ah, especially mentions these shrines, and adds that the
Friday Mosque near by these tombs, besides its great minaret
already referred to, was possessed of a famous stone basin called
Käs-i-Fir'awn (Pharaoh's Cup) measuring 23 paces in circum-
ference by 7 ells high, and half an ell in thickness, which stood
in the mosque court for the Ablution, and which the Caliph
Mu'tasim had caused to be made. Mustawfi, however, adds
that, in his day, Sâmarrà was for the most part a ruin, only in
part inhabited, and this statement is confirmed by the description
left us by his contemporary Ibn Batſitah, who was here in the
year 730 (1330)'.
* Baladhuri, 297, 298. Ykb. 255–268. I. K. 94. I. S. 18. Ist. 85.
I. H. 166. Muk. I 22, 123. A. F. 289. Yak. iii. 14–22, 82,675; iv. 1 to.
Ibn Khallikan, No. 8, p. 15. Mst. 139. I. B. ii. 132.
IV) ‘IRAK. - 57
Takrit, lying thirty miles north of Sãmarrà on the west bank
of the Tigris, was commonly counted as the last town of ‘Iråk,
and was famous for its strong castle which overlooked the river.
Ibn Hawkal in the 4th (1 oth) century states that the majority of
its population were Christians, and that they possessed a great
monastery here. Mukaddasi says the wool-workers of this town
were famous, and in its neighbourhood much sesame was grown ;
Mustawfi adds, also water melons, of which three crops a year
were produced in spite of the somewhat raw climate of Takrit.
Ibn Jubayr states that the city wall was 6ooo paces in circuit,
with towers in good repair, when he passed through Takrit in 580
(I 184), and Ibn Batūtah gives praise to both its markets and its
numerous mosques'.
-The great Nahrawān canal left the Tigris a short distance
below Dúr, as already said, and in its upper course was known as
Al-Kātūl-al-Kisrawi, “the Cut of the Chosroes,’ for it owed its
Origin to the Sassanian kings. It served to irrigate all the lands
along the east bank of the Tigris from above Sāmarrá to about a
hundred miles south of Baghdād, and Ibn Serapion mentions a
great number of towns along its banks with bridges and weirs,
but most of these have now disappeared, though the line of the
Canal is still marked on the map. Leaving Dür”, which, for
distinction among the many towns of this name, was called
Dür-al-‘Arabāyā or of Al-Hārīth, the canal passed to the back
of the Mutawakkiliyah and other outlying quarters north of
Sâmarrà, and here it was crossed by a stone bridge. It next
came to itākhiyah, a village and fief called after itākh the Turk,
sometime captain of the guard to the Caliph Mu'tasim ; this had
originally been a monastery called Dayr Abu-Sufrah, and here
stood the bridge of the Chosroes (Kantarah Kisrawiyah). The
monastery took its name from Abu Sufrah the Khārijite. Next
the Nahrawān came to Al-Muhammadiyah, a small town, where it
was crossed by a bridge of skiffs (Jisr Zawārīk)", and according to
* Ist. 77. I. H. I 56. Muk. , 23. I. J. 234. Mst. 138. I. B. ii. 133.
* D47 means the ‘Houses’ or “Habitations,’ and is a common place-name,
being the plural form of Dárah, ‘a homestead.”
* It is to be noted that in the classical usage /isr stands for ‘a bridge of
boats,’ while Kamtara/, is “a masonry bridge of arches.’ Shádhurzwän, trans-
58 ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
Yākūt this Muhammadiyah was but a later name of itākhiyah, the
change having been effected by Mutawakkil in honour of his son
Muhammad-al-Muntasir, who afterwards became Caliph by the
murder of his father. At some distance below these places the
Nahrawān was joined successively by the three lesser Kātāls,
namely the Yahūdī, the Mamūnī, and the canal of Abu-l-Jund,
which were all three taken from the left bank of the Tigris near
Matirah below Såmarrà, and which irrigated the fertile districts
south of that city. Above their inflow, the Nahrawān was
dammed back by the first of its many weirs (Ash-Shādhurwān),
and where the first canal came in stood the large village of
Al-Mamūniyah. This, the Yahūdī (or Jews') canal, was crossed
between Matirah and Mamūniyah by a stone bridge called
Kantarah Wasif, after Waśīf, one of the captains of the Turk
bodyguard, in the reign of Mu'tasim. The second canal, called
Al-Mamūnī, fell into the Nahrawān below the village of Al-
Kanātīr, ‘the Bridges.” The third canal was called Abu-l-Jund—
‘Father, or Supplier, of the Army’—from the fact that the crops
raised on the lands watered by it were used as rations for the
troops. It was the largest canal of the three, and had been dug by
Hārān-ar-Rashid, who built a palace there while superintending
its construction. On its banks stood the town of Taffir, and here
it was crossed by a bridge of boats. Yākūt, who had himself
visited Taffir, describes it as occupying in the 7th (13th) century
a waterless and pastureless plain, where wild animals dwelt, lying
between Ba‘kūbā and Dakākā. He passed through this going
from Baghdād to Irbil; no habitations were to be met with, and
Yākūt says that his guide, when the caravan travelled by night
over this plain, ‘was wont to take his direction by the Pole-star,
until, with the day, the plain had been crossed.’
lated by “weir,’ more properly designates a portion of a canal, or river bed,
that has been paved and embanked to confine the stream. It should, however,
be added that Jisr undoubtedly sometimes also designated a stone bridge of
arches, as in the celebrated Jisr-al-Walid, the name given to the bridge over
the river Sarus, between Adana and Mopsuestia, which was built by Justinian.
The word Kantarah also designates any arched structure, as a viaduct or
aqueduct, being borrowed from the Byzantines, who used the word kévrpov
(the Latin centrum) to denote the central arch of a bridge, and by extension
applied it to mean the whole structure.
Iv) ‘IRAK. 59
Four leagues below where the last of these three canals
joined the Nahrawān lay the town of Sūlā or Salwa, otherwise
called Bāb Salwā or Băsalwā. Below this again was the town
of Ba‘kābā, some ten leagues north of Baghdād, and the capital of
the Upper Nahrawān district. At Ba'kūbā the Great Kåtål canal
changed its name, and became the Tâmarrà, under which name it
passed on to Bājisrā and thence to the city called Jisr Nahrawān,
beyond which the main waterway was more especially known as
the Nahrawān canal. Near Bājisrā (the Aramaic form of
Bayt-al-Jisr, ‘the bridge-house’) which stood in a well cultivated
district, surrounded by palm-trees, the Tâmarrà sent off a
branch from its right bank known as the Nahr-al-Khālis, which
flowed out into the Tigris at Baradán to the north of Baghdād,
and from the Khâlis many of the canals of East Baghdād derived
their water.
Jisr Nahrawān, the Bridge-town, where the Khurāsān road
from Baghdād crossed, will be described presently; and here a
canal called the Nahr Bin branched from the right bank of the
Nahrawān, flowing ultimately into the Tigris at Kalwādhā. From
this the water channels of the lower quarters of East Baghdād
derived their supply. One mile below Jisr Nahrawān the Diyālā
canal branched south from the main stream, and after irrigating
the outer gardens of East Baghdād, reached the Tigris three miles
below the capital. -
South of Jisr Nahrawān the great canal took the name of
the Nahrawān exclusively, and after passing the Upper Weir
(Shādhurwān) it came to Jisr Būrān, the bridge named after the
wife of the Caliph Mamūn. Below this stood Yarzātiyah (or
possibly Barzātiyā), and then the town of ‘Abartă, which Yākūt
describes as of Persian Origin, having important markets. Beyond
‘Abartà lay the Lower Weir and next Iskāf (or Uskāf) of the
Bani Junayd, a city lying on both banks of the canal, and
the Bani Junayd, Yākūt reports, had been chiefs of this district
and famous for their hospitality. Yākūt adds that by the 7th
(13th) century, when he wrote, the lands round here had entirely
gone out of cultivation, for the Nahrawān had gradually silted up
during the previous two centuries, the Saljúk Sultans having ever
6O ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
been too much occupied with their wars to attend to the needful
dredging, and the mending of dykes: ‘further,’ he adds, ‘their
armies had made a roadway of this same canal, whereby both
district and canal have now gone to ruin.’
Beyond Uskäf the Nahrawān flowed on for nearly 60 miles,
between a continuous line of villages and farmsteads, down to
Mādharāyā where its waters finally rejoined the Tigris. Mādha-
rāyā, as already said, stood to the South of Jabbul and above
Al-Mubărak, which lay opposite the town of Nahr Sābus. When
Yākūt wrote it was in ruin, and its name is now no longer marked
on the map, but it must have stood just below the present
Kút-al-‘Amârah where, as already explained, the Tigris now
divides off from the Shatt-al-Hayy channel'.
This triple division of the Nahrawān canal (namely the Kåtål,
the Tâmarrà, and the Nahrawān proper), with the three branch
Canals (the Khālis, the Nahr Bin, and the Diyālā) which flowed
back to the Tigris after watering the East Baghdād region, is the
explanation which Ibn Serapion has given of a very complicated
skein of waterways. In later times the names were not always
applied as he gives them. A glance at the present map shows
that the Nahrawān, two hundred miles in length, must have taken
up all the streams from the Persian highlands which, had it not
been dug, would have flowed (at flood time) down to the left
bank of the Tigris. The Tâmarrà section was originally one of
these streams, and Yākūt describes how its bed had been
artificially paved for a length of seven leagues to prevent the
sands absorbing its waters, which were divided up to irrigate
the several districts of East Baghdād. The Khâlis and the
Diyâlâ were according to his account branches of the Tâmarrá
(in any case the Khâlis of the Arab geographers cannot be
the river known by this name at the present day, for this now
flows at some distance to the north-west of Ba'kūbā), and Khâlis
in the time of Yākūt was the name of the district, to the north of
the Khurāsān road, which on One side came right up to the walls
* Yarzātiyah is possibly the present Razatiyah or Zatariyah lying above
“Abartà. Ykb. 32 I. I. S. 19, 20. Baladhuri, 297. I. R. 9o. I. I.C. 175.
Mas. Zanbih 53. Yak. i. 252, 454; iii. 539, 604 ; iv. 16, 381,430.
Iv) ‘IRAK. 6 I
of East Baghdād. In the 3rd (9th) century Ibn Rustah and
Ibn Khurdādbih give Nahrawān as the name of the mountain
stream, which came into the Great Kātūl at Salwā; in the 8th
(14th) century Mustawfi writes that the Nahrawān was the name
of the Diyälä river, which rose in the mountains of Kurdistān,
and which was formed by the junction of two streams, one the
Shirwān river which lower down was called the Taymarrá, the
other the Hulwān river, which flowed down past Kasr Shirin and
Khánikin ; and these two streams united above Ba'kūbā where
they flowed into the Nahrawān canal.
In regard to Nahrawān town, otherwise called Jisr Nahrawān
(Nahrawān Bridge), this was the first stage out of Baghdād along
the great Khurāsān road, and it was of old a place of much
importance, though now represented by the insignificant hamlet
of Sifwah. Ibn Rustah in the 3rd (9th) century describes
Nahrawān town as lying on both banks of the canal; in the
western half were the chief markets, a Friday Mosque, and many
waterwheels for irrigation purposes; while on the eastern side
there was a second Friday Mosque, and other markets, with many
hostelries round the mosque where the Mecca pilgrims and
travellers were wont to put up. Ibn Hawkal in the following
century speaks of the fertile lands lying round the town, and
Mukaddasi adds that the eastern part in his day was the most
populous, its Friday Mosque being then the only one in use. In
the 8th (14th) century, when Mustawfi wrote, Nahrawān town was
in ruin, for the Khurāsān road no longer passed through it, but
went north by Ba‘kūbā. The fertile district about here was still
called the Tarik-i-Khurāsān (the District of the Khurāsān road) of
which Ba‘kūbā, Mustawfi states, was the chief town, and it was
formed by a continuous line of gardens and palm-groves from
which magnificent crops of oranges and shaddocks were
harvested'.
The town of Barâz-ar-Rûz (the Rice Field), now known as
Bilād-ar-Rûz, lay north-east of Nahrawān town, and is frequently
mentioned by Yākūt. The Caliph Mu'tadid had built a palace
here; it was counted as of the Tâmarrà district, and lay eastward
* I. R. 9o, 163. I. K. 175. Ist. 86. I. H. 167. Muk. 12). Yak, i.
812; ii. 390, 638. Mst. I 39, 141, 216.
62 ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
off the Khurāsān high road, being also noticed by Mustawfi.
Leaving Nahrawān town the next stage of the Khurāsān road
was Daskarah-al-Malik, ‘of the King,’ which Ibn Rustah describes
as a considerable city, possessing a great walled Castle of
Sassanian times, to which a single gateway on the west side gave
access. From its position this ‘Daskarah of the King’ appears to
be identical with the celebrated Dastagird, where Khusraw Parwiz
had his great palace, which history relates was plundered and
burnt to the ground by Heraclius in 628 A.D. This palace, the
ruins of which it would seem were in the 4th (Ioth) century still
known as Dastagird Kisrawiyah (of the Chosroes), was seen by the
traveller Ibn Muhalhal (quoted by Yākūt) who says that it then
consisted of a wonderful edifice containing many halls and domes,
so finely built as to appear Carved, each wall in a single block
of stone. In regard to the Arab town, Ibn Hawkal in the 4th
(I oth) century describes Daskarah as possessing a strong castle,
doubtless of Moslem foundation, and Mukaddasi speaks of the
place as a small market town, with a Friday Mosque that had a
finely vaulted roof. Not far distant from Daskarah was the
village of Shahrābān, mentioned by both Yākūt and Mustawfi,
the latter adding that eighty villages belonged to this town, which
had been founded by Princess Gulban, a daughter of one of the
Chosroes. -
The town of Jalālā was the next stage on the Khurāsān road,
surrounded by many trees but unfortified. Not far from the town,
standing in the village of Hārūnīyah, was an ancient bridge
of stone wrought with leaden joints, which had been built
by one of the Chosroes, and this crossed the river by which,
according to Yākūt, boats went down to Ba‘kābā and Bājisrå.
In history Jalālā was famous for the great victory gained over the
Persians by the Moslems here in the year 16 (637), which
resulted in the final overthrow and flight of King Yazdajird.
At a later date Mustawfi names the place Rubăț Jalālā, from
the guard-house which had been built here by Malik Shāh the
Saljūk; and the position of Jalālā corresponds with the modern
station of Kizil Rubåt, ‘the Red Guard-house.” East of Jalālā
was the town of Khānīkīn, which is noticed by Mukaddasi as
a city on the road to Hulwān. Here Ibn Rustah says there
IV.] ‘IRAK. 63
was a great bridge of many arches over the river, built of well-
mortared kiln-bricks. Near Khānikin was a naphtha spring that
produced a large revenue, and Yākūt describes the bridge afore-
said as having 24 arches in his day, the 7th (13th) century, across
which passed the Khurāsān road. When Mustawfi wrote in the
next century Khánikin had fallen to ruin, and was merely a large
village, but its district was still extremely productive.
Six leagues beyond Khánikin, and half-way to Hulwān the
first town of the Jibál province, lay Kasr Shirin, ‘the Palace of
Shirin, the mistress of King Khusraw Parwiz. There was a large
walled village here, and the ruins of the Sassanian palace, which Ibn
Rustah describes as consisting in the 3rd (9th) century of a mighty
arched hall, built of burnt brick, rising in the midst of chambers,
the walls of which were of Solid masonry. Further there was a
great platform before the arched hall, paved with marble slabs.
Yākūt and Mustawfi give long descriptions of Kasr Shirin, the
ruins of which still exist; and it is to be noted that the legends of
Farhād the lover of Queen Shīrīn, and of Pahlabādh the musician,
and of Shabdiz the famous horse of King Parwiz, are found
localised in many places of the surrounding district'. Over-
hanging Kasr Shirin is the great mountain wall forming the
outpost of the Persian plateau, and Hulwān, the next stage on
the Khurāsān road, though often counted as of ‘Irák, being in the
mountain pass, will be described in a later chapter.
South of the line of the Khurāsān road, and on the Khūzistān
frontier, two important towns remain to be noticed—Bandanijin
and Bayāt. Bandanijin, a name no longer found on the map,
was the chief town of the districts of Bādarāyā and Bākusāyā, and
the village of Båkusāyā still exists near which the town of
Bandanijin must have been situated. The two districts lay
beyond and north-east of the Nahrawān Canal, and comprised a
great number of fertile villages. Bandanijin the capital, according
to Yākūt, was called in Persian Wandanigàn, and Mustawfi says
in his day the name was pronounced Bandanigàn, being of
the Libf district, the ‘Foot-hills’ of the Kurdistân mountains,
and its river came down from Ariwajān. According to Ibn
* I. R. 164. Ist. 87. I. H. 168. Muk. 121. Kaz. ii. 295. Yak. i. 534;
ii. Io'ſ, 393, 573, 575, 813; iv. I 12. Mst. I 37, I 38, 139, 193.
64 ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
Khurdādbih Bandanijin was counted as of the same district as
Barâz-ar-Rûz. Bayāt, the ruins of which still exist, is mentioned
by Mustawfi ; he adds that its river, which rose in the Kurdistán
mountains, became lost in the plains before reaching the Tigris,
and though its water was brackish, many fertile districts were
irrigated by it. Bayāt appears to be practically the same place as
the town of At-Tib, mentioned by Ibn Hawkal, where excellent
belts, like the Armenian belts, were made. It was a city of some
importance under the Abbasids, and its ruins lie close to those
of the later town of Bayāt. Yākūt says that in his day the
inhabitants of Tib were Nabathaeans, and still spoke their
Aramaic dialect, tracing their descent direct from Seth, son of
Adam'.
The cities of ‘Irák which lay on the Euphrates, and between
the two rivers along the transverse canals, must now be described.
As already said, a line carried west from the Tigris at Takrit to
the Euphrates would cross that river a little below ‘Ānah, where
its course makes a great bend South, and this is the natural
frontier between Jazirah and ‘Irák, as marked by Mustawfi. To
the south of this line begins the Sawād, or alluvial land, of
Babylonia; to the north lie the more stony plains of Upper
Mesopotamia. The city of Al-Hadithah on the Euphrates, about
35 miles below ‘Ānah, is the northernmost town on this side.
The name signifies “the New Town,” and to distinguish it from
Al-Hadithah on the Tigris, it was called Hadithah-an-Nūrah, ‘of
the Chalk’ pit. Yākūt describes it as possessing a strong castle
surrounded by the waters of the Euphrates, and it was founded
during the Caliphate of “Omar, not long after the Moslem
conquest. Mustawfi describes it as in every way the opposite of
Takrit, both in situation and climate. Between Hadithah and
Hit, down stream, came the two towns of AlūSah and An-Nawúsah,
lying on the Euphrates seven leagues distant one from the other,
and Alòsah, which Yākūt refers to as a small town, still exists. Both
are frequently mentioned in the records of the Moslem conquest;
* I. K. 6. Ist. 94. I. H. 176. Yak, i. 230, 459, 477, 745; iii. 566;
iv. 353. Mst. 137, 138, 220. The Bādarāyā district of Bandanijin must not
be confused with Bădărayå, the name of the southern district of West
Baghdād.
IV) ‘IRAK. 65
further, An-Nawasah was counted as a village of Hit, which last
was a walled town with a strong castle, celebrated for its palm-
groves and lying on the western side of the Euphrates. Ibn
Hawkal speaks of Hit as very populous, and Mustawfi in the
8th (14th) century describes more than 30 villages, among the
rest Jibbah, as of its dependencies. Immense quantities of fruit,
both of the cold and the hot regions, were grown here; nuts,
dates, Oranges and egg-plants all ripening freely, but the town was
unpleasant to live in on account of the overpowering stench of
the neighbouring bitumen springs.
- At the time of the Moslem conquest the famous Trench of
King Sapor II (Khandak Sābūr) still existed. This had been
dug by Sābār Dhū-l-Aktāf, as the Arabs called him, in the fourth
century A.D. It began at Hit and ran down to Ubullah (near
the later Basrah) where it reached the Gulf. Originally it carried
water, being intended as a line of defence for the rich lands of
Tower Mesopotamia against the desert tribes; and its dry bed may
still, in part, be traced. ‘Ayn-at-Tamr, ‘the Spring of the Date
Palm, due south of Hīt in the desert, is described by Mukaddasi
as a small fortress, and a stream running from here entered the
Euphrates below Hit. Dates and sugar-cane were exported from
its district, the latter more especially from a neighbouring town
called Shafāthā; but the exact site of these two places is unknown'.
A Twelve leagues below Hit was the village of Ar-Rabb, where
previous to the 4th (Ioth) century the (earlier) Dujayl canal left
the Euphrates; and taking its course due east, after watering the
Maskin and Katrabbul districts, reached the northern suburbs of
West Baghdād. As already mentioned, this western portion of
the Dujayl soon became silted up ; and by the time when
Istakhri wrote in 340 (951) the Dujayl already took its waters
from the Tigris opposite Kādisiyah, as described in the paragraphs
on the Maskin district. Al-Anbār, ‘the Granaries,’ standing on
the left bank of the Euphrates, was one of the great cities of ‘Irāk
in Abbasid times. It dated from before the Moslem conquest,
and by the Persians was called Firſz Sābūr (or Fayrūz Sābūr, in
* I. S. Io, 13. I. R. Io'ſ. Kud. 217. Baladhuri, I 79. Ist. 77.
I. H. 155. Muk. I 17, 123, 135. Yak. i. 352; ii. 223; iii. 759; iv. 734, 997.
Mst. I 35, I4 I.
LE S. - 5
66 ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
Greek Perisabor) from its founder King Shāpār"; and under the
Arabs Fīrūz Sābūr became the name of the surrounding district.
It is said that the town was called ‘the Granaries’ because of
old the Persian kings had stored the wheat, barley, and straw for
the rations of their troops in this city. The first Abbasid Caliph,
Saffāh, had for a time made Anbār his residence, and he died in
the palace which he had built here. His brother Manstär also for
a time lived at Anbār, and from here went to Baghdād, where the
new Abbasid capital had begun to be built. Mustawfi gives the
tradition that the Jews whom Nebuchadnezzar brought from
Jerusalem to Babylonia were interned at Anbār. In the 8th
(14th) century the town walls, he says, were 5ooo paces in
circuit.
The importance of Anbār lay in its position at the head of
the first great navigable canal which flowed from the Euphrates
to the Tigris, which it entered at the harbour (Al-Fardah) to the
south of the Round City of West Baghdād. This canal, the
Nahr 'Isà, took its name from an Abbasid prince ‘īsā who was
either ‘īsā ibn Mūsā, nephew of Mansūr, or ‘īsā ibn ‘Ali (the
more usual ascription), the uncle of that Caliph. In either case
Prince ‘īsā gave the canal its name, he having re-dug it, making
thus a navigable channel from the Euphrates into Baghdād.
Where the canal left the Euphrates, a little below Anbār, it was
crossed by a magnificent bridge, called Kantarah Dimimmá, from
the village of Dimimmâ which was on the Euphrates bank close
to the hamlet of Al-Fallajah. The Nahr ‘īsā, passing by many
villages and farms of the Firſz Sābūr district, at length came to
the town of Al-Muhawwal, one league distant from the suburbs of
West Baghdād. Just before reaching this town the Sarāt canal
branched from the left bank of the Nahr ‘īsā, and this canal
formed the dividing line between the Katrabbul district to the
north and Bādārayå to the south of West Baghdād. The Sarāt
canal, following an almost parallel curve to the Nahr ‘īsā, poured
its waters into the Tigris immediately below the Basrah Gate of
the Round City, and from these two streams all the watercourses
* Säbär is the Arab form of the Persian Shāpār or Shāh-pár, which the
Greeks wrote Sapor.
IV) ‘IRAK. 67
of West Baghdād were derived, with the exception of the few
Coming from the Dujayl canal.
Al-Muhawwal means ‘the place of unloading,’ and the town
took its name from the fact that the river barges going from the
Euphrates towns to Baghdād, had here to unload into small boats
that could pass under the numerous bridges which below Muhaw-
wal spanned the ‘īsā canal where this traversed the suburb of
Karkh, Muhawwal was a fine town, famous for its markets and
its gardens, and as late as the 8th (14th) century possessed some
magnificent buildings, among which Mustawfi Counts a palace built
by the Caliph Mu'tasim which stood on the summit of a mound,
and which, by the spell of a powerful incantation, had been freed
from the plague of mosquitoes. The exact site of Muhawwal is
not now known, but it must lie to the north-east of the ancient
Babylonian mound called the Hill of ‘Akarkūf, which is frequently
mentioned by the Arab geographers, and which Mustawfi connects
with the legends of the tyrant Nimrod who threw Abraham into
the fiery furnace".
Three leagues below the village of Dimimmā the second of the
great transverse canals, the Nahr Sarsar, flowed off towards the
Tigris, which it entered four leagues above Madáin. This canal, in
its lower reaches, traversed the Bădărayå district, which lay south
of West Baghdād, and Ibn Serapion describes how along its banks
numerous waterwheels (dà/iyah) and levers (s/hadºf) were set up
for irrigating the fields. Some way above where, near Zarīrān, the
canal flowed into the Tigris, and almost in sight of the White
Palace of the Chosroes at Madāin, was the flourishing town of
Sarsar, where a great bridge of boats carrying the Kāfah road
Crossed the canal. Sarsar town lay a couple of leagues only from
Karkh, the great southern suburb of West Baghdād; the Sarsar
canal, Ibn Hawkal writes, was navigable for boats, and Sarsar
* I. S. Io, 14. I. K. 7, 72, 74. Kud. 217. Ist. 77. I. H. I55, 166.
Muk. I23, 134. Yak. i. 367; ii. 6oo; iii. 697; iv. 432. Mst. 136, 138, 140,
141. The lower courses of the Nahr ‘īsā and of the Sarāt canal belong to the
topography of Baghdād, and have been fully described in a former work. The
site of Anbār appears to be that marked by the ruins at Suſayrah, or possibly
those to the north of this village of which Mr J. P. Peters has given a plan in
AVºter, i. 177.
5–2
68 ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
town stood in a forest of date-palms. Mukaddasi likens it to the
towns of Palestine for the manner of its building; and Sarsar
continued to be a place of importance down to the close of the
8th (14th) century when Timúr took possession of Baghdād and
garrisoned the surrounding districts.
The third transverse canal was the Nahr-al-Malik, which began
at the village of Al-Fallſjah' five leagues below the head of the
Nahr Sarsar, and flowed into the Tigris three leagues below
Madáin. This, ‘the King's Canal,’ dated from ancient times, and
is mentioned by the Greeks as the Nahar Malcha. Yākūt reports
that tradition gave it as having been dug either by King Solomon
or by Alexander the Great. On its banks was the town called
Nahr-al-Malik, with a bridge of boats on the Kāfah road, this
lying seven miles south of Sarsar. According to Ibn Hawkal
Nahr-al-Malik town was larger by a half than the latter town,
being likewise famous for its corn lands and palm-groves;
Mustawfi adding that over 3oo villages were of its district.
The fourth transverse canal was the Nahr Köthã, its point of
origin on the Euphrates being three leagues below that of the
Nahr-al-Malik, and its outflow Io leagues below Madáin. The
Kāthā canal watered the district of this name, which was also
known as the Ardashir Bābgán district (after the first Sassanian
king), though part of it was counted as the Nahr Jawbar district
on a branch canal. The city of Kúthā Rabbā, with its bridge of
boats, stood on the banks of the main channel, and is said to be
identical with the Biblical Cuthah, mentioned in 2 Kings xvii.
24, an important town of the neighbourhood of Babylon. Ac-
cording to Moslem tradition Káthá was the place where Abraham
was thrown into the fire by the tyrant Nimrod, and the town took
its name from Kāthā, the grandfather of Abraham, according to
the Moslem tradition. In the 4th (Ioth) century Ibn Hawkal
describes the place as a double city, Kāthā-at-Tarik, ‘of the
Road,” and Kāthā Rabbā, which last was a city larger than
Bäbil (Babylon), and near here, he says, were great mounds of
* This is the Feluchia (Feluge or Felugia) of Caesar Frederick, and other
Elizabethan merchants, where coming down the Euphrates they left their boats
and went by land across to Baghdād; as narrated in Hakluyt, Arincipa/
AWavigations (Glasgow, 1904), v. 367, 455, 466; vi. 4.
IV) ‘IRAK. 69
ashes said to mark the place of Nimrod's fiery furnace; Mukaddasi
adding that near the high road might be seen an ancient tower,
about which many legends were told. The Itineraries state that
Kúthá town, the site of which appears to be that marked on the
map as Tall Ibrāhīm, ‘the Hill of Abraham,’ was four miles south
of Nahr Malik town.
Some few miles to the north of the Káthá canal stood the large
village of Al-Farāshah, the half-way stage between Baghdād and
Hillah, on the high road followed at the close of the 6th (12th)
century by the Mecca pilgrims going down to Kāfah. Ibn
Jubayr, who was here in 580 (1184), describes it as a populous
well-watered village, where there was a great caravanserai for
travellers, defended by battlemented walls; and Mustawfi also
gives Farāshah in his itinerary, placing it seven leagues south
of Sarsar'.
* I. S. 15. I. R. 182. Ist. 85, 86. I. H. 166, 168. Muk. 121.
I. J. 217. Yak. i. 768; iv. 317, 846. Mar. ii. 363. A. Y. i. 633. Mst. 141,
193. The course of the Nahr ‘īsā is more or less that of the modern
Saklawiyah canal : the Sarsar appears to have followed the line of the Abu
Ghurayb canal; the Nahr-al-Malik is the Radhwānīyah, and the Nahr Kāthā
is the Habl Ibrāhīm, ‘Abraham's rope,” of the modern maps. These identifi-
cations, however, are only approximate, for maturally in over a thousand years
the face of the alluvial Sawād is entirely changed from what it was in Abbasid
times.
CHAPTER V.
‘IRAK (continued).
The bifurcation of the Euphrates. The Sûrā channel. Kasr Ibn Hubayrah.
Nil and its canal. The Nahr Nars. The Badāt canal, and Pombedita.
The Kāfah channel. Kāfah city. Kādisiyah. Mashhad ‘Ali, and
Karbalā. The twelve Astāns of ‘Irāk. Trade. The high roads of ‘Irāk.
. The river Euphrates in the 4th (Ioth) century bifurcated at a
point some six leagues below where the Kāthā canal was led off.
_ The western branch, to the right, which was then considered the
main stream of the Euphrates, passed down by Kāfah and thence
to the Great Swamp ; while the eastern branch, to the left, which
now is the main stream of the river, is by Ibn Serapion and the
other Arab geographers called the Nahr Sūrā, or As-Sūrān; and
this by many channels likewise poured its waters finally into the
swamp. Taking the Sūrā branch first (the present Euphrates
channel) we find that Ibn Serapion admits this was greater even
in his day than the Kāfah branch and more broad. Where the
bifurcation took place, the Upper Sūrā canal watered the three sub-
districts of Sūrā, Barbisamá, and Bārūsmä, which formed part of
the middle Bih Kubadh district; then bearing south the channel
passed a couple of miles to the westward of the city called Kasr
Ibn Hubayrah, and here it was crossed by the great bridge of
boats known as the Jisr Sārā (or Sūrān) by which the Pilgrim
road went down from Kasr Ibn Hubayrah to Kāfah.
The town of Al-Kasr, as it was called for short, the Castle or
Palace of Ibn Hubayrah, took the name from its founder, who had
been governor of ‘Irāk under Marwān II, the last Omayyad
CHAP. v. ‘IRAK. 7 I
Caliph. Ibn Hubayrah had not lived to complete his work, but
after the fall of the Omayyads, the first Abbasid Caliph, Saffāh,
took up his residence here, finished the palace, and called it
Hāshimiyah in honour of his own ancestor Hāshim. The town
which rapidly sprung up round the palace of the Caliph none the
less continued to be called after the Omayyad governor, and even
though Manşūr made Hāshimiyah for a time his residence, before
the foundation of Baghdād, Kasr Ibn Hubayrah, or Madinah (the
City of) Ibn Hubayrah, was always the name of the place in
common use. In the 4th (Ioth) century Kasr Ibn Hubayrah was
the largest town between Baghdād and Kūfah, and it stood on
a loop canal from the Sūrā, called the Nahr Abu Rahá, the
Canal of the Mill.’ The city was extremely populous, it had fine
markets, many Jews residing here, as Mukaddasi writes, and the
Friday Mosque was in the market place. By the early part of the
6th (12th) century, however, it appears to have fallen to decay,
being eclipsed by the rising importance of Hillah ; and at the
present day even the site of it is unknown, though it is doubtless
marked by one of the numerous ruins which lie a few miles north
of the great mounds of ancient Babylon, or Bäbil as the Arabs
name these.
The city of Hillah, lying a few miles below the Bábil ruins, on
the Euphrates, otherwise the Sūrā canal as it was called in the
4th (10th) century, was at this date known as Al-Jāmi'ān, ‘the
Two Mosques,’ and the town at first stood mostly on the eastern
bank. It was a populous place, and its lands were extremely
fertile. Then Al-Hillah, “the Settlement,’ was built on the
opposite right bank, by Sayf-ad-Dawlah, chief of the Bani Mazyad,
in about the year 495 (1 To2); and this quickly grew to importance,
for its bridge of boats became the new Euphrates Crossing for the
Pilgrim road from Baghdād to Küfah, the high road no longer
passing down by Kasr Ibn Hubayrah (then a ruin) and the Sūrā
bridge. By the 6th (12th) century, also, the Sūrā arm comes to
be considered the main stream of the Euphrates, as at the present
day, and the name Nahr Sörå gradually goes Out of use. In 580
(1184) Ibn Jubayr crossed the Euphrates by “a great bridge of
boats, bound by iron chains,’ at Hillah, then already a large town
stretching along the western side of the Euphrates. Ibn Batūtah,
72 ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
vº
who followed in his footsteps in the early part of the 8th (14th)
century, gives a long account of this famous bridge of boats at
Hillah, the double iron chains of which were secured at either end
to immense wooden piles. He praises the town markets, and his
account is fully borne out by Mustawfi, his contemporary, who
Speaks of Hillah as beginning to occupy the east as well as the
west bank of the Euphrates. It was surrounded by date-groves
and hence had a damp climate. Mustawfi adds that the popula-
tion of Hillah were all bigoted Shi‘ahs, and they possessed a
shrine (Makām) here, where they believed that, in the fulness of
time, the promised Mahdi, who had disappeared at Sāmarrà in
264 (878), would reappear and convert all mankind to their faith
(See above, p. 56)'.
Returning once more to the account given by Ibn Serapion
in the 4th (Ioth) century of the Sūrā canal, this, as already
said, passed to the west of the great ruins of Babylon, or
Bäbil. These ruins Mukaddasi describes as then occupied by
the site of a village near a bridge of boats, and Mustawfi gives
a long account of the great magicians who had lived in Bâbil, and
of the well at the summit of the hill in which the fallen angels
Hârât and Mārāt were imprisoned until the day of judgment.
Above Bábil, the last of the many canals flowing from the
Euphrates to the Tigris branched from the Sūrā. This waterway,
now known as the Shatt-an-Nil—‘the Nile Stream —Ibn Sera-
pion calls the Great Sarāt, the name is the same as that of the
more famous canal of West Baghdād (see p. 66) in the upper
reach lying to the west of the city of Nil. From its point of origin
the Great Sarāt flowed eastward past many rich villages, throwing
off numerous water channels, and shortly before reaching the city
of Nil a loop canal, the Sarāt Jámasp, branched left and rejoined
the main stream below the city. This loop Canal had been re-dug
by Hajjāj, the famous governor of ‘Irāk under the Omayyad
Caliphs, but took its name, as was reported, from Jämasp, the
chief Mobed, or Fire-priest, who in ancient days had aided King
Gushtāsp to establish the religion of Zoroaster in Persia. The
* I. S. 10, 16. Ykb. 309. Ist. 85, 86. I. H. 166, 168. Muk. 121.
Yak. ii. 322 ; iii. 861 ; iv. 123. I. J. 214. I. B. ii. 97. Mst. 138.
v] ‘IRAK. 73
city of An-Nil likewise was founded by Hajjāj; it became the
chief town of all this district, its ruins being still marked on the
map under the name of Niliyah; and the Nil canal was reported
to have taken its name from the Nile of Egypt which it was said
to recall. The main canal here, opposite Nil city, was spanned
by a great masonry bridge named the Kantarah-al-Mási. In the
time of Abu-l-Fidā that portion of the canal which lay west of the
town, namely the Great Sarāt of Ibn Serapion, was also known as
the Nahr-an-Nil, but Ibn Serapion gives this name exclusively to
the reach beyond, east of Nil city.
This reach, therefore, passing on, watered the surrounding
districts till it came to a place called Al-Hawl—‘the Lagoon’——
near the Tigris, and opposite Nu‘māniyah (see p. 37), whence
a branch, called the Upper Zāb canal, communicated directly with
the river. The main channel of the Nil, here turning off south,
flowed for some distance parallel to the Tigris, down to a point
one league below the town of Nahr Sābus which lay one day's
march above Wäsit, where the canal finally discharged its waters
into the Tigris, probably in part by the Lower Zāb canal. It is
to be added that this last reach of the Nil, below the Lagoon, was
known as the Nahr Sábus, ‘the Canal of Sábus,’ and this gave its
name to the town on the right bank of the Tigris, already
mentioned (see p. 38). The nomenclature of these channels
changed at different epochs; in the 7th (13th) century Yākūt says
that all the reach from Nil city to Nu‘māniyah was called the
Upper Zāb Canal, while his Lower Zāb canal is apparently
identical with the Nahr Sābus of Ibn Serapion; both canals in
the 7th (13th) century had, however, gone much to ruin, though
still bordered by fertile lands.
Returning now to the ruins of Babylon on the Euphrates, the
Sörå below here was crossed by a masonry bridge called the
Kantarah-al-Kāmighān, ‘through which its waters pour with a
mighty rush’ as Ibn Serapion reports. Six leagues below this
bridge, and near Jāmi'ān, the later Hillah, the Sūrā canal bifur-
cated, the right arm going south past that city, and the left arm,
called the Nahr-an-Nars, turning off to the south-east, and after
watering Hammām ‘Omar with other villages reached the town
of Niſſar. This canal took its name from Nars (or Narses), the
74 - ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
Sassanian king who came to the throne in 292 A.D.; he having
caused it to be dug. After running south for some distance both
the Nahr Nars and the Sūrā channel poured their waters finally
into the Badāt canal, which traversed the northern limit of the
Great Swamp; and this Nahr-al-Badāt (or Budāt) was a long
drainage channel taken from the left bank of the Kāfah arm of the
Euphrates, at a point a day's journey to the north of Kûfah city,
probably near the town of Kantarah-al-Kāfah, otherwise called
Al-Kanātīr, ‘the Bridges,’ which doubtless carried the high road
across the Badāt. This city of ‘the Bridges’ lay 27 miles south
of the great Sörå bridge of boats, and 28 miles north of Kúfah ;
and it probably lay adjacent to, or possibly was identical with, the
Hebrew Pombedita (Arabic Fam-a/-Badāt, ‘mouth of the Badāt
canal’’), mentioned by Benjamin of Tudela in the 6th (12th)
century as a great centre of Jewish learning in Babylonia. The
Badāt canal after a course of over 50 miles, and after receiving
on its left bank the drainage of the Lower Sãrā and Nars canals,
discharged itself finally into the Great Swamp near the town
of Niffär".
The districts lying between the bifurcation of the Lower
Euphrates, having the Sãră Canal to the east and the main stream
to the west, were known as the Upper and Lower Al-Fallajah.
Below these the main stream passed down by the town of Al-
Kantarah and the outflow of the Badāt canal to the city of Kûfah,
which lay on the western bank of the Euphrates over against the
bridge of boats, and south of this its waters were discharged by
various channels into the Great Swamp. This older arm of the river
is named by Kudāmah and Mas‘ūdī the channel of Al-‘Alkami,
and it appears to be identical with the modern Nahr Hindiyah
which branches from the present Euphrates stream below
Musayyib and, flowing past the ruins of Kûfah, rejoins the present
main stream of the Euphrates by a winding course through
marshes that are a part of the Great Swamp of Abbasid times.
The city of Al-Kúfah was founded immediately after the
* I. S. 16. Baladhuri, 254, 290. I. R. 182. I. H. 167. Muk. 121.
A. F. 53. Yak. i. 770 ; ii. 31, 903; iii. 4, 379; iv. 773, 798, 840, 861.
Mst. 136. The Travels of Benjamin of Tudela (Asher), i. 1 12. See also
De Goeje in Zeit. ZXeutsch. Morg. Gesell. for 1885, p. Io.
vì - ‘IRAK. 75
Moslem conquest of Mesopotamia, at the same time as Basrah
was being built, namely, about the year 17 (638), in the Caliphate
of “Omar. It was intended to serve as a permanent camp on the
Arab, or desert, side of the Euphrates, and occupied an extensive
plain lying above the river bank, being close to the older Persian
city of Al-Hirah. Kūfah rapidly increased in population, and
when in the year 36 (657) ‘Ali came to reside here the city during
four years was the capital of that half of Islam which recognised
‘Alī as Caliph. In the mosque at Kūfah ‘Alī was assassinated in
the year 40 (661). Istakhri describes Kāfah as the equal in size
of Basrah in the 4th (Ioth) century, but the former had the better
climate, and its buildings were more spacious; also its markets
were excellent, though in this point it stood second to Basrah.
The Great Mosque, where ‘Ali received his death—wound, was on
the eastern side of the city, and had tall columns brought from
the neighbouring town of Hirah, which fell to ruin as Kūfah
became more populous. One of the chief quarters of Kûfah was
Al-Kunāsah—‘the place of the Sweepings'—which lay on the desert
side of the town, and all round stood palm-groves which produced
excellent dates. When Ibn Jubayr passed through Kūfah in 58o
(1184) it was an unwalled town mostly in ruins, but its Friday
Mosque still existed, and Ibn Batūtah, in the 8th (14th) century,
describes its roof as supported by pillars, formed of stone drums
joined with lead. A Mihrāb or niche marked the place where ‘Ali
had been assassinated. Mustawfi, who gives a long account of
Kūfah, says that its walls, 18, ooo paces in circuit, had been built
by the Caliph Manşūr. The sugar-cane grew here better than
anywhere else in ‘Irák, and cotton crops yielded abundantly. In
the mosque, on a column, was the mark of ‘Ali's hand; and they
also preserved here the oven (famitr) from the mouth of which
the waters had poured forth at the time of the Deluge of Noah.
Less than a league south of Kûfah are the ruins of Hirah,
which had been a great city under the Sassanians. Near by stood
the famous palaces of As-Sadir and Al-Khawarnak, the latter built,
according to tradition, by Nu‘mān, prince of Hirah, for King
Bahrām Gūr, the great hunter. The palace of Khawarnak with
its magnificent halls had mightily astonished the early Moslems
when they first took possession of Hirah on the conquest of
76 ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
Mesopotamia. In later times Khawarnak was sometimes used as
a hunting lodge by the Caliphs, and apparently, though nothing
now remains of it, some walls and domes were still standing,
though in ruin, when Ibn Battitah passed by here in the beginning
of the 8th (14th) century.
On the actual desert border, five leagues west of Kāfah, and
the first stage on the road to Mecca, was the large hamlet of Al-
Kādisiyah surrounded by palm-groves, near which, in the year 14
(635), the Moslems had won their first great battle against the
Persians, which led almost immediately to the subjugation of
Mesopotamia. Mukaddasi describes Kādisiyah—called Kādisiyah
of Kāfah to distinguish it from the city of the same name on
the Tigris (see p. 51)—as a town much frequented during the
Season of the Pilgrimage. It was defended by a small fort, and
had two gates. Its lands were watered by a canal from the
Euphrates which entered the town at the Baghdād Gate; and at
the Desert Gate (Bāb-al-Bādiyah) was the Friday Mosque, before
which, when the Pilgrims came, a great market was held. In the
8th (14th) century when Ibn Battitah travelled through Kādisiyah
it had sunk to the size of a large village, and Mustawfi describes
it as for the most part in ruin”.
Najaf, where the tomb of ‘Ali (Mashhad ‘Alī”) is to the Shi‘ahs
a most venerated shrine, lies about four miles to the westward of the
ruins of Kāfah, and is a populous town to the present day. The
Shi‘ah tradition, as given by Mustawfi, is that on receiving the fatal
stab in the Kāfah mosque, ‘Ali, knowing his death to be imminent,
had immediately given orders that when the breath was out of his
body, it was to be put on a camel and the beast turned loose;
where the camel knelt, there his corpse was to be buried. All
this was forthwith done, but during the time of the Omayyads no
| I. S. Io, 16. Kud. 233. Mas. Zanóżh 52. Ist. 82. I. H. 162, 163.
Muk. I 16, I 17. Yak. ii. 492 ; iii. 59 ; iv. 322. I. J. 213. I. B. i. 414; ii. 1, 94.
Mst. 133, 138, 14o. The broad shallow lake—known as the Bahr Najaf-
which now extends to the westward of the ruins of Kāfah and the Najaf shrine,
did not exist in the middle-ages, and the Pilgrim road from Kāfah to Mecca
passed across what is now its bed.
* Mashhad means ‘the place of Martyrdom,’ hence equivalent to Shrine;
Al-Makām, ‘the Place,’ is used in the same sense.
v] “IRAK. 77
tomb was erected at Mashhad ‘Ali, for the place was kept hidden
for security. Subsequently, however, in the year 175 (791), the
holy site was discovered by the Abbasid Caliph Hārūn-ar-Rashid.
For, when hunting one day near Kūfah, he chased his quarry into
a thicket, but on attempting to follow the Caliph discovered that
no force could prevail on his horse to enter the place. On
enquiring of the peasants they informed him that this spot was
known as the burial-place of the Caliph ‘Ali, an inviolate sanctuary,
where even wild beasts were safe from harm. Orders were given
by Hārūn to dig, and the body of ‘Ali being discovered, a
Mashhad or shrine was, according to Mustawfi, forthwith built
over the spot, which soon became a holy place of visitation. The
early history of the shrine is obscure, the foregoing is the usual
Shi‘ah account, but though Hārūn-ar-Rashīd at one period of his
reign favoured the Alids, the Arab chronicles certainly do not
relate that he invented the tomb of ‘Alī.
The earliest notice in detail of Mashhad ‘Ali is of the middle
of the 4th (Ioth) century by Ibn Hawkal. He says that the
Hamdānid prince Abu-l-Hayjā—who was governor of Mosul in
292 (904) and died in 317 (929)—had built a dome on four
columns over the tomb at Mashhad ‘Ali, which shrine he orna-
mented with rich carpets and hangings : also he surrounded the
adjacent town with a wall. Istakhri and Ibn Hawkal, however,
add that in their day the burial-place of ‘Ali was shown in the
corner of the Great Mosque at Kūfah, and this was credited
by many persons of note, as is affirmed by other authorities.
Mustawfi says, further, that in the year 366 (977) 'Adud-ad-Dawlah
the Buyid erected the mausoleum which in his (Mustawfi's) day
still existed, and the place then became a little town, 25oo paces in
circuit. In the chronicle of Ibn-al-Athir it is recorded that
‘Adud-ad-Dawlah, at his own wish, was buried here, likewise his
sons Sharāf and Bahá-ad-Dawlah ; and in Subsequent times
various other notable persons followed the example. In the year
443 (1051) the shrine was burnt to the ground by the Baghdād
populace, who were zealous in persecuting the Shi‘ahs. It must
however have been quickly rebuilt, for Malik Shāh and his Wazir,
the Nizām-al-Mulk, made their visitation here in 479 (Io&6).
Writing in the early part of the 8th (14th) century Mustawfi
78 - ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
adds that Ghāzān, the Îl-Khān of his day, had recently erected at
Mashhad ‘Ali a home for Sayyids (descendants of the Prophet)
called the Dār-as-Siyādah, also a Khānkāh or Darvish monastery.
Yākūt in the previous century describes the dyke at Najaf which
kept back the waters of the Euphrates from overflowing the town,
but he gives no account of the shrine. The traveller Ibn Battitah
was here in the year 726 (1326) and speaks of Mashhad ‘Ali as a
fine city, which he entered by the Báb-al-Hadrat—‘the Gate of
the Presence’—leading direct to the shrine. He gives a long
description of its great markets and colleges, also of the mosque
where ‘Ali's tomb was shown, the walls of which were covered
with enamelled tiles of Kāshāni work. He reports that at the tomb
cripples were frequently healed of their infirmities, and he gives a
long account of the many gold and silver lamps hung up as offer-
ings, as well as the magnificent carpets, and describes the actual
tomb as enclosed in a railing of chiselled gold plates, secured by
silver nails. Four gates gave access to the shrine, each curtained,
and having a silver doorstep, the walls also being hung with silk
embroideries; and his account closes with the enumeration of the
miracles vouchsafed here to all true believers".
Karbalā, or Mashhad Husayn, lies eight leagues to the north-
west of Kúfah, and marks the site of the battlefield where in the
year 61 (680) Husayn, son of ‘Ali, and grandson of the Prophet,
was slain, with nearly all his family. The place of martyrdom of
Husayn is to Shi‘ahs of the present day a more venerated place
than Mashhad ‘Ali. By whom the shrine was first built is not
mentioned, but in the 3rd (9th) century some monument must
have existed here, for in the year 236 (850) the Caliph Mutaw-
akkil earned the lasting hatred of all good Shi‘ahs by ordering the
shrine of Husayn to be destroyed by flooding the place with water,
also he forbade the visitation of the sacred spot under heavy
penalties. Mustawfi adds, when describing the palaces at
Sâmarrà, that this iniquity on the part of Mutawakkil was requited
to him, in that none of the buildings he began at Sāmarrā could
ever be completed, but soon fell to the same state of ruin in which
* Ist. 82. I. H. 163. Muk. I 3o. Ibn-al-Athir, ix. 13, 42, 169, 394;
X. Io9. Mst. 134. Yak. iv. 760. I. B. i. 414–416.
v) ‘IRAK. 79
the wicked Caliph had left the tomb of Husayn. How long the
place remained a ruin is not stated, but ‘Adud-ad-Dawlah the
Buyid in 368 (979) built a magnificent shrine here, doubtless an
enlargement of the building noticed incidentally by the geographers
Istakhri and Ibn Hawkal who wrote a little before this date.
In 407 (IoI6) the dome at Mashhad Husayn was burnt
down, but must have been shortly afterwards restored, for the
place was visited by Malik Shāh in 479 (1086), when he went
hunting in these districts. Yākūt unfortunately gives no descrip-
tion of the shrines at Karbalā, merely mentioning incidentally that
the name Al-Hāir, meaning ‘a garden pool,’ was commonly given
to the enclosure round the tomb of Husayn. Mustawfi in the
8th (14th) century speaks of the little town that had grown
up round the shrine as being some 24oo paces in circuit, and his
contemporary Ibn Batūtah describes the fine college (Madrasah)
which he visited here. The Holy Theshold of the actual tomb,
which the pilgrims kissed on entry, was he says of solid silver; the
shrine was lighted by numerous gold and silver lamps, and the
doorways were closed by silken curtains. Ibn Batūtah adds that the
little town was then mostly a ruin, from the ceaseless fighting of rival
factions among its inhabitants, but it stood among many groves of
date palms, well watered by Canals coming from the Euphrates".
When describing “Irāk in the 3rd (9th) century, Ibn Khur-
dādbih and Kudāmah State that the province was then divided
into twelve districts called Astán, each containing a varying
number of sub-districts, called Zassúſ, and of these latter the
total number was sixty. This division, which probably in its
origin was made for fiscal purposes, is repeated in part by
Mukaddasi in the following century, and it will be worth while to
enumerate the twelve Astāns, giving at the same time the best
known of their sub-districts or Tassúj. The list is divided into
three groups according to the irrigation channels, and whence the
water was taken.
The first group of four districts consists of those lying on the
east side of the Tigris, and watered from that river and from the
Tâmarrà. These were (1) the Astän of Shād Firſz or Hulwān
* Ist. 85. I. H. 166. Muk. 130. Yak. ii. 189. Mst. I 34, 139. I. B.
ii. 99. Ibn-al-Athir, vii. 36; viii. 518; ix. 209; x. Io9.
8O ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
(otherwise Shādh Fayrūz) comprising the sub-districts of Tâmarrà,
and Khánikin, with three others; five in all: (2) the Shād Hurmuz
district, round Baghdād, with the sub-districts of Nahr Būk, of
Kalwādhā and Nahr Bin, of Al-Madinah-al-‘Atikah (otherwise
Madáin), of Upper and of Lower Rādhān, with two others; seven
in all: (3) the Shādh Kubădh district, with the sub-districts of
Jalālā, of Bandanijin, of Barâz-ar-Rûz, and of Daskarah, with four
others, making a total of eight. Of these two last districts this is
the nomenclature given by Ibn Khurdādbih ; Kudāmah on the
contrary transposes the names, making the Astän of Shādh
Kubădh the Baghdād district, and giving Khusraw Shādh
Hurmuz as the name of the Jalālā Tassúj with its seven neigh-
bours. The last Astān to the east of the Tigris was (4) the
district of Bāzījān Khusraw, otherwise of Nahrawān, which
Kudāmah names Arandin Kird, and this comprised five sub-
districts, to wit: Upper, Middle, and Lower Nahrawān (with Iskäf
of the Bani Junayd and Jarjarāyā), next the Bādarāyā Tassúj, and
lastly Bákusāyā. -
The next group of two districts was of those watered partly
from the Tigris, partly from the Euphrates; it consisted of
(5) the Astän of Kaskar, otherwise called Shādh Sābār, with four
sub-districts lying round Wäsit; and (6) the Astän of Shādh
Bahman, or the Kūrah Dijlah, on the Lower Tigris, with four
sub-districts, MaySán and Dasti-Maysän being two of them, the
latter lying round Ubullah. -
The remaining six districts all lay to the west of the Tigris,
and were watered by the old Dujayl canal previously mentioned
and by the great canals flowing eastward from the Euphrates to
the Tigris. The first of these was . (7) Astān-al-A'la, ‘the Upper
District,’ with the four sub-districts lying along the Nahr ‘īsā,
namely Firſz Säbär or Al-Anbār, Maskin, Katrabbul, and
Bădărayå. Next below came : (8) the Astän of Ardashir
Bābgān, lying along the Kāthā canal and the Nil, with the sub-
districts of Bahurasir and Rūmakän opposite Madáin, of Kúthã,
and of the two canals called Nahr Jawbar and Nahr Durkit. To
the east of this was ; (9) the district of the Zăb canals, called the
Astän of Bih Dhivmäsufän, comprising the sub-districts of the
Upper, Middle, and Lower Zāb canals.
v] ‘IRAK. 8 I
The last three districts were those respectively of Upper,
Middle, and Lower Bih Kubădh, and of these the first (IO) Upper
Bih Kubādh comprised six sub-districts, namely, Bâbil (the ruins
round Babylon), Upper and Lower Al-Fallſjah, with two others,
and the Tassúj of ‘Ayn-at-Tamr some distance to the west of
the Euphrates. The Astän (II) of Middle Bih Kubădh included
four sub-districts, to wit, those of the Badāt canal, of Sūrā
with Barbīsamá, of Bārūsamá, and of Nahr-al-Malik. Finally
(12) Lower Bih Kubădh comprised five sub-districts, all of which
apparently lay adjacent to the lower course of the Euphrates
where it entered the Great Swamp. The names in these lists
show clearly that we have here the division of the country which
the Arabs took over from the Sassanians; Ardashīr Bābgán was
the founder of the dynasty: Shād Firſz or Shādh Fayrūz means
“glorious fortune’ in Persian, Bih Kubadh is ‘the Goodness,
or good land, of King Kubădh,’ and the ‘Glory’ (Shādh) of
Hurmuz, of Kubādh, of Shāpār, and of Bahman recall the names
of four of the most famous kings of Persia".
The trade of ‘Iråk consisted of imports rather than of exports,
the capital province consuming the products of the outlying
regions. Mukaddasi, however, gives a list of commodities and
manufactures for which several cities were famous, and this
though not very full is worth examining.
The markets of Baghdād were noted for all kinds of curious
wares brought together here from foreign lands. Its manufac-
tures were coloured silks—the famous ‘Attàbi or ‘Tabby' silk in
particular, named after one of its quarters—fine strong cloth,
curtains and veils, stuffs for turbans, napkins of all sorts, and mats
woven of reeds. In Basrah many stuffs were manufactured of raw
silk and its markets were famous for the jewellers, who sold all
manner of curiosities; further Basrah was the chief emporium for
various Ores and minerals, antimony, cinnabar, Mars-Saffron, litharge
and many others being mentioned. There were also exported
dates, henna-dye and raw silk, as well as rose-water and essence of
violets: while at Ubullah excellent linen was woven. Kūfah was
famous for its dates, for its essence of violets, and for raw-silk
stuffs of which turbans were made ; Wäsit exported lupins and
* I. K. 5–8. Kud. 235, 236. Mäk. I 33.
LE S. 6
82 ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
dried fish called Shim; finally Nu‘māniyah manufactured much
cloth, and was famous for all sorts of woollen stuffs". -
As explained in the introductory chapter, the central point of
the system of high roads during the Abbasid Caliphate naturally
was Baghdād; whence five main roads—to Basrah, Kāfah, Anbār,
Takrit and Hulwān—set forth, communicating ultimately with
the outposts of the empire.
The easiest route to Basrah from Baghdād was naturally by
boat down the Tigris, and this, noting all the towns passed to
right and left on the river bank, is given in much detail by both
Ibn Rustah and Ya‘kūbi. Down as far as Al-Katr the Tigris
main channel was followed, then came the Great Swamp through
which boats passed threading the lagoons (Hawl, see above, p. 42).
The Abu-l-Asad canal led out to the head of the Tigris estuary,
and from this Basrah was reached by the Nahr Ma‘kil. The
Ubullah canal led back to the estuary, and was followed by those
bound for ‘Abbādān and the Persian Gulf. The way by land
from Baghdād to Wäsit, which went down the eastern side of the
Tigris through Madāin, is also given by Ibn Rustah, and this
enables the towns on the river bank to be set down on the map,
for the distances are stated in farsakhs (leagues); Kudámah also
gives this route in detail, and in one or two cases where lacunae
occur they can generally be filled up from Abu-l-Fidā. The road
from Wäsit to Basrah by land, along the northern edge of the
Great Swamp, is given by Kudāmah, and this too is the way by
which Ibn Battitah travelled in the 8th (14th) century. Ibn Rustah
and Kudāmah likewise give the road from Wäsit, eastward, to
Ahwäz the capital of Khūzistān; and from the stage at Bādhbin,
one march east of Wäsit on this road, a bifurcation went
north-east to Tib, from which Sūs (Susa) in Khūzistán was
reached ”.
The Pilgrim road, going south from Baghdād to Kāfah, left
the Round City by the Kāfah Gate and passed through the Karkh
quarter to Sarsar, and thence on to Kasr Ibn Hubayrah. Beyond
this it crossed the eastern arm of the Euphrates (the present main
1 Muk. I 28.
* I. R. 184, 186–188. Ykb. 320. Kud. 193, 225, 226. Mst. 195. A. F.
305. I. B. ii. 8.
vì ‘IRAK. 83
channel) called in the 4th (Ioth) century the Nahr Sūrā, at the Sūrā
bridge of boats, and thence came down to Kāfah, opposite to which
the western arm of the Euphrates was crossed by the bridge of boats
which led to the eastern suburbs of the city. From Kūfah the
Pilgrim road went south-west to Kādisiyah, where it entered the
Arabian desert. This road is given by all the earlier geographers,
and in much detail by Ibn Rustah, who for some parts of the
way from Baghdād to Kūfah gives alternative routes, with the
distances in miles and in leagues. After the beginning of the 6th
(12th) century Kasr Ibn Hubayrah, the half-way stage between
Baghdād and Kūfah, fell to ruin; Hillah taking its place (see
p. 71) to which the high road went down from Sarsar by
Farāshah. At Hillah the eastern arm of the Euphrates was
crossed by a great bridge of boats similar to that which had
formerly existed at Sãrá. This is the route followed by Ibn
Jubayr and all later travellers. From Kūfah to Basrah along the
southern border of the Great Swamp was reckoned as 80 or 85
leagues, and this road, which branches to the left at the second
desert stage south of Kādisiyah, is described by Ibn Rustah and
Ibn Khurdādbih'.
As already said, two Pilgrim roads crossed the deserts of
Arabia going from Mesopotamia to the Hijāz, one starting from
Kūfah, the other from Basrah, and they came together at the
stage of Dhāt ‘Irk, which was two days march north-east of
Mecca. These two famous Pilgrim ways are described stage by
stage, and the half-stage is also given, where the Caravan halted for
supper (Al-Muta'ashsha), with the number of miles between each
halt carefully noted, in the Road Books of the 3rd (9th) century
and by Mukaddasi. The road from Kūfah passed through Fayd,
* I. R. 174, 175, 180, 182. Ykb. 308. I. K. 125, 145. Kud. 185.
A. F. 303. I. J. 214–219. Mst. 193. Mukaddasi (p. 252) estimates the
distance from Basrah to Kāfah along the edge of the desert at ten long marches
(Marhalah), and at the shortest reckoning it is over 250 miles. It is famous in
history for having been traversed in a night and a day by a certain Bilāl ibn
Abi Burdah, riding Swift dromedaries (Jammāzah), he having an urgent affair
with Khālid-al-Išasri at Kāfah, in the year 120 (738), during the reign of the
Omayyad Caliph Hisham. Tabari, ii. 1627. (It will be remembered how
Dick Turpin rode from London to York, 200 odd miles, in 18 hours: the rate
is about the same.)
6–2
84 ‘IRAK. [CHAP.
which lay a short distance south of Häyil, the present chief town of
Jabal Shammār. The Basrah road went by Dariyah, the older
capital of what later became the Wahhäbi kingdom, the ruins of
which town still exist a few miles to the west of Ar-Riyād, the
present chief town of Najd. From both the Kāfah and the
Basrah Pilgrim ways there were branch roads, bifurcating to the
right, leading direct to Medina".
From Baghdād at the Kūfah Gate of the Round City a second
high road branched westward, and going first to Muhawwal kept
along the bank of the ‘īsā canal to Anbār on the Euphrates,
whence following up stream it passed Hadithah, the last town in
‘Iråk, and reached ‘Ānah in Jazirah. This is the first part of one
of the roads (namely, by the Euphrates) going from Baghdād to
Syria, and it is given by Ibn Khurdādbih and Kudāmah. The
other road to Syria goes north along the Tigris by Mosul, and
as far as Takrit lies in the ‘Irāk province. This, which was the
post-road, left the Baradán Gate of East Baghdād and keeping up
the left bank of the river through ‘Ukbarā and Sāmarrá came to
Takrit. It was here joined by the caravan road which, leaving the
1 The Kāſah road to Mecca and Medina is given in I. K. 125. Kud. 185.
I. R. 175. Ykb. 31 I. Muk. Io'7, 251. The Basrah road is given in I. K.
146. Kud. 190. I. R. I 8o, 182. Muk. Io9, 251. It is worth noting that
the older chief town of Najd is invariably written Dariyah (with initial Dād)
by the Arab geographers. Hājjī Khalfah is the first (J. N. 527) to give the
modern pronunciation and spelling Dara‘īyah (with initial Dál and an ‘Ayn)
though once or twice and in the Itinerary (J. N. 527, 543) he writes I)ariyah
or Hisn Dariyah. The geography of the Hijāz, and of Arabia in general lying
north of the Dahnā or Great Desert, has been fully worked out (from Arabic
sources) by Professor F. Wüstenfeld, in a series of articles published in the
Aóhandlungen der Æðniglichenz Gesellschaft der Wissenschaft zu Göttingen.
These papers are provided with maps by Kiepert, and are well indexed ; they
include the following, of which I give the names in full, as they do not appear
to be well known to English geographers. Die zone Medina auslandfendenz
Aſauptstrassen (vol. XI, 1862): Die Wohnsitze und Wanderungen der Arabi-
schen Stämme (vol. XIV, 1869): Die Strasse von Basra mach Mekka mit der
Alandschaft Dharja (vol. XVI, 1871): /)as Gebiet von Medina (vol. XVIII,
1873), which gives the Kāfah-Mecca Pilgrim road : Bahrein und /emama
(vol. XIX, 1874): lastly, Geschichte der Stadt Medina (vol. IX, 1860, and
published separately), also vol. IV of Chroniken der Stadt Mekka (Leipzig,
1861) which contains a summary (in German) of the history of Mecca, with
topographical notes.
v) ‘IRAK. 85
Harbiyah quarter in West Baghdād, went up the Dujay] canal to
Harbà, and thence by the palace grounds opposite Sämarrà passed
along the Ishāki canal to Takrit. This last is the road followed
by Ibn Jubayr and Ibn Batūtah'.
Finally from the Khurāsān Gate of East Baghdād started the
great Khurāsān road which, Crossing Persia, went, as already Said,
through Transoxiana, ultimately reaching the borders of China.
This road is described in great detail, stage by stage, by Ibn Rustah;
and almost all the other geographers give the distances along the
various portions of this great highway, which is thus one of the
best known to us of all the trunk roads”.
* I. K. 72, 93. Kud. 214, 216, 217. Muk. I 34. I. J. 232. I. B. ii. 132.
Mst. IQ5.
* I. R. 163. Ykb. 269. I. K. 18. Kud. 197. Muk. I 35. Mst. 193.
CHAPTER VI.
JAZiRAH.
The three districts. The district of Diyār Rabī‘ah. Mosul, Nineveh, and the
neighbouring towns. Great Zāb, Hadithah, and Irbil. Little Zāb, Sinn,
and Dakūk. The Lesser Khābār, Hasaniyah, and ‘Imādiyah. Jazirah
Ibn ‘Omar and Mount Jädi. Nasībīn and Rās-al-‘Ayn. Mårdin and
Dunaysir. The Hirmás and the Khābār. ‘Arabān and the Tharthár
river. Sinjär and Hadr. Balad and Adhramah.
As already explained the Arabs named Upper Mesopotamia
Al-Jazirah, “the Island’ or ‘Peninsula,’ for its plains lay encom-
passed by the upper courses of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates.
The province was generally divided into three districts called
Diyār Rabi'ah, Diyār Mudar, and Diyār Bakr, after the Arab
tribes of Rabi'ah, Mudar, and Bakr respectively, who, in pre-
Islamic days, had settled here under Sassanian rule, each receiving
its appointed Dár (plural Diyār) or “Habitation’ to which the
tribe had subsequently given its name. Of Diyār Rabī‘ah, Mosul
on the Tigris was the chief town ; of the district Diyār Mudar,
Rakkah on the Euphrates was the capital; while Amid on the upper
course of the Tigris was the chief city of Diyār Bakr, the northern-
most of the three districts. Mukaddasi, on the other hand,
describes the Jazirah province under the name of Iklim Akár, ‘the
Akār Region’; the origin of the name is not clear, but Akār would
appear to have been the proper name at one time of the great
plain of northern Mesopotamia.
A reference to the map shows that in Upper Mesopotamia the
rivers Tigris and Euphrates receive their affluents almost
exclusively on their left bank, that is flowing from the north-
east or north. During the period of the middle-ages an exception
CHAP. VI] JAZīRAH. 87
Occurs to this rule, namely in the drainage of the affluent of the
(greater) Khābūr, the Hirmās river from Nasibin. Just above
its point of junction, the Hirmās was dammed back at Sukayr-al-
‘Abbās, and while a moiety passed on to join the Khābūr which
went to the Euphrates at Karkisiyā, the main stream of the Hirmās
flowed into the Tigris on its right bank at Takrit by the channel
called the Nahr-ath-Tharthár. Further, it will be seen that the
limits of the three districts are determined by the water parting.
Diyār Bakr was the country watered by the Tigris from its source
to the great bend south made by the river below Tall (the Hill of)
Fāfān, with the land to the northward traversed by the numerous
affluents of the Tigris which join its left bank west of Tall Fāfān.
To the south-west, Diyār Mudar comprised all the lands along the
Euphrates from Sumaysät, where it left the mountain gorges, down
to ‘Ānah, with the plains watered by its affluent the river Balikh,
coming from Harrān, Lastly Diyār Rabī‘ah was the district
east of Mudar; namely, of the (greater) Khābūr coming from
Rås-al-‘Ayn, with the Hirmás which, as we have seen, flowed
eastward by the Tharthär to the Tigris, also the lands on both
banks of the Tigris from Tall Fāfān down to Takrit, namely those
westward to Nasībīn, and those eastward which included the
plains watered by the Lower and Upper Zāb and the Lesser
Khābūr river.
Mosul (Al-Mawsil), the chief city of Diyār Rabi'ah, stands on
the western bank of the Tigris at the point where a series of loops
in the river coalesce to form a single main stream, and Al-Mawsil,
meaning ‘the confluence,’ is said to take its name from this fact.
In Sassanian times the city which existed here was called Būdh
Ardashir. Under the Omayyads Mosul rose to importance, a
bridge of boats was set across the Tigris, connecting the city on
the western side with the ruins of Nineveh on the east bank,
and Mosul became the capital of the Jazirah province under
Marwān II, the last of the Omayyad Caliphs, who also built
here what afterwards came to be known as the Old Mosque'.
- Ibn Hawkal who was at Mosul in 358 (969) describes it as a
* Muk. 136–138. I. K. 17. Yak. iv. 682–684. Mar. i. 84. Yākūt
gives the old Persian name of Mosul as Bawardashir or Nawardashir, but the
latter form is undoubtedly a clerical error.
88 - JAZīRAH. [CHAP.
fine town with excellent markets, surrounded by fertile districts of
which the most celebrated was that round Ninaway (Nineveh)
where the prophet Yūnis (Jonah) was buried. In the 4th (Ioth)
Century the population consisted chiefly of Kurds, and the
numerous districts round Mosul, occupying all Diyār Rabi'ah,
are carefully enumerated by Ibn Hawkal. Mukaddasi praises the
numerous excellent hostelries of Mosul, and the town, he says, was
extraordinarily well built, being in plan a semicircle, and about a
third the size of Basrah. Its castle was named Al-Murabba'ah
(the Square) and it stood on the affluent called the Nahr
Zubaydah ; within its precincts was held the Wednesday Market
(Sūk-al-Arba'ā) by which name also the castle was sometimes
known. The Friday Mosque (that of Marwān II) stood a bow-
shot from the Tigris, on a height to which steps led up. The
roof of this building was vaulted in stone, and it had no doors to
close the doorways going from the main building of the mosque
into its court. The market Streets of Mosul were for the most
part roofed over, eight of the chief thoroughfares are named by
Mukaddasi, and the houses of the town stretched for a considerable
distance along the Tigris bank. Mukaddasi adds that formerly
Mosul had borne the name of Khawlān; and that the Kasr-al-
Khalīfah, “the Palace of the Caliph,’ stood on the opposite bank
of the river, half a league from the town, overlooking Nineveh.
This palace had of old been protected by Strong ramparts, which
the winds had overthrown, and the ruins, through which flowed
the stream called the Nahr-al-Khawsar, were when Mukaddasi
wrote occupied by fields.
In the year 580 (1184) Mosul was visited and described by
Ibn Jubayr. Shortly before this date the famous Nūr-ad-Din,
under whose banner Saladin began his career, had built the new
Friday Mosque in the market place, but the old mosque of
Marwān II still stood on the river bank, with its beautifully
ornamented oratory and iron window-gratings. In the upper town
was the great fortress, and the town walls with towers at intervals
extended down to and along the river bank, a broad street
connecting upper with lower Mosul. Beyond the walls were
extensive suburbs with many small mosques, hostelries, and bath
houses. The Māristán (or hospital) was famous, also the great
VI] JAZIRAH. 89.
market buildings called the Kaysariyah", and there were also
numerous colleges here. Kazwini gives a list of the various Dayrs
or Christian convents which were found in the vicinity of Mosul,
and he notes especially the deep ditch and high walls of the
Mosul fortress. All round the town were numerous gardens
irrigated, he says, by waterwheels. -
In regard to the Nineveh mounds, these were known from the
time of Mukaddasi as the Tall-at-Tawbah, ‘the Hill of Repent-
ance,’ where the prophet Yūnis, Jonah, had sought to convert
the people of Nineveh. The spot was marked by a mosque,
round which, Mukaddasi adds, were houses for pilgrims, built by
Nāsir-ad-Dawlah the Hamdānid prince, and half a league distant
was a celebrated healing spring called ‘Ayn Yūnis after the
prophet Jonah, with a mosque adjacent, and here might be seen
the Shajarah-al-Yaktin, namely ‘the Tree of the Gourd' planted by
the prophet himself. Yākūt adds that most of the houses of Mosul
were built of limestone or marble, with vaulted roofs, and that in
the city might be seen the tomb of the prophet Jurjis, or St George.
In the 8th (14th) century Ibn Batūtah passed through Mosul, which
he describes as protected by a double wall and many high towers,
‘like those of Dehli.” The fortress was then known as Al-Hadbá,
‘the Hump-backed,’ and in the new Friday Mosque (that of
Nūr-ad-Din) was an octagonal marble basin with a fountain in its
midst throwing up a jet of water a fathom high. A third Friday
Mosque had recently been built overlooking the Tigris, and this
is probably the building praised by Mustawfi, who says that the
stone sculptured ornamentation of its Oratory was so intricate
that it might stand for wood-carving. In his day the circuit of
Mosul measured a thousand paces, and he refers to the famous
shrine of Jonah (Mashhad Yūnis) on the opposite bank of the
Tigris, lying among the ruins of Nineveh”.
l The Arabs, more especially those of the west, called the great buildings
of a market, often used as a hostelry or caravanserai, Al-Kaysariyah, or
Raysāriyah, a term which they must have derived from the Greeks, though
Kato apeia does not occur, apparently, in the Byzantine historians, as applied to
the Caesarian, or royal market of a town. In any case the word seems hardly
likely to have been taken by the Moslems from the name of the Caesarion, the
famous quarter of Alexandria; though this explanation is the one often given.
* I. H. 143–145. Muk. 138, 139, 146. I. J. 236—238. Yak. iv. 684.
I. B. ii. 135. Kaz. ii. 247, 309. Mst. I65, 167.
90 : JAZīRAH. [CHAP.
A few miles to the east of Mosul lie the two small towns
of Bartallá and Karmālis, which are mentioned by Yākūt and
Mustawfi, and Bā‘ashikā is somewhat to the north of these, all
three being of the dependencies of Mosul. Mukaddasi mentions
Bā‘ashikā as noted for yielding a plant that cured scrofula.
and haemorrhoids. It was a small town, Yākūt adds, with a
stream that worked many mills and irrigated its orchards, where
olives, dates, and Oranges grew abundantly. There was a large
market here or Kaysariyah, with excellent bath houses. The
Friday Mosque had a fine minaret, though in the 7th (13th)
century most of the population were Christians. Bartallá lying
a few miles south of Bā‘ashīkā was likewise counted as of the
Nineveh district. It was, Yākūt says, a place of great trade,
mostly inhabited by Christians, though there was a fine mosque
here, and many Moslems made the town their abode. The
lettuces and greens of Bartallá were proverbial for their excellence,
and Mustawfi praises its cotton crops. Karmális, some miles
further to the south again, had also a fine market according to
Yākūt, being a large village almost the size of a town, and much
frequented by merchants. Mâr Juhaynah, or Marj (the meadow
of) Juhaynah, was also near these places, but on the Tigris bank,
being the first stage on the road from Mosul south to Baghdād.
Mukaddasi describes it as having many pigeon towers. Its castle
was strongly built of mortared stone, and a Friday Mosque stood
in the midst of the town.
Between Mosul and Takrit the Tigris received, on its eastern
bank, the waters of the two Zābs, the one flowing in about a
hundred miles above the other; and Ibn Hawkal praises the
magnificent fields occupying the broad lands lying between the
two rivers. The upper or Greater Zāb rose in the mountains
between Armenia and Adharbäyjān, and joined the Tigris at
Hadithah. The lower or Lesser Zāb, called also Majnān, ‘the
Mad River,’ from its impetuous current, flowed down from the
Shahrazūr country, and came into the Tigris at Sinn. The
country from which the Great Zāb flows is that known as Mush-
takahar and Bābghish according to Yākūt, and its waters at first
were red in colour, but afterwards ran clear. Al-Hadithah, “the
New Town,’ which stood a league above its junction with the
Tigris (called Hadithah of Mosul, to distinguish it from Hadithah
v1. JAZīRAH. - 9 I
on the Euphrates already mentioned, p. 64), had been rebuilt by
the last Omayyad Caliph, Marwān II, on a height overlooking
the Swampy plain; it was surrounded by famous hunting grounds,
and had many gardens. The town was built in a semicircle,
steps led up to it from the Tigris, and the Friday Mosque
which was constructed of stone overlooked the river. Under the
Sassanians the town was known as Nawkird, meaning in Persian
likewise ‘new town,” and before the rise of Mosul this had been
the capital of the province'. s
The town of As-Sinn (the Tooth) lying one mile below the
junction of the Lower Zāb according to Mas‘ūdī, but above it
with the Lesser Zāb flowing to the east according to Mukaddasi,
was in the middle-ages chiefly inhabited by Christians, and Yākūt
says there were many churches here. It was known as Sinn of
Bârimmā, to distinguish it from other towns of this name, the
Bârimmâ chain of hills being cut through by the Tigris near this
point. Sinn had in its market place a Friday Mosque, built of
stone, and was surrounded by a wall. To the east of it, four
leagues higher up the bank of the Lesser Zāb, stood the town
of Bawāzīj (Madinat-al-Bawāzīj as Ibn Hawkal gives the name)
which however appears at the present day to have left no trace on
the map. This also is the case with both Sinn and Hadithah,
and may be explained by the lower courses of both the Zăbs
having much changed since the 4th (Ioth) century. Yākūt refers
to the town as Bawāzīj-al-Malik, ‘of the King,’ and in the 8th
(14th) century it still existed, for Mustawfi describes it as paying
14, ooo dinārs to the treasury of the Îl-Khāns.
South of Sinn the post-road to Sāmarrà and Baghdād kept
along the left bank of the Tigris, passing first Bârimmā, a hamlet
lying under the hills of this name otherwise known as the Jabal
Humrin, then coming to As-Sūdakāniyah, and finally reaching
Jabiltà (or Jabultà) which appears to have been a mint city in
3o4 (916) lying on the east bank of the Tigris a little to the
northward of Takrit. None of these small towns now appear
on the map, but their positions are given very exactly in the
Itineraries.
* Ist. 75. I. H. I.47, 155. Muk. I 39, 146. Yak, i. 446, 472, 567; ii. 168,
222, 552, 902; iv. 267. Mst. 165, 166, 214.
92 JAZīRAH. [CHAP.
Rather more than a hundred miles due east of Sinn lies the town
of Dakūkā or Dakūk—the name is generally written Tâûk or
Tawāk in ‘Alī of Yazd, as at the present day—which is frequently
mentioned by Yākūt and the later geographers. Mustawfi speaks.
of the river of Dakūk (as he spells the name) which, rising in the
Kurdistân mountains near Darband-i-Khalīfah (the Caliph's Pass),
flowed out below the town of Dakūk into the sandy plain, where,
according to Mustawfi, there were most dangerous quicksands
which swallowed up those who attempted to cross over. In flood
time, he says, the Dakūk river reached the Tigris, and its lower
course is the stream now known as the Nahr-al-A’zam (the Great
River); but in early times when the Nahrawān canal existed in
its entirety, the spring floods of the Dakūk river must have flowed
into this. Mustawfi describes the town of Dakūk as of medium
size ; it had a more healthy climate than that of Baghdād, and
near it were found naphtha Springs. It is to be remarked that
the place is not mentioned by the earlier Arab geographers".
Irbil, the ancient Arbela, lay in the plain between the Greater
and Lesser Zāb, and is described by Yākūt as a town much
frequented by merchants. The castle, which crowned a hill, had
a deep ditch and was in part enclosed by the town wall. A great
market was held here, and the mosque, called Masjid-al-Kaff,
‘ of the Hand,’ was celebrated for the mark of a man's palm on
one of its stones. In the 7th (13th) century the market buildings
had recently been restored, and great suburbs stretched beyond
the city wall. Mustawfi praises the excellent crops, especially of
cotton, that were produced by its lands. To the north of Mosul
the city of ‘Imādīyah, near the head waters of the Upper Zāb,
according to Mustawfi derived its name from its founder the
Daylamite prince ‘Imād-ad-Dawlah who died in 338 (949). Other
* Ist. 75. I. H. 153. Mas. Zanbih 52. Kud. 214. Muk. I 23. Yak.
i. 464, 750; ii. 581 ; iii. 169. Mst. 139, 165, 220. A. Y. i. 660. Karkük,
not given by Yākūt or the earlier geographers, is mentioned by ‘Alī of Yazd
(i. 661) as near Tääk. In regard to Jabiltà, or Jabultá, on the Tigris opposite
Takrit, it is to be remarked that this name has often been misread Habiltà
(e.g. Muk. 135: the letters H and J being identical in Arabic script except for
a diacritical point). The initial letter however is certainly J, for in Syriac the
name frequently occurs under the form Gebhillá, and in this script G and II do
not resemble one another.
VI] JAZíRAH. 93
authorities, however, ascribe ‘Imādīyah, or at any rate the
restoration of that town in 537 (1142), to ‘Imād-ad-Din Zangi,
father of that famous prince of Upper Mesopotamia, Nūr-ad-Din,
under whom Saladin began his career. Yākūt reports that of old
a Castle had existed here held by the Kurds, and known under
the name of Åshib. Mustawfi in the 8th (14th) century describes
‘Imādīyah as a town of considerable size.
In the neighbouring mountains were the head waters of the
river Khābūr-al-Hasaniyah, which flowed into the Tigris just
north of the town of Faysabûr, about 150 miles above Mosul.
This river (not to be confounded with the Khābūr of Rås-al-‘Ayn)
rose according to Yākūt in the district of Az-Zawzān, and at the
town of Al-Hasaniyah it was spanned by a magnificent stone
bridge, the remains of which still exist near the hamlet of Hasan
Aghā, which probably represents the older town. Hasaniyah, where
there was a Friday Mosque, is described by Mukaddasi as a place
of Some importance, and one stage to the south of it on the road
to Mosul was the Small town of Ma'alathâyā, where there was a
Friday Mosque on a hill, the place being completely surrounded
by gardens".
To the north of Faysabûr is the important town of the Jazirah
(the Island), called Jazirah Ibn ‘Omar for distinction, after a certain
Al-Hasan Ibn ‘Omar of the tribe of Taghlib, its founder; and the
Tigris, as Yākūt explains, went half round the city in a semicircle,
while a ditch filled with water on the land side made it an island.
Ibn Hawkal in the 4th (Ioth) century describes Jazirah as a walled
town, whither the products of Armenia were brought for sale: its
cheese and honey were famous. Its houses were of stone, and
Mukaddasi adds that the mud at Jazirah in winter time was pheno-
menal. Ibn Batūtah who was here in the 8th (14th) century found
it much ruined. The old mosque, however, stood in the market
place, and the town wall, built of stone, still existed. Mustawfi
adds that over a hundred villages were of its dependencies.
Opposite Jazirah Ibn 'Omar, on the west bank of the Tigris, was
Bâzabdā of the Bäkirdá district, this representing the well-known
* Muk. I 39. Kaz. ii. 192. Yak. i. 186; ii. 384; iii. 717, 931. Mst. 165,
166. -
94. JAZiRAH. [CHAP.
Roman fortress of Bezabda, but no description is given of the
place.
From Jazirah Ibn ‘Omar Jabal Júdi was visible to the east-
ward, with the Mosque of Noah on its summit, and Kariyat-ath-
Thamānīn (the Village of the Eighty) at the foot of the mountain.
The Kurán (ch. xi. v. 46) states that ‘the Ark rested upon Al-Jūdī,”
which Moslem tradition identifies with this mountain in Upper
Mesopotamia, and eighty of the companions of Noah are said to
have built the village of Thamānin named after their number.
Mukaddasi describes Thamānin in the 4th (Ioth) century as a fair-
sized city, and it lay one march to the north of Al-Hasaniyah ;
Mustawfi who calls it Sök-Thamānin—‘the Market of the Eighty’—
says that in his day it had fallen to ruin. Various affluents
entered the Tigris on its left bank near Jazirah Ibn ‘Omar, and
these are enumerated by Yākūt, namely, the Yarnā (or Yarni) and
the Bá'aynāthā (or Bāsānfā as Ibn Serapion calls it), with a large
village of the same name, above Jazirah. Below this town, but
to the north of the Khābūr-al-Hasaniyah, and flowing down from
the country of Az-Zawzān were the Al-Būyār and Dūshā rivers'.
On the western side of the Tigris, in the latitude of Jazirah Ibn
‘Omar, is the hilly district of Tūr ‘Abdin, ‘the Mountain of (God's)
Servants,” peopled by the Jacobites, in which the rivers Hirmás
and the Khābūr of Nasībīn have their source.
Naşībīn, the Roman Nisibis, which Yākūt describes as cele-
brated for its white roses and its forty thousand gardens, stood
on the upper waters of the Hirmās river, called by the Greek
geographers the Saocoras or Mygdonius, and it is still one of the
most important towns of Upper Mesopotamia. Ibn Hawkal who
was there in 358 (969) describes Naşībīn as the finest town of the
Jazirah province, and its neighbourhood produced the best barley
and wheat crops. The hill above, from which its water came,
was called the Jabal Bālūsā, the town was most pleasant to live in,
and the only drawback was the fear of Scorpions. It was more
spacious than Mosul, and Mukaddasi praises both its fine baths,
and the private houses. The market extended right across from
gate to gate, a Friday Mosque stood in its midst, and a strong
* Ist. 78. I. H. 152, 153, 157. Muk. I 39. I. S. 18. A. F. 55, 275.
Yak. i. 466, 472; ii. 79, 144, 552, 957; iv. IoI7. I. B. ii. 139. Mst. 165, 166.
VI] JAZIRAH. 95
fortress built of mortared stone protected the town. Nasībīn was
visited by Ibn Jubayr in 580 (1184), who praises its gardens; in
its Friday Mosque were two tanks, and a bridge crossed the river
Hirmás where it flowed by the town ; also there was the hospital
(Māristān) and several colleges among other notable buildings.
Ibn Batūtah who was here in the 8th (14th) century describes
Nasībīn as then for the most part in ruins, but its Friday Mosque
was still standing with the two great tanks, and the gardens
round the city produced the rose-water for which it was so
celebrated. Mustawfi, who gives the circuit of the walls as 65 od
paces, praises the grapes and other fruits grown here, and its wine,
but the dampness of the climate, he says, made Nasībīn an
unhealthy place. He, too, speaks of the excellence of its roses,
also the abomination of the Scorpions, which were equalled in
virulence by the plague of gnats'.
Räs-al-‘Ayn, ‘the Spring-head,’ near the sources of the Khābūr
(the Roman Resaina, on the river Chaboras), was famous for its
numerous springs, said to number 360 in all, and their waters
made the surrounding country a great garden. Of these springs
the ‘Ayn-az-Zāhiriyah was supposed to be fathomless, and the
stream flowing from this ran into the Khābār, by which pleasure-
boats are described as travelling down from garden to garden
from Räs-al-‘Ayn to Karkisiyā on the Euphrates. Räs-al-‘Ayn is
described by Ibn Hawkal as a walled town, having gardens and
many mills within its circuit; and the arable fields stretched for
20 leagues beyond the houses. Mukaddasi describes a small lake
at the chief spring, two fathoms deep, but the water so clear that
a silver piece could clearly be seen at the bottom. The buildings
of Rás-al-‘Ayn were of stone, well mortared, and Ibn Jubayr who
passed through the town in 580 (1184) mentions its two Friday
Mosques and the fine colleges and bath houses which stood along
the banks of the Khābūr. In his time the city apparently had no
wall, though in the 8th (14th) century this must have been
rebuilt, for Mustawfi describes it as 5ooo paces in circuit. He
adds that cotton, corn, and grapes were grown here abundantly.
i I. H. 140, 142, 143. I. S. 12. Muk. I40. I. J. 240. Yak. iii. 559;
iv. 787. I. B. ii. 140. Mst. 167.
96 JAZīRAH. - [CHAP.
About half-way between Räs-al-‘Ayn and Nasībīn, but more to
the north, stood the great rock fortress of Märdin, overlooking the
city of Dunaysir in the plain below, some three leagues to the south.
In the 4th (1 oth) century the castle of Märdin, called Al-Bāz
(the Falcon), was the stronghold of the Hamdānid princes. The
fortress crowned the hill-top, and on the southern side a suburb
was built which by the 6th (12th) century had become very
populous. Here there were many markets, some hostelries, and
a few colleges, but all the buildings rose one above the other in
steps, and the roads were stairs, each house having its cistern for
storing rain water. Ibn Batūtah, who visited Märdin in the 8th
(14th) century, describes it as a fine town where much woollen stuff
was woven. At that time the great fortress was known as Kal‘at-
ash-Shahbā, ‘the Grey Castle,” or Kal‘at-i-Kūh, “the Castle of the
Hill.’ Mustawfi describes Mārdīn as amply irrigated by the waters
of the Sawr river, which flowed down from a hill of the same name
in Tūr ‘Abdīn, and this river ultimately joined the Khābūr; he
adds that corn, cotton, and abundant fruit was grown in all the
neighbourhood.
Dunaysir, a few leagues distant (variously given as from 2 to
4, but its actual site appears to be unknown), was in the 7th (13th)
century a great market town, and it was also known as Kūch
Hisâr. Yākūt writes that when he was a boy, that is to say at the
close of the 6th (12th) century, Dunaysir had been merely a large
village, but in 623 (1225) it was become a great city, with extensive
markets. Ibn Jubayr who had passed through it in 580 (1184)
describes it as unwalled, but it was then a meeting place for
caravans, and a college had recently been built with numerous
bath houses. Dārā, lying a few miles to the eastward, which had
been a great fortress in Roman days, is mentioned as a small
town by Ibn Hawkal, and Mukaddasi describes how each house
was supplied with water by an underground channel, these
channels ultimately flowing into the tank of the Friday Mosque.
The houses were all built, he says, of black stone, and well -
mortared. The town stood on a hill side, and Yākút states that
it was famous for its Mahlab or cherry-stone preserve, the gardens
being most fruitful. When Ibn Batūtah passed Dārā in the 8th
(14th) century, however, its fortress had already become an
VI] - JAZīRAH. 97
uninhabited ruin. Kafartúthã, to the S.W. of Mārdin and on its
own small river, is described by Ibn Hawkal as already a town of
Some importance in the 4th (Ioth) century, being at the junction
of the high road coming down from Amid. It was at that time
a larger place than Dārā, but in the 7th (13th) century Yākūt
refers to it as merely a large village".
The Greater Khābūr from Räs-al-‘Ayn received on its left
bank the waters of the Märdin river, and below this again was
joined by the Hirmás coming from Nasībīn; but the major part of
this latter stream, as already said, was diverted at the dam of
Sukayr-al-‘Abbās, a short distance above the junction with the
Khābār, into the Tharthár channel. The Khābūr now bearing
the waters of three considerable streams, and—Mustawfi adds—
further swelled by the confluence of 300 rivulets, flowed down
south to Karkisiyā on the Euphrates, which is the chief town of
the Diyār Mudar district and will be described presently. Before
coming to this the river ran by the towns of ‘Arābān and
Mäkisin, which were of the Khābūr lands and counted of Diyār
Rabi'ah province. ‘Arbán or ‘Arābān, the ruins of which still
exist, was in the 4th (1 oth) century a walled town where cotton
stuffs were largely manufactured, cotton being grown in the
surrounding country along the banks of the Khābūr. Mukaddasi
speaks of ‘Arābān as standing on a high hill and surrounded by
gardens. To the south of it, half-way to Karkisiyā, was the town
of Mäkisin (or Maykasin) where a bridge of boats crossed the
Khabar. Much cotton also was grown here, and near it lay the
small lake of deep blue water called Al-Munkharik, about a third
of an acre in extent and said to be unfathomable.
The source of the Hirmās river is described as at a spring six
leagues north of Nasībīn, where the water was dammed back by a
masonry wall, clamped and with leaden joints. This, it was said, the
Greeks had built, to preserve Naşībin from being flooded, and the
Caliph Mutawakkil at one time had commanded that it should be
demolished, but finding the water beginning to overflow the city
had promptly ordered the restoration of the wall. A hundred
* Baladhuri, 176. Ist. 73, 74. I. H. 143, 149, 152. Muk. I40. I. J.
242, 244. Kaz. ii. 172. Yak. ii. 516, 612, 733, 91 I : iii. 435; iv. 287, 390.
Mst. 166, 205, 219. I. B. ii. 142. A. Y. i. 677.
LE S. 7
98 - JAziRAH. [CHAP.
miles or more south of Nasībīn was the dam or weir called
Sukayr-al-‘Abbās, where in the 4th (1 oth) century theré was a con-
siderable town with a Friday Mosque and markets. This was at
the head of the Tharthär river, which, as already stated, flowed to
the Tigris. At the present day its stream is so shrunken in volume
that it no longer forms a waterway, and this shrinkage had
already begun in the 7th (13th) century when Yākūt wrote, for he
reports that though when the rains were plentiful the flood still
passed down its channel, in summer the bed was only marked by
pools of water and brackish springs. Yākūt had himself travelled
along its course, and adds it was reported that in old times boats
used to pass down this stream from the Khābūr to the Tigris;
and in those days a succession of villages lined its banks, where,
when he wrote, there was only a desert to be seen.
In the plain of Sinjär the river Tharthár cut through the line
of hills called the Jabal Humrin, otherwise the Jabal Bârimmā,
and received from the north a small stream which flowed down
from the city of Sinjär. This in the 4th (1 oth) century was
a walled town, Surrounded by a most fertile district. Mukaddasi
describes it as famous for its carpenters; oranges, lemons, and
the date palm flourished abundantly here, and a large Friday
Mosque stood in the midst of the town. Moslem tradition
stated that the Ark first rested on the hill above Sinjär during
the Flood; but afterwards, continuing on its course, came
finally to rest on Jabal Júdi on the east side of the Tigris.
Further, Yākūt adds that Sinjär was also famous as the birth-
place of Sultan Sinjär or Sanjar, the last of the great Saljūks,
son of Malik Shāh. According to Kazwini Sinjär in the 7th
(13th) century was remarkable for its bath houses, which had
beautiful mosaic floors, and Ibn Batūtah who passed through the
place in the 8th (14th) century refers to its fine mosque. The
town wall, 3200 paces in circuit, was built according to Mustawfi
of mortared stone; most of the houses went step-fashion up the
hill slope, and its gardens produced great quantities of grapes,
olives, and sumach. Al-Hadr, the Roman Hatra, mentioned by
Ibn Serapion, stood lower down the Tharthár, about half-way
between Sinjär and where that river joined the Tigris near Takrit.
At Hadr are still to be seen the remains of a great Parthian
VI] JAZIRAH. 99
palace which Yākūt reports to have been built by a certain
As-Sātirún of squared stones, and there were many of its
chambers whose ceilings and doors were likewise of Stone slabs.
Originally, he says, there had been sixty great towers, with nine
turrets between each tower and its neighbour, while a palace
stood over against each tower outside the walls".
The high road from Mosul to Nasībin went up the right bank
of the Tigris, and at Balad (corresponding with the place now
known as Eski, or Old, Mosul), seven leagues from Mosul, the
road bifurcated, the branch to the left hand going to Sinjär by way
of Tall A“far. Yākūt writes that Balad, where there was an Alid
shrine, occupied the site of the old Persian town of Shahrābādh,
and that the name of Balad was often written Balat. Ibn Hawkal
in the 4th (1 oth) century refers to Balad as a considerable city, and
Mukaddasi tells us of its houses built of Stone, well mortared, its
good markets, and its Friday Mosque standing in the Centre of
the town. The neighbourhood produced Sugar-cane and was very
fertile. On the solitary hill of Tall A“far, one stage to the west,
stood a castle, dominating a large suburb through which ran a
stream. The castle was strongly fortified, Yākūt says, and the
date palm grew in the surrounding district, which was known under
the name of Al-Mahlabiyah, from the Mah/a/ perfume, or preserve,
of cherry-stones chiefly made here.
The right-hand road at the bifurcation beyond Balad led to
the town of Bā‘aynāthā which Mukaddasi describes as lying in the
midst of twenty-five fertile districts, the richest and pleasantest of
all Mesopotamia, as he adds; and this Bā‘aynāthā must not be
confounded with ‘the great village like a city’ of the same name
on the river which joins the Tigris to the north of Jazirah Ibn
‘Omar as mentioned on p. 94. Beyond Bā‘aynāthā on the road
to Nasibin came Barka‘īd, a place evilly proverbial for the thieving
ways of its people, practised against all Strangers and their
caravans. In the 3rd (9th) century it was a town of considerable
size, with three gates, more than two hundred shops, and many
The name of the town is written Sinjär, with the last a long; the name of
the Sultan is generally written Sanjar, with both vowels short. I. S. 12, 18.
Ist. 73, 74. I. H. 139, 148, 150. Muk. 14o, 14 I. Yak. i. 464, 921 ; ii. 281 ;
iii. Io9, 158; iv. 962. Mst. 166, 219. I. B. ii. 14 I. Kaz. ii. 263.
7–2
:
*
:
:
IOO JAZíRAH. [CHAP. VI.
* * * ,
springs of excellent water. By the 7th (13th) century, however,
though some traffic still passed through it, the evil reputation of
its people had caused the place to be avoided by respectable
travellers and it had fallen to the size of a village. -
Adhramah, rather less than half-way between Barka‘īd and
Nasībin, was a place of about the same size as Barka'īd; and its
district was called Bayn-an-Nahrayn, “Betwixt the Streams.” In
the 3rd (9th) century it is stated that there had been a fine palace
here, and a stone arched bridge crossed its stream. The little
town then had double walls, surrounded by a deep ditch. Such
at any rate is the description of the place left by the physician of
the Caliph Mu'tadid, who passed through it, when in attendance
on the latter. In the 4th (Ioth) century Mukaddasi describes
Adhramah as a small place standing in the desert near some
wells, and there were vaulted buildings round about these'.
* Kud. 214. Ist. 73. I. H. 148, 149. Muk. I 39, 140. Yak. i. 177,472,
571, 715, 863 v. 428. Kaz. ii. 204.
CHAPTER VII.
JAZIRAH (continued).
The district of Diyār Mudar. Rakkah and Räfikah. The river Balikh and
Harrān, Edessa and Hisn-Maslamah. Karkisiyā. The Nahr Sa‘īd,
Rahbah and Däliyah. Rusāfah of Syria. ‘Ānah. Bālis, Jisr Manbij,
and Sumaysät, Sarāj. The district of Diyār Bakr. Amid, Häni, and
the source of the Tigris. Mayyāfarikin and Arzan. Hisn Kayfä and Tall
Fāfān. Sá'irt.
The district of Diyār Mudar, as already explained, lay along
the banks of the Euphrates, and the chief town was Ar-Rakkah
situated just above where the river Balikh, coming down from the
north, flows into the Euphrates. The site is that of the old Greek
city of Callinicus or Nicephorium, for the Arab name Ar-Rakkah
is merely descriptive ; Ražah being the term for the swampy
land beside a river subject to periodical inundation, and as such
Ar-Rakkah, “the Morass,’ is found elsewhere as a place-name, this
particular Rakkah receiving the surname of As-Sawdā, ‘the Black,”
for distinction.
In the 2nd (8th) century when the Abbasids had succeeded to
the Caliphate, Rakkah, one of the chief cities of Upper Mesopotamia
commanding the Syrian frontier, had to be secured, and for this
purpose the Caliph Manşūr in 155 (772) proceeded to build some
3oo ells distant from Rakkah the town of Ar-Ráfikah (the Com-
panion or Fellow), which was garrisoned by Khurāsān troops
entirely devoted to the new dynasty. Räfikah is said to have
been laid out on the plan of Baghdād, and was a round city.
Hārūn-ar-Rashid added to the town and built himself a palace
here called the Kasr-as-Salām (the Palace of Peace), for he at
times resided in Rakkah, or Rāfikah, when the climate of
I O2 JAZīRAH. [CHAP.
Baghdād was too hot. Soon the older town of Rakkah fell to
ruin, new buildings covered all the intervening space, enclosing
‘the Morass,’ now a shallow lake, lying between Rakkah and
Rāfikah, and the name of Rakkah passed to Ráfikah, which last,
once the suburb, took the place of the older city, and lost its
name in the process. Ibn Hawkal in the 4th (Ioth) century,
however, speaks of the twin cities of Rakkah and Rāfikah, each with
its own Friday Mosque, and he especially mentions the magnifi-
cent trees which surrounded the towns. Mukaddasi describes only
One town, namely Rakkah, as strongly fortified and having two
gates; its markets were excellent and well supplied from the
neighbouring villages; much traffic also centred here, and from
the olive oil produced in the neighbourhood soap was manu-
factured. The Friday Mosque was, he says, a fine building
standing in the Clothiers’ market, and each of the great houses at
Rakkah had its terraced roof. There were also excellent baths.
Near by were the ruins of the old town, then known as Ar-
Rakkah-al-Muhtarikah, “Burnt Rakkah.’ Mustawfi on the other
hand speaks of Ráfikah as still the name of a suburb, with its
Friday Mosque standing in the Goldsmiths' market. Round this
suburb grew mulberry and jujube trees, and a mosque stood near,
overhanging the Euphrates bank.
On the right bank of the Euphrates opposite and above
Rakkah was the celebrated plain of Siffin, which had been the
battlefield between the partizans of the two Caliphs Mu‘āwiyah
and ‘Ali. “The Martyrs,’ as the Shi‘ahs called those who had
fallen in the cause of ‘Alī, had their shrines here, and Ibn Hawkal,
whose narrative is extended by Mustawfi, relates how miracu-
lously, from afar off, each buried martyr was quite visible lying in
his shroud underground, though, on coming up to the actual
spot, no body could be perceived. Opposite the battlefield of
Siffin on the north (left) bank of the Euphrates stands the fortress
known as Kal'at Ja'bar, after its early possessor, an Arab of the
Bani Numayr. Originally this castle had been called Dawsar.
It is frequently mentioned in the later history of the Caliphate,
and in the year 497 (IIo4) was taken possession of by the Franks
from Edessa, during the time of the first Crusade. On its left
bank below Rakkah the Euphrates receives the river Al-Balikh,
VII] JAZiRAH. IO3
which the Greeks knew as the Bilecha. Its source was at a
Spring called the ‘Ayn-adh-Dhahbāniyah lying to the north of
Harrán. The name of this spring is given variously by our
authorities as Ad-Dahmānah or Adh-Dhahbānah, and Mustawfi
(in Persian) writes of the Chashmah Dahānah'.
The Balikh took its course south and joined the Euphrates
below Rakkah, passing by a number of important towns which
were irrigated from it or from its tributaries. Harrān (the ancient
Carrhae) near its source was famous as the home of the Säbians
(not identical with the Sabaeans, but often confounded with them)
who professed to hold the religion of Abraham, and tradition
stated that Harrān was the first city to be built after the Flood.
Mukaddasi describes Harrān as a pleasant town protected by a
fortress, built of stones so finely set as to recall the masonry of
the walls of Jerusalem. It possessed a Friday Mosque. According
to Ibn Jubayr, who passed through Harrān in 58o (1184), the city
itself was also surrounded by a stone wall, and he describes the
mosque as having a large Court with nineteen doors, while its
cupola was supported on marble columns. The markets were
roofed over with beams of wood, and the city possessed both a
hospital and a college. Mustawfi adds that the circuit of the
castle wall was 1350 paces. Three leagues to the south was to
be seen the shrine (Mashhad) of Abraham, and the surrounding
territory was fully irrigated by innumerable small canals.
Edessa, which the Arabs call Ar-Ruhā (a corruption of the
Greek name Callirrhoe), lay on the head-waters of one of the
tributaries of the Balikh. The city is not held of much account by
the Moslem geographers, for the majority of its population Con-
tinued to be Christians, and the town was chiefly remarkable for
its numerous churches, which Ibn Hawkal estimates at more than
3oo in number. Here originally had been preserved the famous
relic known as ‘the napkin of Jesus,’ which had been given up by
Moslem authorities to the Byzantines in 332 (944), in order to
save Ruhá from being stormed and plundered. Mukaddasi in
the latter part of the 4th (1 oth) century, after speaking of the
* Baladhuri, 179, 297. Ist. 75, 76. I. H. 153, 154. Muk. I4 I. I. S. 12.
I. R. 90. I. K. 175. Yak. i. 734; ii. 621, 734; iv. I 12, 164. Mst. 166, 219.
Ibn-al-Athir, x. 253.
IO4 JAZīRAH. [CHAP.
Friday Mosque, describes the magnificent cathedral of Edessa,
celebrated as one of the four wonders of the world, whose
vaulted ceiling was covered with mosaics. The Great Mosque
of Al-Akşā at Jerusalem had been built, he says, on its plan.
Mukaddasi adds that the city was well fortified. Notwithstanding
its Arab garrison at the time of the first Crusade in 492 (Io98),
Edessa was taken by Baldwin, and during half-a-century remained
a Latin principality. In 540 (1 I45), however, Zangi retook the
city from Jocelin II, and after that date Ruhá was in the hands
of the Moslems. The ruins of its many handsome buildings
might still be seen in the 8th (14th) century, and Mustawfi
describes a great cupola of finely worked stone, rising beyond a
court that was over Ioo yards square. Ruhā is more than once
mentioned by ‘Ali of Yazd in his account of the campaigns of
Timür, and it kept this name down to the beginning of the 9th
(15th) century. After it passed into the possession of the
Ottoman Turks its name was commonly pronounced Urfah, said
to be a corruption of the Arabic Ar-Ruhā, and as Urfah Edessa
is known at the present day'. .
To the South of Harrān, and lying some distance to the east
* Ist. 76. I. H. I54. Muk. I4 I, I47. I. J. 246. Yak. ii. 231, 591.
A. Y. i. 662. Mst. 166. J. N. 443. In the matter of the famous napkin
(Mandž!) of Christ once preserved at Edessa, this is one of the many Veronicas,
but competent authorities are not agreed as to whether the Edessa Veronica is
that now preserved in Rome, or the one shown at Genoa, and there are others.
Our earliest Moslem authority, Mas‘ūdī, who wrote in the very year when this
famous relic had been delivered up to the Greek Emperor, calls it ‘the napkin
of Jesus of Nazareth, wherewith He had dried Himself after His baptism,’ and
Mas‘ūdī mentions the year 332 (944) as that when the Byzantines got possession
of it, to their great joy. Ibn Hawkal, writing in the same century, merely calls
it ‘the napkin of ‘īsā, son of Mariyam, on whom be peace.” Ibn-al-Athir in
his chronicle under the year 33 I (943) describes it as ‘the napkin with which
it was said the Messiah had wiped His face, whereby the likeness of His face
was come thereon,’ and he proceeds to relate how the Caliph Muttaki had been
induced to give up this napkin to the Emperor of the Greeks in return for the
release of many Moslem captives, and to save Ar-Ruhá from assault and pillage.
The Christian legend concerning the Edessa napkin, as given by Moses of
Chorene, is that this relic was a portrait of Christ, wonderfully impressed on
a cloth, which He had sent to Abgarus, King of Edessa. Mas. ii. 331. Ibn-
al-Athir, viii. 302.
VII] JAZīRAH. IO5
of the Balikh river, was the small town of Bājaddā on the road to
Räs-al-‘Ayn. Its gardens were famous, and it was a dependency
of Hisn Maslamah, which lay nearer to the Balikh river. This
great Castle took its name from Maslamah, son of the Omayyad
Caliph ‘Abd-al-Malik, and it stood nine leagues south of Harrān,
lying about a mile and a half back from the actual river bank.
From this point a canal brought water to the fortress to fill a
Cistern which Maslamah had caused to be dug here, 200 ells
square by 20 deep, and lined throughout with stone. The cistern
needed only to be filled once a year, and the canal served for
irrigating the lands round Hisn Maslamah. The fortress buildings
Covered an area of a Jarib (equivalent to a third of an acre), and
its walls were fifty ells in height. To the south of Hisn Maslamah
On the road to Rakkah, from which it was three leagues distant,
stood Bājarwān, which Ibn Hawkal describes as having been
a fine town, though in the 4th (Ioth) century already falling to
ruin. Yākūt, whose description of Hisn Maslamah has been given
above, merely mentions Bājarwān as a village of the Diyār Mudar
district".
Some two hundred miles below Rakkah stands Karkisiyā, the
ancient Circesium, on the left bank of the Tigris where, as already
explained (p. 97), the moiety of the Khābūr river flows in. Ibn
Hawkal describes it as a fine town surrounded by gardens; but
Yākūt and Mustawfi both refer to it as a smaller place than the
neighbouring Rahbah, which lay six leagues distant, standing back
from the western side of the Euphrates. This Rahbah—the name
means the Square or Plain—was called for distinction Rahbah-
ash-Shām, ‘of Syria,’ or Rahbah Malik ibn Tawk after its founder,
who had flourished during the reign of the Caliph Mamūn. Near
it stood the small town of Ad-Dāliyah (the Waterwheel) and both
places lay near the bank of a great loop canal, called the Nahr
Sa'id, which branched from the right bank of the Euphrates some
distance above Karkisiyā and flowed back to it again above
Däliyah, which, like Rahbah, was also known for distinction as
Däliyah of Malik ibn Tawk. The canal had been dug by Prince
Sa‘īd, son of the Omayyad Caliph ‘Abd-al-Malik; he was a man
of great piety, being known as Sa‘īd-al-Khayr, ‘the Good,” and was
* I. H. I56. Kud. 215. Yak. i. 453, 454, 734; ii. 278.
IO6 JAZīRAH. [CHAP.
for some time Governor of Mosul. Rabbah is described by
Mukaddasi as one of the largest towns on the Euphrates in Upper
Mesopotamia. Its houses spread out in a great semicircle standing
back to the desert border, it was well fortified, and had a large
suburb. Däliyah was much smaller, but still an important place,
standing on an elevation and overlooking the west bank of the
Euphrates. -
In the desert between Rahbah and Rakkah—and the ruins
still exist four leagues south of the latter town—was Rusāfah
(the Causeway), called Rusăfah-ash-Shām—of Syria—or Rusāfah
Hisham, after its founder. The Caliph Hisham, one of the
many sons of ‘Abd-al-Malik, built himself this palace in the
desert as a place of safety to reside in at a time when the
plague was raging throughout Syria. The spot had already been
occupied by the Ghassanid princes before Islam, and there were
ancient wells here, Yākūt says, 120 ells deep. The physician Ibn
Butlán, who wrote in 443 (1051), describes Rusāfah as possessing
a church, said to have been built by the Emperor Constantine,
the exterior of which was ornamented in gold mosaic work, and
underneath was a crypt, as large as the church, with its roof
supported on marble pillars. In the 5th (11th) century most
of the inhabitants were still Christian, and they profitably com-
bined brigandage with the convoying of caravans across the desert
to Aleppo. On the eastern side of the Euphrates between Rakkah
and Karkisiyā, two days’ march above the latter town, was
Al-Khānūkah, a city of some size according to Ibn Hawkal, and
Yākūt adds that in its vicinity was the territory of Al-Madik.
Below Karkisiyā the only town of importance within the limits
of the Jazirah province was ‘Ānah, the ancient Anatho, still found
on the map, and mentioned by Ibn Serapion as on an island
surrounded by the Euphrates. Ibn Hawkal, however, describes
this as formed by a creek branching off from the stream. Yākūt
adds that ‘Anah possessed a strong castle which overlooked
the river, and here the Caliph Kâim found shelter in 450
(IoS8), when Basāsiri the Daylamite, after taking possession of
Baghdād, had caused the public prayers to be read there in the
name of the heterodox Fatimid Caliph of Cairo. Mustawfi says
that in the 8th (14th) century ‘Ānah was still a fine town, and
VII] JAzirAH. Io?
famous for its palm-groves. The harbour of Al-Furdah, called
Furdah Nu‘m for distinction, lay due west of ‘Ānah on the
Euphrates, half-way to Karkisiyā, and probably marked the eastern
bend of the Euphrates, but it is now no longer to be found on the
map. This was an important station where the highway bifurcated,
to the left-hand one road going direct across the desert by way of
Ruşāfah to Rakkah, while the right-hand road kept up stream
along the river bank”.
Above Rakkah there were three towns on the Euphrates,
namely Bālis, Jisr Manbij, and Sumaysät, which were often counted
as of Syria because they lay on the right or western bank of that
river, though most authorities count them as belonging to Jazirah.
Bâlis lies due west of Rakkah, at the limit of the plain of Siffin,
where the Euphrates after running south turns east. It was
the Roman Barbalissus, the great river-port for Syria on the
Euphrates, and hence the centre point of many caravan routes.
Ibn Hawkal describes Bālis as having strong walls, with gardens
lying between these and the Euphrates; of its lands the chief
crops were wheat and barley. Though somewhat fallen to ruin,
Mukaddasi says, Bâlis was still populous in the 4th (Ioth) century;
but Yākūt reports that, by a change of bed, the Euphrates in the
7th (13th) century had come to flow more than four miles distant
from the town, and Abu-l-Fidā refers to Bâlis as a place that had
long seen its best days.
Jisr Manbij, where a bridge of boats crossed the Euphrates, and
the road led west up to Manbij (Hierapolis) of the Aleppo province,
was a place of great importance during the middle-ages. The
bridge was protected by a great fortress, and below this a small
town stood on the Euphrates bank. The fortress was known as
Kal‘at-an-Najm, ‘the Castle of the Star,’ from its height on the hill,
and it was also called Hisn Manbij, ‘the Manbij Fortress.’ When
Ibn Jubayr passed Kal‘at-an-Najm, coming from Harrān in 58o
(I 184), he speaks of the market which was held below its walls.
Abu-l-Fidā says that the fort had been rebuilt by Sultan Nūr-ad-
Din, Son of Zangi, and its garrison freely harassed the neighbouring
* Ist, 77, 78. I. H. I55, 156. Muk. I42. Baladhuri, 179, I80, 332. I. S.
to, 14. Yak. ii. 394, 538, 764, 784, 955; iii. 595, 876; iv. 65, 560, 840. Mst.
139, 166.
IO8 JAZīRAH. [CHAP.
towns occupied by the Crusaders. Kazwini, writing in the latter
half of the 7th (13th) century, gives a long account of the
frauds practised by sharpers here who, getting acquainted with
rich travellers passing Kal'at-an-Najm, by means of games of
hazard, aided by confederates, would win all their money and
possessions. The play ran so high that, according to Kazwini,
the stranger was often left ‘with nothing but his drawers (sárawil)
of all his clothes or former possessions.’ The sharpers, indeed,
would sometimes hold the victim himself in pawn, until his
Companions could be induced to buy him off.
SumaySāt, the Roman Samosata, was still higher up the
Euphrates, and lay on the right or north bank of the great
river, which here runs west. It was a very strong fortress.
Mas‘ūdī states that Sumaysät was also known as Kal‘at-at-Tin,
‘the Clay Castle,’ and Yākūt reports that in the 7th (13th) cen-
tury one of its quarters was exclusively inhabited by Armenians.
Finally to complete the list of towns of the Mudar district Sarāj
is to be mentioned, which lies about half-way on the direct road
from Rakkah north, across the desert plain, to Sumaysät ; this
road forming the chord of the great semicircular sweep followed
by the Euphrates. Sarūj was also on the caravan road from
Harrān and Edessa to Jisr Manbij, and is described by Ibn
Hawkal as a fine city, surrounded by fertile districts, a description
which Yākūt, adding nothing further, corroborates'.
The cities of Diyār Bakr, the smallest of the three districts
into which the Jazirah province was divided, lay exclusively on, or
to the north of, the upper course of the Tigris. The chief town
of the district was Āmid, sometimes written Hämid, the Roman
Amida. In later times the city was generally known under the
name of the district, as it is at the present day, being called Diyār
Bakr, or else Kārā Āmid (Black Åmid) from the colour of the
stone used here.
The town stood on the right or west bank of the Tigris, and a
hill Ioo fathoms in height dominated it. Ibn Hawkal states that
its walls were built of black mill-stones. Mukaddasi describes its
strong fortifications as being like those of Antioch, the Outer walls,
* Ist. 62, 76, 78. I. H. I 19, 120, 154, 157. Muk. I 55. Mas. i. 215.
I. J. 250. Yak. i. 477; iii. 85, 151; iv. 165. A. F. 233, 269. Kaz. ii. 16o.
VII] JAZIRAH. IO9
battlemented and with gates, being separated from the inner
fortifications by a clear space, afterwards occupied by the suburbs.
There were springs of water within the town and Mukaddasi also
remarks on the black stone of which, and on which, he says the
city was built. Amid possessed a fine Friday Mosque, and its
walls were pierced by five chief gates, namely the Water gate,
the Mountain gate, the Báb-ar-Rûm (the Greek gate), the Hill
gate, and the Postern gate (Bāb-as-Sirr) used in time of war.
The line of fortified walls included the hill in their circuit, and
in the 4th (Ioth) century Mukaddasi says that the Moslems
possessed no stronger or better fortress than Amid on their
frontier against the Greek Empire.
Nāsir-i-Khusraw the Persian pilgrim passed through Amid in
438 (IOA6), and has left a careful description of the city as he
saw it. The town was 2 ooo paces in length and in breadth, and
the wall built of black stone surrounded the hill overlooking
it. This wall was 20 yards in height and Io yards broad, no
mortar was used in its construction, but each stone block was,
Nāsir estimates, of the weight of Iooo man (equivalent to about
three tons). At every hundred yards along the wall was built a
semicircular tower, and the crest had battlements of the aforesaid
black Stone, while stone gangways at intervals led up to the
ramparts from within the circuit. There were four iron gates,
facing the cardinal points; namely, to the east the Tigris gate, to
the north the Armenian gate (Bāb-al-Arman), to the west the
Greek gate, and to the south the Hill gate (Bāb-at-Tall). Beyond
the city wall ran the outer wall, ten yards in height, also of black
stone, a suburb occupying the space between the two, in a
ring that was fifteen yards across. This outer wall also had
battlements, and a gangway along it for the defence, and there
were here four iron gates corresponding with those of the inner
wall. Amid, Nāsir adds, was one of the strongest places he had
Seen.
In the centre of the town a great spring of water, sufficient to
turn five mills, gushed out; the water was excellent, and its
overflow irrigated the neighbouring gardens. The Friday Mosque
was a beautiful building, of black stone like the rest of the
town, with a great gable roof and containing over 200 columns,
I IO JAZíRAH. [CHAP.
each a monolith, every two connected by an arch, which supported
in turn a row of dwarf columns under the roof line. The ceiling
was of carved wood, coloured and varnished. In the mosque
court was a round stone basin, from the midst of which a brass
jet shot up a column of clear water, which kept the level within
the basin always the same. Near the mosque stood a great
church, built of stone and paved with marble, the walls finely
sculptured ; and leading to its Sanctuary Nāsir saw an iron gate of
lattice-work, so beautifully wrought that never had he seen the
equal thereof.
This description of the magnificence of Amid is borne out by
what the anonymous annotator of the Paris MS. of Ibn Hawkal
writes, who was here in 534 (1140). He notes that its markets
were well built and full of merchandise. In the 7th (13th) century
Yākūt and Kazwini repeat much of the foregoing description, and
the latter speaks of Amid as then covering a great half-circle of
ground, with the Tigris flowing to the eastward, and surrounded
on the other side by magnificent gardens. Mustawfi in the
following century writes of it as a medium-sized town, paying the
Il-Khāns a revenue of 3000 gold pieces. At the close of this
century Amid was taken by Timür'.
To the north of Amid, and near one of the eastern arms of
the upper Tigris, stands the town of Hâni, which is said by Yākūt
to be famous for the iron mine in its neighbourhood, which
produced much metal for export. Häni is also mentioned by
Mustawfi. Some distance to the west of Hānī lies the chief
source of the Tigris, which Mukaddasi describes as flowing with a
rush of green water out of a dark cave. At first, he says, the
stream is small, and only of sufficient volume to turn a single mill-
wheel; but many affluents soon join and swell the current, the
uppermost of these being the Nahr-adh-Dhib (the Wolf River),
apparently identical with the Nahr-al-Kilāb (the River of Dogs)
referred to by Yākūt, which came down from the hills near
Shimshāt, to the north of Hâni. The source of the Tigris,
according to Yākūt, was distant two and a half days’ journey
from Amid, at a place known as Haldras, ‘where ‘Ali, the
* Ist. 75. I. H. I 50, I5 I. Muk. I 4o. N. K. 8. Yak. i. 66. Kaz. ii.
331. Mst. 165. A. Y. i. 682.
VII] JAZīRAH. I I I
Armenian, obtained martyrdom,’ and he too speaks of the dark
cavern from which its waters gushed forth. The names of many
other affluents are mentioned both by Mukaddasi and Yākūt,
whose accounts are not quite easy to reconcile, and probably the
names of these streams varied considerably between the 4th and
the 7th (1 oth and 13th) centuries.
Some distance below Amid the Tigris turns due east at a right
angle, and then from the north receives a stream called the
Nahr-ar-Rams or the Nahr Salb. A more important affluent,
however, is the river coming down from the north of Mayyāfarikin,
a tributary of which flowed by that city. This is the river
Sātīdamā, or Sātīdamād, one branch of which was called the
Wädi-az-Zúr flowing from the district of Al-Kalk, while the
Sātīdamá river itself had its head-waters in the Darb-al-Kilāb-
‘the Dogs’ Pass'—so called, Yākūt says, from a famous massacre
of the Greeks, “when these were all killed like dogs,' which the
Persian army effected in the reign of King Anūshirwān, some time
before the birth of the prophet Muhammad. This river Sātidamá,
which is mentioned by Ibn Serapion, is that which Mukaddasi
names the Nahr-al-Mastīliyāt, and is now known as the Batman
Sū, one of whose affluents, as already said, flows down from
Mayyāfarikin'.
The Arabic Mayyāfarikin appears to be a corruption of the
Aramaic name Maypharkath, or the Armenian Moufargin, and it
is identical with the Greek town called Martyropolis. Mukaddasi
in the 4th (Ioth) century describes it as a fine city, surrounded
by a stone wall, with battlements and a deep ditch, beyond which
stretched extensive suburbs. Its mosque was well built, but Mu-
kaddasi remarks that its gardens were scanty. Mayyāfarikin was
visited by Nāsir-i-Khusraw in 438 (IOA6), who speaks of the town
as surrounded by a wall built of great white stones, each of 5oo
man weight (about a ton and a half), and while all Amid, as
already said, was of black stone, in every building at Mayyāfarikin
the stones used were notably white. The town wall was then
new, it had good battlements and at every 50 yards rose a white
stone tower. The city had but one gateway, opening to the west,
* I. S. I 7, 18. Muk. I44. Yak. ii. 188, 551, 552, 563, 956; iii. 7, 413 ;
iv. 3oo, 979. Mst. 165.
II 2 JAZIRAH. [CHAP.
and this possessed a solid iron door, no wood having been used
in its construction. There was according to Nāsir a fine mosque
within the city, also a second Friday Mosque in the suburb
outside, standing in the midst of the markets, and beyond lay
many gardens. He adds that at a short distance to the north of
Mayyāfarikin stood a second town called Muhdathah, “the New
Town,’ with its own Friday Mosque, bath houses, and markets;
while four leagues further distant was the city of Nasriyah, lately
founded by the Mirdāsid Amir Nasr, surnamed Shibl-ad-Dawlah.
Both Yākūt and Kazwini give a long account of various
churches, of the three towers, and the eight town gates, which
had existed of old at Mayyāfarikin—the Greek name of which, Yākūt
says, was Madārśālā, meaning ‘the City of the Martyrs.’ These
buildings dated from the days of the Emperor Theodosius, and
some of their remains, especially those of an ancient church built,
it was said, ‘in the time of the Messiah,’ might still be seen in the
7th (13th) century. Thus there was in particular, on the summit
of the south-western tower of the town wall, a great cross, set
up to face Jerusalem, and this cross, it was reported, was the
work of the same craftsman who had made the great cross that
adorned the pinnacle of the Church of the Resurrection in Jeru-
salem, the two crosses being alike, and wonderful to behold.
Further, in the Jews' quarter of Mayyāfarikin near the Synagogue,
was to be seen a black marble basin, in which was kept a glass
belt (possibly a phylactery), wherein was preserved some of the
blood of Joshua the son of Nun, this having been brought hither
from Rome, and to touch it was a sovereign remedy against all
disease. In the 8th (14th) century under the Mongols Mayyā-
farikin was still an important place, and Mustawfi praises its
excellent climate and abundant fruits'.
Arzan, a short distance to the east of Mayyāfarikin, stood on
the western side of the river called the Nahr, or Wädi, as-Sarbat.
Arzan had a great Castle, well fortified, and it was visited in 438
(1046) by Nāsir-i-Khusraw. He writes of it as a flourishing place
with excellent markets, being surrounded by fertile and well
irrigated gardens. Yākūt describes Arzan (which must not be
* I. H. 151. Muk. I40. N. K. 7. Yak. iv. 703—707. Kaz. ii. 379.
Mst. 167. . . .
VII] JAZIRAH. II 3
Confounded with Arzan-ar-Rûm or Erzerum which will be noticed
in the next chapter) as in his day gone to ruin; but Mustawfi in
the 8th (14th) century, who generally spells the name Arzanah,
Speaks of it as though it were still a flourishing place.
On the southern bank of the Euphrates, between where the
two rivers from Mayyāfarikin and Arzan flow in from the north,
stands the castle called Hisn Kayfā, or Kifá, which the Greeks
called Kiphas or Cephe. Mukaddasi describes the place as
a strongly fortified castle, and the markets of its suburbs were
plentifully supplied. There were, he adds, many churches here,
and the anonymous annotator of the MS. of Ibn Hawkal, already
referred to, writing in the 6th (12th) century, speaks of the great
stone bridge which crossed the Tigris here, and which had been
restored by the Amir Fakhr-ad-Din Kärä Arslān in the year 5 Io
(I I I6). Below the castle, at that time, was a populous suburb,
with many markets and hostelries, the houses being well built of
mortared stone. The surrounding district was fertile, but the
climate was bad, and the plague was often rife during the summer
heats. Yākūt, who had been at Hisn Kayfā, says that suburbs
had formerly existed here on both banks of the Tigris, and he
Considered the great bridge as one of the finest works he had seen.
It consisted of a single great arch, which rose above two smaller
arches, and these, presumably by a central pier, divided the bed of
the Tigris. In the next century Mustawfi describes Hisn Kayfä
as a large town, but for the most part gone to ruin, though still
inhabited by a numerous population.
The hill known as Tall Fāfān, with a town of this name at its
foot, stood on the northern or left bank of the Tigris, some 50
miles east of Hisn Kayfä, where the river makes its great bend
south. The town, Mukaddasi writes, in the 4th (1 oth) century
was surrounded by gardens, its markets were well provisioned, and
though the houses were mostly clay-built, the market streets were
roofed over. The river which joins the Tigris at Tall Fäſän
comes down from Badlis (Bitlis), rising in the mountains of
Armenia to the south-west of Lake Vän. This river is joined by
a great affluent rising to the south of the lake, which Mukaddasi
and Yākūt name the Wädi-ar-Razm, and the Tigris below the
junction of their united streams became navigable for boats. On
LE S. 8
II.4. JAZīRAH. [CHAP. VII
the banks of the river Razm, north of Tall Fāfān, just above where
the Badlis river runs in, stands the town of Sã'irt, also written
Si'ird and Is"irt, which was often counted as of Armenia. Yākūt
more than once refers to it, but gives no description ; Mustawfi,
however, speaks of Sãºird as a large town, famed for the excellent
copper vessels made by its Smiths; and the drinking cups from
here were exported far and wide. Near Is"irt, according to
Kazwini, was the small town of Hizān, where alone in all Mesopo-
tamia the chestnut-tree (Shāh-balūţ) grew abundantly".
* Ist. 76. I. H. 152. Muk. I41, I45. N. K. 7. Yak. i. 205; ii. 277,
552, 776; iii. 68, 854. Kaz. ii. 241. Mst. 165, 166. The name of the river
Razm is variously given in the MSS. as Zarm, Razb, or Zarb, and the true pro-
nunciation is unknown.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE UPPER EU PHRATES.
The Eastern Euphrates or Arsanás. Milásgird and Māsh. Shimshāt and
Hisn Ziyād or Kharpät. The Western Euphrates. Arzan-ar-Rûm or
Kālikalā. Arzanjān and Kamkh. The castle of Abrik or Tephrike.
Malatiyah and Tarandah. Zibatrah and Hadath. Hisn Manşūr, Bahasná
and the Sanjah bridge. Products of Upper Mesopotamia. The high
roads.
The cities and districts lying along the banks of the Eastern
and Western upper Euphrates (for the great river had two head-
streams) were generally counted as dependent on northern
Mesopotamia, and are often included in the Jazirah province.
The Eastern Euphrates, the southernmost of the two branches
of the river, and by some geographers counted as the main
Source, is the Arsanias Flumen of Tacitus and Pliny. In
the 4th (Ioth) century Ibn Serapion still calls this the Nahr
Arsanās, and the same name is given to it by Yākūt as in use in
the 7th (13th) century, who refers to the extreme coldness of its
waters. At the present day it is generally known to the Turks as
the Murăd Sū, being so named, it is commonly said, in honour of
Sultan Murăd IV, who conquered Baghdād in Io.48 (1638).
The Arsanās took its rise in the Tarān country, a name the
Armenians write Daron, and the Greeks knew of as Taronites,
which includes the mountains lying to the north of Lake Vän.
The first place of importance on the Arsanās was the town of
Malázkird, which in the various dialects of this region was also
known as Minázjird, Manzikart, and Milásgird. In the 4th (Ioth)
century Mukaddasi describes Malázkird as a strong fortress with
a mosque in its market street, the place being surrounded by
8—2
II6 THE UPPER EU PHRATES. [CHAP.
many gardens. In 463 (IoT I) Manzikart, as the Greeks called
it, was the field of the decisive battle between the Byzantines and
Moslems, when the Emperor Romanus IV (Diogenes) was taken
prisoner by the Saljúks, this leading up to their conquest and
permanent settlement in Asia Minor. Yākút more than once
refers to Minázjird or Minázkird, and Mustawfi, who gives the
name as Malázjird, praises its strong castle, its excellent climate,
and its fertile lands. The town of Músh to the south of the
Arsanās, in the great plain on the west of Lake Văn, is often
counted as of Armenia. It is mentioned by Yâkút, and Mustawfi
describes it as having excellent pasture lands, watered by streams
that flowed north to the Eastern Euphrates and south to the
Tigris. The town was in his day in ruins'.
The Arsanās received on its right bank two affluents coming
down from the north, and the Kālikalā country. These affluents
are important as they enable us to fix the approximate position of
Shimshāt, a town of some note, which has disappeared from the
map, and which has often been confounded with Sumaysät on the
Euphrates already mentioned (p. 108). Ibn Serapion states that
the first affluent was the Nahr-adh-Dhib, “the Wolf River,’ which
rising in Kālikalá fell into the Arsanās a short distance above
Shimshāt; the second was the Salkit river, which rose in the
mountains called Jabal Marūr (or Mazār) and joined the Arsanās
one mile below Shimshāt. A reference to the map shows that
these two streams are those now known respectively as the
Gunek Sū and the Peri Chay; the Kālikalā country representing
the mountain region lying between the Arsanās and the Western
Euphrates, and to the west of the Tarán country.
Shamshāt (Shimshāt) was much the most important place on
the Arsanās, which Ibn Serapion also refers to as the river of
Shimshāt, and the town appears to have stood on the southern or
left bank of the river. Shamshāt is undoubtedly the Arsamosata
of the Greeks, and Yākūt—who particularly remarks that it is not
* I. S. II. Kud. 246, 251. Muk. 376. Yak. i. 207; iv. 648, 682. Mst.
I65, 167. Hājjī Khalſah (J. N. 426) in IoIo (16oo) is apparently our earliest
authority for the Eastern Euphrates being called the Murăd Sū, and as his work
was apparently written before the reign of Sultan Murăd IV, this goes to prove
that the stream was not called after that monarch, as is commonly said.
VIII] THE UPPER EU PHRATES. I 17
to be confounded with Sumaysät—says that Shamshāt lay between
Pālūyah (modern Pālū) and Hisn Ziyād (modern Kharpèt). In
the 7th (13th) century when Yākūt wrote, Shamshāt was already
in ruins, but the data above given by Ibn Serapion and Yākūt
enable us to fix its position within narrow limits. The fortress of
Hisn Ziyād, which Ibn Khurdādbih mentions as situated at no
great distance from Shamshāt, was on the authority of Yākūt
the Arab name for the Armenian Khartabirt, now more generally
called Kharpät. Mustawfi gives the spelling Kharbirt, but adds
no details, referring to it merely as a large town enjoying a good
Climate. In this district Baládhuri and other early authorities
mention the bridge of Yaghrā, which crossed a stream that was
probably some tributary of the Arsanās, and this bridge (/isr) lay
Io miles distant from Shamshāt; its exact position, however, is
unknown. Then about a hundred miles to the westward of Sham-
shāt the Arsanás or Eastern Euphrates finally mingles its stream
with the Western Euphrates'. -
The Western Euphrates has generally been considered the
main branch of the great river, and it is that now commonly
known to the Turks as the Kārā Sū (Black Water), and this is
the Nahr-al-Furāt of Ibn Serapion. According to him it took its
rise in the mountains called Jabal Akradkhis (the name is
apparently written Afradkhis by Mas‘ūdī, and other variants
occur) which are of the Kālikalā country to the north of Erzerum.
This important town, which the Arabs called Arzan-ar-Rūm
or Ard-ar-Rûm (the Land of the Romans), the Armenians
knew as Karin, and the Greeks as Theodosiopolis. It is the
Moslem city of Kālikalā, and the chief place in this district.
The origin of the name Kālikalā, so frequently mentioned by all
the earlier Arab geographers, appears to be unknown, but all
agree that this was the country in which the Western Euphrates,
the Araxes river, and the affluents of the Arsanās took their
rise. Of the town of Erzerum the earlier Arab geographers afford
no details, except to state that it was a great city: Mustawfi speaks
of there being many fine churches here, one especially with a
dome whose circle was fifty ells in diameter. Opposite this
* I. S. Io, I 3, 30. I. K. 123. Baladhuri, I 39. Yak. ii. 276, 417; iii.
3.19. Mst. 262.
II 8 THE UPPER EU PHRATES. [CHAP.
church was a mosque built on the model of the Ka'bah at Mecca.
Ibn Batūtah, who was in Arz-ar-Rûm (as he writes the name) in
733 (1333), describes it as a large city, belonging to the Sultan of
‘Irák, for the most part in ruins, but still famous for its gardens,
and three rivers ran through its suburbs. Eight leagues to the
east of Arzan-ar-Rûm, on the summit of a mountain and near One
of the head-streams of the Araxes, is Avnik, a great fortress, of
which Mustawfi says that the town at its foot was named
Abaskhūr (or Abshakhūr). It belonged to Arzan-ar-Rûm, and
Yākūt adds that the district was called Bäsin. At the close of
the 8th (14th) century Timür took Avnik after a long siege, and
it is frequently mentioned in the history of his campaigns.
Some 2 oo miles west of Arzan-ar-Rûm and on the right or
north bank of the Euphrates, is the town of Arzanjān, which
Yākūt says was more often called Arzingán. He speaks of it as
a fine town well provisioned, in his day inhabited for the most
part by Armenians, who openly drank wine to the scandal of their
Moslem fellow-citizens. Mustawfi adds that its walls had been
restored by the Saljúk Sultan ‘Alā-ad-Din Kaykubăd at the close
of the 7th (13th) century, and that they were built of well-cut
jointed stone masonry. Arzanjān had an excellent climate, its
lands producing corn, cotton, and grapes in abundance. Ibn
Battitah who passed through here in 733 (1333) writes of it as
mostly inhabited by Turkish-speaking Armenians, who were
Moslems. In the neighbourhood were copper mines, and the
brass work of the native Smiths was famous; the markets were
good and much cloth was woven in the town. Bābirt to the north
of Arzanjān is mentioned by Yākūt as a considerable town, mostly
peopled by Armenians; but Mustawfi adds that in his day it had
much diminished in importance. The fortress of Kamkh (or
Kamakh) lay on the Western Euphrates a day's journey below
Arzanjān, on the left or south bank of the river. It is frequently
mentioned by Ibn Serapion and the earlier Arab geographers,
and was the Greek Kamacha. Mustawfi describes it as a great
castle, with a town below on the river bank, and many fertile
villages were of its dependencies'.
* I. S. Io. I. R. 89. I. K. I'74. Mas. i. 214, 7ambi/, 52. Yak. i. 205,
VIII] THE UPPER EU PHRATES. I IQ
Sixty miles or more to the west of Kamkh the Euphrates,
which from Erzerum has flowed westward, makes a great bend
and takes its course south, and it here receives on its right bank
the river called by Ibn Serapion the Nahr Abrik, from the castle
of Abrik which is on its upper course. This is the stream now
known as the Chaltah Irmak, which comes down from Divrik or
Divrigi. In Mustawfi and Ibn Bibi the name is given as Difrigi,
which the Byzantines wrote Tephrike (the form Aphrike also occurs
in the Greek MSS.), and the earlier Arab geographers shortened this
to Abrik. The place was celebrated at the close of the 3rd (9th)
century as the great stronghold of the Paulicians, a curious sect
of Eastern Christians whose Manichaean beliefs caused them to
be ruthlessly persecuted by the Orthodox Emperors of Constanti-
nople. The Paulicians, whose name the Arab writers give under
the form of Al-Baylakāni, took possession of Tephrike, fortified
it, and countenanced or aided by the Caliphs, for some years
successfully defied the armies of Constantinople. Kudāmah and
Mas‘ūdī, who are nearly contemporary authorities, both refer to
the castle of Abrik as ‘the capital of the Baylakānī’; and ‘Ali of
Herat (quoted by Yākūt) writing in the 7th (13th) century has
left a curious account of a great Cave and a church near Al-Abrūk
(as he spells the name) where were preserved the bodies of certain
martyrs, which he considered to be those of the Seven Sleepers
of Ephesus. -
A short distance to the south of the Chaltah Irmak and Divrik,
the Sārīchīchek Sū joins the Euphrates, on which stands the
fortress of ‘Arabgir. This place does not appear to be mentioned
by any of the earlier Arab geographers, though Ibn Bibi in his
Saljúk chronicle of the 8th (14th) century names it more than
once; also under the form Arabraces it is found in the Byzantine
chronicles. ‘Arabgir in any case does not represent Abrik and
Tephrike, as has been sometimes erroneously urged. Apparently
the earliest occurrence of the name of ‘Arabgir or ‘Arabkir in any
Moslem geographer is to be found in the Turkish /a/ an Mumá
of Hājjī Khalſah at the beginning of the 11th (17th) century,
206, 408, 444; iii. 860; iv. 19, 304. Kaz. ii. 370. Mst. 162, 163. A. Y.
i. 69 I ; ii. 252, 403. I. B. ii. 293, 294.
I 20 THE UPPER EUPHRATES. [CHAP.
He also mentions Divriki (as the town is now called), but unfor-
tunately we have no description of the old Paulician stronghold'.
Malatiyah, which the Greeks called Melitene, was in early days
one of the most important fortresses of the Moslem frontier
against the Byzantines. Balādhuri States that its garrison held the
bridge, three miles distant from the fort, where the high road crossed
the Kubäkib river near its junction with the Euphrates. The
Kubăkib is the river known to the Greeks as the Melas, and called
by the Turks at the present time the Tukhmah Sū, and it rises far
to the west of Malatiyah in the mountains from which the Jayhän,
the ancient Pyramus, flows south-west (as will be noticed in the
next chapter) to the Mediterranean in the Bay of Alexandretta.
Except for the Arsanās the river Kubăkib is by far the most
important of the many affluents of the upper Euphrates, and the
Kubăkib itself has many tributaries that are duly named by Ibn
Serapion. The city of Malatiyah was rebuilt by order of the
Caliph Manşūr in 139 (756), who provided it with a fine mosque,
and he garrisoned it with 4ooo men. Istakhri describes it in the
4th (Ioth) century as a large town surrounded by hills on which
grew vines, almonds, and nut-trees, for its lands produced the crops
of both the hot and the cold regions. It was more than once taken
by the Byzantines and retaken by the Moslems, and Yākūt in the
7th (13th) century counts it as of the Greek country. Mustawfi in
the next century speaks of Malatiyah as a fine town with a strong
fortress. Its pasture lands were famous, corn, Cotton, and abundant
fruit being grown in the neighbourhood. On a mountain peak near
Malatiyah was the convent called Dayr Barşūmā, which Kazwīnī
describes as greatly venerated by the Christians, and as inhabited
by many monks.
The fortress of Tarandah, the modern Darandah—under which
form it is mentioned in the /a/han Mumá—lay on the upper waters
of the Kubăkib, three marches above Malatiyah. A Moslem
garrison was placed here, to hold the pass, as early as the year
83 (702), but the post was subsequently abandoned in Ioo (719)
by order of the Caliph “Omar II. In the Byzantine chronicles
* I. S. 1 1, 31. Kud. 254. Mas. viii. 74. Zanóżh 151, 183. Yak. i. 87.
Ibn Bibi, 210, 318. Mst. 162. J. N. 624. Cf. also /. A. A. S. 1895, p. 740,
and the corrections given in J. R. A. S. 1896, p. 733.
VIII] THE UPPER EUPHRATES. I 2 I
this place is frequently mentioned as Taranta, and in the 3rd
(9th) century it was one of the strongest of the Paulician
fortresses'.
The river Kubăkib had an important tributary, the Nahr
Karākīs, which joined it from the south, and on the upper waters
of the Karākīs stood the great fortress of Zibatrah, which the
Byzantines called Sozopetra or Zapetra, the ruins of which are
probably those of Virān Shahr, some leagues to the south of
Malatiyah on the river Sultân Sü, the modern name of the Karākīs.
Baládhuri and Istakhri both speak of Zibatrah as a great fortress
on the Greek frontier, many times dismantled by the Byzantines
and rebuilt by the Caliph Manşūr and later by Mamūn. Yākūt and
other authorities couple together the names of Zibatrah and the
fortress Al-Hadath, which will be noticed presently. In the Arab
and Byzantine chronicles Zibatrah or Sozopetra is famous for its
capture by the Emperor Theophilus, and again for its recapture by
the Caliph Mu'tasim in his great expedition against ‘Amūrīyah,
which will be mentioned in the next chapter. Zibatrah long
continued a place of importance, but Abu-l-Fidā who visited it in
the year 715 (1315) describes the fortress as then a ruin. The
line of the old walls could at this time barely be traced, and its
fields were completely wasted, so that Abu-l-Fidá found excellent
hunting in the oak woods near the formerly well-cultivated lands,
the hares here being, he says, of a size not met with elsewhere.
He describes the place as two marches south of Malatiyah and
the same distance from Hisn Manşūr, which will be noticed
below”.
The fortress of Al-Hadath, the Byzantine Adata, was taken by
the Moslems in the reign of the Caliph “Omar, and is frequently
mentioned in the chronicles. The word Hadaſh in Arabic means
* I. S. Io, 12, 13. Baladhuri, 185, 187. Ist. 62. I. H. 120. Yak. iv. 26,
633. Mst. 163. Kaz. ii. 356. J. N. 624. The modern town of Malatiyah
lies two leagues distant to the south of the medieval fortress. The ruins of the
old town are at Eski-Shahr, a league from the ancient bridge, called Kirkgoz,
crossing the Tukhmah Sā immediately above its junction with the Euphrates.
* I. S. 13. Baladhuri, 191. Ist. 63. Yak. ii. 914. A. F. 234. The
identification of the sites of Zibatrah and Hadath are discussed by Mr J. G. C.
Anderson in the Classical Keview for April, 1896, in his paper on Zhe Cam-
paign of Basil Z against the Paulicians in 872 A.D.
I 2.2 THE UPPER EUPHRATES. [CHAP.
‘news,’ and more especially ‘bad news,’ and Balādhuri says that
the road thither, of old called Darb-al-Hadath, ‘the Road of Bad
News,’ was changed to Darb-as-Salāmah, “the Road of Safety,’
after the capture of the fortress by the Moslems. Darb-as-Salāmah,
however, as will be mentioned in the following chapter, is more
generally the name given to the Constantinople road, going by
the Cilician Gates. There was a mosque at Hadath, and the
town was rebuilt by the Caliph Mahdi in 162 (779), and again
restored by Hārūn-ar-Rashid, who kept a garrison here of 2000
men. Istakhri mentions its fertile lands, and relates how this
frontier fortress had been taken and retaken many times alter-
nately by Byzantines and Moslems. According to Yākūt and
others Al-Hadath was called Al-Hamrå, ‘the Red,” because of the
colour of the ground thereabout, and the castle stood on a hill
called Al-Ubaydab, “the Little Hump-back.” In 343 (954), after
many vicissitudes, it was finally taken from the Greeks and rebuilt
by Sayf-ad-Dawlah the Hamdānid, and in 545 (II.50) it passed
into the hands of Mas‘ūd, son of Kilij Arslān the Saljúk.
The river near which Hadath stood was called the Júrith or
Húrith; this Ibn Serapion, in error, gives as an affluent of the
Kubăkib (the Malatiyah river), but Yākūt, who writes the name
Húrith, rightly says that it was a tributary of the Nahr Jayhän,
the Pyramus. Ibn Serapion records that the source of the
Hadath river was at a spring called ‘Ayn Zanithā, and that before
passing Hadath it ran through a series of small lakes; further,
that the Júrith river (as he writes the name) was joined by the
river Al-‘Arjān, whose sources were in the Jabal-ar-Rish, the town of
Hadath being supplied by water-channels from the ‘Arjān river,
to which they again returned. To supplement this Abu-l-Fidā
states that Hadath lay twelve miles distant from a place on the
main stream of the Jayhān where that river was crossed at ‘the
Ford of the Alid.’ The exact site of Hadath has not been
identified, but there is little doubt that it protected the pass going
from Marash (Germanicia) to Al-Bustān (Arabissus), and that it
lay on the banks of the present Åk Sū, near Inikli, the Åk Sū
being in fact one of the head-waters of the Jayhān'.
* Baladhuri, 189—191. I. S. 14. Ist. 62. I. H. 120. Yak. ii. 218;
iv. 838. A. F. 263.
VIII] THE UPPER EU PHRATES. I 23
Each of the two fortresses of Hisn Manşūr and Bahasná (which
exist to the present day) lies on its own river, and both these are
right-bank affluents of the Euphrates, joining it successively below
Sumaysät. Hisn Manşūr, in modern days more often called
Adiamān, was by the Byzantines called Perrhe. It took its
name from its builder, Manşūr of the tribe of Kays, who was
commander of this frontier station during the reign of the last
Omayyad Caliph, Marwān II, having been killed in 141 (758).
Hisn Manşūr was re-fortified by Hārūn-ar-Rashīd during the
Caliphate of his father Mahdi, and it is described by Ibn Hawkal
as a small town with a Friday Mosque. Its fields were well
irrigated, but Ibn Hawkal writes that the fate of this place, like
other frontier fortresses, was to be ravaged and dismantled alter-
nately by the Byzantines and the Moslems. Yākūt adds that
the town had a wall with three gates and a ditch outside ; and
that in its midst stood the fortress defended by a double wall.
When Abu-l-Fidá wrote in the 8th (14th) century Hisn Manşūr
was a ruin, though the fields round it were still cultivated.
The Nahr-al-Azrak (the Blue River) passed down to the
north-west of Hisn Manşūr, this fortress occupying the table-
lands above the Euphrates, which flowed along their southern
border. The fortress of Bahasná, which the crusading chronicles
call Behesdin, lies to the west of Hisn Manşūr, and its dis-
trict was called Kaysúm. Bahasná stood on a hill-top, and
had a Friday Mosque in the town below, where there were
excellent markets, the surrounding country being very fertile.
Yākút speaks of it as an impregnable castle. The neighbouring
Sanjah river, which appears to be that which the Greeks called
Singas, had on its banks the small town of Sanjah, near which the
stream was crossed by a celebrated bridge, built of dressed stone,
with well-set arches of beautiful workmanship. This bridge, the
Kantarah Sanjah, was one of the wonders of the world according
to Ibn Hawkal. Yākūt, who speaks of the Sanjah and the
Kaysúm rivers, reporting both as affluents of the Euphrates,
describes this great bridge as being of a single arch, going from
bank to bank, and over 200 paces in span. It was built, he adds,
of huge well-dressed blocks of stone, each block being ten ells
I 24 THE UPPER EU PHRATES. [CHAP.
long and five high, the width not being shown, and it had been
Constructed, he affirms, by aid of a talisman'.
In the matter of trade, the province of Jazirah or Upper
Mesopotamia produced little. Mukaddasi gives us a list and the
items are chiefly the natural products of the land. Mosul, the
capital, exported grain, honey, charcoal, cheese, butter, the sumach
fruit and pomegranate pips, manna, salted meat, and the tirrikh
fish ; also iron, and for artificers’ work knives, arrows, chains,
and goblets. The district of Sinjär produced almonds, pome-
granates, Sumach fruit, and sugar-cane; Nasībīn, walnuts;
Rakkah, Olive oil, soap, and reeds for pens. Rahbah was famous
for its quinces; Harrān for its honey and the preserve called
Kubbayt ; Jazirah Ibn ‘Omar for nuts, almonds, and butter, also
excellent horses were reared on its pastures. Hasaniyah on the
Little Khābūr (on the east bank of the Tigris) produced cheese,
partridges, fowls, and fruit preserve; the neighbouring Ma'alatháyā,
charcoal, grapes and other fresh fruits, salted meat, hemp seed
and hemp stuffs; and finally Amid in Diyār Bakr was famous for
its woollen and linen fabrics”.
The high roads of Upper Mesopotamia are in continuation
* Baladhuri, 192. Ist. 62. I. H. 12o. Yak. i. 770; ii. 278; iii. 162, 860.
A. F. 265, 269. The Sanjah bridge is always given as one of the four wonders
of the world—the other three are the church at Edessa already mentioned, the
Pharos at Alexandria, and the Great Mosque at Damascus (Yak. ii. 591). It is
curious that Mukaddasi on two occasions confounds this bridge over the Sanjah,
which last by all accounts was a right-bank affluent of the Euphrates joining it
near Sumaysät, with the no less remarkable bridge at Al-Hasaniyah, which
was built over the Lesser Khābār, an affluent of the Tigris (Muk. 139, 147,
and see above, p. 93). The stream now known as the Bolam Sã which, after
being joined by the Kākhtah Chay, falls into the Euphrates from the north
a short distance above Sumaysät, is apparently the Nahr Sanjah of the Arab
geographers; and the great bridge, so famous as one of the wonders of the
world, still exists. It was built by Vespasian, and by a single arch of 1 12 feet
span crosses the Bolam Sù just above the junction of the Kākhtah Chay. It is
described as ‘one of the most splendid monuments of the Roman period in
existence,’ and an illustration of it will be found in the Geographical Journal
for October, 1896, p. 323; also, with more detail, in Humann and Puchstein,
A'eisenz in A7eimasien, plates 41, 42, and 43.
* Muk. I45, 146.
VIII] THE UPPER EU PHRATES. I25
of those of ‘Irāk. The post-road from Baghdād to Mosul, going
up the eastern bank of the Tigris, entered the Jazirah province at
Takrit; it continued on the left bank of the river, going straight
to Jabultà, whence by way of Sinn and Hadithah Mosul was
reached. This road is given by our earlier Arab authorities
and by Mustawfi'.
From Mosul the post-road, changing to the right or western
bank of the Tigris, went up to Balad, where it bifurcated, the left
road going by Sinjär to Karkisiyā. On the Euphrates, the right
through Nasibin to Kafartúthã, where again it bifurcated, the right
leading to Amid, the left by Ras-al-‘Ayn down to Rakkah on the
Euphrates. This main road from Mosul to Amid is given by Ibn
Khurdādbih and Kudámah, also—but in marches—by Mukaddasi ;
and the same authorities give the cross roads to the Euphrates.
Mukaddasi also gives the marches from Mosul straight to Jazirah
Ibn 'Omar by Hasaniyah, and he mentions the road from Amid
by Arzan to Badlis near Lake Vän". -
The post-road up the Euphrates kept along its right or western
bank, from Alūsah passing ‘Ānah to the river harbour of Al-Furdah.
Here it bifurcated, one road running beside the Euphrates up to
Fāsh opposite Karkisiyā, and thence still along the western side of
the river to Rakkah ; while the left road of the bifurcation at
Furdah went straight across the desert through Rusāfah to
Rakkah, thus avoiding the windings of the Euphrates. Rusāfah,
further, was an important station, for here two roads went off to
the west across the Syrian desert, namely to Damascus and to
Hims (Emessa). At Karkisiyā and Rakkah, as already said,
branch roads came in, one from Mosul vić Sinjär, the other from
Nasībīn wiá Räs-al-‘Ayn and Bajarwān; while from Rakkah by
Bajarwān a road went through Harrān and Ruhā (Edessa) to
Ämid.
Lastly from Rakkah, vić Sarāj, the direct road, avoiding the
great bend of the Euphrates, reached Sumaysät ; whence the
various distances to Hisn Manşūr, Malatiyah, Kamkh and the
other fortresses are mentioned in round numbers. Unfortunately,
* I. K. 93. Kud. 214. Muk. I 35, 148, 149. Mst. I95.
* I. K. 95, 96. Kud. 214, 215, 216. Muk. 149, 150.
I 26 THE UPPER EUPHRATES. [CHAP. VIII
however, these last distances are not given with sufficient exact-
ness to be of much use in fixing the positions of Hadath
and Zibatrah, about which there is some question, though
Mukaddasi often adds some useful indications even as regards
these outlying frontier forts".
* I. K. 96, 97, 98. Kud. 215, 216, 217. Muk. I49, 150.
KUSTAN-TINIYAH.
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CHAPTER IX.
RÚM OR ASIA MINOR.
Bilād-ar-Rûm or the Greek country. The line of fortresses from Malatiyah
to Tarsūs. The two chief passes across the Taurus. The Constantinople
high road by the Cilician Gates. Trebizond. Three sieges of Constantinople.
Moslem raids into Asia Minor. The sack of Amorion by Mu‘tasim.
Invasion of Asia Minor by the Saljúks. The kingdom of Little Armenia.
The Crusaders. The chief towns of the Saljúk Sultanate of Rûm.
The provinces of the Byzantine empire were known collectively
to the Moslems as Bilād-ar-Rûm, ‘the Lands of the Greeks’;
the term ‘Rúm’ standing for the Romaioi or Romans, being in
early Moslem times the equivalent for ‘Christian,’ whether Greek
or Latin. The Mediterranean too, was generally known as the
Bahr-ar-Rûm, ‘the Roman Sea.” Then Bilād-ar-Rûm, abbreviated
to Rùm, in course of time came more especially to be the name of
the Christian provinces nearest to the Moslem frontier, and hence
became the usual Arab name for Asia Minor, which great province
at the close of the 5th (11th) century finally passed under the rule
of Islam when it was overrun by the Saljúks.
Unfortunately, for lack of contemporary authorities, we are
extremely ill-informed concerning the details of the history and
historical geography of Asia Minor during the middle-ages—
whether under Christian or Moslem rule". The earlier Arab
* The Historical Geography of Asia Minor by Professor W. M. Ramsay
(referred to as H. G. A. M.) contains an admirable summary of all that is at
present known on the subject, and is indispensable to any one who wishes to
gain a clear understanding of this knotty problem. The present chapter owes
far more to this work than appears from the citations in the notes, and reference
I 28 RÚM OR ASIA MINOR. [CHAP.
geographers not unnaturally knew little of the country that was in
their day a province of the Roman empire, and after it had come
under the rule of the Saljúk Turks our Moslem authorities unfor-
tunately almost entirely neglect this outlying province of Islam.
No systematic description of it, such as we possess of the other
provinces, therefore has come down to us, and the first com-
plete account of Moslem Asia Minor is that written by Hājji
Khalſah, which only dates from the beginning of the 11th (17th)
century, when for nearly two hundred years this province had
formed part of the Ottoman empire'.
Under the Omayyads, as under the Abbasid Caliphs down to
rather more than a century and a half before the final overthrow
of their dynasty by the Mongols, the frontier line between the
Moslems and the Byzantines was formed by the great ranges
of the Taurus and Anti-Taurus. Here a long line of fortresses
(called Ath-Thughſir in Arabic), stretching from Malatiyah on the
upper Euphrates to Tarsus near the sea-coast of the Mediterranean,
served to mark and guard the frontier; these, turn and turn about,
being taken and retaken by Byzantines and Moslems as the tide
of war ebbed or flowed. This line of fortresses was commonly
divided into two groups—those guarding Mesopotamia (Thughſr-
al-Jazirah) to the north-east, and those guarding Syria (Thughſur-
ash-Shām) to the south-west. Of the former were Malatiyah,
Zibatrah, Hisn Manşūr, Bahasná, Al-Hadath, which have been
already described in the previous chapter, next Marash, Al-
Hārūnīyah, Al-Kanisah and ‘Ayn Zarbah. Of the latter group
lying near the northern coast-line of the bay of Iskandariyah
(Alexandretta), and protecting Syria, were Al-Massísah, Adhanah,
and Tarsūs.
Marash, the Byzantine Marasion, and it is said occupying the
site of Germanicia, was rebuilt by the Caliph Mu‘āwiyah in the
1st (7th) century; under the later Omayyads it was strongly
must be made to Professor Ramsay’s important papers in the Geographical
Journal for September, 1902, p. 257, and October, 1903, p. 357.
* In the eastern part of the Mediterranean the islands of Cyprus (Kubrus)
and Rhodes (Rūdis) were both well known to the Arabs, the first having
been raided by the Moslems as early as the year 28 (648) under the leadership
of Mu‘āwiyah, afterwards Caliph. No geographical details, however, are given.
Baladhuri, 153, 236. Yak. ii. 832; iv. 29.
IX.] RÚM OR ASIA MINOR. I 29
fortified, and a large Moslem population settled here, for whose
use a Friday Mosque was built. It was re-fortified by Hārān-ar-
Rashid with double walls and a ditch. Its inner castle, according
to Yākūt, was known as Al-Marwāni, being so called after
Marwān II, the last Omayyad Caliph. In 490 (1097) Marash
was captured by the Crusaders under Godfrey de Bouillon, and
subsequently became an important town of Little Armenia (to be
described later), remaining for the most part in Christian hands
till the fall of that kingdom. The fortress of ‘Ayn Zarbah, which
the Crusaders knew as Anazarbus, still exists. It was rebuilt and
well fortified by Hārān-ar-Rashid in 180 (796), and the place
is described by Istakhri as lying in a plain where palm-trees
grew, the surrounding lands being very fertile, while the city had
fine walls and its prosperity in the 4th (Ioth) century was con-
siderable. About the middle of this century Sayf-ad-Dawlah the
Hamdānid prince spent, it is said, three million dirhams (about
24, 120,000) on its fortification, but it was taken more than once
by the Greeks from the Moslems. Then at the close of the
next century the Crusaders captured it and left it a ruin ;
afterwards it formed part of the dominions of the king of Little
Armenia. Abu-l-Fidā describes the town as lying at the base of
a hill crowned by a strong castle, it being one day's march
south of Sis, and south of it, he adds, flowed the Jayhān river.
The name ‘Ayn Zarbah had in the 8th (14th) Century become
corrupted into Nāwarzā.
The exact positions of Al-Hārāniyah and Al-Kanisah are
unknown, but they lay in the hill country between Marash and
‘Ayn Zarbah. Hārūnīyah, which was one march to the west of
Marash and considered as its outlying bulwark, took its name
from its founder Hârân-ar-Rashīd who built it in 183 (799). The
fortress lay in a valley to the west of the Lukkâm mountains, a
name by which the Moslem geographers roughly indicate the chain
of the Anti-Taurus. Ibn Hawkal appears to have visited it, for
he says the hamlet was populous and the fort had been strongly
built, but had been ruined by the Byzantines. This was in 348
(959), when, according to Yākūt, one thousand five hundred
Moslems, men and women, were taken captive. Subsequently
Hārūnīyah was rebuilt by Sayf-ad-Dawlah the Hamdānid, but
LE S. 9
I3O RÚM OR ASIA MINOR. [CHAP.
again the Christians took it, after which it remained a possession
of the king of Little Armenia. Kanisah, the full name being
Kanisah-as-Sawdā, ‘the Black Church,’ was a very ancient
fortress built of black stones, and by the Greeks, says Balādhuri,
who adds that Hārūn-ar-Rashid had it strongly fortified and well
garrisoned. It possessed a Friday Mosque and apparently lay to
the south of the Jayhān, for Istakhri describes it as “at some
distance from the sea-shore.’ Abu-l-Fidá adds that it was only
12 miles from Hârâniyah; being in his day included like the
latter place in the kingdom of Little Armenia.
Another fortress of this neighbourhood was that known to the
Arabs under the name of Al-Muthakkab, “the Pierced’; so called,
according to Yākūt, ‘because it stands among the mountains, all
of which are pierced as though with great openings.’ Its exact
site appears to be unknown, but it stood not far from Al-Kanisah,
being at the foot of the Lukkâm mountains, near the sea-shore,
and in the vicinity of Massisah. The fortress was built by the
Omayyad Caliph Hisham ; others say by ‘Omar II; and a Kurán,
written by the hand of “Omar II, the most pious of the Omayyad
Caliphs, was according to Ibn Hawkal preserved here. Further,
Baládhuri states that when the engineers first came to dig the
ditch at . Hisn-al-Muthakkab, they found buried in the earth a
human leg, but of such monstrous size that it was considered a
portent, and it was forthwith despatched to the Caliph Hisham as
a unique gift".
The three cities of Al-Massisah (Mopsuestia), Adhanah (Adana)
and Tarsūs (Tarsus), all of Greek foundation, still exist. Al-
Massisah lies on the Nahr Jayhān (the river Pyramus). It was
conquered by ‘Abd-Allah, son of the Omayyad Caliph ‘Abd-al-
Malik, in the 1st (7th) century, who rebuilt its fortifications and
established a strong garrison here. A mosque was erected on the
summit of the hill, and the church in the fortress was turned into
a granary. A suburb or second town was built shortly afterwards
on the other bank of the Jayhān, Called Kafarbayyā, where the
Caliph 'Omar II founded a second mosque and dug a great cistern.
A third quarter, lying to the east of the Jayhān, was built by the
* Ist. 55, 63. I. H. Io9, 12 I. Baladhuri, 166, 171, 188. Mas. i. 26;
viii. 295. Yak, i. 927; iii. 761 ; iv. 314, 498, 945. A. F. 235, 251.
IX.] RÚM OR ASIA MINOR. I 3 I
last Omayyad Caliph Marwān II, and named Al-Khusts; he
Surrounded it by a wall with a ditch, and wooden doors closed its
gateways. Under the Abbasids the Caliph Manşūr turned an
ancient temple into a Friday Mosque, making it thrice as large as
the older mosque of “Omar II. Hârân-ar-Rashid rebuilt Kafar-
bayyā, and its mosque was further enlarged by Mamūn. The two
Quarters of Kafarbayyā and Massisah proper were connected by a
Stone bridge across the Jayhān; the town bore the title of Al-
Ma‘mūrīyah, “the Populous,” or ‘Well-built,” said to have been
bestowed upon it by the Caliph Manşūr, who restored Massísah
after it had been partially destroyed by earthquake in 139 (756).
At a later date Massísah, like its neighbours, passed into the
possession of the kings of Little Armenia.
The adjacent city of Adhanah lay on the Nahr Sayhān (the
river Sarus), and on the road thither from Massísah was the
great bridge which dated from the time of Justinian, but was
restored in the year 125 (743) and called Jisr-al-Walid after the
Omayyad Caliph Walid. This bridge was again restored in 225
(840) by the Abbasid Caliph Mu'tasim. Adhanah had been in
part rebuilt in 141 (758) by Manşūr, and Istakhri describes it as
a very pleasant city, lying to the west of the Sayhān, well fortified
and populous. The fortress was on the eastern bank of the river,
and was connected with the town by a bridge of a single arch,
according to Yākūt, and Adhanah itself was defended by a wall
with eight gates and a deep ditch beyond it.
The rivers Sarus and Pyramus were known to the Moslems
respectively as the Nahr Sayhān and the Nahr Jayhän. In early
days they were the frontier rivers of the lands of Islam towards
the Greek Country. As such on the analogy, or in imitation,
of the more famous Oxus and Jaxartes of Central Asia, which
latter were called the Jayhān and the Sayhān by the Arab
geographers, as will be more fully explained later, the rivers
Pyramus and Sarus were named the Jayhān and Sayhän. Both
had their sources in the highlands lying to the north of
Little Armenia, and the Jayhän—which Abu-l-Fidà compares for
size to the Euphrates, adding that in his day the name was
commonly pronounced Jahān—after passing Massisah flowed out
to the Mediterranean in the Bay of Ayās to the north of the port
9–2
I 32 RÚM OR ASIA MINOR. [CHAP.
of Al-Mallūn (Mallus, later Malo). The Sayhān was of lesser size,
and Adhanah was the only important town on its banks. It was
however famous for the great bridge, already mentioned, and both
the Jayhān and Sayhān, as reported by Mas‘ūdī, were held to have
been of the rivers of Paradise".
The most important, however, of all the frontier fortresses was
Tarsūs (Tarsus), where a great army of both horse and foot was
kept in early times, for Tarsus commanded the southern entrance
of the celebrated pass across the Taurus known as the Cilician
Gates. Ibn Hawkal states that Tarsus was surrounded by a
double Stone wall, and garrisoned by Ioo, ooo horse-soldiers;
he adds, ‘between this city and the Greek lands rises a high
mountain range, an Offshoot of the Jabal-al-Lukkâm, which stands
as a barrier between the two worlds of Islam and Christendom.’
Ibn Hawkal explains that the great garrison he saw here in 367
(978) was made up for the most part of volunteers coming from
all the provinces of Islam to aid in fighting against the Byzantines,
‘and the reason thereof,’ he adds, ‘is this, that from all the great
towns within the borders of Persia and Mesopotamia, and Arabia,
Syria, Egypt, and Marocco, there is no city but has in Tarsus a
hostelry (Dár) for its townsmen, where the warriors for the Faith
(Ghāzī) from each particular country live. And when they have
once reached Tarsus they settle there and remain to serve in the
garrison; among them prayer and worship are most diligently
performed ; from all hands funds are sent to them, and they
receive alms rich and plentiful, also there is hardly a Sultan who
does not send hither some auxiliary troops.’
Already under the earlier Abbasid Caliphs, namely Mahdi and
Hārūn-ar-Rashid, Tarsus had been carefully re-fortified and well
* Baladhuri, 165, 166, 168. Ist. 63, 64. I. H. 122. Mas. ii. 356; viii.
295. Yak, i. 179; ii. 82 ; iv. 558, 579. A. F. 50. The names of both rivers
are occasionally, but incorrectly, written Sayhān and Jayhān, like their Central
Asian prototypes. In the matter of the ancient mouth of the Sarus, it is worth
noting that Ibn Serapion (MS. ſolio 44 a) states that in his day, at the beginning
of the 4th (roth) century, the Sayhän (Sarus) flowed into the Jayhān (Pyramus)
five leagues above Maššišah, having but one mouth to the sea with the Jayhän.
At the present day the Sayhān has its separate mouth to the westward near
Marsinah, but the old bed may still be traced. See the Geographical Journal
for Oct. 1903, p. 4 Io.
IX.] RÚM OR ASIA MINOR. I 33
garrisoned at first with 8ooo troops; and from the celebrated
Bāb-al-Jihād, ‘the Gate of the Holy War,’ the yearly expeditions
against the Christians were wont to set forth. The Caliph Mamūn,
who had died at the neighbouring Badhandún (Podandos), was
buried at Tarsus, on the left-hand side of the great Friday Mosque.
Through the city ran the Nahr-al-Baradān (the river Cydnus);
the double walls of the town were pierced by six gates, and
Outside was a deep ditch. Tarsus, Yākūt adds, remained the
frontier city of Islam until the year 354 (965), when the Emperor
Nikfür, Nicephorus Phocas, having conquered many of the
frontier fortresses, laid siege to Tarsus and took it by capitulation.
Among the Moslems, those who could left the city; those who
remained were forced to pay the capitation tax. The mosques
were all destroyed ‘and Nikfür burnt all the Kurāns, further he
took all the arms away from the arsenals, and Tarsūs with all the
Country round has remained in the hands of the Christians to this
day of the year 623 (1226).’
The ancient Cydnus river, as already said, was generally
known as the Nahr-al-Baradān or Baradá, and Ibn-al-Fakih states
it was also called the river Al-Ghadbán. It rose in the hill
country to the north of Tarsus in a mountain known as Al-Akra',
‘the Bald,’ and flowed into the Mediterranean not far from the
later mouth of the Sayhän. To the westward, one march from
Tarsus, the frontier in early times was marked by the river Lamos,
which the Arabs called the Nahr-al-Lamis, and here the ransoming
of Moslem and Christian captives periodically took place. Beyond
this was the Greek town of Salākiyah (Seleucia of Cilicia) which
in later times, under the Turks, came to be known as Selefkeh'.
The line of the Taurus was traversed by many passes, but two
more especially were used by the Moslems in their annual raids
into the Byzantine country. The first, to the north-east, was the
Darb-al-Hadath which led from Marash north to Abulustān, a town
in later times known as Al-Bustān (Byzantine Ablastha and the
Greek Arabissus), this pass being defended by the great fortress
of Hadath (Adata) already noticed in the last chapter. The
* I. H. 122. I. F. 1 16. Baladhuri, 169. Mas. i. 264; vii. 2; viii. 72.
Yak. i. 553, 558; iii. 526. Tabari, iii. 1237. In Ibn-al-Athir (vi. 34o) the
name of the Lamos river is incorrectly printed as Nahr-as-Sinn.
I 34 RÚM OR ASIA MINOR. [CHAP.
second, and most frequently used pass in early times was that of
the Cilician Gates, leading north from Tarsus, and through this
went the high road to Constantinople. This road, which was
traversed by the post-couriers, and periodically by the embassies
passing between the Caesar and the Caliph, in addition to being
followed more or less exactly in innumerable raiding expeditions
whether of the Möslems or the Christians, is carefully described
by Ibn Khurdādbih writing in 250 (864), and his account has
been copied by many later writers. It was known in its southern
part as the Darb-as-Salāmah, ‘the Pass of Safety,’ and threaded the
Pylae Cilicia—the celebrated Cilician Gates.
The account is as follows. Many of the places of course Cannot
now be exactly identified, but the names are added where possible
in brackets. Ibn Khurdādbih writes:–From Tarsūs it is six miles to
Al-‘Ullayk and thence 12 to Ar-Rahwah (‘the Water-meadow,’ pro-
bably the ancient Mopsukrene) and Al-Jawzāt, then seven miles on
to Al-Jardakāb, and again seven to Al-Badhandān (Podandos, the
modern Bozanti), where is the spring called Rākah near which the
Caliph Mamūn died. And then on from Badhandún it is Io miles
to the (northern) end of the pass (of the Cilician Gates) at Luluah
(Loulon) of Mu‘askar-al-Malik, ‘the King's Camp, near the hot
springs, and here is As-Safsäf, ‘the Willows ' (near Faustinopolis),
also Hisn-as-Sakālibah, “the Fortress of the Sclavonians.’ From
the King's Camp (where the Pylae Ciliciae end) it is 12 miles
to the Wādī-at-Tarfă, ‘the Tamarisk Valley,’ thence 20 to Miná,
thence 12 to the river of Hiraklah (later Aräkliyah, the Greek
Heraclia), the town which Hārūn-ar-Rashid took by storm. From
Hiraklah it is eight miles to the city of Al-Libn, thence 15 to
Räs-al-Ghābah, ‘the Beginning of the Forest,’ thence 16 to
Al-Maskanin, thence 12 to ‘Ayn Burghúth, ‘the Spring of Bugs,’
thence 18 to Nahr-al-Ahsâ, ‘the Underground River,’ and thence
18 miles on to the suburb of Kúniyah (Iconium). From Köniyah
it is 15 miles to Al-‘Alamayn, “the Double Sign-posts,’ thence 20
to Abrumasānah, thence 1 2 to Wädi-al-Jawz, ‘Nut River,’ and
12 miles on to ‘Ammāriyah (Amorion). But there is another
route also going from Al-‘Alamayn, ‘the Double Sign-posts’ afore-
said, to ‘Ammāriyah ; namely from Al-‘Alamayn I 5 miles to the
villages of Nasr the Cretan, thence Io to the head of the lake of
IX.] RÚM OR ASIA MINOR. I 35
Al-Básiliyún (lake of the Forty Martyrs), thence 10 to As-Sind,
thence 18 to Hisn Sinādah (the fortress of Synades), thence 25 to
Maghl, and then 30 miles on to the forest at ‘Ammāriyah.
From ‘Ammāriyah (Amorion) it is 15 miles to the villages of
Al-Harrāb, and two on to the river Sāghari (the Sangarius) of
‘Ammāriyah ; thence 12 to Al-‘Ilj, ‘the Barbarian,’ and thence
15 to Falāmi-al-Ghābah, “Falāmi of the Forest,’ then 12 to
Hisn-al-Yahūd, ‘the Jews' Fortress,’ and 18 miles on to Sandăbari
(Santabaris), 35 miles beyond which lies the Meadow of the
King's Asses at Darawliyah (Dorylaeum). From Darawliyah it
is 15 miles to the fortress of Gharúbuli, and three on to Kanāis-
al-Malik, ‘the King's Churches” (the Basilica of Anna Comnena),
then 25 miles to At-Tulál, ‘the Hills,’ and 15 to Al-Akwár,
whence in 15 miles you reach Malajinah (Malagina). From here
it is five miles to Istabl-al-Malik, ‘the King's Stables,’ and 30 on to
Hisn-al-Ghabrá, ‘the Dusty Fortress' (namely Kibotos, whence the
ferry goes over to Aigialos), and thence it is 24 miles on to
Al-Khalij, ‘the Strait” (which is the Bosporus of Constantinople).
And over against (namely south of) the fortress of Al-Ghabrá is
Nikiyah (Nicaea). This ends the account in Ibn Khurdādbih of
the Constantinople road'. -
Off the line of the great high road to Constantinople, the
earlier Arab writers had but very incorrect notions of the
geography of Asia Minor;-as is shown, for instance, by the
confusion which Ibn Hawkal makes between the two very distinct
rivers Alis and Săghirah, the Halys and Sangarius. The names
of a number of Greek towns appear, in an Arabicized form, in the
* I. K. Too-Ioz, 1 Io, 13. Some other variants of this route are given
by Ibn Khurdādbih (pp. 102 and 103), for which the distances have been added
by Idrisi (Jaubert, ii. 308, 309), and compare especially Ramsay, H. G. A. M.
pp. 236 and 445. Professor Ramsay (see Geographical /ournal for Oct. 1903,
p. 383) has identified the famous fortress of the Sclavonians (Hisn-as-Sakālibah)
with the ruins of the Byzantine fortress, built of black marble, and now known
as Amasha-Kal‘ahsi, which is perched high on the mountain overlooking, from
the south, the vale of Bozanti (Badhandām, Podandos). The Byzantine castle
of Loulon, which the Arabs called Luluah, “the Pearl,” he has also identified
(loc. cit. pp. 401 and 404, where a photograph of the place is given). It lay to
the north, above As-Saſsäf, ‘the Willows,” which marked the settlement in the
valley below, where the Greek town of Faustinopolis had stood.
I 36 RÚM OR ASIA MINOR. [CHAP.
earlier chronicles, and these names for the most part recur, but in
an altered form after the Turkish conquest; the Arab authors,
however, have unfortunately left no descriptions of these towns.
Their identity is not disputed, and we have, to name but a few,
At-Tawānah (Tyana), Dabásah (Thebasa), Malakūbiyah (Mala-
Copia), Hiraklah (Heraclia), Lādhik (Laodicea), Kaysariyah
(Caesarea Mazaka, of Cappadocia), Antákiyah (Antioch of
Pisidia), Kutiyah (Cotyaeum), Ankurah (Angora), Afsús (Ephesus),
Abidūs (Abydos) and Nikmúdiyah (Nicomedia), with some others.
Trebizond, written Tarābazandah or Atrabazandah, according
to Ibn Hawkal, was the chief port by which goods from Con-
stantinople, in early Abbasid times, were brought for sale to
Moslems. Arab merchants or their agents took the goods thence
across the mountains to Malatiyah and other towns on the upper
Euphrates. The carrying trade was in the hands of Armenians,
according to Ibn Hawkal, but many Moslem merchants, he adds,
resided permanently at Trebizond. Greek linen and woollen
stuffs are more especially mentioned and Roman brocades, all of
which were brought by sea from the Khalij or Bosporus. The
fame and importance of Trebizond at this time is also proved
by the Black Sea being then commonly known as the Sea of
Trebizond (Bahr Tarābazandah). Its official name, however,
was the Bahr Buntus or Puntush, the Greek Pontos, which by a
clerical error (from the misplacing of the diacritical points of the
Arabic character) had from a very early time been incorrectly
written and pronounced Nitus or Nitush, under which form the
name is still often quoted by Persian and Turkish writers, and the
mistake is now become so stereotyped as to be beyond recall'.
Although so little topographical information is recorded in the
Arab writers about the towns of Asia Minor previous to the
Saljúk conquest in the latter half of the 5th (11th) century, the
Moslems must have had ample practical acquaintance with much
of the country; for almost yearly, and often twice a year in spring
and autumn, under the Omayyads and the earlier Abbasids, raids
I. H. 129, 132, 245, 246. I. K. Io9. Baladhuri, 161. Tabari, iii. 709,
7 Io. A. F. 34. Yak. i. 4or, 499. Mas. i. 26o. The Black Sea is also oc-
casionally called the Bahr-al-Khazar, the Sea of the Khazars, a name more
generally applied only to the Caspian. I. K. Io9.
IX.] RÚM OR ASIA MINOR. I 37
were made across the Taurus passes into the Greek country, and
their ultimate object was ever the capture of Constantinople.
Three times, in fact, under the Omayyad Caliphs was Constanti-
nople besieged by Moslem armies, but the result was in each case
disastrous to the assailants, which is hardly to be wondered at,
seeing that the Bosporus, measuring in a direct line across the
mountainous plateau of Asia Minor, is over 450 miles from Tarsus,
the base of the Arab attack.
These three famous sieges are: the first in the year 32 (652),
under the reign of ‘Othmān, when Mu‘āwiyah the future Caliph
raided across Asia Minor and attempted to take Constantinople,
first by assault, and then by siege, which last he had to raise when
news came of the murder of the Caliph “Othmān. The events which
followed soon led to the foundation of the Omayyad dynasty.
The second siege was in 49 (669), when Mu‘āwiyah, established
as Caliph, sent his son and successor Yazid against the Emperor
Constantine IV; but the generals were incapable, the Moslem
army suffered a crushing defeat, and Yazid, succeeding to the
Caliphate on his father's death, had to return home. The third
and best known attempt against Constantinople was the great
siege lasting, off and on, for many years in the reign of the
Caliph Sulaymān, who sent his brother Maslamah in 96 (715)
against Leo the Isaurian. Of this campaign, which again
ended in a defeat for the Moslems, we have very full accounts
both from the Arab and the Greek chroniclers; and it
was in these wars that ‘Abd-Allah, surnamed Al-Battāl, ‘the
Champion,” made himself famous, who long after, among the
Turks, came to be regarded as their national hero, the invincible
warrior of Islam.
In spite of frequent defeat and disaster the raids continued,
year by year, with a brief interlude while the Abbasids were
establishing themselves in power, till more than a century after
the date when the latter, having supplanted the Omayyads, be-
came Caliphs ; and though again to besiege Constantinople was
beyond their power, they raided, sacked, and burnt again and
again throughout Asia Minor. One of the most famous of these
expeditions was that of the Caliph Mu'tasim, son of Hārūn-ar-
Rashīd, in 223 (838) against ‘Ammāriyah (Amorion), described
I 38 t RÚM OR ASIA MINOR. [CHAP.
as the most splendid city of the East, ‘the strongest fortress of
the Bilād-ar-Rûm and the very eye of the Christians,’ which
none the less was plundered and burnt to the ground by the
Caliph, who returned unmolested, laden with the spoils".
The division of Asia Minor into Themes, under the Byzantine
Emperors, has been carefully described by Ibn Khurdādbih, and
his account is of use in correcting the confused details given
by Constantine Porphyrogenitus. This however need not be
discussed here, as it belongs of right to the geography of the
Byzantine empire. Besides the towns already mentioned the
Arab writers, when recounting the Moslem expeditions across
the frontier, notice a number of places which, either from the
vagueness of the statement or the ambiguity in the name, can
now hardly be identified. Thus Marj-al-Uskuf, ‘the Bishop's
Meadow,' is frequently mentioned, which from one of the
itineraries given by Ibn Khurdādbih lay some distance west of
Podandos. Al-Matmürah”, or (in the plural) Al-Matāmir, ‘the
Cellars,” or ‘Grottos,’ also frequently occurs, and must be sought
for in the neighbourhood of Malacopia. Dhū-l-Kulá' (the Strong
Castle), otherwise spelt Dhu-l-Kilát (the Castle of the Rocks), was
a famous fortress, which Balādhuri states was called ‘the Fortress
* The long list of Moslem raids into Asia Minor, from Arab sources, has
been fully worked out and annotated by Mr E. W. Brooks in his papers ‘The
Arabs in Asia Minor, 641 to 750' (published in the /ournal of Helleſzic Studies,
vol. xvi II, 1898) and ‘Byzantines and Arabs in the Time of the early Abbasids,
750 to 813' (published part i. in the Ænglish Historical Aeview for October,
1900, and part ii. in the January number, 1901). The great siege of Constan-
tinople during the Caliphate of Sulaymān he has separately treated of in the
Journal of Hellenic Studies (vol. XIX, 1899) in a paper on ‘The Campaign of
716–718 from Arabic sources.” From the Byzantine side this famous siege
has been fully discussed by Professor J. B. Bury, Aſistory of the Later Roman
Ampire, ii. 401. The Moslems called Constantinople Al-Kustantiniyah, but
in regard to the Byzantine name, from which the modern Turkish Istambúl is
said to be derived, it is worth noting that Mas‘ūdī, in the early part of the 4th
(1 oth) century, writes (7 amó% p. 138) that the Greeks in his day spoke of their
capital as Bălin (i.e. Polin—for tróAts, ‘the city'), also as /stan-Bºlin (els Tºv
TóAuv), and he notes that they did not generally use the name Constantinople
(Al-Kustantiniyah), as did the Arabs. -
* Mazmorra in Sp. ‘a dungeon’=Scotch /l/assamora (v. 7%e Antiguary,
ch. xxxiii, note). -
Ix] RÚM OR ASIA MINOR, I 39
of the Stars' by the Greeks, which would seem to identify it with
Sideropolis in Cappadocia.
The town of Luluah (the Pearl), as the Arabs, to give the
name a meaning, called the Byzantine Loulon, stood as already
mentioned at the northern end of the pass of the Cilician Gates.
Still further north was Tyana (Tawānah or Tuwänah), which for a
time Hārūn-ar-Rashid strongly garrisoned and where a mosque
was built. The town or fortress called Safsäf, ‘the Willows,’ was
On the Constantinople road near Luluah, probably as already said
(p. 134) at the site of Faustinopolis, while immediately to the
South of Podandos was the fortress of the Sclavonians (Hisn-as-
Sakālibah) already mentioned, where according to Balādhuri
certain Sclavonians who had deserted from the Byzantines were
quartered to guard the pass by Marwān II, the last of the
Omayyad Caliphs". -
After the year 223 (838) the date of the Caliph Mu'tasim's
famous expedition against Amorion, the Moslem raids into the
Greek country became less frequent, for the recurrent disorders
at Baghdād left the Abbasid Caliphs less and less free to think of
invading the Byzantine territory. Still, from the middle of the
3rd (9th) century to the 5th (I Ith) century, many of the great
semi-independent vassals of the Caliph led Moslem armies across
the passes, and at different times the line of the frontier varied
considerably, backwards and forwards, though speaking generally
it may be stated that no land was ever permanently held by the
Moslems beyond the Taurus.
The rise, however, of the Saljúk Turks in the 5th (11th)
century, which followed the epoch of the Crusades, entirely
changed the face of affairs in Asia Minor. In the spring of the
year 463 (IoT 1) Alp Arslān the Saljúk gained the battle of
Malasjird (Manzikart), completely routing the Byzantine forces,
and taking the Emperor Romanus Diogenes prisoner. Moreover,
previously to this, in 456 (1064), Alp Arslān had taken Ani, the
capital of Christian Armenia, an event which broke up the older
* For the themes see ‘Arabic lists of the Byzantine themes; by E. W.
Brooks,’ in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. XXI, 1901. I. K. Io2, IoS.
Baladhuri, 150, 170. Tabari, iii. 7 Io, 1237. Ibn-al-Athir, vi. 341. Ramsay,
A. G. A. M. 34o, 354, 356.
I4O RÚM OR ASIA MINOR. . . [CHAP.
Armenian kingdom of the Bagratids, and led to the founding by
Rupen, their kinsman, of the kingdom of Little Armenia in the
Taurus country. The result of the battle of Malasjird was that
Alp Arslān sent his cousin Sulaymān, son of Kutlumish, into Asia
Minor; and then the Saljúks permanently settled down, after
their nomadic fashion, in all the high plateau lands forming the
centre of the province, and the kingdom of Rûm became from
henceforth one of the lands of Islam. In their first flush of
victory the Saljúks had raided so far west as Nicaea, which for a
short time they held, making it temporarily their capital. From
here they were driven back by the first Crusade, and retiring to
the central plateau, Iconium or Kāniyah, which was conquered by
them in 477 (Io84), became and remained the centre of their
government".
The line of the Saljúk Sultans of Kúniyah lasted over two
centuries, from 47 o (IoT 7) to 7oo (13oo), but their real power was
ended by the Mongol conquest of Kúniyah in 655 (1257), the
year previous to the fall of Baghdād. The establishment of the
Saljúks in the plateau of Asia Minor was coincident with the rise
of the Christian kingdom of Little Armenia in the Taurus
* Ibn-al-Athir, x. 25, 44; xii. 125. J. N. 62 I. On the battle of Manzikart
see History of the Art of War by C. Oman, pp. 216–221. The history of the
Saljúks in Rûm, and their successors the ten Turkoman Amirs, ending in the
establishment of the Ottoman Sultans, is unfortunately the most obscure period
in all the Moslem annals. The Persian historians Mirkhwänd and Khwānd-
amir have nothing to add to the bald summary on the Saljúks of Rûm given
by Mustawfi in his 73rížh-i-Guzādah. Perhaps the fullest account of the
dynasty is that given by Ibn Khaldūn in his Universal History (volume V.
pp. 162–175): but this is in fact little more than a list of names and dates.
The Chronicle of Ibn Bibi, lately published by Professor Houtsma, unfortu-
nately begins only with the reign of Kilij Arslān II, in the year 551 (1 156),
and regarding the first seventy years of Saljåk rule, when they were conquering
and establishing themselves in Asia Minor, we know next to nothing. The
battle of Manzikart is the only great victory that is alluded to, all the fighting
that resulted in the ejection of the Byzantines from the high lands of Asia
Minor passes unrecorded. Also there is no mention of a treaty, which must
have been made, formally or informally, between the Byzantines and the
Saljúks after Manzikart. For a summary of all that is known of the Turkoman
Amirs who succeeded to the Sultans of Rüm see Professor Lane-Poole, “The
successors of the Saljúks in Asia Minor’ in the V. A. A. S. for 1882, p. 773.
IX.] - RÚM OR ASIA MINOR. I4 I
country. Sis, otherwise called Sisiyah, soon after 473 (1080)
became the capital of Rupen, the founder of the new dynasty.
After a century Leo took the title of king in 594 (1198), and
the kings of Little Armenia, weathering the Mongol invasion,
Only came to an end in 743 (1342). From Sis the kingdom grew
to include all the mountainous country watered by the Sayhān and
Jayhān rivers, down to the Mediterranean, with the cities of Massi-
sah, Adhanah, and Tarsūs, as well as much of the coast-line to the
west of Tarsūs. Sis, or Sisiyah, the ancient Flaviopolis, under
the early Abbasids had been counted an outlying fortress of ‘Ayn
Zarbah, and its walls were rebuilt by the Caliph Mutawakkil,
grandson of Hārūn-ar-Rashid. It was afterwards taken by
the Byzantines, and when Abu-l-Fidá wrote in 721 (I 32 I) he
alludes to it as having been recently rebuilt by Leo II (Ibn
Lāwān), surnamed the Great, king of Little Armenia. Its castle,
surrounded by a triple wall, crowned the hill, and the gardens
descended to the river, which was an affluent of the Jayhän.
Yākūt adds that, in his day, Sis was the commonly used form of
the name.
To the west and north of this kingdom of Little Armenia
stretched the territories of the Saljúk Sultans, and during the first
hundred years of their occupation of the plateau lands of Asia
Minor this province was three times traversed by the armies of the
Crusades. The first Crusade in 490 (Io97) resulted in the ex-
pulsion of Kilij Arslān I (son and successor of Sulaymān, the first
Sultan of Rūm) from Nicaea, and the rabble of the Crusaders
passing by Kūniyah regained the Sea at Tarsus, and took ship for
Palestine. In the second Crusade Louis VII of France defeated
Sultan Mas‘ūd (son of Kilij Arslān) on the banks of the Meander
in 542 (I 147), but the Franks in their passage onward to the port
of Antáliyah suffered great losses in the mountain country. In
the third Crusade the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa is said in
586 (1190) to have captured Kūniyah, the Saljúk capital, from
Kilij Arslān II (son of Mas‘ūd), but marching onward Barbarossa
was accidentally drowned in a river near Salākiyah (Seleucia of
Cilicia), possibly in the Lamos or Nahr-al-Lamis, already mentioned
(p. 133), where under the earlier Abbasids Moslem and Christian
captives were exchanged or ransomed.
I42 RÚM OR ASIA MINOR. [CHAP.
The extent of the country governed by the Saljúk Sultans of
Rûm varied of course at different times, according to the waning
or recovered power of the Byzantine empire, the growth of the
Christian kingdom of Little Armenia, and the condition of the
neighbouring Moslem principalities, which the Crusaders had in
part overcome, and where for a time Frank princes ruled over
Moslem subjects. The chief towns of the Saljúk Sultanate in
Rûm as it existed in 587 (I 191) are made known to us by the
division of his dominions which Kilij Arslān II made in that year
among his eleven sons. Küniyah (Iconium), as already stated, was
the capital, and the second city of the Sultanate was Kaysariyah
(Caesarea Mazaka). Malatiyah (Melitene) was the chief town of the
eastern province on the Euphrates boundary. To the north Sivās
(Sebastia), Nakisár (or Niksár, the older Neo-Caesarea), Tūkāt
and Amásiyah (Amasia) each became the appanage of a Saljúk
prince, likewise Angúriyah (Angora) to the north-west, and on the
western border Burughlú, probably identical with the modern Ulú
Burlă, lying to the west of the Egridãr lake. On the southern
frontier, lying eastwards of Kāniyah, the chief towns were
Aråkliyah (Heraclia), Nakidah or Nigdah, and Abulustān, later
called Al-Bustān (Arabissus).
Sultan ‘Alā-ad-Din, who succeeded in 616 (1219) and was
the grandson of Kilij Arslān II, extended his rule north and south
from the shores of the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. He took
Sinúb (Sinope) on the former, and on the southern coast made a
great harbour at ‘Alāyā—named after him—where the slips for
ship-building and remains of other constructions connected with
the great navy of the Saljúks may still be seen : and on the north-
west he extended his power to the town of Sārī Būli. His reign
was made famous by the writings of the great Sãfi poet Jalāl-ad-
Din Rūmī, who lived and died at Kūniyah. Thirty years after
the death of ‘Alā-ad-Din, which occurred in 634 (1237), the
Mongol armies broke up the power of the Saljúks; the four last
Sultans were in fact merely governors under the Îl-Khāns of
Persia, and in the year 7oo (1300) the province of Rúm was
divided up among the ten Turkoman Amirs, who originally had
been the vassals of the Saljúk Sultans'. º
* Baladhuri, 170. Yak. iii. 217. A. F. 257. Ibn Bibi, 5. J. N. 621,
Ix] RÚM OR ASIA MINOR. I 43
622. Idrisi, who wrote in 548 (1153), and who, according to his own testimony
(Jaubert, ii. 3oo), was at Amorion and visited the cave of the Seven Sleepers in
5 Io (II 16), is the one Moslem geographer who gives us an account of Asia
Minor in the time of the Saljúks. Unfortunately his text has come down to us
in a most corrupt form. He gives a number of routes, traversing Asia Minor
in all directions, which are very difficult to plot out, for the names of inter-
mediate places are for the most part unrecognisable, though the terminal stages
are beyond dispute. Idrisi, ii. 305—318. The limits of the Saljúk kingdom
have been clearly traced by Professor Ramsay (H. G. A. M. pp. 78, 382, 384),
and a description of the Great Mosques and other buildings of the Saljúk Sultans
will be found in a series of papers by M. C. Huart entitled ‘ Epigraphie Arabe
d'Asie Mineur,” in the Kevue Sémitique, 1894, pp. 61, 120, 235, 324, and 1895,
pp. 73, 175, 2I4, 344; and in the Journal Asiatigate for 1901, i. 343, also by
M. F. Grenard, ‘Monuments Seljoukides de Sivas etc.,’ /. As. 1900, ii. 451.
See further a paper by Professor Ramsay, with remarks of Sir C. Wilson and
others, in the Geographical /ournal for September, 1902, p. 257.
CHAPTER X.
RÚM (continued).
The ten Turkoman Amirates. Ibn Batūtah and Mustawfi. Kaysäriyah, and
Sivās. The Sultan of Mesopotamia. The Amir of Karamān, Kāmiyah.
The Amīr of Tekkeh, ‘Alāyā, and Antáliyah. The Amir of Hamid,
Egridãr. The Amir of Germiyān, Kutahiyah, and Sivri Hisâr. The
Amir of Memteshå, Milás. The Amīr of Aydin, Ephesus, and Smyrna.
The Amir of Sārūkhān, Magnesia. The Amīr of Karási, Pergamos. The
“Othmānli territory, Brusá. The Amir of Kizil Ahmadli: Sinúb.
The limits of the ten Turkoman Amirates of the 8th (14th)
century very roughly corresponded with the following ancient
Greek provinces of Asia Minor. Karāmān or Karamān, the largest,
was the older Lycaonia; on the Mediterranean coast Tekkeh in-
cluded Lycia and Pamphylia ; inland Hamid corresponded with
Pisidia and Isauria; Kermiyān or Germiyān with Phrygia; and on
the coast of the Black Sea Kizil Ahmadli, sometimes called Isfan-
diyār, had been Paphlagonia. On the AEgean shores Menteshå
was the older Caria ; Aydin and Sārūkhān combined were the
kingdom of Lydia; Karāsī was Mysia; and lastly the ‘Othmānli
territory (of those Ottomans who ultimately conquered all the
other nine provinces) was at first only the small province of
Phrygia Epictetus, backed by the high lands of Bythia which
the ‘Othmanlis had recently conquered from the Byzantines.
Of the state of Asia Minor under these Turkoman Amirs we
possess an extremely curious account in the travels of Ibn Battitah
the Berber, who landing from Syria at ‘Alāyā, in 733 (1333),
visited many of the petty courts on his way to Sinúb (Sinope),
where he took ship across the Black Sea to the Crimea. Un-
fortunately, a part of his account appears to be missing. From
CHAP. X] RÚM. I 45
‘Alāyā he journeyed along the sea-shore to Antáliyah, and then
struck north across the hills to Egridãr in Hamid, on the lake
of that name. From here by a devious road through Lådhik
(Laodicea ad Lycum) he travelled to Milás in Menteshå, and
thence right across Asia Minor diagonally, by Küniyah and
Išaysāriyah, to Sivās and Arzan-ar-Rûm. Here a lacuna occurs,
for the next town mentioned is Birki in Aydin, whence Ayā Sulúk
(Ephesus) was visited. Finally, going north and east, Ibn Batūtah
takes Brusã and other towns on his road to the Black Sea coast
at Sinúb (Sinope). His contemporary Mustawfi, in the chapter
of his Geography on Rûm, has added some details to the descrip-
tion of towns given by Ibn Batūtah. Mustawfi, however, though
writing in 740 (1340) works on earlier sources, and his information
gives the state of Rûm under the later Saljúks, rather than the
country as it existed when the ten Amirs had established their
power. -
At the beginning of the 9th (15th) century the irruption of
Timür into Asia Minor temporarily altered the course of affairs,
and threw back the rising Ottoman power for a quarter of a
century. The account of his campaigns given by ‘Ali of Yazd
again adds something to our knowledge of the country, some
further details also being given in the pages of the Turkish /a/hám
Mumá, which, though written in the beginning of the 11th (17th)
century, when the Ottoman power had long been established in
Asia Minor, makes mention of the chief monuments left by the
Saljúk Sultans. -
Before describing the ten provinces, already named, of the
Turkoman Amirs, some account must be given of the towns lying
to the eastward of the boundary of Karāmān, which may be taken
as marked by the lower course of the Halys (the Kizil Irmãk of
the Turks) continued by a line going south to the Jayhān. East
of this boundary Asia Minor in the 8th (14th) century belonged
to the Îl-Khāns, the Mongol princes who ruled in Mesopotamia
and Persia, and sent hither their governors to keep the peace
among the Smaller hordes of Turkoman nomads who had settled
down in this country after the great Mongol invasion. The chief
city east of the Karamān frontier was Kaysariyah (also spelt
Kaysāriyah, namely Caesarea Mazaka, of Cappadocia), which under,
LE S. I O • * *
I46 RÚM. - [CHAP.
the Saljúks had been the second city of Rûm, and which indeed
Kazwini names as their capital. Here among other shrines might
be seen the Friday Mosque dedicated to the hero of Omayyad
days, Al-Battál. Mustawfi describes Kaysariyah as surrounded by
the stone walls built by Sultan ‘Alā-ad-Din the Saljūk; it was
a great town with a castle and lay at the base of Mount Arjäish
(Argaeus). Mount Arjäish, Mustawfi adds, was an extremely high
mountain, its summit never being free from snow, and from it many
streams descended. At its foot lay Davalú, a place which will
be mentioned below. On the summit of the mountain might
be seen a great church. In Kaysāriyah stood the famous and
greatly venerated shrine of Muhammad ibn Hanafiyah, a son of
the Caliph ‘Ali, and when Ibn Batūtah visited Kaysāriyah (as
he writes the name) the city was occupied by a strong garrison in
the pay of the Mongol Sultan of ‘Irāk. In the beginning of the
9th (15th) century Kaysariyah was the first great city in Asia
Minor occupied by the armies of Timür.
Abulustân (Arabissus) to the east of Kaysariyah, the frontier
fortress of Byzantine times, is also mentioned in the conquests of
Timür ; and Mustawfi speaks of Abulustān as a medium-sized
town. In the /a/an Mumá the modern spelling Al-Bustān (with
the signification of ‘the Garden') is given. Kirshahr (Byzantine
Justinianopolis Mokissus), about 80 miles west of Kaysariyah, was
a place of great importance and is frequently mentioned in the
account of the campaigns of Timúr. Mustawfi describes Kirshahr
as a large town with fine buildings, and in the /a/.6m AVumá it is
counted as one of the cities of Karamān. Amāşiyah or Amäsiyah
(Amasia) under the Saljúks had been one of their centres of
government; and Mustawfi relates that it had been rebuilt by
Sultan ‘Alā-ad-Din. Ibn Batūtah, who passed through it, de-
scribes it as a great city with broad streets and fine markets,
surrounded by Splendid gardens irrigated by means of waterwheels
erected along the river. In his day it was under the Sultan of
Mesopotamia, and not far distant from it was the town of
Sūnusā (spelt Sünisã in the /a/.6m Avumá) with a population of
fanatical Shi‘ahs. To the north of Amāsiyah lies Lädik (Laodicea
Pontica), a place of importance under the Saljúks, and frequently
mentioned in the chronicle of Ibn Bibi. The port of Samson
X] RÚM. I47
(or Sāmsān, the Greek Amysos) is described by Mustawfi as a
great harbour for ships, and already by the latter part of the 8th
(14th) century it was growing rich on the trade diverted to it from
the older port of Sandb or Sinúb (Sinope)".
Niksár (or Nakisár, the Greek Neo-Caesarea) had been an
important place under the Saljúks, and is frequently mentioned
by Ibn Bibi ; Mustawfi describes it as a medium-sized town, with
many gardens producing much fruit. Tūkāt (also spelt Dūkāt)
lies to the west of Niksâr on the road to Amāsīyah, and was one
of the great governments under the Saljúks; further west again
lies Zilah, mentioned by Ibn Bibi and later authorities. The city
of Sivās (Sebastia), on the Kizil Irmák (Halys), had been rebuilt
by Sultan ‘Alā-ad-Din, who used hewn stone for all the new masonry.
Mustawfi reports that the place was famous for its woollen stuffs,
which were largely exported; it had a cold climate, but cotton
was grown here, as well as much grain. Ibn Batūtah speaks of
Sivās as the largest city in the province ruled by the Sultan of
Mesopotamia. Here were a Government House, fine streets and
excellent markets, and a great Madrasah or college.
Mustawfi gives an account of the high road which went west
from Sivās to Persia: two stages led to Zárah, a town of Some
importance, and two more to Åk Shahr (White Town), a place
frequently mentioned in the Saljåk chronicle. North-west of
Åk Shahr lies Kará. Hisâr (the Black Fortress) which is often
referred to by Ibn Bibi, who calls it Kara Hisār Dawlah—‘of
the State’—to distinguish this fortress, which is referred to also
by Mustawfi, from other places of like name. In the /a/.6m
Mumá it is called Kará. Hisār Shābin, from the alum (Sháð)
mines that lie near it. From Åk Shahr the high road to Persia
went on in three stages to Arzanjān, and thence it was the like
distance to Arzan-ar-Rūm. From here the way went south in
three stages to Khanús (or Khānās as Ibn Bibi writes the name,
Khinis being the modern form), whence it was Io leagues to
Malásjird (Manzikart), this being eight leagues distant from Arjish
on the lake of Vân".
1 Kaz. ii. 371. I. B. ii. 287, 289, 292. Ibn Bibi, 26, 308. Mst. 162, 163,
164, 202. A. Y. ii. 270, 416, 417. J. N. 599, 615, 620, 622, 623.
* Ibn Bibi, 26, 292, 308. I. B. ii. 289. Mst. 161, 163, 164, 199. J. N.
424, 622, 623.
I O— 2
I48 RÚM. [CHAP.
The province of Karamān (or Karāmān), the largest of the
ten Amirates, took its name from the Turkoman tribe which
had settled in this region, and the capital was Lārandah,
also called Karamān after the province. Lārandah dated from
Byzantine days, and Ibn Batūtah who visited it in the 8th (14th)
century, and spells the name Al-Lārandah, describes it as a fine
town standing in the midst of gardens, abundantly supplied with
water. At the close of the century it was taken and plundered by
the troops of Timür, but afterwards regained its former prosperity.
To the south of Lārandah is Armanák, which is spoken of by
Mustawfi as having been formerly a large city, though in the 8th
(14th) century it had sunk to the condition of a provincial town.
It is also mentioned in the Jahán Mumá, together with Selefkeh,
the older Arabic Salākiyah (Seleucia of Cilicia). Under the Otto-
man rule these places were included in the province called Ích ſli,
which in Turkish signifies ‘the Interior Land,’ and as this de-
scription is hardly applicable to the province in question, which
lies along the coast, it has been suggested that Ích ili is in reality
only a corruption, truncated, of the older Greek name Ci/icia.
Kāniyah (Iconium), as already stated, had been the Saljúk
capital, but under the Karamān Amirs it sank to a city of the
second rank. Mustawfi relates that the town possessed a great
Aywän, or hall, in the palace which had been built by Sultan
Kilij Arslān, by whom also the castle had been founded. At a
later date ‘Alā-ad-Din had built, or restored, the town walls,
making them of cut stone, 30 ells in height, with a ditch 20 ells
deep outside. The walls were Io, ooo paces in circuit, they
were pierced by twelve gates, each having a great castellated
gateway. Abundant water was brought down from a neighbour-
ing hill, to be stored at one of the city gates in a great tank
under a dome, whence over 3oo conduits distributed it through-
out the city. The neighbourhood of Kúniyah was renowned for
its gardens, famous for yellow plums, and immense quantities of
cotton and corn were grown in the fields around the town.
Mustawfi adds that in his day much of Kúniyah was in ruin,
though the suburb immediately below the castle had a large popula-
tion. In the city was the tomb of the great mystic, the Sûfi poet
Jalāl-ad-Dīn Rūmī, already mentioned, which was an object of
X] RÚM. I49
pilgrimage. This shrine is noticed by Ibn Batūtah, who praises
the fine buildings and abundant water-supply of Kúniyah. He
speaks of its gardens and the apricots grown here, called Kamar-
ad-Din (Moon of Faith), which were exported largely to Syria. The
streets were broad and the markets abundantly supplied, each trade
keeping to its own quarter. Ibn Bibi in his Saljúk chronicle
incidentally mentions the names of three of the gates of Kúniyah,
namely, the Gate of the Horse Bāzār, the Gate of the Assay-house,
and the Gate of the Ahmad bridge. t
The fortress of Kará. Hisâr of Kāniyah lies at some distance
to the east of Kúniyah, and is mentioned by Mustawfi who says
that it was built by one Bahrām Shāh. Beyond this is Hiraklah
(Heraclea), a name which in later times appears as Arākliyah, and
is frequently mentioned in the Jahān Mumá. To the north of
Kúniyah is Lädik Sūkhtah, the Burnt Lädik (Laodicea Combusta,
the Greek Katakekaumena), which Ibn Bibi speaks of as the Village
of Lädik to distinguish it from the other towns called Laodicea
(Pontica and Ad Lycum). The Jahán Mumá refers to Laodicea
Combusta as Yurgân Lādik, otherwise called Lādhikiyah of
Karamán'.
In the northern part of the Karamān province is Angora
(Greek Ancyra), the name of which is spelt by the earlier Arabic
authorities Ankurah, and by later Persian and Turkish authors
Angåriyah. Mustawfi speaks of it as a town possessing a cold
climate; much corn, cotton, and fruit being grown in the
neighbourhood. It is famous in history as the place where in 804
(1402) Timür defeated in a pitched battle, and took prisoner, the
Ottoman Sultan Bayazid Ilderim. Kûsh Hisār, or Kūch Hisâr,
on the eastern border of the great Salt Lake, is mentioned by
Mustawfi as a medium-sized town, and its name also occurs in the
Jahán Mumá. Some distance east of the southern end of the
lake stands Āk Sarāy (the White Palace) built by Sultan Kilij
Arslān II in 566 (1171), and described by Mustawfi as a fine
town surrounded by fruitful lands. Ák Sarā (as Ibn Batūtah
spelt the name) stood on three streams, and its gardens were
magnificent, also there were many vineyards within the walls.
* I. B. ii. 281, 284. Mst. 162, 163. A. Y. ii. 458. J. N. 6 II, 615, 616.
Ibn Bibi, 8, 9, 287, 324.
I 50 RÚM. [CHAP.
The townspeople in the 8th (14th) century made excellent
carpets from the wool of their sheep, and these carpets were
largely exported to Syria, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. Ibn Batūtah
adds that in his day Ak Sarā was in the government of the Sultan
of Mesopotamia.
Some fifty miles east of Åk Sarā is Malankūbiyah (Malacopia),
which is mentioned by Mustawfi as a place of importance in the
8th (14th) century. To the north of this is another Karā Hisâr,
described by Mustawfi as of the Nigdah district, and east of this
again is Davalú (in the /a/.án Mumá the name is written Davahlū),
a place already spoken of as at the foot of Mount Arjäish. It
occurs more than once in the history of Ibn Bibi in connection
with Kaysariyah. Mustawfi describes Davală as a town of medium
size, and its walls had been rebuilt by Sultan ‘Alā-ad-Din the
Saljúk. South of Malankūbiyah is Nigdah (in Ibn Bibi written
Nakidah) which had taken the place of the earlier Tuwänah
(Tyanah), having been built by Sultan ‘Alā-ad-Din. Nigdah is
described by Mustawfi as a medium-sized town, and Ibn Batūtah,
who passed through it, notes that the greater part was already in
ruin. It lay, he adds, in the territories of the Sultan of Mesopo-
tamia; its stream was called the Nahr-al-Aswad, ‘the Black River,’
and was crossed by three stone bridges. The gardens of Nigdah
were most fruitful; and waterwheels were employed for their
irrigation. To the south of Nigdah was Luluah (Loulon),
frequently mentioned by Ibn Bibi, a great fortress which, as already
said, marked the northern end of the pass of the Cilician Gates.
In the 8th (14th) century Mustawfi describes Luluah as a small
town, surrounded by excellent pasture lands. It had a cold
climate, and in the neighbourhood there were famous hunting
grounds'. -
In the territories of the Amīr of Tekkeh the most important
towns appear to have been ‘Alāyā and Antáliyah, famed for their
harbours. The first, as already mentioned, had been founded by
the Saljúk Sultan ‘Alā-ad-Din on the site of the ruins of Coracesium.
Ibn Battitah landed here from Syria in 733 (1333), and describes
‘Alāyā as at that time the great port for the trade with Alexandria.
* Ibn Bibi, 5, 34, 44, 279, 314. I. B. ii. 285, 286. Mst. 162, 163, 164,
202. Yak. iv. 635. A. Y. ii. 429. J. N. 617, 62o.
X] RÚM. I 5 I
In the upper town, very strongly built by ‘Alā-ad-Din, was the
Castle, which Ibn Batūtah carefully examined ; but in his day
‘Alāyā appears to have belonged to the Sultan of Karamān.
Antáliyah, the Second harbour, lying a hundred miles to the
westward of ‘Alāyā, at the head of the bay, was famous as the
usual place of re-embarkation of the Crusaders for Palestine. It
was a fine town, and was known to Yākūt as the chief port of
Rûm, being strongly fortified and surrounded by fruitful lands,
with many vineyards. Here Sultan Kilij Arslān the Saljúk had built
himself a palace on the hill Overlooking the sea, and here, too, Ibn
Batūtah found many Christian merchants settled, especially down
at the Minä or port, their quarter being shut off by a wall, and each
trade, he adds, had its own street in the markets. There was a
Jews' quarter also, and the Moslems lived in their own part of the
city, where stood the mosque and Madrasah (college). Antáliyah,
the name of which occurs in the Crusading chronicles as Satalia
or Attaleia, is frequently mentioned in the campaigns of Timür
under the form ‘Adāliyah. To the west of it, also mentioned by
‘Ali of Yazd, is Istānūs, a town whose name in the Jahān AWumá
is written Istanáz".
To the north of Tekkeh the Amir of Hamid Owned the
Country round the four lakes of Egridūr, Burdúr, Beg Shahr, and
Åk Shahr. Under the Saljúks, according to Ibn Bibi, the seat of
government had been at Burughlū, apparently identical with the
later Ulú Burlū (to the west of the Egridūr lake), the Byzantine
Sozopolis or Apollonia. Antákiyah (Antioch of Pisidia), which in
the earlier Moslem chronicles is frequently referred to, in Turkish
times took the name of Yalăvăch, and was situate in the plain
between the lakes of Egridór and Åk Shahr. The chief town of
the province, according to Mustawfi in the 8th (14th) century,
appears to have been the city of Egridſir (the ancient Prostanna)
at the Southern end of the lake of that name. Ibn Batūtah
describes it as a great place, well built, with fine markets, sur-
rounded by abundantly watered gardens; and the lake (he adds)
was traversed by the boats of the merchants, who thus transported
* In the New Testament Attalia is mentioned in Acts xiv. 25. Yak. i. 388.
I. B. ii. 257, 258. J. N. 61 1, 638, 639. A. Y. ii. 447, 449.
I 52 RUM. [CHAP.
their goods to neighbouring places, and traded with the towns on
the shores of the Åk Shahr and Beg Shahr lakes.
The town of Beg Shahr (or Bey Shahr, Karallia of the Byzan-
tines) at the foot of its lake, according to the Jahán Mumá, had been
founded by Sultan ‘Alā-ad-Din the Saljúk. It had a stone wall with
two gates, a Friday Mosque, and fine baths; also a market at a place
called Alarghah. To the west of Egridãr lies Burdār, on the lake
of the same name, a small town, according to Ibn Batūtah, with
many streams and gardens, protected by a castle on the neighbour-
ing hill. Ispártah, South of Egridūr, is given in the Jahán Mumá
as the capital of Hamid in later times. Ibn Batūtah writes the
name Sabartà, and describes it as a well-built city of many gardens,
protected by a castle. This represents the Byzantine town of Baris,
and Sparta is the common pronunciation of the present day".
The lake of Åk Shahr is that which Ibn Khurdādbih (see
above, p. 135) calls Bāsiliyān, and which the Byzantines knew as
the Lake of the Forty Martyrs. To the west of it is the great
castle of Kará. Hisār, which in connection with Åk Shahr is
frequently mentioned in the campaigns of Timár. At Äk Shahr,
according to ‘Ali of Yazd, the unfortunate Sultan of the ‘Othmānlis,
Bayazid Ilderim, whom Timür had defeated at Angora, died
broken-heated in 805 (1403), and both this Ák Shahr and this
Kará. Hisār are mentioned by Mustawfi among the many celebrated
places of those names. This Kará. Hisār, now surnamed Afyūn
from the quantity of opium grown round it, marks the site of the
Greek town of Prymnessos or Akroenos, and local tradition asserts
that Al-Battāl, the champion of the earlier Omayyad wars against
the Byzantines, was killed in battle near here. Tabari, however,
our earliest authority, only says that in the year 122 (740) ‘Abd-
Allah-al-Battāl was slain in the Greek country, and no indication
of the place is given”.
* Sabartä or Ispártah is the corruption of the Greek els Báplôa : ºf footnote,
p. 157, on Izmid and Iznik (Nicomedia and Nicaea).
* Ibn Bibi, 5, 212, 251, 283. I. B. ii. 265, 266. Mst. 162, 163, 164.
J. N. 618, 639, 640, 641. A. Y. ii. 457, 458, 489, 492. Ramsay, H. G. A. M.
87, 139, 396, 401, 406. Tabari, ii. 1716. The tomb of Al-Battál is given in
the Jahán Mumá (p. 642) as existing in the 11th (17th) century at Sidi Ghāzī,
more than fifty miles north of Kará. Hisâr to the east of Kūtāhiyah. At the
present day it is shown at Kirshahr. In regard to Antioch of Pisidia there was
X] RÚM. I 53
North and west of the Hamid province was the country
governed by the Amīr of Kermiyān, or Germiyān, whose capital
was at Kūtāhiyah (Cotyaeum). The Arab chroniclers wrote the
name, as already mentioned, Kutiyah ; but the Byzantine town
must early have fallen to ruin, and according to the Jahán Mumá
it was the Sultan of Germiyān to whom the later medieval town
of Kūtāhiyah owed its foundation. Ibn Batūtah refers to it as
inhabited by robbers. At the close of the 8th (14th) century
the place is frequently mentioned in the campaigns of Timür, he
for a time having made it his head-quarters. A hundred miles
east of Kūtāhiyah, near the upper affluents of the Sangarius,
stands the great fortress of Sivri Hisār, where Timür also for a
time had his head-quarters. The name in Turkish means ‘the
Pointed Castle” (Kazwini spells it Sibri Hisār), and it stands
above the site of the Roman Pessinus, which afterwards was
renamed Justinianopolis Palia, Kazwini reports that in the 7th
(13th) century there was a famous church here called Bay'at
Kamnănăs, and if animals suffering from stricture were seven
times led round this church, the stricture would yield and they
then recovered their health.
South of Sivri Hisâr lies ‘Ammāriyah (Amorion, at the modern
Assar Kal‘ah), already spoken of (p. 137), which Mustawfi refers
to as if in the 8th (14th) century it were still a place of
importance. For some unexplained reason the common people,
he adds, called it Angúriyah or Angúrah (Angora), and this
strange misnomer is repeated in the /a/.6m AWumá, only that
according to the latter authority it was Angúriyah, Angora, that
was commonly called ‘Ammāriyah. In the south-eastern part of
Germiyān is Lādhik (Laodicea ad Lycum), which the Turks called
Denizlū, ‘Many Waters,’ from its abundant streams; the place is
now known as Eski Hisâr (Old Fort). Ibn Batūtah describes it
at all times a tendency in the earlier Arab chronicles to confound this with
other places of the same name, and especially with Antioch of Syria. Ya'kübi
in his History (i. 177) refers to Antákiyah-al-Muhtarikah, “Burnt Antioch,” by
which apparently the town of Pisidia is meant. The same author (ii. 285)
speaks further of a raid made in the year 49 (669), and then mentions ‘Black
Antioch’ (Antákiyah-as-Sawdā), by which name possibly Antioch of Isauria is
intended.
I54. RÚM. [CHAP.
as a great city, with seven mosques for the Friday prayers, and
excellent markets. The Greek women of Lādhik wove Cotton
stuffs, which they afterwards embroidered finely with gold, and
these embroideries were famous for their wear. In the /a/.6%
AVumá the older form of the name is given as Lādhikiyah'.
In the province governed by the Menteshå Amir, Ibn Batūtah
visited the three neighbouring cities of Mughlah, Milás, and
Barjin. The Amir lived at Mughlah (the older Mobolla), the
capital, according to the Jahán Mumá, which Ibn Batūtah
describes as a fine town. Milás (Mylasa, or Melisos) was also a
great city with gardens, much fruit, and plentiful streams. Barjin
(Bargylia, now known as Assarlik), a few miles from Milās, was a
newly built town, standing on a hill-top, with a fine mosque and
good houses. In the eastern part of Menteshå, Ibn Batūtah
visited Kul Hisār, which under the name of Gul is described by
Mustawfi as a medium-sized town, and it is also spoken of in the
campaigns of Timár. Ibn Batūtah describes it as surrounded on
all sides by the waters of the little lake on which it stood, this
being almost entirely overgrown with reeds. A single road by a
causeway led to the town across the lake, and the castle, which
was very strong, crowned a hill rising immediately above the town.
In the north of Menteshå was the castle of Hisn Tawās, at the
present time called Daonas, a day and a half distant from Lādhik
(Laodicea ad Lycum). Ibn Batūtah describes Tawās as a great
fortress with a walled town below it. Tradition stated that
Suhayb, a celebrated Companion of the prophet Muhammad,
had been born here”.
North of Menteshå was the territory of the Amir of Aydin, of
which Tirah (Teira) was the capital. Ibn Batūtah, who visited
the Amir of Aydin here, says it was a fine city with many gardens
and abundant streams. He also passed through Birki (Pyrgion),
one march north of Tirah, of which he praises the magnificent
trees. The city of Aydin or Guzel Hisâr occupies the site of the
Byzantine Tralleis, and was a town of secondary importance.
Ephesus, on the coast, was well known to the earlier Arab
* Kaz. ii. 359. I. B. ii. 270, 271, 457. Mst. 162. A. Y. ii. 448, 449.
J. N. 631, 632, 634, 643.
* I. B. ii. 269, 277, 278, 279, 280. Mst. 163. J. N. 638. A. Y. ii. 448.
X] * RÚM. I 55
geographers as Afasſàs, or Abastis, and was famous as the place
where might be seen the Cave of the Seven Sleepers referred to
in the Kurán (ch. XVIII, v. 8). In later times the town came to
be known as Ayāsultīk (also written Ayāthulākh or Ayāsaligh), a
corruption of the Greek Agiou Z%eologou, and so called from the
great church to Saint John Theologos, built here by the Emperor
Justinian. This church was visited by Ibn Battitah when he was
here in 733 (1333). He describes it as constructed of great
stones, each ten ells in length, carefully hewn. Another church
had, on the Moslem conquest, become the Friday Mosque, and
this was a most beautiful building, the walls being faced with
divers coloured marbles, while the pavement was of white
marble, and the roof, which was formed of eleven domes, was
covered with lead. Ibn Battitah states that Ayāsultık in his day
had fifteen gates, a river (the Cayster) flowed past it to the sea,
and the city was surrounded by jasmine gardens and vineyards.
The other great port of Aydin was Smyrna, called by the
Turks Azmir or Yazmir, which was taken by Timür from the
Knights Hospitallers in the beginning of the 9th (15th) century.
Ibn Batūtah, who was here in 733 (1333), describes it as then for
the most part in ruin; there was a great castle on the hill hard by,
and from this port, he adds, the Amir of Aydin was wont to send
out ships to harass the Byzantines, and plunder the neighbouring
Christian towns. Of these last was Fūjah (or Fūchah, Phocia)
on the coast of the province of Sārūkhān, mentioned later on in
the time of Timür as a Moslem castle, but which Ibn Batūtah
writes of in his travels as then in the hands ‘of the infidels,'
namely the Genoese. The capital of Sārūkhān was Maghnisiyah
(or Maghnisiyā, Magnesia) which he speaks of as a fine city
standing on the hill-side, Surrounded by many gardens with
abundant streams, and here the Amīr of Sārūkhān held his court.
In the campaigns of Timúr the province round Maghni Siyāh (as
the name was then written) is called Saruhān-Ili”.
North of Sārūkhān was the territory of the Karāsī (or .
* I. B. ii. 295, 307, 308, 309, 312. A. Y. ii. 466, 468, 470, 480. J. N. 634,
636, 637. Ramsay, H. G. A. M. I Io, 228. Yak. i. 91 ; ii. 806. The legend
of the Cave of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus I have already discussed in
Pales/?ne under the Moslems, p. 274.
I 56 RÚM. - [CHAP.
Karah-Si) Amir, whose capitals were Bălikesri and Barghamah
(Pergamos). Ibn Batūtah, who visited Pergamos in 733 (1333),
describes it as a city for the most part in ruin, but defended by a
huge castle perched on a hill-top near by. Bälikesri, which he
also visited, was a well-built and populous town with excellent
markets. There was, however, no Friday Mosque here at this
date, though the Sultan of Karási, Dumür (or Timür) Khān,
generally lived here, and his father had built Bálikesri. At a
later period the town is frequently mentioned in the campaigns of
Timür.
From Bălikesri Ibn Battitah travelled on to Brusã, at that
time the capital of the ‘Othmānlī state, which already had begun
to overshadow and absorb all the other Turkoman Amirates.
Brusā or Brüsah (Prusa) was already a great city, with fine
markets and broad streets. The town was surrounded by
extensive gardens, and within the city was a great tank where the
water was collected for distribution to all the houses. At Brusá
there was a hospital, with one ward for men and another for
women, where the sick were attended to and supplied gratis with
all necessities, and there was also a hot bath. The ‘Othmānlī
Sultan whom Ibn Batūtah visited was Orkhān (grandfather of
that Bayazid Ilderim, already mentioned as defeated at the
beginning of the following century by Timür), and the chief
monument of his capital was the tomb of Sultan ‘Othmān, his
father, who was buried in what had formerly been a church.
Mikhālij (Miletopolis, which the Byzantines called Michaelitze),
lying about 50 miles west of Brusã, is frequently mentioned in
the campaigns of Timür, and in the Jahān Mīzmá. The most
important town of the Ottoman territory in 733 (1333), how-
ever, was Nicaea, which had been taken from the Byzantines by
Sultan Orkhän. Nicaea, which the earlier Arab geographers
called Nikiyah, the Turks knew as Yaznik or Iznik. Ibn Batūtah
describes the lake of Yaznik as covered with reeds. At the
eastern end of it the town stood, and was entered by a single
Causeway across the waters, so narrow that only one horseman
at a time could approach. The town itself he describes
as much in ruin, but its circuit enclosed many gardens; it was
surrounded by four separate walls with a water ditch dug between
X] - RÚM. 157
every two, traversed by drawbridges. To the north of Nicaea lies
Nicomedia, which the earlier Arab authorities knew as Nikmúdiyah;
the Turks called it Iznekmíd, as the /a/ an AWumá writes the
name, shortened later to Izmid, which is that now in use. No
description of this town is given by Ibn Battitah or our other
authorities".
The province of Kizil Ahmadli lay along the coast of the
Black Sea from the neighbourhood of the Bosporus to Sinope.
Travelling from Yaznik, after passing the river Sangarius, which
the Turks called Sakari, the first large town which Ibn Batūtah
came to was Muturni or Múdurní (modern Mudurlū, and the
ancient Modrene) which he speaks of as a place of considerable
size; it is also mentioned in the Jahān AWumá. The town of
Būlī (Claudiopolis), to the north-east of Muturni, Ibn Batūtah
describes as standing on a river of some volume; and Kereh-
deh (or Geredi) Bāli, one march to the east of this, was a
fine large city in a plain, with good markets and broad streets,
each separate nation among its people having a distinct quarter.
Geredi Bāli in 733 (1333) was the residence of the Amir, and
appears to have been then the chief town of Kizil Ahmadli.
In the eastern part of the province stands Kastamūniyah (or
Kastamûni, for Castamon) which Mustawfi describes as a medium-
sized town. Ibn Batūtah speaks of it as one of the largest cities
which he visited in Asia Minor, and provisions, he notes, were
here both cheap and abundant. To the north-east of it lay the
great port of Santib (or Sinúb, Sinope), where he took ship for
the Crimea, and from his description we learn how Sinope was
surrounded on three sides by the sea, the town being entered by a
single gate to the east. It was a beautiful and populous harbour
and strongly defended. A fine Friday Mosque was to be seen
here, the dome supported on marble pillars; and a place of
* Iznekmid is a corruption of the Byzantine eis Nukopjöétav : Iznik of els
Nikatau. I. B. ii. 31.5, 316, 317, 322. A. Y. ii. 466. J. N. 631, 656, 661,
662. Ramsay, H. G. A. M. 179. The picture Ibn Batūtah gives of Sultan
Orkhān, the founder of the celebrated corps of the Janizaries, is very curious.
Ibn Batūtah states that this chief was already the most powerful of all the
Turkoman Amirs. He possessed a hundred castles, and never stayed a month
in any one town, being always out campaigning and inspecting his frontiers.
I 58 RÚM. - [CHAP. X
popular veneration was the reputed tomb of Bilāl the Abyssinian,
the Companion of the prophet Muhammad, and his Muezzin who
had been the first to call the Moslems to prayer.
The Byzantine city of Gangra Germanicopolis, which lies
some 50 miles south of Kastamûnî, the Turks called Kānkri. In
the earlier Arab chronicles the name is given as Khanjarah, and
a great raid was made by the Moslems in the reign of the
Omayyad Caliph Hisham as far into the Greek lands as this
town. Kazwini, who spells the name Ghanjarah, says that it
stood on a river called the Nahr Maklūb, “the stream which
was turned over,’—because unlike other rivers it ran from
South to north. He adds that in 442 (Io 50) Ghanjarah was
almost entirely destroyed by an earthquake. Finally, to complete
the list of towns in the Kizil Ahmadli province, Kūch Hisâr,
which is named in the /a/.6m AWumá, must be mentioned. It lies
about midway between Kastamāni and Kānkri, and possibly is
the Kûsh Hisâr of Mustawfi already noticed (p. 149), and there
identified with the city of the same name on the great Salt Lake".
In regard to the high roads traversing Asia Minor, except for
the road from Tarsus to Constantinople (given p. 134), and the
road east from Sivās towards Tabriz (given p. 147), no itineraries
that are of any use are forthcoming. In the /a/ún AWumá” a
certain number of roads are mentioned that radiated from Sivās
as a centre, and along these the names of various villages and
post-stations are set down, many of which may still be found
on the map. Unfortunately the distances are in most cases
omitted, and hence the amount of information to be derived from
these routes is not of much account.
* Mst. 163, 164. I. B. ii. 325, 332, 336, 338, 341, 348. J. N. 645, 646,
648, 649, 651, 652. Yak, ii. 475. Kaz. ii. 368. Tabari, ii. 1236.
* J. N. 627, 628.
CHAPTER XI.
ADHARBAYJAN.
The lake of Urmiyah. Tabriz. Sarāv. Marāghah and its rivers. Pasawā
and Ushnuh. Urmiyah city and Salmās; Khoi and Marand. Nakhchivām.
Bridges over the Araxes. Mount Sablán. Ardabil and Āhar. The
Safīd Rūd and its affluents. Miyānij. Khalkhāl and Firãzābād. The
Shál river and Shāh Rūd district.
The mountainous province of Adharbäyjān—the name of which
is pronounced Azarbījān" in modern Persian—was of much less
importance under the Caliphate than it became in the later middle-
ages after the Mongol invasion. In the earlier period it lay off
the line of traffic, which passed by the Khurāsān road through
the Jibal province (Media); and the remoteness of Adharbäyjān
was also increased, according to Mukaddasi, by the fact that over
seventy languages or dialects were spoken among its mountains
and high plains, while none of the cities were of any very con-
siderable size.
In successive epochs different towns rose one after another to
the position of the provincial capital. At first, with the earlier
Abbasids, it was Ardabil; then, under the later Caliphs, Tabriz
took the first position, but after the Mongol invasion for a
time gave place to Marāghah. Tabriz, however, soon regained
its pre-eminence under the Il-Khāns, but again under the first
1 See Map III. p. 87. The older form of the mame in Persian was Adhar-
bādhagán, a name which the Greeks corrupted to Atropatene. Mukaddasi
(p. 373) describes Adharbäyjān, Arrán and Armenia as forming part of a single
great province, which he designates as the Iklim-ar-Rihāb, “the region of the
high plains’—in dištinction to the mountains (Jibâl) of Media, and the lowlands
(Akār) of Mesopotamia.
I6O ADHARBAYJAN. [CHAP.
Safavid kings was eclipsed by Ardabil. At a later date, in the
11th (17th) century, when Isfahân was made the capital of all
Persia by Shāh ‘Abbās and Ardabil fell to decay, Tabriz was
reinstated once more in the position of chief city of Adharbäyjān,
and so remains to the present day, being now by far the most
important town in the north-western part of Persia.
The most remarkable natural feature of the province is the
Lake of Urmiyah, the largest permanent sheet of water in Persia,
being over 80 miles long from north to south and a third of this
across in its broadest part. It lies to the west of Tabriz, and takes
its name from the town of Urmiyah which lies on its western
shore. Our authorities give the lake a variety of names. In the
Zend Avesta it is called Chaechasta, and this, the old Persian
form, is retained in Chichast, the name by which the lake is
referred to in the Shāh AWäma/, and which was still in use as late
as the times of Mustawfi. Mas‘ūdī and Ibn Hawkal in the 4th
(1oth) century call it the Buhayrah Kabūdhān, a name derived
from the Armenian and meaning ‘the Blue Lake’ (gaboid being
‘blue’ in that language). Istakhri calls it the lake of Urmiyah
(being followed in this by Mukaddasi), otherwise the Buhayrah-
ash-Shurāt, ‘the Lake of the Schismatics,’ from the heterodox
beliefs of the various peoples inhabiting its shores, and he describes
its waters as very salt. It was, he adds, in those days covered
with boats trafficking between Urmiyah and Marāghah, and on its
shores were many most fertile districts.
In the middle of the lake was an island, called the Kabūdhán
island by Ibn Serapion, with a small town, inhabited by boatmen.
Its waters were full of fish according to Istakhri (Ibn Hawkal, on the
contrary, says there were none), and there was a curious fish found
here known as the Water-dog (Kalb-al-Mā); in winter time storms
raised great waves, and the navigation was very dangerous. By
Abu-l-Fidá the lake is referred to as the Buhayrah Tilä–but the
latter name is of unknown signification ; Kazwini speaks of the
salt and the Tătiyā (tuty of zinc) which were produced here
and largely exported. Mustawfi who, as already said, more
generally writes of it as the Chichast lake, also calls it the Daryā-i-
Shūr, ‘the Salt Lake, or else refers to it as the lake of Tarójor
Tasūj, from the name of an important town on its northern shore.
XI] • ADHARBAYJAN. I6 I
He and Hāfiz Abrú both refer to the island (a peninsula, when
the waters are low) of Shāhā, where there was a great castle
crowning a hill, the burial-place of Hūlāgā and other of the
Mongol princes. The fortress of Shāhā is mentioned in the
3rd (9th) century, for Ibn Mashkuwayh when relating the events
of the Caliphate of Mutawakkil, grandson of Hārūn-ar-Rashid,
speaks of Shāhā and Yakdur, two castles then held by rebel
chieftains of these parts. In the 7th (13th) century Hūlāgū
rebuilt the castle of Shāhā–which Hāfiz Abrū calls the Kal'ah-i-
Tilä of the Urmiyah lake—and stored here all his treasures,
the plunder of Baghdād and the provinces of the Caliphate.
This castle subsequently becoming his burial-place it was
known in Persian as Gūr Kal‘ah, “the Castle of the Tomb,” and
when Hāfiz Abrú wrote in the time of Timür it was entirely
uninhabited'.
The city of Tabriz lies some thirty miles east from the lake
shore on a river which debouches near the Shāhā island or
peninsula. Tabriz appears to have been a mere village till the
3rd (9th) century, when in the reign of Mutawakkil a certain
Ibn-ar-Rawād settled here, he and his brother and son building
themselves palaces and afterwards enclosing with a wall the
town which gathered round these. A late tradition indeed refers
the foundation of Tabriz to Zubaydah, the wife of Hārūn-ar-Rashīd,
but the earlier chronicles give no support to this statement,
moreover it is nowhere recorded that this princess ever visited
Adharbäyjān. Mukaddasi in the 4th (Ioth) century describes
Tabriz as a fine town, with a Friday Mosque, well watered by
numerous streams, and surrounded by fruitful orchards. Yākūt
who was here in 61 o (1213) speaks of it as at that time the chief
town of Adharbäyjān, Kazwini adding that it was famous for its
‘Attàbi (or tabby) silks, its velvets and woven stuffs. The Mongols
* The name Urmiyah is now commonly pronounced Urāmiyah, and this is
the spelling given by Ibn Serapion, M.S. f. 25 a. Ist. 181, 189. I. H. 239,
247. Muk. 375, 380. Mas. i. 97. A. F. 42. Yak. i. 513. Kaz. ii. 194.
Mst. 226. Hfz. 27 a. Ibn Mashkuwayh, 539. In the Sháh Māmah (Turner
Macan, Calcutta, 1829), p. 1860, line 4, and p. 1927, line 6 from below, for
A hanjast (a clerical error), “Chichast’ is to be read, the two names only
differing by a shifting of the diacritical points.
LE S. II
I62 ADHARBAYJAN. [CHAP.
who captured Tabriz in 618 (1221) were promptly bought off, and
the city thus escaped the usual sack; and, as already said, under
the subsequent il-Khān dynasty it became the largest town of
these parts.
Mustawfi gives a long account of Tabriz. Twice, he says, it had
been destroyed by earthquakes and rebuilt, namely in 244 (858), and
in 434 (1043) when 40,000 of its inhabitants perished. After being
finally restored it was surrounded by a wall 6ooo paces in circuit,
with ten gates, and continued thus till the 8th (14th) century, when
Ghāzān Khān began to build great suburbs beyond the older wall,
surrounding these in turn by a new wall. This, which was pierced
by six gates, included the hill of Valiyān in its circuit, and measured
25, ooo paces round. Mustawfi gives the names of the inner and
outer gates of Tabriz (the MSS. vary considerably in these), and he
states that Ghāzān Khān was buried in 703 (1303) in the great suburb
of Shām, which he had laid out. His successors added many fine
mosques and erected public buildings within the city and in the
suburb of Rashīdī, which occupied the slopes of the hill of Valiyān.
The orchards of Tabriz were watered by the river Mihrān Rūd, which
rose in Mount Sahand lying to the South of the city. Round
Tabriz lay seven districts, called for the most part after their
respective streams. These names, with the villages adjacent, are
given in detail by Mustawfi, but the readings of the many proper
names are very uncertain. Ibn Batūtah, who visited Tabriz in
the year 730 (1330), speaks of the Shām quarter lying outside the
town, with its fine college built by Ghāzān Khān and the oratory.
He entered the city by the Baghdād gate, and notes the market
of Ghāzān, and the jewellers' market where an abundance of
precious stones was offered for sale. Near by was the musk and
ambergris market. The Friday Mosque, he says, had been built
by the Wazir ‘Alī Shāh of Gilān; its court was paved with marble,
and to the tank a channel brought water. The walls were faced
with enamelled tile-work (Kāshānī-ware), and to right and left of
the mosque stood, on the one side an Oratory, and on the other a
college'.
The two rivers, called respectively the Mihrān Rūd, which ran
* Muk. 378. Yak. i. 822. Kaz. ii. 227. Mst. I 53–155. J. N. 38o.
I. B. ii. 129.
XI] ADHARBAYJAN. I63
through the suburbs of Tabriz, and the Sard Rūd (the Cold River),
flowing to the south-west, which like the first named took its rise
in Mount Sahand to the south of Tabriz, both joined the Sarāv
river at a short distance to the north of the city. The Sarāv Rūd,
which was also called the Sarkhāb river, rose in the mountains
of Sablán Kūh, which lay 200 miles to the eastward of Tabriz, over-
hanging Ardabil. After a long and winding course, passing through
successive salt marshes and receiving many affluents, the Sarāv
river flowed out into the Urmiyah lake at a point about 40 miles
to the westward of the city of Tabriz. The two mountains of
Sahand and Sablån, and the rivers that flowed down from them,
are described in much detail by Mustawfi. The town of Sarāv
or Sarāb, which gave its name to the river, lies on the road from
Tabriz to Ardabil, and according to Mustawfi was surrounded
by the four districts of Warzand, Darand, Barāghūsh, and Sakhir.
The earlier Arab geographers spell the name of the town Sarāt
(for Sarāb), and Ibn Hawkal describes it as a fine place with
many mills, surrounded by fields and Orchards where much corn
and fruit was grown. In Sarāt were found numerous hostelries
and excellent markets. Yākūt, who spells the name Sarāv or
Sarv, speaks of it as having been ruined by the Mongol invasion
of the year 617 (1220), when most of its inhabitants were
slaughtered. It had however recovered when Mustawfi wrote
a century later; he adds that it lay three days' march from Tabriz
and two from Ardabil.
On a left (south) bank affluent of the Sarāv river stood the
town of Awjān or Újān, which was ten leagues from Tabriz on
the road to Miyānah. Yākūt who had been here in the 7th
(13th) century describes Ujān as a walled town with an excellent
market. It had, however, been ruined by the Mongols, and in
Mustawfi's day was rebuilt by Ghāzān Khān, who at One time
had resided here. He renamed it Shahr-i-Islām, ‘the City of
Islam,’ and enclosed it with a wall 3ooo paces in circuit
built of mortared stones. The surrounding districts were very
fertile, growing cotton, corn, and much fruit. Its river, called
the Āb-i-Üjān, rose in an eastern spur of Mount Sahand. To
the south-west of this mountain, and about 60 miles from Tabriz,
being four leagues from the shore of the lake, was the great
I I — 2
I64 ADHARBAYJAN. [CHAP.
village of Dākharrakān, as Ibn Hawkal and the Arab geographers
Spell the name, which the Persians write Dih Khuwärkān. Yākūt
gives Dih Nakhirjān as an alternative reading, explaining this
as meaning the village (Dih) of Nakhirjān, treasurer of Chosroes,
king of Persia. Mustawfi describes it as a small town, surrounded
by dependencies and eight villages, where much fruit and corn
was grown'.
The city of Marāghah stood about 70 miles south of Tabriz,
On the river Sāfī, which flowed south down to it from Mount
Sahand, and then turned west to reach the lake. Marāghah,
an abbreviation for Kariyat-al-Marāghah, “the Village of the
Pastures,’ is said to have been called Afrāzah Rūdh by the
Persians. In the 4th (1 oth) century Marāghah is described by
Ibn Hawkal as a town of the size of Ardabil, at that time the
chief city of Adharbäyjān; he adds further that Marāghah had
already even then been for a time the provincial capital, where
the government treasury and offices were stationed, before they
were permanently transferred to Ardabil. Marāghah was a most
pleasant town, Surrounded by a wall beyond which lay fruitful
orchards. It was famous for a particular kind of perfumed melon
grown here, green outside and red within, which tasted of
honey. Mukaddasi speaks of its castle and fortifications, with a
great suburb lying outside these. Yākūt records that its fortifica-
tions were built under Hārūn-ar-Rashid and restored by the
Caliph Mamūn.
Under the earlier Mongols, as we have already seen, Marāghah
became the capital of Adharbäyjān, and Mustawfi describes it as
a great city Surrounded by numerous and fertile districts, some
of which he names, amply watered by many streams. Outside
Marāghah stood the great observatory built by the astronomer
Nāsir-ad-Din of Tús, where by order of Húlågå the celebrated
Il-Khāni tables had been calculated and published. The ob-
servatory, of which the ruins still exist, was however already
dilapidated when Mustawfi wrote in the 8th (14th) century.
Kazwini mentions the castle, called Ruwin Diz, which lay three
leagues distant from Marāghah, having a stream flowing on either
* Ist. 190. I. H. 248, 253. Yak. i. 131, 198; ii. 425, 636; iii. 64. Mst.
I55, 158, 204, 205, 2 I 7, 218.
XI] ADHARBAYJAN. I65
side of it, and within the castle a famous garden called Umidābād
with its own cistern to irrigate it. A league from here stood the
village of Janbadhak, with a hot spring, of which many wonders
were related. - g
The Sāfī river, which flowed into the lake to the west of
Marāghah, mingled its waters in flood-time with those of the
Jaghtú river and its affluent the Taghtū, both of which as de-
scribed by Mustawfi rose in the Kurdistân mountains; and the
whole of the southern shore of the lake at their outflow was a
great swamp. Here surrounded by tortuous streams stood the
small town of Laylän (or Naylän), among fruitful orchards, and
inhabited in the time of Mustawfi by Mongols. Some way to
the South of Laylän, according to the distances given in the
Itineraries, was the village of Barzah, where the road coming up
from Sisâr (in the Jibál province) bifurcated. To the right one
way went on north-east to Marāghah ; while to the left, and by
the west of the lake, lay the way to Urmiyah.
Fifty miles from the southern shore of the lake was Baswä,
by the Persians pronounced Pasawá, which Yākūt had visited,
and he states that in his day the inhabitants were mostly robbers.
Mustawfi praises its fruitful orchards, and to the north-west of it
lay the town of Ushnuh, which in the time of Ibn Hawkal was
inhabited by Kurds. In the 4th (1 oth) century Ushnuh did a
great trade in horses and cattle with the neighbouring towns
of Mesopotamia, especially Mosul : its lands were very fertile and
its sheep pastures were famous. Yākūt, who had visited it, speaks
of its fine gardens, and Mustawfi, who spells the name Ushnūyah,
describes it as a medium-sized town of the mountain region which
he calls Dih Kiyāhān'.
The city of Urmiyah, which gave its name to the lake, lay
at a short distance from its western shore. Tradition pro-
claimed Urmiyah to have been the birth-place of Zardūsht or
Zoroaster. The town, according to Ibn Hawkal in the 4th (Ioth)
century, was of the same size as Marāghah, being a pleasant
place and surrounded by vineyards; its markets were well supplied
with merchandise, among the rest being the clothiers' market,
* Ist. 18 I. I. H. 238, 239. Muk. 377. Yak. i. 284, 564, 626; iv. 476.
Kaz. ii. 350, 358. Mst. 158, 159, 218.
I66 ADHARBAYJAN. [CHAP.
where stood the Friday Mosque. Urmiyah was fortified and
defended by a Castle, and a stream flowed through it down to
the lake, which was about a league distant. In the 8th (14th)
century it had grown to be a large place, its wall measuring
Io, ooo paces in circuit, and a score of villages were of its
dependencies. On the high road north of Urmiyah, and at some
distance back from the north-western corner of the lake, is Salmās.
Mukaddasi describes this as a fine town with good markets and
a Friday Mosque built of stone; the population of the place
in the 4th (Ioth) century was of Kurd origin. Yākūt says that
in the 7th (13th) century Salmās lay for the most part in ruin;
but the Wazir ‘Alī Shāh, Mustawfi writes, rebuilt its walls 8ooo
paces in circuit during the following century, in the reign of
Ghāzān Khān, the Mongol, and the town had then regained its
former importance. Its climate was cold, and a river which rose
in the mountains to the west passed through it to the lake.
On the northern shore of the lake was the town called Tarāj
or Tasūj, which is apparently identical with the modern Tursah.
Mustawfi, as already said, often speaks of the Salt Lake of Tasūj
or Tarój, and the town therefore shared with Urmiyah the honour
of giving its name to this sheet of water. In the 8th (14th)
century Tasūj must have been an important place, it was warmer
than Tabriz and damper, being so near the lake, and it was
surrounded by gardens and orchards. To the north-east of
Salmās lies Khawi, pronounced Khoi, on a stream that flows
north to the river Aras (Araxes). Khawi was a strongly fortified
and flourishing town according to Yākūt and Kazwini, surrounded
by fertile lands and famous for its excellent brocades. There was
also a spring here which had the reputation of being hot in winter
and cold in summer. Mustawfi says that the ence?nſe of its town
walls measured 6500 paces, and that its people were a white-
skinned race like the Khatái (Chinese); eighty villages were of
its dependencies.
The town of Marand which lay to the east of Khoi, on the
banks of a stream which was a right bank affluent of the Khoi
river, is described by Mukaddasi in the 4th (Ioth) century as
a small fortress with a mosque, and a market in the suburb, which
was surrounded by gardens. Yākūt says that it was ruined by
XI]. ADHARBAYJAN. I67
the Kurds who had carried off most of its inhabitants after
plundering the town. Its river according to Mustawfi was called
the Zūlū (or Zakvir), and a part of it was said to flow for four
leagues underground. Mustawfi states that in his day Marand
was only half its former size, but was still famous for the rearing
of the Kirmiz-worm (cochineal), used for making the red dye, and
that round the town were 60 villages that were of its dependencies'.
Nakhchivān, or Nakjawān, to the north of the Aras river, was
generally counted as of Adharbäyjān. It is identical with Nashawā
of the Arab geographers, and is often mentioned in the Itiner-
aries, but no description of the town is given. Nakhchivān rose
to importance under the Mongols, and Mustawfi describes it as a
large town built of brick. Near it, to the eastward, was the fortress
of Alanjik, and to the north rose the snow-clad mountain called
Māst Küh. In Nakhchiván stood the dome built by Diyā-al-Mulk,
son of Nizām-al-Mulk, the great Wazir of Malik Shāh the Saljúk,
and ‘Alī of Yazd describes the famous bridge of Diyā al-Mulk
(the ruins of which still exist) which crossed the Aras at the
fortress of Karkar on the road to Marand, about I 5 miles from
Nakhchivān.
A little lower down on the Aras is Julfah, otherwise written
Jūlāhah, which was destroyed by Shāh ‘Abbās of Persia in IoI4
(1605), when he transported all its Armenian inhabitants to the
new suburb which he built to the south of Isfahān and named
Julfah from the older Julfah on the Araxes. Among other towns
on the banks of the Aras river Mustawfi mentions Urdūbād (which
still exists), near where a river joins the Aras from the South,
on whose banks stood the castle of Dizmár, which is also
mentioned by Yākūt. Still lower down the Aras lay the town
of Zangiyān in the Murdán Na'im district, where a second bridge,
still in existence, crosses the Araxes. This is called the Pūl-i-
Khudā-Afarin in Persian, “the Bridge of Praising God,” which
Mustawfi says had been built by one of the Companions of the
prophet Muhammad in the year 15 (636). The Murdān (or Murád)
Na'im territory comprised in its circuit over 30 villages”.
* Ist. 181. I. H. 239. Muk. 377. Kaz. i. 18o; ii. 354. Yak. i. 218 ;
ii. 502; iii. I 20; iv. 503. Mst. I 56—159, 218.
* Yak. iv. 262, 767, 784. Mst. 157, 159, 206. A. Y. i. 398, 399; ii. 573.
I68 ADHARBAYJAN. [CHAP.
The city of Ardabil stood on the upper waters of the river
called Andarāb by Mustawfi, and the Ardabil river, after being
joined lower down on its left bank by the Āhar river, flowed into
the Araxes some way below the bridge of Khudā-Afarin. The
rivers of Ardabil and Ahar rose on the eastern and western slopes,
respectively, of the great mountain called Sablán Kūh, which
Overhangs Ardabil, and from whose southern slopes the Sarāv
river, as already mentioned, takes its course westward to the
Urmiyah lake. Mount Sablán is mentioned in the 4th (Ioth)
century by Ibn Hawkal, who erroneously considered it as higher
than Damāvand, some miles to the north of Tihrān. Its slopes
were covered with trees, and here stood villages and many towns,
which are enumerated by Mustawfi. The mountain, he adds,
was visible 50 leagues away, its summit being always covered
with Snow, while near the top was a spring the surface of which
remained always frozen. Near Mount Sablán also were two
other peaks, Kūh Sarāhand north of Ahar, and Siyāh Kūh (the
Black Mountain), which last towered above Kalantar, a small
town with a castle which stood among woods, with a river
flowing through its many cornfields.
Ardabil, as already said, was the capital city of Adharbäyjān
in the 4th (Ioth) century. It is described by Istakhri as walled,
and measuring two-thirds of a league across every way; the
houses were of burnt brick and clay, and at that time troops were
kept here in garrison. Its dependencies were extremely fertile,
and the Ardabil honey was famous. Mukaddasi speaks of the
fortress, and the markets of Ardabil were in four cross-streets,
with the Friday Mosque standing at the intersection point. Out-
side the town was an extensive suburb. In 617 (1220) Ardabil
was sacked by the Mongols and left a ruin ; but just before this,
when Yākūt was here, it was a most populous city. Ardabil had
been known anciently by the Persian name of Bādhān Firſz.
When Mustawfi wrote in the 8th (14th) century, though no
longer the chief town of Adharbäyjān, it had recovered much of
its former splendour; and in the Ioth (16th) century, as already
stated, it became for a time the capital of the whole of Persia
under the newly founded dynasty of the Safavids, before they
removed, first to Tabriz and afterwards to Isfahân.
XI] ADHARBAYJAN. I69
Áhar which lies 150 miles west of Ardabil, on the Åhar river,
is named in the lists of the earlier Arab geographers, and described
by Yâkút as a well-built city, to the north of which lay Mount
Sarāhand. It was surrounded by many small towns standing on
the hill-slopes, the names of which are recorded by both Yākūt
and Mustawfi, but these are difficult now to recognise or identify.
The surrounding district was known as Pishkin (at the present
day Mishkin), from the name of the ruling family who flourished
here in the 8th (14th) century. The town of Pishkin lay one
march from Ahar, and originally had been known as Varavi.
The river Andarāb, just above where the Ahar river joined it,
Mustawfi says, was crossed by a fine bridge that had been built
by ‘Alī Shāh, the Wazir of Ghāzān Khān the Mongol'.
The Safid Rūd, or White River, with its many affluents, drained
all the south-eastern part of Adharbäyjān. Its main stream for
most of its length formed the frontier dividing Adharbäyjān
from the Jibál province, and the river finally flowed out to the
Caspian Sea through the province of Gilān. Istakhri and other
Arab writers give the name as the Sabid-rūdh. Mustawfi says
that in his time it was known to the Mongols as the Hūlān
Mūlān (more exactly Ulān Mören), which in Mongolian means
“Red River’; and at the present day part of the Safid Rūd is known
as Kizil Uzen, which in Turkish also signifies • Red Stream.’
Mustawfi writes that the Safid Rūd rose in the highlands of
Kurdistān, in a mountain called Panj Angúsht (in Persian) or
Besh Parmak (in Turkish), and both names mean ‘the Five
Fingers.’ Flowing north the Safid Rūd first received the Zanjān
river on its right bank, coming from the city of that name, which
will be described in a later chapter; then on its left bank there
flowed in the Miyānij river, formed by the confluence of many
streams coming down from the west. North of Miyānij the
Safid Rūd turned west, receiving on its left bank the united
streams of the Sanjidah and Gadiv rivers coming down from
Khalkhāl to the south of Ardabil, and next the Shāl river from
the Shāh Rūd district of Khalkhāl. Below this on its right bank,
and coming from the Jibál province (as will be described in
* Ist. I8I. I. H. 237, 238, 240, 266. Muk. 374, 377. Yak. i. 197, 367,
409, 461 ; iv. 918. Mst. I56, 157, 204, 205, 217.
I7o ADHARBAYJAN. [CHAP.
Chapter XV), the Târum river joins the Safid Rūd, and next the
river Shāh Rūd (not to be confused with the district of Shāh Rūd
just named) coming from the country of the Assassins, and then
finally, after piercing the mountain barrier, the Safid Rūd reaches
the Caspian Sea at Kawtam in the province of Gīlān.
The Miyānij river, as already said, was the most important
left bank affluent of the Safid Rūd. It came from the west, rising
in the country south of Úján (see p. 163), and in the Garm Rūd
district received on its left bank the waters of the Garm Rūd
(Hot River), a stream which rose in the hills to the south of
Sarāv. Below the town of Miyānij the main stream receives on
its right bank the waters of the Hasht Rūd, ‘the Eight Streams,’
which have their sources in the hills to the east of Marāghah ;
and, in the time of Mustawfi, where the Hasht Rūd joined the
Miyānij river, there spanned it a great masonry bridge of thirty-
two arches.
The town of Miyānij or Miyānah, “the Middle Place,’ which
stands at the junction of all these streams, was an important
centre from the earliest times. Ibn Hawkal writes of it as very
populous in the 4th (1 oth) century, and its district—in later times
known under the name of the Garm Rūd-produced great quantities
of fruit. Mukaddasi, who gives the modern form of the name
Miyānah, praises its store of goods, and Yākūt, who had visited
it in the 6th (12th) century, extols its situation. In the following
century, when Mustawfi wrote, it had sunk to the size of a large
village, but was still an important stage on the road system
inaugurated by the Mongols. The climate was hot, and insect
pests were numerous (the Miyānah bug at the present day is a
terror to travellers), but the Garm Rūd district comprised over
a hundred fertile villages, and much corn was grown.
The three rivers called Sanjidah, Gadiv (or Kadpú, in the
Jahān Mumá), and Shāl, joined the Safid Rūd from the north,
coming down from the Khalkhāl district. Khalkhāl was also
the name of the chief town of this district, the position
of which is given in the Itinerary as I 2 leagues South of
Ardabil. Firſzābād, situated at the summit of the pass, where
there was a boiling spring bubbling up in the midst of the snow-
clad peaks, according to Mustawfi had in former times been the
XI] ADHARBAYJAN. 171
residence of the governor, but when it fell into ruin Khalkhāl
city took its place. The exact position of Firāzābād, however,
cannot now be fixed. The small towns of Kalūr and Shāl, which
are still to be found on the map, were of the Shāh Rūd district, and
lay on the Shāl river (now called the Lesser Shāh Rūd) which rose
in the Shál hills. Mustawfi mentions a number of other places
in Khalkhāl, the names of which, however, cannot now be
identified". -
The few products of Adharbäyjān will be described at the end
of the next chapter; and the summary of the high roads through
this province must be deferred to the conclusion of Chapter XV,
after describing the Jibál province, for these roads all start from
various points on the great Khurāsān road which traverses the
latter province,
* Ist. 189. I. H. 246, 253. Muk. 378. Yak. i. 239; iv. 7 Io. Mst. I 56,
I58, 198, 215, 218. J. N. 384, 388.
CHAPTER XII.
GilAN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES.
The Gīlāns. Daylam and the Tālish districts. Barvān, Dūlāb, and Khashm.
Lāhījān, Rasht, and other towns of Gīlān. The district of Mūghān.
Bajarvān and Barzand. Mahmūdābād. Warthán. The province of
Arrán. Bardhā‘ah. Baylakān. Ganjah and Shamkür. The rivers Kur
and Aras. The province of Shirvān. Shamākhi. Bākāyah and Bāb-al-
Abwab. The province of Gurjistán, or Georgia. Tiflis and Kars. The
province of Armenia. Dabil or Duwin. The lake of Vân. Akhlāt,
Arjish, Văn, and Bitlis. Products of the northern provinces.
The Safid Rūd, as described in the last chapter, after traversing
the chain of the Alburz mountains by a tortuous course, flows
into the Caspian Sea at the western end of its southern shore,
and here forms a delta with marshlands of some breadth backed
by the mountain chain. This delta of the Safid Rūd, with the
great amphitheatre of forest-clad foot-hills surrounding it on the
South and west, is the small province of Gilān, which the Arabs
called Jil or Jīlān, and which comprised three very different
districts'.
The alluvial delta lands are those more especially called Jil
or Jīlān by the Arab geographers, who when referring to the
whole province often give the name in the plural form, Jīlānāt,
‘the Gīlāns,’ which may then be taken to include the mountain
districts. To the south and west, the mountain range bordering
on the districts of Tālikån and Tārum in the Jibál province, was
the Daylam Country, generally also given in the plural form as
Ad-Daylamān; and this country became famous in history as
the original home of the Buyids, or Daylamites, whose chiefs
were masters of Baghdād, and of the Caliphate for the most part,
* For Gīlān see Map V, at the beginning of the following chapter.
CH. XII] GíLÄN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCEs. 173
during the 4th (1 oth) century. The narrow strip of shore and
mountain slope, running north from the south-west corner of the
Caspian, and facing east over that sea, is the Tālish country,
a name which Yākūt gives under the plural form Tālishân or
Tilshān. To the east, on the Tabaristán frontier, was the
mountain range of Ar-Rūbanj, beyond which came the hill
district belonging to the great Kärin family, whose chiefs had
from time immemorial been rulers of these fastnesses, as will be
further mentioned in Chapter XXVI.
When Mukaddasi wrote in the 4th (1 oth) century, and the
Buyid Supremacy was at its height, all Gilān, together with the
mountain provinces to the eastward and along the shore of
the Caspian, namely, Tabaristān, Jurjān, and Kūmis, were in-
cluded in the province of Daylam, but in later times these
eastern provinces came to be counted as separate. Afterwards
the name of Daylam itself for the most part fell out of use,
and the lowlands of the Safīd Rūd delta gave their name to the
whole of the adjacent district, which was commonly known as
the Jīlān province. More exactly, however, Jilán was the coast
district, while Daylam was the mountain region overhanging it,
and at different times either of these names in turn might be
taken commonly to include the whole province lying round the
South-western corner of the Caspian Sea".
The chief city of Daylam is said to have been called Rudhbār,
but its situation is unknown. Mukaddasi on the other hand says
the Capital was known as Barvān, but unfortunately it no longer
exists and none of the Itineraries give its exact position. Barvān,
Mukaddasi adds, had neither good houses nor good markets, and
possessed no Friday Mosque. Where the governor resided was
called the Shahrastán, and the merchants living here were wealthy,
so that it was a flourishing town. Of Jīlān, Mukaddasi gives
Dūlāb as the chief town, which he describes as a fine place, its
houses being well built of stone; the market was excellent, and a
Friday Mosque stood in it. According to Abu-l-Fidā Dūlāb is
* Ist. 204, 205, 206. I. H. 267, 268. Muk. 353. Yak. i. 174, 812;
ii. 179, 71 I; iii. 571. Mst. 147, 191. A. F. 426. The name of Tālish is
written with either the soft t, or the hard Arabic ; ; and in the plural as
Tālishân or Tilshān, also Tawālish in Mustawfi.
I74 GīlāN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCEs. [CHAP.
the same as Kaskar, and in the only Itinerary of this country
that has come down to us, Mukaddasi gives Dūlāb as lying four
marches from Baylamán, a small town like a farmstead accord-
ing to Abu-l-Fidā, which appears to have been one of the
chief places in the Tālish country. Two marches from the
Safid Rūd, and four from Baylamān, was the town of Khashm,
the residence of the Alid chief (the Dā'ī or Missioner), who in
the latter half of the 3rd (9th) century ruled these provinces as
an independent (heretical) sovereign, who did not acknowledge
the Caliph. Mukaddasi describes Khashm as having a fine
market and a Friday Mosque near the chief's palace. A river
ran through the town, which was crossed by a remarkable bridge
of boats. The identification and situation of all these early
towns is exceedingly uncertain'.
In the 8th (14th) century the chief towns of Gilān, according
to Mustawfi, were Lāhījān and Fūmin. Abu-l-Fidā also mentions
Lāhījān, which lies to the eastward of the mouth of the Safid Rūd.
It was then a fair-sized town ; much silk was manufactured here
and the district grew rice and Corn, also Oranges and shaddocks
with other fruits of a hot region. Kawtam or Kütam, nearer the
mouth of the Safid Rūd, was the harbour for ships coming from
other parts of the Caspian; it is mentioned by Yākūt and Abu-l-Fidā,
having been a place of much commerce in the 8th (14th) century,
and the town lay one day's march from the actual shore of the
Caspian. Fúmin with its district lies further inland, and to the
west of the Safid Rüd. It is counted as the chief town of the
mountain region of Daylam, and Mustawfi writes of it as a large
place standing in a fertile district growing much corn and rice.
Silk was also produced and manufactured here.
Mustawfi is one of the earliest authorities to describe Rasht,
now the capital of Gilān, but none of the Arab geographers appear
even to name it. He notices its warm damp climate, cotton and
silk being both largely produced for export, and the place
was already in his time of some size and importance. To the
westward of Rasht extends, at the present day, the district of
1 Ist. 204, 205. Muk. 355, 360, 373. A. F. 429 (where, in error, Bay-
lamán is printed BÍmán). Yak. ii. 831. For the Dā‘i dynasty of Alids
(Hasanids), see G. Melgunof, Das sidliche Ofer des Caspischen Meeres, p. 53.
XII] GilAN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES. I75
Túlim, and Mustawfi gives this as the name of an important town
in the 8th (13th) century. According to Abu-l-Fidā it was the
chief city of the Jīlān or lowlands; its districts were very fertile,
corn, Cotton, rice, Oranges, shaddocks and lemons being grown
for export. Shaft, or Shaftah, is the name of a town mentioned
in similar terms by Mustawfi, though at present only the Shaft
district exists, which lies to the southward of Rasht. Finally, as
of Gilān, Mustawfi mentions the little town of Isfahbad, which
Yākút spells Isfahbudhān, adding that it stood two miles distant
from the coast of the Caspian, but not otherwise indicating
its position ; corn, rice, and a little fruit were grown here, and in
the neighbouring district were near a hundred villages. The
name of the township came from the Isfahbads or Ispahbids,
who had been the semi-independent kings of this country under
the Sassanians, and who, nominally converted to Islam, continued
to rule as princes in Tabaristán under the earlier Caliphs".
Mūghān.
Mūghān, Mughkān, or Mūkān” is the name of the great
swampy plain which stretches from the base of Mount Sablán to
the east coast of the Caspian Sea, lying South of the mouth of the
river Aras, and north of the mountains of Tālish. It was some-
times counted as part of the Adharbäyjān province, but more
often formed a separate district.
The capital of Mūghān in the 4th (Ioth) century was a city of
the same name, the position of which it is difficult to fix. Mukad-
dasi speaks of Mūkān city as lying on two rivers, with gardens
all round, and as almost of the size of Tabriz. From his de-
scription it is not improbable that this Mūkān city was identical
with Bajarvān, which Mustawfi names as the older capital of the
district, and which in his day had already gone to ruin. The
position of Bajarvān he gives in his Itineraries as four leagues north
of Barzand, a name which is still found on the map. Further,
Moslem tradition connected Bajarvān with the Fountain of Life,
said to have been discovered near here by the prophet Khidr,
* Yak. i. 298; iv. 316. A. F. 426, 429. Mst. 191, 192. J. N. 343, 344.
* For Mūghān and the north-west frontier provinces see Map III, p. 87.
I76 GīlāN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCEs. [CHAP.
otherwise Elias. As already stated, to the south of Bajarvān lay
Barzand, which is described as a great city by Ibn Hawkal, and
Mukaddasi praises its markets, where goods from all the surround-
ing regions were collected for exportation, for this was the commer-
cial centre of the district. Mustawfi mentions both Bajarvān and
Barzand as sunk to be mere villages in his time; the climate in
the Surrounding districts was hot, and much corn was grown'.
In the Mūkān plain Mustawfi names the three towns of Pilsuvâr,
Mahmūdābād, and Hamshahrah. Pilsuvár, which stood on a
stream coming down from Bajarvān, lay at a distance of eight
leagues from the latter place, and it is said to have been so called
after the Amir Pil-Suwär sent here by the Buyids, whose name
signified ‘great rider or soldier.’ Mahmūdābād in the plain of
Gävlbâri, near the Caspian, was twelve leagues beyond Pilsuvâr,
and Mustawfi adds that it had been built by Ghâzân
Khān the Mongol. The neighbouring Hamshahrah was two
leagues from the coast, and originally had been known as Abra-
Shahr, or Būshahrah, having been founded, says Mustawfi, by
Farhad, son of Gūdarz, ‘whom they identify with Nebuchadnezzar.’
To the north of Bajarvān, in earlier times, was Balkhāb, de-
scribed as a populous village with guard-houses and hostelries for
travellers; and beyond this stage on the northern high road, and
upon the south bank of the Aras, was Warthán, at the crossing
into the Arrán country. In the 4th (Ioth) century Warthán was
a walled city with markets and much merchandise, having a
suburb without its gates. The place was very populous, standing
in a plain two leagues from the river bank, and its Friday Mosque
was in the suburb ; further, tradition averred that Warthán had
been built by order of Zubaydah, wife of Hārūn-ar-Rashidº.
A 7.7%m.
The provinces of Arrán, Shirvān, Georgia and Armenia, which
for the most part lay north of the river Araxes, were hardly
counted among the lands of Islam, and hence are but perfunctorily
described by the Arab geographers. From early days Moslems
* I. H. 251. Muk. 376, 378. Yak. i. 454, 562; iv. 686. Mst. I 59, 160,
198. J. N. 392.
* I. H. 251. Muk. 376. Yak. iv. 919. Mst. I60, 198. J. N. 393.
XII] GíIAN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES. 177
lived here, and governors were appointed at various times by the
Caliphs, but the majority of the population continued to be
Christian until near the close of the middle-ages. Hence it was
not till the resettlement subsequent to the Mongol invasion, and
more especially after the many campaigns which Timür waged in
Georgia at the close of the 8th (14th) century, when these lands
came to be permanently settled by the Turks, that Islam became
the dominant faith.
The province of Arrán is included in the great triangle of land
lying to the west of the junction point of the rivers Cyrus and
Araxes—the Kur and the Aras of the Arabs—and it is thus
‘between the two rivers’ (Bayn-an-Nahrayn) as Mustawfi calls it.
The earlier Arab geographers write the name Al-Răn (pronounced
Ar-A’ān) to give it the appearance of an Arabic word, and the
capital town in the 4th (Ioth) century was Bardhā‘ah, the
ruins of which still exist. Bardhā‘ah, later written Bardā‘, Ibn
Hawkal describes in the 4th (1 oth) century as measuring a league
across, and it was by far the largest city of these parts. It was
built in the form of a square, was protected by a fortress, and
stood about three leagues from the Kur river, on the bank
of its affluent the Tharthūr. Near by the town, in the Kur, was
caught the fish called Sarmāhī (otherwise Shūr-mâhî in Persian,
salt-fish), which after being salted was exported to all neighbouring
towns. This fish was also found in the Aras river near Warthán.
The fertile district round Bardhā‘ah was known by the name of
Al-Andarāb, where villages with continuous gardens and Orchards,
a day's journey across in every direction, produced abundant
fruits, especially chestnuts, filberts, and figs. In these parts also
the silkworm was reared.
A great market was held every Sunday outside Bardhā‘ah at
the Báb-al-Akrād, ‘the gate of the Kurds'; and the market-place
stretched a league in length. It was called locally Al-Kurki (from
the Greek Kuriakos, ‘the Lord's day’), and Sunday, we are told,
was here commonly known as the day of the Kurki. Bardhā‘ah
further had a fine Friday Mosque, the roof of which was supported
on wooden pillars, its walls being of burnt brick covered with
stucco. Also there were many hammāms, or hot-baths ; and in
Omayyad times the Treasury of the province was kept at
LE S. I 2
I78 GiláN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCEs. [CHAP.
Bardhā‘ah. In the 7th (13th) century, when Yākūt wrote,
Bardhá'ah had already fallen to ruin, though Mustawfi in the
following century still refers to it as a considerable town on the
river Tharthūr. At the crossing of the Kur, probably below the
junction of the Tharthár, and 18 leagues, counted as a day's
march, on the direct road from Bardhā‘ah to Shāmākhī in Shirvân,
was the town of Barzanj, much frequented by merchants, where
goods were stored for import and export". -
The city of Baylakān, known in Armenian as Phaidagaran,
became the capital of Arrán after the decay of Bardhā‘ah. Though
all traces of the town have now apparently disappeared, its
approximate position is clearly given by the Arab itineraries.
Baylakān lay 14 leagues south of Bardhā‘ah and seven or nine
leagues north of the Aras on the road up from Barzand, and it
still existed as a great place in the 9th (15th) century. Ibn
Hawkal in the 4th (Ioth) century describes it as a fine city,
watered by streams with many mills, and surrounded by gardens
and orchards. It was celebrated for a particular kind of syrup
made here. In the year 617 (1220) Baylakán was stormed by
the Mongols, who, finding no stones in the surrounding plain for
their mangonels, cut down the plane trees, sawed the trunks into
blocks, and shot these against the walls and houses of the city,
which was subsequently plundered and burnt. The population,
however, after a time returned, rebuilt their houses, and the place
regained its former prosperity. At the close of the 8th (14th)
century it was besieged and taken by Timür, who afterwards
caused it to be rebuilt, and a canal was dug from the river Aras,
six leagues in length and 15 ells in width, by which the new
town was well supplied with water. This canal was known as the
Barlāsī, from the Barlās tribe, from which Timár was sprung.
Two other cities of Arrán are also mentioned, both of which
lie to the north-west of Bardhā‘ah, on the road to Tiflis. The
first of these is Ganjah (now better known as Elizabetpol), which
the Arab geographers write Janzah, and its river is called by
Kazwini the Kirdkäs. Further to the north-west again lay
Shamkür, the ruins of which still exist, and this town in the 3rd
* Ist. 182, 183, 187, 188. I. H. 24o, 24 I, 244, 251. Muk. 374, 375.
Yak. i. 558, 562. Mst. 16o. Kaz. ii. 344.
XII] GīlāN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCEs. 179
(9th) century was known as Mutawakkiliyah, from having been
rebuilt by orders of the Caliph Mutawakkil in the year 240 (854)".
The two rivers bounding the province of Arrán, which the
Greeks knew as the Araxes and the Cyrus, are called by the Arabs
the Nahr-ar-Rass (or Aras) and the Nahr-al-Kurr (or Kur). The
Aras rises in the Kālikalā country of western Armenia, and after
passing along the northern frontiers of Adharbäyjān joins the river
Kur (according to Mustawfi) in the Karābāgh country in the eastern
part of Arrán. The river Kur rises in the mountains west of
Tiflis in Georgia, namely, in the country of the Khazars, which
comprised the districts of Abkhâs and Allân. Passing Tiflis the
Kur flows down to Shamkår, and here, according to Mustawfi,
sends off a branch, or canal, which ends in the great Shamkür
swamp or lake. The Kur, after being joined by the Aras river
some distance below Bardhā‘ah, flows out to the Caspian in the
Gushtāsfi district”.
S/ºrwän.
Beyond the Kur river, and along the Caspian where the
Caucasus range sinks to the sea, is the Shirvân province, of which
the capital was Ash-Shamākhiyah, now called Shāmākhi or
Shāmākhā. In the 4th (Ioth) century Mukaddasi describes this
as a stone-built town, at the foot of the mountains, surrounded by
gardens. Its governor, the ruler of the province, was called the
Shirvân Sháh. Much corn was grown here, and in the neighbour-
hood, according to Moslem tradition as reported by Mustawfi, was
to be seen both the Rock of Moses (referred to in the Kurán,
XVIII. 62) and the site of the Fountain of Life, already mentioned
as also localised in Bajarvān. Two other towns of the Shirvân
* No trace of the ruins of Baylakān appear on the Russian ordnance map.
I. K. I 22. Kud. 213. Ist. 187, 189. I. H. 244, 251. Muk. 376. Yak. i.
797; iii. 322. Kaz. ii. 345, 351. A. Y. ii. 543, 545. Mst. 16o.
* In the Jahān AWumá (396, 397) a long description of both the Aras and
the Kur, with their various affluents, is given. This serves to correct Mustawfi,
also to elucidate the campaigns of Timür in Georgia, though many of the names
of towns cannot now be identified. Ist. 189. I. H. 246. Muk. 379. Kaz.
i. 184; ii. 331. Mst. 2 13, 215.
I 2—2
18o GīlāN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCEs. [CHAP.
province are mentioned by Mukaddasi and other early authorities,
the sites of which have not been fixed, namely Shåbarān, chiefly
inhabited by Christians, which is said to have stood 20 leagues
distant from Darband, and the city of Shirvân, which lay in the
plain, having a Friday Mosque in its market-place. The latter
was three days’ march from the capital Shāmākhi on the road to
Darband.
The northernmost place in Shirvân was Bāb-al-Abwab, “the
Gate of Gates,’ as the Arabs called Darband, the famous port on
the Caspian. Ibn Hawkal says that in the 4th (Ioth) century the
town was larger than Ardabil, then the capital of Adharbäyjān.
The harbour was protected by two moles, stretching out into the
sea, and at their extremity was a water-gate, closed by chains, so
that no ship could go out or in except by permission. These
moles were built of blocks of stone fastened by lead joints.
A stone wall enclosed the town, and it had two gates, the
Great Gate and the Little Gate, besides the Water Gate aforesaid;
and the walls had towers. The linen stuffs which were made in
Darband were largely exported, also Saffron from the neighbouring
countryside. -
There was a fine mosque in the market-place of Bāb-al-Abwab,
which was here the frontier town of Islam, for the place in early
days was surrounded by infidel folk. Yākūt gives a long account
of the various tribes inhabiting the mountains and highlands of
the Caucasus to the westward, among which he says that seventy
different languages were spoken, and no man could understand that
of his neighbour. Of these the Khazars, from whom the Caspian
Sea, generally called the Bahr-al-Khazar, took its name, were the
most important. Yākūt also describes the great wall which ran
along the hill-crests westward from Darband, built to keep out
the Barbarians, which had been erected, it was said, by King
Anthshirvân of Persia in the sixth century A. D. The river Samūr,
which flows into the Caspian a short distance to the south of
Darband, is described by Mukaddasi under the name of the Nahr-
al-Malik, ‘the King's River,’ otherwise the Nahr-as-Samūr, and
there was a bridge of boats (/isr) across it, some 20 leagues from
Darband, on the road coming up from Shāmākhi.
The port of Bākūh, or Bākāyah (modern Báká), lies south of
XII] GíIAN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES. 181
Darband, and Istakhri refers to its well-known naphtha springs.
Yākūt and others describe these in detail, the produce was worth a
thousand dirhams (A40) a day; the naphtha flowed continuously,
and all the ground was on fire round and about. Mustawfi speaks
of the castle of Bākūyah, which being high placed above the
town kept it in shadow at midday. To the south of Bākūh was
the Gushtāsfi district, near the mouth of the Kur river, from
which its lands were watered by a canal, much corn and cotton
being grown here. Lastly, in the mountains near Darband was
the fortress of Kabalah, where according to Mukaddasi there was
a mosque on a hill. Kabalah is more than once mentioned in the
Campaigns of Timür, Mustawfi adding that both silk and corn are
of its produce'.
Gurſistón.
Gurjistān, which we call Georgia, and Abkhās, otherwise
Abkhasia, were lands that only became Moslem districts after
the campaign of Timür in these parts, at the close of the 8th
(14th) century. Tiflis, the capital of Gurjistān, on the upper
waters of the river Kur, was, however, well known to the geo-
graphers of the 4th (Ioth) century. Ibn Hawkal describes it as
possessing double walls, strongly fortified, with three gates. There
were natural hot-baths in Tiflis where hot springs gushed out in
the river bed, and the surrounding country was extremely fertile.
The town lay on both banks of the Kur, and a bridge of boats,
Mukaddasi writes, connected the two quarters.
The neighbouring district of Abkhās, or Abkhāz, was according
to Mukaddasi to be counted as of the Jabal-al-Kabk, the Caucasus.
Here stood the village of Jonah, Kariyat Yūnis, inhabited by
Moslems, and round this were the tribes of the Gurj (Georgians),
Allân, and others. Many rivers flowed down from the mountain
of Alburz, according to Mustawfi, who further mentions Kars as
one of the chief towns of Georgia”.
* Ist. 184, 189, 190. I. H. 241, 251. Muk. 376, 379, 381. Yak. i. 437,
477; iii. 225, 282, 317; iv. 32. Mst. I 59–161. Kaz. ii. 389. A. Y. i. 406.
* Ist. 185. I. H. 242. Muk. 375–377. Mst. 161, 202. Yak. i. 78,
350, 857. Mustawfi always writes of /ībāl Alburz, ‘the Alburz mountains,’ in
182 GilAN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES. [CHAP.
Armenia.
Great Armenia (spelt Arminiyah, in Arabic) was divided into
Inner and Outer, and though mostly inhabited by Christians, was
brought under Moslem rule at an early period. The country lay
comprised within the great knot of mountains lying between the
lake of Vân and the Gukchah lake, and from these highlands the
Aras river and the two branches of the Euphrates took their
rise.
The capital of Moslem Armenia in early times was Dabil,
otherwise called Duwin or Tovin, now marked by a small village
to the south of Erivan, near the Aras river. In the 4th (10th)
century Dabil was a larger town than Ardabil, and was the chief
place in Inner Armenia. It was a walled town, having three
gates, and a Friday Mosque stood here side by side with the
church. Mount Ararat, with its double peak, towered above
Dabil to the south, across the Araxes. As already said (p. 94)
Moslem tradition identified Jabal Jūdī, in Upper Mesopotamia,
as the mount on whose summit the Ark of Noah had come to
rest. Ararat, in Armenia, they called Jabal-al-Härith (of ‘the
Labourer’ or “Ploughman,’ or else Al-Hárith was taken as the
proper name of a pre-Islamic Arab who had settled in these parts).
The lesser peak of Ararat was called Al-Huwayrith, ‘Little Hä-
rith,’ and Istakhri says that both summits were always covered
with snow, and they were not to be scaled by reason of their
great height and steepness. The people of Dabil cut firewood on
their slopes, and hunted the abundant game here, and Muk-
addasi adds that a thousand hamlets were situated among the
spurs flanking the great mountain. The wool stuffs of Dabil,
dyed red with the kirmiz insect, were famous. In the 4th (1 oth)
century Mukaddasi describes Dabil as peopled by Kurds, and the
Christians, he says, had the upper hand. Outside the town was
the plural, meaning the range; but he uses the term vaguely, and only one part
of these corresponded with the Caucasus chain. At the present day Alburz,
generally pronounced Elburz, or Elbruz, is the name of the highest mountain
peak of the Caucasus; and in Persia Alburz is now used to designate the
great range of mountains (of which Damāvand is the highest peak) lying to the
north of Tihrān,
XII] GÍLÄN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCEs. 183
a great suburb surrounded by gardens. Ani, the older capital of
Christian Armenia, which was taken and sacked in 456 (1064) by
Alp Arslān the Saljúk, is mentioned by Mustawfi as a town in
the mountains where much fruit was grown. At some distance to
the north-east of Dabil lies the sweet-water lake, called Gukchah
Tangiz (the Blue Lake) by ‘Ali of Yazd ; this, however, does
not appear to be named by any earlier Moslem authority than
Mustawfi".
The lake of Vân, or of Arjish as it is called by the earlier
authorities, was naturally the best known of the Armenian lakes,
having on its shores the cities of Akhlāt, Arjish, Văn, and Vastān.
Istakhri describes it as twenty leagues in length, and it was cele-
brated for the fish called tirrikh (of the herring kind and still
caught here in immense numbers) which after being salted was in
the 7th (13th) century exported to Mesopotamia, and even to the
furthest parts of Khurāsān, for Yākūt says he bought some of this
Salt fish in Balkh. The waters of the lake were salt and bitter.
Akhlāt, or Khilāt, at the western end of the lake, was one of the
largest cities of Armenia. Mustawfi describes it as standing in a
plain, surrounded by gardens, and dominated by a fortress. The
Friday Mosque stood in the market-place. The cold here was
severe in winter, but the town was very populous; it stood on the
banks of a small stream across which was a bridge; and Mustawfi
praises the gardens of the neighbouring district. Above Akhlāt
was the great mountain called Kūh Sipán, visible, says Mustawfi,
fifty leagues away, and its Summit was always snow-clad.
Arjish, a town on the northern shore of the lake, to which
it frequently gave its name, according to Mustawfi, had been
strongly fortified by the Wazir ‘Alī Shāh by order of Ghāzān
Khān in the 8th (14th) century, and the country round was
famous for its corn lands. Further to the east was the town of
Bärkiri, or Bahargiri, near Band-i-Mähi (the Fish Dam), on the
road from Arjish to Khuwi (Khoi) in Adharbäyjān, and it is
described by Mustawfi as having a strong Castle crowning a hill.
Its river came down from the Alātāk pastures, where the il-Khān,
Arghún, had built his great summer palace in the midst of
* Ist. 188, 19 I. I. H. 244. Muk. 374, 377, 38o. Yak. ii. 183, 549.
Mst. 126, 161, 164. A. Y. i. 414, 415; ii. 378. Ibn-al-Athir, x. 25.
184 GilAN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCEs. [CH. XII
carefully preserved hunting grounds. The city of Vân, which at
the present day gives its name to the lake, stands near its eastern
shore; but we have no description of it. The fortress of Vastám
or Vastān lies on the south shore and is spoken of by Mustawfi,
in the 8th (14th) century, as having a large town near it.
Finally near the south-western corner of the lake lies Badlis
(Bitlis), described by Mukaddasi as situated in a deep gorge where
two streams met. A castle built of stone protected the town, and
according to Yākūt the apples grown in its district were so ex-
cellent as to be largely exported to all neighbouring lands'.
The products of these northern provinces were few, and the
manufactures consisted chiefly of stuffs dyed red with the kirmiz,
an insect that fed on the oak trees growing throughout Adharbāy-
jān, and gave its name to the ‘Cramoisie’ silks, being the origin of
our words ‘crimson’ and ‘carmine.” Ibn Hawkal and Mukad-
dasi both describe the kirmiz. The former says it was a worm
like the silkworm, spinning for itself a cocoon exactly like the
silkworm’s cocoon ; Mukaddasi, on the other hand, writes that
the kirmiz insect, or worm, was found on the earth, and that the
women went out to gather it up, and afterwards dried it in an
oven on brass pans. Silk, goat's-hair stuffs, linen, and wool were
dyed with it, and the colour was famous in all lands. Armenia in
general was also noted for its girdles, ribbed coverlets, carpets,
rugs, cushions and veils; these commodities with figs, walnuts,
and the salted tirrikh fish from lake Văn already noticed, were
the chief exports, and might all be found in great store at Dabil.
The town of Bardhā‘ah was also celebrated for the silk produced
in its neighbourhood, and from the Countryside, as from Bāb-al-
Abwab, great numbers of mules were obtained for export; while
lastly from the latter port, otherwise called Darband, came slaves
brought thither from out of the northern lands”.
1 Ist. 188, 190. I. H. 245, 248. Muk. 377. Yak. i. 526; ii. 457. Kaz.
ii. 352. Mst. 164, 165, 205, 226. J. N. 4II, 412. A. Y. i. 685, 688.
* I. H. 244. Muk. 38o, 38I.
CHAPTER XIII.
JIBAL.
The province of Al-Jibál, or ‘Irāk ‘Ajam, with its four districts. Kirmasin
or Kirmānshāhān. Bisutān and its sculptures. Kanguvâr. Dinavar.
Shahrazūr. Hulwān. The great Khurāsān road. Kirind. Kurdistán
under the Saljåks. Bahár. Jamjamál. Alâni and Alīshtar. Hamadán
and its districts. Darguzin. Kharakānayn and the northern Avah.
Nihāvand. Karaj of Rûdrāvar, and Karaj of Abu-Dulaf. Farāhān.
The broad mountain region, which the Greeks called Media,
stretching across from the Mesopotamian plains on the west to
the great desert of Persia on the east, was known to the Arab
geographers as the province of Al-Jibál, ‘the Mountains.’ This
name afterwards fell out of use, and during the 6th (12th) century
under the later Saljúks, the province came by a misnomer to be
called ‘Irāk ‘Ajami, which means Persian ‘Irák, being so named to
distinguish it from the older ‘Irāk of the Arabs, which was Lower
Mesopotamia'.
How this change in the name came about would appear to
have been as follows. Al-‘Irák, as already said (Chapter II, p. 25,
note), besides being the Moslem denomination for the lower half
of Mesopotamia, was commonly, but in the dual form, applied
* “Ayam or ‘Ayamí is the name originally applied by the Arabs to a
“foreigner,” or non-Arab, as the Greeks used the term Barbarian. Since the
Persians were the first foreigners with whom the Arabs came into contact
‘Ajam and ‘Ajami soon became specialised to mean ‘the Persian foreigner,’
and as the equivalent of ‘Persian' is in use at the present time. Şābāl is in
Arabic the plural of Jabal, ‘a hill.” Abu-l-Fidá (p. 408) has the double name;
he writes ‘Bilād-al-Jabal (Provinces of the Mountain) which is called by the
people ‘Irāk-al-‘Ajam (Persian ‘Irāk).’
I86 JIBAL. [CHAP.
by the Arabs to the two chief provincial cities, Kūfah and Basrah,
which hence were known as Al-‘Iråkayn—meaning “the Two
(capitals of) ‘Iråk.’ This was the older and classical usage; but
in the latter part of the 5th (11th) century the Saljúks had come
to rule over all western Persia, having their capital at Hamadän,
and they also governed Mesopotamia, where the Abbasid Caliph
resided. From him they received the title of Sultân of the Two
‘Iråks, which seemed fitting to their case, and the second of the
two ‘Iråks soon came to be understood as meaning the province
of Jibál, where the Saljuk prince more especially resided, which
thus by the vulgar came to be known for distinction as Persian
‘Iråk. This is the account of the matter given by Yākūt, who
states that the Persians in his day, but incorrectly and as a modern
usage, called the province Persian ‘Iråk. Yākūt himself uses
the older name of Al-Jibal, for which his contemporary Kazvini,
writing also in Arabic, gives the Persian equivalent of Kuhistān
(the Mountain province). The name Jibál, however, apparently
became completely obsolete after the Mongol conquest, and Mus-
tawfi in the 8th (14th) century nowhere uses it. He divides the
older Jibál province into two parts, the smaller being Kurdistán
on the west, the larger moiety Persian ‘Irāk on the east; and the
name of ‘Irāk is still in use at the present day, for that part of
the older Jibal province which lies south-west of Tihrān is now
locally known as the ‘Irăk district".
Four great cities—Kirmisin (later Kirmānshāh), Hamadän,
Ray, and Isfahân-were from early days the chief towns of the
four quarters of this province. In Buyid times, namely in the
4th (Ioth) century, according to Ibn Hawkal, the offices of the
government were at Ray; at the close of the next century
Hamadān became the capital under the Persian Saljúks; but at all
times Isfahân would appear to have been the largest and generally
the most flourishing city of the Jibál province. In the present
work it will be found convenient to describe the province as .
divided into the dependencies of its four great cities, and to begin
with the western quarter, that dependent on Kirmānshāh, which
since the days of the Saljúks has been commonly known as
Kurdistān, signifying the land of the Kurds.
* Yak. ii. 15. Kaz. ii. 228. Mst. 14 I.
XIII] JIBAL. 187
The capital city of Kirmānshāhān, a name generally curtailed
to Kirmānshāh, was by the earlier Arabs known as Kirmisin
(written also Kirmāsīn and Kirmāshin). In the 4th (1 oth)
century it is described by Ibn Hawkal as a pleasant town
surrounded by trees, with running waters, where fruit was cheap
and all commodities abundant. Mukaddasi, who is the first to
mention the Persian name of Kirmānshāhān, adds that there was
a Great Mosque in the market-place, and that 'Adud-ad-Dawlah
the Buyid had built himself a fine palace here in the main street
of the city. Kazvini in the 7th (13th) century speaks of Kirmisin
as standing close to Kirmānshāhān, as though these were twin
cities; Yākūt, who gives both names, says little of the town, con-
fining himself to a description of the sculptures and ruins on the
neighbouring mountain of Bihistán. The Mongol invasion in the
7th (13th) century effected the ruin of Kirmānshāh, which
Mustawfi in the following century describes as reduced in his day
to the size of a village, the name of which ‘in books’ was, he says,
still written Kirmisin (since his time become obsolete), and he
too is chiefly concerned with describing the Bihistān or Bisuttin
sculptures. -
These are on the side, and at the foot of the great mountain
of black rocks, about a day's march to the east of Kirmānshāh,
near the Khurāsān road, and they consist of remains dating from
the Achaemenian kings (5th century B.C.) and the Sassanians
(7th century A.D.). They are described in the 4th (1 oth) century
by Istakhri and Ibn Hawkal, who write the name of the mountain
Bihistān and Bisutān, adding that the sculptures were to be found
near the village of Sāsāniyān, doubtless the same village which
Mustawfi in the 8th (14th) century called Vastám or Bastám and
which is now known as Tāk-i-Bustān, ‘the Garden Arch.’ Here
the well-known sculpture of Darius receiving the tributary kings,
with the trilingual cuneiform inscription, is referred to by Ibn
Hawkal, who describes it as being ‘the representation in stone of
a school-house, with the master and the boys; further (he adds)
in the school-master's hand is an instrument like a strap wherewith
to beat ; also there be cauldrons as used in a kitchen sculptured
in stone.’ In regard to the Sassanian Sculptures, added over a
thousand years later, these are chiefly in and about a grotto, where
I88 JIBAL. [CHAP.
there is a spring of water gushing out at the foot of the great
mountain and, according to Ibn Hawkal, repeated by all later
Persian authorities, they represent King Khusraw Parviz on his
celebrated horse Shibdāz (or Shabdiz), while above him stands
the beautiful Queen Shīrīn, her portrait adorning the roof of the
grotto aforesaid. Somewhat defaced, these sculptures exist at the
present day, and have been more than once figured and described.
Yākūt who quotes the travels of Ibn Muhalhal, 4th (Ioth) century,
and Mustawfi, give in some detail the popular legends of their
time. The story of Khusraw and Shīrīn, and of her lover the
sculptor Farhād who in despair slew himself, will be found
localised in many of the neighbouring places; the incidents are
well known, both from the Sháh Māmah of Firdasi, and from
Nizāmi's great poem (which Mustawfi quotes) called the ‘Loves
of Khusraw and Shīrīn".’
Overhanging Kirmānshāh to the north, and on the left hand
of one travelling along the great Khurāsān road, was the isolated
hill called Sinn Sumayrah, “Sumayrah's Tooth,’ whence the
northern road started leading to Dinavar and the Adharbäyjān
province. ‘Sumayrah's Tooth' was so called from an Arab
woman of that name, celebrated for her projecting teeth, and the
Moslems gave the hill this nickname in jest, as they marched past
it to the conquest of Nihāvand. Eastward beyond Bisutān, on
the great Khurāsān road, lies the village of Sihnah, as mentioned
by Istakhri, and still existing though not to be confused with the
modern town of Sihnah to be spoken of later. Beyond Sihnah
village lies Kanguvár, which the Arabs called Kasr-al-Lusís, “the
Robbers’ Castle,’ from the evil ways of the inhabitants, who at the
time of the first Moslem conquest stole all the baggage animals of
the army sent against Nihāvand. There was here, according to
Ibn Rustah and others, a great arched building standing on
a platform, and dating from the days of Khusraw Parviz, being
constructed with columns and of mortared brickwork. The town
of Kanguvár was of considerable size, and had a Friday Mosque
* I. R. 166. Ykb. 270. Ist. 195, 203. I. H. 256, 265, 266. Muk. 284,
393. Kaz. ii. 290. Yak. iii. 250; iv. 69. Mst. 168, 203. J. N. 451.
Bihistán is the older form. Bisutān, meaning “without pillars’ in Persian, i.e.
unsupported, is probably the result of popular etymology.
XIII] JIBAL. I89
built by Múnis the chamberlain of the Caliph Muktadir. Yākūt
asserts that the platform, where the Sassanian buildings stood, was
20 ells above the ground level, and Mustawfi adds that the great
stones for its construction had been bróught from the mountain
of Bisutān".
About 25 miles to the westward of Kanguvár are the ruins of
Dinavar, which in the 4th (Ioth) century was the capital of the
Small independent dynasty named after Hasanawayh, or Hasanāyah,
the Kurdish chief of the dominant tribe settled in these parts. At
the time of the Moslem conquest of Persia Dinavar had received
the name of Māh-al-Kàfah, ‘because (as Ya‘kūbi writes) its
revenues were apportioned to the payment of the state pensions
of the inhabitants of Kāfah '; and Māh Kūfah for a time became
the common name for the city and its surrounding territory. Ibn
Hawkal in the 4th (Ioth) century describes Dinavar as two-thirds
the size of Hamadān, and the population as more urbane and
better mannered than the Hamadān people. Mukaddasi adds
that the markets were well built, the surrounding gardens being
very fruitful. The Great Mosque, which had been built by
Hasanawayh, stood in the market-place, and Over the pulpit
rose a fine dome that was ornamented with sculptures. Dinavar
was still an inhabited town when Mustawfi wrote in the 8th (14th)
century; the climate was temperate, water plentiful, corn and
grapes being abundantly grown. The place probably fell to its
present state of ruin after the conquest of Timür, who according
to ‘Ali of Yazd left some of his troops in garrison here.
Probably in the neighbourhood of Dinavar, but the site
appears to be as yet unknown, stood the great Castle of Sarmāj,
described by Yākāt as impregnable, being built of hewn stones
by Hasanawayh, who died here in 369 (979), after a glorious
reign, according to Ibn-al-Athir, of nearly fifty years. In the
next century Sarmāj was taken after a four years' siege in 441
(1049) by Tughril Beg the Saljúk, who, however, had to bring
together an army of Ioo,ooo men before he could force his
brother Yunnal out of this almost impregnable stronghold”.
* Ist. 196. I. H. 256. I. R. 167. Muk. 393. Yak. iii. 50, 169; iv. 120,
381. The name of the village is spelt either Sihnah or Sihnah. Mst. 168.
* Ykb. 17 I. I. H. 260. Muk. 394. Mst. 167. Yak. iii. 82. A. Y. ii.
I90 JIBAL. [CHAP.
About sixty miles north of the ruins of Dinavar stands at the
present day the important town of Sihnah, which is the modern
Capital of the Persian province of Kurdistân, though under this
name it is not mentioned by any of the medieval Arab or Persian
geographers. In the position of the modern Sihnah, however,
according to the itineraries of Ibn Khurdādbih and Kudāmah,
stood, during the middle-ages, the city of Sisar, a name which
Yākūt rightly says means in Persian ‘Thirty Heads.” The neigh-
bourhood of Sisar abounded in springs and was known as the
Sad-Khāniyah—“the Hundred Houses’ or Heads of Water—
from the number of these springs. The Caliph Amin had built
a fortress here, which his more celebrated brother Mamūn had
garrisoned, taking into his pay the Kurdish tribes who held the
surrounding pastures, and using them in the civil war against his
brother, whom he deprived later on of the Caliphate. Sisar was
Counted as One of the 24 sub-districts of Hamadān; and it is
possible that the modern name of Sihnah may be merely a corrup-
tion of Sad-Khāniyah, shortened to Si-Khānah, “Thirty Houses,’
but of this there is no direct evidence.
Four marches north-west of Dinavar was the town of Shah-
razūr, standing in the district of the same name. Ibn Hawkal,
in the 4th (Ioth) century, mentions Shahrazūr as a walled and
fortified town inhabited by Kurds, whose tribes he names; they
Occupied all the surrounding region, which was most fruitful. The
traveller Ibn Muhalhal (as quoted by Yākūt) describes in the 4th
(Ioth) century the many towns and villages of this district, and the
chief town, he says, was known among the Persians as Nim-Ráh,
or ‘the Half-way House,’ because it stood at the middle stage
between Madáin (Ctesiphon) and Shiz, the two great fire-temples
of Sassanian times. The neighbouring mountains were called
Sha‘rān and Zalam, where according to Kazvíní a species of
53o. Ibn-al-Athir, viii. 518, 519; ix. 38o. According to Yākūt (iv. 405) the
Persian word Máh is synonymous with Kasbah (chief town) in Arabic. The
prefix //ă/, which occurs in the older names for Dinavar and Nihāvand, is in
Old Persian /l/ada, and as a place-name is radically the same word which has
come down to us, through the Greeks, in the form of Media and the Medes.
The ruins of Dinavar have been lately visited, and are described by De Morgan,
A/ission en Perse, ii. 95, 96.
XIII] JIBAL. I9 I
grain was grown that was deemed a powerful aphrodisiac. The
Kurds in this region, when Ibn Muhalhal visited the place,
numbered 6o, ooo tents, and when Mustawfi wrote in the 8th
(14th) century Shahrazūr was still a flourishing town, and in-
habited by Kurds". -
The great Khurāsān road, which, as already described in our
first chapter, went eastwards from Baghdād to the uttermost
limits of Moslem lands, after crossing the Mesopotamian plain
entered the mountainous region of Persia at Hulwān, a town of
the Jibál province, which however was sometimes counted as of
Arabian ‘Irāk. Ibn Hawkal says that in the 4th (Ioth) century
Hulwān was half the size of Dinavar, and its houses were built of
both stone and clay bricks. Though the climate was hot, dates,
pomegranates, and figs growing abundantly, Snow could all the
summer through be found on the mountains two leagues above
the city. Mukaddasi adds that there was an old castle in the
town within which stood the mosque, and the city wall had
eight gates, the names of which he enumerates. Outside the
town stood a synagogue of the Jews, much venerated by them,
which was built of squared stones set in mortar. In the 7th (13th)
century, when Kazvíní wrote, Hulwān was already in ruins, but
famous for its sulphur Springs. In the next century Mustawfi
praises its crops, but says that the town stood desolate, except
for divers shrines of Moslem Saints, though the surrounding
territory comprised thirty villages.
Along the Khurāsān road, and four leagues above Hulwān
towards Kirind, lay Mādharūstān, where according to Yākūt
might be seen a great arched building surmounting a platform.
This had formed part of the palace of the Sassanian king Bahrām
Gūr, who laid out a paradise round it that, in Yākūt's days, had
long gone to ruin. Six leagues beyond this comes the town of
Kirind, which is apparently first mentioned by Mustawfi in the
8th (14th) century; he couples Kirind with the neighbouring
village called Khūshān, which however has now completely
disappeared, though Mustawfi describes it as in his day more
* I. K. 120. Kud. 212. I. H. 263, 265. Yak. iii. 216, 34o; iv. 988.
Raz. ii. 266. Mst. 167. The district of Shahrazūr still keeps the name, the
old city stood where are the ruins now known as Yasin Tappah.
I92 JIBAL. [CHAP.
populous even than Kirind. These two places lie together at
the head of the Hulwān pass, in a fertile plain, and correspond
in position—for as already said neither are mentioned by the
earlier Arab geographers—with the station of Marj-al-Kal‘ah (the
Meadow Castle), which Ibn Hawkal describes as a great walled
town surrounded by populous and fertile districts. Ya'kübi states
that in these pastures the Abbasid Caliph kept his stud of horses.
Four leagues beyond these pastures the high road passed Tazar,
where, according to Mukaddasi, might be seen the remains of a
palace of the Chosroes, built Yākūt records by one Khusrājird, Son
of Shahān. Tazar had good markets, and it appears to be
identical with Kasr Yazid (Yazīd's palace or castle), mentioned
by other authorities. Six leagues beyond Tazar again was Az-
Zubaydiyah, ‘a fine healthy place’ according to Ibn Hawkal, the
position of which on the high road shows it to be identical with
the present village of Hārūnābād. Here the Khurāsān road turns
east, and crossing the plain of Māyidasht (or Māhīdasht) runs
direct to Kirmānshāh. The Mâyidasht plain is described by
Mustawfi as in his day dotted with some fifty villages, surrounded
by excellent pasture lands that were well watered from the neigh-
bouring hills. In this region was the castle of Harsin with a small
town at its base, which still exists, lying about 20 miles to the
south-east of Kirmānshāh".
As regards the Origin of the Kurdistân province, it is stated
that about the middle of the 6th (12th) century Sultân Sanjar the
Saljúk divided off the western part of the Jibál province, namely
the region which was dependent on Kirmānshāh, and giving it the
name of Kurdistân put it under the government of his nephew
Sulaymān Shāh, surnamed Abūh (or Ayūh), who, at a later period
—that is from 554 to 556 (1 I 59 to II61)—succeeded his uncle as
chief of the house of Saljúk and Sultan of the Two ‘Iråks. This
is the account given by Mustawfi, who states that under Sulaymān
Shāh Kurdistân flourished greatly, and its revenues then amounted
to two million gold dinārs (equivalent to about a million sterling),
* I. H. 168, 256, 262. I. R. 165. Ykb. 270. Muk. 123, 135, 393.
Kaz. ii. 239, 302. Mst. I 38, 168. Yak. iii. 537; iv. 382. J. N. 450. The
ruins of Hulwān exist at the village now called Sar-i-Pul (Bridge-head), where
a bridge crossed the stream.
XIII] JIBAL. I93
which was near ten times the sum yielded by the province in the
8th (14th) century under the Mongols, when Mustawfi was their
revenue officer. Sulaymān Shāh made Bahár—a town that still
exists, lying some eight miles to the north of Hamadān-his
capital; and here there was a strong castle. In Mongol times
a second capital was built, by Uljaytū Sultān, at Sultānābād
Jamjamál (or Chamchamāl) near the foot of the Bisutān moun-
tain, and this town Mustawfi describes as standing in a rich
country where much corn was grown. Of Jamjamál, or Cham-
chamál, the position is given in his itineraries (four leagues from
Sihnah village, and six from Kirmānshāh) and its ruins still exist,
being marked on the map at the spot indicated. The town is
frequently mentioned by ‘Ali of Yazd when describing the
marches of Timúr through Kurdistân.
Among other towns which occur in the description of the
campaigns of Timür, and which are noticed by Mustawfi, are
Darband Tāj Khātūn, “a medium-sized town now for the most
part in ruin,’ and Darband Zangi, a smaller place, which had good
pasture grounds with a temperate climate. Both towns apparently
have disappeared from the map ; but Darband means ‘a pass,”
and from ‘Ali of Yazd, who writes the name of the first as Darband-
Tāshi-Khātūn, these two Darbands would appear to have stood on
the western frontier of Kurdistán (between Shahrazūr and Hulwān),
among the hills that here dominate the plains of Mesopotamia.
Mustawfi also mentions four other towns in Kurdistän, namely
Alâni, Alishtar, Khuftiyān, and Darbīl, as important places in his
day, but it is not easy now to identify their sites. Alâni, for which
some MSS. give the reading Alâbi, in the 8th (14th) century was
presumably one of the chief towns of the province, though no
other authority but Mustawfi appears to mention it. Its lands grew
wheat crops, it had a good climate, well-watered pastures lying
round it, and there were well-stocked hunting grounds in the
neighbourhood. At Alishtar also was an ancient fire-temple called
Ardahish (Artıkhsh or Arakhash). Unfortunately none of the
Itineraries give its position; but the plain of Alishtar still exists, and
probably one of its ruined sites is the town mentioned by Mus-
tawfi. It is doubtless identical with the town of Lishtar or Lāshtar
mentioned by Ibn Hawkal and others as lying Io leagues south-
LE S. I 3
I94 JIBAL. [CHAP.
west of Nihāvand, being 12 leagues north of Sābūrkhwäst. On the
other hand the reading of the name Alishtar is, it must be admitted,
extremely doubtful; many of the best MSS., also the Turkish /a/úm ,
Mumá, give Al-Bashr, and a variety of other forms occur. Nothing
is known of Khuftiyān (for which the /a/.6m AWumá gives Hakshi-
yān, and the MSS. a variety of readings) except that it was a strong
castle surrounded by villages lying on the banks of the Zăb river;
but whether this was the Upper or the Lower Zāb is not indicated.
Its site is unknown and the same is the case with Darbīl (or
Dizbil), ‘a medium-sized town with a good climate,’ the position
of which is not even approximately indicated by Mustawfi. This
concludes his notice of the Kurdistân district'.
Hamadān (which name the Arabs wrote Hamadhān)” is the
ancient Ecbatana, the capital of the province of Media. Ibn
Hawkal in the 4th (Ioth) century describes Hamadhán as a large
fine city, over a league square, which had been rebuilt since the
Moslem conquest. Its walls had four gates, and without them was
a suburb. There was much merchandise in its markets, and the
surrounding district was very fertile, producing large crops, more
especially saffron. Mukaddasi adds that the town possessed three
rows of markets, and that in one of these stood the Great Mosque,
a very old structure. Yākūt, who has some notes on Hamadän,
written shortly before it was laid in ruins by the Mongol invasion
of 617 (1220), states that there were twenty-four Ruståks, or sub-
districts, dependent on the city, and these he enumerates. The
list is again given by Mustawfi in the following century, who adds
thereto the names of the villages of each district; most of them
however it is impossible now to identify. Mustawfi describes the
city, in the 8th (14th) century, as measuring two leagues across, in
the centre of which stood the ancient castle, built of clay, called
the Shahristán. This ancient citadel of Hamadān like that of
Isfahân—to be noticed later—is named Sārūk by Ibn Fakih, but
the meaning of the word is not explained. The goldsmiths' market
* I. H. 259, 264. Yak, i. 276; iii. 5, Mst. 167, 192. A. Y. i. 584, 585,
599, 640. J. N. 450. Neither Bahār, Alâni, Khuftiyān, Darbil, nor the two
Darbands, are mentioned by any of the earlier Arab geographers.
2 Aamadhám represents the Hagmatána of the Achaemenian inscriptions,
which the Greeks wrote Ecbatana.
XIII] JIBAL. I95
in Hamadān was famous, built on the site of the former village
of Zamin Dih ; and the city walls measured 12,000 paces in
circuit. Originally, says Mustawfi, Hamadān comprised five
cities, namely Kal‘ah Kabrit, ‘Sulphur Castle,” Kalah Mäkin,
Girdlākh, Khurshīd, and Kurasht. He adds, “this last, formerly
a large town, is now entirely ruined.” Of Hamadän, too, were
the following five great districts, with their villages; namely, Farivár
near the city, next Azmadin, Sharāmīn, and A'lam; with, lastly,
the district of Sard Rūd and Barhand Rūd. It must, however, be
added that the readings of these names are uncertain, as the Mss.
vary considerably".
Three leagues from Hamadān (but in what direction is not
stated, and the name does not appear on the map), in the village of
Juhastah, stood the ruins of the ancient castle of King Bahrām
Gūr, described by Ibn Fakih. It was a huge structure, with halls,
passages, and chambers, in part cut out of the live rock. At the
four corners were Sculptured female figures, and along one face
of the building ran an inscription in Old Persian (Æarsiyah) com-
memorating the conquests of the Chosroes. Half a league distant
from this palace was a hill, where was to be seen the so-called
Antelope's tomb (Nāās-az-Zabiyah), and Ibn Fakih gives a long
anecdote concerning King Bahrām Gūr and his mistress, and of
the many gazelles that he slew in the neighbouring plain, and how
he finally put his mistress to death here for her insolent remarks
in disparagement of his shooting.
To the south-west of Hamadān rises the great mountain of
Alvand, or Arvand as Yākūt writes the word, and this form of the
name appears as the mint city on silver dirhams of Abu-Sa'id, the
Mongol Il-Khān, dated 729 (1329). Mustawfi gives a long account
of Kūh Alvand, which he says was thirty leagues in circuit, its
summit always being covered with Snow. There was an abundant
spring of water on the topmost peak, which issued from, a sort of
building cut in the rock, and forty-two other streams, he adds,
gushed from the various spurs of the mountain. Travelling west
from Hamadān, after crossing the Alvand pass, on the high road
* J. H. 256, 26o. Muk. 391. I. F. 219. Yak. iv. 988. Mst. I 51, 152.
The Turkish jahán AVumá (p. 300) repeats the enumeration of districts and
villages from Mustawfi.
I96 JIBAL. [CHAP.
to Kanguvár, stands Asadābād, which Ibn Hawkal describes as a
populous city; and Mukaddasi adds that a league distant from it
was to be seen the arch (Aywón), in a building which Yākūt
refers to as the Matābikh-al-Kisrā, ‘the Kitchens of Chosroes.’
Asadābād had a mosque, and good markets; its district was very
fertile and produced honey. Mustawfi says that 35 villages were
of its dependencies'.
The plain in which Hamadān stands drains to the north and
east, its numerous streams uniting to form the head-waters of the
river Gāvmāhā (or Gāvmäsä) whose course will be described later
when speaking of the Kum river. To the north of Hamadān lies
the district of Darguzin, and north of this again that of Kharrakān.
Mustawfi in the 8th (14th) century writes of Darguzin as a con-
siderable town, formerly a village, the capital of the A'lam district,
mentioned on the previous page as one of the five dependent
on Hamadān. The A‘lam district, he adds—and Yākūt confirms
him—was wrongly called Al-Amr by the Persians: it was a high
plateau lying between Hamadān and Zanjān, where grapes, cotton,
and corn grew abundantly. Kharrakān, more often called Khar-
rakānayn, “the two Kharrakāns,’ lay north of the A‘lam district.
It comprised many villages, which Mustawfi enumerates (but the
readings in the MSS. are uncertain), and the chief town which
still exists was Āvah, or Åbah of Hamadän, so named to distin-
guish it from Åvah of Sāvah, which will be noticed later. This,
the northern Avah, sometimes also written Avá, is mentioned by
Yākūt, and it is referred to as early as the 4th (Ioth) century by
Mukaddasi. The Kharrakān river, according to Mustawfi, during
the spring freshets poured its waters into the stream of the
Khushk Rūd which ultimately lost itself in the great desert in
the Ray district. In the summer time, however, the Kharrakān
river never flowed beyond the boundaries of its own immediate
district, its waters drying up in irrigation channels”.
The city of Nihāvand, lying about forty miles south of Hama-
dān, was an important place dating from Sassanian times. After
the first Moslem conquest, which was effected by the troops from
* I. H. 256. I. F. 255. Muk. 393. Yak. i. 225, 245; iv. I lo, 733.
Kaz. ii. 236, 31 I. Mst. I 52, 202.
* Muk. 25, 51, 386. Yak. i. 316, 408. Mst. 152, 217. J. N. 3o I, 305.
XIII] JIBAL. º I97
Basrah more particularly, the town and its district received the
name of Māh-al-Basrah, for its revenues were allotted to the payment
of pensions in Basrah, just as those of Dinavar were paid to Kūfah
(see above, p. 189). Ibn Hawkal in the 4th (Ioth) century speaks of
the rich merchandise sold in its markets, whither the saffron of the
neighbouring district of Rûdhrávar was brought for distribution.
Nihāvand had then two Great Mosques, the old and the new.
Yākūt adds the tradition that many Arabs coming from Basrah
had settled here in early days; and the city was famous for the
manufacture of perfumes. Mustawfi in the 8th (14th) century
states that in his day the population consisted mostly of the
Kurdish tribesmen; much cotton was grown in the neighbouring
districts, three of which in particular he names, Malāir, Isfīdhān,
and Jahāk. About half-way between Hamadān and Nihāvand
lay the rich district of Rûdhrāvar, so famous for its saffron, of which
district the chief city was Karaj, possessing a fine mosque. The
district was three leagues across, and comprised 93 villages
according to Yākūt. Mustawfi generally spells the name Rūdārūd,
and of its towns he mentions Sarkān and Tuvi, both of which still
exist; and Tuvi, at the present day, is the name commonly given
to the district'.
To the eastward of Nihāvand lay the district of the two
fghārs (Al-ſghārayn) of which the capital was also called Karaj,
known for distinction as Karaj of Abu Dulaf. The exact site of
this Karaj is unknown, but from the distances given in the
Itineraries, and from the fact stated by Mustawfi that the town
lay beneath the Rāsmand mountains (almost certainly to be iden-
tified with the present range called Rāsband), its site must be
sought for near the head-waters of the stream which flows past
Sārāk to join the modern Karā Sū. Ibn Hawkal in the 4th (Ioth)
century speaks of Karaj as smaller than Buràjird, but it was a
place of importance, built on a height. The houses of the
town covered a space of over two leagues, and there were two
markets, one at the Báb Masjid-al-Jāmi', “the gate of the Great
Mosque,' the other situated at the opposite town gate opening
1 I. R. 166. I. H. 258, 259, 262. Muk. 393. Yak. ii. 832; iv. 251, 827.
Mst. 152, 153. The ruins of Karaj of Rûdhrávar are doubtless those described
by De Morgan, Mission en Perse (ii. 136), which he names Rūdīlāvar.
I98 JIBAL. [CHAP.
beyond what was known as ‘the great plain.' Baths were
numerous and the houses were well built, mostly of clay bricks;
the gardens were few, but those round the town limits were very
fertile. Abu Dulaf, from whom the place took its distinguishing
name, had been a celebrated general, also a poet at the court of
Hārūn-ar-Rashid and his son Mamūn. Abu Dulaf together with
his descendants settled in this district, which with that lying round
Burj, I 2 leagues distant towards Isfahân, had been granted to
them as ighârs—that is ‘fiefs in perpetuity, paying a fixed yearly
tribute to the Caliph, but free of all other taxes. Yākūt states
that the Persians pronounced the name of Karaj Kazah, and
Farrazin was the name of a castle not far from the gate of Karaj.
Mustawfi, who refers to the river as the River of Karah—the Karah
Rūd—says that the Rāsmand mountain here rose above the plain
to the north. At the foot of the mountain was an abundant
spring of water, called the fountain of King Kay-Khusraw, which
irrigated the neighbouring pasture lands, six leagues long by
three wide, known as the Margzār of Kitſ, which lay under the
protection of the Farrazin castle. The Rāsmand mountain is
described as a black rock towering up like the hill of Bisutān,
with glens at its base, and it was ten leagues in circuit. The
site of Burj, the second city of the fghārayn, has not yet been
identified. Its position, however, is approximately known. Ibn
Hawkal speaks of it as a fine well-conditioned town, and tells us
that it lay on the high road towards Isfahân, some 12 leagues
distant from Karaj'.
Lower down the Karaj river, and to the north of Karaj of Abu
Dulaf, is the town of Sārūk of the Farāhān district, noticed by
Yākūt and Mustawfi, being counted by them as belonging to
Hamadän. Dawlatābād, which still exists, is mentioned as a
prominent place of the neighbourhood; and there was a salt
marsh near here, formed by a lake, measuring four leagues Square,
which when dried up by the summer heats produced excellent salt
for export. This lake, according to Mustawfi, the Mongols
named Jaghān Nāār, meaning ‘Salt Lake.’ It is doubtless
* I. H. 258, 262. Muk. 394. Yak. i. 420, 548; iii. 873; iv. 25o, 270.
Mst. I 51, 204.
XIII] . - JIBAL. 199
identical with the present lake of Tualá. Lastly, to the south-
east of Hamadān, and about half-way between that city and
Nihāvand, lies the small town of Rāmān, which is noticed by
Yākūt as of this district, but it is not further described by any
other authority'. -
* Yak. iii. 867, 887; iv. 683. Mst. 151. At the present day the chief
town of this district, now famous for its carpets, is Sultānābād, founded by
Fath ‘Alī Shāh at the beginning of the nineteenth century; it is commonly
known as Shahr-i-Naw (New Town).
CHAPTER XIV.
JIBAL (continued).
Little Lur. Burūjird. Khurramābād. Shāpārkhwäst. Sírawān and Saymarah.
Isfahān and its districts. Firſzán ; Färifăn and the river Zandah Rūd.
Ardistân. Kāshān. Kum, Gulpaygān, and the Kum river. Avah and
Sāvah. The river Gāvmähä.
South of Hamadān lies Luristān, the district of the Lur tribes,
kinsmen of the Kurds, and this mountainous region is divided by
its rivers into two parts, Great Lur to the south and Little Lur to
the north. The district of Little Lur is separated from Great
Lur by the main stream of the Upper Kārūn, and the towns of
Great Lur will be more conveniently described in the chapter on
Khūzistān, although the district of Great Lur also is by some
authorities regarded as forming part of ‘Irāk ‘Ajami.
The chief towns of Little Lur, as enumerated by Mustawfi in
the 8th (14th) century, were Burūjird, Khurramābād, and Shāpār-
khwäst. Buràjird is described by Ibn Hawkal in the 4th (1 oth)
century as a fine city, measuring over half a league across. Its
fruits were exported to Karaj, much Saffron was grown, and
its importance increased after Hamūlah, the Wazir of the Abu
Dulaf family just mentioned, built the Friday Mosque here.
When Mustawfi wrote, in the 8th (14th) century, there were two
mosques, the old and the new ; but the town, he says, was then
already falling to ruin. ‘Ali of Yazd, who always writes the name
Vuröjird, frequently refers to it in describing the campaigns of
Timúr, by whose orders the castle, called the Kalah Armiyān,
was restored".
* I. H. 258, 262. Yak, i. 596; ii. 737. Mst. 151. A. Y. i. 587;
11. 5 I 5.
CHAP. XIV.] JIBAL. 2O I
The name of Khurramābād, since the time of Timür the most
important place in Little Lur after Burūjird, does not occur in
any of the Arab geographers of the middle-ages; and it has often
been suggested that Khurramābād was identical with the town
of Shāpúrkhwäst, a place frequently mentioned in earlier days.
That this, however, is not the case, is proved by the mention,
separately, of both towns by Mustawfi, who further indicates the
position of Shāpúrkhwäst. Khurramābād, when Mustawfi wrote in
the 8th (14th) century, was a fine town, though already partly in
ruin. The date palm produced abundantly here, and he adds
that this was the only place in the hill country where it grew,
excepting Saymarah ; but this statement cannot be accepted as
Quite exact.
In regard to Shāpārkhwäst, which the Arab geographers wrote
Sābūrkhwäst, this also had been a town famous for its dates since
the time of Ibn Hawkal. In the 4th (1 oth) century Sābūrkhwäst
with Burūjird and Nihāvand came under the power of Hasanawayh,
the Kurdish chief who had established his government at Dinavar
(see above, p. 189), and at Dizbaz, the castle of Sābūrkhwäst,
which rivalled Sarmăj for strength, Badr, son of Hasanawayh, kept
his treasures, which in 414 (1023) fell into the hands of the Buyids.
During the 5th (11th) century Sābūrkhwāst is frequently mentioned
in the chronicles relating to the doings of the Saljúks, and in 499
(II off) the Atabeg Mankūbars came into possession of the city,
together with Nihāvand and Lishtar (Alishtar). Writing in the
early part of the 8th (14th) century Mustawfi (in the Guzidah) gives
the information that in his day there were, in Little Lur, three
populous cities, namely Burūjird, Khurramābād, and Shāpūrkhwäst
(as he spells it in Persian). He relates that, “this last, though
once a great city, and very populous, being full of people of various
nations and the capital of the kingdom, is now reduced to become
a provincial town'; and in regard to its position he states that
beyond (south) of Burdjird, ‘the road (coming from Nihāvand and
going to Isfahān) branches to the right to Shāpūrkhwäst,’ while to
the left (eastward) the main road went on to Karaj of Abu Dulaf.
These details are in accordance with the accounts given by Ibn
Hawkal and Mukaddasi"; for the former states that from Nihāvand
it was lo leagues (south) to Lāshtar, and thence 12 on to Sābūr-
2O2 JIBAL. |CHAP.
khwäst, from which it was counted 30 leagues to (Great) Lur—
that is to say the plains lying north of Dizful which will be
noticed later in Chapter XVI. Mukaddasi adds that from Sābūr-
khwāst to Karaj of Abu Dulaf was four marches, it being the
same from Sābūrkhwāst to Lur'.
To the west of Little Lur, and on the frontier of Arabian
‘Irák, lay the two districts of Māsabadhān and Mihrajānkudhak,
of which the chief towns were, respectively, Sirawān and Saymarah.
The ruins of both towns still exist, and Māsabadhān is in use as
the name of the region to the south of the Mâyidasht plain.
Sirawān (or As-Sirawān) was, according to Ibn Hawkal, a small
town, its houses built of mortared stone, not unlike Mosul. It
produced the fruits of both hot and cold regions, especially nuts
and melons, the latter of the celebrated kind known as Dastabūyah;
moreover the date palm, as already said, flourished here. Kazvíní
refers to mines of salt, sulphur, vitriol, and borax as being found
in the Māsabadhān district. Situated some fifty miles to the
eastward, Saymarah was not unlike Sírawān, and it remained
a populous town to a later date than the latter, its position being
better chosen. The Mihrajānkudhak district lying round it was
celebrated in the 4th (Ioth) century for great fertility; and
Mukaddasi refers to its numerous population. “Dates and
olives, nuts and snow are all found here abundantly,’ Yākūt
writes, and on the road between Saymarah and the neighbouring
hamlet of Tarhān was a wonderful bridge, “twice as great as the
bridge between Hulwān and Khánikin.’ When Mustawfi wrote
in the 8th (14th) century Saymarah, though already falling to ruin,
was still a fine town, and the surrounding country was celebrated
for its date-groves”.
At the south-eastern corner of the Jibál province, and not far
distant from the borders of the Great Desert, stands Isfahân (the
* I. H. 259, 264. Muk. 401. Yak. ii. 572; iii. 4, 82, 225. Ibn-al-Athir,
ix. 174; x. 274. Mst. I51, 195; also Guzādah (Gantin), I. 622, and MS. f. 159 b,
giving the paragraph on Lesser Lur, at the end of section xi of chapter Iv,
immediately preceding the section treating of the Mongols. The name is
variously spelt Sābārkhwäst, Shāburkhast, and Shāpārkhwäst. The exact
site of the ruins has not been identified.
* I. H. 263, 264. Muk. 394. Ykb. 269. Kaz. ii. 172. Yak. iii. 443,
525. Mst. I51.
XIV.] JIBAL. 2O3
name being spelt Isbahān by the Arabs and by the Persians Ispahān),
which from the earliest times must have been a place of impor-
tance, on account of the fertility of its lands which are watered by
the abundant stream of the Zāyindah Rūd. At the present day
Isfahān and its suburbs occupy both banks of the river, but in the
middle-ages the inhabited quarters lay only on the northern or
left bank of the Zāyindah Rūd. Here there were two cities side
by side ; namely, to the east Jay, otherwise called Shahristānah’,
girt by a wall with a hundred towers; and two miles to the west-
ward of this Al-Yahūdīyah, “the Jew Town,' double the size of Jay,
taking its name, so tradition asserted, from the Jews who had been
Settled here in the time of Nebuchadnezzar.
Ibn Rustah, at the close of the 3rd (9th) century, describes
the city of Jay as measuring half a league across, and covering an
area of 2000 Jaribs (about 600 acres). There were four gates,
Bāb Khawr or ‘of the Creek,” otherwise Bāb Zarīn Rūd, for this
was the earlier spelling of the name of the river; then Bāb Asſij,
Bāb Tirah, and the Yahūdīyah Gate. Ibn Rustah enumerates the
number of towers on the wall between each gate, and he also gives
the space in ells. In Jay was an ancient building like a fortress
called Sārūk, the name likewise of the Hamadān citadel, as above
stated, which Ibn Rustah says dated from before the Flood.
Ibn Hawkal and Mukaddasi in the next century describe both
Jay and Yahūdīyah. In each city was a Great Mosque for the
Friday prayers; and Yahūdīyah alone equalled Hamadān in size,
being indeed the largest city in the Jibál province, Ray only
possibly excepted. Isfahân was already a great commercial
centre, and its silks, especially the ‘Attàbi (tabby stuffs), and its
cottons, were largely exported. Saffron and all kinds of fruit
grew well in its districts, which were the broadest and richest of
the whole Jibál. Al-Yahūdīyah, according to Mukaddasi, had
been originally settled by the Jews in the time of Nebuchadnezzar
because its climate resembled that of Jerusalem. The town,
which he reports had twelve gates (/)arð), was built mostly of
unburnt brick, and it had both open and covered markets. The
* Shahristān, or Shahristānah, means, in Persian, “the Township,” and is a
common name for the capital city.
2O4. JIBAL. [CHAP.
Great Mosque was in one of the markets, built with round
columns, having a minaret on the Kiblah (Mecca) side, 70 ells in
height. The neighbouring township of Jay, a couple of miles to
the eastward, was according to Mukaddasi called Al-Madînah,
‘the City,’ the Arabic equivalent of Shahristānah, and imme-
diately below its ancient fortress, in the 4th (Ioth) century, the
river was crossed by a bridge of boats.
In 444 (IoS2) Isfahân was visited by the Persian traveller
Nāsir-i-Khusraw, who describes it as the largest city in all
Persian-speaking lands that he had seen. There were two
hundred bankers, and fifty caravanserais; and the town was
surrounded by a wall said to be three and a half leagues in
circuit, with battlements and a gangway running along the
summit. The Great Mosque was a magnificent building, and the
money-changers' market a sight to be seen, and each of the other
numerous markets was shut off by its own gate. When Yākūt
wrote, in the beginning of the 7th (13th) century, both Yahūdīyah
and Jay had fallen to ruin ; and of the two the latter was then the
more populous. He further speaks of the Great Mosque in Jay
built by the Caliph Manşūr Rāshid, who, as the chronicles relate,
having been deposed by his uncle Muhammad Muktafi in 530
(I 136), was afterwards killed in battle and brought to be buried
outside the gate of Isfahân. Yahūdīyah, however, after the Mongol
invasion, recovered a part of its former glory, and was a populous
thriving city when Abu-l-Fidá wrote in 72 I (132 I), having, he
says, the suburb of Shahristān a mile distant to the eastward,
which occupied part of the older site of Jay.
His contemporary, Mustawfi, gives us a long account of
Isfahān and its districts, mentioning the names of many places
that still exist; and his description proves that Yahūdīyah of
medieval times is the city of Isfahân as described by Chardin
at the close of the 17th century, when it had become the capital of
Persia under Shāh ‘Abbās, the past glories of which are to be seen
at the present day. According to Mustawfi the city walls, 21, ooo
paces in circuit, dated from the 4th (Ioth) century, having been
built by ‘Adud-ad-Dawlah the Buyid. The area of Isfahân had
formerly been occupied by four villages, whose names survived
in the town quarters, namely, Karrān (the Karrān Gate is given by
XIV.] JIBAL. 2O5
Chardin as opening on the east side), Kūshk, Júbarah (this was
the eastern quarter when Chardin wrote, and the Júbarah Gate
was to the north-east), and Dardasht (the gate of this name lay
to the north, and the Dardasht quarter was to the north-west).
Mustawfi writes that the most populous quarter under the Saljúks
had been that known as Julbārah (the Gulbär quarter of Chardin,
round the present Maydān-i-Kuhnah or ‘Old Square’), where
stood the College and Tomb of Sultán Muhammad the Saljúk,
and here might be seen a block of stone weighing Io, ooo mans
(equivalent, perhaps, to a little less than 32 tons weight), this being
a great idol, carried off by the Sultân from India, and set up
before the college gate'.
When Timúr conquered Isfahân at the close of the 8th (14th)
century, the name of the citadel which he occupied is given as
Kal‘ah Tabarik (the latter word meaning a ‘hillock’ in the
Persian dialect), and the ruins of this castle, which still exist,
are described by Chardin as standing outside the Dardasht Gate.
Further we are informed that Malik Shāh the Saljúk erected
another strong castle—the Shāh-Diz, ‘the Royal Fort'—on the
summit of a mountain close to Isfahân in the year 5oo (I Io?),
and Kazvíní adds a long anecdote relating the circumstances that
brought about its foundation. At the beginning of the I oth (16th)
century, Persia came under the rule of Shāh Ismāīl the Safavid,
and at the close of the century Shāh ‘Abbās the Great transferred
his capital from Ardabil to Isfahân, whither he also removed the
whole Armenian population of Julfah on the river Aras, settling
them in a new quarter of the city which he founded on the
southern or right bank of the Zāyindah Rūd, Shāh ‘Abbās also
added other new quarters and suburbs to Isfahān, but north
of the river, all of which are minutely described by Chardin, who
lived at Isfahân for many years during the latter half of the 17th
century A.D.”
* History, however, does not record that this Sultân Muhammad—he
reigned from 498 to 51 1 (1 Ioq—I I I 7) and was a son of M ilik Shāh-made any
conquests in India; possibly Mustawſi has mistaken º for Mahmūd of
Ghaznah. /
* I. R. 160, 162. I. H. 161. Muk. 386, 387,388, 389. N. K. 93.
Yak. i. 295; ii. 181; iii. 246; iv. 452, Ioa5. A. F. 411. Mst. 142. A. Y.
2O6 JIBAL. [CHAP.
The eight districts round Isfahân, which Mustawfi carefully
enumerates with their villages, still exist, and the same names
appear in Ya‘kábí and other early authorities of the 3rd and 4th
(9th and Ioth) centuries. Four of these districts lie to the north
of the river, while the other four are on its right bank to the
Southward. Beginning with the north bank, the home district,
that immediately round the city, was called Jay, the name of the
older town to the eastward. The Marbin district was to the west
of Isfahān, and here stood an ancient fire-temple built by the
mythical king Tahmurath, surnamed Div Band, ‘the demon binder.’
To the north-west, at some distance from the city gates, lay the
Burkhwār district, of which Jaz (modern Gaz) was the largest
village; while to the north-east was the district called Kahāb,
the fourth on the northern river bank. South of the Zāyindah
Rūd, and to the south-east of the old Shahristānah city, was the
district of Baraan, with the Rūdasht district beyond it lying
further down the river, of which last the chief centre was Fārifăn,
a large town in the 8th (14th) Century, though now only a village,
standing near the great Gāv-Khānah Swamp. The Karārij district
is south of Baraan; and westward of this, higher up the right bank
of the Zāyindah Rūd, is the great Khānlanján district, the last of
the four to the south of the river, of which the chief town was
Firſzán. Of this city no trace apparently remains, but it was a
considerable town ‘in two parts’ in the 8th (14th) century, situated
on the Zāyindah Rūd, and Ibn Batūtah, who passed through it,
says it lay six leagues distant from Isfahân. The Khānlanjān
district was already famous in the 4th (Ioth) century for its
plentiful fruits and the fertility of its lands. Its name is often
written Khålanjān or Khūlanjān, and it was also known as Khān-
al-Abrăr, ‘the Caravanserai of the Benefactors.” As the name of
a town Khānlanjān is doubtless identical with Firſzán aforesaid,
and in the Itineraries this is the first stage Southward from Isfahân
on the western road to Shirāz. In the 5th (11th) century Nāsir-
i. 431. Kaz. ii. 265. The description of Isfahân fills volume VIII (see
especially pp. 122, 126, 147, I 53, 2 I 2, 227, 229, for passages referred to) of
the Voyages du Chevalier Chardin en Aerse (Amsterdam, 1711). For modern
Isfahân see Houtum-Schindler, Æastern Aersiazz ‘Zráá (1897), pp. 18, 19, 120,
I 22. w
XIV.] JIBAL. 2O7
i-Khusraw passed through Khānlanjān on his way to Isfahân, and
noticed on the city gate an inscription bearing the name of
Tughril Beg the Saljúk'. - .
The main stream of the Isfahân river, at the present time
generally called the Zandah Rūd, is known as the Zāyindah
Rūd or the Zarin-Rûdh to our various authorities, though this
last name is now generally given to a tributary river. The main
stream, in its upper reach, was named the Jūy-Sard, ‘the Cold
River,’ and this rose in the Zardah-Kūh, “the Yellow Mountains’
—still so called from their yellow limestone cliffs—30 leagues
west of Isfahân, not far from the head-waters of the Dujayl or
Kārūn river of Khūzistān; and here, according to Mustawfi, were
also the Ashkahrân mountains, which marked the frontiers of
Great Lur. Below the town of Firſzán in Khānlanjān, the
Zandah Rūd receives an affluent, almost equal to its main
stream in volume, which comes down from near Gulpaygān
(Jurbādhakān); then after passing Isfahân, and irrigating its
eight districts, the Zandah Rūd somewhat to the eastward of
Rūdasht flows finally into the swamp of Gāv-Khānah on the
borders of the Great Desert. According to popular belief, which
is mentioned already by Ibn Khurdādbih in the 3rd (9th) century,
the river, after sinking into this swamp, rose again to the ground
surface 90 leagues away in Kirmān, thence reaching the Sea;
but Mustawfi not unnaturally discredits the story, because of the
high mountains lying between Isfahān and Kirmān, and though
he states that it was said that bits of reeds thrown into the Gāv-
Khánah marsh reappeared in Kirmān, he adds “but this account
is incredible”.’
Näyin, which lay to the north of the Gāv-Khānah Swamp on
the border of the Great Desert, and the towns to the South-east
1 I. K. 20, 58. I. R. 152. Kud. 197. I. H. 20 I. Ykb. 275. Muk.
389, 458, Yak. i. 294; ii. 394; iii. 839. Mst. I43, for the most part repro-
duced in J. N. 291. I. B. ii. 42. N. K. 92. Khānlanjān is famous also as
the place of refuge of Firdúsi, when he fled from the wrath of Sultan Mahmūd
of Ghaznah. An account of his reception by the governor of Khānlanjān is
given in a copy of the Shāh Nāmah preserved in the British Museum (Or. 1403,
f. 518 a), of which the text and translation are given by C. Schéfer in his edition
of Nāsir-i-Khusraw (Appendix iv. p. 298).
* I. R. 152. I. K. 20. MSt. 20 1, 202, 2I4.
2O8 JIBAL. ... • [CHAP.
of it towards Yazd, were all included in the province of Färs
during the middle-ages, as will be explained in Chapter XVIII,
but Ardistán, some miles north-west of Nāyin, was counted as of
the Jibál province. As early as the 4th (Ioth) century, Istakhri
describes Ardistân as a walled city, a mile across, with five gates
and well fortified. The Friday Mosque stood in the centre of the
town, and much silk was manufactured here, chiefly for export.
At Zuvârah, to the north-east of Ardistān, some ancient ruins were
attributed to King Anthshirwān the Just, and Mukaddasi adds that
the soil of Ardistân was white, “like wheat flour, whence its name,’
for Ard in Persian meaning ‘meal, Ardistân would have the
signification of ‘the place like flour.” The ruins are referred to
under the name of Uzvārah by Yākūt, who states that there were
many vaulted buildings, also the remains of a fire-temple that
had become the castle of Ardistān, and here according to tradition
Anūshirwān had been born. Mustawfi however, who spells the
name Zuvârah, attributes all these remains, including the fire-
temple, to King Bahmān, Son of Isfandiyār; and records that the
town, which stood close to the desert, had round it 30 villages,
giving as a tradition that these had been built by Dastan, brother
Of the hero Rustam.
On the desert border between Ardistān and Kāshān were the
Kargas Kūh, ‘the Vulture Hills,” which Mukaddasi describes as
the highest mountains in the Great Desert of Persia. The neigh-
bouring Siyāh Kūh, “Black Hills,’ were of almost equal height
and ruggedness —‘black evil-looking mountains’; and both, says
Istakhri, were famous hiding-places for robbers. In a valley of
the Vulture Hills was a fine spring called the Åb-i-Bandah, which
gushed out from a cleft that was completely enclosed by rocks.
About half-way between the Kargas Kūh and the Siyāh Kūh on
the desert road, stood the Caravanserai called Dayr-al-Jiss, “Gypsum
Convent,’ a strong place, built entirely of burnt brick and shut by
iron gates. In this hostel, according to Istakhri, guides for the
desert routes were to be found, stationed here by order of the
Sultan. Further, great tanks had been constructed here for
storing water, which Mukaddasi relates were never allowed to
go out of repair, and there were shops in the caravanserai for
the sale of provisions. Mustawfi describes the Kargas Kūh as
XIV.] * > JIBAL. 2O9
standing solitary, being joined to no other range, and some ten
leagues in circuit. In their rocky heights the vultures nested,
and the ibex (wa'ſ), that could live long without water, was found
here in great numbers. To the west of Ardistân is the town of
Natanz, or Natanzah, which appears to be mentioned by no Arab
geographer before the time of Yākūt. Mustawfi states that its
Castle was called Washāk, after one who was governor of Natanz,
though originally this castle had borne the name of Kamart.
Close to Natanz also was the large village of Tark, almost a
town says Yākūt, and here according to Kazvini the people were
celebrated for their skill in carving bowls out of ivory and ebony;
these being largely exported'.
The city of Kāshān is mentioned by Istakhri ‘as a pleasant
town, clay built, like Kum.’ The earlier Arab geographers always
spell the name Kāshān (with the dotted k). The place became
famous throughout the east for its tile-work, which took the name
Kāshi (for Kāshānī), this being still the common term for the
well-known enamelled blue and green tiles so much used in
mosque decoration. According to Mukaddasi Kāshān was the
reverse of famous for its scorpions; and Yākūt, who refers to the
beautiful green bowls of Kāshī-ware which were in his day largely
exported, speaks of the population as all fanatical Shi‘ahs of the
Imāmite sect. Mustawfi asserts that Kāshān had originally been
built by Zubaydah, the wife of Hārūn-ar-Rashid ; and he praises
the palace of Fin, lying near Kāshān, for its tanks and water-
courses, which were supplied by the river from Kuhrūd. The
Kāshān river, which in summer went dry before 'reaching the
town limits, in spring often endangered the city with its floods,
which passing on were lost in the neighbouring desert.
The city of Kum (more correctly spelt Kumm according to
Arab Orthography), to the north of Kāshān, is now famous among
the Shi‘ahs for its shrine, said to mark the tomb of Fátimah, sister
of the sixth Imām ‘Alī-ar-Ridá, a contemporary of Hārūn-ar-Rashid,
whom they assert to have died here of poison on her way to join
her brother in Khurāsān. Already in the 4th (Ioth) century
Ibn Hawkal describes Kum as peopled by Shi‘ahs; it was then a
* Ist. 202, 228, 230, 231. I. H. 288–291. Muk. 390, 490, 491. Yak. i.
198; iii. 531 ; iv. 793. Mst. 150, 151, 206. J. N. 299.
LE S. I4.
2 IO JIBAL. - [CHAP.
walled town, with fertile gardens round it, celebrated for pistachio
nuts and filberts. The ancient name of Kum according to Yākūt
had been Kumandān, curtailed by the Arabs to Kumm. The
remains of a Persian fortress were, he says, still to be seen among
the ruins of the town, and an ancient stone bridge crossed the
river which separated the older site from the Moslem town.
Mustawfi states that the walls of Kum measured Io, ooo paces in
circuit, and, like Åvah, the place was celebrated for its numerous
ice-houses excavated in the ground ; also for its cypress trees, and
for vines which produced the famous red grapes. When Mustawfi
wrote in the 8th (14th) century most part of Kurn lay in ruins,
and it is to be remarked that neither he nor any earlier authorities
make any mention of the tomb of Fátimah, although the city is
always noted as being a centre of the Shi‘ah sect".
The river of Kum rose in the Gulpaygān district near the
mountains of Khānsār, as Mustawfi writes the name, and these
ranges are the watershed between the Kum river and the left-
bank tributary of the Isfahân river already mentioned. Jurbādh-
akān is the Arab name for Gulpaygān, of which the older form
was Gurbäyigån, and Mustawfi explains the name to mean ‘the
place of roses,’ writing it Guſ-áðād-ikán and goes on to praise its
fertility and the excellent water, 5o villages being of its depend-
encies. Mukaddasi refers to Jurbādhakān as lying about half-way
between Karaj of Abu Dulaf and Isfahān, and the village of Khān-
sår which gave its name to the district, Yākūt adds, was of its
neighbourhood. The town of Dalījān lies further down the Kum
river; and according to Yākūt the name was pronounced Dulayjān
or Dulaygān. Formerly it had been a flourishing place, but when
Mustawfi wrote it had fallen to ruin. After passing the city of
Kum, the Kum river joined the waters of the great stream
coming down from Hamadän, called the river Gāvmāhā, or
Gāvmäsä, which itself a short distance above Kum had received
on its right bank the Åvah river, and on its left bank the river
passing Sāvah. All these streams branched to form many water
channels, and intermingling by Cross Canals finally became lost in
the Great Desert to the north-east of Kum.
* Ist, 20I. I. H. 264. Muk. 390. Yak. iv. 15, 175. Mst. 150, 217.
J. N. 305. -
XIV] JIBAL. 2 II
The town of Ávah (called Ávah of Sāvah to distinguish it from
Ávah near Hamadän, see p. I 96) lay a short distance to the west
of Kum. The Åvah river took its rise in Tafrish, which Mustawfi
describes as a district ‘that on all sides was only approached by
passes,’ and the country here was very fertile, with many villages.
The town of Ávah is mentioned by Mukaddasi, who names it Avâ
or Avah of Ray ; and Yākūt, who speaks of it as a village or a
small town, writes the name Abah, adding that its population were
ardent Shi‘ahs. In the 8th (14th) century Mustawfi describes
Avah as enclosed by a wall a thousand paces in circuit, and there
were pits for storing ice, which were famous, for ice was much
in demand during the summer heats; but the bread here was
very bad. Between Avah and Kum, he describes an isolated
hill, called Kūh Namak Lawn (Salt Mountain), where the earth
was everywhere mixed with salt. To reach the summit was
impossible on account of the friable nature of the ground;
no Snow either would remain on its sides, and the salt was too
bitter to be used by man. This hill was three leagues in circuit,
and so high as to be visible at a distance of Io leagues'.
The city of Sāvah, lying midway between Hamadān and Ray
on the great caravan road which traversed Persia (the Khurāsān
road), was a place of importance as early as the 4th (Ioth) century,
when Ibn Hawkal describes it as noted for its camels and camel-
drivers, both much in demand throughout the land by pilgrims
and travellers. Mukaddasi adds that the town was fortified, that
there were fine baths here, and that the Friday Mosque stood near
the high road, and at some distance from the market. The people
of Sãvah were Sunnis, and Yākūt writes that in his day they were
perpetually at feud with their neighbours of Avah, who were
Shi‘ahs. Sävah suffered severely at the hands of the Mongols in
617 (1220), who plundered the town, slaying most of its inhabit-
ants; and among other buildings burning the great library, which
Yākūt had seen, and describes as having had no equal throughout
all Persian ‘Iråk. This library is also referred to by Kazvini, who
says it was housed in the Great Mosque, and contained, besides
books on all subjects, a set of astrolabes and globes for the study
* Ist. 195, 198. Muk, 25, 5 I, 257, 386, 402. Yak. i. 57; ii. 46, 392, 584.
Mst. 147, 150, 206, 216.
I 4–2
2 I 2 JIBAL. . [CHAP.
of astronomy. In the town was a hospital, as well as many
colleges and caravanserais; and at the gate of the mosque was a
mighty arch, recalling the arch of the Chosroes at Madáin.
In Moslem legend Sāvah was famous for the great lake which
had been here before the days of Islám, and which had suddenly
dried up on the night of the birth of the prophet Muhammad ;
‘the water sinking down into the earth in joy at the good news,’
as Mustawfī writes. He adds that in his day the walls of Sāvah
had been recently rebuilt of burnt brick, being then 62oo ells in
circuit. Four leagues to the west of Sāvah was the shrine of the
prophet Samuel, and when Mustawfi wrote the population of the
town had nearly all become Shi‘ahs. He mentions the names of
many of the surrounding villages, and adds that corn, cotton, and
pomegranates were grown abundantly throughout the district.
The Sāvah river was called the Muzdakān, from a town of this
name which stood on its banks. This stream rose at Sāmān,
a large village on the border of the Kharrakān district of Hamadān
(see p. 196), lying in a rich country producing corn and grapes.
From Sămăn the river came to Muzdakān (also spelt Musdakān),
a town which Mustawfi describes as 3ooo paces in circuit, with
a cold climate, being in the hill country. Yākút speaks of a
celebrated Rubât—guard-house or monastery—at Muzdakān,
where many Sūfīs had their abode ; and the town was a stage
on the great Caravan road crossing Persia. After passing through
Sāvah, Mustawfi tells us, the Muzdakān river divided, part of its
waters sinking underground into a great pit, while a moiety joined
the Gāvmähä.
The long river called the Gāvmāhā (or Gāvmäsä as some Mss.
write the name), which Mustawfi carefully describes for us, is now
known as the Kārā Sū–Black Water—along a part of its course.
It had its head-waters, as already said, in the Hamadán plain,
where divers streams came down from Asadābād, the Alvand
mountain, and the Farīvār district. Flowing first northward and
then bending sharply to the east, it received from the south a
great affluent, the river rising near Karaj of Abu Dulaf. Beyond
Sāvah and Ávah, where it received the two other affluents we have
previously described, a great dam was built across the river to
retain its waters for irrigation purposes during the Summer
XIV.] JIBAL. 2 I 3
droughts. The Gāvmāhā eventually mingled its stream with the
river of Kum coming from Gulpaygān, and Mustawfi adds that
their surplus waters after passing a place called Haftād Pulān,
“Eighty Bridges,’ finally escaped and were lost in the Great
Desert. The Gāvmähá river was to its district, says Mustawfi,
what the Zandah Rūd was to Isfahân, being the chief fountain
of its riches and prosperity. It is to be remarked that none of
the earlier Arab geographers make mention of this river'.
* I. H. 258. Muk. 392. Yak. iii. 24; iv. 520. Kaz. ii. 258. Mst. I48,
149, 152, 217. The dam on the Gāvmähä was built by Shams-ad-Din, prime
minister (Sâhib-Divān) of Sultân Ahmad, son of Hālāgā, the third Il-Khān of
Persia.
CHAPTER XV.
JI BAL (continued).
Ray. Varāmīn and Tihrān. Kazvin and the castle of Alamät. Zanjān.
Sultāniyah. Shiz or Satárik, Khūnaj. The districts of Tālikån and
Târum. The castle of Shamīrān. The trade and products of the Jibât
province. The high roads of Jibál, Adharbäyjān and the frontier pro-
vinces of the north-west.
At the north-eastern corner of the Jibál province stood Ray,
more correctly spelt Rayy, which the Arab geographers always
write with the article Ar-Rayy, the name representing the Greek
Rhages. In the 4th (Ioth) century Ray appears to have been the
chief of the four capital cities of the Jibál province; “except for
Baghdād, indeed, it is the finest city of the whole east,” Ibn
Hawkal writes, ‘though Naysabûr in Khurāsān is more spacious,’
and Ray covered at that time an area of a league and a half
square. Officially, during the Abbasid Caliphate, Ray was known
as Muhammadiyah, in honour of Muhammad, afterwards the
Caliph Mahdi, who had lived here during the reign of his father
Manstär, and had rebuilt much of the city. His son Hārān-ar-
Rashīd was born here, and under its official title of Muham-
madiyah it became the chief mint city of the province, this name
occurring on many of the Abbasid coins. -
In Ray the houses were mostly built of clay, but burnt bricks
were also largely used. The town was strongly fortified, and Ibn
Hawkal mentions five gates; the gate of the Bătăk Arch opening
(S.W.) on the Baghdād road, Bāb Balisän (N.W.) towards
Kazvin, Bāb Kūhak (N.E.) towards Tabaristān, Bāb Hisham (E.)
on the Khurāsān road, and Bāb Sin (S.) towards Kum. The
CHAP. xv) JIBAL. 2 J 5
markets of the city lay at, and outside, these gates, and the most
frequented were in the suburbs of Sârbānān and Ar-Rûdhah,
where shops, and warehouses filled with merchandise, extended
along both sides of the main thoroughfare for a great distance.
Two rivers, according to Ibn Hawkal, brought water to Ray, one
Called Starkanå running past the Rûdhah suburb ; and the other,
the river Al-Jiláni, flowing through Sârbänän. Yākūt also mentions
the Nahr Mūsā (River of Mūsá), coming down from the mountains
of Daylam, which may therefore be identical with the Jilāni or
Gilān river, aforesaid. Mukaddasi refers to two great buildings
in Ray, one the Dār-al-Battikh, “the water-melon house,’ a name
commonly given to the city fruit-market, the other the Dār-al-
Kuttub, or library, lying below Rûdhah in a khán (caravanserai),
where, however, there were not many books, according to his
a CCOUlnt. §
In the 4th (1 oth) century both Ibn Hawkal and Mukaddasi
speak of Ray as already much gone to ruin, the chief traffic then
being in the suburbs of the older town. High above the Great
Mosque, which Yākūt states was built by the Caliph Mahdi and
finished in 158 (775), was the castle, which stood on the summit
of a steep hill, of which Ibn Rustah writes that ‘from its top you
overlook all the roofs of Ray.’ The account of Ray given in
Yākūt is not very clear, but he quotes, in one part of his work, an
old topographical description of the town, which is to the following
effect. The Inner City, where the mosque and the Government
House stood, was the quarter surrounded by a ditch, and this was
generally known as Al-Madinah, “the City’ proper. The Outer
City was that part more especially known as Al-Muhammadiyah,
which at first had been a fortified suburb. It crowned the summit
of the hill overlooking the lower (or inner) town, and according
to the information quoted by Yâkút its castle was known as
Az-Zubaydiyah (some MSS. give the name as Az-Zaybandi), which
had been the palace of Prince Mahdi when he was quartered in
Ray. Afterwards this became the prison, and it was rebuilt in
278 (891). Further, there was another castle in Ray called the
Kal‘ah-al-Farrukhān, also known as Al-Jawsak, ‘the Kiosque,” and
during the 4th (Ioth) century Fakhr-ad-Dawlah the Buyid, who
disliked the old palace on the hill-top, built himself a great
2 I6 JIBAL. [CHAP.
house in the midst of gardens, which was afterwards known as
Fakhrābād'.
The most celebrated in early days of the many fertile districts
round Ray were the following:—Rûdhah (or Ar-Rûdhah), with a
large village of the same name beyond the city suburb ; Varāmīn,
which afterwards took the place of Ray as the chief city of this part
of the Jibál province ; Pashāvīyah, still existing under the form
Fashāvīyah ; lastly, Kūsīn and Dīzah, with the districts of Al-
Kasrān, ‘the Two Palaces –the Outer and the inner—Dīzah
being the name of two large villages or towns lying one day's
journey from Ray, to wit, Dīzah of Kaşrān, and Dīzah of Varāmīn.
All these hamlets according to Ibn Hawkal, with some others that
he names, were like Small towns, each with a population of over
Io, ooo men. In the year 617 (1220) Ray was taken, plundered,
and burnt by the Mongol hordes, and from this great calamity it
never recovered. Yākūt, who passed through the place at this
time, states that the city walls alone remained intact, most of the
houses being reduced to ruin. Many of these had originally been
built of burnt brick, faced with blue enamelled tiles, which Yākūt
describes as ‘varnished smooth like the surface of a bowl.’ The
Shāfi‘ite suburb, the smallest of the city quarters, alone had
escaped the Mongols, the quarters of the Hanbalites and of the
Shi‘ahs having been completely ruined”. -
From its state of utter ruin Ghāzān Khān the Mongol, by
imperial decree, according to Mustawfi, attempted to restore Ray,
ordering the city to be rebuilt and repeopled. The attempt, how-
ever, failed, for the population had already shifted to the neighbour-
ing towns of Varāmīn and Tihrān, more especially the former,
which, having a better climate than the older Ray, had become
at the beginning of the 8th (14th) century the most flourishing
city of the district. The ruins of Varāmīn lie at some distance
to the south of Ray, while to the north of the city, Mustawfi says,
was the hill of Tabarik—presumably not that on which the castle
* Ykb. 275. I. R. 168. I. H. 265, 269, 270. Muk. 390, 391. Yak. ii.
153, 894, 895; iii. 855; iv. 431. Whether or not the fortress of Ray built by
Mahdi was called Zubaydiyah (if this indeed be the true reading) after the
future wife of his son Hārān-ar-Rashid is not clear.
* I. H. 270, 289. Yak. ii. 572, 833, 893, 894.
xv.] - JIBAL. 217
already mentioned as built by the Caliph Mahdi had stood—
where a silver mine was worked at much profit to the state.
This castle of Tabarik, according to the chronicle of Zahir-ad-Din,
was founded by Manūchahr the Ziyārid at the beginning of the 5th
(11th) century. Yākūt states that it was destroyed in 588 (1192)
by Tughril II, the last Saljúk Sultân of ‘Iråk, and a long account
is given of the siege of this famous stronghold. The Tabarik
hill, he adds, lay on the right of the Khurāsān road to a traveller
leaving Ray, while the Hill of Ray (presumably the site of the
castle built by Mahdi) lay to the left of one leaving the city gate.
Mustawfi describes the shrine of the Imām Zādah ‘Abd-al-‘Azim
as situated close to Ray, and this Mashhad, or place of martyrdom,
is still the most venerated sanctuary of modern Tihrān; the saint
being a certain Husayn, son of ‘Alī-ar-Ridá, the eighth Imām.
One of the famous districts near Ray was called Shahriyār, and
Mustawfi incidentally mentions a castle (Kal‘ah) of this name as
lying to the north of the city. In later times this castle must have
become important, for Shahriyār or Ray-Shahriyār is the name
which ‘Alī of Yazd, when describing the Campaigns of Timür, gives
to Ray. Varāmīn, as already said, was then the chief centre of
population, but this town in the beginning of the 9th (15th)
century was itself already falling to ruin. At a later time its place
was taken by Tihrān, which in the 7th (13th) century is merely
mentioned as one of the largest villages of Ray. The early Tihrān
(also spelt Tihrān with the soft f) had many half-underground
houses, ‘like Jerboa holes’ according to Kazvini, and the people
of its twelve wards were always fighting, each ward against
the other. Mustawfi in the next century describes Tihrān as a
medium-sized town ; but it was not till long after, namely at the
close of the 12th (18th) century, that the city was made the capital
of Persia by Åkā Muhammad Shāh, founder of the Kajar dynasty'.
The rivers that water the plain in which Ray, Varāmīn, and
Tihrān stand, flow thence to the neighbouring border of the Great
* Kaz. ii. 228, 250. Mst. I43, 144, 205. Yak. iii. 507, 564. A. Y. i. 583,
586, 597. Zahir-ad-Din (Dorn, Muhammadanäsche Quellen, i. p. I 5 of the
Persian text) states that Tabarić means ‘a hillock,” being the diminutive of
Zabar which signifies ‘a hill or mountain' in the Tabaristán dialect. Tabarik
of Isfahân has been noticed on p. 205.
2 I 8 JIBAL. [CHAP.
Desert and there are lost. One of the chief streams was the Nahr
Mūsā already mentioned, along whose bank lay many villages;
further, Mustawfi speaks of the river Karaj, which was crossed by
a bridge of a single arch known as the Pul-i-Khātūn, “the Lady's
Bridge, and so called, it was said, in memory of the lady
Zubaydah, wife of Hârân-ar-Rashid. The ruins of this bridge still
exist not far from Tihrān. Kazvíní also mentions the Nahr Súrin,
whose waters were carefully avoided by the Shi‘ah population of
Ray, because the body of the murdered Yahyà, grandson of ‘Ali
Zayn-al-‘Ābidīn the fourth Imām, had been washed in it, and thus
polluted the stream for evermore. The chief river of Ray, how-
ever, according to Mustawfi, was the Jäyij Rūd, which, rising in
the Jäyij range under Damāvand, divided into forty channels on
reaching the plain of Ray.
On the western border of this plain lies the district of Sãdj
Bulāgh-meaning ‘Cold Springs’ in the Turkish dialect—which
is described by Mustawfi as having been an important place under
the Saljúks. In the time of the Mongols it paid revenues to the
amount of 12, ooo dinārs, and the chief among its numerous
villages was Sunkurábād (which still exists), an important stage on
the itinerary given by Mustawfi. Sâûj Bulāgh district was watered
by the Garm Rūd, which, rising in the mountains to the east
of Kazvin, irrigated the districts of Ray and Shahriyār, where it
was joined by many streams from the mountain range to the
north before such of its waters as were not used up in irrigation
channels were absorbed by the Great Desert".
Kazvin (otherwise Kazwīn) lies about a hundred miles north-
west of Tihrān, immediately below the great mountain chain, and
from the earliest times was an important place, guarding the passes
that led across the Tabaristán province to the shores of the Caspian.
The mountain region to the north-west had in early times formed
part of the district of Daylam (already described in Chapter XII)
which for a time was semi-independent, not having been brought
under the government of the Abbasids. During this period Kazvin
was the chief fortress against these fierce infidels, and was strongly
garrisoned by Moslem troops. Already in the times of the
* Kaz. i. 181. Mst. 144, 148, 196, 2 16: and see British Museum Ms. Add.
23,543, f. 1790. J. N. 292, 3o4.
XV] - JIBAL. 219
Omayyad Caliphs, Muhammad, son of Hajjāj-the latter being
the celebrated governor of Arabian ‘Iråk—had been sent by his
father at the head of an army against the infidels of the Daylam
mountains. This Muhammad had halted at Kazvin, and built
here the first Friday Mosque, which Yākūt describes as standing
near the gate of the palace of the Bani Junayd. It was called
the Masjid-ath-Thawr, ‘the Bull Mosque,” and was the chief
mosque of the city till the days of Hârün-ar-Rashid. Ibn Hawkal
in the 4th (1 oth) century describes Kazvin as consisting of a
double city, one without, the other within, and there were two
Friday Mosques in the central town, which was like a fortress. Its
lands were very fertile, and the houses of the city covered an area
of a square mile. The people were brave and warlike, and it was
from this city that the Abbasid Caliphs were wont to despatch
punitive expeditions into Tālikān and Daylam.
The two chief rivers of Kazvin, according to Ya‘kübi, were
the Wädi-al-Kabir (the Great Stream), and the Wädi Sayram.
There were the remains of many fire-temples in this neighbour-
hood, and Mukaddasi praises the grapes grown in the gardens
round the place. Of the double town the two quarters were called
the Madînah Mūsā and the Madînah Mubărak, otherwise the
Mubărakiyah. The Caliph Hādi (elder brother of Hârün-ar-
Rashid), whose name was Mūsā, had built here the town quarter
named after him, Madinah Mūsā. This was during the Caliphate
of his father Mahdi ; and afterwards Hārūn-ar-Rashid (who suc-
ceeded Hādi) on his way to Khurāsān had halted in Kazvin, where
he laid the foundations of the new mosque and built the city
walls. Mubarak the Turk, a freedman either of the Caliph
Mamūn or of Mu'tasim, was the builder of the Mubărakiyah
fortress at Mubărakābād, otherwise called the city of Mubărak.
Throughout the middle-ages Kazvin continued to be a
flourishing town, but at the beginning of the 7th (13th) century
it was laid in ruins by the Mongols. A hundred years later,
Mustawfi, who was himself a native of Kazvin, gives a long
account of the place, derived in part from local traditions. He
states that on the site of later Kazvin there had stood an ancient
Persian city, built by King Shāpúr and called Shād Shāpār—‘the
Joy of Sapor.’ Near its ruins the two Moslem cities of Madinah
22O JIBAL. [CHAP.
Mūsā and Mubărakābād (Mubărak, he says, was a freedman of
the Caliph Hādi) were subsequently built, and Hārūn-ar-Rashid
surrounded all three towns by a great fortified wall. This wall
was only completed in 254 (868) by the Turk commander Mūsà
ibn Bughâ in the reign of the Caliph Mu'tazz; and it was
afterwards rebuilt in burnt brick by Sadr-ad-Din, the Wazir of the
Saljúk Sultân Arslān II, in 572 (1176). Mustawfi further states
that 3oo villages were of the dependencies of Kazvin, and of these
the most important were Fărisjīn and Sagsäbād, both mentioned
in his itinerary. He also names a number of streams which
irrigated the Kazvin territory, namely the Kharād, with the Buh
Rūd and Kardān Rūd both flowing from Tālikån, and the
Turkān Rūd coming from the Kharrakān district (see p. 196).
According to Kazvini the streams that watered the gardens of the
city were the Daraj river on the east, and the Atrak river on the
west ; and the same author also names a number of towns and
villages that were situated in the plain, and in the hill country
overlooking Kazvin'. -
Dastuvâ (or Dastabà) under the Omayyads holds the position
of a mint city, and is the name of a great district, of which
Yazdābād was the chief village. In Omayyad times Dastuvá had
belonged in part to Ray, in part to Hamadān, and we are told
that the direct post-road from Ray to the Adharbäyjān province
lay through it, avoiding Kazvin. The name is no longer found
on the map, but Dastabá must have been to the south of Kazvin,
of which city in later days, under the Abbasid Caliphs, it came
to be counted as a dependency.
To the north-west of Kazvin, on the summits of the mountains
dividing this district from that of Rūdbār, which lay along the
* I. H. 259, 263, 271. Ykb. 271. I. K. 57. Muk. 391. Yak. iv. 88,
89, 454, 455. Kaz. ii. 190, 193, 194, 196, 244, 274, 275, 290. Mst. I45,
146, 196, 217. As his name implies, Kazvini (like Mustawfi) was a native
of Kazvin, and Mustawfi in his history (the Guzādah) has left a long
account of his birth-place, which M. Barbier de Meynard has translated in the
journal Asiatigue for 1857, ii. p. 257. Kazvíní (ii. 29I) gives a rough
ground plan of the town, which is figured in concentric circles of walls. The
inner circle was the Shahristān, and this was surrounded by the great city
(Al-Madinah-al-‘Uzmá), which in turn was enclosed by gardens, depicted as
encircled by arable fields; the latter traversed by the two rivers.
xv) JIBAL. 22 I
river Shāh Rūd in Tabaristān, stood the famous Castles of the
Assassins (Ismāīlians), fifty in total number Mustawfi says, of
which Alamät was the capital and Maymūn Diz the strongest
fortress. The name Alamût is said to mean ‘the eagle's nest' or
‘the eagle's find in the Tabaristán dialect, and the first to build
a castle here was a Daylamite king whose hunting eagle had by
chance once perched on the crag. Kazvíni, who doubtless knew
the place well, describes the castle as surrounded by deep and
wide ravines, cutting it off from all communication with the
neighbouring mountain spurs, and rendering it impregnable, for
it was beyond bow-shot or even the bolts from a mangonel.
Alamūt lay six leagues distant from Kazvin, and its later
fortress was built by the ‘Alid missioner Hasan, surnamed
Ad-Dā‘ī-ilā-l-Hakk, in 246 (860). In 483 (Io90)—or 446 (IoS4)
according to Kazvini—it came into the possession of Hasan
Sabāh, surnamed the Old Man of the Mountain, and for I 71 years
was the chief stronghold of his followers. Alamūt was taken and
dismantled in 654 (1256) by order of Hūlāgā Khān the Mongol,
and, after its fall, the remaining castles of the Assassins were
quickly captured and razed to the ground. Its supposed site has
been visited by various travellers, and the remains of many other
fortresses, said to be those of the Ismāīlians, still exist in the
mountains to the north of Kazvin'.
Abhar and Zanjān, two cities often named together, lay on the
high road west of Kazvin, and were famous from early times.
Ibn Hawkal in the 4th (Ioth) century mentions Abhar as peopled
by Kurds, its fields were very fertile and well watered, corn being
largely grown here. It was protected by a strong Castle built upon
* Kaz. ii. 200. Mst. I 47. In the Guzādah (chapter IV, section ix, part 2)
Mustawfi gives the history of the Ismāīliams or Assassins in Persia ; and this
has been translated, with notes, by Defrémery, in the journal Asiatigue (1849,
i. 26). He gives in a list (p. 48) the names of the Ismāīlian fortresses taken
and destroyed by order of Hūlāgū, but the position of most of these is un-
known. Girdlcáh and Lambasar were the last strongholds to fall. Alamūt,
however, appears not to have been entirely destroyed by Hălăgă, or perhaps it
was rebuilt later, for it served as a state prison under Shāh Sulaymān the
Safavi, as is mentiomed by Chardin (Voyage eye Perse, x. 20). In the last
century Colonel Monteith visited the ruins, and has described them in the
J. R. G. S. for 1833 (p. 15).
222 JIBAL. w [CHAP.
a great platform, and Kazvíní reports that it was famous for its water-
mills, also for the so-called ‘Abbāsī pear grown here, in shape like
an Orange and very sweet. According to Yākūt the Persians
pronounced the name Avhar. Mustawfi records that the fortress
was rebuilt under the Saljúks by the Atabeg Bahá-ad-Din Haydar,
and hence was known as the Haydariyah. The city walls
measured 55oo paces in circuit, and the Abhar river, after
watering the district, flowed towards Kazvin, becoming lost in the
desert plain. The city of Zanjān lay about 50 miles to the north-
west of Abhar, and on the Zanjān river, which flowed west to the
Safid Rūd. Zanjān is described by Ibn Hawkal as larger than
Abhar ; and it was on the high road into Adharbäyjān. The
Persians, Yākút says, pronounce the name Zangān, and Mustawfi
states that the place was founded by King Ardashīr Bābgān, being
first named Shahin. Zanjān had been ruined during the Mongol
invasion ; its walls, however, were still Io, Ooo paces in circuit, the
district was most fertile, and its revenues amounted to 20,000
dinárs. Mustawfi adds that the language talked here, in the
beginning of the 8th (14th) century, was still “almost pure
Pahlavi,” by which a local Persian dialect is doubtless indicated'.
About half-way between Abhar and Zanjān, in the centre of
the great plain forming the watershed between rivers flowing west
to the Safīd Rūd and east to the Great Desert, lie the ruins of
the Mongol city of Sultānīyah, which, founded by Arghún Khān,
was completed by Uljaytû Sultân in 704 (1305) and made the
capital city of the Îl-Khān dynasty. Abu-l-Fidá states that its
Mongol name was Kungurlän, and according to Mustawfi nine
cities were of its dependencies. Its walls were 30, ooo paces in
circuit, and in the central fortification stood the great sepulchre
of Uljaytū, adorned with many carvings in stone. The ruins of
this domed tomb (or mosque) still exist, but of the city nothing
now remains, although Mustawfi says that in his day Sultāniyah
contained finer buildings than any other town in Persia, Tabriz
alone excepted. On the Abhar road five leagues east of Sultāniyah
lay the village of Kuhûd, ‘which the Mongols call Sáin Kalah,”
Mustawfī writes, and under the latter name—‘Sáin's Fortress’—
* I. H. 258, 27 I, 274. Muk. 378, 392. Kaz. ii. 191. Yak. i. 1 oA; ii.
573, 574, 948; iv. IoI7. Mst. I46, 147, 217.
xv.] . JIBAL. 223
the place still exists, Sāin, otherwise called Bātū Khān, being the
grandson of Changiz Khān. The strong Castle of Sarjahān stood
on the mountain spurs half-way between Sáin Kal‘ah and
Sultāniyah. From the latter it was distant five leagues, and it
crowned a hill-top Overlooking the great plains which extended
thence eastward to Abhar and Kazvin. Yākūt describes Sarjahān,
which was of the Tărum district, as one of the strongest fortresses
that he had seen; but when Mustawfi wrote it was in ruins, the
result of the Mongol invasion, its munitions of war and garrison
having been transferred to Sáin Kalah.
To the west of Sultāniyah lay the two small neighbouring
towns of Suhravard and Sujás, which were still of some importance
when Mustawfi was here in the 8th (14th) century, though now
entirely gone to ruin. Ibn Hawkal writes in the 4th (Ioth)
century that Suhravard with its Kurdish population was then as
large as Shahrazūr, it was a walled town and well fortified, lying
to the south of Zanjān on the road to Hamadān. Sujás, or Sijäs,
lay close to Suhravard, and Mustawfi describes both places as
having been ruined during the Mongol invasion, so that in his day
they were merely large and populous villages. The surrounding
districts were called Jarūd and Anjarūd (at the present day
they are known under the names of Ijarūd and Angurán), and
Sujás lay five leagues west of Sultāniyah in the midst of more
than a hundred villages settled by Mongols. In the mountain
near was the grave of Arghún Khān, made a Kurºgſ, or ‘inviolate
- sanctuary' after the custom of the Mongols, and his daughter
Uljaytū Khātūn had built here a khānkāh or convent for
Darvishes".
On the western border of the Jibál province, near one of the
head-streams of the Safīd Rūd, are the remarkable ruins called
Takht-i-Sulaymán–“Solomon's Throne’—at the present day,
with a little lake or pool which is always kept full by a natural
syphon, however much water may be drawn off. These ruins
1 I. H. 258, 263. Kaz. ii. 261. Yak. iii. 4o, 7o, 293. A. F. 407. Mst.
144, 145, 148, 149, 196. Both Sujás and Suhraward have apparently now
disappeared from the map; though Sir H. Rawlinson writes (7. A. G. S. 1840,
p. 66) that Sujás was in his time a small village lying 24 miles S.E. of Zanjān
he further adds that Suhravard is ‘now lost.’
224 JIBAL. [CHAP.
have been identified with the city of Ash-Shiz, mentioned by the
early Arab geographers, which Mustawfi also describes under the
name of Satürik. At Shiz, Ibn Khurdādbih, writing in the
3rd (9th) century, describes the great fire-temple, so much
honoured by the Magians, which bore the name of Adharjushnas.
Hither, walking on foot all the way from Madáin (Ctesiphon), and
halting at the half-way stage of Shahrazūr, already noticed p. 190,
each of the Sassanian Chosroes was bound to come as a pilgrim
immediately after his accession to the crown; for according to one
tradition Shiz was the birth-place of Zoroaster. Yākūt reports that
the Persian name was Jis, otherwise Gazn, of which Shiz was an
Arab corruption. He then quotes a long account from Ibn
Muhalhal, who in 33 I (943) wrote a description of Shiz, which he
had visited in search of gold mines said to exist in its mountains.
The town walls of Shiz, he states, Surrounded a lake, that was
unfathomable, about a Jarib (one third of an acre) in extent, and
whose waters always kept the same level though seven streams
continually flowed from it, and these streams had the property of
producing petrifaction on objects laid in their waters. Ibn
Muhalhal also describes the fire-temple, from which the sacred
fire was taken to all the other temples throughout Persia; and
for seven hundred years, he says, the Sacred fire had never been
extinguished in Shiz. The same place is described by Mustawfi
who gives it as the chief town of the Anjarūd district, and adds
that the Mongols called it Satárik. He describes a great palace
here, originally built, report Said, by King Kay-Khusraw, the court
of which was occupied by a bottomless pool or small lake that
always maintained its level, although a stream perpetually flowed
from it, while if the stream were dammed back the pool did not
overflow. Mustawfi relates that Abakah Khān the Mongol had
built himself a palace here, for there were excellent pasture
grounds in the neighbourhood'.
In the north-western angle of the Jibál province, on the high
road from Zanjān to Ardabil, lay the important commercial town of
Khūnaj, according to Ibn Hawkal noted already in the 4th (10th)
* I. K. I 19. I. F. 286. Kaz. ii. 267. Yak. iii. 353. Mst. 148. Sir
H. Rawlinson (%. K. G. S. 1840, p. 65) would identify Takht-i-Sulaymān or
Shiz with the northern Ecbatana of the Greek writers.
xv. JIBAL. 225
century for its fine breed of horses, sheep, and oxen. Yākūt, who
had visited the town, gives the alternative spelling of Khūnâ, but
he adds that it was more generally called Kāghadh Kunān, ‘the
Paper Factory’—for the people augured evil of the name Khūnâ
which signified ‘bloody’ in Persian. Mustawfi, who in his
itinerary gives the position of Kāghadh Kunán as lying six leagues
south of the Safid Rūd, and fourteen north of Zanjān on the direct
road to Ardabil, says that during the Mongol invasion it had been
ruined, and was, when he wrote, merely the size of a village. The
stream that watered its lands was a tributary of the Safid Rūd.
Excellent paper, however, was still manufactured, and the Mongols
who had settled in the place gave it the name of Mughaliyah,
‘the Mongol Camp.’ The exact site of Khūnaj has not, apparently,
been identified.
Along the southern slope of the great range dividing the Jibál
province from Daylam and Tabaristán to the north, were the
three districts of Pushkil-Darrah, Tâlikán, and Târum, of which
the last two overlap, the names often being used indifferently, one
for the other. These districts were each divided into Upper and
Lower, the Upper region being of the mountains, and as such
counted to be of the Daylam province. Pushkil-Darrah, according
to Mustawfi, lay to the west of Kazvin, and south of Tālikån. It
comprised forty villages whose revenues had formerly gone to the
up-keep of the Friday Mosque in Kazvin. The name Tālikån—
the district lying between the Sultāniyah plains and the northern
mountain range—has disappeared from the map, but At-Tâlikån
(as it is generally written) is frequently mentioned by the earlier
Arab geographers. Mukaddasi refers to it as a most populous
and fertile region ; and expresses his wonder that the Sultân (the
Governor of Daylam) does not live here instead of in the mountain
valleys, “but his people will not have it,” he adds. Kazvíní refers
to the abundant olives and fine pomegranates grown in Tâlikån,
and Yākūt names some of its villages. Of these last Mustawfi
gives a long list, but the majority of them it is impossible now to
identify on the present map. He considered that most part of
the Tālikån region belonged rather to Gilān.
To the north of Zanjān, likewise along the foot of the hill
spurs, lies the Târum district, which with the Arab geographers is
LE S. n I5
226 JIBAL. [CHAP.
generally found in the dual form At-Tărumayn, “the Two Târums,’
Lower and Upper, the latter being entirely of the Daylam country.
As already said, the Târum river was a right-bank affluent of the
Safid Rūd, and its many tributaries irrigated this fertile district.
Yākūt, who spells the name Târum or Tarm (with the unemphatic
t), says that there was no great city here, but in history the land
was famous for the memory of the Vahsūdān family, and the last
of these native chiefs had been dispossessed by Rukn-ad-Dawlah
the Buyid. Mustawfi mentions Fīrūzābād as the capital town of
Lower Târum, Andar (or Aydi) being the chief place in Upper
Tārum, with the fortress called Kalah Tāj, and he names five
districts, each comprising numerous villages.
As being in Lower Târum, but the position is nowhere given,
Mustawfi mentions the great castle of Shamīrān, or Samirán as
the name is spelt by Yākūt, who had himself visited its ruins.
Yākūt quotes also a long account from Ibn Muhalhal, who passed
through Samirán in about the year 331 (943), when it was counted
as one of the chief strongholds of the Daylamite kings, and Con-
tained (he writes) 2850 and odd houses, large with small, Fakhr-
ad-Dawlah the Buyid took the place in 379 (989), dispossessing the
last of the Vahsūdān family, a child, whose mother the Buyid
chief married. At about this date Mukaddasi, who spells the
name of the Castle Samīrūm, describes it as being of the
Salārvand district, and on its walls were “lions of gold, and the sun
and the moon,’ though its houses were built but of mud-brick. In
the middle of the next century the Persian traveller Nāsir-i-Khusraw
visited Samirán on his pilgrimage to Mecca. This was in 438
(1046) and he describes it as the capital of Tārum in Daylam. It
apparently lay three leagues west of the junction of the Shāh Rūd
with the Safid Rūd on the high road to Sarāv in Adharbäyjān.
Above the lower town was an immense fortress, crowning a rock
with its triple wall, garrisoned by a thousand men, water being
obtained by an underground conduit. Yākūt, who saw Samīrān
in the earlier years of the 7th (13th) century, found it a ruin, the
result of an Order of the chief of the Assassins at Alamūt. The
remains were those of a mighty fortress, ‘a mother of castles,’ and
it was situated on a great river that flowed from the mountains of
ſårum. Its site, however, does not appear to have been identified
xv) JIBAL. 227
by any modern traveller. Another fortress of this district is also
mentioned by Yākūt, bearing the name of Kilát, which was
situated in the Târum mountains, on the frontier of Daylam
between Kazvin and Khalkhāl. It occupied the summit of a
mountain, and below, on the river bank, where a masonry bridge
of many arches crossed the stream, was a suburb with excellent
markets. Yākūt states that this castle had belonged to the chief
of the Assassins at Alamūt, but like Samírân its site as yet
remains unidentified'.
In the matter of the manufactures and products of some of the
chief towns of the Jibal province Mukaddasi gives us a succinct
account. He says that Ray exported various kinds of stuffs,
especially those known as Munayyar, Cotton was spun here and
dyed blue, and the striped cloaks of Ray were famous. Needles,
Combs, and great bowls were made for export, the last two articles,
according to Kazvíní, being made from the fine-grained hard
wood known as khalanj, which came from the Tabaristān forests.
Ray also was famous for its melons and peaches, and for a kind of
Saponaceous clay, much used in washing the head.
In Kazvin well-made clothes were to be bought, also leathern
sacks used on journeys as wallets. Bows for archery were
exported, also the calamint herb. Kum was noted for its chairs,
bridles, stirrups, and various stuffs; much saffron, too, came from
its district. Kāshān exported a kind of dried immature date;
also tarragon. Isfahân was famous for its overcloaks; and a
special kind of salted meat was made for export; further, the
Isfahân padlocks were renowned. Hamadān and its neighbour-
hood produced cheese, and much saffron; and the skins of foxes
and martens were exported. Tin is named as found near here,
and various stuffs, as well as good boots, were made in the city.
Finally from Dinavar came famous cheeses”.
The chief highway through the Jibál province was part of the
great caravan road, commonly called the Khurāsān road, which,
as already described in the introductory chapter, went from
Baghdād to Transoxiana and the farther east. Entering the
* I. H. 253. Muk. 360. Yak, i. 63, 81 I ; ii. 499, 5oo; iii. 148, 492, 533;
iv. 156. Kaz. ii. 268. Mst. I 49, 150, 198, 217. J. N. 297. N. K. 5.
* Muk. 395, 396. Kaz. ii. 250.
I 5–2
228 JIBAL. - [CHAP.
province at Hulwān this high road passed through it diagonally,
coming first to Kirmisin (or Kirmānshāh), then to Hamadän, from
which town Săvah was the next point, thence finally north to Ray,
beyond which it passed eastward out of the Jibál province into
Kûmis, and through this to Khurāsān. Of the Khurāsān road,
the fullest of the early descriptions, as already explained, is that
given by Ibn Rustah at the close of the 3rd (beginning of the Ioth)
century, who, stage by stage, mentions all the streams and bridges
crossed by the road, also whether it ascends or descends or runs
across level ground, further naming the various villages and towns
that are passed. We have, besides, four other early accounts of
this road, the last by Mukaddasi, who gives the distances by the
day's march (Marhalah).
After the Mongol conquest and the establishment of the
dynasty of the Il-Khāns in Persia, Sultāniyah became the capital,
and hence the centre of the road system. In the itineraries of
Mustawfi, therefore, instead of starting from Baghdād and going
east, the roads start from Sultānīyah, and towards Baghdād the
reverse direction is of course followed. From Hulwān to Hamadān
(to revert to the older order of the route) the stages are however
practically the same in both systems. But from Hamadän,
instead of going by Sāvah to Ray, the Mongol high road goes
north direct to Sultāniyah across the Darguzin and Kharrakān
districts. No great towns, however, are passed, and the stages on
the road, as given by Mustawfi, being names of villages, are all
extremely uncertain'.
From near Kirmānshāh, at the hill called ‘Sumayrah's Tooth,’
Sinn Sumayrah (see p. 188), the road to Marāghah in Adhar-
bāyjān and the north turns off from the great Khurāsān road,
running first to Dinavar and thence to Sisar (probably identical
with the modern Sihnah town, see p. 190) and the Jibál frontier.
This route, of which the continuation through Adharbäyjān will be
described presently, is given by both Kudámah and Ibn Khurdādbih,
and the earlier portions of it are found in Ibn Hawkal. From
Kirmānshāh (Kirmisin), from Kanguvār and from Hamadän,
roads branched to the right, going south-east to Nihāvand,
* I. R. 165–169. I. K. 19–22. Kud. 198—200. I. H. 256–258.
Muk. 4oo—-402. Mst. I 92.
xv.] JIBAL. 229
whence, and from Hamadān direct, the way went by Burūjird to
Karaj of Abu Dulaf and thence on to Isfahân. Mustawfi gives
the stages from Kanguvár to Nihāvand and then on by a devious
route to Isfahân ; while from Karaj Mukaddasi gives the direct
road to Ray going vić Avah and Varāmin".
The present high road from Isfahân to Tihrān (past Ray) goes up
through Kāshān and Kum; but in the earlier middle-ages the caravan
route kept more to the east and nearer the desert border, sending
off branches to the left westward, in turn, to Kāshān and to Kum.
Mukaddasi, however, at the close of the 4th (Ioth) century, already
gives the route direct through Kāshān and Kum, as it goes now-
adays. In Mustawfi the road after passing these two towns
turned to the left through Ávah to Sävah, whence Sultāniyah
was reached, the great high road from this new capital to Ray
being joined at the stage of Súmghān, as will be described in the
next paragraph”. .
The number of marches between the towns to the west of Ray
On the high road to the Adharbäyjān province is given by Ibn
Hawkal and others, also those from Zanjān north to Ardabil.
The stages on this route, however, are found in fullest detail in
Mustawfi. Between Sultāniyah and Ray the road passed through
Abhar to Färisjin, leaving Kazvin to the north, and thence
reached a stage called Stumghān (the reading of this name is
uncertain), where it bifurcated. The Khurāsān high road went
straight onward by the shrine of ‘Abd-al-‘Azim to Ray, and
thence to Varāmān; while branching to the right southwards,
the Isfahân road went first to Sagzābād (or Sagzīābād), and
thence on to Sävah as already described”.
Of the roads through Adharbäyjān, in early times under the
Caliphate, as already noticed, the great northern branch starting
from the Khurāsān road at Hamadān went to Sisar, and thence
on to Barzah in Adharbäyjān, 60 miles south of the Urmiyah
lake, where it bifurcated”. To the right the main road passed to
* I. K. I 19, 120. Kud. 199, 200, 212. I. H. 256, 257, 258. Muk. 401,
402. Mst. 195.
* I. R. 190, 191. I. K. 58, 59. I. H. 289, 290. Muk. 491. Mst. 199.
* I. H. 252, 258. Muk. 383. Mst. I 96, 198, 199. -
* See Map III, p. 87.
23O JIBAL. [CHAP.
the east of the lake by Marāghah to Tabriz, and thence east
through Sarāv to Ardabil. The left branch at the bifurcation at
Barzah kept to the west of the lake, going by Urmiyah City to
Khuwi, and thence by Nakhchivân (Nashawā) to Dabil, the capital
of Armenia. From Tabriz there was the cross-road by Marand to
Khuwi, and thence on by Arjish to Khilât at the western end
of the Vân lake. This last section is given by Istakhri and
Mukaddasi only”.
From Ardabil, north, the road went across the Mūghān district
to Warthán, where the Araxes was crossed, and thence by Bay-
lakān to Bardhā‘ah. From this town one road went by Shamkür
north-westwards up the Kur river to Tiflis in Georgia ; while to
the right by Barzanj, at the crossing of the Kur, another road
led to Shamākhā, the capital of Shirvân, and thence on to Bāb-
al-Abwab, otherwise Darband. A road from Dabil, the capital of
Armenia, to Bardhā‘ah is also given by Mukaddasi and others,
but the stages are not easy to identify”. -
The Mongol road system which went through Adharbäyjān to
the north-western frontiers, as described by Mustawfi in the 8th
(14th) century, started from the new capital Sultāniyah, and at
Zanjān bifurcated. To the right, the northern branch passed
through Khūnaj or Kāghadh Kunán, crossed the Safid Rūd, and
by Khalkhāl city came to Ardabil, from whence Bajarvān, the
capital of Mūghān, was reached. From Zanjān, and crossing
the Safīd Rūd by a stone bridge (called the Kantarah Sabid
Rûdh), this road is also given in part by Istakhri and Ibn
Hawkal, with a cross-road from Miyānij. Continuing on from
Bajarvān Mustawfi first notices the branch road, east, to Mahmūdā-
bād, and then mentions the stages on the main road, which went
from Bajarvān by Bardhā‘ah and Shamkūr to Tiflis.
Returning to the bifurcation at Zanjān, the left branch, as
described by Mustawfi, went up to Miyānij in Adharbäyjān, and
thence by Újān to Tabriz, following the line given (in the con-
trary direction) by the earlier Arab geographers. From Tabriz
Mustawfi likewise gives the road on to Arjish on the lake of Vân,
* I. K. I 19–121. Kud. 212, 213. Ist. 194. I. H. 252—254. Muk.
382, 383.
* I. K. I 2 I, I22. Kud. 213. Ist. I 92, 193. I. H. 25 L. Muk. 381.
xv) - JIBAL. 23 I
whence, bearing away from the left road along the lake shore to
Khilāt, he records the distances going north-west to Malāsjird,
and on by Arzan-ar-Rûm (Erzerum) through Arzanjān to Sivās,
the capital of the Saljúk province of Rûm. Finally, starting
from Tabriz and going north-east, Mustawfi gives the cross-road
to Bajarvān, which went by Áhar, crossing two passes; and
along this line, he tells us, the Wazir ‘Alī Shāh had recently
built a number of Rubåts or guard-houses".
* Mst. 198, 199. Ist. 194. I. H. 252.
`s-
CHAPTER XVI.
KHÚZISTAN.
The Dujayl or Kārūn river. Khūzistān and Ahwāz. Tustar or Shustar.
The Great Weir. The Masrukān canal. ‘Askar Mukram. Junday
Shāpār. Dizfūl. Sás and the Karkhah river. Basinná and Mattàth.
Rarkāb and Dār-ar-Răsibi. Hawizah and Nahr Tirá. Dawrak and the
Surrak district. Hisn Mahdi. The Dujayl estuary. Rämhurmuz and
the Zutt district. Territory of Great Lur. idhaj or Māl-Amir. Súsan.
Lurdagān. Trade and products of Khūzistán. The high roads.
The province of Khūzistān comprises all the alluvial lands of the
river Kārūn, known to the Arabs as the Dujayl of Al-Ahwāz,
with its many affluents". This river was called the Dujayl
(Little Tigris) of Al-Ahwāz, past which city it flowed, in order to
distinguish it from the Dujayl canal of the Tigris to the north of
Baghdād. Khūzistān means ‘the Land of the Khūz,’ a name
otherwise written Húz or Hūz; and the plural of Húz, in
Arabic, is Ahwāz, which was the capital city, Al-Ahwäz being the
shortened form of Sūk-al-Ahwāz, ‘the Market of the Húz people.’
The name Khūzistān for the province is now become almost
obsolete, and at the present day this district of Persia is known as
‘Arabistān, ‘the Arab Province.’ Its great river, too, is no longer
called the Dujayl, being now known as the Kārūn, a name which
is said to be a corruption of Kú/. Atang, ‘the Coloured Hills,'
namely the mountains from which it descends; the name Kārūn,
however, appears to have been unknown to the medieval Arab or
Persian geographers.
The upper waters of the Dujayl or Kārūn river ramify
* For Khūzistán see Map II, p. 25.
CHAP. XVI] KHÚZISTAN. 233
through the gorges of the district of Greater Lur, and its affluents
come down from Lesser Lur and the Kurdistân mountains. The
source of the Dujayl is in the Kūh Zard, ‘the Yellow Mountain’
(see p. 207); from which, on the other versant, the main stream
of the river Zandah Rūd flows towards Isfahân. The Dujayl river
after a long and winding course through the gorges, with many
minor affluents on either bank, comes to the city of Tustar, which
Mustawfi in the 8th (14th) century counts as the capital of
Khūzistán, whence he calls the river the Dujayl of Tustar. At
Tustar the stream bifurcates, but coming together again at ‘Askar
Mukram, thence flows past Ahwāz, where it is joined by the
Junday Sābūr or Dizfūl river. The Dizfūl takes its course from
Burdjird in Lesser Lur (see p. 200), and its upper waters were
known as the Kar'ah (or Kaw'ah). After being joined by
another river, called the Kazki, the main stream flowed past the
city of Dizfūl to join the Dujayl, as we have seen. Another
great affluent of the Dujayl ran further to the westward, namely
the river of Sãs, otherwise called the Karkhah. This rose in the
mountains of Lesser Lur, and was joined by the Külkü, also by
the river of Khurramābād. After a long course these united
streams, flowing down past the city of Sãs, came to the Hawizah
country to the west of Ahwāz and finally joined the Dujayl. At
some distance below the junction of these affluents, the Dujayl
river became a great tidal estuary, through which, to the east-
ward of the estuary of the Tigris (already described in Chapter II)
the combined waters of the Khūzistán rivers found their way out
to the Persian Gulf". -
Al-Ahwāz, the capital of the province, had originally been
known by the name of Hurmuz-Shahr (variously given in the
MSS. as Hurmuz Awshir and Hurmuz-Ardashīr), this being the
Persian name. Mukaddasi describes the town as having suffered
greatly during the rebellion of the Zanj in the 3rd (9th) century,
and their chief for a time had made it his place of residence. In
the following century it was in part rebuilt by the Buyid prince
‘Adud-ad-Dawlah ; and Mukaddasi writes of it as possessing in
his day many great warehouses, where merchandise was collected
I. S. 32. I. R. 9o, 91. Yak. ii. 496, 555. Mst. 204, 214, 215, 216.
J. N. 286. -
234 KHÚZISTAN. [CHAP.
from the inland towns and stored, before being transferred to
Basrah for final sale and export.
In those days Ahwäz consisted of two quarters; one, the
eastern, on the river bank, was the main quarter of the town,
containing the great markets and the Friday Mosque, and it was
connected by a bridge with the island in the Dujayl river, on
which stood the western quarter of the city. This bridge, built of
kiln-burnt bricks, and known as the Kantarah Hinduwän, had
been restored by ‘Adud-ad-Dawlah, and on it stood a mosque
overlooking the river, which near the town had many waterwheels
along its banks. The main stream of the Dujayl flowed past the
further, or western side of the island, and a little below Ahwāz
a great weir (Shādhurwān), built on the rocks, dammed back the
waters, raising them for irrigation purposes. Three canals, used
for watering the lands round the town, left the river above the
weir, in which sluices regulated the level for supply and when
opened in flood-time saved the city from inundation. The
climate of Ahwāz, according to Mukaddasi, was execrable, hot
winds blew all day, and by night sleep became impossible by
reason of innumerable mosquitoes and bugs, which “bite like
wolves,’ he tells us, adding that the noise of the waters rushing
over the weir had prevented him from resting, being plainly
audible all over the town. Snakes and Scorpions, he says,
infested the neighbouring plain, which in many parts was a
salt marsh, and the rice-flour bread on which the population fed
was most indigestible".
In complete contrast to the evil-famed city of Ahwäz was
the second capital of Khūzistān, called Tustar by the Arabs, and
Shustar, or Shushtar, by the Persians. This as the crow flies lay
about 60 miles north of Ahwāz, but perhaps double that distance
by water, on account of the windings of the Dujayl river.
Mukaddasi records Tustar as Surrounded by gardens, where
grapes, Oranges, and dates grew abundantly, and no town of
Khūzistān, he says, was more beautiful or pleasanter to live in,
though he admits that the heat was extreme in summer. The
markets of Tustar were abundantly supplied ; brocades, with
* Ist. 88. I. H. I7 I. Muk. 406, 4 Io. Yak. i. 410–413; iv. 969. Mst.
I69.
XVI] KHÚZISTAN. 235
embroidered cotton stuffs of all kinds were made here, the
brocade (Dibáj) of Tustar being most famous. The Friday
Mosque stood in the middle of the cloth-merchants’ market; and
the fullers' quarter, down by the river, was a fine place.
In the year 260 A.D. the Roman Emperor Valerian fell a
prisoner into the hands of King Shāpār (Sapor I), the second
monarch of the Sassanian dynasty, and during his seven years'
captivity, according to the Persian historians, had been employed
to build the Great Weir (Shādhurwān) across the Dujayl im-
mediately below Tustar. This was held by the Arabs to be
one of the wonders of the world, and the remains of it still exist
at the present day. The bed of the stream to the west of
Tustar was paved, and the weir held back the water, enabling a
part of the full river to be diverted above Tustar into an artificial
channel turning off eastwards, which rejoined the Dujayl river
many miles lower down after irrigating the lands through which it
passed. The weir of Tustar is given by the older authorities as
measuring nearly a mile across, and according to Mukaddasi a
bridge of boats (/isr) stretched over it, carrying the high road
which went west from TuStar towards ‘Iråk. At the present day an
ancient bridge of many small arches, Over a quarter of a mile in
length, carries the road across the weir, but this does not appear
to have existed in the earlier middle-ages. Mustawfi in the 8th
(14th) century describes the city of Shustar as having four gates,
and it was protected by a strong fortress. His contemporary Ibn
Battitah calls the Dujayl (or Kārūn) the Nahr-al-Azrak, ‘the
Blue River,’ and speaks of the bridge of boats, ‘like those at
Baghdād and Hillah,” which crossed the river west of the town
from the Dizfūl Gate. He describes at some length the various
shrines at the place, which, when he was there, was, he reports,
an extremely flourishing town'.
The Great Weir at Tustar, as already said, was built to raise
the water sufficiently high for a canal to be taken from the Dujayl
* Ist. 89, 92. I. H. 172, 174, 175. Muk. 405, 409. Yak. i. 847. Mst.
168. I. B. ii. 24. The story of Valerian, and the building of the Great Weir
by Sapor I, is narrated by Tabari (i. 827), who, with unusual accuracy, gives
the name of the Roman Emperor as Alariyānūs (the Greek form is Oùa)\eptavós).
Mas‘ūdī (ii. 184) in error gives these events under the reign of Sapor II.
236 KHÚZISTAN. [CHAP.
above the city, which should water the lands to the eastward.
This canal, now called the Āb-i-Gargar, was in the earlier middle-
ages known as the Masrukān or Mashrukān, and according to
Ibn Muhalhal—a traveller of the 4th (Ioth) century, quoted by
Yākūt—its waters were white, while those of the main stream of
the Dujayl were red in colour. The main stream of the Dujayl
(called at the present day the Shutayt, or ‘Little River,’ in the
reach immediately below Shustar) is rejoined by the Masrukån
branch some 25 miles south of Shustar, at a point near the ruins
of Band-i-Kir. These mark the site of the city called ‘Askar
Mukram, which, throughout the middle-ages, was the most
important town on the Masrukān, and the canal throughout its
course passed through and irrigated lands planted with sugar-
Canes, the finest, it was said, in all Khūzistán.
In the early part of the 9th (15th) century, Hāfiz Abrú and
‘Alī of Yazd, writing after the time of Timür, refer to these water-
ways under the following names: the moiety of the main stream
of the Dujayl, which passed off to the eastward above Shustar
(the Masrukān, or Åb-i-Gargar), was then called the Dú Dänikah
or ‘Two Sixths”; while the major part of the Dujayl, which
went over the weir to the west of the town, was known as the
Chahār Dānikah or ‘Four Sixths.” At the present day a canal,
called the Minaw, is diverted south-east from the main stream,
and passing through a tunnel under the rock on which the castle
of Shustar stands, irrigates the high-lying lands to the South of the
city. This channel is the Dashtābād canal mentioned by Mustawfi;
and it is referred to by Hāfiz Abrū, who says that the Chahār
Dänikah was divided near the city into two streams, of which
only one re-united below with the Dú Dänikah (or Masrukān).
According to tradition the Masrukān had been originally dug by
Ardashīr Bābgān, founder of the Sassanian monarchy. Mustawfi
mentions the city of Masrukān as standing on the canal bank;
and South of this, as already said, at a point half-way between
Tustar and Ahwāz, the Masrukån stream poured back into the
Dujayl near the city of ‘Askar Mukram.
The Masrukån district was famous for a particularly ex-
cellent kind of date, as well as for the Sugar-cane already
alluded to.
XVI] KHÚZISTAN. 237
‘Askar Mukram took its name from the camp (‘Askar) of
Mukram, an Arab commander sent into Khūzistān by Hajjāj, the
celebrated viceroy of ‘Irāk under the Omayyads, to put down a
revolt. Mukram encamped near the ruins of a Persian town
originally called Rustam Kuwäd, a name corrupted by the Arabs
into Rustakubādh ; and this afterwards became known as ‘Askar
Mukram, a new city having sprung up on the site of the Arab camp.
At the present day the name of ‘Askar Mukram has disappeared
from the map, but its site is marked by the ruins known as Band-i-
Kir, ‘the Bitumen Dyke, where the Åb-i-Gargar (the Masrukān)
runs into the Kārūn. In the 4th (Ioth) century ‘Askar Mukram
was a town occupying both banks of the Masrukān canal, the
western quarter being the larger, and this was connected with the
other side by two great bridges of boats. The city had well-
built markets, which, with the Friday Mosque, stood in the
western quarter, but a great drawback to the place was the
number of particularly venomous scorpions that were found
there. According to Mustawfi the older Persian town had been
called Burj Shāpúr, after King Sapor II, who had rebuilt and
enlarged it; Mustawfi states that it was in his day commonly called
Lashkar, meaning ‘the Camp’ in Persian, being when he wrote, in
the 8th (14th) century, accounted as the healthiest of all the towns
of Khūzistán.
According to Ibn Serapion, and other early authorities, the
Masrukån channel, in the 4th (Ioth) century, did not flow back
into the Dujayl at ‘Askar Mukram, but took its separate course,
running parallel with the Dujayl main stream, down to the tidal
estuary. Further, Ibn Hawkal, in the previous century, describes
how he himself travelled down the bed of the Masrukān, at a
season of low water, going by this route from ‘Askar Mukram to
Ahwāz; the first six leagues were, he says, by boat, the remaining
four being completed on horseback in the dry bed of the canal.
The old course of the lower part of the Masrukān cannot now be
followed, for in this alluvial country the lapse of a thousand years
has completely changed the face of the land. Below Ahwāz
city, in the 3rd (9th) century, began the broad reach of the
Dujayl called the Nahr-as-Sidrah—“the Lotus Canal’—which, after
238 KHÚZISTAN. [CHAP.
receiving many affluents, ended at Hisn Mahdi, near the head
of the Kārūn tidal estuary".
Eight leagues north-west of Tustar, on the road to Dizfūl, lie
the ruins now called Shāhābād, which mark the site of the city of
Junday Sābār, or Jundi Shāpār. Under the Sassanians Junday
Sābār had been the capital city of Khūzistān, and as late as the
time of the Caliph Manşūr it was famous for the great medical
school founded here by the Christian physician Bukht-Yishū',
who, followed by his sons and grandsons, stood high in favour
with more than one of the Abbasid Caliphs. The neighbour-
hood was celebrated also for the sugar that it produced, which
was exported thence to Khurāsān and the further east, though
already by the 4th (Ioth) century Mukaddasi speaks of Junday
Sābār as falling to ruin, on account of the inroads of the Kurds.
Its embroideries, however, were famous, and rice was largely
grown; and in the town was to be seen the tomb of Ya‘kūb, son
of Layth the Saffārid, who having made this city his capital, died
here in 265 (878). Mustawfi in the 8th (14th) century describes
Jundi Shāpār as still a populous town, famous for its sugar-cane,
though at the present day an almost uninhabited ruin alone marks
the site. .
Dizfūl, ‘the Diz Bridge’ or ‘the Castle Bridge,’ lies on the
Diz river to the west of Junday Sābūr. The city took its name
from a famous bridge, said to have been built by Sapor II, and
called Kantarah Andāmish by Istakhri. The remains of it still
exist. The city was in the 4th (Ioth) century also known as Kasr
(the Castle of) Ar-Rūnāsh; Mukaddasi, however, sometimes refers
to it merely as the town of Al-Kantarah, “the Bridge.’ The
place and its famous bridge had various other names. Thus Ibn
Serapion calls it Kantarah-ar-Rûm, ‘the Roman Bridge,’ and the
Diz he names the river of Junday Säbär. Again, Ibn Rustah
writes of Kantarah-ar-Rûdh, “the River Bridge,’ and in Ibn
Khurdādbih we find Kantarah-az-Zāb, Zāb being according to
him the name of the Diz river. In the 8th (14th) century
* I. S. 32. Ist. 9o, 92. I. H. 172, 173, 175. Muk. 409, 41 I. A. Y. i.
588, 591, 599. Hf... 82 a. Mst. 169, 170. Yak. i. 41 I, 412; ii. 676. Ham-
zah, 47.
XVI] KHÚZISTAN. 239
Mustawfi describes the bridge as built of 42 arches, being 320
paces in length, and the roadway 15 paces wide; he says it was
then called the Andālmishk (or Andamish) Bridge.
The town of Dizfūl occupied both banks of the river, and
above the town a canal, cut through the rock on the east side,
turned a great waterwheel working a mechanism which raised the
water 50 ells and thus supplied all the houses of the town. The
pasture lands round Dizfūl were famous, and the narcissus grew
here abundantly. ‘Ali of Yazd gives the name of Zăl to the river,
and he describes the bridge at Dizfūl (a name which he writes
Dizpul, in the Persian fashion) as built on 28 great arches, with
27 smaller ones between each two, making a total of 55. A
reference to the modern map shows that at the present day the
Dizpul river joins the Kārūn opposite Band-i-Kir (“Askar Mukram),
but in earlier times it must have come into the Dujayl somewhat
lower down, and probably in its upper course the stream passed
nearer to Junday Sābūr than is now the case. At its junction, in
the middle-ages, with the Dujayl, and probably to the north of
Ahwaz, lay the two fertile districts, with their chief towns, called
Great and Little Manādhir, which Ibn Hawkal in the 4th (Ioth)
century describes as surrounded by palm-groves and growing
much corn".
The country to the north and east of Dizfūl and Tustar, was,
in the earlier middle-ages, known as the Lur Plain (Sahrā Lur),
being occupied by the Lur tribes who in later times migrated into
Lesser and Greater Lur, the mountain districts, of which the first-
named was included in the Jibál province, as already noticed in
Chapter XIV. In the 4th (1 oth) century, when Ibn Hawkal wrote,
the Lurs had evidently already begun to migrate, for he describes
the neighbourhood as inhabited by the Kurds, and says of the Lur
country that it was a most fertile though exceedingly mountainous
district”.
I. R. 90. I. K. 176. I. S. 32. Ist. 93, 95, 197. I. H. 176, 177, 259.
Muk. 384, 405, 408. Ykb. 361. Yak. ii. 130; iv. I I I. Mst. 169. A. Y. i.
588, 591. For the various physicians of the name of Bukht-Yishū‘ who, though
Christians, served the Abbasid Caliphs from Manşūr to Hârün-ar-Rashid as
court physicians, see Ibn Abi Usaybi'ah (edited by A. Müller), i. 125-I43,
2O2.
* Ist. 88, 94. I. H. 171, 176. Muk. 409.
24O KHÚZISTAN. [CHAP.
To the south-west of Dizfūl lie the ruins of Sãs, the ancient
Susa, near the bank of the Karkhah river. This was a populous
town in the middle-ages, being the centre of a district with many
cities, and it was famous for its raw silk, as well as for oranges,
while the sugar-cane grew here abundantly. The city was protected
by an ancient fortress, and there were fine markets in the town,
where stood a Friday Mosque built on round columns. Tra-
dition asserted that the tomb of the prophet Daniel had been
made in the bed of the Karkhah river which ran on the further
side of Süs, and a fine mosque marked the place on the bank
which lay nearest to his supposed grave. Mustawfi, who describes
the city as a flourishing place in the 8th (14th) century, speaks of
the tomb of the prophet Daniel as standing (apparently on dry
ground) to the west of it, adding that in his honour none of .
the fish in the river were ever molested by man. The neighbour-
ing city of Karkhā, or Karkhah, which now gives its name to the
river flowing by the mounds of Sãs, lies some distance above
these, and on the right or western bank. Mukaddasi describes it
as a small but populous town, holding its market weekly, on the
Sunday. It was protected by a castle, and was surrounded by
gardens".
A number of places are mentioned by the early geographers as
lying on or near the Karkhah river, some to the westward, some
below Süs, which were important towns during the middle-ages,
but of which no trace now remains on the modern map. Their
positions are, however, approximately given by the Itineraries.
Of these the most important was Basinnā, which lay a short day's
journey south of Süs, on a Canal (or possibly a minor affluent of
the Karkhah river), which was known as the Dujayl or ‘Little
Tigris’ of Basinná. It was a great place for trade, and the veils
of Basinná were celebrated all over the Moslem world ; beautiful
carpets of felt also were made here, and wool-spinning was a
chief industry. The city was defended by two castles, and the
Friday Mosque, a bow-shot from the river bank, stood at the
town gate; seven mills built in barges floated on the ‘Little
Tigris’ according to Mukaddasi. Near Basinnā, and also about
* Ist. 88, 92, 93. I. H. 174. Muk. 405, 407, 408. Mst. 269. A. F.
31 I. Yak. iv. 252 (where A'arajah is printed in error for Karkhah).
xv.1] KHÚZISTAN. 24. I
a day's journey from Süs, but probably to the west of the Karkhah
river, was the town of Bayrūt or Birüdh, which Yākūt visited in
the 7th (13th) century. Mukaddasi speaks of it as a large place,
surrounded by date-groves, and on account of its flourishing
commerce it was known as ‘the Little Basrah.’
Mattät or Mattäth, where there was a strong castle, was also of
this neighbourhood; it lay nine leagues to the south of Sús, and
on the road between Ahwāz and Kurkūb. This last—where were
made the celebrated Stisanjird embroideries—was a town of some
importance, lying half-way between Süs and Tib in ‘Iråk, being
one march from Sùs and two from Basinnä. Another town of
this district, the site of which has not been found, though
probably it stood to the north of Karkūb, was Dūr-ar-Răsibi,
which Yākūt describes as situated between Tib and Junday
Sābūr. This Dūr was famous as the birth-place and residence
of Ar-Răsibi, who died in 301 (913), having been for many
years the semi-independent governor of all the districts from
Wäsit to Shahrazūr, during the Caliphate of Muktadir. He
was celebrated for his immense wealth, and of the goods and
furniture that he left at his death Yākūt gives a long and curious
inventory'.
The Karkhah river is joined at about the latitude of Ahwäz by
streams coming down from Hawizah (or Huwayzah, the diminu-
tive form of Húz or Húz, as already said, the name of the people
of this province), which Mustawfi describes in the 8th (14th)
century as one of the most flourishing cities of Khūzistän. Corn,
Cotton, and sugar-cane grew here abundantly, and the town had
at that time a population of Sabaeans or Sābians. The town of
Nahr Tirá or Nahr Tirin, on the canal or river of this name,
which appears to have been a right bank affluent of the lower
Karkhah, must also have been of the Hawizah district. It lay a
day's journey west of Ahwäz on the road to Wäsit, and it was
famous for the stuffs made there, which resembled those of
Baghdād.
The Karkhah river flows from the west into the Dujayl below
Ahwāz, probably in the broad reach, already referred to, known as
* Ist. 171, 175. I. H. 93. Muk. 405, 408. Yak. i. 656, 786; ii. 616; iv.
65, 412. Hfz. 82 0. A. F. 313.
LE S. I6
242 KHÚZISTAN. [CHAP.
the Lotus river (Nahr-as-Sidrah). From the east, but lower down,
is the junction of the Dawrak river, or canal, on which lay the city
of this name, the capital of the Surrak district. The town was
called Dawrak-al-Furs, ‘of the Persians’; it was very spacious, with
fine markets where goods of all sorts were warehoused, and the
pilgrims from Fărs and Kirmān mostly passed through here on
their road to Mecca. It was famous for its veils. Its Friday
Mosque stood in the market-place, and on the river bank were
many hamlets. Yellow sulphur was found here, near the hot
sulphur springs, where the sick bathed and were healed. These,
which were especially beneficial in skin diseases, gushed out from
a hill side, the waters filling two tanks. In the 4th (Ioth) century
wonderful Sassanian buildings were still to be seen at Dawrak,
also a fire-temple, according to Ibn Muhalhal.
In the district near Dawrak were the two cities of Mīrākiyān
and Mīrāthiyān, which Mukaddasi describes. The first lay on
a tidal canal, and was surrounded by excellent lands; while
Mirāthiyān consisted of two quarters, with a Friday Mosque in
each of them and markets that were much frequented. In the
4th (1 oth) century much of the water of the southern swampy
lands of the Khūzistán district drained out to the Persian Gulf by
channels running South from Dawrak, and these entered the sea
at Băsiyän. Near this town must have been the creek and island
of Dawrakistán, mentioned by Yākūt and Kazwini, where ships
coming from India Cast anchor. The town here was protected
by a fortress, to which political prisoners were sent by the
Caliph to be kept out of the way; and as late as the 7th
(13th) century boats could pass up from here northwards, to
‘Askar Mukram, by a series of canals or rivers that flowed to the
eastward of the Dujay]".
The Dujayl below Ahwäz soon broadened out to become the
tidal estuary, which was the lower part of the Lotus river or Nahr-
as-Sidrah. On this estuary stood Sük Bahr, a town where, until
the time of the Caliph Muktadir in the middle of the 4th (roth)
1 Ist. 93. I. H. 176. Muk. 407, 412. Yak. i. 41 I ; ii. 371, 618, 62o.
Mst. 169. Kaz. ii. 130, 246. Both Nahr Tirá and Manādhir must have been
important places in Omayyad days, for between the years 90 and 97 (709–716)
both were mint cities.
XVI] KHÚZISTAN. 243
Century, there had been toll-barriers, vexatious and unlawful dues
being here exacted. The town of Sūk-al-Arba'ā (the Wednesday
market) was in this neighbourhood, lying to the east of the
Dujayl, and on a canal which divided the town into two quarters
that were connected by a wooden bridge. The eastern quarter of
Sük-al-Arba'ā was the more populous, and here was the mosque.
The neighbouring town of Jubbā was noted for its sugar-canes,
and the lands near were occupied by many villages.
At the head of the broad waters of the great tidal estuary of
the Dujayl was the fortress called Hisn Mahdi, with a mosque
standing in the midst of its guard-houses (Rubåt), said to have
been built by the Caliph Mahdi, father of Hārūn-ar-Rashid.
Hisn Mahdi stood a few miles above the point where the Adudi
canal branched off to the westward, joining the head of the
Dujayl estuary with the Blind Tigris at Bayān, and round it lay
the district of the Sabkhah, or salt marshes (see Chapter III,
p. 48). The estuary, or Fayd of the Dujayl went into the Persian
Gulf at Sulaymānān, and this was a dangerous passage for
ships, which appear to have reached Ahwäz more safely by
threading the various canals and rivers going up by Băsiyān to
Dawrak and thence into the Lotus river. The fortress of Hisn
Mahdi, the exact site of which is unknown, stood, we are told, at
the junction of many roads, and commanded the upper reach of
the Dujayl estuary, where it was nearly a league across, being
immediately below where many streams from the Hawizah country
and the Dawrak river flowed in from the north-west and the east.
Above this point began the Lotus channel, going up to Ahwāz,
from which city Hisn Mahdi was 20 leagues distant'.
Three days' march east of Ahwäz is the city of Rämhurmuz,
still known by the name which it received from King Hurmuz,
grandson of Ardashir Bābgân. In the 4th (Ioth) Century it
was famous for the silkworms reared here, and raw silk was
largely exported. In Rämhurmuz there was a fine Friday Mosque,
and excellent markets which had been built by ‘Adud-ad-Dawlah,
the Buyid prince. Mukaddasi relates that every night the
gates of the various wards occupied by the shops of the cloth-
* I. S. 30. Kud. 194. Ist. 93, 95. I. H. 172, 176. Muk. 412, 419.
Yak. i. 185; ii. 12; iii. I93.
I6–2
244 KHÚZISTAN. [CHAP.
merchants, perfumers, and mat-weavers, were securely locked.
There was, he adds, a celebrated library here, where lectures
were delivered, and this had been built and endowed by a certain
Ibn Sawwar, who had also founded a similar institution at Basrah.
Rämhurmuz got its water by a canal from the Tâb river, but this
in summer-time often ran dry, and the town was everywhere so
infested by gnats that according to Mukaddasi mosquito curtains
were a necessity. Mustawfi, in the 8th (14th) century, says that
the name Rämhurmuz was then commonly shortened to Râmuz;
the town was still a flourishing Centre, much corn, cotton, and
sugar-cane being grown in its districts.
Six leagues south-east of Rämhurmuz, on the road to Arraján
and not far from the river Täb, which here marked the boundary
of Fārs, was the Hawmah or district of the Zutt, otherwise known
as the Jät tribes from India (identical it is said with the Gipsies).
This district was watered from the Tâb river, and here stood the
two populous villages called Az-Zutt and Al-Khābarán. Beyond
this, and two marches short of Arrajān, close to the Fārs
frontier on the road coming from Arrajān to Dawrak, was the
little town of Asak, where, according to Istakhri, there was a small
volcano. The place stood in the midst of palm-groves, and
much dāshāb, or syrup of raisins, was made here and exported.
Near Asak also were Sassanian remains, namely, a great Aywan or
domed hall, a hundred ells in height, built by King Kubădh over
a spring. East of Asak, and a few miles short of Arrajān, but to
the west of the bridges over the Tâb river, was the market town of
Sanbil in the midst of its district, which thus lay along the borders
of Färs". .
The Lur districts lay east and north of Tustar along the
upper course of the Dujayl (Kärån river) and its numerous
affluents. The country to the east and South of the upper Kārūn
(which here makes a great bend and doubles back, between its
source in the mountains west of Isfahân, and the point north of
* Ist. 92, 93, 94. I. H. 175, 176. Muk. 407, 413. Yak. i. 61. Mst.
169. By a strange error Yākāt (ii. 791) mentions the village of Az-Zutt under
the form Ar-Rutt, though he was perfectly well acquainted with the Zutt or
Gipsies, and mentions a canal (ii. 930) called after them.
XVI] KHÚZISTAN. - 245
TuStar, where it finally turns south and flows down towards the
Persian Gulf) Mustawfi describes as the Great Lur district, and
this lay contiguous to the Shūlistán district over the border in
Fārs. The chief town of Great Lur was idhaj, otherwise called Māl-
Amir. Mukaddasi describes it in the 4th (Ioth) century as one
of the finest towns of Khūzistān; and it stood near the hills, where,
at a place called Asadābād, was the palace of the governor. In
winter snow fell here abundantly, and was stored to be carried
to Ahwäz for sale during the summer. The fields being
irrigated by the rains the pistachio-trees produced fine crops of
nuts. Ibn Batūtah, who visited the place in the beginning of
the 8th (14th) century, says that idhaj was already then more
commonly known as Māl-al-Amir, ‘the Amir's property,’ a name
which it still bears, idhaj having now become obsolete.
idhaj was further famous for its great stone bridge over the
Dujayl, which Yākūt describes as one of the wonders of the world.
This, the ruins of which still exist, was known as the Kantarah
Khurrah Zād, being so named after the mother of King Ardashir,
and it spanned the ravine by a single arch, rising 150 ells above
the water level. In the gorge two leagues below the town was a
mighty and dangerous whirlpool, known as Fam-al-Bawwab, “the
Porter's Mouth.” The great bridge was repaired in the 4th (Ioth)
century by the Wazir of Rukn-ad-Dawlah, the Buyid prince, and
it took two years’ labour to bring this to completion. Its stones
were joined by lead with iron clamps, and it is said that I 50,000
dinārs (4.75,ooo) were spent upon the work. Yākūt says that
earthquakes were frequent in the neighbourhood of idhaj; also
there were many mines, a certain alkali being found here, called
Kūkali, which was a sovereign remedy for the gout. He adds
that an ancient fire-temple was to be seen at idhaj, which until
the reign of Hārūn-ar-Rashid had been constantly in use.
Occupying both banks of the river, and four leagues to the
north-west of idhaj, was the small town called Süsan, otherwise
known as ‘Arſ.j (or ‘Arūh). Round this place stretched extensive
gardens, producing grapes, citrons, and Oranges, and Mustawfi says
that the mountains, on which snow still lay in summer, were only
four leagues distant. ‘Arūj, or Sūsan, was also known as Jäbalak,
and this place according to some authorities is to be identified
246 KHÚZISTAN. [CHAP.
with ‘Shushan the palace’ of the Book of Daniel. About 150 miles
east of Mâl-Amir, on the frontier of Fārs and near the eastern-
most of the affluents of the Kārūn river, is Lurjān (otherwise
Lurdagān or Lurkān, all forms of the name of Lur), which Istakhri
describes as the capital of the Sardān (or Sardan) district, a
spacious town embowered in trees. Mustawfi praises it for its
abundant grapes, and it was often held to be of the province
of Fārs, on the borders of which it lay".
The main produce of Khūzistān was sugar, for the Sugar-cane
grew in almost all parts of it, and Mukaddasi states that in the
4th (Ioth) century, throughout Persia, Mesopotamia, and Arabia,
no sugar but that exported from Khúzistān was to be found. He
says that Ahwāz, the capital, was renowned for a special kind of
kerchief, such as women mostly wear ; and Tustar produced the
brocades (Dibáj) that were famous all the world over, as well as
rugs and fine cloth. Much fruit also was grown in Tustar for export,
particularly melons. The district of Sūs was especially the home
of the Sugar-cane, and the city exported enormous quantities of
this commodity; silk too was woven here and cloth stuffs. In
‘Askar Mukram they made veils of raw silk, and napkins, also
cloth. Basinná was famous for its curtains; Kurkūb for felt rugs;
and Nahr Tirá for long face-veils”.
In Khūzistān all the rivers and canals were navigable for boats,
and much of the traffic between the towns passed along the
waterways. The high roads centred in Ahwāz, to which the
traveller from Basrah journeyed either by water along the 'Adudi
Canal, or by land across the salt marsh (Sabkhah) from ‘Askar
Abu Ja‘far, opposite Ubullah, to Hisn Mahdi; and thence through
Sūk-al-Arba'â to Ahwāz”.
The distances between the various cities of Khūzistān are
given by Istakhri and Mukaddasi in much detail. From Ahwāz
a road went west to Nahr Tirá, and on thence to Wäsit in ‘Irāk.
The northern road from the capital passed through ‘Askar Mukram
* Ist. Io9, 126. I. H. 182, 197. Muk. 414. Kaz. ii. 201. Yak. i. 416;
iv. 189. Mst. I 51. I. B. ii. 29. For Sūsan compare Sir H. Layard and
Sir H. C. Rawlinson in V. A. G. S. 1839, p. 83; and 1842, p. 103.
* Muk. 416.
* Kud. 194. Muk. I 35.
XVI] KHÚZISTAN. 247
to Tustar, whence by Junday Sābūr and Sús it struck westward
to Tib, whence again there was a high road to Wäsit.
From Junday Sābūr Mukaddasi gives the route through the
Lur mountains to Gulpaygān in the Jibál province, north-west
of Isfahān; and from ‘Askar Mukram another road (given by
Kudāmah and others) went east to idhaj, whence across the
mountains this likewise reached Isfahân".
From ‘Askar Mukram, and from Ahwāz, two roads converged
on Rämhurmuz, whence continuing eastwards the frontier of Färs
was reached on the Tâb river over against Arrajān. These
roads are given by Kudāmah and most of the other authorities,
being a part of the high road from Basrah to Shirāz. Istakhri
also gives another route, chiefly by water, from Hisn Mahdi to
Arrajān, which passed by Bāsīyān on the coast to Dawrak, and
thence by Asak to Arrajān. The stages north from Rämhurmuz
to idhaj are recorded by Mukaddasi, who also describes a route
from Rämhurmuz across the Lur mountains to Isfahân. A second
route passed from the Lur plains (north of Dizfūl) by Sābārkhwāst to
Karaj of Abu Dulaf-the distances here, however, are only given
in marches, and the stages are difficult if not impossible now to
identify. A third route north, given by Mukaddasi, went across
the mountains from Arrajān in Seven days' march to Sumayram
(in Fārs), South of Isfahân, keeping along the frontier of Khūzistān
and Fārs”.
* Ist. 96. I. H. 178. Muk. 418–420. I. R. 187, 188. Kud. 197.
* Kud. 194. I. R. 188. Ist. 95. I. H. 177. Muk. 401, 420, 453, 459.
CHAPTER XVII.
FÅRS.
Division of province into five districts or Kārahs. The district of Ardashir
Khurrah. Shirāz. Lake Mähalāyah. The Sakkân river. Juwaym.
Dasht Arzin lake. Kuvár. Khabr and Simkån. Kärzin and the
Kubăd Khurrah district. Jahram. Juwaym of Abu Ahmad. Mändistân.
irãhistán. Jär or Firãzābād. The coast districts of Färs. Kays island.
Siráf. Najiram. Tawwaj. Ghundiján. Khārik and other islands of
the Persian Gulf.
The province of Färs had been the home of the Achaemenian
dynasty, and the centre of their government. To the Greeks this
district was known as Persis, and they, in error, used the name of
this, the central province, to connote the whole kingdom. And
their misuse of the name is perpetuated throughout Europe to the
present day, for with us Persia—from the Greek Persis—has
become the common term for the whole empire of the Shāh,
whereas the native Persians call their country the kingdom of irán,
of which Fārs, the ancient Persis, is but one of the southern
provinces. The Arabs had inherited from the Sassanian monarchy
the division of Fārs into five great districts, each called a Kūrah;
and this division, which it will be convenient to retain in describing
the province, continued in use down to the time of the Mongols.
The five Kūrahs were:—(1) Ardashir Khurrah, with Shirāz, the
provincial capital, for its chief town; (2) Säbär or Shāpār Khurrah,
with Shāpār city for its chief town ; (3) Arrajān, with the chief town
of the same name; (4) Istakhr, with the ancient city of this name
(Persepolis), the Sassanian capital of Färs; and lastly (5) Dārābjird,
also with the chief town of the same name.
Further it must be noted that, during the Caliphate, Fārs
CHAP. xv.11] - FÅRS. 249
included Yazd with its district, also the district of Rādhān (between
modern Anār and Bahramābād), both of these having formed
part of the Istakhr Kūrah. After the Mongol conquest, however,
Yazd was of the Jibál province, while at the present day it is counted
as forming part of Kirmān, as is also the case with the former
district of Rûdhán. In old Persian Khurra/, has the meaning of
“Glory’; Ardashir Khurrah and Shāpār Khurrah, therefore, signify
the districts which commemorate the glory of the founder of the
Sassanian kingdom, Ardashir, and of his famous Son, Sābūr Or
Shāpār, the Greek Sapor. Lastly, the Arab geographers commonly
divide Fārs between two regions, namely, the Hot Lands and
the Cold Lands (Vuröm and Sarād), by a line running east and
west; and at the present day we find that this division of the
lowlands near the coast from the highlands beyond the passes is
still current under the names, respectively, of the Garmsir and
the Sardsºr, ‘the hot’ and ‘the cold region,’ which are also the
terms employed by Mustawfi".
Shirāz, the capital of Fārs, is an Arab foundation, and at the
time of the Moslem conquest in the days of the Caliph “Omar its
site was the camping ground of the army sent to besiege Istakhr.
As Mukaddasi points out, Shīrāz probably owes its pre-eminence
as a town to its central position, being supposed to lie 60
leagues from the frontiers at the four cardinal points of the
compass, and 8o leagues from each of the four Corners of the
province. The chronicles state that Shirāz was founded in the
year 64 (684) by a certain Muhammad, brother or cousin of
Hajjāj, the famous governor of ‘Irāk under the Omayyads; and it
grew to be a large city in the latter half of the 3rd (9th) century
when the Saffārids had made it the capital of their semi-independent
principality. In the 4th (roth) century Shirāz is described as
being nearly a league across, with narrow, but crowded markets.
The city had then eight gates, the Gates of Istakhr, Tustar,
Bandāstānah, Ghassān, Sallam, Kuvár, Mandar, and Mahandar.
Its water was from an underground channel carried down from
Juwaym, a village five leagues to the north-west; and there was
* Mukaddasi (p. 421) alone divides Fārs into six (in the place of five)
Kürahs; making a separate district of the country round Shirāz. Ist. 97, 13 5.
Baladhuri, 386. Muk. 447. -
25O - FÅRS. - [CHAP.
a Bimaristān, or hospital, also the palace built by ‘Adud-ad-Dawlah,
the Buyid, who according to the Fārs Māmah established a library
here.
Half a league south of Shīrāz, this same Buyid prince, ‘Adud-
ad-Dawlah, surnamed Fanā Khusraw, had built himself another
palace and surrounded it by a new town, named after himself,
Kard Fanā Khusraw. Immense sums were spent on the gardens,
which extended a league across; and the houses round this were
Occupied by wool-weavers, brocade-makers, and others, being all
craftsmen whom the Buyids had brought to settle in Fårs from
many distant lands. A yearly festival was held at Kard Fanā
Khusraw, which also became for a short time a mint city ; but its
glories did not survive its founder, and before the close of the 4th
(Ioth) century it had fallen to ruin. As a suburb it came to be
known as Sūk-al-Amir (the Amir's Market), and the rents on
shops are said to have produced 20, ooo dinārs (24. Io, ooo) yearly.
The walls of Shīrāz were first built by Samsām-ad-Dawlah or
by Sultān-ad-Dawlah (son and grandson of “Adud aforesaid), being
Originally eight ells thick, with a circuit of 12, ooo ells, and no less
than eleven gates. In the middle of the 8th (14th) century, these
walls having fallen to ruin, Malymūd Shāh Injū, the rival of the
Muzaffarids, repaired them, building also bastions of burnt brick.
When Mustawfi knew Shīrāz the city was divided into seven-
teen quarters, and had nine gates. These were the Gates of
Istakhr ; of Dārak (or Darāk Mūsá), called after the mountain of
this name, two leagues distant from Shīrāz, where the winter snow
was stored in pits for use in summer-time; then the Gate of Baydā;
of Käzirān; of Sallam ; of Kubă (for which some MSS. give Fanā
or Kanā); next Báb-i-Naw (the New Gate); and lastly, Báb-i-
Dawlah and Báb-i-Sa‘ādah, “the Gate of Government’ and ‘the
Gate of Felicity.’ Mustawfi, who gives the list, further remarks
that Shīrāz is a very fine town, the market streets never being
empty, but he admits that these last were inconceivably filthy.
The water-supply was from the famous channel of Ruknäbād,
which had been dug by Rukn-ad-Dawlah the Buyid, father of
‘Adud mentioned before, and from the canal of the Sa‘dī orchard.
In spring, torrents flowed down through the city from Mount
Dārak; and thence drained into Lake Mähalūyah.
XVII] FÅRS. 25 I
There were three chief mosques: first the Old Mosque—Jámi
‘Atik—built by the Saffārid ‘Amr, son of Layth, in the latter half
of the 3rd (9th) century, and this mosque, Mustawfi states, was
never empty; next, and dating from the latter half of the 6th (12th)
Century, was the New Mosque, built by the Salghāri Atabeg Sa‘d
ibn Zangī; and lastly there was the Masjid Sunkur, in the
Barbers’ Square, built by the first Atabeg of the Salghārids.
The hospital of “Adud-ad-Dawlah still existed, and Shi‘ahs visited
the shrine of Muhammad and Ahmad, sons of the seventh Imām
Mūsā-al-Kázim. The account which Ibn Batūtah, the contem-
porary of Mustawfi, gives of Shirāz bears out the preceding. He,
too, speaks of the Old Mosque, the north door of which was known
as the Báb Hasan, “the Gate Beautiful,” and of the shrine of
Ahmad, where there was a college. Further, he eulogises the five
streams that flowed through the city; one, that of Ruknābād,
rising at Al-Kulay'ah, “the Little Castle,’ in the hills, near to which
was the fine orchard surrounding the tomb of the poet Sa‘dī, who
had died in 691 (1292), about half a century before the time of
Ibn Batūtah's visit. Sa‘dī had flourished at the court of the
Atabeg Abu Bakr, son of Atabeg Sa‘d who had built the New
Mosque, and in the orchard round his tomb, which was much
visited, were magnificent marble tanks for clothes-washing, which
Sa‘dī had built on the Ruknābād stream.
At the close of the 8th (14th) century, Shīrāz had the good
fortune to escape a siege by Timür, who defeated the Muzaffarid
princes at the battle of Pātīlah in the plain outside. The city
suffered little damage, according to ‘Ali of Yazd, for Timúr camped
at the garden called Takht-i-Karāchah, outside the gates of Sallam
and Sa‘ādah, opening towards Yazd. The same authority states
that the other eight gates were then closed, and he also mentions
the Red Castle Hill (Kūh Kal'at Surkh) near Shirāz, the position
of which is unknown. Of famous castles near Shirāz Mustawfi
mentions Kal‘ah Tiz, standing on a solitary hill three leagues to
the south-east of the city. There was a spring of water here, on
the hill-top, and another in the plain below, which for a day's
journey beyond was all waterless desert".
* The reading of the name is uncertain. Tir, Tabr, Babr, Bir and Tasir or
Tashir, with many other variants occur in the MSS. of Mustawfi. Ist. 124.
252 FÅRS. [CHAP.
Shirāz stands on no great river, but its streams, as already said,
drain eastward, flowing into the lake which occupies a depression
in the plain a few leagues distant from the city. This lake is
called Jankân by Istakhri : Abu-l-Fidā and Ibn Batūtah refer to it
as Jamkān; in the Fārs AVāmah and in Mustawfi it has the name
of Mähalūyah, and at the present day it is known as the Lake of
Mähalū. The water is Salt, and from the salt-pans along its shore
Shirāz was supplied with this necessary commodity, as also with
fish, which were abundant in its waters. The lake was 12 leagues
round, the district of Kahrīān lying along its southern borders,
while to the south-east was the city of Khawristān, otherwise
called Sarvistān, where the date palm flourished and corn was
grown, also other produce of both the hot and the cold regions.
Kūbanjān, according to the Fārs AVāmah and Mustawfi, was a
small town near Sarvistān".
The longest river in Fårs is the Nahr Sakkân, which rising
some 30 miles to the north-westward of Shīrāz follows a devious
course, going south-east for Over 150 miles; then after making a
great bend it runs due west for another 150 miles, but with many
windings, and finally, after receiving the waters of the Firſzābād
river from the north, discharges itself into the sea a little to the
south of Najiram”. The name Sakkân is said by Istakhri to be
derived from the village of Sakk, which Stands near the great bend
westward; other authorities, however, spell the name variously :
thus we find Sittajān, Thakkân, and Sīkān, while Mustawfi
generally has Zakkân or Zhakkân. In the Fārs Awama/, and later
Muk. 429, 430, 456. F. N. 7 I a, b. Yak. iii. 349; iv. 258. Mst. I 7o, 17 I,
179, 203. I. B. ii. 53, 77, 87. A. Y. i. 437, 594, 609, 613. The garden of
Takht-i-Karāchah, “the Throne of Karāchah,’ was so named after the Atabeg
Karāchah, who became governor of Fārs on the death of Atabeg Chââlî in
51o (1116). It is said to be identical with the garden now known as Takht-i-
Kajar.
* I. K. 52. Ist. 122, 13 I. Muk. 422, 455. F. N. 73 a, 8o Ö. Mst. 172,
226. A. F. 43. I. B. ii. 61. Yak. ii. 193, where /ákán (for Jamkām) is a
clerical error.
* Its upper course is now known as the Kārā Aghāch, Black-tree river (in
Turkish); its lower course is called the Mând river. The Sakkân is probably
identical with the river Sitakus of Nearchus. See Colonel Ross, P.A.G.S.
1883, p. 7 I 2.
XVII] FÅRS. 253
writers, the district where the river had its source is named
Māśaram ; according to Istakhri it rose in Rustäk-ar-Ruwayhān,
which is the plain south of Juwaym and Khullär. These are two
important villages, lying 5 and 9 leagues distant respectively from
Shirāz, on the road to Nawbanjān, to the north of the Dasht
Arzin plain. Near Juwaym, as already said, one of the Shīrāz
streams took its rise. According to Mustawfi, Khullär was famed
for its millstones, though the people themselves possessed no
mills, and had to send elsewhere to grind their corn. Its honey
also was largely exported. Dasht Arzin (the Plain of the Bitter-
almond) was famous for its magnificent pasture lands (Marghzār),
and the Lake of Dasht Arzin, which in the season of rains was
Io leagues across, was of Sweet water; this, however, as often as
not, dried up in Summer. According to Istakhri, the lake
produced much fish, and Mustawfi adds that the forest near
here abounded with lions'.
The Sakkân river, Io leagues south of Shirāz, passed the town
of Kavār or Kuvār, lying near its left bank. According to Mustawfi
a dam had here been thrown across the stream to raise its water
for irrigation, and the neighbouring pasture lands were famous.
Both the sour cherry and the almond grew here plentifully, also
large pomegranates. Beyond Kuvâr, also on the left bank of the
river Sakkân, is the town of Khabr, noted for the tomb of Sa'id,
brother of Hasan-al-Basri, the theologian. Mustawfi states that
Khabr was larger than Kuvār, and that near by was the famous
castle of Tir-i-Khudā, “God’s Arrow,’ SO called from its inaccessi-
bility, for it stood on a hill-top, so that no human arrow could
attain it. Below Khabr the Sakkân river turned south, following
a sinuous course through the district of Simkān, the town of
Simkån being near its left bank at the junction of a great affluent
coming from Dārābjird on the east”. -
According to Mustawfi, Simkân was a fine town standing on
1 Juwaym, sometimes written Juwayn, is the present village of Goyun.
Ist. 120, 122. I. K. 44. F. N. 77 6, 79 6, 8o 6, 81 a. Yak. ii. 457. Mst.
177, 179, 214, 226.
* Ist. IoS, 120. F. N. 71 b, 72 a, 81 a, 83 a, 86 a. Yak, ii. 399. Mst.
172, 173, 179. This district is now called Simākān, and often by mistake
written Akun on the maps. See E. Stack, Six Months in Persia, ii. 232.
254 FÅRS. [CHAP.
the stream where this was crossed by a bridge; and it was remark-
able that all the lands above the bridge produced trees of the cold
region only, such as the plane (Chinār) and the nut; while below
the bridge grew oranges and lemons with other fruits of the hot
region. The wine made here was so strong that, before drinking,
it had to be mixed with twice or thrice its weight of water. Not
far distant was Hirak, a large village of the dependencies of
Simkän. Near the right bank of the Sakkân river, and South of
the Simkän district, were the three towns of Kärzin, Kīr and
Abzar, the surrounding district being known as Kubăd Khurrah,
‘the Glory of Kubăd,’ in memory of one of the Sassanian kings.
Istakhri speaks of Kärzin as being one-third the size of Istakhr
(Persepolis); it had a strong castle up to which water could be
drawn from the Sakkân river, and being on a great height many
distant castles could be seen from it'.
The town of Jahram (or Jahrum), which is sometimes counted
as of the Dārābjird district, lies south of Simkān, and east of
Kârzin, surrounded by a fertile plain. It was famous for its great
castle, lying five leagues distant from the town, called Kal‘ah
Khürshah, which Nizām-al-Mulk, the great Wazir of the Saljūks,
had re-fortified, it having been originally built by Khürshah, who
was governor of Jahram under the Omayyad Caliphs”. To the
South-east of Jahram is the town of Juwaym of Abu Ahmad
(so called to distinguish it from Juwaym near the head-waters of
the Sakkân, See above, p. 253), which Mukaddasi describes as
lying on a small river, Surrounded by palm-gardens, having a fine
mosque which stood in a long market Street. The district to the
south-west was called fråhistān, and near the town stood the strong
castle called Samirán (or Shamīrān), which Mustawfi characterises
as “a nest of robbers and highwaymen.' The surrounding districts
were famous pasture grounds, especially those lying between Juwaym
* Ist. 125. Muk. 422. F. N. 72 a, 73 a, 82 b, 83 a. Mst. 172, 179.
According to the Fārs AV&ma/ (folio 78 a) and Mustawfi (p. 177) there would
appear to have been another district called Kūrah Kubăd Khurrah on the banks
of the Tâb river above Arraján.
* Ist. Io'ſ. F. N. 69 a, 82 0. Mst. 175, 179. The name of the castle is
written Khurāshah, Khürshah, and Kharashah, in the various Mss., also Kharshad
and Kharshar, but no mention of it occurs in the older Arab geographers.
XVII] FÅRS. 255
and the bank of the Sakkân river, where were many stagnant
pools and lion-haunted forests.
The town of Kāriyān, commanded by a strong fortress, lay
one march west of Juwaym, and was celebrated for its fire-
temple, from which the Sacred fire anciently preserved here
was distributed far and wide by the Zoroastrian priests. The
fortress, which crowned a hill-top, was deemed impregnable. To
the west of Kāriyān, and at the great westward bend of the
Sakkân river, stood Läghir, a place of Some importance in the
8th (14th) century, when Mustawfi wrote, for it was a stage on
the caravan road down from Shīrāz to Kays island. Läghir also
is mentioned in connection with Kaharján (or Makarjān), a place
no longer to be found on the map. Between Läghir and the
coast, but along the right bank and north of the Sakkân river, lay
the desert of Mändistān, midway between Najiram and Būshkānāt;
here were found neither permanent villages nor streams, but, none
the less, as Mustawfī writes, on the rare occasions of sufficient
rainfall, the whole desert might be made to grow crops of cotton
and corn that at the close of the winter season would give profit
of a thousand-fold'.
Mändistân, the medieval name of this desert—meaning ‘the
Mānd country’—is doubtless retained in the name of the Mând
river, which, as already noted, is now used for the lower course
of the Sakkân. About half-way between Läghir and the sea the
main stream receives an important affluent from the north, namely
the river of Firüzābād. The city of Firüzâbâd was anciently
called Júr, and in Sassanian times this (in place of the later
Shīrāz) had been the chief town of the district of Ardashir Khurrah.
Istakhri reports that the plain here had originally been a lake, this
having been drained by King Ardashir, who built the city round
an artificial mound—still existing here in the 4th (1 oth) century
and later—called At-Tirbål, ‘the Look-out,’ with a building named
in Persian the Aywan (Archway), standing upon a great platform.
At this time Jūr was as large as Istakhr, and the city was surrounded
by a wall and ditch, with four gates, namely Bāb Mihr to the east,
* Ist. I 17. Muk. 427, 428. F. N. 69 ), 73 0, 82 Ö, 86 a. Mst. 172, 173,
175, 179, 180. J. N. 268. Kaz. ii. 162.
256 FÅRS. [CHAP.
Bāb Bahrām Opposite, Bāb Hurmuz to the north, and Bāb
Ardashir to the south.
The name Jür, in Persian pronounced Gár, means ‘a grave,’
and it was held inauspicious by the courtiers of “Adud-ad-Dawlah
the Buyid, who was fond of coming here, that the Amīr should
be said to be residing in Gūr, ‘the grave.’ Hence Jūr was renamed
Firſzābād-‘the Abode of Luck’—and so it is called at the
present day. Mukaddasi, who gives the story, speaks of the great
town Square (Rahbah), and the beautiful rose gardens of Firſzābād,
also of the well-cultivated Country round, stretching a day's march
across. Water for the town was brought from a neighbouring hill
by means of a syphon-tube, and according to the Persian geo-
graphers there was a great Castle four leagues from the town,
called Kal‘ah Sahārah (or Shahārah). The Firſzābād river is
named by Istakhri the Tirzah; the Fārs AVāmah and Mustawfi
call it the Burázah (or Barārah) river. It rose in the Khunayfghān
district, and was said to have been turned from its original course
by Alexander the Great, who, when besieging Jür, flooded the
country round and made the lake, which was subsequently drained
by Burázah the Sage, in the reign of King Ardashir. He after-
wards built an aqueduct that conveniently brought the waters of
the stream into the town, and from him the river took its name
of the Nahr Burázah. Kazvíní says there was a celebrated
fire-temple in Firſzābād, and refers to a wonderful spring of water
that gushed out at the city gate ; the red roses of Jūr, too, he
adds, were famous the world over. The country to the north
was, as already said, the district of Khunayfghān, or Khunayf.
kān, which the Persians pronounced Khunäfgān; and among
the hills there was a large village of this name, whence a difficult
and stony road led down to Firſzābād'. -
The coast of the Ardashīr Khurrah district was known as the
Sif (or shore), and there were three Sifs, all of the hot region, or
Garmsir, lying along the Persian Gulf. These were named re-
spectively the Sif ‘Umārah to the eastward of Kays island; the
Sif Zuhayr on the coast South of frāhistān and round Sirāf; and
lastly the Sif Muzaffar to the north of Najiram ; the ‘Umārah,
* Ist. IoS, 121, 123. Muk. 432. F. N. 7o a-72 5, 79 b, 82 a. Mst. I 72,
179, 219. Kaz. ii. I2 I.
XVII] FÅRS. 257
Zuhayr, and Muzaffar being the names of three Arab tribes who,
having Crossed to the northern coasts from the other side of the
Persian Gulf, had here settled in Fårs. In the 4th (Ioth) century
Sif ‘Umārah was famous for an impregnable castle on the sea,
called Kalah-ad-Dikdān (or Dikbāyah), also known as Hisn Ibn
‘Umārah, where twenty ships could find safe harbourage, and the
Only entrance into the castle was by working a crane set on the
walls. A short distance to the west of this lay the island of Kays,
or as the Persians wrote the name, Kish, which in the course of
the 6th (12th) century became the trade centre of the Persian
Gulf after the ruin of Siräf, which will be described presently.
A great walled city was built in Kays island, where water tanks
had been constructed, and on the neighbouring sea-banks was the
famous pearl fishery. Ships from India and Arabia crowded the
port, and all the island was full of palm gardens. In summer,
says Kazvíni, the heat was greater than the hottest room in the
bath (Hammām) : none the less Kays was a very populous town.
The island lay about four leagues from the coast, where the port
of embarkation was Huzú, to which, in the 7th (13th) century, a
caravan road came down from Shīrāz through Låghir. Huzü,
though much ruined when Yākūt wrote, had been a strong for-
tress in the 4th (Ioth) century under the Buyids, who made it their
state prison. Close to the town was the village called Săviyah
(with variants in the MSS. Täbah or Tănah and the true reading
is unknown)".
* Ist. I 16, 140. I. H. 188. Yak. ii. 7 I I ; iv. 333, 974. F. N. 74 Ö.
Mst. 171, 173, 18o. Kaz. ii. 161. The name of the island is spelt Kays,
Kaysh, and Kish (with dotted k or undotted k).
The stages on the road down from Läghir to Huzú are given by Mustawfi
(p. 200), but as no modern traveller has followed this route the names are not
to be found on the map, and are most uncertain ; the distances are in farsakhs
(leagues). “From Läghir 6 to Fåryāb district, thence 6 to the city of Saj
(Sah, Haj, Dah, with many other variants), thence 5 to Ab-Anbār-i-Kinár,
thence 5 to Haram (Siram or Marmaz), thence 6 down many steep passes to
the village of Dārāk (Dārzak, Urak or Dávrak), thence 6 to Māhān (Hämän
or Māyān), and thence 6 by the pass of Lardak to Huzú on the sea-shore.”
The district Mustawfi calls Fāryāb is evidently identical with Bārāb, half-way
between Kāriyān and Kurán, as given by Mukaddasi (p. 454). The city of
Saj is a puzzle, none being known in this region, but possibly we should read
LE S. - 17
258 FÅRS. [CHAP.
To the westward of Sif ‘Umārah along the sea-shore was the
Zuhayr coast, of which Kurán, inland, was the chief town, Siräf,
and Nāband being its famous harbours; and the region went as
far as Najiram beyond the mouth of the Sakkân river. Inland of
this was the frâhistán district. According to Istakhri, Kurán
produced an edible clay, green in colour, that tasted like beet-
root. Mustawfi counts Kurán as of fråhistān, and says its lands
only produced dates. Due South of it was the district and
town of Mimand, not far from the port of Nāband, which last
stood at the head of a creek known as the Khawr or Khalij of
Näband. Mimand, according to Mustawfi, produced quantities
of grapes, also other fruits of the hot region, and it was famous
for its clever craftsmen".
Further up the coast, to the north-west of Nāband, was the
port of Siräf, the chief emporium of the Persian Gulf in the 4th
(1 oth) century, prior to the rise of Kays island into pre-eminence.
Siräf, Istakhri says, nearly equalled Shīrāz in size and splendour;
the houses were built of teak-wood brought from the Zanj country
(now Zanzibar), and were several storeys high, built to overlook
the sea. This author writes that a merchant of his acquaintance
here had spent 30,000 dinārs (24, 15,000) on his house, and the
Siráf merchants were accounted the richest in all Fārs, a fortune
of sixty million dirhams (about two millions sterling) having
been gained here by commerce. There were no gardens round
the city, fruit and other produce being brought in from the
mountains of Jamm, where there was a great Castle called Samīrān.
Mukaddasi speaks of Siräf as commercially the rival of Basrah ;
its houses were the finest he had ever seen, but it had been in
part ruined by an earthquake, lasting seven days, which had
occurred in 366 or 367 (977), and with the fall of the Buyid
dynasty the place began to decay. The Fărs AVāmah states that
its final ruin was the work of Rukn-ad-Dawlah Khumārtagin, the
Jamm (Ist. 106). This route, unfortunately, is mot reproduced in the Jahám
AVumá, nor is it given by any Arab geographer. The coast of the Bani-as-Saffār
would appear to have been identical with the ‘Umārah coast, to judge by what
Istakhri (p. 141) and Yākāt (iii. 217) write. -
* Ist. Ioa, I41, 152. Yak. i. 419 ; ii. 489; iii. 212, 217. Mst. 172, 173.
A. F. 322.
XVII] FÅRS. 259
Amir of Kays island, who made the latter the port of call, though
he had his war-ships still built at Sirāf; but when Yākūt visited
the place at the beginning of the 7th (13th) century, only the
mosque, with its columns of teak-wood, remained standing, though
the ruins of the town could be traced up the neighbouring
gorge from the sea-side. Ships then went on to Näband for shelter,
as the harbour of Siräf was already silted up. Yākūt adds that the
name of Sirâf was in his time pronounced Shīlāv by the natives.
Najiram, a port of some importance to the westward of Siräf,
beyond the mouth of the Sakkân river, was at the beginning of
the Muzaffar coast, which stretched thence as far as Jannābah in
the Kūrah (district) of Arraján. Najiram possessed two mosques
when Mukaddasi wrote, with good markets, and cisterns for
storing rain-water. The Dastakän district was also of the Sif
Muzaffar, and in the 4th (1 oth) century its chief town was called
Saffārah. The district itself appears to have been in the neigh-
bourhood of Jannābah, but the exact position of the town of
Saffārah is unknown".
Near the frontier of the Arraján district, the river of Shāpúr
debouches, and some distance from its mouth, probably above
the junction of the Jirrah river, to be mentioned later, must have
stood the important commercial town of Tawwaj or Tavvaz.
In the 4th (1 oth) century Istakhri Speaks of this place as about
the size of Arrajān; it was very hot, and stood in a gorge of the
lowlands, palm-trees growing here abundantly. Tawwaj, which
was a place of great trade, was famous for its linen stuffs, woven
in divers colours, with a gold-thread ornament. The Shāpúr
river, which flowed near the city, was often called the Tawwaj
river; and the town is said to have been peopled with Syrian
Arabs, brought hither by ‘Adud-ad-Dawlah the Buyid. At the
beginning of the 6th (12th) century Tawwaj had already much
fallen to ruin. Its site has never been identified, but the position
of the town is given as on or near the Shāpār river, in a gorge,
being I 2 leagues from Jannābah on the coast, and four from
* Possibly this Dastakän district is identical with the coast of the Bami-as-
Saffār, already mentioned. Ist. 34, 106, II 6, 127, 141, 154, Muk. 422, 426,
427. F. N. 73 b, 74 a. Yak, iii. 2 I I, 217. Mst. 172. The ruins of Siräf are
described by Captain Stiffe in the J. R. G. S. 1895, p. 166.
I 7—2
26O FÅRS. [CHAP.
the pass that leads down from Dariz. Tawwaj was a famous
place at the time of the first Moslem conquest, and its mosque
dated from those early days; but when Mustawfi wrote, it had
become a complete ruin. -
The important town of Ghundijān, in the district of Dasht
Bärin, was of this neighbourhood. The position of Ghundījān,
of which apparently no ruins now exist, is given in the
Aºirs AVáma/, as standing four leagues from Jirrah and I 2 from
Tawwaj; and the author speaks of the Jirrah river as flowing by
‘a part of Ghundiján.” In the 4th (Ioth) century the town is
said to have equalled Istakhr (Persepolis) or Jannābah in size ;
carpets and veils were made here, and the district was counted as
of the hot region. Mukaddasi describes a stream among the
Ghundījān hills as producing a poisonous hot vapour, so that
none could approach it, and birds flying over the stream fell down
suffocated ; but there were also hot mineral springs here that
healed the sick. The population of Ghundījān, according to
Mustawfi, consisted mostly of shoemakers and weavers, and in his
day the name Ghundiján had taken the place of Dasht Bărin in
the common speech for the district. In the neighbourhood was
a strong castle, called Kal‘ah Ram Zavān (or Dam Darān, with
many other variants), where great cisterns had been dug for storing
water. The district of Būshkānāt lay half-way between Ghundijän
and the Mândistân desert (see p. 255) to the north of Najiram.
According to Mustawfi there were no towns here, but dates grew
and were the chief crop, for Būshkānāt was of the hot region of
the Gulf".
* Mukaddasi and Yākūt with many of the older authorities state that Dasht
Bārīn was the name of the town, Ghundiján being that of the district. Originally,
however, this can hardly have been the case, since the name Dasht Bārīn,
meaning ‘the Plain of Bárin, is not applicable to a town. The name of a
district or province in the East is very frequently taken over by the chief
town, and following this rule when Ghundījān fell out of use, the name Dasht
Bărin may have taken its place, being used then for town or district indifferently,
as Mustawfi remarks later, but contrariwise of the name Ghundiján. Ist. Ioé,
I 28, 130, 152, 153. Muk. 422, 423, 432, 435, 445, 448. F. N. 73 a, 76 a.
79 b, 82 b, 86 a. Mst. 171, 177, 179, 218. Yak. i. 199, 890 ; ii. 576; iii. 5,
820. Tawwaj is often included in the Shāpār Khurrah district by the earlier
geographers.
XVII] . - FÅRS. 26 I
The island of Khārik, which lay off the mouth of the
Shāpār river, was included in the Ardashir Khurrah district,
and was a port of call for ships sailing from Basrah to Kays
island and India. Yākūt had visited the island, and says that
from its hills Jannābah and Mahrubán, both on the coast of the
Arraján district, were visible. The soil of the island was fertile,
producing many fruits, and the date palm grew well here. In the
neighbouring sea was one of the best pearl fisheries. Many of the
other islands in the Persian Gulf are described by our authorities
as of the Ardashir Khurrah district; but Khārik and Kays were
commercially the two most important, and of the others named
Some are not easy to identify. Uwal was the chief of the
Bahrayn islands, on the Arabian coast, and it is mentioned in
the annals of the first Moslem conquest. Būshahr (Bushire of
the present day) first appears in the pages of Yākūt, and Opposite
to it on the mainland, as stated by Balādhuri, was Rishahr or
Räshahr of Tawwaj. The island called Lāwān (Allân, Lān, or
Lār are all variants), by the distances given, must be the present
island of Shaykh Shu'ayb lying to the west of Kays, and Abrün
island is doubtless the modern Hindarābi which with Chin (or
Khayn) lies near Kays.
The great island at the narrows of the Gulf now called Kishm,
also the Long Island (Jazirah Tawilah), is probably that referred
to in our medieval authorities under the various names—possibly
merely manuscript variants-—of Bani (or Ibn) Kawān, Abarkāfān,
and Abarkumán. Yākūt states that it was also known as Lāft.
The island of Khāsik or Jásik was one of its neighbours, or was
possibly merely another name for Kishm (the Long Island). Its
population were hardy boatmen, and according to Kazvini they
were much given to piracy and raiding. Near each of these islands
were pearl fishery banks, but most of them were uninhabited,
except during the fishing season. Beyond and east of Kishm
was the island of Hurmuz (Ormuz), which being in Kirmān will
be spoken of in the chapter treating of that province'.
* Ist. 32. I. K. 61. Baladhuri, 386, 387. Yak. i. 395, 503; ii. 387, 537;
iv. 341, 342. MSt. 181, 222. Kaz. ii. I 17.
CHAPTER XVIII.
FÅRS (continued).
The district of Shāpār Khurrah. Shāpār city and cave. The Ratin river.
Nawbanjān. The White Castle and Sha‘b Bavvān. The Zamms of the
Kurds. Käzirün and its lake. The rivers Ikhshín and Jarshik. Jirrah
and the Sabük bridge. The Arraján district and Arrajān city. The Tâb
river. Bihbahān. The river Shirin. Gunbadh Mallaghān. Mahrubán.
Siniz and Jannābah. The river Shādhkān.
The district of Sābār Khurrah, “the Glory of Shāpār’ (Sābūr, as
already said, being the Arabic form of the Persian name), was the
smallest of the five Kūrahs or districts of Fārs, and its limits
were comprised within the basin of the upper Shāpār river and
its affluents.
The chief town of the district in early days was the city of
Shāpār, the name of which had originally been Bishāpār", more
commonly known as Shahristān, ‘the town-place’ or ‘the capital.’
Ibn Hawkal states that Shāpār city was in his day as large as
Istakhr and more populous, but Mukaddasi in the latter part of
the 4th (Ioth) century speaks of the town as already for the most
part gone to ruin, its population having migrated to the neigh-
bouring and rising city of Käzirün. Shāpār, however, was then
still a rich place, for its lands produced sugar-cane, olives, and
grapes abundantly, and fruits and flowers, such as the fig, the
jasmine, and the carob, were seen on every hand. The castle was
* In the MSS. the name is generally (but probably incorrectly) written
Nashāpār or Nishāpār. Bishāpār stands for Bih-Shāpār, the older form being
Wih-Shāpār, meaning ‘the good Sapor’ or ‘the excellence of Sapor.’ This
prefix Bih occurs in other place-names ; cf. Bih Ardashir, or Guwäshir, in
Chapter XXI, p. 303.
CHAP. XVIII] FÅRS. 263
called Dunbulā, and the town wall had four gates, namely those
of Hurmuz, Mihr, Bahrām, and lastly the City gate (Bāb-ash-
Shahr). Outside the town was a Friday Mosque, and another
called Masjid-al-Khidr, or the mosque of Elias. In the
beginning of the 6th (12th) century the author of the Fārs
AVāmah describes Shāpār as having completely fallen to ruin;
and when Mustawfi wrote a couple of centuries later the name of
Shāpār or Bishāpúr had been transferred to the neighbouring
Käzirün district. -
Mustawfi apparently knew the Shāpār river under the name
of the Shahriyār Rūd, and the city, he says, had been named
Díndār by its first founder, the mythical King Tahmurath, the
‘Devil-binder.” Afterwards Alexander the Great laid it in ruins,
and King Shāpār rebuilt it, when it was known, according to
Mustawfi, as Banā Shāpār, and later as Nāshāpār or Bishāpār.
Its crops were famous in the 8th (14th) century: the iris, violet,
jasmine, and narcissus grew abundantly, and much silk was woven
here. Mustawfi further refers to the well-known colossal statue
of King Shāpúr in the cave near the ruins. This he describes
as “a black statue of a man, larger than life, standing in a temple
(Hayká/); some say it is a talisman, others that it is merely a
real man whom God has turned to stone. The kings of that
country were used to visit it, and to pay it honour anointed
the statue with oil.’ Already in the 4th (Ioth) century Mukaddasi
refers to the cave, which, he says, lay one league distant from the
city of Nawbandajān. The colossal figure of King Sapor he
describes as crowned and standing at the mouth of the Cave, in
which water fell continually, and a violent wind blew. At the
base of the statue were the semblances, sculptured, ºf ‘three
green leaves.’ The foot of the image measured tºn spans in
length, while the total height was eleven ells".
The upper course of the Shāpār river was called the Nahr Ratin
by the Arab geographers, and it came from the Upper Khumäyijän
or Khumāyigán district, of which one of the principal villages, ac-
cording to Mustawfi, was Dih ‘Ali. Lower Khumāyijän was counted
* I. H. 194. Muk. 432, 444. F. N. 74 5, 75 a, where the name is spelt
Bishāvār and Bīshāpār. Mst. 175, 176. C. A. De Bode, 7%ravels in Zuristan
(London, 1845), i. 214. -
264 FÅRS. - [CHAP.
as of the Istakhr Kūrah (the Persepolis district, to be de-
scribed in the next chapter) lying round Baydā on an affluent
of the Kur river, and both these Khumāyījān regions were famous
for the products of the colder hill country, such as nuts and
pomegranates, while much excellent honey was exported. The
people were mostly muleteers, who travelled with caravans. To
the westward of Khumāyījān was the district of Anburān with
the city of An-Nawbandajān, otherwise called Nūbandagān or
Nawbanján. This place, when Istakhri wrote, was larger than
Käzirün, the climate was hot and the date palm grew here.
Mukaddasi speaks of its fine markets, of the gardens with their
abundant water-supply, also of its mosque. In Saljúk times
Nawbandajān had fallen to ruin, but in the 5th (11th) century
the town was rebuilt by the celebrated Atabeg, the Amīr Châtili'.
Two leagues distant from Nawbanjān began the famous valley,
one of the four earthly paradises of the Moslems, called Sha‘b
Bavvān, the waters of which drained to the Kur river in
the Istakhr Kūrah. The valley was three and a half leagues
in length by One and a half across, and its fertility was
beyond Compare ; being due, according to Mustawfi, to the nature
of the hills on either side of the valley, which stored the winter
Snows and thus afforded water throughout the Summer droughts.
A couple of leagues to the north-east of Nawbanjān is the great
mountain fastness called the White Castle—Kal‘ah Safīd, and
Isfid Diz—or the Castle of Isfandiyār, Occupying a flat-topped
table-mountain, many miles in circuit, bounded by precipitous
sides. Mukaddasi possibly mentions it under the name of the
Kasr Abu Tālib, which, he says, was called ‘Ayān. The Fārs
AVāmah states that Kal‘ah Safid had been rebuilt by a certain
Abu Nasr of Tir Murdán in the earlier years of the Saljúks, and
that at the beginning of the 6th (12th) century it was in the
* The Amīr Châûli (often written Jääli), whose name so frequently occurs in
the Pârs AVámah and Mustawfi in connection with the rebuilding of towns or
castles in Fårs, and the reconstruction of river dams, was governor of the
province for Sultán Muhammad the Saljúk. Atabeg Châûli Sakäuh (meaning
‘the Falcon') received the surname of Fakhr-ad-Dawlah, and died in 5 Io (I 116)
after having been the semi-independent governor of both Kirmān and Fārs
for nearly a score of years.
XVIII] FÅRS. 265
hands of their governor. The mountain summit, which was
20 leagues in circuit, had only one road leading to the top,
and this was guarded below by the castle called Dizak Nishnāk.
The Summit was a level plain, with many springs and gardens,
and fruit grew here abundantly. The siege of Kal‘ah Safid by
Timür, at the close of the 8th (14th) century, made it famous in
history. He was marching from Bihbahān to Shīrāz, and took
the place by storm, after a two days’ investment, in the spring
of 795 (1393)'.
One march east of Nawbanjān, on the road to Shirāz, lay
Tir Murdān, a small town surrounded by six villages, of which the
most important was called Karjan (or Jarkan), lying five leagues
from Nawbanjān. The surrounding region was well watered, very
fertile, and much honey was exported. To the west of Nawbanjān,
On the road to Arrajān, was the town of Anburán, in this district;
also the Bâsht Kūtā district, with the town of Bāsht, which still
exists. Two rivers, the Darkhid and the Khūbdhān, traversed
this region. The Nahr Khawrāwādhān, otherwise the Khūbdhān
river, had on its banks the town of the same name, distant four
leagues from Nawbanjān, and Khübdhān town in the 4th (Ioth)
century was a populous place, with a mosque and good markets.
Four or six leagues west of this river, and two stages distant from
Nawbanjān, was the small town of Darkhid, on the river of the
Same name, which last came from, or some authorities say
flowed into, a small lake. It is mentioned that the Darkhid
river was a sufficiently large stream to be unfordable. The
Khūbdhān river was an affluent of the river Shīrīn, which will
be noticed when describing the Arraján district, and either the
Khūbdhān river or the Darkhid was crossed by a great bridge,
built by a certain Abu Tālib of Nawbanjān, who had erected the
castle of ‘Ayān mentioned in the previous paragraph. Istakhri and
Mukaddasi are at variance as to which of the rivers this celebrated
bridge traversed. Later authorities add to the confusion by
giving different names to these rivers, which it is difficult
* Ist. I Io, I I I, I 20, 127. Muk. 434, 437, 447. F. N. 76 6, 78 a, 81 %.
Mst. 177, 178, 219. A. Y. i. 6oo. Dizaki Nishkuman and Astäk are variants
of the name of the lower castle in the Mss. Kal‘ah Safīd is well described by
Macdonald Kinneir, Persian Ampire, p. 73.
266 FÅRS. [CHAP.
or impossible now to identify with any of the existing streams
shown on our maps. The bridge is described by Mukaddasi as
having been built in his day, ‘and there is none to equal it in
all Syria and Mesopotamia.’ This was in the latter half of the
4th (Ioth) century, and Yākūt in the 7th (13th) century apparently
refers to it as still existing. Many of these places are also men-
tioned by ‘Ali of Yazd, in describing the march of Timür from
Bihbahān to Shirāz'.
In this mountain region of Fārs, known later as the Jabal
Jilâyah, the five Kurdish tribes, called collectively the Zamm-al-
Akrād, had in the 4th (I oth) century their pastures and camping
grounds. Mukaddasi speaks of a castle in the mountain near
here that belonged to them, standing in a wide district with many
gardens stocked with fruit trees and date palms”.
The city of Käzirün, from the latter half of the 4th (1 oth)
century when Shāpār fell to ruin, became the most important town
of the Shāpār district. Ibn Hawkal describes it as in his time
smaller than Nawbandajān, but well-built, the houses being of
stone set in mortar. Mukaddasi, a little later, refers to it as
‘the Damietta of Persia, already commercially important as the
centre of the linen trade, and ‘Adud-ad-Dawlah the Buyid had
recently built in the town a great house (Dár) for the merchants,
the rooms in which produced a yeahy rent of Io, ooo dirhams
(4,400). The houses of the town, Mukaddasi tells us, were all
like palaces, each with a garden ; the mosque crowned a hillock.
According to Mustawfi Käzirún had originally consisted of three
neighbouring villages, named Nård, Darbast, and Rāhshān, built
on the water conduits of these names, which, it is stated, were
still preserved in the town quarters. The dates of Käzirün were
* The spelling of the names varies greatly. Khawrāwādhān is contracted to
Khūbdhān, also written Khwäbdhān, Khabādhān and Khāvdān, or Khávarán
in ‘Ali of Yazd. Darkhid is also written Darkhuwid, but Dakhānad (as given
by Mukaddasi) is probably only a clerical error. Ist. I Io, 12o. Muk. 435,
440. F. N. 76 a, b, 79 a, 8o 0. Mst. I 76, 218. Yak. i. 905; ii. 487 ; iii. 838.
Ibn-al-Athir, viii. 122, 202. A. Y. i. 6oo.
* Ist. 98, J 13. Muk. 435. Yak. ii. 821. Mst. 176, 206. Zamm, means
in Kurdish ‘a tribe’ (more correctly written Zámah), and by mistake the
word has often been given as Ramm. See the translation by Prof. De Goeje
of Ibn Khurdādbih, p. 33, footnote.
XVIII] FÅRS. 267
excellent, especially of a kind called Jilān, and a cotton stuff,
known as Kirbās, was exported largely. The neighbouring
pastures, called Marghzār Narkis, ‘the narcissus meads,’ were
famous. The district round Käzirán was known as the Shūl
country, according to Ibn Batūtah, who passed through here in
the year 730 (1330), and at the present day this region is called
Shúlistán. In the plain, a short distance to the east of the
city, lies the Käzirün lake, which in the 4th (1 oth) century was
known as the Buhayrah Mūz, or Mūrak (for the reading of the
name is uncertain). It was Io leagues in length, very Salt, and
contained much fish. The two famous passes on the road above
the lake going up to Shirāz, which are now known to travellers as
the Old Woman's Pass and the Maiden's Pass (Kutăl Pir-i-Zan,
and Kutäl-i-Dukhtar), are named by Mustawfi, the Hūshang Pass,
which lies three leagues from Käzirün, and the Mālān Pass, which
is above it and is likewise very steep'.
The roads down to the coast from Käzirün lead by Dariz to
Kumārij, and thence by Khisht on the Shāpār river to Tawwaj,
which has been described in the previous chapter (p. 259). I)ariz
was a small town, and already in the 4th (roth) century famous
for its linen weavers; Khisht, lying beyond it, had a strong Castle,
according to Mukaddasi, and was surrounded by broad lands.
The Fārs AVāmah mentions Khisht and Kumārij together, and
Mustawfi gives the people of both places a bad character as being
inveterate robbers.
A short distance below Khisht the river Shāpār received on
its left bank the waters of the Jirrah river, which was known as
the Nahr Jarshik to the Arab geographers, and the latter, a few
miles before it fell into the Shāpúr river, was joined on its left
bank by the tributary stream called by them the Nahr Ikhshin.
The Ikhshin river took its rise among the valleys of the
Dādhin country, and according to Istakhri, its waters, which were
sweet and drinkable, had the property of dyeing to a green colour
any cloth that was steeped therein. The Jarshik river rose in the
* Ist. 122. I. H. 197. Muk. 433. Mst. I 76, 180, 200, 226. Of the three
town quarters of Käzirün variants in the MSS. are När, Darist, and Rahibán
or Rahiyān. I. B. ii. 89. The Fārs AVámaſº (f. 806) writes the name of the lake
Màr very clearly. It is sometimes called Daryachih Shūr, ‘the Salt Lake.’
268 FÅRS. [CHAP.
hills to the south of Jirrah, in the Māśaram country (which
according to Mustawfi was a district stretching from this river to
as far north as the head-waters of the Sakkân river), and
before reaching the town of Jirrah it was crossed by an
ancient stone bridge called the Kantarah Sabūk. The river
next watered part of the Dādhin district, and finally, after
receiving the Ikhshin river, fell into the Shāpār river some
distance above Tawwaj. The Fārs Māmah and Mustawfi state
that the country at the head-waters of the Jirrah river, near the
town of Jirrah, formed part of the Ghundījān district, and this
gives a clue to the position of Dasht Bārīn, which, as we have
seen on a previous page, belonged to the Ardashīr Khurrah district.
The city of Jirrah is described by Mukaddasi as crowning a hill-
top, and possessing many palm gardens. Yākūt states that the
common people in his day pronounced the name Girrah, which is
confirmed by the Fārs AVāmah and Mustawfi ; they also refer to
its corn crops and dates, for all the lands round the city were
extremely fertile".
The Arraján district is the westernmost of the five Kūrahs of
Fārs, and Arrajān, its chief town, lay at its westernmost border,
on the Tâb river, which on this side forms the boundary between
Fārs and Khūzistán. The ruins of Arrajān lie a few miles to the
north of the present town of Bihbahān, which has taken its
population and become the chief town of the district since the
close of the 6th (12th) century.
In the 4th (1 oth) century Arrajān was a fine town, Sur-
rounded by date-gardens and Olive-groves. It had six gates,
which were by order closed at night, and were named, respectively,
the Ahwāz, Rishahr, and Shīrāz gates, then the gate of Ar-Rusāfah,
the gate of the Maydān (or Square), and lastly Bāb-al-Kayyālīn
or the ‘Gate of the Weighers.’ The mosque and market streets
were magnificent. Soap was largely manufactured in the town.
Near Arrajān, and crossing the Tâb river on the high roads into
Khūzistán, were two famous bridges, the remains of which still
exist. One was said to have been built by a certain Daylamite
physician of Hajjāj, governor of ‘Irāk under the Omayyad
* Ist. 120, 127, 152. Muk. 433, 434, 435. F. N. 750, 76 a, 79 b. Mst.
176, 177, 218, 2 19. Yak. ii. 36, 67.
XVIII] FÅRS. - 269
Caliphs, and is described by Istakhri as having but a single
arch, 80 paces across in the span, and sufficiently high for a man,
mounted on a camel and bearing a banner, to pass freely under
the key-stone. This bridge, which was known as the Kantarah
Thakān, stood a bow-shot from the city of Arrajān on the road to
Sanbil. The second stone bridge was more than 3ooo ells in
length, and dated from the times of the Sassanian kings, being
known as the Kantarah-al-Kisrawiyah or ‘the Bridge of the
Chosroes.’ It was on the road leading to the village of
Dahlizán. In a hill near Arrajān, according to Kazvíni, was a
cave whence bitumen (Múmiyá) was taken from a spring, and this
was celebrated all the world over for its medicinal properties,
while in the town of Arrajān itself a fathomless well called the
Bir Sâhik existed, the water of which was never known to fail,
even in the driest summer season.
Mustawfi, in the beginning of the 8th (14th) century, states
that Arrajān was then called Arkhān or Arghān by the common
people, and at the end of this century ‘Ali of Yazd refers to the
river Täb as the Āb-i-Arghún. Arrajān had suffered much,
according to Mustawfi, on its capture in the 7th (13th) century by
the Ismailian heretics (the Assassins, subjects of the Old Man of the
Mountain), and the town had never recovered its former prosperity.
There had been Ismailian strongholds on the hill-tops in the neigh-
bourhood, one called Kal‘ah Tightir, and another Diz Kilát, and the
garrisons of these places had frequently plundered the city and its
districts. By the latter half of the 8th (14th) century, Arraján
had fallen completely to ruin, and it was replaced shortly after
this by the town of Bihbahān, situated some half-dozen miles
lower down the Tâb river. Bihbahān, the name of which occurs
in none of the Arab geographers, is first mentioned by ‘Ali of
Yazd, in his description of the march of Timür from Ahwäz to
Shirāz in the spring of 795 (1393), and from this date onward
Bihbahān has been the chief town of the region formerly known as
the district of Arraján'.
* Ist. I 28, 134, 152. I. R. 189. I. K. 43. Muk. 425. Kaz, ii. 94, 16o.
Mst. 177, 178. A. Y. i. 6oo. In his Mīrāt-al-Buldan (Tihrān lithograph,
A.H. 1294, vol. I. p. 306) the Sani'-ad-Dawlah says that Bihbahān was first
settled by the Kūhgilá nomads, by order of Timür, these having migrated from
27O FÅRS. [CHAP.
The river Tâb of the Arab geographers is now known as the
Jarāhīyah, Jarāhi, or Kurdistân river, for by some confusion the
name of Tâb has, at the present day, been transferred to the
Khayrābād affluents of the Hindiyān or Zuhrah river, a different
stream which flows out to the Persian Gulf at Hindiyān. The
Tâb river of the middle-ages had its source, if we may accept the
combined authority of Istakhri and Mukaddasi, in the mountains
to the south-west of Isfahân, at Al-Burj over against Sumayram
in the Istakhr district. Thence coming down to the district called
As-Sardan, in Khūzistān, the Tâb was joined on its left bank by
the river Masin, the village of Masin lying near the point of
junction, and the combined streams flowed on to Arraján. Below
this city the Tâb watered the Rishahr district, and then curving
round abruptly to the south reached the sea to the west of
Mahrubán. The Masin river above-mentioned also rose in the
mountains near Sumayram, and flowed past a place called Sishat,
according to the Fārs Māmah and Mustawfi, before it joined
the Täb. It is said to have been 4o leagues in length, and
was a sufficiently broad river not to be easily fordable. Near
the upper course of the Tâb was the district of Bilād Shāpār,
or Balá Sābār, of which the chief town was called Júmah, which
stood on the frontier between Fårs and Khūzistán. The district
had been very fertile, but when Mustawfi wrote the lands had
already gone out of cultivation. Along the course of the Tâb
river, according to the Fārs Māmah, was also the region called
Kūrah Kubăd Khurrah, but all earlier authorities give this as the
name of the district round Kärzin, as has been already described
on p. 254'.
Küfah. For the ruins of Arrajān, and of the two bridges now known as the
Pul-i-Bigam and the Pul-i-Dukhtar (the Lady's and the Maiden's bridge), see
De Bode, Zuristan, i. 295, 297. The mame of the first bridge is often given
as Kantarah Rakän or Takán in the MSS. Ibn Hawkal (p. 170) further
mentions a wooden bridge as crossing the Tâb river, passing at a height of ten
ells above the the water level.
* Ist. I 19. Muk. 24, 425. F. N. 77 5, 78 a, 79 a. Mst. 176, 177, 218. The
Arab geographers evidently confounded the upper course of the Arrajān river
(the Tāb) and its affluent (the Masin) with the streams which we know to be
the upper branches of the Kārūn. It is to be further noted that the Arraján
river, in its lower course near the Persian Gulf, has evidently changed its
XVIII] FÅRS. 271
Below Arrajăn the Tâb river, as already said, curved round the
Rishahr district (not to be confounded with Rishahr of Bushire
mentioned above, p. 261); and here, besides the town of Rishahr,
lying half-way between Arrajān and Mahrubăn, there was a
town called Daryān (otherwise Dayrjān or Darjān) which in the
4th (I oth) century had fine markets and lay in a fertile district.
Rishahr Continued to be an important place in Saljúk times, and
the Fārs AVáma/h speaks of its castle, and states that ships were
built here. According to Mustawfi the Persians called the place
Barbiyān, and the original name, he says, had been Risahr.
Linen stuffs were manufactured here, and the population traded
largely with the Gulf ports. The summer heat was terrific, and
people went up to Diz Kilát, one league away, which as just
mentioned had formerly been a castle of the Ismailians.
Near Rishahr was Hindijān, a small town and district on the
lower course of the Arrajān river, and Mukaddasi relates that
this Hindijān or Hinduwän town was a great market for sea fish
and possessed a fine mosque. In the Hindijän district were the
remains of fire-temples, and some waterwheels of ancient con-
struction. Further, there were supposed to be hidden treasures,
‘as in Egypt,’ and Kazvíní speaks of a well, from which arose a
poisonous vapour, so that birds flying above fell dead into it.
Lastly, at Habs, a town in this district on the road to Shirāz,
there had been a toll-house in Saljuk times'.
Jallädgån, otherwise pronounced Jallädjān, was a neighbouring
district lying between the lower courses of the rivers Tāb and
Shirin. The river Shirin—“the Sweet Water'—rose in the hills
called Jabal Dinár of the Bâzranj or Bāzrang district, and passed
through the district of Furzuk, lying four leagues south-east of
Arrajān. According to ‘Ali of Yazd, Timúr, marching from
bed since the 4th (Ioth) century. Mukaddasi speaks of it as debouching near
Sinīz, but this is possibly only a clerical error for “near the Tustar' river, in
other words the estuary of the Dujayl.
* Ist. I 12, 1 I 3, 1 19, 121. Muk. 422, 426, 453. F. N. 78 a, b. Mst.
177, 178. Yak. iv. 963, 993. Kaz. ii. 186. Hindijän, Hinduwän, and
Hindiyān appear to be all intended for the same place. For Habs the Mss.
give Khabs, Jis, Jins and every possible variation ; it was a post-stage, as men-
tioned in the Itineraries.
272 FÅRS. [CHAP.
Bihbahān to Shirāz, crossed the Shirin river on the day after
leaving Bihbahān; four days later he reached the Khāvdān river
(already noticed, p. 265, under the name of Khūbdhān), and
thence marched to Nawbanján. We have seen that the Khāb-
dhān river was a tributary of the Shīrīn, and this last appears
to be identical with the stream now known in its upper course as
the Khayrābād river (with many affluents), and lower down as the
Zuhrah river, which is the river marked on modern maps as the
Tāb, or Hindiyän. On one of the tributaries of the river Shirin
was situated Gunbadh Mallaghān, an important place lying on
the road from Nawbanjān to Arraján which is now called
Dú Gunbadān, ‘the Two Domes,’ and still shows extensive
ruins. Of this neighbourhood were the Dinár hills, and the
district of Bâzrang already mentioned; also Sarām, where the
climate in winter was extremely cold, and the mountain summits
near by never entirely free from snow even in summer. The
town of Gunbadh Mallaghān, however, was of the hot region,
and famous for its date palms. The name is also spelt Gunbad
Mallajān or Malakān, and Mukaddasi in the 4th (1 oth) century
speaks of the village here as in ruins. According to the Fărs
AVáma/, in the beginning of the 6th (12th) century the small town
here was protected by a castle, in which rations of corn, to last
the garrison for three or four years, were kept in store. Many
other like castles crowned the adjacent hills, among the rest one
named Kal‘ah Khing being especially mentioned. Mustawfi states
that the neighbouring district was known as Pūl Bùlú (some Mss.
give Pål Lūlū) and was very fertile, producing famous apricots;
and he declares the castle of Gunbad Mallaghān was so strong that
one man might hold it against an army'.
Not far from the mouth of the river Shirin—which, as already
said, is the modern Tâb or Zuhrah river—lay the port of Mahrubán,
close to the western frontier of Fārs, and this was the first harbour
reached by ships bound to India after leaving Basrah and the
* Ist. I I I, I 12, I 13, I 19, 120. Muk. 435. F. N. 76 b, 77 a, 780, 79 a,
83 b, 85 b. Mst. 176, 177, 178, 179, 218. Yak. iii. 5; iv. 630. A. Y. i. 6oo.
Hfz. 31 b. De Bode, Zuristan, i. 258. To the north of Dü Gunbadān is the
castle now known as Kal‘ah Arū; possibly this is the place named Khing in
the A67's AVáma/.
XVIII] FÅRS. 273
Tigris estuary. Mahrubăn was accounted the port of Arrajān,
and in the 4th (1 oth) century was very populous, and had a fine
mosque and good markets. According to Mustawfi the Persians
Called it Māyruyán, or Mahruyān; linen was made here, and
dates were exported, but the shipping was always the chief source
of income. Nāsir-i-Khusraw touched at Mahrubân in 443 (LoS2),
and describes the town as lying along the sea-shore on the eastern
side of the bay. The markets were excellent, and the mosque
bore the name of Ya‘kūb, son of Layth the Saffārid. Water
was stored in cisterns, there were three great caravanserais for
travellers who landed here for Arrajān, and the commerce of the
place was considerable. The next port down the Gulf, east of
Mahrubán, was Sīnīz or Shiniz, whose ruins lie on the creek now
Called Bandar Daylam. Istakhri describes the place as larger
than Mahrubăn in the 4th (1 oth) century. There was a small
bay (Khazºr), and the town lay half a league from the open sea;
the climate here was very hot, and date palms grew abundantly.
Mukaddasi speaks of the mosque and the palace of the governor,
and of the markets as being well provided with wares. According
to Yākūt, Siniz was half ruined by the Carmathians, who sacked
the port in 321 (933). The Fărs AVāmah however, and Mustawfi,
in the 6th and 8th (12th and 14th) centuries, speak of it still
as a flourishing place, where flax was grown and much linen
made. The port was defended by a fortress (Hisâr), and the
oil for lamps that came from its district was exported far and
wide'.
South of Siniz was Jannābah (or Jannābā), the ruins of which
still exist, lying near the mouth of the river which the Arab
geographers called the Nahr-ash-Shādhkān. Jannābah according
to Istakhri was extremely hot, and its creek (Khazor) was not a
Safe anchorage. The town was larger than Mahrubán and had
excellent markets; further, it was celebrated as the birth-place
of Abu Tāhir the Carmathian. The Persians called the place
Ganfah, or Åb-i-Gandah, from its “foul water,’ and four neigh-
bouring villages lying on the sea-coast were counted as of its
* Ist. 34, 128. Muk. 426. N. K. 9o. Yak. i. 502 ; iii. 22 I. F. N.
78 b, 79 a. Mst. 178.
LE S. I8
274 FÅRS. [CHAP. XVIII
dependencies. The river Shādhkān rose in the Bâzrang district,
and, passing through the Dastakän plain, flowed thence out to
the sea. Which stream on the present map it corresponds with is
not quite clear, but it must undoubtedly be one of the two short
rivers which enter the Persian Gulf near Jannābah. In point of .
fact, however, no large stream now exists here, though Mustawfi
especially states that this was a ‘large river and not easily fordable,
being nine leagues in length '; he therefore had in mind a stream
of some considerable size'.
* Ist. 32, 34, I 19, 128. Muk. 426. F. N. 78 b. Mst. 178, 218.
CHAPTER XIX.
FÅRS (continued).
The Istakhr district, and Istakhr city or Persepolis. Rivers Kur and Pulvăr.
Lake Bakhtigán and the cities round it. The Marvdasht plain. Baydā
and Māyin. Kūshk-i-Zard. Sarmak and Yazdikhwäst. The three roads
from Shīrāz to Isfahân. Abarkūh. Yazd city, district and towns. The
Rādhān district and its towns. Shahr-i-Bābak and Harât.
The Kūrah or district of Istakhr occupied the whole of the
northern part of Fārs, and this, as already said, in the middle-
ages included Yazd, with the neighbouring towns and lands lying
along the border of the Great Desert. The capital of the district
was Istakhr, as the Arabs named the Sassanian town which the
Greeks had called Persepolis.
The city of Istakhr lay on the river Pulvăr, a few miles above
its junction with the Kur river, and some distance to the westward
of the remains of the great Achaemenian platform and palaces.
At the time of the Moslem conquest Istakhr was one of the
largest, if not the most important of the Sassanian cities of Fārs,
and it was taken by capitulation. In the 4th (Ioth) century, Ibn
Hawkal describes the town as a mile broad, and as having formerly
been surrounded by a wall which, he says, had recently been
destroyed. At the city gate, crossing the river, was the Khurāsān
bridge (why so called is not stated), a very fine structure, and
the houses stretched far beyond this into the country, being
surrounded by gardens which produced rice and pomegranates.
The other Arab geographers add nothing to this account, and the
Moslem writers give no information of interest about the cele-
brated Achaemenian buildings and tombs, which they generally
ascribe to Jamshid and King Solomon. Mustawfi states that the
I8—2
276. FÅRS. [CHAP.
ruin of Istakhr (and hardly any trace of the Moslem city now
remains) was due to the turbulent outbreaks of its inhabitants.
Finally in the latter half of the 4th (1 oth) century Samsām-ad-
Dawlah, son of “Adud-ad-Dawlah the Buyid, was forced to send
an army against Istakhr under the Amir Kutlumish; as a result
the town was laid in ruins, and from that time onward Istakhr was
reduced to the size of a village, containing perhaps a hundred
men, as described in the Fārs AVāmah at the beginning of the
6th (12th) century.
On the hills to the north-west of the city were three great
fortresses, known as the Castle of Istakhr Yār, ‘the Friend of
Istakhr,’ the Kal‘ah Shikastah, “the Broken Castle,’ and the
Castle of Shankavān. Collectively these castles were called Sih
Gunbadhān, ‘the Three Domes’; and from a deep gorge in the
mountains, where a dam had been built, water was brought to the
first of these castles, in which ‘Adud-ad-Dawlah the Buyid had
constructed great tanks, carefully roofed over on twenty columns,
so as to be capable of supplying the needs of a thousand men
during a year's siege. There was here an exercising-ground, or
Maydān, on the hill-top, which had also been planned and Con-
structed by ‘Adud-ad-Dawlah'.
The Pulvår river—which the Arab geographers call the Furwäb,
and which in Persian is written Purvāb-rises to the north of Úján
or Uzjān at Furvâb village in Jawbarkän. Flowing at first east-
ward, it turns to the south-west above Pasargadae at the tomb of
Cyrus, which the Moslems call the Shrine of the Mother of King
Solomon (Mashhad-i-Mādar-i-Sulaymān), and, running through the
Istakhr gorge, passes this city and enters the plain of Marvdasht,
where it falls into the river Kur a short distance above the great
dam called Band-i-Amir. The river Kur rises in the district of
Kurvân, a little to the south of Újān, and not far therefore from
the source of the Pulvår river, but it takes at first the opposite
direction. Flowing towards the north-west it makes a great circular
Sweep, passing under the Shahriyār bridge, on the summer road
* Baladhuri, 388. I. H. 194. Muk. 435. F. N. 67 b, 81 b, 83 a. Mst.
173, 174, 178, 179. Hf. 85 ö. The ruins of the three castles still exist, and
one of them was visited by J. Morier, Second /ourney through Persia (London,
1818), pp. 83, 86. De Bode, Zuristan, i. 117.
XIX.] FÅRS. 277
from Shirāz to Isfahân, which stands in the Urd district. Passing
Southward the Kur next flows near the villages of Kûrad and
Kallár, turning then to the south-east, when it receives an affluent
from the Sha'b Bavvān valley (see above, p. 264), and traverses in
turn the districts of Râmjird and Kāmfirüz. Passing into the
Marvdasht plain it here receives on its left bank the Pulvår river,
then waters the districts of Upper and Lower Kirbål, and flowing
near the large village of Khurramah falls into Lake Bakhtigän,
between the Jafúz district to the south, and the Käskän district
on the left bank.
The Fārs AVáma/, and other Persian authorities, state that
the Kur was known in its upper reach as the Rūd Āsī, ‘the Rebel
River,’ because till it was hemmed back by a dam (band) its waters
could not be used for purposes of irrigation. The first of these
dams on the Kur was called the Band-i-Mujarrad, ‘the Bare Dyke.'
This was of very ancient construction, and having fallen to decay
had been restored by the Atabeg Fakhr-ad-Dawlah Châtili in the
beginning of the 6th (12th) century, after whom the dyke was
called the Fakhristān, a name it still bore in the time of Hāfiz
Abrū. Below the junction of the Pulvår the Kur was dammed
back by the celebrated Band-i-Amir' or Band-i-‘Adudi, part of
the works being also known as the Sikr (Weir) of Fanā Khusraw
Khurrah. All these names came from ‘Adud-ad-Dawlah the
Buyid, who had constructed this dam to water the district of
Upper Kirbål. According to the contemporary account of Mukad-
dasi, this dam was ‘one of the wonders of Färs.’ The foundations
of the dam were laid in masonry, with lead joints, and it threw
back the waters of the Kur river, forming an extensive reservoir.
Along this ‘Adud-ad-Dawlah had erected ten great waterwheels,
which raised the water to a still higher level, thus to irrigate
3oo villages, and at each waterwheel was a mill for grinding
corn. Soon afterwards a great town was founded near the
dam. The lowest of the dams upon the Kur river was called
the Band-i-Kassár—‘the Fuller's Dam —and served to raise the
waters to irrigate the district of Lower Kirbál. This dam was an
ancient structure, but having fallen to ruin in the beginning of
the 6th (12th) century it was repaired by the Atabeg Châtili
1 Hence “Bendemeer's stream' of Moore's Lallah Rookh.
278 FÅRS. [CHAP.
aforesaid, who also effected a much needed restoration of the
Band-i-Amir'.
The great lake of Bakhtigán into which the Kur flows, though
at the present day surrounded by desert lands, was in the middle-
ages bordered by many villages and towns situated in richly culti-
vated territories. The waters of the lake form two great bays,
of which the southern one in medieval times was known as
Bakhtigán, the northern part of the lake being called the Buhayrah
Băsafúyah or Jūbānān. The waters were salt, and abounded in
fish, which Supplied the Shīrāz market, and the lake shore was
covered with reeds that, when cut, served as fuel. The Jafúz
district was at the western end of the lake, with the town of
Khurramah (still existing as an important village) lying 14 leagues
distant from Shīrāz, on the road to Kirmān which went along the
Southern shore of Bakhtigán. Mukaddasi speaks of Khurramah
in the 4th (Toth) century as a town with broad lands and a castle
Crowning a hill-top ; this last was very strong and well built,
according to Mustawfi writing in Mongol times, and the Förs
AVāmah refers to its cisterns”.
The south-eastern end of Lake Bakhtigán was of the Dārābjird
district, and here lay Khayrah and Niriz, which will be spoken of
in the next chapter. Near the eastern end, in what is now a
waterless desert, stood in the 4th (Ioth) century the two important
towns of Great and Little Sāhak or Sãhik, a name which the
Persians wrote Châhik (meaning ‘a small pit’ or ‘well’). At
Great Sâhik the two roads—one along the north side of Bakhtigán
lake, from Istakhr ; the other by the southern shore, from Shīrāz—
came together, and from Great Sâhik one single road went on to
Kirmān. Mukaddasi describes Great Sâhik as a small town,
famed for its calligraphists, who wrote fine copies of the Kurán,
In the neighbourhood, according to Mustawfi, were steel and iron
mines, and the Aºirs AVámah speaks of the excellent swords made
here.
On the road from Great Sâhik to Istakhr, and lying on the
* Ist. 121. Muk. 444. F. N. 79 b. Mst. 216, 218. Hfº. 32 a. Yak.
iii. Io'7.
* Ist. I 22, 135. Muk. 437. F. N. 80 a, 82 0, 87 b. Mst. I 74, 179, 225,
226.
XIX.] FÅRS. 279
northern shore of that part of Lake Bakhtigán which was called
Băsafúyah or Jūbānān, were two towns of importance during the
middle-ages, all traces of which seem to have disappeared from
the map. The easternmost, lying six or eight leagues from Great
Sãhik, was the city of Būdanjān, known as Kariyat-al-Ás, ‘the
Myrtle Village,’ which Mustawfi gives under the Persian form of
Dih Mård. The country round produced plentiful corn crops,
and the myrtle, after which the town was called, flourished here.
To the westward of Kariyat-al-Ás, and six or seven leagues further
on the road towards Istakhr, was Kariyat ‘Abd-ar-Rahmān, other-
wise called Abādah, a city standing in the district of Barm. The
town possessed fine houses and palaces, and Kazvíní relates that
the water in its wells was intermittent, sometimes rising up and
overflowing the surface of the ground, and at other times being so
deep down in the pits as almost to disappear from view. In
Saljúk times Abādah had a strong castle, with engines of war, and
great water cisterns".
The broad plain of Marvdasht is traversed by the lower
reaches of the Kur river after it has received the waters of the
Pulvār; it is overlooked from the north by Istakhr with its three
castles, and was divided further into various districts. Lower and
Upper Kirbål lay near the western end of the Bakhtigán lake;
Hafrak and Kāli came higher up the Kur river, and the meadow
lands of Kãli bordered the banks of the Pulvăr. In the Hafrak
district (spelt Habrak in the older MSS.) was the strong castle of
Khuvár, near the village of the same name. The place is men-
tioned by Istakhri, and several times in the Fārs AVāmah, where
its position is given as half-way between the 'Adudi dam on the
Kur, and Abādah on Lake Bakhtigan, being Io leagues from
either place. Khuvár is referred to also twice by Yākūt, who,
however, evidently did not know its position. Its water was
taken from wells, and the fortifications of the Castle were very
strong. The plain of Marvdasht was famous for its corn lands,
being well irrigated from the dams on the Kur. According to
* I. K. 48, 53. Kud. 195. Ist. IoI, 131. Muk. 437. F. N. 66 a, 68 a, b,
83 a. Mst. 175, 179. Kaz. ii. 160. Besides the city of Abādah (or Abādhah)
there was the village of the same name, on the road from Istakhr to Isfahān,
which will be mentioned later.
28O FÅRS. [CHAP.
the Fārs Máma/, it took its name from the hamlet of Marv, which
originally had been one of the quarters of Istakhr city, where later
were the gardens of Jamshid, below the Achaemenian ruins".
Above Marvdasht came the Kämfirãz district, for the most
part on the right bank of the Kur, of which the chief town was,
and is, Baydä. Al-Baydā means in Arabic “the White' (town);
and this is one of the few instances in which an Arabic name has
been adopted by the Persians (who pronounced it Bayzá), and
kept in use down to the present day. Baydä was so called
because it ‘glistened from afar,’ and Ibn Hawkal adds that its
name among the Persians had been Nasātak, meaning, according
to Yākūt, Dâr-i-Isfīd or ‘White Palace.’ Part of the Moslem
army had camped here, when besieging Istakhr city; and Baydā
was as large a place as this last in the 4th (Ioth) century,
Mukaddasi referring to it as a fine town, with a large mosque,
and a much-visited shrine. The pasture lands around it were
famous, and the light-coloured soil made the city stand out
‘glistening white’ among its green corn-lands. The Kämfirãz
district comprised many villages, which Istakhri names, and its
oak (Balūt) forests were in his day haunted by fierce lions, which
were the terror of the cattle on its pasture lands. -
North and east of the Kämfirſz district was the district of
Rámjird, of which the chief city was Māyin. Half-way between
Shirāz and this place was the town called Hazár or Āzār Sābūr,
otherwise Naysabûr, which is often mentioned in the 4th (Ioth)
century. Mukaddasi describes it as a small town, possessing broad
lands, irrigated by underground channels; and it was the first stage
out from Shirāz going to Māyin, on the summer or mountain road
from Shīrāz to Isfahân. Māyin, the capital of Râmjird, is described
by Mukaddasi as a populous city with fruitful lands. Mustawfi
reports that under the Mongol dynasty its revenues amounted to
52,500 dinars (about 4, 17,500 in the Il-Khānid currency). There
was in the town a famous shrine of a certain Shaykh Gul Andām;
and at the foot of the pass, on the road north, was the Mashhad
of Ismāīl, son of the seventh Imām Mūsā-al-Kázim. The district
of Râmjird owed its great productiveness to the irrigation canals
* Ist. Ioa. F. N. 66 0, 67 0, 83 a, 84 0, 86 a, b. Mst. 174, 175, 179, 180.
Yak. i. 199; ii. 480.
XIX.] FÅRS. 28 I
taken from above the dam on the Kur at Band-i-Mujarrad,
which, as already stated, the Atabeg Châûli had restored. In
Rámjird also was the castle called Sa‘īdābād, crowning the summit
of a steep hill, the road up being one league in length. In old
days it was called Isfidbādh (the White Place), and in the times
of the Omayyad Caliphs it had frequently been held against their
armies by rebel chieftains. Finally Ya‘kūb, son of Layth the
Saffārid, at the close of the 3rd (9th) century took possession of it,
and, after strengthening the fortifications, used it as a state prison
“for those who opposed him.’ The name Isfīdbādh is possibly
a misreading, being sometimes written Isfandyār, and it is
apparently identical with the Isfidan of the Fārs AVāmah and
Mustawfi, near which was the village of Kumistān, with a great
cavern in the adjacent hill'.
Near the left bank of the Kur river, not far from Māyin, stood
the town and castle of Abraj (often miswritten Iraj), which is
mentioned by Istakhri as of this district, and the place is still to
be found on the map. The Fārs AVáma/, and Mustawfi describe
Abraj as a large village at the foot of a mountain, on whose slope
its houses were partly built. Its castle, the Diz Abraj, was in part
fortified by art, part being already impregnable by the precipices
of the hill summit on which it stood ; it had gardens too, and was
well supplied with water. The town of Újān, or Uzjān, which
lies one march north of Māyin, is mentioned by Mustawfi, but
no details are given. Újān is probably identical with the place
named Hüsgån (for Hüsjān) by Kudámah, where the name is
printed in error Khūskān, and in the text of Mukaddasi, again,
it is misprinted Harskän".
Kud. 196. Ist. I I I, I 17, 126, 132. I. H. 197. Muk. 432, 437, 458.
F. N. 66 a, 68 a, 81 %. Mst. 174, 175, 180. Yak. ii. 561 ; iii. 93, 838. The
fortress of Sa‘īdābād is probably the modern Mansūrābād, as described by
H. Schindler, P. A. G. S. 1891, p. 290.
* Kud. 196. Ist. Ioz, 136. Muk. 457, 458. F. N. 66 0, 83 a. Mst. 174,
179. Abraj, as given in the Fārs Māmah, is undoubtedly the true pronuncia-
tion, iraj (as printed in the texts of Istakhri and Mukaddasi) being due to a
clerical error in the MSS., and this has been adopted by Yākāt (i. 419). The
old castle exists above Abraj, and is now known as Ishkanvān, which recalls
the name of Shankavān mentioned above (p. 276) as one of the three castles of
Istakhr. See Schindler, P. R. G. S. 1891, p. 290.
282 FÅRS. [CHAP.
The most direct road from Shīrāz to Isfahân went by way of
Māyin, and thence by Kūshk-i-Zard through Dih Girdū and
Yazdikhwāst to Kûmishah on the frontier of Färs. From Māyin
the road went up the pass, going north to the crossing of the Kur
river at the Shahriyār bridge, near which was the guard-house of
Saláh-ad-Din in the plain called Dasht Rūn or Dasht Rūm.
North of this, again, according to Mustawfi, came the Mother and
Daughter Pass (Garīvah-i-Mādar-wa-Dukhtar), and then Kūshk-i-
Zard, ‘the Yellow Kiosque,” which is probably identical with the
Kasr Ayin, or A'in, of Istakhri and Mukaddasi. The plains of
greater and lesser Dasht Rūn were famous as pasture grounds, and
the arable lands gave four crops a year, these being watered by the
Kur river and its affluents. Kūshk-i-Zard is first mentioned in the
Aſārs Aſāmah, where the name is more generally written Kushk-i-Zar,
or ‘the Golden Kiosque.’ To the north again, between Kūshk-i-
Zard and Dih Girdú, stretched the even more fertile pasture lands
of the Úrd or Åvard district, the chief towns of which, according
to Istakhri, were Bajjah and Taymaristán (written Taymarjān in
the Fārs Wāmah). Mustawfi mentions Dih Girdà, and it appears
in the Fārs AVáma/, as Dih Gawz (for /azwz), both names signifying
“Nut Village.’ The earlier Arab geographers do not mention this
name (which is Persian in the forms given above), but by its
position in the Itineraries, modern Dih Girdū must be equivalent
to Istakhrān of Kudāmah and Istakhri.
Along the eastern borders of the Dasht Ürd plain lie Iklid,
Sarmak, and Abādah village, then Shūristān and Sarvistān village,
half-way between Dih Girdū and Yazdikhwäst. Iklid had a fine
castle according to the Fārs Māmah, and like Sarmak was
famous for its corn lands. The name of Sarmak is spelt Jarmak
by Mukaddasi ; it was a well-built town surrounded by trees,
among which those bearing the yellow plum were notable, this
fruit being dried and largely exported to other places. The
village of Abādah, a stage on the present post-road from Shīrāz
to Isfahān, is first mentioned in the Fārs AVāmah, and later by
Mustawfi ; the same also is to be said of Shūristán which lies on
a salt river flowing east to the desert. The village of Sarvistān,
Mukaddasi states, had a mosque in the 4th (Ioth) century, and
the place was well supplied with water from the neighbouring
XIX.] FÅRS. 283
hills. The name of Yazdikhwäst, the town lying to the north of
this, first occurs in the Fārs AVāmah, but it is doubtless the same
place mentioned by Mukaddasi under the curtailed form of Azkás.
Mustawfi gives Yazdikhwāst with Dih Girdà, but adds no
particulars. The name is often spelt Yazdikhâs".
Kûmishah, which Mukaddasi spells Kāmisah, was, as already
Said, on the northern frontier of Fārs, and it was often counted as
belonging to Isfahân. Mustawfi mentions the clay-built castle
of Kûlanjān which defended it, and tells us that it was sur-
rounded by fruitful districts. To the westward of Yazdikhwäst
is situated the town of Sumayram near the head-waters of the
Tâb river, and through it passed the western road from Shīrāz to
Isfahân. Mukaddasi describes Sumayram as having a well-built
mosque standing in the market street. Nuts and other fruits of
the cold region abounded here, and the town was protected by
a strong castle, with a plentiful spring of water within the fortifi-
cations. Yākút states that the name of this castle was Wahānzād.
The western road from Shirāz to Isfahân passed through Baydā
in the Marvdasht plain, and thence went on to Mihrajānāvādh
(or Mihrajānābād), which Mukaddasi describes as a town with
broad lands, apparently lying on the banks of the river Kur, or on
one of its western affluents. Between this and Sumayram the
only important places were Kūrad and Kallär (already mentioned
as on the Kur), two neighbouring towns, famous according to
Mukaddasi and Mustawfi for their corn lands and the fruit trees
of the cold region. Istakhri refers to their well-built houses, but
apparently all trace of these two places has disappeared”.
The shortest of the three roads from Shīrāz to Isfahân is that
already described, by Mäyin and the Dasht Rūn plain, and this
is called the Winter Road in the Fārs AVáma/h. The Summer
* I. K. 58. Kud. 196. Ist. Io9, 132. Muk. 437, 458. F. N. 65 b,
66 a, 8o 6, 81 a, 83 a, 6, 84 a, Ö. Mst. I 74, i 75, 179, 200. Yak. i. 197.
I. B. ii. 52.
* Ist. 126. F. N. 66 a, 84 a, b. Muk. 389, 437, 457, 458. Mst. I 75.
Yak. iii. 151; iv. 942. It is to be remarked that while Mukaddasi (p. 458)
in his itinerary refers to Kärad and Kallār as though these two villages stood
close one beside the other, in the Pârs Māmah itinerary (f. 84 b) Kallär is
placed five leagues north of Kárad.
284 FÅRS. [CHAP.
Road was much longer, and was the easternmost of the three,
going by Istakhr through Kamin and past the tomb of Cyrus to
Dih Bid, where, to the right, a road branched off to Yazd.
The Isfahân road continued westward through Sarmak and
Abādah village to Yazdikhwāst and Kāmishah. Kamin, not far
from the eastern bank of the Pulvår river, was according to
Mustawfi a town of considerable importance in the 8th (14th)
century, standing in a corn-producing district, and its fine pasture
lands lying along the river are specially mentioned. Higher up,
at the bend of the Pulvăr, is Pasargadae and the tomb of Cyrus,
which, it may be remembered, the Moslems identify as the tomb
of the mother of Solomon. The four-sided stone mausoleum,
still to be seen here, was held to be protected by a talisman, and
according to the Fārs AVāmah anyone attempting to take up his
abode within its walls suddenly became blind. The surrounding
pasture lands were called the Marghzār of Kālān. Dih Bid,
‘Willow Village,’ the next stage north of this, where the road
forked, is given by Mukaddasi and the other Arab geographers
as Kariyat-al-Bidh, and to the north again, about half-way between
Istakhr and Yazd, stood the city of Abarkūh.
Abarkūh or Abarkūyah——sometimes shortened to Barkūh-is
said by Ibn Hawkal to have been a fortified town one-third the
size of Istakhr, with great markets, and Mukaddasi refers to its
fine mosque. Mustawfi says the population were all craftsmen,
and the lands round produced much corn and cotton ; he further
adds that the climate of the city had this remarkable peculiarity—
that no Jew could remain alive here above forty days, hence
“among the population of Abarkūh were no Jews.’ In the town
itself Mustawfi describes the tomb of the famous saint called
Tāās-al-Haramayn, “Peacock of the Two Sanctuaries’ (Mecca
and Medina); and it was an acknowledged fact that such was
the saint's humility, that the shrine over his grave would never
suffer itself to be covered by a roof. However often a roof was
erected over the tomb, says Mustawfi, it was invariably destroyed
by a supernatural power, lest the Saint’s bones should become
the object of idolatrous worship. In the neighbourhood of
Abarkūh was the village of Marāghah (or Farāghah), where there
were magnificent cypress trees, celebrated all the world over as
XIX.] FÅRS. 285.
larger and finer than those even of Balkh, or of Kishmar in
Kuhistān". - {
Yazd in early times had been : known as Kathah, and this
name, when the town came to be called more particularly Yazd, had
passed to its district, otherwise known as the Hawmah, or Júmah
(of Yazd). Ibn Hawkal in the 4th (Ioth) century describes the
place as a well-built and well-fortified city, with two iron gates—Bāb
Izad and Bāb-al-Masjid—the latter near the mosque which stood
in the extensive suburb. A small stream flowed out of the castle
hill, the lands round were extremely fertile, although so near the
Great Desert, and fruit was largely exported to Isfahân. In the
neighbourhood a lead mine was productively worked. Kazvíní
and others speak of the heavy silk stuffs that were woven in Yazd,
all of most beautiful patterns. Mustawfi adds that the town was
built of sun-dried bricks, which here lasted as burnt bricks else-
where, for hardly any rain ever fell, though water was plentiful,
being brought in by channels from the hills, and each house had
its own storage tank.
One stage to the north of Yazd was Anjirah, “Fig Village,’
then at the second stage Khazānah (often incorrectly printed
Kharānah), a large village with farms and gardens, defended by a
fortress on a neighbouring hill; and at the third stage, on the
desert border, lay Sāghand. This last, according to Ibn Hawkal,
was a village with a population of 400 men, defended by a castle,
and its lands were well irrigated by underground water channels.
The three towns of Maybud, ‘Ukdah, and Näyin lie to the north-
west of Yazd, one beyond the other along the desert border, and
are generally accounted dependencies of Yazd, though many
authorities give Nāyīn to Isfahân. Näyin according to Mustawfi
was defended by a Castle, and the circuit of its walls was 4ooo
paces. Our authorities, however, give no details about any of
these places, merely mentioning their names”.
* Ist. 129. I. H. 196. Muk. 437, 457. F. N. 81 0, 84 b. Mst. 174, 175,
180, 200. J. N. 266. The phenomenon of the roofless tomb is also described
by Ibn Batūtah (ii. 113) as a characteristic of the shrine of Ibn Hanbal in
Baghdād, and Professor Goldziher has some interesting remarks on this
curious superstition in his Muhammedamische Studien (i. 257).
* Ist. Ioo. I. H. 196, 294, 295. Muk. 424, 437, 493. Kaz. ii. 187.
Mst. 153. Yak. iii. 694; iv. 7 I I, 734.
286 FÅRS. [CHAP.
About 75 miles south of Yazd, and half-way between that city
and Shahr-i-Bābak, is the town of Anār, from which Bahrāmābād
is 60 miles distant in a south-easterly direction, and both towns
are now included in the Kirmān province. During the middle-
ages, however, the whole of this district formed part of Fārs and
was known as Ar-Rûdhān, of which the three chief towns were
Abán (now Anār), Adhkān, and Unäs (near Bahrāmābād)".
Unäs, the chief town of the district, was, according to Istakhri,
of the size of Abarkūh, and Mukaddasi speaks of a fine mosque
here, approached by steps from the market street, also baths, and
well-irrigated gardens, though all round the town lay the sands of
the desert. The fortress of Unäs was very strong, and had eight
gates, which Mukaddasi enumerates, for he had visited the place.
The place, too, was famous for its fullers, who lived within the
town, for there were no suburbs. The Rûdhān district is said to
have extended Over 60 leagues Square. Originally, as at the
present day, it had been included in Kirmān, but in the 4th (1 oth)
century it was added to Färs, and according to the Fārs AVāmah
this arrangement continued down to the time of Alp Arslān the
Saljúk, who, after conquering all these regions in the middle of the
5th (11th) century, finally re-annexed Rûdhān to Kirmān”.
Between Rûdhān and Shahr-i-Bābak is the small town of Dih
* Our authorities state that Abán was 25 leagues from Fahraj (which is five
leagues S.E. of Yazd); the town of Ar-Rûdhān lay 18 leagues beyond Abán,
and Unās was one short march or two post-stages (Barád) from Ar-Rādhān.
Further, Umás lay one long march and two leagues (or one Barid) from
Bimand, which last was four leagues west of Sirjān; and from Ar-Rûdhán to
Shahr-i-Bābak was three days' march, the first march being to Kariyat-al-Jamāl,
‘Camels' Village.’ These distances, plotted out, show that the positions of
modern Anār and Bahrāmābād respectively coincide with medieval Abán and
Unās; while the town of Ar-Rûdhān, which is presumably the place elsewhere
called Adhkān, must have stood between the two, near the modern village of
Gulnābād. Ist. I 35, 168. I. K. 48. Muk. 457, 473. Yākūt confuses the
matter: he mentions (iii. 925) the town of Anār as though it were identical
with Unās, which from the distances given above is impossible; Anār is here
probably merely a clerical error for Unäs, which in another passage (i. 367) he
counts as of Kirmān.
* Ist. Ioo, 126. Muk. 437, 438, 462. F. N. 64 b. Yak. ii. 830. Anār
is still most fertile and produces a considerable surplus of grain, which is
exported.
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XIX.] FÅRS. 287
Ushturán or in Arabic Kariyat-al-Jamāl, “Camels' Village,’
where, Mukaddasi relates, there was a tall minaret to the
mosque, and fine gardens lying on a stream below the town.
Shahr-i-Bābak, the city of Bābak or Pāpak, father of Ardashir,
the first Sassanian monarch, was a town often counted as
of Kirmān. The place still exists, and it is mentioned by
Istakhri, Mukaddasi, and others, who however give us no details.
Mustawfi includes it in Kirmān, and says that corn, cotton, and
dates grew here abundantly. Two stages west of Shahr-i-Bābak,
on the road to Istakhr, is the small town of Harāt, which the
Aſārs AVāmah couples with Sāhik (already mentioned, p. 278).
Istakhri speaks of Harāt as being, in the 4th (Ioth) century,
larger than Abarkūh ; it exported much fruit, according to
Mukaddasi, chiefly apples and olives, and had excellent markets,
with streets round its mosque, and a fine stream of water traversed
its gardens. Harāt had but one gate; and Mukaddasi names the
little town of Farā as of its neighbourhood. Writing in the 7th
(13th) century Kazvíní states that the Ghubayrā plant (possibly
the penny-royal) grows abundantly in the gardens of Harāt, and
when the flowers are in bloom the women of this town were
wont, he says, to become wildly excited. To the south-east of
Sâhik, on the borders of the Dārābjird district, is the town of
Kutruh, still a place of some importance, where, according to
the Fārs Māmah and Mustawfi (who spells the name Kadrā),
there were excellent iron mines'.
* Major Sykes (7&n thousand Miles in Persia, p. 78) found the ruins of
a fire-temple near Shahr-i-Bābak. Ist. Ioz. I. H. 182. Muk, 52, 423, 424,
425, 436, 437, 455. F. N. 66 a, 68 a. Yak. i. 75, 178. Mst. 175, 182. Kaz.
ii. 186. The name of Harāt village is identical in spelling with Herāt, the
famous city of Khurāsān.
CHA PTE R XX.
FÅRS (continued).
The Dārābjird Kūrah or Shabānkārah district. Dārābjird city. Darkān and
ig. Niriz and Istahbānāt. Fasā, Râniz, and Khasa. Lār and Furg.
Târum. Sárú. The trade and manufactures of Färs. The high roads
across Fārs.
The Dārābjird Kūrah was the easternmost of the five districts of
Fārs, and it almost exactly corresponded with the province of
Shabānkārah, which, under the Mongol dominion, was divided
off from Fărs and formed a separate government. The Shabān-
kārah according to the author of the Fāz's AVáma/h (who, however,
does not apply this name to the Dārābjird district) were a tribe
descended from the Fadlūyah, a family of Daylamite origin, and
they had been of the Ismailian sect of the Shi‘ahs. In Saljúk
times they and the Kurds had waged successful war against the
Atabeg Châtili, and after the decay of Saljúk power the Shabān-
kārah took possession of the eastern region of Fārs, to which they
gave their name. The Shabānkārah province is mentioned by
Marco Polo, under the form of Soncara, as the seventh out of
the eight ‘kingdoms ’ into which he divides Persia; the name,
however, has again fallen out of use, and this territory is now
known as Dārābjird". -
* The Book of Ser Marco Polo, Sir H. Yule, London, 1874, 2nd ed., i. 84.
Shabānkārah appears in the chronicle of Ibn-al-Athir (x. 362) spelt Ash-
Shawānkārah. The chiefs of the tribe who opposed Atabeg Chââli in the
beginning of the 6th (12th) century were Fadlūh and his brother Khasrā.
This last name is probably that more correctly written Hasāyah (possibly for
Hasanāyah) in the Fārs Mámah.
CHAP. XX] FÅRS. 289
The capital of the district, under the Caliphate, was the city
of Dārābjird or Dārābgird, which Istakhri describes as a walled
town with a water-ditch, having four gates, and in the midst of the
town stood a rocky hill. Mukaddasi states that the city was cir-
cular and measured a league across in every direction, its gardens
were very fruitful, its markets well supplied, and water ran in
channels through the town. Near Dārābjird was the celebrated
Kubbat-al-Múmiyā, ‘the Bitumen or Naphtha Dome,” closed by
an iron door and only opened Once a year, when an officer of
the Sultân went in and gathered in a box the twelve months’
accumulation of the precious Múmiyā, which was then sealed up
and despatched to Shirāz for the royal use. At the beginning of
the 6th (12th) century, according to the Fārs AVāmah, Dārābjird
city was then mostly in ruins, though there was a strong fortress in
its midst. Round about extended the famous meadow lands
(Marghzār) of Dārābjird, and in the neighbourhood was a hill
where rock salt, of seven colours, was dug out. According to
Mustawfi there was a strongly fortified pass near Dārābjird, com-
manded by a great Castle, known as Tang-i-Zinah".
Under the Shabānkārah, the capital of the Dārābjird province
was removed to Dārkan (or Zarkān), to the north of which stood
the fortress of ig (or Avig). The Arab geographers of the 4th
(I oth) century mention these, writing the names Ad-Dārkān or
Ad-Dārākān and ſj, and Istakhri says there was a mosque in his
day in both these places. Mustawfi, who generally spells the
name Zarkān, and refers to the castle as the Kalah Avig, says
that the surrounding district was very fertile, growing cotton, corn,
dates, and other fruits. According to him the castle of Avig had
been first fortified in Saljúk times by the Khastīyah tribe, and
Yākūt adds that fruit from here was exported even as far as to
the island of Kish (Kays).
To the north-east of ig are the town and district of Nayriz (or
Niriz) at the eastern end of Bakhtigán ; to which lake, at times, it
has given its name. Mukaddasi speaks of the Great Mosque of
Nayriz in the market street, and the ruins of this building, bearing
* Ist. I 23, 155. Muk. 428. F. N. 68 b, 81 a, 86 b. Mst. 181. The
Bitumen Dome, or one similar, is stated by Ibn-al-Fakih (p. 199) to have been
near Arrajān; see p. 269.
LE S. I9
29O FÅRS. [CHAP.
the date 340 (951) still exist. Close to the shore of the lake
stands the town of Khir (spelt also Khayār and Al-Khayrah),
which is mentioned, from the 4th (Ioth) century onwards, as a
stage on the road along the south side of Lake Bakhtigån going
from Shirāz to Kirmān. Mustawfi and the Fārs Māmah name
the district round Khayrah Mishkānāt; it was famous for its
raisins (Äishmish), and both Niriz and Khayrah were protected
by strong castles'.
Half-way between Khayrah and Ig lies the town of Isfahbānāt,
a name which the Arab geographers also spell Al-Istahbānān or
sometimes Al-Isbahānāt, which is shortened by the Persians into
Istahbān. Mustawfi describes it as a town buried in trees, with a
strong castle in its vicinity. It had been laid in ruins by the
Atabeg Châtili, who had, however, subsequently caused it to be
rebuilt; and the castle in the 8th (14th) century was occupied by
the Khastīyah tribe.
The town of Fasā, pronounced Pasā by the Persians, was in
the 4th (Ioth) century the second city of the Dārābjird district,
being almost of the size of Shirāz. It was well built, much cypress-
wood being used in the construction of the houses, and was very
healthy. The markets were excellent, there was a ditch round the
town, which was further defended by a castle, and large suburbs
stretched beyond the city gates. Dates, nuts, and oranges in
abundance came from its gardens. Mukaddasi states that the
Great Mosque, built of burnt brick and with two courts, rivalled
that of Medina for splendour. The Fārs Māmah speaks of
Fasā as being almost of the size of Isfahân. The Shabānkārah
had ruined it, but the city had been rebuilt by the Atabeg Châtili.
Mustawfi adds that anciently the city was called Săsân, and it
had been built triangular in plan. Its water-supply, which was
abundant, was taken from underground channels, for there were no
wells. Shakk Miskāhān and Shakk Rūdbāl (or Rūdbār) were of
its dependencies, and in the neighbourhood stood the strong castle
of Khwādān, where there were great cisterns for storing water”.
* Ist. Ioſ, IoS, I 32, 136, 200. Muk. 423, 429, 446, 455. F. N. 68b, 69a, b.
Mst. 181. Yak. i. 415; ii. 560. Captain Lovett, V. K. G. S. 1872, p. 203.
* Ist. Io9, 127, 136. Muk. 423, 431, 448. F. N. 69 a, 70 a, 82 b, 83 a.
Mst. 175, 179, 181. J. N. 272.
XX] FÅRS. 29I
The town of Kurm lies some miles north of Fasā, on the road
to Sarvistān, and is given thus in the Itineraries. According to
the Fārs Māmah its district and that of Rúniz (or Rūbanz)
belonged to Fasā; the latter district forming part of the Khasſ
territory, which Mukaddasi marks as lying one march South-west
from Dārābjird on the road to Juwaym of Abu Ahmad (see
above, p. 254). The earlier geographers give the form of the
name as Rūnij (or Rūbanj), and it is probable that this town is
identical with the present Khastī (or Kusſ). Mustawfi speaks of
Kurm and Rüniz as two towns enjoying a warm climate with an
abundant water-supply; and according to Mukaddasi the Khasſi
(or Khashū) territory extended far to the eastward, for besides
Rúnij it included the towns of Rustäk-ar-Rustäk, Furg, and
Tārum. Mustawfi counts Khasſ, as belonging to Dārābjird'.
Due South of Rúniz is the small town of Yazdikhwäst, which
is mentioned by Mukaddasi and Yākūt as of the Dārābjird
dependencies, and south of this again is the city of Lâr. Lár is
not mentioned by any of the earlier Arab geographers, nor does
the name occur in the Aſărs AVāmah, which dates from the
beginning of the 6th (12th) century. Mustawfi, in the earlier part
of the 8th (14th) century, is our first authority to speak of Lâr,
as the name of a district (vilāyat) by the sea, most of its popula-
tion, he adds, being merchants who were given to Sea voyages.
Corn, cotton, and dates were grown here. His contemporary
Ibn Batūtah visited Lâr city about the year 730 (1330), and
describes it as a large place, with many gardens and fine
markets. Under Shāh Shujā‘ of the Muzaffarid dynasty at the
close of the 8th (14th) century, and later under the Timúrid
princes, Lár became a mint city, which proves it to have been in
those days a place of some size and importance.
* I. K. 52. Ist. Io9, II 6, 132. Muk. 422, 423, 454, 455. F. N. 69 0.
Mst. 181. The pronunciation Rūbanj, adopted in the text of Mukaddasi, is
apparently on the authority of Yākāt (ii. 828), who carefully spells the word
letter for letter. The Mss. of the Förs AVáma/, and Mustawfi almost invariably
give Râniz (for an older form Rūmīj), which is still the name of a district in
these parts. It seems probable therefore that Rilbany, as printed in Istakhri
and Mukaddasi, is a clerical error, and that by a shifting of the diacritical
points we should everywhere read Rūnīj, or Rùniz, in the place of Rúbanz and
Rúbanj.
I9–2
292 FÅRS. [CHAP.
Furg, which lies three marches south-east of Dārābjird, is still a
considerable town. Mukaddasi, who spells the name Furj, states
that beside it lay the twin city of Burk, but the two names would
appear merely to be variants of the original Persian place-name.
The city called Burk stood on a hillock, ‘like a camel-hump,' two
leagues from the mountains; it possessed a mosque in the market
Street, was a fine place and an agreeable residence. Its neighbour,
Furg, had a Castle on a hill, was not in the 4th (Ioth) century
a large town, but had its own mosque and many baths, water
being plentiful in both cities. Very naturally the names of the
two cities were often confounded, one replacing the other. The
Fārs AVāmah writes the name Purk or Purg, and says that its
Castle was impregnable, being built of stone and very large.
Mustawfi adds that both corn and dates were grown in Burk
(as he writes the name) most abundantly. Rustäk-ar-Rusták is
described by Mukaddasi as a small town with good markets,
lying in the midst of a fertile district measuring four leagues across
in every direction. It lies one march to the north-west of Furg,
on the road to Dārābjird".
The town of Târum, also spelt Tărum, like the district of this
name in the Jibál province (see above, p. 225), lies two marches
east of Furg, on the road to the coast. Mukaddasi refers to its
mosque, and praises the markets, gardens, and palm-trees, for
a stream ran through the town. Much honey was produced
here, and according to the Fārs AVāmah it was nearly the size of
Furg, and had a strong castle well supplied with cisterns. From
Tārum the caravan road went almost due south to the coast,
where lay the port of Sūrū, or Shahrū, over against the island of
Hurmuz. Mustawfi names the port Túsar, but the reading is un-
certain. The Arab geographers speak of Sūrū as a village of fisher-
men, having no mosque, and dependent for the water-supply on
wells dug in the neighbouring hills. There was, Mukaddasi adds,
much trade with ‘Omān across the gulf, and the place, which
he speaks of as a small town, lay exactly on the Kirmān frontier”.
* Muk. 428, 454, note 72. F. N. 69 a, 83 a. Mst. I 81. Yak. ii. 560.
I. B. ii. 240. The town of Burk appears to be identical with the old fort of
Bahman, with a triple wall and ditch, which lies about a mile south of the
present town of Furg. Stack, Persia, i. 756.
* Ist. 167. I. H. 224. F. N. 69 a. Muk. 427, 429. Mst. 181, 20I.
XX] FÅRS. 293
The trade and manufactures of the province of Fārs, in the
4th (Ioth) century, are carefully described by both Istakhri and
Mukaddasi. At this time, as already stated, the chief port of
Persia, on the gulf, was Sīrāf. This place distributed all
imports by sea, and to it were brought rare and precious
Indian goods, such as were known collectively in Arabic under
the name of Barðahár. Istakhri gives the imports of Siräf as
follows:—aloes-wood (for burning), amber, Camphor, precious gems,
bamboos, ivory, ebony, paper, Sandal-wood, and all kinds of Indian
perfumes, drugs, and condiments. In the town itself excellent
napkins were made, also linen veils, and it was a great market for
pearls.
At all times Fārs has been celebrated for the so-called attar of
roses (‘Afar or ‘ſºr in Arabic signifies ‘a perfume’ or ‘essence’),
which, of divers qualities, was more especially made from the red
roses that grew in the plain round Jūr or Firſzābād. The rose-
water was exported, Ibn Hawkal writes, to all parts of the world,
namely, to India, China, and Khurāsān, also to Maghrib or North-
west Africa, Syria, and Egypt. Besides the essence of roses,
Júr also produced palm-flower water, and special perfumes distilled
from southernwood (in Arabic Áaysłłm, the Artemisia abrofanum),
saffron, lily, and willow flowers. The city of Shāpār and its
valley produced, according to Mukaddasi, ten different kinds
of perfumed oils, or unguents, made from the violet, water-lily
(AVinſºfar), narcissus, palm-flower, common lily, jasmine, myrtle,
sweet-marjoram, lemon, and orange flowers, and these oils were
exported far and wide over the eastern world.
The carpets and embroideries of Fārs have in all times been
celebrated, and in the East, where robes of honour have always
been the mark of distinction, specially brocaded stuffs were manu-
factured for the sole use of the Sultān, on which his name or
cypher was embroidered. These were known as Zaráz, and the
town of Tawwaj was famous for their manufacture, as was also
Fasā, where peacock-blue and green stuffs, shot with gold thread,
were embroidered for the royal use.
The remaining products of Fārs may best be grouped under
the cities producing them. The looms of Shirāz produced a
variety of fine cloths for making cloaks, also gauzes and brocades,
294 FÅRS. [CHAP.
and stuffs woven of raw silk (žazz). Jahram was famous for
long carpets and woollen rugs, hangings for curtains, and small
prayer-carpets, such as were carried to and from the mosque.
Besides the scented oils already mentioned, Shāpār exported
various medicaments, as well as Sugar-canes, shaddocks, nuts,
olives, and other kinds of fruit, and osiers. Käzirún and Dariz
produced linen stuffs and fine gauzes, an imitation of the
Egyptian brocades known by the name of dab%, and fringed
towels. Ghundījān, the capital of Dasht Bārīn, produced carpets,
curtains, cushions, and the Taráz embroideries for the Sultān's use.
Arrajān was famous for a kind of syrup, made from raisins, which
was called diós, or dùshāb, Good soap was also manufactured
here, also thicker woollens and napkins, and the town was an
emporium for Indian goods (Barba/iár). The neighbouring port
of Mahrubăn exported fish, dates, and excellent water-skins. At
Siniz the special kind of gauze known as Áassáð was made, also
linen stuffs, for which Jannābah was also famed.
Istakhr manufactured stuffs for veils, while the towns of the
Rādhān district produced excellent cloth, a particular kind of
sandal called Shims/hi/º, water-skins, and divers condiments.
Yazd and Abarkūh yielded cotton stuffs.
In Dārābjird were manufactured all kinds of cloths, fine,
medium, and coarse in texture, also embroideries, fine carpets,
and matting. Jasmine-oil and perfumes and the aromatic
grains found wild here were exported. The Māmāyā or bitumen,
from Arrajān and Dārābjird, has already been mentioned. Istakhri
describes a boneless fish, said to be excellent eating, which
lived in the moat of Dārābjird. Furg produced much the same
commodities, together with dibs-syrup; and the like came from
Târum, where various kinds of water-skins were manufactured
and very serviceable buckets. Fasā was especially known for its
goat-hair, and raw-silk stuffs, also carpets, rugs, towels, napkins,
and silk embroidered hangings, particularly of the famous peacock-
blue and green colour, shot with gold thread. Cardamums and
dye-stuffs came also from Fasā, and much felt was made, the
tents of this material known as A/argāh being largely exported.
Lastly in Fårs, according to Ibn Hawkal, there were silver
mines at Näyin ; iron and quicksilver were found in the hills of
XX] FÅRS. - 295
Istakhr, besides lead, copper, Sulphur, and naphtha in divers
regions. No gold-mine was known. Dye-stuffs of various kinds
were common throughout Fārs, so that the land, he says, was full
of dyers and their dye works'. &
The high roads of Fārs are described in detail by a long list
of authorities, both Arab and Persian, and the distances in these
itineraries are generally given in leagues (farsakh). Unfortunately
Ya‘kūbi, one of our best authorities for the Road Books, is
entirely wanting for Fārs, and Ibn Rustah also for the most part
fails us, but beginning with Ibn Khurdādbih and Kudāmah in the
3rd (9th) century, we have Istakhri and Mukaddasi in the 4th (Ioth)
century, and in the first years of the 6th (12th) century the roads
of this province are all minutely given by the Persian author of
the Fārs AVāmah, whose description is for the geography of this
period an immense gain which unfortunately is lacking to us for
the rest of Persia. Mustawfi, also a Persian authority, registers
in the 8th (14th) century the changes effected by the Mongol
conquest, and at the close of this century ‘Ali of Yazd describes
in detail the march of Timür from Ahwäz to Shirāz, which lay
along one of the trunk roads.
In this province the roads all radiated from Shirāz, and it will
be convenient first to describe those leading down to the coast.
Siráf, Kays island, and lastly, Hurmuz island, each in turn
became the chief port of the Persian Gulf, and the high roads
went down to these, just as at the present day the caravan and
post road goes down to Bushire which has now succeeded to the
supremacy of Hurmuz. The easternmost of the roads to the
coast leads to the port over against the island of Hurmuz, whence
also by coasting Hurmuz city on the mainland was reached. Both
of these places will be described in Chapter XXII. Leaving
Shirāz this road went by Sarvistān and Fasā to Dārābjird, Furg,
and Tărum, whence turning due south it struck the coast, in early
times at Sūrū, or Shahrū, or, as Mustawfi calls it, Túsar. Not
far from here, in Safavid days, the port of Bandar ‘Abbās which
still exists was founded, as will be noted later. Of this road we
have five separate accounts”.
|
* Ist. 152–155. I. H. 213-2 15. Muk. 442, 443.
* I. K. 52, 53. Ist. 131, 132, 170. Muk. 154, 155. F. N. 85 a. Mst. 200.
296 FÅRS. [CHAP.
The next road, running almost due south from Shīrāz, went
in early times to Sirāf. After the ruin of this port caravans
followed a branch to the south-east at a point half-way down to
the coast, the new road leading to the port opposite the island
of Kays, and this is the route described by Mustawfi. Mukaddasi
also gives an important by-road, going south-west from Dārābjird,
on the Hurmuz route, to Siräf, and this cuts across the road
from Shīrāz to Kays island given at a later date by Mustawfi.
Starting from Shīrāz all these routes went by Kavār to Jūr or
Firüzābād. Here the older road branched to the right, going
down to Sirāf. The road given in the Fārs Māmah turned to the
left at Firózâbâd, going by Kārzin to Låghir, whence, through
Kurán, Siräf was reached. The route given in Mustawfi leaves
the city of Firſzābād a few leagues to the eastward, and goes
down like the Fārs AVāmah road to Låghir, where, branching
south-east and to the left, it passed through Färyāb and the
desert to Huzú, the port opposite Kays island. Unfortunately
this road from Läghir to Huzú is only found in Mustawfi, and
the MSS. give most uncertain readings for the names of the various
stages. Apparently, too, no modern traveller has gone by this
road, so that we are at a loss for corrections, our maps being here
a blank. The cross-road from Dārābjird, given by Mukaddasi,
goes by Juwaym of Abu Ahmad to Fåryāb or Bārāb, a stage on
Mustawfi's route, and then to Kurán, on the Aāz's AWäma/, route,
whence it led direct to Sirāf".
The western road to the coast followed in its upper section the
present track from Shirāz to Bushire, for it passed by Käzirún
and Dariz to Tawwaj, the important commercial town of the
4th (Ioth) century, and thence to the port of Jannābah. The
Fārs AVāmah gives an important variant to this route, going by
the Māśaram country to Jirrah, and thence by Ghundījān to
Tawwaj; at Ghundījān, however, a branch turning off south went
down to the port of Najiram, which lies some distance to the
west of Siräf. Mustawfi only gives the road westwards from
Shirāz as far as Käzirún, in his day Tawwaj was in ruins, and at
that time the chief port on the Persian Gulf was Kays island”.
Ist. 128, 129. Muk. 454, 455. F. N. 86 a, 6. Mst. 200, also v. Supra,
p. 257, note I.
* Ist. I 30. Muk. 453, 454, 456. F. N. 86 a. Mst. 200.
XX] - FÅRS. 297
The most fully detailed of all the roads in Fårs is that going
from Shīrāz, north-west, to Arrajān and Khūzistān, for we have
no less than eight separate accounts of it, though they vary as to
some of the stages; the last being that given by ‘Ali of Yazd de-
scribing in the reverse direction the march of Timür in 795 (1393)
from Ahwäz through Bihbahān to Shirāz, when, on his way, he
stormed the great White Fortress of Kalah Safīd. Leaving Shirāz,
the high road to Khūzistān, as described in the Road Books, goes
north-west by Juwaym (Goyun) to Nawbanjān, and thence through
Gunbadh Mallaghān to Arrajān, whence by the great bridge
Over the Tâb river it reached Bustānak on the frontier of Färs.
Mukaddasi and the earlier geographers add the distances from
Arrajān to the port of Mahrubán, and thence south-east along the
Coast to the port of Siniz and on to Jannābah".
From Shīrāz to Isfahân there were three separate routes in
use during the middle-ages. The westernmost turned off to the
right, at Juwaym, from the Arrajān road, going to Baydā in the
Marvdasht plain, and thence by Kūrad and Kallár to Sumayram
and Isfahân. This route is described by Ibn Khurdādbih and
Mukaddasi. The middle route is the summer road through the
hill country, which goes from Shīrāz to Māyin, and thence by
Kūshk-i-Zard and Dih Girdú through Yazdikhwāst to Isfahân.
This road, with some variants in the names of the stages, is given
by the earlier Arab geographers and also by the later Persian
authorities. The easternmost of the three roads (the winter or
Caravan road, through the plains) went from Shīrāz north-eastward
to Istakhr and thence to Dih Bid. Here a main route went off
to the right going by Abarkūh to Yazd, while the road to Isfahân
turned to the left, and passing through Surmak and Abādah village
joined the summer road at Yazdikhwäst, whence by Kümishah
Isfahân was reached. This winter road, which at the present
time is the usual post-road from Shirāz to Isfahān, is given by
Mukaddasi and the Fārs AVāmah : the stages to Yazd are
enumerated by nearly all our authorities”.
|
I. K. 43. 4. Kud. 195. I. R. 89, 199. Ist. 133, 34. Muk, 53.
455. F. N. 85 b. Mst. 201. A. Y. i. 6oo. |
* By the Western A'oad: I. K. 58. Muk. 457, 458. By the Summer Æoad
or Hill Road: Kud. 196, 197. Ist. 132, 133. Muk. 458. F. N. 83 b. Mst.
298 FÅRS. [CHAP. xx
The roads from Shīrāz to Shahr-i-Bābak and thence on to
Sirjān, one of the capitals of Kirmān, followed two routes, one to
the north of Lake Bakhtigán, the other passing along the Southern
shore of the lake. The northern route went first from Shīrāz to
Istakhr (Persepolis), and from here to Shahr-i-Bābak we have two
roads, one direct by Harāt village, the other by Abādah city to
Sâhik, where it joined the road along the southern shore of the
lake. This last left Shirāz, going eastward by the northern side
of Lake Mähalū to Khurramah, whence by the southern shore of
Bakhtigán it reached Khayrah. From here the Fārs Māmah
gives the distances of a branch road to Nîrîz and Kutruh. The
main road went from Khayrah to Great Sâhik, where, as already
said, it was joined by the route from Istakhr along the northern
lake shore, and from Great Sãhik it crossed a desert tract, going
north-east to Shahr-i-Bābak. Both by the northern and the
southern shore of Lake Bakhtigán full itineraries exist in the Arab
and Persian authorities, but the names of some of the intermediate
stages are uncertain, namely of villages that no longer exist at the
present day, for the whole of this country has gone out of culti-
vation and become depopulated since the close of the middle-
ages".
200. By the Winter Æoad: Muk. 458. F. N. 84 6. By the Yazd Road:
I. K. 51. Ist. 129. Muk. 457. F. N, 86 b. Mst. 201.
* The road vić Harát : Muk. 455, 456, 457. The road vić Abādah and
north lake shore : I. K. 53. Kud. 195. Ist. 130, 131. F. N. 84 6. The
road ziá Khayrah and South lake shore : I. K. 48. Muk. 455. F. N. 85 a.
Mst. 201. For the roads which centred in Sirjān, coming up from Fārs, see
the next chapter, note I, p. 302, and Chapter XXII, p. 320.
CHAPTER XXI.
KIRMAN.
The five districts of Kirmān. The two capitals. Sirjān, the first capital, its
position and history. Bardasir, the second capital, now Kirmān city.
Māhān and its saint. Khabis. Zarand and Kāhbimān, Cobiman of
Marco Polo.
The province of Kirmān, as Istakhri writes, is for the most part
of the hot region, only a quarter of the country being mountainous
and producing the crops of a cold climate, for the larger part of
the province belongs to the Desert, the towns lying singly, and
separated one from another by broad stretches of uncultivated
land, and not standing clustered in groups as was the case in Färs.
Yākút states that under the Saljúks Kirmān had been most
populous and flourishing, but already in the 7th (13th) century,
when he wrote, ruin had set in, lands going out of cultivation.
Finally this evil state was rendered permanent by the devastation
which resulted from the invasion of Timür at the close of the
8th (14th) century.
Mukaddasi in the 4th (I oth) century divides the province of
Kirmān into five Kūrahs or districts, called after their chief towns;
namely (i) Bardasir, with the sub-district of Khabis to the north ;
next (ii) Sirjān, on the Fārs frontier; then (iii) Bam and (iv) Nar-
māsīr on the desert border to the east; and lastly (v) Jiruft to the
south, running down to the sea-coast of Hurmuz. On the north and
east the frontier was the Great Desert, on the south-west the sea-
coast, while on the west the Kirmān frontier, round about Sirjān,
ran out ‘like a sleeve’ into the lands of the Fārs province, as
3OO KIRMAN. [CHAP.
Istakhri puts it, and according to some early accounts Shahr-
i-Bābak was herein included as of the Kirmān province'.
The present capital of the province is the city of Kirmān, the
province and its chief town being of the same name, as is so often
the case in the East. During the middle-ages, however, the
Kirmān province had two capitals, namely Sirjān and Bardasir,
of which the latter town is identical with the modern city of
Kirmān, standing near what is still known as the Bardasir
district.
Sirjān, the older Moslem capital of Kirmān, was already the
chief city under the Sassanians. The Arab geographers always
write the name As-Sirjān or Ash-Shirajān (with the article), and
though no town of the name now exists, the district of Sirjān still
Occupies the western part of the Kirmān province, with Sa‘īdābād
for its chief town. The recently discovered ruins at Kal‘ah-i-Sang”,
on a hill spur some 5 miles to the east of Sa‘īdābād, on the Bäft
road, are evidently the site of Sirjān, the ancient capital, for they
are those of a great city, and the distances given in the medieval
itineraries show that these ruins exactly occupy the position of
Sirjān city; and though the modern Sirján district covers but
a portion of the older Kūrah, it has preserved for us the
ancient name. After the Arab conquest Sirjān continued to
be the capital of the Moslem province until the middle of the
4th (Ioth) century, when all southern Persia came under the
power of the Buyids. The governor they sent to Kirmān was
a certain Ibn Ilyās, and he for an unknown reason changed
his residence to Bardasir (the modern Kirmān city), and
later, with the transference of all the government offices
thither from Sirjān, this last fell to be a place of secondary
importance. When Istakhri wrote, however, Sirján was still the
largest city of Kirmān. He states that there was little wood used
* Ist. J 58, 163, 165. Muk. 460, 461. Yak. iv. 263.
* Kal‘ah-i-Sang, otherwise known as Kalah-i-Baydā (the Stone or the White
Fort), occupies a limestone hill rising some 300 feet above the plain, and egg-
shaped, being about 4oo yards in length. The ruins, still surrounded by a low
wall of Sun-dried brick, built on older foundations, were discovered and first
visited by Major Sykes, in 1900, who has described them in detail, p. 431 of
Ten 7% ousand Miles in Persia (London, 1902).
XXI] KIRMAN. 3OI
in its houses, since these were all built with vaulted roofs.
Mukaddasi describes the place under the Buyid rule as larger
and more populous than Shirāz. It had two chief markets, the
old and the new, and both were full of goods, especially clothes
and stuffs for making them, for which it was famous. The streets
were well built, and most of the houses had gardens. The
city was closed by eight gates (Mukaddasi cites their names,
some of which however are uncertainly written in the MSS.), and
near that called Bāb Hakim, ‘the Physician's Gate,’ ‘Adud-ad-
Dawlah, the Buyid, had built a great palace. The Friday Mosque
stood between the old and the new market, its minaret had been
erected by ‘Adud-ad-Dawlah, and the water of the town was
derived from two underground channels that had been dug in the
3rd (9th) century by ‘Amr and Táhir, sons of Layth the Saffārid.
Yākūt, who states that when he wrote—7th (13th) century—
Sirjān was the second city of Kirmān and contained forty-five
mosques, large and Small, asserts that the town in his day was
known under the name of Al-Kasrān, ‘the Two Palaces,’ but he
gives no explanation. The name of Sirján frequently occurs in
the chronicles of Ibn-al-Athir and Mirkhwänd, when relating the
history of the Buyids and Saljúks. Mustawfi, after the Mongol
conquest, described it as having a strong Castle and its lands
grew both cotton and corn. Sirjān afterwards passed into the
possession of the Muzaffarid princes, who reigned in Fårs at
Shirāz, but conquered all Kirmān from the Karakhitay dynasty
at the beginning of the 8th (14th) century. In the year 789 (1387)
Timür marched into Färs, appeared in force before Shirāz, re-
ceived the submission of the Muzaffarid princes, and was induced
when he left Fārs to conquer Irāk, to reinstate Some of them as
tributaries. Left to themselves, however, they fomented rebellion,
and in 795 (1393) Timür again entered Fārs, overthrew the
Muzaffarid forces in a pitched battle, and appointed his own Son
Prince ‘Omar Shaykh governor of Fārs and Kirmān.
Many districts, however, especially in Kirmān, refused to
submit to Timür, and Gūdarz, the governor of Sirjān, held out in
the name of the Muzaffarids, so that Prince ‘Omar Shaykh at last
had to send troops to lay formal siege to that stronghold. Accord-
ing to the account given by ‘Ali of Yazd, the Kal‘ah (castle) of
3O2 KIRMAN. [CHAP.
Sirján had been recently repaired, so that the place was very
strong, and after the lapse of a year, as the siege operations were
making no progress, ‘Omar Shaykh set out for Sirjān in person,
to bring matters to a crisis. He was however at this moment
recalled by his father, and met his death by mischance while
travelling through Kurdistân to join Timür at the royal camp
before Amid in Upper Mesopotamia. This was in 796 (1394)
and for another two years Sirjān still held out, the garrison
ultimately yielding to famine rather than to force of arms; and
by order of Timür, when Gūdarz at length did surrender, he and
his few remaining soldiers were all massacred in cold blood, as
a warning to the disaffected throughout the province. Sirján was
left a ruin, and though Hāfiz Abrū, writing in the reign of the
successor of Timür, still speaks of Sirjān as the second city of
Kirmān (second to Bardasir), with a strong castle crowning a high
rock, the name of Sirjān after this date disappears from history,
and its exact site has only quite recently been discovered in the
ruins of Kalah-i-Sang, as already Said". -
As mentioned above, the modern capital of the province is
Kirmān city, and this, though not the first Moslem capital,
appears to have been an important town from early Sassanian
* Ist. 166. Muk. 464, 47.o. Yak. iv. Ioff, 265. Mst. 182. Hfz. 140 a.
A. Y. i. 618, 667, 784. Mirkhwänd, pt. iv. 17o ; pt. vi. 48, 69. The position
of Sirjān is given by the Arab geographers in marches from various known
places, often with an equivalent total in farsakhs or leagues. Unfortunately
in the Kirmān province the stage-by-stage itineraries, with details of places
passed (as we have for the Jibál province, and the whole of Fārs), are lacking.
The following, however, is a summary of the distances recorded, and they agree
with the position of Kal‘ah-i-Sang for Sirjān city. From Shahr-i-Bābak on
the north-west, where the high roads coming up from Shīrāz and Istakhr
united, Sirjān was distant 24 and 32 leagues by different roads, and it was 38
to 46 leagues, or three long marches, from Great Sâhik. From Rustäk-ar-
Rusták (one short day's march north-west of Furg) Sirjān was four marches,
and from Nîriz five and a half marches distant. Going east and south-east, the
road from Sirjān to Jiruft measures six marches or 54 leagues; while to Râyin
it was five marches, and to Sarvistān (to the South-east of Râyin) 45 or 47
leagues. Finally, from Sirjān to Māhān was counted as three marches, and to
Bardasir (Kirmān city) two marches. The authorities for these distances are
as follows:–I. K. 48, 49, 53, 54. Kud. I95, 196. I. F. 206, 208. Ist. I 31,
135, 168, 169. Muk. 455, 464, 473.
xxi) KIRMAN. 3O3
times. In regard to its origin, we have it stated by Hamzah of
Isfahân, an historian of the 4th (1 oth) century, that King Ardashīr,
the founder of the Sassanian dynasty, built a city called Bih-
Ardashir, meaning ‘the good place of Ardashir’; this name the
Arabs corrupted in their pronunciation to Bihrasir (or Bihdasir)
and Bardasir (or Bardashir); while the Persians, as Mukaddasi
informs us, pronounced it Guwäshir, from Wih-Artakhshir the
more archaic form of Bih-Ardashir. Yākūt adds that the name
was in his day spelt Juwäsir, Juwäshir, or Gawāshir, these being all
equivalent to, and used indifferently with, the Arabic form Bardasir'.
This city of Bardasir, which became the new capital of the
Kirmān province under the Buyids, is without doubt identical in
every respect with the modern city of Kirmān, as is proved by its
position as given in the Itineraries, and from the description by
the Arab geographers of various buildings in Bardasir, and natural
features, all of which still exist, and are to be recognised in
Kirmān city. The Arab and Persian chronicles, it will be seen,
fully bear out the identification, for after the 4th (1 oth) century
Bardasir, indifferently called Guwäshir, becomes in their narratives
the capital of Kirmān, and these names are in time replaced by
‘the city of Kirmān,” or briefly Kirmān, the province—as is so
often the case—giving its name to the capital.
Mukaddasi, writing at Some length upon Bardasir, describes
it, at the time when the Buyid governor had made it the new
capital, as a well-fortified though not a very large city. Outside
the town was a great castle (Kal‘ah) standing high up on a
hill with gardens, where there was a deep well, dug by the
governor Ibn Ilyās, and hither the aforesaid Ibn Ilyās was
accustomed to ride up every night to sleep on the height. At the
town gate was a second fortress (Hisn) surrounded by a ditch,
which was crossed by a bridge; and in the centre of the town was
a third castle (Kal‘ah) overlooking the houses, alongside of which
* Hamzah, 46. Muk. 460, 461. Yak. i. 555; ii. 927 ; iv. 265. The
pronunciation Yazdashër sometimes given is merely a clerical error, from
a mis-setting of the diacritical points in the Arabic writing. At the present
day Bardasir is the name of the small district lying to the south-west of modern
Kirmān city, of which the chief town is Māshīz. As the name of a town
Bardasir is unknown. For another instance of Bih or Wºh in Persian place-
names, See above p. 262, note.
3O4. KIRMAN. [CHAP.
stood the Great Mosque, a magnificent building. The city had
four gates, the first three being called after the towns whither their
roads led, namely, Bāb Māhān, Bāb Khabis, and Bāb Zarand ;
the fourth was the Báb Mubărik, ‘the Blessed Gate,” or possibly
So called after somebody of the name of Mubărik, or Mubărak.
Mukaddasi adds that the place was full of gardens, wells were
Common, and underground channels gave an abundant water-
Supply".
From the time when Ibn Ilyās in the reign of “Adud-ad-
Dawlah removed the government offices (Divān) to Bardasir,
this town, as already said, remained the chief capital of Kirmān,
and followed the fortunes of the province, which, as a rule, was
annexed by whoever was the ruler of Färs. In the early part of
the 5th (11th) century, the Buyids fell before the rising power of
the Saljúks, who were masters of the Kirmān province from 433
to 583 (1 oA1 to 1187). Under them, though Sirjān is one of
their chief cities, Bardasir continued as the ‘Dār-al-Mulk’ or
official capital of this governorship. In the Saljúk chronicle
written by Ibn Ibrāhīm the name of the capital is given some-
times as Bardasir, sometimes as Guwäshir ; while in the
corresponding chapters of the Rawdat as-Safá, Mirkhwänd in-
variably refers to the Saljúk capital as ‘the city of Kirmān,” or
more briefly as Kirmān, and the name Bardasir is nowhere men-
tioned by him. The two names, therefore–Bardasir and Kirmān
—were for a time used indifferently to denote one and the same
place. Ibn-al-Athir, for example, under the year 494 (I IoI),
relates how irān Shāh the Saljúk was expelled ‘from the city of
Bardasír, which same is the city of Kirmān”.’
In 583 (1187) the province of Kirmān was overrun by the
1 Muk. 461.
2 Ibn-al-Athir, x. 219. This passage has a fallacious appearance of being
conclusive evidence that Bardasir was later Kirmān city. But though the fact
is beyond doubt from both history and topography this passage is no real
proof of it, for ‘the city of Kirmān’ (Madimah Kºrmán) merely means the
capital (city) of Kirmān (province), and is ambiguous. In an earlier volume,
Ibn-al-Athir (iii. Ioo) relating how, under the Caliphate of “Omar, Sirján was
first taken by the Arab armies, adds the words ‘which same is the (capital) city
of Kirmān’ (Madînah Kármán), though Sirjān certainly is not the modern city
of Kirmān, as might be inferred at first sight from this passage.
XXI] KIRMAN. 3O5
Ghuzz Turkomans, who plundered and half-ruined Bardasir,
and temporarily made Zarand the capital of the province. The
power of the Saljúks was then on the wane, and in 619 (1222) all
Kirmān passed under the sway of the short-lived dynasty generally
known as the Kārākhitay. Kutluk Khān, the first prince of this
line, is described by Mirkhwänd as taking possession of ‘the city
of Kirmān,” and later it is stated that he was buried in the
Madrasah, or college, which he himself had caused to be built
‘in the quarter called Turkābād, outside the city of Kirmān.’
On the other hand, both Mustawfi in his Guzidah, and Ibn
Ibrāhīm in the Saljåk chronicle, state that Kutluk Khān, in the
year 619 (1222), took possession of ‘the city of Bardasir' (or
Guwäshir as the Guzidah has it), thus becoming ruler of all the
Kirmān kingdom. Lastly the Contemporary authority of Yākūt
gives Bardasir as the name at this time (13th century A.D.) of the
capital of Kirmān'.
The Mongol conquest of Persia did not materially affect
Kirmān, and the daughter of the last prince of the Kārākhitay in
the first years of the 8th (14th) century married the Muzaffarid
ruler of Fārs, who afterwards took over the province of Kirmān,
under Mongol overlordship. Mustawfi, speaking of the capital
Guwäshir, otherwise Bardashir, describes the Old Mosque as
dating from the close of the 1st century of the Hijrah, and the
reign of the Omayyad Caliph “Omar II, who died in 720 A.D.
He also speaks of the garden laid out by the Buyid governor
Ibn Ilyās, called Bāgh-i-Sirjāni, namely, ‘the garden of him who
came from Sirjān,” which when he wrote in 730 (1330) was still
flourishing. Ibn Ilyās, Mustawfi adds, had also built the castle
on the hill, already recorded as having been described by Mu-
kaddasi, and within the town there was the mosque called the
Jāmi'-i-Tabrizi, founded by Tūrān Shāh, the Saljūk, and the
celebrated shrine over the grave of the saint Shāh Shujā‘ Kirmāni.
A somewhat later authority, Hāfiz Abrū, states that Turkhān
Khātūn, daughter of Kutluk Khān of the Kārākhitay, in the year
666 (1268), erected a magnificent Jāmi' (Friday Mosque) in
1 Mst. Guzādah, Chapter IV, section x, Reign of Burák Hájib. Ibn
Ibrāhīm, 4, 54, 200, 201. Mirkhwänd, part iv. Ioq, IoS, 128, 129. Yak. iv.
265.
LE S. 2O
306 KIRMAN. [CHAP.
Kirmān, besides other mosques and colleges, one of which will be
noticed presently ; and the same author, writing in 820 (1417),
refers to the city indifferently under the two names of Bardasir
(or Guwäshir) and Kirmān'.
These descriptions of Bardasir given by our various authori-
ties, from Mukaddasi in the 4th (1 oth) century down to Hāfiz
Abrū in the early part of the 9th (15th) century, clearly refer
to many of the buildings that still exist, mostly in ruin, in the
present city of Kirmān. Thus, as we have seen, Mukaddasi
mentions the three fortresses or castles for which the city was
famous, and in the Saljúk chronicle frequent reference is made by
Ibn Ibrāhīm to the castle on the hill (Kalah-i-Kūh), to the old
castle, and to the new castle, which are evidently identical with
the three places described by Mukaddasi. In modern Kirmān
we find that there is, in the first place, an ancient fortress crowning
the hill near, and to the east of the city, now generally known as
the Kal‘at-i-Dukhtar or the ‘Maiden's Fort, which is attributed to
King Ardashir in the popular belief. Next, still further to the
south-east, is a second hill, fortified of old with walls and towers,
now crumbling to ruin, which is known as Kal‘ah Ardashir, and
this must be the fortress “outside the city gate’; while, lastly,
the older fortress, within the town, doubtless stood on the site
of the present governor's palace”.
The mosque of Tūrān Shāh, mentioned by Mustawfi, still
exists under the name of Masjid-i-Malik; while another building,
connecting Kirmān city with the time when it was still called
Bardasir, is the magnificent green (or blue) dome, the Kubbat-
i-Sabz, which, until quite recently, covered the tomb of Turkhān
Khātūn, the daughter of Kutluk Khān, already mentioned, of
the Kārākhitay. This princess, as history relates, some time
after her father's death, ousted her brother from the throne,
and then during twenty-five years remained virtual ruler of
Kirmān, governing in the name of her husband—a nephew of
Kutluk Khān-and of her two sons, whom in turn she allowed
nominally to succeed to the throne. Mirkhwänd states that she died
* Mst. 182. Hfz. 139 0, 140 a.
* A plan of Kirmān city is given by Major Sykes (p. 188), also a view of
these two ancient forts (p. 190), in Zen 7% ousand Miles in Persia.
XXI] KIRMAN. 3O7
in 681 (1282) and was buried under the dome of the Madrasah-
i-Shahr, or city college. The green dome within which her
tomb was placed bore an inscription on its walls, giving the names
of the architects, with the date 640 (1242) when the building was
Completed, namely during the nominal reign of the son of Kutluk
Khān, whom his sister Turkhān Khātūn afterwards set aside".
Of other towns in the Bardasir district the Arab geographers
give on the whole but meagre accounts; groups of villages, so
common in Fårs, did not exist, and generally in Kirmān each
town was separated from its neighbour by a wide stretch of desert
country. A score of miles to the south-west of Kirmān city lies
Baghin, and a like distance beyond this Māshīz, both on the road
from Kirmān to Sirjān. At the present time these are the only
towns in this quarter, and both are frequently mentioned by Ibn
Ibrāhim, in the Saljúk chronicle, when relating events of the latter
half of the 4th (Ioth) century. It is curious therefore that neither
Baghin nor Māshiz should be mentioned by any of the earlier
Arab geographers, nor by Mustawfi, nor, apparently, by any of the
Persian authorities who have described the campaigns of Timūr,
Two short marches to the south-east of Kirmān city lies the
town of Māhān, at the present day celebrated for the shrine at
the tomb of Ni‘mat-Allah, the Sûfi saint and ‘Nostradamus’ of
Persia, whose prophecies are still current throughout Moslem
Asia. He died in 834 (1431) aged over a hundred years, and is
said to have been a friend of the poet Hāfiz. In the 4th (1 oth)
century Mukaddasi describes Māhān as a town chiefly inhabited
by Arabs. The mosque was near the fortress, which, surrounded
by a ditch, stood in the middle of the town; and for a day's
march around the land was covered with gardens which were
irrigated from a stream of running water.
* The Kubbat-i-Sabz was completely ruined by an earthquake in 1896. It is
described by Major Sykes, who gives an illustration (Persia, p. 264) representing
the building as he saw it before the earthquake. Major Sykes gives a descrip-
tion of it, p. 194, as also of the mosque of Tūrān Shāh, who reigned from 477
to 490 (Io&4 to Io97). Ibn Ibrāhīm, 28, 34, I 77, 187, 189, 190, 194.
Mirkhwänd, part iv. 129, 130. See also Stack, Aerºsia, i. 202, 204. Schindler,
“Reise in Persien,’ Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für AErd&unde (Berlin), 1881,
pp. 329, 33O.
2 O— 2
3O8 KIRMAN. [CHAP.
Ghubayrā and Kūghān, two towns lying one league apart,
of which apparently no trace remains at the present day, were
to the south of Māhān, being one march west of Râyin
(which still exists). In the 4th (1 oth) century Mukaddasi de-
scribes Ghubayrā as a small town surrounded by villages, with
a fortress in its midst, while outside was the market recently
built by the Buyid governor Ibn Ilyās, already many times
mentioned. Both this place and Kūghān had fine mosques and
the water was from underground channels. Some fifty miles
east of Kirmān, and on the borders of the Great Desert, lies
Khabis, which was counted as three marches distant from Māhān.
The level was low, for the desert is here far below the plateau of
central Persia on which the city of Kirmān stands, and Khabis,
as Istakhri remarks, is very hot, and the date palm was conse-
quently much grown. Mukaddasi adds that there was a fortress
here, and the town had four gates. It was very populous, much
silk was manufactured, for the gardens were celebrated for their
mulberry-trees, being watered by a stream that passed through
the town. Excellent dates, too, were exported".
Two marches to the north-west of Kirmān is the city of
Zarand, and half-way between the two, during the middle-ages,
lay the town of Janzarūdh, of which apparently no trace remains.
Mukaddasi describes Janzarūdh as possessing a mosque standing in
the market, where abundance of fruit was sold, for the town was on
a river, the Janz. Zarand still exists, and Mukaddasi speaks of the
castle near by, which Ibn Ilyās, the governor, had recently built.
Zarand was in the 4th (Ioth) century a place of considerable size,
it had six town gates, and the mosque was in the Maydān or
public square, which was surrounded by market streets. Here a
kind of fine gauze, used for linings and called Óiftinah, was made.
These Zarandí gauzes were largely exported to Fårs and ‘Iråk,
and in the 4th (I oth) century were in great repute.
1 Ibn Ibrāhīm, 66, IoS, Io9, 12 I. Ist. 234. Muk. 462, 463. Col. C. E. Yate,
Ahurasam and Sistan, p. 11. Major Sykes (Persia, p. 41) found a grave-stone
in Khabis dated 173 (789), also the ruins of a building that appears to have
been a Christian church, or some non-Moslem shrine. As of the Khabis sub-
district Mukaddasi (p. 460) mentions the four towns of Nashk, Kashid, Kåk,
and Kathrawá, but no details are given of position, and apparently all trace of
them is now lost.
XXI] KIRMAN. 3O9
Fifty miles north of Zarand lies Rāvar on the border of the
Great Desert, and west of this is Kūbinán, which was visited by
Marco Polo. Both towns are described by Mukaddasi, who says
that Rāvar in the 4th (Ioth) century" was larger than Kūbinán,
and had a strong fortress, which served to protect the frontier.
Kübinán or Kūhbanán he speaks of as a small town with two
gates, and a suburb where there were baths and caravanserais.
The mosque was at one of the town gates, and was surrounded
by gardens which stretched to the foot of the neighbouring
mountains. In the vicinity is the town of Bihābād, a name
which Mukaddasi writes Bihāvadh, and he couples it with
Kavāk, a populous hamlet, which lay three leagues distant, both
places being of the cold region and possessing many gardens.
Bihābād still exists, but Kavāk no longer appears on the map.
Yākūt in the 7th (13th) century states that both Kūhbanān and
Bihābād were in his day celebrated for the tiltiyā or tutty (an
impure oxide of zinc), which was manufactured and exported
hence to all countries. Mustawfi in the next century also refers
to Kūhbinán, which Marco Polo, his contemporary, calls ‘the city
of Cobinan,’ and the Venetian traveller carefully describes the
manufacture here of the tutty, ‘a thing very good for the eyes.”
Already in the 4th (1 oth) century this was one of the notable
exports of the Kirmān province, and Mukaddasi states that
because it came out of the crucible in finger-like pieces, it was
commonly known as 7.htiya Murázłóży, ‘cannular tutty.’ These
bunches of ‘pipes,’ he says, were separated one from another by
water being poured over the hot mass, and it was purified by
being roasted in long furnaces which he himself had seen built
On the mountain side, near where the ore was extracted. The
same was done also in the case of iron'.
* Ist. 233. I. H. 224, 292. Muk. 462, 47.o, 493. Yak. i. 767; iv. 316.
Mst. 183. See 7 he Åook of Ser Marco Polo, Yule, i. 127–130, for the descrip-
tion of the manufacture of tutty, which Major Sykes (AEersia, p. 272) saw made
in Kühbanān at the present time, and in the identical manner above described.
The name of Rāvar is often miswritten Závar by a clerical error; and similarly
Kūhbanān appears under the forms of Kilſhayán and Kūhbayān from a misplacing
of the diacritical points. Banān is the Persian name for the wild pistachio,
Kūhbanān therefore signifying the mountain where this tree grows.
3 IO - KIRMAN. [CHAP. XXI
Some fifty miles west of Kūhbanán, and on the edge of the
desert half-way between that town and Yazd, lies at the present
day the hamlet of Bäfk. There are in the Kirmān province two
towns of very similar names, Bāfk aforesaid, and Bäft or Bäfd, the
latter lying 80 miles south of Kirmān city, and 200 miles distant
from the northern Bäfk. The confusion is worse confounded by
the fact that (northern) Bäfk is often now pronounced Bäfd, and
hence is identical in name with the town south of Māshíz, for
dialectically the change of the dotted Å into d or f is common in
Persian. A town of Bäfd is mentioned by Yâkút as a small city
of the Kirmān province, lying on the road to Shirāz, and of the
hot country. Ibn Ibrāhīm in the Saljúk chronicle mentions the
names of both Bäft and Bäfk, but neither by him nor by Yākūt
are details afforded sufficient to identify the places'.
* Yak. i. 474. A. F. 336. Ibn Ibrāhīm, 31, 43, 67, 9o, I 58, 159, 164,
172. Stack, Persia, ii. I 3.
CHAPTER XXII.
KIRMAN (cozz/izzzzed).
The Sirján district. Bam and Narnāsīr districts. Rigán. Jiruft and Kama-
din, Camadi of Marco Polo. Dilfarid. The Báriz and Kafs mountains.
Rüdhkān and Mamūjān. Hurmuz Old and New, Gombroom. The trade
of the Kirmān province. The high roads.
The Sirján district—of which Sirjān city, the older capital of
the Kirmān province, which has already been described in the
previous chapter, was the chief town—lay to the west of the
Bardasir district, and on the frontier of Färs. Mukaddasi
mentions a number of towns in this district which now, unfortu-
nately, no longer appear on the map, though their positions in
relation to the site of Sirjān city are known.
Four leagues west of Sirjān, and close to the Fārs frontier,
was Bimand, described in the 4th (1 oth) century as an impreg-
nable fortress, having iron gates. It was a place of importance
too, as being the point of junction of the three high roads—
from Shahr-i-Bābak (north), from Rûdhān (north-east), and from
Sâhik (west)—whence these all converged on Sirján. Mukaddasi
describes Bimand as having a Great Mosque standing in the middle
of its market street, and its water was from underground channels.
Then one day's march to the east of Sirjān, on the road to Râyin,
was a place called Shāmāt, a town with many gardens and
vineyards, exporting much fruit to outlying villages, and with a
Friday Mosque standing in its midst. The town also bore the
alternative name of Kūhistän. One march again east of Shāmāt
was Bahár, and another day's march led to Khannāb, both places
growing many dates. Beyond Khannāb lay Ghubayrā, already
3I 2 KIRMAN. [CHAP.
described as of the Bardasir district. Two days' march to the
South-east of Sirjān, on the road to Jiruft, stood a town the
name of which is written either Văjib or Nájat (with some other
variants). Mukaddasi describes it as a very pleasant and populous
place with many gardens, the water being supplied by underground
channels, and the Great Mosque standing in the midst of its market
streets".
The district of Bam (or Bamm, as the Arab geographers write
it), surrounding the town of this name, lies to the south-east of
Māhān, at the border of the Great Desert, on the eastern frontier
of Kirmān. Ibn Hawkal describes Bam in the 4th (Ioth) century
as larger and healthier than Jiruft, the town being surrounded
by palm-groves. Near by stood the celebrated castle of Bam,
held to be impregnable, and there were three mosques, the
Masjid-al-Khawārij, the Mosque of the Clothiers (Al-Bazzāzīn),
and the Castle Mosque. Cotton stuffs were largely manufactured
here and exported ; also napkins, the cloths for turbans, and the
Scarfs for head-wear known as Zay/asón. Mukaddasi records that
the city wall, which made a strong fortification, had four gates,
namely, Bāb Narmāsir, Bāb Kūskān, Bāb Asbīkān, and Bāb
Kürjin. There were great markets both within the city and
Outside in the suburbs, while on the river which passed by the
Castle was the market of the Jarján bridge. A celebrated bath-
house stood in the Willow street (Zukāk-al-Bidh). A league
distant from Bam was the mountain called Jabal Kûd, where there
were mills, surrounded by a large village, and where much cloth
was manufactured. Mustawfi in the 8th (14th) century still
refers to the strong castle of Bam, and speaks of its climate as
rather hot”.
Rāyin, lying due south of Māhān, and about 70 miles north-
west of Bam, is described by Mukaddasi as a small town, with its
* I. K. 49, 54. Ist. 168, 169, Muk. 464, 465. For Nājaſ Ibn Hawkal
reads AVájtah, and Bákhta/, /ö/ø//a/, or Kážhta/, are the variants in Ibn
Khurdādbih ; all of which may possibly be merely clerical errors for Bäft, the
town mentioned in the last chapter (p. 3 Io), which still exists approximately
in the position indicated.
* The ancient fort of Bam, which stands at the present day, is described by
Major Sykes (Persza, pp. 216, 218). The ruins of the medieval town are on
the river bank at Guzārān, about a mile distant from the fort.
XXII] KIRMAN. 3 I 3
mosque standing in the market-place, and gardens extending all
round the habitations. At one-third of the way from Rāyīn to
Bam stood the neighbouring towns of Avārik and Mihrkird (or
Mihrijird), of which the former still exists, the name being now
pronounced Abārik. Between the two, in the 4th (Ioth) century,
stood a castle built by the Buyid governor, Ibn Ilyās. The water-
Supply was from a river, and the houses were clay-built. Between
Abārik and Bam stands Daharzin, which Mukaddasi writes
Dārzin, other spellings being Dārjīn and Dayrūzīn. It had a
fine Friday Mosque, and was a pleasant place, surrounded by
gardens irrigated from a neighbouring stream'.
The Narmāsīr district (in Persian Narmāshīr) lay south-east of
Bam and on the desert border; its capital, the city of Narmāsir,
stood half-way between Bam and Fahraj. Fahraj still exists and
in the 4th (Ioth) century, Narmāsīr was an important town ;
Mukaddasi speaks of its many fine palaces, and of its numerous
population. Merchants from Khurāsān trading with ‘Omán lived
here, for Narmāsīr stood on the Pilgrim road from Sistán to
Mecca and was a mart for Indian goods. Narmāsir was then
smaller than Sirjān, but fortified, and it had four gates, Bâb
Bam, Bāb Sárkán, the Gate of the Oratory (Musallä), and lastly
the Gate of the Kiosque (Kūshk). The Friday Mosque was
in the midst of the markets. To its gate was an ascent of ten
steps of burnt-brick stairway, and a fine minaret, famous in all the
country round, towered above. The castle was known as the
Kalah Kūsh-va-Răn (the name unexplained), and at the Bam
gate were three forts called Al-Akhwāt, ‘the Sisters.’ Palm-groves
and gardens surrounded the town. At the present day no town
of Narmāsīr appears on the map, but the ruins at the site called
Chugukābād, “Sparrow-town,” lying on the right bank of the
sluggish river which winds through the Narmāsīr plain, must be
the remains of the great medieval city. The place is now a
complete wilderness, though as late as the 8th (14th) century
Mustawfi still refers to Narmāsīr as a populous city.
Twenty miles due south of Fahraj is Rikån (also spelt Rikån
or Righān), the fortifications of which Mukaddasi describes. The
* I. H. 223, 224. Muk. 465, 466, 47.o. Mst. 182. Yak. iv. 700. Abārik
and Dārzin are described by Major Sykes (Persia, p. 214).
3 I4. KIRMAN. [CHAP.
Great Mosque stood near the town gate, and outside were palm
gardens. Mustawfi refers to it as a very hot place, where dates
and corn were grown abundantly. Between Righān and Bam
stands Kurk, which Mukaddasi couples with the neighbouring
town of Båhar (not to be confounded with the differently spelt Bahár
of Sirjān, see p. 3 II), and both were populous towns in the 4th
(Ioth) century, being surrounded by palm-groves. The town of
Nisã was also of the Narmāsīr district, but its position is unknown.
It is stated that it had gardens in the plain, and a mosque in its
market-place, and it was watered by a river'.
The whole of the southern half of the Kirmān province, and
down to the coast, was included in the district of Jiruft. Jiruft (or
Jayruft) during the middle-ages was a city of much importance,
and past it ran the only river which the Arab geographers mention
by name in this province. The ruins of Jiruft (the name is now
preserved in the Jiruft district only) are those now known as the
Shahr-i-Dakiyānūs, ‘the City of the Emperor Decius,” who figures
as a proverbial tyrant in the East, for in his reign the Seven
Sleepers entered the Cave, as mentioned in the Kurán (chapter
XVIII, v. 8, and see above, p. 155), the story being amplified of
course in the popular legends. Near these ruins runs the stream
now known as the Khalil Rūd (or Halil Rūd), which the Arab
and Persian geographers name the Div Rūd, ‘the Demon Stream,”
from its swiftness. It is an affluent of the Bampfir river, and
drains east to the Hāmūn or swamp.
In the 4th (1 oth) century Ibn Hawkal describes Jiruft as a
great city, measuring two miles across, ‘the mart of Khurāsān and
Sijistān,” lying in a fruitful neighbourhood where the crops of both
the hot and the cold regions were grown. The chief exports of
the city were indigo, Cardamoms, sugar-candy, and the dºshāb
or raisin syrup. The surrounding district was called Al-Mizán
(Istakhri writes Al-Mijān), where the numerous gardens produced
dates, nuts, and Oranges. Snow came from the neighbouring
hills, and water was supplied by the Div Rūd, which made a great
* I. K. 49. Muk. 463, 464. In Mustawfi (p. 182) for Másház as given in
the lithographed edition, ‘Narmāsir’ must be read, according to all the best
MSS., confirmed by the Turkish text of J. N. 257. For Chugukābād, see Sykes,
Persia, p. 220.
XXII] KIRMA N. 3I 5
noise flowing over the rocks. There was water-power here for
turning from twenty to fifty mill-wheels. Provisions were also
brought into the city from the neigh ouring valley of Darfărid,
and according to Mukaddasi the sweet melons from here and
the narcissus flowers, from which a perfume was made, were
both celebrated. The town itself, which had a fortified wall,
was closed by four gates, namely, Bāb Shāpār, Bāb Bam, Bāb
Sirjān, and Bāb-al-Musallá, ‘the Oratory Gate.' The Great
Mosque, built of burnt brick, was near the Bam gate, at Some
distance from the market streets. Mukaddasi adds that Jiruſt
was in his time a larger city than Istakhr, and that its houses
were mostly built of clay bricks on stone foundations.
Yākút states that the fertile district round Jiruſt was called
Jirdús, and Mustawfi refers to the lion-haunted Forests which
had originally surrounded the town, but which in his day had
given place to immense palm-groves. Ibn Ibrāhīm in the Saljak
chronicle during the 6th (12th) century frequently refers to
Kamādin, ‘a place at the gate of Jiruft where foreign merchants
from Rûm (Greece) and Hind had their warehouses and where
travellers by sea and land could store their goods’; and in
another passage he mentions the ‘precious goods from China,
Transoxiana, and Khitãy, from Hindustān and Khurāsān, from
Zanzibár, Abyssinia, and Egypt, also from Greece, Armenia,
Mesopotamia, and Adharbäyjān,” which were all to be found for
buying and selling in the storehouses of Kamādin. The Persian
Kamādin is the place mentioned by Marco Polo under the name
of Camadi, or the ‘city of Camadi.' It had been formerly
“a great and noble place,’ but when Marco Polo visited it “was
of little consequence, for the Tartars in their incursions have
Several times ravaged it.’ This explains why both Jiruft and
Kamādīn, after the close of the 7th (13th) century, disappear
from history, and the map no longer bears these names. Round
Jiruft was the Rûdhbār district, mentioned by the Arab geo-
graphers, which reappears in Marco Polo under the name of
‘Reobarles'.”
* For the ruins of Shahr-i-Dakiyānās, lying on the right bank of the Halil
Rūd, a short distance to the west of modern Sarjāz, see Keith Abbott in V.A. G.S.
1855, p. 47 ; and Sykes, Persia, p. 267. Ist. 166. I. H. 222. Muk. 466,
3 I6 KIRMAN. - [CHAP.
- One march to the nonhº of Jiruft, and half-way to Dārjīn,
lay the large hamlet of Hurmuz-al-Malik (“of the King,” so called
to distinguish it from the port of Hurmuz), which was also known
as Kariyat-al-Jawz, ‘Nut Village.’ According to Idrisi—but it is
not clear whence he got his account—this was an ancient city
founded by the Sassanian king Hurmuz in the third century A.D.,
and it had been the chief town of the province of Kirmān, until,
falling to ruin, the administration had been transferred to Sirjān,
which remained the capital of the province under the later
Sassanians. The position of Hurmuz-al-Malik is indicated by
Mukaddasi and other early geographers, but they give no details;
Idrisi adds that in his day (or more probably in the time of the
unknown author from whom he takes his account) this Hurmuz
was a handsome though small town, inhabited by a mixed popu-
lation, having abundant water, and good markets with much
merchandise. It lay, he says, one march distant from Bam'.
A day's march to the north of the ruins of Jiruft lies Dilfarid,
which Mukaddasi calls Darfāni, and Ibn Hawkal Darfărid. It
lay in a fruitful valley producing crops of both the hot and cold
regions, and, as already stated, was the granary of Jiruft. One
march to the north-west of this again was the Jabal-al-Ma'ādin—
‘Hill of Mines’—where silver was found, more especially in a
gorge that ran up into the Jabal-al-Fuddah or “Silver Hill’.”
To the eastward of Jiruft was the hill country called Jabal
Báriz, described as clothed with great forests in the 4th (1 oth)
century, and here at the time of the first Moslem conquest the
hunted Magians had found safe refuge from the troops sent
against them by the Omayyad Caliphs. This country was only
brought under the Moslem yoke by the Saffārid princes; it was
afterwards famous for its iron mines. Nearer the coast, and to
47.o. Yak. ii. 57. Mst. 182. Ibn Ibrāhīm, 48, 49, 83. Schindler, W.A.A.S.
1898, p. 43 ; and 7%e Book of Ser Marco Polo (Yule), i. 98.
* Ist. 161, 189. I. H. 219, 225. Muk. 473. Idrisi, Jaubert, i. 423, and
text in Paris MSS. Arabes, No. 222 1, folio 1 57 b ; No. 2222, folio IoA. a. Yak.
ii. 151. Major Sykes (Persia, p. 444) would identify Hurmuz-al-Malik (which
no longer exists under this name) with Carmama omnium mater of Ammianus
Marcellinus.
* Ist. 165, writes the name, probably merely by a clerical error, Durbóy.
I. H. 22 1, 222. Muk. 467, 47 I. A. F. 335.
XXII] KIRMAN. 3 I 7
the South-east of Jiruft, lay the hilly region known as Jabal-al-
Kufs, the outlying regions of which, in the 4th (I oth) century,
were inhabited by mountain folk, while the Balūs (or Balūch)
tribes wandered on their eastern borders, towards the lower limits
of the Great Desert. Of the robber tribes of the Kufs mention
will be made later when describing the Great Desert. Part of
this outlying country was known as Al-Khawāsh, namely of the
tribes called Al-Akhwāsh. These were Camel-men, who lived
in a valley where by reason of the \heat much Sugar-cane
was grown for export to Sijistān and Khurāsān—this being
the tract of mountainous country which intervenes between the
southern end of the Great Desert and Makrān. In these highlands
were seven separate mountains, each ruled, it was said, by its own
chief, and ‘Adud-ad-Dawlah the Buyid, in the 4th (I oth) century,
had made an expedition to conquer them. These people then
had no horses, they were regarded as of the Kurds, for they
Owned flocks and herds, lived in hair-tents and possessed JnC)
cities. The date palm flourished abundantly in the lower regions
of this country'.
Some fifty miles south-west of Jiruft lies Gulāshkird, which
Mukaddasi writes Valāshgird, stating that it was a strongly fortified
town protected by a castle known as Kūshah, and with its gardens
irrigated by underground watercourses. Maghūn, a town with
many gardens growing Orange-trees and the indigo plant, lay
one march north of Valāshgird towards Jiruft ; its ruins are pro-
bably those now known as Fariyāb or Pariyāb”. Fifty miles south
of Valāshgird was the important town of Manūkān, now called
Manūjān, which Mukaddasi refers to as ‘the Basrah of Kirmān ‘
to mark its commercial importance. The town consisted of two
opposite quarters, divided by the dry gorge called Kalān; one
quarter was called Kūnin, the other Zāmān, and a fort, which still
exists, stood between the two, with the mosque known as the
1 Khwāsh is now the chief town of the Sarhad, a mountainous district
described by Major Sykes (Persia, pp. 130, 353), which lies to the east of
Narmāshir. Ist. 163, 164, 168. I. H. 220, 22 I, 224. Muk. 47 I. Yak. iv.
148, where for Al-Karin we should read Al-Báriz.
* Major Sykes (Persia, p. 269) refers to Fariyāb, which “was once a great
city, and was destroyed by a flood, according to local legend.”
3 I 8 RIRMAN. [CHAP.
Jāmi' Sayyān. One march iſom here, in the sandy plains nearer
the coast, was the town of Darahkān; no trace of which, however,
now appears to exist. There was a mosque in the town, and its
gardens produced much indigo, water being procured by under-
ground channels.
Between Valāshgird and Manūjān runs a river with many
tributaries, now known as the Rūdkhānah-i-Duzdî: it is mentioned
by Istakhri as the Nahr-az-Zankân, and by Yâkút as the Rāghān
river. Mukaddasi refers to the populous town of Rûdhkān, which
probably stood on its course, as surrounded by gardens growing
date palms and Orange-trees. To the north-east of Manūkān, and
on the road to Rigán, being three marches from the port of
Hurmuz, stood the twin cities of Bås and Jakin, each with its mosque
and market. Nahr or Jūy-Sulaymān (Solomon's Brook), a popu-
lous town, one march west of Rigán, is referred to by Mukaddasi
as of the Jiruſt district. Its fertile lands were watered by a stream
which ran through the town, in the centre of which stood a mosque
and a castle. Lastly, in the northern part of the mountainous
district of Jabal-al-Kufs, Mukaddasi mentions the town of Kūhistān,
for distinction called after a certain Abu Ghānim. It was very
hot, and palm-groves grew all round the town, in the midst of
which was a castle beside the mosque'.
Old Hurmuz, or Hurmuz of the mainland, lay at a distance of
two post-stages, or half a day's march, from the coast, at the head
of a creek called Al-Jir, according to Istakhri, ‘by which after one
league ships come up thereto from the sea,' and the ruins of the
town are still to be seen at the place now known as Mináb,
vulgarly Minao. In the 4th (Ioth) century Old Hurmuz was
already the seaport for Kirmān and Sijistān, and in later times,
when New Hurmuz had been built on the island, this place
supplanted Kays, just as Kays had previously supplanted Siräf,
and became the chief emporium of the Persian Gulf. Istakhri
speaks of the mosque and the great warehouses of (Old) Hurmuz,
many of the latter being in the outlying villages, two leagues
from the town. Palm-groves were numerous and dhurrah was
cultivated, also indigo, Cummin, and the sugar-cane. Mukaddasi
praises the markets of Hurmuz, its water was from underground
* Ist. 169. Muk. 466, 467. Yak. iv. 330.
XXII] KIRMAN. 3 I 9
Channels, and its houses were built of unburnt brick. On the
sea-shore, half a day's march distant, was Al-‘Arsah, ‘the Camp,'
presumably at the entrance of the Hurmuz creek.
The adjacent island is mentioned by Ibn Khurdādbih, in the
middle of the 3rd (9th) century, under the name Urmúz (which
Mustawfi spells Urmús), and this is doubtless the later island of
Jirún. At the beginning of the 8th (14th) century—one authority
gives the year 715 (1315)—the king of Hurmuz, because of the
constant incursions of robber tribes, abandoned the city on the
mainland, and founded New Hurmuz on the island aforesaid
Called Jirán (or Zarūn), which lay one league distant from the
shore. At this period New Hurmuz was visited by Ibn Battitah,
and it is described by his contemporary Mustawfi, who notes the
abundance of the date palms and sugar-cane growing here. Ibn
Battitah states that Old Hurmuz in his day was known as
Mūghistān, and the new town had taken the name of the island,
being called Jirún. It had a Friday Mosque, and fine markets,
where goods from Sind and India were brought for sale.
At the close of the 8th (14th) century, Timúr ordered an
expedition against the coast towns near Old Hurmuz, and seven
castles in its neighbourhood were all taken and burnt, their
garrisons escaping to the island of Jirón. These seven castles,
as enumerated by ‘Ali of Yazd, were, Kal‘ah-Miná, ‘the Castle
of the Creek,” at Old Hurmuz, Tang-Zandān, Kushkak, Hisâr-
Shāmil, Kal‘ah-Manūjān (the town already mentioned), Tarzak,
and Tāzīyān. In 920 (1514) Hurmuz, more generally called
Ormuz, was taken by the Portuguese under Albuquerque, and
their port of landing on the mainland became celebrated under
the name of Gombroon. This is the place which a century later
Shāh ‘Abbās renamed Bandar ‘Abbās; it is the present harbour
for Kirmān, and pro' ibly occupies the position of Sūrū or
Shahrū mentioned ab \e in the chapter on Fårs. The name
Gombroon is said to be a corruption of Gumruk (from the Greek
Rowpepki), which becam the common term for a ‘custom-house’
throughout the East. I the Turkish /a/ún AWumá it is referred
to as ‘Gumrū, the por, f Hurmuz, whence to the city of Lâr
(in Fārs) it is four or ſº days’ march'.’
| I. K. 62. Ist. 163, 160 7. I. H. 220, 222, 223. Muk. 466, 473.
32O 4. KIRMAN. [CHAP.
Commercially Kirmān stood far behind Fārs, and the Arab
geographers give us no detailed account of the trade of the
province. Kirmān as a whole, Mukaddasi states, grew dates and
dhurrah as food-stuffs; dates were exported to Khurāsān, and
indigo to Fārs, while the cereal crops raised in the Valāshgird
district were taken down to Hurmuz, and thence shipped to
more distant countries'. -
The geographers of the 3rd and 4th (9th and Ioth) Centuries
give far less detail concerning the high roads of Kirmān than is
the case when they are treating of the Fārs province. Further,
as a rule, only the inexact measurement of the day's march
(marſhalah) is given, and for most of the roads the reckoning
from stage to stage in leagues (farsakh) is wanting.
The roads from Fărs into Kirmān converged on Bimand,
which, as already said, lay four leagues to the west of Sirján.
From the north-east, one road from Unās and the Rûdhān
district came down to Bimand (given by both Istakhri and
Mukaddasi); while from Great Sâhik to Bimand (and Sirjān) we
have two roads, both measured in farsakhs, one by Shahr-i-
Bābak (given by Ibn Khurdādbih only), and another leading
directly across the desert to Bimand, to which there are two
alternative routes, one (Ibn Khurdādbih) by Kariyāt-al-Milh,
‘Salt Village,’ the other by Rubåt-Pusht-Kham, ‘Crook-back
Guard-house” (Kudámah and Istakhri). Further, Mukaddasi gives
the road from Niriz (in marches) to Bimand and Sirjān; while
both he and Istakhri describe the route from the South-west which
came up from Rustäk-ar-Rusták in somewhat over four days’
march, going direct to Sirjān".
From Sirjān to Bardasir (Kirmān city) it was two days’ march.
Mustawfi says 20 leagues, but no halting-place or town is
Mst. 182, 222. I. B. ii. 230. A. F. 339. A. Y. i. 789, 809, 8 Io. J. N. 258,
26o. The name of the king who transferred the capital to the island is
variously given as Shams-ad-Din, Kutb-ad-Din, or Fakhr-ad-Din. The island
of Hurmuz was taken by the English in 1622 ; for its present state see Stiffe,
Geographical Magazine, 1874, i. I2, and J.A. G.S. 1894, p. 16o. The name
is spelt indifferently Hurmuz, and Härmäz.
* Muk. 47.o.
* I. K. 48, 53. Kud. 195. Ist. I 31, 168. Muk. 455, 473. Mst. 201.
XXII] KIRMAN. 32 I
mentioned in between, although, as already remarked, both
Māshíz and Baghin must have been near the road followed, and
both these places are frequently mentioned as existing in the 4th
(Ioth) century by Ibn Ibrāhīm, who wrote in the 11th (17th)
Century. From Bardasir (Kirmān) it was two marches to Zarand,
Janzarūdh lying half-way between the two. From Sirjān to
Māhān it was three days’ march, and thence three more to
Khabis, but the intermediate stages cannot be identified'.
From Sirjān, eastward, the great Caravan road towards Makrān
went through a number of towns that no longer exist, coming
to Rāyīn, thence on by Darzin, Bam, and Narmāsīr to Fahraj
on the desert border. The stages along this road are given in
farsakhs (leagues) by both Ibn Khurdādbih and Kudámah,
besides the stations by the day's march (mazºhala/h) in two of our
other authorities”.
From Sirjān south-east to Jiruft, in spite of the route being
described in leagues by Ibn Khurdādbih, and in marches by
Istakhri, none of the places mentioned, except Darfărid, can be
Surely identified ; for, possibly with the exception of the southern
Bäft, none of them are found on the map, and the true reading
of the many variants in the MSS. is by no means certain. From
Jiruft the road turned south, and passing through Valāshgird and
Manūkān, came to the coast at (Old) Hurmuz. According to
Istakhri, at Valāshgird a branch struck off westward to the frontier
of Fārs, passing through a series of towns or villages that have
now entirely disappeared, and unfortunately even the terminus
of this road on the Fārs frontier cannot now be fixed ".
From Old Hurmuz, up to Rigán and Narmāsir, Mukaddasi
gives the route in marches, passing through the towns of Bås and
Jakīn; while going south from Rāyīn to Jiruft the distances
through Darjīn and Hurmuz-al-Malik are given in marches by
Istakhri".
* Ist. 169. Muk. 473. Mst, 20I.
* I. K. 49. Rud. 196. Ist. 168. Muk. 473.
* I. K. 54. Ist. 169. * Ist. 169. Muk. 473.
LE S. 2 i
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRAN.
The extent and characteristics of the Great Desert. The three oases at Jarmak,
Näband and Sanij. The chief roads across the Desert. The Makrān
province. Fannazbār and the port of Tiz. Other towns. Sind and
India. The port of Daybul. Manşūrah and Multán. The river Indus.
The Târân district and Kusdár. The Budahah district and Kandābīl.
The Great Desert of Persia stretches right across the high plateau
of Irān, going from north-west to south-east, and dividing the fertile
provinces of the land into two groups; for the Desert is continuous
from the southern base of the Alburz mountains, that to the
north overlook the Caspian, to the arid ranges of Makrān,
which border the Persian Gulf. Thus it measures nearly 8oo miles
in length, but the breadth varies considerably; for in shape this
immense area of drought is somewhat that of an hour-glass, with
a narrow neck, measuring only some Ioo miles across, dividing
Kirmān from Sistán, while both north and south of this the
breadth expands and in places reaches to over 200 miles".
The medieval Arab geographers refer to the Desert as Al-
Mafázah, “the Wilderness,’ and carefully define its limits. On the
west and south-west it was bounded by the Jibál province, by the
* The general outline of the Great Desert is given in Map I (p. 1),
details of the northern portion are shown in Map V (p. 185), of the lower part
in Maps VI (p. 248), VII (p. 323), and VIII (p. 335). At the present day the
Desert, as a whole, is known as the Lüt or Dasht-i-Lüt (Desert of Lot); the
saline swamps and the dry salt area being more particularly known as the
Dasht-i-Kavir, the term Kavir being also occasionally applied to the Desert as
a whole. The etymology of the terms Złł (the Arab form of the Biblical Lot)
and Āavír is uncertain ; see Major Sykes, Persia, p. 32.
CHAP. XXIII] THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRAN. 323
district of Yazd (originally counted as part of Fārs) and by
Kirmān, South of which it spread out among the ranges of the
Makrān coast. To the east and north-east lay Khurāsān with
its dependent and adjacent provinces; namely Kûmis to the north
of the Desert, and next a corner of Khurāsān proper; then
Kūhistān, and below this Sijistān at the narrow part opposite
Kirmān, Sijistān being coterminous with what is now known as
the Balūchistán desert, which in the middle-ages was considered
as a part of Makrān. -
Both Ibn Hawkal and Mukaddasi write of the Desert from
personal experience, for each had crossed its wastes on more than
one occasion. Ibn Hawkal briefly describes it as a No Man's
Land, belonging to no province, where robbers from every district
found shelter, and where permanent villages, except in three in-
stances, were conspicuously absent. Mukaddasi enters into the
matter in some detail, and of his remarks the following is a
summary:—The Desert was, he writes, like the sea, for you could
cross it in almost any direction, if you could keep a true line, and
pick up the tanks and domes, built above the water-pits, which in
the 4th (I oth) century were carefully maintained along the main
tracks at distances of a day's march. He, Mukaddasi, had once
been 70 days on the passage across, and he speaks from experience
of the countless steep passes over the ever-barring ranges of hills,
the fearful descents, the dangerous Salt swamps (sa/k/a/), the
alternate heat and bitter cold. He notices too that there was
but little sand, and there were palm-trees and some arable lands
hidden away in many of the minor valleys.
At that date the Desert was terrorised by roving bands of the
Balūs (Balachi tribesmen), whose fastnesses were in the Kufs
mountains of the Kirmān border, “a people with Savage faces,
evil hearts, and neither morals nor manners.” None could escape
meeting them, and those they overcame they would stone to
death “as one would a Snake, putting a man's head on a boulder,
and beating upon it, till it be crushed in '; and when Mukaddasi
enquired why they so barbarously put men to death he was
answered that it was in order not needlessly to blunt their swords.
‘Adud-ad-Dawlah the Buyid, in Mukaddasi's day, had in part
curbed these Balūch brigands, by carrying off a tribe of them to
2 I — 2
324 THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRAN. [CHAP.
Fārs as hostages, and caravans were after this tolerably safe, if
they had a guide and letters of protection from the Sultan. These
Balūs, Mukaddasi adds, went mostly on foot, but possessed a few
dromedaries (ſammó3). Though nominally Moslems, they were
more cruel to True Believers than either the Christian Greeks or
the heathen Turks, driving their prisoners before them for twenty
leagues a day barefoot, and fasting. Their own food was from
the nut of the Nabk, or Sidr (Lotus) tree, and the men were
famous for their power of bearing without complaint both hunger
and thirst. -
About half-a-century after the time of Mukaddasi, namely in
the year 444 (IoS2), Nāsir-i-Khusraw crossed the northern part of
the Desert on his return from the pilgrimage to Mecca. He gives
no special name to the Great Desert, referring to it merely as the
Biyābān, ‘the waterless land,’ but he notes its two chief charac-
teristics and dangers, namely the moving Sands (Rig-ravān) and
the salt swamps (Shūristān), the latter often as much as six leagues
across. He travelled from Näyin in the Jibál province to the
central oasis at Jarmak, and thence on to Tabas in Kūhistān,
by the route which will be mentioned presently. His description
of the road, however, is vague and adds little to our information.
He speaks of the Amir Gilaki, of Tabas, as in his day keeping
such order throughout the Desert that the Kufs robbers, whom he
calls the Kufaj, were powerless to molest travellers; and he
mentions that every two leagues along the road he travelled there
were cupolas (gumbad) over water-tanks, which marked the safe
track to be followed, and relieved the wants of the traveller. He
remarks that if the tanks were only kept in order, the passage of
the Desert could always be effected without much hardship,
except for fear of robbers; and his account in this matter is
confirmed by the numerous Caravan roads, crossing the waste in
more than one direction and sufficiently supplied at each stage
by water in pits, which are detailed in the itineraries given by Ibn
Hawkal and Mukaddasi".
Three far-separated Oases were found along the central line of
the great waste, and to these naturally the various roads crossing
from west to east converged. In the middle-ages these oases
I. H. 28, 288. Muk. 488, 489. N. K. 93, 94. Yak, iv. 117.
XXIII] THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRAN. 325
were known as Jarmak, Näband (still so called), and Sanij; this
last according to Mukaddasi being the only town that the Desert
Could boast as possessing within its compass.
In the very centre of the upper expansion of the Desert, half-
way across from Isfahân to Tabas in Kūhistān, is the oasis now
called Jandak or Biyâbânak, which in the middle-ages was known
to the Arabs as Jarmak, and in Persian was written Garmah.
It consisted of three hamlets called Jarmak (or Garmah), Biyādak
(or Piyādah in Persian), and Arābah. Ibn Hawkal names the
whole settlement Sihdih, ‘Three Villages’; and Nāsir-i-Khusraw
says there were from ten to twelve hamlets here in the 5th (11th)
century. At Piyādah also there was a small fort, garrisoned by the
Amir Gilaki, for the safe control of the Desert routes. In this
oasis there were palm-trees, and arable fields of some extent
where cattle throve; and the three chief settlements, Ibn Hawkal
says, all lay within sight of water, the population in the 4th (Ioth)
century numbering over Iooo men. Later authorities add nothing
to these details, and in fact down to the time of Mustawfi in the
8th (14th) century the accounts are almost identical, all copying
Ibn Hawkal.
Näband, the second oasis, still bears this name, and it lies at
the northern end of the narrow part of the Desert, between Rävar
in Kirmān and Khūr in Kūhistán. Ibn Hawkal describes Nāband
as possessing a Rubăţ or guard-house, with a score of houses
round it, water being plentiful, enough indeed to work a small
mill. Palms grew here, and many springs irrigated the fields;
and two leagues distant from the place was an outlying spring,
surrounded by palms, where there was a domed tank, of evil fame
as a noted hiding-place for robbers.
The third oasis lay somewhat further to the South again, and
at the very narrowest part of the Desert, at the half-way stage
on the road from Narmāsir in Kirmān to Zaranj, the capital of
Sijistán. Here there is a small valley with springs, which
is now known to the Persians as Naşratābād, but which the
Balūchis still call Ispi or Isfi. This name is identical with the
reading Isbidh for this oasis, which is otherwise called Sanij, or
Sanig, by Mukaddasi. He counts it as a town of Sijistān, while
according to Ibn Hawkal it belonged rather to Kirmān. It was,
326 THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRAN. [CHAP.
as already said, the only city in the Desert according to the Arab
geographers, and Mukaddasi speaks of it as having a considerable
population, with much arable land, watered by underground
channels; but all around and close up to the houses was the
waterless wilderness".
The roads across the Desert are given in detail by the
geographers of the 4th (Ioth) century. From the western side,
starting from Isfahān and from Näyin, two roads converged on
Jarmak; the first (given by Mukaddasi) is in eight stages, while
from Näyin it was five stages to Jarmak, and there were water-
tanks and domes all along the way at distances of a few leagues
apart.
From Jarmak, Mukaddasi is our authority for a direct road
due north to Dāmghān in Kümis; the distance was 90 leagues, it
being 50 leagues across to a place called Wandah, and thence 4o
on to Dāmghān. From Jarmak, going eastward, it was four days'
march to a place called Naw Khāni, or Nawjäy, with water-domes
all along the route at every three or four leagues. At Nawjāy
the roads bifurcated, going north-east to Turshiz, and south-east
to Tabas, both in the Kūhistân province. The distance from
Nawjāy to Turshiz was four stages, the half-distance being at Bann
Afridãn (now known as Dih Nàband, a place not to be confused
with the oasis of Nāband, just described); and from Jarmak
to this Bann Afridūn, Mukaddasi also gives a route across the
Desert direct, in seven days’ march, with a tank (hawd) at each
stage. From Nawjäy, going south-east, Tabas was reached in
three marches. The distances between Tabas and Turshiz zid
Bann Ibn Khurdādbih gives in leagues; elsewhere, and as a
rule on the Desert routes, only the stages by the day's march
(marha/a/.) are given”.
From Yazd to Tabas, direct, the way went by Anjirah and
Khazānah to Sāghand on the Desert border, places already men-
* I. H. 289, 293. Muk. 488, 494, 495. N. K. 93, 94. Mst. 183. Yak.
iii. 170. The oasis of Biyäbänak (otherwise Jandak or Khur) is mentioned by
Tavernier (Voyages, i. 769, La Haye, 1718) in the 17th century, and it was
visited in 1875 by Col. Macgregor (Khorasan, i. 91). Both Näband and Isfi,
or Naşratābād, have been visited lately by Major Sykes (Persia, pp. 36, 416).
* Ist. 23 I. I. H. 29 I. I. K. 52. Muk. 491.
XXIII] THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRAN. 327
tioned as of Fārs (see p. 285). From Sāghand Ibn Khurdādbih
gives the six stages in leagues to Tabas, an itinerary which is
duplicated by Ibn Hawkal and Mukaddasi, but going by the
day's march, and following a not quite identical route. Two
stages from Sāghand was the guard-house called Rubåt Ab-
Shuturān, ‘of the Camel-stream,” the water coming from an under-
ground channel, and flowing into a pool. Mukaddasi describes
the guard-house as a fine building of burnt brick, with iron gates,
and it was well garrisoned. It had been built by Nāsir-ad-Dawlah
Ibn-Simjūr, a famous general of the Buyids, who was governor in
these regions during the middle of the 4th (1 oth) century. Three
marches beyond this guard-house the Desert ended; and here the
road, as described by Ibn Hawkal (repeating Istakhri), leaves
Tabas aside, going in a single march from the stage one march
south of this town, to the stage one march north of it, on the
road to Bann'.
The next passage of the Desert starts from the village of
Birah, of the district called Shūr, meaning ‘the Salt-water,’ which
was on the frontier of Kirmān near Kūhbanán. From here the
passage was made in seven or eight stages—each halt at a
watering-place—to Kuri, a village on the Desert border of
Kūhistān, situated a few miles to the south-east of Tabas. On
this, which was known as the Shūr route, Istakhri States that at
one point about two leagues to the north of the track there might
be seen curious stones, doubtless fossils, in the likeness of
various fruits, to wit, almonds, apples, nuts, and pears, while the
forms of men and trees were simulated by the rocks here, with
likenesses of other created things. In addition to the foregoing
route, Mukaddasi states that there was a road direct from Kūh-
banán to Kuri, in 60 leagues, with water in tanks at every second
march.
Rāvar, as described in Chapter XXI, lies some leagues east of
Kūhbanán on the Kirmān frontier, and from this place a road
went in five marches to Näband, the Oasis mentioned above, and,
thence in three marches on to Khūr in Kūhistān. There were
the usual water-tanks at every three or four leagues along this
* I. K. 51. Ist. 236. I. H. 235. Muk. 491, 493.
328 THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRAN. [CHAP.
route also. The town of Khabis, three marches from Māhān on the
Kirmān border, was already almost within the Desert limits (see
p. 308); and from here a road is given which reached Khawst
(modern Khūsf) in Kūhistān in ten marches. The frontier of
Kūhistān was reached two marches before Khawst, at the village
of Kūkür, where the Desert ended; and on this road, at a place
where was the tomb of a certain Al-Khāriji, there were to be
found curious white and green pebbles, “as though of Camphor
and glass,” while at another place, about four leagues off the road,
was a small black boulder of very remarkable appearance".
Lastly from Narmāsīr in Kirmān to Zaranj, the capital of
Sistán, the way crossed the narrow part of the Desert, going by
the oasis of Sanij or Ispi, which has been described above. The
first stage of this route was to Fahraj on the Desert border, and in
four stages it brought the traveller to Sanij. Ibn Khurdādbih gives
each stage of this route in leagues, Istakhri mentioning the day's
march only, but the latter gives also a second route to Sanij by
what he calls ‘the New Road,” but this was a longer way. From
Sanij it was seven or eight days’ march to the city of Zaranj, the
frontier of Sistån being crossed at Gávnishak, which was not far
from Kundur, a place that is still marked on the map. Between
Gävnishak and Kundur, and three or four stages South of Zaranj,
was a Rubăţ or guard-house, built by ‘Amr the Saffārid in the 3rd
(9th) century, which according to Istakhri was known as Kantarah
Kirmān, ‘the Kirman Bridge’; although, as he is careful to
remark, no actual bridge existed here. This place marks an
important point, for in the middle-ages the Zarah lake had its
borders as far south as this, as will be noticed in the following
chapter”. -
* Ist. 232, 233, 234. I. H. 292, 293, 294. Muk. 491, 492.
* I. K. 49, 50. Ist. 237, 251, 252. I. H. 296, 306, 307. Muk. 492.
Sir F. Goldsmid, AEastern Aersia, i. 256.
XXIII] THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRAN. 329
7%e province of Makrón.
The arid ranges of the Makrān coast are, in their general
physical features, a prolongation of the Great Desert, and though
during the earlier middle-ages the country appears to have been
more fertile and populous than it is now, Makrān was never a rich,
or, politically, an important province. The chief product of
Makrān was the sugar-cane, and the particular kind of white
Sugar, known to the Arabs as A/-Aén?dh (from the Persian Pānīd),
and made here was largely exported to neighbouring lands'.
The earlier geographers name many towns as in Makrān, but
give scant descriptions of them. The chief commercial centre was
the port of Tiz on the Persian Gulf, and the capital of the
province was Fannazbūr or Bannajbür, which lay inland, at the
place now known as Panj-gūr. Bannajbār, according to Mukad-
dasi, had in the 4th (Ioth) century a clay-built fortress, protected
by a ditch, and the town was surrounded by palm-groves. There
were two city gates, Bāb Tiz opening south-west on the road to
the gulf port, and Bāb Tārān opening north-east on the road
to the district of that name, of which the capital was Kuzdār.
A stream brought water to the city; and the Friday Mosque
stood in the market-place, though, according to Mukaddasi, the
people were really only Moslem in name, being savage Balūsis
(Balūchīs) whose language was a jargon*.
The ruins of the great port of Tiz lie at the head of what was
a fine harbour for the small ships of the middle-ages. Mukaddasi
describes Tiz as surrounded by palm-groves, and there were great
warehouses in the town, and a beautiful mosque. The population
* I. H. 226, 232, 233. Muk. 475, 476. Yak, iv. 614. The sites of the
various medieval towns in Makrān are ably discussed by Sir T. H. Holdich in
the Geographical /ournal for 1896, p. 387, and, in the present state of our
information, his conclusions cannot be bettered.
* Kannazbór, or Kannajbür, as the name has often been printed, is
merely a clerical error for Fannazbür, by a doubling of the diacritical points
over the first letter. Ist. 170, 171, 177. I. H. 226, 232. Muk. 478. Panj-
gār, “Five Tombs,’ is so called after the five martyred warriors of the first Arab
conquest. It lies one march west of Iºal ‘ah Nāghah, and the surrounding
district is also called Panj-gūr. Sykes, Persia, p. 234.
33O THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRAN. [CHAP.
was of all nations, as is usual in a great seafaring port; and in the
6th (12th) century the place had, in large measure, acquired the
trade of Hurmuz, which had fallen to ruin".
Of other towns in Makrān the Arab geographers give only the
names, and no descriptions. The names of the well-known town
of Bamptºr, and Fahraj its neighbour, occur in Mukaddasi as
Barbār (for Banbūr) and Fahl Fahrah, Yākūt giving the last
under the form Bahrah*. The town of Kasarkand, north of Tiz,
is still a place of some importance; and Kaj, some distance to the
east of this, is mentioned as Kij or Kiz. The names of Jälk and
Dazak also occur; and Khwāsh or Khwās, which is probably the
modern Gwasht, lying to the east of Khwāsh in the Sarhad district
(already mentioned, p. 317). Räsk was, in the middle-ages, a
town of some note on account of its fertile district called Al-
Kharāj, but, from the Itineraries, there is doubt whether it can
be identical with the present township of this name. Armabil
and Kanbali were two important towns, on or near the coast,
about half-way between Tiz and Daybul at the Indus mouth.
Istakhri describes these as cities of considerable size, lying two
days' march apart, and One of them was situated half a league
distant from the sea. Their people were rich traders, who had
dealings chiefly with India”.
l Myk. 478. Yak. i. 907. For the present ruins of Tiz see Sykes, Persia,
1o 1, 116, also Schindler, /.A.A.S. 1898, p. 45. See also the history of Afdal
Kirmānī, Houtsma, Z. D. M. G. 1881, pp. 394 and 402. -
* Fahraj a few miles to the east of Bampfir in Makrān, and Fahraj a few
miles to the east of Narmāsīr in Kirmān, must not be confused. There was
also Fahraj near Yazd. º -
* Ist. 170, 171, 177, 178. I. H. 226, 232. Muk. 475, 476. Yak. i. 769;
iv. 332. The spelling Armayil for Armabil is a frequent clerical error of the
Mss. The ruins of Armabil are probably at Lus Bela, and those of Kanbali
at Khayrokot. Sir T. Holdich, /, /ē. G. S., 1896, p. 4oo. The earlier Arab
geographers in point of fact knew little about Makrān, and the later ones
add nothing worth mentioning. Yākāt only repeats what his predecessors of the
4th (roth) century have said. All that Kazvíní (ii. 181) has to tell us of this
province is that there was a wonderful bridge there, crossing, a river, and
formed of one single block of stone. He adds,-‘he who crosses it vomits up
the contents of his belly, so that naught remains therein, and though thousands
should pass over the bridge this always happens to each one. So when any
man of that country requires to vomit he has only to cross this bridge.’
XXIII] THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRAN. 33 I
The present work does not pretend to deal with medieval
India, and indeed the Arab geographers give no systematic
account of that country. The Indian port best known to them,
beyond the eastern end of the Persian Gulf, was Daybul, then a
fine harbour at the principal mouth of the Indus. This was in
the Sind province, of which the capital was Al-Manşūrah, called
Brahmanābād by the Indians, a great city lying on one of the
Canals or branches of the lower Indus. The Indus was known to
the Arabs as the Nahr Mihrān, and many of the towns along its
banks are named, more especially Al-Multân, the great city far up
the affluent of the Indus called the Sindarádh, where there was
a famous idol temple. Istakhri, who compares the Indus with
the Nile for size and importance, notices that the Indian river also
had crocodiles like those of Egypt. The sources of the Indus, he
says, were in the great mountains to the north, and near the origin
of the Oxus. Of the Sind province were the people known to the
Arabs under the name of Az-Zutt, called Jat by the Persians, who
are now generally held to be identical with the forefathers of the
Gipsies".
On the north-eastern frontiers of Makrān, and close to the
Indian border, the Arab geographers describe two districts;
namely, Tūrān, of which the capital was Kusdār, and Budahah
to the north of this, of which the capital was Kandābil. Kusdār,
also spelt Al-Kuzdār, is mentioned among the earlier conquests
of Sultan Mahmūd of Ghaznah. Ibn Hawkal describes it as
standing on a river (wādī), and having a fortress in its midst.
The plain around the town was very fertile, producing vines and
pomegranates with other fruits of a cold climate. Mukaddasi adds
that the city lay in two quarters, on either side of the dry river-
bed ; on one side was the palace of the Sultan and the castle,
* Ist. I 71, 172, 173, 175, 18O. I. H. 226, 227, 228, 230, 234, 235. Muk.
476, 479, 482, 483. The ruins of the port of Daybul, now lying far inland,
exist Some 20 miles South-west of Thatta, and 45 miles east-south-east of
Kurāchī. Manşūrah is on an old channel of the Indus delta, about 40 miles
north-east of Hyderabad. Sind is of course only the old Persian form of the
name Hind, but the Arabs used it vaguely to demote the great province to the
east of Makrān, which is mow in part called Balūchistān and in part is in-
cluded in modern Sind. Sindarādh is the River of Sind.
3.32. THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRAN. [CHAP.
on the other, which was called Büdin, dwelt the merchants,
whose shops in the market were much frequented by the Khurāsān
folk. Mukaddasi adds that the houses were clay-built, and there
were underground channels for the water-supply, but this was
bad in quality and scanty.
Tūrān, the name given to the Kusdár district, was often held
to include the lands to the north, known as the Budahah district,
of which the chief town, Kandābīl, has been identified with the
present Gandava, lying south of Sibi and east of Kelat. Kandābil
is described by Ibn Hawkal as a large city, standing Solitary in
a plain, and no date palms grew here. Of its dependencies was
the town of Kizkānān, or Kikán, which from its position in the
Itineraries is to be identified with modern Kelat. Both these
towns were often described as of Túrán, some others being also
named which it is impossible now to identify, for no sufficient
description is given of them, and the readings of the MSS. vary
considerably as to orthography'. To the north of these districts
was Bālis, or Wälishtān, with the towns of Sibi and Mastanj; but
these were held by the early geographers to be included in
Sijistān, and will therefore be noticed in the next chapter.
The routes across Makrān are in continuation of the roads of
the Great Desert already described, and their ultimate point is
India. They are unfortunately as a rule only given in a summary
way, so many days' march from one town to another, and the
distances cannot be considered as reliable. Ibn Khurdādbih,
however, gives the detail of one route in leagues, and stage by
Stage, though it is impossible now to identify the exact line
across the Desert. Starting from Fahraj on the Desert border
east of Bam and Narmāsīr in Kirmān, he gives the 14 stages
to Fannazbür, the capital of Makrān; and thence, eastward, the
names of three halting-places on the road to Kusdár. An almost
parallel route, but in the contrary direction, is given by Mukaddasi,
from Kuşdár to Juy or Nahr Sulaymān, which lay 20 leagues
east of Bam, but this road keeps north of Fannazbúr, passing
by Jälk and Khwās”. -
* I. K. 56. Ist, 17 I, I76, 178. I. H. 226, 232, 233. Muk. 476, 478.
* I. K. 55. Muk. 486.
XXIII] THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRAN. 333
From the port of Tiz it was five marches to Kiz, and then two
marches on to Fannazbür, to which city a road also came in from
Kašarkand, but by an indirect route. From Kiz, and from
Kašarkand, it is given as six marches to Armabil, then two to
Kanbali, and thence four on to Daybul at the mouth of the
Indus’. -> g
It was reckoned as fourteen marches from Fannazbūr to Day-
bul. The distances in round numbers are given from Kusdár to
Kandābil, and to Kizkänän (Kelat), also from these places on
to Sibi and Mastanj in Wälishtān; and the Itineraries close by
a summary of the number of days' march that it took to reach
Multān and Manşūrah, the cities on the Indus, from Kusdár
and from Kandābīl, and from the frontiers of Wälishtān beyond
Sībī%.
* Ist. 178. I. H. 233. Muk. 485.
* Ist. 179. I. H. 233, 234. Muk. 486.
CHAPTER XXIV.
SIJISTAN.
Sijistān, or Nimrūz, and Zăbulistán. Zaranj, the capital. The Zarah lake.
The Helmund river and its canals. The ancient capital at Râm Shah-
ristán. Nih. Farah, and the Farah river. The Khāsh river and the
Nishak district. Karnin and other towns. Rūdbār and Bust. The
districts of Zamin Dâwar. Rukhkhaj and Bālis, or Wälishtān. Kandahár,
Ghaznah, and Kâbul. The silver mines. The high roads through Sijistán.
Sistān, which the earlier Arabs called Sijistán from the Persian
Sagistān, is the lowland Country lying round, and to the eastward
of, the Zarah lake, which more especially includes the deltas of
the Helmund and other rivers which drain into this inland sea.
The highlands of the Kandahār Country, along the upper waters
of the Helmund, were known as Zābulistān. Sistán was also
called Nimrūz in Persian, meaning ‘mid-day,” or the Southern
Land, a name said to have been applied to the province in regard
to its position to the south of Khurāsān. Ištakhri describes the
Sijistán province as famous for its fertility; dates, grapes, and all
food-stuffs were grown here abundantly, also assafoetida, which
the people were wont to mix with all their dishes'.
It is to be borne in mind that the Zarah lake was, in the
middle-ages, far more extensive than it has come to be at the
present day. Besides the Helmund, a great river of many af.
fluents, three other considerable streams drained into the lake,
namely, the Khwāsh river, the Farah river, and the river from the
neighbourhood of Asfuzār (Sabzivār of Herät), which is now
known as the Hârüd. In Persian legend, Sistān and Zăbulistán
* Ist. 244. I. H. 3o I.
CHAP. xxIV.] SIJISTAN. 335
were famous as the home of Zāl, the father of the national hero
Rustam, whose exploits are still current among the people. In
the times of the early Abbasid Caliphate, Sistán further became
known to fame as the place of origin of the Saffārid Amirs,
who in the second half of the 3rd (9th) century governed most of
southern and eastern Persia, being virtually in the condition of
independent princes.
The capital of the province, during the middle-ages, was the
great city of Zaranj, destroyed by Timür, of which the ruins
still remain, covering a considerable area of ground. The name
of Zaranj, however, has now entirely disappeared, and even in the
later middle-ages had dropped out of use, the capital of the
province being known to the later Arab geographers merely as
Madºnah Sijistān, ‘the City of Sijistān,” the Persian form being
the equivalent, Shahr-i-Sistān, which was in use when Timür finally
laid the town in ruins'. Under the Sassanian kings Zaranj was
already a great city, and at the time of the first Moslem conquest,
in the year 20 (641), it is more than once mentioned. It was
situated near the Sanārūdh Canal, a great branch from the
Helmund, which flowed out to the westward, and in flood-time
reached the Zarah lake.
Ya‘kūbi, in the 3rd (9th) century, describes Zaranj as four
leagues in circumference, and in the next century we have a
detailed notice of the city by Ibn Hawkal. It was then
strongly fortified, consisting of an inner town surrounded by a
wall having five gates, beyond which lay the suburbs of the Outer
1 The ruins of Zaranj lie round the modern villages of Zāhidān and
Shahristān, along the old bed of one of the chief canals from the Helmund,
which since the middle-ages has become dry. For the modern condition of these,
and other ruined sites, see Sir H. Rawlinson, V.A.G.S. for 1873, pp. 28o, 283,
284; Sir F. Goldsmid, Eastern Persia, i. 301 ; Sykes, Persia, pp. 375, 382,
383. A sketch plan of the chief ruin is given by A. H. Savage Landor in
Across Cozeted Zands, ii. 228. Near Zāhidān is still seen the remains of a
tower about 8o feet high, called the Mil-i-Zāhidān, having a spiral staircase,
and two partly legible Kufic inscriptions. This tower, tradition says, was
destroyed by Timür; see G. P. Tate, in V.A.A.S. 1904, p. 171. Naşratābād,
the modern capital of Sistān, lies a few miles to the south of these ruins; it was
known at first under the name of Nāsirābād, which name, however, has now
gone out of use. According to Mr Savage Landor it is at the present day
also known as Shahr-i-Naşrīyah.
336 SIJISTAN. [CHAP.
town, enclosed by the outer wall, which had thirteen gates, these
latter opening across a great moat filled with water from springs
and from the overflow of the canals. The five gates of the
inner town were all of iron. Two, close by one another, opening
to the South-east towards Fārs, and known as the Fārs gates, were
individually called the Báb-al-Jadid and the Báb-al-‘Atik, ‘the New
Gate’ and ‘the Old Gate.’ To the north, towards Khurāsān, was
the Bāb Karkūyah, called after the neighbouring town of Karkūyah;
the Bāb Nishak was on the eastern road, toward Bust; while the
Bāb-at-Ta‘ām, ‘the Victuals Gate,’ which was most in use of all
the five, opened on the road leading south through the markets
and the gardens lying outside Zaranj.
The Great Mosque, Masjid-al-Jāmi", was in the outer town,
standing near the two South-western gates, on the Fārs road, and
the prison stood near it, beside the old Government House.
Between the Nishak and the Karkūyah gates, in the north-east
part of the town, was the ark or citadel containing the treasury,
which had been erected by ‘Amr, the second Saffārid prince.
His elder brother Ya'kūb, the founder of the dynasty, had built
himself a palace, which subsequently became the new Government
House, in that part of the inner town lying between the two south-
western gates and the Báb-at-Ta'âm. Near this was also the
palace of ‘Amr ; and these, like all the other houses of the town,
were constructed of clay bricks and vaulted, since no beams could
be used here for roofing, all woodwork rapidly perishing from
the damp climate, and from being bored through by worms. In
both the inner and the outer town were many hostels (ſandúž),
and in the outer town or suburb were the Government offices.
The markets of the inner town stood near the Great Mosque.
Those of the outer town were extremely populous, and especially
famous was that called Stik ‘Amr, built by the second Saffārid
prince, the rents from which, amounting every day to over
Iooo dirhams (24.40), were divided between the Great Mosque,
the town hospital (Bimaristān), and the Mecca sanctuary.
In the outer town the markets extended for nearly half a
league in length, with a continuous line of shops going from the
two Fårs gates of the inner wall, to the gate of the outer suburb
wall. Throughout Zaranj water was plentiful, being brought from
XXIv] . SIJISTAN. 337
the Sanārūdh by a series of minor canals or watercourses, which
entered the inner city at three points—the New Gate, the Old
Gate, and the Gate of Victuals. The three together had water-
power ‘sufficient to turn a mill,’ and they flowed into two great
reservoir tanks near the mosque, whence the water was distributed
throughout the inner town. The houses of the outer town were
also well provided by channels with running water, which was
an indispensable convenience in this hot climate; and each house
had a Sardáð, or cellar-room, for living in during the hot season,
when the heat of Zaranj was most oppressive. Round the town
lay the sabkhah, or salt marshes, where date palms grew, environed
by the desert sands. Here violent winds blew continually, moving
the sands about in a dangerous way and often overwhelming
whole villages and devastating the cultivated districts. The
ceaseless wind was used by the people to turn their windmills,
which were a feature peculiar to this country. The ‘moving
Sands,’ however, were a continual source of danger, and Ibn
Hawkal gives a long account of how, in the year 360 (970)
and odd, the Great Mosque of Zaranj became quite choked
up with sand.
Such was Zaranj in the 4th (Ioth) century, and this description
is repeated by Mukaddasi. He refers also to the riches and the
learning of the inhabitants, notes the strongly fortified castle
(Kal‘ah), and the two famous minarets of the Great Mosque, one
of which had been built by Ya‘kūb the Saffārid. The city
continued to flourish for many centuries, and even during the
Mongol invasion of the year 619 (1222), when Changiz Khān sent
his hordes to ravage Sistán, the capital seems to have escaped
devastation, and it was for some time after this date under a
Mongol governor. In the early part of the 8th (14th) century,
Mustawfi speaks of Zaranj (the name of which the Persians
pronounced Zarang) as very flourishing; and the city, he says, was
protected from the ‘moving sands’ of the neighbouring desert by
a great dyke (Band), stated to have been originally built by the
ancient king Gurshäsf, and to have been afterwards restored by
King Bahman, son of Isfandiyār, Mustawfi praises the gardens
of Zaranj, which produced excellent and abundant fruit, these
gardens being irrigated from the Black Canal (Siyāh Rūd) which
LE. S. 22
338 SIJISTAN. [CHAP.
was taken from one of the branches of the Helmund river.
At the end of the century, however, in 785 (1.383), Timür appeared
with his armies before the city, which, as already said, was then
known as Shahr-i-Sistán (Sistān city), and its fate was not long left
in doubt. Timür had already taken and destroyed the neigh-
bouring fortress, called the Kal‘ah or Hisâr Zarah, which probably
stood to the north of Zaranj, near the borders of the lake. The
capital of Sistān closed its gates, and declined to surrender. After
a short siege it was taken by storm, all its inhabitants who could
be found were massacred, its walls were then razed and its houses
destroyed. Since that time Zaranj has come to be a nameless
ruin'.
The Zarah or Zirrah lake (Buhayrah Zarah), as already said,
in medieval times had permanently a far greater extent than is
now generally the Case ; but at all times its area is noted
as fluctuating in size, according as the rivers were in flood or
drought”. It is described by Ibn Hawkal in the 4th (10th)
century as having a length of 30 leagues (Ioo miles), counting
from a place called Kurin in Kūhistān to the Sijistán frontier
post near Kantarah Kirmān, at the third stage on the road
from Zaranj to Narmāsir (see above, p. 328). The lake was
reckoned as the equivalent of a day's journey (marha/a/, about
30 miles) across. It was of Sweet water and full of reeds, and was
plentifully stocked with fish ; its borders, except on the desert
side, were dotted with many farmsteads and populous villages,
where the fish were caught and dried for export.
The chief water-supply of the Zarah lake came from the
great river Helmund, which Yākūt rightly characterises as ‘the
* Baladhuri, 392, 394. Ykb. 281. Ist. 239–242. I. H. 297–299, 301.
Muk. 305. Mst. 183. A. Y. i. 362.
* A number of sketch maps, showing the present condition of the Helmund
delta and the lake, are given by Major Sykes, Aºrsza, pp. 364, 372. At its
southern extremity the great lake basin is in connection with an immense
channel—some 50 miles in length, and averaging 350 yards broad, with cliffs
50 feet high—which is called the Shela. This runs in a south-easterly
direction into the Gawd-i-Zarah, or ‘Hollow of Zarah,” a second lake bed,
lying due south of the bend in the lower Helmund, and this Gawd, or hollow,
in seasons of flood, receives the overflow of the lake. The Gawd-i-Zarah has
an area measuring Loo miles from east to west by about 30 miles across.
Sykes, Persia, p. 365.
XXIV] SIJISTAN. 339
river of the thousand affluents.’ He spells the name Hindmand,
Hidmand being a common variant probably due to clerical
error, also Hirmand (or Hirmid), and by this name Mustawfi
describes the river, which he also calls the Āb-i-Zarah, or Stream
of the Zarah (lake). Helmund is the more common modern form.
The great river rises in the mountain range lying between Ghaznah
and Bāmiyān, which now forms part of Afghanistān, but which, in
the middle-ages, was known as the district (or kingdom) of Ghūr.
Taking a South-westerly course it passed down through the broad
valley known as the Zamin-Dâwar to the city of Bust, where it
was joined on its left bank by the Kandahār river, which
watered the country called Rukhkhaj. Bust was the first city
the river came to of Sijistān proper, and from here the Helmund
began its great semicircular bend, flowing south, then west, and
then north to Zaranj, whence turning west again its waters were
discharged into the Zarah lake.
When one march, or some 30 miles distant, from Zaranj the
Helmund was checked by a series of great dams, which had been
built to hold up its waters for irrigation needs, and at this
point the greater volume of the main stream was drawn off into
five great canals flowing out towards Zaranj and the lake. The
first or southernmost of these was the Nahr-at-Ta‘ām, ‘the Victuals
Canal,’ which irrigated the lands and farms outside the Báb-at-
Ta‘ām, the gate of Zaranj already mentioned, which lands in part
were of the Nishak district. The next canal was called the Nahr
Bāsht Rūdh; and the third was the Sanārūdh, which, starting from
the main stream of the Helmund one league from Zaranj, was the
waterway to the capital, so that, as Ibn Hawkal remarks, in flood-
times a traveller could go by boat all the way from Bust to Zaranj.
The fourth canal, which irrigated some thirty villages, was called
the Nahr Sha'bah, and the fifth was the Nahr Milà. Beyond this
what was left of the main stream of the Helmund entered the
channel known as the Nahr Kazak, where its waters were again
dammed back for irrigation purposes, except in the flood season,
when the overflow escaped direct to the Zarah lake'.
* Ist. 242–244. I. H. 3oo, 301. Muk. 329. Yak. i. 514; iv. 272, 992,
993. Mst. 216, 226. Mukaddasi refers to the lake under the name of
Buhayrah-as-Sanat, but this possibly is merely a clerical error.
22—2
34O SIJISTAN. [CHAP.
Zaranj, according to the earlier Arab geographers, had not
been Originally the capital city of Sijistán under the ancient
Persian kings. Their capital had stood at Râm Shahristān,
otherwise called Abrashahriyār, a city that had already in the
4th (I oth) century been swallowed up by the desert sands, but
of which the ruins, with parts of houses, still remained standing,
and visible at that date. The situation of this ancient capital is
given vaguely as lying three marches from Zaranj, on the left
hand of one going from that city towards Kirmān, ‘near Darāk
and over against Răsak,’ two unknown places. It is stated that
in older days the main branch canal from the Helmund had
brought water to this place, by which all the surrounding lands
were fully irrigated. The dam across the great river which fed
this canal had, however, suddenly burst, and the waters, pouring
down another channel, became permanently diverted. As a result
the whole region round the older city lapsed to the state of
a desert, and the inhabitants, migrating in a body, founded
the city of Zaranj.
At some distance to the west of the Zarah lake, on the
Kūhistán frontier and close to the border of the Great Desert,
is the town of Nih, or Nih, which is named by earlier Arab
geographers as belonging to Sistán. Mukaddasi mentions it as
a strongly fortified town, the houses of which were built of clay,
water being brought down from the hills by underground channels.
Nih is also referred to by Yākūt and Mustawfi, who, however, add
no details, except to state that it was founded by King Ardashir
Bābgān, though at the present day the remains of great fortifica-
tions, and the immense ruins found here, would seem to prove
that in the middle-ages it had been a place of much importance".
Of the rivers flowing into the Zarah lake from the north that
which comes down from Asfuzār (Sabzivār of Herät), and is now
known as the Hārūd, does not appear to be mentioned by the
* Ist. 242. I. H. 3oo. Muk. 306. Yak. iv. 871. Mst. 183. The
position of Râm Shahristán is not certain. Sir H. Rawlinson (V.A.G.S. 1873,
p. 274) would place it at Rāmrūd, near the beginning of the Shela, where there
are extensive ruins. These ruins, which apparently at the present day are
known as Shahr-i-Rustam, Rustam’s city, are described, and a sketch plan
given, by A. H. Savage Landor in Across Coveted Zand's, ii. 270. The ruins
of Nih are described by Major Sykes, Persia, p. 413.
XXIV.] SIJISTAN. 34. I
Arab geographers. They notice, however, the Farah river, which
takes its rise in the mountains of the Ghūr district. This, the
Wädi Farah, after leaving the hill country, soon entered the pro-
vince of Sijistān, and came to the city of Farah, which Ibn Hawkal
Speaks of as lying in a plain, being a large place of clay-built
houses, and with sixty dependent villages having many farms
where much fruit was grown, more especially dates. Mukaddasi
adds that the city of Farah was in two quarters, occupied respec-
tively by the Orthodox Moslems, and by the Khārijite sectaries.
One stage south of the city was the bridge over the river
called the Kantarah Farah (Pāl-i-Farah, in Persian), where the
high road down to Zaranj crossed from the right bank to
the left. This bridge, where there was also a town, was four
days' march above Juvayn, and about half-way between the two
(according to Ibn Rustah) was a place called Kahan. Near
Kahan, one league away to the westward, was a remarkable
Sand-hill, with strange acoustic properties; for if water, or any
Small object, were thrown on the sand of this hillock ‘a great
noise was heard, like a buzzing sound, and very terrible to listen
to.’ This wonderful sand-hill is also mentioned by Biráni,
writing in the 5th (11th) century, and similar acoustic properties
of ‘the moving sand have been remarked at the present day
in the hillocks of the dunes forming the desert between Sijistān
and Kūhistān, The modern double town of Lāsh-Juvayn, at the
present time a place of much importance, is mentioned by Mukad-
dasi, under the form Kuwayn (for Guvayn), as a small city, strongly
fortified, in which there was no Friday Mosque, for its inhabitants
were all Khārijite sectaries; but except as a stage on the high
road, no medieval authority other than Mukaddasi describes the
place, and the name Lāsh is not found.
About half-way between Juvayn and Zaranj the high road
crossed the chief overflow canal of the Helmund by a bridge, and
a few leagues south of this stood the important town of Karkūyah.
This last was one stage north of Zaranj, and gave its name, it will
be remembered, to the northern city gate. Karkūyah was peopled
by Khārijites, according to Yākūt, and many ascetics lived here,
but it was chiefly remarkable for its great fire-temple, so much
venerated by all the Magians of Persia. Kazvini, writing at the
342 SIJISTAN. [CHAP.
close of the 7th (13th) century, gives a long account of this
building, which he says was covered by two domes, said to date
from the mythical times of the national hero Rustam. Each dome
was surmounted by a horn, the two horns curving apart one from
the other like the two horns of a bull, and these were relics of
the aforesaid hero. Under the twin domes stood the fire-temple,
where the sacred fire had never been allowed to become extin-
guished. A priest, who was at stated times relieved by his fellows,
served this temple ; and he was wont to stand twenty ells away
from the fire, having a veil before his mouth, lest his breath should
defile the fire, and he fed the flame continually with span-long
logs of tamarisk wood, which he laid on with silver tongs.
Kazvíní adds that this was one of the most venerated of the
fire-temples of the Magians. Not far from Karkūyah, and three
leagues from Zaranj, was the town of Kurunk, which Yākūt says
was commonly pronounced Kurſīn, and under this last name it
still exists. It was, Yākūt adds, a pleasant place, full of good
things, with a population of Khārijites and weavers'.
The Khāsh, Khwāsh, or Khuwäsh * river flows down to the Zarah
lake between the Farah river and the Helmund. It is called by Ibn
Hawkal the Nahr Nishak, Nishak being the name of the populous
district lying due eastward of Zaranj, which gave its name, as
already stated, to the eastern gate of the capital. This river also
took its rise in the Ghūr mountains, and the town of Khwāsh
lies on its banks, being about one day's march from Zaranj. Ibn
Hawkal describes Khwāsh as the largest town of this district,
* I. R. 174; and with regard to the acoustic sand-hill see Birüni, Chronology
of Ancient AWations, translated by C. E. Sachau, p. 235 (Arabic text, p. 246).
For an example, at the present day, of a sand-hill that gives sounds like “an
Aeolian harp,’ see Sir F. Goldsmid (Eastern Persia, i. 327), who visited this
extraordinary hill, which is at the shrine of Imām Zāyid, five miles west of
Kal‘ah-i-Kâh, Ist. 244. I. H. 303, 3o4. Muk. 306, 329. Mst. 2 (5. Kaz.
ii. 163. Yak. iii. 42, 888; iv. 263, 269. The site of Karkāyah probably is to
be sought among the immense ruins to the south of Pishāvarān. There is an old
bridge here, of two arches, called Takht-i-Pāl; cf. Sir F. Goldsmid, AEastern,
Persia, i. 315. Yate, A7, urasan and Sistan, I 18. The fire-temple was known
to the Zoroastrians as the Mainyo Karko.
* There were in this region at least three places of this or a similar name;
viz. the present river and town of Khāsh, then the town of this name in the
Jabal-al-Kuſs (see p. 317), lastly, Khwās of Makrān (see p. 330).
XXIV] SIJISTAN. 343
and famous for its date palms. When Yākūt wrote the name had
already come to be more generally pronounced Khāsh, as at
the present day. The most famous city of the district, but a
smaller place than Khwāsh, was Karnin or Al-Karnin, the birth-
place of the Saffārid princes Ya‘kūb and ‘Amr, sons of Layth, the
famous coppersmith. Karnin was situated out in the desert plain
to the north-west of Khwāsh, and one march from it on the road
to Farah. They showed here, Ibn Khurdādbih remarks, the
relics of the stall of Rustam's horse. Mukaddasi speaks of Karnin
as a small place, but well fortified, having a stream going through
the town, which had a Friday Mosque, and possessed suburbs.
Mustawfi also refers to it, adding that both corn and fruit were
grown in the neighbouring lands, which were very fertile.
Half-way between Karnin and Farah stood the little town of
Jizah, about equal to the former in size, which Ibn Hawkal
describes as possessing many villages and farms, for it stood in
a very fertile country, amply irrigated by underground water-
courses. The buildings of the town were of sun-dried bricks;
and Yākūt adds that in his day the people pronounced the name
Bizah. The whole district along the Khwāsh river, known as
Nishak, was, as already said, extremely populous in the 4th (Ioth)
century. Harūrī, ‘a populous village belonging to the Sultān,”
which still exists, lies on the river bank below Khwāsh, where the
high road coming in from Bust crossed the Khwāsh river by a
bridge of burnt brick. The village of Sarūzan was the next stage
on the way to Zaranj, and between these two was situated Zānbūk,
a strongly fortified hamlet, which Mukaddasi ranks for size with
Juvayn.
One day's journey north of Zaranj, but its exact position is
not given in the Itineraries, lay the important town of At-Tăk,
‘the Arch.’ It was very populous, and Mukaddasi records that
grapes in abundance were grown here and in the adjacent
farmsteads. Abu-l-Fidā in the 8th (14th) century, quoting from
Ibn Sa‘īd, states that this place, which he names Hisn-at-Tâk
(the Fortress of the Arch), crowned a high hill at a bend of the
Helmund, where, after throwing off the canals to Zaranj, the main
stream finally turned westward and flowed out to the Zarah lake;
and the town is mentioned, together with the fort of Zarah (Kal‘ah
344 SIJISTAN. [CHAP.
or Hisâr-i-Zarah), as having been captured by Timür immediately
prior to his attack on Zaranj. In the days of the first Moslem
conquest another fortress is mentioned as of this region, namely,
Zālik, which is given as lying five leagues from both Karkūyah
and from Zaranj. Nothing further, however, is known of it,
and in later times the place is not referred to".
Bust, approximately, lies in the same latitude as Zaranj, and
the direct road from Zaranj thither goes due east by Harārī as
already described, and across the desert. The course of the
Helmund, however, doubles the distance by making its semi-
circular sweep to the south, and half-way along its course stands
the town of Rūdbār. This place is apparently mentioned by
Balādhuri, at the time of the first Moslem conquest, for he speaks
of a town called Ar-Rûdhbār of Sijistān as lying in the direction
of Kandahār; and near this Ar-Rûdhbār was Kishsh (or Kiss),
which appears to be the place called Kāj, or Kuhich, at the
present day. Rûdhbār is elsewhere only incidentally mentioned
by the Arab geographers; possibly it is identical with the Rûdhbār
described by Istakhri as of the Firſzkand district near Bust. This
place had many fruitful fields and farms, but the chief export is
said to have been salt. Another place of this neighbourhood is
Az-Zālikán, otherwise spelt Sālakān, or Jālikån. It is described
by Ibn Hawkal as one march from Bust, but in which direction is
not stated, and the name does not occur in the Itineraries. It
was a town mostly inhabited by weavers, but surrounded by
extensive and fruitful lands, well watered by streams, and in the
4th (Ioth) century it was of about the size of Karnin. -
Bust (or Bast) on the Helmund, at the junction of the river
from the Kandahār district, has always been an important place.
Istakhri mentions that at its gate was the great bridge of boats,
‘like those used in ‘Iråk,’ across which the high road came in
from Zaranj. Bust was the second largest city of Sijistán in the
4th (Ioth) century, the people were in easy circumstances, and are
described as dressing after the fashion of the men of ‘Irák, and
as being for the most part merchants who traded with India.
The neighbouring lands were extremely fertile, growing dates and
* Baladhuri, 393, 395. I. H. 301, 302, 303, 3o4. I. K. 50. Muk. 306.
Yak. ii. 72, 486; iv. 272. Mst. 185. A. F. 343. A. Y. i. 370.
xxiv.] SIJISTAN. 345
grapes; and Bust was accounted the chief town of all the
mountainous country of eastern Sijistān, which included the two
great districts of Zamin-Dâwar and Rukhkhaj. Mukaddasi states
that the city and its fortress, surrounded by great suburbs, stood
one league above the junction of the river Khardarſy (the modern
Argandab) with the Hirmand (Helmund). It possessed a fine
mosque, and the markets were well stocked. Half-a-league
distant, on the Ghaznah road, was Al-‘Askar, ‘the Camp,' built
like a small city, where the Sultan had his residence. In the
7th (13th) century Yākūt writes that Bust was almost entirely
a ruin, and he notices the heat of the climate, while mentioning
the abundance of its gardens. At the close of the 8th (14th)
century the place and its neighbourhood were devastated by
Timür, who marched hither from Zaranj, destroying on his way
One of the great dams across the Helmund, known as the Band-i-
Rustam, that kept up the head of water which served to irrigate
all the western lands of Sistān".
The broad valley, down which the Helmund flows from the
mountains of Hindú Kush to Bust, still bears the name, Zamin-
Dâwar, by which the Arab geographers refer to the district.
This is the Persian form of which the Arabic equivalent is ‘Ard-
ad-Dāwar or Balad-ad-Dāwar, the meaning being the same,
namely, “the Land of the Gates,’ or passes, into the mountains.
During the middle-ages this was a fertile and very populous
district, with four chief towns, namely, Dartall, Darghash, Baghnin
and Sharwān, with numerous great villages and farmsteads. The
chief town of the district was Dartal, Dartall, or Tall as Istakhri
writes the name, which appears to be identical with the city of
Dāwar described by Mukaddasi. It was a fine large town, with a
fortress, garrisoned by horse guards, who in the 4th (Ioth) century,
held this as the frontier post on the road towards the Ghūr
mountains. It lay on the bank of the Helmund river, three
marches above Bust, and in the account of the first Moslem
conquest it is stated that near here was the mountain, Jabal-az-
Zār, where the great idol called Zār, or Zún, had been taken as
* Baladhuri, 394, 434. Ist. 244, 245, 248. I. H. 302, 3o4. Muk. 297,
3o4. Yak. ii. Io, 612 ; iv. 184. A. Y. i. 370.
346 SIJISTAN. [CHAP.
booty by the Arabs, this idol being all of gold, with eyes of
Corundum (ydžić).
One march yet higher up the Helmund, and on the same bank
as Dartall, was Darghash, while Baghnin lay one march to the west-
ward of Dartall, in the country held by the Turkish tribes known
as the Bishlank, among whom abode the tribe of the Khalaj.
These Khalaj Turks afterwards emigrated westward, but Ibn
Hawkal in the 4th (roth) century describes them as then living
very contentedly in the Zamin-Dâwar country, “after the Turk
fashion.” A fifth town of the Zamin-Dâwar was Khwāsh (spelt
like the place on the river of that name, just mentioned), which
Istakhri described as an unwalled city, but protected by a castle.
Unfortunately its position is not given, but some authorities
Count it as belonging to Kâbul.
Between Bust and Dartall, and one march south of the latter
town, being apparently not situated on the Helmund river, stood
the city of Sarwān or Sharwān, which Ibn Hawkal describes as of
the size of Karnin, but more populous and prosperous. Great
quantities of fruit, dates and grapes especially, were exported from
its district, and that of Firſzkand, which latter lay south of the
Sharwān district and one march to the eastward of Bust".
The Rukhkhaj district, occupying the country round about
Kandahār, lay to the eastward of Bust along the banks of the
Streams now known as the Tarnak and the Argandab. The
capital of Rukhkhaj in the middle-ages was Banjaway, the Arabic
form of Panj-wäy, “Five Streams,’ which is still the name of the
district west of Kandahár, near the junction of the two rivers
Tarnak and Argandab. The Rukhkhaj district was immensely
fertile during the middle-ages, and wool was exported thence in
large quantities, bringing in a good revenue to the treasury. The
site of Banjaway city is difficult to fix. It lay on the high road
four marches from Bust, at the point where the ways bifurcated,
One road going north in 12 marches to Ghaznah, the other east in
six marches to Sibi. It probably was not far from Kandahár,
* Baladhuri, 394. Ist. 244, 245, 248. I. H. 302, 3o4. Muk. 305. Yak.
ii. 541 ; iv. 220. None of these towns of the Zamīn-Dávar now exist, but
Dartall, the capital, must have occupied approximately the site of modern
Girishk.
XXIV.] SIJISTAN. 347
but the distance between the two cities is nowhere given. One
league to the west of Banjaway city was the fortress of Kūhak,
‘the Hillock,” with a town lying round the fort. Banjaway itself
had good fortifications, as well as a fine mosque. It got its water
from the neighbouring river.
One stage from here, on the Sibi road, lay the town of
Bakrāwādh (for Bakrābād, which Istakhri and Ibn Hawkal give
as Takinābādh, probably from a clerical error), where there was
a Friday Mosque in the town market-place; and this town too
stood upon a stream that joined the Kandahār river.
The city of Kandahār (or Al-Kunduhār) is frequently men-
tioned in the accounts of the first Moslem conquests of the places
near the Indian frontier. Baládhuri says it was reached from
Sijistān after crossing the desert, and the Moslems, he adds,
attacked the place in boats from the river, destroying the
great idol Al-Budd, doubtless a statue of Buddha. After this
period only incidental mention of Kandahár occurs—generally as
of Hind or the Indian frontier—in Mukaddasi, Ibn Rustah, and
Ya‘kūbi. Unfortunately no early Itinerary takes us to Kandahár,
and in the systematic accounts of the province by Istakhri and
Ibn Hawkal the name is altogether wanting. Possibly Banjaway
replaced it during the earlier middle-ages, for Yākūt gives no
description of the town, and the name only reappears in history
when it is spoken of as being devastated first by the Mongols in
the early part of the 7th (13th) century, and then again by Timür
at the close of the next century'.
The district round Sibi was known to the Arab geographers as
Bālis, otherwise Bālish, or Wälishtān. The capital city according
to Istakhri was Sibi, spelt Sivi or Siwah, but the governor generally
resided at Al-Kasr (the Castle), a small town situated one league
distant from Asfanjāy, or Safanjavi, the second city of the district,
the exact site of which has not been identified, but which lay two
marches north of Sibi on the road to Banjaway of Rukhkhaj.
The town of Mastang, or Mastanj, is also mentioned by Istakhri
and Mukaddasi, who name a number of other villages of this
* Baladhuri, 434, 445. Ist. 244, 250. I. H. 301, 302, 305. Muk. 305.
Yak. iv. 33 I. A. Y. i. 376. Dr H. W. Bellew, From the Zndus to the Tigris,
p. 16o.
348 SIJISTAN. [CHAP.
district, which was said to include in all some 2200 hamlets, but
no description is given of any of these places'.
Ghaznah, or Ghaznayn, became famous in history at the close
of the 4th (beginning of the 11th) century as the capital of the
great Mahmūd of Ghaznah, who at one time was master both of
India on the east and Baghdād on the west. Unfortunately no
adequate description has come down to us of Ghaznah at the
time when it was rebuilt and adorned by Mahmūd with all the
plunder of his Indian raids. A generation before this Istakhri
describes the place as like Bāmiyān, with fine streams but few
gardens. He adds that no city of this countryside was richer in
merchants and merchandise, for it was as the ‘port’ of India.
Mukaddasi gives a long list of the names of its districts and towns,
most of which, however, it is impossible to identify at the present
day. He writes the name Ghaznayn, in the dual form, but to
what the “Two Ghaznahs’ has reference is not stated, though
Ghaznayn in later times is more generally used than the form
Ghaznah. Mukaddasi adds that all the country between this and
Kābul was known as Kābulistán.
It was about the year 415 (Ioz4) that Mahmūd had rebuilt
Ghaznah, on his return home laden with the spoils of India,
and the city then reached its greatest splendour, which lasted
for over a century. The Ghūrid Sultan ‘Alā-ad-Din, surnamed
Jahān-stiz, ‘world incendiary,’ to revenge his brother's death at the
hands of Bahrām Shāh the Ghaznavid, took Ghaznah by storm in
544 (1149), and afterwards both sacked and burnt the city, which
never recovered from this calamity. The tomb of the great
Mahmūd in the mosque nevertheless appears to have been spared,
or else it was restored, for Ibn Batūtah saw it here in the 8th
(14th) century. He describes Ghaznah as then for the most part
in ruins, though formerly, he adds, it had been an immense city.
His contemporary Mustawfi speaks of it as a small town, with
a very cold climate on account of its great elevation, but he gives
no details of any importance".
* Ist. 179, 244. I. H. 3o I. Muk. 297.
* Ist. 280. I. H. 328. Muk. 296, 297. I. B. iii. 88. Mst. U84.
Unfortunately ‘Utbi, in his Aſistory of Mahmūd of Ghaznah, gives no detailed
XXIV] . SIJISTAN. 349
As we have seen, the whole of the great mountainous district
of the upper waters of the Helmund and the Kandahār rivers was
known to the Arabs as Zābulistān, a term of vague application, but
one which more particularly denoted the country round Ghaznah.
On the other hand Kâbulistán was the Kābul country, lying more
to the north on the frontiers of Bāmiyān; and this is the division
found in the accounts of the conquests of Timür. Already in the
3rd (9th) century Ya‘kūbi describes Kābul as much frequented
by merchants, who brought back from this country the Kābuli
Ahlilaj, or myrobalan of the larger sort’. Ya‘kūbi says the
chief city was then known as Jurwas, while Istakhri in the next
century gives the name as Tâbân. Kâbul, however, appears also
to have been the name in common use, but more especially for
the district.
There was here a famous Kuhandiz or castle, and the town
which was approached by only a single road was well fortified. It
was the great emporium of the Indian trade, indigo (miſ) being
brought here for export to the value of a million gold dinárs
yearly (about half-a-million sterling); further, most of the precious
stuffs of India and China were warehoused here. As early as the
4th (1 oth) century the Moslems, the Jews, and the idolaters, had
each a separate quarter in Kâbul, where the suburbs, the markets,
and the merchants' warehouses were alike famous. Mukaddasi
mentions, too, a wonderful well in the castle; and for him Kābul
is especially the country of the myrobalan. He counts Kābuli-
stän as an outlying region of Sijistán. Kazwini, in the 7th (13th)
century, states that Kābul was then famous for the breed of she-
description of the capital. See the article on Ghaznah by Sir H. Yule in the
AEncyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed.), x. 560, where a plan is given.
* Myrobalam was a name applied during the middle-ages to certain dried
fruits and kernels of astringent nature, imported from India, which had
a high reputation in the concoction of the medicines of those days. The name
is of Greek origin, the Indian fruits used in the manufacture of this condiment
are of a variety of species, and one of the best known kinds of myrobalan was
that called Chebulic, namely, that from Kābul. The Arabs named the drug
(for this it came to be) Ahlöſay or Halilay, and Ibn Baytär in his Dictionary
of Drugs (translated by Dr J. Sontheimer, i. 163; ii. 572) has two articles
about it; see also Dozy, Supplément aux Pictionnaires Arabes, s.v. Ihlilaj,
and Glossary of Anglo-Zndian Zerms, by Yule and Burnell, s.v. Myrobalan.
35O SIJISTAN. [CHAP.
Camels, known as Bactrian (Bukhti), the best in all central Asia.
Ibn Batūtah, who visited Kābul in the next century, says that it
had then sunk to be a mere village, inhabited by the tribe of
Persians known as Afghans (Al-Afghān).
The Kābul river is an affluent of the Indus, and is formed by
the junction of two streams coming down from the Hindú Kush
range, the mountains to the north of Kābul". At the eastern
Source are the celebrated silver mines, known to the Arabs as
Banjahir (for Panj-Air, or “Five Hills,’ in the dialect of the country),
from which large quantities of the precious metal were obtained,
and Banjahir became a mint city under the Saffārid princes in the
3rd (9th) century, the dirhams, of course, bearing the name also
of the Abbasid Caliph. Banjahir city is described by Ibn Hawkal
as standing on a hill, and inhabited by Io, ooo miners, who were
an unruly folk, much given to evil living. Järbāyah was a neigh-
bouring town, also lying on the Banjahir, or Kābul river, which
thence flowed out towards the plains of India, past Farwān,
a large town with a mosque. Mukaddasi further mentions the
town of Shiyān in the district of Askimasht, where there was
a wondrous spring, and a fine mosque built by the Arab general
Kutaybah-ibn-Muslim, who had commanded the troops at the
time of the first Moslem conquest. Yākūt gives us a long account
of these silver mines with their population of riotous miners. He
says that the whole mountain side was hollowed out in caverns,
where men worked in the bowels of the earth by torch-light. The
people were given over entirely to a species of gambling, men
found themselves rich one day and paupers on the morrow ; they
would recklessly spend 3oo,ooo dirhams (A, 12,000) in the mere
digging of a new shaft. The ruin of the place was due to Changiz
Khān; and when Ibn Batūtah, who speaks of the blue waters of
the neighbouring stream, came here in the 8th (14th) century, he
found no silver mine, but only the disused tunnels of the former
workings.
1 Hindú Kush, in Persian, means (the Mountain that) “kills the Hindus.”
Ibn Batūtah (iii. 84) is one of the first to give this name, which is unknown to
the earlier Arab geographers. He explains that the range was so called
because many Indian slaves died in crossing it when journeying to Persia.
XXIV.] SIJISTAN. 35 I
The products of Sijistān were few in number; and all that
Mukaddasi records is that date-baskets, called Zanabíſ, were made
here for export, also ropes of palm-fibre and reed-mats".
The high roads in Sijistān all centred in Zaranj, to which in
the first place led the desert road from Narmāsīr vić Sanij, which
has been described in the last chapter. From Zaranj north-
wards, a road went to Herāt, passing through Karkūyah, and
thence by a bridge over the Helmund overflow to Juvayn on the
Farah river. From Juvayn Farah city was reached by a road up
the river bank, which crossed the river by the bridge of Farah
(mentioned p. 341), beyond which was Farah city. Three marches
north of Farah lay Asfuzār (or Sabzivār of Herät), the first town in
Khurāsān. The distances in leagues along this road unfortunately
are not given, only the stages of each day's march, for which
Istakhri and Ibn Hawkal are the chief authorities”. Moreover a
good deal of uncertainty exists in the spelling of the names of
many of the halting-places.
From Zaranj the road east went to Harāri on the Khwāsh river,
whence taking a straight line across the desert the city of Bust was
reached in five marches. At Bust the roads bifurcated, one going
to the Zamīn-Dāwar country of the upper Helmund, and another
to Banjaway of Rukhkhaj, in the neighbourhood of Kandahár.
At Banjaway there was again a bifurcation of the roads, one going
north-eastward to Ghaznah, and a second to Sibi, through the
town known as Asfanjāy. On these routes too it is to be noted
that the distances are again given merely in marches, many of the
names of the stages being most uncertain".
* Ykb. 290, 291. Ist. 278, 280. I. H. 327, 328. Muk. 297, 303, 304,
324. Yak. i. 473; ii. 9o.4, 905; iii. 454. Kaz. ii. 162. A. Y. i. 558. I. B.
iii. 85, 89. Mst. 188.
* I. R. 174. Ist. 248, 249. I. H. 3O4, 305. Muk, 35o.
* Ist. 249–252. I. H. 30.5–307. Muk. * -
{
|
f
CHAPTER XXV.
KÚHISTAN.
The province called Tunocain by Marco Polo. Kåyin and Tân. Turshiz and
the Pusht-district; the Great Cypress of Zoroaster. Závah. Búzjān and
the Zam district. Bākharz district and Mālin. Khwāf. Zirkūh. Dasht-
i-Biyād. Gunābād and Bajistán. Tabas of the dates. Khawst, or Khäsf.
Birjand and Mūminābād. Tabas Masīnān and Duruh.
The province of Kūhistān, like Sijistān, was generally held to be
a dependency of Khurāsān by the Arab geographers. Kūhistān
means ‘the Mountain Land,’ and the province is thus named in
accordance with its distinguishing physical features, the hills here
being contrasted with the lowlands of Sijistān, lying to the east of
Kūhistän on the Helmund delta. Kūhistān, as Ibn Hawkal remarks,
has for the most part a cold climate from its elevation, and the
date palm only grew at Tabas Gilaki on the edge of the Great
Desert. In the 4th (Ioth) century the nomad inhabitants of the
country were Kurds, who possessed great flocks of sheep and
camels. Without doubt this province is identical with the
‘Tunocain kingdom’ of Marco Polo, who took the names of its
two chief cities (Tún and Kāyin) to be the designation of
the whole country'.
The chief town of Kūhistān was Käyin, which Ibn Hawkal
describes as protected by a strong fortress, surrounded by a ditch;
and the governor's house stood here, also the Friday Mosque.
* Ist. 273, 274. I. H. 324, 325. Muk. 3or. Al/arco Polo, Yule,
i. 87, 131. The name is spelt Kühistān by the Arabs (with dotted K), and
Rúhistán in Persian, where Áth means ‘mountain,’ but the first vowel in the
name is as often as not written short (Kuhistān or Kuhistān).
CHAP. xxv) KÜHISTAN. 353
Water was supplied by underground channels, but the gardens were
not very fruitful or numerous, for the cold was severe in winter. The
city had three gates, and its merchants carried on a considerable
trade with Khurāsān. Ibn Hawkal adds that at a place two days’
march from Kāyin, on the Nishāpār road, a kind of edible clay,
called Tim AWajáží, was found, and this, he says, was exported to
all the neighbouring lands and largely eaten by the people. Káyin
was visited in 444 (IoS2) by Nāsir-i-Khusraw, who describes the
inner town as forming a fortress of great strength. The Great
Mosque here had in its sanctuary (Mažsſºrah) the largest arch to be
seen in all Khurāsān, and the houses of the town, he says, had
all domed roofs. Mustawfi in the 8th (14th) century notes in the
first place the central position of Kāyin, which was, he says, just
20 leagues distant from every other important place in Kūhistān.
It was a fine city: all the houses were supplied with water by
channels below ground, and had cellar-rooms for the hot weather.
The crops matured here very rapidly, and the harvest was early.
Corn, fruit, and especially saffron were grown largely in the
neighbourhood, and the cattle pastured on these lands quickly
put on fat. Mustawfi adds that the population were remarkably
dark-skinned.
The city of Tún lies rather over fifty miles to the westward
of Kāyin, and a little to the north. Mukaddasi Speaks of it as
a populous place, smaller than Kåyin, protected by a Castle and
possessing a fine mosque. Woollen goods were manufactured
here, and Nāsir-i-Khusraw praises its carpets, 4oo looms being at
work at the time when he passed through the town. Much of the
city, however, was in his day in ruin, though the great fort
remained. In the eastern suburbs were many fine gardens
where pistachios were cultivated. Mustawfi states that Tún
had originally been built ‘on the plan of a Chinese town,’ but he
does not further explain the matter. He speaks of the great
castle with its deep dry-ditch; this was surrounded by the streets
and bazaars of the outer town. The neighbouring lands were
very fertile, for he says that the people had the art of building
dykes or dams (band) to collect the rain-water and prevent it
from flowing away, and on these lands they raised water-melons,
noted for their sweet flavour. Much corn and fruit was grown,
LE S. 23
3.54 RÚHISTAN. [CHAP.
and silk was produced here abundantly, for the climate of
Tún was temperate, and the underground watercourses very
numerous'.
In the north-west corner of Kūhistān is the district of Būsht,
Pūsht, or Busht-al-‘Arab, of which the chief towns were Turshiz
and Kundurº. In the Arab geographers the older form of the
name is given as Turaythith, or Turthith, later spelt Turshish and
Turshis, and it was sometimes counted as of the Hazema/, or
domain of Nishapûr. Ibn Hawkal speaks of Turshiz as a very
populous city, with fertile lands, and in the Pūsht district there
were seven other townships with Friday Mosques. Mukaddasi
describes the mosque of Turshiz as in his day rivalling that of
Damascus for magnificence ; there was also a famous water tank,
and the markets were renowned, so that Turshiz was considered
the ‘store-house of Khurāsān,” where merchandise was exported
and imported, to and from Fărs and Isfahân. The neighbouring
town of Kundur almost equalled Turshiz in wealth, and in the
district immediately round it were 226 large villages.
According to Ibn-al-Athir in 520 (1126) the Wazir of Sultan
Sanjar the Saljúk besieged and plundered Turshiz, which had
lately come into the possession of the Ismāīlīs, or Assassins; for
the ‘Old Man of the Mountain had recently conquered most of
the strong places in the neighbourhood, building many fortresses
to overawe all this part of Kūhistān. Yākūt places the advent of
the Ismāīlís as occurring in the year 530 (1136), and relates that
the governor of Turshiz had called in the Turkish tribes to aid
him against the heterodox Mulāhids or Ismāīlians, but they
had failed to fight the enemy, and had themselves pillaged the
country, thus bringing Turshiz to ruin. In the middle of the
I. H. 324, 325. Muk. 321. N. K. 95. Mst. 184. There is an inscrip-
tion in the mosque at Kāyin dated 796 (1394). Sir F. Goldsmid, Æastern
A’ersza, i. 341.
* The district of Turshiz exists at the present day, but no town of that
name. The Small town of Kundur is still marked on the map, and according
to Istakhri the city of Turshiz lay one march to the westward of it, which
would place the site of Turshiz at the Firſzābād ruins, near the present
village of ‘Abdulābād. In any case the medieval city of Turshiz cannot be
identified with Sultānābād, the modern capital of the Turshiz district, ſor this
lies east of Kundur.
xxv) KÚHISTAN. 355
7th (13th) century Hūlāgā Khān, the Mongol, destroyed the power
of the Assassins, and his troops, it is stated, conquered seventy of
their castles in the Kūhistân province. After this Turshiz quickly
recovered its importance; and less than a century later it is described
by Mustawfi as one of the chief cities of Kuhistān, though still
partly in decay. He mentions the four famous castles in the
neighbourhood of the place—namely, Kalah Bardarād, Kal‘ah
Mikål (or Haykāl), Mujāhidābād (the Champion's Home), and
Ātishgāh (the fire-temple)—which doubtless had been those of
the Ismāīlians. He praises the abundant crops of Turshiz, which
he says were exported to all the northern districts round Nishapûr.
At the close of the 8th (14th) century Turshiz was deemed impreg-
nable from its high walls; but when Timür appeared before it he
soon undermined these, and after the sack nothing but ruins
remained standing. This was in 783 (1381) and since that time
Turshiz has disappeared from the map".
Mustawfi states that at the village of Kishmar, near Turshiz,
had stood the celebrated cypress-tree, originally planted by
Zoroaster as a memorial of the conversion of King Gushtasp to
the Magian religion. This tree grew to be larger than any other
cypress that had ever been, and according to the Shá/; Aſāma/, it
sprang from a branch brought by Zoroaster from Paradise. Such
too was its power that earthquakes, which frequently devastated
all the neighbouring districts, never did any harm in Kishmar.
According to Kazvini the Caliph Mutawakkil in 247 (861) caused
this mighty cypress to be felled, and then transported it across all
Persia, in pieces carried on camels, to be used for beams in his
new palace at Sāmarrá. This was done in spite of the grief and
protests of all the Guebres, but when the Cypress arrived on the
* I. H. 295, 296. Muk. 317, 318. Yak. i. 628; iii. 534; iv. 309. Mst.
183. A. Y. i. 344. Ibn-al-Athir, X. 445. The representative of the Old Man
of the Mountain, at the present day (as was proved in the English law courts),
is Åká Khān, chief of the Khūjah community at Bombay, and it is curious to
find that some of the Ismailian sect still linger in Kåhistān, who now pay their
tithes to Åkā Khān, as their predecessors did to the chief at Alämät. At the
village of Sihdih, to the south of Kāyin, Major Sykes (Persia, p. 409) found
nearly a thousand families of these modern Ismailians, who yearly transmitted
a considerable sum to their religious head in India. AZarco AE’olo, Yule, i. 145.
23–2
356 KÚHISTAN. [CHAP.
banks of the Tigris, Mutawakkil was dead, having been murdered
by his son'.
To the east of the Turshiz district is that of Závah. The
Závah district, or part of it, was also known as Rukhkh, and
the chief town was called Bishak or Zāvah city. The name
Rukhkh, when Yākūt wrote, was more commonly pronounced
Rikh. In the 7th (13th) century Závah town became celebrated
as the abode of a very holy man, Haydar by name, who dressed
in felt, in summer was wont to enter the fire, and in winter to
stand in the snow, and who founded a sect of Darvīshes known
as the Haydariyah. He was alive at the time of the Mongol
invasion of the country in 617 (1220), and was afterwards known
as Shaykh Kutb-ad-Din (Pole of Religion). When Ibn Batūtah
visited Zāvah in the 8th (14th) century, he describes the votaries
of the Shaykh as having iron rings fastened for penance in their
ears, hands, and other parts of the body, and this the people
took to be a proof of their sanctity. Mustawfi describes Zāvah
as a fine town, standing in a rich district, with some 50 dependent
villages. It had a strong castle built of clay bricks. The
irrigation was abundant; corn, cotton, grapes, and much fruit
grew here, and silk also was produced. He speaks, too, of the
shrine of the Shaykh as greatly venerated in his day. At the
present time Závah is more commonly the name of the district,
the town being generally known as Turbat-i-Haydari, or ‘the
Tomb of Haydar,’ and the shrine is still a place of pilgrimage”.
To the east of the Závah district, and in the north-east corner
of Kūhistān, near the Herāt river, was the district of Zám or Jám,
of which the chief town was in the 4th (Ioth) century known as
Búzján. This was a considerable city, and 180 villages were of
1 Mst. 183. Sháh Māmah, Turner Macan, iv. 1067, eight lines from below.
Išaz. ii. 297, where the name is by mistake printed Kishm. The account in
Kazvíní (13th century A.D.) of course only represents the tradition. There is
nothing about the Kishmar cypress in Tabari or apparently in any of the earlier
Arab chronicles. An amplified version of the story will be found in the
AJabiszón, a work of the 16th century A.D. (transl. by Shea and Troyer, i.
306–309). The cypress of Zoroaster is reckoned to have been 1450 years
old. It is possibly the origin of Marco Polo’s ‘Arbre Sol which we Christians
call Arbre Sec.’ Yule, Marco Polo, i. 13 I.
* Muk. 319. Yak. ii. 770, 9 Io. Kaz. ii. 256. I. B. iii. 79. Mst. 188.
Sir F. Goldsmid, AEastern Persia, i. 353.
xxv) KÜHISTAN. 357
its dependencies. The name Búzján was pronounced Búzkån by
the Persians, and in later times it was written Púchkān. In the
8th (14th) century Mustawfi describes it, under the name of Jäm,
as occupying a most fruitful and well-watered district, yielding
much silk, for the mulberry-trees grew abundantly. The town
was celebrated for the number of its shrines, for many holy
men had been buried here, and Ibn Batūtah specially names
the saintly Shihāb-ad-Din Ahmad-al-Jāmī, whose descendants had
come to own much land in the neighbourhood. The saint indeed
was so celebrated that Timür, at the close of the 8th (14th)
century, visited his shrine in person, and at the present day the
town, which is still a flourishing place, is commonly known as
Shaykh Jām".
The district of Bākharz, or Guwäkharz, lies to the south of
Jām, and to the westward of the Herāt river, which here takes its
northern course. The chief town of Bākharz was Mālin, which
from the distances in the Itineraries would appear to have been
identical in position with the modern city of Shahr-i-Naw, ‘New
Town,' and in the 4th (Ioth) century it was already a populous
place. From here both corn and grapes were exported, and cloth-
stuffs were also manufactured. Yākūt explains that the name
Bäkharz had originally, in Persian, been Bād-Harza/, ‘the place
where the wind blows,’ and he mentions Jawdhakān as among its
chief villages, of which I 28 might be counted round and about
Mälin. Mustawfi, who gives the name of the chief town as
Mălân, expatiates on its fertility, and especially refers to the
‘long melon’ of this country, which was famous throughout
Khurāsān”.
South-west of Bākharz is the district of Khwāf (earlier Khwāb),
surrounding the chief town of the same name. Khwāf in the
4th (I oth) century was famous for its raisins and pomegranates.
Salāmak, later written Salām, had in early times been the largest
town of the district, of which Sanjān (or Sankan) and Kharjird
were two other important cities. Under the form Kharkird the
* I. K. 24. I. R. 171. Ykb. 278. I. H. 313. Muk. 319, 32 I. Yak. i.
756; ii. 909; iii. 890. Mst. 188, 197. I. B. iii. 75. A. Y. ii. 2 I I, 229.
C. E. Yate, A7turasawa and Sistan, p. 37.
* Muk. 319. Yak. i. 458; ii. 145; iv. 398. Mst. 187.
358 KÜHISTAN. [CHAP.
latter town is mentioned by Ibn Hawkal, who also names Farkird
(written Farjird or Faljird by Yākūt) as lying one march to the
east of it, while Kûsûy or Kûsûyah was nearer the Herät river,
and to the north of Farkird. Of these three towns Kûsûy was
the largest, being a third of the size of the neighbouring
city of Būshanj in Khurāsān, to be described later, to which
province many authorities count all three places to belong.
The town of Kûsûy possessed many good houses of unburnt
brick, and the other two towns, though small, had fine gardens
and abundant irrigation. Yākūt also mentions Sirâwand and
Lāz as places of importance in his day in the Khwāf
district, but their position is unknown. Mustawfi praises the
grapes, melons, pomegranates, and figs of Khwäf, and States that
much silk was produced in the district. He names the three
towns of Salām, Sanjān, and Zawzan (or Zúzan) as the chief
centres of population in the 8th (14th) century. Zūzan when
Mukaddasi wrote was already famous for its wool-workers, and it
was an important point in the road system, for it communicated
with Kåyin, Salām (Salómak), and Farjird. Yākūt calls Zūzan
‘a little Basrah for its trade, and refers to it as a shrine of the
Magians. Around it lay 124 important villages".
In this central part of Kūhistān, Mustawfi, writing in the 8th
(14th) century, mentions a number of places which are still found
on the map, but which do not occur in the works of the earlier Arab
geographers. He refers to the district of Zirkūh, “Foot-hills,’ as
most fertile, producing corn and cotton, which with its silk
manufactures were largely exported. This is still the name of
the hill country south of Zūzan and east of Kāyin, and Mustawfi
mentions its three chief towns, Shārakhs, Isfad, and Istind, which
exist to this day. To the north-west of Kāyin is the district the
name of which is written Dasht-Biyād, meaning ‘the White Plain,”
which the Persians at the present day pronounce Dasht-i-Piyāz.
Its chief town was Fāris, and Mustawfi, who praises its nuts and
almonds, says it was the Yayläk, or summer quarters, of the people
of Tún and Junābād,
* Ist. 267. I. H. 313, 319. I. R. 17 I. Ykb. 278. Muk. 298, 308, 319,
32 I. Yak. ii. 486, 958; iii. 9 Io; iv. 341. Mst. 188. For the present
condition of these places see C. E. Yate, Khurasan and Sistan, 128, 129.
XXV KÚHISTAN. 359
This last place, now generally called Gunābād, is a considerable
town lying to the north-east of Tún. It is named by Ibn Hawkal
Yunābidh, and by Mukaddasi Junāwad, and there are some other
variants. It was a large place in the 4th (Ioth) century, with clay-
brick houses, and the 70 villages round it were well watered by
artificial irrigation. Yākūt gives the name as commonly pro-
nounced Gunäbidh, for Junábidh. Mustawfi records that its two
Strong Castles, each on a hill, and on either hand of the town,
were called Kal‘ah, Khawāshir and Kal‘ah Darjān respectively,
and from their heights the neighbouring villages, and the desert
beyond them, were clearly seen. The sand here, he remarks, did
not blow into and invade the garden lands of Gunābād, as was
the case elsewhere in Kūhistān. The water-supply was from
underground channels, described as often four leagues in length,
coming from springs in the hill-flank, and the terminal shafts or
wells at the fountain-head, were, he avers, sometimes as much as
7oo ells (gez) in depth. Much silk was manufactured here, and
corn was exported. Some thirty miles to the north-west of
Gunābād, and a like distance due north of Tún, is the small town
of Bajistán, which appears to be first mentioned by Yâkút, who
speaks of it as a village in his day; and to this Mustawfi adds
that it resembled Tún, but gives no further details".
There were, and still are, two towns called Tabas in Kūhistān,
and for this reason the name often appears in the Arab geo-
graphers under the dual form of Tabasayn. Moreover the name
Tabasayn, in error, is sometimes applied to one or other of
these two towns, the dual form for the single place. The Arab
geographers, however, clearly distinguish between the two towns,
calling one Date Tabas, the other Tabas of the Jujube-tree, or
Tabas-al-‘Unnäb.
Tabas of the Date—Tabas-at-Tamr—was on the border of the
Great Desert, where many of the roads crossing it came in, and
* Dasht-Biyād, or Dasht-i-Piyāz, is a composite name, Persian and Arabic,
very unusual in the momenclature of Persia. If the last word be really the
Arabic Biyād it seems likely that the Persians soon forgot its meaning ‘White,’
and took it to be a proper name. I. H. 325. Muk. 319, 320, 322. Mst. 183,
184. Yak. i. 497; ii. 120; iv. 206. Fāris at the present time is generally
known as Kal‘ah Kuhnah, ‘the Old Castle.” Bellew, Indus to 7% gris, p. 329.
36O KÚHISTAN. [CHAP.
hence Balādhuri names it ‘the Gate of Khurāsān.’ According to
Ibn Hawkal, the town was in the 4th (Ioth) century a somewhat
Smaller place than Kåyin, and it had strong fortifications. The
chief feature of the district was the forest of date palms that grew
here, for being on the desert border the climate was very hot,
and the water-supply from underground channels was abundant.
Mukaddasi speaks of its fine mosque, and of a great tank for storing
the drinking-water. There were also excellent hot baths. ‘It is
(he adds) the only place in Kūhistān where there are trees and
a running stream ; and for the distance of a day's journey thence
I passed through villages and palm-groves with running water-
Courses.’
Nāsir-i-Khusraw, who passed through Tabas in 444 (IoS2),
speaks of it as a fine, populous town, unwalled, but enclosed in
its gardens and palm-groves. It was then governed with a strong
hand, so that all the neighbourhood was perfectly safe, by a certain
Abu-l-Hasan ibn Muhammad Gilaki——‘the native Gīlān '-and to
distinguish this from the other Tabas, it appears in later days to
have been called Tabas Gilaki, after this famous governor, who,
from what Nāsir writes, must have been known far and wide for
the vigour of his rule. In the second half of the 5th (11th) century
Tabas passed into the hands of the Ismāīlian heretics, and in 494
(IIo2) the town was besieged and in part destroyed by the army
sent against the Assassins by Sultan Sanjar the Saljúk. Yākūt and
Mustawfi both refer to Tabas of the Date as Tabas Gilaki, and
the latter authority notices the place both in his account of the
Great Desert, and when describing Kūhistán. Besides dates,
both lemons and Oranges flourished here as they did nowhere
else in all Khurāsān, and the water of the neighbouring spring
flowed in sufficient abundance to turn two mills. A strong for-
tress protected the town and the numerous villages lying around
the place'.
On the desert border north of Tabas, and about half-way to
Turshiz, was the village of Bann, possessing a population of 5oo
males when Ibn Hawkal wrote, and this place was apparently
identical with the stage of Afridūn mentioned by Ibn Khur-
* Baladhuri, 403. I. H. 324, 325. Muk. 321, 322. N. K. 94. Yak. iii.
513, 514; iv. 333. Mst. 183, 184. Ibn-al-Athir, x. 221.
XXV) KÜHISTAN. 361
dādbih. Ibn Hawkal apparently mentions in his itinerary another
village called Bann (Bann Ukhrā), but by the distances given the
two stages, if not identical, must have had reference merely to two
neighbouring villages of the same name. At the present day Bann
is represented by Dih Näband (not to be confounded with the
Oasis in the desert of that name described on p. 325). It was
an important point where one of the desert roads from Jarmak
entered Kūhistān".
Some three leagues to the south-east of Tabas, on the edge
of the desert where the Shūr road from Kūhbanān came in,
was Kuri or Kurin, which Baládhuri mentions as one of the
two fortresses of Tabas, which it would appear might justify
the name of Tabasayn being given to Date Tabas alone. Ibn
Hawkal describes Kuri as a meeting point of many roads, where
stood a village of a thousand men with many farms. Kurin, as
Mukaddasi spells the name, was a smaller place than Tabas ; and
of its dependencies—being I 2 leagues from Tabas and 20 from
Tún—was the village of Ar-Rakkah. This last place, when Näsir-i-
Khusraw visited it in 444 (IoS2), had grown to be a fine town,
with a Friday Mosque surrounded by numerous well-irrigated
gardens. About three marches to the south-east of Tabas were
the two towns of Khūr and Khawst, which respectively were the
terminal stages of the two roads across the desert from Rāvar and
Khabis in Kirmān (see pp. 327, 328). Khūr, according to Ibn
Hawkal, was smaller than Tabas, but had a Friday Mosque ;
the water-supply was scanty and there were hardly any gardens.
The place, too, according to Mukaddasi, was unfortified.
Khawst on the other hand, though in the 4th (1 oth) century
it had no Friday Mosque, was a place of greater importance. It
was well fortified, with a castle to defend it, and the clay-brick
houses of the town were surrounded by small gardens, though
here too the watercourses gave but a poor supply. Mukaddasi
says the town was larger but less populous than Tūn; there were
but few trees, and behind it rose the arid hills of Kūhistān. Yākūt
by mistake generally spells the name Júsf, this being a clerical error
for Khūsf or Khūsb, which is the modern form of the name,
first given by Mustawfi. Yākūt, it is true, acknowledges his
* I. K. 52. Ist. 231, 236. I. H. 295.
362 - KÜHISTAN. [CHAP.
ignorance and uncertainty of the true pronunciation of the name,
which he says is sometimes written Jūzf: but in one passage he
rightly gives Khawst, when quoting from Mukaddasi. As just
stated the modern spelling first appears in Mustawfi, who describes
Khūsf as a small town, with some dependencies, watered by
a stream which irrigated its lands, so that excellent crops were
produced". -
About 20 miles east of Khūsflies Birjand, which at the present
day has taken the place of Kāyin as the capital town of Kūhistān.
Birjand is not mentioned, apparently, by any of the Arab geo-
graphers before Yākūt, who in the 7th (13th) century speaks of it
as one of the finest villages of this province. Mustawfi in the
following century refers to it as an important provincial town,
Surrounded by many fruitful farms and villages, where, in addition
to grapes and other fruits, an abundance of Saffron was cultivated.
Corn, however, grew badly here. A day's journey to the east of
Birjand, is the mountain district still known as Mūminābād-‘the
Believer's Home'—which Mustawfi mentions as dominated by
a strong fortress that had formerly been in the hands of the
ASSassins. This district included many fine villages ; and
Mustawfi especially mentions Shākhin, on a stream called the
Fashā Rūd, which still exists some three days' march to the
South-east of Kāyin”.
About 50 miles due east of Birjand is the second town of
Tabas, known to the Arab geographers as Tabas-al-‘Unnäb, ‘of
the Jujube-tree,’ which the Persians called Tabas Masīnān. This
town Ibn Hawkal describes in the 4th (Ioth) century as larger
than Yunābidh (Gunabād, north-west of Kāyin); its houses were
built of clay bricks, but the fortifications were then in ruins, and
there was no castle. Mukaddasi speaks of the numerous jujube-
trees growing here. Kazvini in the 7th (13th) century states that
on the summit of a neighbouring hill was the village called frâvah,
where there was a fine castle, and gardens with trees, for many
* Baladhuri, 403. Ist. 232, 274. I. H. 29 I, 325. Muk. 32 I, 322. Yak.
ii. 152; iv. 23, 270. Mst. 184. N. K. 94.
* Yak. i. 783. Mst. 184. Sykes, Persia, pp. 305, 306. Major Sykes, who
spells the name Shahkin, speaks of an ancient fort near this, possibly that
mentioned as formerly held by the Assassins,
XXV) KÚHISTAN. 363
streams flowed near the place. Mustawfi remarks of Tabas
Masinăn that the water-supply of the town lands during a drought
would hold out for 70 days, while the outlying districts only had
sufficient water for seven days. He relates that there was here
a pit or well, at the bottom of which the earth was poisonous, SO
that if anyone by chance swallowed thereof even as much as
a grain of millet seed, he forthwith died ; hence the water from
this well had been carefully closed off. There was another pit
or well here which in winter swallowed up all inflowing water,
and in Summer gave forth continuously enough water to irrigate
all the neighbouring lands; and there was also a third well, he
says, where, when anyone looked down into it, the image of a fish
could be seen. At the present day Tabas Masīnān, still bearing
this distinctive name, is an important place, being also known as
Sunni-khānah (the House of the Sunnis), for it is now inhabited
almost exclusively by Afghān Sunnis. About 60 miles south of
Tabas of the Jujube-tree, is the village of Duruh, where there is
an ancient fortress on the neighbouring hill-top. Duruh is ap-
parently not mentioned by the earlier geographers. It is first
described by Mustawfi, who speaks of Kal‘ah Duruh as being
a very strong place, with a spring of water welling up within the
castle precincts. Jujube-trees and corn grew abundantly in the
vicinity, with grapes and other fruit in less profusion.
The products of Kūhistān were few in number. Mukaddasi
states briefly that these highlands were famous for their carpets
and prayer rugs, also for white cloth-stuffs, similar to those that
were made in Nishapûr'.
What is known about the high roads crossing Kūhistān will be
more conveniently dealt with in a later chapter in connection with
the roads through Khurāsān. Mukaddasi and other authorities
mention the total distances, by the day's march, between the
various towns in Kūhistān; but the stages in leagues are not
given; and there appear to have been few direct routes Crossing
this mountainous province.
* I. H. 325. Muk. 32 I, 324. Yak. iii. 513, 514. Kaz. ii. 202. Mst. I 84.
Sykes, Persia, 396, 397.
CHAPTE R XXVI.
KÚMIS, TABARISTAN, AND JURJAN.
The province of Kāmis. Dāmghān. Bistám. Biyār, Sammān and Khuvâr.
The Khurāsān road through Kāmis. The province of Tabaristán or
Măzandarān. Amul. Sāriyah. Mount Damāvand, with the districts of
Fădăsbän, Kârin, and Rūbanj. Firtizkūh, and other castles. Nâtil,
Sâlûs, and the Rūyān district. The fortress of Tâk and the Rustamdār
district. Mamfir and Tamisah. Kabūd Jāmah and the Bay of Nim
Murdán. The province of Gurgān or Jurjān. The river Jurjān and the
river Atrak. Jurjān city, and Astarābād. The port of Åbaskún. The
Dihistān district, and Ākhur. The high roads through Tabaristān and
Jurjān.
The small province of Kûmis stretches along the foot of the great
Alburz chain of mountains which will be described below, and
these heights bound it to the north, its fertile lands forming a
narrow strip lying between the foot-hills and the Great Desert
to the south. The Khurāsān road traverses the province
from end to end, going from Ray in the Jibál province to
Nishāpār in Khurāsān, and the chief towns of Kûmis are, so to
speak, strung along this line. At the present day the name
Kûmis is become obsolete. The province is included for the most
part within the limits of modern Khurāsān, while its extreme
western end forms an outlying district of Ray or modern Tihrān'.
The capital town of the province was Dāmghān, which the
Arabs wrote Ad-Dāmghān, and which in accordance with their
usage is often referred to as Kūmis (sc. Madinah Kūmis, ‘the
* For the map of these provinces see p. 185, Map v. Muk. 353. Yak.
iv. 203. Mst. 191. The Arab spelling was Kāmis (with dotted k), the Persian
form is Kāmis ; Mustawfi, however, calls it Diyār Kāmis, ‘the Lands of
Kāmis.’
CHAP. XXVI] KÜMIS, TABARISTAN, AND JURJAN. 365
City of Kûmis'), the capital thus taking to itself the name of the
province. Dāmghān, according to Ibn Hawkal, had a paucity
of water-supply, and hence little cultivation, but the inhabitants
manufactured excellent cloth-stuffs which were largely exported.
Mukaddasi reports Dāmghān to have fallen much to ruin at the
end of the 4th (I oth) century; but it was well fortified, and had
three gates, of which he names two, the Báb-ar-Ray and the Bâb
Khurāsān. He says that there were two markets, the upper and the
lower; and a fine Friday Mosque stood in the main street, with
water tanks “like those of Marv.’ The extraordinary windiness of
the town is mentioned by all the later authorities. Yākūt and
Others state that there was a ceaseless wind blowing down from
a neighbouring valley, so that the trees of Dāmghān were always
waving about. Within the city was a great building, dating from
the days of the Chosroes, which divided the waters flowing to
Dāmghān into I2O channels for irrigation purposes. Excellent
pears were grown in the town gardens. The walls of Dāmghān,
Mustawfi reports, were Io, ooo paces in circuit. Yākūt adds that
One day's journey from Dāmghān (three leagues according to
Mustawfi) up in the mountains, and visible from the town, was the
great castle of Gird-kūh, which had been a celebrated fortress of
the Assassins. This, writes Mustawfi, was called Diz Gunbadān,
‘the Domed Fort,’ and its district, which was very fertile, was
known as Manşūrābād. Mustawfi further speaks of a gold mine
in the hills near Dāmghān at Kūh Zar (Gold Mountain), but
the situation of the place is not given'.
The second town of Kûmis, for size, was Bistām (or Bastám,
now Bustām), which Ibn Hawkal states to have been situated
in the most fertile region of the whole province. Its gardens
produced abundant fruit, and Mukaddasi refers to its magnificent
Friday Mosque, which stood ‘like a fortress' in the market-place.
Nāsir-i-Khusraw, who visited the town in 438 (1 O46), appears to
regard it as the capital of the province, for he calls it the City
of Kāmis. He refers to the tomb here, already celebrated, of
the great Süfi Shaykh Abu Yazid, more generally known as
Bayazid Bistāmi, who had died and was buried here in 260 (874),
1 I. K. 23. Kud. 20 I. I. H. 27 I. Muk. 355, 356. Yak. ii. 539. Kaz.
ii. 245. Mst. 191, 204.
366 KÜMIS, TABARISTAN, AND JURJAN. [CHAP.
and whose shrine is still at the present day greatly venerated.
Yākūt, speaking from personal experience, praises the apples of
Bistām, and says that on a neighbouring hill-top stood a great
castle with strong walls, said to date from the days of the Chosroes,
having been built by Shāpār Dhū-l-Aktāf (Sapor II). Yākūt also
commends the markets of the city, and its general air of prosperity,
and Ibn Batūtah who visited it in the 8th (14th) century confirms
this account, referring also to the shrine over the tomb of the Sûfi
saint'.
Four leagues from Bistām, on the road towards Astarābād, was
the town of Khurkān, a place of some importance in the 7th and
8th (13th and 14th) centuries. Mustawfi refers to it as a village,
with a good climate and plentiful water-supply, and it was famous
for the tomb of the local saint Abu-l-Hasan Kharkāni. About 50
miles south-east of Bistām, and on the edge of the Great Desert,
is the little town of Biyār, ‘the Wells,” which is now called Biyār-
Jumand. Mukaddasi describes it in the 4th (1 oth) century as
a small town with no Friday Mosque, but possessing a castle,
good markets, and fertile fields, where grapes and other fruits
were produced. Camels and sheep were also numerous. A
small mosque for daily prayers stood in the inner castle, and the
town was fortified, having three iron gates in its walls, with a
single gate leading to the Castle precincts. Mustawfi speaks
favourably of the temperate climate and excellent corn crops.
Less than half-way between Dāmghān and Ray is the city of
Samnán, or Simnán, on the Khurāsān road, of which Mukaddasi
notices the fine Friday Mosque standing in the market-place,
with its great water tanks. Mustawfi mentions the pistachios of
Samnân as famous, and a varied abundance of fruit was grown.
He also mentions Ähavān, a small town lying between Samnán
and Dāmghān, noteworthy for several tombs of holy men, and
for the plentiful crops of both corn and fruit that were raised
in its neighbourhood”.
* I. H. 271. Muk. 356. N. K. 3. Yak. i. 623. I. B. iii. 82. The city
of Shāhrūd, a couple of miles South of Bistām, which is at the present time the
centre of trade and population in these parts, is not mentioned by any of the
Arab or Persian geographers, so that the Sani'-ad-Dawlah confesses he could
not discover when it was built. A/?rdt-a/-Buldºn, i. 2 Io.
* Muk. 356, 357. Kaz. ii. 243. Yak. ii. 424. Mst. 186, 191. Khurkän
XXVI] KÚMIS, TABARISTAN, AND JURJAN. 367
The westernmost town of Kûmis, also on the Khurāsān road,
and the first important place east of Ray, was Khuvár, written
Al-Khuwär by the Arabs, which Ibn Hawkal in the 4th ( Ioth)
century describes as a pleasant little town, a. º of a mile in
diameter, very populous, with streams that came down from the
great Damāvand mountain flowing through its lands. Khūvár,
he adds, was the coldest place of all Kûmis, but its fields were
very fertile. Kazvini says that much cotton was grown here for
export; and Mustawfi records that the place was also famous
for its corn and ‘Shaltāk,” or rice in the husk. To distinguish
this from the town of the like name in Fårs (see p. 279) it was
generally spoken of as Khuvâr of Ray, and it is thus mentioned in
the campaigns of Timür Mustawfi, further, says that this Khuvár
was also known as Mahallah-i-Bāgh-' the Garden Place —in
Persian.
Of the products of Kûmis, Mukaddasi states that a peculiarly
valuable kind of cotton napkin was made in this province. These
famous napkins (mandi/) were woven large and small, plain and
ribbed, with a coloured border, and of so fine a texture as to fetch
20oo dirhams (about 4,80) apiece. Kûmis also produced woollen
stuffs for robes, and the head-veils called ſay/asón'.
As we have seen, the province of Kûmis was traversed in its
length by the great Khurāsān road, and this is given in all the
Itineraries, from Ibn Khurdādbih down to Mustawfi. Leaving
Ray the road goes in three marches to Khuvār, one march
beyond which was Kasr or Kariyat-al-Milh (Salt Castle or
Village), in Persian called Dih Namak, as given by Mustawfi,
which is its present name. The next stage, according to all the
Itineraries, was Rās-al-Kalb, ‘Dog's Head,” a name not now
found on the map, but the situation is that of the strange
fortress-town of Lásgird (a name wanting in all the medieval
is the pronunciation given by Kazvini ; the name is identical in form (without
vowels) with Kharrakān in the Jibál province, with which it must not be con-
founded.
1 I. H. 270. Muk. 367. Kaz. ii. 243. Mst. I 91, 196. A. Y. ii. 212.
The site of Khuvár is occupied at present by the town of Aradūn, but the
surrounding district still preserves the older name, Khuvār, of its former chief
City.
368 KÜMIS, TABARISTAN, AND JURJAN. [CHAP.
geographers) which now crowns a bluff overlooking the desert
plain. Samnán is one long march beyond this, and Dāmghān
(which the earlier Itineraries give as Kūmis) again one long
march to the eastward. One march beyond Dāmghān was Al-
Haddādah (the Forge), which in Mustawfi is given under the
alternative name of Mihmān-Dūst (“Guest Friend'). From here it
was a day’s march up to Bistām; or keeping the lower road the
stage was at the post-house, lying two leagues from that city,
. was, and is still, known as the village of Badhash, from
which you enter the province of Khurāsān, going by the post-road
to Nishāpúr. Further, Mukaddasi gives the road, in 3 days' march,
from Bistâm to Biyār, and from Biyār it was 25 leagues across the
desert back west to Dāmghān".
Tabaristán or Mážandardin.
The region of high mountains,—for the most part occupied by
what is, at the present day, known as the Alburz chain” lying
along the south coast of the Caspian Sea, being to the east and
* I. K. 22, 23. Kud. 200, 20I. I. R. 169, 17o (giving details of the
country traversed). Ist. 2 I 5, 216. I. H. 274, 275. Muk. 37 I, 372. Mst.
196. For an illustration representing modern Lásgird see H. W. Bellew,
A row, the Indus to the 7'igrés, p. 404. In regard to Badhash it is curious that
Yākūt in his Dictionary gives the name once rightly spelt, and then again (but
in error) under the letter n as AWadhash. Yak. i. 530; iv. 773.
* Alburz, now generally pronounced Elburz, is the name at the present
time given to the great mountain range dividing the high plateau of Persia
from the lowlands of the Caspian Sea. This name, however, appears in none
of the earlier Arab geographers, who give no single appellation to the range.
Alburz is Persian, and according to Vullers (Lexicon Persico-Zatinum, s.v.)
is derived from two Zend words signifying ‘High Mountain.’ Mustawfi
(p. 202), who is perhaps the first authority to mention the name, used it in
a very vague sense. In his chapter on the mountains of Persia he says that
Alburz is a high range that runs continuous with the mountains of Bāb-al-
Abwab (i.e. the Caucasus): “they are indeed the great mountains which are
continuous, and form a chain, extending for over a thousand leagues, from
Turkistán (in Central Asia) to the Hijāz (in Arabia), so that many consider
them to be the (fabled) mountains of Kāf (which encircled the earth) and
on the west they adjoin the mountains of Gurjistán (Georgia).” For the
Alburz peak of the Caucasus see above, p. 181.
XXVI] RÚMIS, TABARISTAN, AND JURJAN. 369
to the north of Kûmis, was called Tabaristān by the earlier Arab
geographers. Zabar has the signification of ‘Mountain’ in the
local dialect, whence Tabaristán would mean ‘the Mountain Land.’
In the 7th (13th) century, about the time of the Mongol
conquest, the name of Tabaristān appears to have fallen into
disuse, being replaced by Mâzandarán, which since that date
has been the common appellation of this province. Some-
times also Mázandarān was held to include the neighbouring
province of Jurjān. Yākūt, who is one of the first to mention the
name Măzandarān, writes that he does not know exactly when it
came into use ; and, though never found in the older books, it was
in his day already generally current throughout the country. Prac-
tically the terms Tabaristān and Măzandarān were then synony-
mous, but while the former name was applied primarily to the
high mountains, and only included in a secondary use the narrow
strip of lowland along the sea-shore running from the delta of the
Safid Rūd to the south-eastern angle of the Caspian, Măzandarán
appears in the first instance to have denoted these lowlands, and
then included the mountain region as subsidiary thereto. The
name Tabaristán is at the present day obsolete.
During the earlier period of the Caliphate this province
was politically of little importance, and it was in fact the last
portion of the Sassanian kingdom to accept Islām. For more
than a century after the Arab conquest of the rest of Persia the
native rulers—called the Ispahbads of Tabaristān-were inde-
pendent in their mountain fastnesses, and until the middle of
the 2nd (8th) century their coinage continued to be struck with
Pahlavi legends, and the Zoroastrian faith was dominant throughout
the forests and fens of the great mountain range. In the 4th (Ioth)
century, according to Mukaddasi, garlic, rice, and flax, with water-
fowl and fish, were the chief products of the country, which, unlike
the rest of Persia, had an abundant rainfall. At a later date,
according to Kazvini, sericulture flourished, silk being plentifully
exported. Wool-stuffs, carpets, veils, napkins, and cloth-stuffs
were also largely manufactured, and various woods were cut in
the forests, especially box-wood and that called Khalanj, of which
arrows, bowls, and other utensils, were made. The houses in
Tabaristán were built of wood and reeds, for, as Ibn Hawkal
LE S. 24
37O KÜMIS, TABARISTAN, AND JURJAN. [CHAP.
remarks, the rains were heavy, both summer and winter. They
were built with domed roofs for the like reason".
The capital of Tabaristán under the later Abbasids was Amul,
though the Táhirid governor, in the 3rd (9th) century, had
generally resided at Sāriyah. Amul, according to Ibn Hawkal,
was in his day a larger place than Kazvin and very populous.
Mukaddasi describes the town as possessing a hospital (Bimar-
istān) and two Friday Mosques—one, the Old Mosque, standing
among trees on the market-place, the New Mosque being near
the city wall. Each mosque had a great portico. The merchants
of Amul did much trade. Rice was grown plentifully in the
Country round, and a large river which ran through the town was
used for the irrigation of the fields. To this description Yākūt
adds no new details, but Mustawfi, remarking on the hot, damp
climate, says that dates, grapes, nuts, Oranges, shaddocks, and
lemons grew here abundantly, and the fragrant essences made in
the city were celebrated far and wide. The port of Amul, where its
river flowed out into the Caspian, was the small town of ‘Ayn-al-
Humm, a name which Yākūt writes Ahlum, and describes as of
no great size. Timür ravaged Amul at the close of the 8th (14th)
century, destroying the three castles of Māhānah Sar, which lay
four leagues distant from the city towards the sea-coast.
The second, and the earlier, capital of Tabaristān was Sāriyah,
now called Sāri, which lies to the eastward of Amul. Mukaddasi
describes Sāriyah as a populous place where much cloth was
manufactured, and its markets were famous. There was a small
castle with a ditch, and a Friday Mosque where a fine orange-tree
grew, also an immense fig-tree on the town bridge. The bridges
of boats here were renowned. Of Sāriyah in later times little is
reported; it suffered much in the 7th (13th) century during the
Mongol invasion, and when Mustawfi wrote was almost a complete
ruin, though its lands produced an abundance of grapes and corn,
and silk was still manufactured from the produce of the worms
reared here”.
* I. H. 270, 271. Muk. 354. Kaz. ii. 270. Yak. iii. 502. For the
word Zabar, see above, p. 217.
* I. H. 27 1, 272, 275. Muk, 354, 359. Yak. i. 354, 409. Mst. Io9.
A. Y. i. 391, 57 I. A. F. 437.
XXVI] KÜMIS, TABARISTAN, AND JURJAN. 37 I
The great mountain of Damāvand dominates the whole of
Tabaristān, and its snow-capped summit is visible from the plains
of Persia a hundred miles and more to the south of Tihrān–
Mustawfi even says from a hundred leagues distant, and he notes
that the peak was always covered with snow. In Persian legend
Dunbāvand, as the name is written by the earlier authorities,
figures as the home of the Simurgh, the fabulous bird which nursed
and protected Zāl, the father of Rustam, and Mustawfi relates a
number of romantic stories in connection with the national hero.
According to Ibn Hawkal the great mountain was visible from
Sāvah, “rising up like a dome in the midst of the other high
mountains,’ and he was of opinion that no one had ever climbed
to the Summit, from which, he adds, smoke was always seen to
issue. Magicians much frequented it, and many legends were
told of it, relating more especially how that ancient tyrant of
Persia, Ad-Duhhāk (Zuhāk), still lived in its recesses.
Damāvand gave its name both to a small town lying on its
southern spurs, which Mustawfi writes was also called Pishyān,
and to the broad fertile district spreading round its flanks. Of
this district, in the 4th (Ioth) century, the chief town was Wimah,
which with the neighbouring town of Shalanbah, are described
by Ibn Hawkal as places famous for their corn lands and vine-
yards. Yākūt, who had passed through Wimah (or Waymah)
and found it a ruin, states that the castle of Firſzkūh was
visible from it. This latter castle he had also visited, and Mus-
tawfi records that it took its water from the head of the stream
that flowed out to the plain through Khuvâr of Ray in Kāmis.
Firſzkūh was one of the castles of Măzandarán which are men-
tioned as having been besieged and taken by Timár. Another
equally famous fortress on the slopes of Damāvand was the castle
of Ustānāvand, or Ustunābād, which, according to Kazvíni, had
never been taken for 3ooo years, till in 613 (1216) the Mongols
stormed it. Yākūt, who says it was also called Jarhud and lay
Io leagues distant from Ray, describes it as having been the
stronghold of the ancient Magian ruler of the country, the
Ispahbad. The last of the line, he adds, was overthrown here
by Yahyà the Barmecide, who carried captive the daughters of
the Persian chief to Baghdād, where one of them, called
24–2
372 KÜMIS, TABARISTAN, AND JURJAN. [CHAP.
Bahriyyah, married the Caliph Manşūr and became the mother of
Mahdi, the father of Hârân-ar-Rashid. At a later date this great
fortress, which had been restored in 350 (961) by Fakhr-ad-Dawlah
the Buyid, fell into the hands of the Assassins”.
The medieval geographers mention the names of many for-
tresses and towns in Tabaristán which are no longer to be
found on the map, having been brought to ruin either in the
Mongol invasion of the 7th (13th) century, or else stormed
and destroyed by Timür, who ravaged Măzandarân more than
Once at the close of the 8th (14th) century. Moreover, the
names of most of these lost towns and fortresses not occurring
in the Itineraries, it is impossible to mark their position, even
approximately, on the map. Ibn Hawkal in the 4th (1 oth) century
describes three mountain districts, well wooded and very fertile,
which lay south of Sāriyah, about a day's march from this town,
and stretching westward towards the frontier of Daylam, in the
province of Gīlān. The first of these was the Jabal Fădăsbän,
the Mountains of Bādāsbän (in the Persian form of the word),
this being the name of the ruling family, who as semi-independent
chiefs held these districts for nearly 8oo years, namely from the
time of the Moslem conquest down to the Mongol invasion. The
whole of this mountain district was covered with villages, of which
the largest was named Kariyat Manşūr, ‘Manşūr's Village,’ and
another was Uram Khāst or Uram Khåstah with an upper and
a lower village, these places all lying about a day's march from
Sāriyah, but throughout the mountain side there was no town of
sufficient size to have a Friday Mosque.
Adjoining Fădăsbán was the mountain district called the
Jabal Kârin after the famous family of this name, which it is said
was of Parthian origin; in any case the names of nobles of the
Kârin occur in the history of the Sassanians, and in Moslem
times they still governed this district. The great fortress strong-
hold of the Kärins, which they had held since Sassanian times,
was at Firrim, and the chief centre of population was at the town
of Sihmār (or Shihmār) where there was the only Friday Mosque
* Ist. 202. I. H. 265, 270, 271. Muk. 392. Kaz. ii. 195. Yak. i. 243,
244; iii. 930; iv. 944. Mst. 191, 203, 204. A. Y. ii. 577. Firãzkūh still
exists, but the site of Ustānāvand appears to be unknown.
XXVI] IKUMIS, TABARISTAN, AND JURJAN. 373
of all this region. The position of Firrim, unfortunately, is not
exactly given in any of the Itineraries. It is mentioned by Yākūt,
and also in the 8th (14th) century by Mustawfi, who speaks of it
as lying on the borders of Kāmis. The third mountain region
was the Jabal-ar-Rübanj, lying north of Ray, and therefore nearer
to the Daylam frontier. Of this no towns or villages are men-
tioned, but it is said to have been extremely fertile and well
watered, the mountain slopes being covered with trees and
thickets'.
One day's march, or five leagues, to the west of Amul, in the
plain near the coast, was the town of Nâtil or Nâtilah, and a like
distance further to the west of this was Sālās, or Shālūs, which
Mukaddasi describes as a city having a castle built of stone, with
a Friday Mosque adjoining. The name was also spelt Sâlûsh,
and near it lay two other towns, namely Al-Kabirah and Kajjah.
In the accounts of the campaigns of Timür Shālūs is written
JālūS, and all this country appears to have been permanently
ruined during his wars, together with the mountainous region to
the South, namely Rūyān and Rustamdār”.
The city of Kalār, which Yākūt seems to think was identical
with the above-mentioned Kajjah, was one march from Shālūs,
but in the mountains—and from Kalâr it was one march on to
the Daylam frontier. There is some confusion in the names,
but Kalār, Kajjah, and Rūyān appear all to refer to neighbouring
towns, if not to one and the same town, and Rūyān further was
the name of one of the great districts in the mountains on the
* Ist. 205, 206. I. H. 268, 269. Yak. i. 212; iii. 324, 890. Mst. 191.
For Fādāsbán the reading Kádásiyán has been wrongly printed in the texts
of Istakhri and other geographers by a shifting of the diacritical points, and
hence these people have often been supposed to represent the ancient Cadusii
of Strabo ; see Nöldeke, Geschächte der Perser uſed Araber 27tr Zeit der Sassa-
midem, p. 151, note 2, who explaims that under the Sassanians the Bādāsbän
were the civil governors of the district, as against the Ispahbads, who were the
military commanders of this, the frontier province. See also Justi, Iranisches
'amenbuch, p. 156, s.v. ‘Karen,” and p. 245, s.v. ‘Patkospan.” For the list
of the Bādāsbän chiefs in Moslem times see G. Melgunof, Das sidliche Üfer
des Kasp?schen Meeres, p. 50, and for the Kärin chiefs, idem, p. 52.
* I. H. 275. Muk. 359. I. F. 305. Yak. iii. 13, 237, 504; iv. 726.
A. Y. i. 391. Shálás is said to be only eight leagues from Ray, but this must
be a mistake if it lay on or near the shore of the Caspian.
374 KÜMIS, TABARISTAN, AND JURJAN. [CHAP.
western border of Tabaristān. Abu-l-Fidā says that the city of
Rùyān was also known as Shāristān, and that it crowned the
summit of the pass 16 leagues from Kazvin. According to Yākūt
Rùyān was the capital city of the mountain district of Tabaristān,
just as Āmul was of the lowland plains; it had fine buildings and
its gardens were famous for their productiveness. Near Rūyān
(or Kalār) was the little town of Sa‘īdābād,
The great fortress of Tâk (the Arch) on the frontier of
Daylam, and the last refuge of the Ispahbad prince of Tabaristān
who was conquered in the time of the Caliph Manşūr, must have
been situated in this district of Rūyān. The place is described
at some length both by Yâkút and Kazvini, who quote older
writers. Tâk was deemed an impregnable stronghold, and had
existed since the days of the Sassanian kings of Persia. It was
situated high up in the mountains, and was only reached by a
tunnel a mile long (it is said) which had been pierced through
the encircling cliffs. The tunnel led to an open valley surrounded
by precipices in which were many caverns, and from one of these
a powerful spring gushed out, and after flowing a short distance
disappeared into the depths of a neighbouring cave. Yākūt adds
a long account of the wonders of this place.
At the head-waters of the great Shāh Rūd —the eastern
affluent of the Safid Rūd (see above, p. 170)—lay the district
of Rustamdār, which Mustawfi describes as comprising near
3oo villages, and this country, which was watered by the numerous
tributaries of the Shāh Rūd, thus lay between Kazvin and Amul,
and to the eastward of the Rūyān district. On the Shāh Rūd, as
already described in Chapter XV, p. 221, were the chief castles of
the Ismailians or Assassins, and probably in this Rustamdār district
also was Kalām, described by Yākūt as an ancient fortress of
Tabaristān, which had been in the hands of these sectaries, and
was destroyed by Sultan Muhammad, Son of Malik Shāh the
Saljúk'.
Two leagues to the eastward of Amul, and on the coast road,
lay the town of Milah, and three leagues beyond this Barji, which
was one march from Sāriyah. The city of Mamtir or Māmatir,
* I. H. 275. Yak. ii. 873; iii. 93, 490, 504; iv. 24o, 296, 297. Kaz. ii.
238. A. F. 435. Mst. I 9o.
xxvi) KÜMIS, TABARISTAN, AND JURJAN. 375
one march from either Amul or Sāriyah, and six leagues from the
coast, is identical with the later Bârfarāsh. It had a Friday
Mosque, Yākūt says, and much fertile land lay adjacent to
the city. Near Sāriyah, and probably to the eastward, were
the towns called Nāmiyah (or Nāmishah), with a fine district,
20 leagues from Sāriyah, and Mihrawān, Io leagues from Sāriyah,
where there was a Friday Mosque and a garrison of Iooo
men, but unfortunately the exact position of these two places is
quite uncertain. On the eastern frontier of Tabaristān, and three
marches from Sāriyah, on the road to Astarābād, from which it was
one march distant, lay the town of Tamis, or Tamisah, standing
on the great causeway across the marshes which, according to
Yākūt, had been built to carry the high road by King Anthshirwān
the Just'.
At the south-east angle of the Caspian is the Bay of Ashurādah,
as it is now named, where a long spit of sand stretches out east-
ward till it almost reaches the Jurjān coast. This bay with its
island or peninsula is described by Mustawfi under the name of
Nim Murdán. The settlement here was very populous in the
8th (14th) century, and was a harbour for ships from all parts of
the Caspian. The port was but three leagues distant from
Astarābād, and the town behind it which carried on a brisk
trade was called Shahrābād. The neighbouring district, which
produced a great deal of silk, and where corn lands and vineyards
abounded, was known as Kabūd Jāmah. It had been a very
rich country, but was entirely ruined by the wars of Timür at the
close of the 8th (14th) century. The city of Rū‘ad, or Rūghad,
which is also mentioned as passed by Timúr on his march into
Măzandarān, was probably of the Kabūd Jāmah district. It was,
says Mustawfi, a fair-sized town, being 4ooo paces in circuit, and
it stood in the midst of many fertile lands, where much corn and
cotton, besides various fruits, were grown in abundance.
Of the products of Tabaristān, besides the commodities already
* I. H. 275. Yak. iii. 503, 504, 547; iv. 398, 642, 699, 733. The earliest
mention of Bårfarāsh, under the form Bârah Farāsh Dih (‘the Village where
Loads are Sold'), occurs in Haft Zālām of Ahmad Rāzi, a work of the Ioth
(16th) century; see Dorn, Muhammedanische Quellen, iv. p. 99 of the
Persian text.
376 KÜMIS, TABARISTAN, AND JURJAN. [CHAP.
referred to on page 369, Mukaddasi mentions fine cloth for robes,
and stuffs for the ſay/asſize veils, also coarse linen cloths that were
woven largely for export. Of natural products the Khalanj wood
already named was cut and sent away in the rough to be made
into bowls and other utensils by the Craftsmen in Ray. The
Khalanj is described as a tree that produced a variegated and
sweet-smelling wood, of which the beads of chaplets were some-
times made, and the best kind grew only on the Tabaristān
mountains".
Jurjón.
The province of Jurjān, or Gurgān, as the Persians pronounced
the name, lying at the south-eastern corner of the Caspian, con-
sisted for the most part of the broad plains and valleys watered
by the two rivers Jurjān and Atrak. In earlier days it was
always held to be a province by itself, though dependent on
Khurāsān, but after the changes brought about by the Mongol
conquest, it was annexed politically to Măzandarán. Like other
districts near the southern shore of the Caspian it was overrun
and devastated by the Mongol hordes in the 7th (13th) century,
and then again by Timár at the close of the 8th (14th) century.
Jurjān, as Mukaddasi writes, being rich in streams, its plains
and hills were covered with Orchards producing dates, oranges, and
grapes in abundance. The most important river of the province
was that generally called by its name, the Jurjān river, which
Mukaddasi in the 4th (Ioth) century states was then known as
the river Tayfūrī. The river Atrak he does not name. In the
8th (14th) century Mustawfi gives the name as the Āb-i-Jurjān,
and says that the Jurjān river rose in the valley of Shahr-i-Naw
(New Town), whence, passing through the plain of Sultân Darin,
it reached the city of Jurjān, past which it flowed, and thence
entered the Caspian, near the island of Abaskún in the bay of
Nim Murdán. Throughout its course the stream was deep, almost
* Muk, 367. Mst. 190, 191. J. N. 339, 341. A. Y. i. 349. The forms
of Ashurādah Bay and of the peninsula have of course changed greatly
since the 14th century, when Mustawfi wrote, and the exact sites of the town
and port are unknown. -
XXVI] KÜMIS, TABARISTAN, AND JURJAN. 377
unfordable, so that travellers were often drowned in crossing it;
and in flood-time its waters were carried off by channels and used
up in irrigation, though much always ran to waste.
The river Atrak is a longer stream than the Jurjān, and
rises in the plains of Khurāsān, between Nisã and Khabūshān,
near the sources of the Mashhad river, which latter flows off
South-east, and in the opposite direction. The Atrak is very deep
and like the Jurjān mostly unfordable, as Mustawfi writes, and
flowing along by the Dihistán frontier, on the northern side of
the Jurjān province, reaches the Caspian after a course of nearly
I 2 O leagues. The name Atrak is said to be merely a plural form
of the word Turk, and the River of the Turks was so called from
those who once lived on its banks. No name, however, appears
to be given to this stream by any of the earlier Arab geographers,
and Mustawfi in the 8th (14th) century is one of the first to call
it the Atrak, by which appellation it is still known".
The capital of Jurjān is the city of the same name, at the
present day called Min Gurgān, which Ibn Hawkal in the 4th
(Ioth) century describes as a fine town, built of clay bricks,
enjoying a far drier climate than Amul, for less rain fell in Jurjān
than in Tabaristán. The city consisted of two parts, one on
either side of the Jurjān river, which was here traversed by a bridge
of boats, and Jurjān was more properly the name of the eastern
half of the town. On the west side lay Bakrābād, the suburb, and
the two parts of the city together, according to the description of
Ibn Hawkal, who had been here, were nearly as large as Ray.
The fruit from the gardens round was abundant, and silk was
produced in great quantities. The main quarter of Jurjān, that on
the east bank, Mukaddasi calls Shahrastān; it had fine mosques
and markets, where the pomegranates, olives, water-melons, and
egg-plants, with Oranges, lemons, and grapes of the neighbouring
gardens were sold cheaply, and were all of superexcellent flavour.
The town was intersected by canals, crossed by arched bridges or
by planks laid on boats. A Maydān, or public Square, faced the
* Muk. 354, 367. Mst. 2 12, 213. J. N. 341. Hfz. 32 a. The name
Atrak is written (and pronounced) with the second vowel short, while the
plural of Turk is Atrák; hence the usual explanation of the name is probably
GºrrCI). COllS.
378 KÜMIS, TABARISTAN, AND JURJAN. [CHAP.
governor’s palace, and this quarter of the town had nine gates.
The defect of Jurjān was the great heat of its climate, and the
flies were numerous, as well as other insects, especially bugs of a
size so large as commonly to be known as ‘the wolves’ (Gurgān).
Bakrābādh, as Mukaddasi spells the name, was also a populous
city with its own mosques, and the buildings extended back for
a considerable distance from the river, and for some distance
along its western bank.
When Kazvini wrote in the 7th (13th) century Jurjān was
famous among the Shi‘ahs for the shrine called Gūr-i-Surkh,
‘the Red Tomb,' said to be that of one of the descendants of
‘Ali, whom Mustawfi identifies as Muhammad, son of Ja‘far-as-
Sädik, the sixth Imām. Mustawfi reports that the city had been
rebuilt by the grandson of Malik Shāh the Saljúk, and that its
walls were 7ooo paces in circuit. In the 8th (14th) century, when
he wrote, the town lay for the most part in ruins, never having
recovered the ravages of the Mongol invasion. He praises, how-
ever, the magnificent fruit grown here, and besides those kinds
mentioned above names the jujube-tree as bearing freely here, so
that trees which were only two or three years old gave good fruit,
twice in each season. The population were all Shi‘ahs in his
time, but they were not numerous. In the year 795 (1393) Timür,
who had devastated all Mâzandarān and the neighbouring country,
stopped at Jurjān and built for himself here on the banks of the
river the great palace of Shåsman, which is especially referred to
by Hāfiz Abrū’.
The second city of the Jurjān province is Astarābād, near the
frontier of Măzandarân. Mukaddasi describes it as a fine town
in the 4th (Ioth) century, with the best climate of all the region
round. Raw silk was its chief product, and in his day the fortress
was already in ruin, for the Buyids had ravaged all this country
during their wars against the Ziyārids; and Mukaddasi adds that
| I. H. 272, 273. Muk. 357, 358. Kaz. ii. 235. MSt. 190. A. Y. i. 578.
Hfz. 32 a. During the 4th (Ioth) century Jurjān was governed by a native
dynasty, the Ziyārids, whose rule extended over Tabaristān and the neighbour-
ing lands. Of these Ziyārids one of the most famous was Kābās, who died in
403 (IoI2) and whose tomb, called the Gunbad-i-Kābās, is still to be seen
near the ruins of Jurjān city. C. E. Yate, A7,247 asa” and Sistan, pp. 239–24 I.
XXVI] RÚMIS, TABARISTAN, AND JURJAN. 379
there was the Friday Mosque built at the time of the first Moslem
Conquest still standing in the market-place near the city gate.
Yākūt and Mustawfi merely confirm the above account, praising
the climate of Astarābād and the abundant supplies, but adding
no fresh details. The port on the Caspian of both Jurjān and
Astarābād was at Åbaskūn, given as one day's march distant from
either city, but the site would appear to have been engulfed in the
sea during the 7th (13th) century, following on the events of the
Mongol invasion. Istakhri and Ibn Hawkal, writing in the 4th (Ioth)
century, describe Ábaskûn as a considerable market for the silk
trade, being the border station at that time against the Turks and
Ghuzz, and the chief port for the coasting trade of the Caspian,
Sailing towards Gīlān. It was protected by a strong Castle
built of burnt brick, and the Friday Mosque was in its market-
place. Mukaddasi writes of it as ‘the great harbour of Jurjān,”
and the Caspian itself, Yākūt adds, was often called the Sea of
Ábaskún. In history Abaskûn is celebrated as having been the
final refuge of Muhammad, the last reigning Khwārizm-Shāh, who,
fleeing before the Mongol hordes, died here miserably in 617
(1220)'.
Six days’ journey (or 50 leagues) north of Åbaskún, and four
marches from Jurjān city, was the settlement of Dihistán in the
district of the same name, the outpost in the 4th (Ioth) century
of the Turk frontier. Ibn Hawkal speaks of Dihistān as lying
near the Caspian shore. The only settlements were small villages,
with some gardens, but only a sparse population. Adjacent
was a shallow bay of the Caspian where boats anchored and
much fishing was carried on by the coast people. The chief
settlement was called Ākhur, which Mukaddasi refers to as a city,
surrounded by twenty-four villages, ‘and these are the most
populous of all the Jurjān province.’ In Akhur was a minaret,
or tower, which could be seen from a great distance away in
the neighbouring desert.
To the eastward of Ākhur was Ar-Rubăţ, ‘the Guard-house,
an important settlement at the entrance of the desert route going
* Ist. 213, 214. I. H. 273, 274. Muk. 358. Yak. i. 55, 242. Mst. I90,
225. Ibn Serapion (folio 466) states that the town of Åbaskån lay on the
Jurjān river, near where it flowed out into the Caspian. Mas. Zanbih 6o, 179.
38O KÜMIS, TABARISTAN, AND JURJAN. [CHAP.
to Khwārizm. Mukaddasi speaks of it as having three gates, and
though in his time it was for the most part in ruin, it was still
populous, with good markets and a few well-built houses, and fine
mosques. Of these last, the Old Mosque had been built on
wooden pillars, Mukaddasi says, and it was in his day half under-
ground. Another of the mosques had a beautiful minaret. Yākūt
mentions these and some other places in the Dihistán district,
namely the villages of Khartir, Farghāl, and Habráthán, but he
adds no details. Mustawfi, who gives the route from Jurjān to
Khwārizm across Dihistān, describes this as the frontier between
the Moslems and the heathen Turks and Kurds. The district
had a warm climate and a stream watered its fields, but there was
little fruit grown here".
Four stages from Dihistán on the desert border, where the
road started for crossing to Khwārizm, stood the city of Farāvah,
which is given by Istakhri as a settlement of the Ghuzz Desert.
In the 4th (Ioth) century it was strongly garrisoned by volunteers,
and there was a great Rubât, or guard-house, to protect the
country lying at the back of it against the Turkish inroads. Its
gardens and fields were small in extent and the town or settlement
numbered barely a thousand families. Mukaddasi Spells the
name Afrāvah, and Yākút says that it was a Rubåt built by ‘Abd
Allah, the Táhirid, during the reign of the Caliph Mamūn. From
its position there is little doubt that Farāvah is identical with the
modern Kizil Arvat, a corruption of Kizil Rubăt, ‘the Red Guard-
house.’ The names only of a number of other places in the
Jurjān province are given by Yākūt, these being the various villages
belonging to Jurjān city, or to Astarābād. No details, however, are
added, their positions are not indicated, and too often the reading
of the name is uncertain”.
Mukaddasi mentions, among the products for which Jurjān
1 The ruins of these towns lying on the border of the Khwārizm desert are
still to be seen at Misriyān, near the mountains now called the Kören Dāgh, but
all cultivation has long ceased in this district, which is now a waterless desert.
I. H. 277, 286. Muk. 358, 359. Yak. i. 59, 5oo; ii. 418, 633; iii. 88o;
iv. 949. Mst. I 9o, I97.
* Ist. 273. I. H. 324. Muk. 333. Yak. iii. 866. Mst. 197. For these
villages see for instance sixteen names given by Yākāt. Yak. ii. 137, 489,
782; iii. 323, 923, 930; iv. 277, 376, 395, 396, 555, 699, 728, 926, 927.
xxvi) KÚMIS, TABARISTAN, AND JURJAN. 381
was famous, a particular kind of face-veil woven of raw silk, which
was in his day largely exported to Yaman in Southern Arabia.
An inferior kind of brocade (dibáſ) was also largely manufactured,
and of fruits Jurjān was especially famous for its grapes, figs, and
olives".
The high roads through Tabaristān and Jurjān are not
numerous, since in the first-named country the mountains are for
roads almost impassable. Istakhri (duplicated by Ibn Hawkal)
and Mukaddasi give the road from Ray northwards across the great
chain to Amul, passing through Ask and Bulār (Pular), but many
of the stages are now difficult or impossible to identify. Travelling
westward from Amul along the coast, Ibn Hawkal and Istakhri
give the marches through Nätil and Sâlûs to the frontier of Gilān
(Daylam); also eastward from Amul to Astarābād and Jurjān city.
From Jurjān city north to Dihistān the stations are given by
Mukaddasi, as also by Mustawfi in his account of the road from
Bistám in Kāmis to the capital of Khwārizm. Mukaddasi also
gives the road from Bistâm to Jurjān city across the mountain
pass, through Juhaynah, which is described by Ibn Hawkal as
a fine village on a river. Lastly from Jurjān eastward into
Khurāsān Mukaddasi gives a route in 5 days to Isfarāyin in the
Juvayn plain, passing through Ajgh, which is now called Ashk.
This district will be described in the following chapter”.
*
* Muk. 367.
* Ist. 214–217. I. H. 274–276. Muk. 372, 373. Mst. I 97.
CHAPTER XXVII.
KHURASAN.
The four Quarters of Khurāsān. The Nishāpār quarter. Nīshāpār city, and
Shādyākh. The Nishāpār district. Tús and Mashhad, with its shrine.
Bayhak and Sabzivár. Juvayn, Jájarm, and Isfarāyin. Ustuvâ and
Küchán. Râdkân, Nisã, and Abivard. Kalāt. Khābarán and Sarakhs.
In old Persian Khurāsān means ‘the Eastern Land,’ and in the
earlier middle-ages the name was applied, generally, so as to
include all the Moslem provinces east of the Great Desert, as far
as the frontier of the Indian mountains. Khurāsān, therefore, was
taken in this larger sense to include all Transoxiana on the north-
east, besides Sijistān with Kūhistän on the south, and its outer
boundaries were the Chinese desert and the Pamir towards Central
Asia, with the Hindú Kush ranges towards India. Later, however,
these limits became more circumscribed, and Khurāsān as a province
of medieval Persia may conveniently be held to have extended
only as far as the Oxus on the north-east, but it still included all
the highlands beyond Herāt, in what is now the north-western
part of Afghānistän. Further, the country of the upper Oxus,
towards the Pamir, as known to the medieval Arabs, was always
counted as one of the outlying districts of Khurāsān.
Arab or medieval Khurāsān is conveniently divided into four
Quarters (Rub'), named from the four great cities which at
various times were, separately or conjointly, the capitals of the
province, to wit Naysabûr, Marv, Herāt, and Balkh. After
the first Moslem conquest the capitals of Khurāsān had been at
Marv and at Balkh. The princes of the Táhirid dynasty, how-
ever, shifted the centre of government westward, and under their
CHAP. xxv.11] KHURASAN. 383
sway Naysäbär became the Capital city of the province, being
also the chief town of the westernmost of the four Quarters".
In modern Persian the name is pronounced Nīshāpúr, the
Arab form being Naysabûr, which is from the old Persian Niv-
Shahpuhr, meaning ‘the good (thing, deed, or place) of Shâpúr,’
and the city is so called after the Sassanian king Shāpār II, who
had rebuilt it in the 4th century A.D., for Naysabûr owed its
foundation to Shāpār I, Son of Ardashīr Bābgân. Of the chief
towns of the Naysabûr district, in which was included most of the
province of Kūhistān already described, long lists are given by
the Arab geographers of the 3rd (9th) century, but these are
chiefly interesting for the archaic spelling of some of the names,
and many places named cannot now be identified”.
In early Moslem days Naysabûr was also known as Abrashahr,
meaning ‘Cloud-city’ in Persian, and as such appears as a mint
city on the early dirhams of both the Omayyad and Abbasid
Caliphs. The name irān-shahr—the City of irán–is also given
to it by Mukaddasi and others, but probably this was merely used
officially and as a title of honour. In the 4th (Ioth) century
Naysabûr was already a most populous place, measuring from half
a league to a league across every way, and consisting of the citadel
or fortress, the city proper, and an outer suburb. The chief
Friday Mosque stood in the suburb ; it had been built by ‘Amr
the Saffārid, and faced the public Square called Al-Mu‘askar, ‘the
Review Ground.’ Adjacent thereto was the palace of the governor,
which opened on another square called the Maydān-al-Husayniyin,
and not far from this was the prison—all three buildings standing
within a quarter of a league one of the other.
The fortress had two gates, the city four. These last were
named Bāb-al-Kantarah (the Bridge Gate), next the gate of the
street of Ma‘kil, then Bāb-al-Kuhandiz (the Fortress Gate), and
lastly the gate of the Takin bridge. The suburbs lying beyond
* Ist. 253, 254. I. H. 308, 309, 3 Io. Muk. 295. Mst. I 85.
* Ist. 258. I. H. 313. I. K. 24. Ykb. 278. I. R. 171. The first
syllable of the name Nishāpār in old Persian was AViv, or MŽ, which in
modern Persian exists in AViktº, ‘good'; the Arab diphthong Nay(sābār)
changes in modern Persian to the long vowel, becoming Nishapûr, for the Arab
A is in Persian pronounced A. Nöldeke, Sassaniden, p. 59.
384 KHURASAN. [CHAP.
and round both fortress and city, where the great markets were
situated, had many gates. Of these the chief were the gate of
the domes (Bāb-al-Kubăb), opening west, and on the opposite
quarter the war gate (Bāb Jang) towards the Bushtafrāsh district;
then to the South was the Báb Ahwasābād, and the names of some
Others are also given. The most famous market-places were those
known as Al-Murabba'ah-al-Kabirah, and Al-Murabba'ah-as-Sa-
ghirah (‘the great quadrangle' and ‘the little quadrangle'), of which
the great quadrangle was near the Friday Mosque, already men-
tioned. The little quadrangle was at some distance from the other,
in the western part of the suburbs, near the Maydān-al-Husayniyin
and the governor's palace. A long line of streets flanked by shops
went from one quadrangle to the other; and a like street of shops
Crossed this at right-angles, near the great quadrangle, going south
as far as the graveyard known as the Makābir-al-Husayniyin, and
extending north to the head of the bridge over the river.
In these market Streets were many hostels for the merchants,
and every sort of merchandise might be found each in its separate
mart, while cobblers, clothiers, bootmakers, and men of every trade
were abundantly represented. Every house in the city had its own
separate underground water channel, the supply coming from the
stream of the Wädi Saghāvar, which flowed down through Naysabûr
from the neighbouring village of Bushtankân. These water chan-
nels, which were under the inspection of a special officer within
the city, often ran as much as a hundred steps below the ground
level. Beyond the city the channels reached the surface, and were
here used for the irrigation of the garden lands.
No town in all Khurāsān, says Ibn Hawkal, was healthier or
more populous than NaySãbãr, being famous for its rich merchants,
and the store of merchandise Coming in daily by caravan. Cotton
and raw silk were its chief exports, and all kinds of stuff goods
were manufactured here. Mukaddasi fully bears out this account,
adding some further details. He says that there were forty-two
town quarters in Naysabûr, some of which were of the size
of half the city of Shirāz. The main streets (dar) leading to
the gates were nearly fifty in number. The great Friday Mosque,
which was built in four wards, dated, as already said, from the
days of ‘Amr the Saffārid. Its roof was supported on columns of
XXVII] KHURASAN. 385
burnt brick, and three arcades went round the great court. The
main building was ornamented with golden tiles, there were
eleven gates to the mosque, each flanked by marble columns,
and both the roof and walls were profusely ornamented.
The river of Naysabûr, as noted above, came from the village
of Bushtankān; it turned seventy mills, and from it the
numerous underground watercourses were led off, for the river
itself flowed past the place at a distance of a league. Within
the city and among the houses there were many wells of sweet
water".
Yākūt says that in his day, namely the 7th (13th) century, the
name of the city was commonly pronounced Nashāvūr. He
declares that in spite of the ruin which had been the result of
the great earthquakes in the year 540 (1145), followed by the
Sack of the place at the hands of the Ghuzz hordes in 548 (1153),
he had seen no finer city in all Khurāsān, and its gardens were
famous for their white currants (ribás) and for other fruits.
After this Ghuzz inroad, when Sultan Sanjar the Saljúk was
Carried away prisoner, and the city devastated, the inhabitants
for the most part removed to the neighbouring suburb of Shād-
yākh, which was then rebuilt, being surrounded with a wall and
enlarged by Al-Mu'ayyad, the governor, who acted in the name
of the captive Sultan Sanjar. This suburb of Shādyākh, or
Ash-Shādhyākh, had formerly been a garden, occupied by ‘Abd
Allah the Táhirid in the early part of the 3rd (9th) century, when
he made Naysábūr the seat of his government. Round his palace,
what had been originally the camp of his troops became the chief
Suburb of Naysäbär, which, after the Ghuzz invasion, took the place
of the capital. Yākūt, who spent some time at Nishapûr about
the year 613 (1216), lodged in Shādyākh, which he describes.
Shortly after this, namely in 618 (1221), the capital was taken and
sacked by the Mongols under Changiz Khān, as Yākūt himself
heard and reports, he having by this time sought safety in Mosul.
According to his information the Mongols left not one stone
standing upon another.
Nishapûr, however, must have quickly recovered from the
* Ist. 254, 255. I. H. 310–312. Muk. 31.4—316, 329.
LE S. 25
386 KHURASAN. [CHAP.
effects of the Mongol invasion, for when Ibn Batūtah was here in
the 8th (14th) century it was again a populous city, with a fine
mosque encircled by four colleges, while the plain round the city
was ‘a little Damascus’ for fertility, for it was watered by four
streams coming from the neighbouring hills. They manufactured
here, Ibn Batūtah adds, silk velvets called Áamżhá and weak/hk/,
and the markets were much frequented by foreign merchants.
Mustawfi, his contemporary, gives a long account of the city of
Nishāpār and of its district. He says that in the days of the
Chosroes, as it was reported, the old town of Naysabûr had been
Originally laid out on the plan of a chess-board, with eight squares
to each side. Then under the Saffārids Nīshāpār had increased
in size and wealth, becoming the chief city of Khurāsān, till the
year 605 (1208), when it was almost completely destroyed by
earthquakes. It was after this date, according to Mustawfi, that
Shādyākh first took its place as the centre of population, this
latter city having a wall 67 oo paces in circuit. Nishāpār, how-
ever, was forthwith rebuilt, but again destroyed by the earthquakes
in the year 679 (1280), when a third city of Nishāpār was re-
founded on a different site, and this was the place which Mustawfi
describes. Its walls then measured 15,000 paces in circuit, and
it stood at the foot of the hills, facing south. The water-supply
was plentiful, for the Nishāpār river, which rose in the mountains
two leagues or more to the eastward, had a sufficient current to
turn 40 mills before it came to the town. He relates, further,
that most of the houses in Nishapûr had cisterns for storing water
in the dry season.
The present city of Nishapûr lies on the eastern side of a
semicircular plain, surrounded by mountains, and facing the
desert, which is to the south. This plain is watered by many
streams coming down from the hills to the north and east,
and Mustawfi gives the names of a great number of these,
which, after irrigating the lands round Nīshāpār, become
lost in the desert. Five leagues north of the city, at the
head-waters of the Nishāpār river, was a little lake in the
mountains at the top of the pass, called Chashmah Sabz, ‘the
Green Spring,’ from which, according to Mustawfi, two streams
running west and east took their rise, the eastern stream flowing
xxvil] RHURASAN. 387
down to the valley of Mashhad. This lake appears to have been
in the hill called Kūh Gulshān, where there was a wonderful
Cavern of the Winds, and from its depths a draught of air and a
current of water perpetually issued, the latter sufficiently strong to
turn a mill. The lake of Chashmah Sabz is described as a league
in circuit, and many wonders were related of it, for it was reported
to be unfathomable, and an arrow could not be shot from one
bank to the other.
Four districts of the Naysabûr plain were famous for their
fertility, and Mukaddasi in the 4th (1 oth) century enumerates
these, namely, Ash-Shāmāt (‘the Beauty Spots”), Rivand, which
still exists to the west of Nishāpār, Māzūl, and Bushtafrāsh. The
district of Māzūl lay to the north, and its chief village was
Bushtakän (or Bushtankân), a league from the city, where ‘Amr
the Saffārid had planted a famous garden. The currants of this
district were especially renowned. The Bushtafrāsh district, now
known as Pusht Farāsh, extended for a day's journey eastwards
from the Jang Gate of Naysabûr, according to Mukaddasi, and
from the gardens of its villages, which Yākūt says numbered 126
in all, apricots were exported in immense quantities. The Shāmāt
district, Mukaddasi says, was named Tak-Åb by the Persians,
mCaning ‘whence waters flow,’ and its fertility was extraordinary.
Rivand, a small town in the district of the same name, lay one
stage west of Naysabûr ; in the 4th (1 oth) century the town had
a Friday Mosque built of burnt brick, and it stood on its own
river. Its vineyards were famous and its quinces were in great
demand.
One of the main streams of the Nishāpār district, according
to Mustawfi, was the Shūrah Rūd, ‘the Salt River,’ which was
joined by the waters of the stream from Dizbād, and after watering
many districts ultimately became lost in the desert. A number
of other streams are also mentioned by Mustawfi, but many of
their names are misspelt and they are now difficult to identify.
Some, however, present no difficulty, as for instance the river of
Bushtakān, rising in the Chashmah Sabz neighbourhood, already
mentioned, and the Bushtafrāsh river, both of which in the spring
freshets, he says, joined the Shūrah Rūd. Finally, there was the
stream named the ‘Atshābād, or ‘Thirst river, which, though in
25–2
388 KHURASAN. [CHAP.
Spring-time it had water enough to turn 20 mills throughout its
Course of a score of leagues, at other seasons did not give enough
to quench a man's thirst, from which cause came its ill-omened
name'.
To the south-east of Nishāpār the great Khurāsān high road
bifurcates at the stage which the Arabs named Kasr-ar-Rih,
‘Castle of the Wind,’ and the Persians Dizbād or Dih Bād.
Its river has been already mentioned among the streams which
flowed to the Shūrah river. From here the road to Marv went
due east, that to Herät turning off south-east. On this last, two
stages from Dih Bād, was the village of Farhādān, which is also
called Farhādhjird by Yākūt. Its district, which was counted as
of Naysabûr, Mukaddasi calls Asfand ; in Ibn Rustah the spelling
given is Ashbandh, and Yākūt writes Ashfand, adding that this
district comprised 83 villages. The old name of the district
appears now to be lost, but the village called Farajird (for the
older Farhādhjird) is still marked on the maps at the place in-
dicated by the Itineraries”.
Due east of Nishāpār, but separated from it by the range of
mountains in which most of the streams of the Nishāpār plain
take their rise, lies Mashhad—‘the Place of Martyrdom,” or
‘Shrine’ of the Imām-now the capital of the Persian province
of Khurāsān, and a few miles to the north of it may be seen the
ruins of Tüs, the older city. Tús, in the 4th (Ioth) century, was
the second city of the Naysabûr quarter of Khurāsān, and con-
sisted of the twin towns of At-Täbarán and Nūkān, while two
post-stages distant was the great garden at the village of Sanābādh,
where lay the graves of the Caliph Hārūn-ar-Rashīd, who died in
193 (809), and of the eighth Imām ‘Alī-ar-Ridá, who was poisoned
by Mamūn in 202 (817). This village of Sanābādh was also
known as Barda", meaning ‘a pack-saddle,” or as Al-Muthakkab,
‘the Pierced”,” presumably from the windows of the shrine, or for
some other fanciful reason.
* I. R. 17 I. Muk. 300, 316, 317. Yak, i. 630; iii. 228—231 ; iv. 391,
857, 858. I. B. iii. 80, 81. Mst. 185, 206, 219, 220, 226. J. N. 328. For
the Chashmah Sabz lake and the Cave of the Winds, see C. E. Yate, Æhzarasazz
and Sistan, pp. 351, 353. Both places are still famous in Khurásán.
* I. R. I 71 Muk. 3oo, 319. Yak. i. 28o; iii. 887. Mst. 196, 197.
* Al-Muthakkab was a name given to various fortresses; one near Al-
XXVII] KHURASAN. 389
In the 3rd (9th) century, according to Ya‘kübi, Nūkān was
the greater of the two halves of Tūs, but in the following century
Tábarán had outgrown it, and was the larger city down to the
time of Yākūt, when Tús was ruined by the Mongol hordes. In
early days Nūkān was celebrated for its stone jars made of
serpentine (Barām), which were largely exported ; and there
were mines for gold and silver, copper and iron, which were
profitably worked in the neighbouring hills. Turquoises, and the
stone known as ‘santalum ' (Āhumá/ian), also malachite (dahzlaf),
were all found in the neighbourhood of Tús, and brought for sale
to the markets of Nūkān. This part of Tús, however, was rather
deficient in its water-supply. The fortress of the adjacent quarter of
Tábarán was a huge building, ‘visible afar off,' as Mukaddasi writes,
and the markets of this half of the town were well supplied. Its
Friday Mosque was beautifully built and finely ornamented. The
neighbouring tombs at Sanābādh were already in the 4th (1 oth)
century surrounded by a strongly fortified wall, and the shrine,
as Ibn Hawkal reports, was constantly thronged by devotees.
A mosque had been built near the tomb of the Imām Ridă by
the Amir Fäik ‘Amid-ad-Dawlah, than which, says Mukaddasi,
‘there is none finer in all Khurāsān.’ The grave of Hārūn-ar-
Rashid had been made by the side of that of the Imām, and many
houses and a market had been built in the vicinity of the great
garden.
The description given by Yākūt adds little to the above, but
he mentions, as one of the most famous tombs at Tábarán, the
shrine of the great Sunni theologian, the Imām Ghazzāli, who had
died in 505 (I I I I), after having served some years at Baghdād as
chief of the Nizāmīyah college. When Yākūt wrote, in the 7th
(13th) century, the name Tūs was more generally used to denote
the surrounding district, where there were, he says, over a thousand
flourishing villages. In 617 (1220), however, all this country,
Massisah (Mopsuestia) has been mentioned in Chapter IX, p. 130. The
origin of the name Barda' is not explained. Nūkān, pronounced Nūgān, is
still the name of the north-east quarter and gate of modern Mashhad, leading
out doubtless towards Nūkān of Tús, and the Sanābād watercourse at the
present day supplies the north-west quarter of Mashhad. I. R. 172. I. K.
24. Yak. iv. 414. C. E. Yate, Ahurasan and Sistan, 316, 317.
39C) RHURASAN. [CHAP.
including the two cities of Tús, with the shrines at Sanābādh
(Mashhad), was devastated and pillaged by the Mongol hordes.
From the Mongol sack Tús appears never to have recovered,
though the neighbouring shrines under the fostering care of the
rich Shi‘ahs soon resumed their former splendour; and Mustawfi,
in the 8th (14th) century, is one of the first to refer to the
Sanābādh village as Mashhad, ‘the Place of Martyrdom,’ a name
that it has since always borne.
The Caliph and the Imām, as Kazvini remarks, lay under one
dome, and the latter only was held in honour by the Shi‘ahs, who,
however, knew not which tomb to revere, for by order of the
Caliph Mamūn (son of Hārūn-ar-Rashīd, and the poisoner of ‘Alī-
ar-Ridá), the two graves had been made exactly alike. When
Mustawfi wrote, Mashhad had already become a great city,
surrounded by immense graveyards with many famous tombs,
that of Ghazzāli, just mentioned, lying to the eastward of the
shrines, where also was shown the grave of the poet Firdúsi.
Around the city lay the fertile plain known as Marghzār Takān,
12 leagues long by 5 across, where grapes and figs were more
especially grown. The people of the Tús district were, Mustawfi
adds, “a very excellent folk and good to strangers.’
Ibn Batūtah, who visited the Mashhad of Imām Ridā a few
years later, gives a careful description of the shrine. Mashhad,
was, he says, a large city, plentifully supplied as to its markets,
and surrounded by hills. Over the tombs was a mighty dome,
covering the oratory, and the mosque with a college (Madrasah)
stood adjacent. All these were finely built, their walls being
lined with tile-work (Käshami). Above the actual grave of the
Imām was a sort of platform, or casing in wood, overlaid with
silver plates, many silver lamps being hung from the beams round
about. The threshold of the door into the oratory was overlaid
in silver, the aperture being closed by a gold-embroidered silk
veil, and the floor under the dome was spread with many fine
carpets. The tomb of the Caliph was also covered by a casing of
wood, on which candlesticks were set, but it was not held in
honour, for, says Ibn Battitah, “every Shi‘ah on entering kicks
with his foot the tomb of Hārūn-ar-Rashid, while he invokes a
blessing on that of Imām Ridā.’ The magnificence of the shrine
XXVII] KHURASAN. 39 I
of the Imām is alluded to by the Spanish envoy Clavijo, who
visited the court of Timür in 808 (1405), and on his way passed
through Mashhad. In those days it is noteworthy that Christians
might enter the shrine, for the Persian Shi‘ahs were not then as
fanatical in this matter as they are at the present time'.
Four days’ march due west of Nīshāpār in the district of
Bayhak were the two cities of Sabzivār and Khusrājird, a league
Only separating them ; Sabzivār, the chief town, being itself
generally known in the middle-ages as Bayhak. The Bayhak
district, which extended as far east as Rivand, measuring 25
leagues across in all directions, comprised according to Yākūt
32 I villages, and he adds that the name Bayhak was from the
Persian Aayhah or Baháyim, which signified ‘most generous.”
According to the same authority Sābzavár was the more exact
name of the town, which the common people had shortened to
Sabzwar; and Khusrújird had originally been the chief town of
the district, but the pre-eminence in his day was gone over to
Sabzivár. Mustawfi says that the markets of this town were
covered by a wooden roof on arches, very strongly built ; grapes
and other fruits were grown in the district round, and most of the
population in the 8th (14th) century were Shi‘ahs”.
From Bistām in the Kāmis province to Nishapûr there were
two roads. The more direct, the post-road, lies along the edge of
the desert, going through Sabzivár. The longer caravan road is to
the north, and curves through the great upland plain of Juvayn,
which is separated from the Great Desert by a range of hills. This
district of Juvayn, which, according to Mukaddasi, was also called
Gūyān, was very fertile in food-stuffs, and its chief town was Azā-
dhvār or Azādvár. The Isfarāyin district was in its northern part;
* The name of the Imām is at the present day pronounced Rizā by the
Persians. Ykb. 277. Ist. 257, 258. I. H. 313. Muk. 319, 333, 352. Yak.
iii. 154, 486, 560, 561 ; iv. 824. Kaz. ii. 262. Mst. 186. I. B. iii. 77—79.
Marrative of the AEmbassy of Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, p. I ſo (Hakluyt
Society). “The ambassadors went to see the mosque, and afterwards, when
in other lands people heard them say that they had been to this tomb, they
kissed their clothes, saying that they had been near the holy [shrine of]
Horazan.’
* Muk. 317, 318. Yak. i. 804; ii. 441. Mst. 186. For the ruins of
Bayhak see C. E. Yate, Khurasazz and Sistan, p. 398.
392 KHURASAN. [CHAP.
while at the western end, on the Kūmis border, was the Arghiyān
district round Jājarm. Nearly two hundred villages, according to
Yākūt, were dependencies of Azādhvār, which he describes as a
populous town with fine mosques, and outside its gate was a great
khān for merchants, for its markets were much frequented. The
gardens of its villages stretched continuously all down the valley,
and the water for their irrigation was brought by underground water-
courses from the springs in the southern hills. In the 8th (14th)
century, according to Mustawfi, the capital of the Juvayn district
had changed to Fariyūmad, some miles to the south of Azādvár.
Khudāshah, a stage east of Azādvár on the caravan road, was also
a place of importance, where, at the close of the 8th (14th) century,
Hājjī Barlās, the uncle of Timür, was slain, as is mentioned by
‘Ali of Yazd in his history'. |
The town of Jājarm, also called Arghiyān, which is more par- |
ticularly the name of its district, had, according to Mukaddasi,
a fine Friday Mosque, and was a well-fortified city, with 70 villages
of its dependencies. Yākūt describes the three towns of Samal-
kan or Samankan, said to lie east of Jājarm, Ar-Răwanir (or
Rāwansar), and Bān, as being all of the Arghiyān or Jájarm
district, but their exact positions are not given. He also mentions
Sabanj or Isfanj, which still exists to the south-west of Jājarm on
the road to Bistām, and this place Mustawfi calls Rubăt Savanj.
Mustawfi describes Jájarm as a fair-sized town, which no army
could come against, for within the circuit of a day's journey round
it the plain was everywhere covered by a grass poisonous to all
cattle. On the other hand, at the foot of its castle, there grew
two plane-trees (chinár), whose bark if chewed on a Wednesday
morning infallibly cured toothache. Mustawfi adds that this bark
was largely exported. The district round was very fertile, growing
fruit and corn. The Jājarm river, which ran south and ended in
the desert, he names the Jaghān Rūd; it rose by three springs,
each of which could have turned a mill, and these after coming
1 Muk. 318. Yak. i. 230; ii. 165. Mst. 186, 196. A. Y. i. 58. There
is some confusion between the names of Khudāshah four leagues to the east
of Azādvár, and Khurāshah, which is about the same distance to the north
of Azādvar. The two names are written much alike in the Arabic character.
XXVII] KHURASAN. 393
together ran for a course over 12 leagues in length, the water
being much used for irrigation'.
The great plain of Isfarāyin (or Asfarayn), Mukaddasi says,
grew much rice and fine grapes. Its chief town, of the same
name, was very populous, and had good markets. Yākūt states
that the town of Isfarāyin was of old called Mihrajān, this, when
he wrote in the 7th (13th) century, being still the name of a village
near the ruined town, and 51 villages were of its dependencies.
The name Isfarāyin, according to Yākūt, was originally written
Asbarāyīn, and meant ‘the shield-bearers,’ from asbar, “a shield.’
Mustawfi relates that in the mosque at Isfarāyin was a great bowl
of brass, the largest ever seen, for its outer edge measured a dozen
ells in circumference. To the north of the city was the Kal‘ah-i-
Zar, ‘Gold Castle,’ and the town took its water from a stream that
flowed past at the foot of the castle hill. Throughout the sur.
rounding plain nut-trees abounded; the climate was damp, but
grapes and Corn were grown plentifully”.
In the marshy plain, where the river Atrak takes its rise to
flow westward, while flowing in a contrary direction eastward, the
river of Mashhad also has its source, lies the town of Kūchán,
which in medieval times was called Khabūshān, or Khūjān. Its
district the Arab geographers name Ustuvâ, praising it as a very
fertile country; the name is said to mean ‘the Highland’; and
beyond Ustuvâ, eastwards, was the Nisä district. Yākūt, who
states that the name of the chief town was in his day pronounced
Khūshān, says that 93 villages belonged to it. In the /a/an
AWumá the name appears as Khūchán, and Mustawfi says that
though the name of Ustuvâ for the district was still written in the
fiscal registers, it was in his day no longer in common use. The
surrounding plain he praises for its fertility, and adds that Hūlāgú
Khān, the Mongol, had rebuilt Khabūshān in the 7th (13th)
century, his grandson Arghún, the Îl-Khān of Persia, afterwards
greatly enlarging the town. About half-way between Khabūshān
* Muk. 318. Yak. 1. 209, 249, 485; ii. 4, 742; iii. 35, 145. Mst. 186,
196, 220.
* Muk. 318. Yak. i. 246. Mst. 186. The medieval city of Isſarāyin (the
plain is still known by this name) is probably to be identified with the ruins
called Shahr-i-Bilkis. C. E. Yate, A7, urasan and Sistan, 378, 379.
394 KHURASAN. [CHAP.
and Tús is Râdkân, which is mentioned by Ibn Hawkal, and
described by Yākūt as a small town celebrated as the birth-place
of Nizām-al-Mulk, the great Wazir of Malik Shāh, the Saljúk'.
The famous district of Nasā or Nisã is the broad valley now
known as Darrah Gaz, ‘the Vale of Manna.’ The city of Nisã is
described by Ibn Hawkal as being a large town, of the size of
Sarakhs, having an abundant water-supply from the neighbouring
hills. Mukaddasi praises its fine mosque and excellent markets.
Nearly all the houses, he says, had gardens, and rich villages
were dotted about the valley all round the town. Yākūt, how-
ever, speaks of Nisã as most unhealthy, chiefly on account of
the guinea-worm (the ‘Medina worm,” he calls it), which in
summer could hardly be avoided by those living in the place,
and the suffering it caused made life unbearable. Kazvíní adds
that the town was also called Shahr Firſz, after the ancient Persian
king who was reported to have built it”.
To the east of Nisã, beyond the mountain ridge and on the
edge of the Marv desert, lies Abivard, the name being sometimes
spelt Båvard. Mukaddasi says that its markets, in the midst of
which stood the Friday Mosque, were finer even than those of
Nisã, and more frequented by merchants. Mustawfi praises the
fruit grown here, and he counts as belonging to Abivard the
great guard-house (rubăţ) at Kūfan, six leagues distant, standing
in a village. This guard-house had been built by ‘Abd-Allah, the
Táhirid, in the 3rd (9th) century; it had four gates, and a mosque
was built in its midst. The district in which Abivard stood was
called Khābarán, or Khávarān, of which Mihnah, or Mayhanah,
was the chief town ; further, Yākūt names Azjah, Bādhan, Kharv-
al-Jabal and Shūkān as among the important places of this
district; but Mayhanah, when he wrote, was already in ruins.
* I. H. 313. Muk. 318, 319. Yak. i. 243; ii. 4oo, 487, 730. Mst. 186.
J. N. 323. The present town of Bujmurd, lying north of Isſarāyin, and about
60 miles to the north-west of Kāchān, was founded a couple of centuries ago,
but near it was an older town called Bizhān, the ruined castle of which, known
as the Kal‘ah, still exists. C. E. Yate, Khurasan and Sistan, 195, 196.
Sykes, Persia, 22.
* Ist. 273. I. H. 324. Muk. 320. Yak. iv. 776. Kaz. ii. 31 1. The
city of Nisa is probably identical with the modern Muhammadābād, the chief
town of Darrah Gaz.
xxvii) KHURASAN. 395
In the following, 8th (14th), century Mustawfi speaks of the
many fine gardens of the Khávarān district—he also gives the
name as Khavardān—and he says that in its chief town had
resided the poet Anvāri, who flourished in the 6th (12th) century,
having been the panegyrist of Sultan Sanjar the Saljúk’.
In the mountains, and about half-way between Abivard and
Mihnah, lies the huge natural fortress now known as Kilāt-i-Nădir,
after Nādir Shāh, the celebrated king of the Persia of the
18th century A.D., who stored his treasures here. This stronghold
does not appear to be mentioned in any of the Itineraries, or by
the Arab geographers of the 3rd and 4th (9th and Ioth) centuries,
and Yākūt does not notice it. The earliest mention of Kilát
appears to be by ‘Utbi, in his History of Mahmūd of Ghaznah,
and he merely states incidentally that a certain Amir went ‘from
Nīshāpār to Kilát, which is also in the Arabic fashion written
Kal‘ah.’ Mustawfi gives a succinct description of the place,
adding that its chief towns were called Jurm and Marinán;
further, Kilát had much water, besides arable lands that produced
abundantly, and many villages belonged to it of the surrounding
districts. In history it first became famous for the siege of the
fortress by Timür, at the close of the 8th (14th) century, and
after it had fallen into his hands he caused its fortifications to be
carefully rebuilt and strengthened”.
The city of Sarakhs lies on the direct road from Tús to Great
Marv, and on the right, or eastern bank of the Mashhad river,
which is now known as the Tajand. This river does not appear
* Muk. 32 ſ, 333. Yak. i. I I I, 232, 462 ; ii. 383, 395, 428; iii. 337; iv.
321, 723. Mst. 189. A. Y. i. 382. J. N. 318. The name of Khávarán
stands for the older form Kharvarān, meaning ‘the west country’ (the opposite
of Khurāsān, ‘the east country’), and this small district of the foot-hills on the
Marv desert thus preserves at the present day the name applied originally to all
western Persia that was formerly not counted as Khurāsān, ‘the country of the
east.’
2 ‘Utbi, Aïté0-7. Yamíní, Arabic text (Cairo, 1286 A.H.), i. 215. Persian
text (Tihrān, 1272 A.H.), p. 151, Mst. 187. A. Y. i. 334, 337. J. N. 323.
Kilát or Kalāt, in Persian, is equivalent to the Armenian Qalaq, signifying
“a city,” and in Arabic appears under the well-known form Kal‘ah, or Kal'at,
“a castle.” Kilāt-i-Nādir was visited by Col. MacGregor (/ourney through
Ahurasan, ii. 51) in 1875 and carefully described.
396 KHURASAN. [CHAP. XXVII
to be named by any of the medieval geographers; it rises, as
already described, in the marshes near Kūchán, and at first flows
South-east, passing Mashhad. When it has gone about a hundred
miles beyond this city it receives from the south, as a great
affluent, the Herāt river, and thence turning north flows to
Sarakhs. At some distance further north, in the latitude of
Abivard, its waters spread out and became lost in the desert
sands, at a place called Al-Ajmah, “the Reed-beds,' where there
were many tamarisk trees. Istakhri and Ibn Hawkal speak of
this river Tajand merely as an affluent of the Herät river.
Ibn Rustah, who regards it in the same light, says that two leagues
before coming to Sarakhs the Herät river (that is, the lower
course of the Tajand) throws off a branch canal that goes direct
to this city. Other canals too were taken from it to water the
Sarakhs district, more especially one named the Khushk Rūd
(Dry River), across which had been built a great masonry bridge,
but for a great part of the year even the main stream at Sarakhs
carried no water.
Sarakhs in the 4th (Ioth) century was a great city, being half
the size of Marv, with a healthy climate. Camels and sheep
were numerous in its pastures, though its arable lands were
limited for lack of a constant water-supply. Mukaddasi praises
its Friday Mosque and fine markets, adding that throughout the
suburbs there were many gardens. Kazvíni, who speaks of it as
very populous, says that they made here, for export, Scarfs for
turbans, and veils that were most beautifully embroidered in gold
thread. In the 8th (14th) century Mustawfi describes the walls
of Sarakhs as 5ooo paces in circuit and protected by a strongly
built fortress. Their drinking water, he says, was from the river
‘coming from Tús and Herāt’ (he does not name the Tajand),
a fine stream, and of very digestible water, which further served
to irrigate the fields round Sarakhs, where melons and grapes
grew abundantly".
* I. R. 173. Ist. 272. I. H. 323, 324. Muk. 312, 313. Kaz. ii. 261.
Mst. 189. Modern Sarakhs lies on the west bank of the Tajand.
CHAPTE R XXVIII.
KHURáSAN (continued).
The Marv quarter. The Murghāb river. Great Marv and its villages. Ämul
and Zamm, on the Oxus. Marv-ar-Rūd, or Little Marv, and Kasr Ahnaf.
The second of the Quarters of Khurāsān, that of Marv, lies along
the Murghāb, or Marv river. This river flows down from the
mountains of Ghūr to the north-east of Herāt, and passing Little
Marv turns thence north to Great Marv, where its waters were
divided up among a number of Canals, after which it became lost
in the sands of the Ghuzz Desert, on about the same latitude as
the swamps of the Tajand or Herāt river, but some 70 miles to
the eastward of the latter.
Besides the various towns lying along the Murghāb, the Marv
quarter also included the places on the great Khurāsān road,
beyond Marv, north-eastward to the Oxus at Amul, where the
crossing for Bukhārā took place.
The name Murghāb, or Marghāb, is said by Ibn Hawkal to
have been originally Marv-āb, “the Marv-water”; but, says Istakhri,
Murghāb is the name of the place where its streams rise.
, Mukaddasi, who calls the Murghāb the river of the Two Marvs,
describes it as flowing past Upper (or Lesser) Marv towards Lower
(or Great) Marv. One march south of the latter city its bed
was artificially dyked with embankments faced by woodworks
which kept the river-bed from changing. This embankment in
the 4th (10th) century was under the wardship of a specially
appointed Amir who acted as water-bailiff, with Io,ooo workmen
398 RHURASAN. [CHAP.
under him and horse guards, and saw to the up-keep of the dykes,
and the regulation of the water-supply. There was on the em-
bankment a measure which registered the flood-height ; in a year
of abundance this would rise to 6o barleycorns above the low-
level, and the people then rejoiced, while in a year of drought
the water would only attain the level of six barleycorns.
At a distance of one league south of Great Marv the waters of
the stream were dammed back in a great round pool, whence
four canals radiated to the various quarters of the city and suburbs.
The height of the pool was regulated by sluices, and it was a great
festival when at high flood-time the various dams were cut, and
the waters were divided off according to rule. These four main
canals were called respectively the Hurmuzfarrah canal, flowing
towards the west, next to the eastward that of Mājān, then the
Nahr Zark or Ar-Razik, and finally the Nahr As'adi. Of these
four the Nahr-al-Mäjän appears to have carried the main stream
of the Murghāb, and after passing through the suburbs of the
city, where it was crossed by many bridges of boats, it came out
again to the desert plain, and flowed on till the residue of its
waters were lost in the swamp. Yākūt in the 7th (13th) century
states that the Murghâb was in his day known as the river Razik
(probably identical with the canal already mentioned), a name
which he states was often incorrectly spelt Zarik, and the /a/adm
AWumá adds, as a third variant, Zarbak. These names are also
mentioned by Mustawfi, who gives Murghāb as the common
appellation in his day, and by this name the great river is still
known".
Great Marv, in the middle-ages, was called Marv-ash-Shāhījān,
to distinguish it from Marv-ar-Rūd, Little Marv, and Shāhījān is
probably merely the Arab form of the old Persian Sháhgān,
‘kingly,” or ‘belonging to the king,’ though Yākūt and others
explain the term as Shāh-iº/ān to mean ‘of the soul of the king.’
Marv, as described by Istakhri, Ibn Hawkal, and Mukaddasi,
consisted of an inner citadel (Kuhandiz) ‘high-built and itself of
* Ist. 26o, 26 I. I. H. 315. Muk. 330, 331. Yak. ii. 777. Mst. 214.
J. N. 328. The place where the Murghāb ultimately became lost in the sands
is called Māyāb by Hāfiz Abrū. Hfz. 326. For the places round Marv, see
Map x, p. 447. Presumably 60 barleycorns (Sha'irah) went to the ell.
XXVIII] KHURASAN. 399
the size of a town,’ surrounded by the inner city with its four gates,
beyond which again were extensive suburbs stretching along the
banks of the great canals. The four gates of the inner town were
the Báb-al-Madinah, “the city gate’ (S.W.), where the road from
Sarakhs came in ; the Bāb Sanjān (S.E.) opening on the Bani
Māhān suburb and As'adi canal; the Bāb Dar Mashkān (N.E.) on
the road to the Oxus ; and lastly the Bāb Bālin (N.W.). In the
4th (1 oth) century there were three Friday Mosques in Marv, first
the citadel mosque called the Jāmi' of the Banī Māhān; next the
Masjid-al-‘Atik, ‘the Old Mosque,” which stood at the gate opening
on the Sarakhs road, the Báb-al-Madinah; lastly the New Mosque
of the Mäjän Suburb, outside this same gate, where the great
markets of Marv were found.
The Razik canal flowed into the town, coming to the gate called
Bāb-al-Madinah and the Old Mosque, after which its waters were
received and stored in various tanks for the use of the inhabitants
of the quarter. The Mäjän canal, flowing to the west of it, watered
the great Mäjän suburb, which lay round the Maydān, or public
square, on which stood the New Mosque, the Government-house,
and the prison; all these having been built by Abu Muslim, the
great partizan of the Abbasids. To him was principally due their
accession to the Caliphate, as history relates, and in a domed
house of this quarter, built of burnt brick, the dome being 55 ells
in diameter, says Istakhri, the place was shown where the first
black Abbasid robes had been dyed, that having become the
distinguishing colour of the new dynasty.
West of the Nahr Mājān, as already said, was the canal of
Hurmuzfarrah, on the limit of the suburbs of Marv, and along its
banks were the houses and quarters built by Husayn the Táhirid,
who had transferred many of the markets to this quarter. Yākūt,
at a later date, speaking of the great western suburb of Mājān,
mentions two of its chief streets, namely, the thoroughfare known
as Barārjān (for Barādar-Jān) or ‘brother-life’ in upper Mäjän,
and the street of Tukhārān-bih. The Hurmuzfarrah canal ulti-
mately reached the township of that name, near the Swamps of
the Murghāb, and the town had its own Friday Mosque. One
league distant from Hurmuzfarrah was Bāshān, also a town with
its Friday Mosque, while the two hamlets of Kharak (or Kharah)
4OO KHURASAN. [CHAP.
and As-Sūsankân, standing a league distant one from the other, lay
also on this side of Marv and were likewise of sufficient size for
each to have its own Friday Mosque.
One march to the westward of Marv was the town called Sinj
(in Mukaddasi spelt Sink), with a fine Friday Mosque, standing
on a canal with many gardens, and beyond it, two marches to
the South-west of Marv on the road to Sarakhs, lay the important
town of Ad-Dandankân. This was small but well fortified, having
a single gate, with hot baths (Hammāms) outside the wall. Its
ruins were seen by Yâkút in the 7th (13th) century, for it had
been pillaged by the Ghuzz in 553 (1158). This was the limit of
cultivation of the Marv oasis to the south-west, while Kushmayhan,
one march from Marv on the Bukhārā road, was the limit of
cultivation on the north-eastern side. This Kushmayhan, or Kush-
mâhan, according to Ya‘kūbi, was famous for the Zabłó Áushmā-
/iami, a kind of raisin. The town also possessed a fine Friday
Mosque and good markets; it was watered by a great Canal, and
there were many hostelries and baths here; much fruit being
grown in the surrounding gardens.
Immediately outside the Dar Mashkān gate of Marv, which led
to the town of Kushmayhan, had stood the great palace of Mamūn,
where he had lived when he held his court at Marv, previous to
setting out for Baghdād to wrest the Caliphate from his brother
Amin. The south-eastern gate of Marv, the Bāb Sanjān, opened
on the As'adi canal, along which lay the Banī Māhān (or Mir
Māhān) quarter, with the palace of the Marzubăn of Marv, the
Persian Warden of the Marches. From this gate the road led up
the Murghāb river by Al-Karinayn to Marv-ar-Rûd. Six leagues
from the city in this direction was the town of Jiranj (or Kirang,
in Mukaddasi) on the river bank, while one league beyond it lay
Zark. Here had stood the mill where Yazdajird III, the last of
the Sassanian kings, fled for shelter, and was murdered by the
miller for the sake of his jewels. According to Ibn Hawkal,
it was at Zark township that the waters of the Murghâb were
first canalised, channels being led off to irrigate the gardens
round Marv. These gardens had at all times been famous
for their melons, also for the assafoetida root (ushſurghāz)
grown here, which was exported to other parts of Khurāsān.
XXVIII] KHURASAN. 4OI
Silkworms, too, were raised here largely, the silk being manu-
factured into the stuffs for which Marv was celebrated".
In the latter half of the 4th (Ioth) century, when Mukaddasi
knew Marv, a third part of the suburb was already in ruin, and
the citadel was in no better state. In the next century, however,
the city gained in size and importance under the Saljúks, and
here Sultan Sanjar, the last of the great Saljúks, was buried in
552 (1 157), and the remains of his tomb may still be seen at the
present day. Yākūt, who was in Marv in 616 (1219), describes
the grave of Sultan Sanjar as lying under a great dome covered
with blue tiles, so high as to be visible a day's march away over
the plain ; and the windows under the dome looked into the
adjacent Friday Mosque. It had been built in memory of him,
Yākūt was told, long after the Sultan's death by some of his
servants. At the village of Andarābah, two leagues from Marv,
which had been the private property of Sultan Sanjar, the remains
of his palace were still standing in the 7th (13th) century, the
walls being intact, though all the rest had gone to ruin, as was
the case also, Yākūt adds, with the adjacent village.
Yākūt describes Marv as in his day possessing two chief
Friday Mosques, enclosed by a single wall, one for the Hanafites,
the other belonging to the Shāfi‘ites. He himself lived in Mary
for three years, collecting the materials for his great geographical
dictionary, for before the Mongol invasion the libraries of Marv
were celebrated; “verily but for the Mongols I would have stayed
* Ykb. 28o. Ist. 258–263. I. H. 31.4—316. Muk. 298, 299, 3 ſo—312,
33 1. Yak. i. 534, 827; ii. 6 ſo; iv. 507. The town and mill of Zark lay
seven leagues from Marv, while the pool where the waters of the Murghāb
were divided among the four city canals, of which the Nahr Razik was one,
lay at a distance of but one league from Marv. The Razik canal and the
Zark mill, therefore, were probably not adjacent, but from the shifting of the
diacritical point there is much confusion between Zark or Razk, and Zarik or
Razik. The name of the mill is sometimes given as promounced, Zurk or
Zurrak, and the Zarik canal appears as Zarbak, on whose banks, according to
some accounts, King Yazdajird came to his death. See Yak, ii. 777, 925; iv.
508. Mukaddasi (p. 33) records that some two leagues from Marv, but in
which direction is not stated, was a small guard-house in which stood a tomb,
popularly said to contain the head of Husayn, grandson of the Prophet, but
this is a relic that was also shown in divers other localities, and certainly at
the time of Husayn's death his head was not sent to Marv.
LE S. 26
4O2 KHURASAN. [CHAP.
and lived and died there,’ he writes, ‘and hardly could I tear
myself away.” Thus among others he mentions the two libraries
of the Friday Mosque, namely the ‘Aziziyah with 12, ooo and Odd
volumes, and the Kamāliyah. There was also the library of Sharaf-
al-Mulk, in his Madrasah or college, and that of the great Saljūk
Wazir the Nizām-al-Mulk. Among the older libraries were those
founded by the Sămănids, and one in the college of the ‘Umay-
diyah ; also that in the Khātūnīyah College, and that which had
belonged to Majd-al-Mulk. Finally, and especially, there was the
Dumayriyah library in one of the Khānkāhs, or Darvīsh convents,
containing only 200 volumes, but each volume, Yākūt writes, worth
two hundred gold pieces (dinārs), for all the books there were
unique and beyond price.
At the approach of the Mongol hordes in 617 (1220) Yākūt
sought safety at Mosul in Mesopotamia, and all the glories of the
Marv libraries fell a prey to the flames, which followed in the
wake of the Mongol sack of this great city, when nine million
corpses are said to have remained unburied among the ruins.
The tomb of Sultan Sanjar, Ibn-al-Athir states, was set on fire by
the invaders, together with most of the mosques and other public
buildings; and Hāfiz Abrú adds that they broke down all the
great dams and dykes of the Murghāb, which under the early
Saljúks had been increased in number, and carefully seen to, in
order thus to regulate the irrigation of the Oasis, which now
lapsed into a desert swamp. In the 8th (14th) century, when
Ibn Battitah passed through Marv, it was still one great ruin.
The account which his contemporary, Mustawfi, gives of Marv
deals with its past glories in the 2nd (8th) century, when it was
under the government of Abu Muslim, who brought the Abbasids
to power, and when the Caliph Mamûn resided at this place
previous to marching on Baghdād. Then the Saffārids had re-
moved the capital of Khurāsān to Nishapûr, but the Saljúks
restored the primacy to Marv, and Sultan Malik Shāh built the
great wall round the city 12,300 paces in circuit. The crops of
the Marv oasis were a marvel of productiveness; Mustawfi reports
that seed corn gave a hundred-fold the first year, and from the
ungathered overfall some thirty-ſold for the second year was
obtained, with as much as ten-fold of the original Sowing even in
XXVIII] KHURASAN, 4O3
the third year. The climate, however, being damp was unhealthy,
and the rishtah, or guinea-worm, was a terrible Scourge. The
moving sands of the neighbouring deserts had in his day over-
whelmed many of the fruitful districts, but excellent water-melons
were still grown, which were dried and largely exported, also
grapes and pears.
Mustawfi describes the city of Marv as still almost en-
tirely a ruin, though at the close of the 8th (14th) century it
must have regained some of its former splendour, for Timür
frequently stopped here in the intervals of his campaigns. He
generally lived at a place which ‘Alī of Yazd writes Mākhān,
probably a clerical error for Mājān, which as already said had
been in earlier days the name of the great western suburb of
Marv, though Yākūt mentions a place also called Mākhān as a
village near the city. Marv was in part restored to its former
state of greatness under the reign of Shāh Rukh, the grandson of
Timür, who rebuilt much of the city in the year 812 (1409), so
that in 821 (1418), when Hāfiz Abrú wrote, he describes it as
Once more being in a flourishing condition".
On the left bank of the Oxus about 120 miles to the north-east
of Marv, where the great Khurāsān road crossed to Bukhārā
and Transoxiana, stood the city of Amul, and about a hundred
miles to the eastward, higher up on the same bank was Zamm,
also at a crossing-place. Amul, which in the later middle-ages
was also known as Amtiyah, and then came to be called Chahār
Júy (“Four Canals,’ a name the place still bears), is described by
Ibn Hawkal as a fertile and pleasant little town, of great import-
ance by reason of the constant passage of caravans going to and
coming from the countries beyond the Oxus. All along the road
south-west to Marv there were wells at each stage, but otherwise
the territory of Amul was enclosed on all sides by the desert, which
here came close up to the river bank. Mukaddasi praises the
excellent markets of Amul. The town, with its Friday Mosque
Crowning a small hill, lay a league distant from the Oxus among
well-irrigated fields, where there were vineyards. Opposite Amul,
* Ibn-al-Athir, xii. 256. Yak. i. 373; iv. 378, 509, 510. I. B. iii. 63.
Mst. 189. A. Y. i. I.47, 150, 569. Hſz. 32 0.
26–2
4O4. KHURASAN. [CHAP.
on the right bank of the river, in the Bukhārā district, was the
town of Firabr. -
To distinguish this Amul from the town of the same name
which was the capital of Tabaristān (see above, p. 370), Yākūt
states that it was known in books as Āmul of Zamm (after the
next Oxus passage upstream), or Amul of the Jayhān (Oxus), or
Amul-ash-Shatt (of the Stream), or further as Āmul-al-Mafazah
(of the Desert). In his day, however, in place of the name Amul
the town had come to be called Amā, or Amtiyah, by which
denomination it is frequently mentioned in the accounts of the
Mongol invasion, and of the campaigns of Timür. It is also
known as Kal‘ah Amūyah, or ‘the Amūyah Castle.” In the
I Ith (17th) century Abu-l-Ghāzī gives the name as Amtiyah when
dealing with the marches of Changiz Khān, but speaking of the
events of his own day writes of Chahār Jūy, in reference to this
Oxus passage, which proves conclusively that the two places are
identical. The town of Zamm, also on the Khurāsān bank, as
already stated, is the modern Karkhi, and in the middle-ages
the town of Akhsisak faced it on the further side, towards
Bukhârâ. Ibn Hawkal speaks of Zamm as a town of the same
size as Amul, but it was only approached on the Khurāsān side
by the road up the Oxus bank in four marches from Amul; for
from Zamm direct across to Marv the waterless desert intervened.
From Zamm, eastward, Balkh could be reached, and after crossing
the Oxus, Tirmidh. Zamm is also briefly mentioned by Mukaddasi,
who speaks of its Friday Mosque standing in the market-place, so
that in the 4th (roth) century it must already have been a place
of some importance".
Coming back now to the Murghāb river, about 160 miles
higher up than Great Marv stood Upper, or Little Marv, at that
part of the river where, after leaving the Ghūr mountains, it turns
north through the desert plains towards Great Marv. Little Marv,
or Upper Marv as Mukaddasi and others call it, is the place
known as Bālā Murghāb, ‘Upper Murghāb,” to the Persians.
It is now a complete ruin, and has been so since the invasion
of Timür. In the 4th (Ioth) century, however, Marv-ar-Rûdh, or
* Ist. 281, 314. I. H. 329, 363. Muk. 291, 292. Yak, i. 69; ii. 946.
A. Y. i. 148, 334, 568. A. G. L24, 329.
XXVIII] KHURASAN. 4O5
‘Marv of the River,’ as it was then called, was the largest city
of this, a most populous district, which had besides four other
towns with Friday Mosques. It lay at a bow-shot from the bank
of the Murghāb, in the midst of gardens and vineyards, being
three leagues distant from the mountains on the west, and two
leagues from those on the east. In the market-place was the
Friday Mosque, a building according to Mukaddasi Standing on
wooden columns, and Kudāmah adds that one league from Upper
Marv (as he calls it) was the castle of Kasr-‘Amr in the hills,
blocking the mouth of a small valley. Yākút States that in his day
the name Marv-ar-Rūd was pronounced Marrúd by the Common
folk. It appears to have escaped the utter ruin which was the fate
of Great Marv at the hands of the Mongols. At any rate in the
8th (14th) century Mustawfi describes it as still a flourishing place,
with a wall 50oo paces in circumference, which had been built by
Sultan Malik Shāh the Saljúk. The surrounding country was
most fertile, grapes and melons were grown abundantly, and
living was cheap'.
One day's march from Marv-ar-Rūd, on the same bank and
down the river towards Great Marv, was the castle called Kasr
Ahnaf, after Al-Ahnaf ibn Kays, the Arab general who in the days
of the Caliph “Othmān, in the year 31 (652), had conquered these
lands for Islam. It was a large place, Ibn Hawkal says, with many
vineyards round it, and fine gardens, the soil and climate being
alike excellent, and Mukaddasi mentions its Friday Mosque
situate in the market-place. At the present day the site of Kasr
Ahnaf is marked by the village of Marūchak, or Marv-i-Kūchik
(Little Marv) as the Persians call the place. In the middle-ages,
four leagues above Marv-ar-Rūd, stood Dizah, a town occupying
both banks of the Murghāb, the two parts being connected by
a stone bridge. This place too had a fine Friday Mosque, and
Yākūt adds that it had originally been called Sinvān.
The hamlets of Panj-dih (Five Villages) lie below Marūchak
on the Murghāb, and the place was visited by Nāsir-i-Khusraw
in 437 (IOA5) on his way to Mecca ; Yākūt too was there in
616 (1219) and alludes to it as a fine town. The place is also
* Kud. 2 Io. Ist. 269. I. H. 320. Muk. 314. Yak. iv. 506. Mst. 190.
For the ruins at Bālā Murghāb, see C. E. Yate, AVorthern Afghanistan, p. 208.
4O6 KHURASAN. [CHAP. XXVIII
mentioned in the time of Timür at the close of the 8th (14th)
century, when ‘Ali of Yazd says it was known as Pandi (but
the reading appears uncertain, and some manuscripts give Yandi).
During the earlier middle-ages all the country from Little Marv
to Great Marv, along the Murghāb, was under cultivation, and
Studded with villages and towns. Al-Karinayn, already alluded to,
was four marches above Great Marv, being two below Marv-ar-
Rūd; and half-way between Karinayn and the latter was Lawkar,
or Lawkará, which Mukaddasi mentions as a populous place, as
big as Kasr Ahnaf. Above Marv-ar-Rūd, and all up the Murghāb
into the mountains of Gharjistān, there are many flourishing dis-
tricts, as will be noticed in the next chapter, when speaking of
Ghūr in the Herät quarter'.
* Ykb. 291. Ist. 270. I. H. 32 I. Muk. 299, 314. N. K. 2. Yak, i.
743; iv. IoS. A. Y. i. 353. For the ruins at Marūchak, see C. E. Yate,
Aſghazzistazz, pp. I Io, I2O, IQ4.
CHAPTER XXIX.
KHURASAN (continued).
The Herät quarter. The Herät river, or Hari Răd. The city of Herāt.
Målim and towns on the upper Hari Răd. Būshanj. The Asfuzăr district.
The Bädghis district and its towns. Kanj Rustäk, Districts of Ghar-
jistān and Ghūr. Bāmiyān.
The Herät quarter of Khurāsān lies entirely in what is now known
as Afghānistān, and, for the most part, is watered by the Herät
river or Hari Rūd. This river takes its rise in the mountains of
Ghūr, and at first flows for some distance westward. In order to
irrigate the Herāt valley many canals were here led from it, some
above and some below Herät city, seven in particular being named
by Mukaddasi as Serving to water the fruitful districts round the
Capital.
The Herät river, flowing from east to west in its earlier course,
passes Herät city several miles from its southern gate, near the
town of Mälin. Here there was a bridge over it, unequalled in
all Khurāsān for beauty, says Mukaddasi, it having been built by
a certain Magian, and bearing his name on an inscription—“and
Some say that he afterwards became a Moslem, others that he
threw himself into the river, because the Sultan would put his
own name upon that bridge.’ Mustawfi gives the names of
nine of the chief irrigation canals that were taken from the
Hari Rūd in the neighbourhood of Herāt. Beyond Herät the
Hari Rūd passed the town of Fūshanj near its south bank, and
turning north flowed on to Sarakhs, before reaching which it took
up the waters Óf the Mashhad river, as has been mentioned
in the previous chapter. Beyond, to the north of Sarakhs, its
408 KHURASAN. [CHAP.
waters were lost in the desert. According to Hāfiz Abrū the
Herät river also bore the name of Khajacharān (the spelling, from
the shifting position of the diacritical points, and the true pronun-
ciation are alike uncertain), and he asserts that its source was at
a spring not far from the place where the Helmund river took its
rise".
In the 4th (1 oth) century, as described by Ibn Hawkal and
Mukaddasi, Herāt (written more exactly Harât) was a great city,
with a citadel, surrounded by a wall with four gates. These were,
the Bāb Sarāy or “Palace Gate' to the north on the Balkh road;
then to the west, towards Naysábūr, the Báb Ziyād; the Firſzābād
gate, which Mukaddasi calls the Báb Firáz, was to the south on
the road towards Sijistān; while to the east was the Bāb Khushk
towards the Ghūr mountains. These four gates were all of wood,
except the Bāb Sarāy, which was of iron, says Ibn Hawkal ; and
the citadel of Herāt (called the Kuhandiz or Kal‘ah) had also four
gates of the like names, respectively, to the city gates. The city
measured half a league Square, and the government house was at
a place called Khurāsānābād, a mile outside the town on the
western road towards Fūshanj. At each of the four city gates,
within the town, was a market; and outside each gate was an
extensive suburb. The great Friday Mosque of Herät stood in
the midst of the chief market, and no mosque in all Khurāsān or
Sijistān was its equal in beauty. Behind it, on the west side, was
the prison.
To the north of Herät the mountains lay two leagues distant
from the city, and here the land was desert, not being irrigated.
These mountains produced mill-stones and paving-stones, and on
the summit of one of the hills was an ancient fire-temple, called
Sirishk, which was in the 4th (Ioth) century mubh frequented by
the Magians. A Christian church also stood at a place lying half-
way between this fire-temple and the city. To the south of Herät,
down to the Mālin bridge over the Hari Rūd, the land was like
a garden, well cultivated and profusely irrigated by numerous
canals, and divided into many districts. Populous villages lay
one after the other, for a day's march and more, along the
Sijistán road.
* Ist. 266. I. H. 318. Muk. 329, 330. Mst. 216. Hfz. 32 a.
XXIX.] KHURASAN. 4O9
The prosperity of Herāt continued unabated till the inroad of
the Mongols; and in 614 (1217) when Yākūt was here, some four
years before that disastrous event, he considered Herät to be the
richest and largest city that he had ever seen, standing in the
midst of a most fertile country. His contemporary Kazvíni, who
Confirms this account, notes that here might be seen many mills
‘turned by wind, not by water,’ which was to him an uncommon
sight. Herāt, however, must have recovered quickly from the
effects of the Tartar inroad, and Mustawfi in the following century
bears out the statement of Ibn Batūtah that, after Nishāpār, it
was the most populous city of all Khurāsān. Its walls were then
90oo paces in circuit, and 18 villages lay immediately round the
town, watered principally by a canal (Nahríchah) taken from the
Hari Rūd. The grapes of the kind called Fakhri, and the figs
were both superlatively excellent. Already in the 8th (14th)
century the people of Herāt were Sunni. It was in the 6th (12th)
century, during the Supremacy of the Ghūrid dynasty according to
Mustawfi, that Herāt had reached its greatest splendour. There
were then I 2, ooo shops in its markets, 6ooo hot baths, and 659
Colleges, the population being reckoned at 444, ooo.
A strong fortress lay to the north of Herät, when Mustawfi
wrote, called the castle of Shamīrān, this having been built on the
site of the older fire-temple of Sirishk, mentioned by Ibn Hawkal,
which was two leagues distant from the city on a hill-top. This
fortress also went by the name of the Kal‘ah Amkalchah. At the
close of the 8th (14th) century, Timür, after taking possession of
Herät, destroyed its walls, and sent most of its artificers to
augment the population of his new town of Shahr-i-Sabz in
Transoxiana. In the Turkish /a/.67, AWumá it is stated that at
that period, in the year Ioro (16oo), Herät had ſive gates; that
called Darvāzah-i-Mulk, ‘the Government Gate,’ to the north, the
‘Irāk gate to the west, that of Firſzābād to the south, the Khush
gate to the east, and the Kipchâk gate to the north-east—this last
being of late origin. The ten Bulúks, or districts, round Herät
are also enumerated, but no statement as to the relative positions
of these is afforded'.
* Ist. 264—266. I. H. 316–318. Muk. 306, 307. Yak. iv. 958. Kaz. ii.
322. I. B. iii. 63. Mst. 187. J. N. 3 Io–312. A. Y. i. 32.2, 323. The infor-
41 O RHURASAN. * [CHAP.
Two leagues, or half a day's journey, to the south of Herāt,
and presumably beyond the great bridge that spanned the Hari
Rūd, to which bridge it gave its name, was the town of Målin, or
Málan, with the district of the same name lying a day's journey
in extent all round it. This Málan was called As-Safalkåt, and
Málan of Herāt, to distinguish it from the place of the same name
in the Bäkharz district of Kūhistān (mentioned in Chapter XXV,
p. 357). It was a small town, surrounded by most fruitful
gardens, and the produce of its vineyards was celebrated. Yākūt
who had been there, writes the name Mâlîn, but adds that the
people in his day pronounced it Mălân. Twenty-five villages
belonged to its district, and of these he specially mentions four,
Murghāb, Bāshīnān, Zandān, and ‘Absakän.
One march to the north-east of Herät lies Karākh, or Kārūkh,
which Ibn Hawkal says was in the 4th (Ioth) century the largest
town of the Herät district after the capital. Apricots and raisins
were exported in great quantities from hence to all the neighbour-
ing districts and cities; the Friday Mosque stood in the quarter
of the town called Sabidan, and the houses were built of Sun-
dried bricks. Karākh stood in a mountain valley, 20 leagues in
length, the whole of which was under cultivation, many villages and
broad arable lands lying on its various streams. Its chief river
flowed to the Hari Rūd, and appears to be that which Yākūt names
the Nahr Karāgh.
Eastward from Herāt, and lying in the broad valley of the Hari
Rūd, a succession of towns are mentioned by the geographers of
the 4th (Ioth) century; namely, Bashān, one day's journey from
Herät, then Khaysār, Astarabyān, Marabadh, and Awfah, each
situated a day's journey beyond the last, and to the east of it;
finally two days’ journey beyond Awfah was Khasht, a place that
was counted as in the Ghūr district. Of these towns, Awfah was
almost as large as Karākh, and only second to it in importance.
mation given by Hājjī Khalſah, in the /a/ión AWumá, is in part taken from the
monograph on Herāt written by Mu‘in-ad-Din of Asfuzăr in 897 (1492). This
monograph has been inserted by Mirkhwänd in the Epilogue (Khátimah) of the
A’awdat-as-Safé, pt vii. 45—51, and it was translated by M. Barbier de Meynard
in the Journal Asiatique, 1860, ii. p. 461 ; 1861, i. pp. 438,473; 1862, ii. p. 269.
For the present condition of Herät see C. E. Yate, Afghanistan, pp. 25–28.
XXIX |KHURASAN. I I
4
The other four towns are described in similar terms as being well
Watered and populous ; all were smaller in size than Målin, each
had gardens and fertile fields, and while Astarabyān grew no
grapes, being near the hill country, Marabadh was especially noted
for its rice, which was largely exported'.
One day's march to the west of Herät was the considerable
city of Būshanj or Fūshanj, which apparently occupied the site of
the present Ghurian, lying a short distance from the left bank of
the Hari Rūd, and to the south of it. Ibn Hawkal describes
Būshanj as about half the size of Herät in the 4th (Ioth) century,
and, like the latter, it lay in a plain two leagues distant from the
mountains. The town was well built, and surrounded by trees,
among which the juniper throve amazingly, its wood being largely
exported. The town was strongly fortified, and was surrounded by
a wall and a ditch. There were three gates, the Bāb ‘Ali towards
Naysabûr, the Herät gate to the east, and the Kūhistān gate to
the South-west. Yākūt, who had seen the town in passing, lying
hidden in its wooded valley, gives the name as Būshanj or
Fūshanj. He adds that the Persians pronounced it Būshang.
Mustawfi describes Fūshanj, in the 8th (14th) century, as famous
for its water-melons and grapes, of which last there were Ios
different varieties. A peculiarity of the place was that it possessed
numerous windmills, their origin or invention being popularly
attributed to the Pharaoh of Egypt, of the days of Moses, who
had once come during a campaign as far east as this city. In
783 (1381) Fūshanj was stormed and sacked by Timür, and this
in spite of its high walls and deep water-ditch which are especially
mentioned by ‘Ali of Yazd. For some unexplained reason the
name of Fūshanj after this disappears from history, and at a later
date the town of Ghurian, which is now a flourishing place, sprang
up on the ruins of the city which Timúr had pillaged and
destroyed. It is to be added that the three towns of Farjird,
Kharjird, and Kûsûy, which have already been described as of the
Kūhistân province (see p. 358), are often given as belonging to
Fūshanjº.
* Ist. 267, 285. I. H. 318, 3.34. Muk. 50, 298, 307, 349. Yak, i. 470;
ii. 950; iii. 605; iv. 247, 397, 499.
* Ist. 267, 268. I. H. 319. Muk. 298. Yak. i. 758; iii. 923. Mst. 187.
4 I 2 KHURASAN. [CHAP.
The Asfuzăr district lies to the south of Herät, on the road
towards Zaranj, and in the 4th (Ioth) century four towns of
importance existed here, besides the capital Asfuzăr, namely
Adraskar, Kuwärān, Kūshk, and Kuwäshān. Asfuzăr, now the
chief town, at the present day goes by the name of Sabzivār (called
Sabzivār of Herāt, to distinguish it from Sabzivār to the west of
Nīshāpār; see p. 391). In early times, however, Kuwäshān was
the largest city of the district, which extended for three days’
march from north to south with a breadth across of a day's march.
According to Istakhri there was here a famous valley, called
Kāshkān, with many populous villages, and the river which has
its head-waters near Asfuzār (Sabzivār) is that now known as the
Hārūd of Sistān, which flows into the head of the Zarah lake
to the west of Juwayn. All these towns of Asfuzār are de-
scribed as surrounded by fertile lands and gardens. In the
Itineraries Asfuzăr bears the second name of Khāstān (or Jāshān,
for the reading is uncertain), and it seems not unlikely that
Kuwäshān is merely another form of this name, and therefore
really identical with Asfuzār (Sabzivār). The town of Adraskar,
or Ardsakar, as it is also spelt, still exists to the east of Asfuzăr,
the name at the present day being written Adraskan. Yākūt
records Asfuzār as of Sijistān, and Mustawfi speaks of it as a
medium-sized town, with many villages and gardens rich in grapes
and pomegranates, where already in the 8th (14th) century most
of the people were Sunnis of the Shāfi‘ite school. The relative
positions of the other towns of the district are, unfortunately, not
given in the Itineraries'. -
The high road from Herät northward to Marv-ar-Rūd crosses
the great district of Bädghis (Bādhghis), which occupied the
whole stretch of country lying between the Herät river on the
west (to the north of Fūshanj) and the upper waters of the
Murghâb on the east, where these issue from the mountains of
Gharjistān; and Bädghis was itself watered by many of the left-
A. Y. i. 312. The Sani'-ad-Dawlah states (Miráſ-al-Buldan, i. 298) that he
passed near and saw the ruins of Būshanj when travelling down from Nishāpār
to Herāt, near but not at Ghurian. -
* Ist. 249, 264, 267. I. H. 305, 318, 319. Muk. 298, 308, 350. Yak, i.
248. Mst. 187.
XXIX.] KHURASAN. 4 I 3
bank affluents of the Murghāb. The eastern part of Bädghis,
beginning some 13 leagues to the north of Herät, was known as
the Kanj Rusták district, and had three chief cities, Baban, Kayf,
and Baghshūr, the positions of which can approximately be fixed
by the Itineraries. In the remainder of Bädghis a list of nine
large towns is given by Mukaddasi, but unfortunately the positions
of none of these can be fixed, for they are not mentioned in the
Itineraries, and at the present day the whole of this country is an
uninhabited waste, having been ruined in the 7th (13th) century
by the Mongol invasions. The numerous ruins scattered through-
out the district still attest the former state of prosperity of this
well-watered country, but the modern names are not those given
by the medieval authorities.
The remains of the city of Baghshūr, one of the chief towns of
Kanj Rusták, appear to be those now known as Kal‘ah Mawr.
In the 4th (Ioth) century Ibn Hawkal describes Baghshūr as
one of the finest and richest cities of Khurāsān, being of the size
of Būshanj. The governor of the district generally lived at Babnah
or Baban, a larger town even than Būshanj, while Kayf is described
as half the size of Baghshūr. All these places had well-built
houses of sun-dried bricks, and were surrounded by fertile gardens
and farms, for this district was abundantly irrigated by streams,
and from wells. Yākūt, who visited these countries in 616 (I.219),
confirms the above account of the former riches of Baghshūr and
its neighbouring towns, but says that in his day the whole Country
had gone much to ruin, though this was before the Mongol
invasion. Babnah he names Bavan, or Bawn, and he had himself
stayed here; having also visited another town called Bāmiyin, or
Bāmanj, which lay at a short distance only from Babnah. The
country round he saw to be most fertile, and pistachio trees grew
and flourished here abundantly".
In regard to the southern part of the Bädghis district the
* I. R. 173. Ist. 269. I. H. 320. Muk. 298, 308. Yak. i. 461, 481,
487, 694; ii. 764; iv. 333. For the present condition of the Bädghis country
and its ruins, see C. E. Yate, Aſghanistanz, pp. 67, 68. There are ruined forts
and remains at Gulrān, and Sagardān, and Kārā Bāgh (p. Ior), also at ISalah
Mawr (pp. 96, Ioš), and at Kārā Tappah, some of which must be those of
the towns named by the Arab geographers.
4. I4 KHURASAN. [CHAP.
accounts of its former prosperity are as circumstantial as those
describing Kanj Rustäk, but its towns have now completely
disappeared from the map, and the medieval names are difficult
to locate, or identify with those given to the existing ruins. The
capital by all accounts was Dihistān, the position of which may
correspond with the present shrine of Khwājah Dihistān to the
north-east of Herāt; and Mukaddasi mentions seven other great
cities, namely Kūghānābādh, Kāfā, Busht, Jādhāwā, Kābrün,
Kalwān, and Jabal-al-Fiddah or ‘the Silver Hill,’ the positions of
which can only be very approximately indicated. Dihistān, the
second largest city of Bädghis, was in the 4th (Ioth) century a place
half the size of Būshanj, and stood on a hill, its houses built of clay
bricks, with good underground chambers for use in the summer
heats. It had few gardens, but much arable land. The governor
of the province lived at Kūghānābādh, a smaller place than
Dihistán. Jabal-al-Fiddah, as its name implied, was a town
where there was a silver mine in the neighbouring hill, and it lay
on the direct road from Herät to Sarakhs, and apparently to the
north of Kūghānābādh. Fire-wood grew abundantly in its district.
The town of Kāfā was a larger place than Jabal-al-Fiddah, and
stood in a plain with excellent gardens; but of the four other
towns mentioned by Mukaddasi no details are afforded, except
the fact that they all lay near the road running from Herät north
to Sarakhs.
Yākūt, who mentions Dihistān as the capital of Bädghis, says
the name of the district signifies Bād-khiz, ‘where the wind rises,’
on account of its tempestuous climate. The account which
Mustawfi gives of Bädghis is difficult to understand, for the
names of places have been much corrupted in the MSS. Dihistān
was the capital, and the silver mine is referred to under the
Persian form of Kūh Nukrah, ‘silver mountain’; a third place of
importance was Kūh Ghunabād (for Kūghānābādh), where the
governor lived; and a fourth town was apparently called Buzurg-
tarin, but the reading is uncertain. Mustawfi also mentions a
town named Kārīz (or Kārīzah), ‘the Watercourse,” which he
adds was the native place of Hakim Burkā‘ī–‘the physician with
the face-veil’—commonly known as the Moon-maker of Nakhshab,
in other words the Veiled Prophet of Khurāsān, whose revolt in
XXIX.] KHURASAN. 4 I 5
the 2nd (8th) century gave the Caliph Mahdi so much trouble to
Suppress.
Other places are also mentioned (with many corruptions in
the text), reproducing the list given by Mukaddasi and the earlier
Arab geographers, but no details are added. In the 8th (14th)
century, according to Mustawfi, Bădghis was chiefly remarkable
for its pistachio forests; and at the time of harvesting the
nuts, great numbers of men assembled here, each gathering
what he could carry away, and the nuts being afterwards sold
in the neighbouring districts. Such was the abundance of the
pistachio trees that Mustawfi adds, “many make their liveli-
hood for the whole year round by what they can gather here
at harvest-time, and it is indeed a wonder to behold.’ At the
close of the 8th (14th) century the ruin of Bädghis appears to
have been finally brought about by the passage of the armies of
Timúr on their devastating march from Herät to Marv-ar-Rüd".
To the east of Bädghis, at the head-waters of the Murghāb
river, is the mountainous region known to the earlier Arab geo-
graphers as Gharj-ash-Shár. The prince of these mountains had
the title of the Shār, and Gharj, according to Mukaddasi, meant
‘mountain' in the local dialect, so that Gharj-ash-Shár was equi-
valent to the ‘Mountains of the Shār.” In the later middle-ages
this region came to be more generally known as Gharjistān, and
as such figures largely in the account of the Mongol invasion.
Further, as Yākūt remarks, Gharjistān, often spelt Gharshistān or
Gharistān, was often confounded with Ghūristān, or the Ghūr
country, lying to the east of it, which will be more particularly
* Ist. 268, 269. I. H. 319, 320. Muk. 298, 308. Yak. i. 461 ; ii. 633.
Mst. 187, 188. J. N. 314, 315. A. Y. i. 308. C. E. Yate, Aſghanistan,
p. 6. The route from Herät to Marv-ar-Rūd, given in the Itineraries of the
earlier Arab geographers, goes from city to city through Kanj Rustäk, and the
southernmost stage (Babnah) is two days’ march from Herāt. Mustawfi
(p. 198) gives a rather different road in seven stages, namely, from Herät in
5 leagues to Hangāmābād, thence 5 to Bädghis (to be understood doubtless as
Dihistān the capital), thence 5 to Bawan (or Babnah), thence 5 to Marghzār
Darrah, “the Valley of the Meadow-lands,’ thence 8 to Baghchi Shūr (Baghshūr),
thence 5 to Usråd, or Lüsråd, and finally, 4 leagues into Marv-ar-Rüd. For
the ruined caravanserais which still apparently mark this route see C. E. Yate,
Aſghazzista?, pp. 194, 195, 222.
4I6 RHURASAN. [CHAP.
discussed presently. The Shār, or prince of Gharjistān, had of
old been known to the Arabs as Malik-al-Gharjah (the king of
the Gharj people), and in the 4th (Ioth) century this was a rich
district, counting ten Friday Mosques as standing in its various
to WnS.
The two chief cities of Gharjistán were called Abshīn and
Shurmín, the exact sites of which are unknown. Abshin (Afshin,
or Bashin) lay a bow-shot distant from the eastern bank of the
upper Murghāb, and four marches above Marv-ar-Rūd, Round
it were fine gardens, and much rice was sent from thence to
Balkh. It had a strong castle, and a Friday Mosque. Shurmín
(or Surmin) lay in the mountains four marches southward of
Abshin, and likewise four marches from Karūkh to the north-east
of Herāt. From it they exported currants to all the neigh-
bouring places. The prince of the country, the Shār aforesaid,
resided at neither of these places, but at a great village in the
mountains called Balikán (or Balkiyān). Yākūt gives the names
of two other cities of Gharjistān, namely Sinjah and Baywar, but
except that they lay in the mountains, “as a man of the country
told me,’ he cannot indicate their position'.
The great mountain region to the east and South of Gharjistān
was known as Ghūr, or Ghūristān, and it stretched from Herät
to Bāmiyān and the borders of Kābul and Ghaznah, also south-
ward of the Herāt river. The medieval geographers refer to it
as the country of the head-waters of many great rivers, namely of
the Hari Rūd, also of the Helmund, the Khwāsh, and the Farah
rivers (which drained to the Zarah lake), while on its Gharjistān
frontier rose the Murghāb. The geography of this immense
region of mountains is, unfortunately, a complete blank, for the
sites of none of the towns and Castles mentioned in its history
are known. In the 4th (roth) century, according to Ibn Hawkal,
Ghūr was infidel land, though many Moslems lived there. Its
* Ist. 271, 272. I. H. 323. Muk. 309, 348. Yak. i. 8o3; iii. 72, 163,
186, 785, 786, 823. Gharjistän of Khurāsān has nothing to do with Gurjistán
south of the Caucasus (see Chapter XII, p. 181) now commonly known to us
as Georgia, and it is quite a mistake to give the name of Georgia to Gharjistān,
as has been done by some writers when describing the Mongol invasion of this
region of the upper Murghāb, for there is no Georgia of Afghānistán.
|
XXIX.] KHURASAN. 4 I 7
valleys were populous and extremely fertile; it being famous for
mines, both of silver and gold, which existed in the mountains
towards Bāmiyān and Panj-hir (see above, p. 350). The richest
of these mines was called Kharkhiz. After the fall of the
dynasty of Mahmūd of Ghaznah, the Ghūrid chiefs, at first his
lieutenants, became independent, and eventually founded their
capital at Firſzkūh, an immense fortress in the mountains, the
position of which is not known.
The Ghūrid princes ruled independently from the middle of
the 6th (12th) century to 612 (1215), when they were defeated
by the Khwārizm Shāh, and a few years later the dynasty dis-
appeared at the time of the Mongol invasion. Before this,
however, in 588 (1192), the Ghūrids had conquered much of
northern India, holding all the country from Dehli to Herāt, and
after the dynasty had been annihilated by the Mongols the Slave
Kings (their Mamlük generals) continued to rule Dehli in a long
line of Sultans, down to 962 (1554).
Ghūr, or Ghūristān, attained its highest point of splendour and
riches between 543 and 612 (1 148 and I 2 I 5) under the Ghūrid
princes of the Săm dynasty. Yākūt speaks of their great capital
at Firózkūh, or Bīrūzkáh (Turquoise Mountain), but gives no
details; Mustawfi also briefly refers to this fortress, and says that
another of its chief towns was Rūd Hangarān, but the reading is
very uncertain. In 619 (1222) the whole country was overrun by
Changiz Khān, Firſzkūh being stormed and left in ruins. Two
other great fortresses are named as having given much trouble to
the Mongol troops, namely Kalyān and Fivār, lying ten leagues
distant one from the other, but the position of neither is known,
and both are said to have been entirely destroyed by Changiz
Khán. Kazvini in the 7th (13th) century also names Khūst as
one of the great cities of Ghūr, and possibly this is identical with
Khasht, the place previously mentioned (p. 4Io) as near the head-
waters of the Hari Rūd. In the time of Timúr the only place
referred to in Ghūr appears to be the Castle called Kalah Khastār,
but, again, nothing is known of its position'.
* Ist. 272. I. H. 3o4, 323. Yak. iii. 823; iv. 930. Kaz. ii. 244. Mst.
184, 188. A. Y. i. 150. On Ghūr see the article by Sir H. Yule in the
Ancyclopædia Britannica (9th edition), x. 569.
LE S. 27
418 KHURASAN. [CHAP.
The city of Bāmiyān was the capital of a great district of
the same name which formed the eastern part of Ghūr, and
as its very ancient remains show, was a great Buddhist centre
long before the days of Islam. Istakhri describes Bāmiyān as
half the size of Balkh in the 4th (1 oth) century, and though
the town, which stood on a hill, was unfortified, its district was
most fertile, being watered by a considerable river. Mukaddasi
names the city Al-Lahám, but the reading is uncertain, and
he praises it as ‘the trade-port of Khurāsān and the treasure-
house of Sind.’ It was very cold and there was much snow,
but in its favour was the fact that bugs and scorpions were
conspicuously absent. The city had a Friday Mosque, and rich
markets stood in the extensive suburbs, while four gates gave
egress from the town. In the 4th (Ioth) century the Bāmiyān
territory included many large cities, the sites of which are now
completely lost. The three chief towns are said to have been
called Basghūrſand, Sakiwand, and Lakhrāb.
Yākūt in the beginning of the 7th (13th) century describes in
some detail the great Sculptured statues of Buddha still to be seen
at Bāmiyān. High up in the mountain side, he writes, there was
a chamber Supported on Columns, and on its walls had been
sculptured the likenesses of “every species of bird that Allah had
created—most wonderful to see.” Without the chamber-entrance
are “two mighty idols cut in the live rock of the hill-side, from
base to Summit, and these are known as the Surkh Bud and the
Khing Bud [the Red and the Grey Buddha] and nowhere else in
the world is there aught to equal these.” Kazvíní speaks of
a ‘Golden House' at Bāmiyān, and likewise describes the two great
statues of Buddha; further he mentions a quicksilver (zibak)
mine and a sulphur Spring as of this neighbourhood. The ruin
of Bāmiyān and all its province, even as far east as the Panj-hir
mines, as already mentioned, was due to the wrath of Changiz
Khān, whose favourite grandson Mūtūkin, son of Jaghatay,
was killed at the siege of Bāmiyān. The Mongol troops were
ordered to level with the ground the town walls and all the houses,
and Changiz forbade any to build or live here ever again, the
name of Bāmiyān being changed to Mav Balik, which in the
XXIX.] RHURASAN. 4 IQ
Turki dialect means ‘the accursed city.’ Since that time Bāmiyān
has been an uninhabited waste".
* Ist. 277, 280. I. H. 327, 328. Muk. 296, 303, 3o4. Yak. i. 481.
Kaz. ii. Iog. Mst. 188. A. G. I 14, 149. For illustrations of the great
Buddhist sculptures at Bāmiyān see Talbot and Maitland, in J. R. A. S.
I886, p. 323.
27—2
CHA PTER X X X.
KHURASAN (continued).
The Balkh quarter of Khurāsān. Balkh city and Naw Bahár. The district
of Jūzján. Talikān and Jurzuwän. Maymanah or Yahūdīyah. Făryāb,
Shaburkān, Anbār, and Andakhüd. The Tukhāristán district. Khulm,
Siminjān, and Andarābah. Warwālīz and Tâyikān. The products of
Khurāsān. The high roads through Khurāsān and Kūhistān,
Balkh—‘Mother of Cities’—gave its name to the fourth Quarter
of Khurásán, which, Outside the district of the capital, was
divided, west and east, between the two great districts of Júzján
and Tukhāristán.
In the 3rd (9th) century Ya‘kūbi speaks of Balkh as the
greatest city of all Khurāsān. It had had of old three concen-
tric walls, and thirteen gates, and Mukaddasi adds that it had
been called in early days the equivalent, in Persian, of Balkh-al-
Bahiyyah, “Beautiful Balkh.’ Outside the town lay the famous
suburb of Naw Bahār, and the houses extended over an area
measuring three miles Square. There were, says Ya‘kūbi, two
score Friday Mosques in the city. Istakhri remarks that Balkh
stood in a plain, being four leagues from the nearest mountains,
called Jabal Kū. Its houses were built of sun-dried bricks, and
the same material was used in the city wall, outside which was
a deep ditch. The markets and the chief Friday Mosque stood in
the central part of the city. The stream that watered Balkh was
called Dahās, which, says Ibn Hawkal, signifies ‘ten mills’ (in
Persian); the river turns these as it runs past the Naw Bahār gate,
flowing on thence to irrigate the lands and farms of Siyāhjird on
the Tirmid road. All round Balkh lay gardens producing oranges,
the Nilüfar lily, and the Sugar-cane, which, with the produce of its
CHAP. XXX] KHURASAN. 42 I
vineyards, were all exported in quantity. Further, its markets were
much frequented by merchants.
The city possessed seven gates, namely Bāb Naw Bahár, Bāb
Rahbah (the Gate of the Square), Bāb-al-Hadid (the Iron Gate)
Bāb Hinduwän (the Gate of the Hindus), Bāb-al-Yahūd (the Jews'
Gate), Bāb Shast-band (the Gate of the Sixty Dykes), and Bāb
Yahyà. Mukaddasi describes in general terms the beauty, splen-
dour, and riches of Balkh, its many streams, its cheap living, for
food-stuffs were abundant, the innumerable broad Streets, its walls
and its Great Mosque, also its many well-built palaces; and in this
state of prosperity Balkh flourished till the middle of the 6th
(12th) century, when it was laid in ruins for the first time by the
invasion of the Ghuzz Turks in 550 (II.55). After their departure
the population came back, and rebuilt the city in another but
closely adjacent place. In part Balkh before long recovered its
former splendour, and thus is described by Yākūt in the early
part of the 7th (13th) century, immediately before its second
devastation at the hands of the Mongols.
Of the great suburb of Balkh called Naw Bahár, where accord-
ing to Mas‘ūdī had stood, in Sassanian days, one of the chief
fire-temples of the Guebres, Yākūt has a long account, which
he quotes from the work of “Omar-ibn-al-Azrak of Kirmān, and
a similar description is found in Kazvini. Of this fire-temple at
Balkh the chief priest had been Barmak, ancestor of the Barme-
cides, and in Sassanian days his family had been hereditary
chief-pontiffs of the Zoroastrian faith in this city. The account
given of Naw Bahár, briefly, is that it was originally built in
imitation of, and as a rival to, the Ka'abah of Mecca. Its walls
were adorned with precious stones, and brocaded curtains were
hung everywhere to cover these, the walls themselves being
periodically unguented with perfumes, especially in the spring-
time, for Naw Bahār means “First or Early Spring,’ the season
when pilgrimage was made to the shrine. The chief building was
surmounted by a great cupola, called Al-Ustān, a hundred ells
and more in height, and round this central building were 360
chambers, where the priests who served had their lodgings, one
priest being appointed for each day of the year. On the summit
of the dome was a great silk flag, which the wind blew out at
422 KHURASAN. [CHAP.
times to a fabulous distance. This principal building was full of
figures or idols, one of which in chief the pilgrims from Kābul,
India, and China prostrated themselves before, afterwards
kissing the hand of Barmak, the chief priest. All the lands
round Naw Bahār for seven leagues square were the property of
the Sanctuary, and these brought in a great revenue. The great
Naw Bahār shrine was destroyed by Ahnaf ibn Kays, when he
conquered Khurāsān in the days of the Caliph “Othmān, and
converted the people to Islam'.
The Mongols in 617 (1220) devastated Balkh, and according
to Ibn Batūtah, Changiz Khān ruined the third part of its Great
Mosque in his fruitless search for hidden treasure. When Ibn
Batūtah visited this district in the earlier half of the 8th (14th)
century Balkh was still a complete ruin, and uninhabited, but
outside the walls were a number of tombs and shrines that were
still visited by the pious pilgrims. In the account of the campaigns
of Timür, at the close of the 8th (14th) century, Balkh is often
mentioned, and by this date must have recovered part of its former
glory. Timür restored the fortress outside the walls called Kal‘ah
Hinduwän, the Castle of the Hindus, which became the residence
of his governor, and at a later date he also rebuilt much of the
older city.
Balkh at the present day is an important town of modern
Afghanistān, and is celebrated for its great shrine, called Mazār-
i-Sharif (the Noble Tomb), where the Caliph ‘Alī—known as
Shāh-i-Mardān, ‘King of Men’—is popularly supposed to have
been buried. According to Khwāndamir this, supposititious, grave
of the martyred ‘Ali was discovered in the year 885 (1480), when
Mírzá Baykará, a descendant of Timár, was governor of Balkh.
For in that aforesaid year a book of history, written in the time of
* Ykb. 287, 288. Ist. 275, 278, 280. I. H. 325, 326, 329. Muk. 301,
302. Mas. iv. 48. Yak. i. 713; iv. 817, 818. Kaz. ii. 22 I. The curious
passage about Naw Bahār will be found translated, in full, by M. Barbier
de Meynard in his Dictionnaire Géograp/higue de la Perse, p. 569. The
presence of the idols, great and Small, and the (sacred) flags, suggested to
Sir H. Rawlinson the idea that Naw Bahār had been originally a Buddhist
Shrine, and the name he explained as Naw Vihārah, “the New Vihārah,”
or Buddhist Monastery. See /. A. G. S. 1872, p. 5 ſo.
XXXj KHURASAN. 423
Sultan Sanjar the Saljúk, was shown to Mirzā Baykará, in which
it was stated that ‘Ali lay buried at the village of Khwājah
Khayrān, a place lying three leagues distant from Balkh. On
the governor forthwith going there and making due search a slab
was discovered bearing the inscription in Arabic, ‘This is the tomb
of the Lion of Allah, and His saint, ‘Ali, brother [for cousin] of
the Apostle of Allah.’ A great shrine was therefore built over this
grave, and ever since this has been highly venerated by the people
of central Asia, and is still a notable place of pilgrimage'.
Júzjān (Al-Jūzajān or Juzjānān) was the western district of the
Balkh quarter, through which the road passed from Marv-ar-Rūd
to Balkh city. During the middle-ages this was a most populous
district, possessing many cities, of which three only now exist
under their old names, though the positions of most of the other
towns mentioned by the Arab geographers can be fixed from the
Itineraries. Though the names are changed, ruins still mark
their sites. The whole district was extremely fertile, and much
merchandise was exported, especially hides, which were tanned
here and carried to all parts of Khurāsān”.
Three marches distant from Marv-ar-Rūd, towards Balkh, was
the city of Tālikán, the name of which is no longer found on the
map, but the ruins and mounds of brick near Châchaktú probably
mark its site. Already in the 3rd (9th) century Tālikán was
a town of much importance, and Ya‘kūbi says that the Tālikån
felts made here were celebrated. The town lay among the
mountains, and there was a magnificent Friday Mosque here.
Istakhri in the following century stated that Tālikán was as large
as Marv-ar-Rūd, and its climate was more healthy. Its houses
were built of sun-dried bricks. Near by was the village of
Junduwayh, where, according to Yākūt, in the 2nd (8th) century,
the great battle had been fought and won by Abu Muslim at
the head of the Abbasid partizans against the Omayyad troops.
Shortly after the time when Yākūt wrote, in 617 (1220), Tālikän
was stormed after a siege of seven months by Changiz Khān, and
! I. B. iii. 58, 59. A. Y. i. 176. Khwāndamir, iii. pt 3, p. 238. C. E.
Yate, Aſghanistan, 256, 28o.
* Ist. 27 I. I. H. 322. Muk. 298. Yak. ii. 149.
424 KHURASAN. [CHAP.
all the population were massacred, its castle being razed to the
ground.
In the mountains—with a situation at the foot of hill-spurs
and gulleys that, it was said, resembled Mecca—was the town of
Jurzuwän, where the governor of the Júzján district passed the
summer heats. The name of Al-Jurzuwän, as the Arabs called
it, the Persians pronounced Kurzuwän or Gurzuvân, and it was
also written Jurzubăn or Gurzubăn. It lay between Tālikån
and Marv-ar-Rūd, in the district towards the Ghūr frontier,
and, Yākút says, was very populous and full of rich folk. No
place of this name now exists on the map, but the ruins at
Kal‘ah Wāli most probably mark its site'.
The city of Maymanah, which lay two marches beyond Tālikän
on the Balkh road, still exists as a flourishing town. In the
earlier middle-ages it was called Al-Yahūdān, or Al-Yahūdīyah,
‘the Jews’ Town,” and was often counted as the capital of Júzján.
Its Friday Mosque, Ibn Hawkal says, had two minarets. Yākūt,
who gives the name also under the form Jahādān-al-Kubrå, ‘the
Great Jewry,’ says that it was first settled by the Israelites whom
Nebuchadnezzar sent hither from Jerusalem. The name was
changed to Maymanah, meaning ‘the Auspicious Town,” for the
sake of good augury, since “Jew-town' to the Moslems was a term
of reproach, and as Maymanah it exists at the present day.
Maymanah is apparently also mentioned by Mustawfi, who speaks
of it, in the 8th (14th) century, as a medium-sized town of the hot
region, growing corn, fruit, and dates, and taking its water-supply
from the neighbouring river. There is, however, possibly some
confusion between this Maymanah of Júzjān, and Maymand for
! Ykb. 287. Ist. 270. I. H. 32 I, 322. Yak. ii. 59, 129; iii. 491; iv. 258.
A. G. I 14. C. E. Yate, Aſghanistant, I 57, 194, 195, 196, 21 1. The ruins at
Châchaktú (Tālikån) are 45 miles as the crow flies from Bālā Murghāb (Marv-
ar-Rūd), which would be an equivalent of the three days’ march, in a moun-
tainous country, from this last place to Tālikån. The name of Châchaktü
(written Jijaktú) is mentioned by ‘Ali of Yazd (i. 806; ii. 593) in his accounts
of the campaigns of Timür, but Tālikân is not mentioned by him. The ruins
at Kal‘ah Wāli (probably Jurzuwän) lie 27 miles from Bālā Murghāb. An
alternative site might be found at the considerable remains existing near Takht-
i-Khātūn. Either of these places may be Gurzuwän, which it is to be noted
was a mint city under the Khwārizm Shāhs.
XXX] KHURASAN. 425
Maywand in Zăbulistān, half-way between Girishk and Kandahār;
and this confusion reappears in the pages of Yākūt, who writes of
Maymand (or Mimand) of Ghaznah, and says it “lay between
Bāmiyān and Ghūr,’ evidently meaning Maymanah or Yahūdīyah.
One march from Yahūdīyah or Maymanah was the town of
Kandaram, also written Kandadram, the residence, according to
Ya‘kūbi, of the governor of Júzján. It was a city of the mountains,
Istakhri writes, rich in vineyards and nut-trees, and abundantly
irrigated by running streams'.
One of the most important towns of Júzján during the middle
ages was Al-Fāryāb, the name of which has completely disappeared
from the map, but from the position given by the Itineraries the
ruins of Färyāb may be identified as those now known as Khay-
rābād, where there is an ancient fort surrounded by mounds of
brick. Al-Fāriyāb, as Ibn Hawkal spells the name, was in the
4th (Ioth) century a smaller town than Tālikán, but more fertile
and with finer gardens. It was very healthy, and much merchan-
dise was to be found collected here. It had a fine Friday Mosque,
which however possessed no minaret. Yākūt, who also spells the
name Firyāb, gives its position in regard to Tālikån and Shaburkān,
but adds no details. In 617 (1220), shortly after his time, Făryāb
was completely ruined by the Mongols, and it is only incidentally
mentioned by Mustawfi. Between Al-Yahūdīyah and Al-Fāryāb,
according to Ibn Hawkal, there stood the city of Marsän, nearly
of the size of Al-Yahūdīyah in the 4th (1 oth) century; and possibly
this is identical with the village of Nariyān which Yākút mentions
as in a like position. Of this mountain region also was the small
city of Sán which Ibn Hawkal describes as having many fruitful
gardens growing grapes and nuts, for its streams brought water
without stint”.
* Ykb. 287. Ist. 270, 271. I. II. 32 I, 322. Yak. ii. 168; iv. 7 19, Io.45.
Mst. 185. C. E. Yate, Afghanisſan, 339.
* Ist. 270. I. H. 321, 322. N. K. 3. Yak. iii. 840, 888; iv. 775. Mst.
188. C. E. Yate, Afghanistan, 233. Färyāb of Jūzjān is called Dih Bāryāb
by Nāsir-i-Khusraw, who passed through it going from Shaburkān to Tālikån.
It is also given as Bārāb in the Jahán Mumá (p. 324), and it is not to be
confused with Fārāb, also called Bārāb, which is Oträr on the Jaxartes, as will
be mentioned in Chapter XXXIV.
426 KHURASAN. [CHAP.
Shaburkān, spelt variously Ashbūrkân or Ushburkān, also
Shubúrkân or Sabúrghān, which still exists, had in the 3rd (9th)
century been once the seat of government of the Júzján district,
which afterwards was removed to Yahūdīyah (Maymanah), at
that time its equal in size. Its gardens and fields were
wonderfully fertile, and large quantities of fruits were exported.
Yākūt, who spells the name Shubrukån or Shufrukān and Shabūr-
kān, says that in 617 (1220), at the time of the Mongol invasion,
it was a very populous town, with much merchandise in its
markets. A century later Mustawfi speaks of it in similar terms,
coupling Shubürkān and Fāryāb together, also adding that corn
was abundant and cheap here.
One day to the south of Shubürkān, and the same distance
eastward of Yahūdīyah, was Anbār, otherwise written Anbir, which
Ibn Hawkal says was larger than Marv-ar-Rûd. Here the
governor of the district had his residence in the winter. No town
of this name now exists, but by position Anbār is probably
identical in site with Sar-i-púl, on the upper part of the Shubſurkän
river, still a place of some importance. The town was sur-
rounded by vineyards and its houses were clay-built. It was
often counted as the chief city of Jūzīān, and is probably the
town which Nāsir-i-Khusraw visited on his road to Shuburghān,
and which he calls the city (or capital) of Júzjänän. He speaks
of its great Friday Mosque, and remarks on the wine-bibbing habits
of the people. Out in the plain, to the north-west of Shubürkān,
lies the town of Andkhuy, the name of which in the earlier
geographers is spelt variously Andakhud, Addakhūd, and An-
Nakhud. Ibn Hawkal speaks of it as a small town out in the
desert, with seven villages lying round it, and, in the 4th (Ioth)
century, for the most part inhabited by Kurds, who possessed
many sheep and camels. Yākūt mentions it, but adds no details;
the name also frequently occurs in the accounts of Timár's
campaigns".
The great district of Tukhāristán lay to the eastward of Balkh,
stretching along the south side of the Oxus as far as the frontiers
1 Ykb. 287. Ist. 270, 271. I. H. 321, 322. N. K. 2. Yak. i. 367,
372 ; iii. 254, 256, 305, 840. Mst. 188, 189, 190. A. Y. i. 805; ii. 593.
C. E. Yate, Afghanisſan, 346.
XXX] * RHURASAN. 427
of Badakhshān, and bounded on the south by the mountain
ranges north of Bāmiyān and Panj-hir. It was divided into Upper
Tukhāristān, east of Balkh and along the Oxus, and Lower
Tukhāristán which lay further to the south-east, on the frontiers
of Badakhshán. Many towns are mentioned as of Tukhāristán
by the medieval geographers, but they add few details concerning
them, so that excepting in the case of those given in the Itineraries,
and those which still exist, it is now impossible to identify the
greater number of them.
Two days’ march to the east of Balkh is Khulm, described by
Mukaddasi as a small city surrounded by many large villages and
districts, with a good climate. Two days’ march again from
Khulm lay Siminjān and Rūb, two towns near together, which
probably are represented at the present day by Haybak, south of
Khulm, on the upper course of the Khulm river. Mukaddasi
speaks of Siminjān as a larger town than Khulm ; it had a Friday
Mosque, and excellent fruit was grown, and Yākūt describes
it as lying in a maze of valleys, which were, or had been, peopled
by Arabs of the Tamim tribe. Mustawfi mentions Siminjān as a
large town, already ruined in the 8th (14th) century, but where
corn, cotton, and grapes were much cultivated; and under the
spelling Saminkän it is mentioned by ‘Ali of Yazd in describing
the march of Timür from Khulm to the Indian frontier.
Beyond, South-east of Siminjān, was Baghlān, Upper and
Lower, and in the latter district, according to Mukaddasi, was the
capital with a Friday Mosque in the 4th (Ioth) century. Baghlān,
or Baklän, as the name of the district is spelt by ‘Ali of Yazd,
apparently lay along the road to Andarābah, otherwise Andarāb,
which is described by Mukaddasi as having fine markets,
being situated among valleys clothed by verdant forests. These
valleys, which were on the northern slopes of the Panj-hir range,
had many silver mines in their recesses, according to Ibn Hawkal,
who speaks of two rivers, the Nahr Andarāb, and the Nahr Käsän,
as flowing down through this district. Yākūt, who gives no
additional details, spells the name Andarāb or Andarābah".
* Ist. 279. I. H. 326. Muk. 296, 303. Yak. i. 372; ii. 827; iii. 142, 518.
Mst. 188. A. Y. ii. 19. C. E. Yate, Aſghanistan, 3.17. For the relative
positions of these places see Map I, p. 1.
428 RHURASAN. [CHAP.
The Khulm river does not flow into the Oxus, but is lost in
marshes a few miles to the north of the ruins of the old town.
At the nearest bend of the Oxus to Khulm, there was in the 4th
(Ioth) century a strongly fortified guard-house, called Rubåt
Milah, where the road coming in three marches from Balkh
crossed the great river into Transoxiana and the Khuttal country.
Two marches to the eastward of Khulm was Warwālīz, or
Warwālij, which Ibn Hawkal and others describe as a large city
in the 4th (Ioth) century. No town of this name now exists, but
by its position in the Itineraries it must have stood very near the
site of Kunduz. Yākūt, who apparently by a clerical error gives
the name as Wazwälín, adds no details, and neither he nor any
of the earlier geographers mention Kunduz, which is doubtless
an abbreviation for Kuhandiz, the common name for ‘fortress’ in
Persian, and as such possibly applied to the old castle of Warwāliz".
Two days’ march to the east of Warwālīz lay Tâyikán, or
Tālikän of Tukhāristān, which still exists (not to be confounded
with Tālikän of Júzjān, described above, p. 423), and which in
the 4th (Ioth) century was one of the most populous towns of
the district. At-Tâlikán, as Mukaddasi spells the name, though
At-Tâyikán is the better form, had a large market; it stood in the
plain a bow-shot from the hills, and was in the 4th (1 oth) century
about a third the size of Balkh. Its lands were watered by an
affluent of the Oxus, called Khuttalāb (sometimes written Khaylāb);
and the Watrāb river (or Tarāb, for the readings of these two
names are doubtful) appears to have been One of its branch
streams, which joined the Khuttalāb above Kunduz. The
neighbourhood was extremely fertile, and it was a pleasant
country; corn and much fruit, according to Mustawfi, were
grown, and in the 8th (14th) century, most of the population
were weavers. It then possessed a strong fortress, and was
surrounded by well-cultivated districts, where grapes, figs, peaches,
and pistachios grew abundantly. ‘Ali of Yazd frequently mentions
Tâyikán when relating the campaigns of Timür, and according to
the older geographers seven days' march east of this was Badakh-
shān, which will be noticed in the following chapter”.
* Ist. 279. I. H. 326, 332. Muk. 296. Yak. iii. 518; iv. 926.
* I. R. 93. Ist. 275, 276, 278, 279. I. H. 326. Muk. 296, 303. A. F.
XXX] RHURASAN. 429
The most famous exports of Khurāsān, according to Ibn
Hawkal, were the silk and cotton stuffs of Naysäbür and Marv.
Both sheep and camels were to be had here cheap, and Turkish
slaves—a boy or girl slave, he says, fetching as much as 5ooo dinärs
(about 24, 25oo)—and all food-stuffs were plentiful. Mukaddasi
enters into further details. Naysábūr was the chief manufacturing
centre. Various white cloths were made here ; and stuffs for
turbans woven in the straight, or across, or diagonally. Veils, thin
lining materials, woollens and raw silks, brocades of silk and of silk
mixed with cotton, and various linen stuffs and cloths of goat's
hair; all these were famous products of Naysabûr. Here, too,
were made cloaks, fine thread, and tabby silks in all varieties.
Ironware was forged here, as well as needles and knives. The
gardens of Naysabûr were renowned for their figs, truffles, and
rhubarb, and from the mine in the hills of the Rivand district
came the famous turquoises (firſ?sáj) of Nishāpúr.
The towns of Nisã and Abívard were noted for their raw silk
stuffs, and the cloth that the women wove in these districts. Fox-
skin pelisses also were made up here. Nisã in particular had
a special breed of falcons, and produced much sesame seed.
From Tús came great Cooking pots, a speciality of the town, also
mats, and most of the cereals were largely exported. Excellent
belts and cloaks were likewise manufactured. Herät produced
brocade stuffs of all kinds, preserves made of raisins and
pistachios, and divers syrups. Steel, too, was admirably forged
in Herāt. From the mountainous country of Gharj-ash-Shār
came felts and carpets, saddle cloths and cushions. Gold was
found here, and horses and mules were exported largely.
was a great place for all loom work in silk, mixed cotton
nd pure cotton, of which veils and all sorts of cloth
were woven. The districts round the city produced oil of
Sesame, Condiments and aromatics, and manna. Brass pots were
made in Marv, and its bakers produced a variety of excellent
cakes. The neighbourhood of Balkh yielded sesame, rice,
almonds, nuts, and raisins. Its soap-boilers were famous, and the
472. Yak. iii. 5ol ; v. 24. Mst. 188, 189. A. Y. i. 82, 179. The name is
spelt (with or without the article) Tâyikán, or Tâyikán, and, finally, Tālikán,
like the town in Júzján.

43O KHURASAN. [CHAP.
Confectioners here made divers kinds of the so-called ‘honey’
from grapes and figs, as well as a preserve of pomegranate kernels.
Syrups and clarified butter were largely exported ; and in the
neighbourhood were mines of lead, vitriol, and arsenic. The
incense of Balkh too was famous, and its turmeric, unguents, and
preserves. From it came hides and cloaks, and from Tirmidh,
across the Oxus, soap and assafoetida. As coming from Warwālij
towards Badakhshān, Mukaddasi gives a long list of fruits, such
as nuts, almonds, pistachios, and pears. Rice and Sesame too
were largely traded, also various cheeses and clarified butter, and
finally horns and furs, more especially fox-skins'.
The high roads through Khurāsān and Kūhistān were as
follows. The great Khurāsān road entered Khurāsān beyond
Bistām (in Kûmis, see p. 365), and from this place to Naysabûr
there were two routes. The northern, or caravan road went from
Biståm to Jājarm, and thence by Azādvár through the plain of
Juvayn down to Naysäbär. This is the road especially given by
Mustawfi, and only in sections by Istakhri and Ibn Hawkal.
The southern, shorter route is the post-road to Naysabûr, which
started from Badhash, already mentioned (p. 368) as two leagues
from Biståm. This road keeps along the skirts of the hills with
the desert on the right hand, and coming to Asadābād, next
passes through Bahmanābād or Mazīnān, where a branch went
north to Azādvár. Continuing eastward through Sabzivár,
the post-road finally reaches Naysabûr, and this is the route
described by Ibn Khurdādbih and in all the earlier Itineraries.
From Asadābād going South-east, Mukaddasi says there was a
track across this corner of the Great Desert, in 30 leagues, to
Turshiz in Kūhistān, while from Naysabûr to Turshiz, lººte is
given by both Ibn Khurdādbih and Mukaddasi. F º
north to Nisã the stages are also given by Mukaddasi".
One stage beyond Naysäbär at Kaşr-ar-Rih or Diz ad (Castle
of the Wind) the Khurāsān road bifurcated. To the right, South-
east, the way went down to Herāt, and this will be noticed in the
succeeding paragraph. From the Castle of the Wind, turning left

1 Ist. 281. I. H. 330. Muk. 323-326. - l
2 I. K. 23, 52. Kud. 201. I. R. 170 (with descriptive details of the road).
1st. 216, 284. I. H. 275, 333. Muk. 351, 352, 371, 372, 491. Mst. 196.
XXX] KHURASAN. 43 I
and north-east, the road went to Mashhad and Tús, and from
here by Mazdarān to Sarakhs, at the crossing of the Tajand
river. From Sarakhs the desert was crossed to Great Marv, and
thence by the desert again the road reached the Oxus bank at
Amul (or Chahār-Jūy), whence, after leaving Khurāsān, Bukhārā
was the terminus. This stretch of the Khurāsān road from
Naysabûr to Amul of the Oxus passage is given with but slight
variations by nearly all the Itineraries, and most of its stages still
exist at the present day under the old names'.
As already said, the Khurāsān road branched to the right, one
stage beyond Naysäbür, whence Herät was reached. At Sarakhs
and Marv there were also bifurcations to the right, these roads
both going to Marv-ar-Rūd, and to this city also a road led north
from Herāt. From Marv-ar-Rūd the main road then led north-
east to Balkh, beyond which it crossed the Oxus to Tirmidh.
Taking first the Herät road, from the bifurcation at the Castle of
the Wind, it was four stages to Búzjān, and a like distance on to
Púshanj, whence to Herät was a day's march. This road is
given by Ibn Rustah and the geographers of the 4th (Ioth)
century, also by Mustawfi. From Búzjān and from Būshanjroads
respectively went off to the South-west and west, which centred in
Kāyin, and the distances between the various cities of Kūhistān
are given by Istakhri and others. At Kāyin also centred the roads
coming from Tabas and Khūr on the borders of the Great Desert*.
From Herāt Southwards the road went down to Zaranj, passing
through Asfuzăr, and crossing the Sijistán frontier between that
town and Farah (See above, p. 341). This road is given by Ibn
Rustah and the three geographers of the 4th (Ioth) century.
Nºrðr, Hºrāt eastward, up the valley of the Hari Rūd to the Ghūr
frontier, the names of the towns one day's march apart are given
by the Sanhe three authorities. From Herät through Karākh the
distances are also given by the geographers of the 4th (1 oth)
century, in days' marches to Shurmin and Abshin in Ghurjistān,
whence down the Murghāb Marv-ar-Rūd was reached. And to
Marv-ar-Rūd or Kasr Ahnaf (Marūchak) the roads are given

I. K. 24, 25. Kud. 201, 202. I. R. 171. Ykb. 279. Muk. 348, 351.
Mst. 196 (as far as Sarakhs).
* I. R. 172 (with details of road but no distances), Ist, 283, 284, 286.
I. H. 332, 333, 335. Muk. 351, 352. Mst. I97.
4.32 KHURASAN. [CHAP. XXX
across Bādghis (going by Baghshūr, the capital) in Istakhri, Ibn
Hawkal and Mukaddasi, as also by Mustawfi in the 8th (14th)
century'. g”
From Sarakhs, and from Great Marv, respectively, two roads
converged on Marv-ar-Rūd, the first crossing the desert between
the two great rivers, the last coming up the Murghāb through the
fertile lands and towns on its bank. The desert route, passing by
a number of successive Rubåts, or guard-houses, is only given by
Mukaddasi, being merely copied by Mustawfi, and in the Turkish
Jahān AWumá. The road from Great Marv up the Murghāb is
given by Ibn Khurdādbih and Kudāmah, also by Mukaddasi, but
by a different route”.
From Marv-ar-Rūd to Balkh, through the Júzján district, Ibn
Khurdādbih and the earlier Itineraries give the road by Tālikån
and thence on, either by Făryāb and Shaburkān, or by Yahūdīyah
(Maymanah), and Anbār, to Balkh. Istakhri and Mukaddasi give
the distances by the number of marches. Mustawfi has a some-
what different route from Marv-ar-Rūd to Balkh, which passed to
the westward of both Tālikán, which lay six leagues off the road
to the right, and Fāryāb, which lay two leagues away likewise
on the right hand, reaching Shaburkān, and eventually, by the
Jamūkhiyān bridge Balkh. This route is copied in the /a/ún
AWumá. From Balkh the Oxus was reached opposite Tirmidh in
two stages, passing through Siyāhjird”.
East from Balkh the road went by Khulm and Tâyikån to the
frontiers of Badakhshān, a branch road going south-east from
Khulm to Andarābah and the Panj-hir mines north of Kābul.
Istakhri and Mukaddasi also give skeleton routes from Balkh
across the mountains to Bāmiyān, and thence south by Ghaznah
to Kusdár, with a branch from Ghaznah eastward to the Indian
frontier, but in these routes the stages are uncertain, for the places
named are elsewhere unknown".

* I. R. 173, 174. Ist. 248, 249, 285. I. H. 3o4, 305, 334'ſ Muk. 348,
349, 350. Mst. I98.
* I. K. 32. Kud. 209. Muk. 347, 349. Mst. 196. J. N. 229.
* I. K. 32. Kud. 2 Io. Ist. 286. I. H. 322. Muk. 346, 347. Mst. 197.
J. N. 329.
* Ist. 286. I. H. 334, 335. Muk. 346, 349, 486.
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BASID CALIPHATE, SHOWING THE CHI





































CHAPTE R XXXI.
THE OXU.S.
Transoxiana in general. The names Oxus and Jaxartes. The upper affluents
of the Oxus. Badakhshān and Wakhkhân. Khuttal and Wakhsh.
Kubădhiyān and Saghāniyān, with their towns. The Stone Bridge.
Tirmidh. The Iron Gates. Kälif, Akhsisak, and Firabr. The Aral
Sea or Lake of Khwārizm. Freezing of the Oxus in winter.
The Oxus of old was held to be the boundary line between the
Persian-speaking folk and the Turks, between från and Tūrān;
and the provinces north, beyond it, were known to the Arabs as
Má-warā-n-Nahr, “Those beyond the River’ (Oxus, understood),
or otherwise as the Haytal. The Haytal, in the 5th century A.D.,
had been the chief enemies of the Sassanian monarchy, and were
identical with the Ephthalites of the Byzantine authors, commonly
known as the White Huns. To the medieval Arabs, however,
the name Haytal had come to be employed loosely to mean all
the Târânian peoples and lands lying beyond the Oxus, and as
such it is used by Mukaddasi.
These lands may conveniently be divided into five provinces.
The most important was Sughd, the ancient Sogdiana, with its
two capitals Bukhārā and Samarkand. To the west of Sughd was
Khwārizm, now generally known as Khivah, comprising the Oxus
delta; and to the south-east Saghāniyān, with Khuttal and the other
great districts on the upper Oxus; to which also belonged Badakh-
shān, though this lay on the left or south bank, being almost
encircled by the great bend of the river beyond Tukhāristān.
Lastly, the two provinces of the Jaxartes were Farghānah on the
upper river, and the province of Shāsh (now Tāshkand) with the
LE S. 28
434 THE OXUS. [CHAP.
districts to the north-west, running down to the outflow of the
Jaxartes into the swamps of the Aral Sea.
The medieval Arabs knew the rivers Oxus and Jaxartes under
the names, respectively, of Jayhān and Sayhün, which like 'the
Tigris and Euphrates, the legend said, were the rivers of Paradise.
The origin of these names is not quite clear, but apparently the
Arabs took them from the Jews, Jayhān and Sayhān being cor-
rupted forms of two of the rivers mentioned in Genesis ii. 1 1, 13,
to wit the Gihon and the Pison'.
In the later middle-ages, about the time of the Mongol irrup-
tion, the names Jayhān and Sayhān to a great extent went out of
use ; the Oxus was then more generally called the Amöyah, or
Amū Daryā, while the Jaxartes, as will be seen in a later chapter,
came to be known as the Sir Daryā. The origin of the term
Amúyah, or Amſ, is also not quite clear. According to Hāfiz
Abrū this is explained to be merely the name of the town and
district on the Khurāsān bank of the Oxus originally written Åmul
(at Chahār Jūy, see above, p. 403). Possibly, however, the case
is inverted, and the true explanation may be that Amul city came
to be called Amāyah or Amt from a local (Persian) name of the
great river, which, coming into common use, Supplanted the
more classical (Arabic) name Jayhän. It is further to be observed
that, with the Arabs, rivers were very commonly named from the
great cities on their banks; hence the Oxus or Amū Daryā, the
River of Amú, also was often called the Balkh river, although that
city stands some miles distant from its southern bank. The name
Oxus, by which the Greeks knew the great river, is preserved in
Wakhsh-āb, the Wakhsh river, which is one of its upper affluents,
* Ist. 286, 287, 295. I. H. 335, 347, 348. Muk. 261–268. As has
been already mentioned (p. 131), the same names, under the slightly altered
forms of Jayhān and Sayhān, were given to the Pyramus and Sarus respectively,
the two frontier rivers of Cilicia, over against the Greek lands. As to the
etymology of these names, it would seem that being taken from a foreign
language, and their meaning unknown, the name Sayhān was brought into a
jingling rhyme with Jayhān; and this is the case with many other borrowed
names, e.g. in the Kurān and Tradition, Æðbºl, Hábºl, for Cain and Abel;
Zálºt, /ă/út, for Saul and Goliath; Yājūj, Májúj, for Gog and Magog. See
Sir H. Yule, in Capt. J. Wood, The Oxus (1872), p. xxii.
XXXI] THE OXUS. 435
but by the Arabs the name Wakhsh does not appear ever to have
been applied to the main stream.
The sources of the Oxus, as Ibn Rustah and other early
geographers rightly state, were from a lake in Little Tibet (At-
Tubbat) and on the Pamir (Fămir). Istakhri, who is copied by most
Subsequent writers, gives the names of four among the many upper
affluents of the Oxus. These are not in every case easy to identify,
but the following appears to be clearly indicated. The main stream
of the upper Oxus was the Nahr Jaryāb, at the present day known
as the Panj river, which reached Badakhshān from the east,
coming through the Country known as Wakhkhān, and the Jaryāb
was also known as the Wakhkhâb river. This main stream of the
Oxus, coming down from the eastern highlands, makes an immense
sweep round Badakhshān, flowing north, then west, and finally
south before reaching the neighbourhood of Khulm, and in this
course of three-quarters of a circle it receives many great affluents
on its right bank. The first of these is the Andijārāgh, with
the town of the same name near its junction with the Oxus ;
and this appears identical with the present Bartang river. Next
there joined the Nahr Fārghar (also written Farghār, Farghān, or
Farghi) flowing down from the Khuttal country, which must be
identical with the Wanj river of to-day. Below came in the Nahr
Akhshawā (or Akhsh), almost equalling the main stream of the
Oxus, on which stood Hulbuk, the chief town of Khuttal. One of
its head-streams was the Nahr Balbán, or Barbān, and these united
rivers º present day are known under the Turkish name of
Ak-Sū or White River. These, therefore, are the four upper affluents
of the Oxus as named by Istakhri, and he states that their various
places of junction were all above the ford, or passage of the main
stream at Århan.
Also above, this ford, but on the left bank, the Badakhshān
river, now called the Gukchah, flowed into the Oxus, being
known as the Nahr Dirghām. Below the Århan ford the Oxus
received its great right-bank affluent, namely the Wakhshāb or
Wakhsh river, from which the Greeks, as already said, took their
name Oxus ; and this divided the countries of Khuttal and
Wakhsh on the east, from the districts of Kubădhiyān and
Saghāniyän on the west. The Wakhshāb is the river now known
28—2
436 THE OXUS. [CHAP
as the Surkhāb, or Red River. Where the Oxus, after curving
round three sides of Badakhshān, finally takes its course westward,
it receives on its left, or southern bank the rivers of Tâyikān and
Kunduz from Tukhāristán. These Ibn Rustah calls the Nahr
Khuttalāb, and the Nahr Watrāb, respectively, as has been noticed
in the previous chapter (p. 428). The two rivers of Kubădhiyān
and Saghāniyān—the latter, which flows past Tirmidh, named the
Nahr Zāmil by Ibn Rustah—joined the Oxus on its northern or
right bank, and had their sources in the Buttam mountains, which
here to the north divided the Oxus watershed from that of the
Zarafshān in Sughd. These are the last of the affluents of the
great river, for west of Balkh the Oxus receives no other stream,
and takes its course through the desert, west and north-west,
direct to its delta south of the Aral Sea'.
The country of Badakhshān lay to the eastward of Tukhāristān,
surrounded on three sides, as we have seen, by the great bend of
the upper Oxus. Istakhri describes this province as very populous
and fertile, with refreshing streams and numberless vineyards.
The capital was of the same name, but the Badakhshān (or
Gukchah) river was, as already said, known as the Dirghām by
the Arabs. For the position of Badakhshān city no Itinerary that
has come down to us gives information ; but it seems probable,
seeing the inaccessible nature of most of the country, that it
stood in the valley where the present capital of the country,
Fayzābād, now stands. \,
Badakhshān was from the earliest times famed for Aº
stones, especially for the balas rubies and for the lapis-lazuli found
at the Lázward mines”. Mukaddasi in the 4th (Ioth) century
states that at the jewel mines was a fort, built by Zubaydah, the
wife of Hārūn-ar-Rashīd, and called after her. Besides the ruby,
the balas, and lapis-lazuli, the pure rock Crystal of Badakhshān
was famous, also the bezoar Stone. Asbestos was also found
here, called by the Arabs AZafar-a/-/at?/a/, “wick-stone,’ for,
* I. R. 92, 93. I. K. 33. I. F. 324. Ist. 277, 296. I. H. 348. Muk.
303. I. S. 25 a, 44 b. Yak. ii. 171 ; iii. 469. In Kazvíní (i. 177) /arbáb is
for Jaryāb and (ii. 353) /a/yán ; both clerical errors.
2 Lázwärd, or Lázárd, the name of the mine and mineral, is the origin of
the word ‘azure.’
XXXI] THE OXUS. 437
being unconsumable, it was used for lamp-wicks. Mukaddasi
adds that of this asbestos fibre they wove mats for table-covers at
meals, and when these got soiled by grease, all that was needed
was to bake them for a time in an oven, when they became again
perfectly clean. In like manner the asbestos lamp-wicks, when
clotted with oil, were made as good as new by being put in the
fire for an hour, nor, he adds, did they become consumed thereby.
Further Mukaddasi mentions a luminous stone, which in a dark
room lighted up all things near it, probably some kind of phos-
phorescent fluor-spar.
Many of these details are repeated by Kazvini, who, among the
other precious stones found in Badakhshān, mentions the garnet,
“a stone like a ruby,’ and states that in his day the asbestos stone
was supposed by the common people to be formed of the petrified
plumes of birds. The chief mines of the Balkhash, or balas ruby,
were situated near the city of Yamkān; in the neighbourhood
were silver mines, and Abu-l-Fidá mentions the city of Jirm, which
‘Ali of Yazd gives as the name of the Badakhshān river. When
Timür invaded Badakhshān in the latter part of the 8th (14th)
century the capital was at Kishm, where the king of Badakhshān
resided ; and one of the chief towns was called Kalāſākān, but
no description is given of these places, and their positions are
uncertain.
East of Badakhshān, along the upper Oxus, lay Wakhkhān,
described by Ibn Hawkal as on the road into (Little) Tibet,
whence came musk. These were infidel lands, and they adjoined
the countries called As-Sakinah and Karrān (or Karrām); and
beyond these again towards Kashmir was the Bulúr country,
‘where for three months you never see the sun for Snow and rain.”
The silver mines of Wakhkhān were famous in the 4th (Ioth)
century, and gold was found in the beds of its streams. The
slave caravans from central Asia came down through this country
bringing captured slaves to Khurāsān for the Moslem markets of
the West'.
As already said, the largest affluent of the Oxus was the
Wakhshāb, coming in on the right bank from the north, and the
1 Ist. 278, 279, 297. I. H. 327, 349, Muk. 303. Kaz. ii. 203, 225,
328. A. F. 472. A. Y. i. 179.
438 THE OXUS. [CHAP.
great mountainous tract lying in the angle between the Wakhshāb
and the Oxus was known as Khuttal, a name that was also vaguely
applied to all the infidel lands east and north of Khurāsān".
Khuttal included the country called Wakhsh, lying in its northern
parts, where the Wakhshāb took its rise. It was, Istakhri writes,
very fertile, and famous for its fine horses and sumpter beasts;
having many great towns on the banks of its numerous streams,
where corn lands and fruit orchards gave abundant crops.
In the 4th (Ioth) century the capital of Khuttal was Hulbuk,
where the Sultan lived (probably near the site of modern Khulāb);
but the two cities called Munk and Halāward were larger than
Hulbuk. Other considerable towns were Andijärägh (or Andā-
jārāgh) and Farghān (or Fārghar), lying respectively on the rivers
of these names; also Tamliyāt and Låwakand, which last was
on the Wakhshāb below the Stone Bridge (near modern Kurgān
Tappah). Mukaddasi describes Hulbuk, the capital, as having
a Friday Mosque in its midst, and standing on the Akhshawā
river, from which it took its water. The town of Andijārāgh
lay near the Oxus bank, where the affluent of the same name
came in, and it probably occupied the site of the present
Kalah Wamar. Munk, the largest city of the province, lay
to the north of Hulbuk, and east of Tamliyāt; while Halāward,
on the Wakhshāb, was, according to Mukaddasi, a finer town
than Hulbuk the capital. Tamliyāt lay between Munk and the
Stone Bridge of the Wakhshāb, and is probably identical with the
present Baljuwān; Baljuwän being already mentioned by ‘Ali of
Yazd when describing the campaigns of Timúr”.
The celebrated Stone Bridge (Kantarah-al-Hijārah) over the
Wakhshāb still exists. It is described by Ibn Rustah, Istakhri,
* There is much confusion in the naming of this country; we have indiffer-
ently Khuttal and Khutlán or Khuttalán. According, however, to Kazvini
(ii. 352) Khuttalán was the name of a town of the Turks, lying in a gorge
between the mountains, the position of which he does not indicate. ‘Ali of
Yazd (i. 464, and elsewhere), in describing the campaigns of Timür, generally
writes Khutlán. The name Khuttal (with its variants) appears in fact to be
the same word as Haytal, by which name the Arabs knew the Ephthalites
or White Huns of Sassanian and Byzantine times.
* Ist. 276, 277, 279, 296, 297. I. H. 326, 327, 348, 349. Muk. 290,
291. Yak. ii. 402. A. Y. i. 83.
XXXI] THE OXUS. 439
and many late authorities as crossing the Wakhshāb on the road
from Tamliyāt to the town of Wäshjird in Kubădhiyān. To the
north of this lay the country called Bilād-al-Kamidh by Ibn
Rustah, beyond which again was the Rasht district at the head-
waters of the Wakhshāb. The Stone Bridge, according to
Istakhri, spanned a deep gorge of the Wakhsh river, at a place
where, by reason of the great volume of the stream, more water,
it was said, was hemmed in by narrows than at any other known
spot on any other river. Kazvini and other writers give a like
account, and ‘Ali of Yazd also refers to the bridge, giving both
the Persian form, Púl-i-Sangin, and the Turkish, Tāsh Kūpruk.
The place has more than once been described by modern
travellers'.
To the westward of the Wakhsh river, and bounded on the
south by the Oxus, lay the district the Arabs named Saghāniyān,
which in Persian is written Chaghāniyän. The eastern part of the
district was more particularly known as Kubādhiyān, from the city
of this name which stands on the first river joining the Oxus to
the westward of the Wakhshāb, Kubădhiyān, or Kuwädhiyān, is
described by Ibn Hawkal as a smaller town than Tirmidh, and
it was known also under the name of Fazz. It was famous for
its madder, which was exported to India. The Kubădhiyān
river, on which the town lay, is of considerable length, and
according to Mukaddasi there were several important towns
in this district, one of which was Awzaj or Üzaj, probably the
present Aywaj, on the northern bank of the Oxus above Tirmidh,
and below Rubăt Milah of the left bank. Yākūt adds that the
fruits of this district were famous.
On the upper waters of the Kubădhiyān river, and west
of the Stone Bridge, lay Wāshjird, a town according to Istakhri
that almost equalled Tirmidh in size; and some distance to
* I. R. 92. Ist. 297. I. H. 348. Kaz. ii. 353. A. Y. i. 83, 452.
Sir H. Yule in Wood, Zhe Oxus, p. lxxxii; Mayef in Geographical Magazine for
1875, p. 337, and 1876, p. 328. At the present day the Stone Bridge is
described as only ten paces in length, and is abutted on two projecting rocks.
The Surkhāb flows below it, hemmed in by lofty and precipitous cliffs, which
afford hardly thirty paces’ interval for the passage of the stream, which pours
down the narrow gorge with a tremendgus roar.
44O THE OXUS. [CHAP.
the south of it was the great fortress of Shūmān, or Ash-Shūmān.
In all this district round Shūmān much saffron was grown for
export. Shūmān is referred to by Mukaddasi as extremely
populous, and the town was well built; Yākūt adding that
its population was ever in revolt against their Sultan, and that
in his day it was a frontier fortress against the Turks. ‘Ali of
Yazd, describing the conquests of Timür, frequently mentions it as
Hisār Shādmān, and more shortly as Hisār, or Hisārak, and at the
present day it is also known as Hisâr". t
Saghāniyān city is probably identical with the modern town
of Sar-i-Asyā, on the upper part of the Saghāniyān river, which
was also called the Nahr Zāmil. It was, Istakhri writes, a larger
city than Tirmidh, in the 4th (Ioth) century, though the latter
was more wealthy and populous. Saghāniyān city was defended
by a great Kuhandiz, or fort, and it stood on both banks of the
river. Mukaddasi likens it to Ramlah in Palestine, and there was
a great Friday Mosque in its market-place. Wild-fowl abounded in
its neighbourhood, and 6ooo villages were counted in its districts,
excellent bread being cheap throughout the neighbourhood. The
small town of Băsand, with a great public Square and many
gardens, lay two marches from Saghāniyān city, among the
mountains higher up the river. Lower down the Zâmil, about
half-way between Saghāniyān and Tirmidh, lay Dārzanji, where
there was a great guard-house, according to Ibn Hawkal. Excel-
lent wool-stuffs were produced here, and there was a great Friday
Mosque in the market-place. South of this again, also near the
Zāmil river, was the town of Sarmanji or Sarmanjān, likewise with
its great guard-house. The place had been famous in the 4th
(1 oth) century for a dole of bread, of the daily value of a dinár
(Io shillings), which was given by its governor, Abu-l-Hasan, son
of Hasan Māh.
The most important town, however, of the Saghāniyân district
was Tirmid (or At-Tirmidh), north of the passage of the Oxus
coming from Balkh, and at the place of junction of the Zāmil river.
In the 4th (1 oth) century it was defended by a great fortress, where
* Ist. 298. I. H. 350. Muk. 284, 289, 290. Yak. ii. 88; iii. 337; iv. 196.
A. Y. i. 49, 52, 450, 452, 464.
XXXI] THE OXUS. 44 I
the governor lived, and a suburb lay round the town which was
enclosed by an inner wall, while a second wall surrounded the
suburb. A Friday Mosque of unburnt brick stood in the market-
place of the town, but the market buildings were built of kiln-
bricks, and the main streets were also paved with the same
material. Tirmidh was the great emporium of the trade coming
from the north for Khurāsān. The city had three gates, and
according to Mukaddasi was strongly fortified. In the year 617
(1220) it was sacked by the Mongol hordes as they passed
south into Khurāsān. After this a new town—as large as the Old
one, according to Ibn Batūtah, who visited it in the following
century—was built two miles above the deserted ruins, and this
was soon surrounded by gardens which grew excellent grapes and
quinces.
On the right bank of the Oxus, some distance below Tirmidh,
was Nawīdah, where those who went from Balkh to Samarkand
direct crossed the river. Nawidah had a Friday Mosque in the
midst of its houses, and was counted as the last town in Saghāniyān
On the Oxus. One march north-west of Tirmidh, on the road to
Kish and Nakhshab in Sughd, was the town of Hāshimjird, a place
of some importance in the 4th (Ioth) century; and two marches
north of this the road passed through the famous Iron Gate.
This defile in the mountains was described by the Chinese
traveller, Hwen Thsang, who as a Buddhist pilgrim visited India
in 629 A.D.' The Arab geographers speak of a town here, and
Ya‘kūbi names it the City of the Iron Gate (Madinah Bāb-al-
Hadid), of which he also gives the Persian form, Dar Āhanin.
Istakhri, Ibn Hawkal, and Mukaddasi all name the Báb-al-Hadid
in their itineraries, but add no details. Under the name, in
Persian, of the Darband Ahanin the Iron Gate became famous
from the time of Timúr, and it is mentioned by ‘Ali of Yazd also
under the Turkish appellation of Kuhlughah. He gives, however,
* For a translation of Hwen Thsang's description see Sir H. Yule in Wood,
The Oxus, p. lxix. The Chinese pilgrim states that in his day the passage was
‘closed by ſolding gates clamped with iron, and to the gates were attached
a number of iron bells.’ All later accounts onlit any mention of gates, which
apparently had been removed before the time of Istakhri.
442 THE OXUS. [CHAP.
no description of the place. This remarkable defile was traversed
by Clavijo, the Spanish ambassador to the court of Timür, in
August, A.D. 1405. He states that the ravine looked ‘as if it
had been artificially cut, and the hills rise to a great height on
either side, and the pass is smooth, and very deep. In the Centre
of the pass there is a village, and the mountain rises to a great
height behind. This pass is called the Gates of Iron, and in all
the mountain range there is no other pass, so that it guards the
land of Samarkand in the direction of India. These Gates of
Iron produce a large revenue to Timür, for all merchants who
come from India pass this way".’
The Oxus below the Saghāniyān district took its course through
the desert, receiving no important affluents on either bank, and
finally reached its delta on the south shore of the Aral Sea, where
lay the province of Khwārizm, which will be described in the next
chapter. In the stretch of desert several cities lay upon its right
and left banks—generally in couples—at the points where the
great river was crossed by roads going from Khurāsān to the
Turk country, and most of the towns on the Khurāsān side have
already been mentioned in the preceding chapter. The town of
Kālif or Kayliſ, on the north bank (which still exists), was in the
middle-ages faced by its suburb on the Khurāsān side, surrounding
the guard-house called Rubát Dhi-l-Kifl ; and Kālif was therefore
at that time counted as occupying both banks of the Oxus,
Mukaddasi likening it to Baghdād and Wäsit. On the northern
side was the guard-house called after Alexander the Great, Rubât
Dhi-l-Karnayn. Yākūt states that Kālif had a fine castle, it was
counted as 18 leagues from Balkh, and was on the road thence to
Nakhshab in Sughd. Mustawfi speaks of a great hill near Kālif,
eight leagues in circumference, all of black earth, with water and
fine grazing lands on its summit, and he adds that Kālif in the
8th (14th) century was a large and very strong place.
Below this and opposite Zamm, which has already been
* Ykb. 290. Ist. 298, 337. I. H. 349, 350, 4oo, 4o I. Muk. 283, 284,
291, 292, 342. I. B. iii. 56. A. Y. i. 49, 59; ii. 593. Clavijo, Embassy,
p. 122. Geographical Magazine, 1875, p. 336; and see 1876, p. 328, for the
description of the Iron Gate by Mayef.
XXXI] THE OXUS. 443
described (see p. 404), was the town of Akhsisak, whence a high
road went to Nakhshab. Ibn Hawkal describes Akhsisak as a small
city, its inhabitants going over to Zamm for the Friday prayers,
for there was no mosque in their town. The surrounding lands,
enclosed on all sides by the desert, were extremely fertile, and the
pasture for sheep and camels excellent. Near the right bank
of the Oxus, lower down again, and opposite Amul or Amūyah,
stood Firabr, on the road to Bukhārā, likewise surrounded by
a fertile district, and many populous villages. Mukaddasi writes
that Firabr was a league distant from the north bank of the Oxus,
and that it was protected by a fortress with guard-houses. The
Friday Mosque stood at the town gate towards Bukhārā, and there
was a Muşallá, or praying station, with a hostelry outside this
where travellers were entertained and a dole given. The grapes
of the place were famous. Firabr was also known as Kariyat
‘Ali, or Rubät Táhir ibn ‘Ali, the village or guard-house of
these persons'.
After passing between Firabr and Amūyah, the Oxus held its
course for about 140 miles, still through the desert, till it reached
Táhiriyah, where the cultivated lands of the delta began. From
this point the great river took its course to the Aral Sea, throwing
off for nearly 300 miles many irrigation canals which watered the
rich province known as Khwārizm during the middle-ages. Since
the date of the first Arab conquest the Oxus, in these delta lands,
has of course frequently shifted its bed, and the bursting of the
great dykes at the time of the Mongol invasion in the 7th (13th)
century caused a change in its lower course which will be
described later. From the description of the earlier Arab
geographers, however, it is still possible roughly to reconstruct
the map of Khwārizm in the 4th (1 oth) century, and it is
evident that the Oxus in those days followed a single channel,
navigable for boats, down to the swamps on the southern shore of
the Aral, which sea the Arabs called the Lake of Khwārizm
(Buhayrah Khwārizm).
The Aral, which was shallow and full of reeds, appears not
* Ist. 298, 314. I. H. 349, 350, 363. Kud. 203. Muk. 291. Yak.
iii. 862; iv. 229. Mst. 189.
444 THE OXUS. [CHAP.
to have been considered navigable ; it received on its north-
eastern shore the waters of the Jaxartes, but no traffic passed
from the Oxus by water to the sister river. The land bordering
the eastern coast of the Aral, between the mouths of the Oxus
and Jaxartes, was in the 4th (Ioth) century, and later, known as
the Desert of the Ghuzz Turkomans, a name more often given
to the Marv desert of eastern Persia. To the earlier Arab geo-
graphers the wonder of the Oxus and Jaxartes was the fact that
both these rivers froze over in winter, so that caravans of heavily
laden beasts could cross on the surface of the river ice, which
remained fast frozen, they reported, for from two to five of
the winter months, the thickness of the ice reaching five spans
and more. Kazvini explains further how in winter the people
of Khwārizm had to dig wells through the ice with crowbars
till the water below was reached, and the cattle were brought
up to drink at these holes, water being carried home to the
houses in great jars. Istakhri mentions a hill called Jabal
Jaghrāghaz, on the Aral Lake shore, below which the water
remained frozen all the year through.
The Aral Sea, especially in its southern part and near the
creek of Khalījān where the Oxus flowed in, was famous as fishing
ground, but there were no villages or even houses bordering on
the lake shore. As already said, all down the course of the Oxus
through the delta, great and Small canals branched from the right
and left bank of the river, and many of these canals were also
navigable ; their waters finally serving to irrigate the delta lands.
On one or other of these canals most of the great towns of
Khwārizm had been built, rather than on the Oxus bank, which
from the constant shifting of its bed was a source of ever
recurring danger. The Oxus was navigable for boats throughout
the whole of its lower course, and Ibn Batūtah says that during
the summer months the passage down stream from Tirmidh could
be accomplished in ten days, cargoes of wheat and barley being
thus brought for sale to the Khwārizm markets. The ice in winter
made the navigation dangerous or impossible, and Yākūt relates
how in Shawwal 616 (December 1219), when going from Marv to
Jurjāniyah, part of his voyage being by boat on the Jayhān, he
XXXI] THE OXUS. 445
and his companions came near perishing from the intense
cold and the sudden freezing of the river. They were hardly
able to land and get up the bank, which was deeply covered
with snow, and Yākūt lost the beast he was riding, he himself
barely escaping with his life". *
* Ist. 303, 3o4. I. H. 353, 354. Kaz. ii. 353. I. B. iii. 5. Yak. i. 191.
CHAPTER XXXII.
KHWARIZM.
The province of Khwārizm. The two capitals: Käth and Jurjāniyah. Old
t and new Urganj. Khivah and Hazărasp. The canals of Khwārizm: towns
to the right and left of the Oxus. Lower course of the Oxus to the Caspian.
Trade and products of Khwārizm.
Khwārizm, in the earlier middle-ages, had two capitals, one on the
western or Persian side of the Oxus called Jurjāniyah, or Urganj,
phe other on the eastern or Turkish side of the stream called
"Käth, which in the 4th (Ioth) century was held to be the
capital in chief of the province.
Käth still exists, but the great medieval city probably stood
some miles to the south-east of the modern town. In the earlier
part of the 4th (Ioth) century Käth came to be in part destroyed
by the flood of the Oxus, which at this spot was two leagues
in width. The city stood some distance back from the right
bank of the main stream, being on a Canal called the Jardār,
which ran through the town—the market, for about a mile
in length, bordering this canal. Káth, in these earlier times,
had also possessed a fortress (Kuhandiz), which the floods had
completely destroyed, and here had been the Friday Mosque
and the prison, also the palace of the native chief known as the
Khwārizm-Shāh. All this quarter of the town, however, had been
rendered uninhabitable by the floods when Ibn Hawkal wrote,
and a new town had recently been built to the eastward, at
a sufficient distance from the Oxus to be safe from the encroach-
ments of the river.
The new city, which Mukaddasi States was known as the
CHAP. XXXII] KHWARIZM. 447
Shahristān-‘the Capital’—by the Persians, was almost, he says,
of the size of Naysäbär in Khurāsān. In its market-place stood
the Friday Mosque, built with columns of black stone, each of
a man's height, and above came wooden pillars supporting the
beams of the roof. The governor's palace was rebuilt in the new
town, the old fortress being left a ruin. Numerous small canals
traversed the streets, which says Mukaddasi were infamously filthy
—worse than Ardabil in Adharbäyjān, for the people used the
roadway for their commodity, and even brought the foulness of
the gutters into the mosque on their feet when they came to
prayers. The markets, however, were rich and well-stored with
all kinds of merchandise, and the town architects were very skilful
in their buildings, so that Käth was outwardly a magnificent city.
Soon after the close of the 4th (Ioth) century, however, it
appears to have rapidly lost its position as the chief capital of
Khwārizm; probably by reason of the recurrently destructive Oxus
floods, which ever and anon threw down different quarters of the
city; and eventually it sank to be a town of secondary rank.
Coming down to the beginning of the 7th (13th) century,
Käth does not appear to have suffered much during the Mongol
invasion, and in the 8th (14th) century Ibn Batūtah, who writes
the name Al-Kät, passed through it on his way from Urganj to
Bukhārā, and describes it as a small but flourishing place. There
was here a tank, and this at the time of his visit being frozen
over, he describes the boys of the town as playing on its surface.
At the close of the 8th (14th) century Timür almost destroyed
Käth, but afterwards caused its walls to be rebuilt, and the place
is frequently mentioned by ‘Ali of Yazd as still in his day an
important town'.
The second capital of Khwārizm which, after the decay of
Käth, became the chief city of the province, was Gurganj, by
the Arabs called Al-Jurjānīyah, and at a later date known
as Urganj. The chronicles of the Moslem conquest relate
that in the year 93 (712), when the Arabs under Kutaybah
invaded Khwārizm, the capital city which they conquered was
called Al-Fil, ‘the Elephant,’ a name which was forthwith changed
1 Ist. 300, 301. I. H. 351, 353. Muk. 287, 288. I. B. iii. 20. A. Y.
i. 237, 263, 449.
448 KHWARIZM. [CHAP.
to Al-Manşūrah, meaning ‘the City of Victory.’ This city is said
to have stood on the further side of the Oxus, and over against
the later Jurjāniyah, but the Oxus flood before long overwhelmed
Mansfirah, and Jurjāniyah succeeded to its place".
Jurjāniyah in the 4th (Ioth) century—though at that time only
the second city of the province, Käth being still the capital—was
already the chief centre of trade, and the meeting-place of caravans
coming from the Ghuzz country, which exchanged goods with
those from Khurásán. Jurjāniyah lay a bow-shot to the westward
of a great navigable canal coming from the Oxus and running a
nearly parallel course, and the houses were protected from danger
of flood by an immense dyke, with wooden piles to strengthen
the embankment. Mukaddasi in the 4th (1 oth) century states
that the city had four gates, and that it was every day increasing
in size. At the Báb-al-Hujjāj, ‘the Pilgrims' Gate,’ stood a fine
palace built by the Caliph Mamūn, with a second palace fronting
it, built by Prince ‘Alī his son, both Overlooking a sandy square,
like the famous Rigistän of Bukhārā, where the sheep-market
was held. With the decay of Käth, Jurjāniyah soon became the
first, and then the sole capital of the Khwārizm province,
and in later times it is generally referred to under the name of
Khwārizm—‘City’ being understood.
In the year 616 (1219) Yākūt was at Jurjāniyah, or Gurganj
as he also calls it, shortly before the place was devastated by the
Mongols under Changiz Khān; and he writes that he had never
seen a mightier city, or one more wealthy or more beautiful. In
617 (1220) all this was changed to ruin. The great canal dykes
having been broken down, the waters of the Oxus flowed off by
a new course, as will be shown later, and the whole city was laid
under water. The Mongol hordes when they marched away left
nothing, according to Yākūt, but corpses and the ruined walls
of houses to mark the place of the great city. The capital of
Khwārizm, however, in a few years rose from its ruins, rebuilt
in a neighbouring spot. This, according to the contemporary
chronicle of Ibn-al-Athir, was in 628 (1231), when New Khwārizm
was founded ‘in the vicinity of Great Khwārizm.” Before the
* The position of Fil is most uncertain ; its name occurs as a mint city on
the coins of the Omayyad Caliphs, one example being dated A. H. 79 (698).
XXXII] KHWARIZM. 449
Mongol invasion there had existed, according to Yākūt and others,
a town known as Little Gurganj, by the Persians called Gurganjak,
lying at a distance of three leagues from the capital, Great Gurganj,
and it seems probable that Little Gurganj was the spot chosen for
New Khwārizm.
New Khwārizm soon took its place as the capital, and is
described by both Mustawfi and Ibn Batūtah in the 8th (14th)
century. Kazvini, who wrote in the latter half of the previous
Century, states that (New) Gurganj was then famous for its skilful
blackSmiths and carpenters, also for its carvers of ivory and ebony
bowls and other utensils, like those produced by the people of
Tark near Isfahân. Further, the women here made famous em-
broideries, and the tailors were renowned. The water-melons of
Khwārizm, he relates, were beyond compare, and this latter fact
is confirmed by Ibn Batūtah.
Mustawfi, who gives the common name of the city as Urganj,
otherwise New Khwārizm, says that it lay ten leagues (probably
a mistake for miles) from Old Urganj. Ibn Batūtah, his contem-
porary, found Khwārizm (as he calls the place) a fine town,
well-built, with broad streets, and a teeming population. The
market was a magnificent building, like a caravanserai, and near
it was the Friday Mosque with its college. Also there was
a public hospital, attended, when Ibn Battitah was here, by
a Syrian physician, a native of Sahiyún. Near the close of the
8th (14th) century this city of Khwārizm was again almost
completely destroyed by Timür, after a siege lasting three months.
Timür, however, caused it afterwards to be rebuilt, and the work was
completed in 790 (1388). Abu-l-Ghāzī, the prince of Khwārizm,
whose account of the lower Oxus course will be given presently,
held his court at the beginning of the 11th (17th) century in this
city, which he generally names Urganj, and speaks of as a fine
place with many gardens; but after this date the town of Khivah
gradually replaced Urganj, becoming the new capital of the
province. The ruins of this Urganj, the town built after the
Mongol invasion, are those now known as Old Urganj (Kuhnah
Urganj)".
* Anthony Jenkinson was at Urgence (as he spells the name) in 966 (1558),
half-a-century before the time of Abu-l-Ghāzī, and describes it as a fine town
LE S. * 29
45O KHWARIZM. [CHAP.
Khivah—which under the Uzbeg chiefs after the time of Timür
gradually eclipsed Urganj and became the capital of Khwārizm,
giving its name in time also to the whole province—is more than
once mentioned as a small town by the Arab geographers of the .
4th (Ioth) century. The older spelling of the name was Khivak,
and this form was in common use down to the time of Yākūt.
Mukaddasi describes Khivah as lying on the border of the desert,
but watered by a great canal which was brought to it from the left
bank of the Oxus. It had a fine public square, also a Friday
Mosque, so that in the 4th (Ioth) century it must already have
been a place of some importance. Yākūt, who says the name
was also pronounced Khayvak, speaks of its castle. In the 7th
(13th) century its people were all Sunnis of the Shāfi‘ite sect, the
rest of the population of Khwārizm following the Hanifite ritual.
At this date Khivah was already celebrated as the birth-place
of the great Shaykh Najm-ad-Din, surnamed Al-Kubrå. He played
a foremost part in the defence of Urganj against the Mongols,
who put him to death, and his tomb became a place of pious
visitation near Urganj, as is described by Ibn Batūtah in the
century after his martyrdom. Khivah is mentioned by ‘Ali of
Yazd, and he describes an adventure here of Timür, when a
young man, who at a later period caused the walls of Khivak
(as the name was then spelt) to be rebuilt. The city in the
I Ith (17th) century is frequently mentioned by Abu-l-Ghāzī, who
sometimes lived here, as also at Kät (or Käth), when not in
residence at Urganj; and since his day, and down to the present
time, the place has continued to rise in importance, being now the
capital of the province called after it".
Hazārasp (meaning “Hundred-horse’ in Persian) on the same
latitude as Khivah, but standing nearer to the left bank of the Oxus,
is a place of importance that has kept its name unchanged from
with walls “by estimation four miles about it.’ Hakluyt, Principal Mavigations
(Glasgow, 1903), ii. 463. Bal. 421. Ist. 299, 3oo. I. H. 350, 351. Muk.
288, Yak. ii. 54; iii. 933; iv. 261. A. F. 479. Ibn-al-Athir, xii. 257, 323.
Kaz. ii. 349. Mst. 197, 234. I. B. iii. 3–6. A. Y. i. 298, 448. J. N. 345.
A. G. I II. Geographical Magazine for 1874, p. 78. º
* Muk. 289. Yak. ii. 512. Kaz. ii. 355. I. B. iii. 6. A. Y. i. 62, 449.
A. G. I. I2, 294. - - * , ,
XXXII] KHWARIZM. 45 I
the Moslem conquest to the present time. Mukaddasi in the
4th (Ioth) century describes it as of the same size as Khivah,
the town having wooden gates and being surrounded by a
ditch. Yākūt, who was here in 616 (1219), speaks of it as a
strongly fortified and rich town, with excellent markets, where many
Opulent merchants had their warehouses. Hazārasp was almost
surrounded by the waters of its canals, and was only to be reached
by a single road, along a causeway coming from the Urganj
direction across the level plain which stretched away from the
Oxus bank.
About half-way between Táhiriyah, where the cultivation of
the delta began, and Hazārasp, the stream of the Oxus passed
through a narrow gorge, now known as the Deveh Boyun, “the
Camel's Neck,' where high and precipitous cliffs hemmed in the
current to a third of its normal breadth. Istakhri calls these
narrows by the name of Abūkshah, or Būkshah, adding that the
Oxus boatmen feared the spot greatly, on account of the whirlpool
and the cataract at the exit of the passage. Mustawfi, who calls
this place Tang-i-Dahān-i-Shir, “the Narrows of the Lion's Mouth,”
says the opposite cliffs were barely Ioo gez (yards) apart, and there
was a guard-house here, on the left bank. Below this, according
to him, the Oxus passed by an underground course for a couple
of leagues, being completely hidden from sight. - -
Between Táhiriyah and Hazārasp, on the left bank of the
Oxus, there were three towns of some importance during the
middle-ages. One march below Táhiriyah, and on the high road,
stood Jikarband, surrounded by gardens, with trees growing along
its canals. A fine mosque, according to Mukaddasi, stood in the
midst of its market. A march further north, near the narrows
of the Oxus, was the city of Darghān, which Mukaddasi de-
scribes as almost of the size of Jurjāniyah. Its Friday Mosque
was magnificently ornamented with precious marbles, and the
town was two leagues across, being surrounded by nearly five
hundred vineyards. Darghān was the first great town in
Khwārizm on the road from Marv. Yākūt, having been here in
616 (1219), describes it as standing on an elevation like the Spur
of a hill, with its gardens and arable fields stretching between the
town and the Oxus bank, which was two miles distant. At the
29–2
452 KHWARIZM. [CHAP.
back of the town the desert sands were not far distant. Between
Darghān and Hazārasp lay Sadár on the river bank, a fortified
town with a Friday Mosque in its midst, and surrounded by
suburbs".
The first of the great canals of Khwārizm was taken from the
right or eastern bank of the Oxus at a spot opposite Darghān,
and was called Gāvkhuwärah, or Gāvkhwārah, the ‘Cattle Feeder.’
This canal, which was navigable for boats, being two fathoms deep
and five fathoms across, went northwards, and irrigated all the lands
up to the level of Käth. Five leagues beyond its point of origin a
small canal branched off from it, called the Karih canal, and this
too watered many districts. Four towns of some importance are
mentioned by Mukaddasi as of this eastern bank of the Oxus,
each standing about a day's march one from the other, in the
fertile districts south of Käth. The most distant from Käth was
called Nūkfāgh, it stood in the midst of Canals, was a fine town,
and lay near the desert border. Nearer to Käth was Ardha-
khivah, which is probably identical with the place called Hisn
Khivah by Yākūt, and which he says was 15 leagues distant from
Khivah of the west bank. Ardhakhivah was a fortress standing
under a hill at the beginning of the desert, and having but a
single gate. Wāyikhān, also a fortress, surrounded by a ditch and
with catapults at its gate, lay one march again to the northward;
and then came Ghardamān, one march from Käth, a well-fortified
place with two gates, encompassed by a great water ditch “two
bow-shots in width.
From the west, or left bank of the Oxus a number of canals
were also taken, the first of which was that which was led past
Hazārasp to irrigate its district. This also was navigable for boats,
though it was only half the size of the Gāvkhuwärah canal; and it
led backward, curving round in a direction that, if continued,
would have reached the city of Amul. Two leagues north of
Hazārasp the Kardurān-Khwāsh canal branched from the Oxus,
flowing past the town so named, which stood half-way between
Hazārasp and Khivah. This canal was larger than that which
served Hazārasp, and the town of Kardurān-Khās (as Mukaddasi
* Ist. 304. I. H. 354. Muk. 288, 289. . Yak, ii. 567; iv. 971. Mst.
198, 213.
XXXII] KHWARIZM. 453
writes the name) was surrounded by a ditch and had wooden
gates. Further north again was the Nahr Khivah, a still larger
Canal, by which boats went from the Oxus to that city. A fourth
canal, flowing a mile to the northward of the Khivah canal, was
the Nahr Madrā, which is described as twice as large as the
Gāvkhuwärah of the east bank. The town and neighbourhood
of Madrā were watered by it.
Käth, the eastern Capital, as already said, stood back from the
Oxus on a Canal called the Jardór, which was taken from the
main stream some distance to the south of the city. Two leagues
north of Käth, but from the left or western bank of the Oxus, the
great Wadhák (also Wadāk or Wadān) canal branched off, which
was navigable up to the neighbourhood of Jurjāniyah, the western
capital of Khwārizm. The point of origin of the Wadák canal
was about a mile to the northward of that of the Madrā canal,
and further north again another canal called the Nahr Buwwah
(Būh or Bāyah) left the Oxus, its waters rejoining those of the
Wadák beyond to the north-west, a bow-shot distant from the
village called Andarastán, and about one day's march to the
southward of Jurjāniyah. The Wadák canal was larger than
the Büh, but both were navigable as far as Jurjāniyah, where a
dam prevented boats proceeding further northward; and a great
dyke, as already said, had originally been built along its bank to
keep the city from inundation'. -
The high road north from Khivah to Jurjāniyah, in the
middle-ages, passed through several large towns of which now no
trace exists. One march from Khivah was Ardhakhushmithān,
or Rākhūshmithān, which Yākūt, who stayed here in 616 (1219),
records as being a large city, with fine markets and much mer-
chandise. It was, he says, more populous and more extensive
than the city of Nasibin, in Upper Mesopotamia, but it appears
to have been ruined by the Mongol invasion. North of this
was Rūzvand, a medium-sized town according to Mukaddasi,
well fortified and surrounded by a ditch. It had excellent
springs of water, and the Friday Mosque stood in its market-
place. After passing the village of Andarastán, lying at the
* Ist. 301, 302. I. H. 352, 353. Muk. 288, 289, 292, 293. Yak, ii. 512;
454 KHWARIZM. [CHAP.
junction of the Wadák and Būh canals, the town of Núzvär was
reached, one march south of Jurjāniyah. Mukaddasi describes
Núzvār as a small well-fortified city, having two iron gates, and
surrounded by a ditch crossed by drawbridges, which were taken
up at night, being laid on boats. There was a Friday Mosque in
its market-place; and without the west gate was a fine bath-house.
It is apparently the same town which Yākūt calls Nüzkáth, meaning,
he says, “New Käth,’ or ‘New Wall,” and which was utterly
destroyed, shortly after he left it, by the Mongol hordes.
Zamakhshar lay between Núzvār and Jurjāniyah, and in the
4th (Ioth) century this town had also drawbridges at its gates.
There was a Friday Mosque here, and a strong prison, and it was
fortified, having iron gates and a ditch. Yākūt in the 7th (13th)
century speaks of this place as a village, and it became famous
as the birth-place of one of the great commentators of the Kurán,
Az-Zamakhshari, who was born here in 467 (IoT 5) and died in
538 (1144). Ibn Battitah, who visited his tomb here in the 8th
(14th) century, speaks of Zamakhshar as lying four miles from
New Urganj. To the north of Urganj was the shrine of Najm-ad-
Din Kubrā already spoken of, and beyond this again, five leagues
from Jurjāniyah on the desert border, under the tall cliffs to the
west of the Oxus, stood Jith or Git, a place often mentioned by
the earlier geographers. It was a large town with considerable
lands round it, lying at some distance from the left bank of the
river, being opposite Madhminiyah at four leagues from the
right bank. Jith appears to be identical in position with the later
town called Wazir (or Shahr-i-Wazir), which probably replaced
it, after the troublous times of the Mongol invasion and the
campaigns of Timür. Wazir is frequently mentioned by Abu-l-
Ghāzī, and the name occurs in the /a/.4m Mumá. This Shahr-i-
Wazir, moreover, is probably the town visited and described by
Anthony Jenkinson under the somewhat altered form of Sel/izure,
or Shaysure, when he was travelling across Khwārizm in the Ioth
(16th) century". - -
On the right bank of the Oxus, some four leagues north of
Käth, the first of four canals led off, flowing northward, and
* Ist. 301. I. H. 352. Muk. .289. Yak. i. 191 ; ii. 940; iv. 822. I. B.
iii. 6. A. G. 195. J. N. 346. Hakluyt, Principa/ Mavigations, ii. 461.
XXXII] KHWARIZM. 45.5
after a short distance this was joined by three other small streams,
their united waters forming the Kurdar canal. It was said that
this, which was of the size of the Wadāk and Būh canals of the
west bank, had originally been an arm of the Oxus, and had
flowed out to the north-east into the Aral. The district in the
angle between the main stream of the Oxus and the Kurdar Canal
was called Mazdākhgān (or Mazdākhkān), and it was watered by
numerous minor channels taken from the right bank of the Oxus.
The district is said to have comprised twelve thousand villages,
and Kurdar was its chief town. This is described by Mukaddasi
as a large place and very strong; surrounded by numerous
villages, with broad pasture lands for cattle. Two days' march
from it, on the north-eastern border of Khwārizm, was the great
village called Kariyat Barâtakin (or Farātagin), near which were
the hill-quarries producing the stone used in the buildings
throughout Khwārizm. Barâtakin in the 4th (1 oth) century had
excellent markets, and a well-built Friday Mosque. To the
westward of this place was the city of Madhminiyah, four leagues
from the right bank of the Oxus, opposite Jith ; and from hence
down to the shore of the Sea of Aral there were no more
cultivated lands, only swamps and reed beds lying at the mouth
of the great river'. - -
In the 4th century B.C., when Alexander the Great made his
conquests in western Asia, the Oxus is described as flowing into
the Caspian, and the Greek geographers apparently knew nothing
of the Aral Sea. When the change of course from the Caspian to
the Aral took place is not known, but though at the present day
the Oxus, like the Jaxartes, flows into the Sea of Aral, its old bed
to the Caspian still exists, is marked on our maps, and has been
recently explored. In the earlier middle-ages the course of the
Oxus, as described by the Arab geographers of the 4th (Ioth)
century, is, in the main, that of the present day; but the old bed
of the river leading to the Caspian is mentioned by Mukaddasi,
who reports that in former times the main stream had flowed
down to a town over against Nisã in Khurāsān, called Balkhān
(or Abu-l-Khān). Later, some two and a half centuries after
the time of Mukaddasi, it seems certain that the Oxus once
* Ist. 299, 303. I. H. 350, 353. Muk. 288. Yak. iv. 257.
456 KHWARIZM. [CHAP.
again resumed its older course. This we learn from the con-
temporary Persian authors. Hence there appears to be unim-
peachable evidence that, from the early part of the 7th (13th)
century to near the close of the Ioth (16th) century, the Oxus,
except for a moiety of its waters which still passed into the Aral
by the Canals, reached the Caspian along the old bed of the
time of Alexander the Great, though at the present day, and since
the end of the 10th (16th) century, this channel is once more disused
and for the most part dry.
As has been mentioned above the chronicle of Ibn-al-Athir
states that the Mongol hordes in 617 (1220), in order finally to
capture Urganj, after a five months' siege broke down the dykes
and overwhelmed the city with the waters of the Oxus and its
Canals, which hitherto had flowed by divers channels to the east-
ward of the town. The whole country was laid under water, and
the overflow after a time began to drain off to the south-west, filling
the old bed of the Oxus, and following the line of depression to
the Caspian at Mankishlāgh. The latter Yākūt, a contemporary
of these events, speaks of as a strongly fortified castle standing on
the shore of the Sea of Tabaristān (the Caspian), into which,
he says, the Jayhān (the Oxus) flowed. This evidence from
incidental notices is further fully corroborated by Mustawfi in the
8th (14th) century, who, in describing the course of the Oxus,
States that though a small portion of its waters still drained off
through canals from the right bank to the Aral Sea, the main
stream after passing Old Urganj turned down the passage called
the Steep of Halam, where the noise of its cataract could be heard
two leagues away, and thence flowing on for a distance of
six days’ march, had its exit in the Caspian (Bahr Khazar) at
Khalkhāl, a fishing station.
The position of the ‘Akabah or Steep of Halam, which the
Turks, Mustawfi says, called Kurlăvah (or Kurlădi), is given by
him in his Itinerary, for the town of New Halam stood about
half-way between Old Urganj, destroyed by the Mongols in the
previous century, and New Urganj which had taken its place.
In his article on the Caspian Mustawfi further adds, when
speaking of the port on the Island of Åbaskún (see p. 379), that
this island had in his time disappeared beneath the Sea ‘because
XXXII] KHWARIZM. 457
the Jayhūn, which formerly did flow into the Eastern Lake [the
Aral] lying over against the lands of Gog and Magog, since the
time of the Mongol invasion has changed its course and now flows
out to the Sea of Khazar [the Caspian]; and hence, this latter sea
having no outlet, the dry land [of the Åbaskûn island] has now
become submerged in the rising level of its waters.’
All the above is confirmed by the account of the Oxus written
in 820 (1417) by Hāfiz Abrū, who was a government official of
Shāh Rukh, son and successor of Timür, and who must have been
well acquainted with the geography of this region from personal
knowledge. In two distinct places he writes that, in the year just
mentioned, the Oxus, which of old had discharged into the Lake
of Khwārizm (the Aral), having taken a new channel, now flowed
down by Kurlăvă, otherwise called Akranchah, to the Sea of
Khazar (the Caspian), adding that the Aral Sea in his time had
come almost to disappear. And again, Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo,
the Spanish ambassador who visited these regions in 808 (1405)
Some years before Hāfiz Abrú wrote his account, confirms this by
his statement that the Oxus ‘flows into the Sea of Bākū,’ which
can only mean the Caspian. It must be admitted, however, that
Clavijo here spoke from hearsay only.
What caused the Oxus once more to discharge into the Aral
Sea is unknown, but this great change must have taken place
before the close of the 10th (16th) century, for Abu-l-Ghāzī, a
native of Urganj, refers to it as though it had become an
accomplished fact in 984 (1576), namely some thirty years before
he, Abu-l-Ghāzī, was born. The Oxus had, he says, at that date
already made itself a new channel, and turning off below Khast
Minärahsi (the Tower of Khast), took its way direct to the
Aral Sea, thus changing the lands lying between Urganj and the
Caspian into a desert for lack of water. And in another passage of
his work speaking of former times, among events of the years 928
to 937 (1522 to 1531), he describes how all the way from Urganj to
Abu-l-Khān on the Caspian there were arable fields and vineyards
along what was still then the course of the lower Oxus. Appar-
ently, however, Abu-l-Ghāzī places the change of bed rather
too late, for already in 966 (1558), when Anthony Jenkinson
travelled through Russia to Khivah, he speaks of the Oxus as
458 KHWARIZM. [CHAP.
flowing ‘not into the Caspian Sea as it hath done in times past,’
for when he saw it the great river already took its course to the
Aral Sea, ‘the Lake of Kithay,’ direct".
The chief products of Khwārizm were food-stuffs, cereals, and
fruits. The land was extremely fertile and grew large crops of
cotton, and the flocks of sheep gave wool. Great herds of cattle
pastured on the marshlands near the Aral, and many kinds of
cheese and curds were exported. The markets of Jurjāniyah
were famous for the various costly furs, brought here from the
Bulghâr country of the Volga, and a long list of these is given by
Mukaddasi and others. This list comprises the following skins;
marten, sable, fox, and beaver of two kinds, as well as the furs of
the squirrel, ermine, stoat and weasel, which were made up into
pelisses and short jackets; also artificially dyed hareskins and
goatskins, and the hide of the wild ass.
* Muk. 285. Yak, iv. 670. Mst. 197, 2 13, 225. J. N. 360. Hfa. 27 6,
32 &. A. G. 207, 291. Clavijo, AEmbassy, p. 118. Hakluyt, Principal Mavi-
gations, ii. 461, 462, ‘Voyage of Anthony Jenkinson.’ Professor De Goeje in
Alas Alte Bett des Oxus (Leyden, 1875) seeks to discredit the statements of the
Persian geographers, and holds that during all the middle-ages the Oxus, as at
the present day, flowed into the Aral. The evidence showing that a portion,
at any rate, of the Oxus current flowed down the old bed to the Caspian,
during more than three centuries, appears to be irrefutable; and it may be
added that the late Sir H. C. Rawlinson, who had studied the question as
a practical geographer, and knew at first hand the writings of the Arab and
Persian authorities, always maintained the opinion that during those several
centuries the Oxus did undoubtedly flow into the Caspian. It should be stated
that some confusion has arisen from the divers names by which the Moslem
geographers demote the Caspian and the Aral. The Caspian is generally
referred to as the Sea of Khazar (Bahr Khazar), from the tribes of the Khazars
who inhabited its further shores, but it was also known as the Sea of Tabaristān
or of Mázandarān, or of Ábaskûn, or of Jurjān, from the names of the various
well-known provinces or districts on its shores. Quite incorrectly the Caspian
appears sometimes as the Daryā Kulzum, but Kulzum was the name given to
the Red Sea. The Aral was generally known as the Buhayrah Khwārizm, or
Lake of Khwārizm, and also as the Lake of Jurjāniyah (the capital of Khwārizm),
and this last name being easily misread Jurjān has more especially caused
confusion between the Caspian (Bahr Jurjān) and the Aral (Buhayrah
Jurjāniyah). The Aral was also known to the Persian geographers as the
Daryā-i-Shark, ‘the Eastern Sea.” All this, however, does not invalidate the
facts clearly recorded by Mustawfi, Hāfiz Abrū, and Abu-l-Ghāzī.
XXXII] KHWARIZM. 459
Among natural and manufactured products were wax, the bark
of the white poplar, called Túz, used for covering shields, fish-glue,
fish-bones, amber, khalanj-wood, honey, and hazel-nuts, swords,
and cuirasses and bows. Khwārizm also was celebrated for its
falcons. Grapes, Currants, and Sesame were largely grown, and
in the looms carpets, coverlets, and brocades of mixed cotton
and silk were woven. Cloaks and veils of both cotton and silk
stuffs were exported, and various coloured cloths. Locks were of
the Smith-work of the towns, and they had boats hollowed out of
a single tree-trunk, which were used in the navigation of the
numerous canals. The chief industry of Khwārizm, however, in
the 4th (1 oth) century, as latterly, was the slave-trade; for Turkish
boys and girls were bought or stolen from the nomads of the
steppes, and after being educated and made good Moslems, were
despatched from here to all the countries of Islam, where, as history
relates, they often came to occupy high posts of command in the
Government".
* Ist. 304, 305. I. H. 354. Muk. 325.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
SU G HD.
Bukhārā, and the five cities within its wall. Baykand. Samarkand. The
Buttam mountains, and the Zarafshān or Sughd river. Karminiyah,
Dabúsiyah, and Rabinjan. Kish and Nasaf, with neighbouring towns.
The products of Sughd. Routes beyond the Oxus as far as Samarkand.
The province of Sughd, the ancient Sogdiana, may be taken as
including the fertile lands, lying between the Oxus and Jaxartes,
which were watered by two river systems, namely the Zarafshān, or
Sughd river, on which Samarkand and Bukhārā stood, and the
river which flowed by the cities of Kish and Nasaf Both
these rivers ended in marshes or shallow lakes in the western
desert towards Khwārizm. More properly, however, Sughd is the
name of the district surrounding Samarkand; for Bukhārā, Kish,
and Nasaf were each counted as separate districts.
Sughd was accounted one of the four earthly paradises, and
had attained its greatest splendour in the latter half of the 3rd
(9th) century under the Sămănid Amirs; in the following century,
however, it was still a province fertile and rich beyond compare.
Of the two chief cities, Samarkand and Bukhārā, it may be said
that the former was rather the political centre, while Bukhārā was
considered to be the religious metropolis, but both were equal in
rank, and held to be the capitals of Sughd'.
Bukhārā was also known under the name of Númijkath”. In
* Ist. 316. I. H. 365. Muk. 26.1, 262, 266–268. Yak. iii. 394.
* This, or Numüjkath, is the true reading of the name which (by an error
of the diacritical points) is often wrongly written Bümijkath. Muk. 267, note %.
The true pronunciation is fixed by the Chinese pilgrims, who mention
Bukhārā under the name of ‘Numi.’
CHAP. XXXIII] SUGHD. 461
the 4th (I oth) century it was a walled city measuring a league
across in every direction, which stood in the plain a short distance
South of the main arm of the river of Sughd. There were no
hills in the neighbourhood, and round it lay many towns, palaces,
and gardens, gathered into a compass measuring 12 leagues in
length and breadth, and enclosed by a Great Wall that must
have been over a hundred miles in circuit. Through this great
enclosure passed the Sughd river, with its numerous canals.
The city proper of Bukhārā, outside the wall and to the north-
west, had adjacent to it the fortress, which itself was like a small
city. It was the residence of the governor and held the prison
and the treasury. Beyond and round the town also were great
suburbs, extending as far as the main arm of the river, and
along its southern bank. Of the suburbs the chief were those
lying to the east, namely the thoroughfares (darò) of Naw Bahár,
of Samarkand, and of Râmithanah, with others too numerous
to mention, whose position cannot now be exactly fixed. The
town wall had seven iron gates; Bāb-al-Madinah (the City
Gate), Bāb Nūr (or Núz), Bāb Hufrah, the Iron Gate, the
Gate of the Fortress, Bāb Mihr or the Bani Asad Gate, and
lastly the Gate of the Bani Sa‘d. How these were situated
is unknown, but the Gate of the Fortress (Bāb-al-Kuhandiz)
must have been to the north-west, opening on the Rigistān,
the great sandy plain or public square of Bukhārā which has
ever been famous.
The two gates of the fortress were the Báb-ar-Rigistān, or
Bāb-as-Sahl, ‘the Gate of the (Sandy) Plain,’ and the Báb-al-Jāmi",
this last opening on the Great Mosque, which also stood on the
Rigistān, at the city Gate of the Fortress above mentioned. The
suburbs were traversed by ten main thoroughfares, each of which
ended in its gateway, and these are all carefully named by both
Istakhri and Mukaddasi. Further there were several gates in the
streets shutting off the various quarters of the suburbs one from
another, many of these gates being of iron. The Great Mosque
was near the fortress, and there were numerous smaller mosques,
with markets, baths, and Open Squares beyond count, and at the
close of the 4th (Ioth) century the Government House stood
immediately outside the fortress in the great square called the
462 SUGHD. [CHAP.
Rigistán. Ibn Hawkal gives a detailed account of the chief
canals which, starting from the left bank of the Sughd river,
watered Bukhārā and the gardens in the plain round the city,
becoming finally lost in the desert towards the south-west, near
Baykand on the Amul road, for none of them reached the Oxus.
The lower course of the river here was known as the Sām Khās,
or Khwāsh'.
The ruins of Old Bukhārā of pre-Islamic days lie some miles
to the north-west of the Moslem city, and near the river bank.
They were known by the name of Riyāmithan, and Mukaddasi
describes them in the 4th (Ioth) Century as still showing immense
remains of the ancient city. Within the circuit of the Great Wall
round the plain of Bukhārā there were five flourishing cities. Of
these Khujadah, or Khujādā, stood one league west of the high
road going down from Bukhārā to Baykand, and three leagues
distant from the capital. Mukaddasi describes it as a large and
pleasant town, with a Friday Mosque and a castle. The town of
Maghkān was beyond this, being five leagues from Bukhārā, and
three from the high road, close to the western circuit of the Great
Wall. Maghkān had a Friday Mosque, was fortified, and had
suburbs, besides many villages lying round it, for its lands were
amply irrigated.
Tumujkath, or Tumushkath (often by a clerical error written
Bumujkath, and Būmijkath), was a small town to the north-west of
Bukhārā, four leagues distant, and half a league off the high road
to the left of one going to Tawāwīs. At-Tawāwis (as the name
was often written) means “Peacocks,’ and this was the largest of
the five cities within the Great Wall. The town had a flourishing
market and was much frequented by merchants from all parts of
Khurāsān, its cotton stuffs being exported to ‘Iråk. It was well
fortified and had a castle, and the Friday Mosque stood in the
market-place. The last of the five inner towns was Zandanah, which
still exists at the present day. It is described as lying four leagues
distant from Bukhārā, to the north. It was well fortified, had
a Friday Mosque in the town, and a populous suburb beyond its
walls; and Yākūt adds that the stuffs made here, and called from
the town the Zandaji cloths, were widely celebrated.
* Ist. 305–309. I. H. 355–358. Muk. 280, 281. Yak. i. 517.
XXXIII] - SUGHD, - 463
Two leagues outside the Great Wall, and five from Bukhārā
on the road down to the Oxus at Firabr, was the city of Baykand,
which still exists. In the 4th (1 oth) century Baykand possessed
but one gate, and was strongly fortified ; it had a Friday Mosque
in its midst, ornamented with precious marbles and with a finely
gilded Mihrāb (or niche showing the Mecca point). There was
a market held in the suburbs of Baykand, but no villages
surrounded the town ; only numerous guard-houses which are
reported to have numbered a thousand all told. Beyond the
town lay the sandy desert bordering the Oxus.
Throughout the earlier middle-ages Bukhārā retained its pre-
eminence; but in 616 (I.219) came the Mongol invasion, and the
city was pillaged and utterly ruined. For a century and more
it did not recover from this devastation, and in the early part
of the 8th (14th) century when Ibn Batūtah visited the place,
lodging in the suburb called Fath-ābād, the mosques, colleges and
markets were still for the most part in the state of ruin in which
they had been left by Changiz Khán. It was indeed only at the
close of the 8th (14th) century, under the rule of Timür, who
made Samarkand his capital, that Bukhārā, the sister city, regained
some of her former splendour".
Samarkand was up stream, and about 150 miles due east of
Bukhārā; being situated at a short distance from the southern
bank of the Sughd river, and Occupying high ground. The city,
which was encircled by a wall with a deep ditch, was protected by
a fortress, also on the height, and below, near the river bank, were
great suburbs. All round Samarkand were Orchards, and palaces
with their gardens, irrigated by canals innumerable, and cypress
trees grew here magnificently. Within the fortress had stood the
governor's palace, also the prison, but when Ibn Hawkal wrote
this stronghold was mostly in ruins ; according to Yākūt it had
double gates of iron. The city proper had four gates; namely,
Bāb-as-Sin, ‘the China Gate,’ to the east, to which steps ascended
from the lower level, and from it the river was overlooked ;
the Bukhārā Gate to the north ; to the west the Báb-an-Naw Bahár,
Ist. 313–315. I. H. 362-364. Muk. 281, 282. Yak. i. 737, 874;
ii. 952. I. B. iii. 27. E. Schuyler, Turkistan, ii. 89. .
464 SUGHD. [CHAP.
also on the height; and to the south the Báb-al-Kabir, ‘the Great
Gate,’ also known as the Kish Gate.
The city, according to Yākūt, was 25oo jaribs in extent (about
750 acres), and within its circuit were many markets and bath-
houses. These, with the private houses, had their water brought
in by leaden pipes, communicating with a leaden main, which
entered the city by the Bāb Kish, the water coming from the
Canals outside, where it was taken along a great dyke above
ground, and in the market-place the leaden channels are described
as resting on Stone supports. The great market-place of Samar-
kand was called the Rås-at-Täk, ‘the Head of the Arch,’ and was
a fine Square. The Friday Mosque, with the later Government
House, stood immediately below the fortress. The houses in
the town were built of both wood and clay bricks, and the city
population was extremely numerous.
The suburbs of Samarkand lay along the river bank, on
the lower level, and a semicircular wall, two leagues long,
surrounded them on the land side, the river to the north, as the
chord of the arc, completing the line of defence. This suburb
wall was pierced by eight gates, to which the various thoroughfares
led, and these were named as follows: first the Báb Shadāwad,
then the Ashbask gate, then those of Sūkhshin and of Afshinah,
next the Báb Kūhak, or ‘Gate of the Mound,’ opening on the
height where the city and fortress were situated, after which
came the Warsanin gate, the Rivaad gate, and finally the Bâb
Farrukhshid. The market streets of the suburb all converged
on the Square of the Rås-at-Tăk in the city, and all the
roadways were paved with stone flags. The markets in the
suburb were the centre of trade, being full of merchants and
merchandise from all parts, for the city was the great emporium
of Transoxiana. Among other goods the paper of Samarkand
was especially famous throughout the East, the art of making it
having been introduced from China. The climate of the place
was damp, and every house in both city and suburb had its
garden, so that viewing Samarkand from the fortress height it
appeared as one mass of trees. To the south rose the hill of
Kūhak, a spur from the mountains beyond which lay within
a day's march of the city.
XXXIII] SU GHD. 465
The temporary ruin of Samarkand, as of all Transoxiana, was
due to the Mongols, who almost destroyed the city in 616 (1219);
so that, when Ibn Batūtah visited it in the following century, he
describes it as without walls or gates, with but a few inhabited
houses standing in a maze of ruins. The river here (or possibly
he refers to the canal from the Sughd river) he names the Nahr-al-
Kassárin, ‘the Fullers' River,’ and on this stood many water-
wheels. The glory of Samarkand, however, revived shortly after
this, at the close of the 8th (14th) century, when Timür made it
his capital, rebuilding the town, and founding the great mosques
and Caravanserais which were seen here by the Spanish ambassa-
dor Clavijo in 808 (1405), some of which remain to the present
day. The Friday Mosque in particular, according to ‘Ali of Yazd,
Timür founded on his return from the conquest of India, and its
splendour was due to the treasures brought back from this
campaign. Clavijo describes Samarkand at this time as sur-
rounded by an earthen wall; and he states that the city was a
little larger than Seville in his native country'-
The districts round Samarkand, lying principally to the east-
ward and south, but also to the north of the Sughd river, were all
extremely fertile. Nine leagues to the east of Samarkand, and
likewise on the south side of the river, was the town of Banjikath
(existing at the present day as Penjakant), surrounded by fertile
orchards, producing more especially almonds and nuts, with corn
lands stretching along its canals. Between this and Samarkand
was the great village of Waraghsar, with its district, where most of
the canals watering the lands round Samarkand had their origin
from the river. On the south side of the capital was the Mâymurgh
district, with the village of Rivaad, one league from Samarkand,
and contiguous was the Sanjafaghan district. None of the lands
round Samarkand surpassed Māymurgh in fertility, it was famous
for its splendid trees, and throughout its length and breadth were
innumerable villages. To the south of this lay the hill country
called the Jibál-as-Sāvdār, the healthiest region of the province.
Here, according to Ibn Hawkal, at a place called Wazkard was
a church belonging to the Christians—probably Nestorians—
| Ist. 316–318. I. H. 36.5–368. Muk. 278, 279. Kaz. ii. 359. Yak.
iii. 134. I. B. iii. 52. A. Y. ii. 195. Clavijo, AEmbassy, 169.
LE S. 3O
*
466 .SU GHD. [CHAP.
which was much visited, and which enjoyed great revenues. The
mountain valleys were most fertile, each well watered by its stream,
on which stood the farmsteads; and every kind of crop was pro-
duced abundantly. The neighbouring district of Ad-Dargham
consisted mostly of pasture lands, but grapes grew here abundantly,
and on its borders was the Awfar, or Abghar district, with many
populous villages, each with pasture lands two leagues across
where great herds of cattle were reared. This was the last of
the districts to the south of Samarkand and the river.
On the north bank of the Sughd river, towards the Ushrūsanah
province, was the Búzmájan, or Búzmájaz district, of which the
chief town was Bārkath, or Abārkath, four leagues or one day’s
march distant from Samarkand to the north-east. Four leagues
further to the north lay Khushúfaghan, an important village, in
later times known as Rās-al-Kantarah (Bridge Head). Beyond
this again was the Būrnamadh, or Fūrnamadh district, near the
frontier of Ushrāsanah, and next to it the Yārkath district, the
furthest to the north ; both being famous for their pasture lands.
Seven leagues due north of Samarkand was the town of
Ishtākhān, with a strong Castle and Outer Suburbs, standing on
canals from the Sughd river. Its corn fields were renowned, and
Istakhri calls it ‘the Heart of Sughd for its fertility. Seven
leagues further north, again, was Kushāniyah, or Kushānī,
described as a most populous city of Sughd ; and its people
were all rich or of easy circumstances. Further, as of the
north bank, and according to Yākūt lying only two leagues
distant from Samarkand, was the district of Kabūdhanjakath,
with the city called Lanjūghkath, and adjoining it Widhár, in
the hill country, the chief town being of the same name, where
celebrated stuffs were made. Lastly the district of the Marzubăn
—or Warden of the Marches—Ibn Tarkasfi, one of the Sughd
Dihkāns, or provincial nobles, and this lay beyond Widhár'.
The Sughd river or Zarafshān (“Gold Spreader'), as it is now
called, had its head-streams in the mountain range called the
Jabal-al-Buttam, which formed the watershed between the rivers
of Sughd on the one hand, and those of Saghāniyān and the
1 Ist. 321–323. I. H. 37 I-375. Muk. 279. Yak. i. 277; ii. 447, 890;
iv. 234, 276, 944.
XXXIII] SUGHD. 467
Wakhshāb on the other, both, as described in Chapter XXXII,
being right-bank affluents of the Oxus. The slopes of the
Jabal-al-Buttam, though high and steep, were covered with villages,
and there were gold and silver mines here, as well as workings
that produced iron, quicksilver, copper, lead, naphtha, and bitumen,
while from the district came rosin, turquoises, lignite for burning,
and especially sal-ammoniac. This last, which was largely exported,
was collected from the deposit of fumes which issued from a cavern.
A chamber had been built over the vents, with windows and doors
to close at need ; and there were here subterranean fires also,
according to Istakhri, for the sal-ammoniac vapour which appeared
as smoke by day was by night visible as a mighty flame. He
describes how the fumes were condensed in the chamber, the
sal-ammoniac being periodically taken out by men, who, clothed
in wet felts, hastily entered and ran out again, by reason of the
great heat which otherwise would have burnt them up. The
sal-ammoniac fumes, Istakhri adds, also issued from many Crevasses
in the adjacent rocks, and these were enlarged to become new
artificial vents. The fumes were only held to be noxious when
confined for the purpose of condensation in the chambers,
otherwise the vents in the hill sides could be approached with
impunity'. -
The source of the Sughd river was at a place called Jan,
or Jay, where there was a lake surrounded by villages, the district
being known as Wurghar, or Barghar. From the lake the river
took its course through mountain valleys, until it reached
Banjikath, after which it came to the village of Waraghsar
already mentioned, the meaning of which, in the local dialect,
was ‘the Dam Head,” for here the waters were divided up and the
canals were led off that irrigated both the lands round Samarkand
and the districts on the north bank of the river. Of the Canals
flowing to Samarkand two were sufficiently large to carry boats;
and Ibn Hawkal gives in a list the names of these various water-
courses, and the districts irrigated by each, with their villages.
At Samarkand the river was crossed by a masonry bridge
called Kantarah Jard, which in flood seasons was sometimes
entirely submerged. Below Samarkand many canals also branched
* Ist. 312, 327. I. H. 362, 382.
30–2
468 SUGHD. [CHAP.
off to the various districts round Dabúsiyah and Karminiyah
which will be described presently, and then the Sughd river
came to the neighbourhood of Bukhārā. Here the main stream
was commonly known as the Bukhārā river, and already outside
the Great Wall of the Bukhārā district canals began to be led off
for the irrigation of the city lands within the wall, and for the
district beyond. The names of all these are also enumerated by
Ibn Hawkal, with their various villages. Some canals formed a
network, flowing back to the main stream, while others were lost
in irrigation channels to the south-west. The chief canals leading
to Bukhārā city are described as having been large enough to
carry boats'.
Between Bukhārā and Samarkand, on the South side of the
Sughd river, there were three important cities in the 4th (1 oth)
century, namely Karminiyah (which still exists), Dabúsiyah, and
Rabinjan. Karminiyah lay one stage east of Tawāwīs, and
outside the Great Wall; it was larger than this latter place, very
populous and surrounded by villages and fertile lands, which were
irrigated by canals from the Sughd river. Yākūt speaks of its
magnificent trees. One stage to the east, again, was the large
town of Ad-Dabúsiyah, likewise on a Canal from the South bank of
the Sughd river, but it had no large villages or dependencies
round it. !
The small town of Khudimankan lay one league distant from
Karminiyah, and a bow-shot distant north of the high road. On
the north bank of the Sughd river one league above Khudimankan
was the great hamlet of Madhyāmajkath, while Kharghānkath was
one league lower down, also on the northern bank and opposite
Karminiyah, from which it was but a league distant. These three
hamlets were of sufficient size in the 4th (I oth) century for each to
have had its Friday Mosque, and Yākūt reports that Khudimankan
was famous for divers traditionists born here. Arbinjan, or
Rabinjan, lay one stage to the east of Dabúsiyah, and was a larger
town than this last; to the east again, at the half-way stage between
Rabinjan and Samarkand and seven leagues from this capital,
was Zarmān. As of the neighbourhood of Bukhārā, Mukad-
* Ist. 31 o–312, 319-–32 I. I. H. 359-361, 368–37 I.
XXXIII] SU GHD. 469
dasi names and describes a large number of other small towns,
but unfortunately no distances are given to mark their positions'.
To the Southward, running parallel with the Sughd river and
like it ending in marshy lakes, is the shorter stream now known
as the Kushkah Daryá, on which stand Shahr-i-Sabz and Karshi.
Shahr-i-Sabz, ‘Green City,’ was in the earlier middle-ages known as
Kish (Kishsh), and is described by Ibn Hawkal as having a castle,
the town itself being strongly fortified, with a great suburb lying
beyond its gates. Further, beyond the suburb, was a second
township, probably that now known as Kitāb, named Al-Muşallá,
‘the Praying Place,’ where stood the hostelries and the palace of
the governor. Great markets were found in the suburb, but the
Friday Mosque with the prison were in the inner city. This
Covered a square mile of ground, and its houses were built of
wood and unburnt bricks. The neighbouring lands were
extremely fertile; all the fruits of the hot region were grown here
and exported to Bukhārā. The inner city of Kish had four gates,
called respectively, the Iron Gate, the Gate of ‘Ubayd Allah, the
Butchers' Gate (Bāb-al-Kaşşābīn), and the Inner City Gate. The
Outer city, or suburb, had two gates, the Bāb Baraknan, so called
after a neighbouring village, and the Outer City Gate (Bāb-al-
Madinah-al-Khārijah).
The main stream of what is now known as the river Kushkah,
was, in the 4th (Ioth) century, called the Nahr-al-Kassárin, ‘the
Fullers' River’; its sources were in the Jabal-Sayām, and it passed
Kish on the south side. To the north ran the Nahr Asråd, and,
One league beyond, the road towards Samarkand was crossed by
the river called the Jāy Rüd. To the south, one league from
Kish on the road to Balkh, was the Khushk Rūd, ‘the Dry River,’
and the Khuzār Rūd lay eight leagues beyond this again. These
streams, after irrigating the various districts round Kish, flowed
together, and became a single stream, which passed by the city of
Nasaf. The Kish territory is described as four days’ journey
across in every direction, and as famed for its extraordinary
fertility. In the neighbouring mountains Salt was found, also
the manna called Taranjubin, and various simples which were
* Ist. 314, 316, 323. I. H. 363, 365, 375. Muk. 282. Yak. ii. 406,
925; iv. 268.
47O SUG HD. [CHAP.
exported to Khurāsān. In later times Kish attained fame as the
birth-place of Timür, who in the latter part of the 8th (14th)
century rebuilt the town, where the White Palace—Ak-Saray–
became his favourite place of residence. It was at this period
that Kish took the name, which it still retains, of Shahr-i-Sabz,
‘the Green City".’
Rather more than a hundred miles down the river below Kish,
and to the westward, is the city now known as Karshi, which
the medieval Arabs called Nasaf, and the Persians Nakhshab. In
the 4th (Ioth) century Nasaf had a strong castle, and extensive
suburbs lay outside the city, which was surrounded by a wall
having four gates, namely the Báb-an-Najâriyah, the Samarkand
Gate, the Kish Gate, and the Báb Ghābadhin. Nasaf stood
on the river which, as already said, was the main arm formed
by the junction of many streams from the Kish district. On
its bank was the palace of the governor, at the place called
Räs-al-Kantarah, “the Bridge Head.’ The prison lay adjacent
to the governor's palace, and the Friday Mosque near the
Ghābadhin Gate, the great market streets lying in between.
Just within the Najâriyah Gate was the Oratory, Al-Muşallá.
Mukaddasi, who praises the excellent grapes of Nakhshab,
speaks of its fine markets; the town was surrounded by fertile
fields and orchards, but had no great outlying dependencies like
those surrounding Kish.
In history Nasaf, or Nakhshab, was famous as the place where
in the latter half of the 2nd (8th) century Al-Mukanna‘–the cele-
brated Veiled Prophet of Khurāsān—had first arisen and done
miracles. From a well in Nakhshab, night after night, at his
command the moon, or its semblance, rose to the wonder of all
beholders. To the Persians Mukanna‘ was generally known as
Māh-sázandah, or “Moon Maker,’ and, as history relates, the revolt
of his followers for many years gave great trouble to the generals
of the Caliph Mahdi. As regards Nakhshab city, after the times
of the Mongol invasion in the 7th (13th) century, a certain Kapak
Khān built himself a palace at a place Some two leagues distant
from the older town, and ‘a palace’ in the Mongol language is
called Áarsh?, which name was subsequently given to the settle-
* Ist. 324. I. H. 375–377. Muk. 282. A. Y. i. 3oo, 3o I.
XXXIII] . SU GHD. 47 I
ment that sprang up and replaced the older Nasaf or Nakhshab.
Ibn Batūtah sojourned here in the early part of the 8th (14th)
century, and describes Karshi as a small town surrounded by
gardens. At the close of the century Timür frequently passed
his winters at Karshi, and he afterwards built near it the Hisâr
or fortress'.
There were two towns near Nasaf, in the 4th (10th) century
and later, each of which had its Friday Mosque. One of these,
the Smaller, was Bazdah, or Bazdawah, a strong castle, situate
six leagues to the westward of Nasaf on the road to Bukhārā.
The other and larger town was Kasbah, four leagues from
Nasaf, also in the Bukhārā direction, where there were excellent
markets according to Yākūt. Further, between Nasaf and Kish,
One stage west of the latter city, was the town or large village of
Nawkad Kuraysh ; while one stage south-east of Nasaf, on the
road to the Iron Gate (see p. 441), was Sūnaj, a large village, with
Iskifghan lying one league from it, both these towns being watered
by the Khuzăr river already mentioned”.
The products, natural and manufactured, of Sughd were
numerous. The melons of Bukhārā were famous all the world
over, and its looms produced carpets and prayer rugs, fine cloth
for clothes, and coarse carpets such as were spread in great
guest-chambers. In the prisons they made saddle-girths; and
hides were well tanned, while various sorts of grease and oil
were manufactured for export, Samarkand was above all famous
for its paper, and the looms produced red cloth and cloth
of silver, with brocades and raw-silk stuffs. Here, too, the
Copper-Smiths made brass pots of a very large size, and other
artificers produced stirrups, martingales, and girths, also various
sorts of jars and goblets. From the neighbouring districts
were exported immense quantities of filberts and walnuts. Kar-
miniyah, between Bukhārā and Samarkand, produced napkins,
and from Dabúsiyah came various kinds of cloth and brocade.
Rabinjan exported red felts, prayer carpets, and tin cups; also
1 Ist. 325. I. H. 377, 378. Muk. 282. Kaz. ii. 312. I. B. iii. 28.
A. Y. i. 111.
\\? I. H. 376–378. Muk. 283. Yak. i. 604; iii. 197; iv. 273, 825.
472 SUGHD. [CHAP.
hides, hemp cordage, and sulphur. Moreover winter rice was
grown in this district".
As already said in Chapter XXX (p. 431) the great Khurāsān
road crossed the Oxus beyond Amāyah to Firabr, and thence
proceeded by Baykand and through the gate in the Great Wall
to Bukhārā. From this capital the road went up the left bank of
the Sughd river to Samarkand, passing through the chief towns of
the district, and this part of the highway is given with but little
variation by all the earlier authorities, Ibn Hawkal and Mukad-
dasi adding the distances between the outlying towns of the
Bukhārā and Samarkand districts”.
The high road which passed through Khurāsān to Balkh (see
p. 432) crossed the Oxus to Tirmidh, from which branched various
roads north through Saghāniyān and Kubădhiyān to Wāshjird,
whence by the Stone Bridge the Wakhsh and Khuttal districts were
attained. North-west from Tirmidh another road went up to the
Iron Gate, and at Kandak, one stage beyond this, bifurcated.
Running due north, the road on the right hand went by Kish,
and thence on to Samarkand; while to the north-westward the
highway on the left hand led to Nakhshab; whence a branch
road turned eastward back to Kish, while the main road crossed
the tract of desert to Bukhārā. These routes, mostly in short
distances, are given by Istakhri and in part by Mukaddasi".
The delta lands of the Oxus in the Khwārizm province were
reached from Amul on the Khurāsān side by a road going up the
left bank to Táhiriyah, where cultivation began, and thence on to
Hazārasp. Here one way went to the left by Khivah to Jurjāniyah
(Urganj), while another turned off to Käth, and the towns on
the right bank of the Oxus. These roads are given by Istakhri
and Mukaddasi ; also the way Crossing the desert direct, south-
east, from Käth to Bukhārā. Further, Mustawfi, in the 8th (14th)
century, gives two routes from the South Converging on Urganj,
one going across the desert north from Farāvah (now Kizil Arvāt,
see p. 380) to Urganj; the other going from Marv, also across the
* I. H. 364. Muk. 324, 325.
* I. K. 25, 26. Kud. 203. Ist. 334, 342. I. H. 398, 402. Muk. 342,
343.
* Ist. 337–34 I. I. H. 399–403. Muk. 342–344.
XXXIII] SUGHD. 473
desert, and in many places passing the moving Sands, and
ultimately reaching Táhiriyah on the Oxus. This last road is also
given in the Jahán Mumá, and from Hazārasp it follows almost
identically the road given by the Arab geographers to the capital
of Khwārizm at Jurjāniyah'.
* Ist. 338, 341, 342. I. H. 4oo, 402. Muk. 343, 344. Mst. I97, 198.
J. N. 457.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES.
The Ushrāsanah province. Bünjikath, the capital. Zāmīn and other towns.
The Farghānah province. The Jaxartes or Sayhän. Akhsikath and
Andiján. Ush, Üzkand, and other cities. The province of Shāsh.
Shāsh city or Binkath. Banākath or Shāhrukhīyah, and other towns.
The ilāk district, Tünkath city, and the silver mines of Khasht. The
Isbijāb district. Isbijāb city or Sayrām. Chimkand, and Fārāb or
Utrăr. Yassi and Sabrán. Jand and Yanghikant. Tarāz and Mirki.
Outlying towns of the Turks. Products of the Jaxartes countries. Routes
to the north of Samarkand.
The province of Ushrūsanah—also written Usråshanah, Surūsh-
nah and Sutrāshnah—lay to the east of Samarkand, between the
districts along the right bank of the Sughd river, and those along
the left bank of the Jaxartes, for the Ushrāsanah province was of
neither river, being a land of plains and hills with no considerable
stream running through it. Its eastern frontier was on the Pamir
(Fämir) according to the Arab geographers.
The capital was the city of Ushrāsanah (Madinah Ushrūsanah),
otherwise called Bùnjikath, Banjakath, or Bundjkath, the site of
which is identical with the present town of Ura-tepeh'. Bùnjikath
was in the 4th (Ioth) century a city of over Io, ooo men, built
of clay bricks and wood, having an inner part surrounded by
a wall, and an outer suburb also walled. The inner city had two
1 Bānjikath the capital of Ushrāsanah must not be confounded with Banjikath
(Penjakant) to the east of Samarkand. The position of the capital of
Ushrāsanah is fixed by the Itineraries (see I. K. 29, Kud. 207, and Ist. 343),
besides present local tradition (Schuyler, 7.0%istan, i. 3 (2). Ist. 3.25. I. H.
379. Muk. 265. Yak, i. 245, 278, 744.
CHAP. XXXIV.] THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. 475
gates, the upper gate (Bāb-al-A'lá) and the city gate (Bāb-al-
Madinah), and within its precincts were the castle and the prison,
the Friday Mosque, and the markets. A great canal passed
through the inner city, having many mills upon its bank. The
wall that surrounded the suburb, or outer city, included many
gardens, and was three leagues in circuit. In this wall were
four gates, namely the Zämin Gate, the Marasmandah Gate,
the Nüjkath Gate, and the Gate of Kahlābādh. The town
lands were annply irrigated by six small streams, which Ibn
Hawkal names. These flowed down from the neighbouring hills,
and after a course of about half a league passed through Bünjikath,
having ten mills upon their banks. The town was celebrated for
its many charming gardens.
Zāmīn, which still exists, lay to the east of Būnjikath, and was
the point where the great Khurāsān road, coming up through
Bukhārā and Samarkand, finally bifurcated, one road going north
to Shāsh (Tāshkand), the other north-east to Farghānah and
beyond. Zámin was, in the 4th (I oth) century, almost of the size
of the capital Bünjikath; it was a very ancient town, and had
been formerly known as Sūsandah, or Sarsandah. It possessed a
fine Friday Mosque, and excellent markets, being surrounded
by gardens, but it was unwalled. A stream flowed through the
town crossed by many bridges of boats. The town of Sâbât
likewise exists. It lay between Zāmīn and Būnjikath, on the road
to Farghānah and is described by Mukaddasi as very populous,
embowered by numerous orchards and gardens, lying beside
its streams".
The names of other towns of Ushrūsanah are given in
the lists, but without any description, and the positions of the
majority are unknown. Of those still existing, or whose sites can
be fixed from the Itineraries, are the following. Dizak, otherwise
Jizak, lies north-west of Zāmīn; and south of it, on the road from
Samarkand, was the important town of Kharakānah. Khāwas
or Khāwas is on the road going north from Zāmīn to Shāsh, and
Kurkath lies on the frontiers of Farghānah, midway between
Sābāt and Khujandah. The position of the two small towns of
Minak and Marasmandah cannot be exactly fixed, for neither is
* Ist. 326, 327. I. H. 379, 38o. Muk. 277.
476 THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. [CHAP.
given in the Itinerary, but Marasmandah, to judge by the
Marasmandah gate of Bünjikath, must have been in the neigh-
bourhood of the capital. It stood in the hills, had a cold climate,
with many streams, but few Orchards or gardens, on account of its
elevation. Mukaddasi speaks of its excellent markets; and the
Friday Mosque stood in their midst, Marasmandah being a very
populous place. Minak appears to have been in its near neigh-
bourhood, and was celebrated for the great battle fought here by
Kutaybah, the Arab commander at the time of the first Moslem
conquest of Transoxiana. At this place, too, was the castle that
had belonged to Afshin, the general and favourite of the Caliph
Mu'tasim. Near both Marasmandah and Minak there were iron
mines, and tools made here were exported to all parts of Khurāsān,
the steel being of excellent quality; so that even in Baghdād these
were much sought after".
The great river Jaxartes, as already said (p. 434), was called
by the Arabs the Sayhān or Sihūn. It was, however, more
generally known as the Nahr-ash-Shāsh, the river of Shāsh (Old
Tāshkand), from the name of the most important city near its
banks. In the 8th (14th) century, according to Mustawfi, the
Mongol population of these parts knew it under the name of
Gil-Zariyān. Since that time, and down to the present day, it
has been commonly called the Sir Daryā or Sir Sū (River Sir) by
the Turks, this name being mentioned by Abu-l-Ghāzī.
According to Ibn Hawkal the river Jaxartes rose in the Turk
Country, being formed by the junction of many mountain streams,
and it entered the great valley of Farghānah at its eastern end,
near the town of Üzkand; the province of Farghānah lying for a
couple of hundred miles and more in length to the north and
south of its upper stream”. Flowing here due east, the Sayhön
received numerous affluents during its course through Farghānah,
namely the Nahr Kharshān, the rivers of Urast and of Kubá, also
the Nahr Jidghil, which is probably the present Naryn river, and
some others. Passing on by the walls of Akhsikath, the capital,
the Sayhün came to Khujandah, where it finally passed out of the
* Ist. 336, 343. I. H. 381, 382, 383. Muk. 278, Yak. ii. 395,425,710.
* Hence the Naryn, by far the longest of the head rivers of the Sir, was
evidently not considered the main stream by the Arabs.
XXXIV] THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. 477
Farghānah province. Thence, turning northwards, the river
next received on its right bank the two streams called the Nahr
flāk and the Nahr Turk, passing to the westward of the districts
of flâk and of Shāsh. Beyond these the Sayhān finally came to
the Isbijāb districts, whence, through the deserts of the Ghuzz and
the Turks, it ultimately flowed out by numerous channels to the
Sea of Aral in its north-eastern part. The Arab geographers
say that the Sayhān was navigable for boats like the Jayhān, and
for a longer time than was the case with the Oxus the Jaxartes
was frozen over in winter, so that caravans could cross it on the
ice. Moreover it was counted as only two-thirds of the length of
the sister stream'.
The province of Farghānah, which until within recent years
was more generally known as the Khanate of Khūkand, but which
under the Russian government has officially again taken its more
ancient name, had for its capital, in the earlier middle-ages, the
city of Akhsikath, which Ibn Khurdādbih and others call Far-
ghānah city. It lay on the north bank of the Jaxartes. The
ruins of this town exist, and in the Ioth (16th) century when
Bábar was ruler of Farghānah, under the shortened form of Akhsi
it was the second city of the province, Andijän being then the
Capital.
Akhsikath is described by Ibn Hawkal as a large city, with
a castle, where stood the Friday Mosque, the governor's palace,
and the prison ; and outside the inner town was an extensive
suburb. The inner city, which measured a mile across in every
direction, was intersected by numerous water channels, all
connected with a great tank; and there were markets both here
and in the suburb, which latter was surrounded by a wall. The
inner city had five gates, namely the Käsän Gate, the Mosque
Gate (Bab-al-Jāmi'), the Rahānah Gate, next a gate with an
uncertain name that may be read as Bakhtar, and finally the
Gate of Al-Mardakshah. The place was entirely surrounded by
gardens, which extended for a distance of a couple of leagues
beyond the suburb gates, and on the further, or south side of
the Jaxartes were rich pasture grounds. Akhsikath was apparently
* I. H. 392, 393. Muk. 22. Yak. iii. 2 Io. Mst. 2 15. Hſz. 33 a. J. N.
360. A. G. I.3, 181, 290.
478 THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. [CHAP.
ruined, with many of the other cities of Farghānah, in the wars
of Muhammad Khwārizm Shāh at the beginning of the 7th (13th)
century, and the Mongol invasion completed the work; after which
the capital was removed to Andiján. In the time of Timür, ‘Alī
of Yazd gives the name under the form Akhsikant or Akhsikat, and
as we have seen this was shortened to Akhsi in the days of Bábar'.
Andigán (modern Andijān), according to Mustawfi, was made
the capital of Farghānah by Kaydū Khān, grandson of Ugutay,
son of Changiz, in the latter half of the 7th (13th) century. The
name of Andigán, or Andukān, occurs in the lists of towns given
by Ibn Hawkal in the 4th (Ioth) century, and is also mentioned
by Yākūt, but nowhere is the town described, though in the
account of Timúr's campaigns it is frequently referred to by ‘Ali
of Yazd. From the Itineraries it would seem that the city of
Kubá, which in the 4th (Ioth) century was a place of much
importance, must have stood near Andiján. Kubá, says Istakhri,
was almost of the size of Akhsikath, and its gardens were even
more extensive. It had a strong castle, where the Friday Mosque
stood, in the Maydān or central square; and there was an outer
suburb, where was the governor’s palace, and the prison. The
suburb was surrounded by a great wall, and there were many well-
supplied market streets”.
Half-way between Akhsīkath and Kubă was the town of
Ushtikán with a Friday Mosque in its market-place ; and to the
east of Kubă was Ush, which already in the 4th (Ioth) century
was a place of great importance. In the castle of Ush stood as
was usual the governor’s palace, and the prison ; and the inner
town was surrounded by a walled suburb, running up the slope of
the neighbouring hill; with three gates, namely the Hill Gate
(Bāb-al-Jabal), the Water Gate (Bāb-al-Mā), and the Mughkadah
* I. K. 30. Ist. 333. I. H. 393, 394. Muk. 271. Kaz. ii. 156. A. Y.
i. 441; ii. 633. Akhsi is marked on the Russian map given by Schuyler,
Turkistan, i. 336, a short distance to the south-west of modern Namangan.
The termination ſa/h, or Å%, is synonymous with Kand, or Áant, and both
occur in many names of places in Central Asia, and have the meaning in the
Turkish dialects of “a city’ or “burg,’ as Yākāt (i. 404) very justly remarks.
See e.g. Nāzkáth (New Wall) in Khwārizm, mentioned on p. 454.
* Ist. 333. I. H. 394, 395. Muk. 272. Mst. 228. Yak. i. 375; iv. 24.
A. Y. ii. 633.
xxxiv) THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. 479
Gate. The Friday Mosque stood in a broad Rahbah, or square,
surrounded by markets; and the lands around were plentifully
watered by many streams. Near by, on a hill-top, was a guard-
house garrisoned by soldiers—volunteers—who watched against
the incursions of the Turkish hordes. Beyond Üsh is Uzkand,
the easternmost city of Farghānah, described as two-thirds
of the size of Ush. Uzkand, too, lay in a fertile district,
having a castle, a well-fortified inner city, and a suburb with
markets that were much frequented by the Turk merchants. A
river went by one of the town gates, for the suburb was sur-
rounded by a wall pierced by four gates, and the Friday Mosque
stood in the market-place.
That part of Farghānah which lay to the south of the Jaxartes
was known as the district of Nasyā, or Nasāiyah, divided into
upper and lower according to its elevation, upper Nasāiyah lying
among the hills. Of lower Nasāiyah was the town of Marghinān
(modern Marghilân), a small place in the 4th (Ioth) century,
but with a Friday Mosque in its market. To the west of this
lies Rishtān, a large town in early days, also with a fine Friday
Mosque. Khūkand, which in recent times became the capital of
Farghānah, and gave its name to the Khanate, is only mentioned
incidentally among the cities of upper Nasāiyah, and under the
form Khuwäkand or Khuwäkand.
Khujandah, the first town of Farghānah on the west coming
from Samarkand, lay on the left bank of the Jaxartes, and adjacent
to it one league southward was the Suburb of Kand. Khujandah
was of considerable length along the river strand, but of little
breadth; it had a strong castle with a prison. The Friday
Mosque was in the city; the governor's palace being in the
Maydān, or square, of the suburb. Khujandah is described by
Ibn Hawkal as a most pleasant town, and its people possessed
boats for going on the Jaxartes river. The Outer suburb of Kand
was more especially known as Kand-i-Badhám, ‘Kand of the
Almonds,’ and according to Kazvíní it was so called from a parti-
cular variety of this fruit, grown here, that was famous for its husk
peeling off very easily when the almond was taken in the hand'.
* Ist. 332, 333, 347. I. H. 391, 392, 394, 395. Muk, 262, 272, 345.
Yak. i. 404. A. F. 498. Kaz. ii. 372.
48O THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. [CHAP.
Of the cities in the northern part of Farghānah, namely of the
lands on the right bank of the Jaxartes, very little is known during
early times. Mukaddasi describes Wänkath as a town with a
Friday Mosque and good markets, and from the Itineraries we
learn that Wänkath lay seven leagues to the west of Akhsikath,
being one league from the bank of the Jaxartes, and not far from
the frontiers of flak. North of Wänkath and among the hills
was Khayralam, or Khayläm, a town of the district of Miyān
Rûdhān, ‘Betwixt the Rivers, with a fine Friday Mosque and
good markets. To the north of this again lay Shikit, or Sikkit,
a town where according to Mukaddasi nuts grew so abundantly
that a thousand could be had for a silver dirham ; and here too
there was a Friday Mosque in the market-place. The town of
Käsän still exists, and is described by the earlier geographers as
situate in the district of the same name. Yākūt adds that it had
a strong castle, and that past its gate ran the stream which ulti-
mately joined the Jaxartes at Akhsikath. Further north was the
district of Jidghil, of which the chief town was Ardalānkath. To
the east of this lay the Karwān district, of which the chief town
was called Najm. A number of other towns are also briefly
described by Mukaddasi, but unfortunately there is no indication
of their respective positions'.
To the westward of Farghānah came the district of Shāsh,
which, as already said, lay on the right bank or north-east of the
Jaxartes. The ruins now known as Old Tāshkand are the site of
the city called Shāsh by the Arabs, and Châch by the Persians,
which, in the middle-ages, was the greatest of the Arab towns
beyond the Jaxartes. The city of Shāsh was also known by the
name of Binkath”, for like many other places in Transoxiana,
there was the double nomenclature, Iranian and Turanian.
Shāsh, in the 4th (Ioth) century, was a city of many walls.
There was, in the first place, an inner town, with a castle, or
citadel, standing separate, but adjacent, and these two were sur-
rounded by a wall. Outside the inner town was the inner suburb,
surrounded by its own wall, and beyond this again lay the outer
* Ist. 334, 347. I. H. 396. Muk. 27, 272. Yak. iv. 227.
* This is often by an error in the diacritical points written Bákaſh, e.g.
Yak. i. 746.
XXXIV] THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. 48 I
Suburb, with many gardens and orchards surrounded in turn by
a third wall. Lastly there was the Great Wall, which, as was the
case at Bukhārā, protected the whole district, making a great
semicircular sweep round Shāsh to the northward, from the bank
of the Turk river on the east to the Jaxartes on the west.
To return to the inner town and the citadel; this last, within
which was the governor's house and the prison, had two gates,
one opening on the inner town, the other to the suburbs. The
Friday Mosque had been built on the wall of the citadel. The
inner town, which was a league across in every direction, contained
some important markets and had three gates, first the double gate
of Abu-l-‘Abbās, then the Báb Kish, doubtless to the south where
the road from Samarkand came in, and lastly the gate of Al-Junayd.
The wall of the inner suburbs had ten gates (Mukaddasi names
only eight), and of the outer suburbs seven, which are all carefully
enumerated by Ibn Hawkal, and in the inner suburbs were found
the great markets of Shāsh. The whole city was plentifully
supplied by conduits of running water from Canals, which after-
wards irrigated the numerous orchards and vineyards within the
walls.
The Great Wall, at its nearest point, passed at a distance of
one league from the gate of the outer suburbs. This wall began
on the east at the hill on the Turk river called Jabal Sāblagh, and
the extensive plain which it enclosed was known as Al-Kiláš. The
wall was built by ‘Abd-Allah ibn Humayd, to protect Shāsh
on the north from the incursions of the Turks, and beyond it, at
the distance of a league, was dug a deep ditch, going all the way
from the hill on the Turk river to the bank of the Jaxartes on the
west. The road north from Shāsh to Isbijāb passed through this
wall at the Iron Gate (Bāb-al-Hadid).
In the early years of the 7th (13th) century, Shāsh was in part
ruined during the conquests of Muhammad Khwārizm Shāh, and
the Mongol invasion which immediately followed added to the
miseries of the people here as elsewhere. The city, however, appears
to have recovered rapidly from these misfortunes, and it was again
an important place in the 8th (14th) century when Timúr halted
here. ‘Ali of Yazd, who frequently has occasion to mention it in
describing the campaigns of Timür, gives the names as Shāsh,
LE S. 3 I
482 THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. [CHAP.
Châch, or Tāshkant; this latter being apparently a popular cor-
ruption of the name Shāsh to Zāsh, by the Turkish-speaking
population, Tāshkant meaning ‘the stone city,’ under which name
it is now become the capital of Russian Turkistán'.
The Nahr Turk, now known as the river Chirchik, which flows
to the south-east of Shāsh, according to Ibn Hawkal rose in the
mountains of Jidghil on the north of the Naryn river, and in the
district called Baskām of the Kharlikh Turks. To the southward
of this river and more or less running parallel with it was the
Nahr ilâk, now called the river Angran, and immediately below
where this joined the Jaxartes stood the city of Banākath, the
second largest town of the Shāsh district. Banākath, otherwise
called Banākit, or by the Persians Fanákant, was not fortified in
the 4th (Ioth) century, but it had a Friday Mosque in its market-
place. The town stood on the right bank of the Jaxartes where
the great Khurāsān road coming up from Samarkand crossed the
river going to Shāsh, and it continued to be a place of great
importance till the 7th (13th) century, when it was laid in ruins
by Changiz Khán. More than a century later, in 818 (1415),
Fanákant was rebuilt by order of Shāh Rukh, the grandson of
Timür, and then received the name of Shāhrukhiyah, undér which
it is frequently mentioned by ‘Ali of Yazd.
The road from Banākath north to Shāsh passed through the
town of Jinánjakath, lying on the south or left bank of the Turk
river, some two leagues above its junction with the Jaxartes. This
town, though unfortified, was a place of considerable size in the
4th (1 oth) century, and its houses were built of wood and unburnt
brick. Across the Jaxartes to the west, and one march from
Jinánjakath on the road to Jizak, was the small town of Waynkard,
which Ibn Hawkal describes as a village of the (Nestorian)
Christians. Across the Turk river, and somewhat to the west-
ward in the angle below where it joined the Jaxartes, lay the
town of Ushtūrkath, or Shuturkath (Camel City), which was well
fortified. This place must have been ruined by the Mongols, for
in the latter part of the 8th (14th) century we find it replaced
by Chinás (which still exists), the name of which is frequently
1 Kud. 27. I. H. 384, 386–388. Muk. 276. Kaz. ii. 362. A. Y. i. 94,
IoI, 166.
XXXIV.] THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. 483
mentioned by ‘Ali of Yazd. Ibn Hawkal and Mukaddasi name
more than a score of other cities of the Shāsh districts, but they
add no details, and the positions of these places, therefore, Cannot
now be fixed; though it is evident that in the 4th (Ioth) century
the whole of this country, as also the flâk district to the south
and Isbijāb to the north, was densely populated, with numerous
hamlets that were of the size of towns'.
The district of Îlāk lay to the south of the flâk river, and
north of the great bend of the Jaxartes below Khujandah ; and
its chief town was called Túnkath. The district, which was
continuous with Shāsh, comprised near a score of important
towns, duly enumerated by Ibn Hawkal and others, the sites of
which remain undetermined, and it is unfortunately not possible
even to discover that of Túnkath, the capital. According to
Ibn Hawkal Tänkath lay on the river flak, and apparently at
a distance of eight leagues from Shāsh, of which it is said to
have been half the size”. There was a strong castle, an inner
city, and a suburb surrounded by a wall. Within the castle was
the governor's house, the prison and the Friday Mosque both
standing at the castle gate. Great markets were found in both
city and suburb, and the whole district round was plentifully
Supplied with running water. All the country lying between Shāsh
and flâk was covered with towns, the names of which are given
by Ibn Hawkal, but as already said their positions are unfortu-
nately now lost. One of the most important places mentioned
was the populous town of Khāsht (also written Khāsh, Khās, or
Khāş), near the silver mines in the flâk hills on the frontiers of
Farghānah. Here, according to Ibn Hawkal, in the 4th (Ioth)
century was a mint, where much gold and silver were coined; and
the place was surrounded by numerous villages”.
To the north of Shāsh, and stretching east from the right bank
of the Jaxartes, was the extensive district or province of Isbijāb
or Asbījāb, with the capital of the same name; and Mukaddasi
* Ist. 328–330, 336, 345. I. H. 384, 385, 388, 405. Muk. 264, 276, 277.
A. Y. i. IoI ; ii. 636.
* Tünkath is sometimes by a clerical error miswritten Złłkath, Ist. 33.1, note c.
For the distance between Shāsh and Tünkath see Ist. 344. I. H. 404.
* Ist. 331, 332, 345. I. H. 386, 388, 389, 404. Muk. 265, 277, 278.
3 T --- 2
484 THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. [CHAP.
in the 4th (10th) century mentions nearly fifty towns of this
region as well known, of which only a very few can now be
identified.
The city of Isbijāb is identical in site with Sayrām, lying
about eight miles to the eastward of Chimkant on the Aris
or Badam river, which is a right-bank affluent of the Jaxartes'.
According to Ibn Hawkal, it was a third the size of Shāsh, and
consisted of a citadel or castle, with an inner city surrounded by
a wall, and the suburb, also walled. It is reported that the whole
circuit of the city of Isbijāb was about a league, and that it stood
in a great plain three leagues from the nearest hills, being Sur-
rounded by well-watered gardens. The town had four gates, and
before each was built a strong Rubăţ or guard-house. There were
markets in both the city and the suburbs, and in the former were
situated the governor's house, the prison, and the Friday Mosque.
Mukaddasi mentions the Sūk-al-Karābis, ‘the market of the cotton-
merchants,’ as especially famous, and the rents for these shops,
which were applied to charitable purposes, amounted to 7,000
dirhams (about 24,300) a month. The city of Isbijäb appears
after the time of the Mongol invasion to have changed its name
to Sayrām, under which it is frequently mentioned by ‘Ali of Yazd
in his accounts of the campaigns of Timür.
Chimkant, written Chimikant, is also frequently mentioned by
‘Alī of Yazd and appears to be identical with the town which
Mukaddasi writes Jamūkat, and describes as a large, well-fortified
city, with a Friday Mosque and suburbs, where there were excellent
markets”.
On the east bank of the Sayhān, immediately below where the
Chimkant river flows in, is the city at the ford for passing the
Jaxartes known originally as Bārāb or Fārāb, and in later times
as Utrăr, where in the year 807 (1405) Timür ended his life, when
about to set out for the conquest of China. Fărăb, or Bārāb,
* Muk. 262–264. Schuyler (Turkistan, i. 75) identifies Isbijāb city with
Chimkant, but this is certainly a mistake, for in the 73rfäh-i-Kāshād;
(translated by N. Elias and E. D. Ross, p. 17.1) mention is made of ‘Sayrām
which in old books is called Isbijäb.” The Persian text of this passage will be
found on folio Io; 5 of the British Museum MS. Add. 24090.
* Ist. 333. I. H. 389. Muk. 263, 272, 275. A. Y. i. 166; ii. 633, 636.
XXXIV.] THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. 485
was the name of both district and town, and it was sometimes
accounted the capital of the Isbijāb district; the suburbs of
the town in the 4th (10th) century being also known under the
name of Kadar. Mukaddasi speaks of Bārāb as a large city with
7o, ooo inhabitants; it was strongly fortified and had a citadel or
Castle, a Friday Mosque, and great markets. In its warehouses
much merchandise was stored. Kadar also had its own Friday
Mosque, and was the new town. According to Kazvini the city
lay among salt marshes, and was celebrated in history as the
birth-place of Abu Nasr-al-Fārābī, who died in 339 (950), and was
accounted the greatest of the Moslem philosophers before Avicenna.
According to Ibn Hawkal, however, the actual birth-place of Al-
Fărăbi was at Wasij, a small fortified town lying two leagues distant
from Fărăb, where there was a fine Friday Mosque in the market-
place. At a subsequent period Fārāb took the name of Utrăr,
also spelt Utrăr, which was pillaged in the early part of the
7th (13th) century by the Mongol hordes, but was shortly after-
wards rebuilt, for it was in its Sarāy, or palace, as already said,
that Timür died'.
About half-way between Sayrām and Utrăr was the town of
Arsubănikath, or Subănikath, which Mukaddasi speaks of as a fine
place, well-fortified, with a Friday Mosque in the inner city, and
great suburbs lying without the wall. The district round Subăni-
kath was called Kanjidah. One day's march north of Utrăr,
along the right bank of the Jaxartes, was the town of Shåvaghar,
also described by Mukaddasi as a large place, well-fortified, with
a Friday Mosque in its market-place, and surrounded by fertile
districts. The name of Shåvaghar does not occur in the later
geographers, and from its position it would appear to be identical
with Yassi, a place often mentioned by ‘Ali of Yazd, and still exist-
ing to-day under the name of Hadrat-i-Turkistān, ‘The Presence
(of the holy man) of Turkistan,’—he being the patron saint of
the Kirghiz, who is buried here. According to ‘Ali of Yazd
this personage was Shaykh Ahmad of Yassi, a descendant of
* I. H. 390, 39 I. Muk. 262, 273. Kaz. ii. 405. A. F. 493. I. B. iii. 23.
A. Y. i. 166, 275; ii. 646. Ibn Khallikán, No. 716, p. 73. There is often
confusion between Fărăb or Bārāb (Utrār) of the Jaxartes, and Fāryāb (see
above, p. 425) in Jūzjān, which was also called Bārāb.
486 THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. [CHAP.
Muhammad ibn Hanafiyah, son of the Caliph ‘Ali. The Shaykh
died here in the early part of the 6th (12th) century, and Timür at
the close of the 8th (14th) century built over his tomb the mosque,
the magnificent remains of which exist, the shrine being still the
object of pilgrimage from all the country round.
One day's journey north of Yassi or Shāvaghar was Sawrān, or
Sabrán, which stands to the present day, reckoned in the 4th
(1 oth) century as the frontier fortress against the Ghuzz. Here,
in peace times, all the neighbouring Turk tribes came to barter
with the Moslem merchants. Mukaddasi depicts Sawrān as a
very large town, protected by seven fortifications and walls, one
built behind the other. The Friday Mosque was in the inner city,
and extensive suburbs lay outside the town. ‘Ali of Yazd fre-
quently mentions Sabrán when speaking of the campaigns of
Timúr, and Yākūt describes its high citadel or castle, which
dominated the frontier lands".
Among other places on the Jaxartes very frequently mentioned
by ‘Ali of Yazd, but not noticed by the earlier Arab geographers,
is Saghnák, which he gives as the capital of Kipchâk and as lying
24 leagues northward from Utrăr. Further to the north again is
Jand, mentioned by the earlier geographers, and by Yākūt, as one
of the great Moslem cities of Turkistán beyond the Jaxartes.
In the early part of the 7th (13th) century Jand had been deva-
stated by the Mongols. The Aral is often named the Sea of Jand,
and here, two marches from the mouth of the Jaxartes, lay the
Ghuzz capital, called by the Arabs Al-Kariyat-al-Jadidah (or Al-
Hadithah), ‘the New Village,’ and in later times known as Yanghi-
kant or Yangi-Shahr, ‘New Town,” in Turkish”.
About 80 miles to the north-east of Sayrām (or Isbijāb) are
the ruins of Taráz, near the present town of Aulieh-Ata. Taráz,
or At-Tarāz, was an important place as early as the 4th (1 oth)
century, and is described by Ibn Hawkal as the chief commercial
* I. II. 390, 391. Muk. 262, 273, 274. Yak. iii. 366. A. Y. i. 466, 557;
ii. 9, 636, 642. Schuyler, 7 urkistan, i. 7o. The name, which should be
written Sawrām or Sabrán, is frequently misprinted Sirân in the Zafar-Wāmah
of ‘Alī of Yazd.
* I. H. 393. A. F. 489. Yak. ii. 127. A. Y. i. 275, 279. For the
ruins of Jand see Schuyler, 7.0%istan, i. 62.
XXXIV] THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. 487
town of those Moslems who were engaged in trade with the
Kharlakhiyah Turks. Mukaddasi adds that the city was strongly
fortified, with a deep ditch, beyond which lay many gardens, and
it was extremely populous. The Taráz river ran by one of the
four gates of the city, and there was a Friday Mosque in the
market-place. According to Kazvíni, Taráz was proverbial for the
beauty of its men and women, it had a good climate and its lands
were extremely fertile. Also of the Turk country and about one
hundred miles due east of Tarāz lies Barki or Mirki (modern
Merkeh), which Mukaddasi describes as a medium-sized town,
but well fortified, having a castle, and a Friday Mosque that had
originally been a (Nestorian) Christian church. There was a great
guard-house here in the 4th (1 oth) century, built by ‘Amid-ad-
Dawlah Fäik, one of the Buyid Amirs. According to the same
authority, Kūlān lay one march west of Mirki towards Tarāz; it
was a large and strongly fortified village with a Friday Mosque,
and was accounted a place of much importance'.
In conclusion it is to be observed that Abū-l-Fidá mentions
a number of capital cities of the Turks, the exact positions of
which it is difficult now to fix. Of these Balāsāghun was
the capital of the Khans of Turkistán during the 4th and 5th
(Ioth and I Ith) centuries, and is mentioned by Ibn-al-Athir in his
Chronicle. Its exact site is unknown. Abū-l-Fidā says, vaguely,
that it was near Kāshghār, but beyond the Jaxartes. The ruins
of Almăligh, which was the Mongol capital under Jaghatay, the
son of Changiz Khān, have been found near the site of Old
Kuljah, on the river Ilih ; and its position is indicated by
‘Alī of Yazd, who also mentions the Irtish river and the Tulás.
But of all these towns no descriptions are given, and like
Kāshghār, Khutan, Yārkand and other places on the borders of
China, the notice in our authorities is merely incidental and un-
fortunately of no import geographically”.
The countries of the Jaxartes did not produce any great
variety of manufactures, and the slave-trade was the chief industry
of the merchants who went thither. Mukaddasi mentions that
* I. H. 390, 39 I. Muk. 263, 274, 275. Kaz. ii. 365. A. F. 497.
Schuyler, Zurkistan, ii. 120.
* A. F. 505. A. Y. i. 485, 494; ii. 2 18, 2 19.
488 THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. [CHAP.
at Dizak (Jisak) in Ushrāsanah they made excellent felts and
cloaks. The natural products of Farghānah were gold and silver
from the mines, also turquoises; quicksilver, iron, and copper
were likewise obtained, also sal-ammoniac, naphtha, and bitumen.
The mill-stones of Farghānah were famous, and Stone-coal for
burning was common here. From the orchards were exported
grapes, apples, and nuts, with perfumes made from roses and
violets. Shāsh produced fine white cloth, swords and other
weapons, with brass and iron work, such as needles, Scissors, and
pots. Also saddles of the skin of the wild ass were made, with
bows and quivers, dyed hides, and prayer-rugs, as well as a kind
of collared cloak. The country round produced rice, flax, and
cotton. Finally from Taráz, in the Turk country, came goat-
skins; and the Turkistãn horses and mules were always and
especially famous".
In regard to the high roads of these provinces, the continuation
of the great Khurāsān road, going north from Samarkand, Crossed
the Sughd river, and thence reached Zāmīn in Ushrāsanah, where
it bifurcated, the left branch to Shāsh and the lower Jaxartes, the
right to the upper Jaxartes and Farghānah. From Zāmīn the direct
road to Shāsh crossed the Jaxartes at Banākath; while a second
high road from Samarkand went by Dizak, and across the desert
to Waynkard, beyond which the Jaxartes was crossed to Shutſirkath,
where the road from Banākath to Shāsh was joined. From Shāsh
one road went east to Túnkath, the capital of the flâk province,
and another north to Isbijāb, where again there was a bifurcation.
Westward from Isbijāb, one high road went to Fărăb (Utrār) for
the crossing of the Jaxartes, and thence also north along its right
bank to Sabrán. To the right, eastward from Isbijāb, the other
road went to Tarāz, and thence to Barki or Mirki, the last Moslem
town of Turk lands in the 4th (1 oth) century, and from this place
Ibn Khurdādbih and Kudāmah give the stages across the desert
to Upper Nūshanjān on the frontiers of China, which place is
probably to be identified with Khutan”.
The road to Farghānah which, as already said, bifurcated from
* I. H. 397, 398. Muk. 325. Kaz. ii. 405.
* I. K. 26–29. Kud. 203–206. Ist. 335–337, 343–346. I. H. 398,
399, 403—405. Muk. 341–343. Mustawfi unfortunately gives no routes
XXXIV] THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. 489
the continuation of the Khurāsān road at Zāmīn, went by Sâbât
(where the road to Bùnjikath, the capital of Ushrūsanah, turned
off) to Khujandah on the Jaxartes. From here, keeping along
the South bank of the river, and up stream, Akhsikath, the capital
of Farghānah, at the crossing of the Jaxartes, was reached. The
distances from Akhsikath to the various towns lying to the
north of the upper Jaxartes are given by Istakhri and Ibn
Hawkal ; while from the capital of Farghānah eastward the
continuation of the high road by Ush to Üzkand is found in Ibn
Khurdādbih and Kudámah. Further Mukaddasi gives notes of
the way from Uzkand into the Turk country, and ultimately to
the frontiers of China. The account is difficult to follow, but,
as with Ibn Khurdādbih and Kudāmah, the last stage is Upper
Nüshajān, or Barsakhán, the conjectural Khutan'.
beyond the Oxus. For the route to Khutan and China see the article on the Wall
of Gog and Magog by Professor M. J. De Goeje in Mededeeling der Áoninklijke
Academyzie Amsterdam, for 1888, p. 123. For the route followed by ‘Abd-ar-
Razzák, the Ambassador of Sháh Rukh, who travelled to China and back
between 822 and 825 (1419 and 1422), see the Persian text and translation by
E. Quatremère in AVoffices et AExtraits, vol. XIV. pt. i. p. 387, also the notes by
Sir H. Yule in Cathay and the Way thither, pp. cxcix—ccix.
* I. K. 29, 30. Kud. 207–209. Ist. 335, 343–347. I. H. 398, 399,
403–406. Muk. 341, 342.
INDEX.
A. Arabic.
Åb (P.), water, river, or Spring
Ab Anbār-i-Kinár, 257
Åb-i-Arghún, 269
Åb-i-Bandah, 208
Åb-i-Gandah, 273
Ab-i-Gargar, 236, 237
Åb-i-Jurjān, 376
Åb-i-Ujān, 163
Åb-i-Zarah, 339
Åbah, see Avah
Abādah city, 279, 298
Abādah village, 282, 284, 297
Abakah Khān, 22.4
Abān, 286
Abān canal, 4o
Abárik, 313
Abarkāfān, Abarkumán island, 261
Abārkath, 466
Abarkūh, Abarkūyah, 284, 294, 297
“Abartà, 18, 59
Abaskhūr or Abshakhār, 118
Åbaskān, 376, 379, 456, 457
Abasüs (Ephesus), 155
‘Abbadān, 43, 44, 48, 49
‘Abbās, Shāh, the Great, 204, 205
‘Abbāsī pear, 222
‘Abd Allah, son of Caliph 'Abd-al-
Malik, I 30
‘Abd Allah, son of ‘Ali, 43
‘Abd Allah-al-Battāl, 137, 146, 152
‘Abd Allah ibn Humayd, 481
‘Abd Allah, the Táhirid, 38o, 385, 394
‘Abd-al-‘Azim, Imām Zādah, 217, 229
‘Abd-ar-Razzák, ambassador of Shāh
Rukh, 489
‘Abd-as-Salām, Kāqlī, 46
‘Abdasi, 28, 42, 43
‘Abdulābād, 354
P. Persian.
T. Turkish.
Abgarus, King of Edessa, Io.4
Abghar, 466
Abhar, 22 I, 222, 229
Abidūs, 136
Abivard, 394, 420
Abkhās, Abkhasia, 179, 181
Ablastha, 133
Abraham, 67, 68, log
Abraj, 281
Abrashahr (Mūkān), 176
Abrashahr (Nishāpār), 383
Abrashahriyār, 34o
Abrik or Abrük, I 19
Abrumasāmah, I 34
Abrün island, 261
“Absakán, 4 Io
Abshīn, 416, 431
Abu-l-Asad canal, 26, 4 I, 42
Abu Bakr, Salghâri Atabeg, 25 I
Abu Dulaf, 198, 200
Abu-l-Fidā, Ir, 15, 16
Abu-l-Ghāzī, 16, 17
Abu Ghurayb canal, 69
Abu-l-Hasan Gilaki, 360
Abu-l-Hasan, Son of Hasan Māh, 440
Abu-l-Hasan Khurkāni, 366
Abu-l-Hayjā, 77
Abu-l-Jund canal, 58
Abu-l-Khān, 455, 457
Abu-l-Khasib canal, 48
Abu Muslim, 399, 423
Abu Nasr-al-Farābī, 485
Abu Nasr of Tir Murdān, 264
Abu Rahā canal, 7 I
Abu Sa'id, 195
Abu Sufrah, the Khārijite, 57
Abu Táhir, the Carmathian, 273
Abu Tālib of Nawbanjān, his lºasr,
264; his bridge, 265
492
INDEX.
Abu Yazid Bistāmi, 365
Abūh, 192
Abükshah, 451
Abulustān, I 22, 133, 142, 146
Abydos, I 36
Abzar, 254
Achaemenian sculptures and ruins,
I87, 275
Acoustic Sandhill, 341, 342
Adäliyah, I51
Adata, I2 I, I 33
Adhamah, I 28, 130–132, 14 I
Adharbäyjān, 4, 20, 159–172
Adharjushnas, 224
Adhkān, 286
Adhramah, Ioo
Adiamān, 123
Adraskan or Adraskar, 412
‘Adud-ad-Dawlah, the Buyid, 48, 77,
79, 187, 204, 243, 250, 251, 256,
259, 266, 276, 277, 30 I, 317, 323,
333, 334
‘Adudi canal, 48
A‘far, hill, 99
Afdal Kirmāni, 330
Afdasahi, 43
Afghāns, 35o
Afghanistān, 7, 8
Afradkhis, I 17
Afrâzah Rūdh, 164
Afridãn, 326, 360
Afshin, the Turk, 416, 476
Afsús or Afastis (Ephesus), 136, 155
Agiou Theologou, I 55
Áhar, town and river, 168, 169, 231
Ahlilaj, myrobalan, 349
Ahlum, 370
Ahmad of Jäm, Shaykh, 357
Ahmad, Son of Imām Mūsā, 251
Ahmad Rāzi, 375
Ahmad of Yassi, 486
Ahnaf ibn Kays, 405, 422
Ahsâ river, 134
Ahāwān, 366
Ahwāz, 6, 232–234, 237, 246, 247
Aigialos, I 35
‘Ajam, Persian or barbarian, 185
Ajgh, 381
Ajmah, 396
Åk (T.), white
Åk Saray (Rûm), I49, J 50
Åk Saray (Kish), 470
Åk Shahr (Sivās), 147
Åk Shahr, lake and town, 151, 152
Åk Sū (of Jayhān), 122
Åk Sū (Khuttal), 435
Åkā Khān, representative of the “Old
, Man of the Mountain,’ 355
Akā Muhammad Shāh, 217
‘Akabah Halam, 456
‘Akarkūf, 67 -
Akhlāt, 183
Akhsh or Akhshawā river, 435, 438
Akhsīkath, Akhsikat, Akhsikant or
Akhsi, 8, 477, 478, 489
Akhsisak, 4o4, 443
Åkhur, 379, 38o
Akhwāsh, 317
Akhwāt, 313
Akrá mountain, 133
Akradkhis, I 17
Akranchah, 457
Akroenos, 152
Akşā mosque, Io.4
Akun, 253
Akur region, 86
Akwár, 135
Al, the Arabic article, use of, 21
Al-Amr district, 196
Al-Bashr, 194
Al-Bustān (Abulustān), 122
‘Alā-ad-Din Kaykubăd, Saljúk, I 18,
I42, I46-148, 150–152
‘Alā-ad-Din, Ghūrid, 348
Alâbi, 193
A’lam, 195, 196
‘Alamayn, I 34
Alamūt, 22 I
Alâni, 193, 194
Alanjik, 167
Alarghah, 152
Alariyānus, Valerian, 235
Alātāk, 183
‘Alāyā, 142, I44, 145, 15o
Albuquerque, 319
Alburz (Caucasus), 181, 182
Alburz (N. Persia), 7, 22, 172, 368
Alexander the Great, 68, 263
‘Ali, Caliph, 75, Io2 ; his tomb at
Kāfah, 76–78; supposititious at
Balkh, 422 ; mosque of, 45, 46
‘Alī the Armenian, I lo
‘Alī-al-‘Askari, tenth Imām, 56
‘Ali, son of Caliph Mamūn, 448
‘Alī-ar-Ridā, 8th Imām, 388, 391
‘Alī-Shāh, Wazir, 162, 166, 169, 183,
22 I
‘Alī of Yazd, 16, 17; his account of
Asia Minor, 145
Alid, ford of the, 122
Alids of Daylam, 174
Alis, 135
Alishtar, 193, 194, 20 I
INDEX. - 493
*—º

sº 74
Allān (Caucasus), 179, 181
Allán island, 26.
Almăligh, 487
Almeria, 19
Alp Arslān, 139, 140, 183, 286
‘Alth, 5o
Alum mines, 147
Alāsā or Alāsah, 64, 125
Alvand mountain, 22, 195
Amásiyah, Amasia, 142, 146
Amber, 459
Amid, Amida, 4, 8o, IoS-I I I, I 24,
I 25
‘Amid-ad-Dawlah, Fäik, 389, 487
Amin, Caliph, 37, 190
Amirkhwänd, 18
Amkalchah, 409
Ammianus Marcellinus, 316
‘Ammuriyah, Amorion, 12 I, I 34, I 35,
I37, I 38, 143, 153
‘Amr, castle of, 405
‘Amr ibn Layth, Saffarid, 251, 301,
, 328, 336, 383, 384, 387
Amul (on Oxus), 9, 403, 404, 431, 434
Amul (Tabaristān), 370, 381
Amāyah or Amū Daryā (the Oxus),
434
Amysos, 147
Án, termination in place-names, 49
‘Ānah, 25, 84, 87, Io9, 125
Anār, 286
Anasha Kal‘ahsi, I 35
Anatho, Io9
Anatolia, 4
Amazarbus, I 29 -
Anbār (Euphrates), 25, 31, 32, 65;
district, 8o
Anbār or Anbir (Juzjān), 426
Anburán, 264, 265 -
Ancyra, ſee Angora
Andakhud, Andkhuy, 426
Andāmish bridge, 238
Andar or Aydi, 226
Andarāb (Ardabil), 168, 169, 177
Andarābah (Marv), 4or
Andarābah or Andarāb (Tukhāristān),
427, 4.32
Andarastán, 453
Andājārāgh, Andijārāgh, river and
town, 435, 438
Andālmishk, Andāmish bridge, 238,
239
Amdarāb river, 427
Anderson, J. G. C., 12 I
Andigán, Andijān, 477, 478
Angran river, 482
Angora, Angüriyah, Angūrah or
Ankūrah, 136, 142, 149
Angora for Amorion, 153
Angurán, 223
Ani, 139, 183
Anjarūd, 223, 224
Anjīrah, 285
Antelope Tomb, 195
Anti-Taurus, 127, 129
Antioch of Isauria, 153
Antioch of Pisidia, 136, 151, 152
Antioch of Syria, 33, 153
Antákiyah Muhtarikah or Sawdā,
I36, 153 •
Antáliyah, 141, 145, 151
Azzzzzzzary, Zhe, 138 -
Anūshirwān the Just, 27, 33, 180
208, 375
Anväri, poet, 395
Aphrike, I 19
Aphrodisiac seeds, 191
Apollonia, 151
Apologos, 19, 47
Arābah, 325
‘Arābān or ‘Arbān, 97
‘Arabgir, ‘Arabkir, Arabraces, I IQ
Arabian ‘Irāk, 25 -
Arabissus, I 22, 133, 142, 146
‘Arabistān, 232
Aradān, 22, 367
Aråkliyah, 19, 134, 142
Aral Sea, 23, 443, 444, 458; mames
of, 486
Arandin Kird district, 8o
Ararat mountain, 182
Aras, Araxes river, 4, 5, 117, 18,
I66–168, 175, 176–179, 182
Arbela, 92
Arbinjan, 468
Arbre Sol or Arbre Sec, 356
Arch at Asadābād, 196
Arch of the Chosroes (Madáin), 34
Ard-ad-Dāwar, 345
Ard-ar-Rüm, I 13
Ardabil, 5, 159, 160, 163; its wall
and Suburbs, 168, 229, 230
Ardalānkath, 48o
Ardashir, castle of, 306
Ardashīr Bābgān, King, 222, 236,
255, 303, 34o; his mother, 245
Ardashīr Bābgán district, So
Ardashir Khurrah district, 2.48
Ardhakhivah, 452
Ardhakhushmithān, 453
Ardistān, 208
Ardsakar, 412
494
INDEX.
Argandab, 345, 346
Arghān, Arghún or Arkhān, 269
Arghiyān, 392
Arghún Khān, 183, 222, 393; his
tomb, 223
Argaeus mount, 146, 150
Årham ford, 435
Aris river, 484
Ariwajām, 63
Ark of Noah, 98, 182
Argãish, I46, 15o
‘Arjān river, 122
Arjish, I47, 183, 230, 231
Arjish lake, 22
Armabil or Armayil, 330, 333
Armanák, 148
Armenia or Arminiyah, 5, 14o; Inner
and Outer, 182–184
Armenia, Little, I 29-13 I, I4o, 14 I
Armenian belts, 64
Armiyān, Kal‘ah, 200
Arrajān, town and district, 6, 244,
247, 248 ; its gates and bridges,
268, 269, 273, 294, 297
Arrán, 5, 176-179
“Arsah, 319
Arsanās, Arsanias flumen, II 5
Arsamosata, I 16
Arsubănikath, 485
Article, use of Arabic, in place-
names, 2 I
Arū, Kal‘ah, 272
‘Arūj or ‘Arüh, 245
Arvand mountain, 22, 195
Arzam, I I2, I25
Arzam-ar-Rüm,
23 I
Arzanah, I 13
Arzanjān, Arzamgān or Arzinjān, I 18,
I4 7, 23 I
Asadābād (Hamadān), 196
Asadābād (idhaj), 245
Asadābād (Khurāsān), 430
As'adi canal, 398-400
Asak, 244, 247
Asbambúr, 34
Asbarāyin, 393
Asbestos, 436
Asbījāb, 484
Asfand, 388
Asfanjāy, 347, 351
Asfaraym, 393
Asfuzăr, 340, 35o, 412, 431
Ashbandh, 385
Ashburkām, 426
Ashfand, 388
I I 3, II 7, I 45. I47,
Åshib, 93 |
Ashk, 381
Ashkahrām mountains, 207
Ashurādah bay, 375, 376
“Asi, Rūd, 277 }
Asia Minor, 127–158
Ask, 38 I
‘Askar (Bust), 345
‘Askar Abu Ja‘far, 47
‘Askar Mukram, 233, 236, 237, 242,
246, 247
‘Askar Mu'tasim, 56
Askimasht, 35o
Asråd river, 469
ASS, wild, skins of, 458, 488
Assafoetida, 4oo
Assar Kal‘ah, I 53
ASSarlik, I 54
Assassins, their castles, 221, 226, 227,
269,354-356,360,362, 365, 372, 374
Assyria, 24
Astān, districts of ‘Irák, 79
Astān-al-A“lā, 8o
Astarābād, 375, 378, 379, 381
Astarabyān, 4 Io
Astrolabes, 2 I I a
Astronomical tables, Il-Khānī, 164
Aswad, Nahr, I 50
“Atar of roses, 293
Åtishgāh, 355
Atrabazandah, 136
Atrak river (Jurjān), 8, 376, 377
Atrak river (Kazvīn), 220
Atropatene, I 59
‘Atshābād river, 387
‘Attàbi silks, 81, 161, 203, 429
Attaleia, Attalia, 151
Aulieh-Ata, 486
Ávā, Āvah of Sāvah, 210-2 12, 229
Ává, Āvah of Hamadän, 196
Awānā, 5o
Ávard, 282
Avârik, 313
Awfah, 4 Io
Awſar, 466
Avhar, 222
Avig, 289
Awján (Ujān), 163, 231
Avník, I I 8
“Awrā, ‘silted up,' Lower Tigris, 44
Awzaj, 439
‘Ayān, 264, 265
Ayās bay, 131, 132
Ayāsulák, Ayāthulākh, Ayāsaligh
(Ephesus), 145, 155 Q
Aydi, 226
INDEX.
495
Aydin, 144, 154
‘Ayn (A.), a spring
‘Ayn Burghüth, 134
‘Ayn Dhahbānīyah, Io;
‘Ayn-al-Humm, 370
‘Ayn-at-Tamr, 65, 81
‘Ayn Yūnis, 89
‘Ayn-az-Zāhiriyah, 95
‘Ayn Zanithä, 122
‘Aym Zarbah, 128, 129
Ayāh, 192
Aywaj, 439
Aywān (Jür), 255
Aywān Kisrá, 34
Azādvár, 391, 392, 430
A’zam, Nahr, 92
Azarbäyjān or Azarbījān, 2.0, I59
Ázār Sābār, 280
Azjah, 394
Azkás, 283
Azmadin, 195
Azmir, I 55
Azrak river (Kārūn), 235
Azrak river (N. Mesopotamia), 123
‘Azure,” from Tazūrd, 436
Bā‘ashikā, 9o
Bā‘aynāthā (Jazirah Ibn ‘Omar), 94
Bā‘aynāthā (Balad), 99
Bāb (A.), gate
Bāb-al-Abwab, I80, 184
Bāb-al-Hadid, the Iron Gate, 441,
442, 472
Bāb Salwā, 59
Bābak, 287
Baban, 413
Bábar, Emperor, 477
Bābghish, 9o
Bäbil (Babel, Babylon), 72, 81
Bābirt, I 18.
Babnah, 4 I 3, 415
Babylon ruinº. 72
Babylonia,
Bactrian canºsº, 35o
Bād-Harzah, 357
Badakhshān, 8, 435–437
Badakhshān river, 435–437
Badam river, 484
Bādarāyā, 63, 64, So
Badāt canal, 74, 81
Bädghis, 4 I 2-4 15, 432
Bādham, 394
Badhandüm, 133, 134, I 35, I 38, 139
Badhash, 368, 430
Bādhbin, 82
Badlis, 113, 125, 184
Badr, son of Hasanawayh, 20 I
º
Badrām, 50
Bădărayå, 31, 66, 67, 8o
Bādāsbän mountains, 372
Bäfd, Bãfk or Bäft, 3 Io, 312
Bāgh-i-Shirjäni, 305
Baghchi-Shūr (Baghshūr), 413, 415
Baghdād, 2, 3, 19, 25; West and
East, 30–33, 59–62, 82–85, IoI
Aaghdād during the Abbasid Cali-
phate, 30
Baghīn, 307, 32 I
Baghlān, 427
Baghmin, 345, 346
Baghshür, 4 3, 415
Bagratids, I 4o
Bahá-ad-Dawlah, 77
Bahá-ad-Din Haydar, 222
Båhar (Bam), 314
Bahār (Sirjān), 31 I
Bahār (Kurdistān), 193
Bahargiri, 183
Bahasná, 123, 128
Bahassā, 42
Baháyim, 391
Bahman, King, 208, 337
Bahman, fort, 292
Bahmanābād, 430
Bahmanshir, 43
Bahr, see Lake
Bahrah, 330
Bahrām Gär, 75, 191, 195
Bahrām Shāh, 149, 348
Bahrāmābād, 286
Bahrayn islands, 26
Bahriyyah, Princess, 372
Bahurasir, 34, 35, 8o
Bājaddā, Io;
Bajarvān (Mūkān), 175, 176, 230, 231
Bajarwān (Jazirah), to 5, 125
Băjisrā, 18, 59, 62
Bajistán, 359
Bajjah, 282
Bakamsi, 42
Bäkharz, 357
Bakhtigán lake, 6, 277–279, 298
Bäkirdá, 93
Baklän, 427
Bakr, 86
Bakrābād, Bakrāwādh (Sijistān), 347
Bakrābād (Jurjān), 377, 378
Bākā, Bākūh, Bākūyah, 180, 181
Ba‘l-ābā, 59
Bäkusāyā, 63, 8o
Bālā Murghāb, 404
Balá Sābār, 270
Balad (Maskin), 51
Balad (Mosul), 99, 125
496
INDEX."
Balad-ad-Dāwar, 345
Baládhuri, 17, 18
Balas ruby, 436, 437
Balāsābād, 34
Bālāsāghun, 487
Balat, 99
Balbán river, 435
Baldwin, King, IoA
Balikán, 416
Bălikesri, 156
Balikh river, 87, IoI, lo2, Io;
Bālis, Io'7
Bális or Bālish (Wälistān), 332, 333,
347, 35I
Baljuwän, 438
Balkh, 8; gates and suburbs,
42O-423; 429, 431; 4.32
Balkh river (Oxus), 434
Balkhāb, 176
Balkhān, 455, 457
Balkhash (balas ruby), 436, 437
Balkiyān, 416
Balkuwärä, 52 *
Balūch, Balūs or Balūchistān, 7, 317,
323, 329 --
Bālāsā hill, 94
Bam or Bamm, 20, 299, 312
Bāmanj, 4 I 3
Bāmiyān, 413, 417–419
Bampfir, 33o
Bän (Khurāsān), 392
Bān canal, 4o
Banā Shāpār, 263
Banākath, Banākīt, 482
Bamān, wild pistachio, 309
Banbār, 330 *
Band, a river dam or weir, 277
Band-i-Amir or Band-i-‘Adudi, 276,
277
Band-i-Kaşşār, 277
Band-i-Kir, 236, 237
Band-i-Māhī, 183
Band-i-Mujarrad, 277, 281
Band-i-Rustam, 345
Bandanigàn or Bandanijin, 63, 8o
Bandar ‘Abbās, 319
Bandar Daylam, 273
Bani Junayd, 59, 219
Bani Kawān island, 261
Banī Māhān suburb, 399
Banjahir, 35o
Banjaway, 346, 347, 351
Banjakath (Bünjikath), 474
Banjikath, 465
Bann Afridãn or Bann Ukhrā, 326,
327, 360, 361
Bannajbār, 329
l
382,
Baraân, 206
Bârâb (Fārs), 257, 296
Bârâb (Juzjān), 425
Bârâb (Utrār), 484, 485
Baradán, 32, 50, 59
Baradān or Baradá river, 133
Barãdar Ján, 399
Barāghūsh, 163
Bârah Farāsh Dih, 375
Barām-Stone, jars, 389
Barârah river, 256
Barâtakin, 455
Baráthá, 32 -
Barâz-ar-Rûz, 61, 64, 8o
Barbahár, rarities, 293, 294
Barbalissus, Io'7
Barbán river, 435
Barbier de Meynard, M., 14, 16,
4 IO, 422
Barbisamá, 7o, 81
Barbiyān, 271
Barbār, 330
Bardarād Kal‘ah, 355
Bardashir or Bardasir district, medi-
eval and modern, 22, 299, 300, 303
Bardashir or Bardasir city (Kirmān),
3oo, 3O2-3O7, 32O, 32 I
Bardā‘ (Mashhad), 388
Bardā' or Bardhā‘ah (Arrām), 177,
I78, 184, 230
Bardādā cantal, 41
Bårfarāsh, 375
Barghamah, 156
Barghar, 467
Bargylia, I 54
Barhand Rūd, 195
Bårimi,.6, 91, 98
Baris, I52
Báriz, 316, 317
Barji, 374
Barjīn, 154
Barka'id, 9
Bárkath, 466
Barki, 487, 488
Bärkiri, 183
Barkūh, 284
Barkuwärä, 52
Barlās; canal, 178
Barley-corn, measure of 398
Barm, 279
Barmak and the Barmecides, 42 I
Barsakhán, 489
Bartallá, 9o
Bartang river, 435
Bărăsamá or Bārāsmä, 70, 81
Barvān, 173
Barzah, 165, 230
INDEX.
497
Barzand, 175, 176
Barzanj, 178, 230
Barzātiyah, 59
Bås, 318
Băsafāyah lake, 277–279
Băşalwā, 59
Bāsand, 440
Bāsānfā, 94
Basāsiri, Ioé
Basghūrſand, 418
Bashān (Herät), 4 Io
Bāshān (Marv), 399
Bashin, 416
Bāshīnān, 4 Io
Bāsht Kūtā, 265
Bāsht Rūdh, 339
Basilica of Anna Comnena, 135
Básiliyān lake, 135, 152
Bāsin, I 18
Basinnā, 240, 246
Bâsiyān, 242, 243, 247
Baskām, 482
F Basrah, 3, 25, 26, 29, 43; gates and
walls, 44–46, 81, 197
Basrayāthā, 42
Bast, see Bust
Bastám city, see Bistām
Bastám (Bisutān), 187
Baswä, 165
Batihah or Batäih (Swamps), 41
Batman Sü, I I I tº.
Battāl, ‘Abd Allah, 137, 146, 152
Battle of the Camel, 44
Bātā Khān, 223
Bavan or Bawn, 413, 415
Båvard, 394
Bawardashir, 87
Bawāzīj, 91
Bayān canal and town, 44, 48, 243
Bayāt, 63, 64
Bay'at Kamnănăs, 153
Bayazid Ilderim, I49, I52
Bayazid Bistāmi, 365
Baydä, white (Bayzā), 19, 28o
Baydā (Bayzā), Kal‘ah, 300
Bayhak, 39 I
Baykand, 463
Baykará, Mírzá, 422
Baylakān, I 78, 179, 230
Baylakāni (the Paulicians), I 19
Baylämän, 174
Bayn-an-Nahrayn (Arrán), 177
Bayn-an-Nahrayn (Naşībīn), Ioo
Bayrūt; 24 I
Bayt-al-Jisr, 5.9
Baywar, 416
Bayzá, see Baydā
LE S.
Băz, 96
Bazdah, 47 I
Bāzījān Khusraw, 80
Bazkuwär, 52
Bazranj or Bazrang, 271, 272, 274
Bazāghā, 5o
Beaver skins, 458
Beg (or Bey) Shahr lake, 15 I, 152
Behesdin, I 28
Bellew, H. W., 347, 359, 368
* Bendameer’s stream,” 277
Benjamin of Tudela, 74
Besh Parmak mountains, 169
Bezabda, 94
Bezguara, 52
Bezoar stone, 436
Bih (P.), meaning ‘goodness,” or
‘good-land,’ prefix, 8 I, 262, 303
Bih Ardashir, Bihrasir, Bihdasir (Kir-
mân), 303
Bih Ardashir (Bahurasir), 34
Bîh Dhivmäsufän, 8o
Bih Kubădh, Upper and Lower, 7.0, 81
Bihābād, Bihāvadh, 309
Bihbahān, 268, 269, 297 -
Bihistān, 187, 188, 193
Bikath for Binkath, 48o
Bilād Ibn Abi Burdah, 83
Bilād-al-Jabal, 185
Bilād-al-Kamidh, 439
Bilād-ar-Rûm, 127
Bilād-ar-Rûz, 61
Bilād Shāpār, 270
Bilāl the Abyssinian, I 58
Bilecha, Io9
Bimān for Baylamán, 174
Bimand, 286, 31 I, 32O
Bimaristān or Māristān, hospital, 88,
95, 156, 250, 330
Bin canal, 59, 6o
Binkath, 48o
Bir Sãhik, 269
Birah, 327
Birki, I45, 154
Birjand, 362
Birüdh, 241
Birázkūh, 417
Bishāpār, Bishāvār, 262, 263
Bishak, 356
Bishlank, 346
Bistām, 365, 366, 381, 430
Bisutān, 187, 188, 193
Bitāmah gauze, 308
Bitlis, I 13, 125, 184
Bitumen, 63, 65, 92, 180, 181,269,
289, 294
Biyäbänak Oasis, 325
32
498
INDEX.
Biyād (A.), white, 359
Biyādak, 325
Biyār Jumand, 366, 368
Bizhān, 394
Black garments of Abbasids, 399
Black Amid, Io8
Black Antioch, 153
Black Canal, 337
Black Church, 130
Black Hills, 208
Black Mountain, 168
Black Sea, 136
Blind Tigris, 26, 43
Blue enamel, see Tiles
Bode, C. A. de, 263, 270, 272
Bolam Sü, 124
Bosporus, 135, 136
Bozanti, see Badhandān
Brahmanābād, 331
Bridge (masonry), Kantarah
Andāmish, 238
Darkhid, 265
Dimimmā, 66
Dizfūl, 238
Farah, 341
Hasaniyah, 93
Hijärah, 438, 439
Hinduwän, 234
Hisn Kayfā, I 13
Idhaj, 245
Jamikhiyān, 432
Jard, 467 -
Justinian, bridge of, I 3 I
Kāmighān, 73
Khūbdhān, 265
Khurāsān, 275
Khurrah-Zād, 245
Rirmán, 328, 338
Kisrawiyah (Arraján), 269
Kisrawiyah (Nahrawān), 57
Mălân or Mālin, 407
Mási, 73 -
Rûdh or Rùm, 23
Sabid-Rûdh, 230
Sabük, 268
Sanjah I 23, 124
Shahriyār, 276, 282
Stone bridge of Wakhshāb, 438,
439 e
Tâb river bridges, 268-270
Takht-i-Pāl, 342
of Vespasian, I 23, 124
of Vomiting, 330
Walid, Jisr, 58, 13 I
Zāb, 238
Bridge of Boats (generally Jisr)
at Hillah, 72
Bridge of Boats (cont.)
Nahrawān, 59, 61
Zawārik, 57
Brooks, E. W., 138, 139
Brusā or Brüsah, 145, 156
Budahah, 331-333
Büdanjān, 279
Budāt canal, 74
Buddha, statues, 347, 418
Bûdh Ardashir, 87
Büdin, 332
Bugs' Spring, I 34
Bugs, poisonous, 17o; called ‘Wolves,’
378
Būh, Buwwah or Bāyah canal, 453
Bāh Rūd, 220
Buhayrah, see Lake or Sea
Bujnurd, 394
Bük, Nahr, 31
Bukhārā, 8; walls and suburbs, 460–
463, 471, 472
Bukhārā river, 468
Bukht-Yishu", 238, 239
Bukhti, Bactrian camel, 35o
Bukshah, 451
Bāli, 157
Bălin, 138
Bull Mosque, 219
Bulür country, 381, 437
Bümijkath (for Nūmijkath), 460
Bumujkath (for Tumujkath), 462
Bånjikath or Buntijkath, 474
Buntils (Black Sea), 136
Bárán, Princess, 38
Būrān, bridge of, 59
Burázah river, .256
Burdār lake, I 51, 152
Burj (Färs), 270
Burj (Ighârş), 198
Burj Shāpār, 237
Burk, 292
Burkhwār, 206
Bârnamadh, 466
Burnt Antioch, 153
Burnt Lādhik, 149
Burughlū, I42, 151
Buràjird, 200–202, 229, 233
Bury, J. B., 138
Būshahr, 26.1, 296
Büshahrah, 176
Būshanj or Būshang, 43 I
Bushire, 261, 296
Busht, 414
Büsht-al-‘Arab, 354
Bushtafrāsh, 384
Bushtankân or Bushtakān, 384, 387
Būshkānāt, 225, 26o
INDEX. 499
Busrā, 5o Canals (cont.)
Bust, 339, 344, 345, 351 Mannûnî, 58
Bustām, see Bistām Milá, 339
Bustān, Al, for Arabissos, 133 Nahrawān, 29, 30, 38, 52, 55, 57–
Bustānak, 297 61, 92
Buttam mountains, 436, 466, 467 Nars, 73
Būyār, 94
Buyids, their original home, 172
Bāzmájan or Bāzmájaz, 466
Búzjān or Büzkān, 356, 357, 431
Buzurgtarin, 414
Bythia, 144
Cadusii, 373
Caesarea Mazaka, I 36
Caesarion, 89
Calatayud, I 9
Callirrhoe, Io;
Camadi, 315
Camel village, 286, 287
Camel stream, 227
Camel's Neck, narrows of the Oxus,
45 I
Camels, Bactrian, 35o
Canals, Nahr, and see Rivers
Canal system between Euphrates
and Tigris, 29
Abān, Nahr, 4o
Abū Rahá, 71
As'adi, 398-400
Bān, 4o
Bāsht Rūdh, 339
Bín, 59, 6o
Bāh or Buwwah, 453
Durkit, 8o
Fuller's canal, 465
Gāvkhuwärah, 452
Hazārasp, 452
Hindiyah, 74
Hurmuzſarrah, 398, 399
‘īsā canal, 30-32, 66, 69, 80
Jadid, 48
Jardur, 453
Jawbar, 68, 8o
Kardurán-Khwāsh, 452
Kârih, 452
Kaşşārīn, 465
Kazak, 339
Khālis, 50, 59, 6o
Khivah canal, 453
Kuraysh, Nahr, 4 I
Kurdar, 455
Kāthā, 68, 69, 80
Madrā, 453
Mājān, 398, 399
Ma‘kil, 44, 46
Malik, Nahr, 68, 69, 81
Nil, 72, 73, 80
Razik, 398, 399
Sábus, Nahr, 38, 7.3
Sa'id, Io;
Samārūdh, 335, 337, 339
Sarāt (Baghdād), 66 -
Sarāt Jámasp, 72
Sarsar, 32, 35, 67, 69
Sha'bah, 339
Sib canal, 4 I
Siyâh-Rūd, 337
Sūrā or Sūrān, 26, 70–72
Ta‘ām, 339
Tâmarrā canal, 59, 60, 80
Wadhāk, 453
Yahūdī canal, 58
Zāb canal, 37, 38, 73, 8o
Zark, 398-401
Caria, 144
Carmana omnium mater, 316
Carmathians, 45, 273
Carpets, 37, 294, 353, 363
Carra de Vaux, Baron, 14
Carrhae, Io9
Casiphia, 33
Castamon, 157
Caspian Sea, 22, 180, 379, 458
Castle, Diz, Hisār, Hism, Kal‘ah,
Kasr, Kuhandiz
Ahnaf ibn Kays, 405
Akhwāt, 313
Amkalchah, 409
‘Amr, 405
Ardashir, 306
Armiyān, 200
Arü, 272
Atishgāh, 355
Avig, 289
Bardarād, 355
Baydā (Bayzā), 3oo
Dam Darān, 26o
Darjān, 359
Dikbāyah or Dikdān, 257.
Diz Gunbadān, 365
Diz Kalāt, 269
Dukhtar, 306
Duruh, 363
Farrukhān, 215
Ghabrá, I 35
Girdlcáh (Jibál), 22 I
Girdlcáh (Kümis), 365
32–2
5OO
INDEX.
Castle (cont.)
Haykāl, 355
Hinduwän, 422
Ibn ‘Umārah, 257
Isfandiyār, 264, 265
Istakhr Yār, 276
Ja'bar, Io.2
IKabrit, I 95
Kharashah, 254
Khastār, 4.17
Khawāshir, 359
Khing, 272
Khürshah, 254
Khuvár, 279
Khwādām, 290
Kāh (Kirmān), 306
Kūh (Mardin), 96
Kuhnah, 359
Išūlanjān, 282
Kūsh-va-Rán, 313
Kūshah, 317
Kushkak, 319
Mahdi, Hišn, 238, 243, 247
Mäkin, 195
Manūjān, 317, 319
Maslamah, IoS, I 37
Mikâl, 355
Minä, 319
Mujāhidābād, 355
Najm, ſo?
Ram Zavān, 26o
Safīd, 264, 265
Sahārah, 256
Sakālibah (Sclavonians), 134, 135,
I 3
sº (Juwaym), 254
Samīrān (Sirāf), 258
Samirán or Samīrām (Târum), 226
Sang (Sirjān), 3oo, 302
Shahārah, 256
Shahbā, 96
Shāmil, 319
Shamīrān (Herät), 409
Shamīrān (Juwaym), 254
Shamīrān (Târum), 226
Shankavān, 276
Shikastah, 276
Sih Gunbadhān, 276
Sinádah, 135
Surkh, 25 I
Tabarik (Isfahân), 205
Tabarik (Ray), 216, 217
Tāj, 226
Tâk (Daylam), 374
Täk, Hisn (Sijistān), 343
Tang-Zandān, 319
Tang-i-Zinah, 289
Castle (cont.)
Tarzak, 319
Tawās, 154
Tāziyān, 319
Tightir, 269
Tilä, 161
Tin, Io8
Tir-i-Khudā, 253
Tiz, 25 I
White Castle, 264, 265
Yahūd, 135
Zar, 393
Zarah, 338, 344
Caucasus mountains, 180, 181, 368
Cave of Seven Sleepers, I 19, 143,
I 55, 3I4
Cavern of the Winds, 387
Cayster river, 155
Cephe, I 13
Chaboras, 95
Châch, 48o
Chaechasta lake, 16o, 161
Chaghāniyān, 20, 439
Chahār Dānikah canal, 236
Chahār Jüy, 403, 404, 431
Châhik, 20, 278
Chaltah Irmak, 119
Chamchamál, 193
Changhiz Khān, 337, 385, 417, 418,
422, 423, 448, 463, 482
Chardin, Chevalier, 204–206, 221
Chashmah Sabz lake, 386–388
Chââli, Amir, 264, 277, 281, 288–290
Chebulic myrobalan, 349 -
Chess-board plan of Nishāpār, 386
Chichast lake, 22, 160, 161
Chimkant or Chimikant, 484
Chin island, 261
Chinás, 483
Chinár (plane-tree), 392
Chirchik river, 482
Chosroes, bridge of (Nahrawān), 57;
(Arrajān), 269; arch of (Madáin),
34
Christian physicians, under Abbasids,
238, 239
Christians, Jacobites, 94; Nestorians,
465, 482, 487
Châchaktú, 423, 424
Chugukābād, 313, 314
Cilicia, 148
Cilician Gates, I 32, 134, 139
Circesium, I off
Claudiopolis, 157
Clavijo, Ruy Gonzalez de, Ambas-
sador, 391, 442, 457, 458, 465
Clay, edible, 258
INDEX.
5OI
Cobinan, 309
Cochineal, 167
‘Cold Lands,’ 249
Commerce, see Trade
Constantine I, Ioff
Constantine IV, 138
Constantine Porphyrogenitus, I 38
Constantinople, I 38; road to, 134,
I35; sieges of, I 37
Coracesium, 150
Cotyaeum, 136
Cramoisie, crimson dye, 184
Crocodiles in Indus, 331
Cross at Mayyāfarikin, II 2
Crusades, first, second and third, 14o,
I4 I
Ctesiphon, 25, 33
Currants (Ribás), 385, 387
Custom-house (Gumruk), 319
Cuthah, 68
Cydnus river, I 33
Cypress, great, 284, 355, 356
Cypress-wood, 290
Cyprus, island, 128
Cyrus, tomb of, 276, 284
Cyrus river (Armenia), 5, 177–181
Cyrus river (Färs), 264, 275-277,
279-283
Dabásah, 136
Dabik embroideries, 294
Dabil, 182, 184, 230
APabistán, 356
Dabüsiyah, 468, 471
Dādhin, 267
Daharzim, 313
Dahānah, Iog
Dahās river, 420
Dahbānah, Iog
Dahlizān, 269
Dahmāmah, Io;
Dahnaj (malachite), 389
Dā‘ī, missioner, 174
Dākharrakān, 164
Dakākā, 92
Dalījān, 2 Io
Däliyah (waterwheel), 67
Däliyah town, Io;
Dam Darān castle, 26o
Damascus, 2 I, I 25
Damāvand mountain, 22, 168, 367
Damāvand town, 37 I
Dāmghān, 7, 326, 364, 365
Dams on the Helmund, 339, 340, 345
Dams on the Kur, 277, 281
Dandankân, 4oo
Daniel, tomb of prophet, 240
Daonas, I 54
Dâr (A.), house, plural Diyār, 86
Dār- or Darband Ahanin, 441
Dār-al-‘Ammah, 54
Dār-al-Battikh, 215
Dār-i-Isfīd, 28o
Dār-al-Kuttub, 215
Dār Mashkān, 399, 4oo
Dār-as-Siyādah, 78
Dârâ, 96
Dārābjird, 6, 248,
296
Darahkān, 318
Daraj river, 220
Darāk, 34o
Dārak Mūsā, hill, 250
Dārākān, 289
Darand, 163
Darandah, 120
Darawliyah, I 35
Darb (A.), road or gate
Darb-al-Hadath, 122, 133
Darb-al-Kilāb, I I I
Darb-as-Salāmah, I 22, 134
Darband (P.), a pass
Darband or Bāb-al-Abwab, 180
Darband-i-Khalīfah, 92
Darband Tāj Khātūn, 193, 194
Darband Zangi, 193, 194
Darbast, 266
Darbil, 193, 194
Dardasht, 205
Darfāni or Därfärid, 315, 316
Dargham, 466
Darghān, 451
Darghash, 345, 346
Darguzin, 196, 228
Darist, 267
Darius, King, 187
Dariyah or Dara‘īyah, 84
Dariz, 26o, 267, 294
Darjān town, 271
Darjān castle, 359
Dārjīn, 313, 32 I
Dārkan, 28
Darkhid, Darkhuwtd, or Darkhānad,
265, 266
Darrah Gaz, 394
Dartal, 345, 346
Dârük, 257
Daryā (P.), river or sea, 434
Daryā Kulzum, 458
Daryā-i-Shark, 458
Daryāchih Shūr, 267
Daryān, 27 I
Dārzanji, 440
Darzin, 313, 32 I
288, 289, 294,
5O2
INDEX.
Dasht (P.), plain, desert
Dasht Arzin, 253
Dasht Bārīn, 26o, 268, 294.
Dasht Biyād, or Piyāz, 358, 359
Dasht-i-Kavir or Dasht-i-Lāt, 322
Dasht Rūm or Rún, 282, 283
Dasht Urd, 282
Dashtābād, 236
Daskarah (Basrah), 48
Daskarah (Jalālah), 8o
Daskarah-al-Malik, 62
Dastabá, 220
Dastabūyah melons, 202
Dastagird, 62
Dastakān, 259, 274
Dastan, brother of Rustam, 208
Dasti Maysän, 43, 8o
Dastuvâ, 220
Date Tabas, 359, 360
Davalā, I46, 150
Dâwar, 345
Dawlatābād, I98
Dawrak, Dawrak-al-Furs, or Dawraki-
stān, 242, 247 n
Dawsar, Ioz
| a Daybul, 330, 331, 333
tº )0 U Daylam district, Daylamán, 172–174,
\ -āTS-335
Dayr (A.), monastery
Dayr-Abu-Sufrah, 57
Dayr-al-‘Akül, 35
Dayr Barsūmā, I 20
Dayr Hizkil, 37
Dayr-al-Jiss, 208
Dayr Kunná, 36
Dayr-al-‘Ummal, 41
Dayrjān, 27 I
Dayruzin, 313, 32 I
Dazak, 330
De Bode, C. A., 263, 270, 272
De Goeje, M. J., [3, I4, 18, 74,
458, 489
De Morgan, J., 190
Decius, Emperor, 314
Defrémery, C., 16
Deluge of Noah, 75
Denizlū, 153
Desert, the Great, 6, 207, 208, 321–
28
Dºmaisons, Baron, I 7
Deveh Boyun, 45 I
Ph pronounced Z, 20
Dhahbāniyah Spring, Io;
Dhāt ‘Irk, 83
Dhib, Nahr (of Euphrates), 1 16
T)hib, Nahr (of Tigris), 1 Io
Dhu-l-Kilá or Kulá, 138
Dhurrah, Indian corn, 318, 320
Dibâj, brocades, 235, 246
Dibs, syrup, 294
Difrigi, 1 19
Diglath (Tigris), 25
Dih or Dih (P.), village
IDih
Dih
Dih
Dih
Dih
Dih
Dih
‘Ali, 263
Bād, 388
Bâryāb, 425
Bid, 284, 297
Gawz or Jawz, 282
Girdú, 282
Khuwärkān, 164
Dih Kiyāhān, 1.65
Dih Mård, 19, 279
Dih Nāband, 329, 361
Dih Nakhirjān, 164
Dih Namak, 19, 367
Dih Ushturán, 19, 287
Dihistān (Bädghis), 414, 415
Dihistán (Jurjān), 377, 379–381
Dijlah, Tigris, 21
Dijlah, district of, 8o
Dijlah-al-‘Awrã, Blind Tigris, 43
Dikbāyah, Dikdān castle, 257
Dilfarid, 316
Dimimmå, 66
Dinár hills, 271, 272
Dinavar, 188, 189, 201, 227
Dīndār, 263
Dirgham river, 435, 436
Div Rūd, 314, 315
Divrik, Divriki or Divrigi, 119
Diyā-al-Mulk, 167
Diyälä river, 59–61
Diyâr (A.), habitations
Diyār Bakr or Amid, Io8
Diyār Bakr district, 86–Ioo
Diyār Kāmis, 364
Diyār, Mudar, 86, Io8–114
Diyār Rabī‘ah, 86, IoI–Io8
Diz (P.), castle
Diz Abraj, 281
Diz Gunbadān, 365
Diz Kalāt, 269
Dizah of Kaşrān, 216
Dizah of Marv, 405
Dizah of Varāmīn, 216
Dizak (Jizak), 475, 488
Dizak Nishnák, Nishkumán or Astäk,
265 -
Dizbād, 387, 388, 430
Dizbaz, 20 I
Dizbil, 194
Dizful or Dizpul, 202, 238, 239
Dizful river, 233
Dizmár, 67
INDEX.
5O3
Dog's Head, 367
Dog's Pass, I I I
Dog's River, I to
Dorn, B., 375
Dorylaeum, I 35
Dozy, R., 349
Dú Dänikah canal, 236
Dü Gunbadān, 272
Duhhāk, 37 I
Dujayl (Little Tigris) of Basinnā, 240,
Dujayl canal, old, 65, 80
Dujayl canal, later, 51, 85
Dujayl, see Kārūn under River
Dükät, 147
Dukhtar, Kal‘ah, 306
Dukhtar, Kutäl, 267
Dukhtar, Pul, 270
Dūlāb, 173
Dulayjān, 2 Io
Dumür Khān, 156
Dunaysir, 96
Dunbāvand, 371
l)unbulā, 263
Dür (A.), meaning ‘habitations,’ 57
Dār-al-‘Arabāyā or Härith, 52, 55–57
Dār-ar-Răsibi, 241
Durbäy, 316
Durkit canal, 8o
Duruh, 363
Dūshā, 94
Dūshāb (syrup), 244, 294
Duwin, I82
Dykes of the Tigris, 27
Earthly Paradises, 46, 264, 460
‘East Country,’ Khurāsān, 395
Ecbatana, 194
Ecbatana, Northern, 224
Edessa, Io9, Ioq
Edible clay, 353
Egridãr lake and town, 142, 145,
I5 I, I 52
Eighty, Village of the, 94
els Bápuða, 152
els Nikatav, I 57
eis Nukovpañóetav, 157
els Thu TóNuv, 138
Elburz mountains, 182, 368
Eldred, John, 29
Elias, N., 484
Elias, the Prophet, 176; mosque of,
263
Elizabetpol, 178
Embassy of Clavijo, 391, 442, 457,
458, 465
Emessa, I 25 -
Ephesus, 136, 154, 155
Ephthalites, 433, 438
Erivān, 182
Ermine, 458
Erzerum, I I 3, 117
Eski Hisār, 153
Eski Mosul, 99
Eski Shahr, 12 I
Essences, perfumes, 293
Estuary of the Euphrates and Tigris,
43
Estuary of the Kārūn, 44, 243
Euphrates (Al-Furät), 3 ; see under
River
Ezra, tomb of, 43
Fadlāh or Fadlūyah, 288
Fādāsbán, 372
Fahl Fahrah, 330
Fahraj of Bam, 313, 321, 328, 332
Fahraj of Bampiãr, 330
Fahraj of Yazd, 286
Fäik, Amir, 389, 487
Fakhr-ad-Dawlah, Buyid,
226, 372
Fakhr-ad-Dawlah, Chââlî, 264, and
see Chââlî
Fakhr-ad-Din of Hurmuz, 320
Fakhr-ad-Din, Kärä Arslān, I 13
Fakhrābād (Ray), 216
Fakhristān, 277
Fakhri, historian, 17, 18
Fakhri grapes, 209
Falāmi-al-Ghābah, 135
Falcons, 429
Falkird, 358
Fallájah, Upper and Lower, 7.4, 81
Fallájah, village (Nahr ‘Isá), 66
Fallájah, village (Nahr-al-Malik), 68
Fam, point of origin of a canal, 38
Fam-al-Badāt, 7.4
Fam-al-Bawwäb, whirlpool, 245
Fam-as-Silh, 28, 38
Fämir (Pamir), 435, 474
Famå Khusraw Khurrah, Weir, 277
Famäkant, 482
Fânidh, sugar, 329
Fannazbür, 329, 332, 333
Far'a, 287
Fārāb (Utrār), 484, 485
Fârâbi, the philosopher, 485
Farāghah, 284
Farah, 341, 351, 431
Farah bridge, 351
Farāhān, 198
Farajird, 388
Farāshah, 69
Farātaghin, 455
2 I 5, 216,
5O4.
INDEX.
Farāvah, 38o, 472
Fardah or Furdah, harbour of Bagh-
dād, 66
Farghām or Fārghar, 435, 438
Farghāmah province, 8, 476–48o
Farghānah city, 477
Farghāl, 38o
Farhad, son of Gūdarz, 176
Farhād the sculptor, 63, 188
Farhādān or Farhādhjird, 388
Färifăn, 206
Fāris, 358, 359
Fārisjin, 220, 229
Farīvār, 195 -
Fariyāb, 317; see Faryāb
Fariyāmad, 392
Farjird or Farkird, 358, 41 I
Farrazin, 198
Farrukhān Kal‘ah, 215
Fārs province, 6, 248–298
Fārs, sea of 23
Aºrs AVámzah, 14, 15
Fārūth, 41
Farwān, 35o
Făryāb (Fārs), 257, 296
Fáryāb (Juzjān), 425, 432
Faryāb (Kirmān), 317
Fasā, 290, 293, 294
Fāsh, 125
Fashā Rūd, 362
Fashāvīyah, 2 16
Fath-‘Alī Shāh, 199
Fathâbâd, 463
Fátimah, sister of Imām Ridā, 209, 2 Io
Faustinopolis, I 34, 135, I 39
Fayd, 83
Fayd, estuary, of Kārūn, 44, 243
Fayd, of Basrah, 43
Fayrūz, see Firtiz
Faysabûr, 93
Fayzābād, 436
Fazz, 439
Feluchia, Feluge, Felugia, 68
Fiddah Jabal (Bädghis), 414
Fiddah Jabal (Kirmān), 316
Fig Village, 285
Fil, 447, 448
Fin, 209
Firabr, 404, 443
Firdāsī, the poet, 207, 390; see under
Sháh AW&/za/,
Fire-temples, 190, 193, 206, 208, 219,
224, 242, 245, 255, 256, 27 I, 287,
34 I, 342, 42 I
Firrim, 372, 373
Firſz, King, 394
Firſz Sābār, district, 65, 80
Firſzābād (Jār), 255, 256, 293, 296
Firüzābād (Khalkhāl), 17o, 171
Firüzābād (Kūhistān), 354
Firſzābād (Târum), 226
Firãzān, 206
Firãzkand, 344
Firſzkāh (Damāvand), 371, 372
Firſzküh (Ghūr), 417
Firyāb, 425
Fish, a boneless, 294
Fish, not caught, for sake of Prophet
Daniel, 240
- A. A
Fivār, 4.17
Flaviopolis, 141
Fluor-spar, 437
Fox, fur, 458 -
Forty Martyrs, lake, I 35, 152
Fountain of Life, 175, 179
Frederick Barbarossa, Emperor, 141
Frederick, Caesar, traveller, 29, 68
Friday Mosque, term, 35
Frontier fortresses, Syrian and Meso-
potamian, 128
Füchah, Fújah, 155
Fuller’s Dam, 277
Fuller's River (Samarkand), 465
Fuller's River (Kushkah Daryā), 469
Fümin, 174
Furät, 2 I
Furdah or Furdah Nu‘m, Io'7, 125,
and see Fardah
Furg or Furj, 291, 292, 294
Fărmamadh, 46
Furwäb river, 276
Furzuk, 271
Fūshanj, 407, 4 II, 412
Gadiv river, 169, 17o
Gandava, 332
Gandah or Ganfah, 273
Gangra Germanicopolis, 158
Ganjah, 178, 179
Gantin, J., 16
Garīvah-i-Mādar wa Dukhtar, 282
Garm Rūd (Sääj Bulāgh), 218
Garm Rūd (Miyānīj), 170
Garmah Oasis, 325
Garmsir, 2.49
Garnets, 437
Gauze of Zarand, 308
Gāv Khānah swamp, 206, 207
Gävljāri, 176 -
Gāvkhuwärah canal, 452
Gāvmāhā or Gāvmäsä river, 196, 2 Io,
2 I 3
Gävnishak, 328
Gawāshir, 303
INDEX,
5O5
Gawd-i-Zirrah, 338
Gaz, 206
Gazn, 224
Gebhiltà, 92
Geographers, the Moslem, 11–18
George, Saint, 89
Georgia, 5, 181, 416
Geredi Büli, 157
Germanicia, 122, 128
Germiyān, 144, 153
Ghabrá castle, 135
Ghadbán river, 133
Ghanjarah, 158
Ghardamām, 452
Gharj-ash-Shār, 4 I 5, 416, 429, 431
Gharjistān, Gharshistān, Gharistān,
415, 416
Gharābuli, 135
Ghazzāli, Imām, 289, 290
Ghāzān Khān, 78, 162, 163, 176, 216
Ghaznah or Ghaznayn, 7, 348, 349,
35 I
Ghubayrā town, 308
Ghubayrā plant, 287
Ghunābād, Kūh, 414
Ghundījān, 26o, 268, 294
Ghūr or Ghūristān, 339, 341, 342,
397, 407, 415-417
Ghurian, 4 I I, 412
Ghuzz Turks, 305, 385, 421; their
capital, 486
Ghuzz, Desert of, 38o, 397, 444, 477
Gihon, 434
Gil Zariyān, 476
Gilaki, Amir, 324, 325, 360
Gilān, 5, 172–175
Gipsies, 244, 331
Girdlcáh (Jibál), 221
Girdlöh (Kämis), 365
Girdlākh, 195
Girishk, 346
Girrah, 268
Git, 454, 455
Gizah, 343
Glass-works, 51
Godfrey de Bouillon, 129
Gold mines, 224, 365, 467
Golden Kiosque, 282
Goldsmid, Sir F., 328, 335, 342, 354,
356
Goldziher, I., 285
Gombroon, 319
Gottwaldt, I. M. E., 18
Gourd of Jonah, 89
Goyun, 253
Granada, 19
Great Island (Basrah), 44, 46
Great Wall of Bukhārā, 461, 462
Great Wall of Shāsh, 481
Great Desert, see Desert
Green Dome, 306, 307
Green Palace, 39
Grénard, F., 143
Güdarz, 302
Guinea-worm, 394, 403
Gukchah lake (Armenia), 182, 183
Gukchah river (Badakhshān), 435,
436
Gul, I 54
Gul Andām, Shaykh, 28o
Gulābādīkān, 2 Io
Gulāshkird, 317
Gulban, Princess, 62
Gulbár, 205
Gulnābād, 286
Gulpaygān, 207, 21 o, 247
Gulrān, 413
Gulshān, Kūh, 387
Gumrū, Gumruk, 319
Gunābād, Gunäbidh, 359
Gumbad-i-Kābās, 378
Gunbad Mallaghān, 272
Gunek Sū, I 16
Gūr for Jür, 256
Gâr Kal‘ah, 161
Gūr-i-Surkh, 378
Gurbäyigán, 2 Io
Gurgān, see Jurjān
Gurgān, ‘bugs,’ 378
Gurganj, Great, Little, and Old,
446–449 ; see Jurjāniyah
Gurganjak, 449 -
Gurjistán (Georgia), 5, 181, 416
Gurjistän (Khurāsān), 416
Gurshäsp, King, 337
Gurzuvân, 424
Gushtāsfi, 179, 181
Gushtasp, King, 355
Guwäkharz, 357
Guwäshir, 303, 304
Guwayn (Sijistān), 341
Gūyān plain, 391
Guyard, S., 16
Guzārān, 312
Guzel Hisār, 154
Gatzādah, Zöråkh, 16
Gypsum Convent, 208
Gypsum Palace, 55
Habáb-as-Suyár, 17, 18
Habiltà, 92
Habl Ibrāhīm, 69
Habrak, 279
Habráthán, 380
5O6
INDEX.
Habs, 271
Hadath, Darb, 133
Hadath fortress, 121, 122, 126, 128
Hadbá, 89
Haddādah, 368
Hādī, Caliph, 219
Hadithah (Euphrates), 64, 84
Hadithah (Tigris), 9o, 91, 125
Hadr, 98
Hadrat-i-Turkistán, 485
Haffär channel, 48
Hāfiz, poet, 307
Hāfiz Abrū, 16, 17
Aaft Zºlºm, 375
Haftād Pālān, 2.13
Hafrak, 279
Hagmatána, 194
Häir, at Karbalā, 79
Hajar-al-Fatilah, 436
- Hajjāj ibn Yūsuf, 39, 72, 237, 268
Hajji Barlās, 392
Hajji Khalſah, 17
Hakim Burkā‘ī, 414
Hakluyt, Arincipal AWavigations, 29,
68, 450, 454, 458
Hakshiyān, 194
Hålah, 42
Halam, 456
Halāward, 438
Halfä grass, 49
Halil Răd, 314, 315
Halilaj, myrobalan, 349
Hall of the Chosroes, 34
Halāras, I Io
Halys river, 135, 145
Hamadān or Hamadhán, 5, 20, 186;
walls and gates, 194–196, 227—230
Hamdānids, .96
Hämid for Amid, IoS
Hamid, Amir, I44, 151
Hammām ‘Omar, 7.3
Hamrå, 122
Hamshahrah, 176
Hamālah, 200
Hamzah of Isfähän, 17, 18
Hangāmābād, 415
Häni, I Io
Haram (Färs), 257
Harât village, 287, 298
Harât city, see under Herät
Harbà, 51, 52, 85
Halbiyah, 31, 5 ſ, 85
Hari Rūd, 396, 407-4 Io
Hårith, Jabal, 182
Harrāb, I 35
Harrān, Io9, 124
Harsin, IQ2
Harskān, 281
Hārūd river, 340, 412
Hārān-ar-Rashīd, Caliph, 32, 33, 58,
77, IOI, I 22, I23, I 29-I 32, I 34,
I 39, 164, 198, 219, 220, 239 ; his
tomb, 388-391
Hārānābād, 192
Hârüni palace, 54
Hārāniyah (‘Irāk), 62
Hārāniyah (Rām), 128, 129
Harári, 343, 351
Hârât and Mărăt, 72
Hasan Aghā, 93
Hasan, the Dā‘ī, 22 I
Hasan Sabáh, the Old Man of the
Mountain, 22 I
Hasan, son of ‘Alī the Imām, 56
Hasan Ibn ‘Omar, 93
Hasan ibn Sahl, 38
Hasanawayh or Hasanāyah, I89, 20I,
288
Hasaniyah, 93, I 24, 125
Hāshimiyah, 71
Hāshimjird, 44 I
Hasht Rūd, 17o
Hassān the Nabathaean, 42
Hasāyah, 288
Hatra, 98
Hawānīt, 41
Hawizah, 233, 24.I
Hawl (lagoon), 41, 42
Hawl village, 73
Hawmah of Nīshāpār, 354
Hawmah of Yazd, 285 j
Hawmah of Zutt, 244
Hawr, 4 I, 42
Haybak, 427
Haydar, Atabeg, 222
Haydar, saint, and Haydarīyah Dar-
vishes, 356
Haydariyah castle, 222
Häyil, 84
Haykāl castle, 355
Haytal, 433, 438
Hazăr Sābār, 28o
Hazārasp town and canal, 450-452,
472
Hazirah, 5 I
Helmund river, 7, 334, 335, 338–
340, 343-345
Heraclia, 19, 134, 136, 149
Heraclius, Emperor,
Herät, 8, 382 ; walls and suburbs,
4O7-4O9, 429–431
Herät river, 396, 407-4 Io
A/. G. A. M., 127
Hides, 423
INDEX.
5O7
Hidmand, 339
Hierapolis, Io'7
High roads, summary of, 9–1 1 ; see
under Roads
Hijāz province, 84
Hill, see under Mountain, also under
Tall
Hillah, 26, 71, 73, 83
Hims, 125
Hind and Sind, 331
Hindarābī island, 261
Hindiyah canal, 74
Hindiyān or Hindijän river, 270–272
Hindmand, 339
Hindú Kush mountains, 345, 35o
Hinduwän bridge, 234
Hinduwän castle, 422
Hinduwän river, 270–272
Hirah, 75
Hirak, 19, 254 -
Hiraklah, 19, 134, 136, 149
Hirmand or Hirmid river, 339
Hirmās river, 87, 94, 95, 97
Hisār, see under Castle
Hisâr or Hisār Shādmán, 44o
Hisār Shāmil, 319
Hisham, Caliph, Ioff, 130, 158
Hism, see under Castle
Hish Kayfā or Kīfā, I 13
Hisn Khivah, 452
Hish Mahdi, 238, 243, 247
Hish Manbij, Io'7
Hish Manşūr, 123, 125, 128
Hisn Ziyād, I 17
Aſistorical Geography of Asia Minor,
I 27
Hit, 65
Hizān, I 14
Holdich, Sir T. H., 329, 330
Honey, 168
Hospital, see Bimaristán
Hospitallers, Knights, 155
Miot Lands,’ 249
Youtsma, M. T., 13, 18, 330
#º C., I 43
Hūlāgā Khān, 161, 164, 22 I, 355, 393
Hūlā Mūlān, 169
Hulbu', 435, 438
Hulwan, 61, 63, 79, 191, 192, 228
Humāmīyah or Humaymīyah, 37
Humann and Puchstein, 124
Hume, Major, 29
Humrin mountains, 91, 98
Hārīth liver, 122
Hurmuz, King, 243, 316
Hurmuz city, Old and New, 6, 318–
32 I.
Ibn Hawkal, 13,
Hurmuz island, 292, 295
Hurmuz-al-Malik, 316, 32 I
Hurmuz Shahr, Awshir or Ardashīr,
233
Hurmuzfarrah, 398, 399
Husayn, Imām, 78, 4o I
Husayn, son of ‘Alī-ar-Ridā, 217
Husayn the Táhirid, 399
Husayn, Mashhad, 78
Husayniyin, 383, 384
Hüsgān or Håsjān, 281
Hūshang pass, 267
Huwayrith mountain, 182
Huwayzah, 24 I
Hüz or Hüz, 232, 241
Huză, 257, 296
Hwen Thsang, 441
Ibex, 209
Ibn Abi Usaybi'ah, 239
Ibn-al-Athir, I 7, 18
Ibn Batūtah, 16; in Asia Minor, I44,
I 45
Ibn Baytär, 349
Ibn Bibi, 18
Ibn Fakih, 12, 13
Ibn Hanbal, 285
I4 ; Anonymous
Annotator of, 40
Ibn Hubayrah, 7o
Ibn Ibrāhim, 18
Ibn Ilyās, 3oo, 303-305, 308-3 I 3
Ibn Jubayr, I4, 15
Ibn Kawān island, 261
Ibn Khaldūn, 17, 18
Ibn Khallikån, 17, 18
Ibn Khurdādbill, I 2
Ibn Lāwān, 141
Ibn Mashkuwayh, 17, 18
Ibn Muhalhal, 15
Ibn-ar-Rawād, 161
Ibn Rustah, 12, 13
Ibn Sawwar, 45, 244
Ibn Serapion, 12, 13
Ibn Sīmjār, 327
Ibn Tarkasfi, 466
Ibn-at-Tiktakā, 18
Ibn ‘Umārah castle, .257
Ice houses, 2 Io, 2 I I
Ich-Ili, 148
Iconium, 134
Idhaj, 245, 247
Idol at Kandahār, 347
Idol at Zür, 346
Idrisi, I4, 15 ; in Asia Minor, 143
g, 289
Ighârs, the Two, 197, 198
508
INDEX.
Ij, 289
Ijarūd, 223
Ikhshin river, 267, 268
Iklid, 282
Iklim Akür, 86
Iklim Rihāb, 159
Il Khāns of Persia, 145, 228
Ilāk, 477, 482, 483
‘Ilj, I 35 -
‘Imād-ad-Dawlah or Din, 93
“Imādīyah, 92
Imām Zāyid, shrine, 342
India, 331
Indigo, 349
Indus river, 331
Inikli, 122
Irāhistān, 254, 256, 258
Iraj for Abraj, 281
‘Irāk province, 3, 24–85
‘Irāk ‘Ajami, 5, 185
Irākān or ‘Iråkayn, 25, 186
Irān, 248
Irān and Târân, 433
Irān Shāh, Saljäk, 3o4
Irān Shahr, 383
rāvah, 362
Irbil, 92
Iron Gate, the, 44 I, 442, 472
Iron mines, Io9, 278, 287, 294, 316,
476
Irtish river, 487
‘Isá, nephew or uncle of Mansâr, 66
‘Isá canal, 30–32, 66, 69, 8o
Isauria, 144
Isbahānāt, 290
Isbidh, 325
Isbijāb, 8, 483–486, 488
Isfad, 358
Isfahān, Isbahān or Ispahān, 186;
quarters, suburbs and gates, 202–
2O7, 227, 229, 247, 297
Isfahbad, Isfahbudhān, 175, 369, 371,
373; 374
Isfandiyār castle, 264, 265
Isfandiyār province, 144
Isfanj, 392
Isfarāyin, 381, 391-393
Isfi, 325
Isfid Diz, 264, 265
Isfidan (Färs), 281
Isfidhán (Jibál), 197
Isfidbādh, 281
Ishāk ibn Ibrāhīm, 54
Ishākī canal, 52, 54, 55
Ishkanvān, 281
Ishtīkhān, 466
Is"irt, I 14
Iskäf Bani Junayd, 59, 80
Iskandariyah (Alexandretta)
,128
Iskifghān, 471
Islands of the Persian Gulf, 261
Ismāīl, son of Imām Mūsā, 280
Ismāīlians, see Assassins
Ispahbad princes, 175, 369, 371, 373,
374
Ispártah, 152
Ispi, 325
Istabl-al-Malik, 135
Istahbānān or Istahbānāt, 290
Istakhr (Persepolis), 6, 20, 248; wall
and gate, 275, 276, 294, 295, 297
Istakhr Yār, 276
Istakhrān, 282
Istakhri, I 3, 14
Istambúl or Istan Bălin, 138
Istänäs or Istanăz, I51
Istind, 358
Itākh the Turk and Itäkhiyah, 57,
Bay,
58
‘Itr (Ottar) of Roses, 293
Izmek mid or Izmid, I 57
Iznik, I 56, 157
Jabal, see Mountain
Jäbalak, 245
Ja‘bar castle, Ioz
Jabbul, 38
Jabultà, 18, 91, 92, 125
Jacobites, 94
Jādhāwā, 414
Jadid, Nahr, 48
Ja‘fari palace, 55
Jafúz, 277, 278
Jaghān Nāār lake, 198
Jaghān Rūd, 392
Jaghtá river, 165
Jahān, I 3 I
Jahán Mumá, 16,
Asia Minor, I45
Jahān Sāz, 348
Jahram, 254, 294
Jahādān-al-Kubrå, 424
Jahāk, 197
Jäij Rūd, 218
Jājarm, 392, 430
Jakīn, 318 -
Jalāl-ad-Dīn Rūmī, 142, 14,
Jälikäm, 344 ºf
Jälk, 330, 332
Jallädgån, 27 I
Jalālā, 62, 8o
Jäläs, 373
Jām, Shaykh, 356, 357
17; account of
INDEX.
5O9
Jámasp, the Mobed, 72
Jāmi', meaning Congregational
Mosque, 36 *
Jāmi'ān, 71
Jāmidah, 41
Jamjamál, 193
Jamkån lake, 252
Jamm, 258
Jammâzah, dromedary, 83
Jamshīd, 275, 28o
Jamūkat, 484
Jamākhiyān bridge, 432
Jan, 467
Janbadhak, 165
Jand, 486
Jandak Oasis, 325
Jankån lake, 252
Jannābā, 259, 273, 274, 294, 296
Jamzah, 178
Janzarūdh, 308
Jarāhīyah river, 270
Järbāyah, 35o
Jard bridge, 467
Jardakāb, 134
Jardur canal, 453
Jarhud, 37 I
Jarjarāyā, 37, 8o
Jarkan, 265
Jarmak Oasis, 282, 325–328
Jarshik river, 267, 268
Jarūd, 223
Jaryāb river, 435, 436
Jāshān, 412
Jāsik island, 261
Jät tribes, 244, 331
Jaubert, A., 15
Jāāli, Atabeg, 264; see Chââlî
Jawāmid, 41
Jawbar canal, 68, 8o
Jawbarkān, 276
Jawdhakán, 357
Jawsak castle (Ray), 215
Jawsak palace (Samarrã), 55
Jawz, Wädi, 134
Jawzāt, 134
Jaxartes, see under River
Jay (Isfahân), 21, 203, 204, 206
Jay (Sughd), 467
Jāy Rūd, 469
Jayhān (Pyramus), see under River
Jayhān, see Oxus under River
Jayruft, 3 (4
Jaz, 206
Jazirah (A.), island or peninsula, 86
Jazirah province; 3, 24, 86–I 14
Jazirah Ibn ‘Omar, 93, 94,
I 25
I 24,
Jazirah Tawilah, 261
Jenkinson, Sir A., 449, 454, 457
Jews in Anbār, 66; absent in Abarkuh,
284; in Isfähän, 203
Jibál (A.), mountains, 185
Jibal province, 5, 185–231, 249
Jibbah, 65
Jiddah, 21
Jidghil, 476, 48o
Jijaktú, 424
Jīkān for Jankân, 252
Jikarband, 451
Jil, Jilān, Jīlānāt, 172–175, 267
Jīlāni river, 215
Jīlāyah mountains, 266
Jīnānjakath, 482
Jins, 271
Jir, 318
Jiranj, 4oo
Jirdús, 315
Jirm, 437
Jirrah, 26o, 267, 268, 296
Jirün island, 319
Jiruft, 6, 299, 302; ruins of, 314, 315,
2 I
Jis (Jibâl), 224
Jis (Fārs), 271 -
Jisr (A.), meaning bridge of boats, 57;
Sometimes a stone bridge, 58; see
under Bridge
Jisr Manbij, Io'7
Jisr Nahrawān, 59, 61.
Jiss palace, 55
Jith, 454, 455
Jizah, 343
Jizak (Dizak), 475, 488
Jocelin II, Ioq
John Theologos, 155
Jonah, prophet, 88, 89, 181
Jones, Commander J. F., 52
Joshua, son of Nun, I 12
Jūbānān lake, 277–279
Júbarah, 205
Jubbā, 243
Juddah, 2 I -
Jādī mountain, 94
Juhastah, 195
Juhaymah, 381
Jujube tree, 378
Jujube, Tabas of the, 359, 360
Jūkhā, 42
Jālāhah or Julfah of Araxes, 167
Julbārah, 205
Julfah of Isfahân, 2.05
Jāmah (Fārs), 270
Jāmah of Yazd, 285; see Hawmah
Junābād, 358, 359
5 IO
INDEX.
Junday Säbär or Jundi Shāpār, 233,
238, 247
Junduwayh, 423
Jür (Firſizâbâd), 255, 256, 293, 296
Jurbādhakān, 207, 2 Io
Järith river, 122
Jurjān city, 377, 378
Jurjān province, 7, 8, 173, 369, 376–
381
Jurjān river, 376, 377
Jurjāniyah, Gurganj, or Urganj, 445–
447; gates, Old and New city, 448,
449, 453, 454, 456, 458, 472, 473
Jurjis, St George, 89
Jurm, 395
Jurām, 2.49
Jurzuwän, 424
Jurwas, 349
Júsf, 361, 362
Justi, F., 373
Justinian, Emperor, I 55; bridge of,
13 I
Justinianopolis Mokissus, 146
Justinianopolis Palia, I53
Juwäsir, Juwäshir, 303
Juwaym of Abu Ahmad, 254
Juwayn or Juwaym (Shīrāz), 253
Juvayn (Nishāpār), 391, 392
Juvayn (Sijistān), 341, 342
Júy Sard, 207
Jūy Sulaymān, 318, 332
Juynboll, T. G. J., 16
Jüzf, 361, 362
A. • A A • A • A A
Júzajān, Júzjān or Juzjānān, 423
Kabalah, 181
Kabirah, 373
Kabk, Caucasus mountains, 181
Kabrit castle, 195
Kābrün, 414
Kabūd Jāmah, 375
kabūdhān lake, 16o
Kabudhanjakath, 466
Kābul and Kâbulistān, 7, 348, 349
Kābul river, 35o
Kâbuli myrobalan, 349
Kābās the Ziyārid, 378
Kadar, 485
|Kādisiyah of Kāfah, 76, 83
Kādisiyah on Tigris, 50–52
Kadpå river, 17o
Kadrā, 287
Kādāsīyān for Fādāsbán, 373
Käf, Jabal, 368
Kafarbayyā, I 3o, I 3 I
Kafartáthá, 97, 125
Kāghadh Kunán, 225, 229, 230
Išahāb, 206
Kahan, 341
Kaharjān, 255
Kahrīān, 252
Kâim, Caliph, Ioff
Kâim, the coming Mahdi or twelfth
Imām, 56
Kaj (Makrān), 330
Kāj (Sijistān), 344
Kajjah, 373
Kakhtah Chay, 124
Kal‘ah, see Castle, also Kelat
Kal‘ah for Kalāt or Kilát, 395
Kal‘at Ayyūb, 19
Kal‘ah-i-Kāh, 342
Kal‘ah Nāghah, 329
Kal‘at-an-Najm, Io'ſ
Kal‘ah Mawr, 413
Kal‘ah Wāli, 424
Kal‘ah Wamar, 438
Kalām, 374
Kālān (Färs), 284
Kalān (Kirmān), 317
Kalantar, 168
Kalār, 373
Kalāākān, 437
Kalb-al-Mā, fish, 160
Kāli, 279
Kālif, 442
Kālikalā, I 16, 1 17, 179
Kalk, I I I
Kallár, 277, 283, 297
Kalār, 171
Kalwādhā, 32, 59, 80
Kalwān, 414
Kalyān, 417
Kamacha, f 18
Kamadin, 315
Kamart, 209
Išamkh or Kamakh, I 18
IXamar-ad-Din apricots, 149
Kâmfirãz, 277, 28o
Kamidh, 439
Kāmighām bridge, 73
Kamin, 284
Kammānās Church, 153
Kanāis-al-Malik, 135
Kanātir (Küſah), 74
Kanātīr (Nahrawān), 58
Kanbali, 330, 333
Kand, meaning ‘city,’ 478
Kand, 479
Kandābil, 331–333
Kandahár, 7, 346, 347, 351
Išandahār river, 339
Kandak, 472
Kandadram, Kandaram, 425
INDEX.
5 II
Kângri, 158
Kanguvár, 20, 188–228
Kanisah fortress, 128–130
Kanj Rustäk, 413–415
Kanjidah, 485
Kannajbār or Kannazbār, 329
Kant, meaning ‘city,’ 478
Išantarah (A.), a stone bridge, 57;
see under Bridge
Kantarah Kirmān, 328, 338
Kantarah-al-Kāfah, town, 74
Kapak Khān, 470
Išárà (T.), black
Kärå Aghach river, 252
Kārā Amid, Io8
Kärä Arslān, I 13
Išārā Bāgh, 413
Kārābāgh country, 179
Kārā Hisār Afyān, 19, 152
Kārā Hisār Kāniyah, 149
Kārā Hisâr Nigdah, 150
Kārā Hisār Shābin, 147
Kārā Sū (Western Euphrates), I 17
Kārā Sū (Jibâl), 197, 212
Kārā Tappah, 413
Karāchah, Atabeg, 252
ISarāgh river, 4 Io
Karºah or Kaw'ah river, 233
Rarah, Karah Rūd or Karaj river
(Jibál), 198
Karaj river (Ray), 218
Karaj of Abu Dulaf, 197, 198, 201,
229, 247
Karaj of Rûdhrāvar, 197
Karajah for Karkhah, 24o
Išārākhitay, 305
Karākīs river, 121
Karallia, I52
Karāmān, 19, 144, 145, I48
Karārij, 206
Karási, 19, 144, 155, 156
Karbalā, 78
Kard Fanā Khusraw, 250
Kardān Rūd, 220
Kardurān Khwāsh, 452
Kargas Kūh, 208, 209
Karih canal, 452
Išârin family, 173, 372, 373
Karin (Theodosiopolis), I 17
Kårin for Báriz, 317
Išarinayn, 4oo
Kāriyān, 255
Kariyah or Karyat (A.), village
Kariyat ‘Abd-ar-Rahmān, 279
Išariyat ‘Ali, 443
Kariyat-al-As, 20, 279
Išariyat Barâtakin, 455
Kariyat-al-Bidh, 284
Kariyat-al-Jadid, 486
Kariyat-al-Jamāl, 20, 286, 287
Išariyat-al-Jawz, 316
IKariyat-Mansâr, 372
Kariyat-al-Marāghah, 164
Rariyat-al-Milh, 20, 320
Kariyat-ath-Thamānīn, 94
Kariyat Yūnis, 181
Kārīz or Kārīzah, 414
Karjan, 265
Karkar, 167
Karkh of Baghdād, 31, 67
Karkh Firtiz, Sámarrà, 52, 54, 55
Karkhah or Karkhā, 233, 240
Karkhi, 404
Karkisiyā, I I, 87, 95, IoS, 125
Karkük, 92
Karkūyah, 336, 341, 342, 351
Karmālis, 90
IQarminiyah, 468, 471
Karnin, 343
Karrām or Karrán (Badakhshān), 437
Karrān (Isfahân), 204
Karş, 181
Karshi, see Nakhshab
Karākh, 4 Io, 431
Kārūn, see under River
Karwān, 48o
Kärzin, 254
Käs-i-Fir'awn, 56
•Käsän, 48o
Käsän river, 427
Kašarkand, 330
Kasbah, 471
Kāshān or Kāshān, ‘20, 209, 227, 229
Kāshāni ware, see Tiles
Kashghār, 487
Kashid, 308
Käskān, 277
Kaskar (‘Irāk), 39, 42, 43, 8o
Kaskar (Jilân), 174
[asr (A.), palace or castle
Kasr (Sibi), 347
Kasr, see Kasr Ibn Hubayrah
Išasr Abu Tālib, 264
Kaşr-al-Abyad, 34
Kasr Ahnaf, 405, 432
Kaşr ‘Amr, 405
Kasr Ayin or A“in, 282
Kasr-al-Hārūnī, 54
IQasr Ibn Hubayrah, 70, 71, 83
Kasr al-Khalīfah, 88
Kaşr-al-Lusías, 20, 188, 228
Kasr-al-Milh, 367
Kaşr-ar-Rih, 388, 430
Kaşr-ar-Rūnāsh, 238
5 I 2
INDEX.
Kaşr-as-Salām, Iol
Kasr Shirin, 61, 63
Kasr Yazid, I 92
Kaşrān (Ray), 2 16
Kaşrān (Sirjān), 301
Išaşşāb, gauze, 294
Kaşşārīn, Nahr (Samarkand), 465
Kassárin, Nahr (Kushkah), 469
Kastamāni, 157
Kät or Käth, meaning ‘city,’ 478
Käth (Kät), Old and New, 446, 447,
450, 452, 453, 472
Katakekaumena, I49
Rathab (Yazd), 285
Kathrawá, 308
Katr, 26, 40–42
Katrabbul, 31, 65, 66, 8o
Kåtål canal, Great, 57
Kātūl canals, three lesser, 58
Kawānīn, 42
Ravāk, 309
Kavār, 253
Kavir desert, 322
Kawtam, I 7o, I 74
Kay Khusraw, King, 198, 224
Kaydā Khān, 478
Kayf, 413
Kayfā, I 13
Kāyin, 7, 352-354, 431
Kaylif, 442
Kays island, 6, 257, 26.1, 296
Raysariyah (Caesarea Mazaka), 136,
142, 145, 146
Kaysariyah, meaning “a market,' 89,
O
Kºm, essence of, 293
Kaysúm (Euphrates), 123
Kazak canal, 339
Kázimayn cemetery, 31
Käzirún, 262, 266, 267, 294, 296
Kazki river, 233
Kazvin or Kazwin, walls and Suburbs,
2 18–220, 227, 229
Kazwini, 15, 16, 220
Kazz, raw silk, 294
Kelat (Afghanistān), 332, 333
Keredeh Bāli, 157
Kermiyān, I44, 153
Khābādhān, 266
Khābarán (Khurāsān), 394
Khåbarán (Khūzistān), 244
Khabis, 299, 308, 32 I, 328
Khabr, 253
Khabs, 27 I
Khåbär river, great, 87, 94–97, IoS
Khåbär river, little, 87, 93
Khabūshān, 377, 393
Khajacharán, 408
Khalaj Turks, 346
Khalanj wood, 227, 369, 376, 459
Khålanjān, 206, 207
Khālid the Barmecide, 34
Khalij (Bosporus), 135, 136
Khalījān, 444
Khalil Răd, 314, 315
Khâlis canal, 50, 59, 6o
Khalkhāl (Adharbäyjān), 169–171,
23o
Khalkhāl (Caspian), 456
Khamkhâ velvets, 386
Khān-al-Abrár, 206, 207
Khandak Sābār, 65
Khánikin, 61, 62, 8o
Khanjarah, I 58
Khamjast for Chichast, 161
Khānlanjān, 206, 207
Khannāb, 3 I I
Khānsār, 2 Io
Khānākah, Ioë
Khanās, 147
Kharak, 399
Kharakānah, 475
Kharāmah, 285
Kharashah castle, 254
Khardarüy river, 345
Khargāh, felt tents, 294
Kharghānkath, 468
Kharijites, 328, 341, 342
Khárik island, 261
Kharjird or Kharkird, 357, 358, 4 II
Kharkhiz, 417 -
Rharlakhiyah Turks, 487
Kharlīkh Turks, 482
Kharpät, I 17
I&harrakān, 23, 196, 220, 228, 367
Kharshān, 476
Khartabirt, I 17
Khartir, 38o
Kharād river, 220
Kharāj, 330
Rharv-al-Jabal, 394
Kharvarān, ‘the West Country,’ 395
Khās or Khāsh (Ilāk), 483
Khāsh (Sijistan), 342, 343
Khashāb, lighthouse, 49
Khashm, I 74
Khasht (Herät), 4 Io, 417
Khāsht (Ilāk), 483
Rhashū, 291
Khashūfaghan, 466
Khāsik island, 261
Rhasrú, 288
Khast Minarahsi, 457
Khāstān, 412
INDEX.
5 I 3
Khastār, Kal‘ah, 417
Khasii, 291
Khasſiyah tribe, 289, 290
Khávarān district, 394, 395
Khávarān river, 266
Khavardām, 395
Khawarmak palace, 75
Khâwas (Ushrāsanah), 475
Khawāsh (Kufs), 317
Khawāshir, Kal‘ah, 359
Khāvdān river, 266, 272
IChawi, 166
Khawlān, 88
Khawrāwādhān, 265
Khawristán, 252
Khawsar river, 88
Khawst, 327, 361, 362
Khayār, 290
Khayläb river, 428
Khayläm, 480
IKhayn island, 261
Khayrābād river (Khūzistān), 270,
272
Khayrābād village (Khurāsān), 425
Khayrah, 278, 290, 298
Khayralam, 48o
Khayrokot, 330
Khaysár, 4 lo
Khaywak, 450
Khazānah, 285
Khazar nation, 179, 180
Khazar, Bahr, the Black Sea, 136
IKhazar, Bahr, the Caspian, 22, 18O
Khidr, prophet, 175
I&hidr, mosque of, 263
Khilāt, 183, 230, 231
Khing castle, 272
IChinis, 147
Khīr, 290
Khisht, 267
Khivah or Khivak, 450, 472
Khivah canal, 453
Khoi, 166 -
Khūbdān or Khābdhān river, 265,
272
Khāchān, 393
Khudā Afarin bridge, 167, 168
IShudāshah, 392
IKhudimankan, 468
Khuftiyān, 193, 194
Khujādah, 462
Khūjah community in Bombay, 355
Khūjām, 393
IKhujandah, 479, 489
Khūkand or Khuwäkand, 477, 479
IKhulāb, 438
I&hūlanjān, 206, 207
LE S.
Khullár, 253
Khulm, 427, 432
Khumāhan stone, 389
Khumāyigán, 263, 264
Khūnā, Khānaj, 224, 225, 229, 230
Khūnās, 147
Khumayfghān, Khunayfkān, 256
Khür, 325–327, 361, 431
Khurāsān province, 8, 382–432
Khurāsān bridge, 275
Khurāsān road, 9, Io, 12, 31, 32, 61–
63, 85, 191, 192, 227, 228, 364,
367, 430, 472, 473, 475, 482, 488,
4.
Kºhanabad, 408
Khurāshah, 392
Khurkān, 23, 366
Khurrah, meaning “glory,” 2.49
Khurrahzād bridge, 245
Khurramābād, 200–202, 233
Khurramah, 277, 278, 298
Khurshāh, Kal‘ah, 254
Khurshid, 195
Khūsb or Khusf, 328, 361, 362
Khūshān (Jibál), 191, 192
Khūshān or Kāchān, 393
Khushk Rūd of Kharrakān, 196
Khushk Rūd (Khurāsān), 396
Khushk Rūd (Sughd), 469
Khūskān, 281
Khusraw-Shādh Hurmuz district, 8o
Khusraw Parwiz, King, 27, 62, 63,
188
Khusrājird, son of Shahān, 192
Khusrājird (Sabzivār), 391
Khüst, 4.17
Khusäs, I 31
Khutan, 487–489
IKhutlán, Khuttal, or Khuttalán, 435,
438,439
Khuttalâb river, 428, 436
Rhuvár castle, 279
Khuvâr of Ray, 22, 367, 37 I
Khuwäsh of Sijistān, 342, 343
Khuvi, 230 -
Khūz, 232
Khuzār Rūd, 469, 47 I
Khūzistán province, 6, 49, 232–247
I&hwäb or Khwāf, 357, 358
Khwäbdhān, 266
Khwādān castle, 290
Khwājah Dihistān, 414
Khwājah Khayrām, 423
Khwāndamir, 17, 18
Khwarizm province, 8, 443, 446–459
Khwarizm city, Jurjāniyah, Old and
New, 448, 449 º
~) o
JJ
5 I4.
INDEX.
Khwarizm desert, 38o
Khwarizm lake (Aral), 23, 443, 444
Khwārizm Shāh, 379
Khwāsh (Kirmān), 317
Khwāsh (Makrān), 330, 332
Khwāsh (Sarhad), 330, 332
Khwāsh (Sijistān), 342, 343
Khwāsh (Zamin Dāvar), 346
Kibotos, I 35
Kifá, I 13
Kij or Kiz, 330
Išilāb, Nahr, 4.1o
Kilás plain, 481
Kilát, see Kal‘ah
Kilát (Târum), 227
Kilát Diz, 269, 271
Kilāt-i-Nădiri, 395
Kilij Arslān I, 141, I 48, 151
Kilij Arslān II, 14 I, I42, 149
Kinneir, Macdonald, 265
Kipchák, 486
Kiphas, I I 3
Kir, 354
Kirang, 4oo
Kirbäl, upper and lower, 277, 279
Rirbås, cotton stuff, 51, 267
Kirdkäs river, 178
Kirind, 191
Kirkgoz bridge, 12 I
Kirkisiyā, see Karkisiyā
Kirmān province, 6, 207, 249, 299–
32 I
Kirmān city, 22, 3oo; gates and castles,
3O2–3O'7, 32O, 32 I
Kirmān, Kamtarah, 328, 338
Kirmānshāh, Kirmānshāhān, Kirmā-
sin, Kirmāshín or Kirmisin, 5, 21,
186, 187, 228
Kirmiz insect, 167, 182, 184
Kirshahr, 146, 152
Kish or Kishsh (Shahr-i-Sabz), 441–
443; walls and gates, 469, 470,
472
Kish and Nasaf river, 460
Kish island, 257
Kishm (Badakhshān), 437
Kishm island, 261
Kishm for Kishmar, 356
Kishmar, 355, 356
Rishsh (Sijistān), 344
Kisrä, Aywan, 34
Kisrawiyah, Kantarah (Arrajān), 269
Kisrawiyah, Kantarah (Nahrawān),
57
Kiss, 344
Kitāb, 469
Kitchens of Chosroes, 196
Kitā pastures, 198
Kiz, 333
Kizil (T.), red
Kizil Ahmadli, 144, 157
Kizil Arvat, 38o, 472
Išizil Irmak (Halys), 145, 147
Kizil Rubát (Jalālā), 62
Rizil Rubát (Dihistān), 38o, 472
Išizil Uzen, 169 .
Kizkān, Kizkānām, 332
Kören Dāgh, 38o
Koupépki, 319
Kū, Jabal, 420
Kubá, 476, 478
Kubădh I, King, 27; his Aywan,
244
ISubăd Khurrah district (Arraján), 270
Kubăd Khurrah district (Darābjird),
254
Kubădhiyān, 435, 439, 440
Kubăkib river, 120–122
Kubanjān, 252
Kūbanán or Käbayān, 309; see Kūh-
banān
Kubbat-al-Khadrā, 39
Kubbat-al-Māmiyā, 289
Kubbat-i-Sabz, 306, 307
Kubbayt, a preserve, I 24
Kübinan, 309; see Kühbanān
Kubrus, 128
Küch Hisâr (Dunaysir), 96
Küch Hisâr (Karamän), 149
Küch Hisâr (Kizil Ahmadli), 158
Küchán, 393
Küd mountain, 312
ISudāmah, I 2
Kāfā, 414 -
Kāfah, 3, 21, 25, 26; building of 74,
75, 81–83
Kufaj, 323
Kāfām, 394
Kufs mountains, 317, 323
Kūghānābādh, 414
Kūghān, 308 -
Kūh or Kuh or Kuh, 352 ; see Moun-
tain
Kūh, Kal‘ah (Kirmān), 306
Kūh, Kal‘ah (Mardīn), 96
Kūhak (Banjaway), 347
Kūhak (Samarkand), 464
Kuhandiz of Herät, 408
ISuhandiz of Kābul, 349
Kuhandiz or Kunduz, 428
Kūhbinăn, Kūhbanān (Kūhbayān),
399, 327
Kühgilä, 269
Kuhich, 344
INDEX.
5 I 5
Kuhistân province, 7, 352–363
I&uhistān (Shāmāt), 311 .
Kuhistān of Abu Ghānim, 318
Ruhistān or Jibál province, 186
Kuhlughah, 441
Kuhnah, Kal‘ah, 359
Kuhnah Urganj, 449
Kuhrūd, 209
Kuhād, 222
Kük, 308
Kåkali, an alkali, 245
Kükür, 328
ISul Hisār, 154
IGölän, 487
Külamjäm, 282
ISulay'ah, 45 ſ
Kuljah, Old, 487
Kälkä river, 233
ISulzum Daryá, 458
IXum or Kumm, 20, 209, 2 Io, 227,
229
Kumamdān, 2 Io
Rumārij, 267
Kāmis province, 7, 173, 264—268
Kāmis city, Dāmghān, 264
Išūmis city, Bistām, 365
Kāmishah or Kāmisah, 282, 283, 297
ISumistān, 281
Kunāsah, 75
ISunduhār, 347
Kunduz, 428
Kundur (Kuhistān), 354
Kundur (Sijistān), 328
ISungurlän, 222
Kânin, 317
Küniyah, 134, 140-142, 145; walls
and gates, I48
Kur or Cyrus river (Arrān), 5, 177–
I81
Kur or Cyrus river (Fārs), 264, 275–
277, 279-283
Kärad, 277, 283, 297
Išârah or Fārs districts, 248
ISurán town, 257, 258, 296
ISurán, written by ‘Omar II, 130
Kurasht, 195
Kuraysh, Nahr, 41
Kurdar, 455
Kurdistân province, 5, 186, 190, 192
ISurdistán river, 270 &
Kurds, 88, 93, 190, 191, 197, 22 I,
223, 266, 317, 352
Kurgān Tappah, 438
Kuri or Kurin, 327, 361
Kurin, 338, 361
IKuriakos, 177
Kurk, 314
Kurkath, 475
Kurki, 177
Kurkūb, 241, 246
Kurlădi, Kurlăvah or Kurlăvă, 456,
457
Kurm, 29 I
Kurmah, 26–29, 42
Kurtigh or Sanctuary, 223
ISurán or Kurunk, 342
Kurvân, 276
Kurzuwän, 424
Kuşdār, 331–333
Kûsh Hisār, 149
Kūsh-va-Răn castle, 313
Kūshah castle, 317
Kushāniyah, 466
Kūshk (Asfuzār), 412
Kūshk (Isſahān), 205
ICăshk-i-Zar or Zard, 282
Kushkah Daryá, 469-471
Kushkak castle, 319
Kūshkān, 412
Rushmāhān, Kushmayhan, 4oo
Išāsin, 216 -
Kustantiniyah, I 38
Kusti or Khasii, 291
Kûsûy or Kāsāyah, 358, 41 I
Kät-al-‘Amārah, 27, 38, 6o
Rātāhiyah, 136, 152, 153
Kutál Pīr-i-Zan and Kutál-i-Dukhtar,
267
Kütam, 174 -
Kutaybah ibn Muslim, 350, 447, 476
Kutb-ad-Din, Haydar, 356
Kutb-ad-Din of Hurmuz, 320
Kāthā Rabba, Kāthā-at-Tarik and
Kāthā canal, 68, 69, So
Kutiyah, I 36, 152, 153
IQutlumish, Amir, 276
IXutluk Khān, 305
Kutruh, 287, 298
Kuwädhiyān, 439
Kuvár, 253
ISuwäräm, 412
Kuwäshān, 412
ISuwayn, 341
Kuzdār, 331–333
Lädik (Laodicea Combusta), 136, 149
Lādhik or Lādhikiyah (L. ad Lycum),
I45, ſ 53, I 54
Lādhik (L. Pontica), 146
Lady’s Bridge, the, 270
Läft island, 261
Lăghir, 255, 257, 296
Lāhījān, I 74
Lahüm, 418
33–2
5 I6
INDEX.
Lakes and Seas (Bahr, Buhayrah)
Lakes, names of, 22
Bakhtigān, 6, 277–279, 298
Băsafúyah, 277–279 .
Bumtās (Pontus, Black Sea), 136
Chashmah Sabz, 386–388
Jūbānān, 277–279
Käzirün, 267
Khazar (Black Sea), 136
Khazar (Caspian), 22, 180
Mähalāyah, 22, 252
Mediterranean, 127
Mür, Mūrak, 267
Najaf, 76
Niriz, 289
Oxus, lake at Source of, 435
Rüm, 127
Sāvah, 212
Shiz, 224
Tarābazandah, I 36
Zarafshān, lake at source of, 467
Zarah or Zirrah, 7, 22, 147, 328,
334, 338, 339
Lakhrāb, 418
Lamis, Lamos river, 133, 141
Lâm island, 261
Lambasar, 22 I
Landor, A. H. Savage, 335, 34o
Lane-Poole, S., T46
Lanjūghkath, 466
Laodicea, see Lädhik
Lapis lazuli, 436
Lär town, 291
Lär island, 261
Lāramdah, I 48
Lardak, 257
Lásgird, 367, 368
Lāsh Juwayn, 34 I, 342
Lashkar (Askar Mukram), 237
Lāshtar, 193
Låwakand, 438
Lāwān island, 26 I
Lawkar, Lawkará, 406
Layard, Sir A. H., 246
Laylän, 165
Lăz, 358
Lázward, 436
Lead mines, 285 -
Leg, huge, found, I 3o
Leo I and II of Little Armenia, 141
Leo the Isaurian, Emperor, 137
Libn, I 34
Libraries at Marv, 4o I, 402; Rām-
hurmuz, 24.4; Ray, 215; Sāvah,
21 i ; Shīrāz, 250
Light-house at ‘Abbadán, 49
Lihf, 63
Lishtar, 193, 20 I
Long Island, 26
Lotus channel, 237, 242, 243
Lotus tree fruit, 324
Louis VII of France, I 41
Lovett, Captain, 290
Luluah, Loulon, I 34, 135, I 39, I 50
Lukkâm mountain, 22, 129, 132
Luminous Stone, 437
Lur, Luristān, Great, 233, 244, 245
Lur, Luristān, Little, 200–202, 233
Lur mountains, 247
Lur plaim, 239
Lurdagān, Lurjān or Lurkān, 246
Lus Bela, 33o
Låsråd, 415
Lüt, Desert of, 322
Lycaonia, I44
Lycia, 144
Lydia, I44
Ma‘ādin, Jabal, 316
Ma‘alatháyā, 93, I 24
Maasir or toll-barriers, 36, 41
MacGregor, Colonel, 326, 395
Madāin, 25, (its ruins) 33–35, 67,
I90, 224
Madder, 439
Madhár, 28, 42, 43
Mādharāyā, 27, 28, 38, 6o
Mādharūstān, 191
Madhmīnīyah, 454, 455
Madhyāmajkath, 468
Madik, Ioé
Madînah, meaning capital city, 3o4;
and see Medina
Madinah ‘Atikah, 34, 8o
Madinah Bāb-al-Hadid, 441
Madinah Ibn Hubayrah, 71
Madinah Sijistān, 22, 335
Madrā, 453
Madārsälä, 1 12
Maſāzah, the Great Desert, 322
Maftah, 48
Maghkān, 462
Maghl, 135
Maghnisiyah, Magnesia, 155
Maghān, 317
Māh, Mede, 190
Māh Basrah, 197
Māh Kūfah, 189
Mahallah Bāgh, 367
Mähalāyah lake, 22, 252
Māhān, 257, 302, 307, 321
Māhānah Sar, 370
Mahdi, Caliph, 31, I:22, 132, 214–217,
243; his mother, 372
INDEX.
5 I 7
Mahdi, promised, his shrine, 72
Māhīdasht, 192, 202
Mahlab, Mahlabiyah,
paste, 96, 99
Mahmūd of Ghaznah, 205, 207, 331,
348
Mahmūd Shāh, Injū, 250
Mahmūdābād, I 76, 230
Mahrābān, 270-273, 294, 297
Māhūzah, 55
Maiden's bridge, 270
Maiden's fort, 306
Maiden's pass, 267
Maimyo Karko, fire-temple, 342
Maitland and Talbot, 419
Mājān, 398, 399, 403
Majd-al-Mulk, 402
Majmūn river, 9o
Makābir-al-Husayniyin, 384
Makäm, shrime or place of martyrdom,
35, 76
- Makarjäm, 255
Mākhān, 403
Ma‘kil canal, 44, 46
Mākim, Kal‘ah, 195
Mäkisin or Maykasān, 97
Maklūb river, 158
Makrān province, 7, 329-333
Mâl Amir, 245
Malachite, 389
Malacopia, 136, 138, 150
Malāir, 197
Malajinah, Malagina, I 35
Malakābiyah or Malamkübiyah, 136,
I38, I5o
Mălân (Herat), 407, 408, 4 Io
Mălân (Bäkharz), 357
Mălân pass, 267
cherry-stone
Malatiyah, 120, 12 I, 128, 136, 142
Malásjird or Malázkird (Manzikart),
I 15, 116, 139, 140, 147, 231
Malik-al-Gharjah, 416
Malik Shāh, Saljåk, 62, 77, 79, 205,
4O2, 4O5
Malik ibn Tawk, Io;
Malik, see under Nahr
Mālin, see Mălân
Mallān, Mallus, Malo, 132
Malwiyah minaret, 56
Mamtir, Mamátir, 374
Mamûn, Caliph, 35, 37, 38, I2 I, I 3 ſ,
I 33, 134, 164, 190, 198, 390, 4oo,
448, 469
Mamûni canal, 58
Mamûniyah village, 58
Ma‘māriyah, 13 I
Manādhir, Great and Little, 239, 242
Manbij, Io'7
Mand river and Mandistān, 252, 255
Mandil, Napkin of Christ, Io9, lot
Mankishlāgh, 456
Mankäbars, Atabeg, 201
Mansir, Caliph, 30, 34, 35, 66, 7 I, 75,
IoI, I 20, I2 I, I 3 I, 239, 372
Manşūr of the I&ays tribe, 123
Manşūr, Hism, 123, 128
Manşūrābād (Fārs), 281
Manşūrābād (Kämis), 365
Manşūrah (Khwārizm), 448
Manşūrah (Sind), 331
Manūchahr, 217
Manūjān, Manūkān, 317, 319
Manzikart, see Malasjird
Marabadh, 4 Io -
Marāghah town, 5, 19, 159, 16o; wall
and suburbs, 164, 165, 228, 230
Marāghah village, 284
Marand, 166, 230
Mazásid-a/-/#7/ā‘, 15, 16
Marash, I 22, 128, 133
Marasion, 128
Marasmandah, 475, 476
Marbin, 206
Marco Polo, the Book of Ser, 288,
309, 316, 352, 355, 356
Mārdīn, 96
Marghāb, 397
Marghilán or Marghinām, 479
Marghzār Darrah, 415
Marghzār Narkis, 267 -
Marinán, 395 ñagi/al-4 - 3 38
Māristān, hospital, see Bimaristān
Marj (or Mār) Juhaymah, 9o
Marj-al-Kal‘ah, 192
Marj-al-Uskuf, 138
Marmári monastery, 36
Marsán, 425
Marsinah, I 32
Marten fur, 227, 458
Martyropolis, I I I
Marūchak, 405, 406
Marūr mountains, I 16
Mârât and Hārūt, 72
Marv, Great, 382, 397–400; walls
and gates, 4o I-403, 429, 43 I, 432
Marv, Little, Marv-ar-Rūd or Marrúd,
397, 4oo; walls and gates, 404, 405,
4 I5, 43 I 432
Marv (Fārs), 280
Marv Küchik, 405, 406
Marv river or Marv-āb, 397–400
Marvdasht plain, 276, 277, 279
Marwān II, Caliph, 87, 88, 91, I:23,
I 29, I 3 I, I 39
5 18
INDEX.
Marzubăn district, 466
Māsabadhān, 202
Masūliyāt river, I I I
Māśaram, 253, 268, 296
Mashhad, place of martyrdom, 35, 76
Mashhad (in Khurāsān), 388–391, 431
Mashhad ‘Ali, 76
Mashhad Husayn, 78
Mashhad of Ismāīl, 28o
Mashhad Yūnis, 89
Mashhad river, 377, 393. 395, 396
Māshiz, 303, 307, 314, 321
Mashrukān, 236, 237
Ma'shūk palace, 55
Mási bridge, 73
Masin river, 270
Masjid Jāmi', Friday Mosque, 36
Masjid-al-Kaff, 92
Masjid-ath-Thawr, 2.19
Maskamim, 134
Maskin, 51, 8o
Maslamah, Ioff, 137
Masrukān, 236, 237
Maşşišah, I 28, 130–132, 141
Māst Kūh, 167
Mastanj or Mastang, 332, 333, 347
Mas‘ūd, Sultān, 122, 141
Mas‘ūdī, 14
Masūliyāt river, I I I
Matābikh-al-Kisrā, 196
Matmārah or Matāmīr, 138
Matar or Matariyah, 52
Matirah, 52, 54, 55, 58
Mattāth, 241
Mav Balik, 418
Mā-warā-n-Nahr (Transoxiana), 433
Mawsil, see Mosul
Māyāb, 398
Maybud, 285
Maydān (A.), plain or square
Maydān-al-Husayniyin, 383, 384
Maydān-i-Kuhnah, 205
Mayef, M., 439, 442
Mayhanah, 394
Mayidasht, 192, 202
Māyin, 280, 282, 283, 297
Maykasān, 97
Maymanah, 424, 425 -
Maymand for Maywand, 424, 425
Maymurgh, 465
Maypharkath, I I I
Mayruyán, 273
Maysán, 43, 80
Maywand, 424, 425
Mayyāfarikin, I I I, I 12
Măzandarán province, 7, 368–376
Mazār-i-Sharif, 422 z
Mazdākhkān, 455
Mazdarām, 43 I
Mazimân, 430
Mazmorra, I 38
Mazrafah, 5o
Măzăl, 387
Mazār mountains, 1 16
Meander river, 141
Mecca and Medina road from Bagh-
dād, I 1, 83, 84
Media and the Medes, 5, 185, 190,
I94.
Mºal school of Junday Shāpār,
238, 239 -
* Medina worm,” or Guinea-worm,
394
Mediterranean Sea, 127
Melas river, I2O
Melgunof, G., 174, 373
Melisos, 154
Melitene, I 20
Melons, 357, 449, 471
Mentesha, 144, 154
Merkeh, 487, 488
Mesopotamia, Upper and Lower, 2,
24
Michaelitze, 156
Mihmān Dūst, 368
Mihnah, 394
Mihrajān, 393
Mihrajānāvādh, 283
Mihrajānkudhak, 202
Mihrān (Indus), 33 I
Mihrān Rūd, 162, 163
Mihrawān, 375
Mihrkird or Mihrijird, 313
Mijān, 314
Mikâl, Kal‘ah, 355
Mikhālij, 156
Mil-i-Zāhidān, 335
Milă canal, 339
Milah, 374, 428
Milás, 145, 154 ‘.
Milasjird, see Malázkird
Miletopolis, 156
Mimand (Fārs), 258
Mimand (Ghaznah), 425
Mimbar (A.), pulpit, 36
Min Gurgān, 377
Minä (Cilician Gates), 134
Miná, Kal‘ah, 319
Mimã, enamelled tiles, 55
Minäb, 318
Minak, 475, 476
Minao, 318
Minärah Hassān, 42
Minaret, with outside stairway, 56
INDEX.
5 IQ
Minaret, shaking, 46
Minaw canal, 236
Minäzjird, see Malazkird
Mir Māhān, 4oo
Mīrākiyān, 242
ZMiráſ-al-Bulldón, 269, 366, 412
Mīrāthiyān, 242
Mirbad, 45
Mirkhwänd, 17, 18
Mirki, 487, 488
Mishkānāt, 290
Mishkin, 169
Misriyān, 38o
Miyān Rūdān (“Irāk), 48
Miyān Rūdhān (Farghāmah), 48o
Miyāmah or Miyāmij, 169, 17o, 229–
23 I
Mizán, 314
Mobolla, 154
Modreme, I 57
Mongols, History of the, 17
Monteith, Colonel, 22 I
‘Moom-maker,’ the Veiled Prophet of
Khurāsām, 414, 470
Moore, Zallah Ā’ook/h, 277
Mopsuestia, I 30 *
Mopsukreme, I 34
Morier, J., 276
Moses, rock of, I 79
Moses of Choreme, Ioq.
Mosque, Great and Small, 35
Mosul, 4, 86–89, 124, 125
Mother and Daughter pass, 282
Moufargin, III
Mountains (Jabal, Kuh)
Names of mountains, 22
Báriz, 316, 317
Buttam, 436, 466, 467
Dīnār, 27 I, 272
Fādāsbán, 372
Fiddah (Bädghis), 414
Fiddah (Kirmān), 316
Ghunabād, 414
Gulshān, 387
Hindúkush, 345, 35o
Jīlūyah, 266
IKäf, 368
Kargas, 208, 209
Kârin, 372
Kū, 420
Küd, 312
Kuſs, 317, 323
Kūhgilū, 269
Lukkâm, 22, 129, 132
Ma‘ādin, 316 *
Namak Lawn, 2 II
Nukrah, 414
Mountains (cont.)
Rang, 232
Rúbanj, 173, 373
Sāblagh, 481
Sablån, 163, 168, 175, 176
Sahand, 162–164
Sarāhand, 168, 169
Sāvdār, 465
Sayãm, 469
Shammār, 84
Silver Hill (Kirmām), 414
Silver Hill (Bädghis), 316
Sipán, 183
Siyāh Kūh (Ardabil), 168
Siyāh Kūh (Great Desert), 208
Taurus, 4, 22, 128
Zar, 365
Zard or Zardah, 207, 233
Zār, 345
Moving Sands of Desert, 324–337, 34 I
Mu‘askar (Nishāpār), 383
Mu‘askar-al-Malik, I 34
Mu‘āwiyah, Caliph, Ioz, I28, 137
Mu'ayyad, 385 -
Mubărak, the Turk, and Mubărakiyah
or Mubărakābād, 2 19, 220
Mubărak (Wäsit), 38
Mudar, 86
Mudurní or Mudurlū, 157
Mu‘in-ad-Din, 4 Io
Mākān, Mūghān or Mughkān, 5,
I75, I-76, 230, 23 I
Măghistān, 319
Mughlah, I54
Mughālīyah, 225
Muhammad, Prophet, miracle on might
of his birth, 212
Muhammad, Khwārizm Shāh, 379,
7
Muhammad, Sultan, Saljúk, 205, 264
Muhammad, brother or son of Hajjāj,
2 I 9, 249
Muhammad ibn Hanafiyah, shrine,
I46
Muhammad (ibn) Ibrāhīm, 18
Muhammad, son of Imām Ja‘far, 378
Muhammad, son of Malik Shāh, 374
Muhammad, son of Imām Mūsā, 251
Muhammadābād, 394 *
Muhammadiyah lagoon, 42
Muhammadiyah (Nahrawān), 57
Muhammadiyah (Ray), 214, 215
Muhammarah, 48
Muhawwal, 31, 32, 66
Muhdathah, 12
Muhtarikah, Burnt Rakkah, Ioz
Mujāhidābād, 355
52O
INDEX.
Mukaddasi, I 3, 14
Mukanna‘, ‘the Veiled Prophet,’ 414,
47O
Mukharrim, 31, 33
Mukhtārah, 48
Mukram, 237
Muktadir, Caliph, 241, 242
Muktafi, ‘Ali, Caliph, 34
Muktafi, Muhammad, Caliph, 204
Mulāhids, 354; see Assassins
Mules, 184
Müller, A., 239.
Multān, 331, 333
Müminābād, 362
Mümiyā, 269, 289, 294; see Bitumen
Munayyar, stuffs called, 227
Mānis the Chamberlain, 189
Munk, 438
Munkharik lake, 97
Muntasir, Caliph, 55, 58
Mür lake, 267
Murabba'ah (Nishāpār), 384
Murabba'ah castle, 88
Murăd Sū, I 15
Murăd IV, Sultan, I 15, 1 16
Murăd or Murdán Na'im, 167
Mārak lake, 267
Murghāb river, 397–400, 404, 406,
6 -
4 I
Murghāb village, 41 o
Mūsá river, 2 15, 218
Mūsā, son of Bughā, 220
Mūsā, Madinah, 219, 220
Muşallá (A.), praying place, 36
Muşallá town, 469
Musayyib, 74
Muşdakān, 212
Músh, I 16
Mushtakahar, 9o
Musk, 437
Mustansir, Caliph, 50, 51
Mustawfi, 16, 145, 220
Mustazhir, Caliph, 33
Muta'ashshā, ‘supper-station,’ 83
Mu'tadid, Caliph, 61, Ioo
Mutawakkil, Caliph, 54, 55, 78, 141,
355, 356
Mutawakkiliyah, 179
Mu'tamid, Caliph, 36, 55
Mu'tasim, Caliph, 53, 54–57, 67, 12 I,
I 3 I, I 37, I 39
Muthakkab castle, . I 30
Muthakkab (Mashhad), 388
Muttaki, Caliph, IoA.
Mūtūkin, Prince, 418
Muturni, 157
Müz lake, 267
Muzdakān, 2 12
Muzaffar coast, 256–259, 274
Muzaffarids, 3ol -
Mygdonius, 94
Mylasa, I 54
Myrobalan, 349 .
Myrtle village, 279
Mysia, I 44
Näband Oasis, 258, 259, 325–328
Näband, Dih, 329, 361
Nabathaean language, 64
Nabk tree, 324
Nadhash for Badhash, 368
Nādir Shāh, 395
Nahar Malcha, 68
Nahr, 3o ; see Canal, and River
Nahr Bin, 8o
Nahr Bäk, 31, 8o
Nahr Darkit, 8o
Nahr Jawbar, 8o
Nahr-al-Malik town, 68, 69, 81
Nahr-al-Malik Samūr river, 180
Nahr Sábus, 38, 73
Nahr Sulaymān, 318, 332
Nahrawān Bridge, town, 29, 30, 32,
59, 61
Nahrawān canal, 29, 30, 38, 52, 55,
57-61, 92 -
Nahrawān districts, 8o ; Middle, 35;
Lower, 37
Najaf, 76
Nájat, 312
Najd, 84
Najiram, 258, 259, 296
Najm, 48o
Najm-Kal‘ah, Io'7
Najm-ad-Din Kubrā, Shaykh, 450,
454
Nakhirjān, 164
Nakhkh velvets, 386 -
Nakhchivām or Nakjavān, 167, 23
Nakhshab, Nasaf or Karshi, 414,
441–443, 469-472
Nakidah, I42, 15o
Nakisár, 142, 147
Namak, Dih, 19, 367
Namak Lawn hill, 2 I I
Namangan, 478
Nāmishah or Nāmiyah, 375
Naphtha springs, see Bitumen
Napkin of Jesus, Joã, Io.4
Napkins of Kāmis, 367
Narcissus perfume, 315
Nariyān, 425
Narmāsīr, 299, 313, 321, 328
Narrows of the Oxus, 451
INDEX.
52 I
Nars canal, Narses, 73
Naryn river, 476
Nasā,
Nasaf, see Nakhshab
Nasaf and Kish river, 460
Nasāiyah, 479
Nasātak, 28o
Nashāpār (Shāpār city), 262, 263
Nashawā, 167
Nashāvār, 385
Nashk, 308
Našibin, 87, 94, 95, 97, I 24, 125
Nāsir-ad-Dawlah (Hamdanid), 89
Nāsir-ad-Dawlah, Ibn Simjär, 327
Nāsir-ad-Din of Tús, 164
Nāsir-i-Khusraw, 14, 15
Naşīrābād, 335
Nasiyá, 479
Naşr the Cretam, I 34
Nasr the Mirdasid, I 12
Naşratābād (Sistān), 335
Naşratābād (Sanij), 325
Nasriyah, II 2
Natanz, 209
Nâtil, 373
Nääs-az-Zabiyah, 195
Naw Bahār of Balkh, 420–422
Naw Bahār of Bukhārā, 461
Naw Bahār of Samarkand, 463
Nawarzà, 129
Nawardashir, 87 -
Nawbandajān or Nawbanjān, 263-265
Nawidah, 44I
Nawjāy or Nawkhānī, 326
Nawkad Kuraysh, 47 I
Nawkird, 91
Nawāsah, 64, 65
Näyin, 207, 285, 294, 326
Naylän, 165
Nayriz, 289
Naysäbär (Nishāpār, of Khurāsān),
214; walls and quarters, 382–388,
429, 43O
Naysäbär (Fārs), 28o
Nearchus, 252
Nebuchadnezzar, 66, 176, 203, 424
Neo Caesarea, 142, 147
Nestorian Christians, 465, 482, 487
New Camal, 48
New Halam, 456
Newberie, John, 28, 2
Nicaea, 140, 141, 156, 157
Nicephorus Phocas, 133
Nicomedia, 136, 157
Niffār, 73, 74
Nigdah, I42, I 5o
Nih, 340
Nihāvand, 196, 197, 201, 228, 229
Nikfür, 133
Nikiyah, 135, 156
Nikmädiyah, 136, 157
Niksár, 142, 147
Nil town and canal, 72, 73, 80
Nil, indigo, 349
Niliyah, 73
Nim Murdán, 375, 376
Nim Râh, 190
Ni‘mat Allah, Saint, 307
Nimrod, 67, 68 .
Nimrūz, 334
Ninaway, Nineveh, 87–89
Nîrîz, 278, 289, 298, 302, 320
Nisã (Khurāsān), 377, 393, 394, 429,
43O
Nisã (Narmāsīr), 31.4
Nishak, 339, 343
Nishak river, 342
Nishāpār, 8, 383 ; see Naysäbär
Nishāpār rivers, 386–388
Nishāpār (Shāpār city), 262, 263
Nisibis, 94
Nitus or Nitush for Pontus, 136
Niv-Shahpuhr, 383
Nizām-al-Mulk, 77, 188, 254, 394,
4O2
Noah, Ark of, 98, 182
Noah, Mosque of, 9.4
Nöldeke, T., 373
Norberg, M., 17
Nostradamus, a Persian, 307
Núbandagān, 263-265
Nūkān, 388-390
Nükfāgh, 452
Nūgān, 389
Nukrah, Kūh, 414
Nu‘mān, Prince of Hirah, 75
Nu‘mānīyah, 37, 73, 82
Numi, Chinese name for Bukhārā,
46o
Nûmijkath, 460
När, 267
Nūr-ad-Din, son of Zangi, 88, 93,
Io 7
Nürd, 266
Nūshanjān, Upper and Lower, 488,
48 g
Nut *illage (Fārs), 282
Nut Village (Kirmān), 316
Nāzkath or Núzvār, 4.54
Oak forests (Balūt), 28o
Oases of Great Desert, 324, 325
Observatory, Astronomical, 164
Oils, perfumed, 293
522
INDEX.
“Old Man of the Mountain,’ 22 I ;
and see Assassins
Old Town, Ctesiphon, 34
Old Woman’s Pass, 267
Oman, C., 14o
‘Omar I, Caliph, 12 I
‘Omar II, Caliph, 120, 130, 131
‘Omar ibn-al-Azrak, 421
‘Omar Shaykh, Prince, 3or, 302
Orkhān, Sultan, 156, 157
Ormuz, 319
“Othman, Sultan, 156
“Othmanli, Amir, I 56
“Othmanli or Ottomans, 144, 145
Ottar of roses, 293
Oxus, lake at Source of, 435
Oxus provinces, 433–445
Oxus, see under River
Pahlabādh, the musician, 63
Pahlavi, or Old Persian, 222
Aalestizze zuzzdez’ the AMoslemus, I I
Pālā, Pālūyah, I 17
Pamir, 435, 474
Pamphylia, 144
Pandi, 406
Pânid sugar, 329
Panj river, 435
Panj Angusht mountains, 169
Panj-dih, 405
Panj-gūr, 329
Panj-hir mines, 350, 417–419, 432
Paper, manufacture of, 225
Paper, of Samarkand, 464
Paphlagonia, I44
Paradise, rivers of, I 32
Paradises, the four Earthly, 46, 264,
46o
Pariyāb, 31 7
Pasā, 290
Pasargadae, 276, 284
Pasawā, 165
Pashāvīyah, 216
Pātīlah, 251
Paulicians, I 19, 12 I
Pavet de Courteille, 14
“Peacock of the Two Sanctuaries,’
284
Pearl fisheries, 257, 26 I
Penjakent, 465
Penny-royal, 287
Perfumes, 293
Pergamos, 156
Peri Chay, 1 16
I’erisabor, 66
Perrhe, 123
Persepolis, see Istakhr
Persia, Persis, 248
Persian Gulf, 23; Islands of, 261
Persian ‘Iråk, 25; 185
Pessinus, I 53
Peters, j. P., 67
Petis de la Croix, 17
Petrifactions, 327, 328
Phaidagarān, 178
Pharaoh, builder of windmills, 41 I
Pharaoh’s Cup, 56
Phocia, I55
Phrygia, I44
Pilgrim road to Mecca, 31, 32, 35,
82, 83
Pilsuvár, 176
Pishavarān, 342
Pishkin, 169
Pishyān, 371
Pisidia, I44
Pison river, 434
Pistachio nuts, 415
Piyādah, 325
Place-names, Arabic and Aramaic,
18; Greek, Turkish, and Persian,
I9 ; in Moslem Spain, 19 ; of
mountains, lakes and seas, 22
Plane-tree (Chinār), 392
Podandos, I 33–135
Poisonous earth, 363
Poisonous grass, 392
Poisonous vapours, 26o, 27 I
Polin, TóAts, 138
Pombedita, 74
Pontos, 136
Porter’s mouth, whirlpool, 245
Portuguese traveller, anonymous, 29
Products, see Trade
Prostanna, I5 I
Prusa, I56.
Prymnessos, I 52
Pūchkān, 357
Pul or Pål (P.), bridge
Pul-i-Bigam, 270
Pål Bālā or Lālū, 272
Pul-i-Dukhtar, 270
Pul-i-Khātūn, 218
Pul-i-Farah, 34 I
Pul-i-Sangin, 438, 439, 472
Pulār, 381
Pulvår river, 275-277, 279, 284
Purchas his Pilgrims, 29
Purg, Purk, 292
Purvāb, 276
Puskil Darrah, 225
Püsht district, 354
Pusht Farāsh, 387
Pylae Ciliciae, 134
INDEX.
523
Pyramus river, 131 ; see Jayhān under
River
Pyrgion, 154
Qalaq, Kal‘ah, 395
Quatremère, E., 489
Quicksilver mines, 294, 418
Rabb, 65
Rabī‘ah, 86
Rabinjan, 468, 47 I
Rādhān, Upper and Lower, 35,
8o
Radhwāniyah canal, 69
Radkân, 394
Rāfikah, Ior, Ioz
Rāghān river, 318
Rahbah, IoS, 124
Rāhibán, Rāhiyān, 267
Rāhshān, 266
Rahwah, I 34
Raids, Moslem, into Greek country,
I36–138
Rākah, I 34
Rakän bridge, 270
Rākhūshmithān, 453
Rakkah, meaning morass, ſo I
Rakkah (Euphrates), 4, 86; wall and
Suburbs, IoI-Io9, ſ 24, 125
Rakkah (Kūhistān), 361
Rām Shahristán, 34o
Rām Zavān castle, 26o
Rämhurmuz, 243, 247
Rāmīn, 199
Rámjird, 277, 28o
Ramm for Zamm, 266
Rāmrūd, 34o
Rams river, I I I
Ramsay, Professor W. M., 127, 143
Rāmuz, 244
Rang, Kūh, 232
Räs-al-‘Ayn, 87, 95, 96, 125
Räs-al-Ghābah, 134
Räs-al-Kalb, 20, 367
Räs-al-Kantarah (Karshi), 470
Räs-al-IXantarah village, 466
Rás-at-Tăk, 464
Râşak, 34o
Rasband mountain, 107
Räshahr (Bushire), *
Rāshid, Manşūr, Caliph, 204
Rashīd, see under Hârün
Rashīdī suburb, 162
Rashīdiyah, 5o
Rasht town, I 74, 175
Rasht district, 439
Räsibi, Governor, 24 I
Rask, 330
Rass, 179; see Araxes under River
RāSmand mountain, 197, 198
Ratin river, 263
Rāvar, 309, 325
Rāwanir, Răwansar, 392
A’awg'at-as-Saft?, 17, 18
Rawlinson, Sir H. C., 223, 224, 246,
335, 340, 422, 458
Ray, 5, 186; walls and Suburbs, 214–
2 I 7, 227–229
Ray, plain of, 218
Ray Shahriyār, 217
Rāyin, 302, 312, 32 I
Rayyān canal, 48
Razb river, I 14
Razik or Razk, 4o I
Razik canal, 398, 399
Razm river, I I 3
Red Castle hill, 251
Red River, 169
Reeds for pens, 40
Reinaud, M., I I, 16
Reobarles, 315
Resaina, 95
Rhages, 2 I, 2 14
Rhodes, 128
Rābās currants, 385, 387
Rice-flour bread, 234
Ridā, Imām, 388, 391
Rigán, 32 I
Rigistán, 461, 462
Righān, 313, 31.4
Rihāb district, 159
Rīkān, 313, 31.4
Rikh, 356
Risahr, 271
Rish mountains, ſ 22
Rishahr (Arrajān), 270, 27 I
Rishahr (Bushire), 261
Rishtah or Guinea-worm, 403
Rishtān, 479
Rivand, 387
Rivdad, 465
Rivers (Ab, Nahr, Rūd)
Ahsâ, 134
Ak-Sü (of Jayhän), I 2.2
Ak-Sü (Khuttal), 435
Akhsh, Akhshawā, 435, 438
Andarāb, 427
Andijārāgh, 435, 438
Angram, 482
Aras, Araxes, 4, 5, II 7, 1 18, 166–
168, 175, 176–179, 182
Argandab, 345, 346
Aris, 484
Asråd, 469
524
INDEX.
Rivers (cont.)
Aswad, I 50
Atrak, 8, 376, 377
“Afshābād, 387
A‘zam, 92
Azrak (Kārūn), 235
Azrak (Mesopotamia), 123
Badakhshān river, 435–437
Badam, 484
Balbán or Barbán, 435
Barãrah, 256
Bartang, 435
Bukhārā river, 468
Burázah, 256
Chirchik, 482
Dahás, 420
Darkhid, 265, 266
Dhib (of Arsanas), 1.16
Dhib (of Tigris), 1 Io
Dijlah, see Tigris
Dirgham, 435, 436
Div-Rūd, 314, 315
Dujayl, see Kārūn
Euphrates (Al-Furät), 3, 25;
changes in course of, 26–29 ;
lower course of, 70–74; upper,
Eastern, I I 5; Western, 1 17
Farah river, 341
Fārghar or Farghān, 435, 438
Fashā-Rūd, 362
Fuller's river orcanal (Samarkand),
465
Fuller's river (Kushkah), 469
Gāvmāhā or Gāvmäsä river, 196,
2 Io, 2 I 3
Ghadbán, 133 .
Gukchah, 435, 436
Halil-Rūd, 3I4, 315
Hārūd, 34o, 412
Hasht Rūd, 17o
Helmund, 7, 334, 335, 338-34o,
343-345
Herat river, 396, 407-4 Io
Hindiyān, 270–272
Hirmās, 87, 94, 95, 97
Ikhshin, 267, 268
Ilāk river, 477, 482
Indus, 33 I
Irtish, 487
Jaghān Rūd, 392
Jäij Rūd, 218
Jarāhī or Jarāhīyah, 270
Jarshik, 267, 268
Jaryāb, 435, 436
Jāy-Rūd, 469
Jayhān (Pyramus), 120, 122, 129–
I 3 I, I.4 I, I 45
Rivers (cont.)
Jaxartes (Sayhän, Sir, or Sir
Daryā), 8, 131, 132, 434;
mouth of, 444; course of,
476, 477
Jidghil river, 476
Jīlāni river, 215
Jirrah river, 268
Jürith, 122
Jurjān, 376, 377
Kābul river, 350
Kadpå, 17o
Karāgh, 4 Io
Karah Rūd, 198
Karah river, 233
Karaj river, 218
Karkhā, 233, 240
Kārūn or Dujay] of Ahwāz, 5, 6,
200, 232–236, 245–247, 270 ;
estuary of, 44, 48, 207, 242
Räsän, 427
Išaşşārīn (Samarkand), 465
Kaşşārīn (Kushkah), 469
Kazki river, 233
Khåbär, Great, 87, 94–97, IoS
Khābār, Little, 87, 93
Khalil-Rūd, 314, 315
Khardarāy, 345
Kharshān, 476
Kharād, 220
Khávarān, 266
Khawrāwādhān, 265
Khawsar, 88
Khaylāb, 428
Khayrābād, 270, 272
Khübdhān, 265, 272
Khūshk Rūd of Kharrakān, 196
Khūshk Rūd (Khurāsān), 396
Khushk Råd (Sughd), 469
Khuttalāb, 428, 436
Khuzār Rūd, 469, 471
Khwāsh, 342
Kilāb, 4 Io
Kish and Nasaf river, 460
Kubă river, 476
Kubădhiyān, 439
Kubăkib, 120–122
Kälkä, 233
Kur or Cyrus river (Armenia),
177–181
Kur (Färs), 264, 275-277, 279-283
Kurdistân river, 270
Kushkah Daryá, 469-471
Maklūb, 158
Malik, Nahr (Samūr river), 180
Mashhad river, 377, 393, 395, 396
Masin, 270
INDEX. 525
Rivers (cont.)
Masūliyāt, I I I
Mihrān (Indus), 33 I
Mihrān Rūd, 162, 163
Murghāb, 397–400, 404, 406, 416
Mūsā, Nahr, 215, 218
Naryn, 476
Nasaf and Kish river, 460
Nīshāpār rivers, 386–388
Oxus (Jayhān, Amuyah or Amū
Daryā), 8, 131, 132, 433–445;
upper affluents, 435; Lower
Oxus, 444, 445; Narrows of,
45 I ; lower course to Caspian
Sea, 455-458
Panj, 435
Pulvăr, 275-277, 279, 284
Rāghān, 318
Rams, I I I
Rass (Araxes), 179; see Aras
Rūdkhānah-i-Duzdi, 318
Şāfī, 164, 165
Safid Rüd, 4, 5, 169, 170, 172,
223, 23o
Saghāmiyām, 440
Sāghari, 135
Saghāvar, 384
Salb, I I I
Salkit, I 16
Samūr, 180
Sanjidah, 169, 17o
Sarāt or Sarāv river, 163
Sarbat, ſ 12
Sard Rüd (Hamadān), 195
Sard Rūd (Tabrīz), 163
Sawr, 96
Sayhän (Sarus), 131, 132, 14 I
Sayram, 219
Shadhkān, 273, 274
Shāh Rūd, Great, 17o, 22 I, 374
Shāh Rūd, Little, 169, t? I
Shahriyār Rūd, 263
Shāl, 169–171
Shāpār river, 259–263, 267
Shīrīn, 265, 271, 272
Shirwān, 61
, Shūrah-Rūd, 387
Sidrah, 237
Sindarüdh, 33 I
Sughd river, 466–468
Sūrīn, 218
Sārkanā, 215
Surkhāb, 436, 439
Sūs river, 233
Tāb (medieval), 144, 168–172
Tāb (modern), 270, 272
Taghtú river, 165
Rivers (cont.)
Tajand, 395, 396, 407
Tâmarrá, 59, 60, 80
Tarāb, 428 *
Tarnak, 346
Tayfūri, 376
Tharthar, 87, 97, 98
Tharthär, 177, 178
Tigris (Dijlah), 3, 25; sources of,
I Io, I I I ; changes in course of,
26, 29, 5o; estuary of, 43, 47,
48; advance in coast line at
mouth of, 49
Tīrā or Tirin, 2.4ſ, 242, 246
Tirzah, 256
Tulás, 487
Turk river, 477, 481, 482
Turkān Rūd, 220
Urast, 476
Wakhkhāb, 435
Wakhsh or Wakhshāb, 434–436
Wanj, 435
Watrāb, 420, 428, 436
Zāb, Great and Little, 87, 90–92,
I94
Zāmil, 436, 440
Zandah Rūd, 203–207, 233
Zamjān river, 169
Zamkan, 318
Zarafshān, 436, 460, 466, 467
Zarb, I 14
Zarīn Rūd, 207
Zarm, I 14
Zubaydah river, 88
Zuhrah, 270, 272
Zālā, 167
Zür, I I I
Riyād, 84
Riyāmitham, 462
Rizá, see Ridā
Road Books, I I
Roads centring in Baghdād, 31, 82-84
Roads
the Constantinople road, 134, 135
through Adharbäyjān, North-west
Provinces and Jibál, 227—231
Desert, the Great, 326–328
Fārs, 295–298
‘Iråk, 82–85
Jaxartes provinces, 488, 489
Jazirah and Upper Mesopotamia,
I 24–126
Jurjān, 381
Khurāsān, 430-432
Khūzistān, 246, 247
Khwārizm, 472
Kirmān, 302, 320, 32 I
526
INDEX.
Roads (cont.)
Kuhistán, 43o
Kāmis, 367, 368
Makrān, 332
Rüm, 158
Sijistán, 351
Sughd, 472
Tabaristán, 381
Robes of honour, 293
Rock crystal, 436
Romanus IV, Emperor, I 16, 139
Roofless tomb, 284, 285
Roses, ottar of, 293; of Jür, 256; of
Nasībīn, 94, 95
Ross, Professor E. D., 484
Round City, Baghdād, 30
Rú'ad, 375
Rüb, 427
Rúbanj mountain (Tabaristān), 173,
373
Rúbanj or Rūbanz (Fārs), 291
Rubát (A.), guard-house
Rubát (Dihistān), 379
Rubåt Ab Shuturán, 327
Rubát Dhi-l-Karmayn, 442
Rubát Dhi-l-Kifl, 442
Rubăt Milah, 428, 439
Rubåt Pusht Kham, 320
Rubåt Savanj, 392
Rubät Tāhir ibn ‘Ali, 443
Ruby mines, 436, 437
Rūd or Rûdh (P.), river
Rād Hangarān, 417
Rūdārūd, 197
Rūdasht, 206, 207
Rūdbār (Kazvin), 220
Rūdbār (Sijistān), 344
Rûdh bridge, 238
Rûdhah, 215, 216
Rādhān district and city (Färs), 249,
286, 294
Rudhbār (Daylam), 173
Rudhbār (Jiruft), 315
Rudhbār (Sijistān), 344
Rûdhrávar or Rūdīlāvār, 197
Rüdis, 128
Rādhkān, 318
Rūdkhānah-i-Duzdi, 318
Rāghad, 375
Ruhā, IoS, Ioa, I 25
Rukhkh, 356
Rukhkhaj, 339, 345
Rukn-ad-Dawlah, Buyid, 226, 245,
250
Rukn-ad-Dawlah Khumārtagin, 258
Ruknābād, 250, 25 I
Rúm, meaning Romans, Romaioi, 127
Rām province, 4, 127–158
Rüm, Bahr, 127
Rām bridge, 238
Rümakán, 35, 8o
Rāmīyah, 34, 35
Rānīj or Râniz, 291
Rupen, King, 14o, I4 I
Rusăſah of East Baghdād, 31
Rusāfah Hisham, Io9, 125
Ruşāfah of Wäsit, 4o
Rustam, 335, 342, 343, 371
Rustamkuwad, 237
Rustamdār, 373, 374
Rustäk-ar-Rustäk, 291, 320
Rustäk-ar-Ruwayhān, 253
Rustakubădh, 237
Rutt for Zutt, 244
Rùyān, 373, 374
Ruwin Diz, 164
Răzvand, 453
Sabaeans, Io9, 241
Sabanj, 392
Sabartă, 152
Sābāt (“Iråk), 34, 35
Sābāt (Transoxiana), 475, 489
Sabians, Io9, 24.I
Sabid Rûdh, 169; bridge of, 230
Sabidan, 4 Io
Sabkhah of Tigris estuary, 243
Sabkhah of Zaranj, 337
Sāblagh mountain, 481
Sablán mountain, 163, 168, 175, 176
Sable-fur, 458
Sabrán, 486, 488
Sabük bridge, 268
Sābār for Shāpār, 66
Sābūr Khurrah, 248
Sabūrgān, 426
Sābārkhwäst, 194, 200–202, 247
Sābās, Nahr, 38, 7.3
Sabzavár or Sabzivár or
(Herät), 340, 412
Sabzavār (Nishāpār), 391, 430
Sachau, C. E., 342
Sacred Fire at Shiz, 224; see under
Fire-temples
Sad Khāniyah, 190
Sa'd ibn Zangi, 251
Sa‘dī, poet, 25o, 251
Sadir palace, 75
Sadr-ad-Din, 220
Sadār, 452
Safalkāt, 4 Io
Safanjawi, 347
Saffāh, Caliph, 66, 71
Saffār coast, 358, 359
Sabzwar
INDEX.
527
Saffārah, 259
Saffārids, 335, 343, 350, 386
Sāfi river, 164, 165
Safīd, Kal‘ah, 264, 265
Safid Rūd, 4, 5, 169, 170, 172, 223,
23O
Sāfīyah, 37
Safsaf, I 34, 135, 139
Sagardān, 413
Sāghand, 285, 327
Saghāniyān, 20, 435, 439, 440
Sāghari river, 135
Saghāvar, Wädi, 384
Săghirah, I 35
Saghnák, 486
Sagistán, 334
Sagsäbād or Sagzīābād, 220, 229
Sahand mountain, 162–164
Sahārah, Kal‘ah, 256
Sâhik, well, 269
Sâhik or Sāhak, Great and Little, 20,
278, 298, 302, 32O
Sahrā lur, 239
Sa‘īd-al-Khayr, Io; .
Sa‘īd, brother of Hasan-al-Basri, 253
Sa‘īdābād (Sirjān), 28.1, 3oo
Sa‘īdābād (Tabaristān), 374
Sãin Kal‘ah, 222
Sāin, Bātā Khān, 223
Sa‘īrt, I 14
Saj, 257
Sakālibah Hisn, 134, 135, 139
Sakari river, 157
Sakhir, 163
Sakimah, 437
Sakiwand, 418
Sakk, 252
Sakkân river, 252-255
Saklawiyah canal, 69
Sal-ammoniac, 467, 488
Saláh-ad-Din guard-house, 282
Sālakān, 344
Salām, 357, 358
Salb river, I I I
Salik, 4 I
Saljāk Turks, 4 ; their rise, 139; in
Persia, 186; in Asia Minor, I 16,
I 28, I4o
Saljiž Chronicle, 18
Salkit river, I 16
Salmān the Persian, 35
Salmās, 166
Salt mountain, 2 I I
Salt village º 32O
Salt village (Kümis), 367
Salt in seven colours, 289
Salākiyah, 19, 133, 14 I ; see Seleucia
Salāmak, 357, 358
Sâlûs, 373
Salwā, 59, 61
Sām dynasty, 417
Sām Khās or Khwāsh, 462
Samalkan or Samankan, 392
Samarkand, 8, 460; walls and suburbs,
463-465, 47 I, 472; bridge at, 467
Sâmarrà, 32; building of, 53–56, 78,
84, 355
Samirān castle (Irāhistān), 254
Samirān castle (Sirāf), 258
Samīrān or Samirüm castle (Târum),
226
Sammān, 20, 366
Samosata, IoS
Samsām-ad-Dawlah, 250, 276
Samsām, I 46
Samuel, shrine of prophet, 212
Samūr river, 180 -
Sām, 425
Samābādh, 388, 390
Sanārūdh canal, 335, 337, 339
Samāt (Zarah) lake, 339
Sambil, 244, 269
Sandhill, acoustic, 341, 342
Sandăbari, 135
Sang, Kal‘ah, 3oo, 301
Sangarius river, I 35, 153, 157
Sanguinetti, B. R., I
Sani'-ad-Dawlah, 269, 366, 412
Sanig or Samij, 325–328
Sanjafaghan, 465
Sanjah bridge and river, 123, 124
Sanjan, 357, 358
Sanjar, Sultan, 98, 99, 192, 354, 360,
385, 395; his tomb, 4o I, 402
Sanjidah river, 169, 17o
Sankan, 357, 358
Santabaris, I 35
Santalum stone, 389
Samūb, I42, 144–146, 157
Saocoras, 94
Saponaceous clay, 227
Sapor, see Shāpār
Sar-i-Asyá, 440
Sar-i-Pul (Hulwān), 192
Sar-i-Pul (Khurāsān), 426
Sarāb, 163, 168, 23o
Sarāhand mountain, 168, 169
Sarakhs, 395, 396, 407, 431, 432
Sarām, 272
Sarāt canal (Baghdād), 66
Sarāt canal, Great, Jámasp, 72
Sarāt or Sarāv, 163, 168, 230
Sârbămân, 2 15, 216
Sarbat river, I I 2
528
INDEX.
Sard Rūd (Hamadān), 195
Sard Rūd (Tabriz), 163
Sardāb, cellars, 337
Sardān, 246, 270
Sardsir, 249
Sarhad, 317 -
Sārī or Sārīyah, 370, 375
Sārī Bāli, 142
Sãrichichek Sū, 119
Sarjahān, 223
Sarjaz, 315
Sarkān, 1.97
, Sarkhāb river, 163
Sarmāhi fish, 177
Sarmāj, 189
Sarmak, 282, 284
Sarmanjān or Sarmanji, 440
Sarsandah, 475
Šaršar town and canal, 32, 35, 67,
Sarād, 249
Sarāj, Io8, 125
Sārāk (Farāhān), 197, 198
Sārūk º I94
Sārāk (Isfahân), 203
Şārāhān or Sārūkhān, I 44, 155
Sarus river (Sayhän), I 31, 132, 141
Sarāzan, 343
Sarv (Sarāv), 163, 168, 230
Sarvistán (Shīrāz), 252
Sarvistān village, 282
Sarwān, 346
Säsän (Fasā), 290
Sāsāmiyān, 187
Sassanian kings, names of districts, 81
Sassanian sculptures, 187, 188
Satalia, I 51
Sātīdamād river, I I I
Sātirān, 99
Satürik, 224
Sāāj Bulāgh, 218
Sāvah, 2 Io-2 12, 228–230
Sāvdār mountains, 465
Sãviyah, 257
Sawād of ‘Iråk, 24
Sawdā, Rakkah, IoI
Sawr river, 96
Sawrān, 486
Sayãm mountains, 469
Sayf-ad-Dawlah (Bani Mazyad), 71
Sayf-ad-Dawlah (Hamdanid), 122,
I 29
Sayhān (Sarus), I 31, I32, I4 I
Sayhān, Jaxartes, see under River
Saymarah, 201, 202
Sayrām, 484
Sayram river, 2.19
Schéſer, C., 15
Schindler, General H., 206, 281, 307,
33O
Schismatics, lake of the, 16o
sºle, E., 463,474, 478, 484, 486,
487
Scorpions of Naşībīn, 94, 95
Seas, names of, 22 ; and see Lakes
Sebastia, 142 t
Selefkeh, Seleucia (Cilicia), 19, 133,
I48
Seleucia (Madáin), 33
Seleucia (on Orontes), 33
Sellisure, 454
Seven Sleepers, cave of, I 19, 143,
I 55, 3.I.4.
Shāb, alum, I 47
Sha'b Bavvān, 264, 277
Sha'bah canal, 339
Shåbarán, 180
Shabānkārah, 6, 288
Shabbüt, 43
Shabdiz or Shibdāz, 63, 188
Shaburkān, 426, 432
Shåbusti, 36
Shad, fish, 43
Shād or Shadh (P.), “fortune,’ 81
Shādh-Sābār, 8o
Shādh-Firſz or Fayrūz, 79, 8o
Shādh-Hurmuz, 80
Shādh-Kubădh, 8o
Shādh-Shāpār, 2.19
Shādhkån river, 273, 274
Shādhurwān, weir, 57, 58
Shādhurwān, Ahwāz, 234
Shādhurwān, Tustar, 235
Shādhurwān, Upper, 59
Shadīdiyah, 41
Shadūf, 67
Shādyākh, 385, 386
Shafāthā, 65
Shaft or Shaftah, 175
Shāh ‘Abbās, 167, 319
Shah Diz, fort, 205
Shah-AWäma/, 161, 188, 207, 355, 356
Shāh Rūd, Great, 17o, 221, 374
Shāh Rūd, Little, 169, 171
Shāh Rukh, 403, 482, 489
Shāhrukhīyah, 482
Shāh Shujā‘, 291
Shāh Shujā‘ Kirmāni, Saint, 305
Shāh Sulaymān, 22 I
Shāhā, 161
Shāhābād, 238
Shāhārah castle, 256
Shabā, 96
Sháhbalāt (chestnut), 1 14
INDEX.
Shāhījān or Shāhgān, 398
Shahīn, 222
Shahr (P.), town or city
Shahr-i-Bābak, 286, 287, 298, 3oo,
3O2, 32O
Shahr-i-Bilkis, 393
Shahr-i-Dakiyānus, 314, 315
Shahr Firtiz, 394
Shahr-i-Islām, 163
Shahr-i-Naw (Bäkharz), 357
Shahr-i-Naw (Jurjān), 376
Shahr-i-Naw (Sultānābād), 199
Shahr-i-Naşrīyah, 335.
Shahr-i-Rustam, 34o
Shahr-i-Sabz, 409, 469, 47.o
Shahr-i-Sistán, 335, 33
Shahr-i-Wazir, 454
Shahrābādh (Balad of Mosul), 99
Shahrābād (Tabaristān), 375
Shahrābān, 62
Shahrazūr, 9o, 190, 224 -
Shahrastán or Shahristān, meaning
‘a township,” 206
Shahrastán (Barvān), 173
Shahrastán . (Jurjān), 377
Shahrastán (Käth), 447
Shahrastám (Kazwīn), 220
Shahrastán (Shāpār), 262
Shahrastán (Zaranj), 335
Shahrastámah of Isfahān, 203, 204
Shahriyār of Ray, 217, .218
Shahriyār bridge, 276, 282
Shahriyār Rūd, 263
Shahrā, 292, 295, 319
Shahrūd (Bistām), 366
Sha‘īrah, a barleycorn-measure, 398
Shākhin or Shahkin, 362
Shakk Miskāhān, 290
Shakk Rūdbāl or Rūdbār, 290
Shál river, 169–171
Shalanbah, 371
Shaltāk rice, 367
Shâlûs, 373
Shām, Syria or Damascus, 2 I
Shām, suburb of Tabriz, 162
Shamsāt, 116 -
Shankavān castle, 276
Shāpār, Shāhpūr or Sapor, 66
Shāpār (King Sapor I), 219, 235,
248, 294, 383; statue of 263
Shāpār, Dhū-l-Aktāf (Sapor II), 235,
237, 238, 366, 383
Shāpār city, 262, 263
Shāpār river, 259–263, 267
Shāpār, Bilâd, 270
Shāpār Khurrah, 200–202, 248, 262
Shár of Gharjistán, 415
Sharaf-ad-Dawlah, 77
Sharaf-al-Mulk, 402
Shārakhs, 358
Sharāmīn, 195
Sha‘rān, 190
Sháriº-al-A’zam, 54
Shäristán, 374
Sharwān, 345, 346
Shāsh (Tashkand), 8, 480–483, 488
Shāsh river (Jaxartes), 476
Shāsman palace, 378
Shatt-al-‘Arab, 26, 43
Shatt-al-Hayy, 26–28, 38, 4o
Shatt-an-Nil, 72
Shāvaghar, 485
Shawānkārah, 288
Shaykh Jām town, 357
Shaykh Shu'ayb island, 261
Shaysure, 454
Shea and Troyer, 356
Shela, 338, 34o -
Shibl-ad-Dawlah, II 2
Shihāb-ad-Din of Jäm, 357
Shihmār, 372
Shikastah, Kalah, 276
Shikit, 480
Shikk ‘Othmān, 47
Shilāv, 259
Shim, fish, 82
Shimshāt, 1 16, 117
Shimshik, sandal, 294
Shimiz, 273
Shirajān, 3oo
Shamākhā or Shamākhīyah, 179, 230 XShīrāz, 6, 20 ; walls and gates, 248–
Shāmāt (Kirmān), 3 II
Shāmāt (Nishāpār), 387
Shāmil castle, 319
Shamīrān (Herat), 409
Shamirän (Irahistān), 254
Shamīrān (Târum), 226
Shamkür, 178, 179, 230
Shammār, Jabal, 84
Shammāsīyah, 31, 32, 5
Shams-ad-Din, Sâhib Dīvān, 2.13
Shams-ad-Din of Hurmuz, 32 o
I.E. S.
252, 293, 295-298
Shirin river, 265, 271, 272
Shīrīn, Queen, 63, 188
Shirvân province, 5, 179–181
Shirwān river (Kurdistān), 61
Shirvān-Shāh, 179
Shiyān, 35o
Shiz, 190, 224
Shuburkān, Shufrukán, Shaburkān,
Ashburkān, Ushburkān or Sabur.
ghān, 426, 432
34
53O
INDEX.
Shākām, 394
Shūl, Shūlistān, 245, 262
Shāmān, 44o
Shūr, 327
Shūr Daryā, 16o
Shūr-māhi, fish, 177
Shūrah Rūd, 387
Shurāt, Buhayrah, 16o
Shūristān, 282
Shurmin, 416, 431
Shushan the Palace, 246
Shustar or Shushtar, 233-236
Shutaytah, 5o
Shuturkath, 482
Sib of Bani Kāmā, 36
Sib canal, 4 I
Sibi, 332, 333, 346, 347
Sibri Hisār, 153
Sideropolis, I 39
Sidi Ghāzī, 152
Sidr tree (Lotus), 47, 324
Sidrah river, 237
Sif (A.), shore
Sif of Bani-as-Saffār, 258
Sifs of Muzaffar, ‘Umārah and Zu-
hayr, 256–258
Siffin plain, Ioz, Io;
Sifwah, 61
Sih Gunbadhān castles, 276
Sihdih (Jarmak), 325
Sihdih (Kūhistān), 355
Sihnah town, 190, 228
Sihnah village, 188, 189
Sihūn (Jaxartes), 476
Sihmār, 372
Sī‘ird, 1 I4
Sijãs, 223
Sijistān province, 7, 334–35 I
Sijistán for Zaranj, 2 I
Sikán, 252
Sikkit, 48o
Sikr Fanā Khusraw Khurrah, 277
Silh canal, 38
Silk, 243, 246, 285, 369, 370, 4o I
Silver Hill (Bädghis), 414
Silver Hill (Kirmān), 316
Silver mines, 294, 35o, 417, 483
Simākān, 253
Siminján, 427
Simkān, 253
Simmān, 20, 366
Simurgh, 37 I
Simādah castle, I 35
Sind (Asia Minor), I 35
Sind (India), Sindarüdh or Sind river,
331
Singas river, 123
Siniz, 27 I, 273, 29
Sinj, 4oo 4.
Sinjah, 416
Sinjär, 98, 99, 124
Sinjär, Sultān, see Sanjar
Sink, 4oo
Sinn, 9o, 91, 125
Sinn river for Lamis, 133
Sinn Sumayrah, 188, 228
Sinope, Sinúb, 142, 144–146, 157
Sinvān, 405
Sipán mountain, 183
Sir Daryā or Sir Sü, 434, 476; see
Jaxartes under River
Siräf, II, 258, 259, 293, 296
Sirajān, 21, 22
Sirân for Sabrán, 486
Sírawān, 202
Sirâwand, 358
Sirishk fire-temple, 408, 409
Sirjān district, 299, 31 I
Sirjān city, 6, 21, 22, 298; history
of, 3oo–302, 320
Sis or Sisiyah, I41
Sisar, 165, 190, 228, 230
Sislat, 270
Sistán, 334
Sitakus river, 252
Sittajān, 252
Sivās, 142, 145, 147, 231
Sivi or Siwah, 347
Sivri Hisār, I 53
Siyāh Kūh (Ardabil), 168
Siyāh Kūh (Great Desert), 208
Siyāh Rūd, 337
Siyâhjird, 420, 432
Slane, MacGucken de, 16, 18
Slaves and the slave trade,
429, 437, 459–487
Smyrna, 155
Sogdiana, 460
Solomon, King, 68
Solomon, shrine of mother of, 276,
284
Soncara, 288
Somtheimer, Dr J., 349
Sosopetra, 121
Sozopolis, I 51
Spain, Moslem, place-names, 19
Sparta (Asia Minor), 152
Stack, E., 253, 292, 307, 3 Io
Steel, 429, 467, 476
Stiffe, Captain, 259, 320
Stone Bridge of Wakhsh river, 438,
439, 472
Streck, M., 30
Subănikath, 485
I84,
INDEX.
53 I
Sådakanīyah, 91
Sufayrah, 67
Sugar, 236, 238, 246, 329
Sughd province, 8, 460–473
Sughd river, 466–468
Sujás, 223
Suhayb, I54
Suhravard, 223
Sük (A.), market
Sük-al-Ahwāz, 232
Sük-al-Amir, 250
Sük-al-Arba'ā castle, 88
Säk-al-Arba'ā town, 243
Sük Bahr, 242
Sük Thamānān, 94
Sukayr-al-‘Abbās, 87, 97, 98
Sūlā, 59
Sulaymān, Caliph, 137, I 38
Sulaymān, the Saljåk, I4o
Sulaymān Shāh, 192
Sulaymān ibn Jābir, 49
Sulaymān, see Solomon
Sulaymānān, 44, 48, 49, 243
Sulphur Springs, 242
Sultan of the Two ‘Iräks, 186
Sultân Darin, 376
Sultān-ad-Dawlah, 250
Sultân Sü (river), 121
Sultānābād, Jamjamál, 193
Sultānābād (Kūhistān), 354
Sultānābād, Shahr-i-Naw, 199
Sultānīyah, 5, Io; building of, 222,
223, 228, 229
Sumayrah’s tooth, 188
Sumayram, 247, 270, 283, 297
SumaySāt, 87, Ioy, IoS, I 16, I 17,
I 23-125
Sümghān, 229
Súmaj, 47 I
Sumkur, Atabeg, 25 I
Sunkurābād, 218
Summi-Khānah, 363
Sümusā or Sānīsā, 146
Sūrā bridge and canal, 26, 70–72
Súrin river, 218
Sürkanå river, 215
Surkhāb river, 436, 439
Surmin, 416
Surra-man-raa, 53
Surrak, 242
Sūrū, I I, 292, 295, 319
Surūshanah, 474–476
Sús (Susa), 82, 240, 246, 247
Sãs, river, 233
Súsan, 245
Súsandah, 475
Súsanjird embroideries, 241
Súsankân, 399
Suträshamah, 474–476
Swamps of Euphrates and Tigris,
26–29, 49–43, 74, 83
Sykes, Major, 287, 300, 306–309,
312-317, 326, 329, 330, 335, 338,
340, 355, 362, 363, 394
Synades, I 35
Ta‘ām canal, 339
Tāb river (medieval), 244, 268–272
Tāb river (modern), 270, 272
Tâbah, 257
Tābān, 349
Tabar, meaning mountain, 369
Tábarán, 388-390
Tabari, 17, 18
Tabarik (Isfahām), 205
Tabarik (Ray), 2 16, 217
Tabaristán province, 7,
368–376
Tabas Gilaki or Tabas-at-Tamr, Io,
325, 326, 352, 359-361, 431
Tabas-al-‘Unmäb or Masīnān, 362,
363
Tabby silk, 81, 161, 203, 429
Tabriz, 5, 159, 16o; walls and suburbs,
161-163, 230, 231
Tabrīzī mosque, 305
Taffir, 58
Tafrish, 2 . I
Taghtú river, 165
Tāhir ibn Layth, 30 I
Táhirids, 382
Táhiriyah, 443, 451, 472
Tahmurath, King, 206, 263
Tāj palace, 34
Tāj, Kal‘ah, 226
Tajand river, 395, 396, 407
Tāl; fortress (Daylam), 374
Tăk fortress (Sijistān), 343
Tăk town, 343
Tak-Ab, 387
Tāk-i-Bustān, 187
Takán bridge, 270
Takān, Marghzar, 390
Takht-i-Karāchall, 251, 252
Takht-i-Khātūn, 424
Takht-i-Pul, 342
Takht-i-Sulaymān, 223, 224
Takin bridge, 383, 384
Takinäbād, 347
Takrit, 25, 57, 84, 87
Talbot and Maitland, Messrs, 419
Talhah, 44–46
Talhatán, 49
Tālikån (Jibál), 172, 219, 220, 225
I 73, I 75,
532
INDEX.
Tālikån (Juzjān), 423, 424, 432
Tālish or Tālishān, 173, 174
Tall or Dartal, 345
Tall (A.), hill
Tall A“far, 99
Tall Fāfān, 87, I 13
Tall Ibrāhīm, 69
Tall Nu‘mān, 37
Tall-at-Tawbah, 89
Tâlât and Jālūt, 434
Tamarisk valley, 134
Tâmarrá river or
8o
Tamim Arabs, 427
Tamis, 375
Tamliyāt, 438
Tāmah, 257
7 ambáh, I4.
Tang Zandām, 319
Tang-i-Zinah pass, 289
Tarāb river, 428
Tarābazandah, 1 36
Tarandah, Taranta, 120, 121
Taranjubin, manna, 469
Tarāz embroideries, 293, 294
Tarāz town, 486–488
Tarfă, Wädi, 134
Tarhān, 202
Tarik-i-Khurāsān, 61
Tārśćh-i-A’āshídà, 484
Tark, 209, 449
Tarm, see Tarum
Tarmak river, 346
Taronites, I 15—I I7
Tarragon, 227
Tarsus, Tarsūs, 128, 130–134, 141
Tarāj, 160, 166
Tārum or Tărumayn (Jibál), 17o,
I72, 225, 226
Tārum or Tārum (Fārs), 291, 292,
294, 295
Tarān, I 15–117
Tarzak Castle, 319
Tāsh Kupruk, 439
Tāsh or Tāshkand, see Shāsh
Tassúj, subdistricts of ‘Iråk, 79
Tasūj, 16o, 166
Tate, G. P., 335
Tâûk, 92
Taurus range, 4, 22, 128
Tāās-al-IHaramayn, 28.4
Tavernier, J. B., 28, 29, 326
Tawāk, 92
Tawālish, 173, 174
Tawānah, I 36
Tawās, Hism, I 54
Tawāwīs, 462
canal, 59, 60,
Tawwaj or Tavvaz, 14, 259, 26o, 267,
293, 296
Tayfūri river, 376
Tâyikån (Tukhāristān), 428, 4.32
Taylasān Scarfs, 312, 367
Taymaristān, Taymarjān, 382
Taymarrá, 61
Taysafún, 33, 34
Tazar, 192
Tāziyān castle, 319
Teakwood (Sāj), 54
Tehrān, see Tihrām
Teira, I54
Tekkeh, Amirate, 144, 15o
Tephrike, 119
Thakān bridge, 269, 270
Thakkân, 252
Thamānīn, 94
Tharthär river, 87, 97, 98
Tharthär river, 177, 178
Thatta, 331
Thebasa, 136
Themes of Asia Minor, 138
Theodosiopolis, I 17
Theodosius, Emperor, I 12
Theophilus, Emperor, 12 I
Thirst river, 387
Three Domes, castles, 276
Thughâr (frontier fortresses), 128
Tib, 64, 82, 241, 247
Tibet, Little, 435, 437
Tiflis, 179, 181, 230
Tightir castle, 269
Tigris, see under River
Tihrān or Tihrām, 216, 217, 229
Tilä, castle and lake of, 16o, 161
Tiles, enamelled, called Kāshānī, blue
or green, 55, 78, 162, 200, 209,
216, 390 ; golden, 385
Tilshān, 173, 174
Timour Bec, Histoire de, 17
Timür, his birth-place, 47.o; death of,
484; 40, 68, I 18, 145, 146, 149,
I 53, 177-179, 181, 189, 200, 205,
251, 265, 269, 271, 295, 297, 301,
302, 319, 335, 338, 344, 345, 355,
357, 370-373, 375, 376, 391, 395,
403, 409, 4 II; 415, 417, 422, 428,
437, 438, 440, 447, 449, 450, 463,
465, 471, 484-486
Tin mines, 227
Tim, Kal‘ah, Io8
Tin Nujāhi, edible clay, 353
Tir-i-Khudā castle, 253
Tir Murdán, 265
Tirá river, 241, 242, 246
Tirah, 154
INIDEX.
533
Tirbäl, 255
Tirhān, 54
Tirin, see Tirá
Tirmid, 439, 44o
Tirrikh fish, 124, 183, 184
Tirzah river, 256
Tiz castle (Fārs), 251
Tiz port (Makrān), 329–330, 333
Toll-barriers on Kārūn river, 243
Toll-barriers on Tigris, 36, 41
Tooth-ache, bark for, 392
Tornberg, C. J., 18
Tovin, I82
Trade and products of
Adharbäyjān and North-west
provinces, 184
Fārs, 293
‘Iråk, 81
Jaxartes provinces, 487
Jazirah and Upper Euphrates, 124
Jibál, 227
Jurjān, 38 I
Khurásán, 429
Khūzistān, 246
Khwārizm, 458, 459
Kirmān, 320
Kūhistān, 363
IXümis, 367
Sijistán, 351
Sughd, 47 I
Tabaristán, 369, 376
Tralleis, I 59
Transoxiana, 433
Trebizond, 136
Trench of Sapor, 6.5
Tualá lake, 199
Tubbat (Tibet), 435
Tughril Beg the Saljäk, 189, 207
Tughril II, Saljåk, 217
Tūkāt, 142, 147
Tūkath for Tünkath, 483
Tukharān-bih, 399
Tukhāristān, Upper and Lower, 426,
427
Tukhmah Sū, I2O, I 2 I
Tulás river, 487
Tālim, 175
Tulúl, I 35
Tumujkath, Tumushkath, 462
Tân, 7, 353
Tünkath, 483, 488
Tunocain of Marco Polo, 352
Tūr ‘Abdīn, 94, 96
Târân (Makrān), 331, 332
Tūrān and Irān, 433
Tūrān Shāh, Saljåk, 305, 306
Turaythith, 20 ; see Turshiz
Turbat-i-Haydari, 356
Turk river, 477, 481, 482
Turks, river of the (Atrak), 377
Turkābād, 305
Turkān Rūd, 220
Turkhān Khātūn, 305-307
Turkoman Amirs in Asia Minor, 14o,
I42, I44–158
Turpin, Dick, his ride, 83
Turquoises, and Turquoise mines,
389, 429, 467, 488
Tursah, 16
Turshiz, Turshish, Turshis or Tur-
thith, 20, 326, 354, 355, 43o
Tüs, 9, 388-390, 429, 431
Tustar, 6, 233-236, 246, 247
Tüsar, 292
Tūtīyā, Tutty, 16o, 309
Tuvi, 197
Tuwänah, Tyana, I 36, 139, 15o
Túz, poplar bark, 459
Two Domes, castle, 272
Ubullah town and canal, 19, 44, 46,
47, 8 I -
Uhaydab, 122
Ujān (Ardabil), 163, 231
Uján (Färs), 276, 281
“Ukbarā, 50, 51, 84
“Ukdah, 285
“Ukr, 4 I
Ulān Mören, 169
Uljaytû Sultâm, 193, 222
Uljaytā Khātūn, 223
‘Ullayk, I 34
Ulú Burlă, 142, 151
‘Umar, see ‘Omar
‘Umārah coast, 256
Umidābād, 165
Unäs, 286, 320
Unguents, 293
Ura-tepeh, 474
Uram Khäst, 372
Urast river, 476
rd, 277, 282
Urdūbād, 167
Urfah, ſo 4
Urgence, 449
Urganj, 8, 446; see Jurjāniyah
Urmiyah lake, 5, 22, 160
Urmiyah city, 165, 230
Urmils or Urmáz, 319
Urúmiyah, 161
Ush, 478, 479, 489
Ushburkān, 426
Ushmuh or Ushnūyah, 165
Ushrūsamah province, 47.4–476
534
INDEX.
Ushtikán, 478
Ushturghāz (assafoetida), 4oo
Ushtūrkath, 482
Uskäf Bani Jumayd, 59
Usråd, 415
Usrāsanah, 474–47
Ustin, 42 I
Ustumābād, Ustānāvand, 37 I, 372
Ustuvâ, 393
‘Utbi, 348, 395
Utrăr, 9, 484, 485, 488
Uwāl island, 261
Uzaj, 439
‘Uzayr, tomb of, 43
IJzjān, 276, 281
Uzkand, 9, 476, 479, 489
Uzvārah, 208
Valerian, Emperor, 235
Veiled Prophet of Khurásán, 414, 47.o
Velvets, 386
Veronica of Edessa, Io:
Vespasian, bridge of, I 23, 124
Volcano at Asak, 244
Vomiting, bridge of, 330
Vullers, J. A., 368
Vulture hills, 208, 209
W pronounced V in Persian, 20
Wadhák canal, 453
Wädi (A.), river or valley, see under
River
Wädi-al-Jawz, 134
Wādī-al-Kabir, 2.19
Wädi Razm, I 13
Wädi Sarbat, I 12
Wädi Sayram, 219
Wādī-at-Tarfă, 134
Wädi-az-Zār, I I I
Wahānzâd, 283
Vahsūdān, 226
Văjib, 312
Wakhkhâb river, 435
Wakhkhān, 435, 437
Wakhsh country and Wakhshāb river,
434-439
Valāshjird, 317, 32 I
Walid, Caliph, 58, 13 I
Wälishtān, 332, 333, 347, 351
Valiyān, 162
Vâm lake, 5, 22, 182, 184
Vân city, 183
Wandah, 326
Wandamigan, 63
Wanj river, 435
Wänkath, 48o
Waraghsar, 465, 467
Varāmīn, 216, 2 17, 229
Varavi, 169
Warthán, 176, 177, 230
Warwālīz, 428
Warzand, 163
Washāk, 209
Wāshjird, 439, 47.2
Wasif bridge, 58
Wäsit, 3, 21, 25, 26, 28, 29; building
of 39, 40, 42, 81, 82
Vastám (Bisutān), 187
Vastám or Vastān (Vän), 184
Water-dog, fish, 16o
Wäthik, Caliph, 54, 55
Watrāb river, 420, 428, 436
Wäyikhān, 452
Waymah, 371
Waynkard, 482, 488
Wazir town, 454
Wazkard, 465
Wednesday Market, 243
Weir at Ahwāz, 234
Weir at Tustar, 235
‘West Country,’ Kharvarān, 395
Whirlpool in Kārūn, 245; in Tigris
Estuary, 47; in Oxus, 45 I
White Castle, 264, 265
White Huns, 433, 438
White Palace, 34
White River, 435
Widhár, 466
Wih (P.), meaning ‘good,’ 303
Wih Artakhshir, 303
Wih Shāpār, 262
Willow village, 284
Wimah, 37 I
Wind at Dāmghān, 365
Windmills, 337, 409, 4 II
Vīrān Shahr, I2 I
Wolf river (affluent of Tigris), Iro
Wolf river (affluent of Arsanās), 116
Wonders of the World, the Four, Ioa,
I 24
Wood, Captain, 434, 439, 44 I
Wright, W., 15
Wurghar, 467
Vurūjird, 200
Wüstenfeld, F., 16, 84
Yaghrā bridge, I 17
Yahūd, Hisn, 135
Yahūdān, 424, 425
Yahūdī canal, 58
Yahūdīyah (Isfahân), 203, 204
Yahūdīyah (Maymanah), 424, 425
Yahyā, son of ‘Ali Zayn-al-‘Abidin,
2 I 8
INDEX.
535
Yahyà the Barmecide, 37 I
Yājūj and Mājāj, 434
Yakdur, 161
Ya‘kūb ibn Layth, 36; his tomb, 238,
273, 281, 336, 337
Ya‘kâbi, 12, 13
Yākāt, 15, 16; residence in Marv,
O I
Yalăvăch, 15 I
Yamkān, 437
Yandi, 406
Yanghikant, Yanghi-Shahr, 486
Yārkath, 466
Yarmă, Yarmi, 94
Yarzātiyah, 59
Yasin Tappah, 191
Yassi, 485, 486
Yate, Colonel, 308, 342, 357, 358,
388, 389, 405, 406, 4 ro, 413, 415,
423-427
Yazd, 6, 275, 284; walls and gates,
285, 286, 294, 297, 326; district of,
included in Fårs, 249
Yazdābād, 220
Yazdajird III, King, 62, 4oo, 4o I
Yazdashir, 303
Yazdikhwäst (Dārābjird), 291
Yazdikhwäst (Istakhr), 282, 283, 297
Yazid, Caliph, 137
Yazmir, I 55
Yaznik, 156, 157
Yellow Kiosque, 282
Yellow Mountains, 207
Yule, Sir H., 288, 349, 352, 355, 356,
4.17, 434, 439, 441, 489
Yumábidh, 359
Yünis (Jonah, prophet), 88, 89
Yunnal, 189
Yurgåm Lädik, 149
Zāb canal, upper, middle and lower,
and districts, 37, 38, 73, 8o
Zāb rivers, Great and Little, 87, 9o,
I, 92, 194 -
Zāb for Dizfūl river, 238
Zăbulistán, 334, 349
Zafar AVámzah, 17
Zāhidān, 335
Zāhiriyah, ‘Ayn, 95
Zakkân, 252
Zakvir river, 167
Zāl, father of Rustam, 335, 371
Zāl river, 239
Zalam, 190
Zālik, 344
Zālikán, 344
Zām, 356, 357
Zamakhshar and Zamakhshari, 454
Zāmān, 317
Zāmil river, 436, 440
Zāmīn, 9, 475, 488, 489
Zamin Dâwar, 339, 345, 346, 351
Zamin Dih, 195
Zamm, 403, 404
Zamm-al-Akrad, 266
Zanabil, date baskets, 351
Zanbük, 343
Zandah Rūd, 203–207, 233
Zandaji stuffs, 462
Zandān, 4 Io -
Zandanah, 462
Zangi, 93, Io.4
Zangiyān, 167
Zanithä, 122
Zanj, capital of the, 48; their sack of
Basrah, 45; rebellion of 233
Zanjān, 22 I, 222, 229, 230
Zanjān river, 169
Zankån river, 3.18
Zapetra, I2 I
Zar castle, 393
Zar mountain, 365
Zarafshān river, 436, 460, 466, 467
Zarah lake, 7, 22, 147, 328, 334, 338,
339
Zarah castle, 338, 344
Zarand, 305, 308, 32 I
Zaranj or Zarang, 7, 21, 328; walls
and suburbs, 335-34o, 431
Zarb river, I 14
Zarbak, 398, 4or
Zard or Zardah Kūh, 207, 233
Zardāsht (Zoroaster), 165
Zarik, 398, 399, 4o I
Zarin Rûdh, 207
Zarīrām, 35, 67
Zark canal and town, 398–40 I
Zarkān, 289
Zarm river, I I4
Zarmān, 468
Zarán island, 319
Závah, 356
Závar for Rāvar, 309
Zawārik, Jisr, 57
Zawzān (Jazirah), 93, 94
Zawzan (Kūhistān), 358
Zaybandi, 215
Zāyindah Rūd, 203–207
Zhakkân, 252
Zibatrah, 121, 126, 128
Zilah, I 47
Ziriyān, 263
Zirkūh, 358
Ziyārids, 378
536 INDEX.
Zoroaster, 224, 355, 356 Zahrah river, 270, 272
Zubaydah, wife of Hârân-ar-Rashid, Zālū river, 167 *
37, 47, 16t, 176, 209, 215, 216, Zümah, Kurdish tribes, 266
218, 436 Zūn or Zür mountain, 345
Zubaydah river, 88 Zür river, I I I
Zubaydiyah (Kurdistân), 192 Zurk or Zurrak, 4or
Zubaydiyah (Ray), 2 I5, 216 Zutt, gipsies, 244, 33 I
Zubayr, 44–46 Zuvârah, 208
Zuhāk, 37 I Zūzan, 358
Zuhayr coast, 256–258
epH 2 - . 18
CAM BRIDGE: PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M. A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
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